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CNN Saturday Morning News
Israel Strikes at Gaza; Shoppers Not Flocking to Sales; More Wintry Weather
Aired December 27, 2008 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Hey there, everybody. Good morning from the CNN Center. Hey, here I am. How are you doing? Good morning. Way to start off, huh? Saturday, December the 27th, there she is. I'm T.J. Holmes.
This is Abbie, everybody. Welcome. Good to have you with us.
ABBIE BOUDREAU, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you. Betty Nguyen is off today. We're working on several stories.
HOLMES: Got a lot going on, including some breaking news here.
BOUDREAU: At least 150 people are killed. Hundreds more injured after Israel launches air attacks across Gaza. We'll have more details and the latest pictures from the scene and a live report.
HOLMES: Also, vacation out there in Hawaii interrupted just a bit for the president-elect -- and not just him, hundreds of thousands of others in Hawaii. There is a power outage across just about all of the island of Oahu.
BOUDREAU: It was the holiday shopping season minus the crush of holiday shoppers. We'll explore what's next for the nation's retailers.
HOLMES: All right. But we will -- we'll start with that breaking news that Abbie was just mentioning. This is out of the Middle East. These are some of the pictures we've been seeing, this in the past few hours. Israeli air strikes leave a death toll there that's now up to 150 -- 150 people dead that we now know of. That could climb. We do know at least 250 others have been wounded. The apparent targets here, kind of the usual targets, often people might say, from the Israeli side, they're targeting the militant group, Hamas.
CNN's Paula Hancocks is joining us now from our Jerusalem bureau.
Paula, hello to you. Do we know now -- have they gotten who they targeted or will these attacks continue?
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, T.J.
Well, Israel has been very clear about this, saying it's leaving the door open to carry out more attacks. It may not be over. So, these are very significant air strikes that we have seen on Gaza. The death toll is very high. Now, Israel is saying it is only targeting Hamas infrastructure. Hamas certainly saying that most, if not all of its security compounds have been destroyed. Many of its senior peace commanders were inside at the time. They've been killed.
But, of course, this is one of the most densely populated areas on earth. Civilians are going to be killed as well. And many of these compounds are within residential areas. So, certainly, with the pictures we've been seeing, really quite heartbreaking. You see any vehicle possible being used to bring those injured to the hospitals. But just quite frankly, not enough ambulances.
We've seen injured children being carried out of these cars as well as adults. And, of course, Hamas is saying that it will retaliate and we can see that it has retaliated already. At least one of the Palestinian militant groups have rockets hitting Netivot, which is just six miles east of Gaza. And we're hearing from Israeli medical teams that one Israeli has been killed and one is badly wounded in those rocket attacks. So, a severe escalation of violence in this region -- T.J.?
HOLMES: And, Paula, we know that there was a truce, albeit a tenuous one that was in place that just expired. However, we did start to see an escalation of violence and start to see violence pick back up in the past couple of weeks, the past couple of months or so. So, this is just pretty much a continuation. I guess, when did things set off again after that truce was in place? Because we've been seeing a few attacks and a few back and forth in the past couple of months.
HANCOCKS: That's right. It was last Friday that this truce actually expired. But it's been a couple of months that we've seen this escalation in violence. We've seen the tit-for-tat attacks but nothing like on this level.
Certainly, in the past couple of days, we've heard some very bellicose statements from both sides. We've heard the Israeli defense minister and foreign minister saying enough is enough, that we've had enough of these rocket attacks on Israeli, residents and on Israel towns surrounding Gaza City. This has been going on for some eight years or so.
So, we were expecting some kind of operation, whether it was going to be this big, we weren't sure it was going to be this big, but a very significant operation. And, unfortunately, a very high casualty toll -- over 150 killed. Now, we can imagine many of those are not Hamas operatives. Many of those are civilians caught up in this violence.
HOLMES: All right. Our Paula Hancocks for us from our Jerusalem bureau -- Paula, thank you so much.
BOUDREAU: Now to that huge power outage on the Hawaiian island of Oahu. More than 800,000 people are in the dark, including President- elect Barack Obama who's vacationing there with his family. The island's governor says the generator was being taken to the compound where Obama was staying.
We get more now from Ed Henry.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) ED HENRY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Honolulu is in almost total darkness right now, affecting almost 1 million people. Eighty percent to 90 percent of the island of Oahu is without power after a massive outage just after sunset on Friday, apparently caused by lightning. All this affecting so many tourists here for the holiday season, but also affecting President-elect Barack Obama who's here vacationing on the island of Oahu. Though Mayor Mufi Hannemann told the "Associated Press" that he was told by polices officials that Mr. Obama and his family are safe right now, the protective press pool that travels with the president-elect waited outside the multimillion dollar home he's renting right now, and at one point, they overheard talk of a generator being brought in to power that home. Reporters eventually though were cleared for the evening, suggesting that all is well.
All of this started about 6:45 local time, about 11:45 Eastern Time. I was at a restaurant with family and you could see through windows at the restaurant, lightning striking all across the island because of storms. All of a sudden, the lights went dead. Fire alarms went off. People started heading out of the restaurant into parking garages that were jammed up with people. All of the traffic lights, of course, were out. Gridlock throughout the city of Honolulu.
Now, officials are telling the "Honolulu Advertiser" that a lightning strike caused a surge in the power system and that the rest of Oahu went down about two hours later, as another generator fell. This has shut down stores all along Waikiki Beach here, the busy post-holiday spending season, of course.
All in all, somewhere between 800,000 and 1 million people affected, according to police officials. They are saying that the power is going to be out for at least 12 hours. So, that would carry it into early part of Saturday that there would be power out. Again, all of this is affecting not just the many tourists who were here but also President-elect Barack Obama.
Ed Henry, CNN, Honolulu.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: We turn to the weather now. Well, it's been the problem lately. It's been cold, it's been snowing, it's been some ice that's caused some travel issues. Everybody wanted it to warm up. OK. Well, it warmed up and that still caused more problems for holiday travelers. Hundreds of flights to and from Chicago's major airports were cancelled because of dense, dangerous fog that came after that warm-up.
And so, all that fog made takeoffs and landings pretty much impossible. Now, those stranded at Midway Airport had to spend the night there in cots and that is not fun. Check the morning skies now. Chicago's Midway Airport has reopened, experiencing some slight delays. Same thing with O'Hare.
Only minor flight delays so far across the country. But, hey, it's just 7:00 something here on the east coast. And from deep freeze to a deep thaw, across much of the Midwest, the snow and ice -- and last week's winter storm melting way too fast, causing flash flooding problems now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAN COUGHLIN, COOK CO. EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY: It's a very complex situation because it's not only the rainwater. We have the snow melt. We have the ice conditions on the rivers themselves. We have the backup of the storm drainage systems. So, this stuff is going to be an hour-by-hour monitoring effort.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Officials watching those flood-prone rivers closely, and sandbagging low-lying communities.
All right. A lot of things are going on out there right about now. Bonnie Schneider is here with us today.
Hello. And we're talking about all this cold, all these travel delays, and whatnot. Well, you've got some tornadoes to tell us about.
BONNIE SCHNEIDER, CNN METEOROLOGIST: That's right. Early this morning, we had a good part of the country, T.J., that is under a tornado watch. In fact, there are four tornado watches in effect right now, and they will go straight into the early afternoon hours. All the way up from northern Illinois down through Missouri, into Kansas, Oklahoma, as far as south as Arkansas.
These tornado watches mean conditions exist where we could see a tornado breakout in counties in the highlighted red boxes at any time. So, you really have to be prepared and be ready for it. For example, in Kansas City, notice the heavy thunderstorm activity that's coming through from the south, very strong storms in this region. And as we head even further south into Oklahoma City, we have a big squall line that's producing some very strong downpours, also, frequent lightning strike and gusty winds as well.
But it's Chicago we're watching in particular because the heavy rain on top of that snow melt is going to cause a big problem. We've got flood warnings in effect for Chicago. You're looking at a live picture -- a tower cam there. You can see the rain drops on the tower cam.
I think it's going to get worse because -- look at this, we have one to about two inches of rain that's already on the ground. Plus, the snow melt, when that water comes down on that packed-down snow, we'll see an additional two to three inches of water being released. And the next thing you know we're going to get a lot of flooding in this region.
Temperatures are big contrast across the board. And that's part of the reason we're seeing the threat for severe weather. As you mentioned, Abbie and T.J., we don't have any travel delays yet, but we will later on this afternoon no doubt with all these storms.
HOLMES: You can predict them sometimes, can't you? And, we know, it's early. So, no issues yet. But if it ain't one thing, it's another.
SCHNEIDER: Sure.
HOLMES: We're dealing with the cold and the ice but now, we've got other problems. We'll be checking in with you plenty this morning, Bonnie. Good to have you with us this weekend.
SCHNEIDER: Thank you.
BOUDREAU: A ninth body has been recovered from the rubble of a burned out home in suburban Los Angeles. That's where a man dressed as Santa Claus opened fire at a Christmas Eve party before setting fire to the home. It happened in Covina, at the parents of the man's ex-wife. Police now say Bruce Jeffrey Pardo was planning to flee to Canada.
Our Thelma Gutierrez has more on the emergency calls to police.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
THELMA GUTIERREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Near frantic screams for help coming from the inside of this home. These are the transcripts of the 911 call: "He's shooting. He's shooting."
Two dozen people are at a Christmas party when a man dressed as Santa Claus goes on a rampage. The panicked caller tells the 911 operator she knows the shooter. "His name is Bruce Pardo. He's my ex-brother- in-law. He's still shooting. He's knocking out the lights. He came in through the entrance of the door in a Santa Claus suit. I didn't see them when he shot."
Police say 45-year-old Bruce Pardo went to the Christmas party dressed as Santa because he knew it was an annual family tradition. When an eight-year-old girl opens the door, Pardo pulls out a semi-automatic weapon and shoots her.
The caller tells the operator, "My daughter's been shot in the face. She was shot in the face and she's bleeding."
Police say Pardo then begins shooting at everyone in sight, some hide under furniture, others jump from windows to escape. Then he pulls out a canister of racing fuel disguised as a holiday package.
CHIEF KIM RANEY, COVINA, CALIFORNIA POLICE: The package he had appears to be a homemade pressurized device.
GUTIERREZ: The two-story home belonging to Pardo's former in-laws is engulfed in flames. The bodies of nine people are burned so badly they have to be identified using dental records. Pardo is also severely burned.
RANEY: He suffered third degree burns on both arms. It also appears that the Santa Claus suit that he was wearing did melt on to his body.
GUTIERREZ: Pardo flees to his brother's house but investigators discover he had an elaborate escape plan. RANEY: Pardo did have $17,000 of cash, Saran-wrapped to his legs or concealed inside of a girdle that he was wearing. He also had a plane ticket for a flight on an early morning flight Thursday, Christmas morning, from LAX to Canada.
GUTIERREZ: He hadn't counted on suffering third degree burns himself. Unable to escape, Pardo fatally shoots himself in the head.
Thelma Gutierrez, CNN, Covina, California.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: A horrific story there. A lot of people are still trying to understand. We'll get the details, many more details further in the coming days and weeks. We will, however, turn to some economic news now.
And, 50 percent off, 60 percent off, 75 percent off? A lot of shoppers are waiting for it to say free before they make a move, actually. Well, no matter how much they're slashing prices out there at the stores, shoppers just don't seem to be buying. We'll be talking about that.
BOUDREAU: Also, $300 million-plus, 180,000-karat precious stone -- that was hard to say -- that was reportedly stolen has been recovered. The alleged thief handed it over to police but he's not facing charges.
HOLMES: It makes no sense. How can you steal that and not be under arrest?
BOUDREAU: I don't know. But it sounds really big.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: A breaking story this morning. You see the pictures there on your left. We're getting a lot of pictures in this morning, after air strikes in Gaza, air strikes launched by Israel that have killed some 150 people and left another 250 injured. These strikes are targeting Hamas militants, according to Israeli officials. However, it is believed that many, many civilians have been caught in the crossfire. We are following this breaking story out of Gaza here this morning.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONELLE WHITE, SHOPPER FROM ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA: Up to 60 percent off, 40 percent off on stuff I was looking for. It's even better than Black Friday.
STEVE PHARRISH, SHOPPER FROM VIRGINIA BEACH, VIRGINIA: I got this tie at Macy's for practically free. The sales are -- they're outstanding.
KEVIN MILLER, MOVADO JEWELERY STORE WORKER: It's been a tough season. So many people are just really out looking for the best deal. (END VIDEO CLIP)
BOUDREAU: Deals are great, if you went (ph) shopping all weekend long. But in the end, it turned out to be the worst holiday shopping season in four decades. Researchers say the deep discounts and attractive early bird deals were over-shadowed by concerns about the economy and job security.
New estimates from MasterCard indicate total sales fell about 3 percent between November and December combined. Closing in electronics took a huge hit with sales dropping more than 20 percent compared to this time last year. Luxury items were the worst hit, dropping 34 percent. And with no end to the free-fall in sight, retailers are turning to Washington for help.
CNN's Allan Chernoff has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): After a dismal holiday shopping season, the nation's biggest retailers are begging for help. The situation is critical, reads a letter to President- elect Obama from the National Retail Federation that's signed by the CEOs of JCPenney, Saks and PetSmart. They're asking Obama to approve a series of tax-free shopping holidays in March, July and October -- 30 days in all when consumers could buy without paying state sales tax. Washington would reimburse the states for their lost revenue.
MARSHALL COHEN, NPD GROUP: The tax-free exempt shopping is one part of the puzzle that will help. But, what we've seen is a consumer that's now gotten used to very large discounts and only the tax-exempt piece of the puzzle may not be enough.
CHERNOFF: Discounts are especially deep now. At JCPenney, merchandise is marked down 50 percent and 60 percent.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My mom is out to get herself a gift. Every day work bag at great price, you get a discount plus you get this coupon. These sales are excellent today.
CHERNOFF: The retailers' distress is the shoppers' delight.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: About five pairs of corduroy pants, four cotton tops, two watches, and a beautiful vase.
CHERNOFF (on camera): All for $101.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, it did (ph).
CHERNOFF (voice-over): Instead of tallying their profits, merchants are trying to minimize their losses.
COHEN: At 50 percent to 60 percent off, they're about breaking even. When they start discounting at 75 percent off or 75 percent plus another 25 percent off on top of that, they're not making money, they're losing money. CHERNOFF: Retailers knew this would be a tough holiday season so, they held inventories low, but not low enough. So, clearance sales that typically begin in January are already under way.
(on camera): Shoppers with disposable income are the winners in this dismal retail environment as stores simply try to clear out winter merchandise so they can bring in new goods for the spring, when they hope the economy will be showing signs of improvement.
Allan Chernoff, CNN, Garden City, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: We want to turn now to Gal Borenstein, he's a founder of the Borenstein Group. He founded that group in 1995, and has a lot of experience in marketing, advertising, and planning in the business, communications arena, has 18 years experience in this.
We wanted to give this a little background there so people would understand your credentials and why we have you here. But, on this question here, are we just spoiled now? Are shoppers spoiled to the point where even 50 percent doesn't sound good to us any more and that is really crippling a lot of these retailers? They can't get rid of this stuff and even when they do, they can't make a lot of money with such deep discounts?
GAL BORENSTEIN, THE BORENSTEIN GROUP: Yes, Don (ph). I think that the real problem is that we're basically in a spiral where the trust of the consumers has been compromised and, most importantly, what is happening is the retailers are basically playing reactive game as opposed to basically thinking pro-actively of how to reinvent their retail paradigm. The old paradigms of waiting for Christmas and Black Friday to actually catch-up are not going to work anymore in 2009.
And those that are not capable of actually taking what they have and reinventing their store, inventing their online environment, especially, are going to be losers.
HOLMES: Well, how do you reinvent? How are they supposed to reinvent themselves in such a way -- at the end of the day, isn't just a matter of whether or not people have money to spend?
BORENSTEIN: Absolutely not. I think that what's very important for -- strategically, to understand for retailers, and this is kind of one of the things that we do is work with CEOs of companies, is really the ability to focus on three areas. One is customer loyalty, and understanding that if you keep on discounting prices, you don't necessarily get the person to come twice to your store or to your company.
The second is customer experience. With the pricing of everything from iPods to TVs...
HOLMES: Yes.
BORENSTEIN: ... to clothing going down and essentially, if you can buy the same products in three different stores, why should I buy from your store as opposed to somebody else's store? Why shouldn't I buy it from Amazon.com? The answer, as the numbers are showing, is that Amazon.com actually is doing great. They actually had the best season ever.
So, it's about the customer experience and how well people are feeling about buying from one place over the other. So, I think, at the end of the game, what we're going to see is that retailers that are actually, really focusing on the customer experience, making it easier to buy -- online, offline, wherever it is -- that's going to win.
HOLMES: But we're not going to see that turn around, I guess, in a matter of -- like you're talking about reinventing themselves in a way -- we're not going to see that turnaround in a matter of months. It's something that could even take a couple of years for them to adjust to.
But -- let's talk about the immediate future. If things are this bad during a time, the holiday season, when many of these retailers, see 50 percent of their sales and 50 percent of their gains come in, if we're so dismal now, what in the world do they have to look forward to in January, February, March, April?
BORENSTEIN: I really think that it's focused on one thing, which is decide what are your priorities? Are you in it to win it? Are you in it to survive as a company? If you're in it to survive as a company, you're going to be focusing on building the customer base again and making sure that they come back to your store.
So, some innovations that immediately could be implemented include, for example, bundling products together. For example, you know, for Hanukkah, we got our kids the Wii, and if the Wii didn't come with a bunch of games together, we probably wouldn't have gotten it from somewhere else. So, the same applies here.
So, I urge retailers and I urge consumers to really kind of look at the big picture. And I think that retailers that are smart are going to be able to retain their brand and not compromise their brand by basically becoming deep discount stores, because those will go out of business. And as you said, we do expect more retailers...
HOLMES: Oh, yes.
BORENSTEIN: ... to go out of business in the next six months. They're not the ones that are actually going to have a higher price, or the ones that basically decided the price is to discount.
HOLMES: Yes.
BORENSTEIN: Discount never keeps customers for longer than the pizza coupon.
HOLMES: Just that sale. Oh, yes.
BORENSTEIN: Yes. BORENSTEIN: I hear you. Well, that is an interesting spin on things there, because everybody is expecting, and if you don't have that deep discount, people aren't buying. But you said, that's not the winning formula in the retail business.
Gal Borenstein, sir, we appreciate your time, your expertise. And we'll see you again soon.
BORENSTEIN: Thank you very much.
HOLMES: All right.
Well, Abbie, it's all yours.
BOUDREAU: Thanks, T.J.
Now, did you end us the best video of the year? Well, our viewers are deciding this one. Our Josh Levs has that.
JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey there, Abbie. By the way, welcome to the show.
BOUDREAU: Thank you.
LEVS: It's great to have you with us this weekend.
BOUDREAU: Thank you.
LEVS: And coming up, everybody, I'm going to show you how you can pick the best iReports of the Year, whether it's about this -- "How not to drive," some outrage of the Big Three auto companies, or this, a tornado churning through the Midwest?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(SINGING)
(LAUGHTER)
SGT. ARMANDO GARZA, IREPORTER: Merry Christmas, baby. I love you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: OK. We should have started the morning off with that. That was Sergeant Armando Garza. He's serving in Baghdad right now.
He sent this actually to his wife who watches CNN all the time. Hoping she'd be watching CNN this morning, we hope she caught it just then. If not, maybe we should roll that every 15 minutes so she'll possible catch it. But he got together with some of his fellow soldiers, as you saw there, helped him in his video. But this is actually his third deployment, and you know how severe, how tough these could be on a lot of those families. But really sweet message he sent back there. BOUDREAU: It's sweet. It gave me chills.
HOLMES: You're absolutely right. It gave you chills to see that.
BOUDREAU: Well, if you have any pictures or videos you'd like to share, you can send them to CNN@iReport.com. You should send them because they do get on air.
HOLMES: They do get on a lot. Those are very nice. So, we'll try to find a way to get that back in this morning. I'll push for it, all right, this morning. I love that.
BOUDREAU: All right.
HOLMES: All right. Our Josh Levs, keeping an eye on things for us as well, with the big board. What do we got? We got the top iReports of the year, a lot of list and things like that that people are compiling, you're compiling one here as well.
LEVS: Yes, in fact, now, I got to make some calls and see if we can get that as one of the options for one of the top ten best iReports of the Year. It's really awesome one. We do have a lot of really nice beautiful ones like that.
Let me show you, guys, what's going on. Let's zoom in on the board. Our camera guy, Zack (ph), here is going to show this. I'll get my hand out of the way -- your picks, top iReports of the Year. We have a whole bunch that you can choose from. Go to CNN.com and it's really cool. You just pick one, you say you like this one and then you go over and you drag the image over there. You say, I think that's the top one of the year. If, for example, you like the tornado.
Let me show you a few that are popular right now. We're going to start off actually with that tornado. Check out this video here. It came to us from Bob Potempa who's in Illinois. You guys might remember this one from June. It got, I think, about 400,000 plays just on iReport at the time. And I'm going to emphasize as we watch this, he did not go to any danger to take this. We check this stuff before we're even willing to use it. It's one of the most powerful images we got. Let's listen for a few seconds.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, IREPORT FROM BOB POTEMPA)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We better go inside.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Come on. Come on.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think it's fine.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEVS: And you got a conversation going on in the background and then you see it spiral toward that house. You don't see the house destroyed. The house makes it, but still, it's credible stuff. Let's go this next one now. This is from -- we just got it recently -- this is from Chris Denny. People were asked to give your year in 30 seconds. Let's listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, IREPORT FROM CHRIS DENNY)
CHRIS DENNY, IREPORTER: Honeymoon in Fiji, parents split up, dad got run over by a boat, said goodbye to Hannah, Miller was born, I got laid off, started a business, relearned to budget, got our first gig, fell back in love with (INAUDIBLE), girls got dressed up for Halloween, change won. Now, we head into 2009, a little exhaustive, a lot grateful, and optimistic.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEVS: And basically, so far, guys, that one is doing really well. And one more I want to show you before I disappear here. This is a comedy one that we got but it's actually -- it's very clever. It's out of Los Angeles and it was designed to make fun of the new hands- free driving law in California where you are no longer allowed to hold a phone.
Let's take a look at what they put together.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, IREPORT FROM MICHAEL ABBOTT)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just out advertising my DVDs by director's middle name, David Leo Pincher, we go after Francis Ford Coppola.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: People are loving this one. This sent to us from Michael Abbott who produced his show and comedian Skyler Stone. You see the guy (INAUDIBLE) if they have meals. He starts doing a henna tattoo or something on somebody's back. That one also got hundreds of thousands of hits at iReport.com, helping lead the list right now.
Folks, it's going to be up to you. You have the New Year to decide. Just go to CNN.com. Click on "Year in Review" at the very top. Drag and slide. You decide what the top iReport videos of the year were. And, guys, next weekend, we'll have the results. We'll bring them to you right here.
ABBIE BOUDREAU, CNN ANCHOR: Very cool. That one actually was scary, though, with these hands like not on the steering wheel at all.
LEVS: Yes, I got to call him because it looks as though he's driving.
BOUDREAU: I mean, I don't mean to be, you know, no fun. But that looks...
T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: You're kind of being no fun.
BOUDREAU: I'm being no fun?
HOLMES: You kind of sort of. It's kind of funny. Let me enjoy it.
BOUDREAU: I mean, come on. I don't know. Well, anyway, very cool. Thank you.
HOLMES: And this weekend, speaking of iReports, we're looking back at some of the most memorable ones of 2008. Viewing your stories that help shape the news, help us cover some stories, more extensively actually. We appreciate that help.
Don't miss our iReport special with me and Betty Nguyen, that's tonight and tomorrow night at 8:00 o'clock Eastern Time.
BOUDREAU: Welcome back. I'm Abbie Boudreau, in for Betty Nguyen.
HOLMES: And hello to you all. I'm T.J. Holmes. Glad you could be with us on this Saturday morning.
A quick look at our top stories: At least 155 people are now dead in Israeli air strikes across Gaza. Palestinian medical sources say another 250 people have been injured. The Israeli defense forces say the attacks targeted Hamas terror operatives, its training camps and its weapons storage warehouses. A six-month truce between the Hamas government in Gaza and Israel expired a week ago.
BOUDREAU: And in Thailand, relatives of that devastating tsunami four years ago remember the victims. Two hundred and twenty thousand people were killed December 26th when huge waves caused by an earthquake began smashing into coastal communities.
HOLMES: A fire last night in southwest Philadelphia has killed seven people, all of them from the same family. Six of the victims were found in the home's basement huddled together against the exit door. The whole family apparently lived in that basement together. Only one way out and that was that one door. Early clues suggest a kerosene heater may have started that fire.
We turn to Pakistan now where today, they're telling India it does not want war and would use force only if attacked. This after Pakistan moved thousands of its troops to the border that it shares with India. Now, India continues to point fingers at Pakistan, insisting terrorists who launched the attacks in Mumbai were trained in that country.
We have been following this story, of course, for the past several weeks after those attacks that we saw in Mumbai. CNN senior international correspondent, Nic Robertson, has more now on the spiraling situation we've been watching between these two nuclear powers.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): What began as a 10-man terror attack is escalating into a potentially, more deadly conflict. The three-day gun battles that erupted a month ago in Mumbai, Indian's financial capital, sow the seeds for growing tension between Pakistan and India. India claims the attackers were trained at terror camps in Pakistan, and has demanded those responsible be handed over. Pakistan arrested leaders of the group, which denies any part in the attacks, and says India has yet to provide sufficient evidence to specify their role.
In India, many people are demanding their government strike Pakistan. During the attack, India's air force was put on stand by.
But now, Pakistan's politicians believe India is building troops along its border, and say they have no choice but to respond.
WAJID SHAMSUL HASAN, HIGH COMMISSIONER: You cannot rule out the possibility. If the Indians continue with that, we will also have to respond to it in a similar manner. So, that's what we have been trying to avoid. We have been telling India we don't want war, but we know how to defend ourselves.
ROBERTSON: Both sides accuse each other of war hysteria, but neither is stepping back.
PRANAB MUKHERJEE, INDIAN EXTERNAL AFFAIRS MINISTER: We will expect that instead of raising war hysteria, they will address this problem. This is a menace to the regional peace and stability.
ROBERTSON: As tensions rise, troop deployments could impact the United States and its war on terror. Pakistani officials admit they are taking troops from a fight against Taliban and al Qaeda from the tribal border region neighboring Afghanistan to move them across the country towards India. Pakistan says it's normal to shift troops during winter and remains committed to fighting terrorism, but tensions are on such a hair trigger, they have no choice.
HASAN: Any mad men could start something which could really be gone anybody's control. So, this is what scares us.
ROBERTSON: The two nuclear-armed nations have fought three major wars in the past 60 years and have ratcheted up border tensions on many more occasions. But the origins of this standoff may be more complex.
(on camera): Pakistan's high commissioner to London says they are frustrated the United States is not doing more to help them fight the war on terrorism along the border with Afghanistan. By taking troops from that fight to defend against India, they are sending a clear message: they need more help from the U.S. to diffuse the growing tensions.
Nic Robertson, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BOUDREAU: It's a weather mess out there, winter warnings, delays. We're hearing tornadoes even?
HOLMES: You can throw that into the mix. What we had was enough already.
BOUDREAU: So, how this all affect your holiday travel? (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BOUDREAU: In Indiana, freezing rain has caused deadly driving conditions. At least seven people were killed yesterday in crashes across the state. Part of Interstate 69 and a number of roads shut down for hours until salt trucks could get through. West of Portland, Oregon -- yes, look at those pictures. It's unbelievable. West of Portland, Oregon, where people are still digging out from record amounts of snow, the driver of this tow truck had to call for help himself after he got caught in this mess. This is just ridiculous.
HOLMES: The tow truck has to call for help. What do you call if you're the tow truck and you get stuck?
Bonnie Schneider is in for us this weekend and sitting in for Reynolds Wolf, a little under the weather. But about the weather, we see all that snow and ice we've been talking about past several days. But you've got something brand new to throw into the mix today.
BONNIE SCHNEIDER, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, you mentioned, T.J. and Abbie, that we had some warmer temperatures that were coming into play. And now, we have the results -- the warm air colliding with the cold air. We're getting tornado watches all the way up from Illinois down to Arkansas and Oklahoma. And these tornado watch boxes extend until 1:00 o'clock this afternoon for some of them. So, we're looking at some very lengthy amount of times that we're going to watch for severe weather.
Check it out. Storms riding on into Kansas City, and these contain deadly lightning strikes and frequent large hail, about an inch in diameter. We're also seeing thunderstorms working their way across Oklahoma City, that's where some of the heaviest rain has fallen.
And speaking of heavy rain, in Chicago, the rain has been so steady that it's now causing the threat for flooding, because, on top of all that rain coming down underneath it, rather, we have a snow pack, a very thick snow pack. And that means that we're going to see flash flood warnings because we have, at least, an additional two to three inches of snow on the ground that's going to melt. And that's going to cause more flooding in the Chicagoland area.
You're looking at pictures of flooding that's already happened. Look for more of that this afternoon. The flood warning will persist through this region.
We're also tracking another weather delay factor, which is fog. Yesterday, it canceled thousands of flights. We're still seeing low clouds across a good portion of the country. And with that said, we have fog advisories in place this morning on the coastal sections of the Carolinas down through Florida. So, the fog is yet another thing we're watching.
So far, no airport delays, though, T.J. and Abbie. But with all this fog and snow and rain, I think we'll see some later on this afternoon.
HOLMES: Well, of course, we will. It's just a part of it. SCHNEIDER: Yes.
HOLMES: All right. Bonnie, we appreciate you. We'll talk to you again here shortly.
We'll turn now to the whole saga in Chicago and the Chicago surrounding area -- politics there with the impeachment of the governor there. Blagojevich, he's trying to avoid impeachment. While a report as we saw earlier in the week by President-elect Obama's transition team says there was no illegal contact between them and Rod Blagojevich, but the lawyers for the embattled Illinois governor don't appear to be convinced. They have actually subpoenaed about a dozen potential witnesses, including the incoming chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel.
Meanwhile, Blagojevich continues to maintain he is innocent.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. ROD BLAGOJEVICH, (D) ILLINOIS: I think the accomplishments for people to speak for themselves, and if somehow that's impeachable, then I'm on the wrong planet, and I'm living in the wrong place.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Well, even if now the panel moves ahead with those subpoenas I just mentioned, they could still be blocked by the chief prosecutor because they might interfere with his criminal investigation.
BOUDREAU: Riding 4,000 miles for a glimpse of history. A 22-year-old grad from Occidental College says he is riding his bicycle from Los Angeles to Washington so he can watch the nation's swear in the first African-American president.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VOICE OF RYAN BOWEN, BIKING TO INAUGURATION: My reason for choosing a bicycle as my mode of transportation was because I believe that change meaning that we have to do things differently. We have to look at alternative forms of transportation and non-conventional modes in order to create this change. And so, I'm taking a bicycle, which happens to be the most efficient form of transportation, to the inauguration.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOUDREAU: Well, Bowen says that he received lots of messages from the new president and they're all messages of hope. He's also managed to stay the course through the kindness of people along the way. That's unbelievable. Four thousand miles, can you imagine that?
HOLMES: That's a long ride, but people doing just about anything to get to that inauguration -- a lot of people going.
BOUDREAU: It's going to be unbelievable.
HOLMES: That might be your safest or quickest route, is on a bike. A lot of people...
BOUDREAU: The greenest route.
HOLMES: Certainly.
BOUDREAU: It is the season of giving and a state park makes sure one little girl gets her wish this Christmas, which could be her last wish.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you think it's thumbs up? You get that?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BOUDREAU: Going green and this has nothing to do with saving the environment. It's one about the 850-pound emerald that got away. And this is a stone of contention between three (INAUDIBLE).
HOLMES: Just emeralds. Are women into emeralds and those stones, whatever?
BOUDREAU: Hey, women into any kind of stone.
HOLMES: OK, I got it. All right.
Well, this is the "Bahia diamond," it's called. It's actually an emerald here, but it's one of the largest ever found. Well, the second largest emerald ever. It's worth reportedly about $370 million. It's now in the hands of the Los Angeles sheriff's office. It was stolen and actually even had a stint on eBay. It was reportedly offered on eBay for $75 million with the whole, you know, the "buy it now" you can do on eBay -- $75 million.
Now, police tracked this thing down to a warehouse in Las Vegas. No arrests were made even though they negotiated and had the thing turned back over by the person who reportedly stole it. It's apparently a dispute here about who's the rightful owner between the company who owns it, the company who is trying to sell it, and the potential buyer. It's kind of a mess. And there it goes away. But well see what happens with the big stone.
BOUDREAU: How do you steal something that big?
HOLMES: I don't know. Well, they say false papers. They actually showed some false papers to the vault that was holding it, that company or whatever and they were allowed to walk out with an 850- pound emerald.
BOUDREAU: They're buying it on eBay. Can you imagine?
HOLMES: It's not very pretty, isn't it?
BOUDREAU: Yes, not really. It's not very pretty. HOLMES: I was expecting one stone.
BOUDREAU: OK.
Well, from hospitals to soup kitchens, the struggling economy is creating a cruel one-two punch. The number of people needing help is growing, while the number of people able to help is falling.
CNN's Kate Bolduan takes a closer look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KATE BOLDUAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Joy in the face of hardship. Melissa Buckles' four-year-old daughter, Erin, was born a conjoined twin and was paralyzed during the separation surgery. Her older sister needs treatment for a tumor on her spine.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Stick your hand in there.
BOLDUAN: But despite these challenges, Buckles says her family is thankful this holiday season, grateful to the non-profit Ronald McDonald House where the family lives while her daughters get medical care.
MELISSA BUCKLES, RONALD MCDONALD HOUSE RESIDENT: Our financial situation is pretty dire right now, and being able to stay at the Ronald McDonald House where it costs a lot less than staying at a hotel every night -- it's the only way that we could receive the treatment that we do.
MARIANNE ROWAN-BRAUN, RONALD MCDONALD HOUSE CHARITIES: Each night, 36 families share our home. The sad reality is that each night we also have a waiting list.
BOLDUAN: Ronald McDonald House is lucky. Like charities across the country, it's seeing increased need because of the struggling economy, but unlike so many non-profits right now, the organization is surviving because of funding from a private foundation, the Harry and Janette Weinberg Foundation, rather than defending solely on donations or government grant.
DONN WEINBERG, HARRY AND JEANETTE WEINBERG FOUNDATION: Last year, we gave away about $99 million. This year it will probably be $100 million or a little more than $100 million.
BOLDUAN: According to Giving USA which tracks philanthropy, charitable giving reached a record high of $306 billion last year, but experts predict a much gloomier forecast for 2009 as Americans tighten their belts, foundations scale back, and state and local governments slash budgets to weather the economic storm.
TOM POLLAK, URBAN INSTITUTE: We show around 1.5 million non-profit organizations currently registered with the IRS. Inevitably, some fail each year. And, you know, next year, I expect, you know, many, many more to fail than usual. BOLDUAN: Ronald McDonald House acknowledges next year is a great unknown financially. Melissa Buckles hopes for the best, betting on the generosity of others.
BUCKLES: They're really, you know, paying it forward and giving a great gift when they donate money. And so, if they can even spare a couple of dollars, it's a blessing to these families.
BOLDUAN (on camera): Underscoring these volatile times, even the Weinberg Foundation is now reconsidering its giving. Its leaders saying they're not accepting any new grant requests until April in order to assess the new economic landscape they're facing.
Kate Bolduan, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BOUDREAU: It is the season of giving, and a state park makes sure one little girl gets her wish this Christmas, which could be her last.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Well, everybody wants a new home for the holidays, and you might have to just build one on your own. This is an igloo that sprouted up in the front yard of a home in Portland, caught the eye of one of our iReporters, Kristin Oeming. She was actually visiting in- laws that were across the street. Photos may be the only lasting evidence of Portland's heaviest snowfall since 1980. Warmer temperatures are on the way now, and are melting this igloo and a lot of that snow away.
We are always looking for the next wave of citizen journalists here. Send us the view from your corner of the world or your side of the street, like in that case. Just go to iReport.com.
And this weekend, we'll look back at some of the most memorable iReports of the year. You and your stories help us shape the news and tell those stories more extensively this year. Don't miss our iReport special, tonight and tomorrow night with me and Betty Nguyen. That's tonight and tomorrow 8:00 o'clock Eastern Time.
BOUDREAU: (INAUDIBLE), I'll be watching.
HOLMES: Please do.
BOUDREAU: All she wants for Christmas is snow. If she lived in any northern state, no problem, but Sophie Langford lives in the sunny south and this may be her last Christmas. Brooke Baldwin has her story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SHIRLEY LANGFORD, SOPHIA'S MOTHER: Wow.
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A snowy surprise for Sophia. S. LANGFORD: Get daddy. Get daddy. Get daddy.
WAYNE LANGFORD, SOPHIA'S FATHER: Oh.
(LAUGHTER)
BALDWIN: A four-year-old who dreamt of a "White Christmas." It's a welcome gift she definitely deserves. Just before her third birthday, doctors discovered a cancerous tumor on her brain.
W. LANGFORD: My stomach started hurting and still have the same ache in my gut today, year and a half later or so. Yes, your life changes forever. I mean, you just -- it changes utterly.
BALDWIN: Sophia has endured months of chemotherapy and radiation. She's also lost some of her sight and most of her hearing.
S. LANGFORD: She asked me to sing lullaby right after she lost her hearing and -- I had already started to sing it. And she said, "Mommy, sing me a lullaby." So I had to stop and put my lips against her ear so that she could feel the vibrations.
BALDWIN: Four brain surgeries later, these parents realize this is a battle their daughter will likely lose. In October, doctors gave Sophia anywhere from two weeks to two months to live. That is why this snow is so special.
S. LANGFORD: That laugh when she threw the snowball at you, will stay with us forever. Each laugh is just that important to us.
BALDWIN (on camera): Seeing snow during the holiday season may not seem like a miracle to most, but we're in Georgia where this stuff is hard to come by unless you make it yourself.
(voice-over): That's one of the things these employees from a Georgia state park do during the winter. They caught wind of Sophia's story and wanted to help.
PAUL CREASY, STONE MOUNTAIN PARK: I definitely come out no matter what the temperature is and be a part of that.
BALDWIN: One snow machine, 30 tons of snow, and four dump trucks later, Sophia got her "Winter Wonderland."
KELLEY SWANN, STONE MOUNTAIN PARK: Knowing that we were able to be a part of her wish and her family's wish is -- and make a little girl's dream come true is just -- is exciting and very fulfilling.
BALDWIN: Sophia's parents find fulfillment in providing their little girl with joy and laughter for the rest of her days.
W. LANGFORD: It's cliche, but, you know, every day -- every day is Christmas.
S. LANGFORD: Thank you.
BALDWIN: As long as they're filled with smiles and perhaps a sudden Georgia snowfall.
Brooke Baldwin, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BOUDREAU: That is just and so hard to see that.
HOLMES: A tough story and tough thing she's going through, but, you know, it kind of puts a smile on your face that they were able to pull that off for her. Like you said, we're in the middle of the south here, in Georgia, and they were able to bring that snow, too. You couldn't tell looking at the front yard that that was here in the south.
BOUDREAU: No. Where are they?
HOLMES: Where are they? They're here in the south. So nice to see she could have that Christmas wish at least.
We are following the breaking news this morning we want to tell you about. The word is that at least 155 people have been killed, that number has been rising steadily this morning, could rise again after Israeli air strikes that have been launched in Gaza, targeting a Hamas militant. But it's believed that many civilians have been caught in the crossfire here. At least 250 people injured. We are following this breaking news.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Hello there, everybody, from the CNN center in Atlanta, Georgia. This is CNN SATURDAY MORNING. I'm T.J. Holmes.
BOUDREAU: And I'm Abbie Boudreau. Betty Nguyen is off today. We're working on several breaking stories.
The death toll now up to 155 after Israel launches air strikes against Gaza earlier this morning. We'll have the latest from the region.
HOLMES: Also, it could be another few hours before the power is back on on the island of Oahu. The president-elect one of thousands who had their vacation interrupted just a bit. We'll be talking about that major power outage there and what that means for the president.
But we will start with this breaking news out of the Middle East. You're seeing some of the pictures we have just been getting into us over the past couple of hours. Militant group Hamas threatening to retaliate against Israel for this morning's devastating air strikes. At least 155 people are dead in Gaza, more than 250 wounded. Word of casualties in Israel from a Hamas attack we're also getting as well.
But this particular attack this morning comes just a week after a truce between the two sides expired. So, six-month truce that essentially was actually broken about two months ago when strikes began to occur again. But during that truce, both sides agreed to stop attacking Gaza. Hamas agreed to stop launching attacks into Israel from Gaza. In exchange, Israel agreed to loosen some of the blockades on humanitarian aid and also agreed to stop the raids inside of Gaza. But it' appears now that no doubt that truce has been broken after it has expired, again 250 injured, 150 killed that we know of. We will continue to follow the developments out of the west bank and out of Gaza, out of the Middle East today. We expect to hear a live report from our Paula Hancocks who is in Jerusalem. We expect to have her shortly, reports to continue as this story continues to develop for us this morning.
BOUDREAU: Also new this morning, a deadly fire in Philadelphia overnight. Seven members of one family are dead. Six of them were found huddled together in a basement of the home on the city's southwest side. Early clues suggest a kerosene heater may have started the fire. Four family members escaped the fire, but a firefighting official says the victims had no way out.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LLOYD AYERS, PHILADELPHIA FIRE COMMISSIONER: It was a exit to the exterior in the rear of the home. This is how the firefighters made their entry and this is how they fought the fire back to attempt the rescue of those who were inside. And the stair was actually removed from the basement to the first floor, so there was no way out for those -- that family.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOUDREAU: Horrible. Two survivors of the fire are being treated for the injuries at the University of Pennsylvania hospital.
Chicago's airport seemed to be running with only minor delays right now, but what a night. Thick fog and poor visibility forced officials to completely close down Midway airport late yesterday and cancel at least 400 flights at O'Hare. Lots and lots off stranded people. Earlier in the day, some of the worst conditions in decades caused dozens of spinouts, rollovers and fender benders. Just look at that traffic right there. Forty six accidents were recorded before 9:00 a.m. in one county alone.
HOLMES: A lot of those accidents we were talking about just the past couple of days here, a lot of people just going five and 10 miles per hour and it looks like those - you're going that slow and you still can't help it. You still are going to crash.
BOUDREAU: It's slick out there. It's icy and wet. It's a mess.
HOLMES: It's a mess, but Bonnie Schneider, we got a different mess we're keeping an eye on now, tornado watches we're talking about.
(WEATHER REPORT)
BOUDREAU: Honolulu in the dark. Lightning is being blamed for knocking out power last night to most of the Hawaiian island of Oahu, sorry Oahu. More than 800,000 people powerless. Hawaii's governor says an electric generator was being delivered to the home where President-Elect Barack Obama and his family are vacationing. Power is expected to be restored this morning.
HOLMES: Well, he's got a nice family vacation going right now in Hawaii. He's about to become the 44th president of the United States. Seems like life is pretty good right now for Barack Obama. It's good this week. He hasn't taken office just yet, but he's already being rated the most admired living man in America. That's according to the annual "USA Today" Gallup poll. But is that love affair going to last through the New Year? There's some new developments in the corruption probe of Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich and how they could overshadow the incoming administration. Here now senior White House correspondent Ed Henry.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
ED HENRY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: His daily visit to the workout room in a Marine base dubbed "semper fit" is about the only activity making president-elect Barack Obama sweat in Hawaii. But the question in the days ahead is whether the scandal engulfing Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich will take a bite out of Mr. Obama's Honolulu honeymoon.
BOB BENNETT, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: It's like Count Dracula. The count needs fresh blood every day, and if he doesn't get his daily dose of blood, he withers away. And that's what a scandal is. It needs fresh blood every day.
HENRY: The latest wound, CNN has confirmed Blagovoich's attorney has written to the Illinois state panel considering impeachment, urging lawmakers to issue subpoenas to incoming White House aides Rahm Emanuel and Valerie Jarrett for testimony about the governor's alleged attempts to auction Obama's Senate seat. Power lawyer Bob Bennett says this is a typical defense tactic that probably will not work. Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald is likely to squash the subpoenas to prevent interference with his criminal probe, though the drip, drip of scandal can be politically damaging.
BENNETT: It certainly can take the president and his people off message and it certainly prevents them from dealing with the issues they want to deal with in the timeline they want to deal with them.
HENRY: But Bennett, who represented then President Clinton in his impeachment drama, notes the current president-elect seems well served, having Clinton vets on his staff. From Emanuel to incoming White House counsel Greg Craig who led the internal investigation the transition team is hoping will turn the page for the president- elect.
STEVE ELMENDORF, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: I think he and the people around him have nothing to hide and they've done this perfectly. They've answered every question. They put out all the information and they have a U.S. attorney who said at the beginning in his first press conference, that Barack Obama was not open to any sort of a deal.
HENRY: Bennett, author of a book on how to deal with political scandal, says the transition team was particularly shrewd about making the president-elect available for an interview with the prosecutor, suggesting he has nothing to hide.
BENNETT: I think it was a very smart thing for the president-elect to do.
HENRY (on-camera): A sharp contrast from previous Bennett clients like Bill Clinton who did not always seem forthcoming, which only brought more attention to the scandal. Ed Henry, CNN, Honolulu.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
BOUDREAU: Caroline Kennedy is stepping up her efforts to be named Hillary Clinton's successor in the Senate. The 51-year-old daughter of President John F. Kennedy has conducted her first interviews since asking New York's governor to be considered for that spot. Also, Kennedy says she's always considered political office, but was finally moved to action after working on Barack Obama's presidential campaign.
HOLMES: Well, at least 155 people killed in air strikes in Gaza. We'll have a live report from Jerusalem coming up next.
BOUDREAU: And what made Colin Powell shed a tear? It was one of the top videos of the year. But which was your number one?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: We return to that breaking news story we're seeing out of Gaza today. Israeli air strikes have been launched, killing at least 155 people and that number could rise. Our Paula Hancocks is with us from Jerusalem now. Paula, again, we see at least 250 people injured as well. What are the chances we're going to see the number of injured and the number of dead go up?
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, TJ, it could certainly go up because the facilities in these Gaza hospitals are just dire. There are too few doctors to deal with injuries on a daily basis and certainly there's very little equipment that can deal with serious injuries from a missile attack, so this is going to be, unfortunately, a very high death toll when it comes to an end, but it's not at an end at this point. Israel is saying it reserves the right to continue with its operation. It believes this operation is ongoing. If it sees more rocket attacks from Palestinian militants into Israel, then it will continue with these air strikes.
Now, our sources in Gaza are saying they haven't seen anything like this for some time. Such significant simultaneous Israeli air strikes on installations in Gaza. Now, Israel for its part, says it is only targeting Hamas buildings and Hamas says that pretty much all of its security compounds have been destroyed. Many of its senior police commanders were inside these buildings at the time and so they have been killed as well. But, of course, these compounds are in the middle of residential areas. This is one of the most densely populated areas on earth and so inevitably there are going to be very high civilian casualties.
We've seen all sorts of vehicles coming up to these hospitals carrying injured children, injured adults. Whether Hamas affiliated or not, there really are a significant amount of civilian casualties, unfortunately in these air strikes. Now, Hamas and the Palestinian factions have said we will retaliate and they have retaliated. We've seen at least 16 rocket attacks into surrounding areas in Israel. One Israeli person killed and four wounded in one of those rocket attacks. So, a severe escalation of violence over here, TJ.
HOLMES: All right. Paula Hancocks for us in Jerusalem. As she said, an escalation, an escalation after a six-month truce officially expired just a week ago. Paula, we thank you so much. We'll continue to follow this breaking news story.
BOUDREAU: OK. Let's talk to Shibley Telhami. He's a professor at the University of Maryland. He's on the phone now here to give us some perspective on this. Are you there? Can you hear us?
VOICE OF PROF. SHIBLEY TELHAMI, UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND: Yes, I am.
BOUDREAU: What can you tell us about what's going on? Kind of paint the picture. What's happening right now?
TELHAMI: Well, first of all, when those kinds of attacks happen on both sides, mostly civilian pay a price. And that's the tragedy of it. It's a painful, difficult situation. You can imagine what the environment in Gaza must be for a population that has already been under blockade and now suffering from this. Of course the Israelis living in towns have been the object of attacks of Hamas rockets.
But what's going on is that the cease-fire between Israel and the Palestinians, which has held reasonably well for six months, is finally over and both sides for a variety of reasons, including the fact that they didn't get what they wanted initially, I had interviewed the Egyptian mediator between Israel and Hamas last spring, prior to this agreement going into force and clearly the Israelis were aiming to get their soldiers held by Hamas released and Hamas was trying to get a complete removal of the blockade in exchange for the cease-fire. Neither side got what they wanted. And so in some ways, while the cease-fire held and that's a good thing, the objectives were not met. And obviously for Hamas particularly, the bigger objectives of moving the political process because the status quo is simply unacceptable for them --
BOUDREAU: So this is not something that was necessarily surprising in the region after the cease-fire?
TELHAMI: It's not surprising. In fact, it was almost inevitable unless somebody had gone actively to mediate another cease-fire. And the problem with that is that a new cease-fire was highly unlikely without some changes in the agreement itself, meaning pertaining to the release of Israeli soldier and the removal of the blockade and with the release of the Israeli soldier, the release of hundreds, if not thousands of Palestinian prisoners that Hamas was demanding from Israel. Now, the -- all of this is happening in the shadow of elections in Israel in February, difficult elections. Israel, obviously, is a democracy that is facing a difficult election, very contentious with uncertain results. And so always you have tremendous pressure from the right on the Israeli government. And the Palestinian themselves, Hamas in particular, not just having not delivered economically to its own public, but facing a date of its own in January when the term of President (INAUDIBLE) the president --
BOUDREAU: Right. These images are just so hard to see and thank you so much, Shibley Telhami, professor at the University of Maryland for this insight. We really appreciate it.
TELHAMI: My pleasure.
BOUDREAU: OK thank you.
HOLMES: All right and we no doubt will continue to keep an eye on that story here at CNN this morning. We've got our international desk over there working right now, making calls and trying to get the numbers and the latest from that region.
But we will turn now to New Year's, coming up. We've got '09 coming just around the corner and a lot of end of year lists, end of year -- best stories of the year, best this, best that.
BOUDREAU: Resolutions.
HOLMES: Resolutions as well, but a bunch of lists people compile right about now.
BOUDREAU: We are asking you to do that for us. Josh Levs is here to explain. So what have you got?
JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: (INAUDIBLE) work a little bit this morning. What were the top news videos of the year? I'm going to show you how to decide. I'm also going to show you what's currently in the lead. This right here, Colin Powell telling us what made him weep.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
IREPORT FROM SGT. ARMANDO GARZA: (singing) Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas, baby. I love you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: That goes to the wife of Sergeant Armando Garza. He is in Baghdad right now, his third deployment there, but he says his wife watches CNN a lot, hoping she would get a chance to see that this morning. You can see some of his fellow soldiers helped him out in making that video. But he's in Baghdad right now, not sure when he's going to be making it back. Certainly hope he gets back soon.
BOUDREAU: That's a good message.
HOLMES: Hope she saw it this morning.
BOUDREAU: Other people have pictures or videos you would like to share with us, you can just send them to cnn@ireport.com.
HOLMES: Well, of all the videos you've seen here on CNN this entire year, what do you think stands out most in your mind?
BOUDREAU: We're asking you to pick the top videos of the year. Our Josh Levs is here to explain. Josh?
LEVS: I'm curious what you guys think about this. It's interesting. (INAUDIBLE) vote now in the last few days of the year, about all sorts of stuff. One thing I want to show you right now is this. Let you zoom in on the board. Your picks for the top videos that we've had all year, taking a look at some of the most popular ones. You can see the top two (INAUDIBLE) also no prom in the skimpy dress. TJ, there's no way you forgotten this story that got a lot of play from our station KHOU (ph) about this woman, I guess, lady, girl, who got in trouble for the prom dress. She wasn't allowed to go in.
But leading us right now in the number one spot so far is Colin Powell. Let's take a look at what that's all about.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEN. COLIN POWELL, FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE: And as I watched it, as I watched finally one of the newscasters cut to the chase and said, he's won. It's over, pretty moving moment.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There was a tear?
POWELL: Everybody cried. And when you saw all the crowds in Washington, in New York, Chicago, look what we did. Look what we did.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And it hasn't worn off yet?
POWELL: No, no. I'm not ashamed of it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEVS: Obviously talking about Obama's victory. That was an interview with CNN. And a couple more I'll tell you about quickly that are getting lots of votes. You can weigh in on this. In fact, we have some of these pictures. Let's go to it. This is when a shark crept up on a surfer at New Smyrna Beach in Florida. Ken McNair (ph) had posted these photos. It really caught on. Our John Zarrella looked it it. That is now one of the most popular videos of this year, taking a look at some of those incredible still shots. The guy's OK, by the way.
BOUDREAU: That is a shark, right?
LEVS: It is an actual shark.
BOUDREAU: That is the scariest thing I've ever seen.
LEVS: I know. It was feet from him and he's just going along. He didn't know it was going to be there. And all of a sudden, that. Plus, it added to his wave, I guess. Maybe he was excited about that. HOLMES: We had questions about whether or not that was real. We went through it, looked at it over and over, thought somebody might have added the shark later. But apparently this was the real deal.
LEVS: ... our John Zarrella and yes, turned out it was legit (INAUDIBLE) One more thing I'm going to show you, another type of scary animal, I guess, except this one is an insect, except it's 50 feet large, reminds me of "The Terminator" but check that out. Also one of our most popular videos of the year. It took 12 people to control that massive 50-foot spider. We got that out of ITN in Liverpool, England. I'm telling you guys, sure, we have a lot of news stories, but right now these are the ones that are leading the top 10. Anybody can weigh in. Go to cnn.com, click on year in review. Tell us, did this belong in the top 10? You decide.
BOUDREAU: Look at the tentacles or whatever those things are.
LEVS: I don't want to be near that thing.
BOUDREAU: Me neither.
HOLMES: Thanks, Josh. And this weekend, we will be looking back at some of the most memorable I-reports of '08. You and your stories helped us shape the news, helped us cover some of these stories a lot better than we would have been able to do on our own, actually. Don't miss our I-report special tonight and tomorrow night with me and Betty Nguyen. That's at 8:00 Eastern time.
Coming up here, a story about the agonizing moments of terror and nine minutes without a pulse.
BOUDREAU: Today, the celebration of a lifetime, three lifetimes, in fact. It's an amazing story we want to share with a loved one.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BOUDREAU: Wedding bells are ringing for superstar model Gisele and Patriots quarterback Tom Brady.
HOLMES: That's Brady. Hopefully we have a picture of Gisele, right on queue. According to the entertainer magazine "Eonline," Brady popped the question on Christmas eve aboard a private plane ride to Boston and actually of course, he's been out all year because he messed up his knee essentially this year and so I guess that gave him plenty of time to go ring shopping. Congratulations, Tom.
Meanwhile n California, a medical emergency that ends in a miracle. Miracle, that's actually the name of one of the twins born to a woman who was rushed to the hospital.
BOUDREAU: She collapsed, her vital signs flat-lined and for nine terrifying minutes, she didn't have a pulse.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
THERESA FUAVAI-FATU, MOTHER: The last thing I remembered was looking down at my husband at my feet. He started crying and I knew something was going on.
SAM FATU, FATHER: She was -- her color was changing. Her eyes rolled back.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Doctors performed an emergency c-section. They were thinking that at least they'd be able to save the babies.
My gosh. But after they were safely delivered, Teresa rallied and regained strength. Today, all are well. That's an unbelievable story, nine minutes.
HOLMES: Unheard of. I wish we could get Dr. Sanjay Gupta on that one.
We'll turn to one more here. The age of 23 doesn't sound like old, but if you're only expected to live until 20, then 23 sounds pretty impressive.
BOUDREAU: And check out this golden bat at Cranebrook (ph) Institute in Bloom field Hills, Michigan. The golden bat is among the largest in the world. Its wing span is about four feet.
HOLMES: Only about 4,000 living on the tiny island of Rodriguez in the Indian Ocean. Tanner is the name. That's the senior citizen's name. Celebrated with a treat of papaya, mango and melon.
We got a bat story in today. There you go. Happy birthday.
Hard economic times are hitting the Great White Way -- which shows will be affected on Broadway.
We will be talking about that. Abbie and I will be back at the top of the hour at 9:00, of course. We'll see you back here then.
Right now we hand it over to Dr. Sanjay Gupta and "HOUSE CALL." which starts right now.
