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U.N. Emergency Meeting on Koreas; Senate Debates Nuclear Treaty; Third Grader Gets Wish

Aired December 19, 2010 - 16:00   ET

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

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Drew Griffin, sitting in for Fredricka Whitfield. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

Diplomats around the world focus on the he is escalating tensions right now on the Korean Peninsula. In fact, members of the United Nations Security Council have been in emergency session since this morning. They're trying to persuade both the Koreas here to exercise some restraint. South Korea vows to go ahead with a planned live fire military drill this week near the disputed island of Yeonpyeong. The north threatens retaliation if the south actually fires artillery.

Meantime, former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Bill Richardson is wrapping up a four day private visit to Pyongyang in North Korea. He's been talking to high-level officials there, but unofficially. We want to go to the United Nations where our senior United Nations correspondent Richard Roth is monitoring the security council. Richard.

RICHARD ROTH, CNN SENIOR UNITED NATIONS CORRESPONDENT: Drew, they've talking here since about 11:20 New York time, and it's been going on except for a 30-minute break and the security council ambassadors filed in from the cold. They've been behind closed doors ever since. The ambassadors were divided, we were told on various positions regarding what to say. They're trying to come up with some sort of statement.

There are various degrees of how forceful a statement should be made. One could be a simple press statement, which is really not even an official document. Russia wants a strong urging to North and South Korea to keep calm. The U.S., the UK and others say well, you got to really blame North Korea. The security council hasn't done that officially yet about that shelling of that South Korean island in late November.

So there are two different opinions on that core issue. Could there be a compromise and there be some type of statement, yes, they still got hours to go if they want to. They want to, I think, feel like they've said something before South Korea launches these live fire drills which U.S. officials and others have said they have every right to do. It's on their sovereign soil and they have done this before with a lot of notification, something the North has not done regarding its shelling. Drew.

GRIFFIN: Russia called this meeting. Is that correct, Richard? Did you get any indications from the Russians if they have some kind of draft statement that they want to get into this press briefing or whatever the heck it's going to be, resolution?

ROTH: Russia introduced this statement. Russia wanted a meeting Saturday, is angry that the U.S., which is the council presidency didn't go along. The U.S. says it's been reasonable to do it on Sunday. Not every country was ready with what they wanted to say. The Russian statement is maybe more balanced in nature, and the west feels this is not a time to equate what North Korea did with what South Korea's doing and not really affecting the North.

GRIFFIN: All right. Richard Roth at the U.N., we should mention that weather is doing its best to kind of ease tensions. It's because of bad weather over by this island that the south has not gone ahead with its military plans, and that has at least given time for the security council to meet.

Well, as we mentioned, New Mexico's Governor Bill Richardson, a former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. is in North Korea right now. In his words, it's very tense out here. He was invited by North Korea to meet with some of its top officials and our own Wolf Blitzer is the only television correspondent traveling with Richardson in North Korea.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, he's certainly very, very concerned that the situation right now remains extremely volatile, very, very tense. Probably the most serious crisis on the Korean Peninsula since the 1953 Armistice which ended the Korean War. Having said that, he was encouraged by his meeting on Sunday with the top military general in charge of the DMZ, the demilitarized zone in the Armistice, Major General (INAUDIBLE).

He said Richardson said that he made two specific proposals, both of which the North Korean general was open to, even though he didn't formally accept the proposals. One for a new military-to-military hot line between North and South Korea to try to make sure there's no miscalculations, and a second for a formal U.S./North Korea/South Korea military commission to talk about some of the disputed issues resulting from the Armistice almost 60 years ago.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GRIFFIN: Richardson also told Wolf that General Pak (ph) has promised to help return recently recovered remains of hundreds of Americans who were killed during the Korean War.

Well, it's a rare Sunday session today in the Senate. Wrangling over the S.T.A.R.T. treaty with Russia on the agenda. S.T.A.R.T. is the nuclear arms treaty that the president thinks needs to be worked out before the end of the year

CNN's Kate Bolduan is live at the White House today, and Kate, I mean, the president is itching to go to Hawaii. Is he just going to hang around to wait and see if the Senate is going to get this through?

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's a very good question. The White House has said the president will be here in Washington as long as the Senate is in session. The Senate was in session today debating the S.T.A.R.T. treaty throughout the day. President Obama calls this new S.T.A.R.T. treaty an urgent national priority and getting Congress to sign off on it is his real big, final priority for this lame duck session.

But that said, the Senate's top Republican, Senator Mitch McConnell, he came out for the first time today to voice his opposition to the agreement, to the pact. He did that on CNN's "State of the Union" with Candy Crowley. Listen here to him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R), MINORITY LEADER: I've decided I cannot support the treaty. I think the verification provisions are inadequate, and I do worry about the missile defense implications of it. I know that the members of the foreign relations committee spent a lot of on this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: And while his McConnell's opposition to the treaty is not really entirely surprising, it is important because of this. Democrats need Republican support to reach the two-thirds majority voting in support of the treaty in order to ratify it. This is a treaty that President Obama and Russian President Medvedev signed off on in April and in essence the treaty really resumes mutual inspections of the respective - of both countries' nuclear arsenals as well as putting some limits on warheads for both countries, the U.S. and Russia being the two largest nuclear powers in the world.

It is a key foreign policy measure for this White House. And the White House is really pushing back with defending the treaty saying Congress has had plenty of time to debate and consider this treaty. And they say now it's the time to get it done before the end of the year. Listen here to vice president Biden.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: There's been 18 hearings and 1,000 questions we've answered. But on others, they just simply are against any arms control agreement. That's the category that - whether I say any, they're simply against this arms control. Senator DeMint is absolutely four square against it. It wouldn't matter what it said.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Still vice president Biden as well as key lawmakers on both sides believe they do have the votes to ratify the treaty, but now that I say that, the big question is, Drew, when will the vote actually come up to do that? And that is a very unclear proposition at the moment.

GRIFFIN: Yes, sounds like some hardening positions, not moving towards each other there, too. So what the president is staying there. His family has left, right? His family off to Hawaii. The president is hanging around. What is he going to do while he waits to see what the Senate is going to do?

BOLDUAN: Also, unclear. I tell you normally at this time we get kind of a week ahead schedule of what the president is supposed to be doing. Well, Drew, as you know, the president should be in Hawaii at the moment. So he's here waiting for - he said the White House said he'll be in town as long as the Senate is in session.

The Congress's schedule is in flux at the moment as they try to nail out these, you know, final measures, these final bills they're trying to push through before the end of the year and the end of this Congress. So it's a bit of a waiting game for the president as well. We do know one big thing, following on yesterday's big news about the Senate passing the repeal of "don't ask, don't tell" that this coming week, next week, sometime, the president will have a signing ceremony to sign that into law, which is a very big victory for this White House. But aside from that, it's a little bit unclear.

GRIFFIN: All right. Kate, thanks a lot. Kate Bolduan at the White House this afternoon.

There's a brutal storm slamming the West Coast right now. We're going to find out how long the snow and the ice are going to last.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: If you're in the northwest part of the country, you are huddled in your house trying to stay dry and warm and everything else, right, Karen Maginnis?

KAREN MAGINNIS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: This has been a mammoth system. Mammoth, that's the keyword. Mammoth Lakes has seen about 56 inches of snowfall over the last couple of days. Take a look at this. Very, very impressive, area of low pressure just kind of parked off the Pacific Northwest, and then we've got this amazing stream of moisture. The Pineapple Express just kind of aimed at the West Coast.

So it's a little bit more moderated air, but you get that lift in the mountains and you're going to see just piles and piles of snowfall. We're going to take you to Kingvale, California. We got some pictures from out of there. Kingvale is along the interstate 80 around Donner Pass. And they told folks you have to put chains on their tires and be careful. Somebody had to pull over and put chains on. They could see in the higher peaks of the Sierra as much as 10 feet of snowfall already.

So we got this moisture in place and we got the cold air spinning in the upper levels of the atmosphere, and we've seen a lot, the bulk of that moisture just kind of between the San Francisco and Los Angeles area. But not exclusive to those regions. Those k-rails that you see off the side of the road that just kind of divert the mud or debris, the rainwater, aside from the areas that are inhabited, some of the neighborhoods.

Well, you can only do so much with the k-rails before five or six inches of rain is really going to produce some localized flooding. There were some minor reports, some debris off Mulholland Drive, also some of the denuded areas, those areas that were affected by the wildfires over the last few years. They have seen just a minor debris on the road.

Look at these rainfall totals. Past 24 hours, but these are going to up significantly in the next 24 hours because our system is just not giving up. We've got a tremendous amount of moisture. Alpine Meadows, 30 inches of snow, Heavenly Valley, 20 inches. These are 24- hour snowfall totals, Drew. And this is going to be one of the most impressive systems that we've seen so far this winter. Back to you.

GRIFFIN: All right. Karen, thanks a lot. Appreciate that.

You know, there's misery across a whole continent over in Europe. Tons of snow and ice making travel there dangerous. These pictures are from Denmark. Wow! Lots of trouble there. A lot of accidents reported, of course. A major airport is also shut down. That is stranding hundreds of thousands of passengers. The timing couldn't be worst. This is the weekend before Christmas, of course, and it is one of the busiest travel periods of the year. And the misery has spread far and wide in Europe. Snow and ice even in Italy has caused a lot of accidents on the highways, especially around Florence.

Well, a little boy gets his wish, because this little boy didn't just sit around and wish for things. He got to work and made things happen. You're going to meet him.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: A Georgia boy had one wish, to have a bookstore in his small town. We're going to tell you how his wish came true. He did it really. Coming up but first a look at today's top stories.

The U.N. security council is in emergency meeting right now to discuss the Korean Peninsula crisis that's going on. North Korea is warning South Korea to call off military drills or risk war. The two-day drill is scheduled to begin this week. Tensions between North and South Korea soared after North Korea staged a deadly attack on the South Korean island last month.

Cuban President Raul Castro is giving legislators and Cuban citizens a heads-up. He says the country's economy will undergo significant changes in the coming year. Castro is quick to add though that the reforms are designed to boost socialism to make it, "irreversible, not to create a capitalist nation."

The U.N. says there's massive human rights violations in Ivory Coast, a country locked in an escalated crisis over disputed presidential election. The U.N.'s human rights commissioner says more than 50 people have been killed as the standoff between the incumbent president and the opposition leader intensifies. At least 4,000 people have fled to neighboring countries fearing for their lives.

We're going to turn our attention now to a feel-good story. Charlie McClurg is a Georgia third grader who loves books, right? And he wanted a major bookstore in his hometown of Dalton, right?

CHARLIE MCCLURG, NINE-YEAR-OLD STUDENT: Right.

GRIFFIN: Good. So Charlie got to work and launched a letter-writing campaign. Still right?

MCCLURG: Right.

GRIFFIN: Good. Asking retailers Books A Million to come his hometown and build a store. And yesterday your dream came true. Books A Million held a grand opening in Dalton and Charlie was there to help cut the ribbon and he and his classmates were the store's first customers and Charlie is here with me today.

Also, through our ears, right, is the CEO of Books-A-Million Clyde Anderson joining us from New York. Clyde, how are you doing.

CLYDE ANDERSON, CEO, BOOKS A MILLION: I'm doing great.

GRIFFIN: Good.

Charlie, tell me how did you this. What did you do to get that guy in New York to build a bookstore in your hometown?

MCCLURG: I really wanted a bookstore, I guess.

GRIFFIN: And so you started asking people how to get a bookstore?

MCCLURG: No.

GRIFFIN: What did you do?

MCCLURG: First, I thought of the idea to write letters to Books-A- Million.

GRIFFIN: So you wrote directly to Books A Million, and did you get other people to write, too? You must have had some pretty convincing letters. What did you say?

MCCLURG: I said, P.S., I like "Goosebumps."

GRIFFIN: You're reading the "Goosebumps" books?

MCCLURG: Yes.

GRIFFIN: Clyde, you must, somebody must have run these up to your office and say, "hey, we got a town in Georgia with no books"?

ANDERSON: Absolutely. In fact, I have a stack of letters here with me, but Charlie is a great letter writer and a great organizer and he did an outstanding job of persuading - getting my attention and persuading us to relook at Dalton. It's also big news that yesterday the grand opening was far better than we had projected. So thank you, Charlie.

GRIFFIN: I mean, let's be honest, Clyde. Bookstores aren't really doing well in this economy, and there's a lot of talk going to e- books, electronically delivered books. So really, you said we took another look at Dalton. It was on your chart before, and you decided against it?

ANDERSON: Well, we've always been primarily in small towns, and so, in fact, Charlie's grandparents are from Florence, Alabama, and that's where Charlie had, I think, seen a Books-A-Million. But, no, I mean, people generally children's books, teen books have been doing extremely well. So we believe bookstores are here to stay. They're just evolving into something different.

GRIFFIN: Charlie, how was it to convince your friends to write letters along with you to Books-A-Million basically asking for a bookstore? Was it hard?

MCCLURG: Yes.

GRIFFIN: What was your sales pitch? How did you get them to write?

MCCLURG: Miss Reynolds - OK, I don't really know how I got them to write.

GRIFFIN: Did you tell them what to write?

MCCLURG: Yes.

GRIFFIN: What did you say?

MCCLURG: I said we're writing letters to Books-A-Million.

GRIFFIN: To get them to open a store.

MCCLURG: Uh-huh.

GRIFFIN: So yesterday you had the grand opening, you probably were one of the first people in line, right.

MCCLURG: Right.

GRIFFIN: Where did you go? What was the first book you picked up?

MCCLURG: The "Goosebumps."

GRIFFIN: Are you - there you are with that big, big, big ribbon- cutting scissors. Have you been reading the "Goosebumps" on way down here today?

MCCLURG: Right.

GRIFFIN: You love to read?

MCCLURG: Yes, sir.

GRIFFIN: You think you're going to go to Books-A-Million what how many times, a million times in the next year?

MCCLURG: Yes.

GRIFFIN: OK. That sounds good. Hey, Clyde, let me just ask you, did the letters come in all at once, or did you just start getting one at a time and then it really raised suspicion there was something going on there in Dalton?

ANDERSON: Yes. No, they came one at a time, but then they started coming in droves. And so it certainly got my attention.

GRIFFIN: All right. Well, thanks for building the bookstore so Charlie could have a place to go and pick out his next book. Charlie, thanks for coming in. I understand it's your birthday, too.

MCCLURG: Yes.

GRIFFIN: Happy Birthday to you. And we should also give a shout-out to your teacher, right? You mentioned her once. What's her name?

MCCLURG: Miss Reynolds.

GRIFFIN: She does a good job with you?

MCCLURG: Yes, sir.

GRIFFIN: All right. Great. Thanks, Miss Reynolds. Thanks a lot, Charlie.

All right. Thanks, Clyde.

They're caught in the middle of Korean tensions. There's about 1,600 civilians who live on the island of Yeonpyeong. That's the name of that island. We're going to show you how they're responding to all the talk of this military action right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: Well, what to do with the nation's nuclear waste. It was supposed to go to Yucca (ph) mountain in Nevada but that plan was scrapped mainly due to Nevada senator Harry Reid who got the nuclear waste shelved after billions of taxpayer dollars were spent building it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. HARRY REID (D), MAJORITY LEADER: Leave it on site, where it is. You don't have to worry about transporting it. It saves the country billions and billions of dollars.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRIFFIN: That's what Harry Reid said when Yucca Mountain was scrapped. Here's the kicker though. Yucca Mountain was paid for with a tax attached to millions and millions of people's power bills across the country. A small tax built into your power bill to pay for the Yucca Mountain project. So now that the government plan is off, the tax should be away, right? Wrong.

The Department of Energy has decided it still needs your tax dollars, three-quarters of a billion dollars a year being collected, a part of everybody's power bill who gets power from the nuclear power plant. The power companies say that is just wrong.

And joining me now via Skype is Tony Clark, the president of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners. It's quite a mouthful there, sir. But you also say this is wrong.

Tony, why does the Department of Energy insist they still need this tax?

Tony's not hearing me.

But the Department of Energy argues they they're going to come up with a plan sometime to get rid of the nation's nuclear waste, and therefore, they're going to hold this money somehow in a piggy bank, but obviously, the regulators don't want this taxed on your bill until there is a plan and they know exactly how much it's going to cost you. We're going to try to re-establish our link with Tony and get back to him.

Meanwhile, South Korean forces on Yeonpyeong island are gearing up for the planned military exercises. Leaders in Seoul say the live fire drills postponed this weekend because of bad weather will go ahead this week. The North threatens to retaliate if they do. Diplomats are meeting at the United Nations right now trying to find a way to ease the tensions.

More now on the island at the center of this crisis. Yeonpyeong is only about seven miles from North Korea's border, but it belongs to South Korea under the Maritime border set by the U.N.. It's part military outpost, part fishing village.

And CNN's Kyung Lah was there as residents rushed to get off the island.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Carrying what they can, Yeonpyeong villagers head to what they believe is the last ferry off the island. Flanked by armed military personnel, evacuees boarded carrying children and helping the elderly.

KIM OK JIN, YEONPYEONG EVACUEE: I'm leaving because they said the drills are tomorrow.

LAH: Said the 60 year old Jin. She does not want to leave.

JIN: Of course, I'm angry she tells me, but that's not going to change anything.

LAH (on camera): The residents are evacuating Yeonpyeong island on this ferry haven't left just once. This is the second time that they're evacuating. The difference now, at least they have warning.

(voice-over): Nearly a month ago there was none before North Korean artillery shells landed in a stunning attack on the village, killing two civilians and two South Korean Marines. The village today silence, few signs of life except for military trucks patrolling and waiting.

Not everyone is leaving. (INAUDIBLE) hasn't been told to stop selling ferry tickets off the island or when the military drills will be. She'll stay behind, she says, for her and the several dozen others still here. These bunkers are where the military says she can find cover. She wonders why it has to be this way.

SONG YOUNG OK, YEONPYEONG, SOUTH KOREA (via translator): If we carry out the drills, she said, North Korea has said it will retaliate more strongly. Going ahead with the drills knowing this is pretty much picking a fight with them. As the ferry steams to the Korean Peninsula, these elderly neighbors reflect on the divided homeland at the cost of a war that never truly ended.

LEE CHUN NEYO, YEONPYEONG, SOUTH KOREA (via translator): its okay, says this 83-year-old Lee Chun Neyo, on the damage to her community and the pain of evacuating. The soldiers need to do them, right? The ferry now back, the islanders on the mainland. Family awaits. Take care, she says, take care.

LAH: Kyung Lah, CNN in South Korea.

GRIFFIN: We've re-established our connection with Tony Clark, the president of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners. Tony, I kind of introduced you talking about this waste fee tax that the Department of Energy has once again decided to re-up for the year. Three-quarters of a billion dollars supposedly to pay for a project now that no longer exists. So why is the Department of Energy continuing with this tax?

TONY CLARK, NAT. ASSOC. OF REGULATORY UTILITY COMMISSIONERS: Well, you know, basically since the early 1980s the federal government has assessed his fee on anyone that uses electricity that comes from nuclear power plants. As you alluded to the federal government has been in default over its end of the bargain and recently within the last year or two the Obama administration has pulled the plug on the Yucca Mountain project which was scheduled to be the repository.

What state commissioners have done is on behalf of American consumers is to file a lawsuit against the federal government and basically say if you're not going to uphold your end of the bargain in taking this nuclear waste, then at the very least in these tough economic times we should stop assessing this fee, which as you indicated amounts to 700 or $800 million every year.

GRIFFIN: Yes. When the secretary of energy, Steven Shue, re-upped it for the year, which he has to do every year I take it, he basically alluded to the fact that, hey, we are going to have to put this waste somewhere, and that somewhere is going to have a cost. So we're just going to collect this money until we figure out what we do with the waste. Your position, of course, it just doesn't seem fair?

CLARK: Not only is that not fair, but that fee has been collected since 1983. And so what's happened is there's a balance that has accrued of $24 billion with a "b" that America's electricity consumers have paid. What the federal government has done with that money is they've taken it and they've spent it on other priorities. And so really all there is is a stack of IOUs that is sitting in a desk at the Department of Energy.

We feel there's been more than enough money collected as of this time to do whatever they're going to do in the near-term future. Maybe at some point they have to reassess it. But remember that they're earning more in interest now on the money that is owed to these electric consumers and they're actually generating this year. Over a billion dollars in interest in these security notes, the IOUs.

GRIFFIN: We still have the very real problem with nuclear waste at the nation's nuclear power plants which has no place to go. When I asked Harry Reid about that he told me basically we can develop a technology to store this stuff in place where it is. Is that really feasible?

CLARK: I think most objective observers on this entire process will tell you the Yucca Mountain project is probably a victim to politics over science. Most scientists who have studied it have said that geologic repository is the right way to go. It's the right long-term solution. There are short-term ways to handle it. When you talk about radioactive waste, geological storage is the way to go.

GRIFFIN: This does seem a little bit of a one-sided conversation, Tony, but I want to tell everybody we've been reaching out to the Department of Energy for a while now. Not got anybody to come on and talk to us. We did get a brief statement we pulled from the website in which Steven Shue, the secretary of energy says "There's no reasonable basis at this time to conclude that either excess our insufficient funds are being collected and thus will not propose an adjustment to the fee to Congress."

You know, I guess he's got the power to just say that. What have your court cases been doing? Have you been getting any play from the federal judge?

CLARK: Right. I mean, 24 billion is a lot of money, so it's certainly a good -- there's a lot of money there for the deal to spend in the short term. Remember that they have appointed a blue ribbon task force now to figure out what to do going forward. So the task force itself is not going to be a tremendously expensive project. We filed a lawsuit on this. This past week we lost on a procedural motion related to the way that we asked the question, basically.

The good news in that ruling was, well, the court told us if you ask the question this way, we have to rule it moot, but if you ask it a little different way, that question may be ripe. So we're looking at our legal options to move forward.

GRIFFIN: All right. Tony thanks a lot. Tony Clark, president of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners. I'm going to follow this story, Tony. It's fascinating to me this tax could be collected for what we don't know. Thanks for joining us, Tony.

CLARK: Thank you Drew. GRIFFIN: There was a flurry of activity on Capitol Hill this week, which made for some very lively discussions on the Sunday talk shows. We have a look at the highlights. We begin with the debate over the S.T.A.R.T. Treaty.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL, (R) MINORITY LEADER: I've decided I cannot support the treaty. I think the verification provisions are inadequate, and I do worry about the missile defense implication.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Senator Durbin, do you have the 67 votes, the two- thirds majority in the Senate that you need to ratify this treaty?

SEN. RICHARD DURBIN, (D) ILLINOIS: I think we do. We had 66 votes for those who wanted to move to this debate, and I think that we have had a debate now. I think we need to bring this to a vote.

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Given this tax package that you and the administration worked out, are you now BFFs with the president?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, the fact that the Republican leader of the Senate would like a Republican president a couple of years from now shouldn't be particularly surprising. What the American people are interested in, of course, is what we do between now and then. I think we demonstrated on the tax package that there is business we can do. And the president is willing to come and adopt positions that frankly I and my members hold anyway. Why would we say no?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The idea to compromise to save people who were drowning, it is unfortunate we were put in the position where the Republicans made it clear they were ready to let everything call unless they got tax cuts. They're for two years. They're for two years, and we're coming back and going at it again.

SEN. JOHN KERRY: For the country it means that our citizens will no longer have to lie and live a lie on a daily basis or be denied the opportunity to serve their country.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Senator Kyl, you voted against the measure. Do you really think that it is going to hurt the ability of the U.S. military to fight in the two wars that we're currently involved in?

SEN. JON KYL, (R) ARIZONA: I frankly have to fall the lead of people like my colleague John McCain who say when it comes especially to the small units that do the fighting on the ground, the U.S. Marine Corps, the army combat troops who according to the survey taken by the Pentagon were 60 percent opposed to this, it could disrupt unit cohesion and as the commandant said, cost lives. That means a lot to me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRIFFIN: Coming up next, the hottest viral video online. That means Josh Levs. And Josh today we have a year-ender from jib jab.

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's our weekly dessert. We have fun here. Take a look. Here's a little piece of it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We arrived in '09 on a rainbow of hope.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEVS: We have more coming up next. We also got an amazing hard rock singing parrot and a preaching baby. You'll love them all I promise. They're coming up in "Viral Video Rewind."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: A farewell to 2010 as only the guys at jib jab could do it. But first I'm going to show you today's top stories.

Israeli police are investigating the death of an American tourist there. Her body was found today near Jerusalem. A British woman who was hiking with that American says the two were attacked by two men, tied up and stabbed. She says she escaped and found help at a picnic area.

With the lame duck Congress in its final days, Senate Republicans are trying to put off a vote on the strategic arms reduction treaty until next session. Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell tells CNN "State of the Union" that members of his party need more time to consider it. Vice President Joe Biden told NBC "Meet the Press" this morning he believes there's enough support in the Senate to approve the deal.

A 5.1 magnitude earthquake shook parts of Indonesia this morning, including areas decimated by an earthquake and tsunami in 2004. The quake struck minutes before 6:00 this morning local time. There have been no reports of victims or damage and no tsunami warning issues so far.

I've been waiting for this one to pop up. Viral video, Josh Levs is here. These guys are really good.

LEVS: This is from jib jab. They sent this today. It's their year-end review. It's really good. We see Obama and Biden together. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We arrived in '09 on a rainbow of hope but 2010 blew it all in smoke the Tea Party rallies the banks going broke so long to you 2010.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEVS: They remind you of all the big events this year. Go ahead and skip to the next section of this video.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've got for you. We were so sad when Rahm said good-bye; California just wants to get high.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEVS: There you go. This is the entire thing for yourself. Jib jab does a good job all year long, and it's nice to take stock with a little humor, get to laugh about some of the news events we've talked about all year long.

GRIFFIN: President Obama's ears are getting bigger and bigger and bigger as he's deeper into his years in office. Aren't they? The cartoon characters.

LEVS: He makes fun of himself.

GRIFFIN: I know but those are the biggest.

LEVS: There's a little joke in there about had him needing it. This involves beer and empty bottles. Take a look.

This is the blowing beer bottle band. Last year they performed "Do you hear what I hear." This year they're doing "angels we have heard on high." You know what? They're viral every year. They basically own their own little corner of YouTube world because they come out with one every Christmas time. I think it's impressive. I'm trying to count how many people there are that have nothing to do.

You know what? If Fred is watching right now, she's so glad you said that. She always says where do these people come up with this amount of time? They wouldn't fill Carnegie Hall, but more are watching it online.

GRIFFIN: But nobody online is paying to watch it.

LEVS: That is right but they're enjoying it. That's all that matters, right? Listen to this parrot doing hard rock here. First you hear the parrot and then I'll show you what he's actually doing. You wouldn't know what he's doing, so I'll show you the actual song he's doing from drowning pool.

This is a hard rock singing parrot. Let the bodies hit the floor from drowning pool. Now go back to the parrot for a second. Millions of people listen to this parrot. Listen to this parrot again. Dude is nailing the hard rock song. Very impressive little parrot. I love this little guy.

Let's go to the next one. You might have seen this during the week. This is one of the coolest marching band formations ever. Look at this here. This is out of Hawaii; the University of Hawaii did this really amazing formation. Look at this. They make a stick figure, and kick the football. We've seen some impressive marching band work before. Never anything like that. Look at that. Crowd goes wild. Beautiful job. Beautiful job. All right.

Next thing is something I'm amazed by and I'm not sure it was real.

GRIFFIN: I'm still silenced by that parrot. The song was disturbing, and the parrot singing it was weird.

LEVS: The parrots can learn anything. Smart animals. Look at this app now that instantly translates into a video of what it's looking at. Take a look here. Basically you point this app at words in Spanish, and it shows you the same thing in English. I was like this is fake, but it's not. It's character recognition technology. It recognizes the text, which is instantly translated. The app is free. Right now it only has Spanish to English and vice versa are available. This new word lens app. Look at that. It just looks at it translates it for you right there. You take this with you when you travel. Pretty amazing stuff.

GRIFFIN: How is that possible?

LEVS: Because it reads the characters. I'm going to get one and test it out. It's incredible. Everybody is talking about this right now. It's getting tons of traffic online.

GRIFFIN: It can only do letters. You couldn't do it for Chinese or Korean.

LEVS: Right now it's just Spanish to English. This is the futuristic kind of stuff we heard about for so long. This whole idea of instant translation. I remember watching Buck Rogers when I was little. It's that idea happening in real life. Boom, instant translation. Everything is up on my Facebook page. Take a look there. You can all see yourself.

GRIFFIN: They're running to download the beer bottle bands, I'm sure.

LEVS: They want to hear the parrot again or check out jib jab. I put it there every week and then you send us your favorites and I'll have those next week.

GRIFFIN: All right. Thanks Josh.

Much of the west coast is battered by wintery storms. We'll see how long that is all going to last.

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GRIFFIN: I know there's serious stuff to talk about in this weather, but boy oh, boy, Mammoth Mountain is getting dumped.

KAREN MAGINNIS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It is crazy; I've never skied in a place that has ever had that kind of stuff fall.

GRIFFIN: That's from how long?

MAGINNIS: From the evening hours on Friday until midday today.

GRIFFIN: 108 inches. Wow.

MAGINNIS: Just about 48 hours or so, just over 48 hours. Heavenly Valley 20 inches and Al Pine Meadows 53 inches of snowfall. Some of those higher elevations generally above 9,000 feet in Nevada, you're looking at the potential for ten feet of snow. Why? We've talked about this pineapple express, this sub-tropical moisture that is just aiming at the west coast. There's an area of low pressure that is situated off the Pacific Northwest just kind of spinning around here, not going to budge a whole lot. This is fairly warm, moist air, and what we can expect in coastal regions, we've already seen significant rainfall, but we think for the valleys, Los Angeles valleys and some of those burn areas that have been denoted by the wildfires over the last several years, you might expect localized flooding there.

There are flash flood watches into northern California; it looks like right now the bulk of that moisture is kind of situated between San Francisco and Los Angeles, but not to be outdone also into the Wasatch and Utah. You're looking at significant snowfall there as well.

Take a look at the rainfall totals. Los Angeles just under three inches, but I think by the end of the storm it will be another 36 to 48 hours. They could see another three inches snow, so the ground is going to be saturated.

GRIFFIN: There's going to be mudslides on the roads. That's for sure. Karen thanks a lot.

A story for the season coming up next. People extending a helping hand to the homeless.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How are you doing today? Let me tell you how it's going to work? You're going to put your meat and your bread, no condiments. Just ham or turkey and the bread.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is our first time. We just read it about in the church website and came on out.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It would be cool to see the impact that we could do. 900. I'm happy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think if you open up the hearts that showed up this morning, father, to do thy will and your will is to go to the last, the lost and the least and to compel the truth of the gospel to them.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I come out here at 12:00 every Saturday. Normally we get a lot of volunteers. Majority come out every other week Monday, Wednesday and Friday as well to feed the homeless.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We ask you to remember the person whose home we're now visiting. We know father they're fighting for survival. We know that you're holding their hands and you are with them. You are a part of their lives.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've been out on the street for about eight months.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What did you do before? What kind of work were you doing?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I worked at a pet supply store.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A pet supply store, just can't find a place now, nobody is hiring, huh?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's just no judging, because I know it could be my family. My husband has lost a job before. I mean what's to say had we not had money put aside, I'd be in the same position. It's sad, but I have hope that it can change. That's why we come out. It will get better and one hug for somebody will make all the difference in the world for them. Good thing I'm a hugger.

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GRIFFIN: Be sure to stay with CNN throughout the holiday season for more inspirational stories and you can join CNN on Christmas Day. We're going to have a one-hour special of "Giving in Focus" it is going to be hosted by Tom Forman. That is at 4:00 pm Eastern Christmas Day. I'm Drew Griffin sitting in for Fredricka Whitfield. You are in the NEWSROOM. You are at CNN.