this morning on "world news now." getting personal. with the primary race under way, campaign politics getting ugly. donald trump challenging the rest of the gop pack and speaking candidly last night about not going to vietnam. the mysterious death of a mayor. found dead just weeks after his election. the town shocked by the news. and well-liked new mayor. and what police are hoping they'll find out today. and new this half hour, the growing cyber threat. ransomware. >> what experts say is a top crime tactic by hackers, disguising e-mails to steal all of your files and hold them for ransom. rld, giving away all of their facebook fortune to charity.

why they and so many others are thankful this morning. that's in "the skinny" this wednesday december 2nd. >> announcer: from abc news, this is "world news now." good morning, everyone. i'm reena ninan. >> and i'm kendis gibson. thank you for joining us. >> good news on the zuckerbergs. >> that's really fantastic. they say they've been trying for several years to have a baby and he admitted to having problems, miscarried before. so a great gift. to the world. >> they look so happy and their baby is so darn cute. and he's going to be taking two months paternity, which is part of facebook's policy, and i think it's remarkable because we really need your help, folks, when we have a baby. you need as many hands on deck. so we wish him the best of luck. >> i'll call in some help. we'll get to that of course a mpshire.start with new the presidential primary two months away.

>> donald trump turned personal during a campaign appearance last night talk about his guilt over not serving in the vietnam war. the republican front-runner also coming under renewed attacks from his rivals. abc tom llamas is covering the campaign. >> reporter: with time running out donald trump now predicting his friendly rivals will soon turn against him. >> christie hasn't hit me yet. he will. he has to. he has no choice. he's at two or three. he has to. he's going to hit me. at some point. hey, there's only one way you get to the top, and it's all through trump. let's face it. >> reporter: and trump was right. new jersey governor chris christie, hoping to gather some momentum after winning the endorsement of an influential new hampshire newspaper, is now laying into the republican front-runner. >> if donald starts yelling and screaming at me in the middle of the speech you can be sure i'll say sit down and shut up. >> reporter: christie castigating trump for mocking a disabled reporter like this. >> i don't know what i said. i don't remember! >> reporter: a performance christie calls unpresidential.

>> you shouldn't be make fun of people's disabilities. it's just not -- it's just not worthy of someone running for president of the united states. >> reporter: and on trump's assertion muslims in new jersey were celebrating on 9/11. >> that did not happen in new jersey and didn't happen since. >> reporter: former new york mayor giuliani agreed adding other candidates couldn't get away with saying the things trump does. >> i'd have been thrown out of the race. he is judged by a different standard. maybe it's because of his background in "the apprentice" and an entertainer. >> donald trump threatened to drop out of the next debate unless cnn would pay to $5 million which he would donate to charity but later trump saying he wouldn't skip the debate because then he would be called a chicken. tom llamas, abc news, new york. the u.s. is expanding a special operations targeting force that's fighting against isis. last night at harvard the secretary of defense ash carter repeated many of the points about that force that he detailed earlier for congress. carter said more special

operations troops are heading to iraq where they will work alongside iraqi and kurdish forces. they will also work alone inside syria. carter didn't say how many new troops would be heading into the fight. chicago's police superintendent is out of a job amid growing outrage over the death of a black teen at the hands of white police officers. garry mccarthy was fired a week after the release of the dash cam video showing the officer shooting laquan mcdonald 16 times. mayor rahm emanuel said it wasn't about performance but mccarthy had become a distraction. meanwhile, the state's attorney general is calling for a federal investigation into the police department's practices. now to the mysterious death of a newly elected mayor in alaska. police in the capital city of juneau have tentatively ruled out gunshots, drugs, or suicide, and they're now waiting for the medical examiner's report to determine if it was natural causes or foul play. more now from abc's neal karlinsky. >> reporter: greg fisk was only

sworn in as mayor of juneau five weeks ago but his mysterious death has left alaska's capital city reeling. police say the new mayor whose facebook page was filled with campaign photos was found dead in his home on monday by his adult son, adding cryptically that investigators are aware of rumors that an assault occurred in connection with fisk's death. termined but police now say . the mayor did have injuries. >> it's quite a shock to a lot of people. to come into office as an innovator to really shake things up. >> reporter: this was fisk in a recent debate. he was 70 years old, well liked, full of ideas, and seemingly healthy. >> ultimately we can't cut our way to prosperity here. we've got to grow the economy. >> reporter: outside the mayor's home candles and notes left in his honor. police say members of the public ve been helping with the investigation. an autopsy will be performed to determine what killed the mayor. police say they are investigating all possible scenarios. neal karlinsky, abc news,

seattle. clear skies across texas and oklahoma will be a welcome sight as flooding damages recede. so much rain fell over the weekend in dallas. a levee gave way under the pressure from flood waters. some cows did everything they could to stay dry in the corner of a huge flooded field. the water remains several feet mage. little structural uckily and we have new details about one family's harrowing rescue from flood waters in oklahoma. abc's ryan owens reports. >> reporter: a mother's desperate call for help. >> we're in the water. the car's under the water. we need help. i've got my kids. >> reporter: her suv swept away by flood waters. >> one of my sons is on the street. >> reporter: you hear the two litle ones, 3 and one

1-year-old, crying as their mom, 25-year-old brita frank, holds on to them for dear life. 6-year-old miguel clinging to that tree just out of mom's reach. >> please help us. >> are you able to reach your son that's on the tree? >> he's right here. >> okay. can he get over to the car with you? >> i can't -- i can't let go of my other babies. >> reporter: frank's suv was swept into an oklahoma creek friday as she says she was following her gps home to kansas from her sister's house. she was caught in the massive storm that paralyzed parts of the country over the long holiday weekend. >> i just kept telling myself we've got to get out of here, we have to get out of here. >> please tell them to hurry. it's so cold. >> reporter: they had to wait about 45 minutes in that frigid water. >> i need to put the phone down. they're going to throw up. >> reporter: one by one three generations of one family brought to safety. a terrifying ordeal for this family, no doubt, but the truth is they are some of the lucky ones. 14 people died in this country as this storm moved through, and most of them, just like this family, trapped inside their cars. ryan owens, abc news, dallas.

>> you could see how quickly something like that could happen. thank god they're okay. >> what a harrowing ordeal there. and the storm system, by the way, that brought those heavy rains, snow and ice, has continued to move east. >> let's head over to accuweather meteorologist paul williams for the forecast. hey, paul. >> thanks, kendis, reena. we have a widespread pattern that's going to change over in maine but keep in mind that rain's going to hit portland toward albany toward buffalo as far south as richmond and continue to move throughout the south and these scattered showers there make for somewhat sluggish slow travel conditions but at least it's not snow. that same front reaches down toward the deep south, warm air over florida and the carolina coast but cooler and dryer conditions in the deep south. watch out. that cold air will sneak up on you if you're not careful. as we go into thursday, we'll have more accumulated snow developing throughout the new york state area going into maine with the low pressure system that's going to stay pretty

isolated but high pressure will arrive on friday and clear the board for everybody. reena, kendis. >> thank you, paul. i hate when that cold weather sneaks up on you. pack a sweater. an investigation found the company that came up with a cure for hepatitis c has priced its drug beyond the reach tomorrow night. so sovaldi says it costs $1,000 a pill. that comes up to $80,000 for a single course of treatment. they say it puts the burden on medicare, medicaid and the patients. 80,000? come on now. some great news to report about a young girl whose story we've been following for quite some time now. you've probably been familiar with leah still, the daughter of the former cincinnati lineman devon still. >> she was diagnosed with advanced stage cancer back in june of last year. the bengals kept her dad on the

team to help him pay for leah's treatment. >> now the great news for devon and family. leah is still cancer-free. tests over the summer showed her cancer was in remission and now her father says follow-up exams show no evidence of the disease. >> that is so remarkable. i tell you, if you ever have a down day google videos of this girl. she on her way to treatment, her father would post photos and videos, and always had this incredible spirit and just such a light. >> you could see it there in her face. great to hear she's doing better. coming up, holding your computer hostage. >> it's a growing trend of cyber thieves sending you deceptive e-mails that hack into all your files and forcing you to pay a ransom. a warning before you click that link. and dueling drummers. the late-night ballot between two iconic percussive powerhouses. dave grohl versus animal. so who will pound their way to victory? but first, rain on both coasts. in philadelphia they're celebrating their first victory. >> watch out paul williams. look at you, weather man.

>> the cold front sneaking up on you. he cold front sneaking up on you. >> announcer: "world news now" weather. brought to you by airborne dual action. by airborne dual action. i take prilosec otc each morning for my frequent heartburn because you can't beat zero heartburn!

ahhh the sweet taste of victory! prilosec otc. one pill each morning. 24 hours. zero heartburn. >> important message for residents age 50 to 85. write down this number now. right now, people are receiving this free information kit for guaranteed acceptance life insurance with a rate lock through the colonial penn program. if you are on a fixed income, learn about affordable whole life insurance that guarantees your rate can never increase for any reason. if you did not receive your information, call this number now. your acceptance is guaranteed, with no health questions. stand by to learn more. >> i'm alex trebek, here to tell you about a popular life insurance plan with a rate lock that locks in your rate for life so it can never increase. did you get your free information kit? if not, please call this number now. this affordable plan through the colonial penn program has coverage options for just $9.95 a month.

your rate is locked in and can never go up. and your acceptance is guaranteed, with no health questions. see how much coverage you can get for just $9.95 a month. call now for your free information kit. ♪ it's not always as easy for me as it is for him... it's easy for me cause look at her. aw... so we use k-y ultragel. it enhances my body's natural moisture so i can get into the swing of it a bit quicker. and when i know she's feeling like that, it makes me feel like we're both...

when she enjoys it, we enjoy it even more. and i enjoy it. feel the difference with k-y ultragel. that's a suspect on the roof of a strip mall in utah. >> all right. hold on. >> and after that charge an officer wearing a body camera lost his balance, falling ten feet to the ground. t is doing fine by now, we're told. the suspect was arrested and faces several charges. so there's a new threat to computer users and it goes beyond just malicious software that stops your computer from functioning. >> this malware is called

ransomware and it holds your personal files hostage until you pay. experts say we'll see a lot more of it next year. we've got details from abc's linzie janis. >> reporter: threatening messages like these appearing across the country at an alarming rate. at a police department in massachusetts. >> our information was held hostage. >> reporter: demanding a $500 ransom or lose their data. >> the best option for us was to pay the ransom. >> reporter: here at intel security's war room, experts detect more than 13,000 ransomware threats a day across the globe. >> very often a user installs ransomware. when they get an e-mail from what looks like a company they would do business with. >> reporter: take this phony ups message used as ransomware. >> if you were to click on any of the links it would download and install the ransomware and malware that would then encrypt and hold your files for ransom. >> reporter: experts say ransomware could also attack your phone. >> we see examples where a user

can receive a phishing e-mail on their phone and infect their mobile device. >> reporter: this fake bank message claims it has important information about your account, but click here and your phone would be infected. >> your reputation could be held for ransom as well. >> reporter: one victim even received a message demanding a $200 payment to stop a false information about child pornography from being sent to colleagues and contacts. robert herjavec from "shark tank" is a security expert. he says ransomware is one of the greatest threats he sees. >> everybody's vulnerable today. >> reporter: still he says don't be powerless. >> make sure you're backing everything up. there are so many cloud services even on your iphone. you can back up all your u can back up all your data. make sure you're doing that. >> and he says unplug that backup drive so it's oust hackers' ranch reach and always use anti-virus software and a

firewall used by reputable cameras. linzie janis, new york. >> thank you. that's great advice. and when we come back, you may be seeing more of rambo soon. >> and two legendary drummers settle their epic musical grudge for now. "the skinny's" next.

♪ skinny ♪ so skinny well, it's time for "the skinny." and baby makes three for facebook founder mark zuckerberg and his wife priscilla. >> they announced her birth by posting a letter to their newborn daughter on facebook, of course. >> maxima zuckerberg. that's a beautiful name. i love that. >> that's a great name. >> born early next week. she's max for short. i love that strong name. >> and in the letter to her little girl was a blockbuster announcement. the company is donating 99% of their wealth to charitable causes. that, by the way, is about $45 billion. >> the initial focus of what they're calling the chan zuckerberg initiative is on education, disease, and building strong communities. >> reporter: zuckerberg also said he plans to remain facebook's ceo for a long, long time. >> kudos to them. a lot of people are wealthy but don't make the effort as they

have and they're truly changing the world. >> following the gates' lead i guess. >> rambo getting ready to storm your television screen. a tv series is in the works with sylvester stallone as producer. >> it's not known whether stallone who starred in the movies will be seen in the shows. the series will explore the relationship between rambo and his son, a former navy s.e.a.l., who's actually never been featured in any of the films. so the series will be called "rambo: new blood." >> but we're told rambo himself will be a central character. we're just not sure if the 69-year-old stallone will play himself. >> a movie that continues another sylvester stallone franchise, the rocky movies is playing in theaters as you know and "creed" also is about a main character's son. >> there was another epic battle on tv last night between foo fighters drummer david grohl and animal of the muppets. >> yes. grohl said that he's been waiting a long time for this. and they were off pounding the skins. ♪

>> ha, ha, ha. >> dave grohl was also in the muppets movie, by the way, back in 2011 playing in a group called the moopettes. so this may have been something of a grudge match. >> love it. the former nirvana driver also sat in with miss piggy's talk show house band electric mayhem. >> fun show. >> looks like it. tickles the ivories and flips houses. billy joel selling two adjacent properties that he owns in florida just south of ritzy palm beach. >> time for your real estate porn. he bought them less than two years ago and is asking a combined $29 million. that's more than twice what the piano man paid for them. >> the slightly larger property is one of the more undeveloped pieces of land in the blue blood town where the median income is just above $100,000. and the other has a seven-bedroom mansion as well as a guest house and four-car garage. >> joel often buys and sells big-ticket properties.

he's got three on his native long island new york. >> more news coming up. >> he's talented. ♪ i'm not ashamed to admit >> more news coming up. >> he's nted. uh huh... your own apartment or buy a new car? learning the hard way? the hard way? to pay for movers? credit score from credit karma. credit. sometimes we use k-y ultragel to enhance my body's natural moisture so i can get into it a bit quicker. and when i know she's into it, i get into it and... feel the difference with k-y ultragel. covergdraw attention way to perfect point liner smudge with sponge-tip to create a smokin' kitten eye lash blast mascara adds an instant blast of volume add a pow to your brow! wow!

from easy, breezy, beautiful covergirl enough pressure in here for ya? ugh. my sinuses are killing me. yeah...just wa 'til we hit ten thousand feet. i'm gonna take mucinex sinus-max. too late, we're about to take off. these dissolve fast. they're new liquid gels. and you're coming with me... wait, what?! you realize i have gold status? do i still get the miles? new mucinex sinus-max liquid gels. dissolves fast to unleash max strength medicine. start the relief. ditch the misery. let's end this. >> i'm alex trebek. if you're age 50 to 85, this is an important message. so please, write down the number on your screen. the lock i want to talk to you about isn't the one on your door. it's a rate lock for your life insurance that guarantees your rate can never go up at any time, for any reason. but be careful. many policies you see do not have one, but you can get

a lifetime rate lock through the colonial penn program. call this number to learn more. this plan was designed with a rate lock for people on a fixed income who want affordable life insurance that's simple to get. coverage options for just $9.95 a month, less than 35 cents a day. act now and your rate will be locked in for life. it will never increase. your coverage can never be cancelled as long as you pay your premiums, and your acceptance is guaranteed, with no health questions. you cannot be turned down because of your health. call for your information kit and gift. both are free, with no obligation. don't wait, call this number now. ♪

♪ ♪ i'm not ashamed to admit this. i struggle with this, as many parents do, it's difficult to get your kids to go to sleep. and it's not just your imagination. >> it's tough. ride them around. you know, it's tough. researchers say children get about one hour of sleep less than they should every night. >> ride them around? >> in the car. in the back seat of the car. abc's becky worley has some strategies that put that problem to sleep. >> reporter: does this sound familiar? >> mommy, can i have a glass of water? >> getting kids to settle down and actually fall asleep is tough. here's your water. >> sleep is critical for young children.

children between the ages of 2 and 5 need on average 10 or 11 hours of sleep. >> what's i parent to do? >> routine is essential for children in order to get them to go to sleep p. >> the basic still rule here. warm bath, bedtime shore. but there are a few new ideas too. pediatricians say the wind-down should be totally screen-free. the blue lights can signal a child's brain that it's daytime. enter sleepy-time coloring. and also this bed-time story that has parents raving. >> i want you to relax. different parts of your body. >> reporter: called "the rabbit who wants to fall asleep." it was wrienen by a psychiatrist who employs researed methods to cue drowsiness. we asked three moms, two of them are abc producers, to try them out on their toddlers and preschoolers. >> i call it a success. the kids are going to sleep faster than ever. >> it was a little bit of a bust for us. it didn't go very well. >> reporter: the author acknowledging that as every child is unique their experience with and response to the book

will be as well. sweet dreams. becky worley, abc news, oklahoma, california. >> that rabbit book looks interesting. i have difficulty not just getting them to go down but getting them to stay in their bed all night. so i swear by this product that was created by a mom -- it's called mytotclock.gov. and she couldn't find anything out there. and my mother-in-law actually bought this for me one christmas. >> what does it do? >> it's amazing. so it turns yellow when it's time to wake up and it's blue when you go it bed. it's blue. that means it's nighttime. you tell them you've got to go to sleep, you can't wake up until it turns yellow like the sun. >> you trick them into staying down for a while. >> and i've been moving it up five minutes each day. >> can you expand it to like ten hours? >> i wish. >> don't miss our updates on facebook at wnnfans.com. >> announcer: this is abc's "world news now," informing insomniacs for two decades.

making news in america this morning, fighting isis, a new strategy from the u.s. military sending special forces, plus syrian president bashar al assad blaming the u.s. for making isis stronger. the war of words between donald trump and chris christie getting more heated and ted cruz facing backlash saying most violent criminals are democrats. a police officer tumbling off a roof while trying to make an arrest. and seasonal slowdown. how christmas lights may be making your wi-fi signal sluggish. and do say good wednesday morning, everyone. we start with the new steps to