President obama paid tribute to six u. S. Troops recently killed in afghanistan. We never take for granted what all of you do for the american people. Forced the closure of two major roads in southerer california. Firefifiters are working to battle an uncontained fighters. And firefighters in australia are struging toh contain bush fires that have destroyed homes. Furious that fedex didnt deliver packages in time for christmas. There is your lesson. Dont procrastinate. I still dont think aisle ever learn. A a aronaut calling from a above the earth. Pretty good service. And that awkward mome, when you call king james a cry baby and he looks right at you. Oh oh, oops. A full moon hasnt appeared next time well see it is 2034. Do the math, right . Cbs this Morning Saturday. Y. Mid court, over durant. Oh, Merry Christmas timmy butler. And welcome to the weekend, everyone. We hope your christmas was merry. We have some great guests for you this morning, including two of the key figures behind to controversial new film concussion concussion. Well to to bennett omalu, thf real life doctor. Also call him the commander of commanders palestine. Hes run new orleans restaurant for nearly 15 years. And hell bring his stories from and the members of this group called the best newcomer at this years la la plooz. They will perform ahead in our saturday session. First breaking news overnight as more Severe Weather batters the south. A clean up is under way in North Central alabama including the city of birmingham after a tornado struck on friday. Flooding is also a big problem. Tennesessesee,e, a arkansasass andnd mimissssisissippi i stst. Louiss 1 155 peoplplee f f f fororororor a a a aboboboboboutututut t t t tenenenenen were killed during christmas week. Another storm system is moving across mississippi bringing wind, hail and winds this is bad. This is really bad. She came home to no sign of christmas joy. This is where i used to live. And its gone. The house she shared with her husband, son and daughtete for the past nine years is shatttted among a grove of shattered degree trees. Her 35yearold son was the only one home. Hes hospitalized with a broken pelvis and cuts. Could have been worse. We could have been planning a funeral instead and were not. So im so thankful for that. They searched for mementos. Pictures of my mom. She passed away in 2010 and i would look at it every night before i go to bed. The wilkins home is among hundreds destroyed by the cluster of deadly tornados. In a car with his mother and sister. The winds ripped him out of the vehicle. Amamg the six who died in tennessee, three were found in a car submerged in a river. This aerial view shows the devastation of the most powerful storm. It reportedly stayed on the ground for at least 145 miles packing winds of up to 160 miles per hour. Rooftops torn off, trees pulled from the earth roots and all. Barbara williamson was inside her home when it shredded around her. I dont know how im alive. Its a christmas miracle. At the Red Cross Emergency Center the Christmas Spirit was on full display. Laverne zin picked out new gifts had the gifts under the christmas tree. They got destroyed. And anything that anybody give them. They are thankful for. The smile on their face, that makes me happy. Some families have lost everything have yet to return home to salvage what they can. The weather is still too rough. This is s e Christmas Anthony they w wl always remember. A very rough one. Thank you mark. Severe weather is expected across much of the nations midsection through the weekend and parts of the northeast could get a winter wallop. Mary kay is tracking the storm good morning. Good morning to you. We see rain now pushing from the gulf of mexico but this is going to be enhanced. Instability ahead but a lot of winter warnings available today. Winter storms in blue. From albuquerque to minneapolis were going to be dealing with this major storm. The severe threatt iss inhe area in red. The gulf coast states could see tornados today as the wind shear ahead of the system. Its an icy mix behind this but the snow were focusing on for the texas pan handle. 1218 inches with white outs and Poor Visibility there. You can see these waves of thunderstorms buildingg ahead of the main sysyem. Especially during the day tomorrow into eastern texas. Then on the backside of it were going to see that heavy snow more the texas pan handle wrap through on monday. So this is a long lived storm behind the jet. Colder air in salt lake city, 18 in denver. 77 in little rock. 70 in lexington and 42 degrees in chicago. Vinita back you do. For all of these people coming back for the holidays. Moolks mary kay kleist, thank you. Fires in los angeles forcing evacuations. Parts of the nearby Pacific Coast highway are closed. Rail traffic suspended. A massive wild fire burning in southern australia. More than a hundred homes were destroyed at that fire raced through a popular coastal area. Thousands of people were forced to evacuate. Hundreds of firefighters spent Christmas Day battling the flames, which was triggered by a lightning strike. The fire is expected to burn for weeks during the hot summer in australia. Refusing to blink. Insurgent group has named a successor. His death could be a major blow in upcoming peace talks in assads government and rebel groups. The crucial peacece talks between the Assad Government and leaders will scheduled to take place in less than a month. He led thousands of fighters and was opposed to isis. Fridays air strike targeted a meeting of rebel leaders just outside the capital. Syrias military claims h hwas killed in the blast but it is unclear whether russian or syrian war planes carried out the strike. Russia has been supporting the zaud government with air strikes iraqi troops are moving closer in their effort to capture ramadi from the Islamic State. Forces have been moving further into the city which has been held by the Islamic State group since last year. The iraqio what do the latest standings mean for the republicans . Joining us now to break it down is phillip bump. Good morning. If you rook at the latest poll cruz is 4 points behind trump. What happened. In the latest poll cruz has moved up into the place that ben carson once held. And ben carson stumbled in the wake of the paris terror attacks. Security issues. And as hes fallen, trump and cruz have gained support. A different poll has the gap much wider for trump. But cruz is now solidly in second place. Hes arguing it is now a two man race. Right. Is he right . No. Its eess still a 200 person race as it has been for a while. There are a lot of things at play here and National Polls arent indicative of whats going to happen over the longterm. Whats so fascinating about Trumps Campaign is that hes doingt without any pollsters, no ad team, no research. Do you think that could effect him in iowa . Hes run an unorthodox campaign from the beginning. And i think hes banking on the more support from people who dont vote as often. And that could be good or bad. More could come out. Or they could end up not voting. So wellee what happens. Iowa, traditionally is not a great predictor of who gets the nomination but it can be influential in terms of who gets to stay in the race. If cruz holds on and inwins in iowa, and trump loses how do you think that shapes things . New hampshire is only a week later. We dont know whats going to happen in iowa. A lot of things can happen very quickly. I dont think trump is going to lose iowa and say i give up. I think New Hampshire seven days later is going to be something that allows him to say no im still the winner ive been talking about. 61 of Women National have an unfavorable view of donald trump. How does that effect him . Not great for him. But i think it is more of a general election problem. Wrem also strong supporters of the hillary clinton. So they are not going to have a positive view of donald trump. In the primary ben carson had strong support from women and that support has shifted away from trump away from carson and not to tru which is a problem for him. Why do you think that is . Head to head match up, tnk achblt it usually comes down to partisanship. There are a lot of Bernie Sanders fans right now who are not going to say i want to vote for hilly clinton. There is a lot of time. Thanks for being with us this morning. My pleasure. The Veterans Administration is still struggling with problems at the hospital in phoenix arizona. Waits to get an appointment with doctors. As Mireya Villarreal reports they dont have enough doctors to go around. Ground zero for the Veterans Affairs wait time scandal was here at this hospital. A 2004 report detailed how thousands of veterans across the country were put on secret waiting lists. And at least 40 seniors died in phoenix since 2013. Are the problems fixed . No. It did call for howhe v schedules appointmemes. A band aids been put on this and therefore everythings okay. Everythings not okay. They still dont have enough physicians and providers to provide medical care. In october the ig reported a new report about critical Urology Department from 2013 to 2014. The leaders didot have a plan to provide Urological Services and the staffing crisis failed to provide for thousands of patients. They killed him. That Urology Department had to defer him to an outside hospital. With no doctors in the Urology Department that were qualified to do that surgery, to remove his prost and his bladder. Debby said it took eight months for the paperwork and everything to go through. And he died. They would not discuss his case specifically because of privacy issues but they did send us a statement saying they have reduced the number of patients on the wait list by adding staff to the Urology Department, by medical providers that are private medical providers. For cbs this Morning Saturday. Fedex played catch up on chromosomes Christmas Day. Dimarco morgan has more on the scrambmb. Employees for shipping giant fedex foundnd themselves in overtime playing santa in the air and by ground. Joann is a grateful customer. Elation. A fedex predicted a record breaking Holiday Season for pick ups and dropoffs. 317 million shipmentsetween blk friday and christmas eve. A 12 junp. Plus they didn predict mother natures unexpected delivery of more than a dozen deadly including tennessee where the company is head quartered. The company that prides itself with on thyme delivery had towork fast to get distribution offices back home and trucks rolling. Jim runs a dessert store in tampa. Think about the larger companies, how many packages they are doing, its just incredible. Fedex released a statement. As the good thing for when everybody is expected to get it and all of a sudden they get president obama and there were prayers for peace and calls for compassion on christmas around the world. Jim axelrod has more. Thousands packed the square for the popes message. He condemnmn brutal act of terrorism and prayed for end to wars in syria libya and other parts of the world. President obama and the first lady urged americans to follow the values jesus lived. Caring for those on societys margins, the sick and the hungry. The poor and the persecuted. Great britainn queue elizabeth joined othth members of the royal family at church. The queen offered a message in the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. And 250 miles up, american astronaut scott kelly sent greetsgreet greetings t t earth. British astronaut tried to call his wife but spaced out and called another number. Later apologizing on twitter for the lady he called by mistake. Can you imagine getting a wrong number from space . Time to show you the head lines. The washington p pt reportete hits jaiaid correspondentnt got a rail christmas treat. Iranian officials granted him an extended visit with his wife and mother on Christmas Day. Hes been held more than 500 days even though he was the length of his sentence has not been disclosed. Arson is suspected in the home of form are president clinton. They also found graffiti spray painted on the ground. No one was injured. The site is operated by the National Park service and suffered minor damage. The plunge in oil prices is putting the squeeze on alaskas finances. It has Governor Bill Walker proposing a first in the nation Oil Income Tax as the climb in Oil Production is creating a multiple dollar budge hole. State lawmakers say they will consider the plan. About twothirds of the budget revenue cant be collected they say because of the drop in oil price us. A british crematorium has land a Liquor License in the ukuk they will now have the option of granting loved ones whats described as the complete sendoff. A sendoff without the need to travel off the premises. And this company says they are going to do it at like all of i actually dont think wonderful. Yeah. About 22 after the hour now heres a look at the weather for your weekend. Coming up. Hover boards are one of the hot holiday gifts. So hot in fact concerns are mounting over the popular toy. Well tell you the new places the boortds are banned. And just before the ball drop, what americans thought of 2015. Morning saturday. Hi. Im ben affleck. The only thing better than playing a hero in the movies, is being a hero in real life. Like the 50,000 veterans who returned from iraq and afghanistan with devastating injuries. They are true heroes. And theyre why im proud to support paralyzed veterans of america. They make sure veterans with spinal cord injuries get the care and support they need at no cost to them. To learn more, visit pva. Org. Thats pva dot org. Bipolar disorder is a brain condition that causes unusual or dramatic mood swings. It affects millions of americans and compromises their ability to function. Can be effectively treated by mood stabilizers. But most people with bipolar disorder suffer for years without help because the symptoms are missed or confused with other illnesses, like depression. Learn how easily you can help keep this from happening to a loved one. Visit cbscares. Tv. When the twins were about 10 days old, the doctors told us they were going to need blood transfusions. Were so proud of who theyve become. As a result of one person, deciding to spend an hour of their life giving blood is just immeasurable, how powerful that one donation could possibly be. The gifts are unapped. Now some are headed back to the stores to make returns. And where some go, so do the scammers. Its never too early to plan your summer vacation. Well show you picksf destinations you will want to check out in the new year. This is cbs this Morning Saturday. Fety. I wasnt going to invite people over and when i saw what their homes looked like. I didnt know where i was gonna go, what i was gonna do. Were in darkness, but there is always a little bit o olight, and if people help, the light becomes greater. Just walking into that use was the beginning ofa different life. Because of this house, im home. You can change the lives of families in your community and around the world. , trt 30 c cbs cares Justin Constantine overcoming adversity jc14oa30, trt 30 closed captioned as a marine in iraq, i was shot in the head by a sniper. At first no one expected me to survive, let alone regain my life. Withthhe right help and determination, i did. Whatever hardship you face, never give up. If you feel overwhelmed by problems, ots okay to ask for help and lean on others for support. Welcome back to cbs this Morning Saturday. Toys but has seen a season of controversy. On thursday a safety alert warns hover boards as car go without following Hazardous Material regulations is illegal. This follows as some colleges are banning hover boards on campus over safety concerns. They are the hottest gift of the Holiday Season and now they are literally the hottest because they also explode. They have become the butt of jokes this Holiday Season. But some of these topselling toys may pose a real danger. Holy cow. W. Cell phone videos like this one claim to show hover boards burning, here in a Washington State mall. A rider from alabama posted this video saying his hover board just caught fire. The Consumer Products launched an investigateinvestigations over many consumer reports. And online retailers discontinued. They even made the no fly list. Major airlines banned hover boards from flights earlier this month. And the Postal Service limited shipping to ground transportation. They are concerned about the toyy lithium ion battery. T ty ignite and catch fire very violently. Aviation consultant denny kelly. The faa probably would ban lithium batteries from airplanes period if there wasnt so much pressure from the airlines not to do that. Cell phones, tablets and laptops use low wattage lithium ion batteries. But airlines are concerned about delta pointed to the size or power of the batteries and found that the strength often exceeded government limits for what is allowed on board an aircraft. One manufacture swagway blames cheap knockoffs for the problem saying swagways dont compromise when it comes to using the highest quality parts. The c cpany urged customers to be aware of fake u uts being sold on the internet. They believe the hugely popular products could eventually face recall. They are considered toys but in fact they are