ines ferre here in new york, appreciate it. thank you so much. a quick break this morning. just ahead on the morning news how a kidney donation figured in the parole of two sisters serving time for armed robbery. >>> plus, a fine for football's brett favre in connection with a text messaging scam. this is the "cbs morning news." '? campbell's healthy request can help. low cholesterol, zero grams trans fat, and a healthy level of sodium. it's amazing what soup can do. the moisturizer in other body washes sits on top of skin. only dove has nutriummoisture, which can nourish deep down. dove body wash with nutriummoisture. superior natural nourishment for your skin. let's raise a glass to cookies just out of the oven. to the morning bowl of cereal. and to lactaid® milk. easy to digest and with all the calcium and vitamin d of regular milk. [ female announcer ] lactaid®. the original lactose-free milk. but women have made olay #1. not surgical results, regenerist is the #1 anti-aging serum and the #1 anti-aging moisturizer. not drastic. just fantastic, younger-looking skin with

ines ferre in new york. thank you so much. appreciate it. >>> just ahead on the morning news, the curse of the spider-man broadway show strikes again. >>> plus, where's a super hero when you need one. a man gets caught in front of a moving truck and it's all caught on tape. this is the "cbs morning news." new v8 v-fusion + tea. one combined serving of vegetables and fruit with the goodness of green tea and powerful antioxidants. refreshingly good. i knew for years before i quit that i needed to quit and i went online to find a way. ♪ what really excited me about chantix -- it's a non-nicotine pill. i didn't want nicotine to give up nicotine. while you're taking the medication, for the first week, you can go ahead and smoke. [ male announcer ] prescription chantix is proven to help people quit smoking. when i was taking the chantix, it reduced the urge to smoke. [ male announcer ] some people had changes in behavior, thinking or mood, hostility, agitation, depressed mood and suicidal thoughts or actions while taking or after st

inez ferre, cbs news. >>> san francisco's civic center plaza looked like a winter resort today as snow run and play area were part of city hall's holiday celebration. the snow run was for kids, and the snow area for babies. inez and his family joined the gathering for the winter wonderland. >>> which probably won't stick around for very long. got warm weather and rain. >> got some rain brewing. they're going to see lots of snow in the mountains. how about the fog today? started breaking up into the afternoon. off to the coastline, pretty nice. the fog in the bay and the valleys and the coast looking good. some patchy fog developing out there right now. going to start out dense in the interior valleys. not as bad as last night. the fog is going to lift already. early clouds in the bay area. some of it working its way right into the delta and the bay, up to the coastline, trying to get there, but not much in that direction. seeing a fairly cold night again. it's pretty good conditions for the fog to form. the ridge right down there at the surface in most spots. high country, want to do s

ines ferre is here with that and more. good morning to you. >> good morning, terrell.low day for most asian markets. japan's nikkei gained around one percent while hong kong's hang seng also finished higher. wall street opens today for the last week of trading before the new year. light trading is expected with many investors either on vacation or already locked into profits. last week, traders kept the year-end rally going strong. the dow added 0.7%. the nasdaq added close to 1%. >>> 'tis the season for gift returns. at least 20% of americans plan to return at least one gift and many plan to do so today. despite the big storm in the northeast, the national retail federation predicted spending this holiday season will reach $451.5 billion, up 3.3% over last year. that would be the biggest increase since 2006. >>> gasoline prices are surging again. just in time for the millions driving home from christmas gatherings, the average price hit 3.04 a gallon sunday. gasoline prices have gone up six cents in a week and 18 cents in a month. analysts expect more increases in the

dollars of federal stimulus funds but the day of reckoning is at hand, the it is make wall street ferrail the recovery, cost a million public employees their jobs and require another big bailout package that no one in washington wants to talk about. >> the most alarming thing about the state issue is the level of complacency. >> reporter: meredith whitny is one of the most respected financial analysts on wall street and one of the most influential women in american business. she made a reputation by warning that the big banks were in big trouble long before the 2-- 2008 collapse. now she's warning about a financial meltdown in state and local governments. >> it has tentacles as wide as anything i've seen. i think next to housing this is the single most important issue in the united states and certainly the largest threat to the u.s. economy. >> reporter: why aren't people paying attention? >> because they don't pay attention until they have to. >> reporter: whitny says it's time to start. >> with the the money that we twak in, that is all the money we can spend. >> reporter: california

as he has said it is not going to permit an extension of ferre and george w. bush tax breaks for people that are very rich and i feel he ought to do that. but he said he was going to do and maybe have one vote in the senate to grant an extension of the bush tax reductions to people that make less than $250,000 a year. that's what he said he was going to do during the campaign, and one vote only had not permit any possibility of extending the tax reductions for the very rich people. but if he does things like that, i think he will have a good bit of success. it was only when he used, as you know, a very well known technique that george w. bush used many times, reconciliation that he was able to get the health bill passed, well, that is playing it tough and many have the democrats now say they will do better in 2012, i'm speaking as a democrat, if the president does hang tough, and i think he will. >> host: back to conservation. can you just tell us, by december, 1980, you did this remarkable alaska lands conservation act, and it's putting aside over 50 million

applause] five, modernization will only provide the expected effect when the society has fair laws, and ferres they're actually working when the independent and respected courts and law enforcement agencies are functioning. those that in july true respect on the part of the citizens. all these links undoubtedly, of course all are linked among ourselves closely and the entire system of the reform of just individual institutions. that is why, along with developing the legislation of the judicial reform, which is something that we have been doing and are doing, we are reforming the minister of the interior and the legislative level creating an environment in which to improve the quality of the work of the investigative authorities and the prosecutor's office. to this progress, i have submitted to the state, to the draft legislation on the police and on the investigative committee of the federal and the regional and municipal leaders must prepare to effectively implement these new acts. indeed, they have a lot of new things, and not to hide in their offices and watch criminal operators increase t

applause] five, modernization will only provide the expected effect when the society has fair laws, and ferres they're actually working when the independent and respected courts and law enforcement agencies are functioning. those that in july true respect on the part of the citizens. all these links undoubtedly, of course all are linked among ourselves closely and the entire system of the reform of just individual institutions. that is why, along with developing the legislation of the judicial reform, which is something that we have been doing and are doing, we are reforming the minister of the interior and the legislative level creating an environment in which to improve the quality of the work of the investigative authorities and the prosecutor's office. to this progress, i have submitted to the state, to the draft legislation on the police and on the investigative committee of the federalan the regional and municipal leaders must prepare to effectively implement these new acts. indeed, they have a lot of new things, and not to hide in their offices and watch criminal operators increase the

applause] five, modernization will only provide the expected effect when the society has fair laws, and ferre laws they're actually working when the independent and respected courts and law enforcement agencies are functioning. those that in july true respect on the part of the citizens. all these links undoubtedly, of course all are linked among ourselves closely and the entire system of the reform of just individual institutions. that is why, along with developing the legislation of the judicial reform, which is something that we have been doing and are doing, we are reforming the minister of the interior and the legislative level creating an environment in which to improve the quality of the work of the investigative authorities and the prosecutor's office. to this progress, i have submitted to the state, to the draft legislation on the police and on the investigative committee of the federal and the regional and municipal leaders must prepare to effectively implement these new acts. indeed, they have a lot of new things, and not to hide in their offices and watch criminal operators increa

applause] five, modernization will only provide the expected effect when the society has fair laws, and ferre laws they're actually working when the independent and respected courts and law enforcement agencies are functioning. those that in july true respect on the part of the citizens. all these links undoubtedly, of course all are linked among ourselves closely and the entire system of the reform of just individual institutions. that is why, along with developing the legislation of the judicial reform, which is something that we have been doing and are doing, we are reforming the minister of the interior and the legislative level creating an environment in which to improve the qualy of the work of the investigive authorities and the prosecutor's office. to this progress, i have submitted to the state, to the draft legislation on the police and on the investigative committee of the federal and the regional and municipal leaders must prepare to effectively implement these new acts. indeed, they have a lot of new things, and not to hide in their offices and watch criminal operators increase t