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Urgent, Dangerous Spacewalk Under Way; The Average American Will Spend About $740 This Holiday Shopping Season; Russia Frees Foes Ahead Of Olympics; 1.3 Million To Lose Jobless Benefits; $100M Settlement In Meningitis Outbreak; Last Minute Deals As Stores Lure Shoppers; Same Sex Couples Rush To Marry In Utah

Aired December 24, 2013 - 10:00   ET

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

JOE CARTER, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: He is very excruciating in this Christmas card, "I like how you backed out of a fight. Now you want to get into the fight and you wish you could have more money." So basically it's one of these things where it's like the fight -- now it's working out, 21,000 times it's been retweeted.

Lastly, trending on bleacherreport.com, one of the most bizarre place you'll ever see in hockey, look very closely. You'll see a puck deflected into the air. It lands into the pants of Phoenix Coyote's goalie, Mike Smith. Mike Smith has no idea where the puck is. So he backs into the goal to defend, but crosses over the goal line so it's a goal for the other team, the Buffalo Sabers. It happens to be in overtime and it's a winning goal. Trending this morning on Twitter is #buttgoal. Puck in the pants, I feel bad for him, puck in the pants.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks, Joe. I'll remember that hash tag for the rest of my life.

CARTER: You're not alone. You're with your CNN family for Christmas.

COSTELLO: Merry Christmas. Thank you, Joe. Next hour of CNN NEWSROOM starts now.

Good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thanks so much for being with me. Right now, more than 200 miles above the earth two American astronauts are floating in space. They are performing emergency repairs on the International Space Station and just the second Christmas Eve spacewalk in NASA's history. That mission both challenging and dangerous got under way less than three hours ago.

Leroy Chiao is a former NASA astronaut as well the former commander of the International Space Station. He flew on four different missions. Good morning.

LEROY CHIAO, FORMER NASA ASTRONAUT: Good morning. Good to be with you.

COSTELLO: Thanks for being with us. So we see these beautiful pictures of these astronauts floating almost ballet like, but that belies a high level of danger, right?

CHIAO: There's no question more risk being outside in the space suit than being inside the vehicle. The suits are well designed. The crew is well trained. We got a pretty good handle on it. You're right. When you're outside doing it you got a very heightened sense of awareness. You're careful about every single thing you do to make sure that you don't make some major mistakes.

COSTELLO: OK, we're seeing these beautiful pictures in space and basically what they are doing it sounds so simple on earth, right, they are replacing a faulty pump in their cooling system. It sounds like the simplest thing in the world.

CHIAO: That's right. The actual procedures for the spacewalk are fairly straightforward. Disconnect all the lines, take the failed box out, put the new box in and reconnect everything and rebolt it down. The work outside is not to make light of it is actually quite complicated and quite difficult work. You're maneuvering these big ammonia lines that have high pressure ammonia in them. You got these big disconnects, quick disconnects you got to make and it's not easy work. But these guys are well trained and it looks like everything is going well.

COSTELLO: It seems to be. The International Space Station is suffering these little mishaps more and more. Is that true? Is the space station getting old and crusty up there?

CHIAO: No. I wouldn't say that. I mean, we designed the station so it can be maintained. Think of the space station as a house although it's more big and complicated. Your house there's always something that needs work and something that needs to be fixed or something that's failing that you got to go out and buy a replacement. This pump module was designed to be removed and replaced by astronauts. The procedures are well understood and the failures like this are not totally unexpected.

COSTELLO: Former NASA astronaut, Leroy Chiao, thanks so much for joining me this morning. I appreciate it.

CHIAO: My pleasure.

COSTELLO: Thanks. Only a few hours left to get your last minute shopping in and retailers are slashing prices. But this year still foot traffic down a staggering 21 percent. Even still the average American is expected to spend about $740 this holiday season. Stephanie Elam is live in the madness in Burbank, California. Actually it doesn't -- it doesn't look too busy out there -- Stephanie.

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The sun just came up out here, Carol. It's starting to look a lot like Christmas. We had a handful of people who are outside of the door. The store just opened up here at this Best Buy. I want to walk you down here because as you can see there are plenty of workers around. They are all throughout the store ready for all the last minute people coming in.

I want to take you down to meet one man who came in here. He was actually standing outside waiting to come in. This right here, this man right here, this is nick. Nick, we won't talk about your gift. We're not going to talk to whom the gift is for because said person is watching. Tell me, do you consider yourself an early bird or procrastinator since you were standing outside of the store at 7 a.m.

NICK DAVIDGE, LAST-MINUTE SHOPPER: Yes, procrastinator probably.

ELAM: So did you know what you were going to get?

DAVIDGE: No, actually. I procrastinate on that as well.

ELAM: So does that mean now that you are spending more money than if you had planned?

DAVIDGE: Absolutely.

ELAM: But do you think said loved one is going to be happy with this?

DAVIDGE: Yes, hopefully. That's the overall goal. Let's hope so.

ELAM: Do you have any more gifts to get after you leave here?

DAVIDGE: Yes, a whole bunch.

ELAM: You're not done. You're going to be in with the crowds no matter what you do today?

DAVIDGE: Well, I'm hoping that I can get up at 7:00 in the morning will get me through that early part of the day and then I won't have to do it again. I'll still be wandering these stores 7:00 tonight.

ELAM: Don't forget you have to wrap them too. Don't forget to get the gift bags and wrapping paper.

DAVIDGE: That will happen at 12:00.

ELAM: All right, good luck, Nick. Unfortunately for a lot of people there are a lot of people in nick's situation. Some haven't gotten out yet. But it is getting busy here and we're going to keep our eyes on it on the people who are pretending it's their Black Friday of Christmas.

COSTELLO: Nick was great. Thank you, Stephanie for bringing a smile to our faces this Christmas Eve.

Despite sluggish retail sales Santa has plenty of work to do. He's in the air right now. He's actually over China. He's already delivered more than 1 billion gifts, but what about you? Are you like Nick? Indra Petersons is in New York. So if you don't have flying reindeer will it be tough out there?

INDRA PETERSONS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Christmas gifts? No. What a difference from just this weekend where we had this huge storm system that was impacting really the entire chunk of the country with all these variables from heat to cold to ice. That system now is making its way offshore just the way we like it. Now there are a couple of systems but it's a good thing. We could see chances for a white Christmas, some snow. Tiny little wave. But also now in Alberta, clipper is making its way into the Great Lakes throughout the day today. So let's start with that wave I was talking about because it could be significant depending on where you are. If you're south of Buffalo could bring you as much as six inches of lake-effect snow. If you're in New York City, there's a tiny little chance that we could see some flurries in the metropolitan areas as well.

Not the system really that we're all hoping for to bring the white Christmas. It's the clipper I was talking about, the bigger system. It looks like midnight mass east coast time, if you're in Chicago, Minneapolis, you may start to see some of that snow. Tomorrow morning best of all the actual white Christmas, we're still talking about Indiana also in through Michigan seeing snow falling.

The system does quickly exits out of here. Either way we're talking about a good 2 inches to 4 inches of snow that could fall. It will stay cool and will stay. Nice holiday gift for once from me to all of you.

COSTELLO: We appreciate it. Thank you, Indra Petersons.

Russia is making some really big PR moves less than two months out from the Winter Olympics. President Vladimir Putin known for crushing those who oppose him is now handing get out of jail free cards for some of his more famous opponents. That includes members of the "Pussy Riot" punk rock band set free this week. They were in prison for a performance critical of Vladimir Putin.

Today at least one environmental activist from the famous "Arctic 30," the group jailed after protesting on an oil rig had his case dropped. And Russia's most famous prisoner, once the richest man in Russia was set free on Friday after 10 years behind bars.

CNN's Jill Dougherty joins me now from Washington. So what's up with this?

JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: I don't think it's just a PR thing, Carol. Although the timing right before, you know, the run up to the Sochi Olympics leads you to that and I think that is a factor. Obviously Russia has been under criticism for a number of things concerning the Olympics, especially that anti-gay law and so, yes, you could argue that the president wants to make the image look better by freeing those people. But I think there are other things at play. I think what he's doing he's sending messages.

After all, he is a former KGB officer. He is smart. He's cagey and he does want to send some messages, "Pussy Riot," messages morality rules. Russia wants to be the center of morality and the president is saying I don't feel sorry for those girls being in prison because after all what they did demeaned the image of women. But they are getting out two months in advance, so not a big deal.

Then you go to the Green Peace people. The message there, don't even think about interfering with our production of oil in the Arctic. It's very important energy to Russia. Don't even think about climbing on to any vessels and trying to stop it. Then Khordovsky, you get a personal thing. He doesn't like him and the feeling is mutual. I think there's a bit of rubbing his nose into the fact that he's been in prison for ten years. I'm more powerful than you are. And you aren't as much of a threat as you used to be. Therefore, I will let you out, so all of those are messages in addition to that issue of Sochi.

COSTELLO: Still, the timing is interesting. I don't think that Vladimir Putin is going to be placing any more people under arrest pre-Olympics or while the Olympics are ongoing.

DOUGHERTY: That's what a lot of people are saying that right now up until the Olympics things are going to look pretty good. People released. No major problems. But after the Olympics are over, after those cameras have gone, some of the people you can hear this from gay rights activists, they are very worried that after the cameras are gone there will be crackdowns.

We'll have to see what happens at the Olympics. But it's an important moment, $50 billion spent on these Olympics. Most that has ever been spent on Olympics in history and it's a big deal for Mr. Putin.

COSTELLO: Jill Dougherty, many thanks to you. More than 1 million Americans will lose their unemployment benefits this weekend. The program that gives emergency help to people out of work a long time could have continued, but Congress couldn't agree on a deal in time and the White House warns it could make unemployment worse. Alison Kosik joins us now from New York to talk more about this. Good morning.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. So yes, the job market is getting better, but the problem is it's not really where it should be. What the White House is saying is that with these jobless benefits expiring that could hurt the recovery. Now what's happening is 1.3 million Americans are expected to lose their extended jobless benefits on Saturday because what happened was Congress didn't renew the emergency program and what the White House is saying is if these benefits aren't renewed that people are going to have less money to spend, that will hurt demand and ultimately according to the White House that would cost 240,000 jobs next year.

Now Democrats, they really want the benefits extended so we could see a vote for a three month extension when Congress gets back in January. But some Republicans are opposing this. What they are arguing is because the economy is getting better they are saying hey, it's time to start letting some of these emergency measures expire. It's also very expensive, $25 billion of taxpayer money. That's what it costs to extend these benefits just for another year. Now the thing is, Republicans may be willing to pass the extension if Democrats agree to offset that spending somewhere else -- Carol.

COSTELLO: OK. We'll keep an eye interest, but I'm not real hopeful. Alison Kosik reporting from New York this morning. Still to come in the NEWSROOM, it's getting down-to-the-wire for nation's retailers as new reports suggest not as many of you are hitting the malls. Talk about the sluggish holiday sales next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Checking our top stories at 16 minutes past the hour, about 150 U.S. Marines are assembled just outside of South Sudan's border ready to evacuate the last Americans from that troubled Africa country. Some 100 U.S. citizens are believed to be there at the country in just towards civil war. Over the weekend, four Navy SEALs were wounded when their rescue mission came under intense gunfire.

No regrets for American fugitive Edward Snowden and his revelations on a secret U.S. spy program. The former contractor for the National Security Agency fled the United States and espionage charges back in May and now lives under asylum in Russia and he claims victory telling "The Washington Post," he accomplished his mission by exposing what he calls government abuses.

A bankrupt pharmacy has agreed to $100 million settlement for victims of a nationwide meningitis outbreak. At least 64 deaths and 700 illnesses were linked to steroid injections distributed by New England Compounding Center. The owners deny any little bit or wrongdoing, but say they want to play a major role in establishing a fund for those who have suffered or died.

You can tell me. Are you struggling to finish your Christmas shopping? Well, you're not alone. Now retailers are pulling out all the stops to pull you into the stores. There's one store that may have a tough time attracting buyers, Target after that massive data breach. Here to help us to sort through it all, Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst for the NPD Group. Welcome.

MARSHAL COHEN, CHIEF RETAIL ANALYST, NPD GROUP: Pleasure to be here.

COSTELLO: Well, I'm glad you're here. Let's start first with the overall shopping season this holiday because retailers say they are a bit sluggish down, I guess, 3 percent, not good.

COHEN: What happens retailers tried to get an early start on the holiday and they used the fact that they were, you know, short on a few days between Thanksgiving and Christmas. So they pushed the, you know, the envelope up a little bit and tried to lure consumers in with early deals. The other big challenge was they discounted so early they ended up front loading the holiday. And we don't have more relatives just because there are more sales and more days to shop for. It's really about recognizing that consumers were just basically looking for the right items to buy and having a hard time finding them.

COSTELLO: So will they have to change their formula for success in the future?

COHEN: Well, don't expect, now, retail towers give up on Thanksgiving Day openings. This is a new tradition that's been set. They will keep that. The key is going to be how do they not promote so early and be so heavily into discounting. But this has been a challenge that retailers have been trying to overcome for the last few years. COSTELLO: All right, we have to talk about Target because it's trying everything, but not having much success. It's offering a 10 percent discount on its items, staying open later hours. But I'm not sure that's going to get people back into the stores if they are afraid to use their credit cards.

COHEN: Well, Target did a very good job of getting out in front of this right away. They basically, you know, let consumers know that this was an issue and that if they had the, you know, anything they needed to check into so they gave them a game plan of how to get through the problem. Then they offered a discount. So they did the right things.

The challenge for them is that going to be enough for consumers to go in. I went in stores the day that this happened and consumers were basically saying they felt it was safer to shop then. Now the big challenge became there was a limit put on some of the credit spending over $1,000, but here again is some decent news for Target.

Most consumers didn't even have $1,000 left on their credit limits for many of their credit cards. This is a big challenge information. Absolutely the worst time for the breach to happen. However, they did do a good job of trying to get out in front of it.

COSTELLO: So when it's all said and done and remember there are lawsuits out there as well, five so far. When all is said and done will Target rapidly recover from this?

COHEN: This will be something that turns out to be very short-lived as far as a problem goes. If it continues to linger and it becomes a bigger issue than more than just the five or six that we've heard about, or that many, many, many customers saw that there were some wrong charges on their credit card they will do more.

I'm confident they will do the right thing to get consumers to feel comfortable and be communicative to make sure this doesn't happen again and shopping in their location is safe. I'm not concerned long term. I think the real challenge will be it just may have swayed some consumers away a little bit. But, believe me they were very busy, you know, yesterday, they were busy this morning on the way here. They look like they are really not taking much of a step back.

COSTELLO: We'll see. Marshal Cohen, a chief retail analyst with NPD Group, thanks so much for joining me this morning.

COHEN: A pleasure.

COSTELLO: Still to come in the NEWSROOM, a rush to the altar in Utah. We'll tell you why some same sex couples are calling it a Christmas miracle.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: In the state of Utah, gay and lesbian couples say it's a Christmas they will never forget. A federal judge denied the state's efforts to ban same-sex marriage, so in the midst of this holiday season a number of couples are rushing to tie the knot. CNN's Miguel Marquez has their story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For gay and lesbian couples in Utah, those two little words mark the sound of victory.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now pronounce you bound together in the covenant of marriage what God has joined together let no one put asunder.

MARQUEZ: On Monday, Federal Judge Robert Shelby ruled same-sex marriages are legal denying the conservative state's emergency request to halt them calling the ban unconstitutional.

COURTNEY MOSER, MARRIED PARTNER IN UTAH: I never thought I would see this in my lifetime. I'm so grateful to finally have the protection of the state.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is it. It's go time.

MARQUEZ: Hundreds of LGBT couples now lining up at clerk's offices weathering frigid temperatures.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Braved the cold all night long.

MARQUEZ: And long waits to tie the knots getting their hands on marriage licenses.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Try number four for us.

MARQUEZ: It's a victory nine years in the making. Since the state's ban in 2004, Utah now joins the nation's capital and 17 other states that have legalized same sex marriage.

MCKAY COPPINS, POLITICAL EDITOR, "BUZZFEED": It's a huge deal because for Mormons who have been spending these years fighting this battle they've seen it happen across the country, but they really didn't expect to have it come to really their backyards.

MARQUEZ: The conservative states refusing to back down. It filed an appeal in the 10th Circuit Court. The state's governor accusing Shelby of being, quote, an activist federal judge and saying, he is working to determine the best course to defend traditional marriage within the borders of Utah.

COPPINS: It's going to be that much harder for conservatives to make the case that this can be stopped when Utah, one of the most conservative states in the country has now legalized it. Once the dominos start falling you won't be able to stop them.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You may kiss.

MARQUEZ: Miguel Marquez, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Still to come in the newsroom an American in exile and on the run yet Edward Snowden claims victory in his revelations on a secret U.S. spying program. We'll hear from "The Washington Post" reporter who spent hours with him.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thanks so much for joining me. Let's check our top stories. It's still 30 minutes past the hour. Right now two American astronauts outside the International Space Station performing emergency repairs to a cooling system.