President said every element of americas Security Apparatus is on the case. Heres Homeland Security correspondent jeff pegues. I want the American People to know that we are taking everyry possible step to keep our homeland safe. Reporter flanked by his National Security team, today, president obama assured americans that while there was no credible threat, Law Enforcement officers across the nation were working overtime to keep it that way. For the 25 Million People expected to use airports over e next few days, t tt securury will be visible, like here at Los Angeles International airport, where heavily armed officers are on patrol. But nationwide, some Airport Police officers complain security is blind to the socalled insider threat. At many airports some workers do not routinely g through curity. The amamican alliance of Airport Police officers is calling for mandatory screening for all airport employees. Marshall mclain is with the organization. You and i, when we travel on an airplane, we all have to be screened. Why not have employees screened as well . Reporter the department of Homeland Security says it is reducing Access Points for employees anddooking into mandatory screening. Secretary jeh johnson were evaluating whether more is necessary right now. Thats something that i and t. S. A. Has been focused on as recently as today. Reporter several thousand officers will be on duty in new york city along the thanksgiving dayarade route. On the rails, heavilyly armed police are along amtrak routes in the northeast to show the system is safe, secretary johnson took the train this afternoon. But the bottom line seems to be that americans should go about their business and enjoy the holidays. But, jim, Law Enforcement is advising people to be vigigant, especially in public spaces. Axelrod jeff, thank you. 42 million amecans will be traveling by automobile. Transportation correspondent theyll be facing. Reporter its expected to be the busiest thanksgiving holiday on the road since 2007. Erin misar is driving from rochester, new york, to durham, north carolina. Our g. P. S. All of i sudden added another hour on to our travel time so that was super unexpected. Reporter just as those 42 million americans hit the road, the n. H. T. S. A. Reported a sharp spike in photographic deaths. 16,225 people died up over 8 from last year. If the trend holds for the year that would be the sharpest percentage increase since 1946. The biggest reason, almost half of those killed in Passenger Vehicles were not wearing their seat belts. Backseat passengers are a particular concern as theyre less likely to buckle up, and 22 states do not require it. This dash camera shows they are still very much at risk in a crash. Dr. Jim hedlund studied backseat passenger behavior. It takes a second you dont have to think about it. It doesnt cost you anything. Its cheap, its easy, and it may save your life. Reporter plummeting gaga prices, the lowest on thanksgiving since 2008, may also be a factor in the rise in traffic deaths says a. A. A. s tom calcagni. The more people that are on the road and the more people that are driving longer distances, the greater the risk. Reporter one trend a. A. A. Has noticed, more people leaving on tuesday. Jim, a. A. A. H hes that makes the ive on wednesday less terrible. Axelrod kris van cleave on this getaway wednesday. Thank you. From the rockies to the great lakes, snow, ice, and rain are expected to create rough overnight. Carter evans shows us where the snow really piled up. Reporter in californias sierra nevada, a foot of new snow made driving treacherous. So dangerous out here you really want to get your chains or soyou can make, you know, the safest drive up there. Reporter the prewinter storm covered roads in oregon and brought 50mileperhour further east in colorado, the wind snapped utility poles. And in washington state, hurricaneforce winds splintered trees and knocked o o power, according to resident vin chawla. It was roxin. We had probably three or four large branches at the house, and went outside, looked up, and saw branches flying, hitting neighbors roofs. Reporter along the california coast, king tides up to eight feet deep flooded san francicio streets, andnd huge waves pounded coastal buildings in san diego, providing a scary show for diners in this restaurant. But misery for some is paradise for others. California ski resorts are seeing three times their normal snowfall and their earliest opening in 10 years. Carter evans, cbs news, los angeles. Axelrod inhicago tonight, there are calls for calm following the release of a graphic video showing a white Police Officer fatally shooting an African American teenager. This happened 13 months ago, but the officer was not charged until yesterday. Heres Dean Reynolds. Reporter two more polole dash cam videos of the october 2014 incident have just emerged and while neither sheds much light on the shooting, one shows a different angle. 17yearold Laquan Mcdonald is on the ground dying from 16 Bullet Wounds as the police, including the officer who did the shooting, stand around. The release of Police Videos sent protesters into the streets overnight and this afternoon. City officials and mcdonalds relatives have called for calm, but there is frustration that it took more than 400 days to charge the cop jason van dyke. Do you t tnk the powers that be wanted this s se to just go away i think so. Reporter Howard Brookins is on the city council. When the victims appear to be underprivileged or minorities, that it takes a long time for justice to come their way. Reporter for now, officer van dyke is being held at the cook county jail. His lawyers dan herbert. Hes really fearful for h h whats going to happen to his wife and kids. Butp hes hes hanging in there. Reporter van dyke has had 18 citizen complaints against him in 14 years, including allegedly Excessive Force and racial epithets. None resulted in discipline. And herbert says the tapes dont tell thehe entnte story. His client, he said, felt mcdonald made a threatening gesture. Can i see those threatening gestures if i looked at the tape closely . You cant see what my client saw. Reporter van dyke will next be in court on monday when a judge will decide whether to grant him bail or keep him in jail, jim, in the custody of the cook county sheriff. Axelrod Dean Reynolds covering for us tonig in chicago. Thank you. The u. S. Commander in afghanistan said today American Forces violated the rules of engagement when they mistakenly bombed a hospital run by Doctors Without Borders last month. The airstrike in the Northern City of kunduz killed at least 30 civilians. More now from david martin. Reporter it was one of the worst accidents of the afghan war, and it was caused by what general John Campbell described as a perfect storm of mistakes committed by Americas Elite Special operations forces. This was a tragic but avoidable accident caused primarily by human error. Reporter after nearly five days of nonstop fighting in the city of kunduz, american commandos were holed up in a Police Station with afghan troops. The afghans requested a strike on a nearby government building which had been taken over by taliban fighters. An acritic130 gunship was called in by the american ground commander. The gunship was given the coordinates of the government building, but its targeting system zeroed in on an open field instead. The air crew visually identified the closest structure that building they were supposed to strike. Theyeyid not know it, but that building was in fact the hospital run by Doctors Without Borders. Before opening fire, theunship provided the coordinates of the target to a command center at bagram airfield. The command center knew those coordinates belonged to the hospital, which was on a no strike list, but nobody put two and d o together. The gunship opened fire. Someone from Doctors Without Borders called bagram to report the attack, but by the time the command center realized the mistake, the gunship had already ceased fire. All this happened at a time when the american combat role in afghanistan had supposedlyy ended, a a under the new rules of engagement, the american ground commander did not even have the authority to call in that strike. Some of the commanders involved in the strike have been relieved of their duties, and now face axelrod david martin terat the taeg, thank you. In sinjar kurdish fighters have discovered tunnels to survive u. S. Airstrikes. It reveals an underground city with electricity, plenty of food, and stacks of ammunition. All of this was built up during the year isis controlled sinjar. R. Kurdish f fces retook the city two weeks ago. One of the two russian airmen shot down after venturing into turkish airspace yesterday was rescued today by syrian allies. The other was killed by the militants on the ground. The survivor denied turkeys claim that it gave repeated warning before firing on the russian p pne. He said he never heard one. Holly Williams Joins us now from istanbul. Holly, a lotf finger pointing but for the time being at least it seems cooler heads are prevailing. Reporter thats right, jim. This looked like a very dangerous situation just 24 hours ago. Shooting down a rususan warplane after it allegedly strayed for just 17 seconds into turkish airspace we had a dead russian pilot, and we had the russian president , vladimir putin, threatening serious consequences. Today, though, it is very clear that all of the players in this drama, including the u. S. And nato, wawa to avoidid cononict. The turkish president , tayyip erdogan, said today that he did not want to see an escalation and russia said that it would not wage war against turkey. So a crisis has been averted this time, but that doesnt solve the underlying problbl which is the syrianivil war. The u u. , russia, turkey, iran, and other countrieses have all taken sides in syrias war, and they are all now being drawn deeper and deeper into the conflict and perhaps closer to a conflict with each other. Axelrod but for the time being no escalation. Holly williams reporting for uss tonight from turkey. Totoy, the f fily of the late football great Frank Gifford revealed he had a degenerative brain disease known as c. T. E. An autopsy confirmed it. Gifford died in august at the age of 84. C. T. E. Can result from repeated hits on the football field. Anna werner tells us g gford ffered plenty of thehe but one in particular stood out. Reporter it was one of the history. Future hall of famer Frank Gifford was leveled catching a pass against the philadelphia eagles. The play, which came to be known as the hit, sidelined gifford for more than a season. The discovery that he had the disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or c. T. E. , confirmed what his family had long suspected after giffords 13year career taking numerous hits. He died of natural causes. Wife, kathie lee gifford. He never wanted to lose his dignity. He had seen so much of that through the years and thats what i prayed that the lord would take him the way he wanted to go. Reporter researchers at Boston University toad us today 82 of the 92 former nfl players they examined suffered from c. T. E. , thats 96 . Dr. Robert cantu heads the center. Sometimes it can be one horrific single injury, but mostly its repetitive head injuries. Reporter both the new york giants and the nfl said today they appreciate the gford familys efforts to help advance understanding of c. T. E. Jim, the nfl said it is not waiting for science but is working now to improve the safety of the game. Axelrod anna werner, thank you very much. Still ahead on the cbs evening news, this thanksgiving eve, let the shopping begin. America gets ready to hit the stores. And at the white house, a fowl is hit, and the president calls him safe. D a cold with sinus pressure. You need fast relief. Alkaseltzer plus severe sinus congestion and cough liquid gels rush relief to your tough symptoms. [deep breath]to put you back in control. [doorbell] coming alkaseltzer ps sinus. Hey marc. How you feeling . Dont ask. This is what it can be like to have shingles, a painful, blistering rash. I never thought this would happen to me. If you had chickenpox, the shingles virus is already inside you. 1 in 3 people will get shingles in their lifetime. Im going to go o ck to the eye doctor tomorrow. Its pretty close to my eye. I dont know how you do it. 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In order to ke up, amazon has hired 100,000 extra Seasonal Workers. One of those is 20yearold zahmir ibezim, a College Student looking to save up money before he heads back to school in january. The money you make here what, are you going to use it for . Im going to use it to pay back schchl. Axelrod so this isiso make ney to pay o some loans . Yes. Axelrod amscreen hiring is a 25 increase from last year but they are the exception. Overall, Holiday Hiring is expected to be just slightly higher than last season. Fedex is adding 55,000 workers, roughly 5 more than 2014. Major retailers like macys and target will add the same amount of workers as last year. Andrew challenger is the Vice President of the Employment Firm challenger, gray, and christmas. Because so much of the Holiday Spending is now being done online, the jobs are changing. Now more of the jobs, instead of being in the front room, are moving intoohipping and handling, into warehouses, and into the actual delivery of those products. Axelrod jeanette washburn, a mother of six, is working in the Amazon Warehouse for the first time. So its good to have a little extra cash . Absolutely. To do something thats just maybe a little out of the ordinary for the h hsehold. Axelrod do you want to do this fulll time . You kw, if that was offered to me i would consider it definitely, but ill be back next season for sure. Axelrod last year, more than 20,000 of amazon Seasonal Workers were offered fulltime positions after the holiday rush was over. President obama continued a thanksgiving tradition today. laughterer granting pardons to a couple of turkeys named honest and abe. That one is abe. The president thanked his daughters, malia and sasha, for joining him for the ceremony. He said, they do this slowly because it makes me feel good, not because they actually think this is something i should be doing. The pope shares h h bigigst fety concern with our allen pizzey as he visits africa. We think youll be surprised. If you could see your cough, its just a cough. And so would e eryone else. New robitussin 12 hour delivers fast, powerful cough relief that lasts up to twelve hours. New robitussin 12 hour cough relief. Because its never just a cough. Im chris bosh. When i was sidelined with blood clots in my lung, it was serious. Fortunately, my doctor had a game plan. Treatment with xarelto. Hey guys hey, finally, somebody i can look up to. Besides arnie. Xarelto is proven to treat and help reduce the risk of dvt and pe blood clots. Xarelto is also proven to reduce the risk of stroke in people with afib, not caused by a heart valve problem. 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Tell your doctor before all planned medical or dental procedures. Beforeretarting xarelto , tell your doctor about any kidney, liver, or bleeding problems. You know xarelto is the 1 prescribed blood thinner in its class. Thats a bigin. It is for me. With xarelto there is no regular blood monitoring and no known dietary restrictions. Treatment with xarelto. Was the right move for us. Axelrod pope francis arrived in kenya today, his first stop on his firstever trip to africa. Allen pizzey is traveling with the pope. Allen, the spiritual leader of the worlds 1. 2 billion catholics is now in an area where there has been brutal fighting between christians and muslims. What is he hoping to accomplish . Reporter jim, i think the first thing he wants to do is bring the message of peace and reconciliation. He has said that christians and muslims can all sit down together, they should sit down together. Violence is wrong. Hell also talk about the environment, but that all comes back to his message that deprivation lead to terrorism. If youve got people who are deprived, theyve got reasons to fight, theyve got reasons for ethnic differences, thats a worry, jim. Axelrod early nexex week his itinnerrary takes him to the Central African republic when is a war zone. Does he seem concerned about his own safety. As usual the answer to that is no. On the plane today, i asked if he was worried about the trip, and he said, to tell you the truth, the onlnl thing i i worried about is mosquitoes. When i said, me, too, he went like this and said, did you bring your spray and smiled and he didnt have to bring his dawz because one of the journalists gave him two cans, jim. Axelrod allen pizzey, thank you. A carpenterrer and his young bond. Dave, im sorry to interrupt. I gotta take a sick day tomorrow. Dads d dt take sick days, dads take nyquil severe the nighttime, sniffling, sneezing, coughing, aching fever, best sleep with a cold, medicine. Woman my mom and i have the same hands. Same eyes. Same laugh. And since shes had moderate alzheimers disease, ive discovered we have the same fighting spirit, too. Thatat why i asked her doctor about vo new namzaric is approved for moderate to severe alzheimers disease in patients who are currently taking, and can continue to take certain doses of both namenda and donepezil. New namzaric is the first and only treatment to combine 2 proven alzheimers medicines into a single onceaaay capsule that works 2 ways to fight t symptoms of moderate to severe alzheimers disease. Onceaday namzaric may improve cognition and overall function and may slow the worsening of symptoms for a while. It shouldnt be taken by anyone allergic to me. Axelrod we end tonight with a man who has a special talent for helping kids with special needs. Turns out, theyre a perfect fit. Heres elaine quijano. Remember how we walk, right . Slow and controlled. Reporter Michael Konstalid has been a physical therapist in the new York Public School system for eight years, a job he pursued because of his late father my father had a neuromuscular condition, and growing up, becoming a physical therapist, i realized he had a much more difficult challenging life than i ever knew. Reporter his father inspired him in another way, too he was a carpenter. Growing up, konstalid would help his dad build things in his shop, a skill he now brings into the school. Reporter i started with repairing a wheelchair or building a balance beam, and it developed into a desk. Reporter konstalid says the chairs kids usese can havave a big impact on how they learn, so he started working out of a makeshift workshop in the basement of a Brooklyn Elementary School where he builds customized furniture out of salvaged scraps of wood. How can School Furniture affect learning . For a child who has balance, coordination issues, theyre trying to learn to the b bt of their ability,olve a math problem, or do reading assignment. If your feet arent on the floor, you cant be there mentally. Reporter konstalid has created more than 80 original pieces, like this staircase to help angie cruz get off the bus, a lunch tray holder for students confined to wheelchairs, and a modified classroom chair for hasan mahmud who has a hard time sitting in a typical one. Sitting in a special chair, but nobody treats him any differently. Reporter to give the students a sense of ownership, he enlists them to help them build a piece of furniture. What do you think about it the chair . I think that itss perfefe. R rorter in usingng these eces of dscarded wood, Michael Konstalid sees what others can sometimes miss limitless possibilities. Elaine quijano, cbs news, new york. Axelrod and thats the cbs evening news for scott pelley and all of us here at cbs news, im jim axelrod in new york. Thanks for j jning us. We wish you a happy and safe thanksgiving. Captioning sponsored by cbs captioned by