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Christmas at Biltmore; Celebrities Making a Difference
Aired December 25, 2009 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Here are the headlines happening right now on this Christmas day. Hundreds of Palestinian Christians and pilgrims celebrated Christmas mass in Bethlehem, the traditional birth place of Jesus. Their prayers were joined by wishes from the Vatican for peace in the Middle East.
And President Barack Obama and the First Family are waking up this Christmas morning in Hawaii. The White House says the president is hoping for a low-key week with a lot of R and R while visiting his home state.
And likely very little R and R, particularly, if you are in the Plain States. This is Christmas, boy, for parts of the Midwest. A powerful snowstorm has caused numerous accidents, including a 50-car pileup in Oklahoma. Oklahoma's governor has shut down every highway interstate and turnpike in the state and authorities have closed interstates in two other states as well. Slippery roads are being blamed for at least 18 deaths.
Oklahoma City's airport reopened this morning after being shut down yesterday, but be prepared for more cancellations and delays.
Meteorologist Bonnie Schneider is in the CNN severe weather center. It is a very nasty Christmas Day in some parts, especially, if you have to get around. If you are staying inside, then all that snow is lovely.
BONNIE SCHNEIDER, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It is. And Oklahoma City, they had 14.1 inches of snow, the most ever in one day.
WHITFIELD: Wow!
SCHNEIDER: And we mentioned...
WHITFIELD: That is incredible.
SCHNEIDER: Right. And the airport's open, but I do think you're right, there will be a lot of cancellations.
I want to show what's going on right now because places like Oklahoma City, well, maybe seeing improving conditions but Kansas City, not quite. We do have a blizzard warning in effect for Kansas City. Omaha, Nebraska, that means the wind gusts will be as strong as 50 miles per hour. Also for Fargo, we could see yet another foot of snow falling after all of this. And it's still going to continue as we go into, I'd say, the weekend. We're not even expecting that much of a change.
Here's the way shapes up right now. You can see the heavy snow working its way across the Northern Plains. And then lots of rain is coming into Chicago, and that will change over to snow at times tonight. And if that's not all, we also have a tornado watch right here for coastal sections of South Carolina, parts of Georgia, and now, it's shortened a little bit.
So, Jacksonville, you are doing better than you were. But I want to show you a live picture of Florida right now. What we are expecting for Jacksonville are some brief, heavy downpours and some gusty winds as well. So, just be prepared for that, if you are going to be driving to north Florida. Actually, I think the weather will be a little bit worse as you head over to parts of South Carolina. That's where we are expecting a lit bit more in the way of travel troubles.
Speaking of those of you traveling, this is really important to know, because we have changing weather conditions. If you were driving from Green Bay to Minneapolis or from Chicago to Rochester, everything changes. You could have rain for a few miles and then drive a little further to the west. And all of a sudden, it changes over to freezing rain and snow, and that will persist all day today for Christmas day. So, tough travel conditions. Look for temperatures right below freezing in Minneapolis, slightly above in Chicago and Green Bay, but still, that wintry mix can change over at any time.
We are also tracking your travel delays. And I'm happy to report, probably because most people are already at their travel destination...
WHITFIELD: Yes.
SCHNEIDER: ... we don't have any travel delays right. But, wow, that's a lot of planes out there, right?
WHITFIELD: Gosh, that picture always amazes me. It just seems like the planes are just too close together but we know in many cases, they are hundreds of feet, if not miles apart.
SCHNEIDER: Yes.
WHITFIELD: All right. Thanks so much, Bonnie. Appreciate that.
SCHNEIDER: Sure.
WHITFIELD: Hopefully, folks will get where they are trying to go on this Christmas Day.
All right. Overseas now, the Taliban has released a video showing what they say is a U.S. soldier captured in eastern Afghanistan. Private First Class Bowe Bergdahl vanished from Paktika province more than five months ago. NATO says the release of the video is an affront to Bergdahl's family and friends. The man shown in the video gives Bergdahl's name and rank, and emphasizes that he has been treated humanely.
According to the Idaho National Guard, the family in Idaho has been anxiously awaiting to see the video every since the Taliban said last week that it was going to be released. The Taliban is pushing to trade the soldier for a number of Taliban prisoners.
In Pakistan now, police are reportedly pursuing terrorism charges against five detained Americans. According to "The Associated Press," police alleged the men were collecting and attempting to collect material to carry out terrorist activities. The Muslim men are from the Washington, D.C. area and have not yet been charged.
Pope Benedict XVI carried on this morning as if nothing happened. Well, here he is delivering his Christmas Day blessing to the world hours after a woman knocked him down at a Christmas Eve service.
CNN's Morgan Neill is following developments from London.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MORGAN NEILL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A woman in a red jacket clears a barricade and lunges toward Pope Benedict XVI. In this amateur video, you see him fall forward, a moment of high drama before Christmas Eve mass. Watch again and you'll see security rush forward. The woman clutches at the Pope but is quickly moved away.
A Texas family on a trip to Rome caught the incident on video.
MARY BETH BURNS, WITNESS: All of a sudden, this person sort of flew over the barricade and the Holy Father went down, and all of a sudden, all the security people were all on top of it, you know, the whole pile there, getting her off and pulling him back up.
NEILL: Moments later, you see the Pope continue down the aisle toward the main altar, where he celebrated mass. Not so fortunate, an 87-year-old Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, whose leg was broken.
The Vatican says the woman who leapt at the Pope is a 25-year-old Susana Maiolo, a dual Swiss/Italian citizen. And they say she tried to do the same thing last year but was stopped by security. According to the Vatican, she was not armed. Vatican spokesman says she is mentally disturbed and was taken to a mental institution for treatment.
CNN's Vatican analyst says, traditionally, authorities take no action against people who try to touch the Pope.
JOHN ALLEN, CNN SENIOR VATICAN ANALYST (via telephone): Usually, there's no malicious intent involved. They just want to either touch the Pope or say something to him, but it's a reminder, actually, that as compared to other world leaders, presidents and prime ministers, the security penumbra around the Pope is actually fairly thin.
NEILL: And that is by design. The Vatican wants the Pope to remain accessible, enough security to keep him safe but not so much that he seems out of reach. ALLEN: I think in the wake of these now, you know, repeated incidents, there probably will be a meeting in the Vatican some time soon to ask the question of whether they need to tighten up on the security presence.
NEILL: A mass interrupted and major relief on one of Christianity's holiest days.
Morgan Neill, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: In this country, it's a Florida vacation this Christmas for a father and son who haven't spent time together in five years. David Goldman has returned to U.S. with his 9-year-old son, Sean, after the end of a bitter custody battle.
Here now is Ines Ferre.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
INES FERRE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A reunion that was five years in the making gained moment in the last 24 hours, culminating in an emotional handover.
(voice-over): A thumbs up from David Goldman as he boards a plane homeward-bound with his 9-year-old son Sean.
It was reunion that started with this media frenzy, swarmed by cameras, clutching his stepfather, Sean Goldman makes his way to the U.S. consulate. In the glare of the media spotlight, Sean's Brazilian family delivered him to his father, David Goldman, by a 9:00 a.m. Thursday court deadline. The scene marks the end of a five-year international custody battle. The chief justice of the Brazilian Supreme Court, Tuesday, ordered that Sean be returned to Goldman, who had been battling the family of the boy's deceased mother.
After ruling, the family said it would not file any new appeals to keep Sean with them. The reunion between father and son took place privately inside the U.S. consulate in Rio de Janeiro. Shortly after, their motorcade raced to the airport.
REP. CHRIS SMITH (R), NEW JERSEY: They got on the plane and it was very -- I mean, it was arm-in-arm, shoulders -- I mean, David has his hand around him. And it was -- it was a father and son. It was a picture of a close relationship.
FERRE: New Jersey Congressman Chris Smith was in Brazil to support Goldman's efforts. He told CNN the reunion was in stark contrast to this chaotic scene. Rather, David and Sean stole away to a private waiting room seeking alone time together. Smith said Sean appeared comfortable as he spoke to his father of the new life that awaits him.
SMITH: There is a bond there. It's unmistakable and it is strong. FERRE: The legal battle may be over, but for Sean, who just lost his mother last year, another traumatic turn. For the Goldmans, the emotional journey may be just beginning.
(on camera): Goldman wrote a letter to the people who helped reunite him with his son, expressing his family's love for Sean, saying they'll go to the ends of the Earth to protect him.
Ines Ferre, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: Christmas in Iraq for U.S. troops -- it featured a hearty meal, plus gifts and calls from home. We'll take you there.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CAPT. BRIAN MORAN (ph), U.S. ARMY: Hello. This is Captain Brian Moran. I'd just like to wish my family and friends back in the Quad Cities, happy holidays here from Ghor (ph) Valley, Afghanistan. Hope you're doing well and wish you happy holidays. See you soon. Love you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CAPT. BRIAN MORAN (ph), U.S. ARMY: Hello. This is Captain Brian Moran. I'd just like to wish my family and friends back in the Quad Cities, happy holidays here from Ghor (ph) Valley, Afghanistan. Hope you're doing well and wish you happy holidays. See you soon. Love you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: Merry Christmas, everyone. We'll keeping with the holiday theme right now. So, what is the best Christmas gift that you've received this year so far? We want to know. That's the question we are asking on our blog today. Share your comments to CNN.com/Fredricka and I'll share some of your favorite presents a little bit later on in the show.
So, as America pauses to celebrate Christmas today, more than 100,000 U.S. troops remain on duty in Iraq.
CNN's Diana Magnay is with some of those troops at a joint security station just north of Baghdad. She's joining us now.
Merry Christmas to you.
DIANA MAGNAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Merry Christmas, Fredricka.
Well, last night, you wouldn't have really known that Christmas was coming here, but today, at 8:00 a.m., three chefs put on their Santa hats and started cooking up a turkey and the canteen just behind me was decorated with all sorts of Christmas cheer.
And I've got soldiers behind me.
How is the food, guys?
CROWD: Good.
MAGNAY: OK. So, thumbs up basically for the food here.
Joining me now, I have Specialist Shawn Brasseaux.
This is your third Christmas in Iraq. Is that right?
SPEC. SHAWN BRASSEAUX, U.S. ARMY: Third Christmas season. Yes
MAGNAY: How has it been?
BRASSEAUX: Actually, it's been a pretty good Christmas. The morale is pretty high. We got a lot of great, professional guys here to work with and fun to be around. So, it's been a pretty decent Christmas this year.
MAGNAY: Is the mood better than it was over the last couple of times that you've been here for Christmas, because, of course, the violence is a lot less now here in Iraq.
BRASSEAUX: Well, it's a lot warmer, which makes it nice. You know, you can get out here with your t-shirt on, don't have to be all bundled up, which is great. You know, throw the football around. And like I said, I mean, just the camaraderie here is great.
And this is a great company to be in. And, you know, we got a lot of great leaders. So, we're all pretty happy where we are working together.
MAGNAY: Have you had a chance to speak to your family?
BRASSEAUX: Yes, I got a chance to speak to my mom and sister. I miss them all. I miss my little -- my little girl back home. Merry Christmas to all of you.
MAGNAY: You're going to be out of here soon, aren't you?
BRASSEAUX: Yes. Yes, ma'am.
MAGNAY: Chance to see your little girl then?
BRASSEAUX: Right.
MAGNAY: Happy Christmas to you all. Have you seen them on their webcams? Do you...
BRASSEAUX: Well, you know, my family, they don't have a lot of webcams. So, you know, whenever I get a chance.
MAGNAY: Great. This is something the troops here have said three years ago, their first tour, things like Skype and webcams didn't really exist. You were using satellite phones to call home at Christmas. And also, they said it was so busy with the insurgency, how it was, they couldn't really find the time to call home, Fredricka. Things are very different here this year in Iraq -- Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: Yes. It is amazing that kind of technology is, bringing people who are so many miles apart actually together. But we wish the best of Christmases and holiday seasons greetings to all of our U.S. troops serving abroad. And their family members back at home.
Thanks so much, Diana.
All right. Well, Christmas came early for a 6-year-old girl from Massachusetts. Her dad came home from the war in Iraq and surprised her just right there at school. So sweet. She says as soon as she saw dad, she started talking about him and Christmas.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SGT. 1ST CLASS JOHN PICCININ, U.S. ARMY: I try to e-mail a lot and I call home a lot. There's a lot of different means of communication over there. So...
REPORTER: But nothing beats this, huh?
PICCININ: Nothing beats this. Nothing beats coming home.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: Sergeant John Piccinin has been serving in Iraq since August and he's home for two weeks with his wife and two kids.
Lots of smiles there. How sweet. Merry Christmas.
All right. How about Christmas, Hawaiian style? President Obama and his family waking this Christmas morning in his home state of Hawaii. The First Family arrived in Honolulu yesterday to begin a two-week vacation.
And CNN's senior White House correspondent, Ed Henry -- poor soul. He is there with them.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ED HENRY, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Merry Christmas from Honolulu, where I have to tell you, the water is just a little bit chilly. But I don't want to rub it because I know in large parts of America and around the world, it's pretty cold on Christmas. It's a balmy 80 degrees or so here on Waikiki Beach, where I'm going to spend two weeks covering President Obama's holiday vacation with his family.
And I have to tell you, the people are always poking fun at me for being here for two whole weeks, but I say, after covering many holidays and vacations in Crawford, Texas, with President Bush, Honolulu is change I can believe in, even though I never pick side between the political parties.
And before he left Washington, the president hailed his Senate victory on health care reform, although his aides say he's got a lot of work to do they know in 2010, pushing through final passage on his senior domestic initiative. But for Christmas, he's on the north side of Oahu, a pretty remote area, a very quiet Christmas with his family.
So, I'm going to do pretty much the same -- sit down here on a towel and put on a little suntan lotion and make sure that I'm catching some rays. And I've even got some spam sushi, which is sort of an interesting local delicacy here in Hawaii. Have some of that for breakfast. Throw on my cap. Say, Merry Christmas!
Ed Henry, CNN, Honolulu.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: All right. Surf's up, dude. All right. Have a good time there in Hawaii, Ed.
All right. Doctors, nurses with needles in hand, are roaming the streets in one Florida community. They are actually vaccinating the homeless against the swine flu. See what else happens.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE SOLDIER: This is the Helring (ph) family from COB Speicher, wanting to wish all of our family in Ottawa, Illinois, a Merry Christmas. Tristan and Kelly, we love you very much.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE SOLDIER: Merry Christmas. Happy New Year. We love you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Checking our top stories right now.
Two more Roman Catholic bishops in Ireland have resigned over a child sex abuse scandal. A recent government investigation revealed decades of cover-up by the Dublin archdiocese. Well, this morning, during Christmas mass, the two bishops apologized to victims. Two bishops quit earlier this month.
Tens of thousands of Filipinos are spending Christmas in temporary shelters near Albay province. Their homes are in the shadow of Mayon Volcano, which is spewing ash and molten lava. And seismologists expect a major eruption at any time.
And one evacuation center today, a clown tried to cheer up the children there. They also got rations of noodles, fried fish, and fruit to celebrate the holiday.
A prominent Chinese dissident during the Tiananmen Square protest has been sentenced in a separate case. Liu Xiaobo was sentenced to 11 years in prison. The state-run news agency says he has been engaged in agitation activities, such as spreading rumors and defaming the government. Lui served as an adviser to student leaders during the demonstrations at Tiananmen Square 20 years ago.
Swine flu, as you know, anyone can come down with it. But the homeless are especially vulnerable. Now, a group of volunteer doctors and nurses in Florida are hitting the streets, seeking out the homeless and offering them free vaccinations.
More now from CNN's John Zarrella.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Sean Cononie hits the spots were he knows the homeless spend their nights, a park in Fort Lauderdale.
SEAN CONONIE, HOMELESS VOICE: If there is anybody out here who wants the swipe flu vaccine, please come over to the ambulance here.
ZARRELLA: At least twice a week, Cononie, who runs "The Homeless Voice" newspaper, along with volunteer doctors and nurses...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hi, Pedro. My name is George. I'm a nurse.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How are you doing?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Fine. It's going to be one quick shot.
ZARRELLA: Arm themselves with syringes and vials of H1N1 vaccine, in just one month since the vaccine became readily available...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ready?
ZARRELLA: ... Cononie's team has vaccinated more than 300 homeless. People like Lee Engels, nowhere to live since he lost his mobile home a month ago.
LEE ENGELS, HOMELESS: It's a true blessing, you know? Help me stay clean and not sick. I hope, you know?
ZARRELLA: One night, Cononie got a call from a mom with two kids. It was after midnight.
(on camera): And she's just somebody who -- the only opportunity she had was the middle of the night?
CONONIE: Middle of the night.
ZARRELLA: What does that say?
CONONIE: Hard-working mom and this economy sucks. So...
ZARRELLA: And cares about her kids?
CONONIE: Yes. Absolutely.
ZARRELLA: Volunteer Dr. Chad Frank says the program serves two purposes: helping a high-risk group and protecting the community.
DR. CHAD FRANK, VOLUNTEER: Some have high blood pressure. Some are alcoholics and are more susceptible to the flu -- seasonal flu and swine flu. So, we are protecting them and we're also saving the emergency rooms here as well from being overloaded with potential patients, swine flu patients.
ZARRELLA: On this night, the team only finds a handful of homeless on the street. Not all of them can be vaccinated.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I appreciate what you're doing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And we love doing it for you. That's why we are here.
ZARRELLA: He's had a little too much to drink.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are going to give him our phone number. He can call us tomorrow. His alcohol content is too high.
ZARRELLA: The volunteers say they'll be out here on the streets until every homeless person who wants it is vaccinated, or until the CDC says the worst is over.
John Zarrella, CNN, Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: A very scary Christmas Eve greeting for the Pope. A woman assailant jumps across barricades and pulls the pontiff to the ground. We'll take you to Vatican City.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE SOLDIER: This is the Helring (ph) family from COB Speicher, wanting to wish all of our family in Ottawa, Illinois, a Merry Christmas. Tristan and Kelly, we love you very much.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE SOLDIER: Merry Christmas. Happy New Year. We love you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANNOUNCER: Live in the CNN NEWSROOM: Fredricka Whitfield.
WHITFIELD: All right. Merry Christmas, everyone. Well, not so merry for the Pope for a moment. Well, she has done it before. The Vatican says a woman who dragged Pope Benedict XVI to the ground on Christmas Eve tried to actually attack him last year. The woman is now being detained by Vatican police.
And CNN's Colleen McEdwards reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COLLEEN MCEDWARDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A woman in red clears the barricade and lunges toward Pope Benedict XVI.
In this amateur video, you see him fall forward, a moment of high drama before Christmas Eve mass. Watch again and you'll see security rush to surround him. The woman appears to touch the Pope but is quickly moved away.
A Texas family on a trip to Rome caught the incident on video.
MARY BETH BURNS, WITNESS: All of a sudden, this person sort of flew over the barricade and the Holy Father went down, and all of a sudden, all the security people were all on top of it, you know, the whole pile there, getting her off and pulling him back up.
MCEDWARDS: Moments later, you see the Pope continue down the aisle toward the main altar, where he celebrated mass. The Vatican confirms he was not hurt and describes the woman as unstable.
CNN's Vatican analyst says, traditionally, authorities take no action against people who try to touch the Pope.
JOHN ALLEN, SENIOR VATICAN ANALYST: Usually, they are not -- there is no malicious intent involved. They just want to either touch the pope or say something to him, but it's a reminder, actually, that as compared to other world leaders, presidents and prime ministers, the security penumbra around the pope is actually fairly thin.
MCEDWARDS: That is by design. The Vatican wants the pope to remain accessible, enough security to the keep him safe but not so much that he seems out of reach. So these incidents actually happen quite often.
ALLEN: I think in the wake of these now, you know, repeated incidents there probably will be a meeting in the Vatican some time soon to ask the question of whether they need to tighten up on the security presence.
MCEDWARDS: A mass interrupted and major relief on one of Christianity's holiest days. Colleen McEdwards, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: And by the way, the pope actually didn't say anything about the incident in his traditional Christmas message this morning. Instead, he focused on all those who have been affected by the global financial crisis, by natural disasters or simply by war. He also delivered Christmas greetings in 65 languages.
In this country, the Plains getting pounded by a Christmas snowstorm. Blizzard conditions are being felt in several states. At least 18 deaths are being blamed on this storm. The South, meanwhile is dealing with heavy rain, in a very big watch. Localized flooding hit Little Rock, Arkansas, and flood warnings are up for parts of Georgia as well.
Bonnie Schneider is in the Severe Weather Center. I know a lot of folks in Georgia were awakened to the sound of this rain. It was incredible.
(WEATHER REPORT)
WHITFIELD: All right. Well, everywhere this time of year, Christmas trees and of course the crowds from New York's Rockefeller Center to the White House and one house in particular. Our Reynolds Wolf takes us inside the Biltmore Estate.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Fifty-eight trees, miles of garland, and thousands of twinkling lights. Christmas celebrations in at Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina, date back to 1895. Christmas Eve 114 years ago, George Vanderbilt opened his American castle to friends for the very first time. A 30-foot tall real Frazier fir decorated the home's grand banquet hall, which is a tradition which continues today.
Cathy Barnhardt has worked on the display for 32 years, but she doesn't do it alone.
CATHY BARNHARDT, BILTMORE FLORAL DISPLAYS MANAGER: We got it down to real art and science. It does take about 35 men to hoist that tree into place. It is all done by manpower, and it is steered on the floor with other ropes, to go around chandeliers and moose heads and flags and things like that.
WOLF (on camera): I think just about anybody who is tuning in can handle something on the bottom, but way up there, shoot, you need oxygen tanks up there to survive.
BARNHARDT: And scaffolding.
WOLF: And scaffolding.
How much water is that thing drinking in?
BARNHARDT: It's hard to water a tree that size. A tree over about 15 or 16 feet doesn't really draw water very well. This tree is 34 feet. So, we don't try to put it in water.
WOLF (voice over): Instead, half way through the Christmas season, her team brings in a new tree and they decorate it all over again. George Vanderbilt wouldn't have had it any other way. And the 18,000 people on staff of the estate agree, including Bill Alexander, Biltmore's landscape and forest historian.
(on camera): So, essentially stepping onto this property, stepping through those doors is like stepping back in time?
BILL ALEXANDER, BILTMORE LANDSCAPE HISTORIAN: Is like stepping back a century in time.
WOLF: I'll be darned.
ALEXANER: Absolutely.
WOLF: What better way to celebrate Christmas?
Reynolds Wolf, CNN, Asheville, North Carolina.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: Gorgeous. All right, well you might say he's a business rock star with a heath of gold. Putting the spotlight on Richard Branson, one celebrity who is making a difference.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is Lance Corporal Anthony Park (ph) coming to you from southern Afghanistan, deployed with VMA 231. I would like to say merry Christmas and happy New Year to my two loving parents and m brothers, Mark and Thomas in St. Louis, Missouri.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: A look now at our top stories, the family of actress Brittany Murphy said their final good-byes. A minister and a rabbi presided over the private Christmas Eve funeral at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in the Hollywood Hills. Murphy was only 32-years-old when she died Sunday after collapsing at home. The cause of death still unknown.
The Taliban has released a video showing what they say is a U.S. soldier captured in eastern Afghanistan. Private First Class Bowe Bergdahl vanished from Paktika Province more than five months ago. NATO says the release of the video is an affront to Bergdahl's family and friends. The man shown in the video gives Bergdahl's name and rank and emphasizes that he has been treated humanely. According to the Idaho National Guard, the family in Idaho has been anxiously waiting to see the video ever since the Taliban said last week that it was going to be released. The Taliban is pushing to trade the soldier for a number of Taliban prisoners.
And it is five years of catching up for a father and son. David Goldman and his 9-year-old son, Sean are spending time together in Orlando, Florida, today. They arrived in the U.S. last night from Brazil after Sean's Brazilian family handed him over. Brazil's chief justice granted David Goldman custody of his son, ending a battle with the family of Goldman's deceased wife. And these days, celebrities are quick to put their name on a cause, after all it is good for publicity. But we wanted to take a look at celebrities who have a track record of making a difference. Our series is called "Big Stars, Big Giving." Alina Cho sat down with Richard Branson.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Spend the day with Richard Branson and you quickly learn it's hard to keep up. This adventure capitalist never sits still, and it shows. Virgin the mega brand he created 39 years ago includes more than 200 companies, a $17 billion empire. Business pays the bills, but philanthropy rocks his world.
RICHARD BRANSON, ADVENTURE CAPITALIST: One of my faults in life is that I can never say no. And so you know people are always coming to us with, you know, wonderful projects.
CHO: How do you choose?
BRANSON: Yes, choosing is -- it's difficult.
CHO: Then the next question is how do you manage it all?
BRANSON: And how you manage it is find wonderful people. And they're running it in the exact same way we run a business.
CHO: Branson's style? Visionary.
BRANSON: For instance, there are lots of organizations in Africa that are trying to tackle diseases, but there is no center for disease control to try and coordinate the attack. So we are setting up a center for disease control.
CHO: Disease, conflict, global warming, just some of the causes that Branson's philanthropic arm Virgin Unite supports. And because he is a business rock star, he is able to wrangle the help of real ones. He called on Grammy award winning singer, Estelle, to travel with him to South Africa to see the Richard Branson school of entrepreneurship.
ESTELLE, GRAMMY AWARD WINNER: I was felt honored. I was kind of like, Richard Branson knows who I am? Hang on a minute, you know this guy --
CHO (on camera): You know you talk about changing the world, he's really out there trying to do.
ESTELLE: He is physically doing it. That's the difference.
CHO (voice over): Branson's passion, nurturing the next generation of entrepreneurs. So here in Florida, he is multitasking. As he launches new service on Virgin America, he is also meeting right on the tarmac with teens who need and want his help.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think it's awesome to meet somebody like him. And if he's just like me - if he started where I started then I can do what he is doing now.
CHO: Not bad for a high school dropout who skill scribbles notes on his hand, can barely work a computer, and has never held a board meeting.
BRANSON: When you are on your death bed, you know, having created 500 businesses instead of 300 businesses, you know, that's an achievement, but having really try to make a difference in other peoples' lives is a bigger achievement.
CHO: Pushing the boundaries of business and philanthropy with this motto. You can do it.
BRANSON: You know, give it ago, just try things. And --
CHO (on camera): No risk, no reward?
BRANSON: No risk, no reward. Yes. Screw it, let's do it, whatever.
CHO: Another reason why Branson is so successful, both in business and philanthropy is that he sees no boundaries. No is not part of his vocabulary and like others in his position, he also feels that with success comes great responsibility that money and celebrity can be used to make a difference. Alina Cho, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: So that brings us to today's blog question, what is the best Christmas gift that you actually received this year?
Sherry writes this, "My best gift arrived on December 23rd when I was notified that I would be hired for a temporary full-time job. After being unemployed for about 2.5 years, this is the best Christmas present ever." Congratulations to her.
And Jennifer writes this, "The best Christmas present I received this year is the knowledge that my brother's cancer is in remission. No material gift equates to the fact that he is alive and well."
We wish him the best.
And Lisa writes this, "I am an avid scuba diver who loves to do underwater video and my best gift this Christmas was a new camcorder and underwater housing."
And Heidi, I'm sorry, Heidi's not here. I'm in for Heidi. So you can send your comments to my blog page at CNN.com/Fredericka and we'll share your comments.
All right, the trip to school is bad. The walk home, even worse. Chicago's students face a tough test away from the classroom.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My name is specialist Aaron Allen (ph) from Bagram airfield in Afghanistan. I would like to wish my wife and baby happy holidays, my wife, Barbie, baby Violet and also my family back home in Seattle, Washington. Happy holidays.
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WHITFIELD: All right, some high school students should be concerned about making good grades, making the team or making friends. Well instead they are worried about making it through rough neighborhoods on their way to and from school. CNN's T.J. Holmes took a walk with two of the students to learn about their struggles.
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T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR (on camera): This takes you where?
ERIC NIMELY, CHICAGO PUBLIC SCHOOL STUDENT: This takes me to the L.
HOLMES (voice-over): It's not yet 7:00 A.M. and 17-year old Eric Nimely is facing his first test of the day. Getting safely to school on Chicago's south side.
NIMELY: Everybody get on the bus and sometimes coming home they're fighting, you know, stuff like that on the bus.
HOLMES (on camera): You actually switched routes to school because it got so bad?
NIMELY: Yes.
HOLMES (voice-over): To walk in Eric's shoes is to get a glimpse into a world where getting to school is all about survival.
HOLMES (on camera): How would you describe that neighborhood for somebody who doesn't know it?
NIMELY: Rough.
HOLMES (voice-over): Like 95 percent of the city's public school students, Eric is responsible for getting to school on his own. He says he tries to travel with friends to avoid trouble.
NIMELY: If you don't have any friends, I'm not saying you're going to on get picked on, but it's like a group of guys turning the corner and you're walking, if nobody know who you are, I mean, like they'll say something to you.
CHARLES ANDERSON, ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL: We definitely want to try to protect them from violence.
HOLMES (voice-over): Charles Anderson, assistant principal at Eric's Team Englewood High School, says it's not uncommon for kids to get jumped, robbed or worse in the tough neighborhoods of Chicago where during the last school year 49 public school students were killed.
HOLMES (on camera): You're almost securing a perimeter around a few blocks around this school.
ANDERSON: Yes, we are, but it's worth it if we can get a kid to feel comfortable to come to school and then we can help them to focus on their education.
HOLMES (voice-over): Principal Peggy Korellis-Byrd says it's hard for her teachers to break through that tough exterior kids have to keep up.
PRINCIPAL PEGGY KORELLIS-BYRD, PRINCIPAL, TEAM ENGLEWOOD HIGH SCHOOL: It's a very hard thing to drop that wall and maybe not be so tough or on guard in school. So we have to break down a lot of that.
HOLMES: But as difficult as mornings can be, students say the afternoon journey home, is even worse.
AMBER WARD, CHICAGO PUBLIC SCHOOL STUDENT: So you would be walking down the street, people jumps out of cars. That's what the clowns do.
HOLMES: It's 6:00 at night when 16-year old Amber Ward heads home from Manley High School on Chicago's West Side.
WARD: I'd be scared because I ignore people. When they try to talk to me, I just keep walking. And it makes people so mad, people will do anything. I'd be feeling like they're going to pull out a gun and shoot me from the back, so when I keep walking I always do like this, you know, keep looking back.
HOLMES: For Amber, it's a 3.5 block walk to the bus stop where we wait 15 minutes.
WARD: I like to sit in the back so I can see everything ahead of me.
HOLMES: And along with sitting in the back so she can spot danger better, once off the bus, she tries to keep an eye out for who might be hiding in the dark on the side streets.
HOLMES (on camera): We just passed a dark alley. And here we are now coming up on a corner. A couple guys just standing there doing who knows what. What do you think when you walk past a group like that and you're walking down the street by yourself? It's dark. Ain't a lot of street lights out here.
WARD: I'm so used to seeing it. I mean, I'm used to guys standing on the corner. See that? That's what I'm talking about. This is crazy.
HOLMES: And you're just used to it.
WARD: I'm used to it.
HOLMES (voice-over): Along the way, Amber points out a drug house.
HOLMES (on camera): What is going on with that house, now?
WARD: It's abandoned, so a lot of people just be out there selling drugs, playing dice, doing what they do.
HOLMES (voice-over): Doing what they do. And Amber's final rule of the road. Walk fast.
WARD: If I would have been by myself, I guarantee you I would have been at Jackson. I guarantee you.
HOLMES: It's only when Amber catches sight of her house, 45 minutes after she left school, she knows she's back in safe territory.
HOLMES (on camera): That is a successful day, right? You made it.
WARD: Yes, I made it.
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WHITFIELD: So, why do teens react to violence the way they do? We go inside their brains for an answer.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm Major Joy Young (ph), currently stationed at Camp Eggers in Kabul, Afghanistan and I would like to say merry Christmas and happy New Year to my husband, Joe, and sons Houston and E.J. I'll see you soon.
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WHITFIELD: All this week, we have been taking a look at teen violence, particularly what kids in one Chicago high school have to go through just to get to and from school. Well today, we look at why teens do what they do in regards to violence. Here again is CNN's T.J. Holmes.
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HOLMES: Have you all witnessed some kind of violence? Shooting?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I've seen violence.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It happens every day. And it's mostly over petty stuff.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Petty stuff. HOLMES (voice-over): Mix the constant presence of violence these kids on Chicago's West Side face with the developing teen brain, and researchers say you have got a recipe for danger.
DR. JAY GIEDO, NEUROSCIENTIST: In the frontal lobe right here is very late to mature. Not until about age 25.
HOLMES: And so teens are prone to act more impulsively, according to Dr. Jay Giedo, a neuroscientist at the National Institutes of Health.
GIEDO: Whenever there is high emotion, then this part of the brain is really taxed, it really has to work extra hard to sort it all out.
HOLMES: That's true even for teens living in the best of circumstances. But add a constant barrage of violence to a kid's life, and that risky behavior can become magnified.
GENE GRIFFIN, PSYCHOLOGIST: They misinterpret signs of danger, they overreact to it all the time, and they have trouble calming themselves down and seeing the world the way other people see it.
HOLMES: Dr. Giedo says the brain can actually get used to the violence, taking even more violence to shock it.
GIEDO: If the world of the teen is violent, and that people need to be aggressive in order to survive in that environment, the biology will make the brain change and adapt to whatever demands they are.
HOLMES: The teens we spoke with say they have seen so much violence, that they actually grown used to it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In front of the store from my house, there was a boy with his brains blew out. So really saying there are people won't stop, and it don't even scare me no more.
DR. CARL BELL, PSYCHIATRIST: How is it that we have forgotten that we need to raise children?
HOLMES: Experts say as much as the teen brain can be transformed by excessive exposure to violence or danger, it has the ability to change, also responding to a nurturing environment.
BELL: You've got children who are all gasoline, no brakes. It's for parents and society, schools, communities to provide the brakes.
HOLMES: One such program is Umoja. It partners with Chicago's Manley High School helping teens to cope by surrounding them with support, teaching them leadership skills and encouraging students to see a future for themselves.
LILA LEFF, FOUNDER, UMOJA: There is not a magic thing we say to kids that make them stop -- that will make them stop killing each other. That's not how it works. We connect and we have relationships, or none of this ever changes. HOLMES: When the program started 12 years ago, only 10 percent of the students went on to college. Today that number has grown to 60 percent.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) beyond what you ever thought. They took me out of town. And I never thought I'd make it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They tell you, like, there's more to life than just being around here. You can just go out and experience more things.
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WHITFIELD: And statistics show that teen violence nationwide has actually gone downward. That has been the trend in the last few years. Let's hope so. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. Have a merry Christmas. CNN NEWSROOM continues. You hear his voice, now let's see him, Tony Harris.
