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Obama's Taste of Victory; Big Wins in Final Days of Congress; South Korea Show of Force: Wraps Up Large Military Drill; Privacy at Risk; Package Explodes in Swiss Embassy in Rome; Cashing in on College Football; Awkward Family Photos

Aired December 23, 2010 - 06:00   ET

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


JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, and thanks so much for joining us on this AMERICAN MORNING, on this Thursday, December 23rd. It's Christmas eve -- eve. I'm John Roberts.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Do you have your Christmas shopping done? I had to ask you that. It's a required question at this time of year.

ROBERTS: I think I do.

COSTELLO: You think you do?

ROBERTS: Pretty sure. I'll have to double-check. I have my list, I'll check it twice. But I'm pretty sure I got it done.

COSTELLO: Good, I'm glad. I think, I have mine done, yes. I'm Carol Costello in for Kiran Chetry this morning. Here are this morning's top stories.

President Obama in Hawaii. A holiday vacation now underway with a lot to feel good about. Coming up, the president's big wins on the final frenzied hours of the lame duck Congress.

ROBERTS: Oh, something not to feel good about. Extreme weather on the move as travelers get ready to leave for the holiday weekend. It's going to be a huge travel day today. More nasty weather expected in areas already dealing with major floods. We'll tell you how this might affect your travel plans.

COSTELLO: Protecting your privacy online, you may think you're doing all the right things to guard your personal information but we'll show you how easily your confidential material can be uncovered. What steps do you need to take to keep yourself safe?

ROBERTS: And we're talking specifically this morning on that point about online dating. So if you're looking for somebody to give a stocking to this Christmas, you're going to want to know about it.

COSTELLO: We're going to tell you how not to be stalked.

ROBERTS: Yes, exactly. Give the stocking, don't be stalked. First, President Obama with a taste of victory this morning. He snatched up some big accomplishments with Congress a little more than a month after what he called a midterm shellacking that put his presidency in doubt.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And instead, this has been a season of progress for the American people. A progress that's reflecting -- is a reflection of the message that voters sent in November. A message that said it's time to find common ground on challenges facing our country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: The president left the White House headed for a holiday in Hawaii. A lot to celebrate. Didn't I just say that?

Senior White House correspondent Ed Henry live in Honolulu this morning. Oh, look at your shirt. That's just embarrassing.

ROBERTS: Oh.

COSTELLO: I'm just kidding, again. I say that in a loving way.

Anyway, Ed, it looks like the president --

ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

Go ahead.

COSTELLO: It looks like the president has something to celebrate on his vacation.

HENRY: He does, Carol. I was going to say I can't really hear your criticism because the surf is so loud this time of the morning. It's very early here. So I can't really hear what you're saying about my shirt. But the president did have a lot to tout yesterday. He had a year-end news conference in Washington before heading here to Honolulu. And yes, he basically went from that shellacking to a lot of skepticism about whether he can get a lot done in the lame duck. And now this week, taste of victory. He had a long list to tout yesterday. Let's go through it.

The new START treaty. A lot of people didn't think he'd get it. He got enough Republicans for a bipartisan victory there. The tax deal, making sure that tax rates do not go up on January 1st in just a few days. The repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." Something some of his supporters thought just a week ago was lost. He got that done. The historic food safety bill, giving the Food and Drug Administration more power to make sure the food we eat is safe. And finally, the 9/11 workers, a health care bill, the first responders. That was something that was also tied up in knots finally done in those final hours of the lame duck. All this leading a reporter to ask the president, are you now the comeback kid?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: As I said right after the midterm elections, we took a shellacking, and I take responsibility for that. But I think what's happened over the last several weeks is not a victory for me. It's a victory for the American people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HENRY: Now, there's a little bit of a reality check, though, in terms of all of these accomplishments. There are some big factors that helped push the president along. First of all, the fact that a lot of lawmakers on both parties were smelling that jet fuel in Washington. They wanted to get home just as the president just did here at Honolulu a few moments ago.

And so they pushed a lot of this through. Maybe not everything they wanted, but they got it all done because they wanted to go home. And also the president still had Nancy Pelosi as speaker of the House for a few more days. And come January, he's going to have John Boehner as speaker. It's going to be a whole new dynamic there. And so he had a big push here at the end. We'll see what it translates to in 2011.

ROBERTS: The historic parallels here impossible to ignore looking back to 1994 and then 1995, how President Clinton did after that then re-elected in 1996. Do you think this is going to give the president the same kind of momentum going into 2011?

HENRY: It very possibly could and as you make that same parallel to '94, '95, that's why liberal Democrats were upset about the tax bill. They thought, you know, they're now going to be triangulated like Bill Clinton did to his fellow Democrats on the Hill and worked with Republicans a bit more to get these victories.

But the president bottom line has a lot of big challenges in 2011. If you tick through the list real quick, he said at the news conference he wants to try to get the Dream Act done. He didn't get that done in this lame duck. He wants a big immigration reform push this coming year. He also talked a lot about the budget deficit, trying to tackle that. No easy solution there. And finally, he's going to be playing defense on trying to make sure Republicans don't dismantle the health reform, Wall Street reform, some of these big 2010 victories.

And let's not forget, this is a pivotal year to set up his 2012 re-election. So he's got a lot on his plate as he also tries to rebuild the economy, John and Carol.

ROBERTS: Oh, we'll see how he does. And for the record, Ed, I think your shirt is just fine. In fact, I had one just like it until my sweetheart made me give it to Goodwill.

HENRY: Oh, I knew I was being set up for another punch and there you go.

ROBERTS: I'm serious.

HENRY: You delivered it.

ROBERTS: I'm serious. I say that in all --

COSTELLO: We only tease because we like you so much.

HENRY: Well --

ROBERTS: No, I'm just telling you the truth. Check with her.

HENRY: I will.

ROBERTS: You know here.

HENRY: Happy new year to you.

ROBERTS: All right. Thanks, Ed.

Amid all the smiles at the White House, some red faces, too. The Obama administration scrambling to explain why its Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, appeared clueless when asked Monday about ABC's Diane Sawyer about the alleged bomb plot that was broken up in England 10 hours earlier.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DIANE SAWYER, ABC NEWS: How serious is it? Any implication that it was coming here? Any of the things that they have seen were coming here?

Dr. Clapper?

JOHN BRENNAN, WHITE HOUSE COUNTERRORISM ADVISOR: He read the arrest of the 12 individuals by the British this morning.

SAWYER: Yes.

BRENNAN: This is something that the British informed us about early this morning while this was taking place.

SAWYER (voice-over): Later in the interview, I came back to the director. Did he really not know?

(on camera): I was a little surprised you didn't know about London, Director Clapper.

JAMES CLAPPER, DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE: Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: Yesterday, White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan claimed that Clapper was busy before that interview with developments on the Korean Peninsula and the START treaty and wasn't focused on London. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN BRENNAN, WHITE HOUSE COUNTERTERRORISM ADVISOR: He had been briefed by a staff on those arrests? Yes. And I know there was breathless attention by the media about these arrests and it was constantly on the news networks. I'm glad that Jim Clapper is not sitting in front of the TV 24 hours a day and monitoring what's coming out of the media.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: A spokesperson for Clapper said he was not briefed on the London arrest because it did not involve a threat to the United States.

COSTELLO: So, here's one thing the White House cannot be worried about, a political challenge from this guy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIMMY MCMILLAN, FORMER NY GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: Rent, it's too damn high.

All we have to do is execute them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: I know how much you've missed him. But there's news about Jimmy McMillan. His catch phrase stole the show of the New York gubernatorial debate back in October, and now he would like to steal President Obama's job. Here is his formal announcement if you can call it that on an Internet radio show.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOICE OF JIMMY MCMILLAN, FORME NY GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: Barack Obama, Mr. President, you should do -- if you don't do your job right, I'm coming at you. I know Barack Obama is an Internet hog. I know you know that I'm out there. What you haven't heard yet is that Jimmy McMillan is running for president of the United States of America.

Go to the Web site, President. I want you to look at all the hits Sarah Palin got. I ate her up. Look at all the hits John McCain got. I chewed him up. Look at all the hits that Hillary Clinton had. I swallowed her, chewed her up and spit her out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: And he has his own action figure as well.

COSTELLO: We have to say it together because the rent's too damn high.

ROBERTS: It definitely is, if you live in New York City. We don't know yet if Sarah Palin is going to run for president in 2012, but we do know what Oprah Winfrey thinks about her chances. The talk show queen tells "Parade" magazine that America will, quote, "fall in love with Palin as a reality TV star." But when asked if the thought of Palin running for office scares her, Winfrey said, quote, "It does not scare me because I believe in the intelligence of the American people."

Wow. There is going to be having -- Sarah Palin is going to be having a fight with Oprah Winfrey now.

COSTELLO: I think so, and I think it will pay off for Sarah Palin, too.

After days and days of rain, parts of Arizona could be slammed with up to a foot and a half of snow. Much of the state is under a flash flood watch and there are a bunch of winter weather advisories in effect. Flood waters swallowed homes and damaged bridges in Beaver Dam, Arizona. But emergency workers say it could have been much worse. The floodwaters have now started to go down.

ROBERTS: And southern California getting slammed with devastating rainstorms for the past week, but the sun briefly broke through. And there was this spectacular -- yes --

COSTELLO: A double -- oh --

ROBERTS: A double rainbow.

COSTELLO: I feel good about my world.

ROBERTS: The famous double rainbow framing the Hollywood sign. Monsoon-like conditions have overwhelmed the region. Homes and streets under mud and water. Some areas in the mountains hit with as much as 22 inches of rain. The good news, though, with those double rainbows coming out, forecasters say the heavy rain is winding down.

COSTELLO: Rob Marciano, isn't that beautiful?

ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Write a better script than that, even in Hollywood. I mean, just sun setting. Peeking through the clouds, the rain moving off to the east.

ROBERTS: And a double rainbow.

MARCIANO: That's good stuff. And I tell you, this has been a historic storm, guys. Other pieces of video I want to show you out of Laguna Beach. Boy, they just got hammered with a debris flow, a mud flow, whatever you want to call it. Flash flooding yesterday. Most of the downtown, including a lot of shops and businesses inundated with not just water, but with mud. So the front loaders were out and the shovels were out and they're going to be cleaning this up for some time to come. So it's quite a mess and quite a widespread mess, as we count down or total the numbers. Check them out.

Crestline, California, 26 inches of rainfall. Tanbark had seen 19 inches. Camp Nelson, 18. You go into Utah and Nevada, you're seeing well over a foot as far as rainfall is concerned.

Here are the snow totals. They have an update of the estimate. The one of 204, but Mammoth at well over 100 inches. Crested Butte and Heavenly and Deer Valley getting into it as well.

Still some -- here it is. It's off to the east now into southern Nevada, parts of Arizona, getting into Utah and Colorado. And we do have winter storm warnings posted especially for western Colorado today, another one to two feet of freshie (ph). Avalanche control will be working overtime here in the next couple of days, but the work will pay of nicely.

No avalanches worries in the east coast, but continue to seeing swirls of snow showers rolling into parts of eastern New England and continue cold and blustery for the northeast. But there's nothing in the way of this thing to move east. So it's going to move east and we're going to talk about the potential storm track. It gets a little bit tricky as we get towards the Christmas holiday. Some folks are going to see snow. Some folks may get quite a storm on their hand the day after Christmas. That's in about 30 minutes -- John and Carol.

ROBERTS: Looking forward to that. What a banner year it's going to be in Colorado for Christmas skiing after a couple of bad years. Thanks, Rob.

MARCIANO: You got it.

ROBERTS: Well, it's evening in South Korea, and right now the South Korean military remains on high alert amid fears its neighbor to the North might retaliate. South Korea just wrapped one of its largest ever land and air live fire military drills. It took place just 15 miles from the North Korean border and included more than 800 military personnel, tanks, jets and more than 100 different types of weapons.

COSTELLO: Wow. Kyung Lah live in Seoul, South Korea. And, Kyung, nothing from North Korea, not yet?

KYUNG LAH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we are getting, actually, the very first verbal response from North Korea. No physical move or military move, John and Carol, from the North. But this response is quite inflammatory, even though it is in line with rhetoric we have heard from in the past. North Korea is saying that it would launch, quote, "a sacred war using a nuclear deterrent."

Now, the North did not specifically respond to the drill and the show of force that we saw today from the South Koreans. The South Korean army as you indicated having a very large drill, rounds of ammunition being fired, fire jets, helicopters in the air. So an extraordinarily large show of force. The concern is is that South Korea could miscalculate and then give North Korea a window to respond physically, not just with words. But we also saw some tough talk on the part of the South Korean president, who in visiting an army base did say that he thought patience (ph) would leave the peace on the peninsula, but that's not the case. And that should the North decide to attack the South, the South could launch a merciless counterattack. COSTELLO: Kyung Lah live in South Korea this morning. Thanks so much.

ROBERTS: It's coming up now to 13 minutes after the hour. And still to come this morning, "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark" was in the dark yesterday. So will lights be back on tonight for the troubled musical? We'll have some new developments for you.

COSTELLO: And your personal information is out there on the web. But is it safe? The steps you can take to make sure you're not at risk.

ROBERTS: The purse that doubled as a weapon for a Florida woman. It's been put to good use, once again.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK))

ROBERTS: It's coming down at 16 minutes after the hour.

Two simple pieces of data -- your name and your e-mail address can unlock a shocking number of details about you, even if you consider yourself to be a private person.

COSTELLO: CNNMoney Poppy Harlow shows us how the steps you've been taking to guard your online identity may not be nearly enough.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM (on camera): Every day, millions of Americans are getting their backgrounds checked and their private information collected. If you're online and especially if you're on social networking site, your privacy is at risk.

Yes, I'm a public person, I report on television and I report online. But personally, I'm a very private person. So I did something I've never done before. I put myself right in this story to try to find out just how much information is out there about me.

HARLOW (voice-over): We gave Michael Fertik, the founder of ReputationDefender, my name and e-mail address. His company dug around to see what they could find.

MICHAEL FERTIK, CEO, REPUTATIONDEFENDER: You're a very private person. And the average person, the average viewer (ph) is going to be much less private than you especially in social media. They don't know that they have been opted in by the machine. Even someone as private as you are, has been opted into in such a way that a system can find out very deeply personal and private information about you, some of which you're not even willing to share on the air.

HARLOW: He's exactly right. They pulled information about my family's health history, that my father passed away at 49 from cancer and other issues just too personal to share, and --

FERTIK: Your religion, we believe and seem to be right that you're Episcopalian -- HARLOW (on camera): That's right.

FERTIK: -- which is not something you advertise.

HARLOW (voice-over): They also got my parent's names, college education, and whether I'm married or not. But on other facts, they were wrong, like my salary, current address and phone number.

And here's what really shocked me. ReputationDefender came back with words on the Internet that are associated with me. They say it's just because these are things I've reported on as a journalist. But the bottom line, whether the information out there is correct or incorrect, it's being used to make decisions about you.

FERTIK: Whether they want to hire you, fire you, date you, market to you, sells you, insure you or not. The important lesson to take away is that it would be very easy for a machine to make a mistake about who Poppy Harlow is.

HARLOW: We should know, ReputationDefender did this report for us as just an experiment. The company actually operates solely to protect people's information on the web.

FERTIK: Anything you share in any kind of social media, can and will find its way to a database and ultimately into a score that is going to be the basis of major life decisions about you.

HARLOW (on camera): It's going to define you?

FERTIK: It's going to define you forever.

HARLOW (voice-over): In the end, this turned out to be much more personal than I expected. In some ways, it was invasive. But what it showed me is just how much personal information is out there -- true and untrue. And many of us have no idea.

In New York, Poppy Harlow, reporting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTS: So, you know, even if you're very careful about what you put out there on the Internet --

COSTELLO: No, I know. I mean, I don't Google my name anymore because it's frightening. There's really vile -- there's vile stuff.

But the big question is, is how can you protect yourself, how can you change your reputation online and sort of like, you know --

ROBERTS: Well, that's where companies like that one come in, because they can actually get rid of a lot of the stuff that's out there. You know, if you Google your name and up comes some bad stuff about you, they can actually change the order of the Google search for you, get rid of some of that stuff, so --

COSTELLO: But what I really wanted to know, like -- ROBERTS: -- the bad stuff doesn't come up.

COSTELLO: -- how can you protect your privacy. Is there any way to protect your privacy?

ROBERTS: They say it's --

COSTELLO: Because I wouldn't want people to know --

ROBERTS: -- really, really difficult.

COSTELLO: -- stuff about my family because they're not on television.

ROBERTS: It's really, really difficult to do. It's kind of frightening.

COSTELLO: Well, we're going to talk to an expert, maybe she can help.

ROBERTS: Yes, that's right. You know, particularly, if you're in the online dating world, there's a lot of information that you want to put out there because you want to advertise yourself, right? How much is too much and how do you protect yourself against nefarious individuals getting hold of that information or even try to snow you into a date so that they can do other things.

COSTELLO: Exactly.

ROBERTS: We'll talk with Parry Aftab about that, coming up.

Well, she swung it to try to stop a gunman. Now, she has sold it for a good cause. A Florida woman famous purse fetches a pretty penny at auction. We'll tell you all about that, coming right up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: Here are some of the stories that got us talking in the newsroom this morning.

It might be the most famous handbag in America right now. There it is. We missed it. The purse of Ginger Littleton tried to disarm -- tried to use to disarm a gunman at a Florida school board meeting earlier this month. Last night, Littleton sold the faux crocodile leather bag on eBay for $13,100.

COSTELLO: There it is.

ROBERTS: A pretty penny for a purse. The money goes to a Christmas charity started by the security guard who took down the gunman, Mike Jones.

COSTELLO: As Ginger said, it comes full circle.

ROBERTS: It had.

COSTELLO: -- the (INAUDIBLE).

Bern's Steakhouse in Tampa features a largest restaurant wine collection in the world. They have half a million bottles. And once in a while, the (INAUDIBLE) -- the term was terrible to pronouncing that word, you know, the --

ROBERTS: It's perfect.

COSTELLO: -- the wine experts, they discover a few hidden treasures in the wine cellar. Well, Eric Renaud stumbled upon a rare double magnum bottle of Chateau Latour from 1947.

ROBERTS: Wow.

COSTELLO: It was tucked away -- isn't that amazing. It was tucked away on a high shelf. It was like facing the wrong way. They had no idea it was there.

The asking price, because of course they're going to sell it, the asking price will be $30,000. Renaud will join us on AMERICAN MORNING tomorrow to talk more about this amazing find.

ROBERTS: Could you imagine that? What's that dusty bottle up there on the shelf?

COSTELLO: Wouldn't you want to drink some, though? Instead of -- well, $30,000 for a sip of wine.

ROBERTS: I think if you pay $30,000 for a bottle of wine, you can do anything you want.

COSTELLO: I still like to taste it.

ROBERTS: Santa Claus coming to town early in West Palm Beach, leaving his sleigh and his shop and his reindeer behind. He hopped on a boat and showed up in Lion County Safari yesterday, dropping off some gifts for the chimps.

And as you see, they can't open those presents fast enough. Those gifts, by the way, included stuffed animals. Give an animal a stuffed animal, sports drinks --

COSTELLO: The gift's bizarre.

ROBERTS: Of course, we give -- we give our kids dolls, right? Why not. Sports drinks, treats like popcorn, nuts and candy.

COSTELLO: That was really cute. Nothing like chimps in the morning opening gifts.

It's a little known fact of college football, bowl games draw thousands of fans, yet some schools don't make a dime. In fact, most universities lose money on bowl games. Find out who is cashing in. That's just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

ROBERTS: Twenty-eight minutes after the hour. Some breaking news to tell you about coming out of Rome, the Italian news agency and service reporting this morning that a package has exploded inside the Swiss Embassy, seriously injuring one person. Now, we -- we don't know if it was actually inside the embassy or outside at this point. But ANSA reporting the word "in." So it's maybe somebody came into the Swiss Embassy this morning and the explosives went off.

You'll remember a couple days ago, there was a suspected bomb in a train in the Rome subway at the Rebibbia Station. That was found to contain inert material, but it appeared that this was something else. Don't know if it was related to what happened on Tuesday or not, but early reports of package exploding in the Swiss Embassy in Rome.

We'll contact our sources on this, of course, and we'll have the latest for you coming up as soon as we can get it.

COSTELLO: Switching gears now, let's talk a little football because it is the season, right?

ROBERTS: It is the season. Can't wait for the Sugar Bowl, the Rose Bowl, the Texas Bowl and the -- whatever bowl. Do you realize how many bowl games there are now?

COSTELLO: That's a lot of bowl game.

Better question, do you know why there are so many ball games? Besides the fact a team can qualify for a ball game with a six and six record, not even a winning record. If you shouted at money as the answer to all of those questions, you're on the right track. If you're wondering who was cashing in, it's often not the universities, some do make a profit, but most universities lose money on bowl games. Sometimes, big money.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO (voice-over): The Knights of the University of Central Florida are on their way to a bowl game. Just like 70 other college teams -- 70. That's more than half the major colleges in the country. More than half.

The teams are going to compete not only in the so-called major bowls, but not so major bowls as well. The uDrove Humanitarian Bowl, the BBVA Compass Bowl, the Beef 'O'Brady's Bowl, count them up, in today's college football world, there are 35 bowl games in all.

COSTELLO (on camera): Can you foresee a time when there'll be even more bowl games?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Probably.

COSTELLO (voice-over): Imagine, 50 ball games? Many universities clamoring for a spot on ESPN would say yay. (on camera): Not everything is rosy for some bowl-bound teams, though, just ask Western Michigan. Two years ago, it had to eat almost $500,000 just for the privilege of playing in the Texas Bowl.

(voice-over): According to "Sports Illustrated," of the 120 athletic departments that play 1A footballs, 106 lost money in 2009. Virginia Tech, the magazine says, lost $1.7 million on the Orange Bowl last year.

Mill Sutton is a sports business professor at UCF.

BILL SUTTON, UNIV. OF CENTRAL FLORIDA SPORTS BUSINESS PROFESSOR: The system is broken. It's an arms race and the bowls are part of the arms race.

COSTELLO: Consider this: to play in the Liberty Bowl, the University of Central Florida and its conference are required to buy 10,000 seats at 50 bucks a pop. That's half a million dollars. It's up to the university to sell its share of the tickets, not easy when it's Christmastime and the game is in Memphis. If UCF can't sell all 10,000 tickets, it and the conference eat the rest.

So, just how much money would a university be willing to lose?

(on camera): If you would lose like $100,000, would that be too much?

TRIBBLE: I don't know if $100,000 would be too much. You have to --

COSTELLO: Two hundred?

TRIBBLE: You have to -- $200,000 might be stretching it a little bit.

COSTELLO (voice-over): Keep in mind, a bowl game on ESPN amounts to a three-hour commercial, one that gets a lesser known school's name like UCF out there. Tribble says it's so valuable, admission could rise as much as 15 percent.

So, don't be surprised if one day soon, those 35 bowl games will balloon to 40, 50, who knows?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: And if that happens, you could have a team with a losing record in a bowl game because you can't possibly --

(CROSSTALK)

ROBERTS: Sort of lose the importance of it, doesn't it? And the prestige?

COSTELLO: Exactly. It diminishes all -- well, some people say. But other people say they just love to watch the bowl games. Last week, the UCF athletic director, Keith Tribble, the man you saw in the story, he told me UCF expects to sell 5,000 to 6,000 tickets. It plays Georgia in the Liberty Bowl on New Year's Eve.

But other schools might not be so lucky. Remember Virginia Tech last year. The reason it lost $1.7 million is because it and the ACC had to buy 17,000 tickets at 125 bucks apiece. Virginia Tech could only sell 3,342 tickets. So, they just ate the rest.

ROBERTS: They're still licking their wounds over that one.

COSTELLO: Yes. And, you know, some parents aren't just so happy because tuition is really high. And although they say, oh, you know, we have our athletic budget and stuff, ultimately, who pays?

ROBERTS: Yes, $1.7 million hit is a big one.

COSTELLO: Yes. Ultimately, who pays are the students paying tuition or the alumni who were donating to the university.

ROBERTS: Crossing the half hour now. It means it's time for this morning's top stories.

President Obama notching a few victories before arriving in Hawaii for the holidays. A 9/11 health bill and new arms treaty with Russia and the end of "don't ask, don't tell," all in the final hours of what was thought to be a lame duck session of Congress.

COSTELLO: The House and Senate have approved a $4.2 billion bill to provide free medical treatment to 9/11 first responders who got sick at Ground Zero. The bill now goes to President Obama to sign into law. Republicans who have been blocking the measure eventually backed off after a deal was struck to reduce its costs.

ROBERTS: All right. People with diabetes, listen up to this one. If you check your blood sugar regularly, you should also check what kind of test strips you're using. Abbott Laboratories is recalling up 359 million strips. The problem, the types of strips, which you see on the screen, may give patients a false sense of security by making blood glucose levels look lower than they really are. For more information and free replacements, all you have to do is contact Abbott Laboratories.

COSTELLO: That's just awful.

Also this morning, the curtain will be go up again tonight on Broadway's "Superman" musical. Evening and matinee performances --

ROBERTS: Spiderman.

COSTELLO: Did I say Superman?

(CROSSTALK)

COSTELLO: I would always get the superheroes confused.

"Spiderman" evening and matinee performances were canceled after an actor fell during a stunt on Tuesday night.

ROBERTS: The show producer said that they needed some extra time to add extra safety precautions and to get them rehearsed. They were supposed to open last night but they couldn't. The actor who was hurt during the stunt is in serious condition. Apparently, he cracked a couple of ribs.

"Spiderman: Turk Off the Dark" is the most expensive production in Broadway history, $65 million.

COSTELLO: You've got just two days before Christmas and if you've waited until the last minute to do your shopping, like Christine Romans --

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Oh, no, I have one thing left. One thing left.

COSTELLO: That constitutes last minute.

ROBERTS: I actually just discovered, I do have one thing left.

ROMANS: It's going to require me to go to a big box toy store, though. And that sort of fate worse than death for me, the few days before Christmas.

But, look, the retailers are cocky, you guys. They're cocky because they love it, that Christmas is on a Saturday. It means if you haven't done your shopping yet, if you didn't get done last weekend, they know that they've got you. They've got inventories lean -- meaning, they haven't put too many things on the shelves. So, they don't have to lower prices too much. And so, they got you.

Twenty-three million people are expected to go shopping on Christmas Eve, the day before Christmas. And if you're in the Midwest, most people -- one in five people in the Midwest are expected to go shopping. That's the highest of any region on a day before Christmas. And men are more likely than women to have left it to the last minute.

ROBERTS: Oh, we are the ultimate procrastinators.

ROMANS: Oh, not that much more. But 17 percent compared with 13 percent of women, to be shopping on the day before Christmas. And they're expecting big numbers of people to be shopping between Christmas and New Year's, 47 percent according to the International Council of Shopping Centers, will be shopping between Christmas and New Year's.

I would say this is actually a personal finance tool, if you've got the money, and you can go shopping and get some big bargains to stock up for the first six months of the year, that's a pretty good thing. You're going to see convenience. You'll see a lot of convenience.

This is what the retailers are trying to do. In fact, if they've go to Target, they've got end -- they're called "end caps," at the end of aisle, they've got them decorated quite nicely with gifts right for you to try to get that impulse buy if you need it. Also, you're going to see, as we reported earlier this week, 7-Eleven, CVS, grocery stores, gas stations, everybody is going to have gifts out there for you so you can pick something up last minute and spend your hard-earned money.

ROBERTS: As we said, nothing says "Happy Holidays" or "Merry Christmas" like a Slurpee.

ROMANS: Absolutely, that's what I say. There you go.

(LAUGHTER)

ROMANS: No, no. Because 7-Eleven is offering --

ROBERTS: You weren't here. This was on Tuesday.

COSTELLO: I'm sorry.

ROBERTS: We were talking about 7-Eleven is trying to position themselves as the Christmas morning, "Oh, my God, I forgot" store.

ROMANS: Yes. They have wine. They're going to have some small electronics I think.

ROBERTS: Slurpees.

ROMANS: They're going to have gifts, stuffed animals. So, if you need to get a dose of 32 ounces of caffeine before you go to grandma's house, you can also pick up a gift.

COSTELLO: Mom, I got you a gift. I got it from 7-Eleven.

ROBERTS: Pack of gum. You'll never know. Wrap it up nicely.

Looking for love on the Internet. Coming up: how you can make sure the people you are flirting with are actually who they say they are. Parry Aftab is joining us, coming right up.

It's 37 minutes after the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Are you looking for love online?

Twenty million Americans are now using dating sites like Match.com and eHarmony, double the number five years ago.

So, how can you be sure your date isn't really Mr. Wrong or Ms. Wrong or you aren't flirting with a felon?

COSTELLO: Yes. New York and New Jersey, the first states offering some regulations, requiring sites to post safety tips and to say whether they require their members to go through background checks.

Joining us now is Parry Aftab. She's the executive director WiredSafety.org.

These regulations making any difference, do you know?

PARRY AFTAB, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, WIREDSAFETY.ORG: Well, I think that now, they're requiring sites to do what they should do anyway. Every site should have safety tips. So, in the background this year, it's just a matter of consumer protection. What are you charging your users for and what are you giving them?

COSTELLO: Do these sites do background checks routinely? Some of them do, some don't?

AFTAB: Yes. Most of them don't. True.com, T-R-U-E-dot-com, is the one that's business model is built on background checks. So, you can get after market items that will allow you to do your own background checks. So, what you need to do is make the right choice for the right site or dating site for you.

ROBERTS: So, let's talk about online dating. Let's say for some reason Carol decides that she needs an online dating service. How much information should she put on her dating Web site?

AFTAB: Well, she can put some basic information. She needs a picture. Make sure it hasn't been doctored too much and it's in the last decade. Don't put pictures --

(LAUGHTER)

ROBERTS: Oh, but that's -- that's just advertising, though?

AFTAB: That is. Truth in advertising or falsehood in dating.

ROBERTS: What about personal information? How deep into your --

AFTAB: You really don't go deeply.

ROBERTS: -- detailed should you go?

AFTAB: Nothing that you wouldn't put on a billboard on a superhighway. So, you want a picture, you want your general location, you want what you do, you want your general age. Don't put pictures of your kids. We're now seeing a lot of pedophiles are using as their own cyber dating service.

COSTELLO: Oh, that's insane.

AFTAB: It's horrible.

COSTELLO: But I guess the biggest question to me is when you're looking on Match.com and you see someone (AUDIO BREAK), if, you know, the site doesn't do a background check, that this person is giving you true information?

AFTAB: Well, you don't. And so, that's why the first tip is: don't be stupid. So, take it slow. Have a good communication. If things don't seem right, something feels a little off, go someplace else. That's the good option.

COSTELLO: Well, where do you go, though? You see this person online, you want to meet him somewhere, what do you do?

AFTAB: You don't get to meeting until you've gotten a meeting of minds. So, you communicate by e-mail. You have a lot of conversation. You could go to a webcam. Go to phone.

If you use a phone, make sure that you get one of those toss away cell phones so you're not ruining your own number --

ROBERTS: Really?

AFTAB: -- if things go wrong.

ROBERTS: It's almost like spy craft here, Parry.

AFTAB: Well, it is. You know, you're protecting yourself. And this is Mr. Goodbar in a whole new decade.

So, we need to realize, bottom line, it's about our safety. Background checks, I'll tell you whether or not they're married. You can game the system. But what you need to do is trust your gut. Before you go to a meeting, do it all right. Don't give up anything that you don't want to. Don't bare your breasts or your soul before you're ready to.

ROBERTS: That's a good general rule when it comes to the Internet.

AFTAB: It is.

COSTELLO: Actually, when it comes to anything.

AFTAB: It is. But it's interesting how few people actually follow that rule.

ROBERTS: But let's say that you've gotten to the point where you've had an online liaison or maybe you've done Skype or whatever. You've looked at the person and decide, OK, here's somebody I want to see. There are some nefarious people who have gotten through that part of the process and met with people and then taken advantage of them.

So, when you're setting up that first face-to-face date, what sort of precaution should you keep in mind?

AFTAB: Ideally, it's during the day where you can see everything around you. Ideally, it's at a Starbucks, short meeting for a cup of coffee, not long with a lot of alcohol. Make sure there are other people around you. You don't drive straight home. And preferably bring a friend and even best if they're a sumo wrestler.

Make sure that you take it slow. And when you meet them, even thought they know everything about you and feel like your soul mate, because they know your favorite food and what you eat in the middle of the night and your first birthday present you ever got, remember, this is the first time you're seeing them. And you really have no idea who they are. So, take it slow.

COSTELLO: OK. Red flags. I mean, is there some thing -- some things that this person might say that should give you a warning to run away as fast as you can?

AFTAB: Well, there are lot of things that don't match. So, their own lie about how much hair they have and how much they weigh, and how much they earn. But what you need to do is start keeping track of those facts.

I recommend that you use a monitoring software, Specter Soft is the best one out there. Put it on your computer, use your notes. If things feel a little creepy, then end the communication, and make sure they don't come back.

ROBERTS: Do these sites have any liability if something goes wrong?

AFTAB: Right now, they don't, John. We have the Communications Decency Act that gives them absolutely immunity for what their users do. But I think that that's going to start being encroached as they're making money and they get notices that someone's a criminal, they get notices when people report them for have molested them or done something and they take no action, I think we're going to start seeing some liability.

COSTELLO: And just to end, I'd like to put it into perspective, like, how much a danger is there really in meeting someone through something like Match.com?

AFTAB: Well, there's a huge danger in dating anybody. Once you get behind closed doors, you never know what's going to happen. So, what we need to do is recognize you have to take it slower.

We give up our hearts way too fast, especially over the holidays. You're looking for love. We're lonely. We do it in the middle of the night, maybe with a couple of extra glasses of wine in front of us. We let down our guard.

You can never let down your guard. You have to extra vigilant. And remember that the clues we get in real life, what they smell like, the shoes they wear, how they handle themselves, whether they pick their nose are very important in our dating them.

So, it's nice to know whether they're married or not. Whether they're registered sex offender. But in the end, what you're looking for is a soul mate that requires a soul and there's no background check for that.

ROBERTS: And there are a lot of people who have actually found very good people on line.

COSTELLO: That's right.

AFTAB: They really have. So, take it slow. Be careful. Guard your heart. And don't be stupid.

ROBERTS: And spend six months on the CIA's farm before you do anything.

Parry, thanks so much.

AFTAB: Thank you.

ROBERTS: Still to come this morning. Rob's going to have this morning's travel forecast right after the break.

COSTELLO: And if a picture is worth a thousand words, those bizarre holiday photo cards you get in the mail, they have to be worth a few laughs. We're going to show you some of the greatest you've ever seen.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CICI KELLEY, DANCE CHOREOGRAPHER: Hi, my name is Cici Kelley. I'm a choreographer as well as a creative director, and I travel about 100 days out of the year.

There are definitely fashion things every girl must have. A really, really nice black dress. A nice jacket or a shawl just in case it's cold. You must have your get-them-girl shoes. And actually, I have them on. I love them. They're great.

(LAUGHTER)

KELLEY: While packing, I must have my accessories bags, my make- up bag, and must have your lashes. I don't know what dancer doesn't have their favorite pair of shoes and a costume or something that looks camera-ready, so I always have like a pair of shiny black pants, and they're fitted so, you know, it's kind of sexy. This is my suitcase. This is my (INAUDIBLE). It's my favorite. I always get charged $100 because my bag -- well, it's heavy. It's always heavy. I'm all packed. So, I have to go make sure everything is great and set. So, see you later.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: I did the shiny black pants. I take them with my get- them-girl shoes. I know Rob Marciano, when he travels, he takes his get-them-girl shoes with him.

(LAUGHTER)

COSTELLO: When I saw you --

MARCIANO: I bought a pair of those once. They didn't work out too well.

COSTELLO: Really?

MARCIANO: That's what the salesman said. These are your get- them-girl shoes, you know? Talking like 300 bucks for it (ph).

COSTELLO: You have shiny black pants, too, right? When you travel, you take them with you?

MARCIANO: You got to bring the leather. Yes, there's nothing like traveling in leather. It's comfortable.

COSTELLO: And the lashes?

MARCIANO: Of course, the lashes as well. You know what, how's this for a segue --

(LAUGHTER)

MARCIANO: Lashes, long lashes do a marvelous job of shedding rainfall.

COSTELLO: It's true.

MARCIANO: It is. See, I knew I was going somewhere accurate with that. Hey, this is the first time in like a week, we have seen the plume of moisture not be pointed at Southern California. That's the good news. It is beginning to move off into the mountains. We got winter storm warnings that are posted for Western Colorado. They'll see another 1 to 2 feet on top of what they've already seen.

And Monica, if you could throw me in play, that would be fantastic. In the meantime, I want to switch gears and show you this iReport out of Point Loma near San Diego. Look at this. Is this intentional or what? This guy is just walking down the street and this SUV, I think, purposely swerves into that puddle and just drenches the guy. And the next picture shows him, pretty much (INAUDIBLE) the remarkable part about this.

All right. Come on, it's the season, scrooge, in the white SUV, let's not be doing that, all right? All right. Let's go over with what's going to happen with the system. The clicker is not working at all. Here we go. Where is the system going to go over the next 24 to 48 hours. Computer miles have been doing all such crazy things, having hard time to get a handle on it because once the low gets over the mountain, that's when I think we're going to get some accuracy in this forecast.

Here's what we think is going to happen right now. Scoots down across parts of Texas, dips into the Gulf of Mexico, and there's going to be some cold air behind this thing. We'll probably get some snow into the northern parts of Georgia. Christmas night might see some wet snow mixing in at times, maybe get some accumulation of the grass (ph) and surfaces.

Then the question is, does it go up the coast and get it to the northeast or does it go out to sea? And right now, our (INAUDIBLE) are split. We do think that the eastern shoreline of the northeast gets a little piece of this. Everybody is going to get some wind and certainly some colder air, but some folks may get some snow, and it could be significant, especially in Eastern New England and that would be the day after Christmas.

We will continue to get that forecast over the next couple of days, getting interesting. John and Carol, back up to you.

ROBERTS: Where was the Grinch in the SUV with the puddle?

MARCIANO: That was just right around San Diego.

ROBERTS: Oh.

MARCIANO: Yes, mean stuff.

ROBERTS: Wonder if he knows he got caught on video.

COSTELLO: I don't think he really cares.

MARCIANO: We'll try to zoom in maybe to the plate and find out who he is. Investigative reporting.

COSTELLO: Thank you, Rob.

MARCIANO: All right, guys.

COSTELLO: Still ahead on AMERICAN MORNING, those family photos that people send you in Christmas cards every year? We have some of the best ever to show you. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: We all have them on our mantle at home right now, holiday cards picture those, sometimes, awkward family photos.

ROBERTS: If you feel bad making fun of your friends and your kids, don't worry, because Jeanne Moos is going to take care of that for you right now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): 'Tis the season of photo opportunities, posing and poking.

(SINGING) jingle bells, jingle bells

MOOS: Poking and placing. And if it doesn't always feel jolly in the moment --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just take a damn picture!

MOOS: Maybe it will become jolly with age which is why a website called awkwardfamilyphotos holds an annual holiday contest.

DOUG CHERNACK, CO-CREATOR, AWKWARDFAMILYPHOTOS.COM: The holidays are the most awkward times of the year.

MOOS: Folks send in photos featuring awkward-looking outfits, people posing in awkward positions, a kid tight up in Christmas lights and other chewing on a cord.

CHERNACK: That cause a little bit of a firestorm on the site.

MOOS (on-camera): But we've been assured no babies were harmed in the taking of these photos. The kid chewing the cord is alive and well, all grown up now.

MOOS (voice-over): The winner of the awkward holiday photo contest might seem ordinary at first glance, until you notice that little Calvin Muser (ph) is flipping the bird. Now, it's come home to roost almost four decades later.

When did your parents realize that you were flipping them off?

(LAUGHTER)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. So, when my parents were recently digetizing their old slides a couple of years ago, they found it. And they had never noticed it before.

MOOS (on-camera): But Calvin's parents didn't think the photo was so funny, they threw it out. He actually had to rescue it from the trash.

MOOS (voice-over): From garbage can to first place winner, it's entitled Bernie. White Christmas came in second. The white part is a guy named Scott.

SCOTT BURCKHARD, GUY WHO SENT PHOTOS: Scott Burckhard.

MOOS: Scott, are you dressed?

BURCKHARD: For the most part, yes.

MOOS: Same goes for the photo, Scott is wearing gym shorts and some say, what's with dad, creepy. The family sent this out as their Christmas card. Some were riveted by Scott's toes.

What exactly is with the red toenail polish?

BURCKHARD: It's not red toenail polish.

MOOS: Scott says he dropped the wood stove on his foot.

BURCKHARD: I've got (INAUDIBLE) my phone, I can send you a current photo right now and you can see that they're definitely a brownish/blue shade and not red.

MOOS: From toes to fingers.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't remember why I did it, but I remember doing it. And I remember getting away with it until now.

MOOS: Jeanne Moos, CNN --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just take the damn picture! MOOS: New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTS: He got away with that for what, 30 years?

COSTELLO: Now, he's grounded.

(LAUGHTER)

ROBERTS: Mom and Dad are not happy about that. Top stories coming your way right after the break. Stay with us.