Of a former ceo of online retailer zappos. What the medical examiner is saying. Felicity huffmans comeback. The new acting gig shes landed after the College Admissions scandal. And for the first time we hear from this man rescued after clinging onto the top of his boat in the open atlantic for hours. What he did to survive. Good tuesday morning, everyone. Today is a crucial day in the coronavirus emergency. Cdc advisers will vote on who should get the vaccine first. Today could also be the first day we see more than 100,000 people in the hospital with this virus. More states are setting up field hospitals to handle patients and more cities are considering wider lockdowns. A new study finds a onemonth shutdown in england helped reduce the number of covid cases by 30 which doctors say is encouraging as we wait for a vaccine. This morning a major step forward in getting americans vaccinated. A panel advising the cdc will give its recommendation today on who should get the vaccine first, likely Health Care Workers and First Responders. The military official overseeing distribution says all americans should be able to get a shot by june. 100 of americans that want the vaccine will have the vaccine by that point in time. Additional shipments of pfizers vaccine have now arrived in the u. S. From belgium to supplement whats already here. The vaccine is ready to be shipped across the country within 24 hours of the government authorizing it for emergency use, which is expected after december 10th. And moderna has now joined pfizer in applying for emergency use authorization for its vaccine, but dr. Anthony fauci says people still need to avoid crowds, wear a mask and socially distance. Help is on the way, but its not here yet, so we can do these things, and we can prevent an even further escalation. Reporter 96,000 people are now hospitalized with the virus across the country. In rhode island, field hospitals will begin admitting patients this week because every hospital in the state is now full. Im very disappointed that weve come to this place. Covid is a preventable disease. If people would wear masks and stay distanced and stay safe and stay home, we wouldnt be in a pandemic. Reporter in california, the governor there is considering new stayathome orders to prevent hospitals from getting overwhelmed by christmas. Already in Los Angeles County the 10 million resident there can no longer gather indoors or outdoors with anyone outside their household. Outside new york city more than 200 nurses plan to go on strike today demanding more staff. When they look at a patient in the bed, they see dollar signs. When we look at a patient in the bed, we see a person. Reporter florida is approaching 1 million covid cases, but schools there will stay open through next spring. The governor explaining why. I would say that closing schools due to coronavirus is probably the biggest Public Health blunder in modern america. The evidence has been remarkably clear since the spring that closing schools offers virtually nothing in terms of virus mitigation but imposes huge costs on our kids, on our parents and on our society. Reporter in ohio the governor is now asking anyone who can work from home to do so. Were a last line of defense. The front line now is the community. Reporter hospital workers joining the governor remotely sharing their experiences. I dont think the public truly understands what we go through every day, the heartbreak and the emotion and seeing the fear on these patients faces. This is no joke. Reporter back here in new york some hospitals are canceling elective surgeries and theyre being asked to identify retired workers who could return to duty. President trumps controversial covid19 adviser dr. Scoot atlas is resigning. Atlas was hired despite having no formal experience with Infectious Diseases and often publicly clashed with members of the task force on everything from shutdowns to mask mandates. In his resignation letter, atlas said he always relied on the latest science and evidence without political consideration. Congress is back in session this week, but theres little chance of passing another coronavirus stimulus package before the end of the year. Lawmakers are focused on a broader spending bill to avoid a government shutdown. Democrats and republicans have voiced support for another round of 1,200 stimulus checks but remain deadlocked. Theres no reason, none, why we should not deliver another major pandemic relief package to help the American People through what seems poised to be the last chapters of this battle. Reporter the two sides are clashing on several issues including aid for local governments. And with federal aid in limbo, the washington d. C. Metro may cut all weekend train service. Its part of a series of proposed budget cuts amid record low ridership during the pandemic. President trump is again lashing out using a string of new falsehoods and now one of his campaign lawyers is in hot water for suggesting a former Government Official should be put to death. Abcs alex presha has the latest from washington. Alex, good morning. Reporter good morning, kenneth. Joe bidens inauguration is just 50 days away. Frankly, President Trump is running out of options to overturn these election results. This morning, president elect joe bidens victory is all but cemented. Thats because all six states where President Trump contested the results have now certified biden as the winner. But thats not stopping trump from spreading false information. We got 74 million, and we didnt win, but i know that we won arizona, and we won michigan, and we won georgia, and we won pennsylvania, and we won wisconsin, but what they did is they played games and games like nobodys ever seen before. Reporter the president calling into a meeting of republicans in arizona monday lashing out at the republican governor doug ducey after ducey certified the States Election making biden only the second democrat in 70 years to win the state. You have a governor named ducey who just rushed to sign certificates. Reporter overnight ducey defending the state saying it has some of the strongest election laws in the country. And now a Trump Campaign lawyer is facing backlash after calling in to a radio show and saying that chris krebs, the former head of cybersecurity, should be shot. Trump fired krebs last month after he said it was among the safest in history. Joe digenova is also on the president s election team. Anybody who thinks that this election went well like that idiot krebs who used to be the head of cybersecurity the guy on 60 minutes last night. That guy is a class a moron. He should be drawn and quartered, taken out at dawn and shot. Reporter that Trump Campaign lawyer did not respond to requests for comment overnight. Kenneth. All right, alex presha there in washington. Thank you. Two women from Washington State face terror charges accused of trying to sabotage Railroad Tracks near the canadian border. Prosecutors say the women were protesting a gas pipeline. In one case a train carrying Hazardous Material nearly derailed. They could face 20 years in prison if convicted. Were now hearing from the man saved at sea after hanging on to a tiny section of this sinking boat for four hours. He was 86 miles off the florida coast. Stuart bee says he was asleep when the boat got into trouble. A cargo ship eventually spotted him, and once on board he spoke to the coast guard over a satellite phone. I thought this is it, and then i saw container vessel in a distance, and i dont have my glasses. I couldnt see if it was coming to me or not, but i was again waving and took my shirt and waved periodically and, of course, it seemed to get closer. He signaled me with three blasts of his horn, and i figured that he saw me. Understood, captain. I can tell you i cannot imagine the feeling that you had when you saw that vessel coming. Incredibly bee was not injured. Now to the weather and a strong storm battering much of the east coast. Heavy winds brought down trees and power lines in the northeast causing 135,000 power outages. A possible tornado was reported in montgomeryville, pennsylvania. The same system dropped snow in atlanta, and kentucky saw its first accumulating snow of the season. Lets take a closer look now at your tuesday forecast. The rain and wind is moving through new england this morning. Farther west 6 to 12 inches of snow is expected in parts of western new york, pennsylvania, ohio and michigan. Isolated areas could see 18 inches. Temperatures in that region are in the 20s this morning. The cold blast reaches all the way to the gulf coast. Mobile, alabama, will be 28 degrees this morning. New orleans climbs into the mid50s today. 30s around the great lakes. 70s in california. 57 in new york. Coming up, a beloved holiday tradition goes online for the first time. But first when we come back, the mystery surrounding the death of a 26yearold instagram influencer found naked in houston. Why her mother believes she was murdered and what her husband says. Plus, caught on camera, the bike ride interrupted by a huge wave. Its still warm. Thanks, alice says hi. For some of us, our daily journey is a short one. Save 50 when you pay per mile with allstate. Pay less, when you drive less. 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Back now with a very wet bike ride along Lake Michigan in chicago. That cyclist was no match for that big wave yesterday and similar conditions are expected this morning. New details this morning about the death of tony hsieh, former ceo of online retailer zappos. The medical examiner says he died from smoke inhalation nine days after a house fire in connecticut. Police say he was trapped in a storage area. The cause of the fire is still under investigation, but his death was ruled an accident. Hsieh sold zappos to amazon for more than 1 billion. He was 46. We turn now to the death of a young texas woman who was a popular figure on social media. She worked as an influencer on instagram, and she was found dead on the side of the road naked. Her mother believes she was murdered. Abcs Megan Tevrizian has more on this growing mystery. Reporter this morning the mystery deepening into the death of an instagram influencer. She made sure everyone was included. She was a friend to literally all. Reporter Alexis Sharkey found dead along this road in houston saturday. The 26yearold had a large social Media Presence pushing organic Health Products to more than 27,000 followers on instagram. Her friends say she feared for her safety in recent weeks worried about someone close in her life but not elaborating. I looked at her and said, shes petrified. This girl is scared for her life. Reporter alexis mother says she believes her daughter was murdered. From what ive been able to gather, as well as a mothers gut i learned very young as a mom to trust my gut, and its not let me down. Reporter on saturday alexis husband called her mother to say alexis was missing. Reporter Steve Campion from our houston station spoke had him. It was a strange conversation. He was very upset. He said he had been talking to detectives. He did everything in his power to find his wife. But he abruptly ended the conversation hanging up on me, in fact, saying he did not want us to contact him again. Reporter alexis mother posting to facebook writing, please help us find her and bring her home safely. We are so very desperate. Please share. But a garbage truck worker finding alexis body. Authorities say she had no visible injuries. Its just so painful for someone being so bright and having so much to offer just to be gone, snuffed out, and i dont know why. Reporter alexis mom said the two talked just last week about christmas plans. The cause of her death is pending an autopsy. Kenneth, mona. Megan, thank you. Coming up, a grandmother jumps into action to protect her business. Also ahead, Actress Felicity Huffman lands her first job since the College Admissions scandal. Also ahead, Actress Felicity Huffman lands her first job since the College Admissions scandal. Today theres a combination of two immunotherapies you can take first. One that could mean. A chance to live longer. Opdivo plus yervoy is for adults newly diagnosed with nonsmall cell lung cancer that has spread and that tests positive for pdl1 and does not have an abnormal egfr or alk gene. Its the first and only approved chemofree combination of two immunotherapies that works together in different ways to harness the power of the immune system. Opdivo plus yervoy equals a chance for more days. More nights. More beautiful weekends. More ugly sweaters. More big hugs. More small outings. Opdivo and yervoy can cause your immune system to attack normal organs and tissues in your body and affect how they work. This may happen during or after treatment has ended and can become serious and lead to death. Some of these problems may happen more often when opdivo is used with yervoy. 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Dissolves quickly, instantly ready to start working. Oh, what a relief it is so fast. Back now with this San Francisco grandmother taking down an unruly customer at her restaurant. Doris campos in the red there picked up a table and knocked the woman to the ground after she threw a jug of hand sanitizer. The woman was apparently angry over the wait time for food. Felicity huffman has landed her first acting role since serving time in the College Admissions scandal. Shell star in a new comedy on abc about a Minor League Baseball team. Shell also serve as an executive producer. Pr experts say huffmans comeback story is possible thanks to her early apology and her letter of remorse. No word yet on when the show might air. Turning back to the coronavirus, new questions about how the vaccines will be distributed. Earlier i spoke with dr. Yvonne maldonado about the key issues ahead of todays vote at the cdc on who will get vaccinated first. Dr. Maldonado, so heres one dilemma surrounding distribution of the covid vaccine. Californias getting 327,000 doses of the new pfizer vaccine, but the state has more than 2 million Health Care Workers. How do you think such a challenge will be handled . The state will allocate to the counties, and the counties are going to decide how to distribute among hospitals. Within our own system, we will be looking at distributing to the highest risk groups first and then creating a pyramid so that we can decide who gets the vaccines first and who gets the next several rounds over time. A panel of cdc advisers will vote today on who should get the vaccine first, but its states and big cities who will get the final say, so whats the real impact of todays vote at the cdc . Yeah, ill be at that meeting and basically it is a recommendation based on lots of research, but ultimately it will be up to the states and probably counties to make the final decision about distribution. Since youre going to be at that meeting, tell us what more should we expect from it . What are you expecting from that meeting . We will get more detail around what we expect. Specific Health Care Workers should go first and who should go later. The other question is whether or not longterm care facility employees, personnel and the patients, will also be included in that first round or not. Okay, so weve heard the top two vaccine candidates are more than 90 effective, but what dont we know yet about these vaccines . What are the unknowns . We still need to learn a number of things about how long the immunity will last, whether it protects people from just getting disease or whether it prevents them from becoming infected and infectious but not sick, and then finally we need to see if there are other more subtle side effects that we arent seeing even with tens of thousands who have been vaccinated. Our thanks to dr. Maldonado there. Coming up, First Lady Melania Trump unveils the white House Holiday decoration themes. But first, a strange twist in the monolith mystery in the utah desert. Another one just showed up far, far away. First, a strange twist in the monolith mystery. Another one just showed up far, far away. If you still have symptoms of Crohns Disease or Ulcerative Colitis even after trying other medications, it may be a sign of damaging inflammation, which left untreated, could get much worse. Please make an appointment to see your gastroenterologist right away. Or connect with them online. Once you do, seeing the doctor is one less thing to worry about. Need help finding a doctor . Head to crohnsandcolitis. Com laso you can enjoy it even ifst youre sensitive. Se. Yet some say it isnt real milk. I guess those cows must actually be big dogs. Sit i said sit the lack of control whenover my business kai, made me a little intense. But now quickbooks helps me get paid, manage cash flow, and run payroll. And now im back on top. With koala kai. Save over 30 hours a month with intuit quickbooks. Time to check the pulse. We begin with a new monolith mystery, this time in europe. All right. Look at your screen and check out the latest shiny metal objects to make headlines. Its 13 feet tall and sits in romania near a historical site. News of that monolith comes just a few days after a hunk of metal in the utah desert vanished just as mysteriously as it first appeared. Officials think it might be the work of an artist. Officials in romania say they have no idea where their monolith came from. Next First Lady Melania Trump decked the halls. Shes unveiled the white House Holiday decorations. The theme for the final christmas for the trumps in the white house is america the beautiful. She credits volunteers from across the country with helping her make the choices. Theres a nod to First Responders and health workers. It comes weeks after the first lady was heard on a recording using expletives to complain about holiday decorating. Next, a holiday tradition going online. For the First Time Since its debut in 1954 the new York City Ballet will not perform the nutcracker on stage. They said the ballets 2019 production will be streamed online beginning next friday. A man enjoying the water in florida got some unexpected company. Check out the video near naples. A dolphin joined him on his board. But he didnt see it. He was too busy riding the wave. His friends though freaking out. The dolphin was like, i can do this much better than you. Ough freaking out. The dolphin was like i can do this much better than you. Merry christmas rich chocolate layers sprinkled with festive peppermint. With love from San Francisco. Ghirardelli peppermint bark squares. Makes the holidays a bite better. A unitedhealthcare dual complete plan can give you extra benefits at no cost to you. 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Ask your doctor about oncedaily trelegy. And save at trelegy. Com. Now roomba vacuums exactly where you need it. Hey google, tell roomba to vacuum the kitchen counter. And offers personalized cleaning suggestions for a clean unique to you and your home. Roomba and the irobot home app. Only from irobot. Checking the top stories, the chinese spacecraft is expected to make a historic landing on the moon this morning. Its a mission to bring lunar rocks back to earth for the first time in more than 40 years. The lander will take about two weeks to collect samples. The number of americans in the hospital with coronavirus is approaching 100,000, raising concern the Health Care System could be soon overwhelmed. Californias governor is now considering a stayathome order for more counties. And in rhode island, every hospital bed is full. The u. S. Navy assault ship that burned while being renovated in july will now be scrapped. The ship suffered extensive interior damage. Repairs would cost more than 2 billion. Todays weather, up to 18 inches of snow around the eastern great lakes where temperatures are in the 20s this morning. Rain in the middle of the country, and sunny on the west coast. And finally cyber monday is gone, but travel tuesday is here. Will ganss looks at some of the deals for spring and summer getaways. Im ready to party. Reporter nothing like a little travel to beat the quarantine blues, and today is the day to get that show on the road. Travel deal tuesday. A lot of the black friday Cyber Monday Deals tend to roll into travel deal tuesday, and then on top of that, travel providers are offering special travel deal tuesday promotions. Reporter in fact, prices are expected to be 34 lower today compared to december 1st of last year with great deals on spring and summer 2021 travel. This year domestic carriers and some that really stand out are hawaiian helping you get to hawaii in 2021. Spirit if youre looking for a little more of a lowcost carrier is offering deals on travel deal tuesday. Then were also seeing a lot of International Carriers get in the mix, so air canada, iceland air, emirates, qatar. Reporter nervous to book a trip given the state of, well, everything . Dont worry. But the main thing is there is a big focus on flexibility. So this certainly is the most flexible time to book travel that i can ever remember. Reporter so if you are ready to party if you have an airline or a hotel that youre particularly loyal to, i would actually recommend going to their website and see if they have a special deal available. But if youre a little bit more agnostic to who you travel with, i recommend downloading the hopper app because on travel deal tuesday, there is a special portal where it shares all of the deals on airlines, car rentals, hotels, and hopper will be offering 10 off all hotels on travel deal tuesday. Reporter sounds good to this reporter. On the hopper app we should see deals today of up to 40 off flights and hotels and up to 30 off select car rentals. The app also has a freeze feature which will hold a deal price for up to 14 days so you can take your time planning that next big vacation, kenneth and mona. Thank you, will. And please remember its also giving tuesday. Yeah. You can donate time america this morning. Right now on america this morning, a major step toward a coronavirus vaccine. The crucial vote today on who should be first in line. It comes as more cities and states run out of hospital beds. Covid cases setting a new record. More nurses now preparing to go on strike. And now with more businesses in jeopardy being forced to close, a new study on whether lockdowns really work in stopping the spread of the virus. Stimulus stalemate. What Senate LeaderMitch Mcconnell is now saying about another round of stimulus checks and the warning from one of the nations largest Public Transit systems. What could happen soon unless there is more government funding. Winter weather is here. The unexpected snow in the south. Power outages in the north. Up to 18 inches possible. What were expecting today