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tv   America This Morning  ABC  December 20, 2018 4:00am-4:30am PST

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>> that's what i'm going to be doing after friday. making news in america this morning, travel trouble. major storms collide dumping heavy rain, snow and spawning possible tornadoes just in time for the busiest travel day of thchrist what to expect today on the roads, rails and at the airport. president trump's surprising decision withdrawing u.s. troops out of syria. the new outrage this morning from some of his closest supporters and the question, why now? breaking overnight, cold case cracked. the nearly 40-year-old killing of an iowa teenager found dead outside a mall may now be solved. the controversial dna technology police used to identify the suspected killer. plus, american men getting shorter. the new health study from the cdc.
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a growing lawsuit. the new court battle over the smell of marijuana in california. and sealed without a kiss. the problem with hershey kisses this holiday season. and we say good thursday morning, everyone. we begin with the holiday storm warning as tens of millions of people get ready to hit the road. >> the radar shows two storms on a collision court right now and storm watches and warnings are posted along the east coast where 67 million people face the threat of flooding and heavy rain and fog could disrupt air travel at the country's biggest hubs on what's expected to be the busiest travel day of the season. >> and overnight abc's david kerley was at dulles airport outside washington where they're preparing for long lines and delays. >> reporter: you are looking at the holiday crush. this is the first day of the travel season, and we're told by the airlines that 45 million americans will be traveling over the holiday period.
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min plus more than last an -- year. to keep the lines moving, tsa has been adding some officers. now, there is a winter storm coming through. we are told by the airlines that it's supposed to be a rain event. they think they can handle it. the question is, will you be able to get through security quickly tsa tells us if you follow the rules, it should be all right. >> the storm is expected to bring rain, very little snow and ice. a closer look in just a few minutes. now to our other top story. president trump facing stiff opposition over his plan to withdraw all american troops from syria within a month. >> he tweeted this announcement declaring victory over isis and going against the advice of his own military leaders. he's getting an earful from outraged republican lawmakers who called this decision rash and dangerous. abc's lana zak has the latest from d.c. good morning, lana. >> reporter: good morning,
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kendis and janai. the other person receiving an earful from republican lawmakers is vice president pence. he was on the hill yesterday and they feel like this action is really premature, and they worry that it cedes key strategic control to russia and iran. backlash following his tweet announcing the withdrawal of troops from syria. >> if this decision is a withdrawal of all of our forces in syria now, we're dramatically less safe. this is an obama-like move. >> reporter: republican allies like congressman adam kinzinger on cnn say they're stunned. >> i think against all of his national security advisers to leave syria immediately, i was blown away and i'm kind of numb because, you know, the president ran saying he was going to defeat isis. isis isn't defeated. >> reporter: the president reportedly made the decision to pull all 2,000 american troops out within the next 30 days without discussing it with key lawmakers and even key members of the administration. >> they're all coming back and they're coming back now. we won and that's the way we want it, and that's the way they
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want it. >> reporter: but not everyone was surprised. president trump reportedly told turkey's president erdogan on a call friday. on wednesday the administration announced a $3.5 billion arms sale to turkey. >> with regard to stabilization we still have a long way to go. >> reporter: the decision flies in the face of what many of the president's advisers on syria were saying just days ago. >> if we've learned one thing over the years, defeat means you can't just defeat their physical base and leave but make sure the internal security forces are in place to make sure those security gains are enduring. >> reporter: the president's announcement also goes against the advice of his defense secretary general james mattis. according to "the washington post" the pentagon issued a statement saying that the war against isis is not yet over. kendis, janai. >> that's a very controversial topic there. our lana zak in d.c. covering it. thank you. breaking overnight more news in washington. the senate took a big step toward avoiding a government
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shutdown by approving a short-term spending plan. the house is expected to pass it today to keep the government running until february. the bill could be on the president's desk before tomorrow's deadline. president trump is no longer demanding $5 billion for his border wall, and that's not sitting well with some conservatives. >> people who voted for him and went to the polls to vote for that wall, they want to know how he's going to do this and why he seems to be softening his stance this morning. >> the president is not softening his stance. he has a responsibility to keep the government moving forward. >> if there is a shutdown, more than 800,000 federal workers would be furloughed or forced to work without pay. >> getting that from fox news. alert, alert. in the meantime, a key ruling in the immigration debate. a federal judge has blocked an attempt by the trump administration to limit asylum. the judge rejected the president's policy of preventing immigrants who have suffered gang violence or domestic abuse from seeking asylum. now, the judge ruled some of the administration's guidelines cannot be used to determine whether a migrant has
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a credible fear of persecution in their home countries. the white house calls the ruling the latest example of judicial activism. now to another bombshell in the catholic church sexual abuse scandal, this time in illinois where the attorney general says the church withheld the names of 500 priests accused of abuse and even worked to silence their accusers. the alleged abuse dates back decades. survivor groups are demanding the names be made public. three astronauts are back home after more than six months on the international space station. the american, russian and german crew members returned to earth on a soyuz spacecraft landing in kazakhstan. smiling, as well. their return was delayed one week because of an aborted launch back in october, which moved back their schedule. in the meantime, in california, experts say a mysterious light in the sky last night was caused by, in fact, a meteor. people from los angeles to san francisco reported seeing the sighting. time now for a look at your busy holiday travel thursday
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morning. good morning. expect some travel delays here from the southeast right up the east coast as we go through the next few days. this storm system bringing heavy rain, some places one to two inches or more through parts of the south. flooding is a concern, plus severe weather for your thursday. strong to severe thunderstorms, some could come with damaging winds or even isolated tornadoes. the west coast also stormy once again as another system moves in with gusty winds, heavy rain and mountain snow. for accuweather, i'm meteorologist melissa constanzer. coming up, in hot water, the woman escaped from jail and was found soaking in a hot tub. also ahead, american men are getting shorter. the new study from the cdc this morning. but first police in missouri s in a clledeal estate agent who from a bullet wound. now an urgent search for the
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step out of the hot tub. >> get out. >> we're back with a woman who escaped from an ohio jail and was literally in hot water. they found her soaking in a hot tub at a senior citizens center. the problem was she was still wearing her yellow jumpsuit which raised some suspicion so someone called 911. she had fled from authorities while being booked on drug charges. >> that jumpsuit. well, now to the case of a real estate agent found dead on a missouri highway. that's now a murder mystery. melissa peskey's body was found at her cash last week after her crash. her two kids were not hurt. she died from a gunshot wound. her husband is considered a
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person of interest because he apparently didn't answer his phone when police called him. she was reportedly headed to north carolina to visit friends. and tesla, in the meantime, is insisting its electric cars are safe, even as it tries to explain how one of them caught fire twice in one day. the model s burst into flames near san jose, california. the owner says the first fire erupted shortly after he tried to fix a flat tire. the car ignited after being towed to a repair shop again. >> and i go in there doing the paperwork and i start hearing a funny hissing sound, and i thought, oh, it must be something going on in the shop next door. >> well, reports say the car's battery hit temperatures as high as 170 degrees. concerns about tesla's lithium-ion batteries overheating sparked a federal investigation after a crash earlier this year. the average american man is getting shorter and heavier. that's according to a new study from the cdc. they found the average man's height is 5'9" but it dropped a tenth of an inch compared to a decade ago. there's been no change in
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women's height. as for gaining weight, the average man and woman have gained about 30 pounds since the 1960s. and a judge has upheld a nearly $5 billion verdict against johnson & johnson. a group of women sued blaming asbestos in the company's baby powder for their ovarian cancer. johnson & johnson insists the powder is safe. the band-aid of the future may be electric. researchers have developed a self-powered bandage that could heal wounds faster. it uses tiny electrodes powered by your physical movements. doctors say the electric pulses can boost the production of biochemicals used in tissue growth. fascinating. coming up, the risk of taking too many selfies. the problem doctors are now seeing. but first breaking overnight, the controversial technology police used to solve the cold case murder of an iowa teenager 39 years ago. and a mother demands answers after her 5-year-old is le waing aw.e school bus seen is left is left ndering away.
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but when i started seeing things, i didn't know what was happening... so i kept it in. he started believing things that weren't true. i knew something was wrong... but i didn't say a word. during the course of their disease around 50% of people with parkinson's may experience hallucinations or delusions. but now, doctors are prescribing nuplazid. the only fda approved medicine... proven to significantly reduce hallucinations and delusions related to parkinson's. don't take nuplazid if you are allergic to its ingredients. nuplazid can increase the risk of death in elderly people with dementia-related psychosis and is not for treating symptoms unrelated to parkinson's disease. nuplazid can cause changes in heart rhythm and should not be taken if you have certain abnormal heart rhythms or take other drugs that are known to cause changes in heart rhythm. tell your doctor about any changes in medicines you're taking. the most common side effects are swelling of the arms and legs and confusion. we spoke up and it made all the difference. ask your parkinson's specialist about nuplazid.
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we're back now with this surveillance video of a baltimore -- bar robbery in altoona, pennsylvania. the bartender emptying the cash register before turning the gun on the intruder. that bartender is a marine combat veteran. one shot was fired during the altercation. no one was hurt. that suspect ran off. >> i guess he learned his lesson. we turn now to a major break in a cold case that's nearly four decades old. >> back in 1979 iowa teenager michelle martinko was found murdered outside a shopping mall. well now exactly 39 years after her death, police believe they've cracked the case thanks to some controversial new dna technology. a murder mystery may be solved. overnight police in cedar rapids, iowa, announcing an arrest in the 1979 killing of michelle martinko. the 18-year-old was brutally stabbed in a mall parking lot. >> the police said she was stabbed 19 times in the face, in the chest.
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>> reporter: the murder baffling investigators for years. wounds on martinko's hands showed she fought for her life, but she was not sexually assaulted, and her killer left $186 untouched. in 2006 cold case investigators were able to find dna evidence taken from the scene, but it did not match any profiles in the just last year when investigators turned to a company using a new and hypely controversial technology. they developed sketches of a suspect using what's called predictable analytics drawing an image of what the suspect could look like based on the dna evidence found. that dna gave them the suspect's nationality and likely features including blue eyes and blond hair. after the new sketches were released to the public, tips started pouring in. >> it's been worth it. we've gotten probably 100, maybe 110 leads since that time. >> reporter: then a break
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in the case as police identified 64-year-old jerry burns questioning him at his job about an hour away in manchester, iowa. they have yet to say exactly how they narrowed down the tips to track him down but say they got a dna sample from him, and it matched dna from the crime scene. >> today's arrest and the filing of charges against jerry lynn burns was a result of persistent and determined investigative work by the cedar rapids police department and the results of scientific dna analysis. >> absolutely fascinating. burns, who denies killing martinko, is due in court today. a mother in chattanooga, tennessee, is demanding answers after her 5-year-old son was left alone on a bus after school. the little boy had fallen asleep. surveillance video shows him crying for help after realizing everyone was gone. about ten minutes later he opened the door then wandered around a parking lot until strangers stopped to help. >> what if those people weren't
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out there? anybody could have got him. >> bus driver is to walk through, which she did not, and our teacher is supposed to walk through, which she accepted their explanation. she looked under the seats and looked for legs and book bags and didn't see anything. >> a nightmare for that mom. the bus driver's been suspended and a teacher was placed on probation. bus monitors will now have to undergo additional training. actress eliza dushku is breaking her silence after reports that cbs paid her nearly $10 million to settle sexual harassment claims against the star of the popular show "bull." writing in "the boston globe" newspaper, dushku calls michael weatherly's behavior cruel and humiliating. she says that he constantly called her names and used tasteless remarks. she claimed she was fired from the show because she did not want to be harassed. and former movie mogul harvey weinstein could learn today if he'll be tried for sexual assault here in new yor his lawyers say the case should
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be thrown out because of police misconduct. but prosecutors claim there's ample evidence to put him on trial. a man who spent 17 years in prison for a crime committed by a man who looks just like him has reached a million dollar settlement with the state of kansas. richard anthony jones was convicted of robbery but was finally released after the victim was shown a photo of a different inmate and couldn't tell the difference. he will receive compensation under the state's mistaken conviction law. wow. i want to get to this story, but first let me take a selfie. actually there's a new warning about what's being called selfie wrist. doctors are reporting a surge of people with the injury. it's actually a form of carpal tunnel syndrome when the nerves get inflamed. the problem begins when people constantly flex their wrist in a rush to try to capture a perfect angle for their selfies. >> between the two of us we can get the perfect angle,
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up next in "the pulse," the big problem this holiday season with hershey kisses. forget that study by the cdc. we're getting taller and skinnier, us american men. macaulay culkin back in "home alone" sort of. and later, why more people than ever are falling in love with hallmark christmas movies. falling in love with hallmark christmas movies.
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alice loves the smell of gain so much, she wished it came in a fabric softener too. [throat clears] say hello to your fairy godmother, alice. oh and look they got gain scent beads and dryer sheets too!
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with the roomba robot vacuum. only roomba uses 2 multi-surface rubber brushes to clean all your floors. and with patented dirt detect technology, roomba finds dirt throughout your home. if it's not from irobot, it's not a roomba. ♪ i want candy time to check "the pulse" starting with the ultimate candy. hershey kisses haven't been feeling the love lately. >> fans of the chocolate candies are demanding answers because lately the tips at the tops have been missing. hershey says it's looking into the problem but the anger is already building on social media. >> oh, yeah, one facebook user spreading a conspiracy theory and they claim hershey is
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using the missing pieces to make more tipless kisses for the same cost. >> oh, shameful. >> what? conspiracy. kevin mccallister is back home alone again but this time he is all grown up. >> macaulay culkin is starring in a new google commercial that re-creates scenes from the original 1990 movie. he's now 38, not 10, and 3 decades later things have definitely changed. >> mom, dad. hey, google, what's in the calendar today? >> you have one event called house to yourself. >> oh, yeah. ♪ >> google, add aftershave to my shopping list. hey, google, remind me to clean these sheets later. >> okay, i'll remind you. >> ah. >> someone is at the front door. >> what do i owe you? >> looked like you paid on even
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online. >> keep the change, you filthy animal. >> okay. >> the commercial is posted on twitter by culkin himself. >> cute. a smelly mess in california. more and more people are complaining that growing all that weed just stinks. >> towns are suing to ban pot operations in their areas because they claim the stench is nauseating. some comparing it to a family of skunks living under your house. one official sums up the problem saying just because you like bacon doesn't mean you want to live next to a pig farm. the contact high not a good thing. everybody knows fish can't fly. >> of course. so denver airport workers are baby-sitting a college student's pet during christmas break even helping the fish write a letter to mom. southwest airlines would not allow the pet on the flight to california so its owner was inbandon ibut the airport worker stepped up and even helped to keep the fish company.
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>> more news after this. it's time to celebrate. [♪ ] [♪ ] i couldn't catch my breath. it was the last song of the night. it felt like my heart was skipping beats. they said i had afib. what's afib? i knew that meant i was at a greater risk of stroke. i needed answers. my doctor and i chose xarelto® to help keep me protected from a stroke. once-daily xarelto®, a latest-generation blood thinner significantly lowers the risk of stroke in people with afib not caused by a heart valve problem.
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hi there. good morning. it is thursday, december 20th. >> when i think of thursday, i now associated it with the rain day, right? >> yes. rain coming in in the evening and overnight. this morning we have the fog. look where it is sitting. hey, south bay, peninsula. you're getting the thickest fog anywhere from morgan hill to san mateo. creeping in on milpitas and fremont. temperatures in the mid to upper 40s except brentwood, los gatos. good morning, san francisco and ukiah. we're in the 50s. mainly gray day with temperatures 57 to 62 degrees. we'll take a look the a other nus.y spots in about three re's alexis. >> good morning, mike. we are definitely looking at the fog in the traay added to the traffic maps.
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very dense across a lot of the south bay and the peninsula. a lot as well. several dense fog advisories including the bay bridge, golden gate and richmond-san rafael bridge. so far it's not slowing you down too much getting into san francisco past the toll plaza on the bay bridge. only going to take you eight minutes. thank you, alexis. how does this sound speaking of your commute. a $10 toll to cross the golden gate bridge. bridge officials will meet today to start taking the first steps to perhaps raising that rate. >> amy, some people are not going to be happy. >> reporter: no. i don't think so, reggie. but officials say if you want those buses and those ferries that keep people from driving their cars, those who are driving ferrieth need money to s
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aging beauty that is our golden gate bridge. they have to take care of the cables. they have to paint that gorgeous bridge. and the cost of everything is going up. so they say they have to pass that on to you. so they have five proposals they're going to consider. they're going to start talking about it today, the finance committee is. they are expected to take a vote on whether to publicly consider these plans. what they're looking at is a gradual increase, annual increases that would start in july. this is going to be a tough pill to swal he low. this is already the most expensive bridge in the bay area. they are talking about getting that up to $10. something for you to get used to y.w, still ways ouleorsu. with theos ofhingsoi amhollyfield, a. >> t u.he's another note fcommut
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happing today, if youfrcisco fey d or alamedathn ie ferry building, you're going to using a new gate. gate g is further south of the one you use today. you can only get to the new gate by way of a pedestrian bridge from the embarcadero. boarding locations to harbor bay and vallejo will not change. it is 4:30. if you're just waking up to us, good morning. here's a look the a your weather and traffic. we start with mike nicco. >> what a soupy start in the south bay and east bay valleys. not as much in the north bay. your visibility 3 to 4 miles. this is a look at 87. barely see it. some of the cars right there. thatowoghes in the south bay. this is what it looks like in walnut creek on 680. this will be around the entire morning commute. temperatures in the mid to upper 40s. mainly cloudy at noon. temp

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