has been granted bail. he's not quite out yet but it comes with stringent conditions. assange can remain free as he fights extradition to sweden to face sex crime charges. nbc's peter alexander is in london with more details what are the restrictions on assange? >> reporter: we'll tell you those in a moment. within the last few minutes, julian assange's attorney walked out to the crush of reporters and told reporters that the swedish authorities have determined they will not appeal the decision to grant bail to julian assange. what that means, as soon as assange is able to gather up 350,035 $350,000 cash, he will be allowed to walk out a free man. he's been kept in prison there now. he left a short time ago in a prison van, kept there in voluntary confinement until that

cash is paid. s as for those conditions that will be set, he will be forced to surrender his passport, which he has already done. he will be allowed to stay at the home of a wealthy british man who will give assurity that assange will not flee. he will have electronic monitoring and check in with police once a day until january 11th when the next court appearance is set. contessa? >> thanks for the update. another big story that big cold winter weather front moving through much of the nation. we have live pictures from minneapolis now where it is about 7 degrees, that's without the windchill. they have been suffering through sub-zero windchill. a high of 10 degrees scheduled today. there's the deflated dome. chicago, 16 degrees right now, feeling much colder in the windy city. as you can see, there's another place where a lot of people have

been stuck. >> this is a little bit unexpected and unwelcomed. >> reporter: in richmond virginia, wet rain and snow makes for dangerous driving. it is like that across the country. >> it looks all clear, all of a sudden you step on the breaks and are you all over the road. >> reporter: this suv overturned on a slick bridge, the driver is okay, but not everybody is okay with the wicked winter weather coming a week early. >> quite cold. the snow is not too fun to walk around in. >> reporter: the eastern seaboard is in a deep freeze stretching from canada to the sunshine state. >> miami is 36 degrees right now. that's rare. 29 in orlando. look at windchills. it's cold everywhere. >> reporter: that's an understatement. near kansas city, a water main broke turning this house and yard into a real-life ice sculpture. check out the snow drifts at this school in rochester, minnesota.

kids in georgia got a rare snow day. >> nice and fun and cold. >> reporter: not so nice and fun for chicagoans, shivering in sub-zero windchills. travelers are stranded at o'hare. >> all chicagoans should avoid making unnecessary trips outside. >> reporter: they're trying to make the most of it in the midwest. >> we dig each other's cars out. it's a blessing in the end because you get that sense of community, but there's a lot of snow to get through. >> that's what i call looking at the bright side. let's go to atlanta where alex wallace is standing by. how long is this deep freeze going to last, alex? >> we've got it for the next couple of days. it will be with us for a while. we're tracking a couple things here. first in the west a system coming in bringing some wet weather and wintry weather to those areas in the intermountain regions. in the east, it's that cold air mass that's worked its ways down to florida. that cold air rolling over the lakes, that's lending to lake-effect snow. that's what we are finding at

this time. that's cranking up out there. all the lakes are active. the current radar showing that. the western lakes, we will start to shut down a bit. not too much additional snows there. further east, that is what we will be talking about, places picking up a foot, two feet of snow maybe more than that. syracuse, case in point dealing with that, even down to west virginia, a bit of snow. a place where people tend to head to to escape the cold, it's not going to be happening for us here, all the way down to florida, waking up tomorrow morning, orlando, 27 degrees. that would be a record cold morning for us. the record is 33, the keys not getting out of the 50s. cold indeed. folks will be bundling up. >> it's kind of hard to old a frozen margarita in the keys when temperatures are in the 50s. the big question today is what is the weather like where you are? this is a blatant pitch for you to send us your weather stories and videos.

i hope to see them on twitter and facebook. come on, people, i share with you every day. share with me in return. back to the breaking news on capitol hill, where in just moments representative patrick murphy from pennsylvania is expected to introduce a measure to repeal don't ask don't tell. this would be a stand-alone m measure, steny hoyer announced that that measure is going on the house floor any moment now. senators joe lieberman and susan collins of maine have already introduced a stand-alone don't ask don't ask repeal in the senate. so this would be similar to the one that they have introduced. with me now is congressman jim mcdermott, a democrat from washington state. explain to me, congressman mcdermott, the house already passed the don't ask don't tell repeal as part of the defense authorization bill. why would it be easier to pass that as a stand-alone measure than as it was as part of funding for our troops? >> well, the big bill, the

authorization for the dod is a complicated bill and it has not passed. so this is really sending an issue by itself, an issue which i think members are ready to deal with. and it's always easier to deal with one thing at a time than rather deal with 500 things, because some people are for some, they're against others. so it's easier to make it a simple straightforward are you for this policy or against it? >> in the lame duck session, do you anticipate any trouble passing a stand-alone measure to repeal don't ask don't tell. >> i'd be surprised if it doesn't get out of the house. i never know what's going to happen over in the senate. things have died over there that i thought ought to have passed. so i don't know. it will get out of the house today. >> senator lieberman says he has the votes to pass his stand-alone measure. we are looking for representative murphy. i got to ask you about the other big issue that congress has to

wrangle with, the house of representatives, congressman mcdermott, is especially opposed to the tax cut deal that the president has made with republicans. i should mention the senate has not yet scheduled a vote on this tax cut deal. harry reid and mitch mcconnell are negotiating now some of the detail about whether there's amendments to the bill, but it's expected to pass what will happen for democrats in the house? >> this is not a partisan issue. this is an issue of how you view the economics of this country. i got up this morning and opened up the "usa today," there's an op-ed from mitt romney saying this is a terrible deal. his reason for thinking it's a bad deal is much different than my own proposal or my own reasons why. so i think it's not clear whether this bill is actually going to pass in this congress. i am sure it will pass as soon as the republicans are in charge of the house of representatives

on the 5th of january. we in the house already passed our extension for the middle class and passed extensions of unemployment benefits, the senate said we will not do this unless you give us tax breaks for the rich. >> but let's just say it can't get out of the house. i know the democrats are meeting tonight, they will have this closed-door meeting for house democrats and decide how to proceed. how would you go back to your constituents and say to them, okay, sorry, it's january 1st. you don't have your tax cut? >> well, we've already passed it out of the house. we've done this already. the senate is the problem. i can assure them that on the 5th of january, when the republicans are in charge of the house and they have the same situation in the senate, they'll pass it again. the republicans at that point will not be able to stand in the way of extending for the middle

class. they'll add on for the rich, i oppose that, but that's going to be the nature of what happens, i think. >> so you don't know how you will vote yet? >> no i'm going to vote no. i will vote no because i don't want to ratify this extension of tax breaks for the rich. that was put in by the republicans in 2001, let them do it again. they think it's good tax policy, it hasn't worked. it hasn't produced jobs. we have 15 million people without jobs, but extending tax cuts to the rich will not solve the problem. >> here's a manufacturer from rhode island who told the new york times that he will go out and hire new employees and fix a leaky roof because of the tax cuts. >> look, one dot on a board doesn't make a straight line. you can find an antidotal story who says this or says that. but he's personally going to benefit from it.

that's why i think it should be stopped right now. we have to stop shoveling money out and increasing the debt and borrowing from the chinese. >> congressman mcdermott, i appreciate your time and appreciate you being on total. >> you're welcome. global leaders are mourng the loss of long-time american diplomat richard holbrooke. the u.s. envoy to afghanistan and pakistan died last night from complications of emergency open heart surgery. he's remembered as a giant of u.s. foreign policy and praised as the world's finest diplomat. ho holbrooke served four presidents, he was an author, a profess professor. we'll have more in a half hour. ex-white house aide rahm emanuel is getting scrappy with people in his hometown who are trying to keep him out of the race for mayor. if he can't believe he is a

chicago resident, a judge could decide he's ineligible to run for mayor, and that's why he quit his white house job in october so he could run for mayor. a federal judge in virginia rules part of the president's health care law is unconstitutional. what will that mean for other states challenging the law? a snowman in the middle of the road causing lots of problems, especially for bus drivers who got it in for frosty. nobody in my family ever had a heart attack.

if anything, i thought i'd get hit by a bus, but not a heart. all of a sudden, it's like an earthquake going off in your body. my doctor put me on an aspirin regimen to help protect my life. [ male announcer ] aspirin is not appropriate for everyone. so be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. to my friends, i say, you know, check with your doctor, 'cause it can happen to anybody. [ male announcer ] be ready if a heart attack strikes. donate $5 to womenheart at iamproheart.com, and we'll send you this bayer aspirin pill tote.

a deadly house fire in baltimore tops our stories coast to coast. six people died in the raging fire in east baltimore this morning. gusty wind fueled the fire which at one point got so intense firefighters were actually

forced to retreat. the relationship between the six victims is not known. the cause of the fire is now being investigated. police say they may have a modern day jack the ripper on their hands. they found four bodies searching long island, new york beaches missing for a new jersey woman. search crews dig up three bodies yesterday and they found human bones over the weekend but detectives are still looking for 24-year-old shannon gilbert last seen there in may and they're trying to identify the bodies they already found. jailed ponzi schemer bernie madoff will not attend his son's funeral. he said the decision was made out of respect for his family, that he will hold a private service in prison. madoff's 46-year-old son mark killed himself in his new york city apartment saturday, the second anniversary of his dad's arrest. bernie madoff is serving a 150-year prison term for defrauding billions from his investors. crit critics are calling his decision to avoid the funeral shameful

and insulting. lots of criticism for the federal judge who ruled against health care reform because he owns a stake in a gop political consulting firm that worked hard to try to stop the health care bill from happening. yesterday judge henry hudson said a key provision of the law is unconstitutional. the mandate that says everyone must purchase health care insurance. it was the first time a judge has ruled against the law since the president signed it in march. >> keep in mind this is one ruling by one federal district court, we already had two federal district courts that have ruled that this is definitely constitutional. we have 12 federal courts who have dismissed similar lawsuits. >> one of those was filed by nebraska attorney general john brunning who joins me now. you are making similar arguments to the one that was just decided by judge hudson? >> yeah, we're making the exact same argument, that is that congress has exceeded its power under the constitution when it

passed this law. >> in virginia, they passed a statute prohibiting the bill for taking place, prohibiting the federal government from forcing peoples hands in virginia. does nebraska have a similar statute? >> no, we don't have that statute. the issue here, contessa, is whether or not congress has the power under the commerce clause to force people to buy a good or service. the ruling in virginia, and we're hopeful the ruling out of case in florida is that there has to be a limit on congressional power, that they can't force people to buy health insurance. >> the argument that gets made when we talk about this mandate to buy health insurance is auto insurance, that people have to buy auto insurance. do you see similarities? >> well, the difference is you don't have to own a car. there's plenty of people that live in the cities of america that don't own vehicles. if you own a vehicle, you have to have auto insurance. the health insurance law is different because every citizsc,

if you're breathing in america you need health insurance. >> is that a case that goes to the supreme court? do you foresee this going to the nation's highest court? >> i don't think there's any doubt about it. the virginia case, the florida case, the other cases that the president talked about in your lead-up, all these things will end up. you'll have different rulings from different district courts and different rulings from different circuit courts. i think this thing is up at the supreme court, there's no doubt. >> i'm reading that you're considering running for senate in 2012. is this one of the issues that motivates you to run for that job? >> yeah. i'm considering running against senator ben nelson, he was the 60th vote, the famed cornhusker kickback in nebraska. he voted for the bill, i wouldn't have. >> thank you for joining me. appreciate that. we have breaking news coming from great britain where a court will reconvene in the next few minutes to hear if swedish authorities plan to challenge a

decision to release wikileaks founder julian assange on bail. peter alexander reporting from london just reported that swedish authorities were not going to challenge his bail, that they were going to let this january 11th hearing for assange go on as planned and let him meet the requirements that a british court set. but apparently those arguments will be made in front of the british court. we will wait and see what formal arguments are in court. hiring a surrogate to carry a baby for you in the united states could cost big bucks, as much as $200,000. now there's a cheaper alternative. i'll talk with someone's whose job it is to create babies that you won't get sued for. hot on the web, one of the most viewed interviews, the "today

"today "today' "today's" show interview with a ballerina who a critic said was fat. the critic said if she doesn't want her body criticized, she shouldn't be a dancer. >> i do put myself out there to be criticized. and my body is part of my art form. at the same time, i'm not overweight. >> the ballerina says the critic is welcome to his opinion and her figure is welcome at the new york city ballet. >> looking for a gift for the guy who has everything except maybe a tax cut extension? how about a presidential hot tub. michelle obama was visiting sick children in the hospital in washington, d.c. and they were suggesting christmas gifts, for instance a bell for the top of the white house, a new suit, candy and a new hot tub, to which mrs. obama replied you think he's got an old hot tub? we have more this hour on

hackers, putting security folks on edge, stealing passwords, impersonating people on twitter, here is the guy putting his hack skills to good use. microsoft's kinect has a motion gaming sensor and this artist, chris owe shea, has turned it into an air guitar. he said it is just an experiment, not a plot to make money. my doctor said most calcium supplements...

aren't absorbed properly unless taken with food. he recommended citracal. it's different -- it's calcium citrate, so it can be absorbed with or without food. also available in small, easy-to-swallow petites. citracal. a body at rest tends to stay at rest... while a body in motion tends to stay in motion. staying active can actually ease arthritis symptoms. but if you have arthritis, staying active can be difficult. prescription celebrex can help relieve arthritis pain so your body can stay in motion. because just one 200mg celebrex a day can provide 24 hour relief for many with arthritis pain and inflammation. plus, in clinical studies, celebrex is proven to improve daily physical function so moving is easier. and celebrex is not a narcotic. when it comes to relieving your arthritis pain, you and your doctor need to balance the benefits with the risks. all prescription nsaids, including celebrex, may increase the chance of heart attack or stroke, which can lead to death.

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 about how you can move toward relief. if you live for performance, upgrade to castrol edge advanced synthetic oil. with eight times better wear protection than mobil 1. castrol edge. it's more than just oil. it's liquid engineering. with an irresistible full key... oh, too much? now get an lg quantum™ for $199.99, and get one free. only from at&t. rethink possible. inillinois a bus driver has resigned after he ran over a snowman. the snowman is in the middle of the road, a car comes and avoids it, but then comes the bus and frosty's flattened. the snowman, she have gotten out

of the way. we don't know who put the snowman there. we don't know who posted the video. we don't know who was shooting but he ran over the snowman. oprah is shooting her show in sydney, australia she has a special stage set up. actor hugh jackman one of her special guests. but a bit of trouble with his grand entrance. zooming in on the zip line, but the finish -- wait for it not so graceful. he smacked to a stop near the stage lights. see him? jackman was not hurt. the show went on. in san diego, a sperm whale was rescued. the poor guy washed ashore bleeding from a cut. the rescuers injected him with antibiotics, gave the drugs a few hours to kick in and then they pushed the guy back into the sea. bone-chilling cold, crippling snow. hello, folks, it's not even the

beginning of winter. the whole country nearly is effected. those who aren't are making sure they rub it in for the rest of us. and a remake of a classic christmas duet. ♪ our newborn king to see ♪ our finest gifts we bring [ male announcer ] this is charlie whose morning flight

to london starts with arthritis pain... and a choice. take tylenol now, and maybe up to 8 in a day. or...choose aleve and 2 pills for a day free of pain.

enjoy the flight. but my allergies put me in a fog. so now, i'm claritin clear! claritin works great on all my allergies like dust, mold, pollen, or pets without making me drowsy, cause i want to be alert around this big guy. live claritin clear. indoors and out. . breaking news here. welcome back. i'm contessa brewer. swedish prosecutors will challenge the bail for julian assange to remain in the uk jail. that's the word we're just getting in. apparently a british court is reconvening in the next few minutes to hear the case. we had heard from our reporter on the scene that the swedish authorities were not planning to challenge the decision to give julian assange bail, but now the associated press is reporting that the prosecutors from sweden will challenge the bail. we'll wait for court to start

and see what happens there. but as it stands now, his bail is set for 200,000 ponds, about $315,000. he's been ordered, if he does get out, again we're waiting to see if there's a challenge here, he would have to go to an estate, stay there, check in with police every day. retail sales increased for a fifth straight month in november. they were up 0.8%. department store sales jumped nearly 3%. good news for the stores. yahoo!'s laying off up to 700 employees today. most from the product division. michael steele is seeking a second term as rnc chairman. he said he's more of a street guy and would be good for the gop. major league pitcher cliff lee reportedly is headed back to the phillies with a five-year contract worth 100 million bucks. we're still technically a week away from winter but you wouldn't know that if you

stepped outside just about anywhere in the country. for instance, indiana, freezing temperatures, strong wind, loads of snow, near whiteout conditions. drivers were stuck in their cars for hours. lake michigan churning with 25-foot waves and wind gusts up to 35 miles per hour. in washington state, a dramatic rescue, a woman sinking with her suv in frigid water after backing into a pond. she was stuck for about ten minutes before a firefighter pulled her out. the weather channel's mike side sid si sidell is in austinburg, ohio. >> it's windy and cold out here. temperatures a s ars are hoverid 16, 17 degrees, and it is still officially fall. the average high here is in the upper 30s. we're running about 20 degrees below average. the lake effect has backed off nicely, that's expected for the next day or so here, and then

heading to buffalo and syracuse. in those spots, you may get another foot or snow. interstate 90 is wide open, though you may run into issues with blowing snow west and east if you're heading towards cleveland or buffalo. it's the cold weather, sub zero cold this morning in minneapolis, but 5, 6 degrees is far from their record low, which is 27 below. we got down around freezing as far south as the suburbs of miami. another cold night tonight for those orange groves and the strawberry crops. s what what's ahead? it will stay cold here, and another system will come out. we have issues in memphis, louisville with snow and sleet.

president obama is holding a high-level meeting on afghanistan right now two days before he makes a statement on a new report on the war effort and a day after the death of richard holbrooke. he was the special envoy for afghanistan and pakistan. holbrooke's last words uttered just moments before he was wheeled into emergency open heart surgery, he said you've got to stop this war in afghanistan. so what impact will his loss have on america's efforts to succeed? karen deyoung is the senior diplomatic correspondent for the "washington post." how involved, how in depth was holbrooke's involvement in our strategy in afghanistan? >> i think certainly on the civilian side, which is a major part of the strategy, he was the person in charge. he was coordinating the economic assistance, the efforts to improve governance in both pakistan and afghanistan. also the international effort. the effort to get other countries to participate, again,

not only on the military side, which was being done by nato and the u.s. military, but also to continue a long-term effort to support both pakistan and afghanistan in terms of development to establish places where the population would not be so vulnerable to insurgents and where the government could provide services for their own people. >> given how important his role is then, the connections he's made, the kind of democracy that he was trying to help install in afghanistan, what will his death mean? does it create an incredible vacuum or are there people waiting in the wings that can step in and fill those incredible shoes? >> i think there's an immediate void, because his office where he had brought together all kinds of people and had kept this effort going to a large extent through his own contacts

and energies around the world and in this country, the question i think the administration will have to answer, and i don't think they're close to deciding how to answer it yet, is whether to continue that role with the kind of larger than life personality that holbrooke had or to make it a bit more operational and low key and to try to expand the efforts on the ground in afghanistan and pakistan. >> karen de young, thanks for your time. >> you're welcome. despite our living in high-tech and modern times, something that might seem normally simple, having a baby, can be incredibly complicated. for example, those who can't conceive have options like adoption and surrogacy, but both with be expensive, legally dicey, and we've seen high-profile custody disputes. so what if you were able to have a child on the cheap and maybe avoid the hassles? a new web business in california

is promoting a business plan where babies are produced internationally in ways that both curb expenses and avoid legal entanglements, or that's the goal. to tell us more about his baby making business, rudy rupack of planethospital.com. tell me how it works, rudy. >> hi, thanks for having me here, contessa. how it works, parents whether they are male, female, or mal male/male or singles can contact us and choose to have a baby through surrogacy, as we do in the states. but the difference is the surrogacy project happens abroad in countries such as india, crete, off of greece, or panama. >> how do you choose chose countries? >> we visited these countries, looked at the regulations involving surrogacy, and based on what's available, the doctors

who have done this procedure, their success rates at ivf have aloud us to engage these countries and these specific ivf clinics to engage in this process for parents living in canada, usa, europe and abroad. >> in the last year or so we've seen high-profile custody cases involving biological parents. what makes you think it would be any less legally problematic if you have a surrogate, an egg donor, a sperm donor and they are all spread out over multiple countries? >> it is a challenge. it's not something that we just conjured up overnight. it was a process in building this concept in the first place, getting all the parties involved, getting all the legal documents and legal factors taken care of. to date, india has a booming surrogacy business. and let's understand that the women doing this are doing it

strictly for commercial means. there is no biological ties, emotionally or whatsoever. they are doing it strictly for money. the parents are doing this because they exhausted all possibilities or they're not able to have both a home and a family, they have to choose one or the other. but we give them the option to have a family affordably. >> your services run from $32,000 to about $68,000, the most affordable package is one in india where you get an egg donor, four embryo transfers into four separate surrogate mothers, room and board for the surrogate and car and driver for the parents to be when they pick up the baby. obviously there's a financial advantage here. what would it compare to as if people were getting a similar service in the united states? >> well, first of all to do four ivf cycles alone would cost you around 30,000, 35,000 plus, on top of that you have the

surrogates compensation, the legal, the delivery charges. >> is it ethical? is there a problem exploiting these poor women in other countries? >> i've heard that before. first of all, greece is not a poor country by any imagination. they had major riots -- it's a poor country. they've had major riots. it may not be a developing third world country, but, okay, poor. >> fair enough. but, if we took a woman, let's say, living in parts of texas, southeastern tip of texas which has the largest population -- white majority that lives in poverty, they make about $7,000 per capita per annum, and you offer them 16,000 times their salary which we are paying the women in india, or 10,000 times the women in greece would that be considered exploitation? they are not being forced to do

this. they are choosing to do this. we go through a great deal of screen processes. >> it's a good point. appreciate you coming on. certainly is -- gives us food for thought. thanks. >> thank. will ferrell, john riley do a spot on imitation of a christmas classic. here is the original, david bowie and bing crosby in 1977, "drummer boy." now compare it to ferrell and riley's version. and play it. ♪ our newborn king to see pa-rum-pum-pum-pum ♪ ♪ our finest gifts to bring pa-rum-pum-pum-pum ♪ rum-pum-pum-pum rum-pum-pum ♪ >> the video has gotten nearly 350,000 views on funny or die.

that's nice. it happened to visa, mastercard, mcdonald's, walgreens, they're hacked, folks, with your information. we'll tell you how to protect yourself online. first it may be time for carols, kris kringle, pa rum pum pum pum, but not everybody likes the songs. in fact some are annoying. some of the most loathed, madonna's version of "santa baby" dma got one over by a reindeer" and "last christmas" by wham. i'm with them. that's annoying. the worst, number one, belongs to a former beetle. it was paul mccartney's "wonderful christmas time" which i also dislike.

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breaking news here, riots in the street of italy. look at these shots just coming in to us at msnbc, these are violent protests, rioters torching cars, smashing windows, clashing with police against silvio berlusconi who won back-to-back confidence votes on tuesday, today, in the italian parliament. the riot police are out there, trying to fire off tear gas to disperse the crowds. they have set fires now. there's clouds of white tear gas, orange flames engulfing the streets. shops full of christmas goods closed down. all of this in protest of the confidence vote that silvio berlusconi sustained in the italian parliament. a very sick little boy may have just one thing on his holiday wish list that is to

have his parents about his side. 9-year-old omar audi's parents are scheduled to be deported back to lebanon on christmas day. they face an impossible choice, taking their ill son with him or leaving them behind in america to get the best treatment that's not offered in his homeland. joining me are omar, his mom and omar's doctor with us. first of all, tell me what situation is you're facing. how did you come to be here illegally and when did omar get sick? >> at the beginning we come here, i want to visit my husband's family, my brother-in-law, and his wife, and his sisters. he has sisters and brothers. when i came here to visit the country, it was the fourth of july, i still remember, come here to -- they said fourth of july is so nice here. it's different. so we take a visa for six months, we come here. the first months, omar, he gets

sick. we think it's like allergy. >> yeah. >> we go to the hospital, mt. sinai hospital, the doctor explained to us it's not allergy, it's something else. >> so three and a half years, you found that omar really responded to a treatment. what did you find out about trying to get it in his homeland of lebanon? >> so omar has hereditary angeoadema, and they get unexplained episodes of swelling, the throat could swell which could cause asphyxiation. so patients with hereditary andioedema, don't have a protein called c1 inhibitor. so we have the c1 inhibitor, and it gets it every three days to prevent attacks. it prevent the the airway swelling and potential death. >> what has been the reaction when you go back and say to the

immigration officials, look, my son is getting life-saving treatment here, what has been their response? >> i tried to explain, omar, he can't go back to his country because he will die without that medicine. he takes the medicine every three days. it's hard -- it's hard to let him go back to his country without that medicine. he can't -- >> would you leave him here? >> no, i can't. i can't leave him alone. >> omar, tell me a little bit about what it's like to go through this clinical trial and to get the medicine. i know you know a bit of the stress your parents are under what is that like for you to juggle all that stuff? >> it's hard. >> yeah? do your friends know that you're going through special medical treatment? >> yeah. >> yeah? are they supportive? what do you want to do? would you be okay with leaving even if it meant leaving behind your medicine? >> no. >> yeah.

the medicine is important. peter vallone looked into this for homeland security. here's the congressman. he said i spoke to homeland security yesterday. they assured me they will give the case a full and fair review and that they won't deport the audi family any time in the near future to allow ample time for the review to occur and for legal action to move through the courts. that's new york city council member peter vallone coming in. it at least buys time and it means christmas day is not on the docket. >> hopefully we stay. >> yeah. dania, thank you very much. om omar, good luck to you going back to cool. here's what's happening later today, the federal reserve meets to discuss interest rates. they are expected to stay at near zero levels. basketball star michael jordan will be inducted into the north carolina hall of fame tonight. the ceremony will take place during half time.

and a resolution tonight will be voted on to determine private first class bradley henning a hero. he is suspected of helping to leak wikileaks. a hero. yeah, a little family reunion. [ wind rushes ] whoa! whoa! whoa! whoa! we're cereal here! what? just cooling it down. enough said. gotcha. safety first. whoo-hoo! watch the whole grain! [ female announcer ] try kellogg's® frosted mini-wheats® hot. just add warm milk and you've got a hot way to keep your kids full and focused all morning. oops. dude your eight layers are showing. [ female announcer ] mini-wheats® hot. keeps 'em full, keeps 'em focused.

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the hackers have invaded walgreens. the drugstore chain said someone broke into its database and stole thousands of customer e-mail addresses. mcdonald's says its customers personal information, including names, home addresses and birth dates, and why they would have that stuff, i don't know, they were stolen. a hawker group also raided gawker's files, stole information from a million commentators and used that information to get access to twitter accounts. natalie morris is with cnet.com. which of these is most concerning? >> they are all concerning

because of the information they keep about you, because it's very likely that you use the same e-mail and password combination for several accounts. so, if you used that log-in and password i.d. for mcdonalds, you mays will be using it for facebook and for your bank. what hackers will do is take that combination and plug it in all over the web to find your personal information like your money. >> you were telling me in the commercial break, you a lot of this is operator error, we're at fault for the passwords we pick. >> because if you use the same e-mail/password combination around the web, it only takes one hack to get exposed. i want to use a different one for each. i know that's difficult to do. >> i log into 15 different things, maybe not in a day, but over time. how could you pick a different password? >> it's the price of using the convenience of the web. you have to manage your passwords and change them frequently as well. if you are hacked, you don't

know it until it's too late. everybody right now go and change your passwords. >> i did this morning. natalie, here's the other question, has there been an uptick since hackivists have been getting all this attention from wikileaks? >> well, there's money, if there. there's a gain at the end. it's not necessarily that wikileaks is motivating hackers more, it's money is motivating people more. the most common passwords are 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, love and password. if that's one of yours, change it. don't use those passwords. >> don't be a ding-dong. natalie, thank you very much. we have been talking online about how cold it is outside. you guys have overwhelmed me with responses. thank you very much for sending me so many pictures. and, in fact, john sent in this picture from new york and wrote the roads were very slippery last night. this morning we received about one to three inches of snow on

long island. and beardog321 says this is normal in wyoming, they already had real zero degree temperatures, 11 below zero with windchills in the minus 30 to 40 range. incredible. that's the video coming in by the way, all of who also wrote in to say it's lovely where you are, thanks. appreciate that. love you, too. really, mean it i'm contessa brewer. thanks for watching today. "time" magazine's person of the year will be unveiled tomorrow. up next, andrea mitchell reports. are house democrats warming up to a tax cut compromise? she will ask congressman tom larsen. brian jones loves the holiday movie "a christmas story." after licensing the rights, he started selling versions of the film leg lamp and he used the

profits to turn the cleveland house where the movie was filmed into a t 1200

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