Candidates and talk to n. P. R. s mara liasson about the big money the campaigns are investing in battleground state brown then, speaking of big money, paat solman walks us through those trillions of dollars spent by the u. S. Government each year. N reporter what you might not know about the federal deficit. A guided tour in and around washington, d. C. With the wall street journals david wesson. Woodruff we have another in our series of topics not being talked about in the campaign. Tonights missinissue is europes debt crisis. Brown an ancient and historic city at risk in a modernday civil war. Is we look at the destruction in aleppo, syria. This is one of the great tragedies. Aleppos an extraordinary cross roads of cultures, religions, all built on aro strata of centuries of t woodruff and ray suarez has the story of a 19th century recording made on tinfoil by thomas edison, digitally converted so we can hear it. Brown ths all ahead on tonights newshour. s major funding for the pbs
intensified. the army shelling its own people as the arab world steps in to try to end the slaughter of civilians. and an all-out brawl at the mall. police with guns drawn, shoppers scrambling for exits. chaos after christmas on this american morning. captions by vitac www.vitac.com good morning. it s tuesday, december 27th. this is american morning. i m alina cho along with ali velshi. good morning. good morning to you. we re so glad you re with us today. there s a lot going on. let s get right to it. starting in iowa. it s the place to be this morning. five top republicans plan to visits hawkeye state today. not going for the corn. seven day rees main until the iowa caucuses. the first in the nation, a nomination is up for grabs. cnn political director mark preston is live in des moines this morning. mark, the week begins with newt gingrich trying to distance himself once again, not from someone else, but from his own past. reporter: yeah. from his own p
iowa caucuses. first big test really, the 2012 presidential race. the candidates crisscrossing that state. five campaigning in iowa today. so far, none have won the support of a particular aiiowa congressman whose endorsement carries a lot of weight. a large percentage of iowans haven t decided. i m among them. i thought i would come to a conclusion in september or october. we re within a week of the caucus and i have not gotten to that point. still up in the air. a fact finding team on the ground in homs. we are hearing reports of more gunfire near a volatile neighborhood in that city. the team of arab league monitors trying to get the government to uphold its promise. more than 6,000 people have been killed since that uprising started in march. police in detroit say three of four women found dead in car trunks have been linked to online sex ads. all are black women in their 20s. police say three of these women had profiles on backpage.com. a website used to buy and se