See the light from the other side of the arch, thats the moment of, yes, it works. Woodruff those are just some of the stories were covering on tonights pbs newshour. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by supported by the john d. And catherine t. Macarthur foundation. Committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. More information at macfound. Org this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Ifill a major winter storm system slammed into the mid atlantic and northeast today, just as millions of americans hit the roads, rails and skies for the thanksgiving holiday. A dismal mix of rain, snow, wind and sleet greeted Holiday Travelers, who braved long airport lines, heavy traffic and dangerous Road Conditions on one of the busiest travel days of the year. I just lost control and hit the side of the bridge and i guess i spun and landed over there. Ifill north of pittsburgh, this man managed to escape with minor injuries after flipping his car. And up and down the east coast the wintry mix led vehicles to spin out and drivers to throttle back. Yeah, i usually try to slow down a little bit, even though i have a lead foot. Definitely the speed limit, a little bit up under. And check your tires, you know, thats very important. Ifill some 39 million drivers are expected to hit the road over the long holiday weekend. But for those taking to the skies, about 200 flights were canceled earlier today, mostly in the busy northeast hubs of newark, philadelphia and new yorks laguardia. While there were many weather related delays, overall the situation wasnt as bad as once feared. At washingtons Reagan International airport passengers were trying to stay positive. I tried to get on an earlier flight but that flight was full so i might be stuck here for a while. We rriefd two hours early for our flight because we were concerned about weather delays, and we do, in fact, have weather delays. Hopefully well get out under a threehour range. Ifill it was a busy day at nearby union station, where train passengers said they were glad theyd avoided the roads. Ladies and gentlemen, we have a very full train this afternoon which means we will need every seat available. I could be on a bus so im thinking this is better than being on a bus. Ifill the National Weather service says more than a foot of snow could still fall in western pennsylvania, new york and vermont before lifting tomorrow. But in many areas, the storms expected to clear out as temperatures fall through the evening. That may be too late for macys annual thanksgiving parade in new york city. Dancers donned ponchos in herald square, practicing their routines in the rain. But high winds are threatening to take the air out of the largerthanlife balloons that parade down broadway for the first time in more than 40 years; characters like snoopy and Spongebob Squarepants might be grounded. Officials plan to make that call early tomorrow. For the latest on the storms and how they are affecting Holiday Travel, we turn to bernie rayno, senior meteorologist at accuweather. Bernie, as far as late fall, early winter stoorms go, how big is this one . Its a big storm, certainly, but certainly storms we have seen in the past and typically these kind of storms produce mostly rain along the east coast with the snows across interior parts of pennsylvania be and new york state, and thats certainly what weve had with this storm. Unfortunately, this storm occurred on the worst possible day, that being the busiest travel day of the year. Ifill so the busiest travel day of the year, in pretty big transportation corridors. Where is it hitting hardest . Were talking ice in some place, rain in some place, snow in others . At this point right now the biggest impact has been the rain. Back edge of the rain is pushing through philadelphia. Were going to continue to get soaking rains from boston all the way up toward portland, maine. At least the strong winds we had out ahead of this storm have the east for now. I95, southern new england, up in into maine, still some sloe downs. Watch yourself if youre traveling in new york state and pennsylvania. While were not look at any big amounts of snow and ice from hereon out there certainly can be some slippery spots on the road especially the bridgees and overpasses. Ifill it sounds like the most treacherous is slippery roadses and ice on power outages. Have we had any report of that . We certainly have had that over the last 24 hours, especially across new york state and pennsylvania. But thankfully now, most of the precipitation with the storm is occurring in the warm air. So the snow and ice that we were seeing last night, mostly just some snow showers, still some slippery spots on roads. But things have gotten a little better where it was snowing in the last 24 hours. Ifill how are the wind . I know there were a lot of worries that some of these thanksgiving day parades might not be able to happen . Well, thats still a close call in new york city for tomorrow because behind this storm, while we certainly had lots of wind ahead of it, behind the storm the wind will start picking up. Certainly this evening, philadelphia, washington, d. C. , late tonight, tomorrow morning in new york city. Were going to see gust betweens 3035 miles per hour. But in new york city, gusts around 2030 tomorrow morning. That may cause some problems but from what i understand, for the macys day parade, you need sustained wind between 20 and 25 miles per hour. I dont think theyre going to be that strong on thanksgiving morning, but its certainly going to be a close call. Ifill by the time everybody sits down with the turkey tomorrow most of this will be passed . It will be long gone. You know what the big story is going to be is the cold. Were looking at record cold temperatures on our wednesday nightthursday morning, all the way down into parts of florida and texas. In fact, were looking at temperatures below freezing, across the florida panhandle. It certainly will not feel like the end of november. It will feel like january. Ifill im cold just thinking about it. Bernie rayno, thank you very much. Ifill another aspect of the Health Care Law will be delayed. This time, the Online Health insurance marketplace for Small Businesses. Obama Administration Officials announced the oneyear delay during a Conference Call with reporters today. They said pushing back the deadline for implementation would give the troubled healthcare. Gov website time to make needed fixes. Well get more details on the delay and what it means to Small Business owners after this news summary. Afghan President Hamid karzai softened some of his security demands today. He told Radio Free Europe hed sign a deal with the u. S. If military raids on afghan homes end and if the u. S. Helps restart peace talks with the taliban. He said, whenever the americans meet these two demands of mine, i am ready to sign the agreement. That agreement would govern the future of american troops in afghanistan beyond 2014. The u. S. Wants it signed by the end of the year, but karzai has said it can wait until next spring. A string of attacks across iraq left at least 36 people dead today. The violence ranged from suicide bombings to driveby shootings to an assault on a police station. Separately, police found the corpses of 13 men killed execution style in shiite neighborhoods of baghdad. The men had no identification on them and their legs and arms had been tied before they were shot in the head. One more person was rescued today from a sailboat that capsized in the bahamas, bringing the total rescues to 111. But officials estimate between 20 and 30 of the haitian migrants crammed on board died. U. S. Coast guard video shows survivors clinging to the overloaded boats hull and mast. Others grabbed driftwood and took refuge on small islands nearby. Officials think the boat was headed to the u. S. An accident at brazils main world cup stadium in sao paulo killed two workers today. A crane collapsed while it was lifting a section of the soccer stadiums roof into place. The metal structure sliced through the stadiums outer wall, destroying rows of seats. Brazils preparations for next years world cup have been plagued with problems, including delays, accidents and overspending. The Prime Minister of latvia resigned today in the wake of a supermarket collapse that triggered public outrage in the baltic state. 54 people were killed last week when the buildings roof collapsed during peak shopping hours. The latvian government came under fire for its lack of oversight of building projects. Prime minister valdis dombrov skis ackowledged the disaster in his announcement. translated considering the tragedy in zolitude, and taking into account that a government with a clear majority in parliament is needed to solve the situation that has developed in the country, i announce my resignation from the post of Prime Minister, taking political responsibility for the tragedy. Ifill a criminal investigation into the supermarkets construction is underway. The Italian Senate expelled former premier Silvio Berlusconi from parliament over a tax fraud conviction. Despite the move, the 77year old pledged to stay involved in politics. Without a seat in parliament, however, berlusconi is no longer immune from prosecution. He has multiple cases pending against him, including political bribery and paying for sex with a minor. On wall street today, stocks headed into the holiday break with record highs for both the dow and s p 500. The Dow Jones Industrial average gained 24 points to close at 16,097. The nasdaq rose 27 points to close above 4,044. The first book printed in america sold at auction last night for a record 14. 2 million. The bay psalm book was auctioned off at sothebys in new york. It was printed in 1640 by the leaders of the Massachusetts Bay colony. Only 11 copies are known to survive. Auctioneer david redden explained what the buyer intends to do with it. It sold for 14 million to David Rubenstein a philanthropist who will be sharing it with libraries around this country and eventually putting it on Long Term Deposit at one of those libraries. Ifill the seller of the book was bostons old south church, which sold it to finance its ongoing ministries. The church still has another copy. President obama kicked off the thanksgiving holiday early at the white house today with the traditional annual turkey pardon. Flanked by his daughters, the president officially saved a bird named popcorn from ending up on a thanksgiving table. A second, backup turkey named caramel was also pardoned but didnt appear at the ceremony. Pardoned turkeys end up at George Washingtons mount vernon estate in virginia. Still to come on the newshour another delay for the Health Care Law; the bribery scandal thats rocked the navy; teaching the arts in Elementary School; whos paying for Climate Change and making massive sculptures out of canned food. Woodruff now, the white house announcement that another key element of president obamas Health Care Law is not ready to go Small Businesses will not be able to enroll their employees on the federal website until november of next year. Coverage would not take effect until january of 2015. They can continue to go through Insurance Companies and brokers. It is the latest in a series of setbacks that have plagued implementation of the president s plan. To fill us in on the details, we turn to Louise Radnofsky of the wall street journal. Louise, welcome back to program. Why did the administration do this . Well, they did it because it wasnt ready and because they said they were focusing on other things getting the web site up and running for individuals. This is something they felt thaibd jettison, and they did. Woodruff tell us which Small Businesses are affected. I know not all of them have to Pay Attention to this regulation, those with employees under 50 . Is that right . Yes, and a number of Small Businesses do voluntarily provide coverage to their employees right now and want to continue doing so next year. Theres nothing in the law that requires them to do so, but the law includes tax credits towards the cost of the coverage in some cases. For Small Businesses anthrax buy through healthcare. Gov, which would be in one of the 36 states where the exchange isnt being run by the state itself, theyre not going to be able to use the web site. Theyre going to have to continue to go to an insurer or agent or broker probably somebody theyre using already and theyll have the opportunity to apply later in the year for tax credits, basically any time before they file their taxes. Woodruff expand on that. Explain what is the difference going to be . If you run a Small Business and were counting on signing up through the exchange, and now youre told you need to go through an Insurance Company or broker what, will the difference be . The difference is its quite a big cloa blowto the idea of the exchange which was supposed to be an online marketplace to compare plans and findize the process. It was designed to increase competition and more transparency. You can still go online starting december 1 and browse through oppositions, but you cant complete it. Woodruff do you lose out because youre not eligible for any sort of tax credit subs bee . Youre still able to get the tax credit. The tax credit is supposed to be applied to any plan that the agent or broker or insurers is offering that would have been available on the exchange. In other words, it had been certified as being compliant with the new requirement nptz law. The requirements of the law for small group plans go a little further. They do affect the way Small Group Insurance is priced for the first time again, no preexisting conditions and so Small Businesses across the board, however they get their coverage will benefit from that. But the exchange was such an important centerpiece of this glied glood louise, how big a blow is this to the implementation of this new law . It only affects Small Businesses, and clearly, for the most highprofile part of the law, attempting to extend coverage to individuals who dont have it, it doesnt affect it. If you think in terms of what it would have meant if it had been individuals. Its the administration basically saying we cant get this particular part of the exchange up and running for another year so were giving up. Go back to your insurer and well try to fig out the tax subs bee later. Woodruff the administration announced another change saying they are replace the web hosting provider for the online exchange. Tell bus that. Well, this is a decision that, apparently, was reached in the summer or earlier, but the web the verizon provider of the data center that was supporting the site had a number of outages that started to emerge after october 1. Its been very embarrassing for everybody involved. They are making a switch. Theyre planning to do that by the end of march. What people need ton is first of all, the existing proirld will be staying in place for the time being and that provider has had some problems. But secondly, the transition itself, they have to get this into gear, could be bumpy, and its not as if the web site doesnt have enough problems already. Woodruff and so summing it all up for people who have been look at the november 30 deadline, the administration set, as the new deadline for people to be able to sign up, they said the web sites going to be faster starting this weekend. What should people expect . Well what, we think we know is that the payments are loading faster. A lot of errors arent emerging. In other words, the site looks better at the front end. The administration said theyve also been working on the backend, the really complicated issues that might not be immediately apparent to people but could cause them to have difficulty signing up for coverage. The Administration Says people will not only be able to navigate the site. Theyll be able to use the system as a whole, the vast majority, to successfully enroll in coverage opinion we will find out december 1 is it that is the case. Woodruff Louise Radnofsky of the wall street journal, thank you. Ifill it could be the biggest fraud scandal to hit the navy in years, involving allegations that top commanders received cash, prostitutes and other favors for inflated contracts that cost the pentagon hundreds of millions of dollars. Jeffrey brown has the story. Brown for decades, Leonard Francis, known as fat leonard for his imposing girth, has been wellconnected in top u. S. Navy circles, perhaps too connected. His company, glenn defense marine, provided Logistics Support for u. S warships at ports in east asia. Since 2011, the company has won more than 200 million in navy contracts. Contracts that federal investigators now charge are at the center of an elaborate criminal conspiracy involving bribery, fraud and more. In october, the Washington Post reported that francis plied top Navy Commanders with prostitutes, cash, Luxury Hotel Rooms. cheers and applause . Even tickets to a lady gaga concert in thailand. In return, officials at the