Descending upon rescue workers will search teams even be able to get to the wreckage any time soon . And our National Lead most persons think it will give their kids a cough and keep them in bed for a few day, but this flu has killed 15 children already this season. The cdc says this outbreak is now an epidemic and flu shots are not always enough. Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to the lead. Im jake tapper and we begin today with a sonar echo from the ocean floor, something search teams hope is airasia flight 8501 and a sad homecoming of course for some of the passengers on the doomed jet. Roughly 100 military personnel stood by earlier today as two bodies of victims recovered from the java sea arrived in surabaya the city the plane left from early sunday morning and the number of caskets escorted by rescue workers and soldiers hammered home the devastating reality that the 162 souls who boarded 8501 including 18 children are almost certainly all gone. So far indonesian Officials Say rescue teams have recovered a total of seven bodies including a woman wearing a flight attend attendant attendants uniform. All of them will ultimately wind up at hospitals or morgues for the grim but necessary process of examining and identifying the bodies to give families closure, of course but also to look for any evidence that might peel away the layers of mystery about how this jet went down. Clues that might give the families and friends of the passengers and the world some answers as the search for more victims and wreckage is prevented by more awful weather. The array of ships, plane, helicopters and divers looking for flight 8501 had to abort yesterdays search two hours early as heavy rain wind and towering waves shrouded the scene in a misty, dark fog. Efforts remained focused on the strait where crews first spotted the debris. They think the planes main fuselage may be there as well. Suzanne malveaux has the latest on the hunt for this wreck an and even though they have some good clues they still have a ton of work ahead of them. They really do. Its a sad story when you think of all of those children on that flight. Tony fernandez being very careful to tell us what they know and what they dont know. He has said they do have a visual of what could be the wreckage of the aircraft the main part of the fuselage in the java sea, but he cannot confirm that radar has picked this up which would be significant. So it leaves many of these families of those aboard 8501 in agonizing limbo. The bodies of two more passengers from airasia 8501 arrived by ambulance, rushed to a local indonesian hospital to be identified by griefstricken loved ones. Its the first stop before being brought to the city of surabaya where the flight originated and where the caskets of other recovered passengers are received by the indonesian military. So far, very few of the 162 people onboard have been found. Searchers discovered an emergency door and a blue suitcase. The weather, unfortunately, is not looking good for the next two or three days and that is slowing us down but they did inform me that the ships are looking to operate 24 hours. Now there are conflicting reports from indonesian officials about whether a sonar image has located wreckage believed to be from the illfated flight submerged at the bottom of the java sea. One theory developing. The pilot his made an attempt to land on the water similar to the aircraft that was landed on the hudson successfully. From the last time the radar picked up the aircraft until the location where they found the debris is over 100 miles and that would be consistent with a slow descent down into that region. The specter of the miracle of the hudson where the plane glided on water and passengers walked away from the crash had given hope to some families perhaps another miracle would be revealed here but at the Crisis Center as time passes praying has given way to despair. This family told cnns gary tuchman they lost seven loved ones on the doomed flight. Translator when we heard the information firstly, of course we hoped our family members were safe and thought of nothing until yesterday morning and afternoon we still hoped we would get a miracle that our families are still alive. Because my mother my sister we were very close. It is just heartbreaking for those families and what is complicating this its monsoon season and the weather is treacherous and it is slowing down the search for the passengers and the debris as well. They have to be cautious about search planes flying in high wind the divers swimming in those strong currents and pieces of the plane lurching through the sea and thankfully there is still time to get those flight data recorders and the socalled black boxes which could provide critical information as to why this plane went down jake. The weather being a possibility at least a contributing factor. Suzanne malveaux lets go live to surabaya indonesia where Andrew Stephens is standing by. Another very sad day for these families. The search is set to resume just under two hours from now. How is the weather . Will they be able to start searching again today . As we mentioned earlier, the search yesterday was aborted two hours prematurely. Reporter the conditions we are being told jake is those conditions at first light will be very similar to the conditions that led to the aborting of the search today. It gives you an idea of the sort of be on sackels theyre facing here and winds up to 50 miles an hour and 20foot high seas and theyre big swells and the wind speeds will restrict flights as well as driving rain. A lot of heavy rain bands going through that area and its expected to go through the next few days which will be the problem and we are told divers havent gone into the sea yet because it is too dangerous. You tie those together and it is going to be very very difficult to have effective searching going on for the next 24 hours, if not longer and there were suggestions that they have identified the fuselage the main cabin of 8501 but weve been speaking to the heads, the local head here of indonesia search and rescue and he can only say that it may be that we found it we dont know and we cant confirm it at the moment and given the weather will be the way it is and remember this is the monsoon. The seas which are shallow do get whipped up and you get a lot of sediment and mushing in the water and visibility under water will be difficult, as well. Andrew the new year came to indonesia when we spoke four hours ago. Its obviously supposed to be a happy occasion and many of these passengers were flying to singapore, one presumes to celebrate the new year but i would assume that things are pretty somber in surabaya right now. Reporter absolutely jake. There is a strong connection with singapore here. There is a strong chinese fraternity here in surabaya. There were having said that there were plenty of fireworks going off, but the authorities here they canceled all public celebrations of new years and in the eastern javan province of surabaya is the capital and there has been a candlelight vigil in the park here in surabaya which attracted hundreds and hundreds of people. This is a city in mourning. Hundreds turning out. Children, also families of the relatives turning out. It was led by them there who prayed for strength in these very very difficult times for so many people and the really sad thing here jake is because of the weather conditions, this grieving grieving this despair continues because the likelihood of bodies more bodies being retrieved gets pushed back because of the weather conditions. So this could be days before these relatives who have been through so much already, hope and despair, now theyve got thissing a niegz weight for the bodies to be returned and they then have to be identified and that is quite a long process, too, because theyre being so cautious about getting it right and the identification and for photos and distinguishing marks and also for the samples which could help them with dna matches so it is going to be quite a long process to identify all of those victims and of course there is the burial to go through, as well and absolutely harrowing days ahead for so many families in this grieving city. Just awful. Andrew stephens live in surabaya indonesia. The debris uncovered so far has been floating on the waves, but what investigators have recovered may only be setting the table for the critical discoveries that officials need next. Our tom foreman explains. Tom . There are really three layers to the physical search right now. The one weve been talking about the most right now is on the surface of the water. Wye know where the plane took off and we know where it disappeared and we know where it found debris in the search area and the water is very rough, at times and the surface matters because the surface where you get your first clues most often and clues floating on top of the water may or may not tell you about the cause of the accident when you move to the second layer which is the water column beneath them and you start reverse engineering their position against the competing currents below, you can get an estimate on where they came from and that can lead you to the third layer down here which is the heavy bits on the bottom because those are the ones you really have to get. What are we talking about . Were talking about big parts of the plane. Parts of the wings and parts of the tail and parts of the landing gear and the electronics, the flight data recorder and the voice recorder and the engines which are each about 9,000 pounds and all of them are critical because if you collect enough of them as they did with twa 800 which is a hundred feet of water off the coast of long island you can reassemble the plane, in effect and when you do that you can look at all these pieces and figure out what went wrong. Was there a fire . Was there an explosion . Did it tear apart . Did it hit the water intact and sink . All of those could be critical clues to understanding what happened. All right, tom foreman. Thank you so much. Finding the main cabin could answer so many of the questions about what went wrong which needs to be known so as to prevent future disasters like this. Weather has hampered crews trying to find the plane. Divers dread what they will find inside when they finally get there. Thats next. 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 . Introducing danceallyouwant bladder leak protection. New always discreet underwear for sensitive bladders from always, the experts in feminine protection new always discreet underwear absorbs heavy bladder leaks faster than the leading brand, so you can feel comfortably dry. Plus always discreet has a discreet fit that hugs your curves. You barely feel it. New always discreet underwear. Now bladder leaks can feel like no big deal. Because, hey, pee happens. Welcome back to the lead. Im jake tapper. We are going to continue with our coverage of the world lead. Families of the airasia flight victims are struggling of course to come to grips with their loved ones being gone but as indonesian authorities search the sea for more wreckage and more victims and more clues officials are now bringing bodies to a midway point. There, they can start the grim process of trying to identify them. Lets go to cnns Paula Hancocks who is in borneo. Paula . Reporter jake this is the firststop hospitals for the victims on the west coast of borneo. We have just received two more bodies here. Sirens signaling the two ambulances arriving that were red cross and hospital workers waiting with gurneys. The two body bags were then rushed into a special wing of this hospital to be treated and also identified. The hospital director tells us that what theyre doing is trying to give the initial identification to figure out the gender the height and any identifying marks and facial recognition who can tell you who the passengers and crew are. We know the families have already given uptodate photos of their loved ones exactly for this purpose. The weather is in part of that. Weve had high waves and also high winds which obviously makes things very difficult for the divers and little visibility and also for the ships and the aerial support in the area. The concern, of course is the next couple of days could be just as bad. Jake . Paula hancocks in borneo thank you so much. Lets bring in captain tim taylor submersible specialist and the captain of tiburon. Do you think its likely that this object that has been picked up by the sonar, even though the airline wont yet confirm it do you think its likely the main cabin of the jet . I dont have the knowledge to say its likely but if it is you know it its its amazing, to find the whole cabin intact after what it had to go through. David, you told me earlier that you think we actually know less today than we did yesterday. Explain what you mean. Well yesterday if you recall they said the aircraft had gone into the water that the debris was located six miles from where they last had a radar fix on the radar which would indicate it was a deepsteeper deep stall. It went from six miles to 120 miles that was a mistake. They also told us other information that we knew this we knew that. We knew that the sonar had found this aircraft. Now we dont know if it found it or not. Its backed off on it. So in their attempts yesterday i was talking about how they did such a great job of managing the misinformation and now ill have to back off on that because it appears that theres information getting out some back and forth just like what we saw with mh370 which is torturous to the families. Jeff based on the clues that we know so far, based on the the bodies and the debris that weve seen based on the information we have what are investigators thinking right now in terms of what may have caused this crash or is it still too early to even speculate . Its really too early to speculate. Its not very fruitful to speculate. Really what theyre doing as you reported earlier, theyre really bent on getting these black boxes out of the water. The destruction of the fuselage itself that will unlock the secrets pretty quickly. I suspect this case will not take too long to resolve, absolutely not mh370 and then the answers will emerge pretty quickly. We could, as sort of a mental exercise talk about the possibilities related to weather and perhaps pilot errors et cetera, but it will not really be useful because well have the true answer soon enough i hope. David, weather has obviously slowed the search. What can these teams do if anything to mitigate the risk of this evidence the chunks of the plane, the debris et cetera drifting away from where they have found pieces of wreckage or is that just impossible . Well its not impossible jake. What im hoping theyre doing and they havent been talking about this but i suspect they are is dropping sonar buoys which will drift with the debris and theyll be easier to find because they actually emit a signal which can be narrowed in on later. So they can be do but more importantly what theyre doing right now is establishing and bringing in the subject Matter Experts and the stakeholders of the aircraft the manufacturer the airline itself and the countries that are involved they all have to be part of this investigation and they may not be parties to it meaning theyre not in the planning meetings but they definitely have to be there. I wouldnt dream of doing an investigation on the aircraft unless all major manufacturers including avionics were there to represent themselves and provide information. It seems the only time the weather has been manageable is during the night. Ive gone on night dives and you really only see what the late youre carrying picks up in front of you, but does it make these searches impossible . Obviously, theyre continuing to do them at night. Yeah if i was running this operation i would schedule it for the times that are the best and thats the night right now. So i would take advantage of that opportunity, and frankly, sonar and the sonar work you have to do that can be done at any time. Diving a little bit of complication with lights and you can bring in rovs with massive lighting and divers together and solve a lot of that if theyre going inside of a fuselage it gets more dicey, but the divers are trained for that and recovering bodies is really the necessary thing. Recovering the wreck or salvaging the wreck can wait for months when the season gets better if its deep enough but bodies need to be right now as soon as we can in recovery needs to be priority of that. Captain tim taylor jeff weiss, thank you so much. In the National Lead the flu outbreak spreading so quickly this season experts say its reached an emdemmic level. Why your flu shot may not be enough to keep you from getting sick and why one particular flu strain has become so dangerous. I take prilosec otc each morning for my frequent heartburn. Because it gives me. Zero heartburn prilosec otc. The number 1 doctorrecommended frequent heartburn medicine for 9 straight years. One pill each morning. 24 hours. Zero heartburn. Welcome back to the lead. Im jake tapper. The National Lead. A deadly outbreak spreading quickly across the u. S. Has been blamed for the deaths of 15 children its the flu and the cdc announced its officially an epidemic and while they have not been quarantined this flu strain is a serious concern for Health Professionals because its not only dangerous, its unpredictable. Its mutating. The centers for Disease Control reports widespread flu activity in 36 states and doctors say even if you got a flu shot you could still get this virus. I am joined by dr. Jeffrey kahn, the director of peaed yam rick Infectious Diseases at Childrens Medical Center in dallas. Doctor, thanks for joining us. Why hasnt the flu shot been enough to stop people from getting the virus this season . Well we know that flu can mutate and in fact it mutates every year and thats why we have new vaccines that come out every year and we have to get revaccinated for influenza. This has mutated in a way that the vaccine no longer covers this strain. Its one of the three strain that typically circulates and this is the strain of the three that typically circulate that causes the most severe disease and thats why its drawing a lot of attention. Just to be clear, doctors still recommend that people get the flu shot and its not too late to do so because of the other two strains. People should still get their flu shots. Absolutely for the reasons that you mentioned and also there is some data that suggests that even if its not a Perfect Match and the vaccine is not a Perfect Match with the strains that are circulating nationwide there is still some protection afforded by the vaccine. By all means if you havent gotten a flu shot yet you should get a flu shot. So the n2 strain is particularly difficult. Is there a reason for that . Or its just one that has mutated in a diabolical way. The mutation has to do with weather the vaccine will protect against the virus. The h3n2 is a common influenza strain that circulates through each of the epidemics and it changes from year to year and its known to cause bad disease and this year its no different from previous seasons. There have been 15 reported deaths of children so far this year. Are children more susceptible to this particular strain. Certainly Young Children are much more susceptible. We see pediatric deaths during each influenza epidemic and typically at least over the last several years weve seen between 100 and 200 deaths in the pediatric population and Young Children are typically prone to influenza and there are reasons for that. First, children less than 6 months of age cant get vaccinated and they wont respond so theyre prone to influenza and respiratory conditions like asthma are typically prone to influenza disease. Here is the background many parents yelling at their televisions wanting me to ask you, what should they be doing in addition to the flu shots . How can they protect themselves . How can they protect their children . One comment about the flu vaccine, the people at highest risk of getting influence area household contacts of people who have influenza. If you have small children in your house, the way to protect them is not only to immunize them but immunize everybody in the house and as you mentioned earlier its widespread right now is once an individual or child develops symptoms then bring them to a healthcare provider. We know antiviral therapy is very effective if used early in disease and thats typically during the first 24 hours of symptoms. Flu typically starts with sudden onset of fever, bodyaches and cough and other respiratory symptoms and if you go to a Health Care Provider there are oral medications and spray medication that will treat influenza. Fortunately, the strains that are circulating right now including this mutated h3n2 strain are subssceptible to and if you have someone that has influenza illnesses, chicken soup not enough. Take them to the doctor. Thank you so much. Happy new year to you. Thank you. A Top Republican apologizes but did he even address that White Supremacist Group at all. New details on whether this will cost the congressman his leadership position. Think about where you toast the new year tonight could impact your degree of buzz tonight and your degree of hangover tomorrow morning. The bar effect on booze. Thats effect in our buried lead. Welcome back to the lead. Im jake tapper. In our politics lead today, it seems that there are actually more questions than answers now surrounding louisiana congressman Steve Scalise. Hes the third ranking republican in the house. The big question of course is whether or not he even spoke to the White Supremacist Group in 2002. He apologized yesterday for doing it for appearing at the european unity of Rights Organization which was founded and headed by david duke, the notorious former klan leader and neonazi but dukes former Campaign Manager told slate. Com that scalise had been invited to talk to a Civic Association in the same location before the convention saying quote, he spoke early in the day to a contingent of people prior to the conference kicking off, adding he was not there as a guest speaker at the conference though he did acknowledge some of the attendees to hear mr. Scalise were with the White Supremacist Group, but if thats true, and im not saying it isnt, then why did scalise apologize . What did he apologize for . Cnns athena jones has been digging into the story and she joins us live with the latest. The story is getting stranger by the day. The first day we were covering it we were saying we went by his staff and we said he likely spoke there, and then they said he did speak there and so we reported it what . The issue seems to be did he speak right before or right after the conference officially kicked off and how many White Supremacists may have been in the audience at the time he spoke. Right now scalise has the backing of key republican colleagues but more and more people outside of capitol hill are saying he should step down from his leadership post. More fallout today regarding a 2002 speech the number three House Republican gave before a White Supremacist Group, founded by former ku klux klan leader david duke. Gop leaders are circling the wagons around Steve Scalise after he apologized for speaking at the europeanamerican unity and rights conference and former louisiana governor Edwin Edwards are coming to his defense. The former u. S. Senator Bennett Johnson saying this about scalise in the telephone interview with cnn. Hes just not a racist. The pair joined congressman Cedric Richmond the only black member of the states congressional delegation who also expressed support for scalise. Cedric richmond coming out, an africanamerican democrat coming out in his defense making those key points as a surrogate for Steve Scalise has been very important in managing his way through this issue. Not everyone is supporting him. The Chicago Tribune called scalise to bow out of leadership and Charles Krauthammer on fox news. Scalise wanted to make it easy for the party he would have stepped down from his own from leadership. Nobody is demanding he leave the congress and his career is over. So what does scalise think of duke back then. In a 1999 interview with roll call, he embraces many of the conservative views as duke but scalise said this week he wholeheartedly condemns the duke groups views. There will continue to be additional questions as long as theres no information that contradicts Steve Scalise, i think its very likely that he will hang on to his leadership position. When i spoke to one of congressman scalises, i just dont think we ought to be playing gotcha here and thats what this is. He can completely understand how scalise can end up speaking before this group. As you know jake there are a lot of other people who still feel like scalise has more explaining to do. Athena jones, thank you so much. Jarvis is the columnist for the new orleans picayune and nola. Com. He joins us. Jarvis thank you so much for being here. The first question i have is are you surprised to see so many louisiana democrats come to the defense of this very conservative republican . There arent a whole lot of louisiana democrats left so i wouldnt say there are a whole lot coming to his defense. Im not surprised to see Cedric Richmond in particular defending him because they are very close friends. They have had a very warm friendship since their days back in the louisiana house and this is where scalise was and when he was serving when they did or did not speak to the group that were talking about, but the friendship between richmond and scalise is real genuine and deep so its not surprising at all to hear him in particular come out in his defense. And of course i would suggest that you know Steve Scalise is not racist if he has a very close africanamerican friend and has gone on for years and maybe thats naive of me to say, but do you think that inoculates him from charges that hes racist . You know i dont think that thats the most important question whether he is a racist or not. I think the more important question is what do white republicans in this state, in louisiana think that they have to do to gain support and win elections . Scalise, did he or did he not speak before this group came after he had paid a governor 150,000 for mailing lists. After that jenkins who ran in 1996 paid 83,000 for a computerized phone list of david duke supporters. So it seems that people in this state, politicians in this state have founded to their benefit to deal with duke or his supporters in some way or another. So i dont know if its. To say is Steve Scalise a racist or not or does he have a black friend or not have a politician and can a politician stiffer arm these people who can be successful politically. I dont know if one can if hes trying to win the conservative vote. Thats the point. Its about what are you willing to do to appeal to people who are racist and i dont want to cass as persians on white voters in louisiana, but david duke ran for governor in 1991. He lost but he won the white vote 55 of the white yes. 55 of the white vote and that was 23 years ago and you can imagine many of those people are still around and many of those people are still voting and if they were particularly around in 2002. R yeah what do you do if youre running in the same geographical area that duke was just a few years after he enjoyed political success . You know i dont think that scalise had any business even dealing with any of dukes people. I dont think it was the right or ethical thing to do. Kenny knight who is a political director of duke said that scalise knew who i was, but he doesnt hold it against me. I think he should have held it against me. Thank you so much. Happy new year. Brianna keilar is here with a preview of the situation room. Is it still the situation room. The room stays the same. Im really the only thing that changes. Is that right . Youre not put anything flourishes and any decorateding . No. Wolfs situation room needs no flourishes but we do have a big guest. Who do we have . We have captain Chesley Sullenberger sully, the pilot behind the miracle on the hudson. So were going to talk to him about how what the pilots maybe should have done here because a lot of experts are wondering if this plane didnt stall and were also going to talk to him about whether pilots should be better trained when it comes to flying really not relying so much on automation and what they could have done. He had the obvious benefit of immediate help after he landed that plane on the hudson river and its been days since this has happened. So were going to ask him about that and whether these planes should be monitored and well also talk to a spokesperson about the u. S. Navy about resources headed in that direction. Looking for it on the situation room with Brianna Keilar. I like the southbound ofnd of that. Millions of you will opt for uber and god bless, but that ride might cost you more than usual. Why uber is hiking prices tonight and what the extra charges might mean for the coverage tigz and competition and thats next on our money lead. 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 . Introducing danceallyou want bladder leak protection. New always discreet underwear for sensitive bladders from always, the experts in feminine protection. Only always discreet underwear has soft dual leakguard barriers to help stop leaks where they happen most. Plus, always discreet has a discreet fit that hugs your curves. You barely feel it. New always discreet underwear. Now bladder leaks can feel like no big deal. Because, hey, pee happens. Woman do you think hes on his way . Man he doesnt even know that were here. Is he ok . Please tell me hes ok. Laura. Ok, try to call him again. Theres no signal. Try nothings working. Well, just try. Everythings down. This is so bad. I miss him. Hes out there by himself. Narrator make sure you know where to find your family in an emergency. Start your plan at ready. Gov. Look at that. Its 2015 somewhere. This is the year we were promised hover board, of course. Jaws 19 a cubs world seary, thats all from back to the future part 2. This was the celebration in moscow at the top of the hour as russia probably thankfully rang in a new year hoping for a new year after all, their economy is tanking and president putin canceled the holiday for government workers, but that did not stop the Party Outside the kremlin where theyre partying like its 17 the 9. This was the scene earlier in taiwan. The taipei 101 tower lit up in celebration. And at a very e special and tense time for the nypd its officers are, of course in charge of protecting as many as 1 Million People at the Biggest Party of them all in times square. That loose cannon Kathy Griffith will be there with Anderson Cooper trying to make him giggle for cnn tonight. We have no idea what shes going to, do of course. Right now i want to go to rosa flores in the middle of it all in new york city. Set the scene for us there. Anderson cooper is not giggling, but there are a lot of people in very high spirits. Absolutely. You know jake im not any loose cannon, but i can tell me my best friends tell me i fashion some 2015 like nobody and this is what new years eve at times square is all about. Its about people from all over the world coming to celebrate the new year. Ive met a lot of them jake. Some of them from far, some of them from close by. Where are you from . We are from japan. From japan. Ive met a lot of people from japan. A lot of them saying its really cold today and my beloved new orleans. Great to see you again. To our beloved nola lots of kisses and hugs. Where are you from . South hampton, england. Its a little cold today. Its freezing. You can see a lot of people have really nice Fashionable Hat which is is the thing to do at new year. Where are you from . From Mexico Mexico what are you hoping to see today . [ speaking spanish ] of course everybody is talking about the 12foot ball. Jay, ive got to tell you, i stand about 6 feet tall so its twice my size but i can tell you i weigh a little less than this ball it weighs 11,875 pounds and anyway i leave you with the crowd, jake all of these folks very happy to be here on new years eve. Rosa flores thank you so much for that report. That brings us of course, to our money lead and it might be the last thing i remember tonight, getting into your uber. The ridesharing app has been blamed pretty much everything this year except the sony hack. And despite the bad press, tonight alone the company is expected to generate 100 million in revenue in one night. 100 million in large part because they jack up their prices during the Biggest Party night of the year. Last year one fivemile ride in pennsylvania cost 265 but hey, you know youre going out on new years eve. Youre going to overpay for Everything Else am i right . Joining me now for Business Insider jim cove ak. Its staffing up in an effort to keep your tab down but wouldnt the best way if they really cared to stop surge pricing to stop surge pricing . That isnt the mission of uber. It isnt your traditional Taxi Cab Company and they want to make sure you have a ride when you need it. Increase the price when demand is high and make sure that people who want a ride get one. They want to make sure that when you ask for a car its with you within five minutes. You seem much smarter than me when it comes to math. Is there a strategy to the system . The peak times tends to be 12 30 a. M. And 2 30 a. M. And one thing you can do is leave the party earlier and have extra beers and wait until 3 00 or 4 00 a. M. And the pricing should be lower. Uber took heat during the sydney hostage crisis and weve seen Cab Companies and Police Offering free rides tonight to prevent drunk driving. Is uber doing anything to raise good will . They are. They partnered with mothers against drunk driving and there is a special code when you put in a request for a car and they dont donate a dollar or two to mothers against drunk driving. It helps reduce drunk driving when people help uber and one of the things is as soon as they realized that that situation was happening they turned surge pricing off and they have the ability, and they have humans watching these things and when Something Like that kicks in a terrorist attack or gunmen and they can switch off the pricing and make sure people can afford to get it out. Uber has gotten bad press this year but they still had a great year. They gave people 140 million rides and theyre delivering groceries now and government and Cab Companies seem like theyre just fighting an unwinnable battle against this company. Right. You know theyre still primarily a car company and making sure people get to where they need to go and if you want to look at ubers business in the long run its a logistics company, they order anything soap paper, groceries and they want to have it on demand and that attacks amazon and google and a lot of other companies. I have to say, as a journalist i cover these companies, amazon and uber and i know about the problems that people have with them and the things that they do that are troubling and yet, i use them both all the time. Right. Youre voting with your wallet. If people didnt use it the surge pricing would go away in a second and i guarantee it and right now people are paying for it. We have to keep in mind. You and i live in new york and youre used to hailing a cab whenever you want and there are so many cities that dont have the Public Transportation infrastructure that we do and its beneficial in those areas. Have a great new year. Dont drive drunk. Thanks. Happy new year. Thank you so much. This brings us to the buried lead. Marijuana got all of the headlines in 2014 but when it comes to americans favor rid method of altering their states booze still remains on top. Gallup reported earlier this year that 64 of American Adults say they have occasion to use alcoholic beverages and other studies suggest that that increases significantly this evening. There will be tragic ramifications, of course and here is where we caution you to drink responsibly or tack a cab home or uber but let us think of the glass as half full. Think about it for a second. Most of us tonight will drink whether champagne or beer or wine or liquor its a process and a tradition older than most of the worlds religions. Even though its often bad for us. After all, as Frank Sinatra once said alcohol may be mans worst enemy, but the bible says love your enemy. For a lot of us tonights new years celebration will be occasion to toast with adult beverages in hand. Whether youre partial to whiskey as in animal house. Thanks. I needed that. Tequila like the three amigos or just a brewski like e. T. Your libation is part of a proud tradition thousands of years in the making. Theres 10,000 years of human farming and and 2,000 use of engineering and technology and all of that comes down to picking up a glass and taking a sip. Adam rogers is the author of proof, the science of booze. Hes a reporter pal, and weve been doing Research Together on this subject for years. I should disclose you and i have known each other for 15 years and embiebed many of these liquids from Portland Maine to portland oregon. This is not unfamiliar sitting down in bars. Sure. It urns do down the bars in which we sat and the one you may sit at tonight can affect the taste of your beverage. It all depends upon your view. Youre right. The design of a label, the shape of a bottle or the decor of a bar may be just as important as whats actually being poured and were at a highclass establishment here jack rose saloon the largest collection of whiskies in the hemisphere. So they tell us. This is as important as this fancy whisk. Because thats the way the human sense of smell and taste works. It is so tied up in what the expectations are for what were going to experience. Even if your experience does not include alcohol, roger says you can get buzzed on Virgin Drinks if you dont know the difference. Its all about expectations. Youll get flushed and youll slur words a little bit and your behavior will change and if youre getting a drink with alcohol in it and youll have less of an effect. We know how to ferment it, did i distill it age it and mix it but do we know why it causes us to act the way we do . We know ethanol affects speech motor skills and Decision Making skills but despite various scientific explanations drunkenness is still a bit of a mystery, roger says. They have some good ideas, but which recentptor in the brain and it could be that and could be that and im pretty sure its that and not quite positive. If those Decision Making missteps lead you to have one too many. You may wonder what all of this boozy research has done to help you in the morning. The fact is that hangovers are poorly understood also and its frustrating and thats a bummer right . Because you would like somebody to fix that. I would like somebody to fix that. Two aspirin and a glass of water, i think. Be sure to watch new years eve live with anderson giggles cooper and kathy griffin. That starts tonight on cnn and thats it for the lead for 2014. Im jake tapper and i will still be jake tapper in 2015 when i see you next and ill turn you over to Brianna Keilar and shes in the situation room with Brianna Keilar. Happy new year. Be safe. See you next year, jake. Happening now. New victims and recoveries of airasia passengers with the first bodies arriving onshore and bad weather will have some of the mission on hold. Will it make finding the plane itself even harder . Water landing perhaps . Some clues suggest the pilot may have been attempting a rare and desperate move. Ill talk to a pilot who did it successfully. The man behind the miracle on the hudson captain Sully Sullenberger and bizarre video north korea releases new images of leader kim jongun flying a plane as sony makes moves to distribute its controversial film parodying him even more widely. Wolf blitzer is off today. Im Brianna Keilar. Youre in the situation room