Transcripts For CNNW New Day 20141224

Conference, alisyn, with more details, including possible Surveillance Video from the gas station. That could show us exactly what happened. That would help, thanks so much, sarah. And its Important Note what you saw in the video there, that wasnt a flashbang being thrown by the Police Officers, it was a firework coming from the crowd allegedly it was an attempt to try to create some type of disturbance with the gas pumps there, it didnt work, thankfully, that could have really changed the dynamic of the situation, but certainly it caused panic. This situation comes in the wake of two officers being shot at and killed in brooklyn, new york. There had been calls to come together after that but those calls were ignored by protesters who took over streets in manhattan. Chanting how do you spell racist . Nypd. The timing is causing criticism. There had been questions about whether or not president obama would attend the officers funeral. We know Vice President biden and his wife, jill, are set to fly here for the services. Also developing this morning, deadly tornadoes tearing up the south. Four people have been killed in mississippi, dozens more hospitalized, with reports of buildings crushed, you can see the aftermath here on your screen. Thousands of people are without power. And theres more wild weather on the way, just in time for millions of Holiday Travelers to take to the roads. Drenching rain, damaging winds and snow, expected to affect the country from the east coast all the way to the pacific northwest. Cnns Jennifer Gray is tracking the extreme weather from the cnn center in atlanta. What do you see, jennifer . The timing of this could not be worse, during the heat of the evening yesterday in the south we had 11 tornado reports, across three states. Thats it, thats the tornado. Massive and deadly tornadoes ripping through the southeast as bad weather complicates Holiday Travel for millions. The National Weather service flashing Tornado Warnings. Across tv screens in five states. Parts of mississippi now in a state of emergency. After a tornado touched down 90 miles south of jackson killing at least four people. Downed trees and power lines blocking traffic. On a main thoroughfare, roofs of businesses and the wall of this warehouse blown right off. One resident pulling a dog to safety from a destroyed home, meanwhile, heartbroken store owners embrace outside their demolished flower shop. The storm system knocking out power to over 6,000 residents in mississippi alone. Inside this heavily damaged day care center, a holiday miracle 35 children and seven staffers race for safety after the powerful tornado ripped the roof clear off. All making it out with no injuries. In louisiana, a tornado touched down twice, 70 miles north of new orleans. Uprooting trees, reportedly damaging some 20 homes and leaving nearly 2,000 residents without power. Another suspected tornado snapping trees in half in south georgia, as the massive storm system also brings up to eight inches of torrential rain throughout the southeast. The downpour moving up the i95 corridor as millions hit the road for christmas. With the potential for flooding from georgia to new hampshire. Now the Severe Weather threat for louisiana, mississippi, alabama is over but we still have a tornado watch in effect for south georgia, north florida, for a couple more hours, still seeing the strong storms in the south. Severe Weather Threat today not quite as great as it was yesterday. But we are going to see rain all the way from florida up into the northeast. And chris, a lot of people in the south are having an awful case of deja vu, it was two years ago on Christmas Day we had a Severe Weather outbreak and 60 tornadoes reported across the south. I remember that, hopefully we dont have a repeat or certainly no besting of that record. Jennifer, thanks for keeping an eye on it. Look, theres no question we hit the road on christmas, right . Nearly 100 million of us are expected to travel at least 50 miles for the holiday, ill double that lets give you a check on what youre looking at, on the roads or in the skies, no surprise only santa seems likely to have an ontime arrival this year, lets bring in rene marsh monitoring the Holiday Travel from Reagan National airport in virginia. What do you see . I can tell you lets start with the roads, i95 corridor, the i10 corridor, theres going to be some heavy rain. If youre one of the people who are going to be driving to your destination, be mindful of that. If there are drainage issues, you want to be careful. As far as air travel goes, if you are on a very early flight that was a good move. Because things look good right now. However, we are expecting those delays to build up throughout the day. Were going to be paying special attention to new york city airports, chicago, as well as atlanta, were talking about heavy rain in the northeast, possibly some fog, so well have some visibility issues. At this hour the big picture here, we are inching at this early hour towards the 2,000 mark, as it relates to delays. Over 400 cancellations. But again, were going to be paying close attention to new york city, chicago, and atlanta. Theyre significant as well, because those are major hubs, when you have problems at major hubs, delays, theres the thing called the Ripple Effect. And you dont want too much of that happening on this Christmas Eve. Especially if people are trying to make it to the home or their family on Christmas Day. Theyre running out of hours to play with. But thats what the National Picture looks like. In a word you just need to be patient today, because there will be delays. Chris and alisyn . Rene, thanks so much, patience is the word of the day. Lets hope people can make it home to their families. Breaking overnight, former president george h. W. Bush, rushed to a houston hospital. Being monitored after experiencing shortness of breath. Lets get to Suzanne Malveaux in washington. She was recently at an event with the former president. How did president bush seem to you at that . Recently i did see him. And thats where the younger bush was dedicating his book, a love story he said to his dad, hes 90 years old, alisyn. Hes a bit frail, but appeared in great spirits, he was in a wheelchair, because his family says hes no longer able to walk unassisted. Yesterday the former president and his wife, barbara, they are attending an event, at the hobby center for the performing arts, reading the night before christmas when the president experienced a shortness of breath. He was taken by ambulance to the houston Methodist Hospital just as a precautionary measure to get this checked out. His spokesman, jim mcgraph. Released a statement telling us he was admitted to the hospital for observation, all looked fine. This is the same hospital, alisyn where he spent two months being treated for bronchitis back in november of 2012. He was released in january. He began experiencing some of these Health Problems back in 91 when he was president , hospitalized for an irregular heartbeat. The doctors diagnosed him as having graves disease, a thyroid condition. As you know, hes been incredibly active over the years, even before he became president he was a navy pilot, flew 58 combat missions in world war ii, shot down and rescued once. In his down time, he loves to fish, golf, celebrate his birthday by going skydiving. We have seen it recently we he celebrated his birthday in june. So a white house spokesperson does say today that the president , president obama has been made aware of bushs hospitalization. And that he and the first lady they say they are sending their good wishes to him and the entire bush family during this Holiday Season. So it certainly looks like theyre on the upswing. Is he a hearty guy. 90 years old. Jumping out of a plane. Skydiving. Right. Suzanne, thanks so much for all of that. Joining us now is dr. Debby nonperol, an assistant professor of anesthesiology at nyu school of medicine. We understand the former president is experiencing shortness of breath. What does that tell you . Theres a couple of things, if someone has shortness of breath. You wonder are they getting enough oxygen to their body. There could be a problem of breathing in the air, getting it into your lungs and having the heart pump it out through your body. You want to make sure that the person not having any type of problem with their heart or lungs, a heart attack, any type of difficulty pumping the blood out. Meaning Heart Failure or anything with the lungs like bronchitis, what he had before or some other type of infection of the lungs like pneumonia. We understand from suzannes report he does have an irregular heartbeat, hes had it for decades. Does that contribute . It could. The fact that hes had for decades, means probably its pretty well managed. Hes 90 years old living with this. But its possible always if you have an irregular heartbeat. Whatever predisposed you to that can kind of get worse. Thats one thing. Fact that hes in a wheelchair also is a little bit concerning, because if youre in a with wheelchair, you dont have gravity helping you as much to expand the lungs to pull them down and pull them open. That can put you more at risk for developing infections like pneumon pneumonia. And being in a wheelchair. If youre not walking as much, could you mob predisposed to develop a blood clot for example. None of these things, we dont know that this is the case, obviously watching him, its observation, but these are the things you would think about and check for. What will doctors at hospital in houston be done for him this morning . The first thing is monitor. Overnight they monitor to check to see if hes short of breathe, does his oxygen drop down . They can check that noninvasively. Put a little monitor on your finger and check to see how much oxygen is in your blood, we all have the experience of having some symptoms and they kind of go away and you wonder, was that a fluke . If his symptoms got better, thats the good sign. If hes still having the symptoms and they have to go through the whole process, they might have started checking to make sure hes not having a heart attack. Ekg, check other things, any time somebody says something about shortness of breath. They would check it in the e. R. If the symptoms are progressing, then they work it up further. Doctor, thanks so much, good to see you this morning. Ill take it from here, alisyn. Lets look at the headlines, a federal judge in arizona has rejected a lawsuit attempting to block the president s executive order on immigration. The case was brought on by a police chief who called obamas reforms unconstitutional. But the judge ruled the sheriff couldnt prove it would harm the county. Its over attorneys general from 24 states that filed a suit with the hearing set for early 2015. The fda is proposing an end to a 30year ban on gay men donating blood. Right now a lifetime ban dating back to 1983 forbids any man who has had sex with another man from becoming a blood donor. The new measure being proposed would allow gay men to give blood if they havent had section for one year. The plan is now open to public comment. Sony reversing course about the interview. The company will release the comedy about a taking ut north koreas leader despite threats of violence made by hackers. A few independent theaters have agreed to show it. But the big movie chains arent on board yet. The movie was pulled after threats against theaters allegedly by pyongyang. The holidays can be stressful but americans are finding it hesier to chill out and enjoy. Take a look at the latest cnn poll, three out of ten people say they feel a great deal or fair amount of stress, three out of ten getting ready for christmas. In 2005, the number was 86 , were feeling pretty secure this Holiday Season. Only 8 of americans fear an act of terrorism is very likely around christmas. Six in ten do not believe terrorism is an issue. What do you think the big difference is . Gas prices are lower. Im just teasing. Think it always goes back to the economy, i think as the economy heals, people arent as stressed any more. I think jobs are starting to come back, wages are flat, but a lot of states, 20 states will have a higher minimum wage starting january 1st. Are you more or less stressed this christmas . The same. The same. Its always stressful, the last 48 hours leading up to christmas with all the wrapping and the present getting and the present giving. But its blissful, great stuff. How about you . Im not stressed. Im not looking at the face of stress . A lot of makeup, but no stress. So the mayor of new york city pleaded for an end to the protests, but hundreds of demonstrators jammed the streets of manhattan again, leading many to wonder how the city will heal after two Police Officers were killed. A closer look. You could drive home for the holidays in a new volkswagen. Like the sporty, advanced new jetta and the precisely engineered passat tdi. Ah, the gift of clean diesel. For the new volkswagen on your list this year, just about all you need, is a pen. Festive, isnt it . Get zero due at signing, zero down, zero deposit, and zero first months payment on select new volkswagen models. [ male announcer ] the rhythm of life. [ whistle blowing ] where do you hear that beat . Campbells healthy request soup lets you hear it in your heart. [ basketball bouncing ] heart healthy. [ mm. ] great taste. [ tapping ] sounds good. Campbells healthy request. Mm mm good. ® campbells healthy request. I love my Meta Health Bars. Because when nutritious tastes this delicious, i dont miss the other stuff. New Meta Health Bars help promote heart health. Experience the meta effect with our new multihealth wellness line. Theres certainly a right to do it, but was it right to do it . Thats the question being asked of protesters in new york as they ignore the mayors pleas to come together and take a pause in protests. They say that assassinated officers are not a symbol of disrespect for them. But the that message must still go on, so on tuesday we saw streets taken over in manhattan. Now earlier tuesday the mayor had led a moment of silence at city hall. The question is what will happen next in terms of healing the community, getting people focused on unity and solutions . Here to discuss is the reverend michael walren junior, Senior Pastor at First Corinthian Church in harlem. I cannot have a reverend set on the morning before Christmas Eve without wishing you a very Merry Christmas and asking you for a quick word on what we should all remember about the reason for the season. Christmas traditionally in the christian tradition is celebrating the birth of jesus, many people who have asked me the similar question of the season, we think about the possibilities of new birth, the possibilities that are available for us in turbulent times, in difficult times. I think that is an appropriate theme and i dare especially given the time were in right now, thinking about the possibilities for new birth, new realities in our city in the midst of the turbulence we see now. No matter what you believe, the message resonates, sbes especially with what were dealing with right now. The first thing is yes the officers were killed. But you dont care when they kill us, minorities, poor people, black people, africanamerican people. You dont care, so why should i care and give you this this moment of silence and shut me up when i need to get this message out and weve been quiet long enough. The issue is not that the protesters dont care. I would not frame it that way. I think that i agree with the mayors call for peace. In the midst of all that was going on. Think it was what he should have done as mayor of the city. But im cognizant of the right of protesters to protest. This is a country founded in protests. It is very american to protest. I do not think that those who were protesting were doing so in a sign of disrespect to the Police Officers. I think it was them wanting to honor their right as americans to protest. But at the same time i will also say, chris, that there are many protest nrs this moment. There are several different groups protesting. Some i know did not protest in honor of what the mayor requested. I think we cant just blanketly say that all protesters have disrespected the mayor and all protesters dont care about the Police Officer who is were slain. Important distinction. The idea that in the aftermath of the officers being shot, that it is somehow a product of tone. And demonizing of police and saying what do we want, dead cops, when do we want them, now. Do you believe its a fair criticism . No, i dont believe its a fair criticism. I think what ive been hearing over the past several days are blanket generalities, we have to be careful about that. Those are in the police force, who warn against stereotyping all police and in the same way we have to be careful not to stereotype all protesters, the young man who killed officers liu and ramos, his crime did not begin in new york, it began in maryland. What i raise to some people is that the protesters did not set the context for this young man to shoot his exgirlfriend. Clearly something was wrong. He begins the day, he shoots his exgirlfriend. He comes to new york and shoots Police Officers. This is a man youve heard, 19 arrests, theres been a history of mental illness. What causes me some i think consternation is in the midst of this be focused more on the fact that was it the protest horse set the context for this man versus the mans history of mental illness. The mans record of engagement. He was a solo actor in this process, i think we cannot let that slide. What is your caution to other leaders, men of the cloth. Reverend al sharpton who has been very strong, some say too aggressive in terms of blaming all police for what happens to some. No, i think, think we also hear from reverend harpton saying there should be peace in this moment, we should honor the lives of those Police Officer who is were killed. To all clergy ive been saying the same thing. We have to be careful in this time, chris, of seeking to blame and lay blame. I heard yesterday here on cnn with wolf blitzer talking to the former governor pataki and pataki in his tweet. Saying there was divisive rhetoric that came from the president and the attorney general and the mayor and i saw where wolf blitzer pressed him twice to say the name the actual rhetoric and he could not. What i see is theres a narrative thats being created that is fostering the tension, fostering i think the animosity, inflammatory remarks that are not founded and not steeped in truth. But it continues to propagate a narrative of division between the mayor and the Police Officers, between the Police Officers and the community and that has to stop at some point. Sometimes the trick to unity can be just stopping what is dividing you. Exactly. Well its simple. It sounds simple enough. What you find is there are many people who i think are trying to take advantage and cooperate this moment for their own political motives and their own reasons. I dont always find myself agreeing with governor christie. I heard him say yesterday that there are people trying to score political points in this moment and hes going to be quiet in the season. We all need to pull back, reflect a little bit before we begin to try to use or coopt or manipulate this moment for peoples own personal agenda. Biggest strength in this country has always been when the people come together. A blessed christmas to you. And to you. Nearly 100 million americans hitting the road or taking flight for the christmas holiday. With Severe Weather in the forecast, getting there on time could be a challenge. We have the forecast you need to hear before heading out. Plus Sony Pictures doing an aboutface. Deciding to release the interview for christmas, despite the threat. Is that the right thing to do . holiday mhey is playing i guess were going to need a new santa the music builds to a climax. more people are coming to audi than ever before. See why now is the best time. Audi will cover your first months payment on select models at the season of audi sales event. Visit audioffers. Com today. [martha and mildred are good to. Go. Heres your invoice, ladies. A few stops later, and it looks like big ollie is on the mend. It might not seem that glamorous having an old pickup truck for an office. Or filling your days looking down the south end of a heifer, but. I wouldnt have it any other way. Look at that, i had my best month ever. And earned a shiny new office upgrade. I run on quickbooks. Thats how i own it. The whether outside is frightful. Nothing like a cliche a Christmas Eve. Millions in the path of ugly weather for the christmas holiday. Lets get to you meteorologist Jennifer Gray keeping track of the forecast across the country for us, how is it looking, jennifer . A little bit better than it was at this time yesterday. Were going to see the showers and storms continue across south georgia, north florida and up into the carolinas, we still have a tornado watch in effect until 7 00 eastern time. Be on the lookout for that. We had incredible amounts of rain yesterday. Tallahassee broke a record seven and a half inches of rain fell yesterday alone. And more rain today, so that flood watch is in effect. We do have a Flood Warning right there on the line of alabama and florida. So the rain is continuing for the northeast as well. You can look at the radar, anywhere from d. C. , philly, all the way up to new york. Getting rain today, chicago should turn to snow on outskirts of your area. By the time we get to this afternoon. Could see one to four inches of snow around the area. Giving you a White Christmas tomorrow. Its also going to be very windy. Wind gusts, 6065 miles per hour. From cleveland to buffalo to burlington. Do expect major travel delays from new york city, atlanta, cleveland, chicago, rain, wind and a little bit of snow. Heres your Christmas Eve forecast, were going to stay windy across the east with those scattered showers and storms, rain spilling all the way up to new york city even including boston and then rain changing into snow in the midwest. Guys . J gray, where are we on the santa forecast action . I noticed this morning in the Early Morning hours, the elf on the shelf had not come back, which is usually portending that santa will make his trip. I didnt know that was a harbinger. Were very seasonally sensitive. One of the elves on the shelf is a casualty of the puppy. The other one did not come back, are these the right conditions . These are the perfect conditions. Its windy across the east. Santa needs a little bit of wind to help him get from house to house, so it looks like conditions will be perfect. Hes still packing, we understand. Of course. Lets get over to Christine Romans, in for michaela. The elf on the shelf got killed by your dog. We had to, it was a casualty. I didnt say it was killed. It doesnt look the same. Its got a little hitch in its giddyup. Tensions escalating in missouri after a teen was shot dead by a cop at a gas station in berkeley, two miles outside ferguson. Were told a Police Officer got out of his squad car when he spotted two teens during a routine check at the gas station. One of them identified in the reports as Antonio Martin allegedly pointed a gun at the officer who fired multiple shots at martin, killing him. The other teen ran away. Police say they recovered a gun at the scene. Deadly destructive tornadoes touching down in mississippi, louisiana and georgia. A state of emergency declared in jackson, mississippi, four people in the state killed by extreme weather. Thousands are without power, hundreds of homes and businesses have been damaged or destroyed. Breaking overnight, former president george h. W. Bush rushed to a houston hospital. The 90yearold former president had been complaining of a shortness of breath. Doctors say theyre keeping the elder bush in the hospital as a precaution, no word on his condition, a spokesman said bush is expected to be okay. Did the former navy s. E. A. L. Who says he shot and killed Osama Bin Laden, did he reveal classified information about that raid . The navy is investigating whether Robert Oneill let classified details leak about the raid on the terror leaders compound in pakistan, leak when he gave tv and newspaper interviews about his role in that operation. He tells the Associated Press hes gone to Great Lengths not to divulge classified information or compromise s. E. A. L. Tactics. A Little College basketball action, we had a stunner last night. It wasnt without its share of controversy, lets bring in the bleacher report. That was a game, question mark . The controversy youre talking about there, chris. Good morning to you, guys, unranked unlv wasnt supposed to hang around with undefeated arizona, but the rebels must not have gotten the memo. Unlv traded blows with the thirdranked wildcats to the very end. And then this, arizonas they get the ball right here with nine seconds left. Brandon ashley misses the threepointer. That would have tied the game. Now take another look. Is that a goaltend by unlvs Jalen Kendrick . It doesnt matter, refs didnt call it unlv gets the major upset, 7167. The home crowd loved it time to celebrate. The university of Michigan Football program, they need a new coach and current 49ers coach and former michigan man jim harbaugh is the biggest name being floated around. Whats michigans ace in the hole to lure harbaugh back to ann arbor . How about a birthday card . Michigan tweeted out this pic yesterday to their favorite son wishing him a happy birthday. Will it work . Well it cant hurt, harbaugh is reportedly out as the 49ers head coach after this weekend. These are my favorite type of stories this time of year, nba star anthony davis, along with pelicans teammates took 75 kids at a shopping spree at a toys r us in new orleans. It didnt take long for the competitive juices to start flowing. Davis gets posterized with a mini hoop dunk. That looks like a lot of fun for all of those involved. Dont forget, lots of nba action tomorrow on Christmas Day, check out our sister station, tnt, they have the lakers and the bulls at 8 00 p. M. Eastern followed by the warrior and clippers at 10 30. That looked like quite the game of twister. He had to be a contortionist that tall to play twister. Would you have ever imagined that a guy would become so cool comake a monobrow cool . Anthony is known for having this huge ungroomed eyebrow that goes all the way across his head. A mustache above the eyes. Im not seeing a lot of people follow the lead. Not easy to grow and cant really see it up there. Strong. Thank you, mr. Mcfaden, have a Great Holiday. Sony pictures reversing its decision to pull the movie the interview, deciding to release the comedy for christmas after all. The decision hailed as a victory for free speech. But how are Theater Owners preparing for this . Well tell you. All the talk about north koreas hacking ability, have we forgotten they also have Nuclear Capabilities . Find out why north korea is still a lot scarier than just the sony hack. Etta james at last sometimes, at last doesnt happen at first. Your dad just kissed my mom. Turning two worlds into one takes love. Helping protect that world takes state farm. But the comfort it provides is its justimmeasurable. Ece the america red cross brings hope and help to people in need every 8 minutes, every day. So this season give something that means something. Fnchts you want to see the controversial movie the interview, you have a chance, sony reversing itself, deciding to release the comedy, despite threats of violence. Hundreds of theaters say theyll show the film, despite the sony hack allegedly by north korea over the depiction of dictator kim jongun. Our kyung lah is in seoul, south korea with details. Whats the latest . Well good morning alisyn. It is a reversal thats being celebrated in the United States and here in south korea. In the u. S. Sonys ceo says this is the very first step in what he is hoping will be even more releases. We dont know if that means a streaming deal, if that means trying to get it on to more theaters, but he is anticipating that there is going to be more steps. So thats certainly being celebrated. We heard from seth rogen via twitter. He said this was a victory for freedom. We should point out that those hundreds you were referring to certainly less than the 3,000 that were expected when the original deal was made for Christmas Day. But nonetheless, its also being celebrated here in south korea. Because this country certainly feels backing down from north korea is not the right thing to do. Even though the movie was never going to be shown here. As far as north korea not a peep. Weve been listening and watching staterun television, its been running the standard propaganda fare. But nothing about the sony hack and certainly nothing about whats happened to their internet and the overnight hours here in south korea. Two nights in a row. Getting completely knocked off the grid. Alisyn . And kyung, do we know how these new Theater Owners are going to take precautions . What we do know is they are in talks with their local police, we also know that the fbi is supporting this decision to move forward. There is certainly going to be some concern. But really, when you talk to the International Security experts, they say that this really doesnt seem in the realm of something north korea would do. What a lot of people are watching is whether or not there may be something brewing as far as another cyberattack. Alisyn . Kyung lah, its been fascinating to watch the aboutface in terms of the reaction to this movie, thank you so much for that report. So while north koreas alleged cyberattack captured much of the limelight, theres a larger issue north Koreas Nuclear capacity. According to a report, north korea has enough weapons grade plutonium to build nine Nuclear Weapons and the number could skyrocket at the present rate. Here to weigh in is josh rogen, a columnist for bloomberg view. It sounds like youre saying that our fears of north korea have been misplaced, weve been so focused on their hack capabilities that weve taken our eye off the ball of their Nuclear Capabilities. What are we missing . Ive been talking to north korea experts since the sony hack story began. They all say the same thing. They say its great that responding to the hack of a Movie Theater but what about the north Koreas Nuclear program. Theyre racing towards a bomb arsenal that rivals pakistan and indiath and nobody seems to care about that. The administration doesnt have a plan to deal with it theres no engagement with north korea on that what about north korea is doing thats much more serious than any delay of a seth rogen comedy . There has to be some sort of acknowledgement, that north koreas actions on the cyberfront are a symptom of a greater problem, a regime thats threatening the region, building up its nuclear technology. Stockpiling plutonium. While we can do these proportional responses that make us feel better about whats going on with the Movie Theater, we dont have a plan to deal with the larger issue. Is it true that analysts believe that north korea in just five years will have enough materiel for 79 Nuclear Weapons . Well thats the latest analysis and thats the highend analysis. So there are four different facilities in north korea that are pumping out plutonium and highly enriched uranium on a constant basis, even if the low estimate is taken, lets say its 45 Nuclear Weapons, thats a lot. It allows north korea to totally change the game. Instead of having a couple of bombs they hold in reserve, they could deploy them, threaten japan, china, south korea. They could threaten parts of the United States. Thats a big deal, it could start an arms race, it could change all sorts of military calculations all over the region. Theyre going to continue doing it the only way to stop them is by reentering a negotiation and the United States government hasnt done whatever its going to take to get back to that negotiation. So the people say maybe the movie is funny, not funny. What is not funny is being threatened by a Nuclear Arsenal that rivals pakistan and could change the security situation for the entire southeast asia. If north korea is pumping up plutonium production and uranium production, why isnt the International Community as a whole giving them some sort of pushback . To be fair its tough to deal with north korea. Theyre terrible to negotiate with. This is their game. They threaten and they do these sort of provocative things. Until you respond. And then when you respond, they ask you for a bribe. If you bribe them maybe they dont do anything belligerent for a little while. They play this game for decades and the Obama Administration looks at it and says, we dont want to play this game again. Theres no Good Alternative if you ignore them, they get more belligerent. If you leave them alone, they have to come up with new ways to make you Pay Attention to them. A lot of what were seeing on the sony story is a result of us ignoring them. Even though we dont like to Pay Attention to north korea and its difficult and theyre tough to deal with, we have to because the only alternative is to leave them alone and when we leave them alone, they build up nuclear and missile arsenals that will make it much bigger problem to deal with and much harder to deal with whenever it is we decide to stop ignoring them. Josh rogin, thank you for sharing your reporting. It looks like theres going to be a Christmas Gift for everyone from the president , the American Economy is starting to hum on all cylinders, rapid growth, plunging oil prices and new numbers that are long and strong for the president for making it all happen. We have brand new polls, and what they mean, ahead. The Holiday Season is here, which means its time for the volkswagen signthendrive event. For practically just your signature, you could drive home for the holidays in a germanengineered volkswagen. Like the sporty, advanced new jetta. And the 2015 motor trend car of the year allnew golf. If youre wishing for a new volkswagen this season. Just about all you need is a finely tuned. Pen. Get zero due at signing, zero down, zero deposit, and zero first months payment on select new volkswagen models. I take prilosec otc each morning for my frequent heartburn. Because it gives me. Zero heartburn prilosec otc. The number 1 doctorrecommended frequent heartburn medicine for 9 straight years. One pill each morning. 24 hours. Zero heartburn. The jingle, theres even more of it now. Cnn money time chief Business Correspondent Christine Romans has headlines for us. Billions of another sort. The santa rally in full swing. The dow topped 18,000 for the first time in history. Climbing 1,000 points since last week. The s p hit another record, putting it on track for three years in a row of doubledigit percentage gains, thats something. The s p 500 up 200 since it bottomed out in march of 2009. Those pullbacks, the bull market now, more than 2,000 days old. The market jump came as the u. S. Economy grew at an incredible 5 last quarter. The fastest pace for the economy in 11 years. The growth has not gone unnoticed by American Consumers for the first time in seven years, folks, a majority of americans think the economy is good. A remarkable, remarkable turnaround in sentiment. You can thank crashing gas prices for the increase in confidence, the feeling better about the economy. Gas prices down a record 90 days straight. Thats never happened. Thats according to tripaaa. Average prices now 2. 35 a gallon. It puts extra cash right in american wallets this Holiday Season. Guys, you can see it, you can see it in the poll numbers. You can see it in the stock market. You can see it in the gdp numbers. It looks good. Even diesel is really low. You know traditionally diesel is much higher than even super high test. Now its lower. Great thing. All right. The dow reaching record highs this week. Now the president s job approval seeing improvement. The new cnn orc poll gives president obama his highest rating since may of 2013. Lets talk about all of this, what it means for your wallet and for the president with cnn Global Economic analyst and Time Assistant managing editor, rona fruhar and paul bega begala, democratic strategist and director for superpac democratic action. Are president obamas improving poll numbers directly tied to the improving stock market numbers . Or are you going to claim it has something to do with leadership . Its not simply the stock market, because thats been booming for quite some time. I think the most important thing to look at in Economic Data from a political point of view is jobs and income. And more americans this christmas have jobs, theyre making a little bit more. We want to see incomes go up. But 20 states have raised the minimum wage had nothing to do with president obama. So its mostly the economy. But there has also been some of the executive actions, the president has taken since he got pasted in the election just a few weeks ago. Particularly on immigration and now opening up to cuba. President believe it or not, even getting shellacked is now on a roll. You know pocketbook politics dominate at the end of the day. But rona, im happy for good news, everybody should be happy for good news. But there is a concern that sometimes the politicians will ignore what lies under those numbers. Christine is always great at telling us, jobs are being made, but are they the right jobs . Is income going up . Underemployment. We never talk about that number. What do we see there . And that still creates a need . So the recovery is still bifurcated. Theres no question, theres a lot of jobs at the top. Theres always been a lot of jobs at the bottom. There arent enough in the middle. That said. Last few moves weve seen a little bit of a a turn where consumers are opening their wallet. Even before oil prices began to fall, were you see the uptick. When theres more spending, Companies Want to invest more, more jobs are being created. We hope were getting to the Tipping Point where youre seeing more middle market jobs, finally. Paul, what a turn of fortunes, just earlier this year, people were dising the president , saying that Vladimir Putin was a more sort of powerful leader. He was showing real leadership on the world stage and that you know, president obama was you know, totally lackluster here. Heres a little, weve put together a little mashup of what the hype used to be. Take a look. Putin decides what he wants to do, and he does it in half a day. Thats what you call a leader. President obama got to think about it, hes got to go over it again. I think put sn playing chess and i think were playing marbles. Passive responses to naked aggression all over the world is our Foreign Policy. Putin, who has an economy the size of italy, hes playing poker with a pair of twos and winning. Now putin is overseeing a cratering economy and president obama is seeing this robust economy and it just feels at the end of the day, its always about the economy. Well, thats right. And the economy im sure christine could correct me if im wrong, driven by energy. The most important thing thats happened is russia, john mccain famously said this. Russia is a gas station with Nuclear Weapons or Something Like that. And when the price of oil goes down like that, its devastating to mr. Putin. And though i will say, this president rallied the civilized world to impose sanctions on russian oligarchs, you saw a lot of politicians say that will never work. Its had real effect, along with the collapse of oil prices. Mr. Putin now, who youre right, everybody was looking at like he was such a great deal, when that was going on the president called him a Regional Power and he is, hes a failing Regional Power. And the president was right and his critics were wrong. I do think it helps that oil prices have collapsed. You know paul, its interesting, the biggest jump in optimism among americans in our polling is among people who make 50,000 or less, that is oil prices, that is gas prices. And those are the people who are now feeling better about the economy and feeling better about the president. But the president isnt responsible for 2. 50 oil. So is it the president s policies that really are behind these better approval rate sngs. Well, actually this is counterintuitive for a democrat, but hes had a very aggressive policy on drilling. Hes been more pro fracking than maybe some of his friends in the Environmental Community have wanted. The United States of america is fixing to pass saudi arabia as the Largest Oil Producer on the planet earth. So it has had something to do with policy. Its a global market. But the United States has become such a big player that our policies matter. Talk about having it both ways, begala. I cant let it go, even on christmas im not letting it go, begala. You have hit me over the head with we got to get off the oil dependence, the president is saying we have to do it. And now youre saying hes like captain frack you know and you know were passing saudi arabia. I mean come on, your mouth is going to split in half you keep talking out of both sides of it like this. Both are true. We cant get off tomorrow, but the president says go back and look at the last couple state of the union address, hes been very pro fracking. That may again, that probably annoys a lot of people on his left and his own party. But the president has vast executive authorities. He could have clamped down, had he wanted to. Hes allowed permitting to go forward. He said hes an all of the above policy. We do have to get off oil. No doubt. Were producing so much that the price is dropping. Republicana, when gas prices or down, account president take credit for that . Absolutely not. Oil market is a global market. It has very little to do with the president. But the u. S. Is a big producer. So in that sense, the u. S. Does play part in this, but not the president. Rana foroohar, paul begala, thank you so much for joining us. Police near ferguson, missouri, shot and killed a black teenler at a gas station after the man aimed a handgun at the officer. They just got my baby laying out there. Hes been out there for about two hours. Theyve marched from downtown in manhattan and now theyre up in harlem. This may be the most tense its been. You need to keep the pressure on if you care about reform in the justice system. Bad weather complicates Holiday Travel for millions. Thats it, thats the tornado. Not too sure. This used to be a gas station. Theres debris all over the place here. Good morning, everyone, welcome back to new day, its wednesday, december 24th, Christmas Eve morning, im Alisyn Camerota alongside chris cuomo. We begin with breaking news for you, there are tempers flaring in missouri this morning after a Police Officer shoots a teenager to death at a gas station. This is happening just a couple of miles away from ferguson, missouri. Only this time, its a different situation, the teenager, police say, was armed. Reportedly pointed the weapon at the officer. Police say a gun was recovered at the scene, that a second person on scene ran away. This didnt slow down the protests, though, people just swarmed the place overnight. It got very dangerous, very quickly. Lets get to you sarah gannam who is on top of the story. Tensions in an area near ferguson, missouri, two miles from ferguson, at a gas station, it happened, the shooting happened last night around 11 15. An officer shot and killed 18yearold Antonio Martin after they say he pulled a gun out and pointed it at the officer during a routine check at this gas station. Now a gun was seen laying on the ground in the parking lot, with a bright Yellow Police marker placed next to it. For the next several hours, chaos ensued at this gas station. Protesters getting right in officers faces, throwing bricks, water bottles, tossing a firework at officers that exploded in the area of the gas station. Police responded, pepperspraying a few people. Including one journalist at the scene. There you see the video of the firework going off in the gas station in the area of the crowd. Now local police in berkeley say they will be holding a press conference this morning. As we also wait to hear from them if the police are going to release the Surveillance Video from this gas station. In the meantime, this was a devastating Christmas Eve for martins mother, here she is. They wont tell me nothing. His girlfriend told me that the police was messing with them. He was going to get up and run, when he was trying to get up and run, they started shooting him. They wont tell me nothing. They wont even let me see my baby. We spoke to the father of Antonio Martin on the phone, he said he is also not been able yet to talk to police to find out what happened. He said when his son left the house, he told his family that he was going out for the night with his girlfriend. Chris and alisyn . It doesnt matter what winds up happening in terms of circumstances, the family has lost their son. Lets bring in Missouri State senator maria shaple nadal. Can you hear us in. Yes, i can. We have some troubling circumstances in front of us. I know you werent on the ground there, but youve heard about this situation. The facts matter very much here. What do you understand . Does it seem like the police are saying that this young man was armed, pointed a weapon at the policemen and thats what created the shooting . Thats the intelligence that im getting right now. Initially i was getting information from the ground that was inaccurate and as time proceeded early this morning, i started getting credible information. And yes, indeed, the language that i got is that the young man from his waist, pulled out a gun. It was not detailed whether or not if it was pointed or not. But he did have a gun. So it is very important that we do look at the facts right now and we are waiting for st. Louis county to do their presser as soon as possible. What do you say to the people who gathered there, there was an obvious outrage, that this was again an unjustified shooting. Somebody tried to blow up one of the gas pumps there. Whats your message to them. Well first of all what we need to recognize is that tensions are high. But the facts are very important. Not every case is the same. As we are looking across the United States, there are young men who are targeted. However there are people who are responsible for their own actions, in this situation you have a young man who had a gun, pointed it at an officer and we need to recognize that as a fact. And the officer felt as though he needed to protect himself in that situation. So while tensions are high, we need to be respectful of what the facts are. And then our actions into he had to follow those facts. If the facts are as they are appearing to be right now that somebody pulled a gun on a Police Officer and they wound up being shot and killed as a result, is that something thats worthy of protest . Well i have to tell you, that our deadly force laws in the state of missouri are very broad. And in some cases people say unconstitutional. We need to define better our deadly force laws. I do believe there are alternatives to death, even if someone does have a gun. But in this situation where this officer felt as though he was in a dangerous situation, he had to shoot the young man and its unfortunate that he lost his life. And i wish that he did not. Because people around america right now, are quite upset about the loss of black lives and black lives do matter. Absolutely. All lives matter. We have to agree on that. But and i understand what youre saying about your law, for everybody else out there. An officer under missouri law, basically need only fear that hes going to be assaulted. Because its a felony and if an officer fears the commission of a felony on himself, he could then use deadly force. I would argue thats a very low bar, but by any measure here, senator, pointing a weapon at an officer is going to cause an officer to shoot if they have a chance. Isnt that beyond any type of reproach . Absolutely. Youre absolutely correct about that, chris. And i think any officer who is warning someone who is pointing a gun at them, has every right to protect themselves. I mean we have the capital doctrine in the state. s something that i support. But any time a young man has a gun and does not have a license for a gun and is not in their home that is a, a situation that is not justified. So while were waiting for the facts, we need to have some calm, so we know whats going on, not every case is the same. But again, we have to be cognizant that there are young people who are being targeted in this case it is different. Well and i think thats the key word different. Assuming the facts hold up the way they are right now. Let me ask you, senator, weve talked about this before. One of the things that creates stability on the ground is leadership. Are you going to get down there . Are you going to call on other electeds to get down there in that community. Absolutely. I had phone calls with the mayor of berkeley, then with the state representative of berkeley. And you know, i was trying to get the facts. You know you have to try to decide when youre going to be on the ground. If i was on the ground, i would not have gotten this intelligence that i did. Because i would have been talking to people. But at the same time, my heart belongs with the people whose hearts are broken right now. Because of the multiple shootings of young men throughout this country. Right. But you know, when we see a situation where someone throws a fireworks, something near a gas station pump trying to blow it up, supposedly by his own admission, if that winds up staying as true, all the people there, the tremendous negative capabilities that could have come out of that. There is need for stability on the ground. Senator thank you for joining us. Thank you so much, you, too. This all comes in the wake of two officers being shot and killed in brooklyn, new york. There had been calls to come together, but those calls were ignored by protesters who once again took over the streets of manhattan. Chanting, how do you spell racist . Nypd. And of course, other calls for justice. Now this timing is draulg criticism. Even from those who have been supporting the protesters. Questions about whether or not the president would attend the officers funerals, Vice President biden and his wife are set to fly here for the funeral services, well have more on all of this throughout the morning for you. All right. A lot of heavy news this morning, some of it weatherrelated. The twisters ripped through a chunk of the south. A state of emergency right now in jackson, mississippi, four people killed. Thousands still in the dark. Hundreds of homes in mississippi, louisiana, georgia, damaged or destroyed by these powerful storms. Lets get to Jennifer Gray, shes tracking the extreme weather from the cnn center in atlanta. Jennifer . Yeah, good morning, chris, we had 11 tornadoes reported yesterday. Over three states, right in the middle of the evening. Folks rushing around, doing lastminute shopping. Now theyre going to be doing cleanup on Christmas Eve. Massive and deadly tornadoes ripping through the southeast, as bad weather complicates Holiday Travel for millions. The National Weather service flashing Tornado Warnings across tv screens in five states. Parts of mississippi now in a state of emergency. After a tornado touched down 90 miles south of jackson killing at least four people. Downed trees and power lines blocking traffic. On a main thoroughfare. Roofs of businesses, and the wall of this warehouse blown right off. One resident pulling a dog to safety, from a destroyed home. Meanwhile, heartbroken store owners embrace outside their demolished flower shop. The storm system knocking out power to over 6,000 residents in mississippi alone. Inside this heavily damaged day care center, a holiday miracle 35 children and seven staffer s race for safety aftera tornado rips the roof clear off. All making it out with no injuries. In louisiana, a tornado touched down twice 70 miles north of new orleans. Uprooting trees, reportedly damaging some 20 homes and leaving nearly 2,000 residents without power. Another suspected tornado snapping trees in half in south georgia, as the mass i have been storm system also brings up to eight inches of torrential rain throughout the southeast. The downpour moving up the i95 corridor, as millions hit the road for christmas. With the potential for flooding from georgia, to new hampshire. And strong storms continue this morning. We are seeing very heavy rainfall, lightning included in that. Anywhere from alabama, georgia, up through the carolinas, we have a new tornado watch that has just been issued for north florida, south georgia and the southern portion of systouth carolina until 2 00 p. M. Eastern. Look out for another round of Severe Weather, especially in the southeast. But the showers and storms are going to be felt from north florida up through the northeast. Tough start to christmas, hopefully everybody remembers those affected, the need will be great there especially on krimgs, jennifer, well check back in with you. Even if its not an extreme situation, just the ordinary traveling on a day like this 150 Million People expected to travel. You have to leave early, pack a lot of patience, antime arrivals, not going to be that high an occasion today. Lets bring in rene marsh, monitoring the Holiday Travel live from Reagan National airport in virginia already youre seeing signs that its going to be clogged, right . Yes. We are seeing signs of delays, you talk about the roads there. Were paying close attention to the i10, i95 corridor. Were expecting some heavy rain there. So if youre driving, a lot of people will be because the gas prices are so low, you do know its going to be a messy commute. As far as air travel goes, take a look for yourself, the rush is under way. The crowds are here, were seeing people checking in for their flights at Reagan National airport as they make their way to their destination. Nationwide what the picture looks like this morning at this hour, were talking about more than 2,000 delays, and they are racking up hour to hour, were seeing more added to the list as far as delays go. And as far as cancellations, were over 400. Were going to be paying close attention, though, chris, to the airports in new york city. Were going to be paying close attention to airports in atlanta as well as chicago. Chicago expecting some snow. So in a word youre going to have to be patient today. Because there will be delays. And why were paying such close attention to those airports, theyre big hubs and you know what happens when you have problems at the big hubs, you have the Ripple Effect. Something that these travelers do not want to see on the day before christmas, back to you. Everyone in the country is subject to the domino effect, if something goes wrong in new york or atlanta. Rene, thanks so much. We want to turn back to the protesters in new york city, hundreds of them ignoring a request from the mayor to pause out of respect for the two Police Officers shot and killed. Lets bring in errol lewis, a cnn political commentator and a political anchor at new york one. Good morning, errol. Good morning. Mayor de blasio had asked for the protesters to put down their signs and not demonstrate until after the funerals for the two slain officers, but that didnt happen. What happen on the streets last night . What happened on the streets is over 1,000 people directly disregarded the mayors suggestion or request. And it underscored among other things that the mayor didnt start these demonstrations and so he really just cant stop them. You know, one question ive had early on and i asked this to the mayors people was, you know, if youre approving of these demonstrations, dont you understand that theyre demonstrating against your administration and your Police Department . And they didnt see it that way. I mean i dont know if their attitude has changed now. But these folks have made very clear that they want changes in policies that this mayor has championed. And while he may be sympathetic to them, they are intending to put pressure on him and thats what we saw last night. Errol, lets be honest, wasnt that a peculiar request to begin with . For the mayor to say to new yorkers, lets not exercise your freedom of expression, right now. It was almost as if he was saying he doesnt trust the protesters to be peaceful and he doesnt trust his own Police Department to be able to handle them. Well, i think what the the mayor was trying to do something a little different than that. What he wanted to do i think was try to heal the city. Look, our hearts are broken. The citys heart is broken. The fact that two officers were slaughtered in cold blood. Just for doing their job, trying to protect the city that they love and where they live. This is an incredible trauma for a lot of the city. And it is the mayors job to try and bring people together. The rhetoric had gotten so heated. You know, the attacks from the police union, the fighting in the streets. The fact that police had been murdered. He wanted to sort of say look, lets have a cooling off period which frankly would have been nice if it coincided with the holidays and try to reset the whole conversation. But he was talking to and making a request of people who have a very different agenda and who have a very different feeling about what the latest events in new york really mean. It seems as though they still need an outlet for the strong feelings that theyre experiencing. Now some of the protests have been incredibly vitriolic, theyve said some vitriolic things, last night it sounded like there was yet a new slogan. They were saying how do you spell racist, nypd. Here is what the former mayor of new york, rudy giuliani, said in response to that chant. Listen to this on cnn. This new york Police Department is not an allwhite Police Department. In fact, its not even majority white Police Department. I think. This is a very, very diverse Police Department. Hispanic and chinese in this particular case, americans. So this kind of thing has been suggested about racism. Within the new york city Police Department its really an outrageous lie. I mean errol, the officers who were killed as he pointed out, were hispanic and chinese, is it fair for the protesters to be calling the nypd racist . Its a very diverse department. My dad was a cop for over 30 years, i have a sister who was a detective for over 20 years on the nypd so yeah theres a lot of diversity on the Police Department. Look, the folks who are protesting, its impossible or difficult in some cases to say who exactly they are. And this is something that, this is a problem i think the mayor did walk into. Which is that on any given march, if you look at the signs, some of them are hardcore communist who is have been protesting and saying the same things for 30 or 40 years, literally. In other cases theyre kids who are just spontaneously decided to walk out of their classroom and stage a protest. What they want, what they believe, what theyre saying about the nypd it may be part of a hardcore agenda. It may be part of a spontaneous feeling. It may be related to just a couple of specific cases and we have had some very difficult cases over the last year. Its impossible to say. And so it doesnt make sense to really sort of just as you wouldnt tar the nypd with one brush, calling them racist or anything else. You shouldnt tar 35,000 protesters with one brush. Theres a lot going on out there. And the sooner i think the administration realizes that theyve got a big complicated problem on their hands, the better off theyll be. Because otherwise theyll be endorsing things that they have no idea what people are saying out in the streets. Youre bringing up a great point and youve been covering new york city and its issues for years. What does the mayor need to do now . My recommendation, you know, not that, i could probably just call them up and tell them this, but they really need to sort of broaden their outreach. There are a lot of people who did not vote for this mayor. Who did not want to see the direction that hes trying to take the Police Department. There are complaints from the left there are complaints from the right. What you dont see and what i think new york probably would like to see is a lot more people standing with and behind the mayor. A much broader coalition of people. Than hes been talking to. You know the reports suggest that hes talking to a handful of advisers and you cant do that in a city of eight Million People. Theres lots and lots of people out there willing to help, to sort of pitch in and help stitch the fabric of the city back together again. The mayors got to ask them to do that. So far, i havent heard that request. Errol lewis, always great to get your perspective, thanks for joining us. Lets get over to chris team romans in for michaela with the top stories. A lot going on. Former president george h. W. Bush is in a texas hospital after complaining of shortness of breath. Doctors say the 90yearold is being monitored as a precaution, so far, theres no word on his condition. But a family Spokesman Says hes expected to be fine. Two men in australia arrested on terrorism charges. One of the suspects, allegedly had documents in his home detailing plans to attack government targets. Australian federal police do not believe an attack was imminent and there was no specific threat against the Prime Minister or any other official. But security is very high in these highvisibility locations and theyre being beefed up for the holidays. Surprising reversal from sewny. The company now planning to release the interview tomorrow, despite the threats of violence from hackers. Few hundred Movie Theaters have opted to show the film. 9 movie drummed up controversy when it led to a hack of sony, allegedly by north korea. The company is hoping to make a deal to stream it online throughdemand. This ones a real headscratcher, a long island woman is suing United Airlines for 5 million. Jean mamako said she was treated like a criminal and pulled off her flight by three Police Officers because she wanted to change seats. The registered nurse wound newspaper a jail cell in seattle for three days instead of skiing in alaska. United airlines wont comment on the case, but when you read her suit really interesting. She tried to move to an exit row seat so she could get some sleep. The flight attendants according to her suit said no no no, thats 109 to sit in that seat and thats when the conflict ensued. Because it was a weekend, she planneded in the county jail with no courts open, three days, she said she was treated like a common criminal and is suing for 109. What does judge christine give in a situation. I think common sense on everyones part should have intervened way before you wind up pulling someone off a plane on a ski trip. When youre on a flight on an empty seat, you should be able to change and not pay the upgrade. The airline says it was an exit row, certain rules, you have to have a preflight briefing for an exit row, weight and balance requirements for the flight. The exit row take the air out of your balloon on that. The preflight briefing . They go, do you know youre sitting in a exit row . Can you open this door . Do you say you are able to do that . Yes. Is that drew . Ive never been tested on that . No. Have you changed your seat . Yes. Post 9 11, ive changed my demeanor on planes. People are on edge on planes, you go to enhance the calm. I think youre docile now. Im highly respectful. Highly respectful. Thats good policy. It will be a Merry Christmas for the president at least. Ill tell thaw much. A little chilly on this set. Past poll numbers are rough. The new poll numbers are great for him. His Approval Rating has bumped four Percentage Points since last month. Thats a lot in a poll given the International Situation thats on this president s desk. So whats behind the turnaround . Were going to get some insight from former White House Press secretary, mr. Jay carney. After turmoil over a comedy, the interview is set to hits theaters after all. Where can you see it . Will you be safe . Whats behind sonys change of heart . And will north korea retaliate . Im highly respectful of people. Just in time for the holidays. Tmobile introduces americas only unlimited 4g lte family plan. Get two lines of unlimited 4g lte data for just 100 bucks a month. With any smart phone. Including the Samsung Galaxy note 4, for 0 down. Add more family members for just 40 bucks a pop. Think the other guys have a family plan like this . Think again. Only tmobile has an unlimited 4g lte plan for the whole family. Thatll get your holiday bell ringing. Its more than the car. Er. For lotus f1 team, the Competitive Edge is the cloud. Powered by microsoft dynamics, azure, and office 365, the team can gain Real Time Insights and instantly share information around the globe. When every millisecond counts, staying competitive begins with the cloud. This is the microsoft cloud. What youre doing now, janice. Blogging. Your blog is just pictures of you in the mirror. Its called a fashion blog, todd. Well, ive been helping people save money with progressives discounts. Flo, can you get janice a job . [ laughs ] you shouldve stuck to softball i was so much better at softball than janice, dad. Wheres your wife, todd . Vacation. Discounts like homeowners, multipolicy i got a discount on this ham. Ive got the meat sweats. This is good ham, diane. Paperless discounts give it a rest, flo. All yeah, flo, give it a rest. They are a glowing example of what it means to be the best. And at this special time of year, they shine even brighter. Come to the winter event and get the mercedesbenz youve always wished for, now for an exceptional price. [ho, ho, ho, ho] lease the 2014 cla 250 for 329 a month at your local mercedesbenz dealer. Welcome back, the american kpe is growing at the fastest rate in more than a decade, 5 jump in the third quarter, it had been lower, but revised up. Thats not the only number rising as a result. The president s Approval Ratings, according to a the latest cnn poll. Its jumped four points since last month. Big in this international environment. Happens to be the highest Approval Rating since the spring of 2013. Lets get insight from former White House Press secretary, cnn political commentator, jay carney. Heres an appearance that you were happy to make today. Christmas came early for you. Glad to be here, chris. Give us the overall take. Why do you think the president got a bump . Well look, i think most americans feel about the state of the country, in the same way they feel about the state of the economy. Especially as the economy affects their lives. You know, chris, the economy has been growing steadily for a long time now, its been adding jobs for a long time now. In the private sector. But the average americans feelings about the economy havent improved at the same pace. Largely because they havent felt the benefits. Maybe they dont feel like theyre going to lose their jobs. The nekxt week like they did fie years ago, but they dont get the sense that their own economic prospects are improving. Finally we begin to see data showing americans writ large are going to see the benefits of this economy. Wages are moving up and there are prospects for the near future improving. I think thats what youre seeing reflected in the poll. The a 5 Economic Growth figure is important, portends well for the future. But most important when it comes to how americans feel about washington and the directs of the country. Is whether or not they feel economically secure. So two points of pushback. The first one is 3549yearolds still downgraded the president and his handling of his job as president now 42 , in november, 45 . You think that could be a reflection of the overall sense of leadership given whats been happening internationally. And the president constantly getting dinged for not taking enough action at the right time . I think so. I think that just the tumult in the world wears down peoples feelings about their leaders in washington and especially the president. The sense that you know, events are beyond the control of this nation or any one individual i think erodes support. But i think the general sense that america is on the right track, were growing at a pace that no other industrialized firstworld country comes close to. I think that begins to seep in and people feel better. Wealthy americans have been doing well for a long time now, but middle class americans and those aspiring to the middle class, havent had that same sort of feeling. The most important thing is they begin to feel like theyre benefitting from this. One other thing, gas prices are low, right . Huge deal. Big reason is there are a lot of reasons, one of the reasons is that the u. S. Is producing more than ever, were doing the fracking, were doing the shale. We got everything going. The president had been so loud and proud and you were often a messenger for about how oil is the enemy. Weve got to get off of it, alternate fuel. Now theyre celebrating were putting out so much oil. It sounds like doublespeak. What i used to say from the White House Briefing room was the president s approach was all of the above. He understood were not going to wean ourselves off fossil fuels tomorrow and our approach to Energy Independence is we will do everything. Including continuing to expand drilling and our search for natural gas. The fact is energy ipd pennsylvania is the most important thing for us, as a National Security matter independence. And developing other forms of energy is a way to help us achieve Energy Independence in the longterm. He took some hits from the left for that approach. The fact that he was willing to see the u. S. Expand drilling as long as it did it in an environmentallysafe way. I think this is a benefit to the country. I remember back in 2009 there was talk about how we were exhausting our supplies of oil. Right now the world looks a lot different. You look at whats happening in russia, you look at the state of putins russia and his grip on power internationally and you see the benefits of the lower oil prices. Ive been overwhelmed by Christine Romans on this point of gas prices. I now am drinking the coolade, even if it were high octane. Do you think the president got lucky that gas prices happened somewhat external of him and hes benefitting from people having cash in their pockets and gas prices are a very vong indicator. I think gas prices are important and obviously no president can set the price at the pump. I remember in 20112012 as gas prices were going up, we saw it internally as a potential threat to the president s political standing. Now that theyre coming down, he benefits from that. The overall approach, one that any lead anywhere washington needs to take is one that takes the long view. We develop alternative forms of energy. This wont last. An oil glut wont last. Well see Oil Prices Rise again. We need to make sure were taking the right steps now so we have more Energy Independence in the future. And that were helping our environment. He is still seeing indications in the poll, even with the pop in the numbers, that hes got trouble. His obama policy was move country in right direction, wrong direction, right direction, 46. Wrong direction 49. Handling the job as president , approve 48, disapprove 50. You always want to be, you always want to be like 54, 55 if you can on the positive. What does he need to do . I think he needs to din to take bold action. Ways very happy to see him come out of the drubbing that the democrats took in the midterms and move decisively where he could. Using executive authority and where he could, advancing our Foreign Policy interests. Hes got to keep doing that. Once Congress Comes back and the new Congress Comes back and republicans are in charge of both houses, theres going to be a lot of contentiousness, he needs to lead above the fray and continue to take action and define the policies hes taking as good for the whole country as opposed to good for one political party. Thats not always easy to do, easier to say from this chair than it is to execute on. But thats whey has to do. I would say for his legacy, you know the argument is going to be, i think, that under his leadership, the United States recovered from the worst recession of our lifetimes, its growing fast. Its creating jobs, its doing much better than any other industrialized country in the world. We have some of our nemesis on the ropes, like Vladimir Putin, were dealing with issues like isis and the situation in syria. Theyre complicated and difficult. But we are better off than we were as a nation when he took power in 2009 and when he was reelected in 2012. Thats going to be the democratic argument. Jay carney, the best to you and the family for the hole day days, thank you for coming on new day. Sony with a change of heart, why the Entertainment Company will now release the interview, despite threats from hackers and how do theaters plan to keep the audience safe . Well discuss that ahead. Ive always loved exploring and looking for something better. Thats the way i look at life. 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Eliquis may increase your bleeding risk if you take certain medicines. Tell your doctor about all planned medical or dental procedures. Those three Important Reasons are why eliquis is a better find for me. Ask your doctor today if eliquis is right for you. Welcome back to new day, lets look at your headlines this morning. A Police Officer shot and killed a teen in missouri, just two miles from ferguson, were told the teenager aimed a gun at the Police Officer, the Department Says thats when the cop fired several shots fearing for his life. Reports have identified the man as 18yearold Antonio Martin. A gun was recovered at the scene. Lawyers for Dzokhar Tsarnaev are making a final push to have a federal judge delay his trial until september. Lawyers for the surviving Boston Marathon bombing suspect, argue it would be more fair, given the complexity of the case, jury selection in tarn he have been trial is expected to dwin in 12 days. Huge from keurig, the company is recalling seven million of its coffee makers, a flaw can burn people. The company is putting recall information on its website and is offering free repair kits to customers. Heres something you dont see very often a reporter, a news reporter, getting high on television. Burke behind me is tons of heroin, hashish and other narcotics. [ laughter ]. Can you see quentin sommerville. He could not keep it together. He was reporting on a pile of burning narcotics, close enough he got a contact high and he ended up in a complete giggle fit. Im not sure he was able to file the story. Was he live or just trying to tape it and got the yips . I feel for the poor producer who is like get him off the air. Was he okay . The producer was probably like this. How many brain cells never came back . Opium contact high is different than a marijuana contact high. I dont know that any contact high elicits that sound. He goes hoee hee. What is that . That was my christmas tape for the day. I may have to make that a ringtone or something. Please give us more details as you get them. I will spend all the rest of the morning investigating the fine details. See how he feels about the gas prices. More news breaking overnight, former president george h. W. Bush taken to the hospital after complaining of shortness of breath. The doctors at houston methodist say theyll keep him there just as a precaution. Lets bring in Suzanne Malveaux, everybody is hoping its just a quick spell. Whats the word . The word is they think hes going to be just fine. I saw the president at an event six weeks ago at the president ial library in college station, texas. The younger bush was dedicated this book, he said a love story to his dad. But the senior is 90 years old, hes a bit frail, appeared in great spirits, he didnt speak at the event, but smiled quite a bit. Niece a wheelchair now, because the family says hes no longer able to walk unassisted. Yesterday the former president and his wife are attending this event at the hobby center for performing arts, reading night before christmas to children when the president experienced a shortness of breath. Now he was taken by ambulance to the houston Methodist Hospital, just as a precautionary measure to get checked out. This is from his spokesman, jim mcgrath who released a statement saying he was admitted to the hospital for observation. He looked fine. This is the same hospital where he spent two months being treated for bronchitis in november of 2012. He was released. And it was back in 91 when he experienced first problems with his health, an irregular heartbeat. Doctors diagnosing it as graves disease, a thyroid condition. But hes been incredibly active throughout the years, even before he became president , navy pilot, he had been on some 58 combat missions, flying in world war ii on the down time, loves to fish and golf. We all know he loves to go sky diving. Most recently we saw this celebrating his 90th birthday. Thats right, 90th birthday in june, making a parachute jump near his home. The white house spokesman from president obama, saying they are aware of bushs condition, he and the first lady are sending him their good wishes. He will be in peoples thoughts and prayers and he is a tough guy. Thats for sure. Suzanne, all the best to you for the whom day as well. You, too. Heres a Christmas Gift to seth rogen and james franco. Audiences can now go see the interview after all. Sony decided to release the comedy in a few places, we have the backstory about how this change of heart happened. How youre going to survive ianother harsh winter,d or stay dry from torrential rain showers, or savor the last warm rays of sun. Step inside the jeep® grand cherokee. And wonder no more. This is the jeep® grand cherokee. The most awarded suv ever. Wellqualified lessees can lease the 2015 grand Cherokee Laredo for 369 a month. I was thinking about htaking this speed test from comcast business. Oh yeah . If they cant give us faster internet or save us money, theyll give us 150 bucks. Sounds like a win win. Guys faster internet . I have never been on the internet and i am doing pretty well. Does he even work here . Dont listen to the naysayer. Take the comcast business speed test. Get faster speeds or more savings, or well give you 150. Comcast business. Built for business. After so much drama over a comedy, the interview is set to hit theaters tomorrow. Copies of the film that prompted the hack of Sony Pictures allegedly by north korea are being shipped to hundreds of theaters. In and out fbi is alerting their field offices, which theaters will be showing the movie in case of threats. So what ultimately led to this change by sony . And could we see more retaliation from north korea . Lets bring in cnns justice correspondent, pamela brown and cnn media correspondent, brian stelter. Just a few days ago everyone was wringing their hands over how north korea had effectively clamped down on freedom of expression. What happened . How are they now releasing this movie . You might say that some folks found a backbone. This was capitulation last week. It felt like north korea or whoever the hackers are had won and the u. S. Had lost. Now theres a real sense that a statement needs to be made that a film cant be suppressed, even a silly, raunchy comedy like this one. Sony wants to send a message here and make some money at the same time. What does Law Enforcement say about the film being released now . Law enforcement is basically saying look, theaters can do whatever they want to do. They want to make sure they take the necessary precautions, as you mentioned in the intro, we know that the fbi has sent out basically a bulletin to all the field offices asking the cybertask forces to team up with the joint Terrorism Task forces to go to the theaters that are now showing the movie. Weve learned more than 200 theaters are planning to show the movie. To go to the theaters and make them aware of any possible threat they may face, theres no actionable intelligence they could face a threat. Heres what one Theater Owner said yesterday about the decision to show the film we both distributors and exhibitors have collectively stood firm to our principles for the right of freedom of expression, two days before christmas and im proud to be an american. That said, what can Theater Owners do to reduce the risk to audiences . I think first of all, is just to educate themselves on what is the risk. Thats what the fbi is trying to do here is to educate them. Also they are allowed to ask for Law Enforcement to come and provide a little beefedup security when they show the movie. Just as a precaution. We know in atlanta, the first theater to announce yesterday that they were going to be showing it, that the atlanta Police Department released a statement saying look were going to be monitoring the situation. It seems like theres been some coordination between the Police Departments and the theaters. Even though all the way up to the white house. This is an extraordinary moment to have sony in touch with the fbi and with the Obama Administration. So that the white house even was aware of these talks that were going on for the physical release and maybe for an online release tomorrow, too. Brian, i cant begin to tell you how many people have said to me this was all a publicity stunt. This whole thing was a publicity stunt by sony to drum up interest in some blevel movie. Whats your response . I think im the most cynical person in this room, but i dont believe it, i dont believe it this was so devastating for sony. The movie was going to come out in like 3,000 theaters, now its only going to come out in 200 to 300. So its a blow for sony. Thats why they want to put it online as well. Well hear about video on demand or streaming deal so maybe people at home can watch it on youtube or netflix or Something Like that. A publicity stunt makes a Company Money money. It doesnt lose a Company Money. Theyve lost money, any way you slice it, have they lost money on the film because the major theater chains arent releasing it in. It seems like it, it cost about 44 million to make. They spent a lot on marketing in the 00 to 300 theaters, they cant make more than a few million. If it does well, maybe amc and cinemark will feel comfortable putting it in their theaters. Ive heard more people say waeth going to see the movie, now im going to. Its been getting free publicity. We see that, that ban anywhere atlanta, freedom prevails. Its a real moment for everyone to feel united. I have a feeling other movies are going to benefit. Im more interested in seeing into the woods and unbroken on Christmas Day. I have a feeling that the box office will be boosted by the talk about the movies. How these two goof balls have come to represent American Freedom and constitutional rights. Very quickly. Have you heard anything from north korea . As of now, you know north korea is still basically saying look, we didnt do this, were not behind the hacking, still saying we want to work with the u. S. On the investigation. Now we know we know samantha powers, who of course said this is absurd. We know there have been the internet outages in north korea over the last couple of days. The timing suspicious. But were being told by you u. S. Officials theyre not involved with that. I got to imagine sony executives are bracing for the possibility now. Brian stelter, pamela brown, great to see you guys, happy movie watching this weekend. Back to chris. We may be able to judge who is responsible but who gets coal in their stocking on christmas morning. They are the ones responsible for the sony hacking. And this is santa talk because you know what . The big man is hitting the skies, delivering presents, all the good kids out there in the world. You can track his whereabouts with the help of the u. S. Military. Well explain how. That kids getting coal right there on your screen right now. Hes getting a big lump of coal. Tmobile introduces americas only unlimited 4g lte family plan. Get two lines of unlimited 4g lte data for just 100 bucks a month. With any smart phone. Including the Samsung Galaxy note 4, for 0 down. Add more family members for just 40 bucks a pop. Think the other guys have a family plan like this . Think again. Only tmobile has an unlimited 4g lte plan for the whole family. Thatll get your holiday bell ringing. The mercedesbenz winter event is back, with the perfect vehicle thats just right for you, no matter which list youre on. [ho, ho, ho, ho] lease the 2015 ml 350 for 579 a month at your local mercedesbenz dealer. Thats why i always choose the fastest intern. R slow. The fastest printer. The fastest lunch. Turkey club. The fastest pencil sharpener. The fastest elevator. The fastest speed dial. The Fastest Office plant. So why wouldnt i choose the fastest wifi . I would. Switch to comcast business and get the fastest wifi with the most coverage. Comcast business. Built for business. Santa is already on the move in some parts of the world. You and your family can check his whereabouts on norad, s noradsanta. Org to find out when jolly old st. Nick will be in your neck of the woods, thanks to the u. S. Military and par bra starr is here with the hardhitting story. Good morning, barbara. Always tracking military news from washington, even on Christmas Eve. The north American Aerospace demand, the u. S. Navy and military on high alert for a happy reason. They are tracking santa claus. Hes now been seen out as you see on the website out in the far pacific. They are tracking his movements. Theyve been doing this for over 50 years every Christmas Eve for those children who believe around the world. Undeterred by war and troubles, santa will visit every country where there are those who believe he will make every effort to get to everyone, we are told. Now, what are the specs involved in some of this . Kids like to snow the specs on the equipment theyre dealing with. We from the military have the specifications on santas sleigh. Let me give some of them to you. His sleigh will have the length, does have the length of 75 candy canes with 40 candy canes height, 55 candy canes weight at takeoff, 75,000 gumdrops, that does not include santas weight, and the weight of the reindeer. In several hours, when santa claus approaches, north american air space, canadian and u. S. Fighter jets will launch, they will escort santa across north america. They will not be armed. Santa doesnt go for that sort of thing, of course. And if you are worried that santas highly secure, highly classified flight plan might get hacked by some bad people out there, you do not have to worry. The u. S. Military, our sources have assured us that santas flight plan is highly secure, and that he will not be hacked. He doesnt put up with that sort of thing either. Alisyn, chris, happy holidays. You too, barbara. Thank you for that declassified information. Youre a gift, barbara starr, youre a gift every day. Best for the holidays. You guys, too. Thanks so much. I get very excited by that little santa thing there going on. I know, its great. See him moving around. Hes getting this way. Theres a lot of breaking news specifically out of missouri, there are angry protests going on after another Police Shooting but this time, the situation is very different. Well tell you why. Police near ferguson, missouri, shot and killed a black teen ager at a gas station after a man aimed a handgun at the officer. Thats my baby what happened to not killing people . He been up about two hours. They are Downtown Manhattan and harlem. The most intense. To keep the pressure on if you care about reform in the justice system. Bad weather complicates Holiday Travel for millions. [ siren ] thats the tornado. Not too sure if this used to be a gas station. Theres debris all over the place here. Good morning, withal come to new day. Its wednesday, december 24th, Christmas Eve morning, if you want to look at it that way. Just after 8 00 in the east. Chris cuomo and Alisyn Camerota here. Breaking news, there has been another Police Shooting two miles from ferguson, missouri, an officer shot a teenager, the teenager died, this happened at a gas station. Only this time the teenager was reportedly armed. Officials tell cnn the teenager pointed a handgunat the officer, and when the Police Officer, he says, fearing for his life, shot the teenager. Despite the facts of the scene, chaos erupted with protesters clashing overnight. Sarah gannon is following the story closely and joins us in studio with the latest. Chris and alisyn, tensions brewing over in missouri, this time in a town called berkeley, missouri, just a few miles from ferguson, just about two miles. It happened because of a shooting that happened last night around 11 15. An officer shot and killed 18yearold Antonio Martin after they say, Authorities Say that martin pulled a gun and pointed it at the officer during a routine check at the gas station. The gun was seen laying in the parking lot on the floor, on the parking lot floor with a bright yellow marker placed next to it. For the next several hours chaos ensued. Protesters getting right in the faces of officers, throwing bricks, throwing water bottles, even tossing a firework, you can see the aftermath of that, right here they tossed a firework into the gas station area and it exploded. Police responded. Pepper spraying a few people, including one journalist at the scene. Local police in berkeley say they will be holding a press conference in just a few moments. We are also waiting to see the Surveillance Video from the gas station that could show more details about what happened. In the meantime, this was a devastating Christmas Eve for martins mother. Take a listen to what she told local reporters there. They wont tell me nothing. His girlfriend told me that the police was messing with him. He was fitting to get up and run, when he was trying to get up and run, they start shooting him. They wont even let me see my baby. I also just spoke to the father of Antonio Martin on the phone. He said he was not able to talk to police yet about what happened. He said when his son left the house last night, he said he was going to spend the night with his girlfriend. Sarah, thank you very much. We also will cor this and the situation in new york city, there are protests again last night despite calls from many including the mayor for calm after the two ambushed officers could be buried in peace. Join us is john miller, the new york Police Departments Deputy Commissioner for intelligence and counterterrorism. Happy holidays to you and the family. Thanks. Lets take a look at what happened in missouri, angry protests, why . One is not understanding the facts of the situation yet, they just know a kid was killed by a cop and then once we do know the facts, theres pushback maybe the bar is too low in missouri for Police Officers to be able to use deadly force. When you hear about this, the simple fact pattern holds up, which is cop, routine patrol stops at the gas station, sees two young guys, walks toward them, one of them pulls a gun out of the waistband, points it at the Police Officer, he fires maybe more than once, we dont have details yet. The kid dies, other kid runs away. If those are the facts, if they stand up, what level of use of force wouldnt apply in this situation . I actually have trouble understanding the discussion, especially in the optics of new york city, where we have two Police Officers, who were approached by a man with a gun, who didnt have time to draw their weapons and theyre both dead. So we have to take this in the context of the information from missouris preliminary, we dont have all the facts and we dont know the real story. Someday we will, if they investigate that and those facts come to light, but there cannot be a standard where we charge our Police Officers with the job of Going Forward and facing all these dangers, and say, well f someone pulls a gun on you, whats the question . Do you have to wait until youre shot first . So lets see how that case unfolds in terms of the facts, and you know, what the video shows and what the witnesses say, but i think if were in a discussion about if somebodys pointing a gun at you, do you have the right to defend yourself . I think the discussion has gone from the ridiculous to the ridiculous. New york city. They protested last night, not right around where the two officers were killed, but here in manhattan they took over some of the streets, they walked around busy parts of the city. There have been calls for them not to. Was that a fair request, in your opinion . Well, i think you have to examine two things. It is their right to protest and it is the job of the Police Department to help them do that, and its the extraordinary work of the men and women of the new york city Police Department who have helped them do that for more than a month now, even while they are protesting the very Police Officers who are assisting them in these demonstrations and saying terrible vitriolic things, but in a democratic society, its easy to protect popular speech. You want to march for the climate, thats a ground ball. The real challenge for democracy is when you protect unpopular speech, so its a test for us, and the Police Department has passed that again and again. So the question is, should they protest . Was it right . Thats their right. The larger question is, in the light of the assassination of two Police Officers, in some measure driven by the vitriolic rhetoric across the country, killer cop, racist pigs, is it in good taste . They have to answer that question for themselves and i also think the city is answering that question. When i talk to people you see support for the movement slipping because people are feeling uneasy about it. The mayor has taken a beating, commissioner brattin said he doesnt think theres anything unusual about tension but this is an unusual situation. Do you believe that the mayor should have done things differently or should do things differently now . Im the chief of intelligence. I dont talk thats why im asking you, youre a smart guy. Its not that kind of intelligence. Oh. I dont do politics. I rely on what the Police Commissioner already said which is in the history of time, there has never been a mayor that wasnt crosswise with his unions at one time or another, the Police Unions in particular. One of the mayors the most proLaw Enforcement mayor in the history of new york, rudy giuliani, was severely criticized by the pba for much of the time he was there. The last mayor who was thought to be supportive of the police left them without a contract for a long time. The mayor has given the Police Department 400 million, but on the other hand, the cops are feeling beat up by months of demonstrations, by public criticism, by how theyre treated in the media, and the mayor, as a politician, is always the obvious target. I spent some time yesterday being john miller the reporter famous in the streets understanding what was going on with peoples feelings about how theyre being policed and the crime element in their areas, and there is a real concern that because of what just happened, and because of some of the rhetoric and some of the feelings that police will pull back. They wont patrol as much, they wont be there. They will be reluctant to engage. Now, theyre scared who will keep us safe. How do we deal with that. I drive around all day in this city, and sometimes much of the night. The police radio plays in the car and what im seeing is, im seeing Police Officers who are extraordinarily professional doing their jobs. Im seeing them being very careful. Im hearing the calls come over and hearing the radio calls being picked up. Im hearing them backing each other up where they should and where they need to and i hear them rising to the challenge all the time, so i think a lot of it is heated rhetoric, and i think when you get down to the business of policing, so far up to the minute and that includes until 2 00 this morning, when i was out listening to those calls and rolling up on some of those jobs, all ive seen is the most professional work from the most professional Police Department in the country. New years eve, always a huge event. Sure. This year maybe some special considerations. What are you doing this year . Obviously you dont give away tactical plans but what are the considerations going in this year that make a difference . New years eve was always new years eve. It was a big event, that meant traffic, crowds and moving a the lo of people in and out. In the post 9 11 world, chris, new years eve became new years eve plus, which is how do you do the first part, and then do the complicated counterterrorism overlay for a globally televised symbolic american new york event in the age of terrorism, and they have honed that and adjusted it and we have honed it and adjusted it again for this year. Some of that you see, the hercules team, the spotters, the observation posts, the back scatter trucks, the radiation detecti detection, and then there may be the wild card this year of the additional factor of protests. And threats, right . . A. And threats but we deal with the threats every year. So i think this is not a oneoff. The super bowl boulevard in times square was a real challenge for us, because we hadnt done it before. I thought it was executed with aplomb. This is one i think the department has gotten down well and they will rise to the protection piece and will respond to the threat. John miller, thank you for being on the show. I wish you all the best with your duties Going Forward. Thanks and have a Great Holiday for you and your family. Always a pleasure. Alisyn . Now to the Severe Weather that is slamming the south. Tornadoes killing four people in mississippi, hundreds of buildings and homes have been flattened or at least damaged. Thousands of people are without power right now in mississippi, louisiana and georgia, and if you are one of the estimated 98 million americans traveling this christmas, you may need a christmas miracle to get where youre going on time. Our coverage begins with Jennifer Gray tracking the extreme weather for us from the cnn center in atlanta. Hows it looking at this hour, jennifer . Alisyn, a lot of people are going to be impacted by the weather, as theyre trying to travel today. It should be clearing up by tomorrow, but our hearts are going out to those families of the victims who have suffered through these horrible storms yesterday that proved to be deadly across several states in the south. Thats it, thats the torpedo. Reporter massive and deadly tornadoes ripping through the southeast as bad weather complicates Holiday Travel for millions. The National Weather service flashing Tornado Warnings. A Tornado Warning has been issued at 4 45 p. M. Reporter across tv screens in five states. Parts of missouri now in a state of emergency after a tornado touched down 90 miles south of jackson, killing at least four people. Downed trees and power lines blocking traffic on a main thoroughfare, roofs of businesses, and the wall of this warehouse blown right off. One resident pulling a dog to safety from a destroyed home. Meanwhile, heartbroken store owners embrace outside their demolished flower shop. The storm system knocking out power to over 6,000 residents in mississippi alone. Inside this heavily damaged day care center, a holiday miracle, 35 children and seven staffers race for safety after the powerful tornado ripped the roof clear off, all making it out with no injuries. In louisiana, a tornado touched down twice, 70 miles north of new orleans, uprooting trees, reportedly damaging some 20 homes and leaving nearly 2,000 residents without power. Another suspected tornado snapping trees in half in south georgia, as the massive storm system also brings up to eight inches of torrential rain throughout the southeast. The downpour moving up the i95 corridor, as millions hit the road for christmas, with the potential for flooding from georgia to new hampshire. And the storm still in south georgia. We do have that tornado watch in effect until 2 00 eastern time. Does include portions of florida, georgia, even south carolina. Were seeing heavy rainfall, lightning strikes included in that, so that tornado watch through the morning and early afternoon. We also have flood watches and warnings in effect across georgia, florida and south carolina. That rain will continue as we go into the afternoon, and it is moving up into the northeast, d. C. , philly, new york, even into boston, as we get into the afternoon. Chicago, it is rain for you now, could be turning into snow as we go through the afternoon, so you have a Winter Weather advisory in effect for today, and that also includes portions of st. Louis. So wind gusts will also be a problem. We could see winds gusting up to 60 to 65 miles per hour, that includes places like cleveland and buffalo, so chris, travel is going to be a nightmare, as we go throughout the afternoon and evening hours. It should get better by tomorrow, though. Our primary concern is those in harms way because of extreme weather. Seems like the Ripple Effect will hit everybody. Jennifer, thank you very much. Well check back in with you and Severe Weather already causing delays at some of the nations busiest airports. Lets bring in rene marsh live from Reagan National airport in virginia. How does the big board look . Reporter you know, its not looking as good as it did earlier this morning. If you were one of the people who booked an early flight you were regretting it when your alarm clock went off, but probably not anymore, because now the problems are starting to trickle down. Were seeing more delays popping up on the boards here at Reagan National airport. Heres a big picture, as far as what the National Outlook is looking like right now. More than 2,500 delays as far as cancellations, more than 400, just for some context on an average day, without any threat of weather, youre usually talking about 200 cancellations so were double that at this point, and it is still relatively early but take a look. The rush is on, people are here checking in for their flights. Some of getting good news, their flights on time, some not so good, theyre delayed. Were talking about a variety of weather conditions, rain, fog, snow, all of those are playing into the travel situation that people are going to be experiencing, were paying close attention to airports in new york city. Theyre going to be dealing with that heavy rain, potential fog later on today and thats going to be a visibility issue, so thats why youre going to see the delays there. Also chicago, if that snow just happens to land and stalls right other chicago ohare theyll have issues too. When you have problems at the major hubs its a Ripple Effect. Chris . Rene, well check back in with you, keep the situation flowing for us. Lets get to Christine Romans for the news, in for mick. Isis has shot down a jordanian warplane over syria. Isis has captured the pilot. Officials say that plane was part of the u. S. Led coalition. The terrorist tweeted out two photos of the warplane. Former president george h. W. Bush is in a text exhospital after complaining of shortness of breath. Doctors say the 90yearold is being monitored as a precaution. So far theres no word on his condition but a family Spokesman Says he is expected to be fine. President obamas enjoying a nice yearend spike in the polls with the economy ticking up, the president taking action on immigration in cuba, the latest cnn orc poll puts his Approval Rating at a 20month high. 48 of americans now approve of the president s job performance. Hes enjoying increased support among women, independents and millenials. A dramatic road rage incident caught on tape in california. Woman in an suv pushes two girls off the road, at one point deed deorosco got out of the car, slapped what looked like a sheriffs badge on the passenger side windows. They admitted she flipped her the bird after she cut them off. Orosco was arrested after the incident. A utah man won the eggnog contest, after drinking a quart of eggnothing in 12 seconds, he was in the hospital for three days. Doctors think the eggnothing got into his wind pipe and gave him pneumonia. By the way, it was virgin eggnothieg eggnog, no booze. Sorry, ryan rouch, sounds like a terrible thing to endure. Eggnog overdose. Im happy he was okay but i was so frightened you were going to take eggnog away from us, that the doctors were going to say it turns out eggnog can kill you if. You drink too much but thank you. Virgin eggnog will kill you if you drink too much. Thats the lesson to take away. Thank you, christine . It is not the lesson. You are a fan of the eggnog . Im a big fan. I get it. Chugging in cuomos office at 9 01. Be careful with that. We have to tell you about a this crazy story an egregious Security Breach at the worlds busiest airport. Bagage handler allegedly getting guns and ammunitions on to flights. How can officials fix this gaping hole in Airport Security. The stunner from sony. The Company Planning to release the interview tomorrow. Remember they canceled it days ago . What happened and why . Vo this year, santa left his sleigh at home and booked his trip around the world on expedia. Because now the points you earn traveling for the holidays can be donated to help the kids at st. Jude childrens research hospital. Make your Holiday Travel mean even more. Donate your expedia points at expedia. Com santa. New detail this is morning on the airport gun smuggling operation that shuttled weapons from atlanta, georgia, to new york. 153 guns were recovered in this undercover operation. Delta baggage handler and a former delta employee seen on this Surveillance Video after the alleged transfer of weapons now facing charges along with several other coconspirators. Hartsfieldjackson Atlanta International airport says its reviewing its security plan. Lets bring in tom fuentes, a cnn Law Enforcement analyst and former assistant fbi director. Great to see you this morning, tom. These guys were former baggage handl handlers, one was a ramp agent. Can those types of people get anything they want on an airplane . Good morning, alisyn. It would appear so and maybe we should add a few more people to that, the people that create the food trays that are loaded, not even at the airport, but theyre put in those tray holders off site and then trucked in, and immediately put on the plane, so maintenance people that come on, you have the people that clean the airplanes, so there are a lot of people that get on an airplane or work around an airplane that really havent gone through the security that a normal passenger would go through, and this just shows it. Heres what the airport has said about this problem in a statement, they say all employees must pass extensive criminal history record checks, Security Threat assessments and Security Training prior to being approved for access to secured areas. Additionally employees are subjected to continuous vetting and random inspections. In light of these recent events we are reviewing the security plan and will make the appropriate changes to prevent future incidents of this nature. Just how thorough are these security checks of the employees like the type that youve just mentioned . Well, ive talked to a recent head of security from atlantas airport and yes, they do some basic checks, if youve been arrested, the usually background but theyre not hiring people to work in the nuclear facility. Theyre not using the extensive background checks and theyre just not going to. They dont have the resources to put the magnetometers up at all the entrances employees use when they come to the airport and enter it from the basement areas where the locker rooms are and the employee break rooms are. If they cant do that, who are they talking about with the extensive background checks . I would like to hear the details of that before i would believe it. Another element of this crime is that somehow these suspects, they bought, the thinking is according to police they bought all of these guns, 15 3 of them online. If youre buying guns online from a website, are there any background checks that you have to fill out . No, but thats been a debate going all along of how you obtain guns in this country. Thats just a whole different debate and if you look at the guns, except for the ak47, every other gun could have been legal. It could have been legally purchased anyway, but you know, obtaining guns whether you go to a gun show, whether you buy it from somebody else, whether you steal it, thats not the question at hand, because were not ready to answer that question as a country anyway. But the country, the question we can answer and have been asking is, what about the security of an aircraft . What about the safety of the passengers, the crew, everybody thats on that aircraft, everybody on the ground f that airplane crashes into them. Id like to add one other thing that hasnt really been brought up. When you word an aircraft, the cockpit door is still open. So dozens of passengers, if not all, are on the plane before they get around to closing that door. I dont know if its because the captain has to sign the final passenger manifest for the ground crew. I dont know what that reason is, but i know that i fly very often and im sure you do, and everybody thats watching this in an airport right now in a waiting room is going to get on a plane, if theyre lucky this morning, pretty soon, and they will probably notice as they board and go to their seats and put things in the overhead bins that the cockpit door is still open. Thats a great point. I think its because they want to quell any anxiety of the passengers. Its sort of nice to look in there and see the pilots and see that they look relaxed and that theyre doing all of their checks and balances, but youre so right. Anything could happen at that point of contact. So tom, what is the answer here . How do we tighten up this loophole in Airport Security that we didnt even know existed before this . Well, as a passenger, as a matter of convenience, i almost hope they dont do that part of it. Like many foreign airports, you go through magnetometers right at the gate. They have a separate set at every boarding gate, and you go through that one lastminute check before you get on. You know, we saw that in the films of the pilots getting on mh370, the malaysia airliner that disappeared, you see the video of the captain and first officer going through the line to do final boarding. That would be outrageously expensive also, but i think the big loophole here is that you do have thousands, literally thousands of employees at a large airport like Atlanta Hartsfield who, they drive in, they just badge their bay to get into the parking lot. Once theyre in the parking lot, a shuttle bus goes around the airport, picks up employees, takes them to the individual doorway of the particular airline or facility they work at, and they enter the airport without further checks after the first one, which is just showing the badge, so actually, when the Background Investigation is done, thats about the last serious check on these employees, and you do have people that, from the other point of view, the other threats we deal with all the time, is what if you have an employee that passes with flying colors all of the background checks, but later becomes radicalized, and later becomes a threat. Sure. Or later has Mental Health issues. Right. So doing even a serious background check early before the persons hired isnt the whole answer either. Lets hope that this story is at least a wakeup call to airlines and airports around the country. Tom fuentes, Merry Christmas, nice to see you. Merry christmas. Thanks, alisyn. Thanks so much. Over to chris. Alisyn, it is the biggest movie no one has seen. Thats about to change. Soapy will release the interview tomorrow, despite the threats. Why the reversal, and is it a good move . Does that even matter anymore . We have all the information coming up. holiday mhey is playing i guess were going to need a new santa the music builds to a climax. more people are coming to audi than ever before. See why now is the best time. Audi will cover your first months payment on select models at the season of audi sales event. Visit audioffers. Com today. Time for the five things to know for your new day. Racial tensions spiking again after a teenager was gunned down by police in berkeley, missouri, just outside ferguson. The Police Released Surveillance Video, look in the upper left, you can see what appears to be the teenager pointing a gun at the officer. 98. 6 million of you are flying or driving at least 50 miles for the christmas holiday. The weather already proved deadly in the south, deadly tornadoes tearing through mississippi killing four people. Power was knocked out to thousands of people in georgia and louisiana. Former president george h. W. Bush taken to a houston hospital after complaining of shortness of breath. Spokesman expects bush to be okay. The former s. E. A. L. Who claims he killed Osama Bin Laden under investigation. Navy officials are looking into the possibility that Robert Oneill revealed classified information during media appearances. Were always updating the five things to know. Go to newdaycnn. Com for the latest. Talk about a plot twist, sony now says it will release the interview on Christmas Day, despite threats of violence from hackers. A few hundred independent theaters plan to show the comedy as the fbi prepares for possible Cyber Attacks as retaliation. Pamela brown is here with more details. What do we know . After sonys stunning decision reversal yesterday, al sin, the fbi sent a bulletin ago them to coordinate with the Movie Theaters that are going to be releasing the interview educating them about the possible threat they may face. The interview is expected to be released in more than 200 theaters across the country. A shocking turn of events in the growing sony saga. Woo reporter sony announcing it will allow the limited Theatrical Release of the interview the controversial movie about the assassination of kim jongun. I have a gift for you. Reporter a backlash from celebrities like George Clooney and even president obama, who criticized the studios initial decision to delay the movies release. I wish they had spoke on it me first. Reporter now a growing number of independent theaters announcing theyll be showing the movie, first to announce the plaza theater in atlanta. I think now they are seeing that the right thing to do is to be bold, go forward and see what happens and its starting on a small level. I think the larger theater chains which are very corporate and cautious are going to eventually see that okay, it seems to be working all right and we can make money off this movie and theyll jump on the band wagon. Reporter after major movie chains pulled the plug last week following a threat by the hackers, sonys powerhouse attorney david boies hinted on meet the press the studio was not backing down. Remember, sony only delayed this. Stony has been fighting to get this picture distributed. It will be distributed. Reporter now the stars of the interview speaking out on social media. James franco posting victory, the people and the president have spoken and seth rogen tweeting freedom has prevailed. In a statement, sonys ceo Michael Linton says were excited our movie will be in a number of theaters on Christmas Day, while we hope this is only the first step of the films release, we are proud to make it available to the public and to have stood up to those who attempted to suppress free speepspeep speech. As tensions heighten between the United States and north korea which the u. S. Blames for the hack, the reports the reclusive countrys internet went down twice in the past 24 hours and remains spotty according to an internet monitoring company. Whoever shut it down, it doesnt matter that much because theres only several thousand users in north korea. And the u. S. Official denies to cnn that the u. S. Had any involvement with north koreas internet outage. Meantime we have learned from sources that sony did advise the fbi before moving forward with the release that it was going to do so, making sure there wasnt any sort of Credible Threats before it made that decision. But you could see beefed up security at some of these theaters showing the movie. There is that concern that something could happen. It will be fascinating to see how many people turn out to go see this movie. It really will be. So well be keeping an eye on it. Thanks. Thank you. As you may have heard, weve had some rewarding opportunities to journey into our pasts here at cnn, see where the family story all began. You know who got to do it, jake tapper, one of the guys who dug into his roots and this man is surprised by very little. Ive known him for years. He was surprised by what he learned about himself. You will be, as well, coming up. Merry Christmas Eve. So festive. Peace on earth. We all vote for that. There are lots of surprises that popped up as cnn anchors got the chance this is year to discover their roots. One of those surprised anchors, jake tapper, he was born and raised in had philadelphia and tapper i call him tapper. He like that. Tapper thought he was as american at apple pie until he learned a jarring secret about his familys past. Eskimo this is where im from, philly, and its not just cheesesteaks and rocky balboa. Philadelphia is to me very much about america. My mom and dad put down roots just around the corner from here, independence hall, where the Founding Fathers signed the constitution and the declaration of independence. And the truth is, ier in really cared that much about my ancestors. Where was i from . The answer was always philly. My childhood neighborhood still looks as though George Washington slept there. I mean, everything about growing up during that time was ameri n americana, even the names of the sports teams, the 17 6e76ers, t american eagles. Why did grandmother tapper and grandfather tappers leave the old country . For a variety of reasons. I think a lot of it was economics. My moms, scottirish via canada. My parents brought me here when i was 3. There also was this family myth, our side, your side of the family came to north america and objected to slavery, and so they went to canada because there was slavery in the United States. I would like to believe that, but i dont. Its a great family lore though. I think they left for other reasons. Looking into those other reasons with ancestry. Com, i found out i have colonial roots, though its not exactly what i might have hoped for. It all starts with my seventh great grandfather, engelbert huff who jumped ship in the u. S. And ended up in fishkill, new york, so thats where i went to find out more. He was born sometime in the 1600s, either 1637 or 1687, in norway, apparently he made quite an impression. He was described later in his life as having been something of a local celebrity for his scholarship and dashing horsemanship. 200 families. Willis skinner here in fishkill is the local historian, the keeper of the secrets. My seventh great grandfather, engelbert huff was here at some point. Yes. What can you tell me . All i know is that he farmed and he lived to be the age of 128 years. 128 . 128. You believe that . I dont know. I dont know. There was some question about that. When he was about 10 years o20 there is a story he courted a young lady who was 21 years old. I dont know how true that is. This is a special communion tankard. Reporter huff made such an inpress his story is inscribed in this priceless communion tanker that the church still uses. We searched in vain for engelbert huffs grave but we did make another discovery. The Fishkill Church has this record of the family of engelbert huff. Reporter willa has this record showing his grandsons were involved in the American Revolutionary war, where americas founders were fighting for independence from the british. So paul huff joined the british army in 1777. So he fought in the american revolution. Yes. Reporter but he fought on the wrong side . Right. Reporter i could not believe it. My ancestors, my colonial ancestors were on the side of the british. Let me repeat that, the british, the wrong side. My fifth great grandfather, solomon huff, and his brother, paul, on the wrong side in the American Revolutionary war. It was like poison on my lips. When the American Revolutionary war broke out solomon continued to work his 200acre farm without engaging in the contlikt. It became unbearable resulting in solomon following the lead of his older brother, paul, and joining british forces, and then they went to canada. Reporter so no wonder there arent that many huffs in here. They fled to canada. They fled. All right, so the question is how did j. T. s family end up in canada and eventually make it back down here to the u. S. . You will not want to miss the rest of jakes family journey when we come back. O we have been following the roots of jake tapper. He learned his family of norse distirngs were fighting for the british and ended up in canada. Jake is retracing those footsteps. Reporter so we chased solomon huff, my great, great, great, great, great grandfather, seven jebrations before me to the bay of quinty where the royalists land, a threehour drive from toronto. I cant relate to it at all, its so antithetical to who i am. I admire solomon staying true to who he is, to side with king george iii over Thomas Gerson and James Madison is crazy to me. And this is where paul huff landed . Yes, with then alsteins socialated loyalists. Reporter an organized group . Yes. Reporter people who fought for the british during the war and then were fleeing the colonies. For the most part. Reporter this is peter johnson, a loyalist reenactor and it turns out, a distant cousin of mine. Why are people so proud to be descendants of loyalists . If you happen to favor a constitutional monarchy, youre proud to say your ancestors supported the king. Reporter i guess thats my question. Why would anybody as opposed to a thriving democracy and republic, why would anybody want to have a monarchy . Well, at the time of the revolution, it was very unclear what direction things were going to go. Reporter but we all know how things turned out with independence and all, but canada still has a relationship with the royal family. The huffs were a family of faith. We met up with historian kathy staples at old hay bay church, the First Methodist Church in canada. After fleeing the revolutionary war, solomon had to restart his life and this church played a big role. So one of my ancestors, solomon rough, his brother was paul. Paul fought for the british. Yes. Reporter he came here. This was his land . Yes, it was. He was given 200 acres. He donated the corner of his land to build the church. Reporter it sounds like this was really the frontier. Yes, it was. Reporter there were not a lot of amenities, not like there were in the 1700s anyway but not a lot of amenities. No. Reporter it was a tough life for extremely. Reporter for tough people. They left an organized way of life in the colonies. Reporter the winter had to be brutal. Some didnt make it through the first winner. Reporter the tough huffs managed to thrive here. This marker across the street remembers solomon and paul. True to king and country. Coming from america, this isnt something to brag about in america, these guys were rebels. Reporter on the wrong side. They did not want end pens . Thats exactly it. Reporter we have an Independence Day in america. Its weird to me, raised in philadelphia, the birthplace of our nation, during the bicentennial, how could this be my roots . These walls put up by my family tell a story i never expected to find, and, it turns out, neither did mom or dad. How do you feel, having these folks in our history . I asked my mother about it. She pointed out that i was directly descended from somebody who was loyal to the crown, but i didnt tell anyone. Its a little bit embarrassing. It really is. Yes, i thought so, too. Reporter i know this isnt your part of the tree. When you look at the huffs, you dont think loyalists . They were traitors to the american revolution, and i am a supporter of the american revolution. Reporter for the record, mom and i are, too, supporters of the american revolution, just so we have that established. Finally, it was another war that helped me sort all of this out in my own mind. Long before the u. S. Joined the battle, the canadians were fighting in world war ii, including descendants of the huffs, like my moms father and the Canadian Navy and uncle edwin paul mattier who died in a bombing raid in 1943. They were on the right side. So i guess, with this perspective of looking back at the huffs through the prism of world war ii, it does make some sense. I have my history and i have my peace. I can be proud of where i came from. So glad he could sort all that out. Me, too, absolutely. Totally vindicated his family tree at the end. His dad and mom are awesome. His pop had a bugs bunny tie on him. Thats all you need to know to love who you are and where you come from. If jake wants to question what youre saying its going to happen, doesnt matter if it youre his crazy cousin with the colonial hat. For his father. He comes from interesting stock, no surprise there. Fun to take the journey with him. Today is all about being with family. The best to you for a very Merry Christmas. Thanks for being with us here on new day. Merry christmas. Thanks. Merry christmas. You too. A lot of news this morning. We get you to the newsroom with randi kaye. Well begin right after the break, candy cane time. Could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. Everybody knows that. Well, did you know you that former pro Football Player ickey woods will celebrate almost anything . Unhuh. Number 44. Whoooo fortyfour, thats me get some cold cuts. Get some cold cuts. Get some cold cuts whooo gimme some geico. Fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. Whoo fortyfour ladies, thats me whoo. Gonna get some cold cuts today which means its timeson for the volkswagen signthendrive event. For practically just your signature, you could drive home for the holidays in a germanengineered volkswagen. Like the sporty, advanced new jetta. And the 2015 motor trend car of the year allnew golf. If youre wishing for a new volkswagen this season. Just about all you need is a finely tuned. Pen. Get zero due at signing, zero down, zero deposit, and zero first months payment on select new volkswagen models. I was thinking about htaking this speed test from comcast business. Oh yeah . If they cant give us faster internet or save us money, theyll give us 150 bucks. Sounds like a win win. Guys faster internet . I have never been on the internet and i am doing pretty well. Does he even work here . Dont listen to the naysayer. Take the comcast business speed test. Get faster speeds or more savings, or well give you 150. Comcast business. Built for business. Captions by vitac www. Vitac. Com good morning, im randi kaye in today for carol costello. Thank you for joining me. We begin with breaking news overnight minutes from ferguson, missouri, berkeley Police Officer shot and killed another deep. Police say it was selfdefense. The teenager pointed a handgun at the officer. The victim has been identified by his mother as 18yearold Antonio Martin. This video was posted online. If you take a look here, you can see martins mother crying. She is reacting there to her sons death. Heres what we know so far, the shooting happened at a gas station in berkeley, and that is just two miles from ferguson, where an unarmed teen Michael Brown was shot and killed. According to police, the officer approached two men at a gas station during a routine check. That is when one of the subjects pulled out a gun, police say, and aimed it at the officer. In fear for his life, the officer fired multiple shots, ultimately killing that victim. The second man, were told, got away. Police say the victims handgun has been