with trash in mumbai, india, now becoming more polluted as people flock to the cities to search for work and a better quality of life. thanks for watching "around the world." "cnn newsroom" starts right now. "cnn newsroom" starts right now. have a good afternoon. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com right now the nsa may be targeting laptop computers before the owners receive them. we'll have reports on reports the agency has been diverting laptops order online and installing spy aware. big name coached are getting bad news. it's judgment day in the nfl. right now the countdown is on and the last minute preparations are under way. >> we're going to have cookies and coffee set out. >> those cookies going to be laced with anything? >> absolutely not. no, no. >> less than 36 hours till colorado marijuana shops open their doors.

hello, everybody i'm jim acosta in washington. another revelation about the extent of secret surveillance programs carried out by the nsa. this time it involves the agency targeting computers including laptops purchased online. first, it was the collection of massive amounts of phone and internet data that caused uproar. then there were reports of the nsa infiltrating virtual video games like world of war craft. now "der spiegel" reports the nsa has started infill straighting computers to install spy aware. brian todd, this seems almost unbelievable impossible to believe. yet, it may be happening >> it could be happening according to "der spiegel" magazine, essentially it's an elite group of hackers most of them in their 20s or early 30s.

farce an the techniques they use, a lot of different techniques from remote hacking to physical techniques installing spy aware physically on a targeted computer. they essentially profile a target's computer by a hacking. that can track cookies that pop up on that computer. they can track -- even tap into microsoft's error messages to try to navigate on to that computer. it's amazing what they can do. they can hacking into blackberry service to read e-mails of a targeted person. that's on the hacking side. on the physical side, they actually intercept computer shipments if you're a bad guy getting a new computer in the mail, they can find out who it's going to, intercept it, open the package, put spy aware or bug on that computer physically, send it along as if it was never compromised. it's amazing the techniques they can use. they can install bogus cables on a desktop computer and work with the fbi andc ia. it's to place operatives on the ground in foreign countries in order to do this.

no comment from those two agencies. >> all of this becomes more believable because of the revelations coming from contractor edward snowden. but what some people may be wondering about in the united states if they order and computer online and that shows up at their house, has the nsa put spy aware in that laptop? it appears we're talking about foreign targets. >> foreign targets and people they will might have a suspicion they've done something. it's it's foreign targets. if you're an american ordering a computer, you likely don't have to worry. they did say as far as how widespread their operations are, 279 operations worldwide in 2010. we just got a statement from the nsa on this saying this tao unit is "a unique national asset on the frontline of enabling them to defend the nation and allies and its work centers on foreign intelligence collection." we just got that similar to what they sent to "der spiegel." >> the nsa very busy these days.

there's been a big turn around for the obama administration's new health care program. december has seen a big surge in people enrolling in obama care of. it's now passed the 1 million person mark. but as athena jones reports there's a long way to go. >> healthcare.gov may be hitting its strides. more than 1 million enrolled between october 1st and december 24th with nearly a million coming this month alone. >> it changes my life. >> people like lauren, a 27-year-old marketing director from mclean, virginia, who suffers from kroens disease. she enrolled with the help of a government call center after running into trouble on the website. starting january 1st, her premium is dropping from $1300 a month to $400. >> 2 gishs me the option to possibly finally move out of my parent's house at age 27 the government will release more complete numbers next month.

but this late surge of activity puts overall enrollment to meet this bold prediction made before christmas. >> we now have a couple million people, maybe more who are going to have health care on january 1st, and that is a big deal. >> reporter: what's not clear is just how many people still may not have coverage starting january 1st due to problems with the site the government has worked overtime to fix. and not everyone is celebrating the numbers. california republican darrell issa says too many people will be getting government subsidized. >> 1 million getting on subsidized health care in many cases probably another million getting on medicaid as a result of obamacare and 6 million people who had plans they liked that have been thrown off of it. i don't think there's anything to celebrate. >> while the surge in enrollment is good news for the obama administration, it will likely still fall short of the goal to sign up 3.3 million people by

january 1st. those who missed last week's deadline for coverage starting in january have till january 15th to sign up for plans that start february 1st. open enrollment ends march 31st. athena jones, cnn, honolulu. >> and we've laerveed michele snyder the chief operating officer for the center for medicare and medicaid services is leaving the agency after 41 years of service. coming up at the bottom of the hour, we will go in-depth about obamacare and more on the political scene when we talk with zeke miller of "time" magazine, plus 2014's big political battles. will the minimum wage and unemployment be winning or losing issues in next year's elections? a second deadly terrorist attack in russia is adding concerns about the security of the winter olympics in that country. the games are less than six weeks away. the bombings highlight the

challenges russia faces when athletes and spectators from around the world gather there. diana magnay has it the latest on the investigation and russia's plans for securing the games. >> reporter: as the rest of russia celebrates in the new year the city of volgograd will be holding three days of mourning after twin attacks devastating the city. here's a look at the events of those two days. two deadly terror attacks in the southern russian city of volgograd in less than 24 hours. monday's take on the crowded trolley bus in morning rush hour. more than a dozen killed. authorities say the blast the work of a suicide bomber. possibly detonating his device towards the back end of the bus where the damage seems worse. on board were students. this is exam time in russia. among the injured a baby boy now in a coma with multiple skull injuries. authorities say they doesn't know who he is, or whether his parents were killed in the blast. this follows another attack at noon on sunday in volgograd's main railway station, the moment

of the explosion caught on surveillance video. 17 people were killed in that blast. authorities saying that was also the work of a suicide bomber. these attacks come less than six weeks before the start of the winter games in sochi which is around 6 hup miles southwest of volgograd. russia's president putin has vowed the highest possible security around the games themselves and the town of sochi. it is clearly hard to police the whole of southern russia to the same level. russia is facing an insurgency in the north caucasus. in july russia's most wanted man doku umarov, a leader of an islamist faction threatened to unleash "maximum force to prevent the games from happening." the u.s. state department has a $5 million reward out for uma rove. former zwrgs officials believe further attacks are entirely possible. >> i think if we don't see the an attempt on the olympics, i'd be very surprised.

>> even if the high security means terrorists may find it hard to strike in sochi, they are proving themselves more than capable of spreading maximum fear by targeting he cities elsewhere in the region with deadly results. diana magnay, cnn, moscow. there's a new mission to rescue people stuck on the research ship in the antarctic. a chinese helicopter will airlift 56 passengers and crew members when the weather improves. bad weather forced an australian ice breaker to turn around earlier today. 74 people have been stuck on that research boat since christmas. it left new zealand on december 8th to study effects of climate change. former race car champion michael shumacher remains in a coma at a french hospital. he hit his head on a rock while skiing with his son over the weekend. doctors say it is too soon to tell how much damage has been done. wearing a helmet saved his life. he is regarded as the most successful formula i driver of

all time and remains the sports's biggest star after retirement. in the nfl it's called black monday, the monday after the last regular season game. that's the day when pink slips go out to head coaches whose teams had a bad year. so far, six and counting including that man, mike shanahan of the washington redskins. we'll talk about that just ahead.

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delays have been dropping steadily for years but a lot of frequent flyers may not agree with that. now a report from the u.s. inspector general says on time numbers may not be telling the whole story. zane asher is at the new york stock exchange with the details. zane, why is this report suspicious? i know as a frequent flyer, that they've been padding these times, these start times, these departure times and arrival times. does that have thing to do with this. >> why he, unfortunately, that is exactly right. so even though the data shows that flight delays have improved, if you will, from between 2,000 and 2012 down by about 33%, you have to take the fact that only 76% of airlines are included in this report and the fact it's only 16 of the

largest carriers. second of all, there is some padding going on. most airlines push back their scheduled arrival times so if there are delays you don't notice it. on paper durations are getting longer so even if the flight is delayed it still ends up arriving on time. the delta flight from between detroit and lagaraguardia allot itself two hours. in reality the flight should take closer to 1 hour and 15 minutes. the airlines have to be realistic. you have to take into consideration crowded runways and weather and that end coo of thing. the d.o.t. says is more airs should be included in the study. even though delays show signs of impatrioticment, it's certainly a case of smoke and mirrors. >> shifting over to the markets, it's been a banner year, has it not, for the markets? we're winding down trading on the markets for the year. and how are things looking as we leave 2013 and heading into 2014? >> hi, jim.

just looking at the board right now, up about seven points. pretty much flat. the week between new years and christmas is usually a quiet run. ready to close their books for 2013. volume is definitely low over the past few days. only about 200 million shares tried trade. we could see some volatility. if we end up by 1.5 points, we will see the 51 st. record close so far this year. the major averages have been stellar up by about 26%. that's huge. but yes, if we see 1.5 points, a gain, that will be the 51st record close. in terms of 2014, some analysts say they anticipate the rally will continue at least in the short term because some of the investors who missed out on this rally look for ways to get in. one of the major headwinds we do anticipate will be january's earnings. a lot of retailers offered steep discounts this holiday shopping season to lure customers in. that could have an effect on their bottom line.

if we end up 51st record close, it could go either way at this point. >> zane asher, thank you very much. it's a well-known job hazard in the nfl. win and you're golden but lose a lot, not so much. is the biggest name on today's list of fired head coaches is washington's mike shanahan. it's fair to say he knew it was coming. so far the list has six names and counting. rachel nickles is in new york. rachel, full disclosure here, i'm a lifelong and long suffering washington redskins fan. i never thought i would say that. when i was a kid, we would go down to constitution avenue and see the redskins have their parades after the super bowl. we haven't done that in a long time in this town. what do you think about mike shanahan going out the door at redskins park? obviously it was expected. but really, are i mean, the skins have to start from scratch now it seems. >> yeah, i grew up in the d.c. area, as well. it is a lot different than it was in our clengttive

childhoods. you of all people know that in washington, d.c. and that whole mid-atlantic area of the country just how deep the roots run, fan dom of the redskins. the old expression in washington is the two most important people in town are the president of the united states and the quarterback of the washington redskins and not necessarily in that order. and it has been such a difficult season. right? eight straight losses to end this season. that's the worst in the redskins have had in more than 50 years just a gut punch to people in town after last season, justifies such an optimistic high, the feeling finally teams were starting to turn around. the excitement of the young quarterback robert griffin iii. in between, injuries, shifting allegian allegiances. it i want to give you a picture of the dysfunction and paranoia going on right now. this morning, the media shows up

expecting maybe mike shanahan is going to be fired. news vans, all kinds of people. the team decides because of the negative attention, they don't want to let all the people in. there's a clog of traffic that forms outside the parking lot, and it's only one road that gets you there. so mike shanahan comes in to have this meeting where he's going to get fired, and he can't get in. because they've shut all the news media out and they have to start moving cars aside to let him into the facility where is he late for the meeting where he goes to get fired. >> a note to all those respective head coaches, all those interested head coaches who may want to come to washington, not that easy exiting or entering redskins park these days. what about some of the other coaches who may be on the chopping block. >> jason garrett last night the cowboys did not make the playoffs for the second year in a row. it was sort of a make or break last game of the season for them

and this he did not win. who else is on list, do you think? >> this is called black monday in the nfl for a reason. there's 20 teams that didn't make the playoffs. i want to throw up this list of names here. six head coaching openings already in the nfl. it's not even 2:00 on monday. all six of these guys, some of them didn't get fired today. gary kubiak was fired a few weeks ago, chudzinski in cleveland was fired last night. they didn't even let him go the night after losing his game yesterday. these are all considered the recent victims. we might have a couple more to go. there's a couple guys who are on brink. you mentioned jason garrett in dallas. he's we'll safe. jerry jones has made repeated statements he is keeping his guy which a lot of fans in dallas are not so happy about. a lot of emotion in a lot of places. in minnesota right now, we've had reports of players crying in the locker room so attached to their coach let go, leslie

frazier but the ownership has to sell tickets for a new stadium so they're trying to apiece an upset fan base. not an easy day to be a coach unless you are going to the playoffs. then you're golden, right? >> exactly. at least for this week. and then it will be not so golden depending on which team gets to the end or not. raich nichols did not know you also grew up in the area. good to talk to you about that, as well. >> montgomery county, maryland. >> fairfax county. we won't go into that right now. we'll talk later. appreciate it. there are several new laws going into effect new year's day. but one in colorado is topping the list of what people are talking about, legalizing marijuana.

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set your watches at 8:00 in the morning, new years kay. anyone over 21 years old will be able to buy marijuana in colorado but only a few retailers have been able to clear hurdles required to sell the drug. as casey wian reports, there's a lot of scrambling going on to get ready. >> reporter: it's a big day for

tim cullen. >> i would liken it to graduation. it's just been a tremendous amount of work to get to the this point. >> reporter: he's joining a handful of business owners receiving denver's first licenses to sell marijuana for recreational use starting january 1st. >> that's information that needs to go to every customer that buys marijuana. >> all right. >> thanks, congratulations. you have a nice new year. >> at cullen's medical marijuana store, employees scramble to get ready. pot retailers must navigate so many regulations only 14 of about 250 medical marijuana businesses in denver have received one of these. a license to sell to anyone over 21. there home run multiple inspections, packaging requirements and in some cases new construction. >> we're building an absolutely impressive showcase for the world to see that this is an industry, this is not an underground business. >> at medicine man, all the pot sold is grown on site. >> customers don't want it really leafy.

they like it nice, tight and dense. >> it's hiring 25 new employees. >> looking to get some of this and smoke it in small quantities. >> and installing new equipment. >> we have to tag all these plants with an rfid tag, radio frequencicy identification and so it's another inventory control we have to implement here. this is a light tight, airtight container. and. >> wow. >> this is our san fernando valley og cush. >> a sour milky smell to it. >> some people like stuff that's really stinky. >> each container holds about $7500 of marijuana. it's no wonder he has a former army ranger guarding the front door. >> next year we'll have between 2 and two and a half times more business than this year. >> they predict prices will

spike. >> demand is going to very high on day one with a potential shortage of supply, prices will go up. >> lines are expected outside pot stores january 1st. >> we're going to have cookies and coffee set out. >> those cookies going to be laced with anything? >> no absolutely not. my parents volunteered to come down and hand out cookies and coffee. >> no one's expecting a marijuana mardi gras. >> it's still illegal to drive impaired, to take the product out of state, to resell it, to give it to anybody under 21 or consume it publicly. >> the city says it's prepared. >> we haven't seen a negative impact. >> statewide about $300 million of medical marijuana was sold in 2013. the industry expects sales to more than double next year. casey wian, cnn, denver. >> congress went home for the holidays but the political battles for 2014 are already

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already under way. democrats seem poised to make economic inequality their issue next year. zeke has covered washington and the white house for years. and was my campaign buddy out with the romney campaign for much of last year. and zeke, first obamacare. we see the news that enrollment is up. they had a huge surge in december, 975,000 people on the federal marketplace. and it seems as if you know, i was talking to one administration official will b this. if they haven't turned the corner, they can at least see the corner. what do you make of this enrollment surge? should we be calling it a surge? what does it mean? >> it's certainly better than where they were in october and november. it's also not nearly as far as they thought they would it be before the website issues came about. it's somewhere in between. it's a sign of progress and people do want health insurance or at least 1.1 million people do want health insurance. that's a good thing whether or not you like the law or not,

people are getting coverage. at the same time, you know, in terms of overall success of the law, this they were predicting something like 7 million between sort of october 1 and the end of march. will they hit that argument and also are the demographics right? do they have the right mix of young and healthy folks who make the exchanges work and make them financially viable? they're not releasing that data yet. till we do, this law will still be in flux. >> just sort of an unknowable thing at this point as to whether this is going to be a very good issue for republicans. at the moment, it would seem it would be a good issue. but flash forward eight, nine months from now, perhaps the program is going well and they don't want to target obamacare. >> exactly. you can envision a scenario where six, seven months people -- you have seven, maybe five, 7 million people hop now have health insurance. that's a lot of success stories for the democrats to talk about in every congressional district.

gubernatorial races, these are people who didn't have coverage and now do, that's a success story. you saw the success of the messaging in 2013 in that election, things like pre-existing conditions and you know, contraceptives and the like. that's going to be -- that was always a powerful tool, a wedge issue the democrats had particularly in sort of driving the gender gap, getting women sort of to continue to vote for democrats like they do more broadly in national elections. if they can do that six, seven months, republicans might be changing their tune a little bit on obamacare. >> the other thing we don't know the about are all the folks who lost health care coverage in the last quarter of 2013. do those folks go back and into the website and successfully reenroll in an insurance program and get covered? that's one of the issues that i think we'll be looking at the next couple of months or so. let's get to what democrats would like to talk about, and that is the minimum wage and nick economic inequality. the president has talked about

that they want to make a big push to raise the minimum wage early part of this year. hearing from a white house official that that is indeed something they want to do. is that a winning issue for democrats? >> it's a complicated issue for democrats and certainly the fact they're moving to this message, they very populace message on minimum wage is a sign they're still not totally comfortable where they are. it's connected to an extent and they might move off of that in five or six months. right now they're fully on board the minimum wage issue here. it could expose a rift within the democratic party between the progressive populace, elizabeth warren, bill de blasios, the obama camp. that's the camp president obama came out of in 2008. more moderate pro business community that doesn't want to raise -- >> and endanger in some cases democrats. we have a new poll, an abc news/washington post poll. do you support or oppose raising

the minimum wage support 66%, oppose 31%. i'm assuming people at the white house have seen that poll and have other polling perhaps that we haven't seen that shows similar findings and that this might have something to do with it. but ob top of that, you also have the issue of unemployment benefits. this extension of emergency unemployment benefits affecting about 1.3 million people. do we think that's going to get sorted out? the white house did not insist on this being part of the budget agreement the president signed at the end of this year. but perhaps we'll see a new fight on this front. >> certainly you're start offing to see the progressive groups are starting up a progressive war. certainly they're viewing this as a winning message in january going into the debt limit fight at the end of this month or at the end of next month rather. but in terms of can they actually get thing through, can they get the three months and find the pay forces that will

satisfy house republicans that's really up in the air right now. >> zeke miller with "time" magazine. a lot to work on. we thought we might get a little bit of a break after 2013. it does not seem that is going to be the case. zeke, good to see you. thanks very much. new york city is getting ready to ban e cigarettes in public spaces but they are a health hazard or a savior for smokers. that depends how talk to, that's coming up next. and my customers are really liking your flat rate shipping. fedex one rate. really makes my life easier. maybe a promotion is in order. good news. i got a new title. and a raise? management couldn't make that happen. [ male announcer ] introducing fedex one rate. simple, flat rate shipping with the reliability of fedex.

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in about 20 minutes, new york city mayor michael bloomberg will sign a slew of bills into law among them new restrictions on smoking electronic cigarettes in public places. the move has added fuel to the debate over whether they are a safe alternative to smoke. poppy harlow explains. >> remember these long band cigarette commercials. >> what cigarettes do you smoke, doctor. >> let's take a winston break. >> they're back on the of a waves. kind of. >> you know what the most amazing thing about this cigarette is? ♪ feels like the first time ♪ >> it isn't one. >> i can not worry about scaring that special someone away. >> they're electronic cigarettes and they've become nearly as controversial as the real thing. >> this is how i ended up quitting smoking >> no question about it. >> absolutely. >> aaron david ross smoked for ten years. we met him at henley, a new york city vapor lounge.

>> i haven't had a drag of a cigarette since about 2 1/2 years ago. >> liquid nicotine is heated up by a battery charged coil. there's no tobacco burned. users inhale and instead of smoke, there's a steam like vapor. so are e cigarettes safe and perhaps the greatest innovation yet to the quit smoking or an addictive be health hazard? >> with a product like e cigarettes you're guilty till proven innocent. we need to know these things are i've and okay to use. >> they've been in the u.s. less than a decade and increasingly big tobacco companies are manufacturing them. limited research has been done on the health impact and there are conflicting stories whether or not nicotine alone is harmful. >> i would like the science to catch up with what we're doing here. >> but you're still will to do it. >> i am because i think the alternative to just smoking all day i think this is a better alternative. >> woo p what we gain is far greater than what we have the potential to lose. >> amey fairchild of columbia

university's school of public health co-authored this op-ed in the "new york times" making the case for e cigarettes. >> a lot of folks say there's just not enough science. >> you could also make the case there's never going to be enough science, there's always room for another study and what i would say to them is the need is so great now, have you so many tobacco deaths now, it's the dire urgent public held need. this is one of the most important public health problems we face. >> she argues they must be federally regulated and not marketed to kids. >> i wish you could smell it. it smells a lot like candy. no surprise given all the flavors they sell, but critics argue when you sell flavors like cotton candy or like gummie bear, that can be attract children. some states have age requirements on sales, but not all. cdc data show nearly 2 million middle and high school students tried these cigarettes last

year. more than double the number in 2011. >> e cigarettes can potentially help some. people but serious potential harms they know about. if they get kids to start smoking that's really bad. if they get smokers to keep smoking that's really bad. if they get former smokers to go back to smoking that's really bad and if they reflam rise it, that's bad, as well. >> e cigarettes are not regulated by any federal body. and they're not an fda approved method to quit smoking. critics point out they can keep users hooked on nicotine. ross says he's still addicted to nicotine and uses e cigarettes at his desk. >> i wouldn't want to be sitting next to this. it smells good but it's a little disconcerting. >> there's because there's a public sig nag against it. >> he and others worry now that many in america are so opposed to smoking they're stigmatizing

something some say could save lives. >> you get angry when people try to fight this. >> because it worked for us. we saved our lives with this product. >> i wouldn't be so angry if people took the time type our elected officials took the time to get educated. they're not. they're reacting >> after decades of fighting big tobacco, what does the american cancer society think? >> cautious optimism with a number of caveats. anyone right now who is using an e cigarette does not know what they're inhaling >> but there's this. >> we don't want tonight take something out of the hands of people who which could, in fact, help people stop using the traditional burned cigarette which is the enemy. >> the fda is expected to announce a proposed rule to regulate e cigarettes as early as this month. till then. >> it's time we take our freedom back. come on, guys. rise from the ashes. >> poppy harlow, cnn, new york.

you can find panned calorie counts just about everywhere these days. soon you'll be seeing them when you get a quick snack from the vending machine. yes, that's coming up. we're aig. and we're here. to help secure retirements and protect financial futures. to help communities recover and rebuild. for companies going from garage to global. on the ground, in the air, even into space. we repaid every dollar america lent us. and gave america back a profit. we're here to keep our promises. to help you realize a better tomorrow. from the families of aig, happy holidays.

i'm sure you heard the story. target admits pin data was stole in a recent massive data breach. how much danger does it pose for tart customers and what kind of warning does it send to the rest of us who count on credit cards

and mobile money to buy what we need these days? clay johnson is the ceo of the department of better technology, a software company. let's talk about target. i'm sure you heard this during the holidays, as well. of is talking about what happened at target. how can people safeguard themselves with respect to this pin data? are these numbers safe, do you think? >> the first thing you need to do to safeguard yourself is to go and call your bank and get a new card. if you shopped at target between black friday and you know a week ago or december 15th i think was the cutoff date, the chances are somebody has your credit card you don't want. so call your bank and get a new credit card. and when you get that new credit or debit card and you assign a pin, make sure that that pin isn't your birthday or one, two, three, four. make sure that pin is something unique only you know and isn't something guessable. oftentimes when people set their pins, they set it to their birthday without thinking their facebook profile lists their

birthday. that's the first thing a crook will guess. >> people actually do 1, 2, 3, 4? >> yes, that's one of the most common pins. another thing you can do is protect your e-mail. your e-mail is the gateway to a lot of your other online services and offline services. oftentimes services will use your password to or when you reset your password, they have to e-mail your password back. if someone has access to your e-mail, they have access to all the services. >> what do people do, i know you say they're in your tips, don't use the same password twice. i think i need a place to write down all of my passwords for everywhere that i use a password. and then what if somebody finds that list? then i'm really hosed. >> there's some services called -- there's password management services. one's called last pass, another one called one password. they make it so that they actually make up your passwords for you so i you don't have to

remember them. they're all-starred with you and you just remember one password to get access to all of your other passwords and they automatically fill out all the force for you. it makes life super easy. >> that's a great tip. let's shift gears a little bit here. i know you worked with president obama on his digital campaigns, you were an innovation fellow at the white house and have been following the progress of healthcare.gov. we talked about this a couple of months ago when they were having so many problems with the website. they picked up a huge surge of consumers in the month of december, 975,000 people through the federal exchange. what do you make of the changes that they've made to the web site? do you think they've turned the corner? >> yeah, i think that the healthcare.gov problem is solved. they've gone through their biggest moment of traffic that they're going to have in a very long time. and it works. now the real question is can the president shift his administration's focus and congress's focus to fixing the problems that caused that, the problems of federal procurement

policy and procuring for i.t. the president said eades like to blow up federal i.t. i'd like to see congress help him there. it's an effort everybody can get behind and the question is whether or not enough attention and time will be paid to it by both the executive and legislative branch. >> right, because, a lot of people are still trying to figure out what happened to the web site. how did it get so messed up? as you've been following it these last couple months, besides the human process which is messed up in this town, they keep hiring the same companies to do things they're perhaps they're not adept at doing, have you been able to solve that mystery? >> part of the issue is government doesn't like to take a lot of risks. in technology, technology and innovation is all about risk. and you see younger smaller companies taking the risks and push of pushing the ball forward. whereas larger companies tend to lag behind a little bit. government tends to make safe betts. no one ever got fired for hiring

ibm, that is the culture of washington. if we only exclusively hired ibm in the private sector, we would still be using the old giant monolithic pcs. >> good advice. good talking with you again, clay johnson. good tips there for people >> good to see you and happy new year. >> happy new year to you. >> we know how tempting vending machines can be. but soon you'll get a reality check because millions of machines will be required to displace calorie information. we'll take a look at how it will work and how much it will cost. >> new regulations will go into effect early next year as part of obamacare. they allow more information for you. more than 10,000 companies will have to display this, the calorie counts. similarly to what you see in

menus in restaurants. it will be on vending machines now. they'll see the calories next to their snack choice. they include lays potato chips, skittles, snickers. you'll see it right there. now, the fda hopes this will help consumers go from alternatives. it will help you stick to your new year's resolutions. baked lays, 210 calories. fig newtons, 190 calories but they have fruit. roasted peanuts, 160, but they have protein. they estimate the cost will be about $25.8 million initially. $24 million every year after that. the industry's trade group says complying with the law will be expensive for small companies with few employees. but they estimate at just 0.2% of obese adults ate 100 fewer calories a week, it would save $2 million in health care costs. by seeing the numbers, will it change your behavior?

>> taking the fun out of the trip to the vending machine. thanks for that report. still to come, you have lived the stories and made the call. we'll run down your list of the top stories of 2013 you chose at cnn.com. results just after the break. humans -- even when we cross our "t's" and dot our "i's," we still run into problems. that's why liberty mutual insurance offers accident forgiveness with our auto policies. if you qualify, your rates won't go up due to your first accident. because making mistakes is only human, and so are we. we also offer new car replacement, so if you total your new car, we give you the money for a new one. call liberty mutual insurance at... and ask us all about our auto features, like guaranteed repairs, where if you get into an accident and use one of our certified repair shops, your repairs are guaranteed for life.

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hard to believe it's almost the end of the year. you have voted for the top ten stories of 2013, and we have the results. we don't have a drum roll, but i suppose i could do one on the desk. here we go, coming in at ten is the supreme court cruruling on same-sex marriage. number nine is the cleveland kidnapped women and their rescue. number eight, the syrian civil war. number seven, the philippines typhoon, and number six, the obamacare rollout debacle. now i want to bring in alina machado here to take us through them. a lot of big stories this year. you would argue the five i just mentioned could appear in the top five, but according to our voters, what did you find out? >> jim, let's get to the list because it has been a busy year for us. this is according to rankings according to people who voted on cnn.com. the federal government shutdown

sits at your number five. about 800,000 federal employees furloughed. more than a million other forced to work not knowing when they would get paid. the shutdown lasted for 16 days in october, the third longest shutdown in u.s. history and standards and poors says it took $24 billion out of the u.s. economy. the high school dropout who worked his way into the most secretive computers in the u.s. intelligence as a defense krablther comes in at number four. edward snowden will go down in history as the man who spilled the details of the national security agency's program. they showed they were bulk collecting phone records and e-mail and internat traffic of virtually all americans. some note him as a hero, others are calling him a traitor. >> he was born in south africa, but he belonged to the world. nelson mandela's dirth is the third top story of 2013 according to those who voted at

cnn.com. the world came together to mourn the 95-year-old's passing and remember his life, a struggle against racial oppression and an insprar to many. the boston bombing comes in as number two. april 15th is a day we will never forget. three people killed, more than 260 wounded after two bombs exploded near the finish line. the hunt for the suspected bombers gripped the national for several days. 26-year-old tamerlan tsarnaev was kimmed in a shootout withplice. his 19-year-old brother was captured and is awaiting trial on federal charges. he has pleaded not guilty. >> and the emergence of a somewhat unconventional leader of the catholic church is your top story of 2013. pope francis became the 266th pontiff. the first latin american to take the title. his remarks on homosexuals and his repeated acts of compassion, including his embrace of a severely disfigured man have

made headlines around the world. he was also named "time" magazine's person of the year. >> i think pope francis absolutely deserved to be at the top of the list, man of the year, person of the year, top story of the year. the pope historically is always a big player on the world stage, but this pope seems to thrive on the very human messages of compassion and caring and for the poor and the suffering. how much does that resonate with catholics and non-catholics? it seems like this is something that would work for everybody, obviously. >> yeah, jim. i mean, pope francis is called the people's pope for a reason. extremely popular and wem liked. not just among catholics. a recent cnn poll released this month found nearly three in four americans have a favorable view of pope francis. a high approval rating for the pope. jim. >> very good. elena alina machado, thank you much. and happy new year to you. thanks for looking back for us.

>> you can check out the entire list of the year's top stories right now on cnn.com. >> when they dropped the new year's eve ball, speaking of new year's eve, tomorrow night in new york, a famous hometown hero will be pushing the button. supreme court justice sonya sotomayor will help celebrate by lowering the ball. she'll also lead the final 60 seconds countdown. she was appointed to the high court in 2009. the third woman and first h hispanic to become a supreme court justice. you may have noticed "good morning america" anchor robin roberts acknowledging she's gay. she got a tweet from first lady michelle obama. she the been open about her health challenges, but she had not spoken ability her sexuality in her past. she mentioned her longtime girlfriend amber. and she said, i'm so happy for you, amber. you continue to make us all proud. she signed it m.o., as folks may

know, when the first lady or president signed it m.o. for the first lady or b.o. for the president, that means they personally sent the tweet out. that's it for me. i'll be back at 5:00 eastern on "the situation room." the "newsroom" continues right now with brooke baldwin. jim acosta, thank you so much. great to be with you on the last monday of this year. and we begin with some of the biggest stories in a flash. we call it rapid fire. roll it. here's what's happening right now, waiting for a helicopter rescue in icy antarctica. ice breakers have been trying to reach the 74 people trapped on a research ship. earlier today, an australian ship had to turn back and abandon its effort, much more on the ongoing rescue effort in a couple minutes. also today, football fans, referred to as black monday. six, count them, six nfl coaches have been fired today, and folks, check the clock with me. it's just