kathy griffin is here. [ applause ] i'm watching you, kathy. i am watching you. all right? now, throughout the night as you meet our cnn heroes, i hope you'll be inspired to get involved with their causes. go to cnnhe rows.com at any time to see ways to interact and donate during the show. while you're watching, also get involved on facebook, on twitter. visit our account on instagram to see exclusive behind the scenes pictures from tonight's event. cnn has given each of our top ten honorees $10,000 so they can continue to do their important work and, of course, later tonight one of the honor are r will be named 2015 cnn hero of the year and receive an additional $100,000. so let's begin tonight -- [ applause ] let's meet our first krb cnn hero. any given night, nearly half a million people are homeless in the united states of america. many are experiencing a temporary crisis. they're living in a shelter. but 15% of them are chronically homeless. they live with serious medical conditions. heart disease, diabetes, mental illness. our next hero seeks these men and women out t

kathy griffin is here. i am watching you, kathy. i am watching you. now, throughout the night as you meet our cnn heroes, i hope you'll be inspired to get involved with their causes. you can go to cnnheroes.com at any time to see ways to interact and donate. while watching, you can also get involved on facebook, twitter, on instagram to see behind the scenes photos of tonight's event. cnn has given each of the honorees $10,000 so they can continue to do their important work. and later tonight one of the honorees will be named the 2015 cnn hero of the year and they will receive an additional $100,000. so let's begin tonight. let's meet our first cnn hero. on any given night, nearly half a million are homeless. they live with serious medical conditions. they live with serious medical conditions, heart disease, mental illness. to tell us about his remarkable work is a proud supporter of direct relief which provides essential medical resources for people in need and during disasters as well as the support of the trevor project. he's the star of the upcomi

don't judge me, kathy griffin. you can go to our facebook page over here. just want to show you.alk about what's going on. you can also go to our twitter page, join the conversation, and you can even join us on instagram and see behind the scenes pictures. when you learn about our heroes i hope they'll inspire you to get involved in one way or another. in the struggling neighborhoods of chicago, death, shootings and violent crimes are often daily occurrences. those victims are overwhelming the emergency rooms and the operating tables. that means many are on medicaid, many of the uninsured, the underinsured, they see their health care delay. here to tell us about a doctor who's been serving chicago's underserved for 20 years. he's a proud supporter of the campaign to end violence in chicago. academy and award winning artist, common. >> treat first. that's the mantra of the biggest, boldest, bad ass doctor in my hometown of chicago. dr. daniel ivankovich is an orthopedic surgeon who has seen it all. broken bones. twisted knees. bad backs. dislocated joints. all treatable conditions

with anderson cooper and kathy griffin.low us on twitter usin using #cnnnye. >>> we have breaking news for you this morning. word that president obama is on the verge of announcing executive action on gun control. he's expected to enact measures that would, in effect, expand background checks on gun sales. our senior white house correspondent jim acosta traveling with the president in hawaii. good morning or late evening or whatever it is there in hawaii. jim, some news from the white house. >> reporter: that's right, john. president obama is expected to announce in the coming days a new executive action aimed at expanding background checks on gun sales according to people who are familiar with white house planning. now, this is described as imminent. these executive actions would fulfill a promise by the president to take unilateral steps. the white house says could curb gun deaths in the wake of these mass shootings we've seen across the country over the last year. the president has said over the last several months he wa

cnn's new year's coverage begins with anderson cooper and kathy griffin, 8:00 p.m., be here for that. thanks for joining us "at this hour." "legal view" starts right now. >> announcer: this is cnn breaking news. >> welcome to "legal view." we're beginning with some breaking news. here in the united states, a man in upstate new york is now charged with trying to help terrorists overseas and planning to kill people today, new year's eve, in the name of isis. evan perez, cnn justice reporter, with us now. evan, tell us who this man is and what he's charged with. >> his name is emmanuel latchman, he's 25 years old, a muslim convert, living in rochester, and his plan, according to the fbi, was to attack a restaurant and bar on new year's eve and kidnap some people perhaps and using bombs and knives. now, this is somebody who according to the fbi claimed that he was in touch with an isis member overseas who had directed this plan. he was working with an undercover informant. was working for the fbi. actually, a couple of them. one of them was paid $19,000. the other was paid $7,400 during t

many of the greats have come through this stage, will farrell, kristen wiig, bill hartman, kathy griffinname a few. tonight i'm in the audience to watch these geniuses in action. >> i need a household object, like a toaster. some object. >> broom. >> a broom. great. [ laughter ] >> one word. that's all they get. here's what mindy and her partner alex did with it. >> david. >> yeah. >> david, who spilt all this blood? >> i did. >> i spilt it. >> i clearly put notes on all the blood viles up here to say please don't pick them up and shake them or use them for something other than what we need to use them for. >> carla, we keep a fridge and a cabinet full of blood viles, some warm, some cold and occasionally i'm reaching in for a coconut water and knock some over. >> the broom thing, mindy and alex, you guys didn't have any time obviously to talk ahead of time. you were picking up viles of blood. >> yes, i was. i thought something was going to happen with that. >> did you have to question? did you know where it was going? >> no idea. i was like she might grabbed me a brush down there or som

anderson will be back with kathy griffin a little over an hour from now. new years eve special beginning at 8:00 p.m. on cnn. i will certainly be watching and wherever you celebrate new years eve tonight, chances are you'll have your smart phone close by to snap a photo, maybe you're calling a loved one so as we head into 2016. cnn's tom foreman looks at the influence of iphone technology on our everyday lives. >>> when the ball comes down, the phones will go up as millions take pictures to welcome the new year. and in many ways, each click is testament to the earth-shaking impact of one product. to understand you have to go back to 2007 when the cell phone industry was exploding. >> everybody loves chocolate. >> reporter: and everybody thought it might be a big mistake for computer giant apple to get in on it. but when steve jobs unveiled the iphone, it was different. >> an ipod, a phone and an internet communication. >> reporter: despite growing pains, it was a game changer as music player, the iphone took the best elements of the ipod as an internet lin

year and make sure you are here tomorrow night for new year's eve live with anderson cooper and kathy griffinat 8:00 eastern. you know kathy won't have anything interesting to say. join us to ring in the new year from new orleans starting at 12:30. 12:30. "ac360" starts right now. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com >>> good evening. i'm jim sciutto in for anderson. we begin tonight with breaking news. as the year ends, a terror threat looms. top u.s. security officials briefed president obama about a threat originating overseas, of possible attacks here in the u.s. on three cities, new york, washington, and los angeles. we should point out officials say the threat is uncorroborated at this point based on a single source it do n

and a huge supporter of our troops, please welcome kathy griffin. >> i just want to say that you areortable with a sloth than you are with any human being. admit it. were you scared of sharon stone? i felt like you were a little scared of her. >> i love sharon stone. i'm scared of you. >> you should be scared of me. i could eat you up for lunch. get out. get out. hi, everybody. hello. hello. long before there were trains or cars or planes, when the war ended, the soldiers marched home. they had time to walk off the war. after united states marine sean gobin finished three tours of duty in iraq and afghanistan, he decided to hike all the miles of the appalachian trail before he went off to business school. he complete that long walk with a buddy and raised money for wounded veterans. what he discovered with each step and with each breathtaking view was that it helped him process his time in combat. so in 2013, he started warrior hike so that other combat veterans to walk off their wars too. no matter where a veteran's journey ends, along the trail or at the final mile marker, that cha

year and make sure you are here tomorrow night for new year's eve live with anderson cooper and kathy griffin starting at 8:00 eastern. you know kathy won't have anything interesting to say. join us to ring in the new year from new orleans starting at 12:30. 12:30. "ac360" starts right now. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com >>> good evening. i'm jim sciutto in for anderson. we begin tonight with breaking news. as the year ends, a terror threat looms. top u.s. security officials briefed president obama about a threat originating overseas, of possible attacks here in the u.s. on three cities, new york, washington, and los angeles. we should point out officials say the threat is uncorroborated at this point based on a single source it does not mention specific locations in those cities, however, with new years eve just a day a way with the big crowds that gather to celebrate it, and given the global concern about the capabilities of both isis and al qaeda, officials are taking this threat seriously and addressing it with tightened security. in new york's times square, 6,000 police officers w

night and tomorrow be sure to ring in the new year with those two crazy folks, anderson cooper and kathy griffin. and thanks so much for joining. happy new year, ""ac 360" "begins right now. >>> good evening. i'm jim sciutto in for anderson. we begin tonight with breaking news. as the year ends, a terror threat looms. top u.s. security officials bereav briefed president obama about possible attacks here in the u.s. on three cities, new york, washington and los angeles. we should point out officials say the threat is uncorroborated at this point based on a single source it does not mention specific locations in those cities, however, with new years eve just a day a way with the big crowds that gather to celebrate it, and given the global concern about the capabilities of both isis and al qaeda, officials are taking this threat

to cnn, let me suggest cnn and its famous now year's eve celebration with anderson cooper and kathy griffinill be coming up at 8:00 p.m. eastern time. it might be just a little easier to watch it with them and have a much better time than sitting in once of those pens, where once you're in, you cannot leave. no restrooms. happy new year. >> that's not how i will be starting my new year. now we're going to go to london and cnn's fred pleitgen. tell us about the new terror threats in belgium. things are ongoing and changing hour by hour. >> reporter: things are changing hour by hour and the mood a lot more subdued than we saw in times square. belgians caught offguard by the fact these new year's celebrations were canceled. they were already setting up the stage for the new year celebrations when all of a sudden the mayor of brussels came forward and said, listen, we're going to cancel these celebrations. they took the stage down and soldiers started flooding the streets. fluid situation and scary for people there in belgium. there were terror sweeps that took across over belgium in the past 2