good morning. i hope you are off to a good start on your thursday, today. i'm robin meade. morning sunshine. here is what's going on today. president obama already arrived in norway to pick up his peace prize medal. what does a wartime leader say? it's snow shovel time for people struck by a blizzard. it's just round one of the weather danger ahead. fewer of your nans are falling into foreclosure, thank goodness. don't throw the block part yet. >> president obama arrived in norway.

critics question what president obama has done to deserve the prize. they said it's in recognition of his efforts to help solve complex problems. the president acknowledged others accomplished more than him. >> i have no doubt there are others who may be more deserving. my task here is to continue on the path that i believe is not only pornimportant for america, for lasting peace and security in the world. >> well, in a new cnn opinion research poll 19% of the people thought the president did enough to deserve it. 35% said he hasn't yet, but will. 43% said he will never do enough to deserve the honor.

robert gates arrived in baghdad. the unexpected visit comes a day after he visited troops in afghanistan. people are digging out from a foot of snow in the midwest and new england. hundreds upon hundreds of schools closed yesterday. one minnesota teen had to get out the snow blower, again and again. >> the snow forced dozens of truckers to get off the highway. >> these double trailers put a lot of drag on the cab of your truck so they get stuck easy all the time. >> how long you been here trying to move? >> i don't know, maybe a half hour. >> at least he took it in stride, didn't he? >> rescuers in arizona will head out to search for at least 25 hunters stranded by the snow. most of them went to hunt elk

before the storm hit. since then, some called for help on cell phones and families called to report them missing. >> the problem is getting to them at this point. when they went in, the roads were dry and passable. they may be 30 or 40 miles in from a paefed road. it's the getting to them that's giving us a problem. >> the snow is giving up in a lot of the country except the lake-effect snow. we have more on that in a few minutes, your day in weather. five missing americans may have been arrested in pakistan. the men were planning terrorist attacks. the fbi has not confirmed whether they are americans or the same men who disappeared from virginia a week ago. pakistani police say they may have tried to join two militant groups, but they were not

interested. >> we have seen 11 cases of terrorism in the last six months and more americans going off and training with militant groups in pakistan over the last year. we have seen about a dozen americans going there which represents a surge in the number of americans getting the training to make them into dangerous terrorists, potentially. >> one of the missing virginia men left behind a disturbing video that may be a message. one cereal is lowering the sugar. is it going to taste the same? >> oh, my gosh, there's so much sugar in there. i think you will get just as much of a sugar bomb as before. general mills is cutting the sugar in lucky charms and trix. . it's going from 11 grams of

sugar in lucky charms to nine grams. it's not a lot. >> it's not huge. >> but, it's you know, health experts say it doesn't mean it's nutritious, but it's a step in the right direction. >> wait! maybe they will add fiber. the couple accused of crashing the party will be forced to go in front of congress. the house wants to know how they got into the state dinner without an invite. they said they will plead the fifth and refuse to talk. five tsa employees have been put on administrative leave after a manual for screening passengers got put on the internet. they insist it was very outdated, but is doing a full

investigation. it was like a scene out of a christmas story, you know, the movie. a kid got his tongue stuck on a metal pole. firefighters had to use a bucket of warm water to get him loose. he says he's still hurting. >> it hurts badly, when you try to swallow and stuff. >> right now, what do you feel? >> numbness. really numb. >> he said he tried to do this in the past. come on. holy cow, it's the fire department. holy cow, it's the cops. >> i asked them to pull up the clips of "christmas story" so we could see it. >> it could have been worse. it could have been railroad tracks. >> oh, geez, bob. snow gone except the lake-effect

stuff, right? >> right. that snow piles up quickly. the storm moved in toward canada. the low pressure is going to merge in nova scotia. the winds around it from michigan to ohio and indiana. more lake-effect snow? new york with rain along the georgia coast. the lake-effect bands. you know it's coming down fast. when i got in this morning, buffalo has 53-mile-per-hour winds. blizzard-like conditions are out there. blizzard warnings for grand rapids. the blue is sensory advisories. buffalo, south town, a foot to foot and a half is a possibility. buffalo right here, the heavy snow around the south towns now by orchard park. you can see how narrow it is.

off lake ontario, look at the snow coming in. it's about two feet of snow as well. to the west, grand rapids, a lot of snow out here. behind that, it's all cold air. let me show you video coming out from denver, colorado. yesterday, the low temperature, minus 17. they only got into the teens for yesterday. it was a cold day, no matter what. 29 degrees the high. currently, sitting at zero. windchills are minus 20 to minus 30 from the dakota's to kansas. >> it's looks awful. >> it's not even winter yet, so be prepared. >> more than 350 million people use facebook. what they want to do to get you more privacy. one of the women who claims she had an affair with tiger woods has a message for his wife.

we love to salute the troops, so here we go. today, specialist justin crawley. he's a great soldier and families can't wait for them to come home. if you have somebody in the service, go to cnn.com/robin. impeachment over using state funds to visit a mistress in argenti argentina. bringing ridicule, dishonor, and shame to the state. meanwhile, his wife talked with abcs barbara walters with the affair that started the scandal. >> your husband called this

woman his soul mate. what did it feel like? >> it hurt. >> hard. do you think you were his soulmate? >> clearly not. >> do you think this marriage can survive? >> i think the hurdles are significant. >> sanford made headlines after the affair was made public. his staff believed he was missing, hiking in the appalachian trail. i believe this is a picture of the woman he was visiting. a man put his life on the line. what he did to save his bed-ridden mother-in-law from a house fire. 12 minutes after the hour. so, you're on facebook, huh? >> you have choices to make today. all 350 million facebook users will be asked to change their

privacy settings. jennifer westhoven was sitting here looking -- >> i really have been looking into it this morning. >> i was covering for her. as my nose grows. and then -- >> it wasn't growing. facebook says you're going to get more control over your privacy. when i was logging in, it seemed like i was getting less. >> oh, really? >> i was looking it up to see why is there this huge discrepancy. i have to say, there are a lot of people on the internet basically saying, this is not good. most people are upset about it. it seems like basics like your name and profile picture now become visible to everyone. before, you could hide your name so that, you know, maybe you don't want a lot of friend requests from strangers of criminals. there have been hackers on this stuff. some parents are worried because

now that it will show your profile, i don't want creeps looking at it. >> you are telling me, it's supposed to be more secure, according to the company, but everybody can see you. >> everybody can see you. before, you could hide it. you have more control over other options. when you go in to change your settings, which they make you do, they have it set up for you to share with everyone. it actually says, everyone. >> all 350 million. >> you have to go change it to not share all your information with anybody in the world with a facebook account. 350 million people. >> that sounds -- yeah. uh-huh. >> i think we may hear more about the story. i have a facebook account and i'm reconsidering if i want this. maybe another company will do the same thing with respect to

your privacy. >> you really were back there looking. thank you for doing that. >> can you believe the controversy around tiger woods reached congress. what one lawmaker has to say about woods and how it could cost him a huge honor.

we are hearing harsh words from the climate change summit in koeppcopenhagen. they say, the debate over how much climate change money to give to poor countries could wreck the conference. he says rich nations want to give $10 billion over three years. they say that's not enough. he proposes more money for clean energy in countries. >> an ohio man is accused of trying to kidnap a 12-year-old girl dressed as santa.

he was hidden in the bushes, jumped at the girl. she got away. they arrested him in full costume carrying a box of canes and a unicycle. one of tiger woods alleged mistresses came out and apologized to his wife. she went there. hi. >> good morning, robin. nice of her, i guess. >> i don't know. >> this is jaimee grubbs. she was the cover of the "us weekly." now, the 24-year-old tells "extra" she was intimate with woods 20 times over a three-year period. wods never discussed his wife and now feels badly for her. >> i have no words to explain what i have done to her, her family. i guess, i would be deeply sorry

for never considering her during the whole process and not -- him not bringing her up. >> she's not making like she didn't know he was married system. >> that's what she's saying. when she found out, there were already in the relationship. anyway. "extra" reports 11 women with woods. >> joe baa ka was pushing the bill to give him a medal of honor. now, for obvious reasons, baca is pulling the bill in light of the recent developments. woods admitt eted trance gregss. new england quarterback, tom

braidy and his wife giselle have a baby boy. they have not picked out a name, yet. it's been a wonderful experience but it's not gotten much sleep. by the way, it's tiger woods, the gold congressional medal of honor. congressional medal. anyway, back to the brady thing. they play the panthers on sunday. he will not get paternity leave. >> that's a good point. thank you. all right. a young actress has a talent for mimicking ak acceptabilities. here you go. >> oh, hello, i'm amy walker, i'm 25 years old and i was born in toronto canada. what? cause i'm doing the thing. sorry. i'm 25 and i was born in brooklyn. >> okay, i wasn't moved yet.

more than 200 million people watched this clip. we dug it up for you on youtube. there might be a more exciting part of that. >> 2 million people saw that? any piece of junk, throw it up there and you'll get hits. >> you do 21 accents, you get hits. i wasn't excited. you must not have been either? >> no. let me show you what's happening now. i have been looking at the winds all around michigan and pennsylvania and new york, new england. the winds are gusting at 45-mile-an-hour in new york, boston. here is what we have for the longest delays. detroit, san francisco, rain out west. it's going to be wind and snow across the great lakes. d.c., atlanta, chicago, shorter delays. more in a bit. >> thank you or should i say

thank you. one of my accents. angry students barricaded themselves in a building. what's got them so upset? president obama says he's not the most deserving nobel prize winner, but he's accepting it today.

in one hour, president obama will accept a nobel peace prize in norway. he's the fourth u.s. president to win the prize and the third sitting president to win. president obama says he does not doubt there are others more deserving of the prize. hi job is to continue working for lasting peace. bundle up. you may have been shocked with snow, but it's bitter cold in much of the country. windchills at 25 below in parts of iowa this morning. the kids are still smiling there. we have a look at the map. a judge in l.a. is going to decide if roman polanski needs

to show up. he's figtsing for a 1977 rape conviction. normally, they are not entitled to appeal if they cant come to court in person. you want to be on time, so stay up. i'm rp great to have you here. robert gates arrived. before leaving afghanistan, he said the troops would be there beyond the 2011 pull-out date. he said this is the first time foreign forces are there to help. stanley mcchrystal said u.s. forces are pushing back the taliban. the momentum is in the minds of people. it must be to change the perceptions of the people, to increase their confidence in the future. when we change the momentum, when the people perceive things

are getting better, security is increasing, the insurgency is in a difficult position. they are losing the sense of momentum. gates says the relationship is forged in blood because of the heavy casualty on both sides. 14 firefighters are getting the promotions they sued to get. they complained when officials threw out everybody's 2003 test results because no minorities did well enough to be promoted. the courts ruled on their favor. a school ban says tiger woods is part ly to blame for some of its members not getting to go to disney. we have more on that. >> call it bad timing, the clintonville middle school has been trying to raise money to send the kids to disney. they reached out to woods media team asking for a signed picture, which they got.

they held an auction, asking $1500, which would have been reasonable about a month ago. with that money, they could have sent anybody to the happiest place on earth. after the recent scandal, they got $300. >> wow. the value dropped in less than three weeks. >> five times the expected value. >> wow. okay. i guess people are voicing their opinions with that. >> the wintery storm brought winds strong enough to snap the state christmas tree in tennessee. three cables broke in the gusty wind. they are asking the public to help them find a replacement. >> it's sad. you feel like christmas is over. you see the tree in the chipper. it's not a great sight. >> well, that was wind, all right.

we are going to see cold temperatures behind the wind. bob is going to tell you about lake-effect snow. we're not talking just one state. >> yeah. all five states involved in the lake-effect snow. the great lakes. michigan, coming into ohio, pennsylvania, new york. cold air rushing into the mid-levels of the atmosphere, squeezing the snow for you. cincinnati, light snow showers there. the heaviest, lake-effect wise is by the shores. blizzard warnings, grand rapids, michigan. the winds will be easily over 35 miles per hour. now, it's out of the west, southwest out of buffalo. it's keeping the band of lake lake-effect snow outside of buffalo, toward rochester. it's coming down at a rate of one to two inches an hour. you might hear thunder out of that one. that gets to northern new york. toward the west, this is michigan. here is grand rapids.

a band of snow showers over you. watch for three to six inches of snow this morning. next 48 hours, cold air. look at the lake-effect snow develop in ontario, rochester and buffalo. the purposing shaded is over a foot of snow. it's south of buffalo. as for the rest of the region, the wind warnings are out there for the north carolina mountains. all of western new york, winds gusting to 60 miles per hour. georgia and florida, showers wrapped up with that. rain in orlando and tampa this morning. look at the temperatures. this is another thing we are watching. this is current temperatures. it's minus nine in fargo, 2 in omaha. it feels like minus 16 in minneapolis now. denver feels like minus 18.

it pushes to north texas. 24 in dallas. 13 in oklahoma city. add the winds to there and temperatures feel like minus three in amarillo. it's cold air. we are not even in winter, yet. >> thank you. what do you do with $250,000. look at what "the big es loser" told joy behar. >> i'm going to buy clothes. i have no clothes. you know, i bought -- when i came home from the ranch i lost -- >> you mean that cheap show is not buying you clothes. >> call sarah palin, she's got extra clothes around. do the words giorgio armani ring a bell over there. >> he looks like mel gibson,

kind of, catch "the joy behar" show tonight. at&t is telling people to put down their iphone. huh?

♪ morning sunshine. it's 21 minutes until the hour. popular tax breaks could live to see the new year. the house voted to extend $31 billion worth of sales tax and property tax deductions, otherwise, they would have run out at the end of the month. the senate doesn't like the tax increases the house okayd to

make up for it. an ice build up in a pipeline is sto blame for an oil spill. 36,000 tons of gas and oil spill frd a bp gas line. 46,000 gallons is like a hotel pool. they are on probation for a 2006 spill that led to $20 million in fines. new this morning, fewer of your neighbors are face iing foreclosure. that sounds good. the housing crisis is far from over. jennifer westhoven p joins us. >> hey, thanks. foreclosures are down four months in a row. they have come down 15% from their worst levels. you can see the change. the bad news is you can't see the giant mountain that goes before the graph. what a terrible year. 2009 is the second year of record number of people losing their homes, getting behind on

mortgages. the real key is going to be when the job market improves. >> at&t says put your iphone down, stop using it. it wants to discourage customers from being on the web all the time. at&t has been criticized because people who use it, sometimes they don't get their texts for hours or their voice mail messages come days later. you know, that doesn't really work. at&t says, here is one of the problems. 3% of the customers are hogging up 40% of the road, if you want to imagine it like that. they are taking up all the network space. at&t is considering charging more if people use that much, over the top. huh. >> you think the tiger fiasco cannot be good for sponsors like nike. it's good for yahoo!. they are going to meet their promises because so many people are on the web trying to see

their girlfriend or whatever they can. >> that many people are on the web search iing for the word tiger? >> all kind of stuff about it. their ads are popping up. then the ceo says the tiger story is quote, better than michael jackson dying. >> i think somebody is going to want to take that off. >> the focus is about your performance. you forget people are human. later on, they said she was joking. >> okay. >> oops. >> oops, for sure. thank you. a virginia man saved his bed-ridden mother-in-law. the son-in-law and a friend got the woman out just in time. she's 400 pounds and suffers from diabetes. she's doing okay, but has a broken shoulder. tiger, balloon boy, white house

party crashers. we are going to talk about it with celebs in their own right. i'm going to be hosting "with all due respect." we love to have our morning peop people's insight. speak away. go to cnn.com/robin. send us an ireport with answers an questions. i want to show you on the show. that's how i do it. here is one way to pack in the arena in a bad economy. one nba team is selling beer for a buck. the fans are going, you don't know me.

♪ some people could pay a hefty price for the senate's proposed health care changes. people in their 20s and 30s could pay high premiums for

individual policies, but better coverage. people in their 50s and 60s could pay less than now. no dramatic changes are in store for people who get coverage through their jobs. an unwelcome guest caused commotion. it was a gator. tampa police were called. >> oh. >> looks like a frog. >> you looking at me? >> animal control says the gator is ten feet long. they managed to tape its mouth shut and take him away. >> how did they do that? >> you are the guy with the duct tape. it's your turn today. all right. >> more fight than the real gators, in alabama. i watched the game and i was disappointed. >> did the gator cry. oh! >> all i can tell you is i dropped money in vegas and lost.

>> at least you're honest. >> let me show you what's happening now. if you are traveling, northeast, a lot of wind. buffalo, winds gusting 35 to 40 miles per hour. that will come. an hour or more. new york city metro, delays, 45 miles per hour winds. buffalo, currently deicing. snow and lots of wind. watch for ground stoppage there. detroit, it's all wind. more delays for you, too. >> i know it's an old story, but i was moved when tim tebow was moved. i love our florida viewers. don't e-mail me mean stuff. there continues to be fallout from the tiger woods scandal. you think? he's not pushing to get a woods congressional gold medal. jimmy kim mel gives his thoughts on why that might be.

a california congressman announced he's no longer pursuing legislation that would have given tiger the gold medal. i don't know why he would anyway. in light of the fact he's in a manner lacking in character, i'm withdrawaling tiger woods for consideration from the gold medal. up stead, i'm recommending he run for congress. >> that's good. >> i was thinking the same thing. >> that's good. a committee approved legislation to enforce college football to have a real playoff system. you're telling me congress might force them to do it the way they want? >> yeah. we talked about it yesterday. i thought they are not really going to go through with it. the congress commit fee approved a bill to ban them from calling

the bcs a championship game, a national chap unless there's a playoff where they use polls to determine the champion. there's criticism they have more important things to worry about saying we can walk and chew gum at the same time. the bill, in truth, faces steep odds to pass. senators considered taking up the issue. >> it would be like the nba -- not the nba, but college basketball. it would take a long time. >> they would miss more school, but they would have a chance at a playoff. i'm not sure if this is good news or recipe for disaster, but the kings are going to have $1 beer nights. being the heathen that i am, i was like awesome. then i realized, it's right off

the freeway, there's no public transportation at all to get there. you are looking at possible roa. it could be very dangerous. i used to work in sacramento. i don't know. it's a nationally televised game. i'll be watching. t.o. has a reality show on vh1. the bill's receiver says he signed with the agency this week. i guess they're big and represent top models. he says, quote, when you have good looks like myself, you've got to take advantage of of it. all in the sports in the next half hour. >> okay. i got questions on that one. maybe next time. has your credit card limit been slashed even though you never missed a payment? there's a way to fight back. clark howard tells you what you can do. >> seems not a day goes by that i don't hear from somebody who has had their credit limit cut on a credit card or their credit card closed without notice. and here's the crazy thing.

huge percent of the people who are having their lines cut or accounts closed are people who have never missed a payment, have great credit scores, but as a result of the limits being reduced or the accounts being closed, your credit standing, your credit score goes down. now, here's what you need to do. if you are someone who has been a good payer and you've been good about how you handle credit but you get by with a credit card or two, this is a time that i want you to go apply for another credit card or two from someone else other than who you already have credit with. why? it's almost like a free insurance policy. if your limits are reduced or your accounts closed, you're going to protect your precious credit score. do it now. i'm clark howard. more more ways to protect yourself, go to cnn.com/clarkhoward. >> what better reasons do we need to watch him at noon and

4:00 eastern on the weekends on "hln." you see a lot of traditional religious imagery this time of year. but we have the latest on unusual images inspiring faith in some people.

good morning. president obama has arrived in norway to pick up his nobel peace prize, so that's the big story today. want to say hi to you. here's a live picture of him smiling in the town hall where they're about to -- i think he's about to deliver the speech here. what does a wartime leader getting the peace prize say? he's going to be getting it in a minute. we will take you there live for all of the procedures and the -- just -- this is beautiful pictures, isn't it? we'll go right back there, too, to talk about. it's snow shoveling time for people buried by a blizzard that socked the midwest. if you use face book expect to answer a approximate few

privacy questions next time you log in, but that's triggered a push back from some users. what has them so concerned. let's go back live to more pictures. i'm robin meade by the way. thanks for your time. president obama is 30 minutes away from receiving the nobel peace prize. from time to time during this half hour and next, we'll dip in here and show you live pictures and we will be on our way showing you more news. he and the first lady are in oslo, norway to get the prize. there he is walking in with his wife a few minutes ago. the nobel committee said it's in recognition of his efforts to help solve complex problems. even the president has acknowledged others have accomplished more than he has. >> i have no doubt that there are others who may be more deservi

deserving. my task here is to continue on the path that i believe is not only important for america but important for lasting peace and security in the world. let me take you back here and show you people in indonesia and how they are honoring president obama. jakarta's governor unveiled a statute of a young obama holding a butterfly on his thumb. it's meant to inspire kids in the same country where president obama live d for four years as child. it stands in a park near his old elementary school. let's go back live to oslo, norway. apparently there's a singer right now entertaining the crowd. president obama's speech is happening in about 30 minutes. he gets the prize first. we'll show you that as it happens live, and then we will also show you some of his speech as well. people are digging out of a

foot of snow in the midwest and new england. at least 16 deaths have been blamed on this huge storm, mostly because of car accidents. but fierce winds are just as dangerous in some parts of the country. gusts up to 60 miles per hour brought down trees and knocked out power in parts of ohio. >> heard this really, really big crash, and i just went to the upstairs, the third floor. i could see the whole wall was cracked and the skylight is all cracked. the tree came through there. rescuers in arizona will head out begin this morning to search for at least 25 hunters stranded by the snow. the sheriff says that most of them went to hunt elk before the the storm hit on monday. since then some have called for help from cell phones and families called to report them missing. >> the problem is getting to them at this point, because whether they went in, the roads were dry and passable. they may be 30 or 40 miles in

from a paved road, and now the roads are covered with three feet of snow. it's the getting to them that's giving us a problem. the snow is starting to let up in much of the country, but it's what behind it, the bitter cold temperatures. they're moving in. bob's going to talk more about that and lake-effect snow for all the great lakes and the region surrounding that. new this morning, six people including two firefighters, were injured in a five-alarm fire as a high rise in chicago. rescuers had to save several people from the roof of the building. the fire broke out around 1:00 this morning, and it took a couple of hours to put out. five americans were arrested in pakistan. police there say that the men were planning terrorist attacks. now, the fbi is not if i remembering whether the five are the same men that disappeared from virginia about a week ago. pakistani police say that the men may have tried to join two militant groups, but neither group was interested. >> we've seen about 11 cases, terrorism cases in the united

states in the last six months, but we see more americans going off and training with militant groups in pakistan over the last year. we've seen about a dozen americans going there in the past year, which represents a surge in the number of americans getting the sort of training that can make them into very dangerous terrorists potentially. >> well, an american islamic advocacy group says one of the missing virginia men left behind a disturbed video that may be a farewell message. how about less of a kick from the cereal you're eating right now. one cereal maker is lower the sugar expert, and jennifer westover is here. she'll roll her eyes when i say is it going to taste the same? do it. good morning. >> i just get a little and i start -- >> you start buzzing? >> yeah. especially for parents, you might be interested this. there's going to be plenty of sugar in there, but they'll take

the sugar content down a little bit. this is general mills we're talking about. lucky charms. the sugar goes from 11 grams to 9. that's still plenty he of sugar in there. this is -- >> not a huge cut, is it? >> really getting marketed to kids a lot like trix and cocoa puffs as well. nutritionists say it's still not the pest choice to make for your kid if health is your biggest concern, but at least it's a step in the right direction. >> better than adding more, right? although i don't think that would be advertised. >> some kids do that with the spoon. >> it's true. jen, thank you. listen to this. south carolina's governor has avoided impeachment following a scandal over using state funds to visit a mistress in argentina. a legislative panel recommended censuring mark sanford for bringing ridicule, dishonor and disgrace to the state. meanwhi meanwhile, sanford's wife talked with barbara walters about the

affair that started the scandal. >> your husband called this woman in argentina his soul mate. what did that feel like? >> it hurt. >> hard? >> yeah. >> do you think you were his soulmate? >> well, clearly not. >> do you think this marriage can survive? >> i think the hurdles are significant. >> wow. jenny sanford moved herself and four sons out of the mansion and into the coastal home. she described it as separated. five tsa employees have been put on administrative leave after a secret manual for screening passengers got posted on the net. the department of homeland security insists the manual was very outdated but they're doing a full investigation and they stopped posting documents with any security info on the net until they do a full review. oh, to be a college student,

right? just because the weather was a downer, didn't mean people couldn't have fun in the snow. this is university of wisconsin madison, and they took part in a massive, massive snowball fight. some of the students took a break to talk about their strategy. >> we throw, and then we hide behind other people and pick some more up so we don't get hit. >> we're getting attacked, but i'm surviving. it's like war out there. just got to keep packing and throwing. >> wow. they even had like team flags. this brings new level to dodge ball, sdint it? the largest snowball fight on record, by the way, was 3700 people. i like the guy, though, that had like the shield. >> he has the toboggan shield. over 17 inches in snow in madison yesterday. canceled classes at the university. >> no wonder they were acting like this. >> what else are you going to do? >> i like the people with the flags. what do they mean.

>> game on is what that means. >> good morning. >> that major winter storm has been the focal point of the entire weather forecast for the last four days, since monday. now that area of olympic is into ontario and merge with the one over quebec and pull out of there. before that happens, the wind is howling around the backside of that. getting lake-effect snow and a trailing cold front in the carolinas and florida is producing decent rain. that snow band is coming off fiercely he right now, especially around western michigan through ontario into areas by western new york into new york state. look at all the winter warning areas. red shades are winter storm warnings for snow. lake-effect snow and lake-effect blizzard warnings also. the area shaded in pink. that's for grand rapids. visibility is down to a quarter of a mile. buffalo radar picture, and this is one main snow band. we see something like that, you know you're getting a snow piling up to 1 to 2 inches per hour. the wind is strong as well,

maybe getting lightning out of this as well. north of ontario, one band towards the northern part of new york state, adirondacks piling up snow, too. in the west it's lake-effect snow for western parts of michigan. that's where it will be for the day. windy conditions all around the region, and it will blow the snow to the east. we'll see how much it piles up. over a foot south of buffalo and north of syracuse. more on that in a bit. windchills around denver minus 20 degrees. should warm up to 29 as your high today. >> look at denver pictures today. minus 20 is what it feels like on the skin. >> the low yesterday was minus 17, that was the actually temperature. windchills yesterday morning were minus 34. the high today is 29, windchills feel like the teen. not as bad. just freezing everything solid in place with temperatures themselves without the windchill gets right down. windchill affects the human skin. >> a shout-out to our viewers in

denver. you're a hearty bunch. fewer neighbors are falling spew foreclosure. more on that. one of the women who claimed she had an affair with tiger woods has a message for his wife. oh, no, she didn't go there.

it is time right now to salute our troops. today we salute specialist jordan crowley. he deployed in june. his wife says he and his unit are great soldiers. their families cannot wait until they all come home. if you have somebody in the service, well, let us give he them a shout-out. go to cnn.com/robin. the couple accused of crashing a white house party will be forced to face congress. yesterday the house homeland security committee voted to subpoena the salahis. the house wants to know how they got into the state dinner without an invite. they say they will plead the fifth and refuse to talk.

okay. are you one of the 350 million people on facebook? you have some choices to make he today. everybody is going to be asked to change their privacy settings, and i mean everybody. jennifer westhoven is looking out for you. jennifer looked into this on a personal level here, and really had some good light to shed on what her experience has been. >> i mean, it's hard because facebook, some of the news stories that are facebook, they say facebook says you have more control over your privacy, but if you look to see what users are saying, they're having a very different experience. i know for me it seemed to be a little different. in some ways it strips away some of your basic privacy. for example, now if you have an account, your name and your profile approximapicture become to anyone he. that could be ton of friends requests from people you don't know or criminals, people

implanting privacies. >> they don't want creeps to be able to see this. something you want to look out for. watch out for the everyone option. for some people when you click your settings, not for everyone, facebook has a default set up to share everything about you with everyone. everyone with a facebook account. you have to be real careful when you're doing that, and it sure is raising a lot of questions for some people about what they can keep private and what they can't. foreclosures are down four months in a row. that's a little bit of good news. there's down about 15% from their worst levels, but this has been a terrible year overall. if you had a bigger picture of this graph, this is like a mt. everest peak there. this is the second year of record numbers of people losing their homes. reali realty trackers puts these numbers together. can you believe the

controversy to tiger woods has gotten all the way to congress? congress? what one lawmaker says about woods and how it could cost him a huge honor. apparently cats have not cornered the market on nine lives. this dog tied to a chain is lucky to be alive.

i'm one of the tiger woods' alleged mistresses is speaking out, apologizing to his wife. 24-year-old jamie grubs tells "extra" she was intimate with woods 20 times over a three-year period, but claims woods never discussed his wife elin and she figured he was single and feels badly for her. >> i have no words to explain, you know, what i have done to her or her family. i guess i would be deeply sorry

for never considering her during the whole process and not -- >> "extra" reports 11 women have now been alleged linked to woods. while woods has not lost support from sponsors he's losing some from congress. a california democrats for years was pushing to give woods the congressional gold medal for his service to the nation and promoting excellence in sportsmanship. now bacca is pulling the bill in light of the recent developments with woods and his family. get this. woods admissions transgressions affected a middle school in wisconsin. i will explain that in ten minutes, but how about good celebrity news? new england patriots quarterback tom braidary and his wife have welcomed a baby boy. brady announced the birth on wednesday but says they have not picked out a name yet. he says it's been a wonderful experience and he has not gotten much sleep. they play he the panthers on sunday. haven't picked out a name yet,

robin? >> this was yesterday? >> the baby was born on tuesday and they announced it on wednesday and said they haven't picked out a name yet. usually you pick it out in advance. >> some people want to make sure it matches the kid, you know? >> there you go. i think the kid is going to be hideous-looking. that's a joke. >> thank you. some popular tax breaks could live to see the new year. they're extending $31 billion worth of sales tax and property tax deductions, otherwise they run out at the end of the month. the big hurdle left is senate approval. they don't like the tax increases the house okayed to make up for the tax breaks. okay. well, i think the travel should be a little better than yesterday, but it's not like we don't have problems, especially around the great lakes areas i would imagine. hi, bob. >> you're right about that. the reason is the wind and lake-effect snow, too. let me show you what we have delay-wise. the only current ones are

de-icing and that's for buffalo, pittsburgh and midway. here's what we have the rest of the day. these are a hour or more. boston and new york city and newark, winds gusts between 35 and 45 miles per hour. but bumpy ride. in buffalo, cleveland and detroit it's snow heavy at times. de-icing already going on. detroit looking at winds as well. d.c., atlanta and chicago is a little windy. not as bad. shorter delays. orlando, we watch the rain slide from northern florida into the middle of the state. watch for 30-minute to one-hour delays for you. maybe tampa as well. more details in a half hour. >> thank you. some angry students barricaded temsz in a campus building. get this. a firefighter skipped an emergency call to coach a game. h how that went over with the boss.

right now in oslo, norway president obama is getting ready to accept the nobel peace prize. he's the fourth u.s. president to win the president and the third sitting president to win. president obama says he doesn't doubt that there are others who are more deserving, but his job will be to continue working for lasting peace. you know what? we'll show you a live picture here in a second. a cleveland man accused of killing 11 women afreed to let police fence off his home. it will preserve evidence. he faces 85 charges including murder, rape, and kidnapping. remains were found in his home and yard. he pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. bundle up.

you may have been socked with snow, but behind that it is dangerously cold in a lot of the country. windchills are around 25 below in parts of iowa this morning. meteorologist bob van dillen is with us to have a look at the rest of the map in five minutes. those are some of the headlines, but, of course, you're tops on our mind. good morning to you, sunshine. i'm robin meade. let's check in with a he live look. we're getting ready for president obama to accept the nobel peace prize. there he is nodding at the goes on, and when we see he's getting ready to, we will go there live. defense secretary robert gates arrived in iraq this morning before leaving afghanistan he said that u.s. troops will be there beyond the 2011 pull-out day. he told a group of afghan soldiers that this is the first time foreign forces are there to help. stanley mcchrystal said u.s. forces are trying to convert taliban leaders. >> we need to offer an opportunity for fighters and

lower-level commanders in the taliban to make the decision to come back into afghan society under the government of afghanistan's constitutional control. but they need to be able to come back with respect. they need to be able to come back with an opportunity for a reasonable life, protected from their former comrades. >> gates says that the relationship between the united states and afghanistan is one forged in blood because of the heavy casualties on both sides. let me show you what's happening right now in oslo, norway. can die that? we're going to do this story first. the 14 firefighters are finally he getting the promotions that they sued to get. remember this story? they complained to courts when officials threw out everyone's 2003 test results because no minorities did well enough to be promot promoted. the u.s. supreme court sided with the firefighters and said their civil rights had been violated. okay. get this. a school ban says that tiger

woods is partly to blame for some kids not being able to go to disneyworld? rafer, he's getting blamed from all sides, isn't he? >> the clintonville middle school band in wisconsin has been trying to raise money to send these kids to perform at disney in spring break. they got a signed picture of tiger woods and recently had that as the top ticket item. they were asking 1500 bucks which a month ago would have been reasonable. with that money they expected they could send everybody to the happiest place on earth, but after the recent scandal you know how much they got? 3$300 for the picture. five times less than was expected. >> it was devalued pretty fast, wasn't it. >> uh-huh. depreciation. we're watching in norway where the president is about to receive the nobel peace prize, so we're seeing -- they're having a performance there. when we see that the president is about to get it, we'll go

there live, all right? a man thought to have died in a baghdad car bombing surprised neighbors by coming home yesterday. he only had cuts, even though the bomb destroyed his home. the homecoming was made better when the man discovered ms. dog also survived the blast and was still on the leash waiting for him. when it comes to religion, many of you apparently like to mix and match. a new study finds that many americans blend christianity with eastern and new age beliefs. 25% of those surveys attend services of a different faith, 24% believe in reincarnation, 16% believe in the eiffel eye or that people can cast curses or spells, and half say that they have had a mystical experience. let me take you live right now. i want to show this. never mind. go ahead. >> stuck, stuck, stuck!

stuck! stuck! stuck! >> remember the theme from the holiday classic "a christmas story" when little flick got stuck on the pole after being triple dog dared by he a classmate? i give you the kid who it happened to in real life. firefighters in boise, idaho used a couple of warm water to get a 10-year-old loose, and the kid says he's still hurting. >> it hurts badly. when you try to swallow and stuff. >> reporter: right now what do you feel? >> numbness. my tongue is really numb. >> oh, the poor thing. the kid also said he's tried to stick his tongue to frozen poles in the past. now, why didn't you learn? >> triple dog dare. let's go live to norway where the president is getting ready to accept the nobel peace prize. there have been a number of musical performances, and this appears to be one right now at the piano today. obviously, there are dignitaries

there. when the president gets ready to accept it, we'll go there live and you'll hear some of his comments. because we're also "hln," i know that you want to hear some of the heother headlines impacting you. we'll go back and forth. right now let's going to your backyard, where some of you feel like the windchills are very bitter this morning. here's rob. >> very methodical piano player, very nice. >> my piano teacher in elementary school would have been proud. that was feeling. >> this br brought to you by tylenol. what's not feeling better is the snow on the ground. we showed you madison, wisconsin with 18.5 inches of snow on the ground. atlantic, iowa 16 inches of snow. des moines over a foot of snow yesterday. it wasn't across the midwest and plains, it got into the northeast yesterday afternoon. chester, vermont 14 inches of snow, and pleasant gap, pennsylvania, 9 inches of snow.

it's moving away, but the lake-effect snow is out there. more in a bit. let's go. the president is right now getting ready to accept the peace prize. [ applause ] [ applause ]

[ applause ] so president obama accepting the nobel peace prize. he's the fourth u.s. president to be given the prize and the third sitting president to win. he looked very, very gracious and appreciative there. the committee that chose him for the honor saysi ist's in recognition of efforts to help solve complex problems. now they'll have a musical selection. when he gets ready to speak, we'll go back there, too.

bob, i had to cut you off there. it was the president. >> what can you do? >> i couldn't get your attention, either. >> i'm like, bob, over here. >> i don't pay attention. let me show you what's going on. the lake-effect snow is going to continue to pile on up. you can see right now we have blizzard warnings by grand rapids and winter storm warnings for lake-effect snow in western new york, parts of ohio and parts of pennsylvania, took. here's buffalo, and it's all about wind direction. it's out of the west-southwest right now. you get the lake-effect going south of buffalo into rochester. it will pile up to a half a foot or more, especially buffalo down to the south. more lake-effect snow off of ontario, not quite as exact. that will exact itself later on today. you see heavy snow amounts around the tar hill plateau. off to the west, grand rapids radar picks up a lot of snow as well with poor visibilities and

gusting winds. the wind is a problem for the rest of the day. western new york with wind warnings and winds gusting to 16 miles per hour. more on the air travel delays that mount for a little bit. >> that's danger for people driving high profile vehicles like a semi. >> the windchill behind this thing, wait until i show you those in a half hour. unbelievable. you want to check in with norway again. i will tell people as soon as the president gets up there to talk, we'll fw there. right now musical selections are being played after he was awarded the peace prize. at&t is telling people why don't you put down the iphone. huh? a woman says she blacked out in the bathtub. hear what her little daughter did that probably saved her life.

all right. happening right now live in norway, president barack obama has just accepted the nobel peace prize, and there are musical performances going on. earlier this morning he said he had no doubt that others are more deserving of the award, but he vowed to live up to the ideals. the committee that chose him says it's in recognition of his efforts to help solve complex problems. as president obama gets his award, he's continuing a tradition that began on this day more than 100 years ago. the first nobel prizes were handed out december 10th in 1901. teddy roosevelt became the first american president to get the honor in 1906. in 1950, dr. ralph bunchby was

the first african-american to get one of the peace awards. at&t says put down your iphone for a while and stop being a data hog. jennifer westhoven is here. apparently people are using a lot of data with the iphone, and they don't like it? >> why do you sell a product and say stop using it? it wants to discourage customers from being on the web all the time. that's according to "the new york times." at&t has been heavily criticized by users. a lot of people say he he they get their text messages really late or a voice mail. they don't know they have one for days sometimes. at&t says one part of the problem is they have 3% of customers hogging up 40% of the road, if i kind of make an analogy there in terms of the network space. it is considering charging a lot more. robin. right now the president is accepting his nobel peace prize

a few minutes ago, and now his speech. >> gratitude and great humility. it's an award that speaks to our highest aspirations. that for all the cruelty and hardship of our world, we are not mere prisoners of fate. our actions matter. and can bend history in the direction of justice. yet, i would be remiss if i did not acknowledge the considerable controversy that your generous decision has generated. in part, this is because i am at the beginning and not the end of my labors on the world stage compared to some of the giants of history who have received this prize. schweitzer and king, marshall and mandela. my accomplishments are slight.

and then there are the men and women around the world who have been jailed and beaten in the pursuit of justice. those who toil in humanitarian organizations to relieve suffering. the unrecognized millions would you see quiet acts of courage and compassion inspire even the most hardened scynics. they're far more deserving of this honor than i. but perhaps the most profound issue surrounding my receipt of this prize is the fact that i am the commander in chief of the milita military, of the nation in the midst of two wars. one of these wars is winding down, the other is a conflict

that america did not seek. one in which we are joined by 42 other countries, including norway, in an effort to defend ourselves and all nations from further attacks. still, we are at war. i'm responsible for the deployment of thousands of young americans to battle in a distant land. some will kill. and some will be killed. so i come here with an acute sense of the costs of armed conflict. filled with difficult questions about the relationship between war and peace and our effort to replace one with the other. now, these questions are not new. war in one form or another appeared with the first man. at the dawn of history it's morality was not questioned, it

was simply a fact like drought or disease. the manner in which tribes and then civilizations sought power and settled their differences. over time as codes of law sought to control violence within groups, so did philosophers and clerics and statesmen seek to regulate the destructive power of war. >> president obama in his speech today after he accepted the nobel peace prize and acknowledged some of the criticism for his selection and acknowledged that there are many around the world who have been jailed for their causes and that he is a president who is also the president of a country that is engaged in two wars. so his speech will continue. we'll monitor that. we'll get you some other news and bring you good sound bites and live moments from this as well. here's one way to pack the arena in a bad economy. what a 5-year-old girl did that saved a mother's life. two different stories there.

driver who killed eight people in new york? well now the family of two victims have filed a lawsuit. the lawsuit targets theest eight

of tie an schuller. schuller's van -- schuller was drunk and high on marijuana, but her husband denies this. travelers, i know you have concerns today. wind will be a big problem for your landings and just a few, i think, white knucklers, how about you? >> white knucklers, double bag. whatever you want to call it. it will be a bumpy ride and it will be rocking there are de-icing delays in buffalo, since natty and midway, too. short delays but because of the de-icing that's going on there. boston, winds there between pa and 40 miles per hour, bumpy ride and hour-long delays. new york city metros including newark, 45-mile-per-hour winds, buffalo, it's lake-effect snow. lots of wind and watch for hour long delays easy. detroit, light snow and watch for delays there and same with chicago. we'll look at the windchill

values and they're huge. that's just in 20 minutes. >> thank you. a lot of traditional religious imagery and we have the latest in the unusual images inspiring faith in some people.

hello and good morning. glad to accompany you as you get your breakfast and coffee ready. good morning, sunshine, i'm robin meade. happening right now, president obama is giving his nobel peace prize acceptance speech. he talked about the questions surrounding his award and whether he deserved it. you are going to hear more. kids could build a gazillion frosty the snowman stuff and it is no fun and games dealing with the blast of wintry weather. you will hear about temperatures way below zero. and this, a bizarre holiday traditions for kids, a 10-year-old boy got his tongue stuck on a frozen pole. let's not do that. first our top story this morning. president obama has accepted the nobel peace prize today.

right now he's giving his acceptance speech and he's calling the prize an award that speaks to our highest aspirations. critics question what the president has done to deserve the prize and president obama addressed the controversy right at the top of his acceptance speech. >> yet i would be remiss if i did not acknowledge the considerable controversy that your generous decision has generated. in part, this is because i am at the beginning and not the end of my labors on the world stage compared to some of the giants of history who have received this prize, schweitzer, king, marshall and mandela, my accomplishments are slight. and then there are the men and women around the world who have been jailed and beaten in the pursuit of justice. those who toil in humanitarian

organizations to relief suffering. the unrecognized millions whose quiet acts of courage and compassion inspire even the most hardened cynics. i cannot argue with those who find these men and women, some known, some obscure to all, but those they help to be far more deserving of this honor than i. in a new cnn opinion research corporation poll, just 19% of people thought that the president has accomplished enough to deserve the nobel peace prize. 35% said that he hasn't yet, but will. 43% say he will never do enough to deserve the honor. people are digging out of a foot of snow in the midwest and new england. hundreds of schools closed yesterday. for one minnesota teen it means get out the snow blower, right? the snow forced thousands of truckers to pull off the highway in iowa and when this guy tried to get moving again, he was

stuck. >> these double trailers, they always put a lot of drag on the cab of your truck, so they get stuck easy all the time. >> how long have you been here trying to move? >> i don't know. maybe a half hour. >> rescuers in arizona will head out again this morning to search for at least 25 hunters stranded by the snow. the sheriff says most of them went to hunt elk before the storm hit on monday. since then some have called for help from their own cell phones and families called to report them missing. >> the problem is getting to them at this point because when they went in the roads were dry, they were passable. they may be 30 or 40 miles in from a paved road and now the roads are covered with three feet of snow. so it's the getting to them that's giving us a problem. >> the snow is starting to go up in a lot of parts of the country. you have the bitter cold temperatures coming in so be sure to take care of yourself here. bob will have more on your forecast in a few minutes.

five americans were arrested in pakistan. police there say the men were planning terrorist attacks. the fbi has not confirmed whether the five are the same men who disappeared from virginia about a week ago. pakistani police say the men may have tried to join two militant groups, but neither group was interested. >> we've seen about 11 cases -- terrorism cases in the last six months. we're also seeing more americans going off and training with militant groups in pakistan over the last year. we've seen about a dozen americans going there in the past here which represents a surge in the number of americans getting the sort of training that can make them into very dangerous terrorists potentially. >> i know, shocking. an american islamic advocacy group saying that one of the missing virginia men left behind a disturbing video that may be a farewell message. >> less of a kick from your morning cereal. one cereal maker, anyway, is lowering the sugar content and our money expert jennifer

westhoven is here and she'll tell you there's still plenty of sugar left in their honey. >> there sure is. if you're tucking in and want the sugar rush, if you believe that stuff, you'll get it. here's an example. in lucky charms it will go from 11 grams of sugar to 9. that should still be plenty of sugar for you and to keep your kids happy. we're talking about ten cereals that are cutting the sugar and these are marketed to kids. we're also talking about trix and cocoa puffs. nutritionists say this is still not the best choice, but it's a step in the right direction. five tsa employees have been put on administrative leave after a manual for airport passengers got posted on the internet. the department of homeland security insisters it was outdated but it is conducting a full investigation and they stopped posting documents with any security info on the net

until they can do a full review. the couple accused of crashing a white house party will be forced to face congress, but don't expect them to shed much light. yesterday the homeland security committee voted to subpoena michaele and tareq salahi. the couple say they'll plead the fifth and refuse to talk. of course they will. six minutes after the hour. here come bitter cold temperatures and for the great lakes area, you're still not out of the snow. >> yeah. i'm just looking at these numbers behind me. this isn't even the windchill numbers, these are the actual temperatures being reported at the top of the hour at 8:00 eastern. minus 8 in fargo, minus 6 in sioux falls. chicago, 2 degrees, it's about 3 in milwaukee. add the wind to it and the windchill factor is out there and it's very low right now. feels like minus 20 in sioux falls and minus 17 in denver.

the windchill is a calculation of what it feels like on the naked skin once the wind takes the heat away from you, minus 25 in winnipeg and canada. down to the south. look how far the cold air is racing. 34 degrees in san antonio and 32 in austin. dallas waking up to sub-freezing temperatures. 22 degrees and amarillo, single digits and 8 degrees in the panhandle. there's your cold air. what about the storm from yesterday? it's still rocking up toward the north. let me show you the heaviest rain and snow. it is stretching back in toward south georgia and northern florida and it's all lake effect and it's piling up, too. all five of the great lakes involved. lake superior and more snow for michigan. we also had rain yesterday. let me show you video from a stringer that we got from delaware. a woman and three of her kid it is sat on the roof of this car waiting to be rescued until the crews got there.

i saw 2 to 2 1/4 inches of rain in delaware just yesterday alone. it was all rain for you. you're on the warm side and it's all lake-effect snow to the north and to the northwest. >> thank goodness they're okay. >> wilmington got 2 1/4 inches of rain. >> thank you. >> faceback is saying it's making changes to help protect your privacy, but you may actually end up with even more of your personal info exposed. what jennifer is saying applies to you, too. so you've got to watch for that. plus one of the women who claims she had an affair with tiger has a message for his wife. uh-oh!

it's time right now to salute the troops. today we are saluting specialist jordan crawly. he deployed in june and his wife samantha says he and his unit are great soldiers and their families cannot wait for them to come home. maybe you have someone in the

service. go ahead and salute them. cnn.com/robin. okay. south carolina's governor has avoided impeachment following the scandal over allegedly using state funds to visit a mistress in argentina, but a legislative panel did recommend censuring republican mark sanford for bringing, quote, ridicule, dishonor, disgrace and shame to the state. meanwhile, sanford's wife talked with barbara walters about the affair that started the scandal. >> your husband called this woman in argentina his soul mate. what did that feel like? >> it hurt. >> hard. >> yeah. >> do you think you were his soul mate? >> well, clearly not. >> do you think this marriage can survive? >> i think the hurdles are significant. >> jenny sanford has moved herself and her four sons out of the governor's mansion and into the family's coastal home. she's described she and her husband as separated.

okay. are you a facebook user? attention, you have some choices to make today. all 350 million people on facebook are going to be asked to change their privacy settings. jennifer westhoven is looking out for you and you went to facebook and you did this, correct? >> yeah. and they're ruling it out for different people at different times. some people already saw it, but basically, facebook seems to be saying this is going to be good for your privacy. this will help you control your privacy, but some users are saying it's the opposite. it strips away some of your privacy and just in my personal experience it looks to me like some basics go away. you cannot keep your name or profile picture private in some cases according to some of the bloggers, too, so that could mean tons of friend requests from strangers and maybe from criminals. we know there have been people trying to hack around in facebook. some parents are worried. maybe they have a profile of

their little boy on santa's lap and now they'll have creeps looking for that. some of the things to look out for if you change your setting. watch out for the everyone option. be careful to have it just be me in some cases, but watch out for that everything because for some people it's defaulting to everyone. meaning it's defaulting to let's share everything about you with anybody with a facebook account. >> yikes! 350 million people. >> especially when you change the game, right? when you're already playing? that's not fair to people who signed up because they thought you were keeping some things private and now you're going back on your word. so something to watch. >> foreclosures. >> here's a little bit of good news. they're down four months in a row, down 15% from their worst levels, but overall, 2009 will be the second year in a row of record numbers of people losing their homes or getting behind on their mortgages according to realty track. things will not get better until the job market gets better.

robin, back to you. >> can you believe the siring woods controversy has reached all of the way to congress. what one lawmaker has to say. are you kidding me? the christmas story come to life. a kid gets his tongue stuck on a pole. do not do this! want to find out more? i triple double dog dare you to stay around!

that will wake you up. we are hearing some harsh words from the climate change summit in copenhagen. u.s. billionaire george soros says the debate over how much climates change money to give

poor countries can actually wreck the conference. he says rich nations want to give them $10 billion over three years. soros says that is not nearly enough. he proposes more money for clean energy in developing countries. two firefighters lost their jobs because one of them allegedly skipped an emergency call to coach a game. officials say a 15-year veteran of the department took a ladder truck to the game last month and another firefighter reportedly encouraged him to stay at the game while the others responded to the emergency. it's an anomaly that shouldn't have taken place. it did take place and we're taking appropriate action to make sure this never occurs again. >> well, there were reportedly enough workers to handle the emergency call, but still. so apparently, a young actress has a talent for mimicking accents. she does 21 accents in two and a half minutes and here's her tape. >> i call australia home.

i'm amy walker, i'm 25 years old and i was born in texas. hello. i'm amy walker, i'm 25, and i was born in california. >> not bad. >> why would you put california in there as the -- how about criticize the person who cut that clip, but if there's 21 accents, california is probably the easiest. >> let me hear. of course, i'm doing a thing. that was brooklyn. >> i want to see french. >> more than 2 million people have watched the thing so we dug it up for you on youtube. >> good for her. a lot of exposure. one of tiger woods' alleged mistresses is speaking out and apologizing to woods' wife. oh, she didn't go there. >> yeah. >> but she did. >> saying she didn't know he was married. >> she didn't know that tiger woods was married. >> he figured he was single because he was pursuing her and didn't find out until after the fact when they were already

involved. 24-year-old jaimee grubbs is now saying she is sorry for it. she's telling "extra" she was intimate with woods 20 times over a three-year period. woods never discussed his wife elin and that is who she feels badly for now. >> i have no words to explain, you know, what i have done to her and her family. i guess i would be deeply sorry for never considering her during the whole process. >> this is, by the way, the same woman from the "us weekly" cover story. 11 women have allegedly been linked to woods. >> 11. >> while woods has not lost support from sponsors he is losing it from democrat. joe baca for years was pushing to give woods the congressional gold medal for his, quote, service to the nation and promoting excellence in the nation and they're pulling the bill in light of the recent developments with woods and his

family. by the way, his admitted transgressions have affected a middle school in wisconsin. i am not kidding. i will explain that in about ten minutes and first i want to give you some good celebrity news. new england quarterback tom brady and wife giselle have welcomed a bouncing baby boy. he announced the birth on wednesday and said it happened on tuesday and said he was very sleepy. it's been a wonderful experience, but says he has not picked out a name yet which i find tough to believe. >> because you just had a baby and you said i know that baby's name. >> no paternity leave. that's sports. >> you don't believe in getting to know them and then naming them. >> your name is -- i don't know. >> thank you. if you read between the lines you will see what we mean is his wife chose the name. >> that's the way it is, right? >> that's the way it is. >> who wears the pants in this family. no doubt about it.

>> if you're traveling out today, wind delays already and laguardia with a 32 miles per hour gust. you have a 66-minute delay and that will be out there for the entire morning. lake-effect snow and wind is out there, too. a -- these planes are definitely getting bounced around with the wind and turbulence. here's what it looks like for the rest of the day. you'll see an hour, boston and new york city metros and philadelphia, buffalo, cleveland, detroit and san francisco. watch for rain and all these cities about an hour or more. shorter delays and rain and wind for these. >> thank you. some popular tax breaks could live to see the new year. the house voted yesterday to have $3 is billion worth of property tax reductions. the big hurdle that is left is senate approval. the senate doesn't like the tax increases that the house okayed to make up for the tax breaks. at one college in wisconsin, it looked like braveheart with snowballs.

hey, that's not class! that's a snowball fight! ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

good morning. president obama is officially a nobel peace prize winner. he accepted the honor a short time ago in norway and just finished up his speech. the president said that there have to be alternatives to violence in dealing with nations that break rules and laws. he said there must be consequences for genocide and repression. bundle up. you may be already socked with snow, but what's behind it is dangerous cold temperatures. wind chills are 15 to 25 below in parts of wisconsin, this morning, for example. the dogs loved it. bob has a look at the rest of the map. maybe your backyard in a few minutes here. an al qaeda known as the islamic state of iraq has claimed responsibility for a tax that killed 127 people tuesday.

the series of bombings also wounded nearly 450 others. the group posted an internet message saying it plans more attacks aimed at toppling the iraqi government. cnn could not confirm the authenticity of that statement. come on into the room. i think i hear your coffee is just about ready. i'm robin meade. good to have you with us, sunshine. robert gates arrived in iraq this morning, before leaving afghanistan, he said that u.s. troops would be there beyond the 2011 pullout date. he told a group of afghan soldiers that this is the first time in the country's history that foreign forces are there to help. on cnn's amanpour, general stanley mcchrystal said u.s. forces are pushing back the taliban. >> the momentum is in the minds of people as the effective counter insurgency campaign must be changed the perceptions of the people to increase their confidence in the future. when we change the momentum,

when the people perceive that things are getting better, that security is increasing and then the insurgency is put in a very difficult position because they are losing that sense of momentum. >> gates says the relationship between the u.s. and afghanistan is one forged in blood because of the heavy casualties on both sides. >> happening today, 14 firefighters are finally getting the promotions they sued to get. they complained to the courts when officials threw out everyone's 2003 test results because no minorities did well enough to be promoted. the u.s. supreme court sided with the firefighters and said their civil right his been violated. get this. a school ban says tiger woods is partly to blame for some of its kids not being able to go to disno world. rafer, he's getting blamed from a lot of different places, isn't he? hello? >> call this as bad timing for clintonville middle school van, they've been trying to raise money to go to disney to perform during spring break. a while back the school reached

out to woods asking for a signed picture and they held an auction of it as their top-ticket item. they were asking $1500 which, let's be honest, a month ago that would have been a reasonable asking price and with the money they say they could afford to send everybody to the happiest place on earth, but unfortunately, after the scandal what they actually got for the pic was only $300. >> wow. some people would say doesn't a scandal make it even more valuable, but i think they were probably showing their emotions, maybe. >> makes a good point. all right. interesting. a man and his son were thought to have died in a car bombing in baghdad, but they surprised neighbors by coming home yesterday. the police had included them in the death toll. it turns out they had just minor injuries and even though the bomb destroyed their home and look, the homecoming was made better because they discovered that their dog also survived the blast and was still right there on the leash waiting for them. a pregnant teenager is fighting to stay on her high school volleyball team.

her school benched her saying she needed a doctor's note to keep playing. she says her school discriminated against her. hln prime news mike galanos has both sides of the controversy. >> the school did what's right. don't you want to make sure you get a medical clearance before you turn a pregnant teenager loose to play volleyball? >> it would certainly seem so. in this case the doctor's note was given for the teen had certain restrictions on her behavior anyway, so they were right to make this call because the doctor eventually told them she shouldn't be making diving moves toward the ball or toward the floor which could certainly cause harm and certainly be expected in a volleyball game. absolutely. i think the school made the right call. >> let's bring in a family attorney. lara kauffman. laira, i think that's what my first glance is, better safe than sorry that the school did the right thing where did they go wrong here? >> title 9 of the education amendments in 1972 is a federal civil rights law that prohibits sex discrimination in education

and that includes classifications based on a student's pregnancy. in this case they redwyered mackenzie to submit a full medical clearance to continue playing volleyball, but they had not required that of other athletes with medical conditions that require treatment by a doctor. we'll get the latest on any developments on the story on prime news with mike galanos. it starts at 5:00 p.m. eastern here on hln. so the wintry storm that swept across the nation and brought winds strong enough to snap the state christmas tree in tennessee. it was tethered down by four cables, but three of them broke in the wind. state officials are asking the public to help them find a replacement. >> it's sad. almost feel like christmas is over, christmas is ruined. you see the tree in the chipper and it's not a great sight. >> i guess it wouldn't be a great sight. >> oh! bob s, like, oh. 35 minutes past the hour.

we still have winds, probably that strong today, bob will tell you where. >> right now they're across the great lakes and yesterday, nashville, your peak wind was 45 miles per hour and not enough to snap that tree and some of the others around the region, toledo, o high oh 60-mile-per-hour gusts, fort wayne shalling 58 miles per hour. lexington, and nantucket, 51-mile-per-hour winds. they had winds of over 100 miles per hour. that's real strong as it moves up toward the north. look at the wind right now creating lake-effect snow. that lake-effect snow will continue to hammer away in areas of michigan back toward new york state and it will start coming on strong this morning when you get across places like buffalo. let me show you hutch snow we're calling for over the next 48 hours. if you're in one of those bands it piles up quickly to the tune of one to two inches per hour. notice all five of the great lakes involved with lake-effect snow and the purple-shaded area, in buffalo and in towards the u.p. of michigan.

that's about a foot to a foot and a half of snow over the next 48 hours namely across the tug hill plateau north of syracuse in the south towns. warnings, we have them out there because of the lake-effect snow. >> buffalo and the lake-effect snow warning north of syracuse, but let me take you live to buffalo right now because you can see the snow down to your south it's real windy. winds gusting up to 60 miles per hour. high wind warning and the snow band itself has shifted to the south towns and it will be there all morning and might get a couple of more inches today and the south town is getting slammed. buffalo itself is not. >> definitely. >> bob, do you have an iphone? >> no. i don't either. at&t is telling people who do have an iphone to put it down for a while. huh?

okay. we're going to check the papers for you. you don't have to go outside and get them. usa today is saying a new poll says 65% of u.s. adults have adopted elements of eastern faiths and new age beliefs and that includes people who consider themselves protestants and catholics. kind of mixing it all up. the "l.a. times" says researchers performed successful bone marrow transplants that cured sickle cell in nine out of ten adults. the study is in the new england journal of medicine. in the chicago tribune, 11 workers for the chicago transit authority have been fired for using personal cell phones and other electronic devices on duty. the city implemented a zero tolerance law after a deadly 2008 crash between an l.a. commuter train and a freight train where 24 people were killed. some mysterious lights over

norway are creating a buzz around the world. look at the photos now. the swirl of blue and white lights happened on tuesday night. it's very distinct, but how can you explain it? russia, well, they have confirmed failed missile tests happened at the same time, but officials won't make any connection to the light display. look at this. isn't that something? astronomers say the change sight doesn't appear to be connected to the northern lights. what's with the swirl and the blue? i think i would have been running. that's really strange, and it's not just like it appeared on one website. a lot of people have reported it. >> yeah. at&t says put down your iphone for a little while. apparently, jennifer westhoven, if you have an iphone you can love it so much that you are the data hog. >> i don't know what these people are doing. are they watching movies all day long, but it's causing problems for the whole network. at&t they've had criticism for

their network and there are people who say they don't get texts for hours or messages don't show up for days sometimes on their iphones. at&t is saying, hey, maybe some of you customers shouldn't be on the web so much. they say 3% of customers are taking up 40% of the road, if i can use an analogy like that of the bandwidth, so they're looking at maybe starting to charge more for people who are really over the top. >> this just in about 12 minutes ago. the new jobless claims for the latest week. they edged higher. we had a few weeks where they were coming down. they went back up a little bit more. so it tells us more people lost their jobs. essentially they went down to the unemployment office for the first time. it's about 474,000 is the number of people. so it does mean that for three weeks we're under the half million mark, that's some good news and also one labor department analyst says maybe it's not that things are getting worse again.

it could be because a lot of the offices were closed for thanksgiving. maybe said this and it may be part of friday so a lot of people filed the next week. so we'll keep watching that. you may think the mess cannot be good. the tiger woods fiasco, for his sponsors, but apparently it's good for yahoo!. i think their ceo may be sorry she said this, but first she said yahoo!, will live up to its financial promises this year because so many people are getting on the web and they're either, i don't know, they're looking up the girlfriends, they're thinking i want to know about that, but then she said the tiger woods story is, quote, better than michael jackson dying. i'm sure she regretted saying that. the company said it was a joke. she was at like a wall street conference where everything is all about your performance so they're asking you, you know, how did you do and if you do great that's cause for high fives. i think she just might have forgotten the people involved. >> want to get away?

awkward! >> thank you. speaking of tiger woods, celeb scandals, balloon boy, white house party crashers. what is it about celebrity that seems to obsess this country? we are going to talk about it sunday, december 20th with celebs in their own right. charles barkeley, den kyle petty and dennis eckersley, i'm going to be hosting "with all due respect," but i would like to have your opinion. you've got an opinion about what celeb story? you have a question and you want these three to answer it? i want to have our "morning express with robin meade" viewers on the show. you have to go to cnn.com/robin and would you send me an i report or your question about celebrity obsession so i can use it and show it to the world? i'm going to show off our viewers! here's one way to pack the arena in a bad economy. one nba team is going to be selling beer for a buck.

investigators say an ice buildup in a pipeline is to blame for an oil spill on the alaska tundra. 46,000 gallons of water and oil

spilled from a pipeline, a bp pipeline two weeks ago. to give you a sense of how big that is, 46,000 gallons is like a hotel pool. bp is currently on location for a 2006 spill that led to $20 million in fines. some people could pay a hefty price for the senate's proposed health care changes. people in their 20s and 30s could pay higher premiums for individual policies, but they would get better coverage. people in their 50s and early 60s could pay less than they do now. no dramatic changes are in store for most people who get coverage through their jobs. there continues to be fallout from the tiger woods scandal. you don't say it's, like, every other story. now a lawmaker says he's not pushing to get a congressional gold medal anymore. the late-nighters like jimmy kimmel gives us thoughts on why. a california congressman named joe baca says he's no longer pursuing legislation that would have given tiger the

congressional gold medal. i don't know -- he released a statement that says in light of the fact that tiger has comported himself in a manner utterly lacking in character, dignity and ethical integ rutty, i am withdrawing tiger woods for consideration for the congressional gold medal and instead i'm recommending that he run for congress. >> what's bob call it? the philanderer flow chart for lawmakers. a house subcommittee has approved legislation, speaking of lawmakers, to try to force college football into a playoff system. so congress wants to tell colleges how to run their football playoffs, right? >> well, listen. my thing is if they can't get health care right, maybe they can get something right. i don't know. i mean, could they juggle multiple things? the house energy committee commerce took a step in that direction. they approved a bill that would ban the bcs for calling it a national championship without a

playoff. they reflected criticism by saying we can walk and chew gum at the same time. this is a long way to go before becoming law, but senators have also considered taking up the issue and remember, the president has said he's for a playoff as well. >> so it would be kind of like the basketball, like march madness which anybody could win that national championship and not everybody in football can. i'm not sure if this is good nudz in a bad economy for a bad disaster, but the kings will have dollar beer night for wednesday's game against washington. my first reaction was woo hoo! and then i thought about it. arco arena is right off the freeway. you can only get there by car and it's not like there's public transportation that goes by there. >> that could be a bad recipe. >> could be a bad recipe on the stands and particularly on the roads. terrell owens has a reality show on vh-1. he has a cereal and now he'll try his hand at modeling. he signed with will minna which

represents the world's top models. he said, when you've got good looks like myself you've got to take it. >> he basically already models. couldn't he just be a spokesperson. >> he's not getting paid for this video. he could model for other stuff and get paid. another interesting receiver chad ochocincos has taken that $30,000 fine. this sunday's game against the vikings, if he scores, he will take the horn from this guy, ragnar the viking and blow it. >> i'm telling you. >> that guy is not to be messing with. he will go take a horn out of his hands, i'd like to see that. >> we'll see. >> all right, thank you. college students around the country are stressing about their finals right now, but at one university in california, a campuses club brought ten

puppies to the library to help the students relax before their tests. >> what's it doing for you? >> making me more happy and not think about finals. >> i'm not even thinking about finals right now. >> you're holding that dog like it's yours. >> i wish it was. >> the club will hand out pamphlets on mental health and well being. >> you're still laughing at my funny about ragnar. >> high tensile steel growing out of that guy. >> what's up, robin? >> how are our travelers doing? >> so far just see the northeast and the great lakes affected this morning because of the wind. right now laguardia and queens trying to get out of that region. it is going to be there for the entire afternoon. boston, you're going to get an hour delay because of the wind. winds up there 35 to 40 miles per hour and new york city metros, same thing. buffalo, a lot of wind, a lot of

snow, as well. also looking at deicing around there. >> thank you. bruce springsteen is not shy about his politics and he's coming out in favor of a controversial bill in his own state.

good morning bright and early on thursday, lots been happening already since you just woke up. i'm robin meade, morning sunshine. president obama has just accepts the prestigious nobel peace prize and defended his war-time plan and the troop build up in afghanistan, but, first, he faced another controversy head on. and it is snow shoveling time for people buried by a blizzard that socked the midwest. the deadly storm is just round one of weather danger ahead. and it is bizarre holiday tradition for some kids. let's not make a tradition for anybody who is watching this because a 10-year-old boy stuck his tongue on a frozen pole. how the firefighters got him loose.

>> just one of those stories that you go, no, no, no. president obama is officially a nobel peace prize winner. in his acceptance speech last hour he called it an award that speaks to our highest aspirations. and president obama said that others have different issues with his winning. >> perhaps the most profound issue surrounding the receipt of this prize is that i am the commander in chief of the military, of the nation in the midst of two wars. one of these wars is winding down. the other is a conflict that america did not seek. one in which we are joined by 42 other countries, including norway. in an effort to defend ourselves and all nations from further attacks. >> in a new cnn opinion research

poll 19% thought the president has accomplished enough to win the nobel peace prize and 35% said he has not yet, but he will. 43% say he will never do enough to deserve the honor. >> people are digging out from a foot of snow in the midwest and new england, at least 16 deaths have been blamed on the storm, mostly from car accidents, but fierce winds are just as dangerous in some parts of the country. wind gusts up to 60 miles per hour brought down trees and knocked down power in parts of ohio. >> heard this big crash, really, really big crash and i just went to the upstairs, the third floor and i could just see the whole wall's cracked and the skylight is all cracked. >> well, rescuers in arizona are out in freezing temperatures to search for at least 25 hunters stranded by the snow. since then some of them have

called for help from the cell phones and families have called to report them missing. >> the problem is getting to them at this point because when they went in the roads were dry and they were passable, they may be 30 to 40 miles in from a paved road and now the roads are covered with three feet of snow. so, it's the getting to them that is giving us a problem. >> the snow is starting to let up and much of the country but bitter cold temperatures are behind it. bob has more on that in a few seconds. less of a kick from your cereal. one cereal maker is lowering the sugar content. jennifer westhoven points out probably not enough to make it taste different here. >> are you really supposed to get a kick out of your cereal? >> put caffeine in it, too! >> if cereal is making you buzz, back away from the bowl. general mills will cut the sugar in some of their very popular cereals and mostly these cereals are popular with the kids. in lucky charms it will go from

11 grams of sugar to 9. that's still a lot of sugar for you. there are ten cereals that are being affected here, it will also be trix and cocoa puffs and these are still not the greatest choice for breakfast for kids, but it is a step in the right direction. >> you are so granola. >> it's not that i'm so granola, if i have sugar, i'm like -- you know. then an hour later i'm like. >> it's true. it's so true. all right. thank you, doll, appreciate it. new this morning, six people, including two firefighters have been injured in a five alarm fire in a high rise in chicago. now, rescuers have had to save several people from the roof of the building. the fire broke out overnight and it took a couple hours to put out. on a street where i used to live. five americans arrested in pakistan. the men were planning terrorist attacks. the fbi has not confirmed if the five are the same that

disappeared from a virginia area a week ago. pakistani police say the men may have tried to join militant groups but neither group was interested. >> we've seen about 11 cases of terrorist cases in the u.s. in the last six months and more americans going out in militant groups and we've seen about a dozen americans going there in the past year, which represents a surge in the number of americans getting the sort of training that could make them into very dangerous terrorists, potentially. an american islamic advocacy group said one of the missing men left behind a disturbing video that will be a farewell messa message. five tsa employees put on leave after a secret manual for screening airport passengers was put on the internet. the department of homeland security insists the manual was very outdated but it is doing a full investigation and stopped posting documents with any

security on the net until they can do a full review. so, we have some blistering cold temperatures and wind and snow. so, yeah, as the that's going to be a nice day, bob. >> remember planes, trains and automobiles where he goes, what do you think the temperature is out here? he goes, 1. it is. 6 in green bay. these are all the actual temperatures without the wind. you throw the wind up there and it's even worse because the wind chill factor well below the zero mark fahrenheit. minus 17 in omaha and denver right now holding on to that minus 17 degree mark and be there for most of the morning. your high in denver, 29. it will never feel like that with the wind coming up out of the south. 12 degrees in oklahoma city and 10 in amarillo and right now peb low it is 19. you add the wind chill factor. and it feels like 12 in oklahoma city and minus 2 in wichita and

27 degrees right now in houston, texas. that is extremely cold air and the air mass sliding over to the east. as it does that, gets a lake-effect snow going, too. now generating off of basically erie in towards ontario and one main screaming band is just south of buffalo right now pile up to one to two inches. grand rapids, michigan. all the rest of the counties and red winter storm warnings and advisories are in blue which means you get less amount of snow. one band right off of erie and another one off of ontario. wind also a factor. kansas highway patrol says a strong gust of wind caused this semi-truck trailer to go sideways and the wind caught it and flipped it over. look that wind just blowing the snow in drifts right there. that was right around kansas. unbelievable. >> i'd be surprised if they didn't have a high-profile ban that day for drivers that day.

not be driving those trucks. >> we're not even in winter yet, just a heads up. >> gotcha. watch this. i like the high-pitch scream. remember the scene from the holiday classic "a christmas story." poor flick got stuck on the pole after being triple dog dared. >> the look of horror on his classmates is just classic. >> well, it happened to a kid in real life. firefighters in boise, idaho, helped get loose a 10-year-old and the kid says it still hurts. >> it hurts badly. when you try to swallow and stuff. >> so, right now what do you feel? >> numbness. >> the poor thing. the kid also said though that he tried to stick his tongue to

frozen poles in the past. >> like we said before, at least it wasn't railroad tracks or something like that. >> bob! >> at the very least. at the very least. that's all i can tell you. >> just don't be planting any ideas. >> no. facebook is making changes to protect your privacy, but you may end up with more of your personal info out there. one of the woman who claims she had an affair with tiger woods has a message for his wife. are you kidding me?

okay. 11 minutes past the hour. let's salute our troops. today we are saluting specialist jordan crawley. his wife, samantha, said he and his unit are great soldiers and all the families can not wait until they come home. got somebody you love in the service? salute them. cnn.com/robin. investigators say that an ice build up in a pipeline is to blame for a oil spill on the alaska tundra. 46,000 gallons of water and oil

spilled from a bp pipeline two weeks ago. to give you a sense of how big that is, it's like a hotel pool. bp is currently on probation for a 2006 bill that led to $20 million in fines. you know, little dogs that seem like celebrity arm candy became popular with a lot of pet owners. well, now, they're too popular with california animal shelters. new for you in the next 30 minutes, what do you do about a chihuahua overload? or people i think called them purse puppies, they're just so little. >> here's bob with things for our travelers to know. >> good morning. a little bit of a better day to travel today than yesterday. we had the snow and wind and heavy rain and today is lake-effect but the wind is still up there. here are the great lakes. and snow streamers coming on off and plains on top of it trying to get in and out of buffalo and same with toronto and new york

and boston because of the wind. right now a 66-minute delay in laguardia and that's in queens. here's the rest of them, i think they're lengthy, philly, buffalo, san francisco rain across the bay area and as for the rest of the region, not as long when you get down towards atlanta, d.c. or orlando. full details in a little bit. jen? >> i feel lucky compared to a lot of people out there this morning. >> no doubt about it, yeah. little chilly, too. little chilly. >> i have some cousins in denver who are facebooking because they're complaining. if you are on facebook, 350 million people, you have some choices to make about your privacy settings. if you want to keep things private, this is a pretty controversial change going on. basically, facebook says you're going to get more control over your privacy, but users are having a different experience. many of them saying, hey, this

seems to strip away some of your privacy. you used to be able to hide your name and profile picture, not anyone could see it, but now that's all going to change. that could mean you get friend requests from strangers or maybe even criminals. a lot of hackers in facebook and some parents are worried maybe a cute picture of them on santa's knee could be available to creeps. be very careful and one thing to look out for, if this involves you, look out for the everyone option. for some people when you start to click into your settings to control them and keep them private, for some people facebook already has the default to share everything about you with everyone with the facebook account. so, be real careful when you go through there. here's a little good news, foreclosures are down. down 15% from their worst levels and still an awful year overall. 2009 is going to be the second year in a row of record numbers of people either losing their homes or getting seriously late on paying their mortgages.

realty track says things will not change until the job market improves. okay, so a biochemist throws it all away and becomes a fashion designer and stephanie elam chucks out his design in our small business success. >> the world watched america inaugurate the 44th president in january, but for a detroit-based business, it was all about the hat. >> miss aretha frapgline has been shopping with us for about 20 years. i had heard that she was going to sing for the inaugural and called us several weeks later and she wanted a hat. >> that hat gave him international recognition. but the family-run hat shop has been the staple for detroit-area shoppers for years. >> my parents opened it up in 1982. that's when we first moved to the country from south korea. when i came back from the

college i took over the operations. >> reporter: luke originally studied biochemistry and decided to mix it up. into a career in hat designing. while luke admits inauguration gave business a boost, he contributes it to loyal customers. >> my customers started with african-american church going women. they backed me all the way through thick and thin. >> yeah! the church ladies helped him out. maybe you think your business should be on the program. we'd love to see your success story, take a video of it, make an ireport and upload it. you could be next.

happening today. 14 firefighters are finally getting the promotions they sued to get. officials threw out everyone's 2003 test results because no minorities did well enough to be promoted. the supreme court sided with the firefighters and said their civil rights were violated. one of tiger woods' alleged mistresses is speaking out and saying something to woods' wife. rafer weigel has more on that. >> yeah, that she's sorry and didn't know he was married. >> didn't know he was married.

>> is that an excuse? i don't know. >> how could she not know tiger was married. >> maybe she's not a fan of golf before this. 24-year-old jamie grubs, she tells "extra" she was intimate with woods 20 times over a three-year period and woods never discussed his wife and she just figured he was single and now she feels bad for elin. >> i have no words to explain, you know, what i've done to her and her family. i guess i would be deeply sorry for never considering her during the whole process -- >> now she did say when she did find out he was married they were in a relationship. 11 women have been allegedly linked to woods. he is losing some sponsors from congress. california democrat joe balka for years was pushing to give woods the congressional gold

medal and now balka is pulling the bill in light of the recent developments with woods and his family and, get this, his adm admitted transgressions have affected a middle school in wisconsin. i am not kidding. i swiwill explain in ten minute some good family news from some celebrities. tom brady and wife have a bouncing baby boy. they announced the birth on wednesday and they say they have not picked out a name. says it's been a wonderful experience and has not gotten much sleep. they play the panthers on sunday. that's sports. >> all right, thank you. next hurricane season could be much harsher. how many major hurricanes are predicted? ñ

the new york stock exchange just opened for business. traders are looking for a slight rally today even though claims for unemployment benefits were up slightly. we'll look that early training in a few minutes. first, though, president obama accepted the nobel peace prize in norway and in doing so he said there are others who deserve the award more than he does and takes it as an assignment to create lasting peace. more on that in a moment here. bundle up. you may have already been sock would snow, but now it is getting bitter cold in a lot of the country. wind chills are about 25 below in parts of iowa this morning. bob has a look at the forecast in your back yard. some people could pay a

hefty price for the senate proposed health care changes. people under the age of 40 could pay higher premiums for individual policies but they would get better coverage. people in their early 50s and 60s could pay less. those are the top stories. good morning. i see bed head going on, that's okay, you still look good to us. defense secretary robert gates arrived in iraq this morning, but before leaving afghanistan, he said, but u.s. troops could be there beyond the 2011 pullout date. he told a group of soldiers this is the first time in the country's history that foreign forces are there to help. general stanley mcchrystal said that u.s. forces are pushing back the taliban. >> the momentum is in the minds of people the output of our effective surgeoncy campaign must be to change the perceptions of the people and increase their confidence in the future. when we change the momentum and

the people proceed that things are getting better and security is increasing, then the insurgency is put in a very difficult position because they are losing that sense of momentum. >> gates says that the relationship between the united states and afghanistan is one forged in blood because of the heavy casualties on both sides. the couple accused of crashing the white house state dinner is going to be forced to face congress, but don't expect them to shed much light. yesterday the house and homeland security committee voted -- how they got into last month's state dinner without an invite. the couple will plead the fifth and refuse to talk. get this a school band is saying that tiger woods is partly to blame for some of its kids not being able to go to disney world. rafer, he's getting blamed from all parts. >> call it bad timing for the poor kids at clintonville middle school. their band in wisconsin had been trying to raise money to send the kids to disney to perform

during spring break. the school reached out to woods' media team asking for a signed picture. they got the signed picture. they recently held an auction and that pick was their top ticket item they were asking for 1,500 bucks and they could they could afford to send everybody to the happiest place on earth and after the recent scandal they only got $300 for the picture. only $300. five times less than expected. >> it really plummeted in value, didn't it? president obama says that we probably won't end violent conflict in our lifetimes, but ways to work for lasting peace. that was part of his acceptance speech this morning for the nobel peace prize. >> i receive this honor with deep gratitude and great humility. it's an award that speaks to our highest aspirations and for all

the cruelty and hardship of our world, we are not mere prisoners of fate. our actions matter. and can bend history in the direction of justice. >> well, mr. obama said that the world has to find alternatives to violence that are tough enough to change behavior. an ohio man is accused of trying to kidnap a 12-year-old girl while dressed as santa. he hid in the bushes and jumped at the girl as she was walking to school. she got away but they arrested him later in full costume. 34 minutes past the hour. let me get a peek. lake-effect snow is kind of what is bothering a lot of our viewers today and with it, you have the cold temperatures, too, right, bob? >> this is really the first shot of real heavy lake-effect snow and it includes all five of the great lakes.

here's lake superior and the u.p. of michigan getting hit pretty hard right now. and the wind is picking up out of the west, southwest off of lake erie and snow around buffalo and getting near syracuse and rochester and more snow north of syracuse, too. lake-effect warnings are out there and a lot of snow over the next 48 hours and calling for maybe as wuch as one or two feet of snow when it gets out to buffalo and probably more when you get to northern regions. look at the rest of the lakes in essence, just a powerhouse of snow for the next 48 hours and wind down some time tomorrow night. that's what we're thinking. as for the rest of the region, live to buffalo. lake-effect snow squall right off of erie and moves back to the north briefly this afternoon and then back down to the south as the wind shifts around again. more snow as you get near the middle part of new york state and western michigan and more snow is out there and get away from that and the wind that will

slow you down and basically western new york with high-wind warnings. and right across florida into south georgia. wind chill values, pretty amazing. we'll get to those, robin, in about a half hour. >> thank you. all righty. on wall street new jobless claims rose last week after falling for five straight weeks. felicia taylor is at the new york stock exchange to give us a look at the big picture there. >> good morning, robin. quee are seeing decent gains despite the number of people who filed for unemployment. the numbers, though, you have to take them into consideration. they're a little inflated. state offices were closed for thanksgiving two weeks ago and that delayed claims. treasury secretary tim geithner is on capitol hill again today. he is testifying about t.a.r.p. an overnight panel yesterday said it did stabilize the

banking system, but, then again, it did also fail to free up credit and stem the wave of foreclosures. one of the biggest recipients of t.a.r.p. was citigroup and it could announce a repayment plan today. finally, 2009 is on track to be the first year that people have increased the use of coupons since 1992. i know i cut them out of the sunday papers every weekend. searches on google for pintable coupons have doubled this year and consumers printed nearly 3 to million in savings off of coupons.com. the chicago tribune dug up the first ever coupon dates back to 1894. >> are you kidding me? >> 1894. gave away vouchers for free coca-cola at his new drugstore right there in georgia. >> now, he knew a trend when he saw it, didn't he? thank you, appreciate it. actor sasha baron cohen is

no stranger to lawsuit because of some of the crazy characters he plays in his film but this one is a duzy. he is facing $110 million for bruno. also ahead, they're small and adorable but now chihuahuas are overrunning some animal shelters.

two firefighters lost their jobs because one of them skipped an emergency call to coach a game. officials say a 15-year veteran of the department took a ladder truck to the game last month while another firefighter reportedly encouraged him to stay at the game while the others responded to the emergency call. >> it's an anomaly that shouldn't have taken place and

it did take place and we're taking appropriate action to make sure this never occurs again. >> there reportedly were enough workers to handle the emergency call, but, still. a palestinian shopkeeper has filed a $110 million lawsuit after he was portrayed as a terrorist in the film "bruno." the lawsuit not only names the film's star sasha baron cohen but letterman did an interview. no comments so far from "bruno's" producers or letterman's company. you see people carrying around these dogs, chihuahuas. they are so popular that they are the most abandoned breed. chihuahuas make up a third of the population in shelters in california. high vet bills and puppy mills are also to blame for a chaw waw waw overload. has your credit limit been

slashed even though you never miss a payment? there is a way to fight back. money expert clark howard tells you what to do. >> seems not a day goes by that i don't hear from somebody who has had their credit limit cut on a credit card or their credit card closed without notice. and here's the crazy thing. huge percent of the people who are having their lines cut or their accounts closed are people who have never missed a payment and have great credit scores but as a result of the limits being reduced or the accounts being closed, your credit standing and your credit score goes down. now, here's what you need to do. if you are someone who has been a good payer, you've been good about how you handle credit, but you get by with just a credit card or two, this is a time, you're not going to believe it, that i want you to go apply for another credit card or two from someone else other than who you have credit with. why? it's almost like a free

insurance policy that if your limits are reduced or your accounts are closed, you're going to protect your precious credit score. do it now. i'm clark howard. for more ways to protect yourself, go to cnn.com/clarkhoward. >> clark will teach you to save more, spend less and avoid getting ripped off. catch him at noon eastern on saturday and sundays right here on hln. just because the weather is a downer just didn't mean that people didn't have fun in the snow. thousands of students at the university of wisconsin madison took part in a massive snowball fight and some other students took a break from the battle to talk about what their strategy was. >> we throw them and then hide behind other people and pick some more up so we don't get hit. >> i get attacked, but i'm survivi surviving. >> just got to keep packing and keep throwing. >> well, the largest snowball fight on record, by the way, was 3,700 people. look at the corner of your screen and you can see the dow was up almost 100 points right

now in early trading and we're waiting to see how that is doing today. a lot of wintry weather, there is a lot of wintry weather across the country right now. what does it mean for you if you're going to be traveling today? more on that. here's one way to pack the arena in a bad economy. one nba team is going to be selling beer for a buck. and then the crowd goes, you don't know me.

well, hey, sunshine. let's check the morning papers today. in "usa today" a new poll says 65 u.s. adults have adopted elements of eastern 65%. only 65% of them have adopted elements of eastern faith and new age beliefs. that includes people who consider themselves protestants

and catholics. we're mix and matching religions, apparently. "the l.a. times" says they performed successful bone marrow transplants that cured sickle cell in nine out of ten adults. in "the chicago tribune" 11 workers for the cta, chicago transit authority have been fired for using cell phones and other electronic devices while on duty. a zero tolerance law after a deadly 2008 crash between an l.a. commuter train and freight train. after an official recount of last month's vote reed came out ahead. he beat mary norwood by 1,714 ballots. reed will be sworn in next wednesday. there continues to be some fallout, some from the tiger woods' scandal? i'd say a lot. a lawmaker says he's not pushing any more to get woods a

congressional gold medal. well, jimmy kimmel was all about that. >> a california congressman named joe bacca announced he is no longer pursuing legislation that would give tiger the congressional gold medal. he released a statement that said in light of the fact that tiger has purported himself in a matter, i am withdrawing tiger woods for consideration for the congressional gold medal and instead i'm recommending that he run for congress. >> so, get this, a house subcommittee has approved legislation to try to force college football to have a true playoff system. so, you're telling me that united states lawmakers want to say, no, you're going to play the game like this. >> yes, you guys are going to play. >> if the bcs would just fix it on their own, then we wouldn't have these guys. even dealing with it on a condwregzal level and you could

argue they still shouldn't because they have more important things to worry about but i'm happy about it because i'm bias. the house energy committee banned a bill to call a bcs championship game without a playoff. right now they're using polls and people. look, we can walk and chew gum at the same time meaning we could tackle many different things. it has a long way to go before becoming law, though. i'm not sure if this is good news in a bad economy or a recipe for disaster. the sacramento kings announced they will have dollar beer night for wednesday's game against washington. my first reaction was like, woo-hoo, there is not a lot of public transportation, if any, you have to get there by car. possible chaos in the stands and on the road. i will be looking to see what happens. >> wasn't there a game in history, jennifer remembers. >> 10 cent beer night back in the '70s, the players got

mobbed. it was very bad. i hope the same thing doesn't happen in this one. reality show on vh-1 schuller a serial schuller now going to be a model schuller signed with the will mina agency this week schuller he says "when you've got good looks like myself you have to take advantage of it." and chad ochocinco has taken the latest fine for donning a poncho and sombrero as a challenge schuller . he says this sunday he is going to take the horn from this guy. this is ragnar, the viking. >> i dare him. >> he's going to take his horn away and blow it schuller whenever the vikings score, ragnar blows his horn. chad says he's going to take that -- >> ragnar will stomp him. >> do not mess with ragnar. >> i love it. i know what you're waiting for me to say, he's got hair up and down his back. >> it's funny. >> i know. the wintry storm that has

swept across the nation brought winds strong enough to snap the state christmas tree in tennessee. it was tethered down by four tables, but three -- cables, but three broke in the winds. officials are asking for help to find a replacement. >> it's sad. you almost feel like christmas is over, christmas is ruined, something like that, you see the tree in the chipper. not a great sight. >> yeah. the tree's in the chipper. that would not be. for travelers today the wind is your problem, as well. hi, there. >> good morning, robin. 46-mile-per-hour gusts. that snapped that tree in nashville. i'll tell you the wind is still up there, especially great lakes now. laguardia, around new york city, you have winds gusting to 35 to 40 today schuller you already have a 66-minute delay at laguardia. boston, you're going to see the gusty conditions, too. watch for an hour or more delay for you schuller loti. new york city, no delays, good news. more delays because of de-icing and snow in buffalo, wind out there, too. we'll talk about that in about a

half-hour. >> all right. you see a lot of traditional, religious imagery this time of year. we've got the latest on some of the more unusual images inspiring fact in some people.