it's a big gimme to the american public that politicians in both parties hope to capitalize on in the next election cycle. that said, it's extreme to suggest we're in for a downgrade any time soon. not that it isn't possible. it's just unlikely for now. either way, let this threat of a credit downgrade be a warning to washington to wake up, address the deficit and put america back into drive. that's my "xyz." that's it for me. "cnn newsroom" continues right now with brooke baldwin. take a look at this video with me. this is a man shot this, uploaded to youtube while stuck in his truck. he describes himself as a truck driver. rolling down the window, taking a look outside, seeing nothing but white. he has apparently been stuck in this nasty snowstorm for 30-plus hours. let's listen.

only wind, wind and a lot of white. how isolated would you feel? i would feel very much so. we've been showing you just how bad it is. this is canada just north of detroit. he's not the only one stuck. see all the other cars in front of him and behind him? hundreds of people trapped on this road since monday. that has been the storm that hit the midwest just a couple of days ago, moved northward to ontario. we just heard from another trapped driver live here in the "cnn newsroom." i want you to listen to him describe what it was like. >> i called and just let them know that we were here and they said that there's just too many people out right now and that there's too much going on and that it would be at least 12 hours before they could get to us. but on the radio stations and all the local media when you're turning it on like i was turning it on my satellite radio and even local radio stations all they mentioned was highway 402. meanwhile you felt almost disheartened because the police had turned you around 12 hours

earlier, sent you off the highway into the middle of the country, the middle of nowhere and said sit here. now you're sitting here and it's just whiteout. it's one thing to be in a whiteout. i've been in one before where it was a ten-second gust of wind that came over but this continued 12 and 14 hours. >> yeah. this is not just a simple gust of wind. that guy has been stuck about 30 hours. chad myers has been watching this whole thing unfold. we know it's very dire and urgent because the military has been called in to rescue and try to save some of these people. talk to me about the high winds and how possibly that could hamper some of these rescues. >> what happened was that the winds that will make snow in buffalo -- we know but loaf gets lake-effect snow and so does cleveland. but it came across lake huron, a very large body of water. the wind as it picks up the water from the unfrozen lake yet will dump it on the nearest piece of land. that was the 402 highway full of cars. at some point in time, the police said this road is closed,

take another highway. and pushed people off the main road onto other highways. that's where that reporter was -- that i-reporter was. and he didn't know where he was at all. he would have been okay on the 402. they may have found him hours earlier. but the winds literally made whiteout conditions for what he said was 14 straight hours. >> guess what. we are getting a guy live with us within the hour. maybe you can talk to him with me. for 26 hours. he got out of there but put yourself in their shoes. i cannot imagine. stand by, because i want you to be part of this next conversation. and i want you to follow me -- with me if you have could here. first i want to take you have back to saturday morning. it's the southern shore of long island. ra poli a police officer and his dog searching for signs of a 20-year-old prostitution missing since may. first gilgo beach the officer

comes upon remains. now this story takes a worse turn because yesterday investigators combing the side of the highway, they unearth not one, not two but three sets of human remains. three sets, including four in burlap bags. so if you're following me, four bodies found in a quarter mile of each other. two have been identified as women. the other two apparently they are so badly decomposed they can't quite tell yet. the authorities are back at it, back out there again today. apparently the weather was so bad sunday they couldn't search. they're conceding we may, talking about a serial killer. i want you to listen to the local police commissioner. >> i don't think it's a coincidence that four bodies ended up in this area. you know, that's a good -- you know, that's a good direction to go that they were all dumped by

the same person or persons. >> you have a serial killer dumping bodies along this stretch? >> i'm not going to say that. but certainly we're looking at that. we're looking at that, that we could have a serial killer. >> so they're looking at it. they're looking at the possibility there could be a serial killer, maybe killers behind all of this. i want to bring in gil alba out of new york a former detective on the force nearly three decades. from what you're hearing and know from all these clues, is there enough to suspect -- pose that same question to you. is there enough to suspect this is the work of a serial killer or killers possibly? >> definitely. when you have three bodies in one location, two of them were with the burlap bags around them -- that have gives an indication it was the same person doing that. definitely. i would say that's the way the police are going looking at this right now. >> what do you make of the burlap bags? what do you also make of the fact that they were found very

close to one another, within about a quarter of a mile. >> you know what happens, when you do a random killing like this as opposed to knowing the person -- if you know the other person you would bury them somewhere. a random killing, throw somebody off the road ten feet or 50 feet or even 5 hundred feet off the road. that's what this guy did because we're all creatures of habit. he knew the area. he knew where to put these bodies. he felt comfortable where there's no cars coming back and forth where he could throw the body there. he or she. >> he or she have you say programs knew the area quite well. for people including myself that don't know the area well -- gil stand by. i want to bring in chad myers. help me understand sort of the lay of the lands if you will, exactly how this whole thing played out, where the bodies were and programs where this 23-year-old prostitute was headed when she went missing in may. >> talking about 36 miles as the crow flies from new york city right from downtown. but if you were to drive there and take the long island

expressway and back down, you're talking 55 miles or so from the city down to cedar beach and gilgo beach. that's where the original body was found. we're going to zoom in and find out why. what's the great location of this? we know fire island off there off to the east. that's where a call was made on the craigslist that we believe was to go to a fire island rand views, we'll just call it. but between cedar beach and gilgo beach there's a desolate strip of land. no houses on the beach and just a bunch of marsh on the other side. go a couple more in and right on down to the street and you'll see -- literally nothing to see here. beach and then two lanes. parkway going one way and along this side on the bay side -- not the ocean side. the bay side of this highway is where those bodies were dumped right through here. >> so, gil, it seems to me -- i've actually been to fire island. it's a pretty popular spot for

homes heading to the beach getting out of the city. for this particular stretch where the bodies were found looks to me fairly desolate. i've read there are no lights along the area. it does make sense it would be the perfect spot to dump someone. >> yeah. that whole area is a good spot to dump. that has happened before. in fact we had a kidnapping not too far the same way off the road and looked the same. here people aren't walking in that area. the bodies wouldn't have been discovered if the police didn't get that information. that particular prostitute -- and i hate to say the name. somebody killed her. but she was with somebody -- another person drove her. a male drove her there. that's how they got that kinds of a location where to look for her and where to -- they found the bodies. they were actually looking for her and discovered other bodies. so it's not really unusual that would be a dumping site. but like i said again, creatures of habit. you can see pretty far both directions if a car is coming.

doesn't take long to take a body and dump it there. >> put yourself in the shoes of the suffolk county police commissioner. we know they've reached out and talked to the john and the pimp in this particular case. we're talking four bodies, not just this young woman that went missing. what's the next step? you're the police commissioner, gil. what do you do next in the investigation? >> the mere fact you're putting this out in the news you know what could happen is somebody else is going to call. especially this guy. i'm sure he didn't do these three or four at one time. probably did someone else, that person got afraid. they may come to the police at some point and tell them what's going. that's how they get a person of interest. now what they're going to do is identify these bodies and where they come from. you know the burlap bags and the bodies have dna, meaning dna from that particular person who may have done this. he probably was arrested at some point. then they can match that up. of course it takes time to do all this but that's a possibility. >> going to take time but

fortunately these days science is pretty impressive. with dental records, dna they'll figure out who these young women and men were and also there's a possibility more bodies could be out there. they'll keep searching. gil alba, appreciate that. chad, thank you as well. let's talk about julian assange. he was granted bail today but he's still in jail. and his attorneys say the u.s. is secretly chasing him. so what happens to this guy now? that's ahead. plus a driver attacks a police officer. look at this. this is in the midst of what was supposed to be a routine traffic stop. but who is this gal? wait for this video. we're going to tell that whole story. we're also learning more about a heist at the bellagio, beautiful bellagio hotel in las vegas. i'm talking, yep, a heist. details on that next. another heart attack could be lurking, waiting to strike. a heart attack that's caused by a clot,

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reported sometimes less than 2 weeks after starting plavix. other rare but serious side effects may occur. the bellagio. you been there? it's one of the most recognizable hotels and casinos in all of las vegas. and what happens there this motion sounds a little bit like

"ocean's 14." we have just turned this around and got this in. at least this looks like the camera hopefully taking pictures of this guy, a man wearing a motorcycle helmet. here he is. here he is. a man wearing a motorcycle helmet walked into the casino wee hours of the morning pulls out a gun at a craps table. police say he got away with, get this, more than a million dollars in chips and then gets away on a motorcycle. these are the first pictures we have gotten from the bellagio. able to quickly turn them around for you. i know some of this is blurry but this is what they're hoping to get out there so someone can recognize this guy. he didn't hurt anyone when he walked in and did this but police most definitely want to finds him. want to show you this piece of video. wait until you see this. first let me set it up. routine traffic stop dayton, ohio. police officer pulls over this driver for a missing headlight. the officer is jonathan sider.

he gets out on the left-hand side. talked to talks to the driver apparently not cooperating, an issue about a headlight out. the officer tells the 64-year-old driver otto cullman to step out of the car. you see this? the guy -- the driver shoves the officer. then the punches start being thrown. just watch this with me. these guys are wrestling against this car. several times during the fight coleman reaches for the officer's gun and taser. so this whole encounter lasted right around five minutes. did you hear me? i said the driver of that car was 64 years of age. take a look at this woman rolls up on the scene. apparently back-up was on the way. didn't come soon enough. passerby in a car hops out of her own car and tries to break it up. i'll replay it. watch her come up trying to break it up. this woman who tries to stop this whole thing and definitely helps out, she is yet to be identified. but the double-teaming here -- see this woman banging on the guy. apparently allows the officer to

regain control. by the way, back-up finally arrived. and the two officers were then able to get that 64-year-old driver down to the grounds. that officer, look at this. grateful for the help but police have a big message for all of us. they doesn't want to encourage this type of behavior. >> this young lady did come to his assistance and i think it's very commendable, although don't get me wrong, i'm not endorsing that citizens participate in this manleyer. but under this particular circumstance, it was very commendable of her. >> how about that. lady helps take that guy down. here's this guy. this is the 64-year-old driver coleman i was talking about now charged with attempted aggravated robbery, resisting arrest and assault on a police officer. he's being held in the montgomery county jail. want to keep you in the loop. what is it tuesday? losing track of time. we're waiting for a crucial vote in the u.s. senate right now. lawmakers could begin voting on

the president's tax deal very shortly. so if nothing gets done, if this thing doesn't make its way through the senate, then the house, then everyone's taxes -- your taxes, my taxes, they all go up the first of january. as you know many democrats specifically in the hoist very much against this deal so we're monitoring what's happening there on the hill. this is senator john thune of south dakota. he was speaking there on the floor of the senate. again keeping a close eye on what's happening there. jessica yellin is as well standing by to tell us how some on the right side of the political aisle are now speaking out against this whole tax agreement as well. jessica is next. 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

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welcome back to the "newsroom." this hour our eyes on the u.s. senate. the senate now nearing a final vote on this controversial tax cut deal. reminder this is the deal that the president and the republicans helped strike up to extend tax cuts under president bush for everyone. so add-ones include a cut in the social security tax and extension of aid to the unemployed. we talked a lot about the screaming from the left side of things, some democrats, how is dems in particular saying the president should have fought harder to raise taxes on the richest 2% but there's growing unease emerging from the right side of things. jessica yellin. who's angry on the right and why? >> reporter: already some of the critics who have come out on the far right against this have compromise include rush limbaugh, the house's michele

bachmann, sarah palin and tea party hero jim demint. joining them today a surprising one mitt romney. he is the former and likely future presidential candidate and now clearly breaking with his only >> rich: leadership, the leadership in the senate and in the house. in an on you op-ed in "usa today" he writes quote it's difficult to understand how our political leaders could have reached such a disappointment agreement. the new more conservative congress should reach a better solution. big picture, he objects because the tax cuts are temporary, not permanent, because the overall package won't in hills view encourage hiring and because the provisions aren't paid for. he said all of this will fuel uncertainty for business and keep the economy stagnant but why it matters is it tells us he's aligning with tea party purists on this issue and could be a sign where the republican presidential nomination will be fro. >> that could be the strategy there. would there be any possibility here, as we're watching for this voted to maybe at the u.s.

senate -- would there be any chance of the left and the far right kinds of coming together on this thing and defeating the bill? >> reporter: it is a case of some strange bed fellows here with the far right and far left objecting. but i think ultimately this bill will likely pals despite opposition from the left and the right. what this does raise, though, is the possibility that in time, tea party groups could become increasingly disappointed with this deal and eventually who knows, they could become dissatisfied with republican members who supported it. so it calls into question how the tax cut deal will play with the republican base going forward. >> before i let you go, i want to bring up michael steele. we're all waiting to that conference call to happen last night. stunned a lot of republicans by announcing he will seek a second term as head of the rnc. is this sort of a dare, daring his own party to unseat him? >> reporter: yeah, i guess you could say, yes, it is. as you say, he surprised a lot of republican insiders who thought that after all the criticism and controversy he'd

want to move on. but in that conference call he said, i stumbled and made mistakes but points out it was a very winning year for the party and it was, he's right. even though he's disliked by the establishment he's courted voting members of the rnc throughout the party. so who knows how this one will come out. the election happens in january. >> we'll watch right along with you. jessica yellin, thank you from washington. a shocking discovery in illinois. the mayor of springfield found dead inside his home. this news comes on the same day he was scheduled to appear in court. we'll get you some of those details next. protesters in rome take to the streets. italy's prime minister surviving, holding on to power even though he's dealing with personal and political scannedals. [ male announcer ] open up a cadillac during our season's best sales event and receive the gift of asphalt. experience the exhilarating cadillac cts with a direct injection v6.

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a couple other stories we want to pass along moving this area. julian assange granted bail but staying in jail for now. the man behind wikileaks has to stay in police custody until another hearing because a lawyer representing sweden filed an appeal to the decision to free assange. remember assange is wanted in

sweden under alleged sex crimes. when he gets out on bail, assange will have no passport and will have to wear a monitoring device. that next hearing expected within the next 48 hours. fire bombs fly one way, teargas canisters the other way. people there in rome clashing with police. they're angry about prime minister silvio berlusconi's success in a parliamentary confidence vote. that means he will be staying in office, although the vote in his favor wasn't by a very large margin. and the may recall of springfield, illinois, is dead. timothy davlin found dead. the cause not released. he was a democrat in the second term as mayor of the illinois capit capital. he had been ordered to appear before a judge later in the day over an estate issue and told the judge he'd hired a lawyer.

police are investigating. we are getting some -- i don't know if this is the right adjective. fascinating video. maybe for us looking at it, not you stuck in it. weather across the country. i'm talking from the north, from the south. we'll show you how video -- how it goes when you're trying to get into a hot tub in the winter and what happens when you cut open frozen grapefruits. that's next. [ male announcer ] let's take the holidays by the antlers... expand our toolboxes... and fill our sleighs to capacity.

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just in to cnn in terms of the weather worlds. it's been a wild day in terms of snow but actually news just in. i want to bring in chad myers reporting about a tornadoes in salem, oregon.

>> ten miles southwest. the town of salem and four corners and down on down 22, a tornado on the ground. people are still trapped in their carlos because power lines are draped all around their cars and not able to get out. we don't talk about oregon as tornado capital of the world. >> never in the same sentence. >> pineapple express bringing moisture from hawaii. we showed you earlier some of the destruction in seattle because of the mud slides and amtrak being disrupted and all of that because of all this rain. we never, ever imagined there would be a tornadoes. >> i have a feeling there are a lot of people picking up the phones trying to figure out the deal in salem. we'll try to work through that. meantime talk about a different kind of weather today. a little bit of major news happening today. earlier we watched together top of the show the whole ordeal unfolding all of these people hundreds of people in canada north of detroit basically stuck in their cars hundreds trapped in their vehicles, some tramdz throughout the night. here they are stranded because of, you guessed it, piled-up

snow on the highways. other areas pounded by wintry weather. this is cleveland. imagine this is your morning commute. doesn't look like fun. this is the famous or maybe infamous lake-effect snow whipping off of lake erie. winter storm warnings in effect for much of northeast ohio until tomorrow morning. and next school canceled in north georgia. this is georgia? kids burst out the sleds. apparently a big dump of snow is not a headache for everyone everywhere, thank you to i-reporter susan gober and her sled camphor helping us lighten up the mood with all the gloomy weather. listen to her squealing along. how do you have kind of mellow out after five straight hours of shoveling record deep snow? look at this dude. i don't know. fire up the hot tub maybe? people taking winter in stride. they know how to do it in rochester, minnesota. this is like nothing maybe to

them. they know how to hang out. cnn i-reporter sent us these pictures of him chilling out, opening up that hot tub. so that's one way to do it if you're in rochester, minnesota. chad myers, let's talk, though, about programs the worst-hit areas. where is that? >> that would be down wind of any lake. and the first one we talked about were the pictures near sarnia. that is canada. that's ontario. on the other side is port huron. right on down 69 and 94 you're either going to get to the middle part of michigan or down to detroit. so we're not talking all that far north and west of detroit. all of a sudden, this snow came down from lake huron and stranded people and they are still stranded in many areas. we're still seeing cold air across parts ever the upper midwest and so on and so on. but that was the worst. you wanted to pick the worst. people ask why don't you ever talk about san diego? because it's sunny and 72. that's not a news story. i'm sorry. i'm not going to be able to make

anything out of that. when i talk about your town, it's a bad thing so watch what you ask for. here's the rain seattle down to olympia. there's salem and there's that cell. take it one more time right through there. that big red dot right through there. >> that was the tornado. >> >> that was the tornado. we'll continue to watch to see what happens there. >> what about the south? we saw the pictures of north georgia. i can't believe that was georgia. are we getting any relief? i'm cold, chad. >> well, in april it will warm up. >> that's not good enough. >> i know. 23 right now in atlanta the feel like temperature. 42 tampa. an awful lot of damage. a new report out of florida on the crops damaged. temperatures down into the 20s. this is on purpose. they spray this water onto the citrus on purpose because as water freezes, brooke, it gives off warmth and then it inches late the fruit from the cold air around it.

so this is a good thing. i think we still have that picture of a sprinkler that was turned on by accident and it was so much water on the trees they were all kind of dragged down to the ground. you don't want to do it quite that way. you want to do it nice and slowly. we had a picture, too, of a guy cutting open a fruit. >> i was waiting for that. you can have an orange slurpee. he's trying to cut this grape fruit. stabbing it, opening it. just needs a straw. >> everything inside was still okay. >> oh, okay, that's good. >> but the outside frozen. that just means you are not going to be able to buy that one at kroger or publix as a real grapefruit. that will be squeezed into juice. >> let's get to our colleague who i guess drew the short straw. we sent rob marciano not to his chagrin but to chagrin falls, ohio. hello, rob. >> reporter: brooke, chad,

hasn't warmed up at all, all day long. woke up in cleveland windchills well below zero and the sun trying to break through some of these clouds but the snow is coming down still. so it's just been a rough go. not just today but yesterday and really all week long. then this is on top of what these folks had to endure last week as well. so two weeks in a row seeing the same thing with the exception that this time the air is even colder. so we're not only having to deal with the snow but we're having to deal with things like a water main pipe bursting because of the cold. people have to boil water because it's not safe now. and the winds have brought down a few power lines so we have power outages in some of the suburbs of cleveland. over 200 organizations and schools closed again for the second day in a row. even for the hardiest of midwesterns this has been a real blow and we haven't even gotten into the middle part of winter. haven't officially gotten to winter. haven't even gotten to christmas. what these folks are trying to do is maybe take comfort in the

fact the holidays are here but a lot of them saying we could stand a little bit of warm-up. but, chad, as you know, that probably isn't going to happen any time too soon. >> chad, not going to happen? >> what do you want for christmas? a new pair of gloves and muffler to put around my neck. maybe that will help christmas sales for all the clothing stores. go to the mall and buy some gloves. >> thank you. we mentioned the situation all those people trapped in ontario. coming up next i'll talk to a guy trapped in the snow in his car. look at this. for 26 hours. stranded in his car on this very snowy highway. how did he get out while so many people, hundreds of people are still trapped? like a 100,000 mile/5-year powertrain warranty. that's 40,000 miles more than ford. and now we're giving you our best offer of the year. 0% apr financing... plus $1,500 holiday allowance...

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i shared this video at the top of the hour. we thought it was so good we wanted to play it. the man who shot it and uploaded it to youtube described himself as a truck driver, says he's been stuck in this nasty snowstorm for 30-plus hours. listen to what he hears. yeah, a whole lot of nothing. that's because no one is moving. no one is able to really get out of their cars. just a lot of wind. looks like the arctic circle but it's not. this is canada. this is just north of michigan. hundreds of people have been trapped on this particular roadway since monday. look at them all lined up, not moving. but one of the them was able to get out. he is good enough to hop on the phone. hopefully he's now nice and toasty and warm. joining me david beef. david, thanks for hopping on the phone. i know you were dropping your kids off at school. you were headed to work.

you got stuck. at what point did it sink in you were thinking i'm not going anywhere for a while? >> when the sun started going down and i noted there was no traffic coming by on the other side of the road. i figured i'd better bear down for the night. >> bearing down for the night. little did you know you would be stuck in your car for 26 hours. how in the world did you stay warm? >> it was -- they said on the radio to try to conserve your gas. by that point i was almost down to about a quarter of a tank. so i shut my car down for two or three hours and i had a blanket, so i wrapped up in my blanket. then i'd start my car after that for about 45 minutes just to kind of warm up a little bit. and then once i warmed up i'd shut it down again. >> you have sound like a pretty calm guy but be honest with me. did you have panic at all? >> no, there's no panicking because there's nothing you could do. you're snowed in and you couldn't even open your doors to

your car. it was just so windy. >> let's say you did open your car window or door and tried to walk to safety. what would have happened? >> honestly, you couldn't see anything. i was just outside the airport. and you couldn't even see it. you couldn't see ten feet. so unless you knew exactly where you were going, you weren't going anywhere. >> had you ventured out, you would have risked your life, correct? >> oh, for sure. for sure. there's no going anywhere for anyone. i know there is a few abandoned cars the next day that i noticed but i'm sure they just hopped into somebody else's car to warm up. >> david, how did you finally get out, considering the fact you were in the company of hundreds of people, some of whom are still stuck. >> the next morning the wind started to lighten up a little bit. and then a few of the truckers managed to kinds of weave their

way through. i just tucked in behind and followed them out. >> final question i have to ask who gets your first phone call? you're safe and sound. is it your girlfriend or your mother. >> >> i gave my girlfriend my first call. >> your girlfriend. david beath, we're glatd glad you're doing all right. thanks so much for jumping on. would have risked his own life. imagine that. >> no question about it. windchill factor way too cold to go outside. >> and he didn't panic. good thing he had that blanket to keep him warm at least a little bit. "american idol" will have a new competitor next year. wait until you hear the format of nbc's new show. that is ahead. a stunt goes awry. hugh jackman gets hurt while taping something for oprah. you know we have the video. it is "trending." brooke anderson is all over it. - i was so naive. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 i mean, i still need help. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 but not from some guy that's just going to sell me stuff.

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welcome back. hollywood award season is here already seriously. nomination season officially arriving and trending today with our own brooke anderson. not talking oscars yet but talking golden globes. >> those nominations this morning really do signal the official kickoff to award season. you got it right. one thing you can bank on, brooke, every single year with the golden globes is star power. the movies don't necessarily have to be winners at the box office or with critics, for that matter. for the hollywood foreign press association, which determines the nominees to recognize them. they love big names. they love eye candy. for instance, angelina jolie and johnny depp nominated for "the

tourist" so far a disappointment in the theaters and for the most part panned by critics. also nominated for best film comedy or musical. but "the tourist" isn't the only box office disappointment getting golden globe love. burlesque picked up three nominations and failed to pick up steam in theaters. not a critical favorite. on the other hand the globes nominated the film "inception" which made more than $8 million. highly regarded by critics. put up that graphic for best films in the drama category. "inception" up against "black swan", "the fighter", "the king's speech" and "the social network." ricky gervais is back to host the ceremony airing live january 16 on nbc. ricky of course promises to push the envelope. i'm sure he might get a little tipsy. he's always got a loose tongue when he gets on stage for these

things. >> oh, boy, yes he does. also as part of this nomination process it was particularly special for michael douglas. >> it certainly was. as we know the 66-year-old actor has been fighting stage four throat cancer. he reportedly has to wait until january for doctors to assess whether the cancer is completely eradicated. he recently underwent chemo and radiation. he was nominated for his role in "wall street: money never sleeps." we wish him the best. >> also, and this is video -- i stood up and was telling my whole team about this morning. this hugh jackman video in australia as part of this whole stunt for oprah that didn't exactly go as planned. ouch in fact. >> far from it. hugh jackman making a spectacular interest via what's

called a flying fox. basically a zip line for oprah's show. he was moving, speeding through the air and, boom wk made a crash landing into a row of lights. the paramedics had to check him out. thankfully he's okay. he got the all clear. just an injury under his right eye. as i'm sure hugh would say, the show must go on. he continued with that taping. >> with the red wine. >> i'm sure that took the edge off, right, the red wine helped him continue on with a smile. oprah taped two shows there and more than 350,000 people registered for 12,000 tickets. so it was mania. >> wow, that's amazing. look at him getting a little help from oprah. i just love the shot with the glass of red wine. finally let's talk about could there be a competitor for "american idol"? >> could be, yeah. it's a brands new singing competition that really could give "american idol" a run for its money. it's reportedly an effort by nbc and reality show gue rye mark

burnett. it will be called "the voice of america." basically nbc's answer to "american idol." it will feature four celebrity coaches with careers in the music industry. but here's the twist that identify olt doesn't have. the judges are going to turn their backs during the performances during some of the auditions so that only the singers' voices will be evaluated, not their appearances. >> that's a new twist. >> i like it. the new show set to premiere in the spring. you remember simon cowell is bringing his version of "x factor" to the u.s. next year. it's becoming a crowded house but this type of format has been money in the bank for idols so it could work for everybody. >> brooke anderson in a very warm hollywood. i bring up the weather simply because we've been showing you all this crazy weather video. but this one of may be the winner today. an entire house? here it is. or the trees may be in front of it covered in ice. now a tourist attraction. tell you how it happened ahead.

also nic robertson says if his meeting with members of the taliban had been days earlier, he would be dead. who is the he here? and what is changing their ways? and why are they joining the government? a report from afghantan next.

president obama has called him a true giant of american foreign policy. the president has not yet said whether he will name a replacement for richard holbrooke. the veteran diplomat died yesterday after surgery to repair a torn aorta. he was the president's point man for the afghanistan-pakistan region, but probably best known for helping to negotiate the peace accord that ended the bar in bosnia. that agreement was signed 15 years ago today. president obama did meet today with members of his national security team. they are talking about u.s. strategy in afghanistan and pakistan. a military analysis of the

afghan war will be out this thursday. meanwhile, the war in afghanistan drags on, but some taliban fighters are putting down their weapons. our nic robertson met with them. take a look at this. >> i'm going to fight the government -- >> reporter: until a few months ago, these three men sitting in front of me were taliban commanders. >> if six months ago we had met and i had been driving through your area, what would have happened to me? >> translator: he and his two sub commanders laugh. in a second, you would have been dead, he says. they seem to find the idea amusing, but their fight was a deadly serious one. he tells me he fought u.s. and afghan troops for six years, sometimes planting ieds because he says the afghan government didn't care about him. but now they've been convinced it does.

not least by this man, the governor of hurat and his unconventional message. why fight? nato troops are leaving anyway. >> i called on all the groups in hurat. i said if you fight for a cause which is the independence of your country or the foreigners, so this is not a cause. forers in are in a rush to leave afghanistan, so don't fight for that. >> reporter: herat, the city is relatively peacefully, but outside, heavily armored police trucks on the highway become a familiar sight. the commanders live over 100 kilometers, about 70 miles further down the highway. it's far from safe. it's the main road lynning herat to helmand. it is the outlying scattered communities the governor's

message is having some success. to far this year, he claims, several hundred taliban and their commanders have changed sides, some induced by the government offer of amnesty and support. governor sabba welcomes them all. >> they have lots of ammunition. they brought it here. that's why i didn't promise them anything because i didn't have the program running yet. i promise i will give some community projects, repairing a mosque with the little budget i had. >> reporter: he says he uses religious justifications and promises of support to win the fighters away from the war. for this man and his cohorts it's been a relatively easy conversion. they say they are tired of fighting, want education for their children and seeds for their farms. but they have a warning, too. if the government keeps its

promise to help, there can be peace, he says, if they just talk and do nothing, then no peace. nic robertson, cnn herat, afghanistan. do you remember an nez sainz, the sports reporter at that time center of the new york jets locker room firestorm? well, playboy apparently wants her. coming up, i'll tell you about that offer and her answer. rahm emanuel fighting for his right to run for mayor of chicago. gloria borger is standing by. your cnn political ticker coming at you next. ♪ i hate suburbia and the bourgeoi-sie ♪

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cnn equals politics. glor gentleman borger joins me with the latest from the cnn political ticker. how are you doing? >> how are you doing? first we'll talk about the afghanistan/pakistan review. it's been about a year since the president announced his afghanistan policy. now comes the much expected review of it. the president met with his team for an hour and 45 minutes today, a meeting that was clearly complicated and certainly saddened by the death of richard holbrooke, as you know, who was his special envoy to the region. but meet they did. press secretary robert gibbs said to journalists today, the one thing we ought to expect is that the president will keep his planned withdrawal of american troops from the region starting

in july 2011. he also said that the report is going to show some progress in breaking the momentum of the taliban and getting the cooperation of the pakistanis, although there are lots of roadblocks ahead, it is going to show some progress. next, onto a fun story, the mayoral race in chicago. we all know former white house chief of staff rahm emanuel is running for mayor of chicago. but there's kind of a block -- a speed bump in the road which is he's got to prove that he actually lives in chicago. so today he spent some time testifying before the board of elections there. the requirement is that you have to have lived in chicago for one year. now, what rahm emanuel says is that he owns a house there, even though he rents it out. he pays property taxes there and, of course, he votes there. and then he told them one more thing which is that his wife's

wedding dress is still in the house. so how can you not really live there when you leave your wedding dress behind, right, brook? >> sorry. i'm getting a little information in my ear. quick reminder, another political ticker update in about half an hour. hop online at cnnpolitics.com. hello once again. i'm brooke baldwin. a lot of news right now. i want to begin with breaking news out of panama city. a man with a gun took hostages at the bay county school board meeting. again, this happening in panama city. our affiliate wmvb is reporting that the man used a can of red spray paint, painted a circle and a v, let women and children

out of a room, took the men hostage. forgive me. i'm getting information as i'm get giving it to you. we're trying to figure out what is happening. it's unclear right now if this particular gunman was shot by police or if she he shot himself. all this unfolding at this hour there in panama city. we can confirm according to our affiliate he has been removed from the school board meeting. now next, let's talk about julian assange, granted bail, staying in jail at least for now. the man behind wikileaks has to stay in police custody until another hearing. that is because a lawyer representing sweden filed an appeal to the decision to free assange. assange is wanted in sweden on alleged sex crimes. when he gets out on bail, he will have no passport and will have to wear a monitoring device. the next hearing is expected within 48 hours. want to keep you in the loop to what's happening on capitol hill.

we're waiting for this crucial vote in the u.s. senate. lawmakers could begin voting on the president's tax cut deal very soon. look, if nothing happens, if this thing doesn't go through the senate and then the house, your taxes and my taxes, they all go up come the first of next year. many democrats very much against the deal. we're monitoring what's happening on the hill. developing now, the feds arrested an afghan native in connection with an alleged threat to bomb the subway system in washington, d.c. a criminal complaint was unsealed in federal court today against a man arrested last week. the feds only calling this a threat, very important. it's a threat, not a plot. next three adults, three children died in this house fire in baltimore early this morning. firefighters had to evacuate at one point because the wind outside was fueling the flames and the smoke there, but they dead go back in and that is when they found those victims. the fire we're told spread to

all four homes. next, the mayor of springfield, inknow, is dead. timothy davlin was found dead in his home this morning. the cause of the death not officially released, nor were details beyond that. apparently he was ordered to appear before a judge later in the day for an estate issue. he told the judge last week he had hired a lawyer. police in springfield are investigating. they're not firefighters, they are guardian angels, that's according to that woman. kathy lambert said she and her 3-year-old were saved from that burning suv. her vehicle caught fire after she crashed into a tree. she was three houses away from her home. she was that close. family members ran to the nearby volunteer fire department to get help. fire officials swooped in and saved them. next fire bombs flying one

way. teargas canisters the other. this is all about prime minister sylvia berlusconi's vote to stay in office. next, what happens when someone gets sick on a cruise? a-ha. coast guard to the rescue, this video may seem pretty dramatic to you and to me. fortunately the 13-year-old patient had acute appendicitis. the chopper took him and his moth tore a hospital in nearby north carolina. next, not a creature was stirring when knbc cameras stopped by this home in kansas city. it is covered -- look at this -- in ice. freezing cold. obviously it had to be in ms. sorry when a water main broke in front of that house sunday morning. now it's a big old tourist attraction in that neighborhood.

an awkward moment at this press conference when the man who leads soccer's governing body. what he said he would tell gay fans when he wanted to travel to the world cup in 2022. qatar forbids same sex relationshipses. what did he say? they should refrain from sexual activities. gay athletes and fans alike are condemning the comments. the government of venezuela could soon control the internet? venezuelan lawmakers are debating the issue today. the chavez administration blames the u.s. for a propaganda war and insists the regulations are normal in most places. next, check out this white van. there it is, being pulled out of the puget sound north of seattle. a man and his wife are convinced they would have died in there if not for some quick rescue

action. one wrong turn in the dark sent william forsyth down a boat ramp into the water which quickly began rising all around them. good thing they had a cell phone and their son got there just in the nick of time. >> i looked up through that glass and saw him. it was a big load off my mind. i knew we were going to get out of there. i had less than a minute to spare. it was that close. >> it was that close. good thing they're all right. remember this gal, inez sainz. she says she was bombarded with rude can calls on the sideline. the firestorm prompted the nfl to investigate the jets. now sainz says playboy offered her more than a million bucks. she's saying no. the mother of three says it's not her style. finally, the dow finishing in the green, up 48 points to

say. stephanie elam live at the new york stock exchange. one of the biggest and most important wall street rating agencies come out with this new warning about this particular tax cut deal. >> that's true, brooke. this is a case where it will help the economy in the next two years. that's mad moody's is saying. the problem is it's going to add dangerous amounts to the deficit. they're saying this could cost about $700 billion to $900 billion. they say that could lead to the u.s. debt being downgraded. that is something previously unthinkable, brooke. >> what would this downgrade mean i guess cloeblly? >> well, a downgrade is something -- let me put it to you this way, ratings is a way to see how the government is doing, a way that people keep track of the government's ability to repay debt. if they get downgraded, it would make it a lot harder for the government to borrow money and a lot more expensive because people would see the u.s. as a risky investment.

that's something no one ever saw any time before this. so that is why this is such a big deal. >> stephanie elam, thank you very much. want to give you a quick recap of what's been happening in panama city, florida. we've received reports that a gunman basically bombarded this school board meeting, took out a gun, fired shots. this is all according to our affiliate -- if you can remind me what our affiliate is -- wmbb. what we know, apparently this guy painted a v with a circle around it, kept the men hostage. let the women and children go. according to our affiliate, we know this gunman was shot, has been removed from this school board meeting. don't know if any other shots were fired or anyone else was injured. that's the latest breaking news we have, latest information out of panama city, florida. also, hundreds of people have been trapped in the snow. they are inside their cars essentially helpless, they're waiting for help. now this military operation is

under way to try to save them. that is coming up. plus a driver attacks a police officer during a traffic stop. have you seen this video? he goes for the officer's gun and taser in the thick of things. coming up next, you'll see how this ended and who came to the cop's rescue. stay there. sglfrnlt taken with methotrexate, sglfrnlths and swelling of r.a. with one dose once a month. visit 4simponi.com to see if you qualify for a fl 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.

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trying to get some more information here. slg a conversation with my executive producer in the break. out of panama city, florida. breaking news, sense situation, frightening situation for people at this bay county school board meeting. here is what we know right now. according to our affiliate wjhg who by the way had a crew inside the school board meeting, so they have a firsthand account. this man walks into the school board meeting, has a pistol, takes people hostages right around 2:00 this afternoon. apparently pulled out a can of spray paint after addressing the crowd, pulls out a can of spray paint with a v with a circle around it. allows the women and children to leave, takes the men hostage.

a question as to whether the gun was loaded or not. there are reports that this gunman was shot. did he shoot himself? we don't know. we do know he has been removed from this building frrks the bay county school board meeting. we're working on getting someone on the phone to talk to me to then educate you as to what exactly is happening right now in panama city. certainly very frightening, especially for this u news crew, wjhg. next to this, also word of a heist at the be laj i don't, the taj mahal of casinos, very recognizable. i want you to take a look at some of these mixtures from their security cameras. here is what we know. here he is, this guy wearing a motorcycle helmet walks into the bellagio pulls out his gun at

the craps table. people saying he got away with more than a million dollars in chips and then got out of there on his motorcycle. amazingly he didn't hurt anyone through the whole process, but got away with the chips. police want you to look at these pictures. albeit, they are blurry. they want someone to help track this guy down. to a different bit of video. watch this with me. the man who shot this and uploaded this to youtube describes himself as a truck driver, and he has been stuck in this nasty snowstorm for some 30-plus hours. listen to what he hears. not a lot. just a lot of wind. look at that with me. it looks like the arctic circle. no one is moveth, very quiet, very windy. this is canada. this is north of michigan. look at these cars, all lined up, not moving. hundreds have been trapped on this road since monday. military choppers, situation so urgent they're now coming in to

try to rescue them. next to another piece of individual -- oh let me set this up for you. this is a routine traffic stop. this is happening in dayton, ohio. police officer pulls over a driver for a missing headlight. the officer, there he is going toum the side of the car. he gets out and talks to the driver. he apparently was not cooperating. the officer tells this driver who, by the way, was 64 years of age. hey, buddy, look at this, the guy slams the officer down. a bit of a wrestling match for quite some time. this whole thing goes for about five minutes or so. several times during the fight, coleman, the driver, reaching for the officer's gun and taser. did i mention the driver was 64? back up, guess who shows up? look at this lady. we can't show you her face. police are not identifying her. she apparently is driving along. she gets out and tries to help

the officer. backup finally arrives. the two officers were able to get the driver on the ground. the officer obviously very grateful for that help. police have a message, they're not exactly encouraging this type of behavior. >> this young lady did come to his assistance and i think it's very commendable, although don't get me wrong, i'm not endorsing the citizens participate in this manner. but under this particular circumstance it was very commendable of her. >> coleman is charged with attempted aggravated robbery, resisting arrest and assaulting a police officer. the 64-year-old being held at the montgomery county jail. who will represent republicans against obama come 2012? conservatives are weighing in. you'll hear their choice next. there is this movement called "no labels." they want to end the partisan bickering in the beltway. guess what? they're singing about it.

they have a theme song from -- i'm not going to tell you. you'll have to wait. joe johns knows the answer. he has the skinny, the political pop. i won't make you sing, joe. we'll hear the song coming up next. stay there.

when we're looking for questions that just rant getting answered, we turn to our guy in the know in d.c., joe johns with "political pop." we talked about this whole group had a meeting in manhattan calling themselves no labels, a lot of buzz about them right now. apparently they have a bit of a theme song. what's that? >> a lot of buzz for sure. the idea is they're promoting

the middle of politics. michael bloomberg, charlie crist, evan bayh. but let's listen to the music. what you might not know is that they have a theme song already and they used rolled it out at their inaugural event. who is that singing? wait for it. >> i'm digging it. i already know the answer. it's akon. >> i'm talking the the people watching, it's akon. it's kind of incredible. you can be a little cynical about this as theme songs go. this one does have a little juice because this guy, of course, is one of the superstars of pop music, wrote it and recorded it. do you have any akon on your ipod is the question? >> i think that might be on my running mix, some akon. >> no raunchy lyrics.

it's all g rated. >> the whole issue is let's all get along, left and right coming together. wasn't it akon when president obama got elected, he said if he doesn't get elected, i'm moving to africa. that's not exactly centrist. >> needless to say, he was a huge obama supporter in e last election, but he has apparently moved to the middle. come on, president obama has moved to the middle, too, prit? akon, anyway, apparently heard about the no labels group, said he liked where they were headed with this and apparently stayed up all night writing the song. we'll see where he is in two years when the president is running for re-election. >> i know, we'll wait and see. you and i will talking this time yesterday about michael steele, waiting for the conference call to see if he would run again as chair of the rnc. now he's stunned a lot of people and is. what are you hearing from your sources about this decision?

>> one strategist i spoke to said michael steele is breaking one of the axioms of political survival in this town. regardless of what the fight is about, if you are almost certain you're going to lose, get out quickly and gracefully. more than one gop source is referring to steele as a dead man walking oovps. insiders i've talked to say he's too high profile for good or for bad. they're looking forward to the next presidential election. they say he attraction negative media attention. he came out, of course, last night admitting he's had some stumbles, but said he's always accounted for his missteps. republicans i've talked to say they want a chairman who lets the new speaker of the house, the republican leadership and their nominee, whoever it is, take center stage. tough spot. >> it's a tough spot. i imagine it's a spot other

people will be looking to grab as well. anyone else, any big names? >> a bunch of names out there, people whose names really haven't sort of broken through all over the country. perhaps the biggest name mentioned so far is minnesota senator norm coleman. he said he won't hundred for the job if steele is running for re-election. it will be pretty interesting. >> i hear you have a survey to tell us about. >> these things that appeal in your e-mail, this is one i really like. the national republican senatorial committee put out a survey testing the waters on preferences for republican presidential candidates. out of 12 people they mention in the survey, only two senators, john thune and john mccain. they mention governors, ron paul, sarah palin. so interestingly enough, it sounds like any senators who are

eyeing the white house have a lot of work to do to get a little buzz going. >> that surprising. joe johns, always have the good stuff. thank you, sir. see you tomorrow. what stories were you most interested in this year? which stories did you click on, talk about, tweet about? we have the list of the top trenders, and there is a new online service in the dating world. but this one kind of different. instead of finding a soulmate it helps you break up with one. the whole dumping website is next. oh, my gosh. ♪ [ 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. that's why only zales is the diamond store. i'm bob kearn, president of coit cleaning services. these pictures are the history of my family

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so our trending segment today is actually about trending and facebook, the status updates across 236 countries were annualized. sfas book is calling this whole thing the 2010 memology. here is where we go. here is what you're updating about. number ten, the year 2011. number nine, the word airplanes, as in the b.o.b. lyrics. number eight, chilean miners, seven, games on facebook. six, justin bieber. five, haiti, four, apple's ipad and the iphone 4.

three, movies, no particular movie. number two, world cup. one, i've got to be honest, i've never heard of this. hmu, an acronym for hit me up. breaking up with someone but were too scared to go through with it? well, now you guessed it, an online service, folks, i'm not making this up. this is called idump4u.com. what do you get for your money? a mere $10 for a basic break-up, 25 for an engagement break up. 50 bucks for a divorce call. real really? would you do this. >> you're less of a man. >> i absolutely believe someone should do it themselves. i'm coming from the old school. >> in person or on the phone? >> in person.

>> do you really want to get a call from some stranger. >> no way. it's horrible. >> that's pretty nasty. that's a no-fly zone. you don't go there. >> i think it's a great way to attract attention. i think it's a lousy way to deal with a relationship. >> got our attention and it made to the newsroom. the cnn app for the ipad. tls your home base for breaking news, video and alerts. our tech guy derrick dodge joins me now. hmu, hit me up. >> check you out, brooke, you're on the ipad. this is video on demand, playing a clip from the show earlier when you were talking about the bellagio heist. the video is beautiful. not just video on demand but you can get live vied oh as well. when you first download the app, and it's free, by the way, you'll come to the garage sheet.

all the top stories. it's glorious, the pictures and thumb nails. you can sit back and scroll through the news. maybe you don't like this view, so we give you another view. this is the slideshow view where you can flip through and look how big and beautiful these images are? >> that's amazing. >> it's really visually stunning. like i said, live video. we've also got an hourly update from cnn radio among other things. and one big thing that i like about the app is how social it is. meaning we've incorporated twitter and facebook if you want to share the stories, share on facebook, share on twitter. you can e-mail if you're old-fashioned, or save it for later. >> i love to see that. i love to see what my friends are reading, what they're liking. you do that on the ipad. >> we built the comments into the story. as you're scrolling through text, you can scroll to the side and see everything everyone is saying. that's a featured part of the

app. >> did you say those of us who e-mail are old-fashioned? >> i was wondering if you were going to pick up on that? >> i was wondering if you were going to pick up on that. >> i don't even have an ipad. hopefully i'll get one for christmas. hint, hint. that's cool, derrick dodge, thank you so much. he's been called a trader, why does one city in central california want to make bradley manning a hero. bodies found on a beach in new york. now police are looking into whether they are connected to the disappearance of an alleged prostitute. she was just 23. that is next. also we're keeping our eye closely on the breaking story out of florida, panama city, florida. reports of a shooting at a school board meeting. an update next. and if you can find a lower published price anywhere else we'll match it and pay you $25. book now and save up to 60% on hotels. only at priceline.

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we're getting pictures, aerial pictures of outside of salem, oregon. look at this. chad myers is walking up to me because i want him to join me in this conversation. i guess some damage from that tornado that passed through. >> there definitely was a tornado. obviously weather service has to go confirm the size. there's a building leaving the right-hand side of your screen that lost a lot of its roof. it almost seems like there might have been a structure on top that collapsed as well. the first picture we saw was like a mobile home or something that lost a little bit of some siding and maybe we'll call it a carport. that's not very much. that's not all that significant. now when we see real strictures filled with real two-by-fours and screws and glue and all that, you know this was something bigger than a wind gust. clearly it was because it was reported as such. >> kptv tell copter, it is not

often you say the word tornado and oregon in the same sentence. look at that. >> aumsville, it's about 12 miles southeast of salem along highway 22. and there was some damage to cars as well and crashes by cars due to skating on the amount of hail that was on the roadway. hail acting like ball bearings and cars crashes due to driving over the hail. >> we were watching the pictures and wanted to pass it along to you. pictures outside of salem, oregon. chad, thank you. now, i want to get you a quick update on the breaking story from panama city, florida. cnn confirmed a gunman went inside this school board meeting, bay county school board meeting this afternoon, just a little while ago. had a gun. cnn has confirmed he was shooting blanks out of this gun. the guy addressed the front of

the meeting, took a big can of spray paint he brought in with him, sprayed a v, kept the men hostage, allowed the women and children to go. he was shot. we don't know if the gunman was shot by authorities, by himself. we do know he has left this area. but a frightening situation for people at the bay county school board meeting. that meeting today including a news crew, wjhg. a possible serial killer, a terror threat and a controversial hero from the u.s. military. time to play reporter roulette. i want to begin with deb feyerick where police are investigating a discovery of several body ts, four bodies, deb, on long island. >> that's right. actually it was a coincidence. apparently a dog, a canine officer took his dog out for a drill and had a hunch that a missing person may be about three miles from where they were first located. what he found was not one body, but ultimately four bodies discovered within a quarter mile

from each other. one of the victims could be -- and this is just a possibility -- could be a woman by the name of shannon gill best. she and another woman who was also missing have similar profiles. they were both in their early 20s. they both allegedly answered escort ads on craigslist and disappeared within a month of each other early this summer. >> we mentioned four bodies all found within a quarter mile of one another. do we know how long they think the bodies were there? >> that's what's interesting. some of the bodies were so badly decomposed that the police commissioner believe some of the victims may have been killed up to two years ago and it's going to take a long time for the medical examiner to figure out exactly who these people are. >> deb feyerick in new york. thank you. and next, jeanne meserve with the threat to the d.c. metro system. tell me about this man. what is he accused of doing.

his name is aweighs eunice. he allegedly made threats on facebook. according to court documents he allegedly said to a fis book friend that he could build a pipe bomb and put one on a metro train, either the third or fifth car during rush hour. when the friend said, oh, you wouldn't do that, he said watch me. those are the allegations made by the government. >> you mentioned he's an afghan native. what do we know about him? >> he was born in 1985 which makes him 25 or 26 years old, born in afghanistan. right now we understand he's undergoing a mental evaluation. >> what about this threat assessment? how serious could this have been? >> a law enforcement source said they only found a handgun, they didn't find any other explosives or weaponry. they judged the threat to be minimal. the justice department put out a statement pointing out the fact that this person is charged with

communicating threat using interstate communications. they say he was being watched carefully. there wasn't a threat to metro or the d.c. area. >> jean, thank you. now dan simon in california. dan, the army private, just 23 years of age, allegedly leaked those classified documents to wikileaks may be honored in a little town in northern california. >> berkeley tonight, the city council is going to be looking at whether or not he should be called a hero. he was already called a hero by the berkeley justice and peace commission. it passed this measure by a 7-3 vote. says he should be called a patriot. now it's up to the berkeley city council. the question a lot of council members have is, well, at this point these are just allegations, he hasn't been convicted of providing these documents. in their eyes it might be a little premature to call him a hero, brooke. >> we will find out a little later this afternoon how they vote, i guess. dan simon, thank you for that. that is your reporter roulette

for this tuesday. on a final note here, wikileaks founder julian as saj was granted bail in the u.k. today. swedish prosecutors quickly appealed that. he for now remains behind bars. president obama hosting bill gates and warren buffett at the white house. what do you think was said during that meeting? gloria borger is next with your political ticker. before we go to break, it is the time of year when people open their hearts and wall lots for their favorite cause. which city in the u.s. is most charitable? "the daily beast" website factored in average household income, donations and the number of people who volunteer each year. so let's show you the list. number five, the big d., dallas, texas. number four, cnn's world headquarters here in atlanta. number three, kansas city. so is your list on the list? find out after the break.

i'm hugh jidette and i'm running for president. i'll say a lot of things but do i really care about this baby's future? when he's 30 years old our $13 trillion debt will be $70 trillion eventually his taxes will double just to pay the interest. i'm hugh jidette and i say let's keep borrowing and stick our kids with the tab.

rounding out the top five most charitable cities here in the u.s. according to thedailybeast.com, the good people of san francisco is number two. could you have guessed, number one here most charitable city. no scrooges in seattle, washington. now to jessica yellin with the latest news from the political ticker. apparently not on the top five most charitable cities, washington, d.c. jessica, what do you have? >> not shocked by that, brooke. there are signs that support for the tax cut package the white house negotiated with members of congress is growing among the public. but there is a new outspoken high profile critic.

mitt romney the ones and potential future republican presidential candidate has come out against this tax cut deal even though it's been considered a win for the gop. he says it's a disappointment and the next more conservative congress could get a better deal. why does this matter? the tax cut deal probably will pass in tend anyway. but could this be a sign that members of the tea party and far right aligned fiscal conservatives will eventually come to see this deal as a bad one for fiscal watch dogs? we'll see how that one progresses. other news, president obama today met with these two men, warren buffett, bill gates and bill gates' wife melinda gates was there, too. they were talking about charity. you were talking about it a minute ago. these folks have made a giving pledge. they're calling on other philanthropists and let's just say it, gazillionaires to give away a large part of their

wealth to charity. this meeting was to call attention to that. they also talked about ways to spur investment in education. no harm to calling attention to the valley of charity right now. a little amusing item. a very prominent politician is suggest that one way to get this tax cut compromise through congress more quickly is to stop calling it the bush tax cuts. just drop that name bush altogether because frankly it's not so popular right now. you wouldn't believe who made the suggestion? president george w. bush himself. he must recognize his gallop approval number recently was at 47%, below the 50% mark. maybe if they called it the gates-buffett tax cut package, it would do better. it has nothing to do with them but people seem to like that. >> what's in a name? perhaps a lot in this case. jessica yellin, thank you for that. you can get political updates any time cnnpolitics.com or on twitter at political ticker. how about this?

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want to show you some more pictures of where a tornado touched down. this is outside call let me, oregon. a better bird's eye view from the helicopter. look at the damage there. the roof annihilated of that home. the national weather service officially are reporting a tornado happened 2:59 eastern, noon pacific. we're told this damage is right around this town called aumsville outside of salem. tornado is confirmed, yes.

is this damage because of the tornado? we can't confirm that. we can more or less deduce that that is the case. again, you can see how bad the damage is in pockets of aumsville in oregon. we're hitting you nonstop with snowstorms, ice storms, apparently a tornado. but in a place where it never seems to snow they're having weather problems as well. you've got to see this. bird's eye view. riad, saudi arabia, look at these pictures. look at the scene disappears under a blanket of blowing sand. here it's clear and then you're about to see this whom sand storm roll through. our ireport tler had a camera in hand when the sand storm suddenly struck blinding drivers, bringing movement to basically a stop for a couple of hours. they were also having a cold senate there in the desert kingdom. lows in the 30s in saudi arabia. what you've got here sheriff is an animal that does not agree with the plans laid out for him. san antonio, texas, this bull

escaped from a meat packing plant and made a run for it. do you blame him? for more than an hour, the bull managed to stay one step ahead of the guys trying to corral it. the chase ended on a school campus. i'm not going to tell you the end of the story for the bull. you can imagine. poor bull. let's move on. how would you like to be standing here on the chicago lake front during this little squall? cnn ireporter patrick ryan wolfson took this camcorder to belmont to capture the big surf hammering the shore. patrick said he hadn't seen very much weather from chicago and wanted to dpix that. he also said chicago people have bragging rights about how cold it is until someone from, you know, minneapolis comes along. who is watching you and where? you might be surprised the places we found cameras. the end of privacy next. nce car.

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now to tomorrow's news today. let's fast forward. we'll see how president obama's working relationship is with big businesses when he hosts 20 different ceos at the white house come tomorrow. i bet you can guess the four-letter word they will be tackling, jobs. also the senate is expected to start their debate on the s.t.a.r.t. treaty as early as tomorrow. by then they may have cleared the tax cut bill from their to-do list and can focus on the nuclear arms agreement with russia. "time" magazine editors are naming their person of the year tomorrow morning. will it be julian assange? that underground character at the center of this whole wikileaks scandal. readers voted assange as their number one pick. we'll see if "the time" editors agree with that. you watch at 7:00 a.m. eastern for the announcement. all week long we're talking about your privacy and those

people and groups trying like crazy to get your and my personal information. and it's not just online where you need to be smart and careful. did you know someone could be watching you right now? it's true. and the high-tech gear out there is apparently so good you'd never know it. watch this report. this is from josh levs. >> reporter: they look like everyday objects, a lamp, a clock radio, an ipod documenting station. when you look closer, they have hidden cameras inside. >> the cam are lens is right here and usually pointing up. >> i have no idea there's a cam are there. there's nothing that suggests anything is videoing me. >> reporter: they can provide an extra layer of security. >> the one that is tell me what they're doing with the cameras are going to be the one that want to either keep an eye on their sitter or nanny. >> reporter: we've seen how the cameras can help the good guys many movies like "mission i

impossib impossible." >> i recently heard one guy got a pin camera, he set up up in a jichl bag and took it in maybe the ymca or something. >> reporter: relatively affordingable, they cost a few hundred bucks. technology is making smaller and more sophisticated ones all the time. some broadcast video wirelessly over the internet. how can you tell if there's a hidden camera where you are. >> this is a low-cost camera finder. >> reporter: brian curry runs a spy shop. he sells the cameras but also helps people watch out for one. >> i'm see ag bright red blinking dot. >> you can see it's scanning the frequencies. >> it's picking up lots of different cameras in here. >> that's going to be the flower pot camera we had.

>> reporter: technology versus technology, giving people the tools to invade your privacy but also giving you a chance to catch them. josh levs, cnn, atlanta. listen to this. the federal government suing a school district for denying a muslim teacher unpaid leave for a religious trip. fascinating case. that is ahead. also the violent death of a virginia lacrosse player rocked the school there in charlottesville. now the ex-boyfriend accused of killing her may not even go to trial. sunny hostin is on that case next. the striking srx. it's the one gift you can open up all year long. see your cadillac dealer for this attractive offer. backed by the peace of mind that only comes from cadillac premium care maintenance. the season's best sales event. from cadillac.

♪ my country ♪ 'tis of thee ♪ sweet land ♪ of liberty ♪ of thee i sing [ laughs ] ♪ oh, land ♪ where my fathers died ♪ land of the pilgrims' pride ♪ from every mountainside ♪ let freedom ring ♪

time for a couple of cases. i want to begin with this one. this young athletic couple. they looked like, based on appearances, they had the perfect lives, both in school. one was brutally killed. that is one of the stories here "on the case." sunny hostin from trutv. a lot of people remember this

horrific, horrific case. >> they really do remember it because it was college students in love apparently, two lacrosse players at the university of virginia, an ivy league school and one ends up dead. the girlfriend. i will say that i think this really struck a cord with so many people because it was right before their graduation. and it was just really outrage at the campus. >> that's where i started my tv career, there in virginia, a nice quiet town. you don't think this would happen on the grounds of uva. there's a hearing in this case tomorrow that's pretty significant here. >> that's right. it's scheduled for tomorrow, brooke, at 9:05 a.m. apparently the plea hearing may be about the defense's request for the victim's medical records. of course, the prosecution is really fighting against those records because that is typically confidential.

>> what about the reports today that there could be a possible plea here in this case? this guy may never go to trial. >> that's right. many people are reporting that, brooke. i haven't confirmed that. but most cases, 95% of criminal cases do end in plea deals. so it is quite possible that this case will be one of those. he has admitted to his actions. he says it was not intentional. it was an accident. he hit her head up against a wall during an argument when he was sharinging her. so in a case like that when a defendant admits guilt, that would be a case that would be prime for a plea. >> we'll follow that. another case involves the department of justice, this lawsuit on behalf of a chicago area teacher who sued because her school district wouldn't let her leave to go on this religious pilgrimage. so the teacher resigned as a result. >> that's right. she resigned as a result of the repeated denials of her request for unpaid leave, brooke, unpaid

leave, to go on a pilgrimage to mecca which is something that many muslims do every single year. thousands and thousands of people. the justice department says her civil rights were violated and they are taking that school district to task in federal court. and so this is a case that many, many people are following because, of course, this is the justice department filing an action against the chicago school district. >> what is the basis here, the basis of the lawsuit? >> the basis is her civil rights were violated. most school districts and most employers, brooke, especially a skrool district are required to observe and respect their employees' religious preferences and observations. the justice department is saying in this case that repeated denial from that school district of her request for unpaid leave is inappropriate and a civil rights violation. >> you mentioned department of justice involved here, filing

suit. what are they looking for as far as a remedy for the situation? >> absolutely. they want her, brooke, to get her job back. they want her immediately reinstated. they also are asking for backpay from 2008 to the present. so it really is a very interesting lawsuit. the other thing is that they're asking for the school district to implement a policy for religious observances and religious accommodations for the school district employees. so they're looking for really an overhaul of this school district's policies. >> all right, sunny. 60 seconds. final case, a hearing in the case against gabe watson, suspected in his wife's death during their honeymoon in australia. >> that's right. there is a hearing going to be held today. his lawyers are looking for bond. they want him released. they are saying he is not a flight risk. of course, the government is fighting that because he was -- this occurred in australia. he did serve time for herman slaughter in australia.