to happen over the course of the day, possibly tonight into sunday, is that this snow will turn into icy rain, and that could mean some very tough road conditions, guys. >> all righty. fred, take it easy out there. thank you so much. >> and that'll do it for us today. >> yeah. don't go anywhere. much more ahead in the next hour of the "cnn newsroom." make great memories today with our own come like martin savage. ma -- martin savidge. the colorado community in shock after a teenager known as a good student, athlete, and a friend, opens fire at his school. police hope to find out why he did that during key searches that are expected today. as you saw, a brutal blast from kansas to maine, heavy snow and sleet that's hitting tens of millions of people today. we'll tell you how bad it is going to get and who is going to get hit the hardest. and if you didn't know this already, there is now more mega

in the mega millions jackpot. no winner last night, which means the prize will now soar to new heights. find out the mind-blowing number and your chances of being a big winner. hello, everyone. thanks for joining us, i'm martin savidge. >> and i'm anna cabrera. we start today here in centennial, colorado. this town is trying to recover after a terrifying school shooting at arapahoe high school, just behind me. you can see it's still a crime scene this morning. a lot of the yellow tape still surrounding the school parking lot, cars left here overnight. right now, a 15-year-old girl is still in critical condition, shot here at arapahoe high school by a classmate. the 18-year-old gunman is dead after apparently shooting himself. we've learned more about him. he's been identified as karl

pierson. police say he walked into the school with a shotgun yesterday afternoon. now, today, investigators are still searching this school. they're also expected to search his home, his car, and another home -- he apparently had access to it -- trying to figure out what motivated his attack. we have learned pierson was on the debate team. witnesses tell me he was looking for the debate coach yesterday afternoon. the sheriff says they believe there was a disagreement between pierson and the debate coach, and that that might have been the motive for this shooting, that it was an act of revenge. but again, they're still working to confirm those details. the debate coach was notified, we're told, quickly rushed out of the school, hoping to draw the shooter out with him. but instead, the gunman opened fire, hitting a 15-year-old girl. witnesses tell our affiliates that she screamed for help. she said there was a shooter.

we just checked in with the hospital this morning, and they can only say she is still in critical condition. we do know she underwent surgery yesterday. a lot of thoughts and prayers with her and her family. initially, officials thought there might have been another student shot, as well. well, it turns out that second student just happened to be right next to the first victim. and that student was covered in blood from the 15-year-old girl. but was not shot. so just a glimpse of good news in all of this. obviously, a terrifying situation for all of the students here. here's how one student described moments right after the shooting. >> we heard, you know, just a really big bang. our class really thought nothing of it, you know? just one. and 10 seconds later, three more, just consecutively in a row. there was screaming. we heard someone yell, "help me, help me, we need help." and after that, the entire building just went silent. our class ran into the corner, we hid in the corner of the room. it was all we could do. we're all scared now.

>> reporter: these scenes bringing back chilling memories of columbine. students walking out with their hands up. arapahoe high school is less than 10 miles away from columbine, and when police rushed in to arapahoe high school yesterday, they tell us they also saw smoke, which now we know came from a molotov cocktail of sorts. it was one of two that was found inside the school. one of those detonated, the other one they were able to recover before it had been detonated. they tell us no damage from those. now, as investigators, again, continue to dig for clues here in colorado, of course, hearts are also heavy, not just for the community here. this terrible shooting came just one day before the one-year anniversary of the sandy hook shooting in newtown, connecticut, which is today. poppy harlow is following that story from new york this morning, or i guess afternoon there. poppy, the president honoring those victims today, right? >> reporter: absolutely. good morning to you, anna. just shocking that there was

another school shooting where you are, a day before the community and newtown and the entire world grieves for the people of newtown, and this very, very difficult day. i want to show you some pictures of the president and the first lady this morning lighting 26 candles for the 26 victims that were shot and killed at sandy hook elementary. one year ago today. they did it just about the time that that shooting happened a year ago. they also took a moment of silence, as we did, to remember the victims. the community has asked for privacy from the media, not to be there today, so they can heal on their own in their own way, and that is exactly what we are doing. something stood out to me this week, anna. a passer from newtown, matt krebin spoke, of course, our community is broken, but there is also light shining through the cracks of this broken community from the acts of kindness, from friends, from neighbors and from families. and that speaks to just how incredibly strong this community is.

i was there after the tragic shooting and have been there throughout the year, and this community never ceases to amaze me. the president also talked about newtown in his weekly address this morning, calling the families of newtown, quote, impossibly brave. and i think that sums it up very well. they are impossibly brave people. he also took it as an opportunity, though, to speak towards what he has been fighting for, along with some of the families, which is tougher federal gun legislation. i want you to take a listen to hear some of what the president said. >> we haven't yet done enough to make our communities and our country safer. we have to do more to keep dangerous people from getting their hands on a gun so easily. we have to do more to heal troubled minds. we have to do everything we can to protect our children from harm and make them feel loved and valued and cared for. >> reporter: and this morning, outside of washington, it is not about the politics of all of

this. it is about the people and the families of newtown, and our hearts are with them today. >> you mentioned their bravery, but i also think the word that comes to my mind is strength. having to go forward and move on after losing loved ones. i know you've been in touch with victims' families from not only newtown, connecticut, but also have aurora, colorado, and the movie theater shooting we were reporting on a little over a year ago. what memories, what feelings are they expressing today? >> reporter: yeah, that's exactly right, ana. sandy phillips, the mother of jessica goughy, i think she's the 24-year-old fiery red head shot and killed in that movie theater. her mom, sandy phillips, called me yesterday and said this is a very, very difficult time for s us, obviously. but i said to her, and she called me right after the shooting where you are, and i said, are you surprised another school shooting? and she said, i wish i could say yes, but, no, i am not surpri d surprised.

her life changed so significantly after her daughter died, of course. she gave up her career. she joined the brady campaign, and has been fighting for tougher federal gun laws. that has been how she is coping, and she told me, she's going to a vigil where she lives in san antonio today, that they're having down there for the newtown victims and for all victims of gun violence. so this is resonating across the country today, certainly. >> people don't know how to prevent necessarily something like this, or can't make sense of why these things happen. >> reporter: right. >> but sometimes it does give comfort to try to turn it into a positive in some way if it means helping another family or preventing another attack like this. poppy harlow, thank you so much for that. i do want to let you know, we have been in touch with sheriff grayson robinson here in colorado to get the latest information on this shooting this morning, and he tells us right now their investigation is focusing on where the student's gun came from, what hands it may have passed through, where

specifically the student shot himself, and, of course, the motive. again, as we try to make sense of this horrible tragedy, and this is just undeniably awful situation, why? and so, those are details rehope to be able to provide for you as we continue to move through the morning. martin? >> thanks, we'll continue to check back with you. let's talk about the weather, because a huge snowstorm is pushing its way from the midwest to the east right now. it's bringing heavy snow and freezing rain, and that would also mean misery to millions of people across the region that's going to be affected. folks in chicago, well, they already know this all too well today. it is hovering around freezing there, and it's exactly the place where we send out our jennifer gray to share the misery, and she'll give us an idea of how bad the snowstorm is. hello, jennifer. >> reporter: hi, martin, yeah, the snow has been coming down since the wee hours of the morning. we got here about 5:00 this morning. it was snowing then, and still snowing now. we're in grant park, and about 3

inches have fallen so far, and another inch or two is possible before the snow moves out of chicago. expected to move out when 3:00 this afternoon. you know, for the month of december, chicago is supposed to have about three inches, and before the snowstorm, they've already seen four. so we're already ahead of schedule, and temperatures are expected to stay below freezing here in chicago until at least thursday. now, this storm system is pushing across the country. i do want to show you the radar here in chicago. it is going to be pushing out in the next couple of hours, and then the wider view, we are seeing this stretching anywhere from chicago all the way to the northeast. so this stretches about 1,000 miles east-west, and it's affecting tens of millions of people. so as we go through the afternoon today into tonight, it will continue snowing in new york and boston, and then by tomorrow, around midday or so, it should be pushing out of boston and then pushing up into new england. so we're going to see anywhere from 5 to 7 inches of snow

around the new york city area, and then around the boston area they could see at least 8 inches. and so, it is going to continue to be a mess as we go through the next 24 to 38 hours. here in chicago, though, the crews have been out, they have been plowing the streets, the sidewalks, they've been putting salt out so people are getting around pretty well, but i'm sure those overpasses and bridges can be quite dangerous at the moment with all of the snow we've gotten this morning, martin. >> yeah, but it still looks very, very pretty. jennifer gray, thank you so much for standing out in the cold for us. we'll be back in touch. well, if you are feeling a bit chilled, how about this? because the mega millions fever may be growing in you and just about everybody else across the country. nobody -- and that is true, nobody -- nobody had the winning numbers in last night's drawing, which means the jack pot is up to $550 million. not a record -- yet. the next drawing is tuesday. how close did you come? well, take a look. the winning numbers if you haven't checked already --

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welcome back to colorado where a student walked into arapahoe high school and started shooting before killing himself. now, this shooting just a day before the one-year anniversary

of the sandy hook killings. bringing back a lot of horrifying memories for so many people. and in the past few years, of course, there have been several such tragedies. i hate to even think about this, but we just mentioned newtown, and then, of course, the aurora, colorado, movie theater shooting, not that far from here, and virginia tech, the worst school shooting, and the 1999 columbine high school massacre, just eight miles from arapahoe high, so what initially sparked the focus on situations like this. of course, the question everybody wants to know the answer to is, why? the author of the book "columbine," david collin, and we appreciate your time, david. we know you spent a lot of time researching this issue. tell me what was your reaction when you heard about yesterday's shooting. >> oh, it was rough.

i had, oddly enough, because of the newtown anniversary, i had just been watching a couple segments with some of the victims of that morning and breaking one of my little boundary rules that i set up with my shrink that i'm not really allowed to, and then i started getting to me, and i realized i need to mute. and so, it was already sort of like an uneasy place. and then i got the news on facebook, actually from some of the columbine victims' families who i stayed in touch with, and they were having a really -- obviously, a really rough day. yeah, it was -- it's not pleasant. >> i have to tell you, dave, i grew up here in littleton, colorado. i went to heritage high school, which is one of the main competitors of arapahoe high school. this hit s close to home for so many people for their own reasoning. but yet, columbine, of course, well over a decade ago. a lot of the students who go to

arapahoe today were toddlers when columbine happened. do you think location of this shooting is just a coincidence? could there be any combinations, similarity between the two incidents? >> yeah, you know, you never know with any particular incident. but the -- i don't think it's coincidence. and, you know, wolf blitzer asked, i think it was the mayor of centennial last night, a similar question, if there's something going on here. and i think there's one obvious thing that's going on here is all of the previous shootings, particularly columbine. and just the incredible extent of the local coverage. i don't know if you lived in colorado at the time of colu columbi columbine, and i did. and it was relentless, went on and on, and the two local papers at the time covered it every day all summer, because i researched this, and every single day, all summer, they had stories going on. so the coverage was much stronger, more powerful there. but i think with around the

country, too, the amount of coverage we've done, unfortunately, like this, after these things is continuing to propagate the problem. and originally, i didn't -- in the early days, i didn't think so. but now, 15 years after columbine, nearly, into this, i think we are continuing to create the problem by making such sort of always heroic -- not always heroic figures, but giving such power and voice to the killers, i really think that's a big part of it. >> it's a tough balance, you know? obviously, being members of the media, we want to make sure we cover situations like this. it's important. we want to make sense of it as a community, as a people. and most importantly, by making sense, the hope is we can prevent something like this from happening, so much attention do you give -- you know, how little attention do you give that? that's hard to know what the right amount is. but we do know that a lot of these shootings sometimes point

to mental illness, yet the suspect in this case, which took his own life, karl pierson, we heard from other students who were good friends with him that he was a nice boy, that he was social, he was involved in clubs and sports, that this seemed to just come out of nowhere. is it possible that someone can just suddenly snap? >> almost impossible to suddenly snap. that's a word we should take out of our vocabulary, and i heard that again yesterday. the secret service did a really fantastic definitive report that is available online of all of the school shootings for, like, something 28-year period, it was really quite extraordinary, and it found that nearly all of them plan in advance. it's rarely associated with mental illness. if you exclude depression from that. in terms of mental illness, like a psychosis like mental illness,

but usually it's not. in the vast majority of the cases it's someone who's deeply depressed, typically suicidally depressed, for a long period of time, and it's usually a grad l gradual -- it's a gradual descent down, it's not just one event. if i can put a little gloss on something i heard earlier during the report of -- talking about the police focusing on whether this was the motive, revenge was the motive. if i could sort of adjust that in the way we're talking and thinking about that, is it's really useful and good to talk about his motivations, in sort of plural, a broader sense, rather than trying to say, you know, the motive, as a single thing, or as a precipitating event, a single thing. it's usually not just one thing, and if he did, he probably -- it appears he probably did have a significant disagreement with the debate coach, and that may well have been the last straw,

which sort of broke the camel's back. but it's unlikely that that single disagreement really drove this person with the motive. >> we don't know what led up to the shooting, so, dave, clearly, i'm sorry we're out of time. >> sure. >> we do appreciate the conversation. it's something we are going to continue to talk about throughout today, the next weeks and months, until we have the answers that everybody needs, and again, focusing on how to stop it from happening again. dave cullen, again, the author of "columbine." we appreciate you taking the time to talk to us today. all right. let's head back to martin savidge in atlanta. >> thank you very much, anna. talking about the budget deal. could it spark an all-out civil war within the republican party? we'll talk to a couple of republican strategists to find out if john boehner has picked a fight he can't win.

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tensions within the republican party now starting to spill out into the public, if you haven't noticed. house speaker john boehner publicly attacked tea party members and other conservative groups over their criticism of this week's budget deal. cnn political editor paul steinhauser breaks down the fight.

>> reporter: it's something you don't see that often. >> well, frankly, i think they're misleading their followers. i think they're pushing our members in places where they don't want to be. >> reporter: this week, what's usually behind closed doors went public as house speaker john boehner pushed back against a bunch of conservative groups over their opposition to the bipartisan budget deal. >> when you criticize something ant you have no idea what you're criticizing, it undermines your credibility. >> reporter: and the groups which hold a lot of sway with tea party activists and other grassroots conservatives pushed right back. >> certainly very frustrating that an honest disagreement about a bill -- or a deal that was struck has devolved into name-calling from the speaker. >> reporter: the groups have been very influential the past couple of years in urging congressional republicans to hold firm and not negotiate with democrats. and they fuelled the push by conservative lawmakers that led to october's government shutdown. that may have been the last straw for the speaker.

the big question now, does boehner continue to publicly push back against the conservative groups, or was this more of a one-shot deal? with more fiscal fights ahead, we should find out early next year. >> and it should be very interesting. we'll find out if this is going to turn into an all-out civil war with speaker boehner in the middle of it. so let's talk to two people who should know. kevin madden, a cnn political commentator and a republican strategist. and then rich galen, also a republican strategist. >> who works for me. >> yeah. >> let's begin with you, kevin, i think you said boehner's biggest fear is, of course, another government shutdown. is he right that he fear that most? >> well, i think what we saw over the last few weeks was a lot of folks, particularly the outside conservative group, pushing us towards a strategy and tactics that didn't work. during the shutdown, we saw the generic ballot for republicans in congressional midterm elections drop about nine points. and it also distracted us from

probably the most important issue that's really going to define 2014 which is to the advantage of republicans, is the issue of obamacare. boehner wants to fight smart fights and the shutdown and the defund effort were not smart fights, and with getting the budget agreement in place where we can focus on obamacare, it's a fight that will help position the republican majority to make greater gains in 2014 and beyond. >> he struck me as the kind of guy who said, i'm mad as hell, i'm not going to take it anymore. rich, the outside conservative groups, boehner's criticizing, can really flex their muscle at times. could this squabble potentially cost boehner his job at some point? >> no, at the word, the actual word that's important there, michael, is outside groups. i mean, the piece you ran before with paul showing, i think it was dana interviewing the guy from the heritage foundation, i mean, you can't -- you can't -- you cannot allow these outside groups to be the equivalent of

an elected member of congress. and if you looked at this vote last -- the other day, it was, what, 160-something to 67, i think, kevin, right? >> right. >> the majority of the republican conference voted for the deal, and that was the hastert rule, not that you had to pass it only with republican votes but that a majority of the majority was for something, and so boehner's won this fight. there's no continuing fight. it's over. boehner won. >> rich, let me stop you real quick, because we're going to run out of time. do you think the tea party is going to fire back in some way, that they've got a way to respond here? >> i hope they do, because then the mainstream republicans can take some of these people down who they put up -- they put up challengers that have no business being -- running for office against good members of congress, and we can beat them back and just end this thing once and for all. >> kevin, i have to ask you, you used to work with john boehner. give me some insight. why now all of a sudden did this seem to be the point where he just snapped? >> well, i think, first of all,

it had to do with criticism for paul ryan. for a lot of the conservative groups who are conservative activists say paul ryan is a sellout or not conservative enough, everybody knows -- anybody who's worked with paul ryan -- knows he's been a visionary for conservative principles and conservative causes. so for people to criticize him as not being conservative enough, that was sort of a last straw for john. look, the one thing you have to remember about john boehner is he prefers to keep all of these type of disagreements behind closed doors, within the family. but when people come out and criticize somebody like paul ryan like that, he felt the sneneed to speak out. >> yeah, he saw the opening and is taking an advantage. all right, thank you very much for the insights. interesting. >> great to be with you, martin. >>. >> on this, the one-year anniversary of the newtown shootings, there is something special that's actually happening. a group of people using the tragedy to inspire and instill hope around the country. tom foreman found them, and he shows us their story in the "american journey."

>> reporter: on the atlantic coast, a labor of love. a playground rising in memory of the children and staff members killed at sandy hook school. >> and this is playground number 11. >> reporter: there will be 26, each to commemorate one life lost, and all with a purpose. >> we learned in mississippi that a playground is more than just a structure. it's a symbol of hope and recovery. >> reporter: indeed, this effort was born amid stormy days. and katrina ravaged the south, the firefighters from new jersey who had received letters from gulf coast kids after 9/11, went down to build playgrounds to return the favor. then, superstorm sandy and the sandy hook shootings battered the northeast, and they thought, "let's do it again, closer to home," so the sandy ground project was born, shepherded by the new jersey firefighters mutual benevolent association. >> his favorite color was

blue-green, so that's why the t.l. >> reporter: the effort has brought together donors, volunteers, and victims' families. >> john? >> yeah. >> reporter: like mark and jackie barton who lost their son daniel. >> i mean, all kids love playgrounds, but dan really did have a special thing for playgrounds. he would get into a playground somewhere, didn't know the kids and start playing with them and getting a game going. >> the pink is for the flamingos that she loved. >> reporter: carlos soto lost his 27-year-old daughter, victoria, a teacher. >> and any playground we built, she's looking down with her students, saying this is a beautiful thing. >> reporter: in the end, that is what this is all about. wrestling against events of unspeakable ugliness to find beauty. happiness. and hope once again. tom formen, cnn. i'm beth...

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you know, i think i remember reading somewhere earlier this year, this would be a relatively mild winter. well, forget that. millions of people now from the midwest, the northeast are bracing for another brutal snowstorm this weekend. this is the scene right now in chicago, and the snow is coming down pretty heavy. heavy snow and freezing rain? well, it's all going to push east and it will bring several inches of snow to people along the southeastern sea board. this is the same storm system that hit missouri on friday, and it caused dangerous driving conditions there. a different kind of weather problem, actually cooling, nasa has a situation with the cold, but it has nothing to do with the weather in space or on earth. nasa is trying to figure out how to fix one of two cooling

systems on the international space station. it malfunctioned this week. the pump on the cooling loop automatically shut down. that system makes sure equipment on iss stays cool and keeps working. nasa officials said yesterday they tried one fix that didn't work, and they may have to do a space walk to replace it. i am joined now by michael nasamino, a nasa astronaut and visiting professor at columbia university engineering school. mike, it's a pleasure and honor to have you on the program. tell me this. >> thanks for having me. >> from the scale of things that can go wrong in a space station, where does this rank in severity and concern? >> i would say probably somewhere in the middle. it's not a really bad thing. there are plenty of things that can happen to you that are a lot worse, but it's also not a very good thing. as you explained, we have two cooling loops, one is down. luckily, we have the second one to keep everything working correctly, so no one is in any danger. science can still continue, but

it puts you one failure away from other problems. so it's kind of -- i would say it's around the middle. it's a big problem, but nothing that is -- that is really bad. >> now, if you did have that second failure, what do you do then? it's not like you can open the window to cool things down. >> no, you have to shut things down. so it's kind of like, you know, turning off all the power in your house during a -- if a blackout happens and you go to some -- you know, what would you put on the emergency generator, that's the decision. you would keep life support going, you'd keep the station going, and you can do that, but you just would have to shut things down to keep the heat load down, since you can't cool, you don't want to generate that much heat. so some science would be sacrificed. >> science, but what about safety, of the astronauts? >> they'd still be okay. it's an international program. you have the u.s. side, the russian side. so they have places they can go to remain healthy and safe and comfortable. so it would be okay. it would mainly be a problem with the science on the station and the other systems on the u.s. side would be shut down.

but, you know, there's ways to get around it. we don't want to get into that situation, so they're trying to bring up that first loop again so that you have that redundancy. >> and i read that in order to do this really, you're going to require a space walk. do you agree? >> maybe. we don't know yet. it's not the whole pump that's failed. they had this problem three years ago where the whole pump was down and they had to replace the pump. in this case, it's a valve inside of the pump assembly. they're trying different things to see if they can command the valve correctly and get it working. if they can't, the worst case scenario is a space walk to replace the whole unit. i don't think they're quite there yet. i know they're working hard and around the clock and working over the weekend to come up with a plan. that's kind of the last -- the last resort is to do the space walk in this case. >> sure. it would be, mike, a pleasure to talk to you. thank you very much. >> thanks for having me. >> we're going to be headed back to colorado and the site of yesterday's school shooting right after this break. we're aig. and we're here. to help secure retirements and protect financial futures. to help communities recover and rebuild.

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welcome back. i'm ana cabrera in a windy colorado, as we continue to follow the top story today. a school shooting has sent waves of fear through this colorado town. police say an 18-year-old student brought a gun to school yesterday afternoon and shot a student before killing himself. their investigation inside the school and several other locations continues this morning. here's what we know right now, the student has been identified as karl pierson. witnesses tell me he was actually asking for the debate team coach when he walked into school with a shotgun, and the sheriff's officials believe that that is who he was targeting in this shooting, that there had been some sort of disagreement between the student and the debate coach, and that revenge, they tell us, could be the motive in all of this, but they're still gathering more evidence. they hope to bring us more details later this afternoon. they are searching pierson's home today. they've interviewed his parents and some other relatives. investigators say pierson opened fire shooting a 15-year-old girl before apparently shooting himself.

now, that girl is in critical condition this morning after undergo going surgery last night. another student was in tears as she described hearing screams in the hallway. >> it was terrifying, because we heard gunshots, and dana, she came running down the stairs and saying she saw -- someone's been shot. >> now, police initially thought that more students might be hurt. now we have learned that only one student was shot. another student had blood on her clothing from that initial student who had been shot. other students had some panic attacks and also went to the hospital. but again, only one student who was shot, and then the shooter himself took his own life. so that is the very latest information we have from centennial, colorado, martin, as we continue to remember that student who needs a lot of thoughts and prayers today, as she continues to recover. >> absolutely. ana, thank you very much.

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you have heard this story likely before, it continues to spark outrage in texas, not just texas but across the country, after a teen gets probation for killing four people while driving drunk. the defense claimed affluenza. they say the teen was blameless because of his wealthy parents, they never set limits for him. the parents of one of the victims is understandably having a difficult time with the verdict. here is cnn's gary tuckman. >> this is the way he used to be, a happy son and brother, who loved to play soccer. this is the way he is. 16-year-old sergio with his mother, he can't talk or move, he is considered minimally responsive. it is what happened to him after he flew out of the back of ethan couch's pickup this past june. on the night couch ran into and killed four other people outside fort worth texas.

alex is his older brother. >> they told us that basically that's as much as he's going to rehabilitate, that that's all we can hope for is how he is right now for the rest of his life. >> the family hopes and prays that's not true. meantime, they deal with realities. >> in six months since the accident, what have medical bills totalled? >> six months since the accident, over a million dollars. >> a million dollars. >> over a million dollars. >> sergio's family filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit against ethan couch, his family, and his father's company because it was the company owned truck ethan was driving. an attorney for the driver's family told cnn the judge made the appropriate disposition in this case. but sergio's family says testimony in the trial revealed the teens in couch's truck pled with him to slow down, drive safer before the horrifying accident occurred. >> and how many people need ems?

>> ma'am, i'm telling you it's dark, there's four or five kids, there's kids laying in ditches and streets. >> sergio was one in the ditch. his brother was in court during the trial. when he heard that defense being used, he thought it was nonsense and upsetting. >> when the verdict came and you found out he was not going to ever spend time in jail, what went through your mind? >> just regular anger, disappointed, so outrageously angered, i can't say anything. >> the family is retrofitting the home for him. the mother said it was hard to talk on camera but wanted to give it a try. >> tell me about sergio, what kind of boy he is? he was the best. he was that kind of boy, with a

lot of dreams. he was, well, first dream was to be a soccer player. he was sweet. i mean, it was -- >> he's lucky he has you. you need to hear that from people like me, outsiders. do you realize that? yeah. >> he's lucky he has you and his siblings to take care of him, right? >> yeah. >> the memories of sergio before the accident sustain his family. the picture of him on the left with two of his brothers. his soccer uniforms and his relationship with his dog, pinky, which continues today. his brother says he quit his job to stay with sergio all the time. >> that's my life. if i have to become a scientist to go up in there and fix him,

that's what i'm -- that's my life, that's how much i love him. >> gary tuckman, cnn, fort worth, texas. >> such a heartbreaking story. in the next hour, avery freedman and richard herman join us to talk about this case. meantime, we'll be right back. [ coughs, sneezes ] i have a big meeting when we land, but i am so stuffed up, i can't rest. [ male announcer ] nyquil cold and flu liquid gels don't unstuff your nose. they don't? alka seltzer plus night fights your worst cold symptoms, plus has a decongestant. [ inhales deeply ] oh. what a relief it is.

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beyonce stunned the music world revealing a new album. put all 14 songs on itunes at once, complete with music videos. ♪ >> the album came out with zero promotion, but exploded online

and already topping the itunes charts. here's the question. and for that, we put it to bradley jacobs, senior editor at "us weekly." is this something that's a new trend or something that only a star like beyonce could pull off? >> first of all, only beyonce could pull this off, of course. she said she was bored with the way she's been releasing music. wanted to give it right to the fans. this is sort of the twitter thing in a nutshell. whether this is a game changer or not will depend on how well the music is received. usually a single comes out, then another single comes out, then the album drops, and you've got three or more singles like katy perry a couple years ago, it becomes a super smash. >> usually you're almost sick of it by the time it is available to purchase. >> this is a new thing. we'll see. now fans who beyonce had in mind for this can makeup their own minds, decide which of the 14

songs is the hit. >> what are the reviews so far? what are you hearing? >> the reviews so far have been mostly from celebrities like katy perry, demi lovato, they were burning up the internet yesterday saying how great this is. they have been listening to it nonstop. we'll see some of the -- us weekly will be reviewing it, rolling stone will be reviewing it. you'll be hearing actual real critics reviews in the next week or so. you go on to your own twitter, you'll see what people are thinking about it. >> real quick, you go to itunes, you have to buy the whole album. two interesting marketing moves. >> i personally get frustrated, i want to download a song, saw the movie american hustle, had a lot of great '70s music, wanted to get one or two songs, some were on the album only. you could only buy the album, that gets frustrating for me as a consumer and i think for others as well.

but true beyonce fans will pay that to download the whole thing. i think it is kind of fun to decide for yourself which of the songs is best without letting the critics, media, people like me tell you what the best song is. >> i am absolutely in agreement with you. bradley jacobs, we were going to talk other things, time ran away. thanks for joining us from us weekly. >> sure. i am martin savidge in for fredricka whitfield. here are the top stories we're following now in the cnn newsroom. the colorado teenager opens fire at a school, then kills himself. and nobody knows why. we will tell you what police are doing to try to find the answers. snow and lots of it. that's what tens of millions of people are getting hit with today. a thousand mile area from kansas to maine is in the storm zone. and no winner in mega millions, means the jackpot gets meggier.

we will tell you when you may have the next chance to win it. i am martin savidge. >> we start in colorado, the town is trying to find sense after a terrifying school shooting here. less than 24 hours ago. a 15-year-old is in critical condition, shot here at arapahoe high school by a classmate. the 18-year-old gunman is dead after shooting himself. he has been identified as carl pierson. police say he walked into school with a shotgun yesterday afternoon. investigators are searching the school. also expected to search his home. and another home to figure out

what possibly could have motivated this attack. we have learned that pierson was on the debate team at the high school. and witnesses tell me he came to the school looking for the debate coach yesterday afternoon. the sheriff says they believe based on preliminary investigation at this point that there had been a disagreement between the student and this coach and that the shooting might have been an act of revenge, although details again are still coming out. we do know the person who he was targeting was notified, was quickly rushed out of the school, and that was really intentional. they hoped by sending the teacher out of the school that that would draw the shooter out. instead, the gunman opened fire and hit a 15-year-old girl. witnesses tell our affiliate the girl screamed. she said there was a shooter. another girl with her came rushing down the stairs. we checked with the hospital this morning, they can only say the 15-year-old female student

is in critical condition. obviously a terrifying situation for all of the students. people still shook up this morning as we have been talking with them. listen to how one student describes moments after the shooting. >> we didn't know what was going on. we heard shouting. i heard the shooting was in the hallway just outside of the gym. and we heard the door, someone was trying to get in, checking if it was locked. we didn't know what was going on, no one was notified of anything. i think that was the scariest part. >> again, one student shot, the suspect dead. but these scenes bringing back chilling memories of another shooting that wasn't far from here, columbine high school. i remember when students were walking out with their hands up, police making sure there weren't any other threats. arapahoe high school is less than ten miles from columbine high school. now more than a decade apart, the two tragedies. hearts around the country are heavy today, not just for the community here in colorado but

this terrible shooting came just one day before the one year anniversary of the sandy hook shooting. that anniversary is today. this morning the president and first lady lit candles for each of those victims from the newtown shooting. 20 children and six adults were killed at that shooting last year. we remember the victims of newtown and remember the victims of columbine, and of course everybody thinking about that one survivor of the shooting here today who is still fighting for her life, a 15-year-old girl currently in the hospital. martin, i know there's a lot of talk this morning, talk about gun control now top of mind as well for a lot of folks. >> brings it all back. ana, thank you very much. now to that huge snowstorm that's causing misery for people in the midwest today. take a look at this, from the town i love, cleveland, right? i think so.

this storm is part of what is a thousand mile stretch going all the way from -- well, started in missouri, and is heading east, bringing snow, freezing rain, and it is leaving a headache for a lot of folks in its path. jennifer grey is in chicago where it is hovering around freezing. jennifer, where is this storm going to move when it leaves the windy city? >> reporter: well, it is already on a track to the northeast. new york city, boston already seeing snow. all part of the same system. we have been standing in grant park since about 5:00 this morning. look how deep the snow is. we have gotten about four inches here in chicago. the plows just came through and wiped off these sidewalks, they also put a lot of salt on the roads and on the sidewalks as you can see, so they are keeping the streets and sidewalks clear. and it is in pretty good shape, at least for the downtown area. i know bridges and overpasses, definitely going to be a slow go in chicago and surrounding areas. temperatures are going to stay

below freezing until thursday, and they have been below freezing since december 7th. that's almost a two week span here where we have temperatures at or below freezing. chicago already above their snowfall, average snowfall for the month of december as well. just an unusual year in december in chicago. this storm system like i mentioned before, making it to the east coast. if we have radar, we can show that. it is going to continue to push off, new york city, boston, getting snow tonight through tomorrow morning. should be pushing out of the area by tomorrow. but this is just a huge swathe of snow, covers about a thousand miles, east, west. so it will track up the coast tonight into tomorrow, and we're looking at snowfall totals inside new york city up to 7 inches possibly. boston could see 8 to 10 inches. then some of the outlying areas, including upstate new york could see amounts even higher. the good news is it is going to

get out of the way by the end of the day sunday, but it is leaving a blanket of the white stuff, martin. >> that is good news. it is happening on a weekend when not so many people are out and about unless you're enjoying it. thanks very much. you only need to know two numbers. one, what it cost to play mega millions, that's a buck, and 550 million. that's how much you could win when the next drawing is held tuesday night. the odds are extremely long. don't let me fool you. the dream of winning has a lot of us feeling very lucky. jennifer mayerle joins me. a lot of people are standing in line wanting to buy that next winning ticket. >> absolutely. ticket sales were brisk when it was 425 million. you can only imagine what the lines will be like now that it jumped to 550 million. when you think about that number and put it in perspective to more than a half billion dollars, it is incredible. >> what a stocking did you ever that would be. to me, it is a mind boggling,

but comes at a perfect time. what are the odds of winning? >> the odds are tough. one in 259 million. there's no big winner last night. there were nine $1 million winners. that's the second place prize. 1 million, not too shabby. >> but it would be painful, five numbers. >> and you don't get the mega ball. yeah, that would be tough. those winning numbers for folks, 19, 24, 26, 27, and 70. that mega ball was 12. that chance of winning, 1 in 259 million. but it didn't seem to deter people from buying tickets, taking a shot at the jackpot. if you don't match a number, disappointment can follow easily, as in the case of some of these folks. >> do you usually buy a lottery ticket? >> it is friday the 13th, i am going wild. >> it is nice to dream. i enjoy the what if before the big game. oh, we could take trips here

there. it is all about that really. >> what would you do with the money. >> i would share it with cnn. >> i am going to hold you to that. >> 400 that much million, that's a lot of money. >> i wish he had won. that would be nice if he shared it. >> somehow i don't believe that. >> looking to next week, things to look for. tuesday, that's the next drawing. you have until tuesday to buy a ticket. 550 million dollars. fourth largest jackpot ever. second largest in mega millions history. the biggest one you may remember last year was split by three people, 656 million. a lot of money for folks. >> people dreaming of a green christmas. jennifer, thanks very much. it is a story that stirred outrage across the country. you probably heard this. a teenage boy from a wealthy family drives drunk, kills four people, then gets no jail time. all because the judge believes the boy has a case of affluenza. the legal guys weigh in on this

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welcome back to colorado. a student walked into this high school behind me, arapahoe high school, and started shooting, then killed himself. that shooting just a day before the one year anniversary of the sandy hook killings, bringing back horrifying memories and feelings for so many people. in the past few years, unfortunately there have been several other tragedies, similar tragedies. just mentioned newtown, connecticut, there was also the aurora theater shooting a little over a year ago. virginia tech was the worst school shooting in u.s. history about five years ago, and the

1 1999 columbine shooting that triggered this conversation, not far from arapahoe high school, also here in colorado. the big question today is why, and perhaps just as important, what kind of lessons can we take away from these situations and apply moving forward. we have a special guest with us, author of mass shootings, six steps to survival. john matthews joining us from dallas. john, we appreciate your time with us this morning. >> well, thank you, ana. >> john, i know you're also executive director of the community safety institute. so lots to talk about. first, let's start about your reaction when you heard about yesterday's shooting. >> well, honestly, i wasn't surprised with the number of shootings that we've had, active shooter incidents, school shootings, mass shootings in the u.s. over the last five to seven to ten years, i really wasn't surprised and with the anniversary of sandy hook being today, i almost expected that someone would commit one of

these horrific acts in school. they follow patterns and trends and look at the events like virginia tech, columbine, with the anniversary being today, honestly, i wasn't surprised. >> yet there's so much that's been done in schools and law enforcement training to try to prevent the situations, to try to be in better position to address situations as they come up. why are we seeing this trend, do you think? >> well, we've done a great job, yes. law enforcement, active shooter training, we saw that yesterday. entering the school, being there within five minutes of the initial call. we've done a great job in law enforcement in rehearsing, practicing, training in schools. we have lockdown procedures in place. we saw that yesterday. ana, the positive thing is today we're not talking body counts, we're talking lives saved. it is unfortunate we had an injury yesterday, but look at

all of the lives that were saved because of our school plans, lockdown procedures, and our active shooter response by law enforcement. we've made tremendous progress in the last several years. >> let's talk a little about what we know of the crime itself here that happened yesterday. we know the gunman walked in, didn't try to conceal his shotgun that he brought into the school. we know there were molotov cocktails also found. what do some of those details tell us about the situation that happened here? >> well, it is fascinating to me, first that he wore what's described as tactical gear or attire. that shows me the offender was what we call in law enforcement costuming, putting on costume or uniform to commit the act. that shows intent, planning, preparation. even more disturbing is the molotov cocktails, because again, that's another indicator this was not an individual that woke up yesterday morning, was angry at a teacher, went to

school to confront them. this is somebody that planned, that prepared, that thought about this, that assembled the molotov cocktails, so this is someone that was not just going to hurt one teacher but a lot of people because he had multiple weapons. >> john matthews, i wish we had more time to talk. we really appreciate your insight into what happened here and the many tragedies unfortunately that we covered over the years. john matthews, author of the book "mass shootings, six steps to survival." we appreciate your time. >> thank you. >> another thing i want to mention, martin, before i toss it back, colorado had new gun control measures passed just in the past legislative session, of course there was a lot of talk after the newtown shootings about what could be done to prevent mass shootings to prevent horrible tragedies, particularly involving young people. yet nobody seems to have the answer yet. again, that's part of the

discussion as we move forward today as well. >> right. there was a lot of political back lash because of it. ana, thank you very much. after denying it for years, the cia now admits that an american held by iran is a spy. that admission could put him in greater jeopardy. we'll explain. 1ñp there's a saying around here,

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2013 i [[man] it's nothing but tape... [woman] it's a block. we're havin' a baby! [laughter in background] [woman screams] are we havin' a baby? [ambient crying and laughter]

this was an interesting development this week. turns out that the american allegedly held as a spy in iran is, in fact, a spy. a rogue agent. the story outing may have put his life in greater danger and comes as iran is getting tough on foreign intelligence operations. the semi official news agency says iranian officials arrested a man they say was spying for great britain. here is jim sciutto. >> please help me get home. >> reporter: this is robert levinson, pleading with washington for help three years after he disappeared in iran. >> 33 years of service to the united states deserves something. please help me. >> reporter: he hasn't been seen or heard from since. now new information that when he went missing, he was working

undercover for the cia. a point the agency and white house publicly denied for years, today again refused to confirm, though carefully. >> bob levinson was not a u.s. government employee when he went missing in iran. >> reporter: documents and e-mails first reported by ap detailed the cia's connection to levinson's 2007 trip to iran's kish island. it was a rogue operation his lawyer says, spying on iran's nuclear program in hezbollah under direction from a group within the cia. outing him in effect as a spy has heightened concerns for his safety, but after nearly seven years of imprisonment and interrogation, even his family concedes it is likely whoever is holding him already knows of his cia ties. iran never acknowledged holding levinson. asked about him by kristy and a.m. on power in september, he said he didn't even know his name. >> first you mention a person i never heard of.

mr. levinson. we don't know where he is, who he is. >> reporter: u.s. officials continue to raise his case with tehran at every level. >> i personally raised it with the iranians, of course, we will try to continue to seek his release and return to the united states. >> reporter: security experts raising hard questions about whether this was an intelligence operation gone too far, in particular sending someone with known past in the fbi into unfriendly territory as iran doubts that robert levinson should have been there in the first place. jim sciutto, cnn, washington. there was an amazing bit of family drama that played out on television this week, and it wasn't reality television, it was shocking news out of the country of north korea. the man many believe was the second most powerful person in the country was executed by his nephew, the korean leader, kim jong-un. state media says the uncle was executed because, quote, he was

a despicable human scum, worse than a dog, unquote. this development raises new questions about kim jong-un. he has only been in power two years. paula hancocks has the back story. >> reporter: a young man in mourning walks alongside his father's coffin. two years later, five of seven men walking with him have been fired or executed, on orders of kim jong-un. >> i think in early days, he was kind of a boy leader. now he is basically a man leader, and a man leader, i say that purposely because north korea is a patriarchal society. his audience are 60, 70-year-old males with a military background, but he has to earn their respect. >> reporter: little known of the man introduced by his father in 2010. partly educated in switzerland, so exposed to the western world, many dared to hope he would drive change in the isolated nation. but then came the rocket launches and nuclear tests, like

his father before him, kim jong-un proved impervious to international criticism. the country's top military man was fired last year. the top political man executed this week. >> i don't think it is a brutal act of kim jong-un, more a product of power struggle within north korean court. >> reporter: putting his personal stamp on leadership is putting it mildly. he replaced almost half the major figures in power during his father's reign, according to the unification ministry in seoul. he showed a more personable side, often smiling on camera, appearing to relish admiration that surrounds him. then there's dennis rodman, an unlikely friendship between dictator and basketball star. >> he has to do his job, but he's a very good guy. >> reporter: tell that to two american citizens arrested recently, korean war veteran

merrill newman was released after filming a coerced apology for war crimes he says he never committed. and tour guide kenneth bae, held after more than a year. apology from bae not enough to secure his freedom. kim jong-un is a leader who's certainly grown in confidence, but not in the way the west was hoping. a terrifying scene that unfolded in colorado and seems hauntingly familiar. students rushing out of the school, hands over their heads. what police know about the school shooter and the victim. [ male announcer ] this is jim,

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i am and a car era. police say an 18-year-old brought a gun to this school yesterday and opened fire, shooting a student before killing himself. here is what we know this morning here in colorado. the student has been identified as karl pierson. that's the suspect. police are searching his home today, still processing the scene at the school, which is why there's yellow crime scene tape. they're also processing another house he had access to. investigators say when he came to the school, he was searching for a specific teacher, but ended up shooting a 15-year-old girl before turning the gun on himself. that girl is in the hospital today. he was looking for the debate team coach and there may have been some sort of disagreement before the shooting. >> the gunman came into the school and immediately asked for the location of a very specific teacher and he named that teacher by name. when the teacher heard that this

individual was asking for him, the teacher exited the school immediately. and my opinion, it was the most important tactical decision that could have been made. >> reporter: again, sheriffs say that teacher exited the school. that was very intentional. they were hoping if the teacher left or the debate team coach that that would draw pierson, the gunman, out of the school as well. again, unfortunately he opened fire and hit another student that was in that vicinity, we understand, a 15-year-old girl. at one point there was indication there may have been another student who was hurt. good news about this is that nobody else was hurt. the other student who was involved had some blood on her shirt. other students had panic attacks. a few people were taken to the hospital to be checked out, but other than that 15-year-old girl, who our thoughts and prayers are with this morning, nobody else was physically hurt,

and martin, a lot of experts we have been talking to say that's thanks to a lot of the training and protocols put into place here at the school, the drills that they do to prepare for situations like this, training that law enforcement has done, active shooter type situation that prepared them for this situation that happened here yesterday and allowed them to make sure that they had everything ready to go and prevent anybody else from getting hurt and nobody else died, martin. >> they move in quickly now. ana, thank you very much. it has been one year since a gunman killed 26 people in newtown, connecticut. and even now there are families still trying to find out why it happened. we'll have that next. no matter how busy your morning you can always do something better for yourself. and better is so easy with benefiber. fiber that's taste-free, grit-free and dissolves completely. so you can feel free to add it to anything.

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as the investigation continues into what happened here in colorado yesterday, it was exactly one year ago today a similar tragedy forever changed the lives of so many families in newtown, connecticut. there a gunman, adam lanza walked in and killed 26 people, 20 of them children. no one could understand why he did it. and a year later, families are still looking for answers. our anderson cooper talked to some of them. >> i was sure she was going to walk out. i did not understand the magnitude of the situation until about 2:00 in the afternoon. >> i was at work. i was driving back, and i'm calling her, asking for information. she's like i don't have any information. i am like why am i getting better information off am news radio than you, you're standing right there. i was about a mile from newtown when they came out and said 20 children had been killed, six

adults, and it struck me, thank god i was only a mile from there, if i had be driving on 84, i would have run the car off the road, it was such a disturbing disconcerting moment. >> eventually a knock came, it was a police officer, finally i unlocked the door, there was a s.w.a.t. team. i grabbed two of my students's hantsds, each one grabbed a hand or two, we fled out the back of the school. >> she and her 15 first graders all survived. three of five first grade classrooms escaped unharmed that day. and the other two a different story. >> they finally said if you're in this room and you're waiting, there's, you know -- >> your loved one is not coming back. >> among 20 children and six educators that died that day.

>> i think there's not a minute, not a second of any day that goes by where somewhere in my head i'm thinking i don't have my daughter, she's gone. that's always in my head. >> it is every second of every day that she's not with me, and that's enough. >> literally days after we lost her, we said we have to do something, it is just in our nature. >> it may have been even been that very day. i remember asking why would somebody walk into the school and kill my child. i need to know that answer. i have to have that answer. >> do you think there is always a why? >> because we don't know the answer doesn't mean there isn't a cause. >> yeah. >> even before the funeral, her parents set off on a mission to

honor her by searching for answers. they weren't the only ones. >> we can't go back in time, but we can take what we've learned and honor our daughter by doing something with it. >> we're kind of faced with do you want to do something or do you want to do nothing, and there was no question. >> tonight at 8:00 eastern, cnn has a special on the newtown tragedy. you can watch anderson cooper's full report honoring the children. newtown one year later. we'll be right back. as a business owner, i'm constantly putting out fires. so i deserve a small business credit card with amazing rewards. with the spark cash card from capital one, i get 2% cash back on every purchase, every day. i break my back around here. finally someone's recognizing me with unlimited rewards! meetings start at 11, cindy. [ male announcer ] get the spark business card from capital one. choose 2% cash back or double miles on every purchase, every day.

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a wealthy texas teenager admits he was drunk driving when he plowed into and killed four people, left two others severely injured. the judge gave him only probation, no prison time. now we're hearing 911 calls that came in that horrible night and learning more about the defense strategy, blaming the teen's actions on his privileged upbringing or something called affluenza. >> reporter: ethan couch's attorneys argue he is the product of what's called affluenza, living a life of privilege with parents who never taught him bad behavior has real consequences. the 16-year-old admitted to drinking alcohol the night he

caused a chain reaction crash that killed four people and severely hurt two others in tarrant county. he got ten years probation. the judge's lenient sentence sparked outrage, victims' loved ones are stunned. >> he will be feeling the hand of god, definitely. he may think he's gotten away with something but he hasn't gotten away with anything. >> the wounds it opened only makes the healing process that much greater and much more difficult. >> eric lost his wife and daughter that night in june. >> we had over 180 years of life taken, future life, not 180 years lived, but 180 future years of life taken, and two were my wife and daughter. >> brian jennings, a youth

pastor, stopped to help when couch's vehicle slammed into them. all four were killed. >> how many people are injured, do you know? >> one, two, three, multiple. i don't even know how many. >> multiple? >> three hours after the crash, his blood alcohol was .24, three times the legal limit in texas. the term affluenza came from a psychologist put on the stand by the defense who reportedly said couch was brought up to spend money instead of saying sorry if he hurt someone, and that he never learned that sometimes you don't get your way. the judge opted for probation and therapy over prison time. >> taking him away from his family and teaching him to be a responsible citizen, that's a consequence. >> for families of the victims, that's simply not enough. >> money always seems to keep ethan out of trouble. this was one time i did ask the

court for justice, and that for money not to prevail. and ultimately today i felt like money did prevail. >> alina ma chat oh, cnn, atlanta. >> there are so many issues to talk about with this particular case. a lot of people are furious this kid won't serve any time in jail. let's bring in the legal team right now. avery freedman, civil rights attorney and law professor in cleveland, and richard herman, a new york criminal defense attorney and law professor. he joins us from las vegas. gentlemen, great to see you both. i would be more jubilant if it wasn't for the seriousness of this case. >> that's right, marty. that's right. >> let me ask you this, richard. affluenza, it is a defense put out there. i might describe it as spoiled brat disease to put it in more common english, but what is your take on this and do you buy this as a legitimate defense. >> marty, i think if i was the judge in this particular case, i

would ask the jury to strike all testimony from this psychologist. affluenza is not a medical term, it is a made up fiction that was used in this case. judge gene boyd got a case of dumb ass affluenza for dr. miller. this is preposterous, marty. can you imagine if i had a young, poor black boy in the bronx with a history of alcohol abuse who stole liquor that night, drove a car three times over the legal limit, and killed four people, do you think that this person would get newport beach, california or would they try him as an adult and give him incarceration? >> that's a good point. >> it is preposterous. >> this was in fact a juvenile case, this was not done in adult court and probably that was the first victory the defense may have won, that this was tried as a juvenile.

>> huge. >> that's right. i understand the reaction, it is a visceral one. when you think deeply, put the vengeance issue aside, you need to look at this. i am a former juvenile court probation officer, served on the bench, i understand, if you can save the life of a young person, try to rehabilitate them, and i think that's what was going on. that doesn't make him accountable. i am in agreement on one thing, marty, that is there is no such thing as affluenza. it is like poor fluenza. the fact children don't have valleys, frankly, they have to be accountable. i don't agree with the resolution, but i do agree if you can save ethan couch and get him straight end out, that is the goal of juvenile justice. i think that's what judge boyd was trying to do here. >> richard, i should point out one of the things is the defense says this young man will be under the thumb of the court for ten years probation.

if he had been a juvenile, once he turns 18 two years from now, he could be out without that legal overhang. >> that's the crux of what the defense argued. you give him 10 or 20 years in prison, in two years, he is eligible for parole. that means he is eligible. doesn't mean he will get it. listen, this is really an outrageous resolution here for a young man, three times the blood alcohol, seven kids in the car, four children death, seven injuries, it is outrageous. the judge blew the deal here. i don't know what she was doing. to try to prevent him from associating with his family -- >> what are you going to do with him? >> it's not going to be enforced he can't be with his family. that's an illegal decision. illegal. will not be upheld. >> if it were illegal, it would

be appealed. that's not right. >> it is going to be. >> court can maintain jurisdiction. that's the question. what's the alternative to this? >> i think the judge overstepped bounds. >> the judge is retiring. but she should have -- >> the judge is retiring. >> you can't make believe affluenza defense, what is that? it is preposterous. what is that? that's garbage. that's garbage defense. >> maybe the judge got a few dollars in this case, we don't know what happened here, this is ridiculous. >> my goodness. >> how could you claim the judge got paid off here. >> i don't know, i say perhaps. you never know. it is a state court case. you just never know. >> that's a very inappropriate thing to say. >> richard, i do agree with the point that you put forward, had this been an inner-city youth versus a youth of privilege, we would not be arguing as we are. >> exactly.

avery, would you go with that? >> i agree with that. >> i would say justice is not always the same. we know that. that's not a surprise. >> richard herman, avery freedman, you know what, it is great to see you both. >> nice to see you, marty. >> nice talking with you. >> great to see you, too, marty. >> we'll be back in touch. they're always with us, those two on the noon hour talking all things legal. next in the newsroom, there's a new anchor man about to make an incredible come back. >> the thing god put ronburg under ee on earth to do, have salon quality hair and read the news. >> i will tell you i was the model for ron burgundy and photos to prove it. but that's another story. he is welcomed back by cnn brothers. find out how it went next. >> parts of your face that are covered with skin. there's a saying around here,

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china's newest spacecraft landed on the moon. the rover doing the work is called jade rabbit. people in china got to vote on the name. it will be on the moon three months, studying the lunar crust. and in a different voyage to space, iran sent this monkey into orbit. they say it is the latest step to sending humans into space. they say it was a 15 minute mission and that the monkey returned safely. the u.s. says it can't confirm the launch and state department worries iran's space program could in fact be tied to development of long range ballistic missiles. a new film hits the big screen next week, it is about legendary news anchor and his big come back. my colleagues, wolf blitzer,

chris cuomo, tell us what they think of this anchor man. >> ron bureau gandy. >> one of the most in flew i think so anchors. >> on camera, he is the best. on camera, a bit of an [bleep]. >> a major [bleep]. >> when we were coming up in the late '70s, ron got the lead anchor position at kvwn because his mustache was slightly bigger than mine. people found comfort in a mustache man delivering the news. i love my beard but i would trade it for that mustache in a heartbeat. >> when i first graduated from college and started reporting, i was doing my best ron burgundy impression, everyone was, the mustache, the whole persona.

>> we hit the national spotlight about the same time. today he has the most awards of any anchor, some of them honestly i think belong to me because they're literally mine. he just took them off my shelf right in front of me and acted like i didn't see it. >> the first job i had was as an intern for ron burgundy. they were the worst years of my life. he didn't trust any of the local dry cleaners, he made me learn how to dry clean. i had to buy a specialized machine, keep it in my studio apartment. >> when i started anderson cooper 360, ron's shadow still loop loomed over the show. there was a cardboard cutout blocking the lights. he had it in his contract it could never be removed. huge pain in the [bleep]. >> he was always the first to break big stories. that's because a lot of the times he caused them. >> i heard he suggested building a wall in berlin just so he could deliver the news when it was knocked down. >> before mike tyson fought

evander holyfield, ron told him in the locker room, i am quoting, boxing isn't just about your fists, it's about your mind and your teeth. god, i wish i had thought of that. >> for three years i thought i had a huge story about an affair between margaret thatcher and ronald reagan. turned out my insider source was burgundy pretending to be deep throat. he deep throated me for years. it was really humiliating. >> to this day, he calls me wolf blister. >> calls me stoopy andrews. it is not funny. doesn't sound like my name. >> won't call me anything. refuses to acknowledge me as a human being. >> ron tried to poison me. >> this news bar for anchors in midtown, ron comes in all cocky. he walks to the back, goes into the bathroom, nothing really happens after that. that's the end of that story. >> where do you even buy poison? >> we have all done regrettable

things to get where we are today, he's just done them better. >> that's what makes him who he is. he is the most legendary news anchor in history. >> real actual poison. hello, martin savidge in for fredricka whitfield. here are the top stories we're following in the cnn newsroom. a colorado community in shock. >> it was terrifying because we heard gunshots and dana, she came running down the stairs and saying she saw them shot. >> answers in the latest school shooting, students that were there when it happened are haunted by the memory of what they saw. a powerful winter storm is rr