punishment. >> there are about 47,000 members of the u.s. military serving in after indian stan. some ate their thanksgiving dinner at a base in kabul. this was the 13th year american troops celebrated the holiday in afghanistan. and a group of veterans were thanked for their service. they live add the armed forces retirement home in washington and each thanksgiving a group of volunteers spends the day at the home. danielle nottingham spoke with some of the veterans. >> reporter: the kitchen at the armed forces retirement home is fired up before dawn, preparing for the hundreds of retired servicemen and women who line up for their thanksgiving meal. >> happy thanksgiving. >> thank you. >> volunteers like retired lieutenant colonel victor perez are there to serve. >> how are you today? >> good. >> reporter: perez visits every thanksgiving as a member of the warrior brotherhood motorcycle club it's an opportunity for us even as current servicemembers to remind ourselves of the great sacrifices all these folks shared with the country. >> reporter: they share pictures and generations of stories. they serve wars apart but they have that in common. the residents here come from all over the country. >> oh, yeah. >> reporter: ken served two tours in vietnam. he appreciates the visits from volunteers. >> it's good for a lot of the gentlemen and ladies that don't have families anymore or they're far away. >> it just, again, renews my faith that perhaps maybe one day when i need that friendship, when i need that brotherhood, there are going to be folks like us coming out just sharing some time with me. thank you, enjoy your meal. >> reporter: perez says he'll be back for easter, another opportunity to give thanks. danielle nottingham, cbs news, washington. straight ahead, your friday morning weather. and in sports, a coach interfering with a play, and that wasn't even the strangest thing that happened during the steelers/ravens game. 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[ male announcer ] progresso. surprisingly bold flavor for a heart healthy soup. here's a look at today's forecast the in some cities around the country. new york will be mostly sunny, a capitol hilly 37. partly sunny in miami and in chicago. partly sunny in dallas but clouds in los angeles. and time now for a check of the national forecast. the weather shouldn't be a problem if you're planning on hitting the stores for those black friday specials. it will be dry and chilly in the northeast and midwest. in the south it will be dry and slightly warmer. there could be light showers in southern california and rain in the northwest. in sports a crazy game between the pittsburgh steelers and the baltimore ravens. check out this kickoff return. the ravens' jacoby jones is flying down the sidelines. he could score, but he has to avoid steelers coach mike tomlin and gets tackled. then with just over a minute left, kraushing blow. le'veon gets hammered. ravens pull this one out barely, 22-20. and a wild first play. the cowboys' terrance williams fumbles the kickoff return and the ravens craig jenkins runs it in for a td. tony romo had another good night tossing for 200 yards. cowboys tame the raiders, 31-24. and in detroit it was like the packers were dreaming of turkey because they got the stuffing knocked out of them, and not having aaron rodgers certainly didn't help. the lions racked up 40 points. the parkers only managed 10. and a thanksgiving surprise for broncos fans. coach john fox is back. owner pat bolland sent a plane to north carolina and picked him up yesterday. fox is expected to return monday, less than a month after having open heart surgery. his first game will be against the titans on december 8th, but it hasn't been decided if he'll be on the sidelines or in the booth. and when we return, holiday controversy. a second chance for a pizza hut manager who refused to open on thanksgiving day. [ female announcer ] right when you feel a cold sore, abreva can heal a cold sore in as few as 2 1/2 days when used at the first sign. without it, the virus spreads from cell to cell. unlike other treatments, abreva penetrates deep to block the virus, to protect healthy cells so cold sores heal fast. as fast as 2 1/2 days when used at the first sign. ♪ learn more at abreva.com. don't tough it out. knock it out! fast. we catch the early risers hd into bay area stores. and from fights to shootings...police are alrey corralling rowdy black frid shoppers. plus, a neighborhood is terrorized on thanksgiving tragic series of events... ending with the suspect's d. join us for kpix 5 news this morning... beginning at 4:3 good morning. it's friday november 29th. i'm michelle, here's a look at today's forecast in some cities around the country. washington, d.c., will be sunny today, as will atlanta and mostly sunny in st. louis as well. sunshine in denver also, but seattle will be mostly cloudy with a high of 51. and here's another look at this morning's top story. the black friday shopping frenzy is under way. 97 million americans will head to the mall or shop online today. retailers are expecting holiday shopping sales to rise nearly 4% over last year to more than $600 billion. and a number of stores opened their doors well before the stroke of midnight and have been welcoming shoppers throughout the early morning hours. trina orlando of our pittsburgh affiliate kdka, joins us nowfrom the mall at robinson which is just outside pittsburgh. trina, good morning. >> reporter: anne-marie, good morning to you. shoppers here at the mall at robinson have been at it since just around midnight. we're kind of going through a lull period right now. the first wave of shoppers are starting to make their way home or resting on benches and a new wave of shoppers are getting ready to come in. shoppers here are getting a good deal as they are around the country. the mall has gone all out for them. they have a cab service, and a place where shoppers can photo refuel which we can tell a lot of them need at this time of the night. as with many malls across the country, the mall of robinson is doing their deals in wave this morning so we're expecting to see a whole new wave of shoppers coming in in the next few hours to take advantage of those deals. back to you. >> i applaud those brave souls. christmas and thanksgiving were the only two days the stores were closed so workers could spend time with their families and he said that's why he had to take a stand. >> i'm proud of what i did. i have no regrets. i had no idea it with us going to be so big. it's really cool that people are out there voigs their opinions and supporting me. >> pizza hut says he can come back to work but rohr says he's considering other j [ female announcer ] we eased your back pain... ♪ ready or not. [ female announcer ] ...so you can be up there. here i come! [ female announcer ] ...down there, around there... and under there for him. tylenol® provides strong pain relief and won't irritate your stomach the way aleve® or even advil® can. but for everything we do, we know you do so much more. a software company based in santa monica, california, has found a way to employ people with special needs and as carter evans report, the workers are ideally suited for jobs that require attention to detail. >> reporter: the most surprising thing about max parker's morning routine is that he has a job to go to at all. if something doesn't go as expected, you basically raise a red flag. >> you could say that. >> reporter: parker is a software analyst. he's also autistic. >> reporter: when you were growing up, did you ever envision a job like this? >> to be perfectly honest, no. >> reporter: roughly 75% of autistic adults are unemployed in part because the brain disorder makes it difficult to interact with others. but many with autism also have an uncanny ability to focus intently on minute details, perfect for the job of hunting for glitches in computer software. >> this is not a charity, right? and our employees are good at what they do. in this area we have a training room. >> reporter: chad hahn has a training room. he's the ceo of mindspark. they used to outsource work for india but his wife, a social worker, convinced him that high functioning adults like parker are well suited for the job. >> if we were to look at a set of instructions every day and we had to go through those same instructions over and over again, i don't know about you, but i would miss some things. >> reporter: i would too. >> and max doesn't miss things. >> what you find in autism is thinking that relies less on the frontal cortex. >> reporter: dr. marcel just studies autism at carnegie mellon university. his research has found that most people rely on the front of the brain to process the big picture around it, but with autism, the wiring between the front and the back is not as strong, so thinking is dominated by parts of the brain that handle details. >> if you do "where's waldo," people with autism are known to do better at that kind of task, finding little detail in a big picture. and the reason is they can focus on the detail without being distracted by larger picture issues. >> reporter: parker is one of three autistic employees at mindspark, and more are training in an onsite classroom. >> they just needed a chance. i think of howl hard it's been for them all these years where people dismissed them and their abilities and maybe overlooked what they could do and be. >> let's see what the steps are again. >> reporter: providing opportunity and a paycheck. carter evans, cbs news, santa monta. well, coming up after your local news on "cbs this morning," we will take you to the stores for a preview of black friday shopping. plus, the controversy over cholesterol lowering statin drugs. dr. davids agus tells us who should be really taking them. and best-selling children's book author sandra boynton tells us about her new upcoming music project. that's the "cbs morning news" for this friday morning. thanks for watching. i'm anne-marie green. have a great day. arie green. arie green. have a great day -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com and i'm brian hackney. frans the morning off. good morning everyone. it is friday november 29th. i am michelle griego. >> at least final pounds heavier, i am brian hackney. >> i think we all feel that way today. >> can you gain 20 pounds in a day? >> i did my best to get there. >> now we have all those leftovers. but we have a great day to do it. we have a lot of sunshine coming our way. looks like these temperatures will be warming up. we will have a complete look at your weekend forecast coming up. lots of folks gearing up for their black friday shopping. just know that traffic so far is very light no matter where you're headed. b.a.r.t, is resuming regular service today. they are reporting no delays but no service on the ace train. >> it sounds good. that is handy because this will come as a shock but even at this moment shoppers are in line getting ready to head out for what is likely to be the biggest shopping day of the year. black friday. has that name because a lot of retailers will start turning a profit today for the first time this year. last year americans spent $11.2 billion on black friday. that was actually down almost 2% from the year before because more stores are