Thanks for watching. Im Christine Romans following fiscal cliff all day and night. Ashleigh banfield returning tomorrow. Newsroom with Suzanne Malveaux starts right now. Welcome back to cnn newsroom. Heres whats going on right now. 2013 hitting right now in bangkok, thailand. Were looking at live pictures there as the celebrations and the fireworks exploding there. Lots of picturetaking and a lot of excitement there. Right now Pope Benedict holding a new years eve mass at st. Peters basilica. They will celebrate the new year in six hours. A couple of hours ago folks toasted 2013 in new zealand. Check it out. Pretty cool. Party started with fireworks with the auckland sky it tower. Organizers were worried bad weather would be a problem, but everything turned out just fine. Congratulations. The second major city to ring in the new year, sydney, australia. Check it out. Wow, that is over city harbor bridge. The show is huge. We are talking about seven tons of fireworks. Happy new years al
Oh, my god. We need to be. Its right there. This ominous sight was videotaped from the interstate near mobile, alabama. The driver wisely stopped and turned around. I want you to listen to the funnel cloud as it approached the city. Christmas day tornado. Going through mobile. Oh, my god, look, thats a tornado. Oh, wow. Oh, jesus, look at that tornado. Look at that. It caused a lot of damage. And knocked out power to more than 20,000 customers. Incredibly, no one was killed, although at least two stormrelated deaths were reported elsewhere. But even natures most Destructive Forces can have a beautiful side. The storm generated this endtoend rainbow as it passed near jackson, mississippi. Lets get to alexandra steele. The legs on this thing are insane. Certainly one for the record books. On the snow side and on the severe side, mobile, two tornadoes, one yesterday and then one five days before that. It was the greatest Christmas Day tornado outbreak on the records, for the record books
Im really feeling for them. Raw and emotional. Two radio hosts talk about the family of the nurse who took her own life after getting duped by their prank call. Good morning, to you. Welcome to early start. Welcome back, mr. Berman. It is great to be here. I was on vacation for a week. Now im back. Im john berman. It is 5 00 a. M. In the east. I am feeling that. But this, they are talking for the first time in over three weeks. President obama and House Speaker john boehner looked each other in the eye and actually had a conversation. Now thats a really big deal when it comes to the fiscal cliff crisis. Because in just 22 days americans face severe tax hikes and spending cuts unless these two leaders can find a way to compromise. Now neither side would discuss specifics about their conversation. But after yesterdays white house meeting, a spokesman for the president said the lines of communication remain open. Now that may be music to the ears of former white house chief of staff erski
Know, basically kicking in, first of the year. Thats when everyones taxes would be going up. That happened just yesterday. And also you have all these pro union protests happening not too far away in lansing, michigan. We have a correspondent there as well. Well talk to here. Jessica yellin to you in washington. And, first things first, you think here michigan, you think the birth place of unions and you think about all these people who are very frustrated with this, everything i read, it seems to be pretty much a done deal, this right to work legislation, that the governor has indicated he would sign. These are the folks who helped elect the president not too long ago. Should the president step in and go to bat for them . Well, you know, the unions have been enormously supportive of the president as you point out. Not only during this campaign, not only as foot stole jer sold helping get out the vote, but also financially with their dollars. The white house already expressed its suppo
Holiday shoppers scrambling for cover at a crowded mall after a gunman opened fire. 10,000 people inside the Clackamas Town Center mall when a man wearing a mask suddenly started firing. Chaos erupted. When it was over, three people dead, including the shooter himself. A young woman left wounded, fighting for her life right now. The mall is supposed to be a place we can all take our families, feel comfortable that this is a great place, especially at the Holiday Season like this. And these things arent supposed to happen. I want to begin with dan simon live in portland. We know that the police have identified the shooter, but is there any indication of a motive at this point . Not yet, soledad. Any time there is a shooting like this, thats always the first question. What was the shooter . What was the motive . Was this a random shooting . We dont know the answers to any of the questions. We know that the shooting happened about 3 30 in the afternoon. A mall full of people, 10,000 peopl