america this morning. >> stay with us. making news in america this morning, the senate passes a landmark bill to overhaul the criminal justice system reforming prison sentencing guidelines, the most sweeping changes in a generation. overnight president trump praising the move. who it affects and how it could change our prisons. a rare tornado touches down in the pacific northwest. >> everything is flying everywhere. i thought i was a goner. >> new video of the devastating damage. homes ripped apart and now the concern about storms on the move combining just in time for holiday travel later this week. caught on camera, a man trapped in this burning car, flames spreading around him. the move these quick-thinking officers made to try to save his

life. plus, medical mystery. doctors are stunned after a young girl with a brain tumor suddenly recovers. her tumor gone. new this morning, elon musk takes us on the first tour of his underground tunnel system. >> it's something that i think will actually work. >> is this the cure for big city traffic headaches? and the new effort to reunite bonnie and clyde. the fight to bring the legendary criminal duo together again for eternity. good wednesday morning, everyone. we begin with a rare bipartisan effort in washington. >> overnight the senate passed a landmark bill that will reform the nation's criminal justice system reducing the prison population and changing sentencing guidelines. >> meanwhile, there are new signs that congress and the president could be nearing a deal to avoid a government

shutdown over the president's $5 billion border wall. abc's lana zak has all the details from washington. lana, good morning. >> reporter: good morning to you, janai and kendis. when it comes to avoiding a government shutdown the white house says they're waiting for congress to act but congress needs to know what the president will accept. congress appears to be optimistic about their efforts to come up with a bipartisan deal that would avoid a government shutdown. >> i think both sides, everything wantss it. >> reporter: it heads to the president for approval. he is still a wild card. after insisting last week that he would be proud to shut down the government at the didn't get $5 billion towards his border wall, it seems the president's position has softened. >> can we ask about the shutdown? >> we'll see what happens. >> well, you say that but -- >> too early. too early to say. >> reporter: white house press secretary sarah sanders indicated the president would consider other options. >> the president's asked every one of his cabinet secretaries to look for funding that can be used to protect our borders. >> reporter: but there may be

legal and congressional changes to that. >> we cannot accept the offer they made of a billion dollar slush fund for the president to implement his very wrong immigration policies. >> reporter: meanwhile, the senate came together, republicans and democrats, to pass criminal justice reform. it's been described as the most significant changes to prison sentencing laws in a generation. the bill expands job training and makes changes to mandatory minimum sentences. the president tweeting overnight, this will keep our communities safer and provide hope and a second chance to those who earn it. i look forward to signing this into law. >> reporter: the bill ends automatic life sentences for third time drug offenders and it also requires that prisoners are incarcerated within 500 miles of their homes and now heads to the house where it is expected to pass. kendis, janai. >> and white house adviser jared kushner getting some credit for helping move that bill along. lana, thank you. >> thank you. former national security adviser michael flynn

flynn is facing new restrictions after his sentencing is delayed. the judge that scolded him over his lies has ordered him to surrender his passport and stay within 50 miles of washington, d.c. flynn went to court expecting to avoid prison time. instead he accepted the judge's offer to postpone sentencing until march giving him more time to cooperate with robert mueller's investigation. it took just hours for gun rights activists to file a lawsuit challenging the president's rule on bump stocks, the attachments that allow semiautomatic weapons to fire like machine guns. in las vegas the gunman used rifles with bump stocks to kill 58 people. the white house is urging owners to obey the new rule. >> a 90-day period now begins which persons in possession of bump stock-type devices must turn those devices to an atf field office or destroy them by march 21st. instructions for proper destruction will be posted on atf's website today. >> the nra is calling on the government to provide amnesty for gun owners who already have

bump stocks. up to 520,000 have reportedly been sold since 2010. new accusations against facebook surfaced overnight, the social network right now reportedly allowed major tech companies more access to your data than previously revealed. "the new york times" reports more than 150 companies including amazon and microsoft receive data in a partnership with facebook. now that partnership was designed to help people access the facebook website. facebook reportedly gave netflix and spotify the ability to read users' private messages as part of that deal. it released a statement overnight saying, its partners don't get to ignore people's privacy settings, and the company says it's winding down the integration partnerships that were built to help access facebook. >> another blow to facebook. >> another apology. we turn now to that rare tornado near seattle. the damage is being described

as catastrophic in one neighborhood. homeowners are sharing their stories of survival. a massive funnel cloud forming in port orchard, washington, outside seattle. >> we moved from kansas a while back. and i didn't expect tornadoes here. i can tell you that. >> reporter: the confirmed destroying homes, helping up giant trees and peeling away rooftops. >> dude. >> reporter: first responders combing through the damage. >> really happy that nobody is injured. i do feel sorry for everybody involved, everybody who lost part of their house. >> there's nothing. there's nothing left. >> reporter: this man says he learned a tree fell on his house when he saw video posted to facebook. >> somebody taking a video from the safeway gas station and as soon as i saw the video, i saw where it dropped down, and i know it was my house. >> reporter: emily silverman was caught in the tornado as she was driving with her 2-year-old son near the local walmart. >> before you know it, everything was flying everywhere. our car, our back windows blew out. i've never seen anything like this in my life. >> reporter: the severe weather is part of a monster storm system bringing heavy rain,

strong winds and massive waves to the pacific northwest. high surf along parts of the california coast hitting 20 to 30 feet. officials warning people to stay out of the water and making for slow and dangerous travel conditions as millions head to their holiday destinations. and those same storms are expected to dump heavy rain in the south and up the east coast by friday. but for now let's take a closer look at today's forecast. good morning. some very strong winds working into the front range. this is part of the same system that brought a lot of stormy weather to washington and oregon. well, here we go. we have high wind threats here with some wind gusts of close to 70 miles per hour in and around through parts of colorado including denver. a different storm system in texas is just starting to form here and we are getting more moisture pulling into louisiana.

showers, thunderstorms through the day. wait though until thursday. it becomes a rainmaker in the southeast and moves to the northeast. i'm accuweather meteorologist melissa constanzer. well, coming up, just how low gas prices could go this week. but first a new plan to address the crisis at the border. what the government has agreed to help migrant children. a medical mystery. we hear from the father of a young girl whose brain tumor suddenly disappeared.

we're back with a surprise guest ringing the doorbell with his nose at this home in naples, florida. that black bear also knocked over the christmas decorations. not a good houseguest. the homeowner saw the thing play

out on the doorbell camera and told the bear to go away and used the intercom to scare the bear away. several developments this morning in the southern border crisis. the trump administration now says the u.s. will invest nearly $6 billion to boost economic development in central america and stem the flow of migrants fleeing gangs and poverty. meanwhile to make it easier and faster find migrant children new homes, u.s. officials will no longer require fingerprints of every person in a household that sponsors children. and just days after the death of a 7-year-old guatemalan girl in u.s. custody, buzzfeed is reporting that another migrant girl nearly died after being detained in new mexico. more sponsors have pulled out of tucker carlson's prime time show after the fox news host suggested that some immigrants make the united states quote poorer and dirtier and lost up to 17 sponsors, but most of his biggest sponsors are staying put and carlson says he's not intimidated. well, president trump's charitable foundation is

shutting down amid an ongoing investigation by new york's attorney general. she accuses the president and his family of misusing donations and says the foundation is basically, quote, little more than a checkbook to serve mr. trump's business and political interests. the trump team calls the investigation pure politics and say they've been trying to shut down the foundation since the election two years ago. here's some good news before you hit the roads. gas prices are plunging just in time for holiday travel and dropped an average of $26 per gallon thanks to falling oil prices. by the end of the week these eight states are expected to see prices below $2 per gallon. the cheapest gas right now is in texas at 1.65 per gallon. ugly will be pretty in a couple of days. friday's national ugly holiday sweater day. and alaska airlines and horizon air are offering a deal if you wear your ugly sweater. you'll be allowed to board your flight early. the offer only applies on friday.

and it just applies to the sweater, not if you're ugly from the neck up. >> shameless. coming up, a mother takes down a man trying to steal her car, and it's all caught on video. but first new this morning, we take you inside billionaire elon musk's first hyperloop tunnel. is it the solution to l.a.'s notorious traffic problem? and later, a 20-year-old rookie's pro hockey debut and his mom's pricely reaction. but t got super specific. i learned my people came from a small region in poland and even a little bit of the history about why they might have migrated during that time. those migration patterns are more than just lines on a map, they're really your family's story. this holiday, give the gift that's connected millions to a deeper family story. order your kit at ancestry.com.

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congestion on the roads above. this morning, tesla's ceo elon musk taking the wraps off his high-speed tunnel system. >> this is something i think will actually work. >> reporter: his so-called boring company developed the underground portal in huh torn, california, an area known for traffic jams. >> traffic is soul destroying. it's like acid on the soul. it's horrible. >> reporter: members of the media were given a chance to take a ride on the prototype. an elevator lowered them 30 feet into the tunnel in a modified white tesla 3 with the jackson five's "dancing machine" blaring on the radio. they traveled 1.14 miles to the end of the tunnel going about 40 miles an hour, far less than the company says it'll eventually travel. abc's matt gutman was one of the reporters along for the ride. >> so that tesla model actually inside is going to zoom right through the tunnel. you see the light has turned green and there it's off. acceleration is pretty fast

inside the tunnel. the ride is a little bit rocky, kind of like a roller coaster but the boring company says it will smooth all of that out and eventually all vehicles will be able to go through here at about 150 miles per hour. >> reporter: musk says the goal is to have a network of two-way tunnels beneath cities with entry and exit points and says any electric car could use the tunnel and could cost $1 per passenger like an underground highway. >> the average speed on a subway is ten miles an hour including stops but the way the loop would work, you would have main arteries traveling at 150 miles an hour and only when you want to go to an exit would you have an off-ramp. you can travel the vast majority of your journey without stopping at 150 miles an hour and only slow down when you get to your exit. >> and musk says it took $10 million to build the prototype but he has his sights on more than just los angeles. in june his company signed a

deal with chicago to build a 17-mile tunnel linking o'hare airport and downtown. a texas couple is calling their daughter's remarkable recovery nothing short of a miracle after her inoperable brain tumor vanished. roxli doss was diagnosed with a tumor in june and went through radiation even though there's no cure. doctors were stunned when they checked her scan and found no trace of that tumor. >> it was actually unbelievable, the tumor is undetectable on mri scan, which is very unusual. >> on the brain stem area you've got, you know, it's just all throughout. on the right side, you know, it's -- you can't see it. >> amazing. doctors can't explain why roxli is cancer-free. her family says their prayers were answered and roxli is as active as ever. two sheriff's deputies risked their lives to pull a man

from a burning car. the dramatic video comes in just outside houston. not only was the car burning, the man was on fire as well. so the deputies pulled him out, submerged in a nearby puddle. that saved his life. he's now reportedly in stable condition. and a mother from the bronx has sent a message to potential car thieves, she is not the one, not now, not ever. tihisha jones put a beating on a guy she saw trying to steal her suv. she pulled him out of the driver's seat and started punching him. jones has a heart condition but says adrenaline and anger got the best of her. >> i just kept hitting him saying you was trying to steal my car. really? are you serious? so i had to take matters into my own hands because i work -- i saved to get that car myself. i'm a single parent. i saved to get that. >> took matters into her own hands. police say the would-be thief was drunk. he says he thought he was getting into an uber. >> oops.

that's a rough mistake there. to sports now and some real emotion overnight as a rookie ambassador made his debut for the philadelphia flyers. carter hart was trending on twitter when his mom was shown in the stands crying after carter made the first of his 22 saves. pretty good. he said the whole night was like a dream come true. he helped the flyers beat the red wings, 3-2. >> proud mom. well, up next in "the pulse" george bush's secret pen pal revealed. also ahead, a new effort to reunite bonnie and clooitd decades after their crime spree. and we look at penny marshall's legacy going way beyond "laverne & shirley." and maintained it. oh! under seven? (vo) and you may lose weight. in the same one-year study, adults lost on average up to 12 pounds. oh! up to 12 pounds?

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starting with nevada making political history as the first state to have a majority female legislature. >> two women were just appointed to fill vacancies in nevada's state assembly. okay, and women also picked up seats in the midtemper midtemper election so 32 female lawmakers in the assembly and senate compared to 31 men. >> so they're about to get a whole bunch of stuff done right. next to the infamous criminals possibly being reunited in death. >> when bonnie and clyde died in a shootout with police, bonnie's mother demanded the couple be buried in separate cemeteries in the dallas area but now 84 years later the couple's families say they want bonnie's body moved to be next to clyde's. >> clyde's nephew says the burial plot next to him was open for bonnie and still available. >> ah. >> you wouldn't be surprised how many times we're approached by people who have their sentiments, why weren't they buried

together? why can't they be buried together? >> ah. >> bonnie's family has to get court approval for the move. >> some people say love in dead. we're learning that former president george h.w. bush had a secret pen pal for years. >> through a church group he sponsored a boy in the philippines. for security purposes, he had to withhold his full name only signing george walker and wrote, i'm an old man, 77 years old but i love kids and said he lived in texas. >> in another letter bush sent a picture of his dog and urged the boy to pray every day. >> the boy was finally told his pen pal's real name when he was 17. he called it life changing. and finally, one of the students picking up a diploma at clarkson university was a blond named griffin. >> the golden retriever, a service dog, was recognized for his, quote, extraordinary contributions to a student's success. you see he helped brittany holly hearn her masters. she uses a wheechair and he helps her with her daily tasks.

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(acapella) ahhhhhh! (vo) vaporize sore throat pain with new vicks vapocool drops. and good morning to you. sit wednesday, december 19th. thanks for joining us. >> keep getting closer to the holiday every day. >> yeah. we keep getting closer to rain tomorrow. >> that's right. >> we have fog today. hi, everybody. let's talk about temperatures. they're milder this morning. warm air bringing extra moisture. we will talk about the fog it's creating in less than three mont months. 40s in danville, los gatos, san jose. the rest of us in the low to mid-50s. here's where we will end up. low to mid-60s under a partly cloudy sky. thick fog in your accuweather 12-hour planner. >> i'm talking about fog this morning as well, mike.

we have a dense fog advisory right around st. route 12 and interstate 80. visibility layer added to traffic maps. the brighter the white, the denser the fog. it is dense through is the stretch. slow down. drive for conditions in marin county and other areas of the north bay as well. drive times are looking great. highway 4 to the maze, 17 minutes. 8 minutes across the bay bridge. a nine-minute drive, is san francisco to sfo. tesla is investigating after a bay area man said his model s caught on fire, not once but twice. >> it burst into flames as the driver says he got a warning about a flat tire. abc 7 news reporter matt keller live for us in campbell. matt. >> reporter: good morning, reggie. santa clara county fire just swapped out crews. they have the tesla up on blocks to have access to the batteries underneath. get this, thermal imaging done by firefighters in the last hour show the batteries are still at

170 degrees. it is so hot you can see steam coming off the vehicle. check out the video from overnight. you can see the batteries caught fire again. firefighters had to put out the flames. they are following recommendations from the carmaker and other fire departments to put a lot of water on it. they don't know how long they will have to watch it. they are not putting it near anything flammable. >> the batteries continue to generate heat. we checked them with our thermal imaging camera. but you still have the process of heat generation going on in the batteries. there's been other instances of this in the past. that's why we wouldn't put this near a building, near other cars. >> reporter: now here's video from the owner of the model s after it burst into flames the first time after being towed to a car shop yesterday afternoon. it was then moved to a tow yard in campbell. they are investigating the matter and are glad to hear everyone is safe. matt keller, abc 7 news.

>> phmatt, thank you. a team is going to washington state to sales the damage from a rare tornado. >> it happened in port orchard southwest of seattle. the confirmed tornado is believed to be just the second ever twister to touchdown. it hit without time for a warning. it ripped up giant trees. >> we were looking out the window at the rain. it was just really coming down hard. we started hearing a roaring noise. i asked my son, what the heck is that? then the wind hit and it just went nuts. >> so far no reports of anyone hurt. while the tornado has passed, the danger is not over. there are active power lines down, and gas companies are checking for leaks this morning. so a lot of damage still left over. >> nothing unusual like that here. but we are going to get some rain. >> unusual for them, absolutely.