thanks for joining us this morning. we'll see you back here bright and early tuesday. that's it for "american morning." >> and happy 2011, kyra. >> good morning. it's 9:00 on the east coast. 6:00 a.m. out west. here are stories that have us talking. a massive kill-off of bird and fish in arkansas. today, game officials launching an investigation as many as 5,000 birds just fell from the sky in arkansas. lindsay lohan, one day away from

checking out of rehab. for three months of court ordered substance abuse. a ride catches fire at the islands park in orlando, florida's universal studios. no one was hurt. the ride was closed indefinitely. we begin with the story that you may find outrageous and offensive on many levels. the u.s. navy is investigating a series of raunchy videos shown aboard the "uss enterprise." videos complete with f-bombs and anti-gay slurs. being shown while the ship was supporting u.s. troops fighting and dying in combat. before you dismiss this as a case of boys being boys, consider this. the tapes shown here from the website for the virginia pilot newspaper, feature the man who now commands the ship. barbara starr joining us with more. barbara, it's hard to believe

that this even made air. this is not how these men and women are trained. >> reporter: you know, you just look at this and you can't really stop shaking your head. what comes to mind is what if it was your workplace, 5,000 people on board this aircraft carrier at sea in a war zone. and the ship's co, his word is law for these people in every aspect of their lives. now this c.o. being investigated, captain owen honors for his activities when he was number two on board the ship back in 2006-2007 when it was in the war zone. these videos supposedly were for training but clearly the navy now investigating all of this and of course the enterprise is scheduled to deploy again to the war zone under his command in the next several days. you see some of the video here. we had to clean up a lot of it but we did come up with some that we would like to show everyone.

so you can see what we're talking about. >> this evening all of you bleeding hearts and you [ bleep ] why don't you go ahead and hug yourselves for the next 20 minutes or so. there is a really good chance you're going to be offended tonight. >> talking about. i just [ bleep ] can't get that. >> let's get to my favorite topic, and something foreign to the gay kid over there, chicks in the shower. this is certainly the most popular video of any of the movie videos. it's it's the one that's landed me with the most complaints. >> reporter: kyra, there are more than 5,000 troops as we said on the kafrier when it goes to sea. who else knew about this? that now is the broader question and the deeper question for the navy. there are lawyers that deploy on board ships, there were admirals, there was at the time the captain of the ship above this man. these videos were broadcast on

the ship's internal video television system so a lot of people saw them, who spoke up, who saw it, and didn't speak up. all of this now being looked at. and what it may say about the command environment on board one of the navy aircraft carriers. >> an investigation is taking place but is the navy coming out and saying anything specifically about this, barbara? >> reporter: you know, at first they only knew that the videos had reappeared after many years on a newspaper website here in virginia. and they issued an initial statement about all of that, saying quote, that the videos were not created with the intent to offend any one, the videos were intended to be humorous skits. well, then the navy said they looked at the videos, top commanders today looked at the videos, were appalled, ordered an investigation, and the navy's new statement says in part, production of videos like the ones produced four to five years

ago on uss he wants prize were not acceptable then and are still not acceptable in today's navy. the navy does not endorse or condone these kinds of actions. the problem may be very urgent. the enterprise is scheduled to deploy to the war zone in less than two weeks and if this man is going to still be in command, that's one question. if they have to find a new commander they have to move very quickly. >> got it. barbara starr live at the pentagon. thank. >> we ushered in a new year. for many states that mean as new governor. today jerry brown will be sworn in as california's new democratic governor. he replaces republican arnold schwarzenegger. this won't be brown's first tour. he served two terms as governor of california from 1975 to 1983. other states with swearing in ceremonies, minnesota, wisconsin, and nevada. then on saturday, democrat andrew cuomo, actually this saturday, andrew cuomo became new york's 56th governor.

republican susanna martinez in new mexico and the nation's first female hispanic governor. in michigan republican rick snyder was sworn in. for new governors and governors elect there is not much time to celebrate. many sworn in among high unemployment, budget deficits and struggling economies. here is a look at what some of them will be dealing with. new york governor andrew cuomo is phased with slashing the state's $9 billion deficit and fight an 8% unemployment rate. in michigan governor snyder must figure out a way to erase the state's $2 billion deficit and battle a 12% unemployment rate. and in minnesota governor-elect mark dayton will face a $6 billion deficit and 6% unemployment rate. they are not alone. we'll continue to break down what states are facing in the year 2011. we'll do that all next hour. a new week, a new balance of power in washington and congress returns to work on wednesday.

republicans will assume control of the house and president obama's top priorities past and present will face a lot of new challenges. dana bash is joining us. what's the first item on the agenda for the 2011 congress? >> reporter: spending and did i mention spending. slashing government spending is the issue republicans say they are going to focus on. cutting tens of millions in the first months. early on the new house gop majority will make largely symbolic moves to show that they are serious. we're told to expect them to cut 5% of their own budget. and as part of the new set of rules that the house will vote on when the congress convenes on wednesday there's going to be a series of items that make increasing spending more transparent and therefore harder than it has been in the past. >> the repealing of the health care law also tops the to do list, wouldn't you say? >> absolutely. trying to repeal the health care law is an early priority.

listen to what fred upton said yesterday, somebody you'll see more of, the incoming republican chairman of the house energy and commerce committee that has jurisdiction over health cake. >> early on, in fact prior to the president's state of the union address you're going to see a vote to repeal health care in the house. i'm convinced not only will we have all of the 242 republicans vote for it, you'll have a significant number of democrats as well. >> that may be, you're not able to see where the votes are, despite that republicans we talked to they are well aware that they almost surely will not have the votes to repeal the health care law in the senate. that's why ultimately republican sources say death by 1,000 cuts to try to de-fund key parts of the law and make the health care law harder to implement. >> a busy year. thanks, dana. >> police in the dominican republic say a baltimore orioles pitcher was involved in the shooting death of a man. police could question alfredo simon today about that shooting

which happened early in the morning on new year's day. joining us on the phone from the dominican republic is reporter jorge pineta. did he know this man that he shot? was this shooting guns during a celebration or did he mean to do this? do we know? >> that is the investigation. he claims he was firing into the air which is a very typical bad habit in this country for new year's eve and other celebrations. but the strange thing is according to police report one bullet killed the one man and also injured his brother which happened to be a minor. so far he has not turned himself in. as far as all local media report, and the police are waiting to question him to see if it was an accident or as usually happens in these cases there is a lot of violence involved, a lot of drinking and

these ballplayers for some reason come back from the united states with a bunch of money and a bunch of violent activity. >> yeah. and jorge, do we even know if he had some sort of beef with this guy? >> some of the witnesses who were interviewed say that there was a past history of argument and bad feeling between these people. of course this is normally small towns when you have competition for certain things, maybe even women, so this will be cleared up when he turns himself in. >> we'll follow the case. jorge pineda calling in. thanks so much. >> they were supposed to be out plowing snow, not on the way to getting plowed. new york is investigating a report that four sanitation supervisors were actually drinking beer in a sanitation department car monday night instead of cleaning up the snow. the allegation is the latest criticism of the city's handling

of last week's massive snowstorm. one council member says some workers told him that supervisors order add slowdown in retaliation for the city's latest cost cutting moves. >> let's check on the weather for the first week of the new year. rob marciano, what do you think? is it going to start letting up? >> you know what, last week was so horrible. we really went out with a bang between the two blizzards really, one in the northeast and one cleaning up in new york city and the one that was across the upper midwest. then you had severe weather, tornado outbreak across the south. it's good to get -- breathe a little bit here. east coast looks quiet. a storm across the upper midwest, then we've got a storm that's southern california, can't seem to get out of it, at least right now. some snow showers across parts of the northeast. and lake-effect snows may pile up north of syracuse. couple inches to maybe a foot in places like watertown.

but the main concern is going to be across parts of los angeles, got a low out here that continues to pump moisture in this direction. i-5 north of l.a. over the grapevine is shut down until further notice. i think that will happen when we get to tonight and tomorrow. so one more day of seeing wet weather, and snow levels down to about 1500 to 2,000 feet. this is chilly stuff for l.a. purposes. temperatures today are going to be relatively quiet. i think -- or cool i should say. 57 degrees in los angeles, 54 in san francisco, 36 in new york city, and 51 degrees in atlanta. i want to mention couple things. first of all, if you are traveling today, either get home from the holidays or go to work or both, new york city metro may see delays we're seeing delays in baltimore, san francisco and san diego, then possibly greater in los angeles. finally, there was an earthquake this morning in southwest parts of utah.

right about there about 200 miles southwest of salt lake city. 4.5 magnitude quake. this is part of the wasatch fault which kind of dives underneath the wasatch range and builds it up. the mountains get to about 11,000 feet. 4.5, that's enough to feel some shaking, maybe some minor damage but pretty remote area. the reports that we've gotten in to the "newsroom," find it to be fine. even though we started things out rel toughly quiet weather wise we have an earthquake in utah. to start the year off. 2011. i'm starting to get used to saying 20 whatever the year is. taken me ten years. >> i'm still not doing it right. you're way ahead of me. what's to do with the thousands of birds that dropped dead? we're looking into the story but what are you -- >> it's mind boggling. the question is because there was severe weather in the area, when this happened or around when this happened. but birds and other animals are

pretty good getting away from anything that is weather related. so i guess the latest guess we have now is fireworks that were being set off in the area. kind of spooked them or caused them to go into shock. it's definitely a head scratcher. until they do necropsies. >> we're trying to figure out what happened. thanks. we're also looking at some kind of high flying feud between expedia.com and american airlines. it could affect the way you book flights. [ male announcer ] wd people all over america where the best potatoes come from. the best potatoes? idaho. idaho! idaho. [ male announcer ] and how do you know you're getting idaho potatoes? well, uh... um... [ male announcer ] 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.

[ male announcer ] look for the grown in idaho seal.

one of the hostages from an

attempted bank robbery is talking. it tops our look cross country. malford lewis says at first he thought it was a joke until he saw the branch manager getting pistol whipped. he was one of a dozen taken hostage. lewis recounts how one of the suspects wanted to use his suv as a getaway car. >> he said truck driver stand up. make sure when you go out you have your hands in the air because i don't want them to mistake you for me. the cops are hounding me come here, come here. no, dude. this dude is pointing a gun in my back. i can't. i got to at least attempt for him to see that i did do what he asked me to do. >> police arrested one suspect and later stormed the building to rescue the remaining hostages and bring the second gun man in custody. north of san francisco what appears to be a young gray whale has taken up residence in the bay. much of the delight of fishermen

and sightseers. the big guy brought out -- spotted about three weeks ago. believed that he may have strayed from his momma during a migration. we wrap up in rock ferlford, illinois. madison karen lewis was born with one minute in 2010. her brother aden followed right after midnight in 2011. it's getting harder to book american airlines flights on the internet. expedestriania punted american airlines. let's talk to christine romans. what's going on? >> this is a big fight brewing between american airlines and some of the online fare compare websites. you will not find american airlines fares or schedules on expedia, today, probably not tomorrow. expedia has booted them off saying that americans knew direct to connect their own way

of trying to sell tickets is fundamentally bad for travelers, anti-consumer and anti-choice. those are some pretty strong words. american on its own website is explaining what it's trying to do, how it is trying to control more of its -- control more of its customer traffic and wants to be able to sell things like not just point a to point b fare but also preboarding rights which comes with a fee. other things that they want to package together so this way that american airline tickets are sold is a fight. so if you are looking at expedia to try to find all of the cheapest fare you will not find american airlines fares. >> what's the deal with american. it dropped orbits too. >> american dropped orbitz over a similar fight so expedia is taking a look at the situation saying that they don't like the way american is going how

american is trying to sell tickets. they say it's not transparent. that consumers are not going to see as much, not going to be able to know as much about their ticket -- american of course disputes all of this. bottom line, kyra, these behemoths in travel are having a fight. orbits, expedia and american airlines and you're in the middle. you're in the middle if you are an american airlines passenger or someone who likes to surf the sites. american says you can go to priceline, to kayak.com, to a lot of fare compare time sites and they are not having an issue with those. this is just the beginning of this whole fight, i suspect. >> we'll talk about this a lot more i'm sure. >> new year's stress. we all felt it but it could be to blame for thousands of birds dropping dead before the curtain closed on 2010. arkansas officials say that fireworks may have startled them to death. we're investigating. he had everything he neededew

to be a leader in this company. [ william ] after a couple of months, i was promoted to department manager. like, wow, really? me? a year later, i was promoted again. walmart even gave me a grant for my education. recently, he told me he turned down a job at one of the biggest banks in the country. this is where i want to be. i fully expect william will be my boss one day. my name is william and i work at walmart. ♪

>> arkansas wildlife officials are pretty stumped after thousands of birds dropped dead from the arkansas sky just before the ball fell on new year's eve. crews are collecting and testing up to 5,000 red-winged black birds and starlings. most were dead. all found within a one-mile area of beebee. the theories so far a lightning strike, high altitude hail or maybe extreme stress caused by new year's fireworks. >> i thought it was out of a

hitchcock movie. >> he got me up at 4:00 in the morning. told me we had birds falling out of the sky. >> testing begins in wisconsin. and we're supposed to get answers later this week. if fireworks are to blame you are probably asking the same question we did. people shoot off fireworks all the time. fourth of july, new year's eve, you name it. what was so different about this night? that may have stressed these birds to deaths. keith stevens from the arkansas game and fish commission shed a little light on the mystery on "american morning" that brings us to our a.m. extra. >> these black birds tend to congregate in areas where you have agriculture fields along the ground that they will be eating so in this instance they would have been all together. you don't typically see these in urban areas, these are rural areas and they are more concentrated so if somebody was to shoot firework in the area that they were roosting while they were asleep, then that could have been what caused their deaths.

>> from dead birds to dead fish. arkansas wildlife officials have another mystery on their hands. this likely unrelated. just over 100 miles away from ozark, in ozark rather, 100,000 dead drum fish washed ashore over the weekend. keep in mind fish kills happen but officials say the size of this one points to a possible disease outbreak. so they are testing the water and the fish to try and get to the bottom of it. >> someone who works on our team missed the big moment in times square. we don't want to name names but allen snoozed and lost. not his fault, though. he said his iphone alarm didn't go off. lots of them having the same problem. did yours go off this morning? allen was on time, by the way.

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when it comes to stocks, 2010 wasn't too shabby. the s&p 500 jumped 13% but it's a new year. alison with a new look ahead. hopefully it's going to get better, alison. >> you know, if today's optimism is an indication it looks like it could get better for 2011. at the open we're expecting a higher start to the first trading day of 2011. this follows a rally in europe and overall investors are bullish on 2011. talk to any of these traders on the floor, they are feeling pretty good about the recovery right now.

and analysts are reporting optimism about the economy overall. the momentum is being helped by last year's stimulus measures. now everybody hoping that all of that is going to turn into a stronger economic rebound this year. we are keeping our eye on shares of bank of america. the company announced it's paid freddie mac and fannie mae almost $3 billion. it settled a dispute about bad mortgages that the bank sold back in 2008. bank of america shares in the premarket are up about 4%. and goldman sachs just friended facebook in a big way. this coming from "the new york times" that goldman sachs and a russian investor putting $500 million behind facebook that puts facebook's value at $50 billion. that means that facebook is worth more than many media companies, i'm talking about with bigger than yahoo! time warner and ebay, no comment yet

from goldman sachs and facebook. there have been rumors and pressure for facebook to go public but you know, if these companies and these investors keep throwing money at facebook it may not have to go public. facebook is getting bigger and stronger. does that mean maybe you're going to go ahead and become a facebook member now that they are bigger and stronger? >> you keep getting me to do this. i tell you i can't do this. i'm so old school. >> we can become friends. >> you are already my friend. yes. but i e-mail you or i call you or we can go to lunch. isn't that better? >> come on. facebook is fun. listen. if the world is doing it the world cannot be wrong, right? come on. >> yes, it can. all right. >> let me give you the numbers before we go. the dow now up 34 points, the nasdaq 23, it's a good start here at the new york stock

exchange. >> happy new year my friend. a half hour until the sun comes up in los angeles. the iphone is one of the stories we're following. apparently a software glitch kept alarms from going off so if some of your colleagues are late today, they might have a good excuse. the problem is supposed to correct itself today. new yorkers have to be happy about this news. crews should be collecting garbage today. piling up in the big apple since last week's blizzard. all the snow took priority over the trash. >> and zsa zsa gabor is in a hospital, doctors having to amputate one of her legs below the knee. that's what a representative is saying. she has cancerous lesions. her husband she is she has been confined to a wheelchair since she was in a car wreck in 2002. >> we ushered in a new year and for many states that mean as new governor. 2:00 jerry brown will be sworn in as california's democratic

governor. he replaces republican arnold schwarzenegger. this won't be brown's first tour in office. he served two terms as governor of california from 1975 to 1983. other states with swearing in ceremonies, minnesota, wisconsin and nevada. on saturday andrew cuomo became new york's 56th governor. susana martinez new mexico governor, and in michigan republican rick snyder was sworn in. for new governors and governors-elect not much time to celebrate. many sworn in among budget deficits and struggling economies. here is a look what some will deal with. andrew cuomo faced with slashing the deficit. and he has to fight an 8% unemployment rate. governor rick snyder must figure out how to erase the almost 2 billion deficit.

and mark dayton will face a $6 billion deficit and 6% unemployment rate. they are not alone. we'll continue to break down what states are facing in 2011 next hour. >> republicans say their mission is clear when they open a new session of congress wednesday. they are vowing to repeal one of president obama's, the passage of health care reform. medicare patients will receive free wellness visits and the possibility of half price name brand drugs. republicans say that they will do whatever they can do to defund health care reform. cnn's correspondent joins us with a closer look. the president is going to have to defend his health care program. right? >> reporter: absolutely. one of his new year's resolutions the president talking about this over the weekend essentially is defend the health care reform. it's his signature legislation and look, he's going to make the case really, do you really want

the take away some of those benefits that we're giving to seniors, to children, to babies so he will be out talking about it. he is also going to be looking at the republicans' agenda to defund or repeal this altogether before state of the union so they are going to push back hard. as a matter of fact they have hired more white house attorneys to make sure that they can push back on some of the things that republicans are trying to do including some of the investigations of various administration policies that the republicans believe is an overreach. >> and of course the economy. definitely something the president needs to turn his attention to in the new year. >> reporter: absolutely. one of the things you'll hear in the state of theianion address. before then even the president is going to come back tomorrow and he and his administration talking about these things, talking about creating jobs, jobs, jobs, reforming the tax code as well as finding and supporting alternative sources of energy, innovation, investment, and trying to cut back on wasteful spending.

the programs that are either duplicates or not working very well. that he is going to try to reach out to republicans to make those cuts but you can bet it's going to be a battle here in terms of what stays and what goes. >> all right. we'll be talking about it a lot in the coming months. >> plunging home values have seemingly spared no one including the famous residence in the nation. the "los angeles times" says that the white house has lost nearly a fourth of its value over the last few years. the paper cites number crunching from a real estate website. that value just over a quarter billion dollars. it's a 132-room mansion was worth about 180 million bucks. >> under water down under. hundreds ever thousands of australians heading for higher ground after the worst flooding seen in decades. it's ahead in our morning passport.

the field in the race for chicago mayor is smaller. our political editor mark preston with more on that. happy new year. >> happy new year. the race for the mayor of chicago got smaller.

congressman danny davis decided not to run, in fact, he is going to get behind former senator carol moseley braun. it's important because davis is an african-american and the second prominent african-american to leave the race for mayor of chicago and get behind carol moseley braun. those in the african-american community believe if they can rally around one candidate, that candidate now being carol moseley braun they might have a chance of defeating rahm emanuel. that will take place next month. back in washington, tim kaine appears will stay in position as the democratic national committee. he told ed henry filling in that the dnc chairmanship is a wonderful job and says he enjoys going around the country, being the president's advocate. being the chairman is a very important job because not only does he raise money but his job is to try to rally the base.

>> well, it appears tim kaine is going to stay on for another term, right. but what's going to happen at the rnc? there is a debate today. >> there is. a few hours down the street from where i'm standing we'll see five candidates appear on stage to answer questions about what they would do if they were the next rnc chairman. one of those the michael steele, the chairman who came under a lot of criticism for not being good with the finances and a lot said he wasn't a very good leader. some late developments in the race for the chairman ship. gentry collins, late last night he got out of the race. this is one of the most important political stories we're following. the new head of the rnc is responsible for trying to attack president obama, try to take him apart politically. our friends up on capitol hill, those congressional, have to focus on legislating.

those trying to run for the nomination they are running against each other. the election is going to take place next week. but over the next hours tune in here to cnn and we'll have more live reports from that debate. >> we'll keep checking in. we'll have your next up date in about an hour. for all of the political newscn. brett favre retired twice before. this time the nfl quarterback may mean it. we'll hear what favre had to say after sunday's game. when i was 16, i was hired as a cashier

at the walmart in marinette, wisconsin. that first job launched my career. since i've been with the company, i've been promoted ten times over the span of 11 years. today, i'm a divisional learning and development manager. we can actually help people develop in their own careers. my job allows me to make a difference in the lives of almost 100,000 associates in the northeast. if you think about it, that's almost 8 times the size of my hometown. my name is nick and i work at walmart. ♪

a new tv show in afghanistan featuring women who reveal what life is like behind the veil. australia's flooding worsens by the second. where should we start? australia? >> reporter: yeah. let's do that. i want to show you some of these pictures coming out of australia. it's in queensland, in northeast australia, they are pretty dramatic. the flood waters are sweeping this huge area. nine people have been killed. you have 20 towns affected. 200,000 people, kyra, have been displaced. they had to leave, some just to get out had to wade through the water you see. it gets to about their chest. the airports in the area has

been closed for weeks. kyra, one thing to note is that the locals have been put on alert because of snakes and crocodiles in the water. you got australia is crocodile country. people are arming themselves with sticks. it's a terrible situation. and they are trying to protect themselves from the animals that are probably swimming through that water. kyra, it's like marietta street was flooded like this. or major downtown area of a city. people are paralyzed and this could last for weeks. >> and then the other story we're talking about, russia's oil industry expanding with the opening of this pipeline. from there to -- between it and china. right? >> reporter: yeah. this is a really huge deal today. a lot of people are talking about this. you've got the world's biggest producer of oil, russia, sending

it now directly through a new pipeline to the biggest consumer of oil and that's china. the two things here i think important to note is that first of all, what this means is that there is a huge strategic shift for decades russia has been depending on european markets in order to sell their crude to. and now what they are going to be able to do is sell it eastward to china so that means that they basically are in a position where they are more powerful, they can command more prices, and the second point is they can play off thee and the west because of this pipeline. >> here's something you and i have both observed. that is the spousal abuse in afghanistan. it's a tab boo subject. there is a show allowing people to talk about it? >> reporter: yeah. it's allowing women to talk about it. but they are wearing a mask. they are on the show, half of the mask is pale blue and they

want that to represent oppression, it's the color of the burqa they say. and the other half is white. they want that to represent the innocence. so what they do is speak out against violence, against abuse but they are doing it behind the mask. they also have live studio audiences that has scholars there, religious experts, legal experts and a lot of rights activists too. it's a bad situation in parts of the country where you hear of young girls forced into marriage, sometimes they are exchanged so that means a man and their family has done something bad to another family or a community, they say all right, look, we'll settle the score, we'll give you our daughter and then she may end up in this really abusive situation. so, there are a lot of stories but the women there are beginning to speak out. even if it's behind a mask. >> and they are still taking a huge risk. happy new year. great to see you. >> you too. happy new year. >> to more segments like this. >> usually players give the

winning coach a gatorade bath. but a couple of atlanta falcons actually doused the big boss, the team owner. well, it was something else. we've got it on and off the field highlights in sports. ♪ [ male announcer ] we asked people all over america where the best potatoes come from. the best potatoes? idaho. idaho! idaho. [ male announcer ] and how do you know you're getting idaho potatoes? well, uh... um... [ male announcer ] 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. [ male announcer ] look for the grown in idaho seal.

an arctic wasteland.

that's what many americans said when then secretary of state bought the alaskan territory from russia but what a deal it turned out to be considering the oil and natural resources. with that in mind today's fla flashback. 51 years ago president eisenhower signed the proclamation admitting the alaska territory into the u.s. as the 49th state. we're following lots of developments in the next hour of cnn "newsroom." let's start with barbara starr at the pentagon. >> a navy commander making lewd videos and showing them on board an aircraft carrier in a war zone. what was he thinking? we'll have that story at the top of the hour. i'm stephanie elam in new york. if you're looking for flights on american, don't go to expedia.com. i'll tell you why the airline and the travel site are at war. that's coming up in the next hour. i'm al goodman in madrid where spain's new law that bans smoking inside all bars and restaurants is now in effect. smoke-filled bars that once were the norm here appear to be a

thing of the past, and smokers are fuming. more on that in the next hour. >> thanks, guys. thousands of birds drop dead at the same time in the same place, and it's not far from where thousands of fish washed up dead on riverbanks. they're not related. it's a bizarre start to 2011 in arkansas. we're taking a closer look at some of the theorys about what might have happened on new year's eve.

brett favre didn't use the "r" word, but it sure looks like he's ending his career. jeff from "headline sports" has all the highlights. this is going to be three times a charm? >> it's starting to sound like it this time. if it was the end of his career, it was hardly favre-alous. now, all the questions, is brett favre finished? year after year he pulls the hamlet routine, to be or not to be a quarterback or retired. i have said this before, but this time it really sounds like he's done. >> it's time. i'm okay with it. you know, it's never in my opinion it's never easy for any player h b ee player, but, you know, people will say wait and see but it's okay.

>> favre has had a great career. first time in nfl history is team has won a division with a losing record. the seahawks beat the rams last night. seattle is now 7-9 going into the playoffs. teams with ten wins like the giants and buccaneers are home now after the holidays. seahawks, well, they had the best record in the worst division. those are the rules, they're in the playoffs. one of the favorites to make the super bowl, the falcons, the owner gets dumped with gatorade. not sure if that was lemon lime or glacier freeze. those are really flavors. but i'm sure the dry cleaning bill will be very expensive. yeah, it's cool. fans getting into the action. tennessee state and memphis. players are getting into it a little bit, but that's nothing. watch this woman in the crowd. she gets ejected for talking smack. yes, former memphis player penny hardaway says -- tweeted afterward she told a player to choke on his mouthpiece. nice reaction right there. the ref heard it and threw her

out. in the nba, rockets and blazers courtside seats are great, right? maybe. watch this couple, gets a visit from rudy fernandez. he kind ever straddles them a little bit. later the two of them waiting for their drinks, watch the waiter, goes down. those were their drinks, the same couple. speaking of getting wet. roger federer and rafael nadal got in some practice, a special water court. you may think they walk on water. well, now they play on it, too. >> pretty good stuff. gets us off to the new year with some good video there. >> they can even play tennis on water. i'm impressed. >> it's spiritual. it's amazing. the spider-man stunt double who fell from the stage will be at a rehab this week. he suffered broken ribs, a skull fracture, and three cracked vertebrae from that fall. several performances of

"spider-man: turn off the dark dark" were canceled after that accident. tierney's dad says his son, quote, can't wait to return to the show. he's one of four cast members who have been hurt. the accidents are raising concerns about the overall safety of performers and whether more should be done to make sure that no one else gets hurt. cnn's susan candiotti talked with a group of acrobatic dancers about the risks they take on the job every single day. >> reporter: their flowing moves and dazzling artistry are stunningly beautiful and a bit frightening to watch. >> you know, when you're performing a trick and it's something that's a little bit sudden or quick or swift and you get that from the crowd, it's really exciting. >> reporter: but there are risks. will the knots hold? will the rigging bear an acrobat's weight. >> if you forget a line or a step, it's one thing, but if you're -- >> if you fall -- >> if you fall, game over.

>> beautiful. >> reporter: an actor in spider-man who plunged more than 20 feet during a recent stunt is the fourth performer injured in the $65 million broadway play still in previews. how dangerous is this profession? >> okay. well, danger is kind of part of the game. >> reporter: more than a game, it is serious work. >> ten, nine -- >> reporter: guinevere is an aerial acrobat who runs her own small troupe performing throughout new york. spider-man's accidents are the talk of the aerial community. >> one person getting hurt, then it's not necessarily the show's fault, but four people. >> if i was in that show, i mean, it's hard. that's a big machine to be a little tiny cog in, so i don't envy those performers. >> reach your right arm out to the side. >> reporter: barely dangling off the floor, they gave me a small taste of their techniques. >> there you go.

even just sitting a little bit difficult. >> reporter: it is, to keep your upper body straight without falling. these aerialists are self-regulated. they watch out for their own safety. each time you perform, how do you deal with the risk? >> i never perform anything i haven't done in practice at least 100 times. i'm always sure that my rigging is secure. >> reporter: for this group, there's no short cuts. a close friend fell to his death a few years ago working for a different company. for her safety is paramount. >> i felt this was a really good way to keep his memory alive and, you know, inspire -- >> reporter: inspire others. >> inspire others, yeah. >> reporter: to make her art safe, or at least as safe as it can be. susan candiotti, cnn, new york. top of the hour. 10:00 a.m. on the east coast,

7:00 a.m. on the west coast. here are some of the stories that had us talking. some of your co-workers may be a little late to the job if they were using an iphone for their alarm clock. apparently a software glitch kept alarms from going off. the problem is supposed to connect itself today, however. police in the dominican republican say a baltimore orioles pitcher was involved in the shooting death of a man. police could question alfredo simon today about that shooting which happened early in the morning on new year's day. a ride catches fire at the islands of adventure park at orlando florida's universal studios. no one was hurt but the water ride was evacuated and closed indefinitely. arkansas wildlife officials are stumped after thousands of birds dropped dead from the arkansas sky just before the ball fell on new year's eve. crews are collecting and testing up to 5,000 red winged black birds and star lings. most were dead but all of then found within a one-mile area of beebe.

here is the theory so far. a lightning strike, high altitude hail, or maybe even extreme stress caused by new year's fireworks. from dead birds to dead fish, just more than 100 miles away in ozark, another wildlife mystery likely unrelated. 100,000 dead drumfish washed ashore, floated to the top of the arkansas river. keep in mind fish kills happen every year, but experts say the sheer size of this one points to a possible disease outbreak. so what the heck is going on in arkansas? keith stevens from the state's game and fish commission joining us live via skype from little rock. why don't we start with the birds, keith. witnesses say it was something out of an alfred hitchcock movie. do you have any idea what theory you all are moving toward, the stress of fireworks, hail? what do you think? >> well, we're leaning more towards the fireworks.

it looks like that there was a large roost of birds in the area. there were some new year's eve revelers tin the area shooting off firework just before midnight. the weather issue is probably a little on the backburner right now. there wasn't a lot of severe weather in the area at the time, so we're leaning more towards a stress event. >> so have you ever seen anything like this before because, i mean, fireworks go off at new year's eve, fourth of july, and we have never seen anything like this before. >> well, black birds are kind of unique. you don't see these in the urban areas of the city. they're more in the agriculture, rural areas. this is a rural part of arkansas. they roost in the hundreds of thousands, so just one area like this we tend to believe that it was probably stress from the fireworks, but we won't know anything until we get the results from the lab tests.

>> got it. okay. and how soon could we know, keith? sometime this week? >> yes. we're hoping we may get the results today, but if not today, surely earlier this week. >> let's talk about the fish. this only affected drumfish, right? >> that's correct. >> okay. so what do we know about this and could there be any type of connection? >> well, we really don't see any connection at this time. the fish died the day before. we got a call from a tug boat operator that saw a number of fish floating in the river and along the banks. we were able to go up there and get some of the fish before they died. we're going to send them off for testing, too. we really think it's a disease since it was only one species. we didn't see any numbers of sport fish or any other fish when we were able to do our research. >> got it. all right, keep us posted, keith stevens. we'd sure like to figure out

what happened here tp . so many people are talking about this and right now we're just playing a guessing game. >> it's the same we'here. we'll find out something and let you know. >> thanks. now a story you might find outrageous and offensive. the u.s. navy is investigating a series of raunchy video that is were shown aboard the "uss enterprise." videos complete with "f" bombs and anti-gay slurs. they were being shown while the ship was supporting u.s. troops fighting and dying in combat. but before you dismiss this as a case of boys just being boys, consider this. the tapes shown here from the website for the virginia pilot newspaper actually feature the man who now commands the ship. cnn pentagon correspondent barbara starr with more. it's pretty shocking, barbara. a lot of times -- we know that they do these skits and they try to have stress relief and

entertaining ways, but the fact that these leaked with such insensitive comments just sure doesn't bode well for the navy right now. >> well, i have to tell you top navy commanders are shaking their heads after all the scandals, after all the education, don't do that kind of thing, how could something like this have happened yet again? the man under investigation, navy captain owen honors now is the commanding officer of the "uss enterprise" but was the number two in command back in 2006 and 2007 when he made these videos said to be training videos and showed them to the ship's crew. now, you know, the videos show anti-gay slurs, simulated sex acts, all that sort of thing. we're not going to show you a lot of that, but we did clean up a bit of it. we want to show it to you so everyone can see what it is we're talking about. >> this evening all of you bleeding hearts and you

[ bleep ], why don't you just go ahead and hug yourselves for the next 20 minutes or so because there's a really good chance you're going to be offended tonight. >> [ bleep ]. [ bleep ]. i just [ bleep ] can't get that. finally, let's get to my favorite topic and something foreign to the gay kid over there, chicks in the shower. this is certainly the most popular video of any of the movie videos. it's also the one that's landed me with the most complaints. >> now, apparently he was verbally reprimanded and told to knock it off back then. so why is this such an issue right now? well, the navy investigation that is now under way on all of this is really taking a look not just at him, but who else on the ship knew about this and maybe did not speak up as they should have. the captain at the time, the commanding officer, there were higher ranking officials and admirals on board. the navy, of course, as you know, sails with navy lawyers on

board all of these major war ships. these videos were shown on the ship's internal television system. why did people not speak up about this? how did this happen? and how could he have been rewarded with command of the ship now, which again is set to sail for the war zone in just a few days? >> in addition to the investigation, what else is the navy saying about this? >> well, they're trying to sort it all out. you know, at first when these videos surfaced in "the virginia pilot newspaper" here in virginia, the feeling was that probably they surfaced because some crew members wanted to bring this to light and make complaints about it. the navy at first said they were just humorous skits not intended to offend anyone, but the navy leadership had not actually seen the videos at that point. so very rapidly after they saw the videos, they really changed their statement and cage out with a subsequent statement

which said, quote, production of videos like the ones produced four to five years ago on "uss enterpri enterprise" were not acceptable then and are still not acceptable in today's navy. the navy does not endorse or condone these types of actions. think of it this way, what if this was your workplace, my workplace, 5,000 people at sea for six months. the commanding officer's word is law for those people. is this man now the person that the navy wants to be in command of that carrier? kira? >> my guess is now. thanks so much. help is on the way for the 911 emergency crews -- or 9/11 emergency crews rather who worked at ground zero. president obama has signed into law a measure that guarantees government health care for first responders. many have suffered respiratory illnesses and other health problems. they blame the ash and toxins that enveloped the ruins of the world trade center. and hk health care reform is

moving forward as a new republican controlled house will try to repeal it. here is what goes into effect today. medicare patients will receive free wellness visits and the possibility of half-price name brand drugs. there's new a requirement for insurance companies to spend more of their premiums on actual health care, not overhead and profits. republicans say they will do whatever they can to defund health care reform. we've ushered in a new year and for many states that means a new governor. today 2 p.m. jerry brown will be sworn in as california's new democratic governor. this won't be brown's first tour in office. he served two terms as governor of california from 1975 to 1983. other states with gubernatorial swearing in ceremonies today, minnesota, wisconsin, and nevada. on saturday democrat andrew cuomo became new york's 56th governor, republican susana martinez make new mexico's first

female governor. rick snyder was also sworn in. there's not much time to celebrate. many are being sworn in amid high unemployment, budget deficits, and struggling economies. here is a look at what some of them will be dealing with. in california jerry brown must grapple with a massive $28 billion deficit and 12% unemployment rate. you head down to wisconsin where governor-elect scott walker faces a $3 billion deficit and an unemployment rate of 7%. then in nevada, a $1 billion deficit and 13% unemployment right. and new mexico, the governor there, susana martinez, must slash the $400 million deficit and battle the 8% unemployment rate. traffic was moving along yesterday, but not today. this is interstate 5 at grapevine, california. the highway patrol has closed

the north and southbound lanes because of snow there. snow could reach 2 feet in the higher elevations and 4 to 12 inches in lower elevations. southern california is getting more rain. rob marciano is watching every from the severe weather center. >> they ended their year very wet and they're starting the year very wet as well. we should start to dry things out tonight. there's significant snow accumulations expected at the higher elevations. we're talking 1500 to 2000 feet, so just up the road from l.a. very cold air mass overhead. winter storm warnings remain posted and 4 to 14 inches of snow in immediate areas and then further up the pipe and through the sierra nevadas could see 1 to 2 feet. with this system that continues to spin moisture in the form of rain. this is a dangerous situation in that there are still many hillsides that are on the verge of sliding. just a little more rain could trigger that. this should move through tonight, and tomorrow morning we should start to dry things out. then we'll get into a drying

trend. it turns to snow in the mountains. for the first time you go east of the rockies and we're looking at relatively quiet situations. the upper midwest and northern plains getting a dry system that's going to quickly move across the great lakes. will spread some light snow across that area but nothing like what they saw last week and then some lake-effect snows are being triggered by lake michigan, also ontario and erie and maybe some significant snows north of syracuse. tug hill plateau could seeself in several inches of snowfall. there's your weak system. sunny skies across the southeast. temperatures in florida after being one of the coldest decembers on record finally getting into the 70s across that part of the world. all right. as far as travel delays today. maybe new york metros. minneapolis see a little light snow. los angeles some wind and rain obviously and clouds. and maybe some snow in vegas to give you an idea of how cold this system is out there. and speaking of cold, today is

the closest that we get to the sun during the entire year at 91.5 million miles. we're closest to the sun, the northern hemisphere at least is still pretty chilly. >> we felt it this morning as well. that's for sure. can't get out of those 30s. thank you, rob. >> see you in a bit. four new york sanitation supervisors could be in a lot of trouble. they were supposed to be out plowing the snow, not on the way to getting plowed. new york is investigating reports that four supervisors were drinking beer in an agency car monday night instead of cleaning up snow. the allegation is the latest criticism of the city's handling of last week's massive snowstorm. city council members say workers told him supervisors ordered a slow down in retaliation for the city's latest cost cutting moves. well, it's 2011 and that means along other things a new era for accountability online. we're going to talk about a new law that's bad news for cyber

bullies and internet imposters. and zsa zsa gabor rushed to the hospital to have part of her leg amputated. her health has been touch and go for months. we're taking a closer look at her condition. ordinary rubs don't always work on my arthritis.

try capzasin-hp. it penetrates deep to block pain signals for hours of relief. capzasin-hp. take the pain out of arthritis. let's see what's happening in entertainment pment oscar nominated actor pete postalwaite is dead. fans know him from a wide range of movies from inceptions to the usual suspect it's to jurassic park. he was called the best actor in the world by steven spielberg. he earned his oscar nod for "in

the name of the father." zsa zsa gabor in an l.a. hospital. doctors will amputate one of her legs just below her knee. she has cancerous lesions on that leg. she's 93 and has been confined in a wheelchair since a car wreck in 2002. michael jackson's oldest son prince may be asked to testify against his father's personal physician tomorrow. as you know, conrad murray is charged with involuntary murder charged with giving the pop icon too much of a powerful anesthetic to help him sleep. he's pleaded not guilty. next, we're talking about people who impersonate others online. set up facebook or myspace accounts in other people's names and then post all kinds of terrible and false things. in one state it will get you thrown in jail. ♪ but i really love my bank ♪ i hate--

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well, new law is now in effect in california. it actually cracks down on people who impersonate others online with the intent to do harm. if you set up facebook or myspace or e-mail accounts in someone else's name and then post or send out terrible or false things about them or others, you will tyme get a fine and some jail time. something like that happened to this guy. carol gardino is the ceo of the silicon valley leadership group. someone sent out an e-mail in his name apologizing for something awful that he didn't even do. there was no law protecting him until now. we want to talk more about this with an internt security

specialist. this sounds like a real blow to cyber bullies, at least in california, right? >> yeah, thanks for having me. this is actually a great new law because -- and the result might have been a pissed off politician who is trying to create a constituent of theirs to create a law for the little guy. it makes it a crime, not just a civil problem, but a crime to impersonate somebody, act like them and then defraud or harm or threaten, and you can do it in e-mail, there you a twitter account, anything internet connected in essence is what we're talking about here. >> now, how do you prove the harm? >> so in a way you have to look at this just like you do in the physical world. when you think of harm, think of it the way the dictionary would. intimidating somebody, harming somebody, threatening somebody. all those words are words used

in laws today in the physical side. what you're doing that is intiniinti combining that with the internet side. that's a great law for the kid at home whose mother goes to the police and says somebody is impersonating my kid and making them look bad and the police says, sorry, ma'am, we can't do anything to help you. this law is a law for the kid at home. >> what about stopping malicious campaigning against politicians and other famous persons because those individuals, their names are out there, they're celebrities, they're politicians, the law doesn't protect them as much as say someone who is being sip cyber bullied, but would this law do that? >> this law would absolutely do that. you can create an e-mail campaign pretending to be a senator running for office and say you believe in certain things that they don't in order to damage their political

aspirations, and in the old days if you think about it, you had to do that by mailing one letter at a time, by making one phone call at a time. now the damage can be permanent, it can be long-term, and it can be far reaching, so in a sense this was also a great new tool for politicians to use, especially during campaign seasons or during those times when there's a heated debate going on and you're trying to damage one cause against another cause. >> and what's been so frustrating, a lot of us even here in this business feel it, is that so many of these people can say things about you and put things out there and be anonymous about it, which is so frustrating because it's such an act -- it's just cowardly. what do you think about this law and how far it could go? could we see other states passing this law? could we see it gain more momentum? what do you think? >> i think absolutely. if you're a legislator in some other state and for that matter for congress, congress is coming

back in washington, d.c., pay attention to this law because what you have here is a great little piece of legislation. it's not 200 pages long, it's one paragraph and what it can do for you, whether you're a politician, whether you're trying to stop cyber bullying, there are so many ways the internet is being used by those who think it is anonymous, this is a perfect tool for you. california might be the first one to do it, but there's 49 other states and the other piece of it that's also good is that even if you are in another state today, many of these internet companies, in fact the majority of the internet companies, actually sit in california. so you could think of a way, especially plaintiffs' lawyers out there, to bring suits against individuals, lawsuits against individuals even if they're not in california because there's a server that passes -- the system passes through servers in california before it gets to, say, arkansas

or gets to texas or somewhere else. >> interesting. it will be interesting to see the domino effect from this, that's for sure. there's been so many complaints about how gray the law is when it comes to the internet. hemu, thanks so much for your time. >> thanks for having me. someone who works on our team missed the big moment in times square. did we get his picture yet? you really -- we got it. this is our a.p. we didn't want to name names but we love to call out allen who actually snoozed and lost the moment, but he says it's not his fault. he set his iphone alarm and it didn't g out. i like the hat, allen. you're looking good. lots of people having the same problem. did yours go off this morning? are you late to work? allen did get here to work on time though. and you've turned over that calendar page to january 2011. how about turning over a new leaf financially as well? it's "your money" and we're giving you a month-by-month plan on how to spend and save in a

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call us at -- or visit your local liberty mutual office, where an agent can help you find the policy that's right for you. liberty mutual insurance -- responsibility. what's your policy? all right. stock market opening bell just rang about an hour ago. looking at the numbers right now. dow industrials up about 109 points. well, expedia goes toe to toe with american airlines. the online travel site has kicked the airline off its website. stephanie elam joining us. steph, what's this all about? >> i think it's all about posturing because what you have here is a bit of a battle going on, and it's one of those things where you're trying to figure out exactly what's going on underneath the story. so we know already that orbitz and american airlines were fight being this. after that we saw american

airlines decided to cut orbitz out and now the same thing is going on with expedia. american airlines wants people to buy tickets off their website, obviously they can say there's no fees there. they can package other things like maybe where you're going to check bags or not, those kind of fees, they can do it altogether and these third party sites are saying this is how we make our money, by you paying a fee and we sell your fares. this has become a problem. expedia and also orbitz realize this could be a game changer for the industry so because of that, they're fighting back. now, it's all a matter of who is the one who sees the biggest pain from this one and driving the traffic back to american airlines.com. if american says they're still making money in the long term and people are still booking fares they may not go back and that could be trouble for expedia and orbitz or it may work the other way in which case expedia and orbitz would be like, ha , we win, bring your fares back and pay the fees and we'll continue the way we were. a lot of people watching this one. really it kind of makes me think

of like peacocks or something walking around puffing out their chests and saying who is going to go down first. >> who's boss. >> exactly. >> we're hearing about another major glitch with the iphone. a lot of people missed their new year's parties. >> i'm mad about this one. i am with allen on this one because you know why? there's a baby in my house, she'll go unnamed, who decided to wake up at 3:00 a.m. >> that's our baby. that's a picture of our baby. >> that's not my baby. >> who slept right through -- >> he's a little too old to be my baby. >> simone is a little younger than allen. simone should be sleeping, but allen, he's so young and -- >> he should have been out. >> single and available. >> he should have been out. >> and available. >> are you advertising him out for dating? >> this is a match.com. is this going to get fixed? >> i'm sure he appreciates that. he's going to get you after the show. you should run.

the thing about this one, it said it's fibsed. they had a problem on saturday and sunday. people were not get -- if you set your alarm for just one time, those weren't going off. it was a reoccurring one, those were working. they said it was fixed for this monday but my bone to pick is i normally wake up before my alarm but because baby cakes decided to keep me up all night, i did not. i was 40 minutes late because my alarm did not go off. i powered it off and i turned it back on and it's working fine now. for all the iphone people out there, be aware, apple says they're aware of it, but luckily i get up super early so i didn't miss any of my appointments but i don't think it would have worked if i told you i wasn't hear because my e phone didn't go off. >> the dog ate the homework doesn't work anymore. happy new year. >> she usually sleeps through the night. i don't know why tonight? why the first day back to work in the new year, but whatever. we hugged it out. happy new year. >> same to you.

it's about 10:30 right now in the east, 7:30ish on the left coast. today we're following the mystery bird kill out of arkansas. as 345 as many as 5,000 birds fell out of the sky in beebe, arkansas. lightning and fireworks have been mentioned as possible causes. four new york sentencetatan supervisors could be in big trouble. reports are they were drinking beer in an agency car instead of cleaning up the snow from last week's blizzard. crews should be collecting big apple garbage today. it's been piling up since the snow hit. lindsay lohan just one day away from checking out of rehab. three months of work at the betty ford clinic is now up. it's a new year, new chance to get your finances in order. it can seem like a big chore but we're taking it step by step for you, month by month actually. taking you through the first half of 2011 so you can make the most of your money, we hope.

we have a personal finance editor joining us live from chicago. i love how we've laid it out here. it's simple for those that desperately need this help. starting in january you say it's time to take stock of your financial situation. okay. so what should we do this month? >> well, first of all, in january you want to do a state of the state. you're going do it before all the politicians do theirs, but the state of the state of your finances. you want to know exactly what you owe, what you're coming into this year with, what kind of cash you have on hand, what kind of debts you have to pay, and start to map out your year month by month so you really understand where you are because until you know where you are, you can't figure out where you want to be. >> okay. and then february we start to deal with this holiday credit hangover, shall we say? >> well, i'm sure that there are a lot of americans, despite having paid down billions of dollars in debt, a lot of people are still carrying around a lot

of debt. we saw the numbers from holiday season shopping seemed to be up. some of that must have gone on a credit card. so a lot of people by february, they're going to have a credit card hangover and this is the time to really take stock of your debt and start to figure out a way to pay it down. i'm all about paying down debt, deleveraging is the big fancy wall street term. there's no reason it can't apply to you. and, remember, as long as you're paying somebody else 17% or 27% on your money, you are never going to be wealthy. getting rid of your debt is the fastest way to get there. >> and it's painful when you see the interest rates adding up and especially in the bad economy. all right. now usually i will start kind of because i'm a procrastinator with my taxes, i slowly start putting it together in january, but you say march is really the month to do it and you just high tail it, get it in order. >> well, all procrastinators will be very happy because their taxes aren't actually due until april 18th this year. you get three extra days, but i want you to start a little sooner.

the problem with starting in january, some people january 15th, irs opens for business, they're all over that, but the problem this year is remember that huge tax act that got passed at the end of the last year, december? well, the irs just announced they're not even going to be ready to take forms until maybe the end of january into the beginning of february. all of the other kinds of programs that are out there, whether you use turbotax or tax act or tax cut, whatever you're using, it's going to take them some time to get the forms rewritten as well. and so i think by march, early march, beginning of march let's say, you can start to gather all your paperwork together, you'll have your w-2, your 1099 forms, whatever it is. march is a great time to start getting ready and get your tax return in early because, remember, if you're going to get money back, the sooner you file your taxes, the sooner that check is going to hit your account. >> good point. i'll need the money this year. april, you can actually start talking about summer break but wait a minute, that means spending more money.

>> well, i want you to take the time, two or three months ahead of time, so you can actually find the best deal possible. sometime around april we've got airfare deals going on, we've got summer cruise deals going on. there's all kind of deals that go on. if you wait until the very last minute, let's say you buy your semer vacation the week before, the weekend before, you're going to probably get a good deal. for people who like to plan three to four months ahead of time is the time you want to start maximizing the investigation of those deals so you get the best one for you. >> got it. may, insurance checkup. i haven't done this in a while. >> you know, and you probably are the perfect person to do this because if you haven't checked your auto insurance or your homeowners insurance, if you haven't shopped it around in a while, i wouldn't be surprised if you could chop, 10%, 20%, or 30% off your bill. i had a friend tell me recently, this was i think in november we were talking about this, and she said she had just followed that advice, shopped it around.

she was going to save 50% on her car insurance. she hadn't shopped it around in ten years. she just sort of accepted the little incremental increase year-over-year and suddenly she was paying way over market for who she was and her credit and whether -- the fact she hadn't had any accidents. this is a worthwhile thing to do. >> finally, come june, here we are just trying to get out of holiday debt, you say start holiday savings account in june. >> i know. well, you know, if you're planning a wedding in june, this is not going to apply to you. you're going to be focusing on major purchases and expenses and you'll be doing the honeymoon planning in april for your june wedding. but for everybody else, one of the easiest things to do is to start early planning for your holiday spending and giving yourself circumstances months to put away say an extra $100 a month or $150 a month means that when december comes and you're ready to start shop, shop, shopping again, you're going to have a little pile of cash to spend as opposed to having to put it on a credit card.

what we're really trying to do here is some long-term planning, some strategic planning so a year from february you don't have a holiday credit hangover because you paid cash because you started in june saving for the end of the year. >> fabulous tips. thank you so much. >> sure. happy new year. >> same to you. well, january through june spelled out right there. next week we're going to take a look at what you can be doing in the back half of 2011 to fix your finances and end the year stronger than you started it. well, no smoking. in spain they really mean it. some of the strictest anti-smoking laws have plenty of spaniards fuming right now and others breathing a lot easier. we're live in madrid. ♪ everybody knows that smoking ain't allowed in school ♪ snp receiving the bronze star, that was definitely one of my proudest moments.

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what's the big news in priority mail flat rate boxes and envelopes from the postal service?

well, spain is crying foul over its new anti-smoking initiative which basically outlaws lighting up in enclosed public areas like bars and coffee houses. al goodman not a smoker but live with the latest, and people -- there are a lot of smokers, however, in spain and it's sitting out in the coffee houses where they're usually doing it. so what exactly is in this law and my guess is people aren't taking it so well, al.

>> well, 30% of the spaniards who smoke are definitely not taking it well. they're fuming, as you say. this is an incredible law for a country that's had a 500 relationship with tobacco. it was christopher columbus who spald from spain who saw tobacco on his voyages to the in you yeanew world. it's up to the management. bars and restaurants basically to be the immediate enforcers but anybody can make a complaint and there are some very stiff fines. $40 if you get caught once smoking and $800 to $130,000 if you get caught repeatedly violating this new law. they put a big stick in as well. >> wow. how does the law compare to other countries in europe and even in the u.s.? >> well, spain four years ago had a law that banned smoking in the workplace, but at the time it let restaurants and bars

choose. now that's done. now it's banned all across. this now has spain with the strictest of the western european questions, britain, france, and italy banning it in the enclosed public places. according to a group called no smoke.org in the united states, 23 u.s. states have similar legislation, not in the workplace, in bars and restaurants. that includes new york, illinois, michigan, washington state. now, if you add that with local laws in other states, about half of the u.s. population is now living with these kinds of smoke-free zone laws. >> got it. all right, al. thanks so much. california governor arnold schwarzenegger leaves office today and that means an entrepreneur will be shutting down his business. we'll introduce you to the man who made the governator famous. . anyone with high cholesterol may be at increased risk of heart attack. diet and exercise weren't enough for me. i stopped kidding myself. i've been eating healthier, exercising more

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arnold schwarzenegger's term as california governor is coming to an end in just about three hours and a familiar face will be sworn in to lead that state. deputy political director paul steinhauser talking about that with us out of d.c. at the cnn politics.com desk. >> good morning. let's call this the new governor's edition. five states, california, nevada, wyoming, wisconsin, and minnesota all swearing in, all inaugurating new governors. let's concentrate on california where it really is in way back to the future because, yes,

jerry brown, the man who served as governor of california for two terms in the 1970s and early '80s, he's back and is going it get the old job back later today. in the midterm elections he beat meg whitman. she greatly outspent him on campaign cash but he beat her in the election. gets the old job back today. jerry brown is a larger than life figure. he's got a lot that he's got to deal with. as you mentioned earlier, california $28 billion in the red. >> and a lot of californians happy to see schwarzenegger leave office or disappointed? >> you look at his approval rating, just about every major poll has the governor, the outgoing governor in the low to mid 20s. so i think at least people don't think he's doing a great job in office. $28 billion in red that california is facing is one of the reasons. remember, schwarzenegger was elected in 2003 in a special election. he had a big re-election in '06 but i think people are ready to see him go out in california.

>> we'll have that swearing in live at 2:00 eastern time. thanks, paul. your next political update in about an hour. go to our website, cnnpolitics.com. we need directions to go to... pearblossom highway? sure, i can download directions for you now. check it out. i can like, see everything that's going on with the car. here's the gas level. i can check on the oil. i can unlock it from anywhere. i've received a signal there was a crash. some guy just cut me off. i'll get an ambulance to you right away. available on most chevrolet, buick, gmc and cadillac models. onstar. safely connecting you in ways you never thought possible. live on.

we're talking about arnold schwarzenegger just a moment ago. now we want to introduce to you ron trayhoe. he owes arnold schwarzenegger a big thanki you.

>> there's the original one. >> reporter: everything from shot glasses to coffee mugs to ball caps and breath my understanding. the term the governator first owe popped into ron's mind seven years ago when schwarzenegger announced he was running for governor on the jay leno show. >> jay said someone is going to make $1 million on that. someone always does. >> that might with the internet and a $435 filing fee he registered the governator as an official trademark. within months it was selling in airport gift stores across california. eventually he says he sold 300,000 t-shirts alone and made enough money to buy this new house in lincoln. >> realistically probably through the seven years i hit seven figures with it. >> reporter: in 2005 as he was preparing to run for re-election, his lawyers

approached ron and after a series of negotiations ron describes as friendly, they entered into an official partnership. he got official to use the official terminator movie picture and schwarzenegger got a cut of the profive profit profi which he donates to his charity. >> i agreed to change the governator including this "r" here. bobble heads are already out of production and ron says he'll probably shut down the rest of the business over the next few months. >> for me a fun experience, really has been. i have met a lot of people and put me in areas where i hadn't been before. >> reporter: a middle of the night idea turned into more than $1 million. >> ron says people come up and ask him, are you a schwarzenegger fan? he says, no, i'm just a

profiteer. cnn will have live coverage of the inauguration of jerry brown at 2:00 p.m. eastern, 11:00 a.m. pacific. beasts of burden and the burden of proof. we're going to tell you about a raging debate over wild horses and whether the government should be rounding them up. hasl deals we're offering the big deal guarantee. book a hotel with name your own price 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.

north of san francisco it

appears to be a young gray whale has taken up residence. the big guy has been out there for about three weeks now and it's believed he may have strayed from his mama during a recent migration. well, few can argue the majestic beauty of horses running wild and free, but there's little common ground over what's happening to them in nevada. government crews are rounding them up and animal rights act vibss are circling the wagons. john zarrella has all the details. >> reporter: there is no secretariat, no sea biscuit, no black beauty. here they have no names, none needed. in their eyes you see who they are, rugged, powerful, independent. they are the wild mustangs of the american west. >> out here you hear it all the time. a cowboy will say the outside of a horse is good for the inside of a man. >> reporter: woven generations ago into the fabric of this land, they have become the focus of lawsuits, even protests as

far away as new york. >> help save america's wild horses. >> reporter: the horses are at the center of a tug of war between the u.s. government chasing them down with helicopters and animal rights groups who want it stopped. >> the round-ups of the wild horses and burrows s is a true holocaust of the animal world. >> we can't let one, say the horse, impact everybody else by taking all the feed, all the water, do damage to that habitat. >> reporter: the disagreement is clear cut. the bureau of land management, blm, a charged with caring for and managing nearly 40,000 horses and burros roaming on 26 million acres of the west. but while this federal land, your land, was set aside for the horses, they don't have free rein. the land is considered multiuse. >> wildlife, live stock,

recreationis recreationists, mining interests, whatever. >> reporter: the blm insists it must reduce heard sizes because the land can't support the numbers. >> this ain't kentucky bluegrass. >> reporter: so it holds roundups. last year the goal, remove 12,000 horses and take them to holding pens. >> this is our land. we want the horses on here, most of us. >> reporter: armed with cameras and recorders, the activists document what they see as brutal roundups. here a helicopter chases one single burro eventually knocking it over. it staggers off. here you are looking at steam rising from the backs of chased down exhausted horses. the blm says less than 1% of the animals die in these roundups. activists say that's 1% too many. the federal government says this year it's not going to have to round up as many horses as it has in the past because it's going to try