houston as a city and a community takes pride in diversity and people's success. i mean like i arrived there, i am such a strange person, a strange choice for texas, even for houston. i have been welcomed and embraced unbelievably. >> yes, but given the diversity of the school, you'd be a perfect choice. >> yes, but there are diversity all around, as well, too. but the fact that i am the first person well, in a country forget it, but even for the university of houston, they haven't had they had a woman president before. they haven't had a woman chancellor and president before, either. in texas, in generally, there have not been that many woman leaderships there. i am a different choice for them. and they went with this choice. i'm international. i mean i'm a woman. i am of a different color. i'm of different faith. i have different accent. i mean i am a different person. but they embraced me simply because i think the university and the city both celebrate diversity. >> and looking at now, the university that is there, it is a great thing that we provide access and

as a high today. denver full sunshine, flurries in chicago and houston with the sunshine but windy conditions in new york city for air travel. we do have a blizzard warning in effect in western plumas county, however, it's a winter storm warning in effect form the greater lake tahoe area. three feet of snow above 7,000 feet. still looking at about a foot at lake level, where i just took a look at the statistics and it's 31 degrees with blowing snow. we have this front, it is exiting lifting to the north sagging to the south leaving behind unstable air mass. scattered showers a chance of a thunderstorm, highs much cooler than what they have been. and the upper 50s and low 60s, you'll feel the difference. west wind 5 to 10 miles per hour. here's the extended forecast. we are calling for sunshine on saturday. hey, that deserves a round of applause. [ applause ] >> sunshine. >> thank you very much. and we'll have increasing cloud cover on sunday and that will lead to more rain showers on monday. about an inch of rain on monday. you can track this storm along with me by getting your cbs bay area weather app. all y

houston. the map looks good except for the southwest where they're going to see a little bit of snow and rain as a low pressure moves in. midnight forecast for all these big citiespper 20s for new york with the big ball drop, then looking at chicago, 20 kree degrees, 46 in houston. 50 in los angeles. heather, you mentioned a little dance. here's my last dance of 2014. >> nice, love those moves, janice. next year we'll have to come up with a better answer and say that we're partying with i don't know kid rock in las vegas. we need to work on our answers. >> yes. i'm hoping for that in 2015. >> there we go. we'll get set. you don't want to miss janice and her all-american new year, ringing it in with kimberly guilfoyle, and the festivities kick off tomorrow night at 9:00 p.m. eastern. >>> do you remember that bratty passenger forcing a plane to land because she didn't like the way her nuts were served? we found out about her close connection to the airline and now she'll have her day in court. i'm looking forward to. for some every dollar is earned with sweat, sacrifice, courage. which is why usaa is honored to help our members with everything from investing for r

as the city prepares for the wake of officer rafael ramos who was one of the two cops murdered last saturday. the wake is this afternoon. >>> former president george h.w. bush remains hospitalized in houston, a he had a terrific christmas with his family and is in great spirits. >>> a new report reveals top v.a. officials may have known about the problems plaguing the phoenix v.a. for year. former secretary eric shinseki denies the claim. >> time for the good, the bad, and the ugly. first the good. seven puppies found abandoned in a dumpster in california all adopted in time for christmas. the pups were found in october and they were the size of hamsters. they have all been nursed back to health and they all have good homes. police never found out who the person was who dumped those dogs. next the bad. when christmas presents attack. oh! a brother drove his drone into his sister's hair. he had to cut pieces of hair but it left no major damage. finally the ugly. it looks like shaq isn't very good at that. >> here he is. [laughter] >> that's all seven feet of him crashing head first into a christmas tree during half time show. he is totally fine, so we can laugh. >> no slack. time to brew on t

a united states senator and his operation. so subsequently often his staff, younger individuals in their 30s eventually were elected as the county judge in harris county which is houston and dallas county, the city of dallas and their county which is the city of san antonio. others were elected to congress, guys like tom leffler and others who had served on its staff who had been mentored by tower. so what power did was to build a cadre of younger workers and younger supporters who then became candidates and public officials. and i think that's one thing we have to keep in mind. you can't just win by putting up an attractive candidate at the top of the ticket. you have to build from the ground up and you have to attract new people and train them and recruit them to be candidates. a second thing that is present in texas and unfortunately from my perspective only those 12 states have it and that is that our state allows straight ticket voting. by that i mean when you go in and you look your ballot the first thing on the ballot is you want to build this great ticket. you either market for you press a button or whatever method of voting machine you might have him make an indication that we were goin

a slick friday morning commute for some of you. heavy rain across portions of eastern texas and louisiana. cities like new orleans and also in houston, you're going to need that umbrella as morning. out west, we've had a number of storm systems impacting this region. this is great news. we still have drought conditions in place, especially across california and that much needed rain is moving into northern parts of california, oregon and washington state. some of the higher elevations seeing some much needed snowfall as well. there is a quick look at your high temperatures across the country. 30s across the northeast. a little better across parts of the south with high temperatures in the 60s for place likes new orleans. 52 for the high temperature in the city of dallas. let's head back inside. >> all right. thank you very much. feels like winter, but winter is still two days away. >> sure is. thanks. >>> he was a deadliest sniper in history. now chris kyle's story is headed to the big screen. up next, the man who made it all happen on what you have not heard about the american sniper. >>> and you want to buy a toy gun for somebody for christmas? you might be out of luck

houston on friday. a storm broke a record with the city receiving almost three inches of rain. and alex wallace has more on what to expect this weekend and for the holiday week. >> good saturday, alex. as we head to the pacific northwest, we have moisture streaming in here with several disturbances will be moving on throughout the weekend. we are talking about some areas that could see 3 to 5 inches of rain, and so again, we are talking pretty steady rains expected here through the weekend. and then we turn our attention towards midweek and getting close to christmas, we have a storm system in the middle of the country headed towards the great lakes, and really strengthening out there, and that's going to mean big time winds and the potential for rain and snow out there as well. so let's get you into tuesday now. upper midwest, the snow will impact us further. by christmas eve a. big travel day, right? we have a wintry mix, and then all rain to deal with on the east coast. i think that will be the general trend. east coast rain, and better chance for the wintry weather, and everybody having to deal with the wind. so i would say travel problems will ensue as we heads toward the christma

as well. >> new york city dogs, ladies and gentlemen. new york city dogs. >>> the "heat index" coming up. first ginger with a check of the weather. >> meet my friends from houstone a busy couple of days. you guys are going to enjoy it, though. if you're in new york city for a few more, it's only getting colder. i wanted to take you straight into the temperatures. the highs for the next couple of days not only in the northeast, the great lakes, the northern plains, detroit goes into the 20s. these are high temperatures, by the way. nashville, washington, d.c., a lot closer to average. now, last week when i was gone, the week before we put out this big facebook and twitter callout and we wanted to see the best photo of the year, and these are the submissions. we want you to vote by going to our facebook page at "good morning america." you can see chicago on the left, virginia on the right. duluth, minnesota, i love that with the fog coming up and gunnison, colorado. some really great pics but we need your help to decide. we will be announcing them as we get closer to the new year's's day right here on "gma." real quick look across the nation. coast to coast we're

a reality. that's right, new york. listen up, l.a. get ready, miami, houston and dallas. we're going to work to protect as many families as we can in the city of chicago and we're challenging you to keep up. but it is not just the major immigrant gateway cities where we need to organize to protect american families. as the president showed us yesterday, cities in the south like nashville, are leading the way to integrate and assimilate immigrant populations. the spirit of inclusion is of utmost importance as we help families come forward, register with the government, submit their paperwork and fingerprints and get ready and into the system. i have told my house colleagues that i plan to be on the road a lot at the start of next year traveling anywhere they need me to travel to help them conduct outreach and educate immigrant communities where they live. but it's not just the blue districts where we must support our immigrant communities and make sure they register. it will be necessary in red districts too. states like south carolina, arizona and alabama, states that tried unsuccessfully to push their immigrant communities farther undergro