but none of the employees know of it and all the employees that have been asked that they never got any training and i actually got a hold of basically the employees are reporting to come in, we get a employee handbook. yes within that handbook it has a two sentence little statement regarding how we should handle breastfeeding within the store but who actually pays attention to the employee handbook. who reads it and nobody is in our training mentioned how we would handle that type of a situation. so, you know, with target having incidents reportedly, your know, happening all the time within their stores, date talg way back since 2006 when they first started getting bad publicity you would think that by now them coming out saying we're training our employees they would have done more than just handing them a piece of paper they are not sure they will read or not read,

you know, and doing nothing more than that. you know what i'm saying? >> michele hickman we appreciate you joining us today to share your side of things. that target statement said they did work directly with you to address your concerns and sorry for any inconvenience caused but we appreciate you joining us to tell us why you felt so strongly that you and others staged this sit in with mothers at target store across the country. thank you. it is time to launch hour number two. the pentagon warns iran not to bottle up the persian gulf. did you hear about this? new nominees at the top brain trust at the federal receive. and soggy end to 2011. time to play reporter roulette. we'll start with barbara starr. barbara, take us through this. >> this is quite serious in

terms of the rhetoric. we'll see how serious it is in terms of the reality. iran reacting to statements from european countries that want they might place an embargo on iranian oil import, iran saying if that happens it will shut down the strait of hormuz, that vital international water that is the shipping lanes for much of the world's oil. as a result of that the u.s. navy today came out with a very strong statement saying quote, anyone who threatens to disrupt freedom of navigation in an international strait is clearly outside the community of nations, any disruption will not be tolerated. that word from the u.s. military. but make no mistake, the white house is behind it. the navy doesn't get out there and say these things on its own, the white house sending a clear message to iran you can have your rhetoric, but do not force anybody's hand and try to shut down these shipping lanes. >> barbara, just give our viewers a sense of perspective as to the u.s. presence in the

region that in the event of any action from iran would be used to counter any attempt to close the strait of hormuz. >> the united states as well as many allies have a fleet of war ships in the region at all times on a very high state of alert, surface ships, submarines, aircraft that can patrol the skies. it would be very tough for iran to actually shut down the strait. but the bottom line is this is as much a piece of economic warfare as anything else. if iran was to make a move. if they raise the rhetoric how will world oil markets react? very sensitive to any fluctuation in the oil market, crude oil well over $100 a barrel already. if iran upsets the oil market it could go higher and that's not good for anybody's economy. >> certainly isn't. pentagon correspondent tar star. thank you so much. oil prices are falling for the first time in more than a week. they speck yesterday after iran threatened to block a major

shipping lane. what does it all mean for the next time you fill up at the gas pump? next reporter on roulette, alison kosik is joining us. >> oil prices dropped back to $100 a barrel ending six days of gain for oil. concerns that barbara was talking about, concerns about iran are not going away. what you're seeing happening is they are taking a back seat toishs in europe. the euro fell below a key benchmark against dollar and the stronger dollar. that usually means a sell off in oil because oil is usually priced in dollars. also sparked a selloff for stocks today. the dow is down 124 points. as for gas prices, you mentioned gas prices. they have been stable. aaa says the average price is sitting at 3.24 a gallon. 70 cents below the peak this year back in the spring but still about 20 cents higher than it was last year at this time. but, you know, oil prices they

fluctuate, especially according to world events. >> yeah, they certainly do. switching gears, president obama plans to nominate one republican and one democrat to fill empty seats on the federal reserve board. will this balancing act satisfy congress? >> that's a good question. just so you know those two seats have been empty for five years. what he's looking to do is nominate jerome powell. a wall street executive. he served as undersecretary of treasury under the first president bush. he's a big donor to several republican candidates including john mccain in 2008, mitt romney and jon huntsman this year. and jeremy stein, an obama contributor in 2008. he served the obama administration in the treasury department and on the national economic council. he's now a professor of economics at harvard. yes. one democrat. one republican. hopefully enough to satisfy both sides of the senate but you know how that goes.

you never know. compromise hasn't been congress's strong suit this year. but if these nominations are approved it means the fed will operate with a full board in five years. >> as you said, the big one to focus on is if. thank you. next up in reporter roulette, soggy cold conditions in the northeast and the pacific northwest. meteorologist reynolds wolf -- >> easy for you to say. >> it's all good. >> i feel i get a pass. he's here with our weather update. >> think of a heavyweight boxer. strong right, strong left. mother nature is doing that. northwest will get snowfall. live snow, lake-effect activity going off of lake erie. for the time being toronto, our friends in buffalo back over to rochester, lake-effect activity. if you are in the higher hills guess what. higher snowfall amounts anywhere four to five inches. if you've been waiting for that opportunity to use that snow

blower for first time today you get to christian the snow blower. catskills snowfall there with winds 20 to 30 miles per hour. that's in the east. the next 30 seconds we'll show you what's happening out west. the situation is a little bit different. it all comes from the pacific and it's a nonstop battering ram that will slam into parts of portland, seattle and vancouver with a combination of rain in the valley, snow in parts of the cascades but one of the big things you'll deal with, not the precipitation rather the wind. take a look. anywhere from 35 to 45 mile-per-hour wind gusts for parts of the cascas. lo and behold, central and northern rockies winds will possibly exceed tropical storm or hurricane, category one force winds of 75 mile-per-hour. our friends in billington, great falls. it will last through the evening and possibly tomorrow too. >> scary stuff. we'll pay attention to that.

keeping you busy. >> you've got new year's, right? >> i do want to make it about me. >> make it about you. we're still looking partly cloudy skies and highs mainly or loss into the 30s. cold time certainly at times square. it's the new year. >> and our view is to tune in, great show. on the air from 11:00 p.m. anderson cooper and kathy give in from from times square. thanks for the plug. >> all right. a mother is furious about the way her son was treated at school by his teacher. wait until you hear how he was punished. plus is airport security useless? despite new attacks since 9/11 we'll talk with a man who says it's really not doing any good. and, the comedy of arelen

specter. he's a comedian and why he wanted to give stand up a try.

if it's interestsing and happening right now you're about to see it. rapid fire. let's go. an update on our breaking news from tennessee. three miners trapped in a mine in the town of new market near knoxville. rescuers say they are getting breathing equipment to the men and expect them to be out of the sink mine within an hour. 51 others were able to get out safely when the fire broke out. the men left behind are in a safe area and are in contact with rescuers above ground. attention holiday shoppers, you set a record for buying guns. the fbi reported more than a million and a halfback ground

checks for buyers of firearms in december. that's a new one month high. the actual number of guns sold could be even higher since people often buy more than one gun at a time. someone is shining a laser beam at jet liners at houston's bush intercontinental airport. faa says the cockpit of united airlines flight was lit up by a green laser as it approached a runway at about 6,000 feet last night. the 737 thankfully landed safely. at about the same time the pilot of an atlantic southeast regional jet reported a similar incident. the latest nasa mission to the moon is expected to reach lunar orbit just in time for new year, sometime new year's eve, in fact. two lunar orbiters will study how the moon was formed. nasa says the orbiters will explore the structure of the lunar interior from crust to core using a video imaging system. sally ride the first american

woman to fly in space heads the project. epic pageantry, dramatic displays of grief. the people of north korea lined the snowy streets of pyongyang today to say good-bye to kim jong-il the man they called their dear leader. during the three hour procession his son and chosen successor, kim jong-un walked along a back car. hoarding is blamed for if death of a north carolina man in an apartment fire. police and neighbors say the man may have become trapped by the tremendous amount of combustible materials all over his apartment. neighbors describe the scene. >> i was banging on his door as hard as i could. i kicked it to get it open. but i couldn't get a hold of him. was banging on every door just in case because i don't know where each person lives. >> he's lived there as long as i have. he used to live there with his mother. he's a single man.

>> investigators believe an electrical problem started the fire. a scare at the l.a. zoo when a woman jumped through the security barriers at the elephant enclosure. witnesses say the woman who is mentally ill told them she wanted to pet the elephants. zoo workers and visitors coaxed her out of the enclosed area. the zoo say it's the first incident since the exhibit opened last year. a cruise recreating the titanic's first and only voyage has sold out. the plan is to complete the journey without tragedy. the cruise is one of several events planned next year to mark the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the titanic. you probably remember from the movie or your history books the ship hit an iceberg on its maiden voyage and sank back in 1912. how is this for a headline? all that security at the airport, it doesn't mean a thing. that's the focus avenue article in "vanity fair."

with 43 million americans traveling this holiday season, it probably got your attention. we'll get some answers from the author of that next. and the funeral. kim jong-il held today in north korea broadcast live on state television, shrieks of despair. people have no food and very little electricity. the question is why are they crying? an expert on north korea talks about it next.

now to arptd screening -- airport screenings. the u.s. has spent more than a trillion dollars on airport

security. are we safer when we fly. "vanity fair" writer put the tsa to the test and he's here to join us and talk about what he found. charles, you tested airport security with the help of a relentless vocal critic of the tsa. take us through what did you and what you discovered. >> well, what i did was the relentless critic was a well-known security expert that's bean critic of the tsa for years and as he's been saying since at least 2003 it's extremely easy to get past the checkpoints. so on his suggestions i download ad picture of a boarding pass from the delta website, dock toward it a little bit with photo shop, put my name on it and walked through the gate just like he said i could. i got the tsa squigglile and whole bit. we walked around reagan national airport while bruce denounced everything he saw as what he called security theater. ate shove security that's designed to convince us that

something is going on that's making us safe sbunt. >> so you managed to walk through security with a dummy boarding pass, no eyebrows raised no, questions asked? >> right. this is of course i didn't get on the plane. what bruce has been pointing out is you need three things to get on to the plane. you need a computer record, you need your own i.d. and the boarding pass and ideally you would match all these up at one time but they don't. so if a bad guy wanted to get on the plane what this person would do is to avoid the no fly list he or she would make a reservation, you know with a phony credit card and get a reservations, pay in the fourth that name. then the problem is they don't have i.d. they go through the real i.d. and a fake boarding pass, throw that in the trash and then just go right in with their real fake boarding pass, if you understand what i'm saying on to the plane. this has been going on for years.

and it simply hasn't changed. so the enormous expense we're going through is not effective. >> so let me ask you this. the point is made in the article that al qaeda, in fact, has used up the option of hijacking planes. that obviously caught my eye. explain what is meant by that. >> you're breaking up a little bit so i'm going to make sure i understood the question is you're saying al qaeda can do something else than hijack planes is that what you're asking? >> in article it said they used up that opening of hijacking planes. >> their goal is not to hijack planes. their goal is to make us feel awful. what we've done at the expense of nearly a trillion dollars or more is to make it slightly more difficult for them to hijack planes but that doesn't mean they can't buy a tank of gas, go down 30 miles down the the road the next casino next shopping center, next hotel, next national monument and stage an attack there. so the great foley is that we're

attempting to protect against targets and there's tens of thousands of potential targets. instead the only effective efforts is improved intelligence and looking at the plotters themselves. they are downing that. but the whole security theater as bruce calls it is the effort to protect against these targets in a way that makes us feel secure when it isn't actually doing anything. >> charles did they get anything right in the security upgrade post- 9/11? >> yes. some of the things are absolutely right. the most important is one of the cheapest, locking the cockpit door, reinforcing the cockpit door so terrorists can't get in there. another one that's really simple, really cheap and effective is positive baggage identification. not letting terrorists check in, put a suitcase full of explosives open and walk off the plane. now can you only go on a plane, unaccompanied luggage is not allowed on the plane. third one is improved intelligence which is sending people over to pakistan or wherever the bad guys are and

squatting on the ground and talking with them. but all of these giant x-ray machines that cost billions of dollars that isn't particularly useful. >> will you reach out to the tsa and they issued a statement. i want to read to it and get your response. they said this article is rife with misinformation and an unfortunate disservice to its readers, workforce and traveling public pinpoint shows a lack of knowledge of the current state of aviation security and relies on critics without access to actual intelligence or transportation security experience. so, let me ask you this, what did the tsa say to you when you reached out to them as you were doing this article after your research? >> well what they say is what they say to all the critics, the first is we know better than you. and the second thing is if you knew as much as us you would see why we do it. but, you know, that's not a very good answer. if you notice that statement they gave, they didn't actually cite any actual errors in the

articl article, right. they just said it's all wrong. >> let me read a little bit more of the statement because they say security measures are highly effective and have prevented more than 50 million potentially dangerous items from getting on planes including more than 1200 guns this year. what do you say to that, charles? >> well those security measures that prevent guns, for example, they were there before 9/11. do you remember, you know, back in the '90s when you got on a plane you had to have it screened. no one is suggesting that. i'm talking about the additional measures after 9/11. i think it's very difficult to show these additional measures -- for example there are thousands of air marshals that now fly on planes and getting first class tickets that are paid for, of course, by the airlines. these cost tens of millions of dollars and they have not

prevent ad single attempted hijack, done nothing all though it is the case one marshall shot a deluded passenger in miami. >> we want you to take a look at this. this is north korea state television, kids, small children in tears after the death of kim jong-il. how does this snap are children told to cry? are they taught to cry and when to cry some people are asking? we'll talk with a harvard spr r professor how the korean state orchestrates these scenes that you're looking at. stay with us. and you rent from national. because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle. and go. you can even take a full-size or above. and still pay the mid-size price. i deserve this. [ male announcer ] you do, business pro. you do.

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all right. so most of the talk we're hearing out of iowa concerns who will finish first on tuesday. here's an interesting question to consider. who will finish third? pete, why do we need to watch who actually finishes third? >> well, traditionally political observers say that, you know, the top three get your ticket punched in new hampshire, south carolina and beyond. people here are generally coming to the consent us that mitt romney and ron paul will finish one and two. you have rick perry, rick santorum, michele bachmann, newt gingrich and why does this matter? some of these candidates might dropout if they don't finish in the top three. if michele bachmann drops out, if rick santorum drops out after a poor finish in iowa their votes may move to another conservative in the race to coalesce some support against mitt romney down the road. the other important thing to

watch is newt gingrich after peaking in the polls several weeks ago he slipped. anything less than a top two finish would be very damaging to newt gingrich as he moves forward in the republican race because expectations were so high for him just recently but he hasn't really put together the organization, the ground game here to sort of capitalize on that momentum he had earlier. >> pete, i know you've been following rick perry. i want sounds as if he's pulling out all the stops to push through next tuesday. what has he been doing? what has he been saying? >> so. you're exactly right. rick perry is another person grappling to get in that top three. you hear some increasingly conservative rhetoric from rick perry. listen to what he had to say today. >> maybe it's because this war is unpopular with the democrats. i don't know. but mr. president, our soldiers come first. and it comes before party politics.

we need to welcome our soldiers home. give them that parade. give them that pat on the back. >> so what you heard from rick perry was criticizing the president for not organizing a major welcome home parade for troops returning from iraq. that's tough rhetoric basically saying the president cares more about politics than troops on the ground. you're starting to hear him talk in much more conservative red meat terms even though he's already very conservative and appeal to social conservative, fiscal conservatives trying coalesce some of that support and sneaking in that top three. after soaring in the polls early they are summer he's hovering around that 12% mark and he needs to increase his share of the support. >> peter, thank you. it was supposed to be a happy holiday trip for a texas mother and her children visiting family in mexico. but the mother and two of her children were caught in the

crossfire of a drug cartel war. her children watched as they were gunned down on a bus. and president obama is still on his holiday vacation in hawaii. in case you're wondering, it's 76 degrees there today. he's pretty much staying out of the public eye this week except for one official duty and it involved four seaters. we'll explain.

intense wailing and sobbing during today's funeral for north korea's kim jong-il. it was an epic sprawling three hour event. in the details of the ceremony signs avenue power structure, dr. john park a research fellow joins us now to discuss the funeral and of course north korea's future. thank you so much for joining us, dr. park. what did you glean from these images because it was an opportunity to see the new power structure. >> absolutely. there's two main things that really struck me. the first was you got to see the resemblance of what is the leadership structure. you saw it in a very physical manifestation. kim jong-un touching the hearst

and his uncle, senior party officials and very senior military officials. so here we see this cocoon as the grooming process continues. the second point, the wailing of the people. that's very striking for a lot of outside observers. the thing you have to be about north korea the 1% in north korea live in pyongyang. that's really a symptom of the structure of the regime where people are very carefully screened and those who are the most loyal and deemed to be the most pure are in pyongyang and a big obligation for them is to be the supporting actors in these very large pageants. >> so to be clear, the people that we saw, the wailing and the gnashing of teeth, that's genuine emotion? >> it's mixed. for some there may be this genuine remorse at the loss of a dear leader. for the majority it's part of the obligation, part of the

deal. if you're living in pyongyang you are at the top of the listing terms of receiving rations, no longer existing national ration system. in pyongyang it's operating. it's a place where we see the latest chinese consumer products. there's 3 g mobile phones. penetration of over 200,000 and growing. so this is a very different type of picture and image we have of north korea. i reinfor the point this is the 1%. 99% are in the outer reaches of north korea. >> the images we got, they were putting out what they wanted to us see. what is the message they wanted to us take from it. >> that's an important point there, that is a message for external audiences. greater message is for internal audiences. this is another rare instance the north korean people get to see images of kim jong-un. it was in the party conference in 200 september that the north korean people saw the first photograph of kim jong-un.

this is an important part of the succession process getting kim jong-un acquainted to the people. one of the key tasks of his father as he was dealing with declining time to accelerate this process meeting his son to the regime. >> you talked about the choreography of kim jong-un and those forming this collective leadership going forward there in north korea. what do you expect? do you expect continuity of policy there in north korea and it will continue to go the way of kim jong snil. >> for the near term there will be more count. leadership succession process is not over. there's a plan. what we're seeing is this plan being implemented. if there's any decision-making going on it's related to the implementation of the plan. we won't see any new decisions coming out until this new leadership process is solidified. >> thanks so much for joining

us. great to speak to you. great analysis. thank you. the countdown is on. just six days until the voting begins in the iowa caucus. a preview live from iowa with our own wolf blitzer. and why was an autistic boy punished by putting him in a giant bag at hi school? we'll talk to the boy's mother. that's next. we'll also going hear what the school district is saying. stay with us.

now the word brutal doesn't come anywhere near describing what happened to a texas family visiting vera cruz days before christmas. a mother and two daughters were killed as gunmen entered a bus and opened fire. the attack, that was nothing short of savage, ruthless, but what's happening since this attack is equally disturbing. i want to you watch this report from cnn. he'll detail what happened during the attack in veracruz mostly cloudy skies. >> reporter: it was supposed to a joyful holiday trip. a family visiting by bus to visit relatives. margaret snyder says her daughter-in-law and her grand daughters were traveling in the mexican state of veracruz when their bus was attacked by a group of armed gunmen. all three women were shot and killed. the 10-year-old told his

grandmother what he saw. >> turned around and i come back and i shot her in the head with the gun and they shot carla and he said that he knew his mom and carla was dead. [ speaking foreign language ] >> reporter: a mexican army spokesman said the assailants killed total of seven people on three different buses on the same day including the texas family. >> i told her not to go to mexico. i told her not to go mexico. i just kept repeating that. i just, you know -- senseless. just senseless. >> reporter: violence in the state of veracruz where the fatal attack happened increased sharply as a result of a turf war by two extremely violent mexican drug cartels. military authorities said the same assailants killed total of 11 people last thursday, ten were shot and another died in a

grenade attack. five of the hit men later died in a shoot out with mexican armed force military spokesperson said. mexican authorities are investigating the violent death of another american citizen. an 18-year-old from suburban chicago was one of three men whose charred bodies were found in the trunk of a car in the mexican southern state. >> so much brutality. rafa else joins us now. this attack happened last week. where do things stand now with the investigation and in terms of tracking down the assailants. >> as you can imagine this is a very high-profile case and mexican authorities so far have been very tight lipped. i called the state's attorneys office today and fushlly they are only saying they shot and killed five of the asailants but at some point it may have been as many as a dozen. so you have at least five to seven who are still at large. >> and efforts to track them down. i know they are keeping a tight

lip. typically, how do these investigations, how keenly are they investigated? >> they have set up an army station in the area where this happened, and normally when something like this happens the army takes charge of the law enforcement operations so you can imagine that they are going hard and strong for these guys but, again, officially there have been no other arrests yet. >> i know you'll continue to follow this story for us. appreciate it. thank you. from davenport to des moines, cedar rapids to sioux city, candidates are crisscrossing for votes. we're less than a week until iowa caucus. wolf blitzer sits down with mitt romney this afternoon. and a 9-year-old boy put into a bag as punishment at school. his mother s-of course, furious. we'll talk to her next.

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[ male announcer ] thinking of others this holiday season, travelers.

a kentucky mother is furious. she says a special education teacher disciplined her autistic son by keeping him in a ball bag. two weeks later she says she still has not received and apology. that mother, sandra baker says she now plans to give the school board a piece of her mind at next month's meeting. take us through what happened and how you came to find your son in a bag? >> well, the school had called

my mother and told her that they needed me to come and pick my son up because he was bouncing off the walls, and i got in my car, went straight to the school like i always do, and when i got there i went to the office and signed in like i was supposed to do, and then i went into christopher's hall and saw a big green bag in the middle of the floor with an aide sitting beside it. when i approached the bag i heard my son say is anybody out there? and at that point that kind of startled me because i knew possibly he couldn't see out of the bag. and i stood up against the wall for a couple of minutes, just in shock wondering why he was inside the bag. and then the aide and i were having a conversation and my son said mama, is that you? and i said yes, son, it's me.

and then i her she needed to gt out of the bag to that was pulled shetrt it rtled even mor because wa gotten sick or he like that. >> what out of the sweaty. hisdollars. so i could shook up. >> this isn't the first ti >> no. thehad to do this to >> so this you, of course, made yourl. what have they said to youyou? >> well, from the superintendent since h. he was not went to to what happened. and i that i would have resolve it or done nt we got from the school about du nts i'm not misconception. i'm therefore strict educationa procedures andare destind or ap licensed professionals and cert skills necessary to hear that w want t if theyt, you know, he would havelan to atten,

>> one last quick question tha school? i break now. >> >> probabl will end up home jus get the answers you'n with you after the school board mehank y. mittom wolf blitzer for up and wolf joins mewolf, what interview. we were on the and it's rare that we havspeak with a fu fi t a lot of timelives, her illn matters. 'r we also spoke politics. clip because mitt right now, tohe criticism we heardgingrich. >> i don't know why he's look, this is a campaign about the things we belie i believe the ng led on a very unfortunatend pre that doesn't really understand i can get america working agn. >> and we also go into whether l would get the vote to president. we'll get his politics, lot >> indeed. the romneysl during the little.

when they were talking that th but may have als and wg about that, got sent mental, tearful and enout her struggleas it was an emotional momeno tell something we don'tw about mitt romney and that's where the funn have to watch the int in "the situation room" dung5:00 p.m. hour and you might have >> live coverage of the first re caucuses begins here on cnn next tuesday. january 3rd and 7:00 p.m. eastern. more politics right now. it may not be that much of a stretch. former u.s. senator taking the stage at the comedy club. next, we'll show you the former senator's comedy act. sir, can you hear me? two, three. just hold the bag. we need a portable x-ray, please! [ nurse ] i'm a nurse. i believe in the power of science and medicine. but i'm also human.

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animals getting pardons from the president of the united states around thanksgiving, it was turkeys. this time, it's sea turtles. really, joe? what's going on? >> pretty amazing, right? we've heard of the president of the united states pardoning turkeys. always happens around thanksgiving. never matters who the president is. there's also a turkey or two that gets pardoned. this time, we're talking about turtles. the first family out on vacation in hawaii.

four sea turtles, they come from the sea life park out there, which is frankly the only place in the united states that breeds these green sea turtles. they were born june of last year, so it's a nice green environmental story for the obamas to get in, even while on vacation in hawaii. >> it is a nice, green story, but i want to focus in on something else. an 80-year-old former senator who's now performing comedy. who is it and more importantly, is he any good? >> right. okay. arlen specter, former pennsylvania senator, known to many of us who covered him on capitol hill. he was known as something of a grouch, but he is also known as having a pretty sharp wit when he got an opportunity to use it. this was obviously an opportunity to use it. he was at the helium come di

club in the harlem area last night getting the opportunity to tell some jokes. told all kinds of jokes. some were a bit racy, but we have one that's not so much so and why don't we just got to the tape and listen. >> tells a joke, it becomes off. when ever congress passes a law, it turns out to be a joke. so, i've been in comedy now for -- for 30 years. the only difference is it's not stand up. we all have comfortable chairs. >> yeah. >> made jokes about bill and hillary clinton, ed rendell. herman cain. newt gingrich. and you know, pretty funny guy.

everybody wondered what was arlen specter going to do after he left capitol hill. appare apparently, he's got a new career in comedy. >> who knew? is he going to do more of this or was this a one off? some are crossing their fingers and hoping. >> anybody's guess. i mean, he's probably got a long list of people he can talk about out there and i can tell you having been on the short end of some of arlen specter's jokes myse myself, you don't really want that because it can be pretty tuf and biting if you will. if he wants to be. >> all right. we shall see what else he has up his sleeve. thank you. all right, before we go, we want to bring you this update on the breaking news story. rescuers have reached those trapped miners in the young mine in new market, tennessee. you may remember we told you a fire broke out 800 feet

underground at the szinc mine this afternoon, but now, we are getting word they are heading back up to the surface. we will of course bring that to you, so stay with us for that. those three miners heading up to the surface. that does it for us here in the news room. going to hand it over to my colleague, wolf blitzer, who's there in iowa for th