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Chrysler Shutdown; Bookmobiles Face Uncertain Future; Severe Weather; Signing Santa; Blagojevich's Pledge; Obama's Diverse Cabinet; Rude Ranch Animal Rescue

Aired December 20, 2008 - 15:00   ET

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

WHITFIELD: Next in the NEWSROOM, the weather in three words -- ice, snow and dangerous. It's having a huge impact on thousands of people trying to travel shop and get to grandma's house this final weekend before Christmas.
Plus -- more bailout loan money for U.S. automakers. This time from the Canadian government. We'll tell you why.

And questions remain about a traffic stop that left a star high school football player dead.

Hello, again, I'm Fredricka Whitfield and you're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

All right, talk about snowball effect. Friday's wintry blast is still being felt by millions from the Pacific Northwest to the Great Lakes and New England. Snow, freezing rain and ice is hampering weekend travel proceeding next week's Christmas holiday. Hundreds of flights either delayed or canceled and many highways looked more like an obstacle course for bumper cars. In the northeast, some people are still shivering and suffering from power blackouts.

Meanwhile, for the young at heart, plenty of ammunition for those snowball fights.

Right now, New York is in between two significant winter storms. The next arctic blast forecast for later tonight and tomorrow, CNN's Susan Candiotti has details on New York's weather and travel delays.

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Here at LaGuardia and two other metropolitan New York airports, JFK and Newark, things are much, much better than they were on Friday. On Friday, there were 800 flights canceled among all of those three airports, and they had delays of maybe three to four hours after getting several inches of snow.

Today as we said, things are moving along much better. Delays down to maybe about 15 minutes or so. There are some flights that have been canceled, about 50 in all, among the three airports. But because of yesterday's problems, there are difficulties with some planes today being overbooked. And that's how we happen to run into Cynthia Winters, appropriately named. She decided to give up her seat. Here's her story.

CYNTHIA WINTERS, AIR TRAVELER: I came in and they said that I was one of the last people -- or the last person to get a seat on the plane that I was taking back to Cleveland. So -- and that there were, you know, did I want to volunteer to give up the seat but I still could have my seat? I said, sure, I go ahead and give it up because I didn't have to be in Cleveland until tonight really and I just stayed here and did work here and get caught up a little bit and have some quiet time and in between to keep the economy stimulating, I probably shopped in the airport, too.

CANDIOTTI: So what will Cynthia Winters do with all of that extra time? Six hours she has to kill. She has work it to do and she said she will pay a visit to some of the stores here, pump up the local economy. More bad weather is forecast this weekend so the area isn't out of the woods just yet.

Susan Candiotti, CNN, New York.

WHITFIELD: Are you, you intrepid I-reporters, well you're braving the elements to bring us the weather picture close to home, such as Aaron Cloward from Walla Walla, Washington. Where locals say they haven't seen this much snow in years, if ever.

Show us what it's like in your neck of the woods but do it safely. Point, shoot your picture and then click on ireport.com and upload your video and vaoila, its there. And we will put it on the air for you and see what you're doing and capturing.

Going by the calendar, it's not officially winter but the snow and freezing temperature suggests otherwise. Meteorologist Christopher Smith, monitoring all of it from the CNN Severe Weather Center. Oh, boy, it's nasty in a lot of places.

CHRISTOPHER SMITH, CNN METEOROLOGIST: 7:04 tomorrow morning is when technically winter begins. If you're in the southern United States, hey, things are wonderful. But if you're across the northern tier, the northeast, the north central, the northwest, yuck, yuck, yuck is what the weather's been like. You see, we still have the big airport delays. Especially Boston and Minneapolis, over 2 1/2 hours there. New York, if you're up there JFK, Newark, getting a little bit better. Still looking at over an hour delay up there.

You're still dealing with snowfall up towards the Boston area. That's beginning to move on out. You see down towards New York, Newark, things beginning to clear out as far as all of that snowfall. But your next storm system's on the way and that's why we have winter storm warnings in effect. For New York, you might get a few inches of snow but as you head into the upstate of New York, up towards Albany and up into the mountains, you will be talking about six to ten inches of snowfall. It's all coming from this one right now, dumping a good bit of snow towards Minneapolis. You are going to get nine to ten inches across the northern portion of Minneapolis.

Blizzard warnings, not much snow but the winds right around 45 miles per hour going to blow all of that snow around. And guess what Walla Walla, Washington, you're going to get several inches of snowfall right there around the Washington/Oregon border. You will get five, maybe eight inches of snowfall. How about up into the Cascades, 8 to 16 inches of snowfall. Temperatures that will be another story. In the south, you will not see snow. You will get bitterly cold temperatures. Some of this stuff will be heading down towards the south. If you live in Nashville, Huntsville, you will see temperatures Sunday and Monday not even reaching freezing. That's right. It will be talking about cold weather diving down toward the south so winter will definitely be here for everyone by 7:04 tomorrow morning.

WHITFIELD: They are just watching the clock, it already feels like winter.

SMITH: It does.

WHITFIELD: All right. Thanks a lot Christopher, appreciate it.

Well unbelievably, officials in Seattle say neither of these two buses were ever in any danger of falling onto the highway below. That's what they say. They smashed into the guardrail after skidding down an icy street. Looks pretty scary there. The front end of the first bus dangling above the interstate for hours before a tow truck managed to pull it from the edge. By then all of the passengers had actually safely jumped or climbed out of the buses. More than a dozen suffered minor injuries.

A day after President Bush announced an early Christmas present of $17 billion in loans for the auto industry, Canada's leaders announced this morning that more help is actually on the way. This morning Canada's prime minister announced the country will provide $3.3 billion in U.S. dollars to aid the auto sector. The funds will be given to the Canadian subsidiaries of the U.S. automakers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHEN HARPER, CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER: This is a huge problem that faces the Ontario economy and the Canadian economy by extension. And it is critical that we work together and not just today but going forward.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: President Bush's plan provides for $17 billion in aid, $9.4 billion to GM and $4 billion to Chrysler this month and next. An additional $4 billion may go to the automakers a bit later.

Coming up in just a few minutes, you will hear live from a big critic of the auto bailout loan.

And this weekend, get a guide on how to recover from this current financial crises. Ali Velshi leads you down the path towards taking control of your finances and learning to grow your money. Don't miss "Gimme My Money Back" tonight and Sunday, 8:00 p.m. Eastern.

All right, so many of you have very specific worries or questions about how to best ride out this recession. CNN wants to help ease some of your fears. Josh Levs is joining us now to tell us how and primarily folks are talking about the credit crunch, how to get out of it and how to manage it and they have questions.

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They do. I was looking at the ones that came in, incredible ones.

WHITFIELD: We have more.

LEVS: I'm inviting them now. People have a lot of questions, what do you do with all of the debt, which makes sense? Obviously, as you know a lot of people crippled by debt. What we are doing now is cool. Send in your questions now. I will show you the graphic, WEEKENDS@CNN.com. Whatever you want to know about dealing with debt, credit, your situation, and we next hour will be talking to an expert about this.

Fred, check this out. We have been studying a little bit on CNNMONEY what's been changing in the credit card market. This is probably what we're going to talk about. Four major changes we're going to mention. An end to double-cycle billing, no more raising the interest on pre- existing balance. Let me show you the next one. All of this kicking in July 2010. Payments will now be applied to your higher-rate balances first, which is huge. And it will be an end to the universal default system which if you default on one credit card or miss a payment; another credit card can go and raise your interest rate. Big changes coming July 2010.

We want to know what you want to know. WEEKENDS@CNN.com. It doesn't have to be about a credit card. It could be about dealing with debt. Scott Milford, the founder of this lets go to Scott. I will take you to the website, Debtsmart.com. That's his website. He's an expert on all sorts of situation involving credit and debt. Send us your questions at WEEKENDS@CNN.com. We will present those to him next hour and we will get some answers for you.

WHITFIELD: We look forward to that and look forward to all of these e-mails, too. It really is at the top of the list for concerns for everybody at this end of the year and then especially as they are trying to build resolutions for the New Year, too.

LEVS: Good point.

WHITFIELD: Thank you very much, Josh. Check back with you. Appreciate it.

All right, president-elect Barack Obama has left Chicago's frigid cold for childhood home of Hawaii. The Obamas will be spending the Christmas holidays there.

Meanwhile, his transition team is pushing forward with Obama's plan to stimulate the economy. And the price tag is a pretty hefty one. Here now is Brianna Keiler.

BRIANNA KEILER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: President-elect Obama is heading to Hawaii for some r & r over the holidays but it's vice president- elect Joe Biden who's making news today on the economy. He said in a taped interview that will air tomorrow on ABC's "This Week" that the economy is in much worse shape than anyone thought. He said it's going to take some real significant investment, meaning government spending, and he said it's going to be in an amount that is much bigger than anyone could have fathomed a year ago. He actually put out there the possibility of $600 billion, $700 billion. And the idea being spelled out by Barack Obama as he did yesterday at his press conference is to eventually rein in spending but to initially in the short run concentrate on massive spending on infrastructure and some other things.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRES. ELECT BARACK OBAMA, (D): If we do this right, and it's not easy, then what we can do is grow the economy, get it back on track over the first couple of years and then we will be in a position to make some tough choices, but we will have also laid the groundwork for long-term economic growth by transforming our economy, starting to make a down payment in terms of making the health care system more efficient, investing in our young people through the schools. That's going to be at approach that we take.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILER: Some have wondered if this spending package could go as high as $1 trillion. But Obama aides say no, the number is more in the ballpark of $850 billion.

Brianna Keiler, CNN, Chicago.

WHITFIELD: One month from today the world descends on Washington for president-elect Barack Obama's inauguration. That's a big influx of tourist dollars for the city. But bad news for D.C.'s budget actually. It's paying a huge portion of the bill for the inaugural activities. We will look at how much next hour.

The number of U.S. troops fighting the war in Afghanistan could soon double. A U.S. military official in Kabul said up to 30,000 additional American troops could be sent to Afghanistan next year to combat escalating insurgent violence. That's in line with what the U.S. commander in Afghanistan has actually asked for. The official says troop levels are likely to be maintained at this increased level for three to four years.

All right, would you enable a junkie? That's how one expert views the government's billion dollar bailout for the auto industry. We will take a hard look at Detroit's new fix.

And in Mississippi, a prep football star is buried today, shot to death in a police traffic stop. But who pulled the trigger? His parents and the community demanding answer.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right, President Bush's $17 billion loan to the automakers has plenty of critics but the president says it had to be done.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRES. OF THE U.S: In the midst of a financial crises and a recession, allowing the U.S. auto industry to collapse is not a responsible course of action.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: All right, but one critic tells us the loan is like an addict's first needle. Once you get the first infusion of money, you can't stop begging for more. That needle quote is from Peter Flaherty, who joins us now. He's president of the National Legal and Policy Center. Good to see you.

PETER FLAHERTY, NATIONAL LEGAL AND POLICY CENTER: Hello, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: Really, you want to parallel this to a drug addiction?

FLAHERTY: Sure. I don't think anyone believes this initial $13 billion is going to do the trick. We're actually talking about $50 billion or $100 billion. The conditions that have been written into this private agreement between the government and these companies is written in disappearing ink. The minute Barack Obama is inaugurated is the minute he can rework the agreement and he's already indicated that he will.

WHITFIELD: I guess in part would Obama did say, too, he didn't know a whole lot of detail about it so he wasn't willing to comment on this plan in huge detail or in an elaborate way. But there is this kind of timetable that comes with this plan, that these automakers have to prove their viability by March 31st. Doesn't that kind of target help in any way to justify this kind of money being doled out?

FLAHERTY: No. All it was was a fig leaf put in there by the Bush White House to make it look like it's not a total give-away. During the campaign, Barack Obama was supported by the United Auto Workers. This agreement puts the UAW back in the driver's seat and in my view makes the long-term survival of these companies less likely if we had no bailout at all.

WHITFIELD: Let's listen to what Obama had to say most recently about bailing out the auto industry.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRES. ELECT BARACK OBAMA (D): The auto companies must not squander this chance to reform bad management practices and begin the long-term restructuring that is absolutely necessary to save this critical industry, and the millions of American jobs that depend on it. While also creating the fuel-efficient cars of tomorrow.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: All right. So he says, you know, indeed, this is at the very core about jobs and survivability. But at the same time his administration is likely to look at the long-term effects and commitments that the U.S. would have to have to the auto industry. Is that enough?

FLAHERTY: Well, I hope they do. But if this is just a jobs program, if the big three automakers are simply employment programs, it's an inefficient way to create jobs. If we had an across-the-board tax cut for corporations in this country, our money would go a lot further. We have among the highest corporate tax rates in the country -- in the world. And when Barack Obama talks about the cars of the future, he's talking about GM's vault and these plug-in cars. They will run on electricity in this country, electricity is generated primarily by burning coal. So you're talking about a car that is not eco friendly.

That there is little evidence that consumer will want and yet the future of these companies is being staked on these cars. And now it's consistent with --

WHITFIELD: Am I getting from you that no -- there isn't a bailout plan that would be a smart plan in your view to make sure that these U.S. auto companies stay afloat?

FLAHERTY: Fredricka, I'm more worried about a disorderly liquidation of taxpayer assets. There is no economic theory that holds that you can tax away productive activity, subsidize unproductive activity, and add to the net wealth of a society. So I think in the long term, if we feed this addiction and $13 billion becomes $50 billion or $100 billion, it will be the biggest misallocation of resources in the history of our country.

WHITFIELD: Peter Flaherty, president of the National Legal and Policy Center. We appreciate your time.

FLAHERTY: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: All right, a criminal case and a legal case. The remains of little Caylee Anthony confirmed through DNA testing. But it's still a mystery how she died.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: This is heart wrenching. In George County, Mississippi, today's burial of slain high school football star Billy Joe Johnson caps off an emotional week for his parents, not to mention the entire community. The 17-year-old died a week ago Monday during an early morning traffic stop. Setting off a flurry of questions surrounding his death. CNN's Rick Sanchez reports.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICK SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): A makeshift memorial now grows at the scene where Billy Joe Johnson Jr. died December 8th. During a police traffic stop in Lucedale, Mississippi. As the condolences grow, so do questions about how and why he died.

JEROME CARTER, JOHNSON FAMILY ATTORNEY: A lot of these things, I believe, could have been headed off if this family had been approached and allowed to see their son immediately on the events occurring.

SANCHEZ: Attorney Jerome Carter represents the grieving family, who questioned the initial police report on their son's death. In the incident report, the deputy says he stopped Johnson's truck after he ran a red light. When I went back to my vehicle, I picked up the radio to call it in and heard a gunshot and glass breaking, he describes. I looked up and the black male fell on the ground and the gun he had in his hand fell on top of him. Family and friends of the deceased find the account hard to fathom. The teenager, though, was an avid hunter.

BILLY JOE JOHNSON, SR., FATHER OF THE DECEASED: I don't believe he did that because I trained him and learned him how to handle a gun and I learned him how to hunt and everything. He went to his hunter's course and everything.

WILLIE GAINES, PRES., GEORGE COUNTY NAACP: They said the gun fell right on top of him. Now, if you see the shotgun, that shotgun is going one way and you are going down.

SANCHEZ: Willie Gaines, the president of the George County NAACP, said the Civil Rights Organization is helping with an independent investigation into Johnson's death. The 17-year-old, a hugely talented footballer, had the world at his feet.

ALLEN: JONES, HEAD FOOTBALL COACH: I started as a freshman; he was a leading rusher the last three years. Just a tremendous athlete. It just comes as a shock when any young person's life is taken as suddenly like this.

SANCHEZ: Sources close to the police investigation say they are leaning towards the conclusion that Johnson's shooting was at close range, and say it was caused by a shotgun blast. Another point of contention for the Johnson's family attorney.

CARTER: The family just wants to make sure that it is a complete and thorough investigation and that, that information will be released to them so they can receive some comfort one way or another.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: And that was Rick Sanchez reporting.

Well, there are some new developments from the D.A.'s office investigating the incident now. We have now learned on the morning that he died, Johnson allegedly tried to break into the house of a former girlfriend. She called her mother, who then called police. And according to police documents, the girlfriend and her mother were in the process of filing charges against Johnson at the police department when a radio report came in. A gunfire at a nearby traffic stop.

Johnson was found dead at the scene. The D.A.'s office says it is still too early to make any conclusions on the manner of death. And by the way, many have asked, why is there no dash cam video of the traffic stop? Well, we're told that roughly half of the George County Sheriff's Department vehicles actually don't have dash cams due to funding shortages.

Well, her cause of death is still unknown, but DNA tests confirm that skeletal remains found in central Florida are those of missing 3-year- old Caylee Anthony. Her remains were located near where she lives. The medical examiner has ruled the manner of death as homicide by undetermined means. A meter reader confirmed that he found the remains while working in the area but wouldn't say anything more.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROY KRONK, METER READER: On Thursday, December 11th, during the course of my duties as a county employee, I discovered and reported to my management and appropriate authorities the remains of a human body located in the wooded area close to the Suburban Drive in East Orange County. I provided details information to law enforcement but I respectfully decline at this time to get into the details of what I have seen at the crime scene.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Well Caylee's mother is in jail awaiting trial on the murder charge stemming from the little girl's disappearance this summer.

Extreme weather impacting thousands trying to travel this last weekend before Christmas. Expect the going to get a whole lot tougher.

And thousands of U.S. auto workers may not like being home for an extended holiday this Christmas. But some car dealers think it's a great idea.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right, 30 minutes after the hour, here are some of the stories we're working on in the CNN NEWSROOM.

Spinning your wheels and going nowhere fast. The weekend proceeding the Christmas holiday is tough going. From New England, the Great Lakes, the Plains and the Pacific Northwest, everywhere, much of the nation dealing with bad weather and pretty bad travel delays.

And it won't just be American taxpayers bankrolling the bailout loan for U.S. automakers. The Canadian government's early pledge to help, well, it will end up costing them more than $3 billion to keep the Motor City rolling.

Despite yesterday's White House announcement of a bailout loan plan, every Chrysler plant in the country shut down for the holidays after its last shift last night, and they are not going to reopen for at least a month. Well, you'd think that might worry car dealers. But, as our Chris Lawrence explains, some are actually happy about that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Some people hear "shutdown" and think the sky is falling, that Chrysler is closing up shop, but some dealers welcome the news.

HOWARD SELLZ, OWNER, BIG VALLEY DODGE CHRYSLER JEEP: I think it's a good economic move.

LAWRENCE: Howard Sellz says he and other dealers are having trouble moving the inventory they already have, and he pays a fee every day these cars sit on his lot. Since Chrysler extended the normal two- week holiday break to a full month, that means fewer cars being delivered.

SELLZ: And everything is just in shorter supply is more in demand.

LAWRENCE: That's not to say he's doing well.

SELLZ: Guillermo (ph) to the showroom.

LAWRENCE: Chrysler says its dealers are losing 25 percent of potential sales because customers who want a new car can't get financing. Since the summer's credit crunch, Big Valley says their sales are down 60 percent.

(on camera): How do you cope with losing that kind of revenue?

SELLZ: You have to cut expenses.

We had 109 employees in the beginning of the year, we're down to 78 and I probably have to make a few more cuts. I've been here 43 years, and I have never seen anything like this.

LAWRENCE (voice-over): Sellz says the uncertainty over whether Chrysler gets a federal loan is killing what little business is left. And even though he thinks it's a good economic move, he's worried the shutdown will make customers think the worst.

SELLZ: We've got people who are coming in, talking to us, well, I'm going to wait to see what -- if you guys go into bankruptcy.

LAWRENCE (on camera): The dealers say tell me there is pent-up demand for new cars. And if consumers could get credit, they may be able to weather this storm next year.

Chris Lawrence, CNN, Van Nuys, California.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: More belt-tightening for cash-strapped California. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger ordered a hiring freeze for state workers. He's also issued an executive order yesterday forcing state agencies to trim their payrolls by 10 percent. Well, many fear that could lead to layoffs. Schwarzenegger has put the state's 235,000 employees on notice, beginning in February, they will have to take two days off a month, and that's without pay. California's wrestling with a $42 billion budget deficit.

Budget worries in Minnesota mean drastic cuts for many of that state's programs. Governor Tim Pawlenty is trimming the fat across the board. Among the services facing an uncertain future, Bookmobiles. Scott Goldberg, with CNN affiliate KARE, has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SCOTT GOLDBERG, KARE REPORTER (voice-over): Robin Madsen drives a library on wheels. ROBIN MADSEN, BOOKMOBILE DRIVER: We come to the customers, the folks that can't go to the library themselves.

GOLDBERG: It's St. Paul's Bookmobile and Madsen she's worried she may have to park the bus because the city is about to lose $5.6 million in state aid.

MADSEN: There's no way that libraries won't be impacted, that parks won't be impacted, fire, police, all of them.

GOLDBERG: There are no specifics yet, but mayor Chris Coleman is asking all city departments to cut budgets by 20 percent and then Governor Pawlenty's announcement:

GOVERNOR TIM PAWLENTY (R), MINNESOTA: Our country and our state are facing historic financial challenges.

GOLDBERG: The governor announced he's cutting a total of $110 million in funding for cities and counties, so the state's budget gets balanced through the end of the fiscal year.

PAWLENTY: Any city councilmember, any mayor, any city administrator that says their first course of action is going to be affect public safety, I would politely suggest to them they have misplaced priorities.

GOLDBERG (on camera): The governor announced he's cutting $73 in human services spending, $40 million in appropriations for state colleges and universities and another $40 million from the budgets of most state agencies.

MADSEN: Come on in.

GOLDBERG: The Bookmobile's Robin Madsen also sits on the executive council of AFSCME, the union that represents state and city workers, and she wonders what all of this means for jobs.

MADSEN: Why doesn't he first look at trying to raise revenue?

GOLDBERG: Madsen wishes the governor wasn't so opposed to raise taxes.

MADSEN: Because, this is the worst time to cut services and lay more people off.

GOLDBERG: But, this could be just the first cut in these painful times.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thanks so very much.

MADSEN: You're welcome.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Well, Minnesota has already drained its $155 million rainy day fund and the state's fiscal budget term, well, it doesn't end until June.

ANNOUNCER: You're watching CNN, your Severe Weather headquarters.

WHITFIELD: Are you feeling brave this weekend? Well, try navigating this winter wonderland in many places. Beyond visibility issues, heavy snow, freezing rain and ice creating havoc for holiday travel plans almost everywhere across the country. Thousands in the New England area are still without power from last week's winter storm. And the sign that you're about to see, well, it says it all.

The winter wonderland, more impressive in the western part of the Bay State. So take a look at the snow drifts they are dealing with in Northampton, Massachusetts. That's just north of Springfield. Check it out. The powder on the ground easily doubling the height of the earthmovers and the plow machines, there. What could be worse? Well, more winter weather is coming their way. Wintry woes, indeed.

All right, meteorologist, Christopher Smith in the Severe Weather Center.

Boy, it's ugly now, it's only going to get yuckier.

CHRISTOPHER SMITH, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yeah, I wish I could tell everyone in Springfield that this is not snow right behind me on the radar, but you're still dealing with snow today. And we better get it out of there quickly, because guess what, more snow is on the way as early as maybe tomorrow morning and that one you're going to get several more inches of snowfall. The beat goes on.

After that, I'm hopeful we're going to get a little bit of a break. But, you still see snow showers from Boston back over towards Springfield. The airport up in Boston, just a big old mess, right now. Getting a little bit better in New York as the snowfall has come to an end, but our next storm system could dump anywhere from three to eight inches of snowfall across the western part of Massachusetts.

You get up into the Adirondacks, the Green Mountains, you're going to be talking about six to 10 inches of snowfall. And this, again, starts as early as tomorrow morning.

Our snowfall forecast shows our next storm system rolling on in. and you can see the heaviest snowfall amounts. We're going to be talking about up into the mountains of New Hampshire, Vermont and back up into Maine. You'll be talking about 12 to 20 inches of snowfall.

New York, you're right on the line. You can expect maybe a few inches of snowfall. It's coming from this storm system, dumping a good bit of snow today over into Minneapolis, it will make its way across the Great Lakes and up across the Pacific Northwest, this is our next storm system, blizzard warnings in effect all the way from the cascades stretching on down toward Portland. Going to be yucky weather over there.

Now, the good news about this storm system, it will affect the northeastern of the United States come Christmas Eve/Christmas day, but by that point I think it's going to be a rain, cold rain, but it's going to be more of a rainmaker on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: OK, rain, no fun on Christmas. But snow, you know, folks want a white Christmas. That's all right.

SMITH: Well, we'll see what we can do. A lot can change between now and then.

WHITFIELD: Yeah, that's true. OK, thanks so much, Christopher. Appreciate it.

All right, well tomorrow in the CNN NEWSROOM, at 4:00 Eastern, we're going to share some of your best and worst kind of Christmas moments and that involves Santa and maybe your kids or some kids that you know. It can perhaps be a photo of you from years ago with Santa or you know, other kids and, yeah, a lot of first images are just like that. Not all kids really like Santa, not right away.

Well, we want to share them so send us your images to ireport.com and we'll get them on the air and have a chuckle or two in this jolly season, 4:00 Eastern, tomorrow right here on CNN.

Making sure the message of Christmas isn't lost for the hearing impaired, a very special Santa Claus sighting and signing. Denise Eck of CNN affiliate KTKA has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DENISE ECK, KTKA REPORTER (voice-over): For some, the sounds of the season sounds like nothing at all.

But, being hearing impaired isn't stopping Topeka kids from telling Santa exactly what they want for Christmas. In this class, some students are deaf, others hard of hearing. Some are overcoming language challenges other kids don't face. Teacher Tina Owsley knows they all have wishes for Santa.

TINA OWSLEY, TEACHER, WHITSON ELEMENTARY SCHOOL: Santa is something that is universal for all children.

ECK: And these children got a visit from Santa who knows just what their life is like. The man in the red suit is completely deaf.

They sat on his lap and made their wishes their way. Kids like Griffin Ramos understand why this St. Nick is so special.

GRIFFIN RAMOS, STUDENT: Because he signs like we do.

OWSLEY: Communication is a great link, and it's a great barrier sometimes and knowing that they can communicate with Santa, I think, made them all extremely happy.

ECK: So did the presents.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Who's name is that?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That was Griffin's name. ECK: It's excitement you can see, if not hear.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Your name is in there? Yeah!

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Have you played Uno before? That is fun.

ECK: Fun for Santa, too. This isn't his first time here. Years ago he was a student in this class. That's him, sitting on the lap of another signing Santa.

SIGNING SANTA, (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): Well, it shows that I'm still here and I grew up deaf just like all of these other students and it's good for them. And it's good for them, it made them have more self- esteem.

ECK: consider it a different sign of the season.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: That's so nice.

All right, well, Barack Obama promises that there would be many different voices in his administration. So diversity is one of the president-elect's key words when describing his vision. So, is he keeping that promise?

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WHITFIELD: All right, well ever since he was accused of scheming to sell Barack Obama's Senate seat, we have been waiting to hear from Illinois governor, Rod Blagojevich. Well, yesterday he finally opened up about the charges and said he's not guilty of any criminal wrongdoing. Our Brian Todd has more on Blagojevich's pledge to clear his name.

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GOV. ROD BLAGOJEVICH (D), ILLINOIS: I'm here to tell you right off the bat that I am not guilty of any criminal wrongdoing, that I intend to stay on the job and I will fight this thing every step of the way.

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A spirited rebuttal from the besieged governor of Illinois to allegations of misconduct. Rod Blagojevich says he's dying to answer charges, but will only do so in a court of law. And after taking broadsides for 10 days, he fired back.

BLAGOJEVICH: I'm dying to answer these charges. I am dying to show you how innocent I am. And I want to assure everyone who's here and everyone who's listening that I intend to answer every allegation that -- that comes my way.

However, I intend to answer them in the appropriate forum -- in a court of law. And when I do, I am absolutely certain that I will be vindicated. TODD: Prosecutors contend Blagojevich was trying to sell Barack Obama's vacant Senate seat to the highest bidder and that when they tapped his conversations, this is what they heard him say.

PATRICK FITZGERALD, U.S. ATTORNEY: "It's a bleeping valuable thing -- thing you just don't give it away for nothing."

TODD: But an attorney on Blagojevich's defense team says regardless of what prosecutors can prove the governor said, it's actions that count.

SAMUEL ADAM, JR, BLAGOJEVICH'S ATTORNEY: From what I've seen so far, a lot of these conversations that claim to be made are sitting in complaint somewhere, but I haven't seen one single action. Point out to me one single action that's in the criminal complaint here that says the governor did anything. Maybe there was talk.

TODD: But not everyone thinks this defense can work in court.

ROBERT BENNETT, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: When a jury hears you on tape saying things like this governor said, there's not much hope. And his best hope is to try to work out some sort of a bargain with the prosecutor, so he's not in jail for 25 or 30 years.

TODD: Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

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WHITFIELD: All right, Barack Obama promised there would be many different voices in his administration. Is he keeping that promise?

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WHITFIELD: All right. President-elect Barack Obama's new cabinet is now fully stocked and some argue it is pretty diverse. Well, take a look. You've got three woman cabinet members, three Hispanics, one Asian, one black man and two Republicans, that's transportation secretary Ray LaHood and defense secretary, Robert Gates.

Joining me now, Nia Henderson from Politico.com.

And Nia, there's still a lot of folks who say not satisfied, not diverse enough.

NIA HENDERSON, POLITICO.COM: Yes, there are some folks, Fred, who are saying that. But again, I think it depends on what you mean by diversity. Certainly, in terms of race and gender and ethnicity, this is one of the most diverse cabinets ever put together.

You laid it out. Actually there are two Asians in this cabinet, three Latinos and four African-Americans. It's about 55 percent white and 45 percent women and minorities. And of course, initially, I think women were kind of hoping there would be some parody in the cabinet, and that hasn't happened, but certainly they are pleased with a lot of the choices. In terms of ideology, the diversity is a little lacking. I think folks are saying it is a little more centered than folks had hoped for. There are not a lot of liberals. Probably the only real liberal here, even a progressive, is Hilda Solice out of California.

WHITFIELD: and I guess, there were many who say that part was fairly predictable, that it was expected that Obama would be going for the more centrist, middle of the road kind of appointments.

HENDERSON: Right. Yeah, no, I think it is. I mean, I think that if folks who are looking at this race were thinking that Dennis Kucinich or somebody like that was going to be your secretary of state; they probably were listening to John McCain and not listening to Barack Obama. So, it isn't completely unexpected that it is a very kind of centrist and moderate cabinet. I think for some folks, it is a surprise that there are so many kind of folks from the Clinton administration, and that in a lot of ways, it's kind of a rerun from that era. But again, Barack Obama has been very clear about kind of change in a new vision coming from the top.

WHITFIELD: And there have been some arguments by some who say, wait a minute, when we talk about lack of diversity, we look at the geography, as well. The South is not really represented, but when you've got California, you've got Nebraska, Illinois, I mean, really across the board, who wins on that argument?

HENDERSON: Well, there are no Southerners. I mean, some people say, hey, well, what about Ron Kirk out of Texas? In my book, I don't think Texas is in the South...

WHITFIELD: And I don't think Texans want to be considered part of the South, either.

HENDERSON: I don't think so, either.

WHITFIELD: Texas is Texas.

HENDERSON: Right. So yeah, the South for whatever reason is not represented here. Again, some people say, hey, Lisa Jackson was born in the New Orleans, but hey, she's been in New Jersey for the last many years of her career. So, has (INAUDIBLE) and a bit of surprise because he did do well in the South, picking up Virginia and North Carolina. So, you know, low marks on you know, kind of revving (ph) from the South.

WHITFIELD: Are you looking at these appointments, now, we are talking about all of the, I guess, nominations being made by President-elect Obama, getting fairly easy confirmation, all except maybe Eric Holder, just lately, his name being brought into the whole Blagojevich investigation, what did he know, what'd he do with the information, that kind of thing.

HENDERSON: Yeah, I think it's going to be a pretty easy confirmation process. I mean, some folks say if you want an easy confirmation process, you know, appoint senators and congress people and he's certainly done that. Like you said, Holder might run into some issues with the whole idea of the kind of pardoning at the end of the Clinton administration. But I think it'd going to be a pretty easy confirmation. And certainly Barack Obama was smart enough to kind of vet these people and kind of float their name beforehand.

WHITFIELD: And initially, when asked by some reporters to Barack Obama, hey, what about the diversity, he said, and I'm kind of paraphrasing his comment, but he said, you know what, I'm looking for the best candidates, period.

HENDERSON: Right. Yeah, and I think people would be hard-pressed to argue that these were kind of affirmative-action hires, if you will. You know, he kind of approached in and said, hey, I need a woman there, I need a black person there. So, yeah, I mean, in keeping, there's all this idea of does this kind of rise to the level of this whole idea of team of rivals that Lincoln talked about.

And I think that when Lincoln was assembling his cabinet, you know, a reporter asked him why he brought on these rivals and he said, well, I want the best people of the party, the strongest people of the party to represent the country and be in this cabinet. And certainly, by that measure, he lived up to Lincoln's standards.

WHITFIELD: All right, Nia Henderson of Politico.com. Thanks so much, good to see you.

HENDERSON: Thank you, Fred. Great to see you.

WHITFIELD: Appreciate it. Have a great holiday, as well.

All right, well, worried about your credit card debt. Who isn't these days? Well, changes are coming to your bills. What the new credit card changes could mean for you. Details in our next hour.

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WHITFIELD: In our "Focus on Giving" series, we are about to take you to a real animal house. It's home to 116 cats, plus six dogs. Photojournalist, Bethany Swing introduces us to Bob and Katharine Rude, the Maryland couple quit their day jobs to care for animals in need.

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KATHERINE RUDE, RUDE RANCH: This is the Rude Ranch Animal Rescue, and we are a no-kill animal shelter and we're also cageless. This is the time of the day when we feel very popular.

BOB RUDE, RUDE RANCH : We started out helping my brother-in-law with some cats that were living behind a restaurant.

K RUDE: There was so much need.

B RUDE: And it just kind of kept going until it turned into this. Mix it all up, and then we go room to room with the plates. Eventually, we thought we'd help out maybe like 40 or 60 cats and a few dogs and whatever animals that needed the help. K RUDE: There you go, Hopei (ph). We felt we could fill a void.

B RUDE: We got going and it just kept expanding and we went from using the basement to the main floor and then we ended up using the rooms upstairs.

K RUDE: Up here is our three rooms of special needs animals. Feline immune deficiency virus cats and the feline leukemia cats.

B RUDE: Normal shelters would have to put to sleep, because they're not set up to handle that type of thing.

K RUDE: Well hello, Aphrodite. So, that's how we ended up taking over a couple more rooms. OK, guys, here we go.

B RUDE: We still have a bedroom that's sort of ours that we share with a bunch of special needs animals. So usually at night we have anywhere from two or three dogs and 10 to 12 cats that share a bed with us. Our general population is around 120. We try to keep it at that level or lower if we can, but there's such a demand right now, it's hard to keep turning people away.

K RUDE: We have three foreclosures and people losing their homes, more animals are being given up -- or actually being abandoned at shelters all over.

And these are our recommendations for brining her home. One of our goals is to actually help find these guys new homes after they've been sound, medically, or have been rehabilitated.

This is the information from her original stuff from Hurricane Katrina, also for your records.

Over the last 10 years, we've rescued over 3,000 animals, we've placed over 2,500 in homes. I'm not going to get lucky, am I? A couple was chased down the driveway as they were leaving, but they're getting a home. They're going to have individual people doting for them and that's kind of what we want for all the residents, here.

All right, here we go. Get ready to go to your new life.

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WHITFIELD: Wow, those are some lucky dogs and cats. Next hour, in the CNN NEWSROOM, meet a man given the gift of sight. And for more of our focus on giving series, visit our Web site, CNN.com/giving.

The next hour of the CNN NEWSROOM begins right now.