Transcripts For CNNW CNN Newsroom With Carol Costello 20141231

Just hours ago, bad weather descended on the search area in the java sea. Do you think that the numbers of bodies recovered will be growing rapidly . Translator we dont know. Because the victims, i believe most of them are still inside the aircraft and they have their safety belts buckled. We hope that the evacuation process will go fast. Cnns gary tuchman is in surabaya where the doomed flight began and where the victims will make their final journey home. Reporter carol, ten bodies have been recovered from this airasia plane. There are still 152 souls no the rofd. Behind me the Crisis Center at this airport where their loved ones took off from people getting counseling getting religious counseling, getting food, bat water, watching newscasts, hoping for any word about the recovery of the bodies of their loved ones. Most of them have come to terms with the fact that their loved ones did not survive that terrible accident. Right now theres no longer a mystery about where this plane went down. Theres still plenty of mystery about why it went down. This morning, the first group of recovered passengers arriving in surabaya in an emotional ceremony in caskets marked 001 and 002. This is indonesian authorities focus on pinpointing the exact location of airasia flight 8501. Officials confirming sonar imagery located wreckage believed to be from the aircraft, sun merged at the wot bottom of the java sea. What parts of the airplane are there, the wings, the tile to understand whether the plane broke up in flight or remained intact. Reporter others reports suggest the plane may be lying upside down according to the wall street journal. On tuesday, recovery teams bring in pieces of debris ashore, along with the remains of six passengers and a flight attendant. Authorities now faced with a grew some task, recovering more of the passengers from the wreckage, and identifying the bodies for griefstricken families, but some still hold onto hope. One woman with six family members on board telling cnn, there is nothing confirmed as far as what happened to the passengers, and we are still hoping there is a miracle, and they survive. At the Crisis Center here in surabaya, relatives gather for a Prayer Service inside the airport. Next, the hunt for clues. Answers as to what brought down airasia 8501. Likely contained in the planes flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder, otherwise known as the black boxes located in the tail section of the aircraft. Im hoping by first thing next week that were going to have a very clear picture of what happened to this airplane because the industry absolutely needs to know urgency what went wrong. Reporter here at the surabaya airport most of the day this Crisis Center was filled with family members, more than 100 at times but they are moving out, moving to a new center thats being set up at a hospital about an hour away from here where their loved ones bodies will be brought. Carol . Gary tuchman reporting. Trying to pinpoint the exact resting place of flight 8501 is an enormous challenge. Waters in the java sea are about 100 feet deep. To put that into perspective, thats about the height of a tenstory building. Adding to the difficulty rough weather which forced crews to halt the search today. Despite the challenges finding all of the wreckage could help solve what happened during the flights final moments. Tom foreman has more. Carol, there are three layers of the physical search right now, the one weve been talking about a lot is the first layer. We talk about where the plane took off, where it disappeared. We talk about the search areas and where we have debris on the surface in these roiling waters of the java sea. It is the first layer because its the top of the water but why is it important . Those pieces that they find on the top even if they dont tell a whole lot about what happened to the plane are indicators because when you move down into the second layer of the search the water column below, and you start comparing the location of those pieces to the water currents, which way theyre moving underneath there, they can help give you an idea through reverse engineering where they came from if they floated up from the debris on the bottom because that third layer, the bottom is where you really have to get to reach the important pieces out there. What are we talking about . When youre trying to figure out what happened to a plane, you want to know what happened to the critical systems, what happened to the wings . What happened to the tail . What happened to the engines at 9,000 pounds each where is the flight data recorder . Where is the voice recorder . What was going on with the electronics, almost all of those are heavy bits that once they hit the water will go straight down, here we talk about 80 100 feet down not that far to go and theyre not moving. Theyre right there and all of that matters because if you can pull it all together you can get a picture of what happens and we know that because its happened before. When twa 800 went down off long island it took many months of people diving there and robotics and Everything Else but they were able to recover 95 of that plane. Thats how they were able to put it together and figure out exactly what happened. Thats what you do to figure out if there was a fire whether it broke up on impact or landed intact and just sank. Thats what theyre hoping for here and in these conditions carol, maybe with luck theyll get the evidence they need to know what happened. We hope so. A treacherous new year in Southern California where powerful winds toppled trees and deep snow has snarled traffic in a scary way. 139 people were actually stranded in their cars overnight in the San Bernardino moun tans. Rescue cruise had to be called in to get them out of harms way. The San Bernardino county Fire Department tweeted these pictures of the rescues, crews used snowcats trucksized vehicles designed to move heavy snow to pluck people to safety. Sara sidner is in foothills in the San Bernardino National Forest good morning. Reporter good morning, carol. I want to give you some idea of what theyre deal with in the Higher Elevations that are hard to get to. This is some of the ice that dropped off a couple of the cars that have been driving down that, one just behind me still has a bit of snow on it. It wasnt that much snow. Lot of people are saying wait a minute this of only a foot of snow but you have to understand the terrain that people were dealing with and if they didnt have if it caught them by surprise and they didnt have chains on their wheels they would slide and thats what happened in some cases, they were hitting each other, there were accidents and people literally got stuck in their cars as the snow was coming down. Now its not happening right now, but the other thing that people have been dealing with is very strong gusts of wind. We were unable to go up to the Higher Elevations partly because the road was closed out and partly because as soon as it opened the wind gusts were just too strong. They were knocking our car about. Lot of folks are having to deal with these kinds of conditions and it is extremely cold out here. Lot of californians not so used to the cold at least as cold as its gotten. So look whats happening now is at least those people have been rescued. They are in shelters and thats the latest on the situation here. Carol . So the people who are rescued from their cars who stayed in their cars overnight, waiting to be rescued, theyre in shelters now. Will they make it home in time for new years . Oh sara sidner is frozen there. Not in the literal sense, which is a good thing but we lost sara. Hopefully the people will get home in time for new years day. California is not the only state being blasted by horrible weather this new years eve. Temperatures could fall 20 or 30 degrees below average in many parts of the country. Oh chad, i almost dont want to talk about this. I know. I dont even want to talk about it. I want to say United States is not the only country seeing snow right now because it is snowing east of tijuana, mexico in the mountains south and southeast of san diego. Thats how far south this cold air is. Its 33 with cloudy skies in vegas right now. They think they could see some snow especially on the mountains around vegas. 7 Million People right now from california to texas under winter storm warnings. Some people could get 16 inches of snow. Now you have to understand the people that got stuck yesterday, most of them were out playing in the snow anyway. They went to go to the ski resorts to play in it and got stuck coming home. If youll play in it plan on being there for a couple of days because a foot and a half even in colorado will make the roads very very slow. Some lakeeffect snow into buffalo, watertown the next couple of days winter storm advisories lakeeffect snow warnings probably six to ten inches in some spots and south of watertown a foot and a half of snow. Its very cold everywhere. At least its below normal. 75 will be below normal. Kansas city 24 obviously it cools down a lot overnight and close to midnight new york city watching the ball drop around the freezing mark, atlanta the peach drop at 50 degrees, nice in miami and key west temperatures upper 70s, back out to the west dry Seattle Portland and also down into medford, and well see temperatures nice in l. A. Although east of there in the mountains you are going to see the snow maybe st. George and the four corners but l. A. In the mason 58. I was stuck on the 70s in miami because that sounds awfully nice. Its an hour and 45minute flight from here. Lets go. Chad myers, thanks so much. You, too. Still to come in the newsroom protests of Police Brutality expected to ring in the new year across the story. Rosa flores will have the story for us from new yorks times square. Push your enterprise and you can move the world. But to get from the old way to the new youll need the right it infrastructure. From a partner who knows how to make your enterprise more agile, borderless and secure. Hp helps business move on all the possibilities of today. And stay ready for everything that is still to come. It is traditionally a night of champagne, fireworks and smooches, but this year protests are planned in several u. S. Cities. The group called stop mass incarceration is now calling for nationwide demonstrations to protest recent police bruteality, but in boston the mayor is delivering a strong message to another online group, asking activists to hold off on a planned diein during tonights festivities, and in new york city amidst celebratory anticipation the relationship between police and mayor bill de blasio remains tense and when i say tense i mean tense. The New York Times reporting new York City Police are carrying their solidarity tantrum to new and dangerous levels. Statistics suggest cops are walking off the job and no longer making lowlevel arrests. The New York Post reporting tuesday for the week starting december 22nd days after two officers were executed traffic citations have fallen by 94 over the same period last year. Parking violations are down 92 , and drug arrests are down 84 . Still, new York City Police say theyll keep revelers safe in times square tonight, and that might not be easy. Cnns rosa flores is in the crowd right now. Good morning. Reporter good morning, carol. Here is the biggest takeaway from the nypd. They say that the experience here in times square in new york city will be the same like every other year. Take a look. You can already see revelers arriving from every corner of the world. Of course theyre here to ring in the new year. As for the new security measures yes, behind the scenes the nypd telling us that they will have heightened security more eyes and ears on the street and they will also be monitoring social media. Social media, why . Because of the threats coming in to nypd officers following the ambush killing of two of their own. We talked to the nypd and heres what they had to say. As with any new years eve detail were absolutely concerned about the security of everyone there, including the Police Officers. So there is obviously a heightened sense of security during this detail so as we turn the Police Officers out, we remind them they have to look out for each other and Work Together and make sure we all stay safe throughout this great event tomorrow night. Reporter now because of those threats, because of those two Police Officers who were gunned down there has been an outburst of protests in this city. Now the nypd also telling us that they have a special detail ready to go at a moments notice if a protest erupts. Carol . Rosa flores reporting live from times square this morning, thanks so much. Lets talk about the fun part of new years eve because i invite to you keep it here on cnn. You can ring in 2015 with Anderson Cooper along with kathy griffin, and you know thats sure to be crazy. I handcuffed myself to Anderson Cooper. You guys like did it and i dont have the key at all. This is truly my worst nightmare. Were together forever. If i cant have you, no one can. I will gnaw off my hand. Thats the pg rated version. Catch tonights special starting at 9 00 p. M. Eastern but you dont have to wait for the fun. Head over to cnn. Com nye. The pear already started there. We may still have a few hours left in 2014 but as i take to you a break, look at the celebrations already happening around the world, like this one in sydney, australia. Narrator this is the storm sea captain theres a storm comin narrator that whipped through the turbine which poured. Surplus energy into the plant which generously lowered its price and tipped off the house which used all that energy to stay warm through the storm. Chipmunk theres a bad storm comin narrator the internet of everything is changing how energy works. Is your Network Ready . The fbi is Standing Firm on its original assessment that north korea is behind that massive hack on sony this despite a Cyber Security firm claiming it was a disgruntled former sony employee responsible and not the rogue nation. Cnn justice reporter evan perez joins us now more and the fbi says, i mean it met with no, why meet with no, whose company says it was an inside job if no, didnt have a point . Carol, they were sort of in a tough place, right, because this companys getting a lot of publicity trying to bring doubts upon the fbis case and if they didnt meet with them they would be accused of ignoring perhaps valuable evidence so what they did was meet with them in a field office down in st. Louis, which is normal. If you call up the fbi and say you have information about a crime, theyll give you a meeting. So its not an abnormal situation. What is abnormal is for this company to make a publicity push putting out a press release about the meeting. The fbi is calling these claims to be frankly bunk. They think that this company has only one small part of this hack that its been poe fussing on which is this alleged action of a former employee disgruntled employee. The fbi says however, that the hackers for sure stole the credentials of a system administrator. You and i talked about that somebody who had free reign of the Computer System at sony and they also say that the hackers again from north korea routed the attack through about a dozen countries, carol, so that was designed to make it look like it was coming from somewhere else and finally, they say there was some telltale signs in the malware code that showed you know characters from either china or north korea, which again, you know from their alphabet which shows you that they believe that these hackers were trying to mask where this thing was coming from but again, according to the fbi, had some telltale signals that came directly from that country. So are you calling out no, and saying theyre on a big pr campaign to make themselves look bet ear enget more business . Im not exactly saying that but one of the things successful about this everyone knows what this companys name is. Id never heard of them before this whole series of announcements. Evan perez, thanks so much. He is a political guy that evan. Still to come in the newsroom the first victims of the airasia crash come home and the search is at the start of the monsoon season. Good morning, im carol costello. Thank you so much for joining me. In indonesia, the monsoon season rolls in. The bleak reality of the airasia crash hits home. The first victims arrive onshore in wooden boxes labeled 001 and 002, grim reminders of the 160 other victims, as bad weather descends on the java sea. Also conflicting information in the search for answers. One official saying sonar may have located underwater wreckage but the airline is now downplaying that. Search and rescue team is doing a fantastic job, and theyre narrowing the search. They are feeling more comfortable that they are beginning to know where it is but there is no confirmation of them no sonar, nothing. Some visual identification, but nothing confirmed. Cnns Paula Hancocks is live with the latest. What do they know paula . Reporter well carol, at this point theyre saying that the focus is on finding the passengers and the crew. Ten bodies we understand at this point have been retrieved, and we know that two of them have already come through here. We are in kalimantan on the west coast, about 110 nautical miles away from the crash site where the bodies are brought first, treated and prepared and then they basically have the initial identification here before being sent to surabaya and the families. You saw the two coffins arriving earlier today. We understand there are obviously more bodies that will be coming here in the near future. Now what they do here is they basically treat the body and they also try and make some kind of identification for example, how tall the person is whether theyre male, female any identitying marks, any visual identification they can give. Remember the families themselves were asked for recent photos they were asked for any details that could help the identification and then also the hospital director tells us that they have representatives from five different religions, giving prayers over the bodies. They dont know the religion of that person theyre then put in a casket and sent to surabaya to be reunited with their loved ones. Carol . Paula hancocks reporting live from indonesia, the weather is really bad in that part of the world so lets head to atlanta and check in with chad myers. Its raining heavily now . You know at night, carol, when the sun sets the rain goes away, but what good is that because its dark. In the morning, when you want to get out there and do something, thats when these storms are popping up. It has happened like this now every single day for the past three days. I back you up when sunrise happened look how big the weather was up here a couple of storms in the search box here but now to where we are now things are calmed down the skies are clear and its dark. So they cant do anything. And then at least they cant see from helicopters and from planes so here we are, not a cloud in the sky really not a rain shower in the sky, wake up tomorrow morning, whats there, another batch of storms. Tomorrow night, more clear skies. The next morning, more storms. Its just going to get annoying to these researchers and rescuers trying to find this because it is going to be one day after another where we think we have a window and those windows close on them as soon as the sun rises. Right over that box right there, this is precip accumulation four irnlgz of rain overnches of rain over the entire box in the next 72 hours. It comes and goes at the wrong time. Something else thats coming wind 40 to 50 Miles Per Hour making waves 20 feet high and white caps. If youre looking for a white piece of a plane . What makes it worse, white caps. You cant tell what is a white cap and a white piece. This is very difficult right now. Chad myers, thanks so much. Many of the tools searching for flight 8501 are the same used searching for missing Malaysian Airlines flight. The ja is ais only 100 feet deep compared to the indian ocean where flight 370 is believed to have crashed, the depth is about 13,000 feet in certain areas, deeper than the height of the tallest building of the world in dubai, the Empire State Building and the eiffel tower. Specialist tim taylor is also the president of tiburon subsea recertain, a company that specializes in rovs and auvs and underwater imagery. Welcome back. Im glad youre here. Lets talk about the weather and how thats affecting the search. Weather is always going to hamper it and with the 50 knot winds its near impossible to work out there. But that being said if i was running this operation, if i was leading this i would seriously look since theyre out of the visual hunting stage, not out of it but its narrowed down where they can start putting sonar or acoustic listeners in the water. I would consider night operations they can launch the big ships and work at night and run from the weather during the day and at least start looking for the pinger on a clock thats ticking they have a general idea of where the plane went down. I understand that sonar is on its way from singapore. Its not there yet. Have to wonder why isnt it there yet . Thats in question if theyve seen the plane or not and frankly when you take sonar images you take long range pictures to narrow it down. The imaging is not extremely detailed. Could be a world war ii wreck it could be Something Else and so those were the rumors may be starting. Night ops is an option. They found some debris on top of the water but not so much found a piece of lugage intact found maybe an emergency door of the plane and they found some bodies. Why havent they found more debris floating on top of the water . Theres many reasons for that one of which could be the plane could have gotten down more intact and sank. Thats hopefully that was what they tried to do but it could be scattered. It could be weather, and its speculation at that point but since they do know its down they do know the area the certain can start with the pingers and sonar. I think so far they found seven bodies and they were floating in the water, but the man in charge of the search and rescue operation said he expects that most of the bodies will be inside the plane and most of the passengers will still be strapped in. So what does that tell you . Its early in the flight. They were strapped in. People are strapped into the planes for lots of reasons, least of which is shifting. If everybody was unstrapped and everybody went to one side of the plane it would throw the plane offbalance with the shifting weight so they are probably strapped in and if they did go down with the plane, its more intact they have a highler likelihood of recovering a large percent of the bodies. There is a rumor printed in major newspapers one of the passengers was found with a life vest on. We have not confirmed that though. Could it have been near the body . If thats true that brings up a whole different scenario right . Least of which is in our imaginations imagining what they went through and that they lived to try to deal with this and tried to land the plane, really brings that whole element to this that leads to a the lo of possibilities. All indications so far this happened quickly after that original call went out. Its probably what did happen but lets hope that weather allows them to get out and locate this and find the bodies. Once the sonar equipment is there, do you think it will take long to locate the black boxes . Good weather, operational within a week, if theyve narrow narrowed it down what they say they have it shouldnt take long to find it. Once the black boxes are taken out of you know. Theyre successful once they find the wreckage. Bodies are the priority. The black boxes can sit down there for. As long as they know the wreckage is there, they can get them when they need to. The bodies are probably the priority. Im sure thats true. As it should be. Tim taylor thank you so much. I appreciate it. Still to come in the newsroom, convicted and sentenced to house arrest but still denying president putin. Leading russian activist takes to the street but his brother appears to be paying the price. Well tell you why, next. Its like something out of a russian novel by tolstoy only this is real life drama. Unwf president Vladimir Putins most outspoken critics is defying the government. Hours after found guilty of fraud he was sentenced to house arrest but not prison. Guess who is going to prison though . That would be his brother, Alexei Navalny, the main critic of putin joined a protest against the verdict as it applied to his brother and tweeted a picture of himself on the moscow metro on his way to the demonstration. Cnns Matthew Chance is following this story for us. Hi matthew. Reporter hi, carol. Tell us more about why navalnys brother is going to prison and not him. Reporter sorry. Right. Well its a difficult one. It seems to be a very clever verdict by the judiciary here to try and exercise some control over Alexei Navalny, but not make hum aim a martyr. This is a character who has emerged as a Major Political player in terms of the opposition here in russia. Hes got kind of a lot of support in cities like moscow and other urban centers as well hes not a direct change to Vladimir Putin yet but the kremlin wants to make sure he doesnt emerge as such. They seem to have revived this old soviet era program of punishing the relatives of enemies of the state. The whole day yesterday was very controversial. Alexei navalny went to the streets after that Court Verdict in which his brother was sentenced to three and a half years in jail, and he got a suspended sentence. Take a look. With supporters chanting his name, Alexei Navalny arrived at a crowded moscow courthouse to hear his sentence. Russian judges are notorious for taking hours even days to read their verdicts but for the countrys most prominent opposition figure it was just 15 minutes. The crime of fraud and embezzlement denied by navalny, he received a suspended sentence but his brother was imprisoned for three and a half years, prompting allegations of sovietera methods of punishing the families of dissidents. I am ashamed of what youre doing navalny told the judge. Why are you putting him in jail, all this is to punish me even more he said. Outside the courthouse the anticorruption campaigner urged his supporters to rise up. Translator this power does not deserve to exist. It should be destroyed. Im calling on everybody to take to the streets. Im calling on you to take to the streets until the power that tortures innocent people is removed. Reporter and take to the streets they did, the mass protest had been planned for january the 15th, this is a much smaller showing, the often passive world of russias opposition its a result. Despite the cold weather, people have turned out to protest against the sentencing of Alexei Navalny. The police are pushing back preventing them from getting to manezh square. Navalny walked towards the square in violation of his house arrest he was seized driven away. [ scream ] [ speaking in Foreign Language ] reporter hes been dubbed the man the kremlin is most afraid of the authorities clearly taking no risks here. [ seemcreams ] reporter alexei ana value know is now back under house aest are, back at his home continuing his campaign against the kremlin from there. The problem, carol, hes going to have is that of course hes running up against the new Year Holidays now and thats the most important holiday in the russian calendar and so its going to be very difficult for that anger we saw on the streets last night to keep its momentum carol. Matthew chance reporting live from moscow this morning. Bad weather hampering search efforts off the coast of borneo. The first bits of debris from flight 8501 were discovered 24 hours ago. Indonesian searchers saying this morning they recovered ten bodies so far. Heres jake tapper with more on those who are lost. Reporter for the families praying and waiting for good news each piece of debris discovered represents the destruction of their last hopes. The only slight benefit is that for the people in there, there is some closure. This is a scar with me for the rest of my life. Reporter now as victims belongings are collected from the sea, the world is gaining a clearer picture of who weve lost. 162 souls, including 18 children. One of the first pilots to spot debris told the indonesian newspaper compass that he saw victims floating in the water, Still Holding hands. Its perhaps an aprochryphal tale but symbolic of the tragedy. In in south Korean Church the congregation is weeping for one of their missionaries. Park sun bong as well as for his wife and for their 11monthold daughter gone along with them a fiance whose chance to become a husband will never come. They said that his plane was missing. Reporter his bridetobe explained that he perished along with his family on their last trip together. It was supposed to be their last vacation before us got married. Reporter britains only citizen aboard choi chi man was traveling with his 2yearold daughter zoe, when the plane went down. The father boarded this flight because there were not enough seats to fly with his wife and son on another. The wife of the pilot is mourning as well. Translator the children still need a father. I still also need guidance from husband. Hes a good husband in my eyes and hes a faithful husband. Reporter captain iriyanto was an experienced Indonesian Air force veteran whose daughter posted this photo on social media pleading for his return. A return that tranlgcally will never happen. Narrator these are the tennis shoes skater kid whoa narrator that got torture tested by teenagers and cried out for help. From the surprised designers. Who came to the rescue with a brilliant fix male designer i love it narrator which created thousands of new customers for the tennis shoes that got torture tested by teenagers. The internet of everything is changing manufacturing. Is your Network Ready . Thanks. [ male announcer ] fedex® has solutions to enable Global Commerce that can help your company grow steadily and quickly. Great job. mandarin cut it out. See you tomorrow. It is now an epidemic across the United States. The flu now widespread in 36 states its responsible for killing 15 children and sending many many more to the hospital. Plus the main line of defense, the flu vaccine proving to be less effective than hoped. And the wall street journal says there is a shortage of the medicine tamiflu. Thats true in some spots as this years flu season starts stronger and earlier than in years past. Dr. William schaffner, the chair of Vanderbilt Universitys department of preventative medicine joins us now. Good morning, doctor. Hello, carol, good to be with us. Good to be with you, too. So tell us why isnt the flu vaccine working this year . Well the flu virus has done its thing. Its mutated a little bit, so its not exactly on target with what we have in the vaccine, so for that particular strain and unfortunately its the dominant strain at the present time the vaccine is not optimally effective. So thats contributing to the spread of flu across the country. So does that mean theyll put a new vaccine out . Not this year. Next year. The one we have is the one we need to keep using. Remember even though its not a perfect match, it provides partial protection against some of the complications, pneumonia, hospitalization, and dying. Thats still pretty good and there are other flu virus strains out there that are wellrepresented in the vaccine, and you can get protection against those. So we say if you havent been vaccinated yet, its still not too late but run. Dont wait. Get vaccinated. Well it is disturbing that 15 children have died. So what should parents look out for . Well obviously theres flu in virtually every state. So make sure that your children stay away from crowds if you can. Thats hard in the holiday season. Keep the hand hygiene up. And should they become sick immediately call your pediatrician or Family Doctor because they can get an antiviral one of them is ta tamiflu that will reduce the severity of the illness but you have to do that right right away. Well, theres a shortage of tamiflu in some parts of the country. Thats disturbing. Spot shortages, nothing major. The manufacturer says they have plenty. Theyre ready to ship it out wherever its needed so so far so good but were really at the start of whats looking like a serious flu season. Lets destroy the myths that always occur this time of year because i heard them again this morning. Getting the flu shot makes you sick. It makes your arm swell up. It can lead to people having heart attacks. Is any of that true . Well obviously youll get soreness in the arm but, no its not true. The flu vaccine will not make you sick. It protects you against getting sick. I dont think people ever believe doctors when they tell them that because i hear it every single year from very educated people. Yeah carol, its a persistent myth. You cant get flu from the flu vaccine, thats not an excuse. And the recommendation is very simple all of us older than six months of age, thats everyone viewing, should get vaccinated each and every year. It not only contributes to protecting yourself but makes you less apt to spread it to others. No one wants to be a flu spreader. Spreader. Do you hear that brian, carolyn, everyone in the control room . Im teasing because i care about yall. I have to ask you, doctor about ebola. Two people died of ebola in this country. 15 children have died of the flu this year. No precautions at airports, no national scare, no talk in congress, no national emergency. What does this say about us . Well new things are frightening. As we learn more about ebola, the concern has abated. Were doing a better job, i actually am educating people and managing the ebola situation. The ebola situation in west africa requires our sustained attention because thats going to take a lot of work in the months going forward. And then as regards flu, we should all make a new years resolution. Each year we should all get vaccinated to protect yourselves and our loved ones and coworkers around us. Gotcha. Dr. William schaffner, thanks so much. I appreciate it. Thank you, carol. Lets all stay healthy in the new year. Absolutely. Checking other top stories for you, investigators say the death toll could rise in that ferry fire off greeces adriatic coast. There is confusion because Officials Say migrants may have stowed away in the ship. So far 11 people are confirmed dead dozens more could still be missing. Officials are working to reconcile passenger lists with people who were rescued. Baltimore ravens Security Director Darren Sanders has been charged with a fourth degree sex offense. That count is considered sexual contact without a victims consent. An torn for sanders tells the Baltimore Sun the charge is totally fabricate l. Sanders came under fire during the ray rice investigation for failing to get the elevator beating video from an Atlantic City con casino. The minimum wage will rise in 21 states tomorrow. The move comes after ballot measures passed the bills. 20 states will have minimum wages love the federal level. Still to come, a new years day present for sports fan. The first ever College Football playoff games. Cnns andy scholes is coming the battle of new orleans. Reporter thats right, carol. Alabama and ohio state fans have taken over the french quarter. A preview of tomorrows College Football playoff games after the break. Finally College Football fans get what they want, a playoff. The nations football teams go at it tomorrow with the winners advancing to the championship. Cnns andy scholes is in new orleans. Good morning. New orleans is an awesome place to be on new years day. This time the sugar bowl is a part of the new College Football playoff. The other game is the rose bowl in pasadena california. Both playoff games take place tomorrow on new years day and for the first time both of these games will help decide a True National champion p. After 16 years, College Football fans are finally getting what theyve been asking for. Playoffs . In the inaugural four team College Football playoffs the finals will take place at the chicago a bowl and the rose bowl. This is part of sports history, not just College Football history. Reporter in the sugar bowl number one alabama faces off against number four ohio state in a matchup foo that features two coaches who have dominated College Football over the last decade name sabin and irving meyer. Were both player oriented coaches about the welfare of players and the welfare of the game. Theres a lot of Mutual Respect there. Theyre very well coached which is nothing different from any other team that weve faced that urban has coached. He does a fantastic job with his players and coaches to put an outstanding product on the field. At the rose bowl it will be heisman versus heisman as this years winner marcus meriota and the oregon ducks take on Jameis Winston and the florida seminoles. The key is jameiss team and marcuss team are the things that make this thing go. Im not matching anyone. Im playing Florida State football. Hi job is to lead us to victory and his job is to do the same. I dont like that spotlight. I would prefer to go about my business and not deal with this. The winners from the sugar bowl and rose bowl will meet january 12 in arlington, texas, in the championship game and for the first time therefore wont be any argument of who the true championship because we finally have playoffs . Are you kidding me . Playoff s . Playoffs . I love that playoffs . Definitely excited for two games tomorrow. They should be two great matchups. If youre wondering where were stand, i could throw a football to cafe dumon. Theres already a line. Thats just cruel to tell me that andy. I think ill go down there. Thats where i would be. Andy happy new year. You, too, carol. The next hour of cnn newsroom starts now. Happening now did the sonar discover the aircraft . Translator i think so. Breaking overnight, at the bottom of the sea, whats believed to be left of airasia flight 8501. Whatever happened was fast and dramatic. This morning, cnn is on the ground. How does a man cope in this situation . As investigators and families search for answers. Plus arctic blast, 2014 ending in a deep freeze. Reports this morning that more than 100 people are trapped in their cars stuck in the snow. Whipping winds and treacherous Road Conditions as rescue workers work overnight. And tonights the night. Champagne, crowds. From times square to the beaches of sydney