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Changes to Facebook's Look; Closing in on a Tax Cut Deal; WikiLeaks on China vs. Google; Taking the Polar Plunge for Special Olympics; "Godfather" Mansion for Sale; Mitch McConnell on Taxes: Don't Worry; Talks on Iran's Nuclear Program; More Snow to Bury Buffalo; Tiger Woods, Blows 4-Stroke Lead; BCS Title Game Set

Aired December 06, 2010 - 09:00   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Hey you, guys. And we're waiting for you to come back, T.J. Thanks a lot.

It's 9:00 on the East Coast, 6:00 out West. Here's some of the stories that have us talking this morning. A big day for Proposition 8 in California, the ban on same-sex marriage, getting a challenge in Federal Appeals Court. We're keeping an eye on that.

And check your Facebook profile. The company is rolling out some tweaks that they say will do a better job telling your story. The changes include more emphasis on your pictures.

And the hunt is on for a killer shark in Egypt. It attacked and killed a German woman snorkeling in the waters off Sharm El-Sheik.

But we begin with your paycheck and your taxes. Senators have been debating them all weekend long on Capitol Hill, and after a series of test votes, well, it looks like they're closing in on a deal to extend the Bush tax cuts for all -- all Americans, rather, no matter how much you make. Help for millions of the jobless may be part of that compromise as well.

Christine Romans in New York.

So, Christine, in less than four weeks until those tax cuts expire. Let's discuss the bottom line here.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: All right, let's take a look at what the tax situation looks like for different people under different scenarios if the tax cuts are extended and if they're not.

First if you're single and making $47,000 a year, if the tax cuts are extended your tax bill is about $4200. If those tax cuts were allowed to expire your tax bill would go up to more than $5,000.

How about a family of four making $7500? Two small children -- $75,000 rather. Two small children. If the tax cuts are extended the bill is about 1653. If the tax cuts were to expire in a little over four weeks, $4,290 is the new tax bill.

These, again, are the bills going back to what you were paying right around the mid to late 1990s. A couple age 65 or higher, making about $121,000 a year, how would their tax situation change if those taxes were extended?

If the cuts are extended, it'd be about $12,695 would be their tax bill. If the cuts expired, $19,567. So this is an issue that is very near and dear to many seniors' heart here right now.

The bottom line is those tax cuts, those tax cuts, the Bush era tax cuts, Kyra, were always designed to be temporary. But when you put money into people as paychecks it's hard to make it temporary because that means someone is going to have to take it back eventually.

Roll it back to the levels it was in the 1990s. And no one right now wants to take responsibility for that especially in a recession -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: We're going to track it. And especially the senators offering all these different time tables for these cuts.

ROMANS: Right.

PHILLIPS: All right, Christine Romans, thanks so much.

ROMANS: Sure.

PHILLIPS: Well, the recession may be over but the nation's top economist says brace for a long recovery. The unemployment rate has been at 9.5 percent or higher for 16 straight months. And Fed chair Ben Bernanke thinks it will be a while before we actually get back to normal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BEN BERNANKE, FEDERAL RESERVE CHAIRMAN: Between the peak and the end of last year we lost 8.5 million jobs. We've only gotten about a million back so far. And that doesn't even account the new people coming in to the labor force.

At the rate we're going it could be four or five years before we are back to a more normal unemployment rate. Somewhere in the vicinity of, say, 5 or 6 percent.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Now Bernanke wants to commit $600 billion to hold down interest rates. Critics say it's a pretty risky idea, one that could lead to ballooning inflation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BERNANKE: Well, this fear of inflation I think is way overstated. We looked at it very, very carefully. We've analyzed it every which way. One myth that's out there is that what we're doing is printing money. We're not printing money. The amount of currency in circulation is not changing. The money supply is not changing in any significant way.

What we're doing is lowering interest rates by buying treasury securities, and by lowering interest rates we hope to stimulate the economy to grow faster. So the trick is to find the appropriate moment when to begin to unwind this policy. And that's what we'll -- that's what we're going to do.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: The Fed boss also said that he hasn't ruled out expanding the program, spending even more on government bonds if the economy fails to perk up.

All right, we've got new developments out of Iran this morning. It says that it can now make nuclear fuel from scratch including a crucial component known as yellow cake. It's a coarse powder. And making it as the first step in a process that actually converts uranium into one of two things. Fuel for a nuclear power reactor or the metal used in an atomic weapon.

And that has the White House pretty worried. Until now Iran has had to depend on other countries for this raw material. This revelation comes just as long delayed nuclear talks get under way in Switzerland today.

Well, Googling yourself. Everybody does it, right? Even Chinese leaders. But when one higher up typed in his name and that search engine and found some less than flattering posts -- well, he apparently turned up the heat on Google to sensor its material. That's according to a new WikiLeak cable.

Deb Feyerick is live in New York.

So Deb, Google and China have had a pretty rocky relationship for years now but this takes it to a very interesting level.

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it does. And it sheds a lot of light on what was really going on. China really felt threatened by the kind of information that Google was providing, specifically even though Google had agreed to sensor some of the material that has now put everything on it, according to sort of Chinese law, what they did was a link to Google.com, and once people were on Google China as they accessed Google.com they got access to a lot more information.

That made the Chinese government very nervous, according to these WikiLeaks documents, and they had to basically try to put pressure on Google to take it down, to filter the flow of information. Google stood up to China. It was the first time the Chinese very sort of taken aback by the fact that they were being defied by Google who had promised Congress that they weren't going to allow themselves to be totally censored.

Remember Google was the only international search engine in China at this time. The attacks, according to the WikiLeaks, show that in fact the move to try to take down the Google site was in fact political. It was not business motivated but Chinese businesses were threatened by government officials, saying that they needed to stop doing business with Google. That's the kind of pressure that Google was under while all of this was going on. Now it was interesting and we have a quote from one of those WikiLeaks. It says, quote, "Google's recent move presented a major dilemma for the Chinese government not because of the cyber security aspect but because of Google's direct challenge to China's legal restrictions on Internet content."

Now another thing that was interesting according to these documents that were just recently released, that is that Google and 20 other companies were hacked -- hacked according to these cables by the main information agency in China, that in fact the company's computer systems -- they were broken into effectively and that China had also blocked various sites like Facebook, YouTube and the Web, all of these, again, political attacks but China very much trying to censor the material.

That censorship, ironically, drove a lot more people to access Google -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Yes. Those leaders within the Chinese government do not like anything negative said about them. That's for sure. And they definitely do take action.

Deb, thanks a lot.

The U.S. is talking with other nations on how to respond to North Korea's actions now. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is hosting talks with top diplomats from South Korea and Japan. And last night President Obama phoned Chinese president Hu Jintao and Mr. Obama urged China to send a clear message to North Korea these provocations are not acceptable.

President Obama condemned North Korea's shelling of a South Korean island and pursuing a uranium enrichment program.

Now the president and first lady took seats in their box for the Kennedy Center Honors last night. Prior to that show the president actually hosted the honorees at the White House. They were Oprah Winfrey, ex-Beatle, Paul McCartney, choreographer Bill T. Jones, Broadway composer Jerry Herman, the singer/songwriter Merle Haggard.

In his remarks, the president got some laughs, though, after stumbling over a word.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Special thanks to -- too many people, he wrote in his decent, the super -- let me start that over.

To many people, the super -- it's this lip. It's hard to say. You try it when you've had 12 stitches.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: You may remember the president got those stitches after being elbowed in a pickup basketball game the day after Thanksgiving.

Well, a small plane smashed into a couple of homes and actually set them on fire but the pilot is alive this morning. Hurt but alive. Those people who were in the homes, they are OK. It happened last night in Roy, Utah, north of Salt Lake City.

The plane crashed into a power pole first, tore the plane apart, knocked out power to 1700 homes. Witnesses couldn't even believe what they were seeing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

EVAN KYNASTO, WITNESS: I looked right out my window as soon as it happens. And there was big blue and orange splashes that lit up the sky. And I came out of my house and it's foggy out here. And I could see 15, 20-foot flames coming out of the top of the house just a few houses away.

So I came down here and we witnessed the pilot being pulled from the curb away from the wreckage. He was in really bad condition. I mean it wasn't a pretty sight.

GARY COX, WITNESS: Pretty banged up, burnt on his hands and face. But he was actually coherent and remembered what his name was and what he was doing.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: The plane went down as it got ready to land in thick fog in a nearby airport. Investigators are still trying to figure out what went wrong.

So, how you doing, Buffalo? We know that you're used to snow but this is crazy. The city is getting a fresh blanket of it today, too. Some areas could see another foot. That's the lake effect for you. Two feet fell last week. That storm dumped so much snow that some homes couldn't even handle all the extra weight on the roof.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The snow was really heavy and it's kind of dangerous at some point.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The whole awning including the door and the steps into the mobile home disappeared.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're in a desperate situation here.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Reynolds Wolf, they said the city actually moved about 10,000 truckloads of this snow.

REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Hard to believe. Isn't it?

PHILLIPS: Yes. That's just insane. (WEATHER REPORT)

PHILLIPS: Thanks, Reynolds.

Well, you may want to double-check your coverage as a nationwide recall of chicken salad. Food safety inspectors found hard plastic inside eight-ounce packages of Bumble Bee Lunch on the Run Chicken Salad Complete Lunch kits and in 3.5 ounce packages of Bumble Bee Chicken Salad with Crackers.

The USDA says that there is only a remote possibility that you'll be hurt by it but the Suter Company packages both products. Just look for August 2011 and February 2012 best buy dates.

Well, check your Facebook page today because it's going to look a little bit different. Zuckerberg and company have done some tweaking. They say the changes, well, do a better job of telling your story. And we're wondering if they're doing a better job protecting your secrets.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Forget the goosebumps, it's all for a good cause. More than 1,000 people turned out Saturday along the shore of Lake Erie. Crazy people, we should say.

They took part in that annual Polar Plunge, which has become pretty much a holiday fundraising tradition for Special Olympics in Buffalo. It's our CNN affiliate there, actually, reports $150,000 was raised for a fantastic charity, by the way. The water temperature, a nice 44 degrees. Hey, it was warmer in the water than it was outside.

When you change something that affects 500 million people, well, that's a Talker. Facebook's tweaking your profile page, and you should see that change today. Of course, when Facebook tweaks a network that holds so much personal info, you wonder if your secrets will be safe. Leslie Stahl asked Mr. Facebook, Mark Zuckerbug -- Zuckerberg, rather, all about that privacy issue. This is from "60 Minutes" last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP - "60 Minutes")

MARK ZUCKERBERG, CEO, FACEBOOK: We never sell your information. Advertisers who are using the site never get access to your information. Do we get it right all the time? No. It's something we take really seriously. Every day, we come to work and just try to do a good job on this.

LESLIE STAHL, CBS "60 MINUTES" CORRESPONDENT: And yet, you've got the FTC looking into it, you have members of Congress looking into. There have been -- privacy groups have lodged formal complaints. You've hired a lobbyist in Washington to deal with this. So, you know it's a problem.

ZUCKERBERG: Well, I think that this -- it's a really important thing for everyone to just be thinking about. STAHL: It's huge.

ZUCKERBERG: Privacy and making sure that people have control over their information is, I think, one of the most fundamental things on the internet.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Let's talk more about the new Facebook with Paul Gillin. He's a social media author and expert. with 750 Facebook friends, by the way. So, Paul, why change something that's already working so well?

PAUL GILLIN, SOCIAL MEDIA AUTHOR, EXPERT: Well, the next great battle of the internet will be fought in the social network sphere, and Facebook has the pole position right now. I think this a move squarely aimed at Google, at making the Facebook profile more attractive and more compelling, and placing more distance between Facebook and its main rival.

PHILLIPS: Interesting. OK, so it's competitive thing. But aren't pictures -- I mean, that's what gets a lot of people in trouble, so does this mean you have to be even more careful now with what you're posting?

GILLIN: Absolutely, Kyra. I think that the privacy issue is interesting with Facebook because there are -- On the one hand, there's what Facebook does with your information, and I think they've taken the high road in that respect.

But there's also what people do with their own information. When people get in trouble on Facebook, it's very often because they reveal things that they shouldn't be revealing because they don't really understand how to use the privacy settings that exist.

And I think these latest changes make it incumbent upon Facebook members to really learn how their information is being used and to lock down that which they don't want to share.

PHILLIPS: That's a good approach -- a good point, the privacy issues and protecting the client. So, how does Facebook prevent slipping up as a gatekeeper. There's been some issues in the past, and now it's sort of like opening up a bigger opportunity for something to go wrong.

GILLIN: You are absolutely right, Kyra. Facebook takes a hands-off approach to people's personal privacy. They give you a lot of controls for deciding what you want the reveal, but many people don't understand how to use those controls. So, by default, they sort of let it all hang out.

And when people get in trouble on Facebook, it's often because they allow photos to be posted or photos to be tagged of them doing things that they don't want others to see, and then it becomes a problem. Now, Facebook can argue, well, you should have known better. On the other hand, their privacy settings are not necessarily intuitive. And I think that's where the conflict arises.

PHILLIPS: So, what are we going to see today, specifically, the changes? Do we really know?

GILLIN: You're going to see a lot more faces. There are going to be a lot more photos on the profile. Facebook has been improving many of its features over the last couple of years. As it has gained traction, hundreds of millions of members, it has started actually making some of its features that were more rudimentary better.

Its photo sharing is dramatically better than it was a couple of years ago, and this new profile page, no question it's an improvement. There's a lot more faces, it's a lot more social. They're trying to drive their advantage, improve their service now that they feel that they have critical mass.

PHILLIPS: Paul Gillin, always good to see you. Appreciate it.

GILLIN: You too, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Give them an offer they can't refuse. The home made famous by fictional mobster Vito Corleone is now for sale. We'll tell you how much it could cost you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: All right, movie buffs, do you remember this scene from "The Godfather" as Corleone's daughter gets married on the family's Staten Island compound? Guess what? The actual home is now for sale. For $2.9 million, it can be yours. Or you can be like the don himself and give him an offer they just can't refuse.

Quick programming note. Al Pacino, who played son Michael Corleone, appears tonight on "Larry King Live." You won't want to miss it as we count down to Larry's final show, ten days and counting.

All right, another glimpse at the Kennedy Center Honors that took place last night. I know we showed you President Obama's slip of the lip but, as they say in the business, the show must go on.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTINE BARANSKI, ACTRESS: Well, exactly how old are you, Christine? The truth.

CHRISTINE EBERSOLE, ACTRESS: Well, how old do you think?

BARANSKI: Oh, I'd say somewhere between 40 and -- death.

(LAUGHTER)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Just few of the slights, sights and sounds from the 33rd annual celebration last night. It will air on CBS later this month. Five performing artists honored for their lifetime achievements. Country music's Merle Haggard, composer Jerry Herman, director Bill T. Jones, former Beatles bassist and singer Sir Paul McCartney, and TV's Oprah Winfrey.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OPRAH WINFREY, TALK SHOW HOST: The only advice is to be yourself, because all of life is about becoming more of who you are. And you can be you better than you can be anybody else. I started out pretending to be Barbara Walters, and then figured out I could be a better Oprah.

So, my best advice is always to find a way to your true self, to the highest, truest expression of yourself. Because that's what people are looking for.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Straight ahead, Iran's big nuclear breakthrough. It says it can make some nuclear fuel from scratch. So, what that could mean for talks starting today, we'll have a live report, coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

PHILLIPS: All right. Let's take a look at other stories that has us talking today.

Don't worry about your taxes going up, not according to Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, anyway. He says he expects a deal to happen soon, one that would extend the Bush tax cuts. Now, right now the two sides can't agree on whether everyone should keep them or just the middle class.

And check your pantry. Food safety inspectors found hard plastic in eight-ounce packages of Bumblebee Lunch on the Run Chicken Salad complete lunch kits and in three and a half ounces of Bumblebee Chicken Salad with Crackers. But the USDA says there's only a remote possibility that you could be hurt by it. Now, the Suter Company packages both products so look for August 2011 and February 2012 best- by dates.

The Chinese government worries that it can't control Google and that citizens might get uncensored online content. We know this thanks to WikiLeaks now. One leaked cable actually talks about a government leader upset to find negative comments about him online.

Well, WikiLeaks is still up and running. Its Swiss web host has refused American and French demands to take it offline. So, with word out today that the site has exposed what amounts to a secret list of potential targets for terrorists, the question is, why hasn't Washington tried to knock WikiLeaks offline maybe with some cyber warfare?

Former CIA officer has an idea. Jamie Smith heads a private intelligence firm that does some government work. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMIE SMITH, FORMER CIA AGENT: Up to this point WikiLeaks has released classified information. However, the information has not arisen to the level that makes it a national security threat in terms of our nation's survival. So it's a military decision as opposed to a political decision. There are some administration officials that are embarrassed and our diplomats are going to have a tough time executing their mission.

However, nothing that's been released is threatening the survival of our nation. And if we were to unleash our offensive capabilities what would happen would be that our enemies would be able to understand and counter in any future attacks they might have planned against us, what our capabilities are.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: More frustration for Comcast customers, this time in the Midwest. For the second time in a week, the company lost internet service. Starting last night customers in Illinois, Minnesota, Indiana, and Michigan found themselves offline. Comcast apologized on Twitter, says service should be restored today. Last weekend, East Coast customers also experienced outages.

Well, here's a story that we'll be watching closely. In Geneva, talks about Iran 's nuclear program, talks that have been stalled for a long time actually started up again, and with a new emphasis. Iran says it can now produce its own nuclear fuel from scratch.

CNN's senior international correspondent Matthew Chance, joining us from Geneva. And Iran will take part in the talks, too, right, Matthew?

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Kyra. It's the first time in more than a year that the international community led by the United States in this instance, has managed to sit down with the Iran and talk about the controversial nuclear program they have.

The big concern, of course, is that Iran is developing a nuclear weapon. Iran says that's not true, they're just trying to generate energy through nuclear power. But there's not a lot of faith in the international community. They want Iran to show and to prove that it doesn't have military intentions for this nuclear program. So that's what the talks are all about, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: What do you think? Is there any optimism, though, that these talks are actually going to make a difference?

CHANCE: Well I know there's not a lot of optimism according to the diplomats I've spoken to. Iran has been really intransigent in the past, it came out 24 hours before these talks started and said look, we can now do this extra additional thing in terms of uranium enrichment. So they've been pretty much out there saying, we're not going to give up our right to enrich uranium. And it doesn't look at this stage like there's going to be any concessions.

Let me just quickly say that doesn't mean that the international community, the U.S. aren't going to try. Because remember, these are about averting possibly a military confrontation in the future. There's all this talk about tougher sanctions, possibly the military option, as well, in tackling this nuclear program. Diplomacy is the real option everybody wants to pursue at this stage.

PHILLIPS: Got it. Matthew Chance. We'll track it with you. Thanks so much.

Well, a teenager playing bumper cars with a stolen dump truck. Oh, yes, with plenty of police vehicles chasing you. We're going to tell you about one wild ride that went 52 miles this weekend as we take you cross country.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: Welcome to WikiLeaks: TMZ. Looking for world leaders behaving badly.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our guys caught up with President Hamid Karzai leaving Tong, last night. I think it kind of speaks for itself.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sir, you forgot your briefcase.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I do not take bribes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What an idiot. Good work.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Congressman Charlie Rangel speaking out about his censor by the House. Senior political editor Mark President joining us from the CNNPolitics.com desk with more on that story.

Hi, mark.

MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL EDITOR: Hey, good morning, Kyra. Yes, Charlie Rangel was on "STATE OF THE UNION" yesterday. Just last week he was found guilty on 11 counts of violating House rules, including not paying taxes on a vacation home down in the Dominican Republic.

Well, he was asked by Candy Crowley yesterday about with that. And he said look, he thinks that his colleagues voted for the censure because of the pressure and the low approval ratings that Congress has seen in the past few months.

In fact, he said I can understand that the feeling back home but I tell you individually whether it's Republicans or Democrats, they knew what I had done, did not reach the level of censor. So Charlie Rangel, censured last week by the House of Representatives. He is saying, that in fact, he thinks his colleagues are doing it because people are just frustrated with Congress.

You know, Newt Gingrich seems to be inching toward a presidential run. Now, I'll tell you Kyra, back in 1998, when I was a newspaper reporter down in Georgia, I remember talking to him. He was the former -- the House speaker at the time and he was seriously considering running for president. He decided not to do it then. But now he seems to be heading that way.

In fact, he said yesterday on FOX News Channel, where he's a paid contributor, that he's much more inclined than to run than not run. We expect Gingrich to make an announcement in the new year. And yesterday he was very, very harsh on the Obama administration. So, it looks like Newt Gingrich might be throwing his hat in the ring, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Interesting. All right.

Well it also seems like RNC Chair Michael Steele can't catch a break nowadays. What's the latest on this embattled chairman, shall we say?

PRESTON: Yes. You know, Kyra, you are absolutely right. Michael Steele, the embattled chairman of the Republican National Committee lost a very key ally. Reince Priebus, who was the General Counsel for the RNC, he's also the Wisconsin Republican Party chairman, stepped down in his role -- his ceremonial role in some ways -- as General Counsel of the RNC.

He said that he sent a letter to Michael Steel yesterday, told him that he was leaving his post. Now, Reince is considering running himself, as chairman of the RNC. I asked when we might hear an announcement. He said we would hear an announcement shortly. So Michael Steele loses a key ally. And if Reince Priebus does decide to run for chairman, he would join what's expected to be a very crowded field of Republicans who want to lead the Republican National Committee heading into the 2012 presidential year -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Got it. All right. Mark Preston, thanks.

We'll have your next political update in about an hour. You can also 24/7 just go to our web site also, CNNPolitics.com.

Senator Lindsey Graham says the U.S. should consider permanent presence in Afghanistan after combat troops pull out. Graham made the proposal on CNN's newest primetime program, "PARKER SPITZER."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: Under the right circumstances it would make sense to me, Kathleen, for America to have an air base in the north and the south of Afghanistan for -- in perpetuity. Because that way Afghan security forces would have American air power to combat any effort of the Taliban to come back and have some Special Forces units assigned to the air bases to make sure the Afghanistan never goes back into chaos. I'd like to see that on the table.

(END VIDEOTAPE) PHILLIPS: "PARKER SPITZER" airs every night 8:00 p.m., right here on CNN.

Buckle yourself in for one wild joy ride truck as we go cross country. Police in northern Ohio say they finally slapped the handcuffs on this 17-year-old driver of this stolen dump truck. He actually led law men on a collision-packed 52-mile long chase through three counties. Before it was over the teen took out a couple of police cruisers, smashed a few private vehicles. Luckily nobody was seriously hurt.

In Dallas, the Salvation Army counting their blessings thanks in part to one benevolently-minded person. They actually dropped a South African Krugerrand coin right into one of the red kettles. The coin is valued anywhere between $1,300 and $1,500.

In Boston, it was beginning to sound a lot like Christmas. The Boston Pops conductor Keith Lockhart holding a massive Christmas carol chorus in hopes of breaking a Guinness World record. Unfortunately, that didn't happen. But they'll try again next year.

Well, one big belch from the throat of fire. We're going to tell you what the latest eruption from one of Ecuador's active volcanoes mean for people living close to it.

But first, today's flashback. This date, 1963, the Fab Four released the first of what would become a Christmas tradition. You know this Christmas release record, right?

(MUSIC)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Hey, we have some nasty weather out there in the Midwest. It's going to break some records tonight, Reynolds?

REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: You know, there is that possibility. I'm more concerned with people not breaking records but breaking backs by moving so much snow.

PHILLIPS: That bad.

WOLF: This could be pretty heavy. In fact take a look at this iReport that we have that was sent in by one of our great contributors, Brandon Sparks I believe his name. His name is going to be Mr. Pain possibly as he starts shoveling some of the snow. There's going to be a lot of it. The next say, 48 hours, parts of the Great Lakes, especially the eastern half of the Great Lakes, could see a foot, maybe a bit more of some snowfall. You see the snow way beyond his waist here.

What we're going to be the seeing today is that lake-effect snowfall. And the reason why is very simple. In fact it's pretty easy to see if you look at this map.

We've got the prevailing wind, that cold air invection that still is making its way across part of the Great Lakes, it's scooping up some of that moisture and that moisture off the lakes is falling through the lower levels of the atmosphere where it is well below the freezing point and snow is going to be a possibility in many spots.

Believe it or not this time I think Buffalo just might escape some of the heaviest snowfall. Instead, farther south along 90 into Erie, that's one place that could see several feet, maybe several feet of snowfall within the next 48 hours. Same story of towards Syracuse and then the western half of the state of Michigan, even up in Traverse City, throw in Petoskey, maybe even Charlevoix before all is said and done, heavy snow on the way.

Now, the reason why we're seeing this of course as I mentioned is that wind coming off the Great Lakes. It's also going to bring a lot of that cold air in parts of the southeast. The high for the day, check this out, Atlanta going to 43, 32 right at the freezing point for your high in St. Louis, 40 in Washington, New York and Boston. You're going to have temperatures into the mid-30s but with that strong wind it's going to feel much, much cooler. 65 in Las Vegas, 62 in San Francisco.

And speaking of San Francisco -- that is one place where we do have a delay at this time. In fact, grand delay of about an hour at this point. And in Washington, D.C., Reagan National departure delays about 30 minutes that should improve into the afternoon. However, more delays expected in some of your smaller regional airports like Buffalo, perhaps in Cleveland before the day is out due to snow and poor visibility.

All right, Kyra, you're up to speed.

PHILLIPS: All right, I always love being up to speed. Thank you Reynolds.

WOLF: You bet.

PHILLIPS: I count on you.

WOLF: Whatever it takes.

PHILLIPS: Take a look at this. This is Ecuador's "Throat of Fire" volcano, it actually re-erupted over the weekend, sending a plume of hot ash and molten rock shooting into the sky, we're told nearly a half mile high. Residents of a nearby town there had to actually clear out and temporarily evacuate. Folks are now wearing surgical masks to limit the exposure to that ash. Now the glacier cap volcano high in the Andes mountains has been intermittently spewing for the past 11 years.

All right. Let's scan our "Morning Passport" and take you across the world. Let's begin in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, that's where the beach is closed as the hunt is under way, for what? A killer shark apparently. Four people have been bitten, one fatally. Friday two sharks were caught and killed but neither is thought to be responsible for any of the attacks.

The nation's tourism ministry says that the beach will stay closed until the shark responsible for those attacks is found.

An incredible video out of Madrid, Spain; see the highlighted area right there? Well, a man actually falls off the subway platform with an oncoming train bearing down. Now, people tried to wave off the train. An off-duty police officer springs into action, pulls that man to safety just before that train arrives. The officer turned savior actually named "Angel".

Well, we're following lots of developments in the next hour of CNN NEWSROOM. Let's check in first with Christine Romans -- Christine.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Last-minute nerve about what your tax bill could look like coming in the beginning of the year, if you are single, if you are married with two kids, if you are 65 or older and retired. I'll tell you what could happen to your tax bill January 1st.

CARTER EVANS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And I'm Carter Evans at the New York Stock Exchange. We're keeping an eye on your money for the holidays. But get ready to shell out more. How about this all I want for Christmas is for gas to stay below three bucks a gallon. It's not going to happen. We'll talk about why, coming up next hour -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right, thanks, guys.

We're also talking about a new Barbie that a lot of us just can't understand. Have you seen this? She comes with a video camera. We're going to tell you why this model has gotten the FBI's attention in a way that "Malibu Barbie" never did.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Come on, Jamal, let's see it. No, no. No, it's not happening. Come on. Tony, ok, all right, there it is a little bit. Tony Harris. Tony, ok, oh he does have some competition. Is that called the wide receiver move?

JAMAL ANDERSON, CNN SPORTSCASTER: No, that was like the beginning of the dirty bird. How it started, I was stumbling around one day.

PHILLIPS: The dirty bird. This is new, I'm learning about the dougie.

ANDERSON: Yes.

PHILLIPS: Is the dirty bird an old thing?

ANDERSON: The dirty bird is a more famous and fantastic thing that led the Falcons to a Super Bowl. And we're 10-2 right now and we're very excited.

PHILLIPS: Ok Falcons is fun it's perfect.

ANDERSON: Yes.

PHILLIPS: What's going on? ANDERSON: Nothing, I mean Falcons and Bucks, a team that nobody is really talking about. And yesterday, the Atlanta Falcons went on the road, won again. You have Matt Ryan doing his thing. Everybody was talking about it in the NFL. What can we do to make the Falcons one of the top teams in the football?

PHILLIPS: What do you do?

ANDERSON: You have to go -- you have to go on the road and beat one of the best teams and what do you have right here. Eric Weems, we called him special Weems. Five different guys Kyra, had a chance to stop Eric Weems right here. You're watching him slice and dive through.

The Falcons at this point in the game, fourth quarter, they're down by ten points. This is not a good situation especially when you are the top team in the division. They're down by ten points. Eric Weems does it and now Matt Ryan, his six fourth quarter comeback this season, throws a touchdown pass here to Michael Jenkins.

PHILLIPS: Nine yards though, how difficult is that? Come on now.

ANDERSON: It's the fourth quarter, they're on the road and then you get right here. Lofton does a fantastic job. Gets the interception. The Falcons win. Big, big game.

Again people were talking about it to prove to everybody at the NFL you are one of the best team, you have to win on the road against a winning team. The Falcons got it down --

PHILLIPS: Are we talking about the Falcons? Because you actually led them to their only Super Bowl win, shall we go back to 1998.

ANDERSON: Well, I'm just -- Kyra the bottom line is --

PHILLIPS: Well, I'm just saying.

ANDERSON: The last time the falcons were 10-2, they had a certain player who did a dance in the end zone.

PHILLIPS: Where is your ring? Where's your bling? Oh, you have a nice watch.

ANDERSON: Well, thank you very much. I didn't bring my bling though. I'll bring it to you next time, I promise.

PHILLIPS: All right. What else have you got coming up here?

ANDERSON: We have Tiger Woods yesterday -- well, I mean here's the thing.

PHILLIPS: I'm not liking the goatee by the way. He's supposed to be clean cut, not a bad boy.

ANDERSON: Tiger Woods was leading. And this is something that a lot of people are used to. Tiger Woods was leading in the Chevron challenge, the championship. Ran McDowell (ph) does a fantastic job. Woods and Graeme McDowell have a playoff. McDowell comes in and actually beats Tiger Woods.

Here's the crazy thing about this. Last year in this very same tournament, Graeme McDowell was a last-minute alternate to Tiger Woods, he ends up wins the U.S. Open. Then he gets sent to a play-off with Tiger Woods who was up by four strokes.

PHILLIPS: But when you sink at 20-foot putt, hey, you know. It's been the difficulty with Tiger Woods game all year Kyra. He has had difficulty with putts, He was up by four, he did a great job to catch up.

Everybody is saying that the story obviously is that Tiger Woods lost and he has never lost when he's leading particularly this late in the tournament.

PHILLIPS: You're an athlete. You know how personal stuff gets in your head and it's hard to come back.

ANDERSON: Well, here's what I'm going to say to you. He looked very good yesterday. He did, for the first time in a long time look again like the number one player in the world. Tiger Woods will be back next year, I'm not worried about him at all.

PHILLIPS: So, should we talk a little Auburn? I mean this is in honor of my best friend from the ninth grade. He was visiting this weekend and she had to see her Auburn Tigers.

ANDERSON: Yes, the Auburn tigers and Cam Newton, very controversial this entire season. Fantastic job in the FCC championship. 400 yards, six touchdowns against South Carolina's Steve Spurrier's team. And a lot of people thought they'd do good.

On the flip side, you have one of the most talented teams, in all the football. The Oregon Ducks. This is it going to be a fantastic BCS championship game. A little biased but I went to Utah with the (INAUDIBLE), but the reality is these are two of the most consistent teams throughout the entire year in college football. Chip Kelley leads the Oregon Ducks with Michael James, a fantastic tailback. These guys can score at any point.

This is going to be a great game. Kyra, in all of the years of the BCS, this is the 13th year now, this is the first matchup between SEC and Pac-10. But the fifth different SEC championship teams. So, In the south, we play football team.

CHETRY: I grew up in the era of Bear Bryant.

ANDERSON: Exactly.

That was the team to watch, and the coach to pay attention to.

ANDERSON: And this history from Bear Bryant on down, the SEC -- this is the great argument. who plays better football, is it the SEC or the Pac-10. We are finally going to get this national championship game. Again, Two teams who have been very consistent all season. They've been the best.

PHILLIPS: something curious, you went to Utah. If you could play college ball now, what would be your dream school?

ANDERSON: Utah again, Thank you very much very much.

PHILLIPS: He's always going to give a shot out. The alarm.

ANDERSON: It worked out very well for us. We actually have a great program going. I love my experience there and I graduated. I got a degree. I'm standing next to you because I have a degree.

PHILLIPS: He's big time now.

How about this mascot that got in trouble? This is like the mascot gone wild, right?

ANDERSON: I mean talking about -- first of all, you are already a mascot, and now you want to lose your job. This guy is standing on top here, throwing snowballs at people. This is a mascot who gets cited for disorderly conduct and gets kicked out.

PHILLIPS: Was he drinking. Oh, they took him down.

ANDERSON: They took him down. Oh, no wait, here's the thing Kyra.

PHILLIPS: It gets better.

They took this guy down and oh, by the way, brought in a replacement mascot. I'm like, was this set up? Was this set up. Look at this guy throw a snowball to the crowd. The police took him down, took him out of the game. I don't know what's going to happen to him, but the replacement mascot came in.

Imagine this now. This is a football game.

PHILLIPS: The University of Cincinnati has never been more crazy.

ANDERSON: This is a football game, and not the quarterback. You're replacing your mascot. Can everybody have some hot cocoa and take it chilled though.

PHILLIPS: Jamal, it's nice to see you. All right.

Let me see now, what's the move that --

ANDERSON: The dirty bird.

PHILLIPS: All right give me a little dirty bird.

(CROSSTALK)

PHILLIPS: Ladies and gentlemen, Jamal is back.