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New Holiday Storm; BlackBerry Blackout; Brazil Justice Ordered Return of Boy to Dad; Lousy Credit Terms?; No Court-Martial for Pregnancies; Your Health Care Questions

Aired December 23, 2009 - 09:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Let's head to Atlanta now and Fredricka Whitfield.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: You all have a great day. I think "Here Comes Santa Claus" no matter who does it, among my favorites.

(LAUGHTER)

WHITFIELD: Just so you know.

COSTELLO: I'm old-fashioned.

(LAUGHTER)

WHITFIELD: All right. You all have a great day.

All right, straight ahead this morning, a crash after landing. We'll give you an update on that American Airlines flight that overshot its runway in Jamaica.

And speaking of travel, just might be a little difficult getting away this holiday season. Mostly because of bad weather in the west and the Midwest.

And a Brazilian court speaks. Will this American father be reunited with his son? An update from Brazil.

Good morning, everyone. I'm Fredricka Whitfield, in for Heidi Collins. It is Wednesday, December 23rd, and you're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

All right, just days after a monster snowstorm hit the east coast, there are new holiday travel concerns this morning. A system that spawned this dust storm in Arizona is expected to dump snow now in parts of the west and Midwest.

The dust storm is being blamed for a series of collisions south of Phoenix. At least three people were killed in the accidents.

And in Iowa, where they're still cleaning up after a recent 15- inch snowfall, trucks are being ready to salt the roads ahead of this new storm.

Let's check in with our Rob Marciano. A lot going on across the map, everywhere you turn.

(WEATHER REPORT)

WHITFIELD: All right, thanks so much, Rob. Appreciate that.

Well, might it have been weather that caused this mishap in Kingston, Jamaica? Could it have been that the rain storm contributed to this American Airlines accident? The flight from Miami overshot the runway while landing last night as you see right there.

The plane crashed through a gate, winding up less than 10 feet from the Caribbean Sea. Ninety-one people of the 154 on-board were taken to the hospital. Officials say none of the injuries are serious.

And for the second time in less than a week, BlackBerry users get hit by an outage. The latest blackout ended early this morning after an eight-hour period.

Our senior correspondent Allan Chernoff is live in New York with more on this story.

How in the world did you get by without that BlackBerry?

ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: The key question this morning, Fredricka. Exactly. A true crisis for some.

Well, Research in Motion, the maker of the BlackBerry, this morning is saying that the outage appears to have resulted from a flaw in two recently released versions of BlackBerry messenger and those versions apparently caused a database problem within the BlackBerry infrastructure. The company is taking corrective action and now we're all back to service.

The company also is extending an apology to customers for any inconvenience. But for devoted users of the BlackBerry Smart phone, boy, it was a frustrating evening last night. E-mail and Internet service went out about 6:30 p.m. Eastern Time and was off until 2:45 in the morning.

Especially frustrating for addicted users who call the BlackBerry a crackberry.

WHITFIELD: And who isn't these days?

(LAUGHTER)

WHITFIELD: Right.

CHERNOFF: That's right. Well, this was the second time in a week the system was down. And let's have a look at a sampling of some comments at crackberry.com. "This is seriously frustrating as all hell. Maybe we should all just go to bed now and hopefully by morning this nightmare will be over."

Well, Fredricka, it is over. You know technology is wonderful when it works. But when it doesn't, boy, some people just lose it.

WHITFIELD: I know. We've all become so married to it. Then suddenly something doesn't work and our lives just fall apart. We're a mess.

CHERNOFF: Life goes on. You know? Pen, paper, that still works here.

WHITFIELD: That's right. Go back to the old-school stuff. It works.

All right, Allan Chernoff, thanks so much. Appreciate that.

All right, turning to health care reform now and the efforts to get a bill passed this week in the Senate. Here's what we know. The Senate reconvenes this hour with the final procedure votes set for this afternoon. Republicans can see the Democrats have the 60 votes needed to end debate on the bill.

Final passage of the legislation is set for tomorrow morning, 8:00 a.m. Eastern. That vote was rescheduled after a bipartisan deal was struck. Republicans had threatened to put off the vote until Christmas Eve night but travel concerns over that winter storm led to a compromise. Now Christmas Eve morning.

Health care reform, you have questions and we have answers. Our chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta responds to your e-mails later on this hour.

And a New Jersey father's five-year international custody fight may be near an end. A Brazilian justice has ruled in his favor, but before David Goldman can bring his son, Sean, home for the holidays, a Brazilian family must hand the child over.

CNN's Ines Ferre picks up the story from New York.

So, Ines, do we have any details of when or how this handover will actually happen?

INES FERRE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fred, what we know is that lawyers for David Goldman, the father of Sean Goldman, have said that they have asked the Brazilian family lawyers to hand over voluntarily Sean and to comply with the court ruling. And if that doesn't happen, then they'll ask for assistance from Brazilian authorities, from diplomats in Brazil, to make that happen.

Now we also know that Goldman and his family have repeatedly said that they're cautiously optimistic, that they've been down this road before. They're very happy about this but they will believe it when they see it.

Sean Goldman's grandfather was on "AC360" last night reiterating that feeling. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BARRY GOLDMAN, GRANDFATHER OF SEAN GOLDMAN: I just feel again cautiously optimistic. I've been on the top of this roller coaster so many times to slide down the other side. As David has said many times, until the wheels are up on that plane and Sean and David and congressmen were all around it, it's not a done deal and hopefully that's going to happen soon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FERRE: And Barry Goldman adding that he just can't wait to see his grandson, to hug him, to kiss him, to tell him how much he's missed him. It's been a long five years for this family -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: And I can tell they all have that wait-and-see attitude, but I wonder, too, if the family is concerned about any appeals that the Brazilian family might use.

FERRE: Yes. Well, you know, they've said, OK, look, appeals are possible but in this case they really feel confident that this really could be the end of this because the ruling, the opinion that the chief justice gave was so comprehensive. It was based on the case's merits as well. And so they really feel confident that perhaps this is it.

WHITFIELD: OK.

FERRE: Fred?

WHITFIELD: All right, very good. We'll all be watching. Ines Ferre, thanks so much, from New York. Appreciate that.

All right, getting hit with sky-high interest rates when borrowing money. We'll tell you about new rules tonight designed to force lenders to come clean about what it will actually cost you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: You're watching CNN NEWSROOM on CNN, the most trusted name in news.

WHITFIELD: All right, I think everybody can identify with this next question. Do you ever find it tough to get a loan with decent interest rates? Well, new rules are in the works requiring lenders to spell out why.

CNN's Christine Romans is here with details on that. So, Christine, break this all down for us.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Look, Fred, if there is anything that consumers really need to know over the past few years, right, it's like why they were getting a certain interest rate. It's sort of mysterious. It's called risk-based pricing. That's what it's called by the lenders and by the Fed.

But the Fed and the FTC, two big regulators of your money and the banks are saying that now there will be new rules so that you must know, you must be notified why you're getting a higher interest rate, for example, than the average of what most people are getting.

You have to be notified that you're getting a higher interest rate and they have to give you a free credit report to show you specifically why, that what it is in your credit history that makes you riskier. Because, again, the riskier you are in the eyes of the lender, the higher the interest rate or the different terms that they can offer you.

Now this is effective January 1st, 2011. So still...

WHITFIELD: A year?

ROMANS: ... consumers have quite a bit of time here before they're going to get -- a year, I know. It's something that we've noticed in a lot of these new rules that are supposed to be consumer protections, Fredricka, and I'm sure you noticed it in the new credit card -- the new credit card rules, too.

The banks, the lenders, have been given a lot of time to comply with these new rules. They've said they need a lot of time to comply but again, consumers are a little frustrated because they would like to know specifically why they are a higher risk. And it also goes into financial literacy a little bit, too.

I mean for a long time there was a boom and credit was easy and it was sort of mysterious how you got money but there was a lot of money to borrow quite freely. Well, those days are over. And now people really need to be empowered and know why.

This will matter for anybody who's getting a credit card, Fredricka, a mortgage, a car loan, who's borrowing any kind of money. They'll have to be notified when they get higher interest rates and why those interest rates are high.

WHITFIELD: OK. So this brings me now to the "Roman Numeral." So it's not going to be 2011.

ROMANS: No.

WHITFIELD: What is it going to be?

ROMANS: It's 720. 720 is the "Romans Numerals." And if you're somebody like me...

(CROSSTALK)

WHITFIELD: Yes. Yes. Go ahead.

ROMANS: You want it to be 720 or higher. This is your credit score. If you have 720 or higher credit score, you're get to get among the best terms. You're going to get among the best and most competitive interest rates.

For the people who have not been able to keep their credit history, you know, burnished and bright, they are the ones who really need to know what's going on, why they're getting worse terms and the like.

And you know, it's almost a catch-22 for people because they've had a couple of missteps, they've may be had a personal bankruptcy or they are near a personal bankruptcy. They need to borrow money and their credit is really rotten. So it means that they have to pay even more for the money they borrow which keeps them kind of in a hole.

So all of these rules, all of this transparency is good. It's just going to take another year before anybody gets it.

WHITFIELD: Yes. And it does...

ROMANS: Really right there.

WHITFIELD: Does it not seem like never before has it been so important that credit score rating? So if you need to work toward that "Roman Numeral," that 720, this would be the year, 2010 is the year to try to straighten things out, get your...

ROMANS: I think so, too.

WHITFIELD: You know, your score up because everything -- I guess everything rides on that credit score nowadays.

ROMANS: If you don't need to buy anything, then -- if you don't need to borrow any money to buy anything, the credit score doesn't matter. But remember when you're applying for a job, your employer is probably doing a credit check on you, anyway.

Your employer or your prospective employer is looking and saying, whoa, what's happening here? Is this person trustworthy with money? Does this person have, you know, financial issues that we need to know about? So, yes, you're right. I think 2010 should be the year of financial recovery and repair for everyone.

WHITFIELD: Everybody. All right, thanks so much, Christine Romans, appreciate it, from New York.

ROMANS: Sure.

WHITFIELD: All right, this morning a U.S. general in retreat. Major General Anthony Cucolo, rather, is dialing back on his controversial order making pregnancy in a war zone punishable by court-martial.

CNN's Barbara Starr is at the Pentagon. So what's the general saying now, Barbara?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning, Fredricka. Retreat or clarification? Either way, the story not unexpectedly is changing just a bit.

Major General Anthony Cucolo, that commander in northern Iraq, held a telephone press call with reporters late yesterday. He said he's going to stick to his guns that soldiers who become pregnant or impregnate another soldier will be disciplined but he wanted to make clear now that he has no intention of court-martialing anybody.

Have a listen via this telephone press conference what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAJ. GEN. ANTHONY CUCOLO III, U.S. ARMY: I regret that the term "court-martial" is bandied about or mentioned by one of the earliest written reports on this. I have not ever considered court-martial for this. I do not ever see myself putting a soldier in jail.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STARR: But General Cucolo was obviously frustrated and concerned about the mounting public criticism about all of this. But nonetheless, he says the rules will stick for the 22,000 troops under his command in northern Iraq and he reiterated what he's been saying for the last several days.

The reason, in the war zone, he says he needs every troop he's got. He can't afford to be sending female soldiers home if they get pregnant. So that's his major reasoning. It's about mission first, he says. But still the criticism of this entire matter goes on. Fredricka?

WHITFIELD: All right. Standing his ground but at the same time retreating just simply because the words court-martial were used. But standing his ground on the policy set forth. All right, thanks so much, Barbara Starr, appreciate that.

All right, the health care reform bill complicated and confusing. You have questions and we'll have answers.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: A look at our top stories right now.

A 15-year-old Florida boy who was set on fire and burned over two-thirds of his body in October is now out of the hospital today. Michael Brewer's mother and his doctors are expected to talk publicly about his condition in about two hours from now. We'll bring that to you. Three teens have been charged in that attack.

And 71-year-old Teresa Heinz, the wife of Senator John Kerry, is being treated for breast cancer. Heinz says the growth was discovered through a mammogram and she told the Associated Press younger women should continue to undergo routine screenings. She made the suggestion despite a federal panel's recommendation last month advising women to start getting mammograms at the age of 50 and reduce their frequency.

The parents who pulled off the so-called balloon boy hoax face possible jail time when they are sentenced today. Richard and Mayumi Heene have pleaded guilty to charges that they carried out the stunt in October to promote a reality show. Their attorney says the couple has already been fined $42,000 in restitution for the air and land rescue effort.

And we all wish that sometimes you could simply take things back. Well, luckily you can do that with your unwanted Christmas gifts. But there are some rules that you have to follow. Next hour, Tight Wad Todd from "Consumer Reports" joins us with tips for hassle-free returns.

But first, we want to hear about your gift return stories. Go to our blog at CNN.com/fredricka and share your successes and your failures. I'll read some of them on the air next hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: The health care reform bill still under construction and a lot of it won't go into effect for years. Still, we know you have a lot of questions. And to answer some of them we turn to our chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, with us now.

Sanjay, let's dive right into it with a whole lot of questions. This one -- the first question coming from Becky saying, "My daughter just turned 25 and she is a student. She is getting kicked off her father's health insurance plan. We will have to pay $415 a month in COBRA. I heard this new plan will cover her until the age of 26. Is that true?"

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it is true. And that's going to take place about six months after the bill is signed. We obviously don't know, as you know, Fred, exactly when that's going to happen but this is a question that comes up quite a bit.

As things stand now, kids, or in this case people in their mid 20s, can stay on their parents' health care plan up until age 25, as Becky surmised there. It is going to go up to age 26. So you're going to buy yourself an extra year which could be an important extra year. That's the good news part of this.

The bad news part of it for someone like, you know, who's in their mid 20s, sort of a young invincibles, as we call them, in the past, you know, they hadn't been required to buy health care insurance but now they will. Starting in 2014 they have to buy it or face fines. It's $95 in the first year and goes up to $750 by the year 2016. So those are real fines.

People can get an exemption. Just really quickly. If you can't find a health care policy out there that's less than 8 percent of your annual income, you can apply for a waiver. But that's sort of how things are going to play out for someone, again, in their mid 20s over the next several years.

WHITFIELD: OK. And then our next question coming from M. McGuire. "If I have a current health plan I feel it's just too expensive, will I be able to find a more affordable but equal plan?"

GUPTA: You know, this probably applies to the vast majority of people out there. We're getting questions like this. Because, you know, they're sort of OK with their health care plan now but are sort of curious. What we know is that there is this whole idea that health care costs, the cost curve, as we talk about, could be bent downwards.

Some people believe it will happen soon, some people believe it will happen later, some people think it won't happen at all. And that really dictates the answer to this question. What are going to happen to someone like for premium sort of in the long run.

A couple of things to sort of keep in mind. There is this idea of a public health exchange out there, Fred. Various insurance companies sort of competing for your business as opposed to you being locked in to just a couple. That may drive down costs a little bit but that's not going to be for everybody.

People who run small businesses with 100 or fewer employees, they may be eligible. People who are self-employed, they may be eligible. People who do not have insurance through their employer and have below 400 percent of the poverty level in terms of their income, they would be eligible.

But again the vast majority of people are not going to be eligible for this public exchange. So what we keep hearing for someone in the scenario that was described there is that it's going to be more, that nothing really changes for them, the premiums don't go up but they don't go down either. They want to see how the coverage aspects of it in terms of what's covered plays out.

But again, Fred, you pointed out, and we've been talking about this for months now, this is not done. We still got to go back...

WHITFIELD: Yes, it's been changing every week.

GUPTA: It's been changing every week and it's going to change some more most likely. There are a lot of differences between the House bill and the Senate bill, big ones.

WHITFIELD: Yes.

GUPTA: We'll have to see how those sort of -- how they get reconciled.

WHITFIELD: Right. And maybe they'll get reconciled in the early part of next year. We will see.

GUPTA: We'll he be here, for sure, to talk about it.

WHITFIELD: All right. All right, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thanks so much. Of course, you know, you heard those two questions right there. Well, there are many more, we know. So hopefully we'll have more answers for you.

Send some of your questions to our blog, CNN.com/fredricka, and post your health care reform questions. We'll answer as many as we can later on.

All right, one vote after another but senators still have to actually say yea or nay on their health care reform bill. We'll catch you up on voting Senate-style.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: Live in the CNN NEWSROOM, Fredricka Whitfield.

WHITFIELD: On Wall Street this morning, the NASDAQ and S&P 500 hit their highs of the year yesterday. Then major indexes in Germany and France followed suit.

Susan Lisovicz is at the New York Stock Exchange with more on that. Susan?

SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Fred. This is what they call a Santa Claus rally. We're expecting it to continue into a fourth straight day. Investors are encouraged by a new report showing personal incomes rose by nearly .5 percent last month as more people went back to work. That's the fastest pace in six months. The gain in incomes helped to boost spending, too.

Meanwhile Volvo could soon have a new owner. Ford says it's close to a deal to sell the brand to China's Geely. There are still some details proposed to sell the brand but Ford expects to have a signed deal by early next year. The automaker's been trying to sell Volvo since last year so that it can focus on its three core brands, Ford, Lincoln and Mercury.

And finally, end of the year numbers show that Apple's iPhone was the number one mobile phone this year, although Apple had a bit of an edge because Nielsen they counted both iPhone models as one entry. Research in Motion's Blackberry took the number two, seven and 10 spots because each model was counted separately. And Rim shares are down about two thirds of a percent, not a surprise considering the second outage that Rim users faced in a week.

Fortunately three major averages going in the other direction. The Dow, the Nasdaq and S&P 500 all up modestly. This is the last full trading day of the week. Tomorrow the closing bell will ring at 1:00 p.m. Eastern time, three hours earlier than usual, Christmas Eve and everything of course will be closed here on Christmas day. Fredricka, back to you.

WHITFIELD: All quiet at least for a little while. All right, thanks so much, Susan, appreciate that.

LISOVICZ: You're welcome.

WHITFIELD: All right, not all quiet when it comes down to some holiday traveling. It is a real mess, it's been a nightmare for a lot of folks through the weekend and maybe even into this Christmas week.

(WEATHER REPORT)

WHITFIELD: Approval of the Senate health care bill now appears less than 24 hours away. A procedural vote this morning will clear the way for tomorrow's final vote. Differences in the House and Senate bill would still have to be worked out of course in the New Year. Two key sticking points are how to pay for the bill and abortion provisions.

So some of you just might be wondering, why is it taking so long to vote on this bill anywhere? Josh Levs is here to give us a lesson in procedure Senate-style. And it not as perky as "Here Comes Santa Claus."

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Unfortunately, no.

WHITFIELD: I had to stop dancing at that part.

LEVS: Yes, well now we know what Fred's favorite Christmas song is. All right. Everybody is going to be starting sending you links to that stuff on YouTube.

WHITFIELD: I like it in all forms.

LEVS: She got the word out there. So these health care votes, right, I mean it is incredible how many there have been. And they just keep coming and coming. You need a giant flow chart to try to understand what's going on. So what I'm going to do now is try my best to talk you through the basics of what all these hurdles are on the way to tomorrow's vote.

And this is the first one. I will tell you that the Democrats have the coalition to pass all these, but there are all these hurdles. So here's the basic idea. The first one is the one we heard so much about, that was very significant. It was technically very early Monday around 1:00 a.m. when the Senate voted to end debate on the bill. That vote actually focused on a lot of things that Senator Harry Reid had added in order to get the necessary votes like rules on abortion, public option. So this vote ended debate on all that.

But then -- you might not know this -- they needed another vote to end debate. That's what you're seeing here. Now this next vote was actually by the substitute amendment, but effectively this is about a lot of the bills. So again the Senate had to come along and vote in order to end the debate. And then came an actual vote, Fred. This is traditional vote, on whether to accept the changes that Senator Reid had put into the bill.

And that one did pass. So there is an actual vote there. And that brings us up to today where you've got even more procedural hurdles going on in the Senate.

WHITFIELD: The vote before the vote.

LEVS: Yes, the votes before the vote. This one is interesting. This is a constitutional point of order from Senator John Ensign, he's a Republican from Nevada. And he's questioning whether the mandate that would require everyone to get insurance is constitutional. So the Senate has to vote on that.

And then comes yet another vote, Fred, on whether to end the debate on the bill as amended. So they have this other cloture vote that they still have to do. And finally, after all that, you get to tomorrow which is when you have a vote on the actual bill itself. At least it is set for Thursday morning. So as of now, that's the expectation.

And I'm just going to remind everyone, we have this that you can always see online. I think we can push in here. We have a video for you that we did "Schoolhouse Rock" style that shows you how it all works. But basically what you're seeing here is if it passes the Senate, you still have to have this House/Senate committee get together. They come up with a bill. Little bill man or woman whatever goes over, has to pass House and Senate, then get to the White House. So it's not Thursday means there's going to be a health care bill. But the vote tomorrow should at least be the next step in that process.

WHITFIELD: Yes, lots of obstacles, so many hurdles just throughout today before we even get to tomorrow morning. And then a whole new set of hurdles.

LEVS: Well you know, apparently the founding fathers wanted to make it difficult to make huge legislation actually pass through Congress and they definitely succeeded.

WHITFIELD: All right Josh, thanks so much, that was a great breakdown for us, we have a better view of it all now.

All right, well more defiance from Iran now over its nuclear program. Now the U.S. and other world powers are weighing sanctions. We get more on that from White House correspondent Dan Lothian.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAN LOTHIAN, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's Iran's gift to the U.S. and the U.N., more defiance. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad dismissing a year-end deadline to swap its stockpile of enriched uranium, which could be used to build a bomb, for nuclear fuel intended for peaceful purposes.

Speaking to supporters, Ahmadinejad said the West can give Iran "as many deadlines as they want. We don't care," then added, "Who are they anyway?"

The White House has been preparing sanctions in case Iran doesn't abandon its nuclear ambitions.

(on camera): So, it's clear to the White House now that Iran's not going to back down?

ROBERT GIBBS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Well, that's an Iranian decision. We have offered them a different path. If they decide not to take it, then the American -- our delegation, with the P5 plus one, will move accordingly.

LOTHIAN: Iran continues to insist that it has no intention of building a nuclear weapon, Ahmadinejad repeating that claim to ABC's Diane Sawyer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, ABC NEWS) MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD, IRANIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): You should say something only once. We have said once that we don't want nuclear bomb. We don't accept it. Finished.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LOTHIAN: Iran's president also shot down a document in a British report, reporting to show plans to test a trigger for a nuclear weapon. He says they are fabricated and disseminated by the American government, and fundamentally not true. But the U.S. and some of its allies believe Iran is trying to weaponize its nuclear program and that it's time for Iran to live up to its responsibilities.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Dan Lothian now joining us live from the White House. So where are China and Russia as it pertains to these sanctions against Iran?

LOTHIAN: Well, you know, they've always been resistant to any strong or tougher sanctions against Iran. In particular China has made comments lately, they really want to give this process more time for the dialogue to be stretched out to see if there can be any success there, to see if perhaps Iran will back down. So it would really be crucial over the next few weeks to see what this test will result in because the U.S. is saying that, listen, this is a very serious deadline of December 31st, and that it's time for Iran to pay attention to this deadline.

WHITFIELD: All right, Dan, we also know the White House clearly keeping close watch on what's taking place with Iran but also a close watch on what's happening just down the street on Capitol Hill. It's even meant that the president has delayed his holiday plans a bit, right?

LOTHIAN: Well yes, indeed. The president did not lock in his holiday plans until they heard from Capitol Hill that they would be making that vote tomorrow morning. That's when the White House put out the schedule saying that the president and the first family would be leaving to Honolulu, Hawaii some time tomorrow morning. The president saying yesterday that he really wanted to stay here to see the process through to provide any sort of help, suggestion, support that he could give to the process.

I can tell you, top aides saying that the White House is feeling very confident that the president will be able to get some form of health care reform to sign. They're not giving any deadlines yet but they feel that there is momentum there to get health care reform, feeling good about it. But they also realize there are some hurdles still, those two bills in the House and the Senate have to be merged. There's still some work to be done, but they're feeling confident.

WHITFIELD: Yes,, all right, the White House looking at this as possibly an early Christmas present for this White House.

LOTHIAN: That's right. WHITFIELD: All right, Dan Lothian, thanks so much.

All right, a look at the other top stories right now. U.S. negotiators in Geneva say, no deal this year with Russia. The two countries have been working on another nuclear arms control treaty and both leaders had hoped to sign it before the end of this year. In a statement, U.S. negotiators say the two sides now hope to finalize a new treaty next month. The old one expired 18 days ago.

U.S. troops deploying to Afghanistan could be fighting insurgents from Pakistan as well. A top commander of the Pakistani Taliban tells "Associated Press" that he has sent thousands of his fighters to Afghanistan. That claim is nearly impossible to verify. Recently the Pakistani army launched a major offensive against the Taliban in one tribal region near the Afghan border.

As for the war in Afghanistan, most of you are opposed to it, 55 percent, according to a new CNN/Opinion Research poll. On the other hand, 59 percent of you support President Obama's decision to send more troops over there. The war has lasted eight years so far.

Not shaken nor stirred. No babes. And a used Toyota Camry instead of an Aston Martin. Still the Afghan James Bond has a bigger role to play than his Hollywood counterpart.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Images we'll never forget, specially trained dogs searching for survivors in the rubble of the World Trade Center. Well, one of them was Trakr. He died last year but his legacy lives on.

CNN photojournalist John Torago (ph) brings us Trakr's story in our continuing series "Giving in Focus."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAMES SYMINGTON, TEAM TRAKR FOUNDATION: We arrived at Ground Zero within 14 hours of the towers collapsing. Canine resources were in short supply and we immediately began searching for survivors. Sometime late on the morning of September 12th, Trakr got a hint indicating that somebody alive was buried beneath the surface.

These rescue workers later pulled a woman, the last survivor, from the rubble and I'm extremely proud of the role that Trakr played in her recovery.

Trakr initially was trained as a police dog, trained to find live people, evidence and drugs. He helped locate hundreds of people, recovered over $1 million worth of stolen goods. But the culmination of his amazing career is finding the last survivor at Ground Zero.

When I first met Trakr and we first started working together, cloning wasn't even an option so it wasn't even a consideration until one day I happened to see a TV report and they were talking about a cloning contest. Bioworks International was a company that was responsible for the cloning contest. In June, I received not one, but five amazing replicas of Trakr.

Come. Come. Good boys.

I tried to choose a name to pay tribute to who Trakr was. There's Trust, who's very focused. Solace who's extremely curious. There's Valor who is extremely courageous. Prodigy who's the problem solver, extremely intelligent. And then there is Deja Vu who is a cuddler, he's the lover of the group. All extraordinary dogs.

Meeting those puppies for the first time was amazing, it was moving, but it was also bittersweet. Because sadly, Trakr passed away in April peacefully at her home at the age of 16.

I respect that cloning is not for everyone. I train, foster and rescue dogs and I strongly encourage anybody who can provide a good home for a dog to go out and adopt a dog through a shelter or rescue group.

This is Trust, he's the oldest.

Team Trakr is not about holding on to the past, it is about continuing the legacy. I've launched the Team Trakr Foundation.

Come. Good boy. Sit.

An international, not-for-profit organization dedicated to providing elite canine search and rescue groups to the United States and around the world. In essence, canine teams with no borders. The launching of the Team Trakr Foundation is simply my way of continuing an extraordinary journey of one remarkable dog, and I owe Trakr that.

There is not a day that goes by that I don't think about Trakr and I don't know if the puppies contribute to that or not. I just think he always had and always will have a special place in my heart. And these puppies are certainly going to complement that.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Oh, beautiful dogs.

Well, you can hear more about projects like Trakr's legacy in CNN's hour-long special "GIVING IN FOCUS", that comes your way Christmas Day, 1:00 p.m. Eastern.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Bond, James Bond, Afghan style. No martini, no ladies, no Aston Martin, but he has a role to play in his country's unification.

CNN's Frederik Pleitgen reports from Kabul.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The terrorists have stolen an experimental nuclear device.

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And now they want to blow up Kabul. Only one man can save the day.

If you haven't guessed by now, it's the Afghan James Bond, called Secret Agent Nijat, the Savior, a fictional hero in a country where violence is all too real. His identity is never revealed on screen, until now.

Afghanistan's 007 is played by a man called Qaseem Elmi.

QASEEM ELMI, PLAYS "NIJAT": He has to make sure that bomb, that nuclear bomb doesn't explode.

PLEITGEN: Instead of an Aston Martin, Nijat drives a used Toyota Camry.

ELMI: It's Kabul, man. What can you do?

PLEITGEN: That's not the only difference.

BASIR SHAFAQ, SCREENWRITER, "NIJAT": This is not a Hollywood James Bond, the screenwriter says. There's no alcohol and no love story. It's an Afghan James Bond.

The job is a low budget movie. Production costs $2,500. None of the cast has ever acted before and the special effects, well, let's say they had to improvise.

WALIED OSMAN, PRODUCER: So you've got a firecracker behind a sack of colored paint. A little dish taped to his chest.

We couldn't get rid of the smoke problem so instead we had all the guards smoking cigarettes.

PLEITGEN: What started as a small project has gained momentum. The film makers say they want to take the movie to International Film Festivals. It has an important message.

Set in a stable and prosperous Afghanistan of the future, Secret Agent Nijat is only shown in shadows, so in a war-torn, ethnically divided country all Afghans can rally behind their hero.

ELMI: Anyone could be a James Bond, could be working in such an efficient way and could have the same kind of love for the country.

PLEITGEN: In the end Nijat single-handedly defeats the bad guys and disarms the nuke.

OSMAN: Nijat is a fantasy that one man, our James Bond, can take care of the problem and save Afghanistan from another, you know, disaster.

PLEITGEN: So Afghanistan's first 007 has to do more than just save his country. He must try and unite its people as well.

Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Kabul.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: All right, a lot going on this hour and this morning. CNN crews are in place to bring all of it to you. Let's check in with some of our correspondents, beginning with Barbara Starr.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Fred, the U.S. military court-martialing women for getting pregnant, well, maybe not. I'll have that at the top of the hour.

DAN LOTHIAN, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I'm Dan Lothian at the White House, despite mounting pressure from the U.S. and its allies on Iran and its nuclear program, Iran is not backing down. I'll have more on that story at the top of the hour.

ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: And I'm Rob Marciano in the CNN Severe Weather Center, say it isn't so. Another major winter storm will be affecting holiday travel beginning today. We'll tell you who and where next hour -- Heidi.

WHITFIELD: All right, thanks guys...

MARCIANO: Sorry -- Fredricka...

WHITFIELD: Thanks guys. That's ok. I'm channeling Heidi today, as we speak. All right, we'll check back with you momentarily.

Meantime, you're still probably shopping, right, for presents, wrapping them perhaps? Well, you need to get some tips on returning them just in case, at least the ones that you don't like or simply can't use.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: I hate it when this happens. The show goes off, the commercial comes on and, boom, the volume is just huge. So why does it take an act of Congress to change things?

Here now is CNN's Louise Schiavone.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LOUISE SCHIAVONE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Don't deny it, advertisements that are louder than the program in which they appear, TV commercials like these, for instance, get on your nerves.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Every time you put on the TV trying to watch a show and the next thing you get is this really loud commercial.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I usually mute the television.

SCHIAVONE: You might even have thought there ought to be a law. Actually there might be one soon. Approved in the House and awaiting action in the Senate, legislation mandating that TV commercials are no louder than the programs in which they appear.

MARK HUGHES, AUTHOR, "BUZZ MARKETING": This is kind of a dumb bill but I love it, I really do.

SCHIAVONE: Media analyst Mark Hughes says it's obviously not a world class political issue, but for irritated Americans, it rings a bell.

HUGHES: It's important in my household that, you know, I don't wake up the kids when they're sleeping and I don't kind of tick off my wife when she tells me to turn it down and then it's high volume.

SCHIAVONE: It's a backhanded compliment, but the bill's author California's Anna Eshoo will take it.

REP. ANNA ESHOO (D), CALIFORNIA: I've never said that this is going to solve the huge challenges that face us. I had no idea that people across the country would relate to it and be drawn to the legislation. I mean I've gotten more mail, e-mails, telephone calls saying atta girl, do it, it might even save my marriage.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The show goes off, commercials go on and like blast it up.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We always have to turn the volume down when the commercials come on.

SCHIAVONE: Political strategist John Ashford says it's a neat little issue for a time when the big challenges are not so tidy.

JOHN ASHFORD, HAWTHORN GROUP: When Congress can't solve big problems like Iraq and Afghanistan and 10 percent unemployment and how to implement this health care bill they're trying to pass, they turn to small problems like blasting television commercials.

SCHIAVONE: The bill gives one year to advertisers and production houses to adopt industry technology that modulates and sets sound levels and apply it to television commercials.

Sources at the FCC say for the most part issues associated with the Internet have been topic A over there, but if Congress sends them a bill to regulate the sound of TV commercial, they'll implement it.

Louise Schiavone, for CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)