>> couric: all right, seth doane. seth, i know you'll have more on the huskies tomorrow night, thank you. but right now, in case you missed it overnight, a total eclipse of the moon, when the earth's shadow blocks the sun's light dimming the face of the full moon and turning it red. it began at 2:40 eastern time this morning and lasted more than an hour. it was the first total eclipse of the moon on a winter solstice since 1638. and coming up next, the philanthropist who eclipses just about everyone in giving. ne in giving. if you live for performance, upgrade to castrol edge advanced synthetic oil. with eight times better wear protection than mobil 1. castrol edge. it's more than just oil. it's liquid engineering. and then there's most complete. like what you get from centrum silver ultra women's, the most complete multivitamin for women over 50. it has vitamin d, which emerging science suggests supports breast health, centrum silver ultra women's. but with advair, i'm breathing better. so now, i can join the fun and

seth doane, cbs news, detroit. >> smith: in other news, michael jackson's doctor is facing charges of involuntary manslaughter in the singer's death, and today, prosecutors said conrad murray will claim jackson caused his own death by injecting himself with a huge amount of the anesthetic propofol. much more than the doctor had administered. there's a preliminary hearing in the case next tuesday. the nfl today fined quarterback bret favre $50,000 in connection with a texting controversy. favre was accused of sending inappropriate messages and lewd photos to a woman who worked for the new york jets while with the team in 2008. the nfl says it cannot prove that favre sent the messages but he was fined for failing to cooperate with the investigation. @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ salsa? ♪ [ female announcer ] the cleaner the counter, the smoother the counter. with bounty you can be confident you'll get your counter clean. in this lab test, one sheet of bounty leaves this surface 3x cleaner than the bargain brand. ♪ big mess? bring it. super absorbent, super durable, super clean. bounty. the clean pic

seth doane has the story. >> reporter: they are poised to shatter a sports record, and chisel a crack in the glass ceiling. >> 88 has always been that magical number, people just assume that that is never going to be touched. >> reporter: university of connecticut's lady huskies scored their 88th consecutive win today, tying legendary coach john wooden's 1974 ucla men's team record. one more victory and thed willee huskies will have the most back-to-back wins of any division 1 team in ncaa history. >> 88. >> the team hasn't lost a game since the national semi-finals in 2008. that means the freshman, sophomores and juniors have never tasted defeat in a college game. >> the reason everybody is having a heart attack the last four or five days is a bunch of women are threatening to break a men's record. >> reporter: the coach has taken the team to seven national championships. >> the women's basketball players want to play for me because they see he is this gentle person that can guide them to where they want to go, you know? and all that crap. >> reporter: but it's not just winning on th

seth doane is in boston tonight. seth, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, harry. as you can see, the snow has tapered off here in boston, but the wind is continuing to kick it up into two to three-foot snowdrifts. you know, there's been a lot of attention paid to the snow totals in this blizzard, but the real story here in massachusetts is the wind and the waves. in the coastal town of scituate, even the national guard was called in to assist with evacuations. >> during the high tide last night, i stayed up to keep an eye on the tide and it just... the water came up really fast. >> reporter: more than 80 people from one neighborhood were helped to safety by troops working with local firefighters and police. all trudged through the icy water. >> they tried their hardest as ever to get down there. we saw them wade through chest- deep water. >> reporter: high winds fanned the flames of two homes that caught fire. flooding made it much more difficult for firefighters to do anything about it. the town of quincy was waterlogged as well. >> i've never seen the water like

seth doane, cbs news, new york. >> go get 'em ladies. later on on "the early show," the latest from capitol hill on the s.t.a.r.t. treaty debate and interview with a new york senator who sits on the foreign relations committee. >>> also whether the beach or slopes find out some amazing last-minute winter travel deals. >>> we'll hear from last night's million dollar winner of "survivor nicaragua" jud "fabio" birza all that and more coming up a little bit later on on "the early show." for now, though, that's the "cbs morning news" for this monday. i'm terrell brown. take care, everybody. i'm terrell brown. take care, everybody. have a great day! -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com

seth doane has more. >> reporter: the serenity of the resort shattered when a chair lift suddenly derailed in high winds causing dozens to plummet 30 feet to the snowy trail below. >> i just realized, we're dropping. and then, i -- then i slammed into the ground. >> reporter: eight skiers including children, were taken to local hospitals with injuries. at the time, dozens of skiers were on the spillway east lift making their way up the 2800-foot peak. workers used a pulley-like system to lower the skiers stuck on the lift. sugarloaf authorities say the high winds may have been a contributing factor to the derailment but the incident is still under investigation. they insist their lifts are routinely inspected for safety. but eyewitness accounts point to possible equipment failure, not the weather. >> it seemed as though the wheels bent so the wire came off and that's what caused the chairlifts to drop. >> reporter: the 35-year-old lift relies on clusters of wheels to move the chairs along a 4,000-foot cable at a speed of 500 feet per minute. skiers say one of those wheels broke, causing th

seth doane, cbs news, new york. >> smith: now to the economy. the recession started when the housing bubble burst and the market for homes in many parts of the country is still shaky. a report out today shows home prices fell by more than 1% in america's biggest cities in october, making four straight monthly declines. national correspondent jim axelrod tells us now that the economy's slow rebound is still filled with plenty of ups and downs. >> thank you for calling. >> reporter: at this toyota dealership? >> what kind of car are we buying? >> reporter: ...new car sales are up 15% over same time last year. >> we get to sit down and talk to our customers, they've got a smile on their faces. they do see the economy turning around. >> reporter: but in our two steps forward, one step back economy, troubling signs are just as easy to find. also in houston... >> anything in the house is for sale. >> reporter: scotty baldwin has had his house on the market for three months without so much as a sniff. >> nobody's talked to us about it and nobody's cont

seth doane lays it out. >> reporter: the challenge? to chip away at our soaring national debt fueled by a government that spends far more than it brings in. the national debt clock shows it is close to $13.8 trillion and growing higher by the second. if every american shared a piece of that debt, it would be more than $44,000 each. >> so we have to either raise taxes on income, or raise taxes on something else in order to finance the deficit. >> reporter: michael graetz, a professor of law at columbia university, supports a national sales tax similar to the type used in 150 countries. it is generally called a value- added tax and is included in the cost of goods and services. >> the countries that have value-added taxes and lower income taxes will do better in terms of attracting investment and promoting jobs. >> reporter: one choice is to consider adding a sort of federal v.a.t. on top of state sales taxes as a tool to fight debt. the debt reduction tax force at the bipartisan policy center has proposed a 6.5% tax. graetz says it shou

seth doane, cbs news, hartford, connecticut. >> couric: congratulations, ladies. coming up dolls for daughters. the american spirit of giving. c during our season's best sales event. and receive the gift of asphalt. experience the cadillac of crossovers, the striking srx. it's the one gift you can open up all year long. see your cadillac dealer for this attractive offer. backed by the peace of mind that only comes from cadillac premium care maintenance. the season's best sales event. from cadillac. and the life you want to live. with rheumatoid arthritis, there's the life you live... fortunately there's enbrel, the #1 most doctor-prescribed biologic medicine for ra. enbrel can help relieve pain, stiffness, fatigue, and stop joint damage. because enbrel suppresses your immune system, it may lower your ability to fight infections. serious, sometimes fatal, events including infections, tuberculosis, lymphoma, and other cancers, and nervous system and blood disorders have occurred. before starting enbrel, your doctor should test you for tuberculosis. ask your doctor i

seth doane has the story. >> reporter: inside this downtown detroit office building, there may be mores than cubicles. how much of this building looks like this? >> most of it. >> reporter: but ceo tim bryan sees that low occupancy as a business opportunity to cut costs. he's moving part of his health care i.t. company, galaxy solutions here to a state which has lost more than 800,000 jobs in the last decade. they're planning to hire up to 500 new workers. >> every renaissance starts somewhere. >> reporter: his company already has offices in india and considered expanding overseas to brazil. but, after crunching the numbers, they chose detroit, a cost of just 5% more than south america. >> for the first time, we can deliver services here in detroit at price points that are competitive with offshore. >> reporter: with no foreign governments, fluctuating currencies or time zone changes. and the city's 22% unemployment rate includes lots of laid-off but highly skilled workers from the auto industry. quicken, the software company just made downtown its new headquarters, bringing 3700 jobs

seth doane explains, even with that help, many of our neighbors are just getting by. >> wow, there is >> no. >> reporter: by the end of each month the question in sheri lopez's kitchen isn't "what's for dinner," but "will be dinner?" >> in the end we're all just trying to find something in the cabinets. sometimes we go to bed kind of hungry. >> reporter: since sheri's husband lost his construction job a year ago. >> it has been downhill. there has been no ups and downs, just downhill. >> reporter: this oklahoma family of five saw no choice but to apply for food stamps. their $500 benefit lasts two to three weeks but hardly four. so just before midnight on the last day of every month, sheri and her husband make a trip to the grocery store to beat the midnight rush. >> we get excited. we're like, "we're going to go shopping tonight!" >> reporter: excited to come to the grocery store because you can come? >> yes. >> reporter: on the first of the month these food stamp debit cards are automatically refilled with benefit money from the government. on an average night the store would do abo

cbs news correspondent seth doan is in erie pennsylvania where it's been snowing heavily all night long there. hey, seth. good morning. >> reporter: good morning, jeff. yes, if you looked at the kalin calendar it is not yet winter but if you looked outside through much of the country you would see a very different story. behind me here is lake erie. and cold air is whipping across that relatively warmer water creating what's called lake-effect snow. dumping snow through the region, closing some schools and delivering a wintry mess. a frigid air mass from canada continues to bring in early blast of wenter from the great lakes to florida. this massive system has dumped more than a foot of snow from holland, michigan east to cleveland, ohio. erie pennsylvania and syracuse new york. >> you can get snow at a rate of two, three inches an hour and until the wind shifts the lake-effect snow band won't shift. >> reporter: in cities like buffalo, new york and waterbury, connecticut, traffic was at a virtual stand still. >> this is awful. i have to take my son to the doctors and took me an hour to

. >> seth doane, thank you so much. rebecca. >> and the powerful blizzard brought new york to a standstill. let's go to correspondent elaine quijano in times square. >> good morning to you. you know, at 7:00 a.m. on any monday morning times square here would be bustling with cars and pedestrians. not so today. it is snow piles in the streets and the streets are practically empty in the wake of that massive storm. a blizzard of the size and power is rare for new york in december. more than a foot of snow had fallen across the region before midnight. at the astonishing rate of an inch to two inches per hour with as much as 18 inches in brooklyn, and 20 inches east on long island by early morning. making matters worse, wind gusts up to 64 miles per hour. new york's mayor michael bloomberg said the city would spare no expense. >> we're going to plow the snow, clean the streets and then worry how to pay for it. >> wind chill effects dropped temperatures to single digits as tens of thousands are without pow e white-out condit

cbs news correspondent seth doan is in maine with the details. seth, good morning. >> reporter: good morning, harry. if you have been on a ski lift, the thought probably crossed your mind. what happens if something goes wrong with that cable hoisting you up the mountain? well, that's exactly what took place here yesterday on maine's second highest peak. a busy vacation week at maine's sugarloaf ski resort came to a holt tuesday when a chair lift carrying about 150 people derailed in wipnds up to 40 mils per hour. >> i realized we are dropping and then i slammed into the ground. >> reporter: dozens of people plummeted nearly 30 feet to the trail below. more than 20 inches of fresh powder from the recent blizzard blanketed the mountain and cushioned the fall. workers used a pulley system to rescue skiers still stuck on the lift. at least eight people were taken to a local hospital with injuries including three children. earlier in the day, operation of the spillway east chair lift was suspended over concerns about heavy winds. it opened late after i