finally found out who made the mistake and contacted the team with keller williams reality. >> i told her to give me $100,000 to $200,000 to replace my things, because it's going to take time, i'm actually being generous. they're, like, okay that's too much. she called me the same day and told me that they were only willing to give me $5,000. >> reporter: mauck is now staying with friends because she doesn't want to go back to her condo. >> i don't feel secure because i know somebody out there has access to my door. >> both the realtor and the company hired to remove the stuff from the condo have no idea where any of it is. but they're looking. as for mauck, she is getting a lawyer. we are "pushing forward" with the next hour of "cnn newsroom" with tom foreman in for kyra phillips in washington, d.c.! good to see you, tom. >> thanks so much, tony. good to see you, too. "pushing forward" on online security. a cyberveteran logs back on at the white house. we'll look at who this gentleman

is and the internet threats he'll need to knock down. getting knocked out can have long-term fallout for nfl veterans. the consequences of concussions and the researchers who are recruiting players to donate their brains. and quite a change from balmy cuba, an inside look at the illinois prison that could house gitmo detainees. plus, new protests over that plan. if the united states has a soft underbelly, it may well be a place that attackers tried day and night to expose and rip open, and that's cyberspace. a year ago, president-elect obama was told to secure cyberspace, and fast. today, president-elect obama did that. today, president obama named the man who will guard the door. howard schmidt is the new white house cybersecurity coordinator or cyberczar, if you like those kind of titles. the announcement was made via e-mail, how appropriate.

schmidt's czar dom is vast. a successful attack would stop transportation and freeze finances and knock out water, sewer, electricity, the stuff of nightmares. mr. schmidt has been in the military, law enforcement, he's worked in private business with bigtime firms like microsoft and ebay and he's no stranger to the white house either. our internet security expert comes in via skype. it sounds like this could be the right guy for the job. what do you think? >> well, he's certainly somebody who's been around for a while. he's well known. he's good at forming teams. i think this job is going to require a lot of that. >> what do you think the fundamental thing is he has to do first? >> i think the first thing he's going to have to do is an inv invento inventory. he needs to find out what every agency is going to be doing and how they're going to do it. he needs to bring together the other experts who will help him do this job to get a handle on

some of the new data breaches that we're seeing like the new reports like citibank and some of the other banks this morning. >> it seems to me, parry, one of the potential pitfalls is the very thing happened with homeland security when it first beg began. it was simply so vast there was a sense they couldn't manage all of it at once and i can't imagine anything more vast than looking at cyberspace. how do you get your hands around something like that? >> well, what you do is you bring together a lot of people who know everybody about their own piece of the world. i expect -- and i've been working very closely with howard, over the years, i may be one of those people. but i think what he's going to do is call up everybody and say what do you think? what do we need to know, what are the gachs and how can you help? and by putting together enough people, a cyberbrain trust, in effect, to be able to tackle this. but howard's been in every different part of government, from working with the fbi to being at the bush white house. he's -- he was at microsoft and

ebay, he knows a lot and keeps his thumb on a lot of the different enterprise and industry issues. he even headed mcafee's cybercrime initiative that i was part of. he's a good person to pull it all together and find the other people that can be part of the puzzle. >> you know, parry, one of the complaints after 9/11 essentially there was a failure of imagination. there is certainly no shortage imagination on the part of hackers who want to attack our country. let me ask you a very simple question. do you think we face the genuine prospect of sort of a systemic shutdown or collapse of our computer network if we don't significantly raise the barriers to the people who are trying to attack it? >> well, i think we need to recognize hackers. we're seeing a lot of foreign governments who have their own people who are trying to infiltrate and jeopardize everything across the united states from our businesses to

our -- to the government itself. but we have a lot of talented people in government. the department of defense has some of the best hacker-grade experts out there. there's a lot of challenge, don't underestimate people within the united states. i think by pulling us all together, the big enterprise companies whose job it is to protect the work world and the others, i think if you pull us all together in one big row, i think it will be okay. but it's important that we never let down our guard. >> one last question. you raised the question of the government being involved. we think of hackers of the cuckoo people, and rogue folks, but it has been become much more the purview of governments conducting espionage and atta attacking each other this way, hasn't it? >> absolutely. we have people who are in the field. we have a lot of people who are at risk, who are at war, and there are a lot of on people on the other side who have good

technology skills who would like to find out where we're deploying people. they'd like to take down the industry. they'd like to take down our financial infrastructure and we can never let down our guard. we're a country that is struggling right now. we've got people in harm's way. it's important that we make sure the cybersecurity is as important as on the ground with our defenses. >> all right. parry, thanks so much for joining us. i think we may have been trying to take down your signal there on skype a few times. it was a little hit or miss but thank you for joining us and giving us insight in to this. if you want to find the cure, you look inside the disease. it kind of works in computer security, too. if you can breach it, chances are you can also protect it. you just have to figure out how. cnn's homeland security correspondent, jeanne meserve, has been looking in to how the feds already have been looking for a few good hackers to aid in this enormous task now facing the cyberczar. take a look.

♪ >> reporter: hackers, hunkered down in hoodies and headphones in a cutthroat competition to gain control of computer systems and keep others out. here it's legal. a game called net wars with more than 1,000 people playing online. it's part of a seiber security talent search, based on the premise that someone who can exploit a system knows how to protect it. >> it would be silly for us to sit back and say, well, we don't want to teach people to hack. we're not teaching them to hack. we're finding the ones who are good and we're giving them a chance to get better. >> reporter: dan crowley who goes by the handle info-not acknowledges a lot of hacking is done in the shadows for money or mischief. >> absolutely, absolutely. check your spam folder if you don't believe me. >> reporter: so, what's the intention to do it in the daylight? >> well, for one, you don't get thrown in jail. >> reporter: and you do make contacts. the reward for his performance

here? a pocket full of business cards. >> there's a gentleman here yesterday from the new york state police. >> reporter: making those connections is one of the goals of the competition. >> we're hoping we can rapidly -- radically increase the speed with which these talented kids get into the workforce. >> reporter: right now there is a disconnect. the winner here is a part-time student looking for a job. another sells grapes for a vineyard. >> it's kind of a waste of talent i guess but -- >> reporter: the chinese military reportedly holds competitions to cultivate its computer talent. the exploit of chinese hackers have contributed to the belief that future wars will be handled with a keyboard and a code. this man said the u.s. is wide open for attacks. >> the nation is at strategic risk and unless we find these youngsters, develop their skills, offer them opportunity, offer them education, and then

enlist their help and support and skills in combatting cyberattacks, the nation will have catastrophic consequences. >> reporter: mcconnell calls the cyberchallenge useful, but not sufficient. estimates are the nation needs 20,000 to 30,000 people with advanced offensive and defensive cyberskill. right now it has only about 1,000. jeanne meserve, cnn, washington. jeanne meserve on the front lines of really a new battleground for the united states. and, you know, citigroup might be interested in hiring the winner of that competition, if a report we heard today is right. you heard parry mention it a moment ago. pick up the quurm and you can read how the fbi is looking in to a huge cyberattack on citibank. a gang of russian cybercriminals reportedly making off with tens of millions of dollars. "the journal" said the attack was found out over the summer, but the safe might have been cracked a year before that. citigroup says there was no breach. no money was taken, no customer data stolen, and there's no

investigation by the fbi. so, i guess we'll find out as time goes on. in other news -- a new jersey father trying to get his son back from brazil. he's had a lifetime of disappointments crammed into just a few years. today, could be the day he gets his boy back. but, david goldman has heard that before. that's coming up. and this to remember -- eight years later, we're still taking off our shoes at the airport. on this day in 2001, passengers and crew of american flight 63 tackled richard reid, as he tried to detonate his shoe bomb in midflight. he's now doing life at 9 supermax federal pen out in colorado. what would you say if i told you that drivers... who switched from geico to allstate... saved an average of $473 a year? no way! way.

♪ ♪ ♪ (announcer) we're opening more lanes than ever, to make christmas shopping easier. and with unbeatable prices, christmas costs less at walmart, save money. live better. walmart.

for football players both professional and not, love to recall their glory days. but what if they can't remember them? now the nfl hopes to find out why. >> he told you he was going to do that.

for five years david goldman has fought to get his son back, and several times he's actually

won. but after every joyous flight to brazil to pick sean up, a somber solo flight home. it happened again last week. a pre-christmas reunion put off by a brazilian judge. >> i've been doing this for, i don't know, an agonizing over five years now. and time and time again i come down here, to bring home my son, and i get the same thing. and just the plain, simple fact that sean and i should be together is not happening. it is very, very sad. >> david goldman is still in rio today, awaiting the latest decision from the courts there. just to recap this whole story in case you haven't kept up with it. sean goldman was kidnapped by his brazilian mother, david's wife, back in 2004. she remarried and then died during childbirth, and sean has been with his stepfather ever since. joining us from atlanta, with all the latest, rafael romo,

cnn's senior editor for latin american affairs. what do you think? >> well, tom, it's been an emotional roller coaster for david goldman. last week the lower court upheld the decision that goldman's son sean be returned to his father. he was going to pick up his son in brazil, when the brazilian judge said the boy's feeling needed to be reconsidered, leaving goldman waiting. the supreme court's chief judge said he was getting ready to decide on the case but kept everybody waiting by postponing the decision until today. we're still waiting but this morning the attorney who represents the boy's maternal family in brazil said that they're ready for anything. the statement sent to cnn by e-mail says that sean's family reiterates that we will continue to take all measures to preserve the well-being of the boy, the international pressure led by u.s. representative chris smith and spokesperson of the american embassy miss orna bloom ropets

an undue internal interferes with brazil and as such deserves strong opposition. now, tom, it's an open question whether goldman will be able to do so. >> this has been such a long saga, rafael, is this the end of the road at this point if the chief judge of the brazilian supreme court makes its decision, is that it? >> not necessarily, tom, understand brazilian law, the parties in this dispute still have the rights to appeal this decision and ask for further review. brazilian courts consider this a custody case and say they need to take into account the testimony of the boy before making a decision. david goldman and his attorneys, however, say this is purely an abduction case. and the boy must be returned to his father immediately. sean's brazilian mother took him to her country, as you'll remember, for what was intended to be a two-week vacation, then divorced goldman and kept the boy in brazil. she died in childbirth last

year. it's a very emotional, very long, long story for david goldman, tom. >> amazing story, really. thanks for keeping on top of it, rafael, we'll check back with you as time goes on i'm sure. after wheeling and dealing, the senate is due to pass its health care bill on christmas eve. democrats cleared the second of three procedural votes, voting again on what was strictly party lines the third and final procedural vote is set for tomorrow. >> we are truly closer than ever to bringing security and stability to our health care system, to providing real reform, that american families, businesses and workers so desperately need. the finish line is in sight. and all the groups standing behind us know it. and now we know with certainty we have the will to cross it. any senate bill, of course, will have to be merged with the house version, and that could spark some tough negotiations. there are significant differences between them even though there's also a lot of

agreement. see, we'll see how that plays out. enough for politics right now. what would the senate's health care plan mean for you and your family? you've sent us an awful lot of questions, we appreciate those, and dr. sanjay gupta will answer them this hour. plus, saying good-bye to a fallen teammate. chris henry is laid to rest today by family and friends and the cincinnati bengals.

a look at some of our top stories now. former new york city mayor, rudy giuliani, reportedly will not run for governor or senate in his home state. next hour giuliani's expected to endorse republican rick lazio in the governor's race. lazio is a former congressman. near new orleans, funeral services are under way for cincinnati bengals' player chris henry. henry died last week from massive head injuries after he fell out of the back of a pickup truck after an apparent domestic dispute.

his death is, however, saving lives. his organs were donated to five people. it could be six weeks before we know the cause of brittany murphy's death. an autopsy has been done and the coroner is awaiting the results of toxicology attests. authorities say it appears murphy died from natural causes just days after coming down with flulike symptoms. she was only 32 years. dozens of deaths blamed on the severe winter blast that has europe in its grips this christmas week. heavy snow and freezing temperatures have disrupted travel plans across that continent. airport closings have stranded thousands of passengers and highways, no better with the dreevers stuck in the snow, and some, as you can see there, much worse. for your row a break after a few chaotic breaks. the train left paris half service was suspended over the weekend because of severe weather. 75,000 passengers were stranded on both sides of the english channel. that's a backup to deal with in any continent or in any country.

>> yeah. here in the u.s. ling ring trouble from the blizzard on the east coast and a storm in the midwest for the holiday travels are to worry, about, too, chad, you're checking this down in atlanta for us. i'm getting a little bit of the back side at my house as i have to shovel after the plows come through. >> i love that. the nice big pile in your driveway and you think you can get out, it's the icy stuff. the sun will come out across the east coast, a lot of it melting, not 20 inches of melting, but making puddles, those puzzles will freeze again tonight. those that didn't have ice will have ice the following morning. heavy showers late in the day here across the arklatex and then the snow comes into the west here, the next storm system that we'll consider for the weekend. and for wednesday and for thursday, this is a map of where thursday is. severe weather across parts of the deep south. and then the ice happens all the way from, probably just west of chicago, although it could be

chicago proper, back all the way into parts of the midwest. heavy, heavy snowfalls all the way across a lot of very big interstates here from cohicago o bismar bismarck. and what do you do if you are trying to figure out whether your road that you're trying to take is a mess, you can logon to traffic.com responsed esponsore naviteq. i'll try to map it out, east river and new rochelle, so on and so on. we're looking for the right side line. the bronx not doing too well. i'll take the red line off so you can see. the right side line on the buckner, what does it say? click on it. it says accident, severe impact. click on it again and it will tell you which direction and all those kind of things. it's a great, handy little tool

if you don't know where you're traveling, baltimore or d.c., all the cities down 95, 80, 76, all the big interstates are on there and the little traffic speeds are on there and you can see how fast or how slow you'll get to grandma's house. >> that's really a great suggestion, chad. a lot of people forget that, but i started doing it at home, and it makes a huge difference to look around and see what's on there. >> if you're on the parkway and you are driving towards d.c. and you can go left, right, or straight and you see that the outer loop of the beltway is a mess, well, don't go that way. take the inner loop and go the other direction because you'll end up on the other side of 95 anyway, right? it really could be a headache saver for you as the kids run out of dvd time in the backseat. >> the outer loop of the beltway is also a mess. thank you, chad. i lived there enough to knee. thank you. we'll talk with you a little bit later on. >> thanks, bud. this will be such a tough time of year particularly for people in need who deal with just really difficult problems all the time, but particularly in the cold weather when the holidays are upon us.

cnn's photojournalists here have put a really special effort? to looking at giving this holiday season with a special series called "in focus." showing what households are doing to bring the holidays back. we're looking at an art college in d.c. where feeding the hungry really is an art form. >> i'm making a wonderful bowl. to help raise money for feeding hungry people. >> trim the excess off. >> we're working here at the corporate art gallery. very first time i'm making a bowl in my life. >> i got some fresh clay. >> and they will sell these bowls for our empty bowls event to help support feeding the hungry. hunger is our midst here in our nation's capital. we have 9,000 homeless people. some serve well over 1,000 meals a day to people. >> hello. >> our goal is to walk the journey with people. to help people become independent. the holidays remind us of certainly giving thanks for what

we have. >> have a nice day. >> but also the opportunities that we might have for reaching out to people that don't have. >> anthropologists say that the earliest bowls were a mimicry of two hands holding together. >> i can't think of a better way to participate and feeding hungry people. >> two hands or a stomach to give, to receive, and to gold and to consume. >> that's a very artistic symbol. we're really grateful for this partnership that we have this year. great artists and great people here that are interested in people in the city. >> i mean, it's representing having nothing, and so i think prior to it being full, there's so many different things that can go into it. so, today we're going to make upwards of about 500 bowls. you get the clay centered, and then you start making the bowl form. it's good to work with our community in any way we can. i mean, not everybody can

donate, so this is a great way for people to participate and contribute to an organization. i think it's just really important as an artist to keep giving back to the community. it's not just the gift for somebody at christmas. it's a gift for somebody you don't really know, and i think that's what's probably the most important thing that we're really making this for somebody that needs it. >> raising awareness and money for folks. tune in to cnn on christmas day, for a special expanded look at what your friends and neighborhoods all across this country are doing to help the less fortunate. our "giving in focus" special begins at 1:00 p.m. eastern. i'm the host of that show. we taped it up at beautiful union station here. it's only on cnn. wonderful, wonderful work by our fine, fine photojournalists who really deserve a tremendous amount of kred it for thcredit . gridiron glory is what football players crave. but it also leaves many not

remembering the shining moments on the field, and the nfl wants to find out why. >> we cannot give up big plays. i spent half my life counting other people's money. when i went on medicare, i did the numbers. that was the moment of truth. medicare by itself doesn't cover everything. we'd need more than that. i don't want to spend... my life worrying about what would happen if one of us got sick. now more than ever, you may need more coverage than medicare alone. aarp medicarecomplete from securehorizons... is dependable coverage from a leader in medicare advantage plans.

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country, there's a popular medical clinic that has had success all over, and organizers had hoped to bring it here to washington, d.c., and potentially offer free medical care to thousands of people. but they've also hit some snags in the process. brian todd has that story. >> reporter: they wait in line outside. to come in and wait some more for free dental care, eyeglasses, and other treatment. >> right here. >> reporter: for more than 20 years, these free clinics have opened for a few days at a time in cities and towns across america, courtesy of a nonprofit group called r.a.m., the remote area medical and volunteer corps. it's run by stan brock who was once a star on the popular network show "wild kingdom." >> so who has number one? >> i do. >> okay. come on down. >> reporter: brock says his clinics have treated more than 400,000 patients many of whom don't have insurance. for years he wanted to come to

washington, and he thought he was going to hold a free clinic in washington at the armory. but he said the government put up hurdles. >> it's frustrating and how difficult it can be sometimes to help people. >> reporter: brock said d.c. officials first asked r.a.m. to use the armory including for each table and chair. he said the d.c. government has since waived some of those fees, but says he's still being asked to pay tens of thousands of dollars for staffing and security, costs they've never incurred anywhere else. >> and our position is that because we're providing a public service, that these charges should be waived. >> reporter: contacted by cnn, one d.c. city official said brock is blowing this out of proportion, that when r.a.m. answers certain questions, the cost issue will be resolved. in a statement another city official said the health department hasn't yet received assurances on how r.a.m. will oversure quality oversight of

unlicensed doctors and the safety of our residents while receiving services. brock said all doctors are board certified and the unlicensed phrase refers to doctors that haven't received permission to practice medicine across state lines. but there are other concerns. it extends beyond the armory to this health care clinic to this nonprost th nonprofit that is next door. vincent keen runs unity health care, a nonprofit that treatments more 80,000 people a year in d.c. he said he applauds r.a.m.s but says they haven't done enough to get follow-up care after they receive care. still isn't it better for them to have the clinic than for them not to come at all? >> again, i can't really answer that question. i mean, if i was to say, for instance, somebody gets diagnosed and can't get the care, are they better off?

probably. they are better off to get diagnosed. but i sure would want that diagnosis to be followed up. >> reporter: brock said he's committed to making sure patients get follow-up care. cnn has learned in at least one city, los angeles, r.a.m.s' doctors gave them follow-up care and the agencies where they could get it. brock said the time has run out to arrange the clinic by late january and he may have to take it somewhere else besides d.c. brian todd, washington. it's been tough all over. as you probably know scores of small community banks have failed this year, and the survivors are often being pretty stringy with credit. president obama is telling them once again, hey, loosen up. we'll have more on that. a benchmark. 109 years ago today in germany, a three-pointed star was built, a new car was built by a guy

named daimler out there, mercedes.

what are the odds? >> there's no telling. it's an odontoid fracture. basically, luther, you broke

your neck and it never healed correctly. well, it's hard to predict this kind of thing, but what i can say is that the wrong kind of hit could result in paralysis, seizures, even sudden death. in my opinion, he is not medically fit to play. right now one-second tackle and people will talk. >> come on, luther. have you ever seen an old punch-drunk boxer stumbling around drooling? no memory what he's done in his life? you want that life, luther? >> that's hollywood drama with a fictional player on "any given sunday." you may remember the film. but it plays out in real life for real pro athletes, too. a 2005 study of nfl players found that those who suffer concussions had five times the rate of cognitive impairment,

meaning they had a hard time even remembering those glory days. retired players are also 40 times more likely to suffer from alzheimer's than the general public. now the nfl is teaming wup boston university to study the impact of concussions on the brain. they're donating $1 million, and they're encouraging players and former players, both healthy and those that suffer from some form of dementia, to have their brains donated for purposes of study. robert stern is an associate professor of psychology with boston university, and he heads the department conducting this study, and eddie george, many of you may already know, in 1995 he was a heisman trophy winner, and gives play-by-play on westwood one radio and he's a contributor to "the dr. oz show." thank you for being here. are you glad to see the nfl getting more behind this effort to study the impact on players' brains? >> yeah, i am. i think it's very important for

them to get behind it. because they have a fiduciary duty to make sure that the lifestyle of the players after they're done playing continues to move on in a positive direction. for years, i think, you know, they've tried to detach themselves from not being responsible, the game not being responsible for a lot of the ailments a lot of retirees are facing now-addais and now they are getting behind it and having some heat behind it. they are really trying to say and show some benefit for saying we're behind it and going to do some studies, and see how they can better put the game, make it healthier for players after their careers are done. >> robert, we've seen certainly the skill level, the speed, the size of players really move up remarkably over the past few decades. but also the equipment to protect them has improved over that period of time. in the course of this study, will you be looking at all of those things that you analyze what's been happening to the brains of these men playing this

game? >> we sure will. those are the important factors. but to clarify that the nfl in their offer to collaborate with us, we're not talking about any specific study, our center for the study of traumatic encephalopathy at boston university has been studying this issue in many different ways and it's great to have the nfl behind us at this point. >> doctor, let me ask you about what you have learned so far, is there a sense that what you're dealing with here are people in a high-risk environment who suffer one or two extraordinary events over time, or do you have a sense that this is more a cumulative effect of a lot of low-level and a few high-level impacts over a period of years? >> yeah, that's an important point, tom. the issue is that we know there's a disease called chronic traumatic encephalopathy that is a progressive, degenerative

disease of the brain that's caused by getting your head hit over and over again in younger years. what we don't know is exactly what that magic combination of hits is. is it one or two or three big concussions, or is it a combination of concussions and subconcussive blows to the brain? think about the linebacker or the linemen who every day, every game, every play is hitting their head with that soft brain hitting against their skull over and over again. it might not result in a big concussion or any, you know, real major brain injury. but that repetitive trauma to the brain might be setting things in motion to develop this disease later in life. >> you know, we just had a stat up there a moment ago, eddie, of 400,000 concussions in the course of a prep season. when you played football, how much were you aware of people suffering really hard hits to the head, or to what degree was it simply a matter of people got hit, it's a tough game? and a lot of times you took a

hit to the head that you might shake off and go on home with. >> yeah. the problem is you don't know whether you have a concussion or not. you get hit so hard and you may get a ding and it could be a slight concussion, and as football players, you know, we're immune to pain. i mean, we grow up and we're taught to think that pain is a sign of weakness, so you tend to fight through it. i played nine years without missing a game due to injury, and i've suffered several concussions. and the protocol for that, they take away your helmet if you're not able to -- to follow the signs or they take you through a couple tests to see if you're responsive. if you're not responsive in those situations, then, you're not able to play. but it's tough for football players to gauge if they're truly injured or if they're a little bit cloudy and they can fight through that. so, it's very difficult. >> and, saiddy, let me ask you. how young did that begin? because i remember when i was a kid i played football, high school, that sort of thing, even then, and we weren't a very

competitive team, there was very much the sense of you keep playing, you keep playing. i played half a game one time with a broken hand. i didn't know it was broken, but the coach didn't want to know if it was broken. he said just keep playing. >> well, i don't think it's a lot of pressure, especially on the younger level, you know. it's very unlikely that a kid could suffer concussion, because the velocity and the speed they're playing at is not as great as in college or the professional level. but if it does happen, you know, i think it would be for the coach's responsibility to make sure that child is okay. it doesn't make sense -- there's nothing -- there's no incentive at that level, especially the prep level, to continue to play, because money's not involved. you know, the only incentsive to win, so it really doesn't make sense for a coach to pressure a young child to continue to play just so he can say that they twob a football game. >> yeah, but i'm afraid you know that many of them look at people with career like yours, that's

the incentive maybe i can become the next eddie. doctor, let me ask you one last question. when we talk about younger people here, a lot of us when we grew up were surprised to find out, for example, when we talk about skin cancer, that much of the damage occurs when you're quite young when you think it's no big deal. to what degree should people out there who have kids that are playing these sports be looking closely at the studies that you're doing here today, saying, maybe, yes, they get harder hits later in life, but maybe less hard hits when the brain is still developing are also awfully important? >> yeah, i couldn't agree with you more. and it's hard to disagree with eddie. but, in fact, conkupss are really common in youth athletes, you know, those necks are not as fully developed to be able to protect them from having their brains shaken in their skull. and so concussions are really important in the youth. and it's critical for parents or trainers, for coaches, and the athletes, to realize that they need to take their brains pretty

seriously. and anytime they get those dings or their bell rung, those are c macho and make sure they are fully recovered before they get back onto that field. >> thank you very much, dr. stern and eddie george, thank you very much for being here. >> thank you. >> the nfl is being changed, and as always, go saints. possible jail fine and possible big fine. richard mayumi heeneny face both when they are sentenced tomorrow in colorado. they mate up a story about their little boy floating away in a makeshift balloon. they may have to pay back the cost of the rescue efforts about $43,000. rolling up his sleeve. president and mrs. obama have gotten their swine flu shots. the president is also urging more people to get vaccinated now that the vaccine is available to the general public. the first daughters got their shots back in october. and talk about a comeback.

existing home sales have surged for the second month in a row, jumping more than 7% in november. experts say first-time buyers are rushing in to get in on the federal tax credit and, of course, take advantage of the low prices out there because the housing depression. the economy is finally improving, but many americans have been having a hard time getting a loan. so president obama is sumening bank leaders to washington. last week he met with the ceos of the nation's largest banks, and today the leaders of small community banks heard from the president. susan lisovicz is at the new york stock exchange with details. susan, what was the president saying today? >> well, tomorrow, the message to small banks from president obama was the same as what was conveyed to big banks last week. lend more money. the president met as you said with a dozen small community bankers today. what kind of banks? carter federal savings bank of new york, german-american bancorp of indiana, kalamazoo bank of michigan. the president is pushing banks

to lend more, specifically to small businesses. this year regional banks issued 36% fewer sba-backed loans last year. there were also smaller in volume. 25% less from last year. why is this happening? well, no surprise. a few years ago, all you had to do was breathe and you could get a loan. so, banks understandably are more cautious. they're boosting their standards. but it's -- but banks also say it's harder to find credit-worthy borrowers, because small businesses are, let's face it, struggling in this recession, and have less collateral to put up for those loans, tom. >> you know, one of the big complaints when he met with the big bankers last week, was that to some degree the bankers and the business community has often said to the president, look, that's fine. we'll listen to what you have to say, but we have to do business our way. is it any different with these smaller banks? >> well, i mean, yes. i mean, i mean, you would think so, that the government invested

more than $200 billion in 650 banks. so, yes. the president should have some leverage, because they are leverage, because they are benefiting from the largesse. should have some leverage because they are benefitting from the largess, and we should say that the tone is slightly different from small banks than the big banks even though the big banks have repaid t.a.r.p., the president lauded the smaller banks for their support of financial reform, and he said that community lenders are not responsible for the risky behavior that crashed the financial system, and one last thing, tom, let's face it small business is critical to the recovery of the u.s. and it is hard for a lot of people to realize that small businesses employ more than half of all jobs in the u.s. they really need support. >> all right. thank you, susan. we will be hearing that refrain many, many times in the coming years. thank you for keeping it up to date. >> just back on the feet after

hurricane katrina, now the victim of a manmade disaster a. louisiana church calls off its christmas giveaway. you won't believe why. stick around.

it is shameful robbing both once and that is a total what the -- the louisiana church this you see here was just renovated from hurricane katrina and it was dealt another blow. crooks broke in over the weekend and stole gifts wrapped up for a christmas giveaway and they took a crucifix for good measure. the cops expect a quick arrest thanks to blood at the scene and the pastor found another small silver lining. >> the person just apparently sat on the floor and unwrapped all of the presents, every single one of them with the exception of one that was sitting at the foot of the cross. so apparently he had some conscious. >> well, i hope it gets better for our friends out there in violet, louisiana. the big christmas giveaway was

meant to be tonight and clear think pastor had to call it up. donations are coming in, and he hopes to get enough to do it tomorrow. good luck to them tomorrow. less devious than the church robbers, but no less legal. a man went into a closed down parking garage and collected money for people to park there for two days, but the city did not appreciate his entrepreneurial spirit, because of course, the city owns that garage. stay with us. a sales conferee from the road. 154 are tracking shipments on a train. 33 are iming on a ferry. and 1300 are secretly checking email on a vacation. that's happening now. america's most dependable 3g network. bringing you the first and only wireless 4g network. right now get a free 3g/4g device for your laptop. sprint. the now network. deaf, hard-of-hearing and people with speech disabilities access www.sprintrelay.com sprint. the now network. [audio: gavel hits the desk] this bill will let americans keep the coverage they have now.

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hard to believe there are only nine days left in 2009, and it has certainly been a year to remember. one of the stories on the radar this year, all of the highlights and lowlights in the airline industry. airplanes had their share of serious troubles including the air france jet that disappeared over the atlantic, but there were also some kwer ki

incidents, and the worst navigation. the pilots who flew from sand to minneapolis and then just flying overshooting the target by 150 miles before turning back. >> we got distracted. >> reporter: best improvisation, the miracle on the hudson. one plane, a flock of geese and mind-blowing emergency landing in the hudson by captain sully sullenberger. >> he was like the clint eastwood of airline pilots when the geese hit the engines and he was like, not on my watch. >> i don't know if he was lauded because he landed on the hudson river or he got a great parking spot in new york. >> it is a taste of all of the best, all of the worst of 2009. it is a show we do every year at "ac 360" and getting a following out there. we hope you will join us when it airs this thursday, christmas eve, at 7:00 p.m. eastern and if it is preempted by the health

care vote, we will have it over the holidays as well. check it out. some other stories pushing forward the "wall street journal" says it happened, but citigroup says it did not. the fbi says they are probing a series of hackers at citibank, but they say it was no breach. a mystery. also at this hour, former mayor rudy giuliani gets on the stump for someone else. he plans to endorse rick lazio for governor. this apparently means giuliani won't run himgs. and a man accused of killing a abortion provider cannot use the necessity defense. a kansas judge made that ruling in the trial of scott riter who killed a abortion doctor who said it was necessary to save unborn children. a lot to talk about there. the economy is not exactly kind to thompson, illinois.

it is getting a stimulus, but the bad news is it from guantanamo bay wearing jumpsuits. 100 detainees will be used to the underused state prison in thompson and the debate continues with whether the jobs and the upgrade in the security of the prison is worth the risks. sheryl jackson has been at a hearing down the road in sterling, illinois. so, sheryl, what are people saying about this today? >> well, you have people on both sides of the issue. over here you can see that the protesters are lined up ready to go into the public hearing where the commissioners are going to decide whether or not to close thompson prison and resell it to the government. some people think it is a great opportunity and other people do not want alleged terrorist ins the neighborhood. so here we are, both people on both sides of the issue and other people happy and thinking it will help the economy on the other. >> sheryl, you got a tour of the facility there in thompson and what did you think?

>> well, tom, we went inside and got an idea of what it is like to be in a supermax prison with doors locking from one place to another, and high fences with razor wire and signs warning you to sit down if you hear gun fire. so it was a good look at what a maximum security prison looks like, and even for a layperson, it looks highly secure. the obama administration has promised to put another perimeter offense around it and to take the medical facilities and make them so that the prisoners never need to leave the prison. some people saying we don't alleged terrorist ins the neighborhoods, but others say they won't be in the neighborhood, be new the prison. >> thanks for joining us with the latest out there. and we hope that the debate continues to go well out there. american cyber space has its own czar. howard schmidt was named as the coordinator. the announcement came in a e-mail. he has long security sector

experience, and he was also cyber adviser to president george w. bush. grow the economy or stop the defic deficit? what do you think about the battle over your bucks? >> as we ring out the old year, we say good-bye to brands and products we won't see again. focus sports drinks. we hardly knew you. and kodachrome fading to black. and circuit city stores pulled the plug and also saturn, a great success story at one time hit a dead end. ♪

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the senate is on track to pass its version of health care reform after a bitter partisan fight. democrats this morning cleared the second of three procedural votes on the sweeping $871 billion measure voting again on what was strictly party lines. the third and final procedural vote is set for tomorrow, and if democrats clear that hurdle the final vote is expected on christmas eve. any senate bill would have to be merged with the house version, and of course, that could spark tough negotiations with the two, but there are sharp disagreements. democrats boast that their health care bill would trim the deficit. so what is more important trimming the deficit or growing the economy.

gloria borger joins me with new poll numbers. what do most americans think about the economy right now? >> well, tom, as you can guess, they are worried about the economy. when we asked about economic conditions today, fully 8 of 10 said that the economy is doing poorly, and however, when you look back to 2008, a year ago, 93% said that the economy was doing poorly, so, actually things seemed to be heading in the right directional though they are lousy. there is some good news here though, and that is that americans remain optimistic. if you look at our poll, we asked people what economic conditions would be one year from now. and 58% said that they thought that economic conditions would be good, 43% thought it would be heading in the wrong direction, so at least there is a sense from the american public that we may be getting back on the right track. >> well, gloria, let me ask you a question about this, there is no question that part of the big political fight next year is

going to shape up over this notion of how much do you stimulate the economy and control the deficit and how will these two feed off of each other? what are you hearing in the polls right now about that? >> well, that is a real political conundrum right now, because in order to get out of this mess we are in, we have been spending an awful lot of money and the more money we spend and the more people are concerned about the deficit, so if you are a politician, and you are asking yourself which is more important the jobs or the deficit? we asked that question to people, which is more important for the obama administration, recovery or reducing the deficit? and you see there that people believe, 57%, say that it is recovery first and reduce the deficit 40%. now reducing the deficit is up 11 points from where it was a year ago, so you see the growing sense among the american voters, wait a minute, we have to get this deficit under control, but they still believe first things first, get everyone back to work. >> yeah, it is looking like the numbers may have been off there,

because it is 9%, but none the less, a big change. let me ask you a question before we move on to the next issue. obviously the deadly combination for the democrats in the obama administration would be if they spend all of the money and there is simply not enough bounce bac then they would say, we didn't get enough from what we put in. >> yes, that is why the president is talking about the health care reform in terms of reducing the deficit. it is counterintuitive to say we have to spend $1 trillion to reduce the deficit in the long term. he is trying to get the point across with health care as well as with everything else. because the more jobs you create the more money that you have going into the federal till, and the more taxes that people will pay, so he has to keep singing that same song to people to say that you have to invest and spend in order to get the long-term rewards. >> and obviously, this is not hitting everybody in the country

in the same way right now, depending upon what ethnic group you belong to, and what your educational background and everything is different. you had interesting numbers about how black americans feel about their prospects right now. >> we do. we asked the question if blacks have the same chances as whites to get jobs they are qualified for? you see that 50% of african-americans don't have the same chances as whites to get the jobs they are qualified for, but i would tell you, tom, when folk did this kind of polling back in the 1990s, african-americans felt worse about their job prospects than they do right now, so there is a little bit of good news in that, but clearly that number is not where it should be. >> well, gloria, in three or four months from now, all we will be talking about is did the job count come up to a level that gives the democrats pad or republicans an opportunity. >> yes, there is a midterm election in the offing in 2010 and it is going to be about the economy.

>> no kidding. thank you, gloria. good to have you here. a medical emergency unfolds in front of two emergency workers and it has all of the makings of an american hero story, but the two workers are suspended pending an investigation. they were getting coffee in a brooklyn cafe when a pregnant woman chanced. they allegedly waved off cries for help saying call 911, and the woman and her unborn baby died, and as you can imagine, the city is outraged. >> they ignored it totally. they said call it in. >> call it in! there is no excuse whatsoever i can see. i don't care about the burnout. try just being not a decent human being. >> she called and told me that there was a patient. she didn't have an ambulance and no equipment and she does not work in the field as an active emt on an ambulance, and she a dispatcher. she works for emergency medical

dispatch. >> what about the other one? >> she is a dispaper. these are people who are not the the field, and they have not had contact for years with patients and they did the best we could. >> we have to learn more about that as time goes on, be pu tut new york fire department says all of the workers have taken an oath to assist in emergency medical care. well, the crew next year will be american and european astronauts and a russian commander. we have unprecedented access to the training. cnn is counting down.

he is a freshman democrat, but he is switching teams. alabama congressman parker griffith is becoming a republican today. the democrats hold a sizable majority in the house. we will have to see how he plays out as he moves over there. after a weekend of travel chaos in parts of the u.s., another storm for holiday travelers to worry about. chad myers down in atlanta not

far from alabama is checking in for us. >> well, maybe more sparse now for traveling when it comes to the roadways that are going to be affected by this one, because you notice that the i-95 is there. and even i-80 across nebraska and iowa with the lovely drive there across with all of the corn, at least the corn in summertime. here is the storm with rain showers across parts of the south. that rain does turn into snow and ice as it gets north of the front. this is where the cold air is up here. this is when the warm front, when we show you a warm front of this fairly stationary front, and this is the bottom part where the warm is, and the cold air is, and when you run the warm air up over the cold air that swhen you get the potential for the icing event. that is only the way to get it. t is like a conveyor belt like things going up the airplane conveyor belt with the luggage and so it runs up above and rains on down through detroit

and maybe flint and brighton back over and into chicago and milwaukee and where the ice will be. we are talking about wednesday and now here we move this map ahead to thursday. for christmas, santa claus is going to be happy with all of the snow through here and probably going to need rudolph in here, and sometimes we don't know if there is not weather we won't need it, but with this ice event and snow, he will need that extra visibility, tom. >> well, chad, you knownoknow, have been out in the great plains, and there is no visibility. >> well, when the wind comes rolling down the plains, don't make me sing. >> okay. thanks, chad. appreciate it. in the new year, expedition 26 will blast off far from the snow on the international space station. only the mission american and european astro gnat with a russian commander, and they got together recently in houston and tauged abo talked about the mission

exclusively with john zarrella. >> reporter: claustrophobic? don't consider it there. is no wiggle room. >> we are always in the same seats. tom is on the left, and the commander in the middle and i'm on the right. >> reporter: as they wait to rendezvous with the international space station, the s soyez will be home for these three. it is rare to catch all three at the same time in the same place. the training schedule is brutal. >> we have some days with paula a and katy in maybe one month ago. >> what gets me worse, i think that is the constantly changing of training environment, and on top of that jet lag. >> reporter: on this trip to johnson space center, the three met together with the flight

director and the team for the first time. >> we both had that training, and he eats and breathes and dreams about robotics. >> with the flight less than a year away and six months they will spend on the mission takes shape as paolo spends time in the virtual reality lab. here he will get a feel for what it is like to lift a large mass in space there. is also a lesson for katy. also simulating with the computer animation, the dcaptur of the "apollo" robotic arm. there is a bond. >> and since june, we are all -- >> good answer. >> reporter: do you think you will say that after six months in space with her? >> i hope i will. >> reporter: getting along is important because you can't bring much from home to keep you busy in the down time.

get this, the limit for personal items is a measly two pounds. dmitri is packing family pictures and cds and paolo is a minimalist. >> maybe two pounts is too much or something. maybe not. we will see. i still have no good answer for that. and if you have any suggestion, i will take it. >> i am probably going to bring my flute. >> reporter: bring your flute? >> that is probably two pounds right there. >> oh, you have to put up with her playing the flute now. >> sure, of course. >> reporter: their selection to fly together, purely random, and now, permanently linked, the crew of "expedition 26." john zarrella, cnn, at the johnson space center in houston. >> john does a nice job reporting on all of this, and you can watch his exclusive series and more each and everyday on the most news in the morning, and cnn's "american morning" weekdays beginning at

6:00 a.m. mornings and you don't want to miss that. looking at the top stories, washington state, two sheriff's deputies were shot and wounded in the same county where four officers were killed last month. the latest ins dint involved two brothers in a domestic violence case. and mourners at a funeral service for chris henry in louisiana who died after falling out of a pickup truck during a dispute. his organs are donated to at least five people. and same-sex marriage and adoption by gay couples is now legal in mexico city. it is the second latin city to do so. buenos air rires was first by c order, but it has been delayed by a legal fight. before they face the weapons of the enemies, they have had to

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maximum strength medicine stops pain fast. gold bond pain relieving foot cream. finally, fast relief for painful feet. in this hour yesterday we first brought you a story that is creating talk around water coolers in the country today. a u.s. commander in iraq has prohibited pregnancy among his troops, both women who get pregnant and men who get a fellow soldier pregnant. that general is speaking out today. let's have a lisin. >> i made an existing policy stricter and i wanted to encourage my soldiers to think before they acted, and understand their behavior and actions have consequences, all of their behavior. i consider the male soldier as responsible for taking a soldier out just as much as a female

soldier i lose, and to use a measured and controlled policy, i pass judgment here. i decide each one with unique facts, and i take orders of the chain of command, but i decide on these cases. in very few cases so far, it was the male soldier who got the most severe punishment, because he committed adultery and frat earnization, and as well as made one of my female soldiers not employable by impregnating her. >> the attorney general says that in spite of the threat of lockup, he can't do that. military people have to live with a different view in many ways and live with different rules and test their mettle all of the times. before they are deployed u.s. troops have to go out the try their skills in the most realistic training grounds in the world. t.j. holmes goes out to the mojave desert to show us what

they go through. it is the war before the war. >> there is nothing that i can take my move from here. >> reporter: for the first brigade of the third infantry division, it was shaping up to be a very bad day. as the convoy wound its way through a desert canyon. it comes under attack from insurgents perched in the surrounding mountains. the soldiers eventually fight their way through a suspected insurgent hideout. they are forced to clear the village building by building. there are casualties. but this isn't iraq. or afghanistan. this is california. before heading to war, many soldiers come here to the mojave

desert where train iing is anything but basic. this is the national training center at fort irwin and billed as the most realistic training facility in the world. >> i tell you, they get so it doggoned close in the world, that i had to close my eyes a couple of times and remind myself this is just training in california. >> reporter: it was meant to train soldiers for conventional warfare against a primary soviet threat. times s and enemies have chang and so has this fort. >> when i first came out here as a young lieutenant in 1985, the entire place was desert, but over the years ntc has done a great job to adapt to what our

forces are geared towards, what the current fight is. >> reporter: the california desert provides an ideal natural terrain. >> by the time they hit the wall and go into the building, boom. >> reporter: for the army's own hollywood-like production. we spent a rotation here with the soldiers before they deploy to iraq. gregory sierra is one of the commanders of the first brigade. >> when you are on a mission, they, the conditions have been set approach yapriately by the national training center and it puts people in the mentally, you are in iraq. that is what we want. when we go out on the combat patrol in iraq and my guys are outside of the wire, it won't be the first time, because they have done it here already at the national training center. >> reporter: the training center is the size of rhode island. the military has set up authentic replicas of iraqi

towns like this one, and ttanan streets with role players and some are iraqi actors and some are fort irwin soldiers who stay out here in character for weeks at a time. the training is fluid and evolving based on the unit's performance. for example, soldiers got a tip that this town's mayor was being targeted by insurgents, but the soldiers didn't move quickly enough to provide protection. the mayor was assassinated as he walked outside of his house. security forces then went after the assassin, and running into this building. turns out, the building was booby trapped. a hard lesson taught by this man. >> it is always good to take pride in your work. >> we are not allowed to tell you his real name or face, but

his nickname is the osama bin laden of the ntc. >> i am the head insurgent compared to someone like osama bin laden where i control the network and feed out the information and tell them to do missions, and i am hunted. >> reporter: he is a 24-year-old man from montana who is the most hunted man in the mojave and he has been here a year and never been caught. t.j. holms in fort irwin. >> tonight on campbell brown, you will meet civilians who are crucial parts of this training. that is tonight at 8:00 on cnn. don't miss it. a florida fugitive who eluded police for three decades was captured in southwest missouri this weekend where he had been living a false life under a assumed name.

richardson escaped from a work release prison in kissimmee, florida n 1979. he was serving time for a pair of armed robberies. he is expected to be extradited back to florida and serve his sentence and may faced a dissional channels. >> for five years he has fought to get his son back and david goldman has won every time, but every time he went to pick up his son, sean, he had a somber flight back home. and it happened again last week. a pre-christmas reunion put off by a brazilian judge. >> i have been doing this for and agonizing time and time again and come down here to get my son and the same thing. the plain simple fact that sean and i should be together not happening is very, very sad. >> the latest update, david

goldman is still in rio today awaiting the latest decision from the courts there, and it could come at any minute, and of course, we will take you there as soon as it does. to recap, sean was kidnapped biz hi brazilian mother, david's wife, in 2004. she remarried and died in childbirth, and sean has been with the stepfather ever since. we will keep you updated on every turn. if you have remodeling on your mind, you might want to rethink it, because home improvements may not ramp up the value of your home like you think they would. as you watch the kids unwrap the presents, you know about the after cleanup. especially the tree. thelma gutierrez explains. >> the next swann five to six-foot monterey. and the next one is another four

to five foot. >> reporter: so you are thinking that it is another christmas tree store, but it is not. it is one of those only in los angeles ideas that could eventually be coming your way next christmas. >> bonus! you are talling. >> reporter: yes, ramona nashgs is the tree. >> she is maturing. she is maturing. she is becoming a woman. >> child bearing hips. >> reporter: it has been a year since ramona last visited the arquettes in manhattan beach. >> it is a great way for us to enjoy her for three weeks and give her back and make sure she is well taken care of. >> reporter: you see, they don't own her, but rent her. >> i hear the sleigh bells ringing -- >> reporter: from this guy, scott martin the founder of the living christmas company. >> i could go to buy a cut tree for $14 and why spend $100 and give it back to you. >> certainly. something that you have to value. as a landscape architect, martin

says what he values is a christmas without waste. i love having the tree enter the house, but later you would see the same tree kicked by the curb and it is laying there outside for trash. >> reporter: so a year ago, martin bought all of the polted trees and launched a website and started to offer trees for rent. his business took off. >> i tried to price it so that it is comparable to getting a free tree. >> reporter: and the fleet of trucks run on biodiesel fuel, and 10% of all sales goes to local charities, and he expects the profit fs to grow with the tree. >> by the time you have a tree that is six or seven-feet tall, how much money has that tree produced for you? >> we are renting it five or six times over, and so that the revenue created from that is well over $1,000 a tree. >> reporter: the trees are picked up after christmas and go back to lot where they will be cared for until next year. >> reporter: you hear people

only in los angeles could you rent a christmas tree. >> you have a tree in the front yard and would you cut it down and bring it in your house for two weeks? you wouldn't. >> reporter: but the arquettes don't want a long-term commitment to ramona either. so they will have her home for the holidays and send her away come january 1st without the worry of where she will stay until next year. thelma gutierrez, manhattan beach, california. "one simple thing" brought to you by bmw, the ultimate driving machine.

home sales surged last month, but prices continue to fall from a year ago. that is one of the reasons that sales are going up, and that is pushing down the value of home remodeling projects for the fourth straight year. allison kosic is in the cnn money newsroom for cnn. is renovating not paying off the way it used to? >> exactly. the harsh reality, tom, is that people are getting less bang for the buck when it comes to making the home improvements. look at something, the average

remodeling job costs $51,000 this year, but added only $32,000 to the home's value, and that is a return on investment of 63.8% which is down from 67% last year. but on the flipside, there are some jobs that give you a better payoff. small scale exterior projects are the most profitable at resale, because in the down market, it is about adding to the home's first impression and what realtors call curb appeal. i am talking about steel entry doors and fiber-cement siding. those renovations could help to make the house sell and that is a plus. >> well, thank you, allison, with all of the difficulties people are facing. when you look at the market out there, there are some that you can focus on, and some remodeling projects are just not wort it though. which ones are those? >> exactly. the study found, tom, that you will make less of a profit if you remodel the home office or

build a new sunroom. major kitchen renovations are low on the list. that was kind of surprising. check this out. an upscale kitchen re-do costs almost $112,000 this year, but added $70,000 to the home value and that is 63% of the cost, and in the height of the housing boom, it was at a 80%. but remember something, that the resell value is not the primary reason that people decide to remodel, because it is more of a personal decision, right? with the housing market so depressed these days many people have decided to stay in their homes and spruce them up rather than settling for a lower sales price. so if upscale kitchen is what you want, then go for it. but when it comes time to sell, you may not get a big chunk of the investment back. if you want more detail goes to cnnmoney.com. and follow us on twitter. >> thank you, allison. top stories, a kansas judge says an anti-abortion activist

cannot use the necessary defense in his trial. what that means to scott ritter who is accused of killing an abortion doctor cannot charge that his actions were simply justified. he is accused of killing dr. george tiller right in his church. that trial is in wichita, kansas. and the president has rolled up the sleeve and gotten his swine flu shot, and so did the first lady. the first daughters got their shots back in october. the 107-year-old woman honored by president obama in his election victory speech has died in atlanta. anne nixon cooper was born before blacks or women had the right to vote. the president called her the example of the heart break and the hope of the past century. mrs. cooper died in her home one month shy of turning 108. it started with a child's

question, little boy wanted to know if all little girls and boy had teddy bears like he did? he was upset by the answer, and so that 5-year-old decided to do something about it. last year he gave away 850 bears. this year, he plans to top it. cnn photo journalist jonathan obern tagged along in the "giving in focus" series. >> we went to a lot of build-a-bears, but didn't believe that a 6-year-old boy could build 1,000 bears. i think that most people should have a bear. some people want them to maybe play with or sleep with or something. the stuffing goes inside of this hole, and we put it in that machine and once it is done using it, it comes out of the tube over there. when i was 5 years old, i asked my dad if everyone in the world had a bear like mine. >> i said, no, justin, everybody

doesn't have a bear like yours, and he asked me to give away all of his old bears. he said yes. >> he said, well, can i go make some bears. >> my dad said how many? i said 1,000. >> it was his idea. and i'm getting a little choked up right now, excuse me, every time i talk about it, because i can't em fa sitz how proud i am of him. he is doing a really good jb. >> well, we have kids come in all of the time and they say, i want 100 bears or 10 bears or 1,000 bears and so we are sort of used to that request, you know. but in this case, it was real. oh, okay, so you really want 1,000 bears? >> right now, we have about 411 bears with the bears he made today, it is about 460 or 470, and we have over a month to make about 450 more bears. he really takes pride and interest in every bear. if he doesn't like the outfit or he doesn't think that the kid will like it either. >> it is delivery day.

>> every student here today is getting to get a build-a-bear decorated. >> there will be 2,000 bears in two years. it is about him and what he started. it is kind of becoming like a little movement. >> i just like to give the bears out. >> as long as he wants to do the 1,000 bears, we are committed to the 1,000 bears every year he wants to do this. >> tune into cnn on christmas day for a special expanded look at what your friends and neighbors all over the country are doing to help the less fortunate, and the "giving in focus" begins at 1:00 p.m. i hosted it in union station a few moments ago, and please don't miss it on cnn, because it is a wonderful show. here is a question for you. do you know the south butt from the north face? that may sound like a joke, but it isn't. one company fears that you might not and they want to do something about it. you have to wonder, can you see this from the international space station?

more than 100,000 lights, a 50-foot fake tree and 30 smaller one a and christmas countdown clock and astronomical amounts of christmas spirit all at one house in phoenix and an electric bill you would rather not see. i'd like one of those desserts and some coffee. - sure, cake or pie? - pie. - apple or cherry? - cherry. oil or cream? oil or cream? cream. some use hydrogenated oil. reddi-wip uses real dairy cream. nothing's more real than reddi-wip.

right now 1.2 million people are on sprint mobile broadband. 31 are streaming a sales conference from the road. 154 are tracking shipments on a train. 33 are iming on a ferry. and 1300 are secretly checking email on a vacation. that's happening now. america's most dependable 3g network. bringing you the first and only wireless 4g network. right now get a free 3g/4g device for your laptop. sprint. the now network. deaf, hard-of-hearing and people with speech disabilities access www.sprintrelay.com

as always at this time of day, team sanchez is working on the next hour of newsroom, but my friend ali velshi is in new york filling in for rick.

hey, ali, how are you? >> tom, my pleasure and i run into you for the last couple of days, and i love it. >> well, we just see each other on tv and never in person. >> i will take it. i want to tell you about a story eight years ago in december the u.s. had as for in tora bora near the pakistani border and peter bergen is going to join me and he thinks that in fact that was the best chance that the u.s. had to get osama bin laden and we will talk exactly what happened in those decisive few days and why the u.s. didn't move in, if it were to is easy to get osama bin laden back then and what we can learn with the new offensive in afghanistan. that is one story. another fascinating story is a young man in florida wants to be a journalist and war correspondent, and the school didn't offer courses, but he wanted experience on ground, so he got to the nearest thing like a war zone and that is juarez, mexico, and we will hear the

story and the video he shot and talk about whether or not that is the best way to become a correspondent. little dangerous, tom. >> when ali velshi is on tv, it is good time to listen. we hope you will stick with us. it was one measly digit off, but it has meant everything to a las vegas woman. her condo was cleaned out, every single thing thrown away as part of a foreclosure. the problem is that she not being foreclosured upon. that is her neighbor. so make matters worse, she is getting another wrong number from the folks responsible. >> i told her, give me $100,000 to $200,000 to replace hi things, and that is being generous, and think are like, okay, that is too much. she call med the same day and told me that they only willing to give me $5,000. >> the real estate company involved says it is working to resolve this situation, but it is not saying much else.

amazing, amazing story. >> earlier i asked a serious question that bears repeating, do you know the south butt from the north face? the logos are looking similar and take a look at them right here, if you can. that is what the people at north face apparel think. so they are not laughing at a teen entrepreneur's tongue and cheek take on the brand. casey joyce from st. louis has the story. >> there's pink in long sleeve, but that is what i already have. >> reporter: shoppers can't get enough of the south butt. >> i was like, dude, i have to get one. i saw it on the news. >> nobody would have seen it coming. >> reporter: meet the brain child behind the norsouth butt. >> it is like nobody is wearing polos to actually wear polo, so i thought it was ridiculous soy started to mock them with the south butt. >> and the idea caught on big time. 19-year-old jimmy winkleman

started to sell t-shirts and fleeces in the st. louis pharmacies and now they are online and he shipped orders to every state in the country. with a few days to go before christmas, it is chaos inside of the pharmacy as everyone is coming in to get one of the hottest gifts of the season. >> it has been just like so many people that we don't get time to do anything else except for selling the south butt. >> a medium in green. >> reporter: but is ait is a parody or piracy. the company of north face says it is causing confusion, mistake purchases from the public. winkleman dismisses that. >> i don't know why i am a threat of them, the south butt company. >> reporter: the company won't comment, but all of the attention is fueling the sales. >> it is hilarious, and hilarious, and why would they sue? it is funny. i mean, everyone loves north face and why not south butt. >> when they actually tried to file a federal court case

against me, it was like the best christmas present ever. >> that is casey joyce reporting for the affiliate in st. louis, kstd. and winkleman said he offered to sell the south butt to north face for $1 millions but no deal. go figure. hard to say. well, on more serious matters a life cut short. why did brittany murphy die? and when we will know about what happened with this young across? stay with us. ou get to choose any car in the aisle. choose any car? you cannot be serious! okay. seriously, you choose. go national. go like a pro.

as the investigation into brittany murphy's death gets started the l.a. county coroner is launching a probe of who leaked the early details to the

media, including the names of prescription drugs found at the home. randi kaye has found much more on this shocking case. >> reporter: the call for help came just after 8:00 a.m. early sunday morning. actress brittany murphy had collapsed in her los angeles home. the l.a. county coroner said that paramedics found her in the bathroom unconscious and unresponsive. it is said she may have had the flu, but the coroner said that prescription drugs found in murphy's home were found at the house, but no illegal drugs, and the coroner says it is believed she died of natural causes. the aums is complete and results to be made public in six weeks. "entertainment weekly's" lynette rice. >> there was something so delicate about her, as if she was broken and something so frail and innocent about her, that i think that audiences want to kind of protect her. >> reporter: but it seems that

there was no protecting murphy as the star rose in hollywood, the healthy-looking bright eyed brunette best known for the roles in "clueless ", "girl interrupted," and "8 mile." in this last interview, murphy looks gaunt. in 2003, a blond skinny murphy graced the cover of "cosmopolitan" magazine. in 2005 "maxim" put her on the cover and called her a sex bomb. that same year "jane" magazine talked about rumors of cocaine use. the actress told them, i have never tried it in my entire life. i have never even seen it, and i am also too way high strung. kanlt take sud fed because i think that my heart wouz explode. but murphy who denied having a eating disorder continued to make tabloid headlines. two weeks ago "saturday night

live" parodied a spaced out brittany murphy which has been removed from the web sites after her death. >> she has a reputation of being a crazy train girl who is about to go off of the rails and whether it is the wild stories of wanting her peanut butter and jelly sandwiches cut on the diagonal or stalkers following her and her husband or maybe even hearing gunshots around her household. but it never has stopped her from getting work. >> reporter: in fact, murphy had been working since age 9. she had a manager by the time of 13 and moved to hollywood with her mother. by 1997, she had become the voice of lieu ann platter on fox's animated hit "king of the hill." she was engaged twice before marrying her screenwriter husband. in 2003, she dated her just-married co-star ashton kutcher. after her death, he tweeted about it. today, the world lost a