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Ending Ban on Gays in Military; Intelligence Gap; Parents' Skepticism Saves Daughter's Life; Helping the Homeless; 43 Million Americans Now Living on Food Stamps; 2 Chicago Firefighters Killed , 16 Injured in Wall Collapse

Aired December 22, 2010 - 11:00   ET

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

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning, everyone. Live from Studio 7, I'm Tony Harris. The big stories for Wednesday, December 22nd.

Just two hours ago, President Obama signed a repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." The law allows gays and lesbians to serve in the military, but not openly.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We are not a nation that says, "Don't ask, don't tell." We are a nation that says out of many, we are one.

(APPLAUSE)

We are a nation that welcomes the service of every patriot. We are a nation that believes that all men and women are created equal. Those are the ideals that generations have fought for. Those are the ideals that we uphold today. And now it is my honor to sign this bill into law.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: The Senate set to sign off on the new START nuclear treaty with Russia today. It cleared a procedural hurdle with 67 votes, the number needed for approval. The Senate may vote on the 9/11 first responders bill today. It guarantees health care for rescuers sickened at Ground Zero.

And rescuers pulling people from rushing water in southern California. Today's storm forecast to be the worst yet of a weeklong parade of cloud bursts. Six southern California counties under a flood emergency. The region has already seen 10 inches of rain in many areas.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LT. JOHN EVERHART, SAN DIEGO LIFEGUARDS: People try to cross this river basin. And when we get rains, there is a very large drainage that fills these river channels up. So they rise very quickly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: And in Chicago, officials tell CNN several firefighters have been rescued from the rubble of a charred building. The men trapped when the roof collapsed.

Take a look at these pictures from not very long -- are these live pictures now? Let me just sort of update this. OK, from just a short time ago.

A total of 12 firefighters were injured. Crews are still digging through the building brick by brick to be sure no civilians were inside.

More now on our lead story. It will take more than a signing ceremony to end the ban on gays serving openly in the military.

Let's bring in our Pentagon correspondent, Barbara Starr.

And Barbara, first of all, good morning to you.

What happens next in implementing the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Tony, good morning.

Now the Pentagon gets down to business around here on all of this. They will go through hundreds of pages, if not thousands, of regulations, rules, procedures, all of it, to look at what, if anything, needs to be changed, things regarding benefits, dependents, medical benefits, housing, all of the things that govern military life -- disciplinary rules, rules of behavior, all of it.

Now, some decisions have already been made. There will not be, for example, separate barracks, separate shower facilities. You know, this is a country that long ago, moved beyond any concept of separate but equal. None of that in the U.S. military. Everyone will be treated alike.

But, still, they have to look at these very technical questions about things like benefits. All of this could take some period of time. But President Obama, the commander in chief, gave a clear signal to the military this morning about his expectations.

Have a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: The old policy remains in effect until Secretary Gates, Admiral Mullen and I certify the military's readiness to implement the repeal. And it's especially important for service members to remember that.

But I've spoken to every one of the service chiefs, and they are all committed to implementing this change swiftly and efficiently. We are not going to be dragging our feet to get this done. (APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STARR: No dragging feet to get it done. Secretary Gates, here at the Pentagon, says no slow-rolling the whole thing.

In fact, here, Tony, is the implementation plan, 87 pages of steps and things they need to do. And 60 days after it's all done, then they certify to Congress. Then "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" is gone from U.S. history books forever.

HARRIS: Barbara, give us a look ahead. Is there anything we do know about what things will look like after the repeal?

STARR: Right. You know, I think one of the underlying themes here that you hear people in the Pentagon talk about is leadership. They are going to rely on commanders.

And when I say "commanders," I mean people like sergeants in charge of companies and platoons and combat units out there educating the young people in the U.S. military about what this all means, and that they are all expected to conduct themselves in a professional and responsible manner. That's sort of the first step here, set the climate for change, educate the force, and work through some of those steps about benefits, dependents, who gets housing. Can domestic partners get housing? These sort of technical questions that the military has to go through looking at what federal law already says in some of these cases, looking at medical benefits, all of these things.

But some of those key things, Tony, like housing, showers, barracks, all of that sort of thing, no separate but equal. When you are in the U.S. military, everybody is together as when -- Tony.

HARRIS: Our Pentagon correspondent, Barbara Starr, for us.

Appreciate it, Barbara. Thank you.

The president's top intelligence official in the dark about a major terror raid that went down in London on Monday. James Clapper, director of National Intelligence, stumped in an interview with ABC's Diane Sawyer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

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

JOHN BRENNAN, DEPUTY NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: You read the arrest of the 12 individuals by the British this morning.

SAWYER: The arrest of the 12, yes.

BRENNAN: This is something that the British informed us about early this morning was taking place. SAWYER (voice-over): Later in the interview, I came back to the director. Did he really not know?

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

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

BRENNAN: You referenced London, but you didn't talk about the arrests.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: That was John Brennan, the president's deputy national security adviser, giving Clapper an assist there.

Brennan offered this explanation at the White House just last hour.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRENNAN: Jim Clapper is, I think, the consummate DNI. He was working on developments in the Korean Peninsula in terms of political military developments. He was focused on trying to provide support to the Congress as far as the START treaty was concerned. He was engaged in a variety of classified matters.

Should he have been briefed by his staff on those issues? Yes. And I know there was breathless attention by the media about these arrests, and it was constantly on the news networks.

I'm glad that Jim Clapper is not sitting in front of the TV 24 hours a day and monitoring what is coming out of the media. What he is doing is focusing on those intelligence issues that the president expects him to focus on, and to make sure that we don't have conflict in different parts of the world.

He continues to focus on those. And his not being briefed yesterday afternoon, this is something that they have acknowledged that he should have been briefed on. They have taken steps to correct that now. And if that happens again, I am sure he is going to be au courant as far as a takedown overseas.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: OK.

Relentless rain and snow pounding the West Coast again today. In some areas, they are measuring the deluge in feet, not inches. A live report, plus the forecast.

First, let's head to Wall Street here and take a look at the markets. We are better than 90 minutes into the trading day. We are in positive territory. The Dow up 10.

Roger, the Nasdaq up two?

Up two. Thanks, Roger.

We're back in a moment. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

HARRIS: Domination, with a capital "D" topping "The Big Play." The UConn women's basketball team, they have got a winning streak for the record books.

Last night, the University of Connecticut women set a new college record for consecutive basketball wins. The previous high watermark was '88, set in 1974 by the UCLA Bruins.

Last night, the Lady Huskies ran all over Florida State. How about that Maya Moore? What did she score, 41, 42 points? The win for the Huskies, 93-62, making their streak 89 in a row.

After the game, head coach Geno Auriemma got a special call of congratulations.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GENO AURIEMMA, HEAD COACH, UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT: Mr. President, I really appreciate that. It's an incredible thing that these kids have done. And we owe you a little bit of gratitude. That lesson you gave them on the White House basketball court really paid off. So I appreciate you doing that for them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: All right.

To the National Basketball Association, which is gearing up for a huge slate of basketball games on Christmas Day featuring the Los Angeles Lakers, right, in one of the key games? The same Lakers took a real pounding at home last night.

Kobe Bryant was thrown out of the game for bad behavior. So five games on Christmas, including the Lakers and the Miami Heat. You would think the coach of the Lakers, Phil Jackson, would be looking forward to the big stage. Apparently not so much.

Phil Jackson says, "It's like Christian holidays don't mean anything to the NBA anymore. You just go out and play and entertain on TV. It's really weird."

What do you think? Is it weird to play close to a full slate of games on Christmas Day? We posted that question on my Facebook page about two hours ago, and, boy, you guys really jumped on it.

Let's bring in Sandy Endo.

And Sandy, how are folks responding to our question?

SANDRA ENDO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Tony, a lot of mixed reaction to this, a lot of strong opinions.

Taking a look at your Facebook page right here, Cathy McLoughlin- Fates (ph) writes, "I don't think so. Maybe it's tradition, but there are certain days you just don't do anything on, Easter and Christmas. But this is just my opinion and belief."

Also, Brian Shepherd (ph) writes in on your page, "It's like any other entertainment industry and what you all in the news business do. You work. They are handsomely rewarded for entertaining us. It does not make it any less Christian."

And taking a look on my Twitter page as well, I got a tweet in response to this question from MikeHopperNYC. And says, "The NFL has Thanksgiving, college football, and NHL has New Years. MLB has the Fourth of July. And the NBA needs Christmas."

HARRIS: That's right. OK.

ENDO: So there you go. I'll be watching. Won't you?

HARRIS: Well, yes. I want to see that Lakers/Heat game, for sure.

All right. Let's do this -- let's keep it up. Let's keep the question up. Let's get some more responses and let's have you back.

Deal?

ENDO: Yes, you bet.

HARRIS: All right, Sandy. Appreciate it. Thank you. And see you a little later with "Trending."

A misdiagnosis. The parents of a little girl didn't believe what a doctor was telling them. Their skepticism saved their daughter's life.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Got to tell you, doctors get things wrong more off then than you might think. And we've got the studies to prove it.

This week, Senior Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen has been sharing tips that could save your life. Today, she has a story on why it is important to trust you gut.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SR. MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): One spring evening, Don McCracken was playing ball with his kids in the front yard. He meant to hit a fly ball to his son Matthew, but instead, it socked his 7-year-old daughter Morgan on the head. She knelt to the ground in pain. Morgan had quite a bump on her head. Her parents iced it down and she seemed fine.

Two nights later, something changed.

CONNIE MCCRACKEN, MORGAN'S MOTHER: She started crying.

COHEN (on camera): Tell me what you heard.

MCCRACKEN: She's goes, "My head, it's hurting." She was holding it, saying, "My head is hurting. My head is hurting."

COHEN (voice-over): The McCrackens rushed Morgan to the emergency room.

(on camera): When the doctor showed up, what did he say?

MCCRACKEN: I'm sure it's just late, she's tired. She probably has a touch of the flu.

COHEN (voice-over): Connie and Don say the doctor told them to take Morgan home and put her to bed. But they knew better. Their instincts told them this was no flu virus. They pushed the doctor for a CT scan of Morgan's brain.

(on camera): What did you think the results of that CAT scan were going to be?

MCCRACKEN: There was something definitely wrong. You could feel it in your gut.

DON MCCRACKEN, MORGAN'S FATHER: In my heart, I thought I knew there was a problem.

C. MCCRACKEN: He came back and said, "I was surprised." He goes, "I'm surprised. There's something there."

D. MCCRACKEN: There was a leakage of blood into her skull.

COHEN (voice-over): Medics rushed Morgan by helicopter to nearby Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio.

DR. ALAN COHEN, RAINBOW BABIES & CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL: This is a big blood clot inside the skull, outside the brain, called an epidural hematoma. That's what we had to remove to take out the blood clot and stop the bleeding.

E. COHEN: Today, Morgan is just fine.

(on camera): Do you feel like a lucky girl?

MORGAN MCCRACKEN, HAD BLOOD CLOT INSIDE HER SKULL: Yes.

E. COHEN (voice-over): Lucky, because her parents followed their instincts. (on camera): In the emergency room, the doctor said she had a virus and she just needed to get some rest. If you had listened to that advice and brought her home to go to bed and rest, what would have happened?

D. MCCRACKEN: She probably wouldn't have woken up the next morning, and we would have lost her.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: Boy.

Elizabeth Cohen joins us live now.

And Elizabeth, pretty incredible how Morgan's mom and dad saved her. And the important lesson here, it seems to me, for parents is trust your gut, right?

COHEN: Tony, that's exactly the message that the McCrackens want to put out there, and I bet a lot of people want to put that out there. Medicine, many people will tell you, is much more of an art than a science.

Doctors get things wrong. It's not necessarily their fault. But if your instinct says, you know what, this is something more than a virus, or anything like that, you trust it, go with it.

HARRIS: What can we do as parents -- well, as patients to help our doctors get the diagnosis correct?

COHEN: Right. As parents and as patients there is a bunch of different things that we can do to avoid being misdiagnosed.

First of all, you can ask. If something doesn't sound right to you, you can say, what else could this be? Like, Doctor, you say it's X, but are there other things that it could be as well? And that could really open up the conversation with your physician.

Something else you can do is if you feel like you are not getting the right answers, you can ask for more tests that might help make a better conclusion.

Also, this is really important. Don't assume no news is good news. A lot of times you get that test, you don't hear back from the doctor, and you think, oh, everything must be fine. Well, there are lots of studies that show that doctors often forget to call, even when the results are problematic, even when something is wrong, they don't call back. So, always, always get those results.

HARRIS: Good advice, as always.

Elizabeth, good to see you. Thank you.

COHEN: Thanks.

HARRIS: It is the biggest, fattest, richest lottery in the world. They call it El Gordo. How much do you think the total payout is? And if you are thinking in the millions, you're way off.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Let's give you an update on the breaking news we've been following for much of the morning in Chicago.

According to CNN affiliate WLS, two firefighters were, in fact, killed, and more than a dozen others were injured when a wall collapsed in that building there, what's left of it. Four firefighters in all were trapped at a south side fire in that particular building.

The Cook County Medical Examiner's Office is confirming the deaths. And that confirmation coming about 10:00 a.m. local time.

The identities of the firefighters killed not released at this time. The men were trapped when the roof of the building collapsed.

And at this point, we know that a total of 12 firefighters were injured. That number might change.

As you can see here, crews are still digging through the building, literally brick by brick, moving all the debris. And that is a feverish effort going on right now.

And CNN has confirmed the deaths attributable to this fire in Chicago. Four firefighters, in fact -- I'm sorry, two firefighters, in fact, killed when the wall on this building collapsed. And the efforts continue right now by the firefighters to go through all of that rubble to find out if there are any civilians there.

We will continue to update this story as we get additional information.

The U.S. economy grew at a 2.6 percent annual rate from July to September. That is slightly better than the government's estimate from last month, but still stubbornly slow.

Alison Kosik has more on this from the New York Stock Exchange.

And Alison, first of all, good morning.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Hi.

HARRIS: What does it mean when we can see -- I'm wondering when we -- good morning. When can we see some stronger growth here?

KOSIK: You know, Tony, that's the $64,000 question, whether we're going to see stronger growth. Well, the economy, the reality is, is not growing at a fast enough pace to significantly bring down the unemployment rate, but there is some good news in this report.

This looks at what's already happened during the summer months. You know, it's backward-looking. So this quarter, what we're in now, the October through December period, analysts are expecting better. They see the economy growing at a faster pace, 3 percent or more, with most of that growth, Tony, driven by retail sales and solid corporate profits.

We'll see if that actually happens though -- Tony.

HARRIS: Yes. And Alison, an important housing report that is out today. More good news for the economy?

KOSIK: Well, I wouldn't start dancing around the room just yet, but we are moving in the right direction. You know, sales of previously-owned homes, they rose 5.6 percent in November, after dipping in October.

But, you know, it's still 30 percent lower than November of 2009. And we're seeing this kind of choppiness. We see sales up one month, down the next. So the housing market, needless to say, still has a really long way to go -- Tony.

HARRIS: And are these reports having any impact at all on the market?

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

HARRIS: OK, Alison. Appreciate it. See you next hour. Thank you.

We asked you to guess the total payout amount for the world's richest lottery, and there you see it. Where is it -- 2.3 billion euros. That's about $3 billion. Are you kidding me?

They call it El Gordo, "The Fat One." Thousands of people across Spain will enjoy pieces of the prize.

Let's bring in our Madrid bureau chief, Al Goodman.

So, Al, first of all, good to see you.

Are you one of the lucky ones here?

AL GOODMAN, CNN MADRID BUREAU CHIEF: Yes, let's get to the important news first, Tony. I didn't win. Our cameraman, Peter, didn't win. And so we're still working.

But the winners mainly are over in the Barcelona area, at a bar, in a town near Barcelona, where the bar owner bought what ended up being a lot of the winning tickets. And he then sold them to his clients, so everybody is very happy there.

Some truck drivers from the south of Spain bought their tickets in Barcelona as well, because Barcelona has such a lucky charm in these lotteries all these many years, and they are also big winners. But, in fact, thousands of winners across the country, from small amounts up to big amounts, in the hundreds of thousands of dollars -- Tony.

HARRIS: All right, Al. Appreciate it. And better luck next time for you and your cameraman.

What happens when you mistake fingernail glue for eye drops? Find out when we do "Trending" topics.

That's next.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Let's do this -- time to go "Cross Country" and check stories our affiliates are covering for us today.

In Buffalo, New York, most of the 21 men aboard a Lake Erie ship were hospitalized today for rat poisoning. The boat carried grain with rat pellets. The pellets got wet and the ship's ventilation system spread the fumes.

In Lafayette, Louisiana, a frozen turkey shuts down the regional airport for a while. The bird appeared on a security scanner as a big lump. Wires protruding from a head lamp next to the turkey added to the panic.

In Haymarket, Virginia, the Christmas Sweater Club at Battlefield High School is in trouble. The boys got detention and cleaning duty for passing out candy canes. One student says he was told that candy canes can be sharpened by the mouth and used as a weapon.

It is a sign of difficult economic times, 43 million Americans living on food stamps and it is not just because of high unemployment. We will explain.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Mother Theresa once said, "If you can't feed 100 people, then just feed one." Photojournalist John Benna found a town in rural Delaware putting that giving philosophy to work helping the homeless.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN SHWED, PRESIDENT, LAUREL COMMUNITY FOUNDATION: Laurel is a wonderful community. It is a typical pioneer spirit of America.

Agriculture has always been at the foundation of the Laurel community. We have a lot of poultry growers in the area; that's a big business.

Laurel has a problem just like major urban areas. Every town across American has a problem with what we call hidden homeless.

We had a nurse named Donna Whaley. She started to suspect things about certain children who came to school. She would talk with them and find out that they were living out of a car or they might be living in a tent.

She looked at those early year children and she thought, you know, nobody should have to live like this. So, I'm going to try to do something to change that. TARA MATTHEWS, SINGLE MOTHER: Otis (ph) is six, Ayanna (ph), the middle is Mari (ph), he's four and then the little one is Anaya (ph), she's 2. They are actually my sister's kids. So an unfortunate situation happened so I actually have custody of the three of them for about two years now.

It's difficult at times, but it's also very rewarding. When I first got the kids, it was extremely difficult. I was just doing a part-time job trying to find something permanent job. Actually I had to see what my options were, my avenues, because I have these three kids, I had to provide a stable home for these kids. And so, that's where Hope House came into play.

SHWED: Hope House is transitional housing. We call them our guest families and they stay up to about 90 days.

MATTHEWS: There you live rent free So basically, I was able to save up enough money that I would need to get out and provide on my own. And by not having those extra bills or having to worry about where we were going to -- you know, if we were going to have a place to stay, it enabled me to provide them with a good Christmas. So that was very rewarding for me.

SHWED: The money that was used to purchase the land, to build the buildings all came from private individuals. No federal, no state money.

MATTHEWS: I'm thankful that there's people that give to these type of programs, because a lot of times they don't know the people that they are touching. They are just hoping and praying that it's somebody that's good and that's going to do well with it And I thank god that it was there, because it was able to help me to provide for them.

SHWED: It was Donna's idea that the community needed to do something and so Hope House one and two are now the realization of her dream. Unfortunately, she passed away before she got to see the project up and running.

MATTHEWS: Thank you, Miss Whaley, for having this vision and that enough people were able to the vision and just run with the vision.

SHWED: I know that she is some place now and I know that she is, you know, smiling and thinking the people back in Laurel did a good thing.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: We will put giving in focus all week long, then this weekend CNN brings you an hour long special hosted by Tom Foreman. "GIVING IN FOCUS" airs Christmas Day at 4:00 Eastern, that's 1:00 Pacific, only on CNN.

A big increase in the number of Americans using food stamps. It is a sign of the still soaring unemployment rates and something else. Josh is here to talk us through it -- Josh.

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean, Tony, it plays right out of that. This report that we have all been talking about, first we saw it on CNNMoney, and it's talking about the incredible amount of people in this country who are now on food stamps.

Forty-three million Americans are now on food stamps. That boils down to one in seven people in this country who are living on food stamps.

And what we are seeing happen is a combination of things. One is the continuing incredibly high unemployment rate that has been such a serious problem for so long hanging up near that 10 percent mark that's leaving more people in poverty.

But also, you have had more states expand the definition of basically who is impoverished, changed those rates to determine the poverty level, which helps determine whether or not you can get food stamps. So more states are making more people eligible to get those food stamps to buy their food.

Plus something that you and I have talked about, $10 billion in the stimulus went to support the food stamp program. So there's been the funding for it.

Let me show you a few statistics here. We're up 16 percent over 2009 in terms of the number of people in this country who are living on food stamps, which is a giant jump. Now, the highest usage is in Washington D.C. where it is more than one in every five people, 21.5 percent of residents inside Washington D.C. are living on food stamps to get their food. And look at these other states here. It's one in five people in Tennessee, Mississippi, New Mexico and Oregon. All of those states, Tony, one in five people, above that national average.

So this new report basically an incredible and sad sign of the times.

HARRIS: How much money in food stamps are the families getting?

LEVS: You know, on average, it's a little different in each state, how much money in food stamps they get, but on average, I have it over here, it's $133 per month per person. So basically, when you average it out across the country, that's what they're getting. And you know, a lot of people are trying to use those carefully, trying to use them wisely to buy the foods that will help it last throughout the month.

HARRIS: And who is eligible?

LEVS: I'm going to talk to you about that next hour, cause I'll tell you something, a lot of people watching, you might not realize that you are one of the people eligible. You might wonder if you are one of the people who is eligible or your neighbors or friends might be, your friends might be, your relatives.

There are a lot of people who are eligible who are not taking advantage of the food stamp system as these numbers are soaring. So what I'm going to do in the next hour is bring you some basics about who is eligible and I'm going to show you online where you can go to find out how much support you might be eligible for.

HARRIS: OK, Josh, see you next hour. Thank you.

In Chicago, two firefighters were killed and more than a dozen others were injured when a wall collapsed trapping four firefighters. Larry Langford of the Chicago Fire Department, he is the public information officer for the Chicago Fire Department, is on the line with me now.

And, Larry, first of all, thank you for taking the time to talk to us. I want to backtrack just a moment here. The reports of fatalities among your ranks came to us initially from one of the local stations in Chicago, WLS. But while I have you on the line, can you in fact confirm that you lost two of your firefighters in battling this blaze?

LARRY LANGFORD, CHICAGO FIRE DEPARTMENT (via telephone): Yes, I can confirm that now. Two firefighters were among four trapped when a roof collapsed at the rear of a building they were fighting a fire in this morning just after (AUDIO GAP). Four firefighters were trapped. We were able to rescue all four, however, two of them died of injuries at the hospitals in Chicago.

HARRIS: Can you describe this structure? What was it, because there seems to very little of what was there left?

LANGFORD: It is an abandoned building. A commercial area of Chicago in the east side. Looks like it might have been an auto repair shop or a cleaners or something. It is a single story about 25 -- or rather, 50 by 125 with what looks like a truss-type roof (AUDIO GAP) and a flat roof in the front.

The back roof gave way when the wall collapsed and the wall went out into the alley. The ceiling and roof then came in on the firefighters trapping them under the debris.

HARRIS: Is there still concern that you might have civilians inside under the rubble?

LANGFORD: We have finished our search of the entire structure manually and that has come up negative. We're bringing some heavy equipment in now to take the rest of the building apart to make sure, but we don't have any reason to believe any civilians or any other personnel are inside.

HARRIS: Your thoughts on the loss of two members of your team so close to the holidays?

LANGFORD: Well, it is. These members had children, I understand, and it is always a tragedy but it is compounded at this time of the year. We just lost a member not too long ago in a fire downtown Chicago and now to lose two more in the collapse of a structure, a vacant structure that somebody may have been in just using for temporary housing, we're not sure. But any time we lose a member it's a tragedy and this is just compounded.

HARRIS: Are there any indications or are most of the indications at this point pointing in the direction that this -- this was either accidentally started or deliberately set?

LANGFORD: We don't know yet. Out office of fire investigation is looking into it. But I can tell you the rear of the building was open and this time of year people, as we refer to them as squatters, people without a place to stay sometimes use vacant buildings. And sometimes they set small fires for heat and these fires sometimes get out of control. That could have happened here. We have no reason to believe that it is suspicious yet. That investigation is underway.

But just also to fill you, we have had a total of 16 firefighters were injured in this blaze. Six were critical to serious and then we had ten others stable. And of the six, the two fatalities were in that six group.

HARRIS: Are all of the injured firefighters expected to recover? Are we describing any life threatening injuries in that group?

LANGFORD: The last update from our EMS division was that they are all stable, serious or stable, but nothing appears to be life threatening of the remaining group hospitalized.

HARRIS: Larry, we are so sorry for the loss of two members of your fire department in battling this blaze. We thank you, again, for giving us this update. And boy, what a tragedy.

Larry, thank you.

LANGFORD: All right, thank you.

HARRIS: We have been speaking with Larry Langford, he is the public information officer for the Chicago Fire Department.

Again, two firefighters killed when a wall collapsed in what was a vacant building. A number of firefighters injured in battling that blaze. All are in serious but stable condition in local hospitals at this time. We will continue to update this story as we get additional information.

North Korea steps back from the brink of war, but our Wolf Blitzer describes the situation as a tinderbox. He is just back and he joins us with a rare look inside.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

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HARRIS: South Korea gears up for more military drills. Just days ago, North Korea threatened war over exercises carried out by the South. CNN's Wolf Blitzer travelled with former U.N. Ambassador Bill Richardson to North Korea, one of only two journalists and the only TV reporter on the trip.

Wolf, it's great to talk to you. I wanted to get you on since you got back to the States.

As you were traveling to North Korea, how concerned were you that the Koreas were truly on the brink of war this time?

WOLF BLITZER, HOST, "THE SITUATION ROOM": I was very concerned, and I thought, in fact, it was very, very likely that it could have happened.

Once the South Koreans said they were going to go forward with this live fire exercise on this island, an island that the North Koreans had shelled back in November killing four South Koreans -- two military, two civilians -- and the North Korean military put out a formal statement, public statement, Tony, saying that if South Korea goes ahead with the exercise in what they regard as these disputed waters, they will then respond, the military of North Korea, with catastrophic consequences. That's a statement that they had issued publically.

The South Koreans went ahead with their exercise and it lasted about an hour and a half. The North Koreans then issued a statement saying, you know what, it's not worth responding to this exercise.

But it was highly unusual for them to back down after making that public threat and not even go forward with some sort of symbolic response.

Now, why did they not respond? That's going to be a subject that historians and others are going to be studying for a long time. My own gut tells me it was at least in part because of all the strong warnings that Governor Richardson was giving them about, you know, you better act with constraint because who knows what could happen if you don't.

I also suspect -- and I don't know this for sure -- but I suspect that the Chinese, who have a lot of influence over Pyongyang, they may have quietly sent a message to them. You know what, it's so tense right now, just calm down. You might get more out of this situation by being productive and positive than by going to war.

So maybe all of that combined to convince the North Koreans to step back a little bit.

HARRIS: Wolf, one more question for this segment, and I know we've got you back next hour, so we'll ask a couple more questions at that time.

What did Ambassador Richardson take with him, if anything, to North Korea -- ?

BLITZER: I think he --

HARRIS: Go ahead, Wolf, sorry.

BLITZER: Take with him to North Korea? Or I thought you were going to ask me what did he take out of North Korea. But go ahead, rephrase the question. HARRIS: Yes, yes. Just, I am wondering what he took with him to North Korea to put on the table in the talks? Did he take any promises from the Obama administration?

BLITZER: He says he took nothing from the Obama administration. He was going there as a private citizen. They didn't encourage him to go, they didn't discourage him. Six months ago, they told him not to go cause that was at the time that they accused the North Koreans of sinking this South Korean warship, killing 46 South Korean sailors. That time he was invited to go, they said don't go; he didn't go.

This time he was invited by the chief nuclear negotiator, Kim Kye Gwan, of North Korea and he asked the Obama administration, what do you think. They said, if you want to go, go. We're not encouraging you to go.

But he insists he took no messages, no messages, no letters or anything like that from Washington.

What he took out of there was interesting. He got some commitments from the North Koreans to allow U.N. monitors to come back and inspect their nuclear facility. He got a commitment that they would consider know the establishment of a North Korea-South Korea military-to-military hotline. And also to bring the U.S. into a military commission to discuss some of the armistice issues and the disputed areas.

He got some commitments from them to sell 12,000 fuel rods that are enough to make six to eight nuclear bombs maybe to South Korea itself. The North Koreans are very poor. They need money, they need electricity, they need power. And the North Koreans are looking for ways to get some of that from the West, including from the United States, including from South Korea.

We'll see how far they are willing to go in actually making some genuine concessions right now to restart the dialogue.

HARRIS: And that's where we'll follow up next hour.

Wolf, good to see you. And again, see you next hour.

It is a busy day in Washington. We will update you on all the moving part when's we check top stories.

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HARRIS: Taking a look at top stories right now, President Obama signed the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" repeal just over two hours ago now, but implementing the change to allow gays to serve openly in the military could take several months.

The Senate is set to sign off on the new START nuclear treaty with Russia later today. Senators may also vote on the 9/11 first responders bill, it guarantees health care for rescuers sickened at Ground Zero. And in Chicago this morning, two firefighters have died after being trapped under the collapsed roof of an abandoned building, more than a dozen others are injured.

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HARRIS: A great video out of West Warwick, Rhode Island. The holiday display shows a man hanging from a rooftop, as can you see here. Looks like he is falling from a ladder, right? The dangling dummy is so lifelike, people driving by have actually stopped, running over to help.

And it's not a man but a monkey dangling from a roof in Miami. Oh, yes. This pet got away from its owner, bit a neighbor on the ear and went on a bit of a rooftop romp. But this didn't last long, the monkey was caught and is back in its cage. Hello.

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HARRIS: OK, you know we like to stay in touch with trending topics online. This is high traffic time for you and folks like you online, so we like to stay online as well.

Sandy, what's trending right now?

SANDRA ENDO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: How are you?

Well, actually, a lot is trending and the big topic on Twitter and on CNN.com is WikiLeaks. You know that whole fiasco, well the CIA created a task force and it got a lot of people talking. Check out this Twitter board here. One tweet says, "In the 'you can't make this up file,' there is now a CIA WikiLeaks Task Force called WTF." Seriously.

HARRIS: Yes, that's the task force to report to the commission that reports to the blue ribbon commission. Sorry, sorry.

ENDO: Yes, it's the task force for the task force for the fiasco.

Another tweet, "It's wonderful the CIA have set up a WikiLeaks Task Force, must not have realized the acronym would be WTF, did they?"

HARRIS: Yes, that's unfortunate.

ENDO: OK, I'm going to go real quickly to the next story.

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HARRIS: Are we running out of time?

ENDO: We're rushing.

OK, Zsa Zsa's Gabor husband did a major oops.

HARRIS: I love this story.

ENDO: You like this?

HARRIS: Well, I don't like it for him.

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ENDO: He actually put glue in his eye thinking they're eye drops and it glued his eyes shut.

HARRIS: I guess you would have to read the story. He says it was stupid. Well, OK.

ENDO: Yes, you can check it out on CNN.com.

HARRIS: And find out what you do if that should happen to you. Let's hope it doesn't.

OK, let's look ahead to what's coming up in the next hour of CNN NEWSROOM.

You will hear from a victim of torture, he was deeply scarred physically and emotionally. Find out how moving to New York is changing his life.

Plus, a man who wrote what is considered a how-to book for pedophiles, some legal analysts say it's free speech protected by the Constitution. A live report as he heads to court.

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