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CNN Live Today

This Could be a Record Travel Season; Scars of Nature's Wrath Evident in Florida Months After String of Major Hurricanes

Aired December 23, 2004 - 10:30   ET

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

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


RANDI KAYE, CNN ANCHOR: It is supposed to be one of the busiest travel days of the year, but pictures from our Louisville affiliate WAVE tell a different story. Holiday travel has slowed or even stopped in parts of the Midwest and elsewhere due to a winter storm. Some places have been hit by more snow than they normally see all winter.
The commander of the U.S. military hospital in Germany says the vast majority of Americans wounded in the Mosul attack should recover; 28 soldiers, seven civilians, were sent from the U.S. base to Germany. Some have already been transferred to the U.S. for further treatment. The others are expected stateside by Monday.

We'll have an exclusive interview with the commander of the attacked base. That's coming up two hours from now.

And Lisa Montgomery has two court appearances today, in Kansas and Missouri. Montgomery has been charged with the death of a pregnant woman. She's also accused of stealing that woman's baby. Montgomery's ex-husband says she's been unable to have a baby since having her tubes tied 14 years ago.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: It is holiday crunch time at the nation's airports. Almost 290,000 air travelers are expected to be on the move. That's just today, some 60,000 more than usual. And a new TSA policy, this is news for your ladies, for us ladies out there, taking some of the stress off the female passengers. Security workers have been told now to avoid touching women's breasts. Let's just say it. That's what we're talking about during patdowns, unless metal detectors or other circumstances suggest there's a problem. The change is in response to a flood of complaints.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK HATFIELD, TSA COMM. DIR.: Look, there's a really serious threat out there, there's no doubt about that. We've got a responsibility to address that, to mitigate the risk, but we also have a commitment to customer service, and like good partners, we listen to our traveling public and we're looking at how to make this a little bit more comfortable.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: Now before you roll your eyes about these pats, Hatfield says in the last month alone four different women tried to get on planes with knives hidden in their bras. OK, we move on.

Too early to tell, but early signs do suggest that nearly 63 million Americans could make this a record travel season.

Our Mary Snow has that story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Whether it's by train, plane, or automobile, the number of holiday travelers this season is expected to set a record.

JUSTIN MCNAULL, AAA SPOKESMAN: We're spending a little more on the holidays, so we're spending a little more on travel. And most people feel pretty decent about travel security, certainly better than we did a year ago or two years ago. So we're traveling again.

SNOW: Airlines expect the number of passengers to surpass levels reached before September 11th when air travel reached its previous record high. Observers say Americans are getting more used to security procedures.

MCNAULL: As you go through now at the airport versus a year ago and it's a more hands-on, it's a more involved process. There's a little more touching. There's a little more taking off involved than there was. And travelers, we've gotten used to it, by and large.

SNOW: Low-cost fares from discount airlines are also prompting more people to fly. Because of extra security, transportation officials say the average wait time at airports during the Thanksgiving weekend was 12 minutes in peak hours. But Travelocity says it found those waits can be a lot longer in major cities.

AMY ZIFF, TRAVELOCITY EDITOR-AT-LARGE: Some of the New York airports, La Guardia, JFK, Newark, Miami we saw this, also the Chicago airports, where we saw spikes upwards of an hour at times throughout that holiday weekend.

SNOW: It's not just air travel hitting records. AAA expects 50.9 million people to drive more than 50 miles from their home. That's an all-time high. And that comes despite the fact that the average gasoline price is $1.83 a gallon.

Mary Snow, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: And for those of you traveling by air, here are some tips to make things go a bit more smoothly. Make sure those gifts are unwrapped so screeners can inspect them, and try to arrive at the airport early, wear shoes that are easy to slip on and off, and consolidate keys and loose change so you can pass through the security checkpoints more easily. You do all those things, and yet it seems...

KAYE: The weather gets in your way. KAGAN: The weather or they look at you, and they think, you, you come over here.

KAYE: I'm always that person.

KAGAN: Very suspicious. Yes, just look at that face.

(WEATHER REPORT)

KAYE: The scars of nature's wrath are also evident in Florida months after an unprecedented string of major hurricanes raked across the state.

CNN's John Zarrella revisits one such family preparing for the holidays in lives forever changed.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The fence and a cow pasture separate the children from the passing cars on Interstate 75. They live on FEMA 12th street, and play on the gravel streets and the shadows of the mobile homes lined up in neat rows. Inside unit 276, Marnie Taylor is doing the dishes. If not for FEMA putting this roof over their heads, Taylor says, they'd be homeless.

MARNIE TAYLOR, HURRICANE VICTIM: We're struggling right now. I mean, we're broke. Flat broke.

ZARRELLA: Hurricane Charlie took everything they. For the first three months after Charlie, Marnie, her husband Richard, who's disabled...

RICHARD TAYLOR, HURRICANE VICTIM: Come on, big boy. This is mini me.

ZARRELLA: ... and their three children lived in this FEMA- provided travel trailer. Three weeks ago they relocated here. Little Richie likes this better.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 'cause.

ZARRELLA (on camera): Because why?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because it's bigger.

ZARRELLA (voice-over): There are 350 mobile homes housing storm victims on 66 acres outside punt Puntgourda (ph). To Marnie, being a storm victim like wearing a scarlet letter.

M. TAYLOR: I have to go into different churches and literally beg them to give me food. It's embarrassing, it's humiliating, it's depressing.

ZARRELLA: The Taylors have done their best to prepare for Christmas. local groups have donated some gifts for the children. Ashley wants... UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A Barbie doll house.

ZARRELLA: The Taylors say there won't be much under the Christmas tree. But the one gift Marnie wants most doesn't come in a box.

M. TAYLOR: I just want some peace, and I can, you know, just relax for a change, instead of always being so uptight, worrying what's going to happen tomorrow. Wish I could just worry about today.

ZARRELLA: Outside, the day is coming to a close. Christmas lights are going up. For the Taylors, and the others here, this is their home for the holidays.

John Zarrella, CNN, Puntgourda, Florida.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: Let's take a look at some other stories making news coast to coast.

KAYE: In Polk County, Florida, a nativity scene will stay up in front of the county administration building. So will a sign representing an ancient Persian religion. Officials say the area is a public forum open to any display. However, one celebrating a fake holiday, Festivus, will be removed. The holiday was a parody on the TV show "Seinfeld."

KAGAN: I love Festivus! Oh well. All right. How's this for a Christmas gift? A retired farmer from Anton, Iowa is picking up the tab for the electric bill for the entire town.

KAYE: How great.

KAGAN: Isn't that nice? Richard and Donna Hamann paid $25,000 to cover all the residents, the schools, the businesses. 650 people live in the town. The bill will come due on Christmas day.

And in Washington, North Carolina, the gift of life in the wake of tragedy for a North Carolina couple. Expectant parents Jerry and Jennifer Sneed were headed to the hospital delivery room when they were trapped by a snowstorm. Their baby girl was born in the middle of a highway. Now it was the same road where their 5-year-old son was killed in a car crash last December. They call the baby a blessing from God. And from their little boy. And if that story doesn't give you chills, there's something wrong.

A Texas woman shelling out $50,000 for the country's first cloned order pet. Little Nicky was created from the DNA of a beloved cat that the woman had for 17 years. The woman says she is convinced the kitten is an exact replica, even down to the kitty's personality. The company that created little Nicky is called Genetic Savings and Clone. Very cute.

I was telling you I have a three legged cat.

KAYE: Yes.

KAGAN: But he came that way.

KAYE: So I wonder if you cloned him...

KAGAN: We'll have to find out. You loan me the 50,000 and we'll see if Tripod comes out with four legs.

KAYE: We'll collect some donations here. It's the holiday season.

KAGAN: Pass the hat.

KAYE: Exactly.

KAGAN: Exactly. We have an exotic setting and a powerful story. In a moment, we're going to take a look inside "Hotel Rwanda" and the real life story the movie tells.

KAYE: And still to come if you haven't found that perfect toy to put under the tree, stick around. We have a few alternative options that could lost a lifetime.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

KAGAN: In case you're counting, yes, just two days to go. A short time until Christmas. If you find video games, i-pods and cell phones and things like that too phony, you might want to opt for gifts that give the kiddies something to hold onto forever. Earlier this week our own Tony Harris picked up a few ideas from Robyn Spizman, she's the author of "Make It Memorable."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: If the latest dancing elmo doll isn't your idea of a hip gift for the kids, get off the trendy aisle. Our gift expert has a few tips to make this season's gift giving just a little different. Robyn Spizman is the author of "Make It Memorable." And Robyn joins us this morning from Atlanta. Robyn, good to see you.

ROBYN SPIZMAN, AUTHOR, "MAKE IT MEMORABLE": Good to see you, Tony.

HARRIS: All right, we got a whole gang of great-looking gifts. Where do you want to start?

SPIZMAN: Well, the key is to make it memorable and meaningful. We're going to start with providing a collection. Starting a collection for a child, maybe giving them a vintage toy, a blast from the past, with a toy reach year for the holiday. Maybe something from when you were a kid and it was popular. Or what about snow domes, one for the traveling parent?

HARRIS: Like a collection. Start a collection. OK, OK. SPIZMAN: Yes, start a collection. The snow domes might teach them about the places you've traveled, tips about the history of that city, even the capital, which they'll have to know.

HARRIS: OK.

SPIZMAN: Or you can add sentiment to a gift. And here from E- Musical Gifts, we have a beautiful music box. You could preserve, for example, a non-copyrighted photograph, something each year give them from the particular year that they were born and then every year give them another music box.

HARRIS: And people love these music boxes.

SPIZMAN: This one is -- yes.

HARRIS: Different songs, different styles.

SPIZMAN: There you have Leo and Ben, twins, to preserve that special moment in time. Or what about I call them kiss boxes but they're really little china boxes. And what I'd like to do is when I would choose one, I would read, let's say for example, the Dr. Seuss box, then I would reed Seuss books to our kids. But I would plant a kiss inside just in case they needed one.

HARRIS: Isn't that sweet?

SPIZMAN: Yes, it is.

HARRIS: OK, what do you have next for us?

SPIZMAN: So we're also talking about teaching a skill. That's a memorable alternative gift that's wonderful. The Bead Shop online has all different types of kits. For example, teaching a child to knit. So the 'tweens love these and you can knit an actual poncho. Or what about a decorating your jeans kit? Saving all that money on those trendy jeans.

HARRIS: Yes. High fashion jeans with a high fashion price to go along with it.

SPIZMAN: That's correct. But they also have jewelry kits and even decorate-your-own phone kits. So these are great gifts. Again, thebeadshoponline.com. And these kits really encourage a skill and a talent. Now what about with all these digital cameras these kids have?

HARRIS: That's right.

SPIZMAN: And yet, you could also then give from Epson, the Picturemate, the personal printer, where they can then print their favorite shots and do what our daughter did, she made a college of photographs as gifts. So they learn to make their own gifts. Great for school reports. Great for year round, really wonderful.

HARRIS: Of course it's a great idea. That's why you're here, Robyn. OK.

SPIZMAN: Thanks, Tony.

HARRIS: And what else do you have?

SPIZMAN: Well myveryspecialbook.com is a way you can preserve your history, your family's history. I wrote this one all about our ancestors here, and generations before us, and then told our children who they were, who they were named after and really preserved the family history. Myveryspecialbook.com has gift certificates online, you can then give your grandchild one and they can even help you write the book.

HARRIS: Keep it in the family, pass it down from generation to generation.

SPIZMAN: Right. And what is the holidays without a thank you note? How do you encourage it? You could also then give the thank you book for kids by Ali Spizman. Our daughter wrote the book to show other kids how to say thank you. Make a thank you kits, includes some stationery.

But then you can also teach kids to have a talent and create a family tradition, for example, every year teach your grandchild to maybe bake a new recipe. Then include it in a blank journal or a book and really have a family recipe book, and a talent, supervise it. And then let them bake the cake each year as the gifts for everyone else in the family.

HARRIS: Wonderful ideas, one and all. And what I love about it is that it promotes time with the family, Robyn.

Great ideas as always. Good to see you.

SPIZMAN: Thank you, Tony. Key is to make this holiday memorable.

HARRIS: Happy holidays to you.

HARRIS: Thank you, Tony.

KAGAN: Well, some folks in Richmond, Virginia are having a memorable holiday, but not for what they were planning on. Let's tell you right now, nobody's hurt, but what a pain this is turning out to be in a Richmond, Virginia. This American Airlines jet, the pilot, they are saying, underestimated the turning radius of the plane, veered off the runway into a greasy patch, now not just any area. It's right where the two main runways of the Richmond airport kind of come together. So because of that, a few planes have been able to take off, but no planes have been able to land.

So if you're looking to meet folks at the Richmond, Virginia airport, you might want to hold off a little bit. They're trying to bring the equipment in to clear that plane out of there. Once again, no one hurt. But you can imagine probably some steamed passengers. Also, that was American Airlines flight 1239 going from Richmond to Dallas-Ft. Worth. So if you're waiting in Dallas-Ft. Worth.

KAYE: That's a problem.

KAGAN: Yes, that is a problem.

KAYE: Hopefully they'll make it home for Christmas Eve dinner, or Christmas dinner.

KAGAN: Hopefully, yes.

KAYE: Coming up it's a heart-wrenching story of a hotel manager who uses his skills to save thousands of lives.

KAGAN: Coming up we auk to the actors of the newly released movie "Hotel Rwanda."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Here, a thousand, a thousand U.S. here -- 50,000 francs for my wife and children.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Take them. Take them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: One of the most horrific chapters of the 20th century is now being told in the film "Hotel Rwanda." It's the story of one man's efforts to save more than 1,000 people from the 1994 massacre in the African nation.

KAGAN: Well, this movie is earning rave reviews from critics, and an even tougher audience than that, the survivors. Many took part in the film's shooting in South Africa.

Our Johannesburg bureau chief Charlayne Hunter-Gault has that story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We've seen it in real life, teeming masses of Tutsi and moderate Hutu refugees, trying to escape slaughter by Hutu extremists.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Action, action!

HUNTER-GAULT: They're also in South Africa, in a movie on the heroic life of Paul Yuseffa Bogina (ph), a hotel manager in Rwanda, who risks his life in 1994, saving over 1,000 people.

DON CHEADLE, ACTOR: He was able to sort of keep people at bay with -- with all the skills really that he learned as being a hotel manager, and the stocks that he had. He had liquor, and was able to bribe the army. TERRY GEORGE, DIR., "HOTEL RWANDA": Africa and the humanitarian and personal dramas of Africa have been completely overlooked by the entertainment industry. And yet this story struck me as one of the great universal stories of the end of the 20th century.

HUNTER-GAULT: It's a story of triumph, but with an element of blame.

GEORGE: I think at the time of the genocide there was a selective avoidance of what was going on. It was perceived as just another slaughter in Africa, without any analysis of the individuals involved or the sort of huge humanitarian catastrophe.

HUNTER-GAULT: The South African location was picked because it's similar to Rwanda. Filmmakers found extras among the thousands of Rwandan refugees who escaped the genocide, but remain afraid to go home.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I miss my brothers, my sisters, my aunties, and some of friends.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I remember what happened, how I was suffering the time, and I have some emotion when I act.

HUNTER-GAULT: Actress Sophie Okonedo says she's ashamed how little she knew about the genocide before landing the role of Paul's Yuseffa Bogina wife.

SOPHIE OKONEDO, ACTRESS: You're very insulated in England, as I'm sure you are in America. Everything is about you and your country. And as a whole, there's a starving, at-war world out there that could do with our help.

HUNTER-GAULT (on camera): The producers of this film are hoping that not only will it be a box office success, but that it will open wide the eyes of the world to a continent up to now known mostly through its horrors.

Charlayne Hunter-Gault, CNN, Maderfontaine (ph), South Africa.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: And for more on the latest movies, music, television and books, visit our Web site. The address is CNN.com/entertainment.

KAYE; We've taken you to Iraq before.

KAGAN: But not like this. Coming up, an inside look at what happens when a soldier goes down. The second hour of CNN LIVE TODAY begins right after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com


Aired December 23, 2004 - 10:30   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
RANDI KAYE, CNN ANCHOR: It is supposed to be one of the busiest travel days of the year, but pictures from our Louisville affiliate WAVE tell a different story. Holiday travel has slowed or even stopped in parts of the Midwest and elsewhere due to a winter storm. Some places have been hit by more snow than they normally see all winter.
The commander of the U.S. military hospital in Germany says the vast majority of Americans wounded in the Mosul attack should recover; 28 soldiers, seven civilians, were sent from the U.S. base to Germany. Some have already been transferred to the U.S. for further treatment. The others are expected stateside by Monday.

We'll have an exclusive interview with the commander of the attacked base. That's coming up two hours from now.

And Lisa Montgomery has two court appearances today, in Kansas and Missouri. Montgomery has been charged with the death of a pregnant woman. She's also accused of stealing that woman's baby. Montgomery's ex-husband says she's been unable to have a baby since having her tubes tied 14 years ago.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: It is holiday crunch time at the nation's airports. Almost 290,000 air travelers are expected to be on the move. That's just today, some 60,000 more than usual. And a new TSA policy, this is news for your ladies, for us ladies out there, taking some of the stress off the female passengers. Security workers have been told now to avoid touching women's breasts. Let's just say it. That's what we're talking about during patdowns, unless metal detectors or other circumstances suggest there's a problem. The change is in response to a flood of complaints.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK HATFIELD, TSA COMM. DIR.: Look, there's a really serious threat out there, there's no doubt about that. We've got a responsibility to address that, to mitigate the risk, but we also have a commitment to customer service, and like good partners, we listen to our traveling public and we're looking at how to make this a little bit more comfortable.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: Now before you roll your eyes about these pats, Hatfield says in the last month alone four different women tried to get on planes with knives hidden in their bras. OK, we move on.

Too early to tell, but early signs do suggest that nearly 63 million Americans could make this a record travel season.

Our Mary Snow has that story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Whether it's by train, plane, or automobile, the number of holiday travelers this season is expected to set a record.

JUSTIN MCNAULL, AAA SPOKESMAN: We're spending a little more on the holidays, so we're spending a little more on travel. And most people feel pretty decent about travel security, certainly better than we did a year ago or two years ago. So we're traveling again.

SNOW: Airlines expect the number of passengers to surpass levels reached before September 11th when air travel reached its previous record high. Observers say Americans are getting more used to security procedures.

MCNAULL: As you go through now at the airport versus a year ago and it's a more hands-on, it's a more involved process. There's a little more touching. There's a little more taking off involved than there was. And travelers, we've gotten used to it, by and large.

SNOW: Low-cost fares from discount airlines are also prompting more people to fly. Because of extra security, transportation officials say the average wait time at airports during the Thanksgiving weekend was 12 minutes in peak hours. But Travelocity says it found those waits can be a lot longer in major cities.

AMY ZIFF, TRAVELOCITY EDITOR-AT-LARGE: Some of the New York airports, La Guardia, JFK, Newark, Miami we saw this, also the Chicago airports, where we saw spikes upwards of an hour at times throughout that holiday weekend.

SNOW: It's not just air travel hitting records. AAA expects 50.9 million people to drive more than 50 miles from their home. That's an all-time high. And that comes despite the fact that the average gasoline price is $1.83 a gallon.

Mary Snow, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: And for those of you traveling by air, here are some tips to make things go a bit more smoothly. Make sure those gifts are unwrapped so screeners can inspect them, and try to arrive at the airport early, wear shoes that are easy to slip on and off, and consolidate keys and loose change so you can pass through the security checkpoints more easily. You do all those things, and yet it seems...

KAYE: The weather gets in your way. KAGAN: The weather or they look at you, and they think, you, you come over here.

KAYE: I'm always that person.

KAGAN: Very suspicious. Yes, just look at that face.

(WEATHER REPORT)

KAYE: The scars of nature's wrath are also evident in Florida months after an unprecedented string of major hurricanes raked across the state.

CNN's John Zarrella revisits one such family preparing for the holidays in lives forever changed.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The fence and a cow pasture separate the children from the passing cars on Interstate 75. They live on FEMA 12th street, and play on the gravel streets and the shadows of the mobile homes lined up in neat rows. Inside unit 276, Marnie Taylor is doing the dishes. If not for FEMA putting this roof over their heads, Taylor says, they'd be homeless.

MARNIE TAYLOR, HURRICANE VICTIM: We're struggling right now. I mean, we're broke. Flat broke.

ZARRELLA: Hurricane Charlie took everything they. For the first three months after Charlie, Marnie, her husband Richard, who's disabled...

RICHARD TAYLOR, HURRICANE VICTIM: Come on, big boy. This is mini me.

ZARRELLA: ... and their three children lived in this FEMA- provided travel trailer. Three weeks ago they relocated here. Little Richie likes this better.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 'cause.

ZARRELLA (on camera): Because why?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because it's bigger.

ZARRELLA (voice-over): There are 350 mobile homes housing storm victims on 66 acres outside punt Puntgourda (ph). To Marnie, being a storm victim like wearing a scarlet letter.

M. TAYLOR: I have to go into different churches and literally beg them to give me food. It's embarrassing, it's humiliating, it's depressing.

ZARRELLA: The Taylors have done their best to prepare for Christmas. local groups have donated some gifts for the children. Ashley wants... UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A Barbie doll house.

ZARRELLA: The Taylors say there won't be much under the Christmas tree. But the one gift Marnie wants most doesn't come in a box.

M. TAYLOR: I just want some peace, and I can, you know, just relax for a change, instead of always being so uptight, worrying what's going to happen tomorrow. Wish I could just worry about today.

ZARRELLA: Outside, the day is coming to a close. Christmas lights are going up. For the Taylors, and the others here, this is their home for the holidays.

John Zarrella, CNN, Puntgourda, Florida.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: Let's take a look at some other stories making news coast to coast.

KAYE: In Polk County, Florida, a nativity scene will stay up in front of the county administration building. So will a sign representing an ancient Persian religion. Officials say the area is a public forum open to any display. However, one celebrating a fake holiday, Festivus, will be removed. The holiday was a parody on the TV show "Seinfeld."

KAGAN: I love Festivus! Oh well. All right. How's this for a Christmas gift? A retired farmer from Anton, Iowa is picking up the tab for the electric bill for the entire town.

KAYE: How great.

KAGAN: Isn't that nice? Richard and Donna Hamann paid $25,000 to cover all the residents, the schools, the businesses. 650 people live in the town. The bill will come due on Christmas day.

And in Washington, North Carolina, the gift of life in the wake of tragedy for a North Carolina couple. Expectant parents Jerry and Jennifer Sneed were headed to the hospital delivery room when they were trapped by a snowstorm. Their baby girl was born in the middle of a highway. Now it was the same road where their 5-year-old son was killed in a car crash last December. They call the baby a blessing from God. And from their little boy. And if that story doesn't give you chills, there's something wrong.

A Texas woman shelling out $50,000 for the country's first cloned order pet. Little Nicky was created from the DNA of a beloved cat that the woman had for 17 years. The woman says she is convinced the kitten is an exact replica, even down to the kitty's personality. The company that created little Nicky is called Genetic Savings and Clone. Very cute.

I was telling you I have a three legged cat.

KAYE: Yes.

KAGAN: But he came that way.

KAYE: So I wonder if you cloned him...

KAGAN: We'll have to find out. You loan me the 50,000 and we'll see if Tripod comes out with four legs.

KAYE: We'll collect some donations here. It's the holiday season.

KAGAN: Pass the hat.

KAYE: Exactly.

KAGAN: Exactly. We have an exotic setting and a powerful story. In a moment, we're going to take a look inside "Hotel Rwanda" and the real life story the movie tells.

KAYE: And still to come if you haven't found that perfect toy to put under the tree, stick around. We have a few alternative options that could lost a lifetime.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

KAGAN: In case you're counting, yes, just two days to go. A short time until Christmas. If you find video games, i-pods and cell phones and things like that too phony, you might want to opt for gifts that give the kiddies something to hold onto forever. Earlier this week our own Tony Harris picked up a few ideas from Robyn Spizman, she's the author of "Make It Memorable."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: If the latest dancing elmo doll isn't your idea of a hip gift for the kids, get off the trendy aisle. Our gift expert has a few tips to make this season's gift giving just a little different. Robyn Spizman is the author of "Make It Memorable." And Robyn joins us this morning from Atlanta. Robyn, good to see you.

ROBYN SPIZMAN, AUTHOR, "MAKE IT MEMORABLE": Good to see you, Tony.

HARRIS: All right, we got a whole gang of great-looking gifts. Where do you want to start?

SPIZMAN: Well, the key is to make it memorable and meaningful. We're going to start with providing a collection. Starting a collection for a child, maybe giving them a vintage toy, a blast from the past, with a toy reach year for the holiday. Maybe something from when you were a kid and it was popular. Or what about snow domes, one for the traveling parent?

HARRIS: Like a collection. Start a collection. OK, OK. SPIZMAN: Yes, start a collection. The snow domes might teach them about the places you've traveled, tips about the history of that city, even the capital, which they'll have to know.

HARRIS: OK.

SPIZMAN: Or you can add sentiment to a gift. And here from E- Musical Gifts, we have a beautiful music box. You could preserve, for example, a non-copyrighted photograph, something each year give them from the particular year that they were born and then every year give them another music box.

HARRIS: And people love these music boxes.

SPIZMAN: This one is -- yes.

HARRIS: Different songs, different styles.

SPIZMAN: There you have Leo and Ben, twins, to preserve that special moment in time. Or what about I call them kiss boxes but they're really little china boxes. And what I'd like to do is when I would choose one, I would read, let's say for example, the Dr. Seuss box, then I would reed Seuss books to our kids. But I would plant a kiss inside just in case they needed one.

HARRIS: Isn't that sweet?

SPIZMAN: Yes, it is.

HARRIS: OK, what do you have next for us?

SPIZMAN: So we're also talking about teaching a skill. That's a memorable alternative gift that's wonderful. The Bead Shop online has all different types of kits. For example, teaching a child to knit. So the 'tweens love these and you can knit an actual poncho. Or what about a decorating your jeans kit? Saving all that money on those trendy jeans.

HARRIS: Yes. High fashion jeans with a high fashion price to go along with it.

SPIZMAN: That's correct. But they also have jewelry kits and even decorate-your-own phone kits. So these are great gifts. Again, thebeadshoponline.com. And these kits really encourage a skill and a talent. Now what about with all these digital cameras these kids have?

HARRIS: That's right.

SPIZMAN: And yet, you could also then give from Epson, the Picturemate, the personal printer, where they can then print their favorite shots and do what our daughter did, she made a college of photographs as gifts. So they learn to make their own gifts. Great for school reports. Great for year round, really wonderful.

HARRIS: Of course it's a great idea. That's why you're here, Robyn. OK.

SPIZMAN: Thanks, Tony.

HARRIS: And what else do you have?

SPIZMAN: Well myveryspecialbook.com is a way you can preserve your history, your family's history. I wrote this one all about our ancestors here, and generations before us, and then told our children who they were, who they were named after and really preserved the family history. Myveryspecialbook.com has gift certificates online, you can then give your grandchild one and they can even help you write the book.

HARRIS: Keep it in the family, pass it down from generation to generation.

SPIZMAN: Right. And what is the holidays without a thank you note? How do you encourage it? You could also then give the thank you book for kids by Ali Spizman. Our daughter wrote the book to show other kids how to say thank you. Make a thank you kits, includes some stationery.

But then you can also teach kids to have a talent and create a family tradition, for example, every year teach your grandchild to maybe bake a new recipe. Then include it in a blank journal or a book and really have a family recipe book, and a talent, supervise it. And then let them bake the cake each year as the gifts for everyone else in the family.

HARRIS: Wonderful ideas, one and all. And what I love about it is that it promotes time with the family, Robyn.

Great ideas as always. Good to see you.

SPIZMAN: Thank you, Tony. Key is to make this holiday memorable.

HARRIS: Happy holidays to you.

HARRIS: Thank you, Tony.

KAGAN: Well, some folks in Richmond, Virginia are having a memorable holiday, but not for what they were planning on. Let's tell you right now, nobody's hurt, but what a pain this is turning out to be in a Richmond, Virginia. This American Airlines jet, the pilot, they are saying, underestimated the turning radius of the plane, veered off the runway into a greasy patch, now not just any area. It's right where the two main runways of the Richmond airport kind of come together. So because of that, a few planes have been able to take off, but no planes have been able to land.

So if you're looking to meet folks at the Richmond, Virginia airport, you might want to hold off a little bit. They're trying to bring the equipment in to clear that plane out of there. Once again, no one hurt. But you can imagine probably some steamed passengers. Also, that was American Airlines flight 1239 going from Richmond to Dallas-Ft. Worth. So if you're waiting in Dallas-Ft. Worth.

KAYE: That's a problem.

KAGAN: Yes, that is a problem.

KAYE: Hopefully they'll make it home for Christmas Eve dinner, or Christmas dinner.

KAGAN: Hopefully, yes.

KAYE: Coming up it's a heart-wrenching story of a hotel manager who uses his skills to save thousands of lives.

KAGAN: Coming up we auk to the actors of the newly released movie "Hotel Rwanda."

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Here, a thousand, a thousand U.S. here -- 50,000 francs for my wife and children.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Take them. Take them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: One of the most horrific chapters of the 20th century is now being told in the film "Hotel Rwanda." It's the story of one man's efforts to save more than 1,000 people from the 1994 massacre in the African nation.

KAGAN: Well, this movie is earning rave reviews from critics, and an even tougher audience than that, the survivors. Many took part in the film's shooting in South Africa.

Our Johannesburg bureau chief Charlayne Hunter-Gault has that story.

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CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We've seen it in real life, teeming masses of Tutsi and moderate Hutu refugees, trying to escape slaughter by Hutu extremists.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Action, action!

HUNTER-GAULT: They're also in South Africa, in a movie on the heroic life of Paul Yuseffa Bogina (ph), a hotel manager in Rwanda, who risks his life in 1994, saving over 1,000 people.

DON CHEADLE, ACTOR: He was able to sort of keep people at bay with -- with all the skills really that he learned as being a hotel manager, and the stocks that he had. He had liquor, and was able to bribe the army. TERRY GEORGE, DIR., "HOTEL RWANDA": Africa and the humanitarian and personal dramas of Africa have been completely overlooked by the entertainment industry. And yet this story struck me as one of the great universal stories of the end of the 20th century.

HUNTER-GAULT: It's a story of triumph, but with an element of blame.

GEORGE: I think at the time of the genocide there was a selective avoidance of what was going on. It was perceived as just another slaughter in Africa, without any analysis of the individuals involved or the sort of huge humanitarian catastrophe.

HUNTER-GAULT: The South African location was picked because it's similar to Rwanda. Filmmakers found extras among the thousands of Rwandan refugees who escaped the genocide, but remain afraid to go home.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I miss my brothers, my sisters, my aunties, and some of friends.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I remember what happened, how I was suffering the time, and I have some emotion when I act.

HUNTER-GAULT: Actress Sophie Okonedo says she's ashamed how little she knew about the genocide before landing the role of Paul's Yuseffa Bogina wife.

SOPHIE OKONEDO, ACTRESS: You're very insulated in England, as I'm sure you are in America. Everything is about you and your country. And as a whole, there's a starving, at-war world out there that could do with our help.

HUNTER-GAULT (on camera): The producers of this film are hoping that not only will it be a box office success, but that it will open wide the eyes of the world to a continent up to now known mostly through its horrors.

Charlayne Hunter-Gault, CNN, Maderfontaine (ph), South Africa.

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KAGAN: And for more on the latest movies, music, television and books, visit our Web site. The address is CNN.com/entertainment.

KAYE; We've taken you to Iraq before.

KAGAN: But not like this. Coming up, an inside look at what happens when a soldier goes down. The second hour of CNN LIVE TODAY begins right after a quick break.

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