[Drew Griffin, Cnn Anchor:] Fiscal cliffhanger. A white house meeting as we head into the last weekend before the big deadline.
[Alina Cho, Cnn Anchor:] Wanted in New York. Just take a look. Police say the woman seen running away there on the right had just pushed a man to his death in front of a moving subway train.
[Griffin:] A baseball cap controversy. The Braves new retro logo raising a few eyebrows this morning. Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Drew Griffin.
[Cho:] Good morning, everybody. I'm Alina Cho. It's 30 minutes past the hour. John and Zoraida have the day off. Well, your take-home pay on the line when the president and Congressional leaders meet at the White House this afternoon for an 11th-hour fiscal cliff faceoff. In just four days now, paychecks shrink and slashing gets spending gets slashed, rather, if our elected officials can't figure out how to compromise. It will now be in the hands of these six leaders, the president, Vice President Biden, Senate majority leader Harry Reid, and House minority leader Nancy Pelosi on the Democratic side. House Speaker John Boehner and Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell representing the Republicans. White House correspondent Brianna Keilar live now from Washington. Brianna, good morning. Great to see you. House doesn't even return to work until Sunday. I mean, logistically speaking here, is there still enough time to work out a deal?
[Brianna Keilar, Cnn White House Correspondent:] I will tell you logistically speaking, logistically speaking, yes. Politically speaking, very much unclear, and there's a growing amount of pessimism about whether that can be done. We've been talking, Alina, as you know, for days about how all eyes are on the Senate to see what Senate majority leader Harry Reid cobbles together to try to get some Republican support in both the Senate and the House. Well, he's now saying that it's hard to see how this can get done by January 1st. So, we're seeing a lot of kind of managing of expectations and certainly a lot of posturing on both sides as it appears they're getting ready to play the blame game should we go over the cliff. Listen to both sides.
[Sen. Mitch Mcconnell,  Minority Leader:] And Republicans aren't about to write a blank check for anything Senate Democrats put forward just because we find ourselves at the edge of the cliff.
[Sen. Harry Reid,  Majority Leader:] We are here in Washington and working while the members of House of Representatives are out watching movies, watching their kids play soccer and basketball and doing all kinds of things. They should be here.
[Keilar:] Senate Majority Leader Reid there also said that House Speaker John Boehner is just trying to save his job. And Alina, as you probably know, the elections for House leadership are on January 3rd which would be after the we would go over the fiscal cliff, if there is no deal. John Boehner shot back saying that Reid needs to talk less and legislate more. But really, this comes down to working out, cobbling together something that can get some support. As you know, President Obama wants that tax cut threshold to be at $250,000. Well, Mitch McConnell poured some cold water on that yesterday. So, they need to come to some sort of agreement on where the threshold would be, and we don't know what it is yet in the Senate.
[Cho:] Yes. I mean, 250,000 for the Democratic side and Republicans couldn't even agree on a million.
[Keilar:] Exactly.
[Cho:] I mean, that's still a $750,000 gap they got to close. All right. Let's hope that they do that. Brianna Keilar, thank you.
[Griffin:] Commanders in chief past and present paying tribute to Retired General Norman Schwarzkopf this morning. The commander of coalition forces during the Gulf War died yesterday at 78 years old. Schwarzkopf was the face of military briefings during the first cable news war. Former President George H.W. Bush who is hospitalized said the general was, quote, "a true American patriot and one of the great military leaders of this generation.
[Cho:] New York City police are looking for a woman who pushed a man off a subway platform to his death. Happened last night. Witnesses say the woman shoved the victim from behind right into the path of a moving seven-train as that train pulled into the 40th Street Queens Boulevard Station. NYPD surveillance video shows the suspect actually running away from the station. Before the incident, the woman was spotted, apparently, walking back and forth on the platform and talking to herself.
[Griffin:] North Korea likely deceived the U.S. and its Asian allies deliberately, catching them off guard before the launch of its long- range missile earlier this morning. According to a U.S. official with direct knowledge of military and intelligence analysis, the likely scenario is that North Korea was lying about reported technical problems just days before that launch. Another conclusion, that North Korea knows how to counter U.S. intelligence on what it's up to.
[Cho:] NBC apparently received conflicting guidance on using an empty gun magazine on "Meet the Press." An official with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives told another NBC reporter it would be legal. But a spokeswoman for D.C. Metro Police said an NBC representative inquired ahead of Sunday's broadcast and advised that it could not use the magazine. The matter is still under investigation.
[Griffin:] Whether you're heading home or getting away for the New Year, it could be another slow go or no go at the airports today. The powerful winter storm that brought record-breaking snow and spun off dangerous tornadoes is not over yet. Bonnie Schneider, say it isn't so.
[Bonnie Schneider, Ams Meteorologist:] Well, you know what's interesting, Drew and Alina, is that while one storm is exiting, another one is coming in. So, we're looking at brand new airport delays in this busy travel week, this time, across the Midwest and Chicago, Minneapolis. But the windy weather will persist in New York City. So, all the airports that faced delays yesterday, more of that is ahead for today. We're also looking at stormy conditions across the south. Here's one storm exiting, as I mentioned. It will still bring some snow to areas of extreme Northern New England where we have almost a foot on the ground already. And temperatures are also brutally cold behind it in the 20s. I want to mention the south because we're getting some powerful thunderstorms moving into the Lake Charles, Louisiana, at this hour, and they're heading eastward. So, New Orleans, you're likely to be impacted by strong storms later on today. Temperatures right now in Atlanta, below freezing, but by the time the rain comes in, it will warm up. So, we're really not looking at snow for the south. Here's where we're anticipating snow today, through Michigan into Ohio going towards tomorrow, we'll be watching this storm to trek eastward. So, two to four inches on top of what's on the ground in Pennsylvania, and this storm is also going to bring substantial snowfall across New England once again. You can see the legend showing us that we're anticipating six inches of snow through the mountains into Virginia, but then, by the time we get to Sunday, look at this, another pocket of heavy snow in Central Connecticut according to our computer models as well as Rhode Island and the north fork of Long Island. That's what's so interesting about Long Island, you'll get snow in one part, and 11 miles to the south it will be all rain. So, keep an eye on this for those of you that are traveling. And many people are this weekend that took the entire week off or heading on vacation. We're anticipating more snowfall for parts of New England. The storm setup for today, heavy rain through the mid south. A little bit of snow popping up in the heartland again. Again, this is an area that already saw plenty of snow this week. And the colder air is plummeting down with temperatures for highs only in the 20s in Kansas City and Minneapolis, warming back up along the Gulf Coast, but not for long with this brand new storm system coming in. So, Drew and Alina, it's a one-two punch. We're getting a lot of bad weather this week.
[Griffin:] Jab, jab, jab. One, two, three, four, five.
[Cho:] Bonnie, I want you to stick around and listen to this story. You know how chilly it is this time of year in Canada, right?
[Schneider:] Oh, yes.
[Cho:] Well, Winnipeg might be in the single digits, but listen to this. A story from the chilly north that's going to just warm you up. The city might have set a record for paying it forward. 228 customers at a coffee shop drive through paid for the person behind them. Watch this.
[Unidentified Male:] You'd hear the strut from drive through and my manager, Todd, was in there. And you hear them just screaming out random numbers. 147. And yes, you know, get everybody really pumped up and it just filled the building with excitement.
[Unidentified Female:] I think now it's such a habit started here. And I think people just come back to this one knowing that it's either going to be your day that you're going to start it, and it's just going to come back. It's a huge cycle.
[Cho:] That's great. Cycle of generosity lasted for three hours. Nobody knows who started the chain or who ended it. You don't want to be the person who ends that chain. Just keep it going. Just keep it going. At least during the holiday.
[Griffin:] I want to take a look back and see who's back there, you know?
[Cho:] Yes.
[Griffin:] Big guys, a lot of doughnuts. It could be a big bill. It's a blast from the past, but does it have any place in today's PC society? More on the baseball logo causing some controversy this morning.
[Cho:] Really, you said that?
[Griffin:] Of course. I mean, would you guys want to pay for like eight guys on a construction crew?
[Cho:] All right. Take a look
[Griffin:] They're paying for it? Yes, give me all of them. You got any of those bear claws?
[Cho:] It's only going to be 25 bucks. Come on. Look at these kids. You're going to hear from the teen rockers who pitched in to help complete strangers after hurricane Sandy in their time of need.
[Griffin:] I'll pay for those skinny kids.
[Cho:] All right. We're going to talk to them live next.