as you know, the weather outside is downright brutal. a monster storm that pounded the midwest is headed east and parts of the pacific northwest remain under a flood warning, even the deep south is in the deep freeze. we are freezing here in atlanta, that's for sure. in nashville, the windchill today makes it feel like minus 3 degrees and it is bitterly cold

in detroit, tonight's game between the giants and vikings, weather is the reason the giants and vikings are playing in detroit tonight. part of the roof in the metrodome -- have you seen this video -- in minneapolis collapsed under the weight of all the heavy snow. several panels of the teflon roof ripped apart, causing a gaping hole. parts of ohio could get hit with more snow today. blowing snow and low visibility causing dangerous driving conditions. look at these pictures of the flooding in washington state. rivers in nine counties crested at or above flood stage yesterday. let's bring in rob marciano. rob, warmer in iceland today than in atlanta? >> that's right. >> really? >> yeah. we've got a little flip-flop going on in the atmosphere, for a couple of days. that warm air over there in the atlantic, including iceland, is kind of what's been blocking everything. jamming everything up and letting the cold air release down from canada time and time again. we saw it last week, seeing it

again this week. the core of the cold air heading through the area and down towards florida right now is even colder than what we saw last week. this is what it feels like outside right now, some of the windchills to give you an idea, currently 36 in new york, pretty close to the actual temperature, but in atlanta it feels like 9 degrees when you factor in the winds. it won't get above freezing, minus 8 the windchill in chicago and minus 16 in minneapolis. that's where the core of the cold air is and it's moving east toward the new york city area, but by the time it gets there most of the moisture will be gone. i'm not terribly concerned about seeing accumulating snow across the i-95 corridor. the biggest concern is what's going on near the great laifkz. the lake-effect snow machines are chugging along quite rapidly, especially here south of lake michigan where the bands are really getting a nice, long fetch off the lake and cranking here in through laporte and some of the areas along i-80 and some of secondary highways there are

reports of motorists being stranded because of the heavy snows coming down right now. we've already seen upwards of 17 inches in this area of snow with another foot potentially to come in tonight. so this will continue tonight, through tomorrow morning and then what's going on across parts of lake erie and ontario, similar numbers. little pulse of snow getting through virginia beach right now and through parts of richmond, virginia, even snow across parts of the deep south. that got everybody aflutter over the past 24 hours, even schools canceled in georgia. >> oh, get out of here. come on. >> well, it doesn't take much. >> rob, good to see you. it's cold inside the metrodome, not supposed to be, but it is because of the hole in the roof. chris welch reports on efforts to repair the damage. >> reporter: the blizzard's moved out of minnesota but not without leaving its mark. you can see that mark vividly.

yesterday people woke up around the country seeing news online and on twitter, facebook, reports of the metrodome roof collapsing. crews will be assessing the panels. they came crashing down. the facilities director here says it looks worse than it really is. they hope to fix if in a matter of weeks maybe even days. they'll assess the situation today, hopefully by later today or at the very latest tomorrow we'll know a little bit more about how much longer it will take to repair. as for the game between the minnesota vocikings and new yor jiets, they'll be playing in detroit. fans who can't go will get a refund. if you can go, you'll get preferred seating. in addition, they'll be giving away free tickets to those in detroit who want to check out that game. let's get more on the flooding in the northwest. cnn all-platform journalist patrick ottman is live in seattle. patrick, if you would, give us an update.

we're talking about nine counties where rivers have crested at or above flood stage. that was yesterday. what's the scene today? >> reporter: well, you can see just in the last hour, tony, the skies are finally lifting around seattle. this is a place that's known for rain, rain city, but not this kind of wet weather we've experienced over the past few days. the sun finally peeking out here, a lot of drying off to do, some of the rivers crested in nooichb different counties, flooding several hundred homes had to be evacuated. some of those residents actually had to be taken from their homes by hovercraft. another major problem affecting the entire region, tony, is is landslides. some of those landslides have actually stopped train service, amtrak service, through the pacific northwest just south of seattle and north of seattle. some of those land slides not making it safe for amtrak to operate. the train service they're hoping to have it up and running by

tomorrow. in the meantime, they will probably put people on buses. just a major headache for people. luckily, no reports of injuries or deaths so far. so good luck here, people were able to be rescued in time. some will be going back to their houses today and probably find a lot of cleanup to do. >> patrick, good to see you. thank you. we are getting images of the wintry storm system through your why i reports. you can see some of them displayed here over my shoulders. lots of snowy scenes from your perspective. thanks for sending us your pictures and stories of the storm as it makes its way across the northeast. we'll get them on the air here. big stories we're following for you today, the president's tax cut compromise with republicans is expected to survive a test vote in the senate today. democratic open ziks seems to be softening a bit. one senator says house democrats need to eat the spinach. >> in the last two weeks we have watched the republicans

filibuster and stop the defense authorization bill in the midst of two wars? they stopped it cold. they also voted against and filibustered a $250 check for disabled veterans and the elderly. they basically have told us, unless we get tax cuts for the wealthiest people in america and now the estate tax, nothing will move in the united states senate. so we don't control that situation and the president knows that. >> okay. speculation today about the future of republican party chairman michael steele. he plans a private conference call tonight with the 168 committee members insiders expect he'll stand down for reelection. his term as rnc chairman as you know has been tested by his controversial remarks and his handling of party finances. new nuggets this morning concerning the weekend terror attack in sweden. police say the bomber was probably on his way to a spot packed with holiday shoppers, but his device went off early. a prosecutor says he is fairly sure the man acted alone.

>> we are having more deeper interviews with witnesses, and we have a better picture, slightly better picture, of what happened today than we had yesterday. >> two explosions left the bomber dead and two people wounded. the attacker apparently angry over a swedish artist's drawing of mohammed. an 8-day all-expense-paid trip to australia. oprah does it again for her studio audience. the trip is expected to end big at the sydney operahouse temporarily renamed the oprah house. tracy holmes is in sydney with the details. >> reporter: well, the filming of oprah's two big shows at the sydney opera house is happening tomorrow. what better way to warm up than a day on sydney harbor? a lot of her audience driemed on

a replica of captain james boat in the 1700s. oprah herself meanwhile decided to go on board a much smaller yacht called the eagle rock where with she's doing an interview with the actor russell gr crowe. she's relaxing before the two big shows tomorrow. they'll have the biggest audience ever collected on the steps of the sydney opera house. we look forward to that extravaganza in little under 24 hours time. tracey holmes, cnn, sydney. launch day for a new political organization that stands for the premise no labels. first a check. markets. alison kosik in atlanta today. we've got three narrows for the dow, the dow up about 36 points, not much economic or corporate news moving the markets today. but wall street is watching capitol hip for that vote in the senate on extending those

bush-era tax cuts. also, relief on wall street today, china did not decide to increase its interest rate. it means that it's going to go ahead and let its economy grow. that is the kind of thing that wall street likes to hear. >> that is a professional market check from alison kosik. you're in the "cnn newsroom." ♪ [ male announcer ] you know her. we know diamonds. together we'll make her holiday. that's why only zales is the diamond store. where you can get up to $1,000 off now through sunday. hostcould switching geies is the diamond store. real a bd in the hd or more worth 2 inhe bush? praiser: well you rarely see them in this good of shape. appraiser: for example the fingers are perfect. appraiser: the bird is in mint condition.

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labels. organizers say the country should move forward, not left or right. national political correspondent jessica yellin on the story at columbia university in manhattan. good to see you. you've got my curiosity piqued here. tell us about no labels. >> we've got an interesting shot up right now. this is an organization you're looking at a panel discussion on hyperpartisanship and how the country can move away from it. this is an organization that says it will be the radical center. if you are sick of all the partisan bickering in washington, if you believe that too many pol tegss are governings focused on the next election and not the long-term good of the country and if you think there's not enough voice being given to the majority of where americans stand, this group says they're for you and they are trying to harness what they again call this radical center. here are the group's founders explaining. >> the day will soon be 1,000

people from all 50 states, republicans, democrats, and independents, by word of mouth only brought together and united by a simple idea -- no labels. which means never give up your labels, just put it aside so we can do what government should do and solve problems and find commonwe're going to add a voico the middle, call ourselves the radical center if you have to, of people who look at these issues and care about results senator gillibrand said. we care about results. we don't care about rhetoric, about ideological purity. about caving in. i've been through all of that in my political career. >> that was a congressman at the very end, but a supporter of the organization, tone country, they plan to harness the grass roots movement across the country and the way washington speaks. >> wouldn't that be something.

so, jessica, can this work? >> reporter: you know, it's a good question. they do have a lot of star power behind them. mayor of new york bloomberg will be speaking later today, some of the people you saw on the stage are some of the top republican and democratic fund-raisers and operate he operateives. they plan to throw their muscle into raising money for this and getting people throughout the country to organize house parties and online communities where they can sort of lobby members of congress the way move on.org does or the tea party does. but to take centrist positions or hold their ground. we'll see if it does work. many groups have tried to do this sort of thing and haven't. but because it's such a strong coalition of powerful people, who knows. maybe it could. >> we need this to work. need more ideas brought to the table. the knicks bringing ws back to madison square garden. are you kidding me? really? it's been a decade since we've been talking about winning at

madison square garden and the knicks. plus, will brett play today? it's in the bag, cam newton wins the heisman. matt winer to talk about sports in just a couple of minutes. you're in the "cnn newsroom." sm smoo.

so the fans were on their feet at madison square garden. matt, when's the last time we saw that? >> a long time. >> 15, xae16 years.

matt winer is here. matt, when did you join the membership at turner? >> january. >> good to have you here. >> thanks. good to be here. >> let's talk about knicks, playi playing terrific ball. is it an eight-game win streak? >> 11 of their last 12 if you want to go back further. they're about to hit a much tougher stretch of schedule, but beating teams you're supposed to beat is a big part of the nba. >> this guy who just hit this jump shot, amar'e stoudemire, their center but playing all over the court. talk to us about this guy's play. he left phoenix and got off to a bit of a slow start but now. >> there's an adjustment period, as there has been with the miami heat as well, the free agents down there. he was one of the markee free agents of the summer. there were questions about amar'e stoudemire, a, his health, he is injury-prone, one

of the reasons the suns wouldn't go further with the deal they offered. and secondly, could he carry a team? he's been a great player, but he's always you played with steve nash. 's doing that right now, leading candidate for the mvp in the nba. >> but it's early. >> it's december. >> i'm one of these guys who believes the nba is a much better league when the knicks -- it's been forever since they've been competitive. >> absolutely. >> but it is a much more interesting league when the knicks -- for me it's like when the raiders play good football it's better for the nfl. do you agree? >> i agree. new york is the center of the basketball universe. >> right. deserved or undeserved. >> right. they call their arena the most famous arena in the world. they play there. there are famous fans there. all the components there, major media market. >> amazing subplot is that carmelo anthony, terrific player for the nuggets, is signaling to

everyone, hey, i don't want to play for you guys anymore, but more than that, i want to play with this guy. amar'e stoudemire. >> he's not saying that publicly but reports are that's the only team he would sign an xejs extension with if he's traded. if anthony sat on santa's lap right now, first of all, santa would cry out in pain, would be very uncomfortable. secondly, assuming there were no media around, he would tell santa, i want to play for the new york knicks, brooklyn-born, that's why where he wants to play. he'd love to team up with stoudemire. he has the leverage because he can opt out of his contract next summer. the nuggets have offered something in the area of $65 million. he said no? that's fairly telling. >> i want to get to brett favre. the metrodome collapses essentially so you don't play the game yesterday. there was a lot of questions going into the game yesterday wlofrnt brett would be able to

play because of an injury. they are going to play the game in detroit tonight. does the streak end tonight? >> i think so. >> what do you think about that? >> all indications are the streak will end. it should end. it's got to end soon er or late. >> right. 300 is a nice round number. >> he's 297 right now, he's got the record over a lot. next is peyton moning in the w 200s. you're more importantly, you're trying to win football games. brett favre is hurt, b, the vikingss are trying to win a game. >> matt, cam newton who looks just like a man, an outsized man, even sitting in the chairs with with the other heisman contenders before the announcement is made, he just looks like a man among boys even in that setting. he has the heisman now. will he get to keep it? >> well, it looks that way at the moment. but we thought that with reggie bush in 2005.

he didn't get to keep his. imagine in 1972 if voters had elected richard nixon in a land slide knowing about the watergate investigation. that's sort of analogous with ha happens with hiez ma'am voters over the weekend, cam newton clearly the best, the vote wasn't close. at the same time, more than 100 voters left his name off the ballot because of the ncaa investigation. >> right. it's good to see you, matt. >> good to see you. happy holidays. >> happy holidays to you, too. still to come in the "cnn newsroom," they are the pictures everyone is talking about this morning. we're talking about official engagement photos of prince william and bride to be/future queen kate middleton. sandra endo has what's trending in the "cnn newsroom." ends soon at red lobster.

okay, here our stories affiliates covering right now. mud slides outside seattle, washington. patrick oppmann gave us an update. rivers are cresting, railroad tracks buried, homes are teetering. dallas police are looking for a man who made off in one of their vehicles. police say james huffer jr. was alone handcuffed in the back of of the cruiser when he jumped in the front seat and took off. he was arrested for family violence and assault. he's facing escape and unauthorized use of a vehicle.

stranded passengers abored a showboat will get a refund a. by noon yesterday, all were safely ashore. do you need a little mover tv in your life? the american film institute has come up with its year-ender list of the best tv shows. is your favorite on the list? let's run down the list. "the big c." haven't seen that. a draum di about a suburban school teacher who gets cancer diagnosis and starts living out loud. hbo's "boardwalk empire." "breaking bad," "gleed," "mad men," that's a great show. the rest of the top ten in about 75 seconds. ," "mad men," that's a great show. the rest of the top ten in about 75 seconds

okay, put on a snuggie, watch these tv programs. here's the rest of the top ten list. "modern family," "the pacific," "temple grandin," i'm not familiar with that one, "30 rock," and "the walking dead." that's the rest the list. if it's hot on the web, our sandra endo is all over it. good to see you, sandy. what's catching your eye this morning? >> hey there, tony. good to see you. trending today on cnn.com's international section, what else? the royal engagement photos of prince william and kate middleton. there you have one of them. one of two actually released. and we're supposed to call her katherine now actually, tony. the two photos were taken by

mario testino, officially released saturday well ahead of their april 29th wedding in london, which as you can imagine will likely become a national holiday and the photographer said the couple was lovely to work with and very much happy and in love. what bliss. >> that's terrific. >> right? >> love that. that's great. >> yeah, so cute. checking here, bliss may not what you're finding at the malls. as you can imagine, they're packed with holiday shoppers, right? >> oh, yeah. i've been there. >> a few days ago at a new jersey mall, a very pregnant lady all of a sudden went into labor and her water broke. but who was there to come to the rescue? can you believe it? comedian chris rock. he was shopping there as well and according to "us" magazine he started telling jokes to help calm the woman down and made a crowd of onlookers laugh as well, and he basically stayed there until paramedics took the

lady away. the lady definitely recognized him when he approached her so clearly trying to save the day there. that's trending big on the blogs this morning. >> i can't wait. this last item about vladimir putin? yeah. take a look at this. not only is he a world leader, who knew he had other talents? have a listen. ♪ so that is russian prime minister vladimir putin singing "blueberry hill" for a children's charity in st. petersburg. he sang it in english and played the piano. so he could be a contender probably for "american idol" if he wanted to, right? >> that feels like one of those performances you do for charity.

i don't know if that's the case, but it has that kind of feel. i'm doing it because i'm raising money for really, really good cause. otherwise, i wouldn't be. sandy, good to see you. >> for children actually. >> perfect. your personal information cherished moments and embarrassing secrets at the mercy of hackers on the internet. you already know the web can be dangerous. wait until you hear how ridiculous easy it is for crooks to foul up your life. we're back in a moment. l our sls to capacity. with all kinds of buzzing, roaring, and humming. with guaranteed low prices on all the tools you want, there will be more than tinsel glinting around our trees. more saving. more doing. that's the power of the home depot. we're lowering the cost of christmas morning. buy any ryobi super combo or lithium-ion combo kit and get a free ryobi power tool worth up to 99 bucks.

buy any ryobi super combo or lithium-ion combo kit we asked people all over america where the best potatoes come the best potatoes? idaho. idaho! idaho. and how do you know you're getting idaho potatoes? well...uh... uhm... heh.. (sighs) not all potatoes come from idaho. so if you want the best, you have to do one important thing. always look for the grown in idaho seal. i knew that. i knew that. look for the grown in idaho seal. climate protection. challenges as vast as the space race a generation ago. and vital to global security. to reach this destination, our engineers are exploring every possibility. from energy efficiency to climate monitoring. securing our nations clean energy future is all a question of how. and it is the how that will make all the difference.

you need the patch. (announcer) icy hot patches. targeted no-mess relief. icy to dull pain. hot to relax it away. pain's no match for the icy hot patch. got to tell you in cyberspace nothing is is confidential and whether you like it or not your so-called

personal information may already be public record on the internet. it is a subject of a week live long investigation we're calling end of privacy. here's jeanne meserve. >> reporter: dick hart put photos of his hawaiian wedding on facebook to share with close friends. but when he made mention of it on twitter, he didn't know a link would be attached giving more than 3,000 followers access to some rather intimate images. >> we didn't think they were offensive in any way, but my wife didn't prefer for everybody to see those photos. >> while his case was embarrassing, others are downright dangerous. sara downey was horrified when a picture of her young daughter was hijacked from flicker and used in a sexually provocative profile on a social networking site. >> it broke me heart. >> reporter: downey posted a translation to warn other users.

then total strangers exploited the internet to find her home number and worse her home address. >> we'd go to the grocery store and wonder, has this person seen my daughter? are they trying to find us, find my daughter? >> reporter: since then, downey has tried to protect her private information. has it worked? with her permission, we gave her name to a private investigator who harvests information from the internet. in less than 90 seconds he turns up 100 pages of possible links. >> frankly, anything you you'd want to know about this young lady seems to be available on the web. >> reporter: on sites like youtube, facebook, myspace and twitter, more and more americans are making their private information public. put it together with public documents like newspaper accounts and property records and a portrait emerges. take supreme court justice an continue scalia, using free public information on the internet, a ford am university law school class came up with with 15 pages of information,

including scalia's home address and phone number, even the moof vis and footds he leaks. >> if we were willing to spend $100, we would have been able to inquire far more intrusive, scarier information. >> reporter: private investigate rahmbam every time you hit the send button, many searches can be tracked, stored and sometimes sold. >> i have a window into your soul. i know what you believe. i know what you think. i know who your family is. i know who your friends are. i know your politics. >> osh id.com says it's updated its policies and tools to remove the fake profiles like the one of downey's daughter and google gives customers the tools they need to protect their personal information. many of us could be more careful. in addition, privacy experts would like to see standardized and simplified web site privacy

policies or even government restrictions on secondhand use of private information. steve rambam sees a lot of positive toing have so much information on the internet and says the genie is already out of the bottle. >> ten years from now you're going to have a choice of getting used to minimal privacy or subleasing the union i bomber's cabin. that's going to be your two choices. the fact of the matter is, there's nowhere to hide. >> reporter: as rambam puts it, privacy is dead. get over it. jeanne meserve, cnn, washington. next hour in the "cnn newsroom," poppy harlow investigates just how much of your personal information could already be leaked online. >> >> rob marciano is keeping ang eye on the raging winter storm moving out of the midwest and our i-reporters are out in force as well. here's warsaw, wisconsin.

we are back in a moment.

did you see the heisman stuff? >> yeah. with cam? >> yeah. how much is he making now? no, i didn't say that. he deserved it. >> he's sitting in the chair with the other contenders and he's head and shoulders like this grown man.

it is just brutal, isn't it? it's probably the best word anyway to describe what's going on around the nation right now. the skies pretty clear in dallas. that's a nice tower cam shot. awfully chilly for folks there. buffa buffalo, new york, would you believe more snow? of course. it's going to be this way for months now. that lake erie snow machine gets going and that's just the way it is now. portland, oregon, right now, a lot more rain. that could mean, of course, more flooding. but nice tower cam shots. >> that's the hawthorne bridge, i believe. they redid that about ten years ago. my old alma mater there.

they've got issues there in the northwest. we'll start with that and then talk about the big storm and arctic chill coming behind it. first off, not so much in portland although it's wet there, boy, it's been a wet december and second half of november for sure, but folks in seattle and western washington have been enduring some wet weather as well, more so to the point where it's been a little bit dangerous. they've had serious flooding the past day and a half and the ground here is very saturated. it's pretty hilly terrain so landslide danger is still an issue i think today and at least through part of tomorrow before we dry out somewhat. we're hoping to dry out this area right through here. look at these streams of moisture. that's a long fetch off lake michigan. down across, say, laporte, indiana, they've had 17 inches of snow, some secondary roadways, we've had sporadic reports of folks being stranded at least at times last night. we're trying to get firm

information on that. nonetheless, you see how powerful the lake-effect snow bands are into northwest indiana, continuing through tonight. some of the know is getting all the way to the deep south. that's created a bit of a scare. bit of a scare from richmond, through virginia beach. just a quick pulse, a back side of the storm that has brought mostly rain across the major cities across the northeast. and i think once the front comes through and the cold air gets in, we're looking at some snow but not enough really to worry terribly, although cleveland is going to get just dumped on tonight and tomorrow. are these kiro shots? yeah. what are we looking at landslides? i have no idea. but ynonetheless -- this is jus outside of seattle. they've got the cherry pickers out there. >> power lines maybe? >> hillside just gave way. that roadway is certainly blocked off. they're trying to clear the way. that's the other issue with the

storm coming into the pacific northwest, very, very saturated. that is really close to seattle. >> look at that. >> looks like the southern part of the puget sound, maybe over by the olympic mountain rage r range. i shouldn't make a claim where that is. >> did you watch some of the football yesterday? >> oh, did i. can we start with the pats game? >> a lot weather related. how about that snow bowl in shoulder field, baby. >> this is it supposed to be the elements for the bears, they love it, cold weather conditions, snow on the ground. and what happens with the ferrari of quarterbacks in the nfl? tom brady says, oh, yeah, bring it on. >> they've got nasty weather there foxborough, too. >> urlacher, the fabulous linebacker for the bears saying, these guys -- we're a great team. we think they may be a bit overrated. 36-7 later .

did you see the pictures out of the jets game? >> yeah. that was all rain. boy, it was -- what was the final score? >> that one was 10-6 in that scoring marathon. >> so that drop that santonio holmes had -- >> huge. >> that was the game basically. >> then the subplot here was the strength and conditioning coach for the jets taking out one of the miami dolphins players as he's running on kick coverage, tripping him. >> bringing a new meaning to taking a knee. >> bingo. one more great pic fk for y. how about this? san diego in december. >> they're wearing short sleeves. >> isn't that great? >> blue sky. >> and pretty good game if you're a san diego fan. >> boy, they're doing well. >> if you're a chargers fan, it looks good. late season run we're so used to with them.

matt castle, quarterback for kc is hurt, emergency appendectomy last week. he was unavailable for the game and san diego and phillip rivers rolling again. good stuff. >> get out to san diego and take in some of that sunshine. promotional gift cards for holiday shoppers, they're like giving candy to a baby, right? a few things to think about when we get to ""top tips," next.

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diggity. oh! still not sure. the "name your price" tool. only from progressive. call or click today. taking a look at top stories right now, a powerful winter storm that pounded the midwest is moving east. residents in cleveland could see as much as nine inches of snow today. the menacing system is expected to unleash snow squalls and freezing rain through the northeast and other cities. u.s. diplomat richard holbrooke remains in critical

condition. he had surgery to fix a tear in his aorta saturday. another surgery on sunday. the mystery sound surrounding the mona lisa gets more interesting. is there something to the da vinci code? scientists have unlocked another secret. this time mona lisa's inquisitive eyes hold the key, a tiny lv in the right eye and possibly ce or b in the left? art experts are scrambling to decipher what it all really means. you are busy shopping this holiday season. stores are pretty busy, packed in some cases, plotting ways to get you to buy more than you planned. the cnn money team stephanie elam is here with today's top tips. steph, good to see you. what, oh, what is a shopper to do, stephanie? >> well, tony, good to see you. one of those things, before you head to the mall, you've got to get a few things in your mind,

g get them set because believe it or not, the average person will spend 15 hour yous shopping for gifts this holiday season and you've probably already gotten a slew of promotions in the mail. the promotional gift cards really get people in the door. brit beamer, chairman of america's research group says this tactic is being used more than ever this year. you, consumer, joe consumer, you walk into a store with a promotional gift card for $10 off your purchase, and then you often spend way more than you anticipated when you walked in. it works out great for the retailers but maybe not so great with your wallet. the best strategy is plot out what you want, how much you are willing to spend before you walk into the store. >> you know, a lot of these promotional mailings that we get, advertising these great deals, great sales, but we always see that the quantities are limited. you're telling us we shouldn't

let the fine print scare us? >> pretty much, tony. think about it. stores are in business to sell because that's what makes them money. so they're going to do what they can to sell as much as they can early in the season. so stores will often order limited quantities of major sale itemses. beamer says the things that get people about the specials is there's a limited quantity of something. when shoppers see exact quantities of an item advertised or in the store, they are afraid they will run out. don't fall for it. they usually get multiple shipments throughout the season. if you don't get what you want in surround one, try again or search online. there's more than one way to get what you need. >> absolutely. stephanie, if you would, stick around. i believe you've come up with a couple of other -- detected a couple of other sneaky ways stores have are come up with to get you to buy. we'll get to those in just a moment.

back now with stephanie elam, and we are talking about gimmicks stores have come up with to get you to spend more than you have anticipated during the holiday season. and stephanie, good to see you again. if you would, you tell us your nose knows when merchants are out to trick. so give us the final tip of the day. >> yeah, it's so true, you know. a lot of that ambience you find in the store can get you to stay in the store longer. and there you are opening up your wallet, you're just spending, spending, spending. that's the main thing to be aware about. they want to make sure you are nice and relaxed when you take a look at what is going on in the store. so the scents are going to make a big difference, and think about william sonoma, it works for them. also brit beamer says if he was going to own a store, he would

pay attention to the play list because the music is key. he says that is what really gets people to stay in there if they like the song, they sing along, keep shopping and spend a little bit more money. so you get -- you might want to think about that. if you're getting caught up in the spirit and you have a few more things in your basket than you thought about. >> blame it on nat king cole. >> does it every year all the time. >> exactly. good to see you, stephanie, as always. see you next hour. >> you too. a whole lot of christmas gifts are flying above us right now. fedex says today is the busiest shipping day. the company expects to deliver 16 million -- wow, 16 million packages today alone. much of them are gifts you've ordered online. but the u.s. postal service says its busiest day will be december 20th, the monday before christmas. that's when it expects to deliver 800 million cards, letters, and packages.

time now for your cnn equals politics update. live from the political desk in washington. mark, good to see you. what are you following right now? >> hey, tony, how are you? this weekend sarah palin was in haiti. of course, she is america's sweetheart so to speak. so certainly the conservative sweetheart. but she was in haiti this week to check on the conditions in that country. she was there with the christian organization samaritans first. she had a news conference on sunday to talk a little bit about what she's seen and learned. she says the conditions down there are much rougher than she had expected. she also goes on to say that, you know, i don't want americans to forget the need that is here in haiti. more importantly, for americans and people across the world to

know what an individual can do to make a difference. of course, haiti is still in turmoil at this point. the presidential elections are in crisis at this point. of course, they're still trying to figure out how to cope after the earthquake, there tony. so sarah palin down there doing a little bit of some good work, i guess. you know, tony, something to be said about politicians. who says a politician can't cry? in fact, let's hear what the incoming house speaker john boehner had to say about his tearing up on election night. >> what got to you that night? >> talking, trying to talk about the fact that i've been chasing the american dream my whole career. there's some things that are very difficult to talk about. family, kids -- i can't go to a school anymore. i used to go to a lot of schools. you see all of these little kids

running around -- can't talk about it. >> why? >> making sure that these kids have a shot at the american dream -- it's important. >> and there you have john boehner, the ohio republican, he's the incoming house speaker. he was first elected in 1990. in many ways, he has lived the american dream. john boehner grew up in a restaurant in a bar. he was once in the house republican leadership. he was knocked out of that position, but he's fought his way back and he will now be the chief negotiator for republicans on capitol hill when we head into the next congress. tony? >> okay. kind of tough to watch. all right, mark, appreciate it. see you next hour. your next political update in an hour. and for the latest political news, you know where to go, cnnpolitics.com. stories we are working on for the next hour, the end of privacy. certainly your privacy online. cnn is making this one pretty personal. it is a subject of a week long

investigation. we will tell you the horror stories and what you need to know to protect yourself and reviewing the current strategy in afghanistan. the surge was a success, but where do we go from here? we'll get answers when we go live to afghanistan. [ sneezes ] client's here.

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>> about a foot or snow, you think already? >> yeah, somebody that wiped out in front of our house here. >> what have we got here, bobbi? we'll get you out of here, man. we got you out, buddy, merry christmas. >> oh, thank you. >> all right. well we've got blue skies ahead, though. the winds are what's probably the worst today. roads are pretty clear. boy, oh, boy, top of the

hour in the "cnn newsroom" where anything can happen. here are some of the people behind today's top stories. from snow to flooding, mud slides, people are fighting the elements. we'll show you how they're doing and how much can someone find out about you from just your name and your e-mail address. poppy harlow found out in a special end of privacy report. >> even someone as private as you are has opted in such a way that the system can find out deeply personal and private information about you, some of which you're not willing to share on the air. >> you're online now, we are too. when it comes to the mona lisa, it's all in the eyes. but now we're learning there's much more hidden behind them. somebody called dan brown. digging out and bundling up. the weather outside brutal. a major storm that pounded the midwest with snow is moving east. that means more snow in ohio. cleveland could get up to a foot. blowing snow and low visibility are causing dangerous driving conditions in minneapolis.

jack parr says it is the worst weather he's seen in six years. >> it's really bad out. that's the best way to get around cross-country skis right there. in the pacific northwest, people in seattle are cleaning up from mud slides and flooding triggered by heavy rain. parts of the area remain under a flood warning, rivers in nine counties crested at or above flood stage yesterday. thousands of people are still trying to get to where they were going. where they were going before the monster storm hit. they're stuck in airports, bus terminals, even fire stations. james is on the phone with us. good to speak with you. where are you now? and maybe you can explain what happened. >> hi, tony. yeah. my brother and i spent the night with a bunch of other people and

the fire department here in w a wanautah, indiana. we're doing just fine. but we've had a little bit of an adventure of it. so it's been fun. >> wow. james, chad myers is here with us and he's got some questions for you. >> you know, james, i love atlanta and i love the people here, but we are a bunch of whiners. they're saying how cold it is here. try to describe what it's like to be outside for 30 seconds. what does it feel like? >> well, it's pretty cold. and i think that's saying something. my brother and i worked in maine. and we spent all day yesterday at soldiers' field. there's quite a windchill out here and driving here, we got stuck in the nastiest storm. >> so you got stuck in your car. were you prepared? did you have your kit with you?

>> we were all set. my dad would've made sure of that. but no, we just -- the wind was just blowing, blowing so hard across our car. we couldn't see anything in front of it. and thankfully we got to a gas station. >> so you pulled the car off the interstate? and then what? you went to a fire station? >> well, we were able to crawl ahead to a gas station here in wanatah, and then the member of the volunteer fire department took a group of us over to the fire station kind of let us slow caravan over there. we spent a safe night there in the warmth. that was great. >> tony, i love atlanta. >> me too. one more quick one. this is finals week for you, have you been in contact with your professors, young man? >> yes, sir. i was able to speak to one of them. and we don't have wireless here. i haven't heard back, but i hope that dr. smith and dr. richie

will understand the two finals i missed this morning. there's no way out of here. >> they're going to really feel sorry for you. >> james, be safe, all right. and get back to school and get to those finals, all right. we hope your professors are watching and listening. be safe. >> thank you. i hope so too. >> thank you. >> give us an update on what's happening. when conditions might improve. it's going to be a while, isn't it? >> what we've transitioned to is a lake effect event now. we've had a major low go by. and there was a dumping of snow that collapsed the metro dome and all of that. that was the heavy snow event. i know there are a land of 10,000 lakes or more, but those lakes don't count when it comes to lake effect snow. the lake effect snow coming down where these guys are stuck, east of chicago, near detroit, coming off of lake huron across from sarnia. this is a long event too for cleveland. seeing snow into buffalo. this is what we call streamers. see how they're kind of in line.

those lines all of a sudden you're driving, it's clear, and five miles later, you can't see the road. you don't know where the road is. you're looking for the pole on the side to keep your car straight. that's literally how blinding it can be at times. same story for i-90. we heard about the horror stories a couple of weeks ago. people moving around buffalo. and believe it or not, we've had some lake effect streaming snow all the way down to atlanta. i've seen a couple of snow flurries today, all part of lake michigan, a couple streamers coming down and just kind of glancing atlanta. and if you see eight snow flakes, they cancel school in georgia. >> exactly. >> i heard of a couple of places canceling school today and i went to home depot last night to get some screws and they closed early because it was cold. 23, look out. >> but the reality is, we don't move to atlanta for this kind of weather, chad. >> no kidding. my pipes are dripping right now because i know they will freeze.

my insulation is this thick in my house. let's get to the producer on the phone. bill, i understand there's been a ruling from the court? >> there is. a federal judge of virginia has become the first in the country to find parts of the sweeping health care reform led by president obama to be unconstitutional. and the key provision, judge henry hudson has just struck down what's called the individual mandate, the requirement that most americans purchase health insurance. we expect now the justice department to appeal this ruling to a federal appeals court. >> okay. so bill, that is a federal judge, and so we do expect the appeal process to continue. this is -- this is a piece of legislation now law that's being challenged in a couple of courts around the country, correct? >> right, there are at least two dozen lawsuits floating around the federal courts around the country. and we've had contradictory rulings on whether this sweeping health care reform is constitutional or not. some judges say, yes. and now we have a judge here in virginia saying it's not.

so it's -- it all means it's inevitably going to go to the supreme court in the next year or so. >> exactly. bill, appreciate it. thank you so much. to capitol hill now. the president's tax cut compromise. cnn's dana bash is live with us. will the compromise clear this cloture vote? this procedural hurdle? >> reporter: by all accounts, democratic and republican, the answer to that seems to be yes. despite misgivings big time early on, it seems to be that most senate democrats are saying that -- many senate democrats will go along with this. i should tell you, tony, you were talking about weather early. this vote is going to start at 3:00. we expected it might stay open until 6:00 p.m. 6:00 p.m. because they want senators to get here. and they're worried about the weather. >> and, dana, what will happen then when the bill gets to the house? we know that there are many angry democrats in the house who seem to be at least now at the

moment toning down their opposition to the compromise. >> reporter: yeah, it's unclear what's going to happen in the house. first before we get to that, tony, if i may. i just want to read to you. i know you like to dive into the meat of legislation. so let me read to you some of the bullet points we're talking about that the senate is going to take up. it's an $858 billion tax cut package. extends all bush-era tax cuts for two years at a cost of $230 billion, extends unemployment benefits for about 30 months, $56 billion, one year of payroll tax holiday, about $112 billion, and a state tax exemption up until $5 million for individuals, that's $68 billion. if you want to keep that up on the screen. let me explain it. the bottom item there, that estate tax exemption, that is really pouring salt on the wounds, many democrats say. particularly in the house. so to answer that question about

what happens in the house next, they had a mutiny last week, they said they're not going to bring up this package, which in part i just read as is. and we are hearing more and more that they're going to maybe try to craft, bring it to the floor, that's what we're hearing from democratic leaders, but maybe try to craft votes so they can at least express their displeasure with this particular estate tax provision and bring something up, at least try to do it via amendment, that is more amenable to what democrats would like. >> you know, dana, as i look at that full screen and look at the figures and the numbers are huge, there it is again, and look at some of the bullet-pointed items. boy, it looks like a stimulus package by another name. >> and that is exactly why you are seeing more democrats warm to this. particularly those middle two issues. the extending unemployment benefits for 13 months, obviously that's something the democrats have wanted for a long time. but also, the payroll tax holiday, we're hearing more and more from democrats especially that they are becoming convinced, especially from independent economists that that

is something that will be a boom to middle class americans, which has been the goal all along. >> our senior congressional correspondent dana bash with us. good to see you as always. cnn plans live coverage of the senate test vote this afternoon. it's expected around 3:00 p.m. eastern time. you can see it happen in the "cnn newsroom" with brooke baldwin. identity fraud, online crime, leaked personal information. we are taking a close look, a hard look at the dark side of the information. ♪

♪ ♪ if it's on the internet, it's got to be true. today's random moment proves that line is a diaper full of baby poo. >> you won't talk about what i want to talk about. >> what do you want to talk about? what do you want to talk about? >> i want to set the story straight on what came out on the internet. >> what came out on the internet? >> that you and i are having twins. >> that we're having twins?

does j.r. know anything about this? >> i want to set this straight, ladies and gentlemen. i love tony harris, but that was a typo. >> yes! >> i'm turning red. >> j.r.? >> i'm turning red thinking about it. >> how are you? good? >> oh, boy. when rumor meets reality, you get random moment of the day. yeah.

let's see here. do we have the pictures up? we wanted to give you -- i guess we don't have pictures of the flooding. just in the lower corner of your picture there, we're going to continue to monitor the flooding situation in the seattle area. so just to explain why that box is there and it may pop up from time to time. we are calling our series here the end of privacy. it is a week long investigation at cnn to find out just how much of your personal information is leaking online. poppy harlow found out

firsthand. >> every day millions of americans are getting their backgrounds checked and their private information collected. if you're online and on social networking sites, your privacy is at risk. yes, i'm a public person. i report on television and i report online. but personally, i'm a very private person. so i did something i've never done before, i put myself right in this story to try to find out just how much information is out there about me. we gave michael, the founder of reputation defender my name and e-mail address. his company dug around to see what they could find. >> you're a very private person. and the average person, the average viewer will be much less private than you, especially in social media. even someone as private as you are has been opted in in such a way that a system can find out deep and private information about you. >> he's exactly right. they pulled information about my

family's health history, that my father passed away at 49 from cancer, and other issues just too personal to share. and -- >> your religion. you believe and seem to be right that you are amiepiscopalian. >> they also got my parents names. but they were wrong about my salary, current address, and phone number. and here's what really shocked me. reputation defender came back with words on the internet that are associated with me. they say it's just because these are things i've reported on as a journalist. but the bottom line, whether the information out there is correct or incorrect, it's being used to make decisions about you. >> whether they want to hire you, fire you, date you, market to you, sell to you, insure you or not. the important lesson to take away is that it would be very easy for a machine to make a mistake about who poppy harlow is. >> we should note that reputation defender did this

report for us as just an experiment. the company actually operates solely to protect people's information on the web. >> anything you share in any kind of social media can and will find itself way into a data base and a score that will be the basis of major life decisions about you. >> it's going to define you? >> it's going to define you forever. >> in the end, this turned out to be much more personal than i expected. in some ways, it was invasive. but what it showed me is just how much personal information is out there, true and untrue, and many of us have no idea. in new york, poppy harlow reporting. millions of americans have watched the value of their homes sink lower and lower, but now the recession officially is over. unfortunately, a new report shows the housing market is still getting hammered. stephanie elam is at the new york stock exchange with details. how bad is it? >> well, tony, let me put it to you this way, home values are

expected to fall $1.7 trillion this year. this is according to zillo.com. that's bigger than the federal deficit. it's also worse than last year. home values fell $1 trillion in 2009. so what's behind this big number jump here for this year? well, remember that first-time home buyer tax credit that expired in april? you've got the numbers on the screen there, well after that, the demand dried up again and that sent home prices spiralling, tony. so that is the reason we've seen this uptick here and this jump for the 2010 numbers. >> so, steph, where do we go from here? >> that's the big question. and one analyst we're hearing from says early 2011, it's not going to be a lot better. for one thing, foreclosures are near an all-time high. they sell at a big discount and that pushes down home prices overall. so that hurts the community. secondly, a growing number of people owe more on their home than it's worth. that could even mean more foreclosures are down the road, in which case that's not going to help anybody out.

>> and before you go, would you give us a real professional market check, please? >> is that opposed to your market check? the professional market check. yes, my professional market check tells me we have modest gains right now because china did not raise their interest rates. we saw a little bit of a rally in asia. dow up 44 points, nasdaq up one whole point at 2,639. and everyone's waiting to see what the fed says tomorrow when they talk about interest rates. >> all right, stephanie, thank you, appreciate it. christmas gifts. are shuttling through the air right now and on the ground. you are looking at live pictures of fedex's busiest shopping day of the year. david mattingly goes along for the ride with the driver in action. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 tdd# 1-800-345-2550 no phone calls, no feedback, tdd# 1-800-345-2550 no "here's how your money's doing."

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for as long as you is thisyyourcphone?ey, th! gecko: yeah, 'course. sswhere do you po you...carry... for as long as you is thisyyourcphone?ey, th! waitress: here you go. boss: thanks gecko: no, no i got it, sir. ncr: geico. 15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance. and breaking news we brought you moments ago here in the "cnn newsroom." a federal judge in virginia has ruled parts of the sweeping health care reform law ushered and fought for by president obama -- parts of that reform law have been ruled unconstitutional by a federal judge in virginia. our senior legal analyst jeffrey toobin is on the line with us. the key issue here was the individual mandate requirement that most americans purchase health care by 2014. what do you see happening next with this? >> well, this is of immense,

immense significance, this case. because this is the center piece of the obama administration's domestic policy. and the individual mandate, which is the part of the law that says everybody has to have health insurance is here being struck down. it's important to point out that two other judges have looked at this and said it is constitutional in other parts of the country. so what this certainly means is that this case is heading to the united states supreme court sooner rather than later. and, you know, the court will really hold much of the obama administration's central achievement in the balance. >> so does it mean that the individual mandate requirement is in effect now and will be in effect until the appeals process plays out? >> no, one of the peculiarities about this lawsuit is that the judge entertained a challenge to the individual mandate, even

though the individual mandate doesn't go into effect until 2014. so there is no live controversy. there is no one saying don't impose this on me right now because the federal government has said this doesn't start yet. usually the federal judges wait until a law goes into effect to allow a challenge. so that will be one of the issues that the supreme court deals with is whether this whole issue is premature at this point. but it's still very, very significant that this judge in virginia has made this ruling. and tony, i think it's important to point out that the judges that have upheld the law have been appointed by democratic presidents and judge hudson who shot it down today was appointed by a republican. this is a very clear political struggle that is going on in the judiciary. >> yeah. it begins to feel a bit like

court shopping, judge shopping here. but let me ask you -- moving forward on this, so the supreme court is likely to get this next. is that the way you see this playing out? the justice department appealing it and going right to the supreme court? is there a three-judge panel or something else that looks at this? >> there's a lot of strategizing that goes on here. and i don't know how the justice department is going to want to play this. they may well decide to go to the court of appeals that would be the fourth circuit court of appeals from virginia. they may have the chance to go directly to the supreme court. i don't know what their strategy will be. i think there's a lot that they've got to -- again, it relates a lot to the politics and a lot to the law. but you can be sure it's topic "a" at the justice department today. >> and one last one just because i'm curious, the federal judge. have we seen the language from the judge as to why this was ruled unconstitutional? i know it's just out.

>> i have not -- i have not gotten the full text yet. and obviously that will be very important. basically what the federal government has said in this case is that the united states government has been involved in health care for years with medicare, with medicaid, and this is within the federal government's power just like it's within state's power to order you to get automobile insurance, which all states do. what the plaintiffs here led by the attorney general of virginia have said is that no, this is different. this is an affirmative requirement on individuals that goes beyond what the federal government has ever required before, and that's what the judge agreed with. >> jeffrey, appreciate it. our senior legal analyst jeffrey toobin on the line with us. we'll continue to follow develops in this case. 15 million unemployed americans, all of many of them want for christmas is -- well, a j-o-b, a job. christine romans rounded up some

experts. we're back in a moment here in the "cnn newsroom."

it is the season to be jolly, but you could really make merry if you had some cash to burn. how do you get paid this christmas in these difficult times? christine romans asked a career coach how you get it done. >> reporter: career coach ellen gordon reeves wants you to get a job for christmas. >> people might think december is not a great time to look for a job. the reality is, if you're job hunting, all you need is one job. >> reporter: no question. with more than 15 million

americans out of work, competition is fierce. >> people aren't really hiring at the end of the year. january maybe a little more likely, february may be when we see employers are confident enough to start hiring. >> in terms of career openings, you know, it's broad-based all throughout the economy, all sectors have openings. the challenge becomes because the number of people who are looking for a job relative to those openings. >> reporter: that number is now 4.4 job seekers for every available opening. sounds daunting, but the best it's been in two years. >> please don't bring family members or friends with you to an interview. >> reporter: reeves wants you to beat out three people to be that one. >> if you can get yourself invited to someone else's office party as a plus one, fabulous. especially if it's a company or organization you want to get inside, have a party, have a pot luck, it doesn't have to be expensive. but you've got to be out there connecting with people. >> reporter: according to consumer reports, americans will spend on average 15 hours at holiday gatherings this year. etiquette expert peter post says

it doesn't have to be gauche to network for a job at those parties. >> tact, honesty, you show a little bit of restraint. at the same time, you're honest about your situation. and all of a sudden, it's amazing how people will open up, listen in, and offer to help you. >> reporter: bottom line, there are plenty of opportunities to network for a job this season, just do it tactfully or don't do it at all. christine romans, cnn, new york. >> and christine's book is titled "smart is the new rich." you will find all kinds of things to help your bottom line. a year and thousands of troops later made afghanistan more secure. we look ahead to a review due this week. [ advisor 1 ] what do you see yourself doing one week, one month, five years after you do retire? ♪ client comes in and they have a box. and inside that box is their financial life.

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when president obama announced a u.s. troop build-up in afghanistan last december, it came with a promise to review the surge strategy in one year. that review is due thursday. senior international correspondent nic robertson live in kabul. and good to see you after one year and 30,000 additional troops. is security measurably better today? >> reporter: it's a very mixed picture, tony. if you look in the north and the east of the country, the taliban appear to be getting stronger. if you look in the south where the focus has been of the surge in helmand and kandahar provinces, things are improving. we just spent over a week in kandahar with troops down there. security's improving, but commanders there have still got

some very, very serious concerns. >> hey, watch those paths. >> just a little paranoid every once in a while about the path. >> reporter: once the stronghold or the taliban minutes from kandahar. now u.s. and afghan forces are in control and getting local help. >> there's always danger, but i would tell you over the course of the last month, month and a half, we on our patrols have probably found 25% of the ieds, the other 75% have been turned in by local nationals. >> reporter: trouble is, the rapid success of the surge across kandahar brings its own problem. >> security's going very well. in many ways, it's outpaced the

ability of governance to keep up. >> reporter: and keeping up is vital. the taliban mostly fled the surge. now colonel martindale wants to take some u.s. troops out of kandahar, move them to other areas where the taliban is still strong. but there's a problem. >> governance needs to step up, and they need to take responsibility for the conditions that have now been set so that they can progress along. >> you're not seeing that right now then? >> we're not seeing it to the extent we would like. >> reporter: i asked the governor, he blames red tape in kabul. saying they failed to reinforce the kandahar police. >> we had no weapons. to get a weapon, that took a while. the weapon, the petition went to one department, to the other department.

the police chief from kandahar to kabul. >> good to see you, my friend. >> reporter: a surge success, the police chief is a good friend of the coalition, highly rated. but feels let down by his own leaders. he complains that some of his new outposts lack proper defenses. but colonel martindale's troops can only move on when the police here and in other parts of kandahar are ready to take over. >> would i like to go up north into some areas where i know the taliban will march in the spring? yes. do i have plans to do so? yes. and that will be through really thinning as much as i can. >> reporter: so privately, what some afghan and coalition officials are telling us is that this foot dragging they're seeing by president karzai's government in kabul is a direct result of internal afghan feuding. either ethnic or tribal or just simply the north wanting to keep the south weak.

but whatever's behind it, all these delays mean that this can potentially mean a delay to the drawdown of withdrawal of u.s. troops here. >> and nic, there were significant casualties in kandahar this weekend. what can you tell us? >> reporter: yeah. when you look at kandahar and you hear the security's improving there and talk to the people on the streets and hear them say it's safer, it gets surprising when you hear that six u.s. servicemen and two afghan servicemen were killed by a suicide bomber just outside of kandahar. but what's happening there is coalition forces and afghans are trying to build security further out of kandahar. so you've got oerpgs going on. in what are really contested areas. they're not a beaten force and they're still putting out suicide bombers. and that's what we saw in this case and in this particular case, a child was killed, as well, in that attack, tony. >> nic robertson is our senior

international correspondent joining us live from kabul, afghanistan. pictures of a royal engagement, plus the best of the best on youtube this year. your entertainment stories after the break.

youtube has just identified their most watched videos of the year. and picture this, britain's royal family has released a pair of engagement photos of prince william and his fiancee, kate middleton. brooke anderson is here to give us all the news. what do you think of the photos? >> oh, they're beautiful, tony.

perfect. these two are radiating happiness and youthfulness. i love them. the release of the official engagement photos are out. and they are really feeding that royal wedding frenzy that's already out there, even though the wedding is, you know, more than four months away. and listen to this, tony, we've already got a wedding name change. as the photos were released, the press office indicated they don't want us to call kate, kate anymore, instead they prefer katherine going forward. i'm going to have a hard time with that. is it okay if i call her kate today for a little while longer? it is her name, after all. pictures of prince william and kate middleton were taken by martin testino. it's appropriate he took these pictures. "people" magazine is reporting that kate skipped the star treatment, did her own make-up for the pictures. very down to earth of her. she looked really stunning. and tony, like i say, the

wedding is more than four months away, but the excitement has already built. there's a frenzy. everybody's whipped up into a frenzy already. >> yeah, you can feel it. you know what, brooke? the video of this wedding may end up on youtube one day. we see so many wedding videos on youtube. >> possible. >> yeah, it's possible. but i understand youtube is identifying their most watched videos of the year. i'm curious as to what made the list. >> it's that time of year, tony, you're right. it's the collection most of us are familiar with. including some people that are very recognizable. like can we show the first guy isaiah mustafaa? the old spice guy. that was number five on the list. some great commercials he made. the number six video features a guy who gets a little bit excited to see a double rainbow. we should mention that this list did not include music videos from major labels. although bands did qualify and

finished in the seventh spot. tony, the number one video was a parody song called "the bed intruder" song. that turned an angry rant on local news into a musical number that was viewed nearly 50 million times. tony, it made antoine dotson a household name. >> yeah, i remember that. we don't have it? just a little snippet of it? >> we've had some clearance issues, some video issues with that one. i'm sorry i can't show it to you. but antoine dodson was able to purchase a new home from the profits made from the itunes song, which was made after that local news story. incredible. >> well, get paid. all right, brooke, good to see you as always. thank you, see you tomorrow. and if you want more information on everything breaking in the entertainment world, you know where to go. brooke's got it for you. this evening on "showbiz tonight" at 5:00, at 11:00 on hln. former defense secretary donald rumsfeld about to release previously classified document.

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a federal judge in virginia rules a key plank of health care reform, the new health care reform law is unconstitutional. judge henry hudson says congress cannot require americans to purchase insurance under the constitution's commerce clause. health and human services secretary kathleen sebelius is named as a department in the lawsuit.

>> the affordable care act is the law until if and when congress -- both houses of congress would have to pass a bill. and the president would have to sign a bill that would repeal the act. i don't think that's likely to happen. i think there will be a lot of debates and discussions with the new congress coming in. and frankly, we welcome that. it's one thing to say get rid of it. but get rid of it and replace it with what and take those benefits away from constituents throughout the country who really now are looking forward to them. >> okay. that was health and human services secretary kathleen sebelius talking to our chief medical correspondent dr. sanjay gupta this weekend. previously classified documents about to be released. but not by wikileaks. dana bash live from capitol hill now. and dana, good to see you again. what's the story here? >> reporter: donald rumsfeld, you remember him?

one of the most controversial figures of the bush administration. he's got a new memoir coming up and first on our ticker. he never actually e-mailed before. you may not know that about him. he's all about social media. he sent a tweet really to create some buzz about his memoir that's coming out. and he said that along with his book, he's going to be releasing hundreds of documents on the internet to back up some of the claims that he's going to make. i would imagine it's going to be about the iraq war. but as you said, it's not going to be about like wic kileakswiks gotten approval. number two on our ticker, a very interesting interview with the incoming house speaker john boehner. take a look at some of this. >> so what do you think about him being speaker of the house? has it hit you? >> no, it sure hasn't. real proud of him. he'll do a good job. we're all proud of him. >> you know what's happening over here? >> no, my nose is running.

>> no, it's not. >> what set you off that time? >> because she's proud of you. >> he cries all the time? no? >> but he's going through an emotional period too. i mean, this is -- as you say this is not an ordinary job. whoever would've thought that he'd be in this position? he was a janitor on the night shift when i met him. he's come a long way. >> somebody who has gone from mopping this floor to being speaker of the house. >> yes. >> welcome to america. >> dana, look, you covered this man. you're our senior congressional correspondent. do these tears surprise you? >> they actually don't, tony. people who have been watching john boehner for years have seen this before. when he's talking about the troops or his own family or

about children. in fact, i had the privilege of emceeing a dinner he used to co-host with the late senator ted kennedy was for catholic schools. and that was a perfect example. i mean, he just sort of let loose because it's something that he cared about personally. so we've seen it on the house floor in the past, this is just something that the american people are now seeing more of, i think, because they're seeing more of john boehner. and you might wonder, what do his aides think about this? is this okay? and they're not upset about it. the fact of the matter is, this does show him as a human being. and it shows that he is somebody who does tend to care and he emotes. >> yeah. i don't know what i think of it. dana bash, good to see you as always. and your next political update coming in one hour. for the latest political news go to cnnpolitics.com. with threk combinations, all under $20! like succulent lobster and wood-grilled sirloin, or new chardonnay shrimp and sirloin. ends soon at red lobster.

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sandra endo is back with us again from washington with stories trending on the internet. sandy, good to see you. what are you following at this hour? >> hey, tony, pretty interesting stuff at this hour. trending today on youtube. youtube is now letting you decide what is perhaps promoting terrorism on their site. now, this is a very popular

video-sharing website as you know. and viewers already right now can flag videos for removal for reasons such as nudity and cruelty to animals. this is a new category. and some congress members as you know, tony, called on youtube to take down videos posted by alleged terror suspect. it is not used to incite violence, but say it's really hard that each video before they're posted. as you can imagine, there's millions posted each day. it's hard to say what promotes terrorism and what's free speech. so that's certainly a very big talker online today. >> are you following this mona lisa story? >> yeah, i was going to say. they say it's her smile, but now it may all be in her eyes. an italian art expert says that leonardo da vinci painted tiny

letters in mona lisa's eyes which could be a clue to her identity. chairman of the national committee for the heritage says the letters are invisible to the naked eye but were revealed through high resolution imagery. he says behind her right pupil are the letters lv, but behind her left pupil the letters are bs or ce. they have found l-2 under the bridge that appears behind her. but nobody is for sure who the painting is of this mona lisa. >> dan brown, get to work. sandra, good to see you. thank you, see you tomorrow. >> you got it. there is a brand new career option in the middle east. stand-up comic. >> my dad's not supportive of the idea. he comes up to me with things like -- oh, you're funny.

you ought to become clown. >> more laughs from one of the middle east's first ever comedy festival. more of that in the "cnn newsroom." the annual enrollment period ends december 31st. now is the time to find the plan that best meets your needs. here's a plan that could give you the benefits and stability you're looking for, an aarp medicarecomplete plan from securehorizons. what makes it complete? this plan combines medicare parts a and b, which is your hospital and doctor coverage, with part d prescription drug coverage, and more... all in one simple plan starting at a zero dollar monthly premium beyond what you pay for medicare part b. this plan offers you benefits like annual preventive screenings and immunizations for just a $0 copay. you'll also have the flexibility to change doctors from a network of providers

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you can even enroll right over the phone. or visit us on the web at getsecuretoday.com. don't wait. call now. we talk a lot in this country about changing hearts and minds in the middle east. but how specifically do we find common ground between two cultures that can seem so different? we spoke with an arab-american comedian from new york who thinks he's found a starting point, sharing a good laugh. >> i'm a comedian and i'm also the executive producer of the amman stand-up comedy festival. >> almost like an arab james bond. an arab james bond, he'll say --

>> before three years ago, there was no history of stand-up comedy in the region. and in the last three years, the young people there have not only come out to the shows, but do it more and more themselves. a lot of them now doing comedy in arabic. this year we have a comic from egypt, a female comic. >> of the first actually female arab to do stand-up comedy in arabic. some subjects maybe the people would not really like accept it from a woman, but other than that, i think they find it like intriguing. >> we have found out that the jokes we do that are more generic about relationships or world events, they get laughs, but jokes about arab culture get huge laughs way off the chart. >> you go to an arab college, it's like food everywhere you have to eat. your room, you don't eat. there's a very thin line between accommodating and accosting.

there's hospitality and then there's hostage-taking. >> that's something americans never see. an idea of an arab laughing at himself. it's something that's one of my passions to try to get this on american tv so people in the west can see we have this common humanity. there are express limits, though. >> well, in general, you can't talk about politics, sex, and religion. >> you cannot say something, insult anyone or insult any country. you have to say it in a nice way to talk about it. >> in lebanon they say whatever you want, if you make fun of hezbollah, you're on your own. it's when you cut away the audience, the audience is filled with arab men and women wearing the head coverings sitting next to each other laughing, you realize you're not in america anymore. that's the only way to tell. >> laughter, huh? that's that place to start, at least. let's see where it takes us. "cnn newsroom" continuing right