pigs and they'll just keep eating. >> the company accounted for a 20% increase in customer traffic, but it ended up being 40%. it cost the company $11 million and they filed for bankruptcy. number two, the real estate world will never be the same after today's seismic court settlement that 6% commission real estate agents get for buying or selling a home is now no more. in a landmark case, the national association of realtors eliminated the rules on commissions and paid $418 million to plaintiffs who argued the fees inflated prices of homes. >> and analysts expect it to benefit home buyers. >> sellers were saddled with hefty fees and often baked them into the sales price of homes. the historic change could make home prices more affordable. the average home price is $407,200, near record highs. number one

the richest man in the world, elon musk, will soon be a government employee. the ex tesla and spacex owner went full maga. >> we had one president who couldn't climb a flight of stairs and another who was fist pumping after getting shot. >> the multi-billionaire lost a few billion on x, which lost an estimated 80% of value since musk bought it two years ago. but he gained a few billion on tesla, which has soared since trump's reelection. >> we want to have a fun, exciting future. >> trump appointed musk, the co-head of the department of government efficiency, or doge. >> we have a new star. a star is born elon musk, and he's been advising the president elect on key cabinet hires. >> musk is now more than $100 billion richer than the second richest person in the world. amazon founder jeff bezos.

>> the man now accused of murder for lighting a woman on fire in the new york city subway, is expected in court very soon. we are following developments live on this this morning. and a second stowaway discovered on a second delta flight, this time a christmas eve flight headed to honolulu. what happened? and how did this happen again? today is one of the busiest travel days of the year. millions expected to hit the road and take to the skies. and there is some nasty weather and storms to watch out for. i'm kate baldwin with sara sidner. john berman is out. this is cnn news central.

>> it's few days the prosecution has been presenting evidence to a grand jury, 23 new yorkers who we're going to look at whatever evidence they have so far, and they have to decide whether or not there's enough evidence to accuse this person of a crime. >> that's all that happens in a grand jury proceeding. 23 people, they vote yes or no. and what is likely going to happen here is that they will hand down an indictment. and then the suspect in this case, zapeta-calil, will be indicted on those charges. as we know they are prosecuting him on murder in the first degree and the second degree, as well as federal arson charges. so that's what's likely going to happen today. we are learning a little bit of new information this time out of city hall. mayor eric adams has issued a statement through his through his spokesperson, saying that he wants federal authorities to

get involved. now, that's interesting because we know that zapeta-calil is being prosecuted by state authorities as anyone else who commits or is accused of a crime here in new york does. but because of the immigration aspect of all of this, the fact that zapeta-calil is an undocumented immigrant, the mayor is now suggesting that the fed, the federal authorities, should get involved. now, what does it mean? he is directing the nypd to work with ice to explore the possibility of whether or not zapeta-calil should be charged at the federal level, and more than anything, it really signifies and shows this sort of willingness by mayor eric adams to work with federal federal authorities when it comes to immigration enforcement. so we'll see what the federal authorities have to say about it. we're waiting to hear back from them. in the meantime, the brooklyn district attorney who is prosecuting this case has said they welcome the help. but they also point out that they are prosecuting

him on murder in the first degree. the top charge. if he is convicted, he's facing life in prison without parole. so that is what we are expecting out of what we believe will be a very short hearing this morning. >> but i mean a short hearing. and i will be with or without the federal authorities getting involved here will be a long road now ahead. absolutely. it's good to see you, gloria. thank you so much for staying on top of it, sarah. >> all right. this morning. there are still so many unanswered questions after another stowaway without a ticket was able to get through tsa, but caught on a delta airlines flight. this time it happened in seattle. the plane was bound for hawaii as it was taxiing out for takeoff. the stowaway was finally discovered just a few weeks ago, right before thanksgiving. this woman here traveled all the way to paris after getting onto a delta flight at new york's jfk airport. in this latest incident, the stowaway somehow got through the tsa screening checkpoint. but the night before. cnn's carla suarez is at atlanta's hartsfield

international airport. one busy, busy place. there are so many questions here. how did she get through tsa? how did she get on the plane? how was she discovered? give us what you know. >> that's exactly right, sarah. good morning. so we know that this unidentified passenger was able to get passed through that tsa security checkpoint in seattle the night before that christmas eve flight, meaning that this passenger spent some hours in the terminal before being able to get onto that delta flight again without a ticket. now, at some point along this journey, if you will, the air, the flight crew realizes that they have someone on board that doesn't have a ticket. and so they, of course, decide to come back to the gate. it's at that point that we're told, for reasons that have yet to be explained, that the passenger was able to get off the plane at the gate before authorities got there. and so authorities arrived at the gate and then had to figure out exactly where this passenger went. we're told

that the passenger was eventually taken into custody after being spotted in a bathroom. now, delta put out a statement that read, quote, as there are no matters more important than safety and security, delta people followed procedures to have an unticketed passenger removed from the flight and then apprehended the name of this passenger, sarah, has not been released by authorities, though we're told that the passenger was charged with trespassing. >> okay, so today is one of the busiest travel days of the year. i think monday is also one of those days. i am seeing a difference between earlier and right now. there is starting to be some serious traffic there. what are things like this morning in atlanta? >> that's exactly right. so today is one of the three busiest travel days of the year. now here at atlanta's hartsfield jackson international airport. the wait time right now at tsa is about 12 to 15 minutes. so it's not too bad.

the officials out here tell us that they expect to see a well over 357,000 passengers make their way through this airport today. it is the busiest day of the travel year for the folks here in atlanta. of course, with the number of people that are traveling across the country, we are starting to see a growing number of flight delays and cancellations. as of this hour, over 2000 flights in the u.s. have been delayed, and just about 64 flights have been canceled. a lot of this, in part because of some of the some of this bad weather that is making its way through the south here now are some passengers that we talked to just a few minutes ago on why they decided to book an early morning flight always in the morning, never at night get an early start. >> and that way if something happens, you have time at the end to make up for it. >> arrive early. be patient. yeah. that's it. really the key to everything. >> all right. sarah. so i think

booking early morning flights is kind of like when you make an early morning doctor's appointment, you do it. it kind of sounds great, but then on the day of you kind of maybe regret it, you regret it until you see that a bunch of planes have been delayed or canceled because of storms, or there's too many people. >> so it's a good thing to to leave early. but i also hate it. just like you, carlos. it always. i get it. carlos suarez, thank you to you and your crew for hanging out with us today. severe weather like this could cause major travel disruptions for millions this weekend. the video that we're about to show you, i think, is going to show you where tornado. and there it is in southeastern texas yesterday. yikes. parts of the south could see more tornadoes, as well as damaging wind and large hail. meteorologist alyssa rafah joins us now with the very latest. where are the worst storms expected? and i think you told us last hour they're going to start one place, but

there's going to be problems across the country. potentially. >> it spreads east as we go through the weekend. we're really worried about additional strong tornadoes across the south. we're talking louisiana and mississippi going into tomorrow. seeing images like that are just rare for this time of year. could have some minor delays from new orleans to atlanta and raleigh today because of some of those storms in the south, we still have the rain and snow that's been nonstop in the pacific northwest, seattle, portland, san francisco all could have some problems. here's a look at that severe risk that really ramps up going into saturday. a level three out of five enhanced risk of severe weather. we're looking at damaging winds, large hail, strong tornadoes. and then you can see all of that shifts east as we go into tomorrow. charlotte and atlanta all included in that storm threat as we go into the weekend. so the greatest risk for tornadoes again across parts of louisiana and mississippi. and we could have some strong ef two tornadoes as we go through the day now, tornadoes in december. on the rare side of things, it's one of our least likely

months for tornadoes, only about 43 on average for the month not near the 200 or plus that we see in march or april, but we are way above average for tornado reports already this year, more than 1700, so it's been pretty active as these storms continue to blow up through the weekend, any flights will need to detour around this. any storm that is able to produce a tornado would be tall, could have lightning, and you would need to reroute around this. so something to watch out for. and then all of that rain starts to move east. you could see some problems up and down the east coast on sunday, but all in all, it's been a pretty mild winter so far. >> elisa raffa but nobody likes to see storms when they're traveling. thank you so much. appreciate it kate, coming up for us, president-elect donald trump still fixated on panama canal and on purchasing greenland. >> what his advisers are now telling cnn is the real reason behind this obsession. and breaking overnight, the airline and the crash of the passenger plane that killed 38 people, now releasing its

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>> track your car's value on carvana today. >> do you want these things? yeah. >> sounds fun. this looks wild. i went to this last year. the winter classic outdoors. >> wrigley field. >> new year's eve party. kamal adwan wrigley field, december 31st. >> blues, blackhawks on tnt and streaming on max. >> so if one thing has become clear this week, it's the president elect is fixated on wanting to retake control of the panama canal, and is also obsessing once again on wanting to buy greenland, all leading to kind of a constant refrain of is he serious or is he trolling? cnn's alayna treene has new reporting from west palm beach for us. elena, what are you learning? >> well, kate, i do think that some of this is donald trump being serious. i think the question is, how exactly does he intend to follow through on some of these threats and these taunts that he's been issuing for the past several days now? now, i did catch up with one trump adviser, and they gave me their interpretation of what all of these posts mean when it as as it relates to taking

control over the panama canal, but also his, you know, revival of his desire to purchase greenland. something that i will argue that the greenland's prime minister says that is not for sale. and also, these taunts to the canadian prime minister, justin trudeau, about trying to, you know, absorb canada into the united states as its 51st state. all to say, this adviser told me that they believe that this is part of a larger negotiating tactic, that donald trump is really trying to kind of begin planting the seeds for. and essentially he wants to force foreign leaders to the table to have these kinds of negotiations in ways that donald trump believes will benefit u.s. trade and give them better prices on certain deals that they have, but also trying to curb both china and russia's influence. now, as it relates to all of these calls about him, you know, alluding to wanting to take back control over the panama canal. i'm told that really, donald trump's overarching goal with those with that messaging is to try and secure lower rates for american vessels that pass

through there and to get lower shipping rates, essentially to boost american companies and what they're paying in some of these deals as they go through the panama canal. i will also say that when i talked to this adviser, they said that essentially he believes donald trump, that chinese companies own a lot of these ports, and that effectively gives them a lot of control over the shipping rates, as well as which vessels are allowed to pass through. as it relates to his calls for greenland and him reviving that desire again to try and purchase the country. i'm told that donald trump believes that that's really his way of trying to curb russian influence in the arctic region. so again, this is kind of donald trump's way of trying to strongarm some of these politicians kind of assert his dominance, but also see if he can bring them to the table and begin kind of laying that all out, even though he's not in office yet, and he still has days to go until he is sworn in on january 20th. >> and we'll see if it works. alayna treene great to see you. thank you sarah. >> all right. thank you so much, kate. let's talk politics now with neil chatterjee, republican strategist, and

christine quinn, executive committee chair of new york's democratic committee. i am going to spare you on this holiday for talking more about the panama canal. i think we've touched on that quite a bit. so what we're going to do instead is look at what has happened with some blowback for elon musk and vivek ramaswamy after the two of them were talking about wanting to push for more visas to highly skilled foreign workers, musk is talking about h-1b visas, which allow employers to hire highly skilled foreign workers. ramaswamy is facing the biggest blowback because he put this among a very long line of thought of his thoughts on x, saying, our american culture has venerated mediocrity over excellence for way too long. neil, these words are causing a stir. what do you make of them, and how is the reaction?

>> look, i think what this is, is an attempt to divide maga and doge because i think there are the political left is concerned that they might actually be successful. and so they're looking at ways to drive riffs. i think what vivek, the left doesn't say the left is not the one that's coming after vivek. >> it is the right coming after him, going hard on him. >> there's a reason we're talking about this this morning, because the left wants to divide president trump and elon musk and elon went on and he clarified it. and he used a sports reference. he said this is like going and getting victor wembanyama the number one pick in the nba draft from france. this is about getting the best of the best here in the u.s.. look, i'm the son of immigrants. my parents immigrated to this country. they came here to cure cancer. they had a number of vaccines in an attempt to cure cancer. and there is no one more patriotic and loves this country more than my family, because that is the american

dream. and we're living that dream. that's all vivek was saying. and what elon is saying, if not for the fact that they were running the doge in an effort to shrink the federal bureaucracy, i don't think this would be an issue. i don't even think this would be garnering attention. uh, this this is an attempt to basically divide president trump and, you know, these these folks from the tech industry who have been instrumental in his success. >> that is one take. christine, i see you side eyeing what's your take on what you saw? >> well, it's just strange that something that, uh, president-elect trump's really closest advisers, some have called him the unelected president, elon musk. he made this statement. it's not like. uh, alexandria ocasio-cortez said this statement. he said it directly, kind of attacking the quality of americans. american scientists, american minds. if

he is concerned that we don't have a high enough skill level or a high enough educational level, then he should step away from the proposals in project 2025 that call for eliminating the department of education and cutting educational programs. this isn't about the left. this is about the right. in a way, showing how it really feels about new americans coming to this country and how it feels about americans and whether we have enough intelligence here. and it's so curious that they're talking about letting in people with high educations, but then hard working people who've risked their lives to get to this country, they want to have nothing to do with when every other time in our country's history that we've had big waves of working class immigrants, they have only improved this country and seen education of their children rise extremely high. >> all right. let's talk about what's happening with the

democrats. we've seen author and former presidential candidate marianne williamson is announcing she's running to lead the democratic national committee, along with a host of others, including one who is using some of trump's talking points to win. let's first talk about williamson. what do you make of this? and does she even have a chance first to you, christine. >> uh, the last thing we needed in the democratic party was for marianne williamson to run for dnc chair. it's laughable. i think it is not good for the race. we want to have a really strong, intelligent race. we want to hear from candidates about what big changes they would make in the dnc so we can right the ship. i don't think she has a chance in the same way she didn't have a chance when she ran for president. she certainly brought kind of humor or maybe edibles to that stage. who knows. but we don't need that right now. what we need is

serious, bold leadership that's going to shake things up and get us back on track. and i'm certainly not happy about her candidacy. >> here is one of the candidates, and i'll let you speak to this. neil, let's listen to one of the candidates for the dnc, robert houghton, who talked to our kate bolduan last night, and he is making some bold statements that probably have surprised some democrats. listen. >> we need bold, younger generation of leaders, and none of my fellow candidate chairs are that we also need someone who will agree with president trump when he's right. and there's a reason why he had that decisive victory, because he was right on so many issues. and our party drifted to the left. sanctuary cities die. we need to embrace tax cuts, which will spur job growth. over 3 million jobs that were created when it was enacted in 2017, and it would have created more jobs if the covid pandemic hadn't hit. >> neil, are you surprised to hear a democrat that's running

for the democratic national committee say these words? >> yeah, i like that guy. >> well, of course you do. >> because i think if the democrats did, if the democrats, you know, started to adopt that message, they might have greater success. no. look, this this always happens after parties lose elections. i was working in the senate after mitt romney lost in 2012, and the republican party had to do a complete reevaluation of where we stood and did really a deep dive to figure out, you know, what was wrong with our message. and i think that, in turn, led to the rise of, you know, kind of working class populism and fed into the rise of donald trump in 2016. i think the democratic party is kind of where we were in 2012. they just lost an election, lost the house, the senate. ran away out of the wilderness. and i certainly think there are folks who are going to say that they need to take a more common sense approach on some of these

issues. and so i'm not familiar with this gentleman, but i hope he doesn't win, because if he does and he shifts the democratic party in that direction, they'll likely have greater electoral success. >> christine is cracking up, so we know where she stands on that. thank you so much, christine quinn and neil chatterjee for hanging out with us on this holiday friday. thank you. appreciate you both. all right. colorado a colorado couple is now in custody after their one month old baby was found abandoned in a car seat in the median of a busy road on christmas morning. the baby tested positive for cocaine. more on that disturbing story. plus, what a preliminary investigation now saying happened right before that deadly christmas day plane crash that killed 38 people in kazakhstan. >> andy, take a seat, anderson. look at this. you're wet.

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azerbaijan state media now reporting a preliminary investigation has found that the plane that crashed on christmas day experienced, quote, physical and technical, external interference before that fiery crash. 38 people were killed overnight. we also learned a second black box has been recovered from the crash site, and 12 of the 29 people who miraculously survived look at this video have now arrived back in azerbaijan. five of them in what in, quote, serious but stable condition. cnn's nadia bashir has been following all of the developments here. and now to what else are you learning about the crash and the investigation? now? >> well, we've been getting updates from authorities on the ground. >> the latest update from azerbaijan airlines is that the plane faced external physical and technical interference. now that will be a key focus for investigators as they continue to examine the evidence as to what may have led to this fatal crash. we know, of course, that

investigators have been now able to recover both black boxes that will be crucial in trying to piece together this puzzle, obtaining flight data and potentially recordings from within the cockpit. but authorities say this could take around two weeks for a full assessment to be complete. and there has been a lot of questions, a lot of speculation as to the potential cause behind this fatal crash. earlier yesterday, we had heard from russian aviation authorities, or rather on wednesday, suggesting that this may have been caused by the plane colliding with a flock of birds. but then, of course, we have also heard some suggestions of questions around nearby drone activity. the crash occurred shortly after a drone strike hit southern russia, and there has been concern around drone activity in this particular region, particularly when it comes to commercial airliners such as this azerbaijan airlines flight. of course, we did hear yesterday from one u.s. official telling cnn that the flight may have been downed by russian anti-aircraft systems, that this may have been a case of mistaken identity,

perhaps russian units mistakenly firing towards, or perhaps assessing this to be drone activity, as opposed to a commercial airliner. and this really echoes reporting that we'd heard earlier in the day yesterday from reuters, which was citing unnamed sources familiar with those ongoing investigations, which essentially suggested that this, again, may well have been caused by russian air defense systems. now, the kazakh government has established and set up a commission charged with investigating this crash. we've had no firm conclusions from that investigation just yet. we know that additional personnel and experts have arrived in kazakhstan today to support in that investigation. but again, there are still many questions up in the air, and we will be waiting to hear more details from the authorities. but as you mentioned, kate, truly remarkable that some 29 people were able to survive that crash. but a moment of tragedy, of course, in mourning for those that were not surviving this crash. >> neda, thank you very much for that. coming up for us, there are now new concerns

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the video from august was taken at the wild felid advocacy center of washington, a big cat sanctuary where thumper lived. thumper is one of 20 cats from the sanctuary who died in recent weeks from bird flu. >> we thought we were doing everything we could to avoid anything like this from happening. the cats are pretty well split up into 30 by 40 foot habitats. >> the sanctuary director and co-founder mark mathews says the cats enclosures are spread out among five acres. he told me their first cat got sick on november 22nd. the 17 year old cougar named hanna, wyoming, stopped eating and died the next day. a day later, this african caracal named crackle also got sick and died. others they lost included this cougar named holly and tabby, a bengal tiger tabby. >> the tiger was a very fun loving tiger. she had a super personality. every time i came up, she'd come running. running to meet me.

>> this bengal cat, pebbles, also succumbed to bird flu, as well as mouse, a jeffrey cat. only 17 of the 37 cats once housed here are left. nico, an african serval, is still in critical condition, fighting to regain the use of his back legs. >> feeling devastated. uh, kind of in shock and just taking really good care of those ones who are recovering. >> the disease spread rapidly, and they still don't know how exactly the bird flu entered their facility. >> initially, we thought it was a. bird droppings from waterfowl. we are in a flight pattern for migratory birds, so i don't know if that's part of the equation or not. so we really don't know at this time if it was food related or not. >> although we don't know exactly how it got there, it does make sense that it's likely due to migratory birds because we know bird flu is transmitted through the migratory bird population. >> doctor dean blumberg is an infectious disease expert at uc davis. >> it spread through the bird

saliva, the feces, the you're in. and so you really can't protect against that in the natural environment. >> the staff at the sanctuary are working tirelessly to disinfect the habitats while also protecting themselves from getting sick. they're wearing ppe, including n95 masks and doing foot baths when they enter and leave. >> the virus may mutate and become more easily transmitted person to person, so the more this virus circulates, and specifically co-circulating with human strains, that's going to increase the odds of the virus evolving to more human to human transmission. and that that, of course, could could signal another pandemic. >> randi kaye, cnn, west palm beach, florida. >> it's so terrible to see that this, though, should help you out a bit. his gorgeous, velvety voice has been the soundtrack to countless romances and walks down the aisle. luther vandross was one

of the most influential artists of all time, and in a new cnn film, we hear him and some of the people that were the closest to him tell the story of his iconic career and $1.5 billion up for grabs tonight in the mega millions, drawing a huge jackpot. but your chances of winning. let's just let's not get into that. let's not get into that. hope. >> new year's eve live with anderson and andy. live coverage starts at eight on cnn. >> best part of the party? >> snooping in the bathroom. >> ooh! party fell. >> not listening to your dentist. >> make the sonicare switch. all right, champ, be gentle. be effective. be you. i love you. >> for over 25 years, lovesac has been rewriting the rules of comfort. it's okay to change your style. >> get messy, get immersed with

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>> anderson cooper 360 tonight at eight on cnn. >> a new cnn film examines the dazzling story of one of the

greatest singers of all time, luther vandross, from his formative years in harlem, appearing in the apollo theater house band and the first episodes of sesame street. of course, we all know him as the king of love songs. here's a look that's a tie. >> i feel like making dreams come true. oh, baby. >> i used to sing background vocals for roberta flack on the road and roberta sometimes would have interviews, and sometimes she'd be unable to show up at soundchecks. so i would sing her songs for her in soundchecks to test her microphone and. to you i cannot. >> making love to you. that's the time. >> what happened is that one day she had come back to the theater and i was singing, and she came over to me and she said, you know, you're getting

a little too comfortable sitting on the stool in the background singing oohs and ahs. i really want you to make your own statement and make your own record, you know? and she, in effect, fired me. >> wow. that is an incredible way to start. joining us now is the film's director, dawn porter. thank you for this. this it filled a lot of our hearts. but for a lot of people, it made you cry like crazy. i do want to talk about the theme of love. we are in the season and for many of us, his work was the the the theme song to our love lives, weddings, dates. right? when you just want to chill and jam out. um, but he himself, in a terrible twist of irony, never found romantic love for himself. you touched on this theme. why was it so important to make this one of the pillars of the story? >> um, you know, it is such an irony, right? so it's such a

sadness to the luther story, which is otherwise quite joyous that the person who is the soundtrack, the love soundtrack. valerie simpson, we interviewed val and she said, you know, luther was doctor love, and astro and simpson used to have a radio show in new york city, and they would have luther come on and all their friends come on, and they would talk about how he was the love doctor. he really wanted to be known for his singing, but it is the ultimate irony that he never found that one special person just listening to the music. >> i could sit here and sing it all day, but you all don't want to hear me. i do want to ask you about some of the, you know, there were some hard themes to, but he also talked about, you know, he was asked, hey, were you poor as a child? and he was like, i don't know, we had enough food to eat. we had, you know, we had enough. we had toys at christmas. like, you'd have to ask my mom. i had a happy childhood, even though they didn't have a lot. but then when it came to his career, as it started out,

there was colorism and weight. and believe me, like i've dealt with one of those right where the way he looked hindered him. tell me about that sort of journey, getting to that part of his story. >> you know what i think is very well known about luther is, of course, his talent. it's not as well known how ubiquitous his his music was. he was singing jingles. he was backup singer to so many people bowie, aretha franklin, like arranging, producing. but as much as his talent stood out, he had a hard time kind of being that leading man. the radio stations, the record companies didn't quite know what to do with this very dark skinned, overweight, you know, man. and he struggled with his weight in public. you know, he was on the oprah show 14 times. and that was something that they shared. and i think they really bonded over that. so we have a lot of footage from that show that her show graciously allowed to use, allowed us to

use. >> you just talked about some of the people that he worked with. was there anything to you surprising as you delved into his life? because there's a lot of things that are known about him, but you have some things in there. i was like, oh, no way. >> you know, the first half hour of this movie is it's so much fun to watch with people. i hope people enjoy with their friends and family. because you say, i didn't know that. i didn't know that. and so then by the time you get to the things that are familiar, you know, it's such it's such a joy to explore. so he was on sesame street, the first episodes of sesame street. >> i didn't know that. i think it's wonderful. >> let it be low brow. that's luther singing those jingles discovered by david bowie. back up to bette midler working with diana ross, with aretha franklin, with dionne warwick, with all of these real greats. but the greatest thing, the greatest discovery for us was how admired he was by so many of his contemporaries, including mariah carey, who's in the film don porter. >> this is a masterpiece. it's

wonderful. and you can just sit back, relax and just let it all come in and sing the songs, which i like to do with these kinds of documentaries. waiting for you, sarah, thank you so much for this. >> thanks so much for having me. >> and you can watch it too. luther. never too much premieres new year's day, 8 p.m. eastern and pacific. >> in colorado, a man and woman have now been under arrest, put under arrest and are facing charges of felony child abuse after a shocking discovery christmas morning. a one month old baby was found in the median of a busy road and also tested positive for having cocaine in its system. emergency responders were called to the scene in a busy denver intersection and found that baby strapped into a car seat, wearing only a diaper. good samaritan alerted authorities after witnessing a man dropping off the car seat in the median while arguing with a woman. you can see pictures here. the car seat is

a display version that was not meant to be sold. the man and woman were seen arguing. they turned out to be the baby's parents. that baby is now recovering in state custody. also a disturbing story out of florida after a woman allegedly stabbed a mother 14 times in front of her five year old daughter. police say the incident started over an argument about a tip on a pizza delivery. 22 year old briana alvelo delivered the pizza to a motel, then left and then allegedly came back, later breaking into the victim's motel room and stabbing her repeatedly all over her body in front of that poor woman's child. the woman was taken to hospital, is recovering and said to be in stable condition. alvelo, though, is now facing a whole bunch of charges, including for home invasion with a firearm, attempted murder, kidnaping and aggravated assault. now, thousands of amazon delivery drivers have ended their strike and are headed back to work. the teamsters union led

protests outside at least 200 facilities nationwide, but workers only went on strike at a handful of locations. the workers are calling for higher wages and better working conditions, citing record profits earned by amazon. amazon has insisted that none of its operations or deliveries were affected by the stoppage, and is also pushed back against the teamsters, saying that the teamsters don't represent any amazon employees. still, union leaders say the strike was a success in raising public awareness for its members. sarah. >> okay, kate. stick around. i think we need to do this as a pool, but we're just hours away from a lottery drawing that could make you or maybe me, or maybe some of our crew guys here. i don't know, sweet lou. he looks like he could use $1 billion. the mega millions jackpot soared to more than a billion after no one ended up picking the winning number on christmas eve. cnn correspondent lucy kavanagh joining us now from chicago from a store there. okay. first of all, are you into this? have

you picked a ticket? do you do like your own numbers or do you. oh, are you ready? >> well, i'm not ready. it's not filled out yet, sarah, but i have it in my hand. it's, you know, for for for for those who haven't maybe gotten that perfect belated christmas gift for friends or are just looking to get lucky on their own, it's another chance to, uh, to put your chance in for more than $1 billion this holiday season again, after nobody managed to win all six. get all six numbers correct on christmas eve, and this is one of the gas stations where folks have been coming in this morning for their chances. taking home tonight $1.15 billion jackpot. it is the fifth largest prize in the game's history. and the stakes are very, very high. if somebody wins and they take the cash option, that means they can walk away with more than $516 million before taxes. obviously, a life changing amount. as for your chances of

actually winning, they're not that great. it's 1 in 302,000,000, which means you have a better chance of getting bitten by a shark or struck by lightning. but that has not stopped people from dreaming big about what they do with their winnings. take a listen. >> i'm going to take care of my daughters, my grandchildren, and that's it. >> family is everything, especially now. with christmas. >> it would be an amazing belated christmas present. >> awesome. and like i said, me and my wife would go to the keys and everybody else say, love. >> the winning number will be picked tonight at 11 p.m., so you still have time to get your tickets. >> everyone else say love. >> i was going to say that's a perfect way of say la vie. >> perfect way of wrapping it. >> say love to this week. thank you all so much for joining us. this is cnn news central. cnn newsroom. up next.

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