tv NBC Nightly News NBC December 26, 2010 6:30pm-7:00pm EST
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winter blast. a major snowstorm pounds the east coast, blizzard conditions could bring up to two feet of snow. thousands of flights canceled, even an nfl game postponed. deadly crash in a place where the roads are notoriously unsafe, eight are killed and many more are injured in a tour bus collision. how did it happen? crime scene. whether it comes to leaking for clues, police are getting help from a surprising new source. and making a difference. they provide clothing to those in need. tonight, how an american
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institution also helps people get back to work. from nbc news world headquarters in new york, this is "nbc nightly news" with lester holt. good evening. as we come on the air tonight, the first major snowstorm of the winter is walloping the east coast with dangerous blizzard conditions, and it's putting the brakes on a lot of post-christmas travel plans, he is sperlly by air. here's what it looks like in philadelphia where the storm has forced a rare postponement of tonight's nfl game, and you can see why in that picture. we'll show you times square in new york city. all part of the same system that blanketed parts of the south yesterday. the latest radar images show the storm extending northward predicting to dump up to two feet of snow across many areas by tomorrow night with drifts blowing even higher. we have a lot of folks out covering the storm tonight. we begin with peter alexander at
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la kward ya airport. >> reporter: conditions are deteriorating. to give you a sense how strong it is, american airlines has canceled nearly all of the flights out of the entire northeast until 10:00 tomorrow morning. this powerful blizzard causes stal states of emergency from north carolina to massachusetts. out of control, a frightening highway scene repeated countless times as the fierce wirntd storm pounds the east coast, danger on the roads, paralysis in the skies. a punishing blast of snows and winds with gusts reaches 50 miles per hour stranding holiday travelers like judy strat ton and her family. >> we're debating to get a hotel room or up troupers and stay all night here.
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>> reporter: us air nearly 700 as well as delta with 850 and counting. the airlines have halted in trans atlantic flights from london and paris, too. among those hardest hit passengers looking to get in and out of new york where more than 1,000 flights were scratched today. no leaf on the rails either with amtrak shutting down the service between boston and new york through at least tomorrow morning. the blizzard for sunday night's showdown between the vikings and eagles to be postponed until tuesday night. the first tuesday game in 64 years. across boston where close to two feet are forecast, an army of plows and sand rerz rolling out, while new york city residents stock up and hunker down. >> i don't have a shovel, i'm not going anywhere for a couple of days, i think. >> reporter: the first white christmas for atlanta in more than a century, leaving behind treacherous conditions for
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millions of americans driving home. >> four-wheel drive and going slower and mind our ps and qs and we'll be all right i hope. >> reporter: a dangerous winter storm and urgent warning, stay off the roads if you can. >> it's a double-whammy for the nation's highways and roadways. >> reporter: also tonight for air travelers, most airlines are waiving those rebooking fees in the affected areas. they encourage passengers to make changes lester to do that online. >> peter alexander in new york tonight. the weather channel's jim tan to her is at philadelphia lincoln financial field where he was supposed to be part of tonight's nbc coverage of the eagles/vikings game. weather postponements of nfl games are very, very rare. how bad is it tonight? >> reporter: it's pretty bad. we have white-out conditionsed in the stadium and i'm sure yousd as well, and that was the big issue the nfl was looking at. what are the conditions for the fans as they make their way to and from the stadium as well.
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certainly when you get 2 to 4 inches or 8 to 16 inches they're going fob at crunch time very, very poor. visibility is down to less than a quarter of mile. it's been that way for the last two hours and it's windzy and very cold up here. it is very rare for the nfl to cancel a game. you have to go all the way back to 1932 for the last time that they called a game on the day for snow and wind. of course, that was between the bears and spartans way back when. a rare event tonight in philadelphia. they make it up tuesday night at 8:00 where we expect clear skies and winds at 10 miles per hour with no snow. a much better forecast. back to you. >> nail hathey'll have a lot ofo shovel. this storm came barreling out of the south, tonight plunging temperatures on top of more than half a foot of snow are continuing to make conditions dangerous in raleigh. that's where we find adam berg with the latest. adam. >> reporter: good evening, lester. everybody, beautiful skyline right now, but that's after 7
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inches of snowfall over the last two days in raleigh. here's something more impressive. we picked up a half inch of snow in raleigh on christmas day. that is the only time we've seen measurable snow in raleigh on christmas day. records go all the way back to 1887. amazing. in atlanta 1.2 inches of snow on christmas day. hey, that is the first time we've seen snow on christmas day in atlanta all the way to 1882 when we picked up a third of an inch of snow. unbelievable. in chattanooga, first white christmas since 1989. so you have to go back 20 years. the other two cities, over 100 years. unbelievable. >> we're a few days into winter. adam, thanks. the snow and hide winds are expected to cause major problems on through tomorrow. mike sidle of the weather canal is in massachusetts outside boston with a forecast. mike, how will this play out? >> reporter: well, it's going fob a bad storm up here. a paralyzing storm by later
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tonight and tomorrow morning here in the boston metro area. it's the heavy snow and the combination of the snow and the high winds gusting over 40 miles per hour. the temperatures are in the lower 20s, so it's a dry, powdery throw. when you throw it up, it just blows. that's a big problem for snowplow operators and getting around. take a look at the current radar. still snow falling from the deldz coast, jerseyshore and new york city is pounded with heavy snow and near blizzard already over the past four or five hours. in boston we have four to six inches. the snow will continue to go up the coast, but it will intensify even more. that means increasing wind, power outages. you throw in the moisture off the atlantic, and you have an old-fashioned blizzard and it would be late tomorrow before the snow begins to taper off in maine. snowfall totals will have a foot around new york city. sure, they've seen more, but the wind combined with snow will cause drifting and blows. in the boston a foot or more of
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snow. by later tomorrow they may think of the blizzard of '78, the benchmark storm in boston, but one good thing, lester. this storm is going to break the pattern we've been in for three or four weeks and things will warm up dramatically with temperatures by new year's running 5 to 10 degrees above average. how about 50 in philadelphia? lester, back to you. >> mike seidel, thank you. on this day after christmas, the shopping continues but the weather in the east has given shoppers something else to contend with. beyond the crowds of bargain hunters and those hitting the stores to make returns. kerry sanders is following that story. kerry joins us from florida outside miami. good evening. >> reporter: well, good evening, lester. the weather did indeed keep some people at home, but die-hard customers are out looking for the deals as retailers are trying to keep the momentum going. for some this is a family tradition, shopping for deals
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the day after christmas. >> you have a sports jacket for 39.95. that's ridiculous. >> reporter: from miami and virginia across the country, retailers expect to make up 15% of their year's sales between now and the end of the year, much thanks to shoppers redeeming gift cards. >> the girls got gift cards, and we had to come shop. we're looking to see exactly how much we can get for how little. >> reporter: despite the near 10% unemployment rate, retailers say this was a record holiday season both in stores and online. >> we saw a lot of pent-up demand and a lot more confidence to spend and not to worry about the fact that others can't put a meal on the table. >> reporter: they estimate a stunning 33% of all gifts will be brought back for an exchange or refund. the shoppers in los angeles found today return policies are stricter this year, especially
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with electronics. a warning, don't delay more than two weeks or -- >> you may discover that the retailer won't take it back or may xharnlg a large restocking fee after that timetable has expir expired. >> reporter: big ticket items did well in christmas. >> very nice. >> reporter: he bought a new pickup truck, a christmas present for himself and for his pest control business. autonation the largest car dealership in the u.s. reports truck sales climbed 18% to 59% over the last nine months. >> truck sales are a bellwether indicator of the u.s. economy. it means that small business is starting to get back to normal. it means that consumer confidence is starting to increase. it really means that the economy overall is starting to heal. >> reporter: while economists say it is too early to celebrate an economic recovery, they say there are some hopeful signs, but at the same time if you've been to fill up lately, you know that the cost of fuel is up.
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on average $3.04 a gallon, up 45 cents from a year ago. with the snow and cold, heating costs are going up, so as things seem to be improving for some, it's costing on the other end. lester. >> a lot of shoppers there with you tonight. overseas a terrible accident involving americans today in egypt. a tour bus slammed into a truck parked on a desert road killing eight americans and injuring many more. it happened in the southern part of the country on a road outside aswan. martin flet cher has the latest tonight from london. >> reporter: they are american survivors of a terrible crash, eight americans killed, six women and two men. 20 more injured, two critically. >> they are stable and fully conscious and no problem for them. >> reporter: it was dark before dawn in the desz. 116 american tourists set off in three buses.
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on a narrow road through the sand, the first bus sideswiped a truck parked halfway on the road. egyptian long distance drivers often sleep in cabs. the impact tore off the side of the bus crushing, killing, and injuring most of the tourists sitting on the it right side. they'd been traveling from aswan to the ancient temples in southern egypt. >> they're connected by a road which is like many roads in egypt, somewhere between barely tolerable in an appalling state. >> reporter: it's the third tourist crash in egypt in three months, in total 22 foreign tourists were killed. the names of the dead and wounded have not kwet been released nor the hometowns. the group included senior citizens and families from different towns across america.
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>> i've seen only some of the patients, but they're getting the care they need for the moment here at the hospital. >> reporter: after the crash the rest of american tourists called off the day's trip and returned to aswan. it isn't clear yet if they will continue their vacation in egypt. martin fletcher, nbc news, london. president obama continues his holiday get-away in hawaii where he's been relaxing and meeting members of military and complementing changes in in his cabinet in the coming year. mike is covering the president's trip from honolulu. good evening. >> reporter: good evening, le . lester. the president maintains a lo profile here. most of the activities have been on the marine base on his home island of oahu. before that, the president one of the his frequent morning trips to the gym and a workout
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on the same base. he got in some golfing this afternoon as well, despite some spotty weather here in hawaii, though no one is complaining, that's for sure. yesterday late on christmas afternoon a best of your knowledge oning holiday tradition for the obamas, they went back to the same mess hall on the same day, met with gathered military families, a few dozen, plenty of children and pictures and well-wishing, but there was some business to attend to today for the president. he placed a phone call to the saud arabian king who was reentdly released from a new york area hospital after two successful back surgeries. there was another one of those conference calls where administration counterterrorism officials talked about the security in the homeland during the holiday season. the president was later briefed on that call. >> thanks, mike. when "nbc nightly news," why these days you may find a civilian, not a police officer, dusting for prints at a crime scene. making a difference. the folks behind a familiar name
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oh, bayer aspirin? i'm not having a heart attack. it's my back. it works great for pain. [ male announcer ] nothing's proven to relieve pain better than extra strength bayer aspirin. it rushes relief to the site of pain. feel better? yeah. thanks for the tip. everybody is trying to save money these days, that includes city and state governments strapped for cash. police departments are not immune. job cuts are common place, and some cities are increasingly turning to civilians to pick up the slack in detective work. one such place is mesa, arizona. >> we do pretty much what patrol does, but just on the delayed property crimes. >> reporter: 26-year-old sarah eriksson is dusting for fingerprints at a crime scene but she's not an officer. >> the only president we have is our pepper spray, and then we
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have our radios. >> reporter: just a year ago she worked at costco. now she's one of eight civilians investigators with the police department in mesa, arizona, a city of about 450,000. >> we go out to scenes where there's no suspect on scene. you come home, your house has been burglarized but there's nobody in your home. make a list of what you noticed missing so far. >> reporter: the pilot program is mesa's solution to a budget crisis. these investigators increase response time and free up officers to handle true emergencies. they require less training, less equipment, and earn nearly a third less than a rookie cop. traditionally public safety budgets would be the last place a city would cut, bullet these are different economic times. here in mesa the police department has seen its budget slashed by more than $20 million in the last two years. >> we've had story after story of police departments laying off numbers of police officers. >> reporter: law professor david harris studies trends in law
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enforcement. he supports expanding civilian role if there's adequate training. police unions are critical of such plans. back at the burglary scene, no complaints. >> within an hour she showed up and dusted everything and got stuff done quick. >> my ultimate dream job is to be a sworn officer. >> reporter: eriksson has to wait. the city lacks money to run a police academy. until then her search for evidence and her dreams continues. nbc news, mesa, arizona. there's more ahead here tonight. up next, a familiar american institution that is making a difference providing clothing and something more. ah, it's stinging a little bit more than usual! yeah, you'll get used to it. the longer you keep your high mileage car, the more it pays you back. get castrol gtx high mileage. it helps engines last longer by fighting the main causes of engine failure.
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hugh hefner is engaged again. the founder of "playboy" said he's given a ring to his girlfriend, playmate crystal harris. he's 84 and his fiancee is 24. julian as sauj has signed a book deal. he's fighting extradition to sweden where he's accused of sexual misconduct. he told the sunday times of london he was writing the book to cover his legal costs and help finance the wikileaks website. this is a story about an institution that takes clothing donations for people in need. we're talking about goodwill industries. ron mott with tonight's making a difference report. >> reporter: in seattle a break from the norm.
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clear skies overhead while on the ground a more familiar scene. >> which class are you here for? >> reporter: dozens lined up at goodwill ready to learn a new ski skill. it's a position 60-year-old salesman found himself in not long ago, unemployed and computer illiterate. goodwill changed that. he's working again mostly on the computer selling for the pacific blanket and trading company. >> they're a fleece plan ket and lightweight. >> reporter: just one placement goodwill lands every 45 seconds of every day. >> you're relevance is probably greater now than in our history because of this economy and we have more knocking on the goodwill door than before. >> reporter: sales at goodwill stories are up roughly 10%. that's not only good news for bargain hunters but for the more
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than 2 million that go to goodwill looking for a new job every year. across the country in atlanta she's driving toward a new career as a truck driver. >> it's hard in this environment. goodwill has provided me hope. >> reporter: autumn biel says it helped her kick a drug habit, land a job at home depot and get her kids back, a believer that jobs change lives. would you say that's accurate? >> most definitely. this job changed my life. >> reporter: three lives and brighter futures through determination and goodwill. ron mott, nbc news, seattle. we're back in a moment with an update on the big winter storm hitting the northeast tonight. ♪ i hate suburbia and the bourgeoi-sie ♪ ♪ but i really love my bank ♪ i hate-- didn't quite catch that last bit. i said i really love my bank. right... is there a problem ?
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before we leave you tonight, let's get an update on the still developing story, that powerful winter storm heating the east coast. we're joined by mike seidel in massachusetts. mike. >> reporter: lester, still the blizzard warnings continue through most of tomorrow for a lot of the east coast, from the jersey shore to maine. the snow will come down at an inch or two an hour. right now we have wind gusts around 40 miles per hour around the met fro new york city area. you see that wall of white. it doesn't extend too far farther west down around d.c.
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and baltimore and travel will be improbable. the snow will taper off later tomorrow. even if the snow wraps up, the winds will howl and that will slow down things at the airports. look at the forecast totals. another foot or more around boston, new york city snow and blowing snow. tuesday will be much, much better, lester. >> that's "nbc nightly news" this snowy sunday. coming up next is "football night in america" and a reminder tonight's vikings/eagles match-up has been reschedule fos for tuesday night. from all of us here at nbc news, for tuesday night. from all of us here at nbc news, good night. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com
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