here in the east. republican candidate rick perry is fighting back after failing to qualify for the virginia primary in march. governor perry filing a lawsuit in an attempt to get his name on the virginia ballot. north korean leader kim jong-il is laid to rest today. his son and successor led the two and a half hour procession in the bitter cold. kim died of a heart attack on december 17th. he was 69. last-minute shoppers giving retailers a big boost this holiday season according to new numbers. sales during the week before christmas were up nearly 5% as compared to last year. well the iowa caucuses are just six days away, and every single gop candidate is crisscrossing that state. but it looks likes they will have some competition for attention. occupy wall street protestors are planning their own caucus in demoines. occupy protestors will be going
going in a mad dash. we re seeing violent scenes even. they re tearing down doors. people being arrested. you know what they re all after? a shoe. not just any shoe, though. an air jordan. we ll explain. also, possible ground breaking lawsuit against the nfl. a number of former players suing over concussions they say they got while playing the game. one of those players, jamal lewis, in studio with me in just a matter of minutes. don t miss that. let me start with this major political road block now for newt gingrich and rick perry. both candidates failed to qualify for the virginia primary. neither of them came up with enough valid signatures. this means now that there are only two candidates that will square off in virginia s march 6th showdown. let me bring in our athena jones. first of all, how could this happen? how could they not make the ballot? virginia has stringent rules. among the most stringent of all the states. you have to get at least 10,000 signatures from a
country yesterday. violence breaking out. police officers injured. why? because all of these people are after a particular pair of tennis shoes. what would you go this crazy for? we want to hear from you this morning. also reynolds wolf is here. he ll be along wait a minute, that car is going the wrong direction. the white one is going downhill, the black one uphill. there will be some nasty moments for some of you traveling during the holiday season. we do not recommend that on this cnn saturday morning. all right. well, when the folks in virginia go to the polls this march to vote for a republican candidate they will not see these two names newt gingrich or rick perry. both of them have now failed to come up with enough valid signatures to qualify. let me bring in our athena jones on the line with me now. how could this happen? reporter: well, as the republican party from virginia has said, after verification, the virginia republican party has determined that ne