Tensions boil over in missouri involving another Police Shooting. An 18yearold pointed a gun at an officer and the officer shot and killed him. I think i see the tornado. At least four people are dead. Thousands without power. I prayed like i never prayed. Several homes were damaged in louisiana and mississippi. More Severe Weather expected to complicate travel. President george bush is in the hospital after suffering shortness of breath. Sony pictures makes an aboutface deciding to release the interview on Christmas Day in select theaters. Santa coming early to wall street. The dow closed above 18000 ever. Some of the guys think its going to 20. Passengers getting a scare when two jets collided on the tarmac at laguardia airport. Two people rescued by helicopter after being trapped in a river in northern california. Neither suffered any injuries. All that. A man almost drown drinking eggnog. All that and all that matters. All systems are go. We know santa will make sure those presents get delivered on time. Got a lot of land to cover. On cbs this morning. Ladies and gentlemen, banging home a half courter. That was worth 90,000. Welcome to cbs this morning. Im Anthony Mason with vinita nair. Charlie, norah and gayle are off. Merry Christmas Eve. Early gift to sit up here with you. It is indeed. Christmas receive begieve begin state of emergency in parts of the south. Heavy rain and tornadoes in the region. Severe weather is blamed for at least four deaths and widespread damage. Dozens of other people were injured. Hardest hit areas are columbia, mississippi. This storm was Strong Enough to uproot trees and shut down highways. There were reports of people trapped inside their homes and a hospital being forced to run on backup power. One local officials said simply it was chaos. Whoa reporter a powerful line of storms lashed across the south tuesday leaving thousands without power. One confirmed tornado barreled through columbia, mississippi. At least two people were killed. Dozens more were taken to the hospital. Its like a third world around here. Every business on the bypass was gone and sustained some kind of damage. Ive been praying all my life. Im 64 years old. I prayed like i never prayed. Pastor mike dykes and his pregnant wife were trapped in his pickup truck when the tornado hit. We were trying to outrun this monster storm and got as far as this station and came up on here hoping the thing would keep going but it came right to us and shook us like a rag doll. Reporter these images show the storms destruction. In Marion County winds of 90 miles an hour rolled over this ambulance and tore apart this day care center. None of the children inside were hurt. Businesses were wrecked. Roofs ripped apart. Emergency crews are still assessing the damage. A lot of people say it sounds like a train. Its a huge roar and it doesnt let up. These homes in louisiana were no match for a tornado reported to be 500 yards wide. Police and firefighters searched for anyone trapped under the debris. Extensive damage from where we are right here, we can see at least seven homes that are either destroyed or have a lot of damage. Reporter mississippis governor declared a state of emergency in two counties and well get a better sense for how destructive this storm has been when survey teams arrive later this morning. Tough christmas for those folks. Those powerful storms are moving toward the east coast right now. The big cities in the northeast will see heavy rain for tonight. Thats not what holiday travelers want to see. Meteorologist megan glaros is tracking the conditions. Good morning. Good morning to you. Were looking at potential for a nasty travel day on this Christmas Eve. A busy travel day indeed but were looking at storm potential and heavy rain, very heavy snow across parts of chicagoland and very rainy and windy conditions along the remainder of the eastern corner of the united states. A storm system moving from the pacific northeast eastward into the rockies. The storms could impact the chicagoland area after lunch and until dinner today. Rain is a main factor along the eastern corridor of the u. S. Some storm potential in the south today. Thats where travel will be roughest and in the Pacific Northwest. Easier conditions in the center of the country today. Worst airports, new york, boston, chicago and atlanta. Vini vinita . The bad weather is disrupting air travel in much of the country. The flight aware. Com website shows around 200 cancellations and nearly 300 delays at u. S. Airports so far this morning. Jericka duncan is hearing from not happy passengers. Reporter not a lot of major delays right now but we know that could change. Its estimated that 70 of all air delays in this country emanate from right here in new york so when flights are delayed or canceled here, travelers across the country feel the impact. Aaa projects more than 98 million americans will travel more than 50 miles from home during this year and holiday season, which started yesterday and goes through january 4th. Now, most people will travel by car and the lowest gas prices in five years are definitely helping to fuel the 4 rise in holiday road trips. The majority of people will drive through that snow, possibly rain, or maybe a mix of both. But unpredictable weather cannot stop holiday travelers. Aaa estimates that about 6 Million People plan to travel by air and thats up 1 from last year. Anthony . Former president george h. W. Bush is hospitalized for observation. The 41st president arrived at the hospital last night. Jeremy, good morning. Reporter good morning. The 90yearold former president was suffering from shortness of breath so out of an abundance of caution he was brought here to the hospital. It was november of 2012 the former president was hospitalized for nearly two months after a bout with bronchitis. Just last month 41 was on hand with his son, former president george w. Bush, at one of his book events in texas looki inii good and in good spirits. While on vacation in hawaii, president obama was briefed on president bushs condition. He and the first lady send their best wishes to former president bush and the entire bush family. Renewed tensions near st. Louis this morning after another Deadly Police shooting. It happened at a gas station in berkeley. Police say an officer approached two men. One pointed a gun. The officer responded by firing if several shots. The mans mother identifies the victim as 18yearold antonio martin. Scuffled with police and va wd vandalized a store near the gas station. Several people were arrested and some say officers used pepper spray to break up the crowd. This took place two miles from ferguson, the site of massive protests following the shooting of Michael Brown. The st. Louis county police chief will hold a News Conference this morning to address the shooting. Meanwhile, protesters this morning are ignoring the new york mayors request for a temporary halt to demonstrations. Hundreds of people protesting against police filled manhattan streets tuesday night. Mayor bill de blasio requested the demonstrations to stop until the two assassinated new York Police Officers were laid to rest. Earlier tuesday the mayor led a moment of silence at 2 47 p. M. Thats the moment officers rafael ramos and wenjian liu were ambushed in brooklyn on saturday. Landmarks like the Rockefeller Christmas tree turned off the lights for five minutes as a tribute to the fallen soldiers. Joe biden will attend the funeral of officer ramos on saturday. Audiences will get a chance to see tthe interview after all. A limited release tomorrow on its original release date. At least one theater says screenings are already sold out. Bob orr is in washington with reaction to the decision. Bob, good morning. Good morning. When hackers threaten theaters and movie goers, major cinema chains rejected the movie. Sony says the controversial film will roll at some 200 theaters. Across the country theaters are taking a stand and preparing screens for Christmas Day showings of the interview. Its definitely transcended beyond just the interview to me. I think this is really gone into the realm of freedom of expression. They hate us because they aint us. Reporter the movie stars praise sonys scaled rollo rollout. The studio last week pulled the plug on a nationwide release after hackers calling themselves guardians of peace threatened 9 11 style attacks. Law enforcement sources say theres no credible intelligence suggesting any legitimate threat against cinemas. Still, local theater owners are consulting with police. Weve had Site Assessment done by the Police Department on all of our venues to assess the risk associated with exit doors and things like that. And were weighing the option of additional security. Reporter sony is working to make the film available for home video as video on demand release. Michael lynton issued the statement. Were proud to make the interviinte interview abvailable to the public. Reporter kim jonguns regime has denied any involvement and some Security Experts suspect a sony insider must have played a role in the cyberattack. Insiders were key. Reporter digital evidence points to a hacker called lena. A person that worked at sony in los angeles for ten years before leaving the company in may. The woman had the deep technical background she would need to locate the specific servers that were compromised. Reporter the fbi says theres no evidence that north korea had any help. Law enforcement officials are waiting to see if hackers respond in any way to sonys decision to release the film and the white house is applauding sonys latest decision saying people can now make their own choices about the film. Bob, thank you. Frank luntz is a cbs news contributor. He joins us live from las vegas. Good morning. Who better than a strategist to talk about this with. We feel whiplash. Sony is now releasing it. Any idea what prompted this final decision . Well, its clear that the public outrage had an impact. Any time the creative freedom is challenged, hollywood will take a step backward. Its amazing to me that were even talking about this. The idea that a country like north korea, which has less electricity in its whole country than rhode island has, would actually push a studio this far back and that the president of the studio first says, hey, im sorry. We cant show it. Then comes back and says were proud to. From a language standpoint, i would not have used the word pride in showing this film. Its not an epic film. This is not the titanic. And weve made this big deal over it. I think sony has a lot of apologizing to do. Frank, the film is going to play in just a small number of theaters. Originally it was going to go wide. Do you think it will broaden out or even go to home viewing here . In the research ive done in the last ten days, a lot of americans want to see it and they want to see it for the curiosity sake. If i was a Movie Theater and understanding the challenges, i would absolutely show it. I think its going to sell out not just in a couple theaters but in almost every theater. Understand the economic dynamics of this. If they are trying to release this in payperview so that people can see it on Christmas Day, the Movie Theaters get angry because people can stay home and watch it rather than seeing it in the theater. From an economic standpoint, from a creative freedom sony does not want to be. Ce tha i have to ask you about your comment when you said weve only seen the tip of the iceberg. Do you think there are more emails or whats the next shoe that could fall . I think that is network like cbs is going to get tapped. I think youre going to have some of the biggest technological corporations. That every fortune 500 company and particularly Media Companies are going to face this at some point. What north korea apparently did should frighten every ceo because every email that you sent on the set right now, every email at some point could be made available to hackers. Frank, what do you think sony has to do to move beyond this . They have to show that they are fighting for customers. They have to show theyre fighting for creative freedom. Who wants to do a film for sony if they think that youll back down that easily . Who wants to applaud what sony has done if they seize their behavior up to this point. This is a very good studio. Had been a good studio. It has to stand up for creative freedom and it has to be clear. I use this word explicitly. They have to fight for consumers to show them the best quality entertainment they can. Thats how they begin to win back their reputation. Frank luntz, thank you very much. Were learning more this morning about an alleged gun trafficking scheme that took place on commercial flights. Delta air lines baggage handler Eugene Harvey and former employee mark henry are the suspects. Police say they smuggled guns from atlanta to new york city. Surveillance video from atlantas airport shows henry allegedly running the weapons. Brooklyns District Attorney highlighted the severity of stopping it the ring. Not only these guns creating havoc on the streets of brooklyn throughout the country but now the scheme really poses a threat in terms of terrorism. The ring is accused of co conspireing to sell 153 guns. The faa is investigating how two jets clipped each other at laguardia airport. The american 737 was taxiing in from dallas. Heres how the southwest pilot found out while getting ready to take off. It looks like you might have touched that american. Okay. Hold position there. I think they got ramp guys right behind you. Let them take a quick look. Everyone is okay. Southwest passengers took another plane to denver. Wall street will open this morning after an historic day for the market. The dow jones closed above 18000 for the first time ever. And the s p 500 ended with its 51st record close of the year. It follows news the economy grew in the Third Quarter at its fastest pace in more than a decade. Cbs News Business analyst is here. It looks good when you look at it. 18,000. I know its just a number. Dont write in that its just a number. Remember when we did dow 6550 . That was scary. Not so long ago. March of 2009. I remember doing a piece with you on evening news about dow 10000 on the way back up. 170 gain since the bottom. This is all very good news for investors and what is driving this rally is probably started last week when the Federal Reserve announced its policy decision. It looks like rates will stay low into the middle of next year and yesterday we got a really strong Economic Growth number. Much stronger than anyone anticipated. Not to mention the Christmas Gift thats been gas prices. Absolutely. Oil prices down 50 from the high. Gas prices down about 35 . Thats putting more money in peoples wallets. Its also affecting confidence. I think thats really interesting. We hate when gas prices go up because we worry people will say gas prices are high and i wont spend. The reverse is in effect. When you look at the growth number. 5 in the Third Quarter. 5. 6 in the second. You look at the job growth in the last six to eight months, have we really turned the corner here . I think 2014 will be known as the year we did turn the corner. We had a terrible First Quarter. The economy actually contracted by 2. 1 and then followed by two strong quarters. We have seen those broad job gains. 2. 6 million jobs added. Were on pace for the best year for job creation since 1999. And that is starting to really affect consumers. Americans in a gallop poll said this is a good time to find a very high quality job. Highest since 2007. And so i think that means something. Sentiment at the highest level also since 2007. Good times at the right time of the year. Jill, thank you so much. Its 7 19. Ahead, the deadly effects of too much caffeine. Regulators are targeting Companies Selling the stimula announcer this National Weather report sponsored by walmart where youll find unbeatable pces on this years top gifts. New york congressman Michael Grimm once threatened to break a reporter in half. Ahead, why grimm now faces prison and a fight to keep his job on capitol hill. 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