implamtded in the back of his head for a project called the third eye. it will take a photograph every minute for a year transported to the museum of modern art. instead of implanting the camera i wonder if he thought of using velcro or duct tape. i'm into technology. there won't be any implanted cameras in my head. brooke. >> what do i say? i don't know where to go so i'll just move on. take a look at this incredible video with me. this police officer is going to talk to me in just a couple of minutes. he is the one who thought the woman in that fiery suv -- see that car -- would be dead. good news. she's not. she's alive. all thanks to him. our hero cop is going to join me. plus president obama turning up in of all places afghanistan today where he met with the troops but not the country's leader. also, bad news back here at home. unemployment up now 9.8% and today the president's debt

commission just can't agree. one of the no voters is going to join me live with her plan. i'm brooke baldwin. president obama big surprise, his trip to afghanistan. word came down late this morning that mr. obama not so much at home in washington. instead had slipped off. there you saw him hopping off air force one. slipping off to visit the troops for the holiday season. the president there arriving right around 9:00 in the evening afghan time. and then a short time later if you watch this, he got a rousing welcome at the u.s. base ba gram from general david petraeus. got a couple of t-shirts as well. and huge, huge applause from the army's 101st airborne division. and during a speech there to the american troops, mr. obama -- were you watching? did you notice there was almost a tear in his eye -- appeared to get pretty emotional when he spoke of a meeting with a unit that recently suffered heavy, heavy casualties but also

reflected on his decision. it was one year ago this month -- remember he was in west point -- to bolster the war effort there with 30,000 new troops. here's the president. >> as general petraeus mentioned, one year ago i ordered additional troops to serve in this country that was the staging ground for the 9/11 attacks. all of those troops are now in place. and thanks to your service, we are making important progress. you are protecting your country. you're achieving your objectives. you will succeed in your mission. we said we were going to break the taliban's momentum. and that's what you're doing. you're going on the offense. tired of playing defense. targeting their leaders, pushing them out of their strongholds. today we can be proud that there are fewer areas under taliban control. and more afghans have a chance

to build a more hopeful future. >> now, of course, the president is there and speaking to american troops. you would think he'd also try to make a trip to kabul to speak with hamid karzai, the leader there. not so much. bad weather in-country scrapped a helicopter ride to the capital for what was planned to be a brief meeting with afghanistan's president hamid karzai. we're told the two did have some kind of phone conversation, which comes in the wake of the recent internet leaks portraying karzai's government as more corrupt than previously suspected. so i want to bring in two of our own here, dan lothian joining me live from the white house and barbara starr at the pentagon. dan lothian, i want to begin with you. i know the president can pull some strings here and there. so i guess of all people he could sort of sneak out of country and head to afghanistan. but do we know how exactly he got out of washington? do we know when he did it and how he did it and i guess is he even still there?

>> reporter: he just left. he lifted off headed to germany where they'll refuel before coming back to the united states. he's spending a little bit more than four hours on the ground in afghanistan. these are the kinds of trips that are very secret obviously for security reasons. so the president lifting off from washington last night and arriving there in afghanistan around 10:35 this morning. as you were pointing out earlier, the president had a lot more that he wanted to accomplish there even beyond just meeting with the troops. he wanted to also meet with president karzai in kabul but then bad weather rolled in. there were high winds. we are told about 45 miles per hour. a lot of dust, also low cloud cover. so as you pointed out they did have this phone conversation. we're told that that lasted for about 15 minutes or so, brooke. >> dan, briefly, do we have any kind of readout on the call? do we know what was discussed at all? >> reporter: we don't know what was discussed. but as you were highlighting earlier, there is a lot of talk

obviously about conversations that were had that have been disclosed by wikileaks about what the administration officials have been saying about the leadership there in afghanistan. and one official was sort of pushing back, dismissing that this morning, saying that there's nothing new here. that a lot has been reported in the past about concerns about corruption in the afghan government. so they don't see this as really being in sort of major hurdle in going forward and working with the government there. >> i want to get to sort of the timing in the wikileaks in a moment but i want to bring in barbara starr at the pentagon. it's been as i mentioned one year since the president was there at west point announcing this surge in afghanistan. can we, barbara, claim thus far it's been a success? do we know if we're any closer in getting some of our men and women back home? >> reporter: well, general david petraeus, brooke, believes that the troops are indeed making progress against the taliban and the insurgency. even in the heartland of the insurgency down in southern

afghanistan in the kandahar and helmand region. that's what he's been telling the white house for the last several weeks. that's what he's expected to tell them in this december review of the war. but the real question of course is there may be progress right now but has the back of the insurgency really been broken or are we just in another phase where the insurgency retreats a little bit, they regroup and come the springtime they're right back in the fight with new weapons, new training, new personnel? it may not really be until the spring that the u.s. can make a final assessment about this period of time and whether they are seeing real progress. still, general petraeus believes he is making headway, brooke. >> you mentioned that war report. just quickly, do we know when we should expect that? when this month? >> reporter: by the end of this month, no later than that. general petraeus, ambassador eikenberry, the cia, the entire

government apparatus in afghanistan is expected to report to the president on the progress of the war, are they making the right kind of progress, is the strategy working. back to you, dan. we mentioned the wikileaks, state department cables and reported an incident in which an afghan vice president turned up in dubai with some $50 mm on him. apparently after the meeting ambassador carl eiken ber rif cabled back. and said the meeting highlights one of the major challenges in afghanistan, how to fight corruption and connect the people to their government when the key government officials are themselves corrupt. dan, the word corrupt. so does the administration worry that the public is going to decide we're tleg all this money essentially down a rat hole? >> reporter: no. the administration and the president himself have pointed out time and again -- and you heard it from the president today as well -- that the mission in afghanistan is an important mission in terms of securing the safety of the american people.

that the u.s. troops are playing a vital role in going after al qaeda and in particular the taliban in order to create a safe -- a safer area there and prevent further attacks on the united states. so certainly this administration does not look at whatever information may come out or the reality on the ground there as throwing away good money. they believe this is money well spent in securing the safety of the american people. >> dan lothian for me at the white house, barbara starr at the pentagon. both of you, thank you. we're going to get to the domestic issues here. really that the president is facing here in a moment but let's talk about the unemployment number, the report coming out today. pretty grim. more or less a curveball. now we're up to 9.8%. and about that debt, it is climbing as i speak and yet the special blue ribbon panel the president put together, assembled to come up with some idea, maybe a blue print, apparently they couldn't totally agree on a plan to officially put in front of congress. so i'm going to talk to one of

the democrats. she's out of illinois. on the debt commission who voted no. she was one of the no votes. congressman jan schakowsky joins me next. it is one the most dramatic videos our entire cnn team has ever seen. take a look at this with me. this is video you're seeing from the perspective of a dash cam video, from the patrol car of a woman's car that's burst into flames. the officer pulling up here said he thought he would be pulling out a body out of that car. so coming up, the entire rescue. i'm going to talk to that heroic police officer live. plus we have heard all week long the economy, it's great, it's back on track. but then a bombshell today. ali velshi, we have not let him go yet to start his weekend. he's going to join me live. this guy is pretty smart when it comes to the economy, talking business and this number we got today. we'll have a conversation after the break. y bolt, car by car, out of the very best america had to offer. ingenuity. with.

optimism. and a belief that the finest things are the most thoughtfully made -- not the most expensive. today, the american character is no less strong. and chevrolet continues as an expression of the best of it. bringing more technology to more people than ever in our history. inventing new ways to get around our planet while helping to preserve it at the same time. exploring new horizons of design and power. and making our vehicles amongst the safest on earth. this isn't just any car company. this is chevrolet. and the strength of our character can be found in every car and truck we make. it's why, today, tomorrow, and on into a bright future, we can proudly say... ...chevy runs deep. ♪ but i knew that i was going to need a day job. we actually have a lot of scientists that play music. the creativity, the innovation, there's definitely a tie there. one thing our scientists are working on

is carbon capture and storage, which could prevent co2 from entering the atmosphere. we've just built a new plant to demonstrate how we can safely freeze out the co2 from natural gas. it looks like snow. it's one way that we're helping provide energy with fewer emissions. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ look at that car, well, it goes fast ♪ ♪ givin' my dad a heart attack ♪ [ friend ] that is so awesome. ♪ i love my car [ engine revving ] [ male announcer ] that first chevy, yea, it gets under your skin. ♪

just when we thought things were looking up maybe just a little bit in the economy, we got quite a bit of a curveball today that shocked a lot of experts out there. unemployment went up in november. according to this report released today by the federal government. so the economy only created about 40,000 jobs last month. it was he have peck-- expected produce many more. ali velshi is the guy for this. >> don't blame me. i didn't do anything about the jobs. >> what did you do? what happened? >> it's disappointing. it took a little air out of all of us who were optimistic. we expected 150,000 jobs. >> that's a huge number. >> huge difference. we wanted to see trends and see

that 150 because it would have meant we were creating lots and lots of jobs and on the way to success because as you know you either have to have income going up which means jobs, home price or investments going up to feel prosperous but jobs are the most important ones. a setback, it feels bad. i don't make trends out of one month. we'll very to see what december does. >> bump in the road, sign of the times. >> the problem is if we got the 150,000 jobs, that still is only halfway to where we need to bring the unemployment rate back to the 5% before christmas started. >> but we would have been moaning and xwrogroaning less. >> this is going to take a long time to fixed. i don't think it won't get fixed but didn't happen this month. >> i know you heard what vice president biden said today. i don't know if you did. play you the sound bite. he says extending these unemployment benefits would help spur the economy. >> unemployment insurance is a

powerful driver of economic growth. it's as simple and plain as that and you can't let it be cut off for these families. and, again, not only at a time when they need it but when the nation needs this money being spent and the economy generating new jobs. >> a powerful driver of economic growth. were you surprised by that? do you see how that would work? >> yeah. i wish that information were out there more because there's a debate about whether to extend unemployment benefits. it's a legitimate debate because how long do you do this for? we're going to have four or five years of high unemployment. here's the problem. when you put a dollar into unemployment benefits, economists say it brings back anywhere from $1.50 to $2 because if you get unemployment benefits you need to spend it to live. you don't say i'll buy a tv at the end of the year. >> food and groceries. >> it's a direct relationship. the problem is some say legitimately we can't treat this as an emergency if this is a long-term situation we're in.

so if we want to extend them we have to cut somewhere else immediately. that's what a lot of republicans are saying. let's cut somewhere to keep on doing this. it's a debate raging as we speak in washington. >> ali velshi, have an awesome weekend. >> you too. >> bye-bye. we are learning about this crash. here's what i know. it's just a little bit. this is a bus crash in louisiana. witnesses say about 20 children were on board. we're told most rushed to the hospital. at least two said to be in critical condition. mangled mess. i guess that's the tractor trailer, the 18 wheeler. that is what slammed into this school bus. this happened in port barre. and get this, the local mayor was behind the wheel. he's apparently a substitute bus driver, so pulling double duty behind the wheel of that school bus. the school secretary tells cnn some of the children have been released from the hospital this hour but again that's the info we have. as soon as we get more information i will pass it along

to you. again video thank you to our affiliate klfy out of louisiana. now to this number and it keeps going up and up. you are looking at the u.s. national debt clock. you see the number in red? there are a lot of numbers in red but the really big one on the upper left. that is our national debt. at more than $13 trillion. imagine that. i don't like saying that. trillion. congresswoman jan schakowsky says she has a plan to cut it and wants you to listen to her plan. she's going to join me next from capitol hill.

welcome back to the "newsroo

"newsroom." i want to tell you about what happened with the debt commission today. today was the big vote, the climax, if you will. the vote on the plan to take some extremely unpopular steps to try to slash our national debt by $4 trillion over the next decade. when i say unpopular, i'm talking about raising our taxes, cutting government spending. today's vote tally, up 18 members on this panel. there were 11 yeses, 7 nos. bottom line the plan can go before congress but won't have the commission's official stamp of approval. that's the only difference here. joining me from washington commission member and congresswoman jan schakowsky, democratic member of the congress from illinois. i know you voted no. you're one of the seven nos voting again the plan. welcome to you. and since we have just a couple of minutes to talk here, could you just tell me very briefly why you voted no today? after all, we all know something

needs to be done. why vote no? >> yes. we know that ware on a fiscal path that is unsustainable but also know right now in the united states of america the middle class is disappearing. and i felt that the solutions to our debt and deficit problem outlined by the simpsosimpson/b commission expected too much from our seniors and from the poor and that they had nothing to do with causing the deficit and the burden should not be so much on them. that's why i voted no. >> you say they shouldn't be the ones picking up the tab. we also have video. we heard you talking after this meeting to some of the reporters on capitol hill. i want to play some of what you said. let's listen. >> i think the american people feel not only that they're struggling with their mortgages, keeping their homes, with unemployment and the fear of unemployment. but i think they feel that the rich have gotten off with

something, that the wall street tycoons have been benefited, that they're the ones who are really the losers in all of this. there's an anger, i think, of not only about their condition right now but that it's unfair. >> so a sense of unfair and unfair for as you've been saying the middle class. you know, though, some of your opponents would say this is class warfare. some ask what this has to do with cutting our national debt. what would your response be to them? >> my response would be right now in our country 1% of americans control 34% of the wealth, more than the 90% of the rest of americans combined. that's not good for not only our economy but it's bad for our democracy as well. and so we can achieve budget balance. we can reduce our deficit. but we should be asking the people who have enjoyed the party, the prosperity party to pay the tab on that. by that, i mean, i think it's

fair to ask instead of seniors to pay for those health care costs -- that's how we solve part of the problem, making their medicare more expensive out of pocket -- we ought to say to the big insurance companies and big pharmaceutical companies, no, we're going to make you lower the prices. we're going to have medicare negotiate for lower prescription drug prices. >> let me jump in because your whole point of how 1% of the country controls 34% of the country's wealth. would it be your belief that cutting is the national debt would also then have to entail a redistribution of the wealth? >> well, there has been a massive redistribution of the wealth going up. the problem with that for the economy is where are the customers? if people don't have money in their pockets that they can go out and buy, then i don't care if you're a smart businessman, you're not going to expand your business if there aren't people to buy your product. it's not -- they call the rich the jobmakers. well, nobody is going to make

jobs if there aren't people that can afford actually to buy the products. so far we are squeezing the middle class so much that it's really disappearing in our country and we're not going to be able to have a vibrant economy if all boats don't rise, not just the yachts at the top. >> congresswoman jan schakowsky. thank you for joining me on a busy week. this is the inside a cold war era bunker where wikileaks apparently stores some of its computer servers. yep, i'm talking wikileaks. look at this. the website -- you know the story. it's causing all kinds of furor for spilling sensitive u.s. secrets, all those cables. are they bracing for an attack of their own? we're going to take you inside this james bondesque cave coming up. take a look at this snowstorm. you are definitely feeling it if you're upstate new york. cuff imagine being trapped in interstate traffic? look at all these cars

back-to-back-to-back for 20 hours or more? this was the reality on i-90. do. when our mittens double as work gloves. and we turn every room into a project. but this year, let's trim the budget. get some help from martha stewart that we can't get anywhere else. and spread our money as far as our cheer. ♪ more saving. more doing. that's the power of the home depot. we're lowering the cost of tradition, with fresh cut trees at fresh cut prices.

♪ i'm gonna get my hair cut ♪ even if i have to cut it myself ♪ ♪ i'm gonna get my hair cut ♪ even if i have to cut it myself ♪ ♪ but it makes me out of breath ♪ ♪ when you say ♪ ♪ love is a game -♪ a game for two -[ ring ] ♪ love is a game i want to play with you ♪ [ female announcer ] introducing the dell streak 5 pocket tablet exclusively at dell.com and best buy.

just in here,not great news if you have friends, family going to or coming from spain. we are getting word that most of the airports in spain, they're now closed, shut down. air traffic controllers apparently are walking oh the job. hundreds of flights either delayed or canceled, stranding tens of thousands of passengers. the head of this -- spain's airport authority, the irresponsible decision is provoking grave consequences across spain. he says it could lead to firing and could be a crime under the criminal code for abandoning a post for unjustified reasons. this just in from spain. it's the "discovery's" last

launch ever and nasa just made a huge announcement about it. that is ahead. also next, hear from an officer who saved a woman from this burning suv. the story is amazing! wait until you see the erie moments when he first rolled up to the scene. if you live for performance, upgrade to castrol edge advanced synthetic oil. with eight times better wear protection than mobil 1. castrol edge. it's more than just oil.

can you imagine having to deal with this much snow? maybe you're in buffalo new york or upstate new york and saying this is my reality. massive snowdrifts. apparently there is more lake-effect snow coming down today. so the double dose of this stuff folts what has been a very long haul for commuters there in buffalo. major highways totally shut

down. some people behind the wheel had to be stranded in their cars for 20 hours. by six foot high snowdrifts. those guys are trying to walk through it. good samaritans rushing in to help. some drivers tried to help themselves. some using a makeshift pathway. frank rodriguez sent in a video i'm about to share with you after a co-worker put up ladders on either side of the highway. there's the fence. you can see parts of the video some of the people trying to use them to cross over to get food and gas. rodriguez tells us more about what happened. listen to this. >> it was interesting because the first group of people that we saw were truckers. and there was guys in just t-shirts that were completely red -- looked like they were frostbitten or whatever. so what had happened was i went outside and i kind of said to them you're more than welcome to come in and warm up. i know you only have a t-shirt

on. they were solely interested in finding food. the guy told me he had been stranded for 16 hours. so what i did was i pointed them where he could find some food right across the street. there's a convenience store. >> did he say some people just had t-shirts and not jackets walking through that? oh, my goodness. look at some of the problems, the troubles the drivers had getting out of their cars. this guy. yeah, that's not working so much. plows and snow blowers are working overtime to battle the effects and aftermath of this intense early december storm. yikes! . now to a couple other stories unfolding. president barack obama, surprise to our american troops there in afghanistan. the president arrived just a couple of hours ago and he addressed g.i.s at the u.s. air base in bagram. he personally delivered a holiday greeting and encouraged all these men and women saying that they would defeat the taliban, they'd be on the offensive. the president also visited wounded troops in the hospital, pinning purple hearts on four of

them. but due to some poor weather conditions in country the president will not be meeting face to face with afghan president hamid karzai in kabul but we're told they will speak via a secure link. looks like space shuttle "discovery" will not be heading into space until february. the aging shuttle was spoltioned to leave for the international space station last month. it was hit by a bunch ever technical glitches, weather problems there. "discovery's" mission is to deliver a pressurized module. the launch will most likely be moved now to april. a police officer being hailed a hero after rescuing a woman from this burning suv. the florida highway patrol says the driver somehow lost control of her vehicle heading down i-95. it hit a pole and burst into flames. the officer acted fast. all of this caught as you're

looking at it from his dashboard camera on his patrol car. he's joining me to walk me through it. jimmy, bravo to you. when i saw this video, it took my breath away. let's begin with when you first got the call and come upon this suv. it's on fire. did you even think anyone could have possibly survived? >> it wasn't until actually i got out of my car that someone told me there was someone inside the vehicle still. the gentleman that was on the scene identified him is as an off-duty or now i know fire rescue. he was able to basically triage the other two gentlemen that were ejected and tell me there was still someone inside. >> so two guys were tossed once this car hits this pole. you eventually find out there's a woman inside. were you thinking -- were you thinking reality the situation is you'd be pulling out a body? >> no, i didn't. >> you thought she would make it? >> absolutely. in fact, i almost thought that the fire would be out before i

needed to pull her out and in that case i probably would have just waited for the fire department to show up and extract her with a c-spine or something. >> what happened? you pull up. you start running. how did you get her out? what did you do in. >> i get to the window. i saw a gentleman trying to break out the rear passenger window with the fire extinguisher and saw it wasn't working. i stepped up and used my baton which i had done before successfully. hit four or five times the first time and then went at it again. it wasn't smashing out. that's when i decided to use my firearm to fire two shots into the window to soften it up. so you were able to fire the shots. you shatter the window. at what point did you see this woman? was she crying for help? was she moving? was she talking? >> when i originally saw her, i ran up to the car and i looked in. she looked unconscious. when i finally fired the two rounds, actually prior to that, i had communicated to her so i could see her moving around. i told her move as far forward

as she could. i fired two rounds. the glass spiter webbed. when i smashed out the rest of the windshield with my baton i could hear her yelling "get me out of here." >> i have read you said the flames were about a foot from her but you were able to pull her out. she's okay. i don't know if you're going to find her and say hello but i have a feeling she'll be finding you, jimmy jalil. appreciate it. >> ironically enough i'm at the del ray center where she's at. >> there you go. so you're going to go say hello? >> we just got done meeting her and talked to her family. i'm hear watching it now. >> tell her we are glad she's okay. jimmy, thank you. now this. >> it's actually 30 meters under solid bedrock and it's got a one foot thick solid bomb door. so it's a pretty secure facility. >> pretty secure facility. what is this place? we're about to take you have on a rare tour inside this undergrounds bunker for a glimpse of where wikileaks has

stored its computer servers. yep, you know the website spilling all those sensitive military documents, the cables potentially damaging u.s. diplomatic relations all around the world. taking you inside next. our education director steve perry is trying something new getting out of the classrooms going into homes to help families kick their kids into gear. watch. ♪ ♪ so much to do now baby ♪ so much to do we have three marvelous children. they're all in middle school right now. first is nathan. nathan is 14. he just turned 14. and he's in the eighth grade. and our twins david and eva are 12 years old. they love school because they get to see all their friends there. but victor and i feel the children, maybe they're not

meeting their full potential. >> we gave the ross could youski family a flip cam so i could get a sense of what was going on inside the home. what their daily routines looked like and how mom and dad struggled to get their children to comply with what they want them to do to be successful in school. >> good morning, nathan. it's time to get up. good morning, eva. time to rise. are you awake? david, good morning. it's time to wake up. time to get up and get your stuff together and go to school. come on. rise and shine, happy guy. come on, nathan. this is your second call. hurry up because you need to leave with daddy in five minutes. it's worrisome because it's five minutes of 8:00. i'm leaving the house and the kid isn't out of the bed yet. >> parents, does that play out in your house in the morning

sometimes? wait until you see if steve perry can get the family into shape and perhaps he can help yours as well. we're calling it "education makeover." it airs tomorrow afternoon at 2:30 and 4:30 eastern right here on cnn. a quick reminder, we're going to take you inside wikileaks, the bunker. that's next.

the arrest of the man behind wikileaks appears to be getting closer today. sweden reportedly has sent an updated arrest warrant to police in england where julian assange is apparently staying. we have a rare look along that same vein here. one of the underground bunkers believed to house wikileaks. it was inspired by james bond movies. really, james bonds. first here is a new development i want to pass along. a new warning from an almost ghost-like julian assange. it comes during this online chat

with readers of britain's "guardian" newspaper. assange says if he's arrested or if wikileaks is destroyed, more leaked documents will still get out and according to assange more than 100 thour people have encrypted copies already. the cables are actually in the hands of multiple news organizations. assange writes, quote, if something happens to us, the key parts will be released automatically. he goes on to say, history will win. so wiping out wikileaks may actually prove to be a tougher task than actually arresting assan assange. why? i want to you watch as we take you inside a james bond-inspired cave where wikileaks is believed to be storing super secret files. our guide is cnn's brian todd. >> reporter: from the looks of this place you'd think the website is bracing for a full-scale attack and not the internet kinds. welcome to white mountain, a fortified data center in a cold war era bunker near stockholm,

sweden. this is the place that at one time hosted at least some of wikileaks computer servers. now that amazon has dumped wikileaks from its servers, wikileaks has reportedly moved some of the files back here. >> 30 meters under solid bedrock and one foot thick solid bomb door so it's a pretty secure facility. that's probably one of the primary reasons. >> reporter: move over dr. no. it boasts a futuristic room. a floating glass conference room above it. back-up power two diesel engines from german submarines. experts say this kind of security doesn't prevent hackers from stealing data or protect websites from the kind of denial of service attacks that's plagued wikileaks but nelson say more and more websites are relying on bunkers, even container ships to store servers. >> it's an innovative way to solve a data center problem because as you get more computers and data on the internet, the density or heat

generated from those computers, you can use things like underground cooling to get rid of that heat. >> now, the attacks on wikileaks are escalating. its domain name provided yanked wikileaks offline after attacks on the site caused problems for its other customers. and get this. france is reportedly considering banning wikileaks altogether. imagine this. how would the world have been different if one of the most famous musicians, john lennon -- i don't even have to tell you of the beatles -- lived past 1980? you're going to hear from a woman who had a very, very close encounter with lennon's killer in those final days. that's next. t i was going to need a day job. we actually have a lot of scientists that play music. the creativity, the innovation, there's definitely a tie there. one thing our scientists are working on is carbon capture and storage, which could prevent co2 from entering the atmosphere. we've just built a new plant to demonstrate how we can safely freeze out the co2 from natural gas.

it looks like snow. it's one way that we're helping provide energy with fewer emissions. rheumatoid arthritis going? they're discovering simponi®, the first self-injectable r.a. medicine you take just once a month. taken with methotrexate, simponi® helps relieve the pain, stiffness and swelling of r.a. with one dose once a month. visit 4simponi.com to see if you qualify for a full year of cost support. simponi® can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious and sometimes fatal events can occur, such as infections, cancer in children and adults, heart failure, nervous system disorders, liver or blood problems, and allergic reactions. before starting simponi®, your doctor should test you for t.b. and assess your risk of infections, including fungal infections and hepatitis b. ask your doctor if you've been to a region where certain fungal infections are common. tell your doctor if you're prone to infections, or develop symptoms such as fever, fatigue, cough or sores.

you should not start simponi® if you have an infection. [ woman ] ask your rheumatologist about simponi®. just one dose, once a month.

welcome back to the "newsroom." you know the world will never know what could have been had john lennon lived beyond the year 1980. in his new documentary "losing lennon" our own john roberts sat down with a woman who had this very, very close encounter with lennon's killer mark david chapman in the final days leading up to that murder outside the dakota in new york. >> lennon was an obsession to kill. >> it had to be done. nothing could have stopped me. >> reporter: on december 6, chapman arrived in new york city. he checked into the ymca just blocks from lennon's home. almost immediately, he began stalking his victim and headed over to the dakota. >> he was very quiet, dressed casually, dressed very normally. >> reporter: jerry moll and her friend jude stein were there when chapman arrived. >> then he said he was there to see john.

and it was always his dream to meet john. >> reporter: but lennon never came out of the building. moll and stein went across the street to have lunch. chapman set off to buy lennon's new double fantasy album. less than an hour later they were all back on the sidewalk at the dakota. >> he was out there waving the album, very excited that he had it. "i got it, i got it." and he said, do you think john would sign it? i said, if you were quiet and mannerly and if he had the time, maybe he would sign it for you. he said, "oh, okay. so he is nice?" i said, "absolutely." he's terrific. >> but he had this idea maybe he wasn't nice? >> yes. >> reporter: chapman gave moll no clue about his deep-seated anger for lennon. but as she left to take in a movie he did hint at his deadly

plan. >> he had said to us you might not see him again. this might be your last time to see him. >> reporter: he was indicating to you in a way that you didn't understand at the time that lennon might not be around much longer? >> right. >> john roberts, so i didn't realize that. mark david chapman bought the double fantasy album as he was staying in the "y" and stalking lennon. back to this woman you sat down with. how did she come to know this mark david chapman? >> jeri moll, i guess you could call her almost an uber fan. she and her friend would hang outside the dakota almost every weekend. and they eventually got to know john lennon and yoko ono and sean and sean's caregiver. and on occasion john lennon would yell down from the window to them asking them if they could send up the magazines that they were reading because they were always reading rock 'n' roll magazines. on occasion jeri moll and her

friend would go to central park with sean lennon, his 5-year-old son and nanny and spend days in the park. she has a whole photographic record of that time. it's an interesting relationship that she had that to this day she certainly remains extraordinarily dedicated to john lennon. >> that's amazing. and john . look back on the extraordinary life of john lennon and trace his long decent down the path to homicide that marked david chapman to something that may have been forged as early as ninth great when as a friend went into a terrible lsd trip and came back from that trip, that long weekend, believing that he was john lennon. we are going to have all these bits and pieces.

i'll be watching. you'll be watching. hopefully, everybody will be watching this fascinating special "losing lennon" tomorrow and sunday night. john roberts, we thank you. here is a nice christmas gift. police officers allowing people to get rid of their parking tickets. but they have to do one thing. wait until you hear about this deal. the manhunt is on for the suspects in this dramatic bank robbery. all caught on tape. that is ahead. we fill them with extraordinary craftsmanship.

we fill them with amazing technology. and we fill them with inspired design. and now your chevy dealer wants to fill them with as much good will as we can. come see how chevy is giving more. right now, get no monthly payments till spring plus 0% apr financing and fifteen hundred dollars holiday allowance on most chevy models. see how your dealer is giving at facebook.com/chevrolet.

a man says his cell phone just exploded and after the pop, blood was dripping from his ear. stick around and hear the story. this could happen to anyone. remember the tv show,

starsky and hutch and actor, david paul michael grazer played one of the lead roles. his was born with hiv because his wife didn't know it was possible to pass it on to his unborn child. his son is now in his 20s refusing to let it keep him from a normal life. >> reporter: he has lots of passions, riding a skateboard, photography and being a spokesman for the foundation his mother, elizabeth glazer created. he was born with hiv. he had to learn at a very young age how to overcome live wg this virus. i spoke with him earlier this year. >> when my sister passed, i just turned four years old. it was something relatively difficult for me to grasp.

when my mom got sick was really when i faced the actuality of, i am hiv positive and this is something that can affect you. >> jake says his parents blessed him with a healthy immune system and so far, he has not been sick. >> i was born with hiv. it is not something that i had a choice about. when i speak to people about it, i have no issue telling anybody that i'm hiv positive. people who don't know your story, when you tell them you have hiv, that stigma exists. do you feel that? >> i do a lot of photography. i film in the skateboard, action sports world. one of the people, kids that i was filming with, found out through talking to one of my friends, that i was hiv positive. he expressed that he was afraid to touch me. it was something that i hadn't dealt with since my childhood. i kind of told everyone, stop what you are doing, let's talk.

it was honestly as simple as, he just didn't have the information. >> that's quite a moment. stop the shoot and you said, all right, this is an opportunity to educate. >> that's exactly what jake plans to continue, to educate, particularly young people, who unlike himself, have a choice and can prevent getting infected with hiv. dr. sanjay gupta, cnn, reporting. mmmm. you don't love me anymore do you billy? what? i didn't buy this cereal to sweet talk your taste buds it's for my heart health. good speech dad. [ whimper ] [ male announcer ] honey nut cheerios tastes great and its whole grain oats can help lower cholesterol. bee happy. bee healthy. took some foolish risks as a teenager. but i was still taking a foolish risk with my cholesterol. anyone with high cholesterol may be at increased risk of heart attack. diet and exercise weren't enough for me. i stopped kidding myself.

i've been eating healthier, exercising more... and now i'm also taking lipitor. if you've been kidding yourself about high cholesterol...stop. along with diet, lipitor has been shown to lower bad cholesterol 39% to 60%. lipitor is fda approved to reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke in patients who have heart disease or risk factors for heart disease. [ female announcer ] lipitor is not for everyone, including people with liver problems and women who are nurspregnant or may become pregnant. you need simple blood tests to check for liver problems. tell your doctor if you are taking other medications or if you have any muscle pain or weakness. this may be a sign of a rare but serious side effect. let's go, boy, go! whoo-whee! if you have high cholesterol, you may be at increased risk of heart attack and stroke. don't kid yourself. talk to your doctor about your risk and about lipitor.

cnn equals politics and

today wolf blitzer is joining us at the cnn politics desk. happy friday to you, wolf blatz zer. happy day for a lot of the american troops in afghanistan. surprise, it's the president. >> it is always exciting when the president of the united states, the commander and chief shows up. the troops have been waiting if the lahangar for a long time. they could have guessed by the size of the american flag behind the president when he showed up, who it was going to be. he made the long flight from andrews air force base outside of washington, d.c. and got to kabul. obviously, some disappointment that weather-related issues prevented him from having a face-to-face meeting with hamid karzai, the president of afghanistan. he had to have a little phone call with hamid karzai. he could have done that in washington. i guess he wanted to reassure the troops there that the commander and chief is with them. he gave a good speech he can pressing his gratitude to all the young men and women who are serving in afghanistan.

that was the most important part of this mission, not necessarily to have a face-to-face meeting with karzai. as you know, brook, there have been a lot of problems with hamid karzai and his government over the past several months. a lot of suspicion of corruption, the tension between karzai's government and nato allies are pretty significant. they are trying to do the best they can to not only start a u.s. coalition withdrawal sometime next year but to see all the u.s. and coalition troops out by the end of 2014. we seal how that works out. the other big story, the president going over there just as we got these horrible job numbers today, going up to 9.8% unemployment, more than 15 million americans now are unemployed and millions more are underemployed. this is a real serious problem. austan goolsbee, the president's chief economic adviser will be with me during the 5:00 p.m. eastern hour and we are going to talk about what needs to be done, what can be done, what the

administration should be doing. going from 9.6% unemployment to 9.8% unemployment, that's not the right direction and, as you know, if only 39,000 jobs were created last month, that's way below the usually -- you need at least 125 or 150,000 jobs just to stay even, because of the additional people coming into the jobs' market every month. it is a pretty depressing number. we will talk a little bit about that with austin gooan goolsbee. the little battle of the books right now and president george w. bush is beating sarah palin. his book is number one on the best seller's list. her book is number two. they both are selling a lot of copies of this book. month are than 1 million of hers in print. more than 2 million of his in print. they are doing very, very well. his is doing somewhat better than hers. >> i am you can taing to joe johns about precisely that.

wolf blitzer, thank you. you can get the latest political news at cnnpolitics.com. now, this. in the middle of the night, president obama sneaks out, makes a surprise trip to afghanistan. we are going to tell you who he is meeting with. but perhaps more importantly, who he is not meeting with. it is all developing at this hour. i'm brooke baldwin, the news is now. while the president is overseas, the headline here at home, unemployment up again. are we still in a slow recovery and who is hiring? >> i work at a bank. there has been a robbery. four masked suspects storm a florida bank armed to the tee. >> where is the suspect? >> we're in the bank. don't know. we are hiding. >> reporter: the brazen robbery, caught on tape. so is the desperate call for help. a doll, a built-in camera and a

warning about pedophiles, parents, you have to check this out. h how was charles manson able to get his hands on a cell phone in prison? i'm brooke baldwin, a lot of news. rapid fire. first, if north korea attacks again, south korea will retaliate immediately. that is the new warning from the south. they are revealing how they will attack. we are told possible revenge will include air raids. today's warnings, they are a bit different, because they are very specific. next, dramatic video from israel. this raging deadly forest fire. look at this. 41 people are dead. most of them were israeli prison cadettes who were burned alive when their bus was swallowed by these flames. police expect arson is to blame.

funerals were held for some of those victims today. next, is the government getting any closer to charging john edwards, two of the former senators' aides testified. they are looking into whether edwards used money to pay off his mistress during his presidential run. her child that he initially denied, it is still not clear what the aide said in court. check this out. this is out of the movie, the matrix. new york university professor has a camera. that's what that thing is. it is a camera surge cli implanted in the back of his head. he is going to take one picture per minute for a year for this art project. he let jeannie attach the lens to demonstrate. >> now, you have to take it off. >> am i hurting you?

>> yes, jeanne moos, it looks kind of painful. it is installed with tie tanus. eyes in the back of the head. next, it is something we do every single day. we talk on our cell phones. making phone calls for this texas man? wow. rushing to the hospital, you can see why. aaron says he was calling his dad on his new droid 2 phone whether it exploded and blood trickled all the way down his face. >> as i got into the bathroom and once i got to the mirror and saw it, it was, wow, i kind of looked at my phone and realized that it appeared to burst outward. >> what is motorola saying, the maker of the droid two? motorola's safety is the safety of their customers.

they will investigate thundershower roery. china's new high-speed system is breaking rail records. one train said a new world record. the sleek white train reached speeds of up to 298.9 miles an hour. 299 miles an hour. that's how fast as this is going. that's as fast as a jet plane cruising at a low speed. it was making a run on an unopened track between beijing and shanghai. they are trying to boost growth and make the rail system the world's longest. they are considering whether to use the popular weight loss device on people who are less obese. right now, the flat band is available to those 100 pounds or more overweight. the lap band maker wants the fda to lower the weight requirement and make it available to tens of

millions more people. the panel is available to vote on this later this afternoon. next, if you give a kid a toy this christmas, guess what you get to get out of? a parking ticket. yep. that is the deal on the campus at texas tech university. officers say they give out hundreds of tickets every day. last year, they did the same thing and sent more than $3,000 for the marines toys for tots. get this. the toy has to equal the value of the parking ticket. i like that. next, take a look at this. the first edition cope y of the star spangled banner. only 11 exist. this is the only one known to be owned by a private individual. it was just sold at auction for half a million dollars. we don't know who bought it. the buyer bid by telephone. the name has not yet been revealed. the chicago cubs are mourning the passing of colorful

commentator ron santos. the current generation may remember him as a long-time broadcaster. he was also an all-star third baseman that spent his whole career in chicago. he is he was 70. a powerful speech by president obama. making a surprise visit in afghanistan. the white house tells us he was supposed to meet with afghan president hamid karzai. bad weather forced detours. he gave a rousing speech, emotional at times, thanking troops for their service. the freedom, the liberty that we treasure, that's not simply a birth right. it has to be earned by the sacrifices of generations, generations of patriots, men and women who step forward and say, send me. i know somebody has to do it. i'm willing to serve. men and women who are willing to risk all and some who gave all

to keep us safe. >> president obama didn't just shake hands and give a speech. he also took some time to visit wounded troops in the hospitals and awarded several purple hearts. next, there is a big-time controversy brewing over, wait for it, barbie. some of this comes equipped. you see her. that's a camera. there are concern that pedophiles may be using these dolls. we are going to figure it out together. i am going to show you the doll. we bought one. let's do a little show and tell. plus, a bank robbery caught on video. you are going to see how it unfolded and hear the desperate calls for helps. that's next.

seven years ago, i had this idea. to make baby food the way moms would. happybaby strives to make the best organic baby food. in a business like ours, personal connections are so important. we use our american express open gold card to further those connections. last year we took dozens of trips using membership rewards points to meet with the farmers that grow our sweet potatoes and merchants that sell our product. we've gone from being in 5 stores to 7,500. booming is using points to make connections that grow your business.

folks in kissimmee, florida, had one robbery suspect in custody. three are accused of terrorizing bank employees and made off with cash wednesday. looking at hopping over the bank counter there. you are looking at a surveillance tape showing these guys armed with multiple firearms. they enter this rbc bank. one employee forced to the ground at gunpoint another. another managed to hide from the robbers and make a desperate call to 911. here it is. >> 911, what is the emergency? >> caller: i work at a bank. there has been a robbery. >> which bank? >> caller: rbc in kissimmee. >> where is this? >> caller: i don't know. i'm hiding. >> where are you hiding? >> caller: we have a conference

room in the back. >> are they armed? >> caller: yes. they are armed. okay. do you know how many subjects are there? >> caller: two. >> they have assault rifles? >> black. >> two black males, assault rifles? yes? sir, stay on the phone and leave it open, okay? >> i am impressed by how calm that caller was given the scene. the suspect in custody is identified as stanley hogubook, police arrested him during a felony traffic stop. so far, they say he is not giving them any information about the robbery or the whereabouts of the other suspects. >> you interrupted a point i was trying to make. that's okay. you know that guy. that is joe john. history happened yesterday. joe john got to witness it. he got to sit in there.

he has the behind-the-scenes skinny, mr. johns, on the charlie rangel censure. we are going to talk to you in just a moment. one of my favorite segments. sarah palin and former president george w. bush squaring off. a war of words, you could say. that's next. we actually have a lot of scientists that play music. the creativity, the innovation, there's definitely a tie there. one thing our scientists are working on is carbon capture and storage, which could prevent co2 from entering the atmosphere. we've just built a new plant to demonstrate how we can safely freeze out the co2 from natural gas. it looks like snow. it's one way that we're helping provide energy with fewer emissions.

by my watch, it was about this time yesterday when we were showing you live pictures of veteran congressman, charlie rangel's final defense. would he get a reprimand or censured? >> he was censured, publicly dressed down in front of his pie

peers yesterday. it was a bitter pill after a 20-term career. rangel called the vote very political. our own joe johns who was there, got a couple of questions in to the congressman about that particular comment, that this was political. what did he mean by that? take a listen. >> anything we do in the congress is political. >> do you think that the members of the congress who took this vote tonight were voting what they thought their constituents wanted them to do rather than on the facts? >> i thought i made that abundantly clear. >> you kind of talked around it a little bit. >> i don't want to talk around it. i try to give an analogy. people love adam. they knew it was unconstitutional for them to kick him out before he was allowed to sit but they said that was too complicated to explain to their constituents back home. i really think that most of you know that if it is too complicated to explain, don't do it. there were a lot of people that, if you look and see the districts that they came from,

then honestly, as in a lot of cases, votes on the floor prevailed, because they thought the constituents wanted honesty and not something that would make someone to look like they were better than thou when, in fact, it related to someone else and not them. that's why i am so pleased that the facts came out for the whole couldn country to judge. perhaps then, the newspapers might have a headline tomorrow morning. rangel found not guilty of corruption and dealings. rangel found -- >> you admitted so much. so why would it be a political vote? >> you interrupted a point i was trying to make. >> excuse me, sir. >> that's okay. >> it is not the vote. it is not the evidence. it is not my admission. it's the sanctions. come on. you understand that.

>> come on, joe johns. here is what i learned from that. two lessons. never interrupt charlie rangel. >> i knew better. >> and, number two, he says that this vote was political. >> yes. well, what he is really talking about is the sanction. there is a lot of going back and forth about whether there ought to be censure, a more severe sanction or a reprimand, which would have been less. he wanted to get a reprimand, because he thought that was what he deserved and he thought that other people who would come in about where he did on an infraction of house rules also deserved or got a reprimand. the house voted in a different direction. what he was referring to about people voting what their constituency voted, i think he was talking about this culture of accountability that started when the democrats first came in and said they were going to drain the swamp. he felt he was being held to a

higher standard. >> owe nso not only did he have stand up there in the house and be publicly dressed down but it has cost him being the head of the ways and means committee. >> that's probably the worst sentence of all. he was the first african-american chairman of the house ways and means committee, a very powerful committee, the tax-writing committee. he stepped down from that. it seems pretty unlikely that he could get that job back. certainly, not in the next two years. republicans control the house of representatives. that was the bad part but there was also this censure, which is something that really has never happened, you know over the last -- since '83. only 22 times in history. pretty rare for a member of congress to get the censure. the next step is expulsion from the house of representatives. >> and that was a witness in history. quickly, let me get this in and then we have to go. sarah palin, we know she is out

and about promoting her new book. apparently, she is only number two in the charts. >> former president, george bush's book, is number one. she is keeping pretty good company. she tweeted thursday saying just heard "america by heart" is number two on "the new york times" best seller's books behind president bush's good book. she is keeping pretty good company. they printed about 1 million books. she sold 2 million books the last time around. a lot of people like her books. a lot of people like to read what she has to say. the question is whether she is going to run for president. i think she has got what, two visits to iowa right now. >> two visits to iowa with that book tour. we will all have to wait and see. she says she is in good company. joe johns, have a wonderful weekend. we will see you on monday.

>> thank you, you too. >> joe johns, i know you have kids. maybe you will stick around for this. barbie daolls, they are available with cameras inside. who benefits from the film, kids, parents or pedophiles? we are going to do some show and tell with miss barbie. she is somewhere in the studio, i'm told. stay right there. an aarp... medicare supplement insurance card, too. medicare is one of the great things about turning 65, but it doesn't cover everything. in fact, it only pays up to 80% of your part b expenses. if you're already on or eligible for medicare, call now to find out how an aarp... medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company, helps cover some of the medical expenses... not paid by medicare part b. that can save you from paying up to thousands of dollars... out of your own pocket. these are the only medicare supplement insurance plans... exclusively endorsed by aarp. when you call now, you'll get this free information kit...

with all you need to enroll. put their trust in aarp medicare supplement insurance. plus you'll get this free guide to understanding medicare. the prices are competitive. i can keep my own doctor. and i don't need a referral to see a specialist. call now to get a free information kit. plus you'll get this free guide to understanding medicare. and the advantages don't end there. choose from a range of medicare supplement plans... that are all competitively priced. we have a plan for almost everyone, so you can find one that fits your needs and budget. with all medicare supplement plans, there are virtually no claim forms to fill out. plus you can keep your own doctor and hospital that accepts medicare. and best of all, these plans are... the only medicare supplement plans endorsed by aarp. when they told me these plans were endorsed by aarp... i had only one thing to say... sign me up. call the number on your screen now... and find out about an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan.

you'll get this free information kit... and guide to understanding medicare, to help you choose the plan that's right for you. as with all medicare supplement plans, you can keep your own doctor and hospital that accepts medicare, get help paying for what medicare doesn't... and save up to thousands of dollars. call this toll-free number now. this is barbree by that comes with a government warning. she looks harmless enough. according to the fbi, she could

pose a danger to your child's safety and maybe lead to child pornography. this is the new barbie. it is called video girl barbie. on her chest, that is actually the camera. a microphone in her chest as well. if you flip her around, there you go, see on her back, we turn it on so you can see me. that is where you can watch the play back. so kids can record their play time and actually even edit a movie. this has editing software if they like, on the screen. then, you can upload this to your computer and do it on line and have a little fun with it. the concern is child predators could get these images. the doll has been on the market since july. so far, no incidents that anyone is reporting. so far, kr. nn reached out to mattel. they did release this statement to king tv. they say, the fbi is not reporting that anything is happening. mattel products are designed with children and their best interest in mind.

many of the employees are parents themselves. we understand the importance of child safety. it is our number one priority. so we brought in my tech guy, derrick dodge, to play with dolls today. sorry, derrick. seriously, a lot of the concern is perhaps a child predator would lure a child in with a barbie doll and who knows what could happen from there. we handed this barbie over to you, friend and asked you to tell us how easy it is to work. apparently, you are pretty good with playing with dolls because it worked really well. >> i'm not going to comment on that. i no he a lot about cameras as i went to film school. this camera is very easy to use. i walked through the different news rooms of cnn and cnn.com. i said, how is this going? about half of them didn't know she had a camera. everyone wanted to comment on the barbie. only about 50% asked. 50% had no idea. >> take a look at some of the reactions. >> i put them all together into

this video using the software. >> hi, brook. >> hi, barbreie, how are you? >> did you hear about the video. this could be used for child pornography. it is actually a camera. >> wait a minute. what is that? oh, no, she has a camera. i don't want to be on barbie cam. oh, my gosh. >> so a lot of people were surprised. >> that last girl there, she had no idea. she was commenting on barbie's blouse. she was looking directly into the camera. it had a microphone. >> nothing has been reported out there but one could see if it falls in someone's hands -- >> it is almost like a nanny cam. you can set it in the room an you have no idea you are being video recorded. you think it is a barbie.

it is harmless. it could be great for parents. >> when we sent our p.a. out, stephanie, to go buy this thing, there were two left. she went to walmart. there were two left. she told me one of the moms chased her down the aisle trying to get it as a christmas gift. apparently, it is a hot gift this year. there is a whole other use as well. nice job, derrick. your sisters would be proud. developing now, most airports we are hearing they are closed. tens of thousands of airports are stranded in spain, we are going live to madrid next.

i'm bob kearn, president of coit cleaning services. these pictures are the history of my family and they're also the history of coit. we've been in business for 60 years and our greatest asset has always been our people. we use the plum card from american express open to purchase everything we can and with the savings from the early pay discount, we were able to invest back into our business by hiring more great people like ruben here. how can the plum card's trade terms get your business booming? booming is a new employee named ruben.

a lot happening in the world

today. time to play reporter roulette. poppy harlow and dan in madrid. dan, we know the president popped into afghanistan surprised a lot of troops, men and women, over there. why now? >> the white house saying this trip had been in the works for more than a month. in terms of the timing, officials are saying the president wanted to go ndand vit the troops sometime around the holiday season between thanksgiving and christmas. this was the right time to go there. they wanted to highlight the fact that there are some of these troops that are on the fourth tour of duty. the president wanted to thank them for their service and honor the thousand or so civilians that are working there in afghanistan. >> we are speaking to the troops. you mentioned some of the civilians that we are speaking with, african president hamid karzai. why is that? >> reporter: he did not speak with him face to face. he did plan to take a helicopter ride to meet with him. there was bad weather, 45-mile-an-hour winds and sand

and dust. it became too dangerous to fly the helicopter over there. they had to consider doing a video conferencing call. there were some technical problems. they had a 15-minute call. we don't have a readout on what was said during that conversation. they did talk by phone. >> dan lothian from the white house, dan, thank you. next, unploit numbers going the wrong way. next on reporter roulette, poppy, why the jump in unemployment? >> reporter: it is very interesting. we saw the unemployment rate jump up to 9.8%. most thought it would stay at 9.6%. what happened, we had much fewer jobs last november than we thought. the reality is we saw 39,000 jobs were added. the marquette hket had a very n reaction to that. somehow the market ended up higher. it showed us 15 million plus americans now unemployed. about 6 million of them now

unemployed long-term, for more than six months or so. clearly, a huge problem facing the white house and new congress. the jobs picture not getting better here. >> another number, $13 tr1$13 t and counting. they voted today national debt, 11, yeses, 7 noes on the painful plan to reduce the debt. what next? >> reporter: this is front and center today. obama created a debt commission. they needed 14 yes votes to get the proposals. to congress. they want to cut the deficit by $4 tr $4 trillion in the next few years. they needed 14 votes. there was a lot of bipartisan cooperation, five republicans, five democrats and one independent vote yes. that commission is over with. it is done. it is up to the new congress in

january to decide to take action or not. >> at least they used this as perhaps some sort of blueprint. poppy harlow, thank you. al goodman in spain where airports are at a stand still this hour. this sounds like such a mess. what happened? >> reporter: hi, brook. if you had a flight into or out of spain this friday afternoon or evening, you are out of luck because of the wild cat strike. many of the thousands of people that are stranded are on the planes themselves. they have been calling into our news rooms, sending twitters, families with young children on what was supposed to be a lovely, long holiday weekend through next wednesday because of holidays here early next week. >> yikes. al goodman in madrid. thank you. that is our russian roulette for the day. the debt commission, we were just talking about this -- what did i say? reporter roulette. the debt commission couldn't

come to an agreement today. who is calling for the national debt? our political ticker is next. [ sneezes ] you're up next. yeah. aww...that oj needs alka-seltzer plus. fast powder packs are a taste-free fizz-free way to transform your drink into a powerful cold fighter! there's a cold front moving in, but relief is on the way.

[ man ] save $523. save $345. 16 minutes could save you 16%. come on. isn't it time an auto insurer gave it to you straight? that's why you should talk to state farm. but not yet. first, talk to any one of the 40 million drivers who already have state farm. 40 million. yeah, that's more than geico and progressive combined. by a lot. 40 million drivers, more savings, and discounts up to 40%. where else are you gonna get discounts like that? but first, talk to your neighbors. chances are, they're one of the 40 million. then call a state farm agent or go online for a free discount double-check. they'll find you discounts you didn't even know you deserved. like discounts for having a safe car. so go ahead. check with your neighbors. then call a state farm agent at 1-800-state-farm or go to discountdoublecheck.com.

♪ cnn has all your latest political news. our team follows the debt commission vote. gloria bo glor gloria bornlger join meeg. >> i spoke with a republican and senator conrad of north dakota, the ranking member of the budget committee. both of who voted for the commission report. they are kind of elated by, i should tell you, by even getting 11 votes out of 18. senator conrad said to me, you know what, that's 60%.

maybe we shouldn't have said it at such a super majority. they had to get 14 out of 18 to get it to the floor of the congress. they were feeling pretty good that they crossed a lot of partisan lines, philosophical differences and managed to get something with that many votes out of the commission. having said that, senator greg said to me, look, gloria, this is a huge problem. he called it, quote, a force five hurricane that's 30 miles off the shore, that the congress is just going to have to deal with. now, both men say that the work that they did on this commission can serve as the template for future deficit reduction. but, they say, there is not enough time to sort of waste about getting to it. so senator conrad said to me that he wants the president to call for a deficit summit. maybe he could do it in the state of the union address.

who knows? he said, you know what, people have to get back to the table. we have to use these proposals as the blueprint and we have to get back to work right away. >> the super majority was 14. they didn't get that. republicans did not go for the plan. gloria, what does that tell you? >> i asked senator greg about that. it is okay to talk about bipartisanship. what about the key house republicans? one of whom is running the budget committee that didn't vote for it. they didn't vote for it because they said it didn't go far enough. congressman ryan, who is going to be the chairman of that budget committee has already said publicly that he is going to use some of these proposals in his budget proposal. he wants to get those folks back to the table. so they can all sit down and actually try and do something with the president with the office of management and budget right there. so the congress can get real about this finally, brook. >> all right.

gloria borger with the latest on the debt commission and this blueprint. gloria, thank you. >> we will see. >> we will see. gloria, thanks so much. i want to remind you to get the latest political news at cnn.com. take a look at this big rig. it is hanging off the edge of this guardrail in the snow. this gives new meaning to the term clif hanger. we will tell you how it happened and how it ended. we all know diehard football fans will do just about anything to support the team. now, students are trying to get fans excited about a new idea. don't let your tailgate go to waste. college campuses are a neat and tidy place of higher learning until football season, that is.

a traditional tailgate includes food, drink and lots of garbage. >> average game day. we are producing almost 40,000 pounds of trash. >> the waste generated was incredible. i felt sad that was a culture we fostered and allowed to happen. >> reporter: some university of georgia students started their own team and began a game day recycling program. they educate fans on ways to have greener tailgates and make it easier. >> reporter: it may seem hard to get 90,000 people this excited about anything but football shall the epa found a way to level the playing field. >> game day challenge was a way for the environmental protection agency to get involved in trying to eliminate the amount of waste that happens on a university campus for gameday. >> reporter: about 80 colleges and universities participated. they collected more than seven tons of bottles and cans during

the one day of participation, results that could make this a game for the ages. for those of us who have lactose intolerance, let's raise a glass to cookies just out of the oven. to the morning bowl of cereal. and to lactaid® milk. easy to digest and with all the calcium and vitamin d of regular milk. [ female announcer ] lactaid®. the original lactose-free milk.

and the life you want to live. with rheumatoid arthritis, there's the life you live... and vitamin d of regular milk. fortunately there's enbrel, the #1 most doctor-prescribed biologic medicine for ra. enbrel can help relieve pain, stiffness, fatigue, and stop joint damage. because enbrel suppresses your immune system, it may lower your ability to fight infections. serious, sometimes fatal, events including infections, tuberculosis, lymphoma, and other cancers, and nervous system and blood disorders have occurred. before starting enbrel, your doctor should test you for tuberculosis. ask your doctor if you live or have lived in an area where certain fungal infections are common. don't start enbrel if you have an infection like the flu. tell your doctor if you're prone to infections, have cuts or sores, have had hepatitis b, have been treated for heart failure,

or if, while on enbrel, you experience persistent fever, bruising, bleeding, or paleness. ask your rheumatologist if enbrel is right for you. and help bridge the gap between the life you live... and the life you want to live.

cliff diving, zip lining, ultrahigh rope swings shall the kind of thing you do after work. if you think those are extreme sports, you have got to see this. a combination of all three. this is mike wilson, he zips, he swings, he launches it into the air. oh, my goodness. he takes a plunge, into the water.

all against a backdrop of breast-taking horizons and vistas. you call this triple extreme. i give him a ten. amazing. now, this is an ice road trucker. this big rig skidded on this icy road and crashed through the guardrail. look at this. almost dangling through a perilous spot. it hung over the guardrail until crews could remove it. no one was hurt. lucky ending for the driver. check out this feisty french bulldog. so cute. her name is emma. the little pickup discovered the swinging door stop in the family walkway. she didn't so much like the door stop. maybe she was thinking it was a fan. super cute on camera. that was, you've got ta see this. >>. >> known as the perfect down called celebration florida. disney developed this. now, police are investigating

the second serious death in just a week. the first murder. we are on the case ahead. first, i want to talk about the big "d," divorce. the wall street journal listed the states with the lowest divorce rate. you might be surprised which places maded list. number five, massachusetts, number four, a district, washington, d.c., number three, pennsylvania, and if you thought those were surprising, wait until you hear the other two states with the lowest divorce rates. after the break. when i got my medicare card, i realized i needed an aarp... medicare supplement insurance card, too. medicare is one of the great things about turning 65, but it doesn't cover everything. in fact, it only pays up to 80% of your part b expenses. if you're already on or eligible for medicare, call now to find out how an aarp... medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company, helps cover some of the medical expenses... not paid by medicare part b.

that can save you from paying up to thousands of dollars... out of your own pocket. these are the only medicare supplement insurance plans... exclusively endorsed by aarp. when you call now, you'll get this free information kit... with all you need to enroll. put their trust in aarp medicare supplement insurance. plus you'll get this free guide to understanding medicare. the prices are competitive. i can keep my own doctor. and i don't need a referral to see a specialist. call now to get a free information kit. plus you'll get this free guide to understanding medicare. and the advantages don't end there. choose from a range of medicare supplement plans... that are all competitively priced. we have a plan for almost everyone, so you can find one that fits your needs and budget. with all medicare supplement plans, there are virtually no claim forms to fill out. plus you can keep your own doctor and hospital that accepts medicare. and best of all, these plans are... the only medicare supplement plans endorsed by aarp. when they told me these plans were endorsed by aarp...

i had only one thing to say... sign me up. call the number on your screen now... and find out about an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan. you'll get this free information kit... and guide to understanding medicare, to help you choose the plan that's right for you. as with all medicare supplement plans, you can keep your own doctor and hospital that accepts medicare, get help paying for what medicare doesn't... and save up to thousands of dollars. call this toll-free number now. back to the list as

promised. divorce may be on the rise in much of the country. wall street journal said the lowest divorce rates are bucking the trend. the top two, number two, love and marriage, heartbreak hotel, nice. number two, iowa. number one, who would have thunk, new york, with the lowest divorce rate. tomorrow, senate democrats moving ahead with the vote on a pair of bills. bills that could extend middle class tax cuts. negotiators are meeting behind closed doors trying to figure out some kind compromise. the sticking point as to whether households making more than $250,000 a year should be included in that extension. in the meantime, take a look at this. this is a new cbs news survey. it shows that 53% of the public says that the cut should be extended, extended specific to those under the $250,000

threshold. is this rare to have the senate voting on a saturday? >> it is rare but in this lame duck session, they don't have a lot of time between now and christmas eve when they would like to wrap it up. they would like to wrap it up the week before christmas eve. they demand to work until the very end to get things they need to get done. that's why they will be working on saturday. it is rare, though, for another reason. they probably won't get the democrats 60 votes. fill buster if they get 57, 58. that will be symbolically important. they will be able to use that as a wedge over the republicans that will vote against granting the tax rates for only the middle class. they want them for everyone. it won't have any substantive value in terms of getting the legislation through. they need to extend the middle class tax cuts. of the 42 republicans, it is

unlikely any of them will bolt. we will see what happens if one or two or three bolt, that would be a huge deal. >> also making it huge. president obama hopped on air force one late last night at andrews. flew through the night to afghanistan's surprise. what seemed also to be making wolf not who he is talking to in person but who he is not talking to in person. >> it's a real embarrassment, i think, in a sense, that he hasn't been able to have a face-to-face meeting with hamid karzai, because of some wind, weather-related issues. they tried to do a video conference call. they just had a regular phone call. you certainly could have done that from "the situation room" in washington over at the west wing of the white house. you didn't have to fly that way. more important than any conversation he might have with karza karzai was the symbolism of meeting with the troops and wishing them a happy holiday season and showing them

appreciation for what the young men and women were doing over there. that was much more important. some thought he should have done it thanksgiving. go over there on thanksgiving. the u.s. service personnel over there are very happy the commander and chief came over. >> wolf blitzer, we will be watching you and watching for your interview with austan goolsbee. we will see you in just a couple of minutes. still to come on our show, did someone hire a hit man to kill a hollywood player. there are a couple of mysteries, including how and where a person of interest lived before he killed himself. that is next. how in the world charles manson got a cell phone in prison. who was he talking to? sunny hostin on the case. she is here live in atlanta. sunny is next.

sunny hostin is on the case. we are going to talk about a couple of stories. the first murder in town developed by disney. the. the latest on the murder of ronni chasen. charles manson has a cell phone. i want to begin with celebration, florida. look at these pictures developed by disney patterned after beautiful towns gone by. everyone knows everyone. they just had the first murder in their 14-year history. sunny, what happened and do we have any suspects? a 58-year-old retired teacher was found murdered in his apartment, his car missing. a 2008 black corvette, a fancy car. the police really aren't releasing any suspects' names or anything like that. they say they do have a suspect and they do have information but they don't want to compromise

this viinvestigation. it is five miles from disney and a wonderful place to raise a family. everybody is shocked that something like this would happen there. i want to get to the story we have been covering a ton out of la with regard to the veteran publicist gunned down a couple of weeks ago off of sunset boulevard. what more do we know about this story and about this guy who killed himself when police went to try to serve the search warrant? >> this is a true hollywood murder mystery. there are so many clues out there. they say it could be a road rage incident. she was found murdered in her car late at night after attending the hollywood premier. that's one theory. the other theory is that this person of interest may have been somehow a contract killer

apparently. his name has been released, is my understanding, harold smith. he has been a person of interest. he was approached by the police and shot himself. now, some people are saying in the neighborhood that he told them that he did it and that he would receive about $10,000 for the hit. she was apparently shot execution style in the chest several times by some sort of marksman. but ile say there are also reports that he was mentally unstable and perhaps was just making this up or was nervous that the police were approaching him about suspected burglaries and didn't want to go back to prison. he was apparently a convicted murderer. >> right, an ex convict reported living in this shady part of l.a. we have heard from former police officer on the l.a. police force saying, i couldn't have pulled that off. >> the angle she say was sideways. it could have been some expert marksman. who would want to kill her and

put out the contract on her? >> quickly, can we connect the dots at all? >> i don't know if we can connect the dots. i'm a former prosecutor. i try to be careful about investigations. i have her will. it is about 48 pages. in the will, she gives all this, she has about a $6 million estate. a lot of money to charities and people in her families. she did snub one niece. she says, i have intenglely and with full knowledge of the consequences omitted to provide for my niece. >> it is just another angle. >> chef only gave her $10. we want to get to this and we have less than a minute, charles manson, in prison with the cell phone. >> it is unbelievable. apparently, they found an lg flip phone underneath his mattress. he was texting people in new jersey and florida. something that's been happening in the california prison system. they have been con physical kating them. people are smuggling them in.

apparently, you can get up to $1,000 for a phone from a