it's only the third time in colorado's history that colorado has provided the capitol christmas tree rticularly proud of that since i'm a colorado resident. yay, colorado! [cheers and applause] >> we call this the people's tree for good reason and that's because it comes from our public lands, which are owned by all the people of the united states. and these are lands that provide recreation, wildlife habitat, clean water, clean air and the opportunity to connect with the great outdoors. so this occasion tonight also gives us the opportunity to recognize some of the challenges that we have with our national forests, particularly the wildland fires we experienced last summer and the bark beetle. this tree reminds us if we work together and restore the health and the resiliency of these ecosystems, we can produce a new generation of healthy trees that will grow to be as magnificent as the tree behind me. we can work together at the local and national level and private-public partnerships and we can work together to bring this tree to you tonight. as we celebrate the holiday season, i as

colorado. we are proud to have the tree here from the great state of colorado. n it back over to the architect of the capitol. [applause] >> thank you so much, senator udall. and now it's my pleasure to introduce, ms. lindsay lawler. she is the winner of the u.s. forest service song writing contest to create the official song for the capitol christmas tree and will be singing her original composition "standing tall. lindsay. [applause] >> thank you. this is a privilege to be here and i have never been here to washington, d.c., and it's my birthday. so this is pretty special and privilege to be here with you. merry christmas. ♪ ♪ ♪ be a light in the dark for us all standing tall standing tall angels above protect the great land for us all be a light in the dark standing tall standing tall like the soldier who laid down their life so we all have the freedom we all have the right to believe in this dream for us all standing tall standing tall when we think of the soldier who laid down their life so we all have the freedom we all have the right to believe in this dre

tree here from the great state of colorado. and i'll turn it back over to [applause] >> thank you so much, senator udall. and now it's my pleasure to introduce, ms. lindsay lawler. she is the winner of the u.s. forest service song writing contest to create the official song for the capitol christmas tree and will be singing her original composition "standing tall." lindsay. [applause] >> thank you. this is a privilege to be here and i have never been here to washington, d.c., and it's my birthday. so this is pretty special and privilege to be here with you. merry christmas. ♪ ♪ a cathedral past tennessee river carolina rain all wide open road carried to home be a light in the dark for us all standing tall standing tall godly heavens angels above power -- rooted in love. protect the great land for us all be a light in the dark dark starts to fall standing tall standing tallstanding tall like the soldier who laid down their life so we all have the freedom we all have the right to believe in this dream for us all standing tall stan

the colorado plateau is covered with chert, a glassy rock that is really really good for making tools, making very sharp edges. you find there are pieces of chert all over the place and you can still cut your skin open very quickly with it and it's been sitting out in the open. >> where does chert come from? . >> it's a marine rock that's mostly silica. you find it in these layers, sandstone layers. if you are especially in a marine or water environment, you will find this layer of chert. it's in all colors, purple, green, red, blue. it's a beautiful rock. . >> one thing i wanted to ask you, the review in the paper recently on sunday said that your book is different from all the other books about the anastazi because you brought out some of the non-flattering parts of their culture like violence. how did you conclude that they were a violent culture? . >> well, i didn't necessarily conclude they were a violent culture, i just concluded there was violence in their culture. the evidence is very clear where you find masker sites, where every place you drop a trench there are bodies, unbu

american deity, the rain deity, lives down in the house of rain and this is a t shape from up on the colorado plateau and that is the last picture on these slides, so -- the t shape, the pottery, i followed genetic information that you find in bones and teeth. i followed as many different pieces of information as i could and they sent me walking. i started in chaco canyon and walked north up to mesa verde, around to comb ridge in utah, down into the hopi mesa, across the mugion rim, to mexico and then into the sierra madre, following people, following routes. because everything in the desert leaves a route that leads you somewhere. everything out there is a story. and that's what i'm following, these stories, looking for ways, looking for grains of sand out of place, looking for stories out in the middle of nowhere. i can open this up for questions if anybody has any questions. . >> i was wondering if they had any sort of metal or did they use hardened rocks of some sort to shape their stones? . >> most of what they did was stone. metallurgy was just starting to move up into northern chijuaju

his work has won the spirit of the west award as well as the colorado book award. the book, house of rain, is craig's latest book. please help me welcome craig childs. . >> hello. i come to you from out of the desert. i'm coming to you from a landscape where once you get an eye for things, 3 grains of sand out of place draw your attention, where everything is brought to bear, where everything is hinged to a story, every drop of rain leaving a dimple in the ground. stories are everywhere out in this landscape. when you walk down into the bottom of the narrow canyons made of sandstone and you put your hands on the sand stone faces and the smooth shallow scallops that look like champagne glasses, you can feel the shape of the last flood that came through. every place in the desert is a story. every place is a passage way. it's really hard to walk very far in the desert for me because there are so many stories that start opening up and lead you from place to place and place and soon you start picking up the patterns of wind, of rain. you pick up the patterns of people w

colorado. we are proud to have the tree here from the great state of colorado. urn it back over to the architect of the capitol. [applause] udall. to now it's my pleasure introduce, ms. lindsay lawler. she is the winner of the u.s. forest service song writing contest to create the official song for the capitol christmas tree and will be singing her original composition "standing tall." lindsay. [applause] >> thank you. this is a privilege to be here and i have never been here to washington, d.c., and it's my birthday. so this is pretty special and privilege to be here with you. merry christmas. ♪ ♪ a cathedral past tennessee river carolina rain all wide open road carried to home be a light in the dark for us all standing tall standing tall godly heavens angels above through your great wisdom and power protect the great land for us all be a light in the dark dark starts to fall standing tall standing tall like the soldier who laid down their life so we all have the freedom we all have the right to believe in this dream for us all standing tall standing tall when w

the conventional wisdom holds that this natural wonder of the world was shaped by the colorado about five or six million years ago. but there's been a long-running debate over whether it's much older. yesterday, researchers published a study in the journal "science," arguing these majestic formations were formed by two much older rivers cutting through the landscape some 70 million years ago, during the age of the dinosaurs. we have newshour science correspondent miles o'brien here to tell us what the debate is all about. so miles from 6 million to 70 million years s that scientifically as big a gap tas amir-- appears? >> yeah, it's a big deal, there is a big debate in the scientific community right now over t margaret. when you look at the grand canyon as a layperson, we've been there and see it, you would say clearly the colorado river formed this over many, many of years and we know the colorado river is between 5 an 6 million years old new york scientific debate there, there is plenty of evidence on that. so you would say well, the canyon must be that old. well the newspaper that

i see the colorado plateau. this bowl is from american museum of natural history and that's where it is now. that's the storage place. where it was from before is pueblo bonito in chaco canyon where there were rooms filled to the ceiling with bowls stacked within each other, bowls like this. all their designs, you can kind of get a glimpse around this. they have this flawless symmetry blending all the way around. it looks like that place. it looks like that landscape. i look into this and i see the sharp edges of the land. i see the way the earth is shaped out there. i see the routes in their vessels. i mean, to understand these, this one came out of a 13th century site in southwest colorado and i would sit with these bowls for hours and hours, drawing them into my sketch book because that was the only way i could really understand the complexity of how they got their symmetries to match up because i could never get them to match up in my drawings. i could never do a 100 percent accurate rendition of these becaus

we're learning more today about the man charged with the colorado theater massacre. university of colorado released 3,000 e-mails about james holmes and barry petersen has the details. >> reporter: the e-mails show james holmes was at least friendly. he often signed off with a cheerful "thanks for your help." there's no new insight on how the university of colorado at denver handled holmes during his year at the school, but an e-mail sent by a school official after the shooting indicates holmes had a girlfriend. she fortunately it turns out is in india right now, the e-mail says. she knows and is pretty freaked out. another instructed students not to put post on facebook or twitter about holmes. in response a student indicated how dangerous holmes was writing "holmes could have done this on campus instead of the movies." 2,200 other e-mails were not released because they're about his academic and health records, matters protected by federal privacy laws. the documents were requested by news organizations under a colorado freedom of information law. last month, holmes

marijuana use may be well be enshrined in the colorado constitution as of this week. still not legal in the eyes of the federal government. they're about to find themselves in the middle of a major clash between state and federal law. and until it is resolved, we have something of a legal pickle. colorado's governor for example reached out to the justice department for guidance, but he does not seem to have gotten very far in his talk with the feds. >> this is a complex piece of jurisdiction. it could end up in the supreme court. we recognize they are working as hard as they can to find what the right legal decision is. >> the justice department is not specific on how to deal with federal lawbreakers in states that legalize pot. they released this ominous sounding statement on the day it became legal in colorado. the department of justice is reviewing the legalization initiatives recently passed in colorado and washington state. the department's responsibility to enforce the controlled substances act remains unchanged. in enacting the controlled substances act, colora

in the last four years, the state of colorado really became the forefront of this movement, and certainly in the last two and a half years, things have really stabilized. colorado has been extremely thorough in providing a strongly regulated and compliant model that i think many other states are starting to look at in develop their models after. >> tom: to that point, tripp, how limited is your market geographically? >> you're talking about 105,000 patients to probably a million consumers of the product overnight. that will be conservative when you take in the marijuana tourism aspect of it. in effect, the market has grown 10-fold. >> tom: your website says your parent company does not grow or distribute any substance that violates the united states law or the controlled substance act. how do you put this together, colorado state lou allowin al -- allowing for consumption, but the federal law does not. >> they do not actually own anything directly related to the cultivation, manufacturing or distribution of the these in fused products. we only the intellectual process, from red dice holdi

the focus on making sure that we're building a culture of innovation. colorado is the last three years when there were no jobs anywhere, more 25-34 year-old came to call rudder than any other state in the country. -- colorado more than any other state in the country. we want to make sure they are employed in innovative companies that have an opportunity for full education and research. there has to be a culture fun -- from the federal grant all the way down in research. they should hammer out what the appropriate compromise is to repatriate all those overseas profit corporations are not putting back into our or economy. the largest beneficiary would be california. we want to see what the cutting edge is. most of a still look for california. -- loomost of us still look to california. what governor brown said about the traditional politics is all about taking the thing in making it fresh. to a certain extent, i tried to be a writer in college. i failed miserably. a professor said everything has been set but not everything has been said superbly. even if it had, ev

i'll talk to the governor of colorado. take tylenol or take aleve, the #1 recommended pain reliever by orthopedic doctors. just two aleve can keep pain away all day. back to the news. [ male announcer ] when diarrhea hits, kaopectate stops it fast. powerful liquid relief speeds to the source. fast. [ male announcer ] stop the uh-oh fast with kaopectate. >>> it's not just a feeling but a fact. it has gotten worse. five of the 12 deadliest mass shootings in u.s. history have happened in the last four years. >> as a nation we have endured far too many of these tragedies in the last few years. an elementary school in newtown, a shopping mall in oregon, a house of worship in wisconsin, a movie theater in colorado, countless street corners in places like chicago and philadelphia. any of these neighborhoods could be our own. we have to come together, and we're going to have to take meaningful action to prevent more tragedies like this from happening regardless of politics. >> in that aurora theater last july a gunman wielding a se

the suspect in the colorado movie theater massacre was scheduled for a court appearance today in aurorathe big issue a notebook from james holmes containing details with the violent plans was mailed to the psychiatrist he was seeing. holmes is accused of killing 12 people and wounding dozens of others when he opened fire during the bat man movie premier. he's charged with multiple first degree murder and attempted murder counts. >> we've been enjoying nice weather over the past couple days. but rains back in the forecast. temperatures in the 30s. i'll have all the details coming up. >> kron 4 program something sponsored by acura. acura, advance. -what's up? i' -and i'm erik. both: we're the fruit guys! back in 1998, we had this idea to deliver fresh fruit to offices in downtown san francisco. we built these wooden crates, filled these with fruit in my one-bedroom apartment. the fruit guys has been with bank of america since they first started. we work with them to help them grow and succeed. we're coming up on 50 employees and delivering to thousands of companies every week. i would def

the system stretches all the way from the great lakes to colorado. the rocky mountain state already taking a big beating. 156-mile stretch of interstate 70 had to be shut down yesterday because of the snow. it reopened late last night. >>> this morning, 36,000 people are without power in the state of iowa. lots of folks hoping to get a jump on the holiday travel rush, but they might have to turn to another plan. meteorologist alexandria steele has been tracking all of this

the mission this weekend was to rescue a doctor from colorado. he was doing humanitarian work in afghanistan when the taliban kidnapped him last week near the border with pakistan. officials say the seal team moved in when intelligence showed the doctor's life was in immediate danger. now we find out more of the daring raid and the intense firefight that killed one of our most elite fighters. jennifer griffin is live for us this afternoon at pentagon. tell us of the navy seal. >>reporter: he was young, just 28 and he was not on the bin laden raid. that was made up of members who were much older, petty officer first-class nicholas check came from a suburb of pittsburgh, pennsylvania, and died sunday of wounds he received during the rescue. i am told the team took a great dial of fire on the way in and he died of complications later from the wounds he received during the rescue mission. the doctor from a nongovernmental group of doctors was kidnapped with two afghan colleagues on wednesday in eastern afghanistan. the two co-workers were released but

the colorado movie theater... where a gunman pened fire during the latest "batman" movie... is officially set to reopen next year. the city's mayor's office says it will ppen to the public on jjnuarr 18th. the theater plans to run free movies to the public... for the first couple days of its reopening. 12 people were killed and 58 were injured... when james holmes allegedlyy the battle ver a little -girl nearly two years ago... ends in favor of her biological fathr father terry a-chane says he and his wife were having problems in marrh &p2011... when he had to leave for duty in south carolina.he claims hii wife cut off communication... and put their his consent. she ust made tte decision not for me to be a father and went behind my back and deceived me. me.terry says he hassbben trying to get his daughter back rom the adoption agency since june 2011.the girl's aamost no initiative to find k - her... and never trued to get any upddtes on her health and well being.they believe the judge made ssrious legal errors in his decision to award custody to a-ccane and plan to appeal th

just clips the colorado area. denver two to four inches. later this afternoon, driving home in nebraska, very dangerous conditions. wind will be howling. heavy snow falling. as we go throughout the overnight hours, that's when the storm picks up in intensity. the dark blue shows where it will be hitting the hardest with blizzard conditions. tomorrow morning through iowa and wisconsin. tomorrow morning probably be like one of those days where you stay at home, do not travel. much of central iowa and south and central portions of wisconsin. the other side of this storm is the severe weather side. there's enough strong and severe weather out ahead of it, arkansas and missouri we can deal with the storm there. we will deal with lake-effect snow friday and saturday. how much snow are we talking about? that little area through central parts of nebraska, a possibility of a foot of snow. and ten inches possible for wisconsin down to central portions of iowa. finally we have to watch out for that severe weather threat. areas of yellow, late tonight i

the teachers' union. we want to see it in colorado. what we want to do is create a competitive and ferment over the whole country where we're trying to accelerate these entrepreneurs. >> this has been delightful. what a wonderful conversation. thank you both. i cannot think of two better governors. >> thank you. what a great job you did. [applause] >> governor brown, governor hickenlooper, please do not leave the stage. innovation is not popular in government. i did not get the nickname governor moonbeam by being conventional. we were give reminded that the best time to invest, 20 years ago, second best time, today. what great leaders, both of these dynamics state's half. we wanted to thank you both with just a small token of our appreciation and our deep appreciation as well to barbara of the san jose "mercury news." i know you cannot accept gifts. >> i would want to report that. >> we're hoping that sutter can accept a gift, the first dog. governor? [applause] and governor hickenlooper, your dear friend and our dear friend, dan gordon

or nato. >>> the colorado governor has signed the law to legalizes the use of marijuana.tate voters approved the change to the state's constitution last month. >>> an investigation is under way by the federal trade commission into whether software companies that make cell phone apps violated the rights of children by capturing data on their physical location and telephone numbers of their friends. >>> for the first time in decades, several american cities including new york and los angeles are reporting small declines in childhood obesity rates, but it's not exactly clear what's causing it. >>> thousands of people in houston, texas, say they saw something just before 7:00 a.m. last friday, but very few reported it. so we now know it was a meteor streaking overhead that cause thad impressive bright flash. >>> well, let's go over to wall street where the dow closed at 13,169 after adding 14 points yesterday. s&p was up a fraction. nasdaq gained 8. overseas, the nikkei lost 8 points but in hong kong, the hang sang rose 47. >>> well, this morning, an apology and an impressive

gun background checks the day after the mass shooting at sandy hook elementary. colorado'sof investigations had a total of 4154 back ground checks were submitted on saturday. that's topping the previous record which happened on black friday of this year actually. one gun shop owner says for him the rush began friday afternoon after news of the shooting broke. >> when there's an event like this, people think gun laws might tighten, so they rush to pick up whatever they can. a lot of news about guns. from the san antonio express, a gun shop offering free conceal handgun classes to educators after the massacre and the owner of the shop says the class is already sold out. 400 teachers signed up in 24 hours. many physicianses including governor perry have been pushing for more guns in schools, not fewer. >> and this of course highly controversial. >> to say the least. for an expanded look at all of our top story, head to cnn.com/earlystart. also follow us on twitter and facebook. just search for early start cnn. >>> it is 18 past the hour. so let's get you you up-to-date with al

they show all but one of the top ten states have right to work laws the exception colorado. third straight year. they attribute that to corporate taxes. the pro business regulatory climate and north dakota moves up to number 3 after having the most economic growth after the last five years. the top ten expanded their economies 1.7 percent during the tough years between torques 6 and 2011 the economies contracted an average of .1 percent of the year during that time. all but mississippi do not have the right to work laws. they have economic growth forecast. for most improved that goes to indiana which jumped 16 spots this year that is interesting because they became a right to work state. >> diane macedo from the fox business network. 15 minutes before the hour. one of the major issues facing the fiscal cliff entitlement programs. and now some of them are at their highest levels in history. so we will breakdown the numbers for you. that's coming up next. you see people being pulled over for drunk driving before, but what about a man on a lawn mower. we will tell but that. fir

being chancellor the university of colorado boulder people said was the first woman to be a the stage at a research university. i had a fight with ronald reagan even though i was a commissioner one of my latino women was the only other minority we would dissent when they would try to do something that was terrible. we had a big fight with him but i went to all of those. >>host: but president carter appointed you? >> yes. then there is a new department of education and i went back to teaching and that i was appointed. >>host: when did the clear it would be a permanent

. >>> several developments today in the deadly aurora, colorado massacre. there's newly released evidence and the reopening date for the theater. >>> a local community project gets some big bucks from johns hopkins. i'm christy ileto. i'll explain why residents living around the campus aren't the only ones who will benefit. >>> it is cooler outside than it has been. but warmer temperatures may return this weekend. more and bob's updated first warning weather forecast. [ male announcer ] this commercial is not about getting fios; it's about getting fios. that moment after you finally got it that you actually get it. when you can see blades of artificial grass in their full glory you get it. or the first time you download a two-hour movie in two minutes, you get it. because once you've got it, you get it. now you can get fios for an amazing price online just $79.99 a month with a two year agreement. act now and you'll also get $300 back. hurry. this holiday deal ends soon. call the verizon center for customers with disabilities go to got2getfios.com. at 800-97

after the colorado fires just recently they did put a lot of soldiers that trained, so we do still have that program who can do that if the need warrants. any other questions from out there before i turn it over to general myat? let me thank our panel here. >> thank you. (applause). as we leave here today, we need to keep the ball moving forward. we can't -- i think most of us all here would agree, we really can't prevent the next disaster from happening. but by building the partnerships that we are here today and will continue to build in the future, we can certainly limit the number of deaths and long-term destruction. we can surge a lot of things: resources, people. but we cannot surge trust. so venues such as this is what helps us build that trust so that when the bell does go off we know -- a comment i made yesterday and i'd like to use it again in closing today, the most important thing for me to come out of this two-day seminar and sbat -- into the future is the ability for us to physically face to face look each other in the eye, shake hands and say to each other, we are in this

going for the colorado state her -- a 5-point lead it. they were at 8-1.this one.

. >> the thing about this one, again the day after the colorado, aurora colorado shooting we went through we put it out there and the next day is the day we started looking at the victims. we have been pushing all morning to stay on the victims. i don't want to talk about the perpetrator. the most important thing is this is new town connecticut. we drop our kindergartners 6-year-olds, 14-year-olds at school and we say good-bye we trust their going to come home. for 20 families this weekend they weren't able to pick them up. there will be plenty of time for reflection on what went wrong we make sure it doesn't happen again or to our best ability it doesn't happen. for now for me the most important part of this is the 20 young angels that we lost this weekend. >> president obama saying friday was the most difficult day of his presidency. last night he addressed the community because everybody had a chance to see that live. one of the things you picked out was the end if we could get the reaction to the president's speech last night. >> charlotte, daniel, olivia, josephine, anna, dylan, made

they released this ominous sounding statement on the day it became legal in colorado. tiatives recently passed in colorado and washington state. the department's responsibility to enforce the controlled substances act remains unchanged. in enacting the controlled substances act, colorado determined that marijuana is a scheduled one controlled substance, regardless of any changes in state law, including the change in colorado. growing, selling or possessing any amount of marijuana remains illegal under the federal law. sounds like the justice department is about to have a fight on its hands whether it wants it or not. but in all the discussion about how to reconcile the opposing state and federal laws, a pretty simple fix is largely overlooked. this comes for the very same law the justice department is citing to emphasize that pot is still a dangerous and elicit drug in the eyes of the federal government t controlled substances act. the controlled substances act was signed into law by 1970 by one richard nixon. it created a system of sorting drugs into categories. the mo

so just as in the colorado shooting found out more about it. he keys so that is people who knew him, that we were worried about something happening. >> there is always -->> -- >> dana: i haven't heard that about this one. the community made a wide berth around the community and they were alone. not that the community was bad. but it doesn't happen in life you try to avoid the situations that are uncomfortable. not a lot of social intersection. >> greg: we have to take a break. coming up, john boehner and president obama may be closed to a deal on the fiscal cliff. i can't believe i'm relieved to hear that word. that debate is ahead on "the five." ♪ ♪ >> andrea: house speaker boehner and president obama working to reach a deal to stop across the board tax increases and spending cut at the first of the year. today, speaker boehner proposed a backup plan. >> i think we all know that every income tax in america will pay a higher rate in january 1 unless congress ac acts. so i believe it's important to protect as many american taxpayers as we can. ou