for retailers and economists, this day is all about taking stock as rebecca jarvis will report in our cover story. >> reporter: did you get everything you wanted for christmas? >> the christmas season has become the retail super bowl. >> reporter: the big story this year was not so much what we bought but how we bought it. >> you're going to be walking into a store with your phone. you see a good. you scan it with your phone, check the price. if you like it, boom, you'll pay for it with your phone. >> reporter: santa, in the digital age ahead from sunday morning. >> reporter: this is seth doane. in the season for shopping, the shopping bag plays a supporting role. where do you find all of these bags? >> we found a lot of them on e- bay. these we bought through our dealers. >> reporter: art dealers sell shopping bags? >> well, they sell it as art. >> reporter: unwrapping the story of this practical and pretty invention. later on sunday morning. >> osgood: albert brooks is known far and wide as a very funny actor and director. so what's behind his latest movie role as a very menacing ba

investigators don't think she knew the ring was stolen or anything about jarvis's plan. no word yet on whether or not that engagement is still going on. >>> a family in california learned a very costly lesson. how a free game on their i-phone ended up costing $500. emma watson and justin bieber are two names you usually don't put together. why the young celebrities are making news this morning for what they have in common. you're watching "good morning maryland." we'll be right back. ♪ [ male announcer ] little owen wanted to play, but his nose was raw and sore. achoo! [ male announcer ] and common tissue made it burn even more. ♪ puffs plus lotion is more soothing than common tissue, and it delivers our most soothing lotion for every nose issue. a nose in need deserves puffs plus lotion indeed. to give your cold a comforting scent, try puffs plus lotion with the scent of vicks. >>> here's a lesson to all parents. be careful when you let your parents play with your i-phone. one family learned the hard way. an app originally

. >> i'm rebecca jarvis. in just four days, iowa republicans will be the first to vote in the 2012 presidential campaign. >> still a tight race in the iowa caucuses and that means a busy weekend coming up for the candidates and those covering them. chief political correspondent jan crawford is in west des moines, iowa, this morning. jan, good morning. >> good morning, guys. that's right, as these candidates make their final push across iowa, one thing that is striking, mitt romney is on the rise and that alone makes this campaign very different than the one four years ago. mitt romney's machine is powering through iowa, handing out yard signs and shaking hands andasking for votes. >> going to be caucusing this year. >> right up here. >> reporter: last night in ames, romney's bus roll under to another packed event and he continued to fire up crowds. >> i watched the president. he says, well, it could have been worse. that goes down there with, let them eat cake. >> reporter: he is going for a knockout blow in

all right, rebecca jarvis, thank you. in syria today the largest demonstrations that country has seen in months. huge crowds again calling for the resignation of bet bashar al assad. they also want to show arab league monitors how strong their movement. is as mark phillips reports, that didn't stop the regime from striking with deadly force. >> reporter: the presence of arab league observers in syria seen here in their high-visibility vests in the video the protesters have been shooting themselves, seems to have embolden it had movement in some places like the city of idlib in the north. the crowds appear to be several hundred thousand strong. but government troops continued to shadow the protesters and the casualties continue to mount up. shots fired in this damascus suburb hit the man taking these pictures. four days into their mission, the arab league observers have found themselves in the middle of the argument, accused of sticking to a government arranged schedule. "come see the corpse of a victim" they're being told

business and economics correspondent rebecca jarvis is here with more on this. rebecca, good evening. what went wrong at sears and kmart. >> and this is more of a sears and kmart story than it is an overall economy story. because it's been a difficult time for all retailers but it's been particularly difficult for sears to garner the kind of demand to keep its doors open at all of its stores. and you're going to see here is these closures that analysts estimate could impact as many as 10,000 workers. there's a bigger ripple affect on the overall economy because you look at these sears stores, in many malls they're the anchor store. you pull that out of the picture and all of a sudden there's a ripple effect on the local economy and the local community as well. >> glor: so right now who are the winners? >> target, wal-mart and amazon.com are clear winners here. people are spending what they have, the little that they have, in these retailers as well. but online is the real big winner here. 16.4% is the number sales rose online on christmas day. that's a huge numb

rebecca jarvis, thank you. the white house today condemned syria for intensifying its attacks on protesters. syria's president, bashar al-assad has promised to stop the killings and international monitors have traveled to syria to ensuring he keeps his word. but elizabeth palmer reports tonight in one city, homs, not much has changed. >> reporter: with arab league observers on the way to homs this morning, syrian tanks began pulling back from positions they've held for weeks. but when the team hit the streets, the violence hadn't stopped. this cell phone video shows a political activist urging one of the observers "come, come and see in that street over there, snipers." but in the background, there are the sounds of gunfire and the man refuses to go. we managed to get in touch with an activist in homs who was monitoring the observers' progress. we're concealing her identity for her own safety. >> pelley: in a nearby suburb, thousands who couldn't get close to the arab league observers instead joined a huge fune

i'm rebecca jarvis with jeff glor.uiz for you, j.j. >> oh? >> which one was america's first ally? >> reporter: you have a head start on me. france during the war of independence that was obviously, a long time ago. >> it was, indeed. the latest case now of french flayizing going on here in the u.s. because mitt romney speaks french. some democrats are drawing attention to that and trying to stir up some voters. we will hear more about that with a very cool piece from chip reid here in a few minutes. >> mercy. >> you speak french? >> the government has a plan to change the way you drive. on tuesday, the national transportation safety board called on all states to make texting, e-mailing, or talking on a cell phone illegal while driving. >> right now, 35 states and the district of columbia have banned texting while driving and nine states bar hand-held cell phones by drivers and 30 states ban all cell phone use for beginning drivers. noin is the ntsb chairman, mark rosenker. he doesn't speak french, as far as we know. bo

>> jarvis is blushing. ♪ >>> welcome back to "the early show," everyone. last friday of 2011. i'm jeff glor, along with rebecca jarvis. very sunny. >> happy new year. ring it in. >> it's time to spice unfortunate your life and your cooking are the new year. coming up we will meet the so-called spice king. he creates new blends of seasoning for some of the world's best dishes and very interesting story and show us how to add big flavor to main dishes and cocktails and it's not that complicated. >> a story from my hometown of minneapolis. a woman who suffered one of the greatest losses a mother can have. it was the murder of her son, but after many years, she was able to heal and forgive with help from an unlikely neighbor. we will have her story. >> jennifer egan a great year. her novel won the pulitzer prize "a visit from the goon squad." and we are pleased to have her here in the studio this morning. your book came out last year but won a pulitzer prize this year. a lot more people read it, including mysel

i'm rebecca jarvis. >> i'm russ mitchell. rebecca jarvis is up, up, up today! >> up, up, baby. >> what is in that coffee cup? >> it's the holidays, i think. >>> a deal has been reached in washington to extend jobless benefits and social security payroll tax cut but only for two months. nancy cordes will fill us in a bit. >>> we will talk to actress claire danes on the thriller "homeland." and named for a global award nominee for her role in the show. >>> who doesn't remember the music "rent"? the first musical i ever saw. it won practically every single award including a pulitzer prize. before it closed three years ago, obviously, that was a hard time for some people, but guess what? it is now back and better than ever. this morning, the cast will perform two of the songs that made "rent" an instant classic. >> it's a cast of thousands too. >> it is really great! >>> first, to the latest on the tentative deal in the senate that could extend a payroll tax cut and help struggling americans continue to receive unemployment benefits. cbs news congressional correspo

>> jarvis is blushing.d, a chef creating new,,,,,,,,,,,,,, . >>> a beautiful view on this purple friday. >> a high of 54 today. a beautiful look outside. >> two minor issues this morning. we have police activity and then a kiss abled vehicle at 140. otherwise, a fantastic morning drive and the speeds mainly in the 60s. there is a look at the average speeds on the beltway and there is the look outside at lake 95 and this is a report brought to you by dick's sporting goods! . >> back over to you. >>> paying more for gasoline is nothing none of us want, but the state politicians said it may be necessary. >> the governor said it has to be seriously considered in 2012. right now, the tax tax is 23.5 centss set pack in 1992. if this is approved, we will have the 6th highest gasoline tax in the country. >>> teens are badly burned after using chemicals in a fire pit. the fire specials said they had wanted to start the bonfire and when one did not light, he put gasoline on the burning embers. the others that were hu

i'm rebecca jarvis with jeff glor. lot of schools going in this direction going more high tech, high tech on the rise these days around the globe. so many of them are replacing textbooks with laptops and tablets. is going in the opposite direction. there are no computers in the classroom. students use pen and paper, teachers write on chalkboards, and the school is located in the most unlikely place that you could imagine. so coming up, we will see why this retroapproach seems to be working. >> good for them. very interesting. >>> and also coming up, singer michael buble. ♪ >> we will get to know the man behind that smooth voice as he reimagines old classics as we show you some extra material from "60 minutes" overtime that you didn't see last night. >>> first, another musical act. we take a look back at the late amy winehouse. a remarkable singer who died way too young. she was just 27 at the time of her fatal overdose in july and in this 2006 interview, never seen in the united states, a younger and healthier winehous

. >> i'm rebecca jarvis. speaking of the fact that it's christmas eve morning, there are a lot of people celebrating the holidays and trying to make of more meaningful ways. what can i do and embrace the spirit of all of this. we come up in the program ways people can give back and volunteer and embrace the meaning of all of this. >> mo rocca is going to be here with tips from the holiday classic movies. it should be fun. >> it should be a lot of fun to see. >>> we begin with the kickoff of the holiday travel season as people prepare for their christmas celebrations. will the weather cooperate? that's, obviously, a question every year we are asking ourselves here in new york. will any parts of the country enjoy a white christmas? for some answers, we head over to john elliott from wcbs in new york who is filling in no lonnie quinn and great to have you with us. >> merry christmas eve to you and to you at home. a busy time of the year and travel day. chicago, minneapolis, detroit and new york all above freezin

i'm chris wragge alongside rebecca jarvis. erica hill has the morning off.as gifts. >> she got so many, right? >>> forget about the spa. many women are finding a great way to relax is to fire off a few rounds at the shooting range. >> exactly. in the last decade the number of women who enjoy target shooting has nearly doubled. they're picking up weapons for many different reasons. we'll talk with some of these women who say, and i'm quoting here, you could be a girlie girl and still shoot a gun. >> that's right. love it when you bring your fair arm to work and we're doing a piece on it. >> that's not true. >> a serious question, with obesity rates rising and debt skyrocketing, should americans be subsidizing junk food? >> come consumer advocates say we're spending millions promoting the wrong ingredients. even some farmest say it's time for a policy change. >>> we plant what we eat and we eat what we plant. >> these are grape tomatoes. >> reporter: farming is a family affair. it's also a business that literally puts food on their table. >> we grow tomato, we

. >> i'm rebecca jarvis. yil erica hill and chris wragge are off this morning. >> i hope you had a nice holiday. >> i did. i guess we can sing happy new year? >> almost there. we will spend some time this morning looking at the biggest news stories of the year. >> a huge year continuing with the arab spring and japanese earthquake and tsunamiy and osama bin laden killed by u.s. forces this year. >> we begin with terrell brown with a check of today's headlines. >>> it's megamonday. retailers expect the day after christmas to be one of the busiest shopping days of the year. it will also be the bifting day for returns and exchanges. correspondent michelle miller has more on the holiday season shopping. >> reporter: this year's christmas was a little brighter for the nation's retailers, as holiday sales were up 3.8% over a year earlier. that is according to the national retail federation. but it wasn't all good news. as analysts say sales were driven by heavy discounting. >> i feel like a lot of the stores are cu

i'm rebecca jarvis. erica hill is off this morning. >>> lots to get to. let's begin this morning with the worst violence baghdad has seen in months coming just a few days after the last u.s. combat troops left iraq. >> more than a dozen bombs went off this morning killing at least 57 people and officials believe it was a coordinated series of attacks as charlie d'agata reports from london. >> reporter: the first explosion after dawn and then came another and another. iraqi officials counted at least 14 blasts across baghdad throughout the morning rush hour. the targets were indiscriminate. roadside bombs and car bombs struck everything from neighborhood markets to police stations. a suicide bomber and an ambulance killed 18 people in one attack alone. militants unleashed a coordinated string of bombings days after the last of the u.s. troops pulled out. they also come at a time of bitter political fighting between iraq's sunni and shiite factions. prime minister nuri al maliki ordered the arrest for running death squads. this is a criminal case, he says.

jarvis murray is here representing the division of taxis. john fong is here representing the department of mapping. and anthony greco is representing the department of building inspection. at this time, could you please go over the meeting guidelines. >> the board request that you turn off all phones and pagers so they will not disturb the proceedings. please carry on conversations in the hallway. the presentations are as follows -- appellants, permit holders, and the department representatives have seven minutes and three minutes for rebuttal. people affiliated with these parties must include these comments within the seven or three-minute periods. members are not affiliated with the parties have up to three minutes to address the board with no rebuttals. to assist the board and the accurate preparation of minutes, members of the public who wish to speak on an item are asked, but not required, to submit a speaker card when you come up to speak at the podium. cards and hence are available on the left side of the podium. the board also welcom

. >> i'm rebecca jarvis. we begin in afghanistan where a suicide bombing that killed dozens of people this morning is being called unprecedented because it targeted shiite muslims as they celebrated a major religious holiday. >> this comes a day after dozens of world leaders including hillary clinton promised to support afghanistan's government for years to come. mandy clark is in kabul, afghanistan, for the latest for us this morning. >> coordinated attacks in three different cities today. insurgents targeted the minority shia population on the holiest day on their calendar where they performed religious rituals. afghan police say he walked into a large crowd and then detonated his explosive vest. this picture, taken shortly after the blast shows a blood-stained little girl surrounded by dead and injured children. this devastated mother cries. i only had one son. sectarian attacks are rare in afghanistan, past violence tends to be along tribal or ethnic fault lines, rather than between the different branches

i'm rebecca jarvis with jim axelrod. coming up a few good christmas stories.an the most to them. >>> also ahead we'll visit with model turned activist lauren bush lauren. she's president george bush's granddaughter, president george w. bush's niece and her father-in-law is ralph lauren. at the young age of 27 she's made quite a name for herself fighting world hunger. she'll explain how it helps students around the world and also tell us what it's like to be connected to a political dynasty an a fashion dynasty. >> first we want to look at some traveling myths. travelers are told over and over again if you leave your electronic devices on, maybe it could cause the plane to crash or it could interfere with some system on the plane and the right credit card will cover an accident with a rental car. >> this morning it's time to separate fact from fiction. travel editor peter greenberg is just the guy to do it. good morning. please tell me the guy in the next seat who's on his blackberry is not going to bring the plane down. >> well, the guy in the next seat is you

i'm rebecca jarvis with jeff xwlor. wife, hey, hon, i would like something for christmas, does she ever say it's hard to shop for you, jeff? >> yeah, she can, i think. >> it can be very difficult to find the right gift for a guy. we have some great gift ideas for you this morning, everything from fashion to sports, of course, food, everybody loves food. and by the way, there are multiple kinds of bacon. >> what was that? >> there are lots of different types of bacon and maybe one of them is right for your guy. >> bacon freak. >> yeah. especially iffite he's a bacon freak. i don't know what that is, but anyway -- >> what's even more special is all the gifts cost less than 100 bucks. >> that's good. coming up. >>> one of the most famous shoe designer el in the world is celebrating 100 years in the business. stuart weitzman is one of the most famous designers in the world. >> they're comfortable. >> so you like these shoes, b essentially? >> i'm a fan. >> he sells more than 2 million pairs of shoes a year. but he says he m

. >> rebecca jarvis is off this morning. >> let's get right to it. retailers counting the sales from the day after christmas. a hugely important day for them and so far appears to be one of the most profitable days of the holiday season. >> this latest bump in sales is giving businesses more hope for 2012. shoppers filled the stores on monday. i was one of them, it was insane. actually, somebody described it as a war zone. that was a bit of an overstatement. anyway, people exchanged gifts and spent money they didn't have until christmas and michelle miller has more. >> reporter: cathy brown's 8-year-old triplets can't wait to spend the holiday gift cards left under the tree. their mom was much more generous this year because this year she has a job. >> you spent how much more? >> oh, i would say maybe $1,000 more. yes. >> reporter: so a good christmas for the triplets? >> oh, yes. >> reporter: the day after was pretty good, too. look at the foot traffic at the short hills mall in millburn, new jersey. >> i think it's the returns and the, you know, th

i'm jeff glor, along with rebecca jarvis.u've opened up your christmas gifts and let's face it, some of them will be going back to the storm. >> you one the got me? just kidding. >> serious? >> no. >> 40% of us will return something this year, but a catch this time. a lot of stores are shortening the period in which you can return a gift. many places are giving you just two weeks. >> i'm only kidding about that because you didn't get me a gift so we're good. >> it's coming up. it's in the mail. >>> some have specific return rules you should know about. we will tell you what you need to know to avoid the half at the store. >>> here is terrell brown at the news desk with a check of today's other headlines for us. >>> it's megamonday when shoppers hit the stores for after christmas discounts. today is expected to be the third busiest shopping day of the year. but expect more chaos than usual at stores because today is also the biggest day for returns and exchanges. >>> the computer hackers known as anonymous say they have starte

i'm rebecca jarvis. >> i'm jim axelrod. erica hill and chris wragge are off this morning. >>> we begin with the news that the end of d.c. deadline is over. the payroll tax cut in time for christmas. on thursday, house republicans bowed to pressure from all sides agreeing to extend the tax cut for two more months. >> it would have been implemented next month for 160 million workers. sharyl attkisson is on capitol hill for us this morning with details. good morning. i guess the day in washington today will be caved. what is going on? >> reporter: the uncomfortable stalemate appears to be over to 160 million workers no longer have to worry that their payroll taxes will be going up on new year's. the house and senate could pass the two-month extension as early as today without a formal member by member vote, as long as nobody objects. that would end the public relations nightmare for republicans that if he would suffer for failing to get together on this, tension sooner. john boehner admitted as much last night. >> may not have

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save where you can. >> rebecca jarvis, thanks. great tips. we will be right back.ly show" on cbs. jamie lee curtis?? oh, hi, yes...wow, you really went all out on the decorations, huh?! yeah, but i'm so slow taking them down after all the fatty holiday food. but that's normal. what do you mean that's normal? it doesn't have to be. to me, normal, means feeling good inside. not slow. try some activia. activia helps with occasional irregularity, when eaten 3 times a day. keep a video diary and let me know about your new normal. love your new normal or it's free. so i used my citi thank you card to pick up some accessories. a new belt. some nylons. and what girl wouldn't need new shoes? we talked about getting a diamond. but with all the thank you points i've been earning... ♪ ...i flew us to the rock i really had in mind. ♪ [ male announcer ] the citi thank you card. earn points you can use for travel on any airline, with no blackout dates. earn points you can use for travel on any airline, [ growling ] captain, one step at a time.keep going! come on, snowy. look! did

investigators tracked it down after jarvis' fiance post a picture of the $3,000 ring on facebook. >> he was in there for approximately an hour, and there was some inkling from the employees that it was kind of a legitimate interest that they in getting this ring some there was some thought that quite frankly it would pop up on facebook. >> jarvis's fiance was wearing the stolen ring when authorities arrived to question the couple. investigators don't believe she knew her ring was stolen and do not plan to file criminal charges against her. >>> it's foggy morning out there. heavy fog advisory is in effect this morning. we'll give you a live look at conditions and tell you when things will soon clear up. >> drivers who have traffic tickets that should have been paid years ago are going to get a break in 2012. the discount they'll get if they make things right. >> and the fog causing issues for people today. not in the south bay, which is where this shot is. we also have an accident to tell you about in the east bay, coming up. sweetheart. we need to talk. i've seen your stunts online.

i'm rebecca jarvis. >> nice clouds out there. >> yeah.>> and i'm russ mitchel resist as a parent we often worry about whether we are spending enough time with our kids or giving them everything they need. one father is asking parents to take the shortcomings and write them down and turn them into resolutions or promises to kids. coming up a mom and dad will read those resolutions to their kids. >>> if you're in the mood for a wonderful meal tonight and who really isn't? the incredible jacques panpan gets saucy about dishing about n his favorite new year's eve dish and he brought a little cockt l cocktail. >>> up to a million people expected to gather in times square here in new york city. and to welcome in the new year, let's go back to the crossroads of the world and correspondent seth doane. good morning to you, seth. how tight is security expected to be there in times square? >> reporter: good morning, rebecca. you can see people are starting to come in here and security is already tight even though we certainly haven't seen the crowds

as they say here is jarvis in court yesterday. you can see the fiance sitting back there somewhere. he's got to be pretty disappointing. do you think the engagement is still on? >> no. it makes you crazy. >> even the big house. >> yes. we'll see you in a minute. >>> in the mail bag tonight, a lot of outreach for them and the d.c. government ranking in parking tickets. now, they give out a lot of tickets at howard university, especially by the mcdonalds. now, five registrations and my tags were current. i had to spend half my day in traffic court. i felt like i was on parking wars. now listen to this from stacey joe. oh well, there was a sly way that they started issuing tickets on weekends with the tiny little sign on the parking meter and only on one side stating that little fact. yes, i was lucky enough to get one of those tickets on my car and on my birthday. but sherry zimmerman slowly says this. feed the meter and you'll have nothing to complain about. pretty simple, actually. well you know what back in the 80s i had a conversation with somebody in public works about how the on

here to tell us what it means is business and economics correspondent rebecca jarvis. rebecca, good morning. >> good morning. >> we've seen rallies before, this is the biggest one. we've seen these rallies before. is this one different? >> it's different because of the underlying reason behind it. we've talked a lot here about the european crisis. the fact that europe's problems are overflowing into our stock market. well, yesterday came the news that a number of central banks led by the federal reserve here in the united states are going to be lending to europe's central bank. now, what does that mean? europe central bank sends funds out to the banks of europe. the banks of europe are in crisis right now because european countries are in crisis right now. and we want those banks to function properly, that's what allows for a globalized economic system to function properly. that is why the fed is lending right now to the european central bank. >> when you spell it out like that, i would imagine that is not going to sit well with a lot of americans. we have seen a simil

good memory, erica. >> rebecca jarvis, thank you very much. >>> we'll turn now to bill plante at the white house because even with unemployment falling below 9% to 8.6%, the president is still looking for some solutions on how to get it even lower. bill, i mentioned the white house is pleased at that drop, but what other tools do they have at their disposal now? >> they are very pleased and you can expect the president to talk about that today. he scheduled a job announcement today when the job numbers come out. today he will announce another initiative for green jobs. $4 billion, 2 billion in the private sector and $2 billion in government buildings. these are upgrades and he's going to do it in partnership with bill clinton. anything he can do to appear to be creating jobs will help him down the line. >> and in talking about jobs, bill, the president, as you know, has been pushing this jobs plan for months now. what is the status of that? >> well, the congress hasn't been very cooperative, so, he's tried to do it piece meal but his biggest problem right now past things that expire