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The Story Is with Elex Michaelson

New Footage of ICE Shooting; I.C.E. Agent's Cellphone Captures Deadly Shooting; Trump Again Warns Iran Not To Use Violence On Protestors; Trump Touts Deal But Execs Cool To Investing In Venezuela; U.S. Seizes Sanctioned Oil Tanker In Caribbean; Trump Escalates Threats To Take Over Greenland; Indiana To Play Miami In National Championship Game; 83rd Golden Globes Kicks Off 2026 Award Season; The California Wildfires, One Year Later; Crew To Return Early After Onboard Medical Issue; Olympic Torch Relay Goes Through Italian Mountains; Aired 1-2a ET

Aired January 10, 2026 - 01:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: -- Elam, CNN, Los Angeles.

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ELEX MICHAELSON, CNN HOST: All right. Thanks to Stephanie and the Golden Globes air Sunday on CBS. I'm Elex Michaelson. Thanks for watching "The Story Is" big night of news next hour starts right now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "The Story Is" divided reaction to a new angle of the I.C.E. shooting in Minneapolis. With us live a California legislator looking to crack down on the border patrol and a retired Border Patrol Chief.

"The Story Is" fires one year later, CNNs Kyung Lah in Altadena with how affordability is hurting fire victims.

"The Story Is" Hooray for the Hoosiers, the Cinderella story of the championship bound University of Indiana.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live from Los Angeles. "The Story Is" with Elex Michaelson.

MICHAELSON: Welcome to "The Story Is," I'm Elex Michaelson. We begin this hour with protests against I.C.E. in Minneapolis, this is the third straight night of demonstrations after 37-year-old Renee Good was shot and killed by an I.C.E. agent after driving her car towards them. Law enforcement officers have been moving in to clear the protesters. Police there have declared an unlawful assembly, officers in riot gear form lines with police vehicles stationed behind him. The crowd of protesters who had been banging pots and pans, playing musical instruments and chanting slogans, began to thin as officers showed up.

Here's what it looked like last hour when we talked live to CNNs, Omar Jimenez.

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OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: From my vantage point, I have not seen violence. If anything, it has just been noise. Now look, right now, it does seem people are throwing snow balls. There is a lot of ice on the ground, potentially some ice as well. You see it kind of landing in that line of law enforcement. They're trying to catch it. It looks like, it doesn't look like they're, they're, they're seeing it as so much of a threat. But at the very least, we have not seen large scale violence to this point.

All the protests that we have seen from our vantage point have been peaceful. But it's not surprising to hear that arrests are starting, because once we heard that unlawful assembly announced over the loud speakers, that obviously opens up an entirely new dynamic. Well, that's a pretty big chunk. They're throwing a lot of snow and some ice towards that line of law enforcement, as it seems, law enforcement is briefing some folks in nearby businesses and buildings here.

But you mentioned those arrests starting. I mean, for those that are still in the line of law enforcement here. Obviously there's a lot of anger in this community. There is -- there are a lot of strong feelings, but at this point, you see more reinforcements coming to this line. At this point when that unlawful assembly has been declared and you still have people facing down law enforcement from just a few feet away. You don't have to think hard for what may come next.

You just get the sense, though, that people don't quite care really. They're still banging on their drums, they're still blowing their whistles. They're still making their presence known, not just to these law enforcement officers, but really, at this point, to a lot of this part of Downtown Minneapolis, Elex.

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MICHAELSON: And so what they were doing there was focused on hotels that they believe that I.C.E. Border Patrol are staying at banging their drums all that to try to make sure that those officers are not able to sleep well at night. That's the whole intention of that protest. Now all of this comes as newly released video taken by I.C.E. agents show a pivotal moment surrounding that shooting and a warning some of the content is graphic. CNNs Leigh Waldman has more.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- talk to us later.

LEIGH WALDMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Cell phone video captured by an immigration and customs enforcement agent shows a different angle of the moments leading up to the deadly shooting of Renee Good in Minneapolis Wednesday.

The Department of Homeland Security says the new footage confirms the officer was in fear of his own life, the lives of his fellow officers, and acted in self-defense. President Trump weighed in Friday afternoon. DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: You have agitators, and we will always be protecting I.C.E. and we're always going to be protecting our border patrol and our law enforcement.

WALDMAN: The FBI is in charge of the probe, but state and local leaders are still asking to be involved with the investigation.

MARY MORIARTY, COUNTY ATTORNEY OF HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA: While I respect the FBI process, our community's expectations are much different in terms of transparency. To that end, I cannot overstate the importance of a local investigation, or at least access to the federal investigation.

WALDMAN: As the City of Minneapolis grapples with the events of this week in the ongoing immigration crackdown, the death of Good is fueling frustration in communities beyond Minnesota. Advocacy groups say more than 1000 demonstrations are scheduled this weekend across the country, in Minneapolis, I'm Leigh Waldman.

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MICHAELSON: Democrats reacting to those videos, they dispute all of President Trump's claims, including that she ran over the I.C.E. agents hear what they say.

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TINA SMITH, U.S. SENATE DEMOCRAT: You can see from this video that it is a lie to say that the officer was run over.

ZOHRAN MAMDANI, NEW YORK CITY MAYOR: You can all see that video and come to our own conclusions that that I.C.E. agent murdered a woman in Minneapolis.

ROBERT GARCIA, U.S. HOUSE DEMOCRAT: It is clear from even the video that was put out that Ms. Good was driving away. The fact there's not going to be an independent investigation should alarm every single American.

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MICHAELSON: Meanwhile, a California lawmaker has introduced a new bill that could limit some secondary work for law enforcement. The legislation would ban them from also working for the Department of Homeland Securities immigration enforcement operations or any of its entities that assist I.C.E.

Joining now is the bill's sponsor, Assemblyman, Isaac Bryan of Los Angeles, welcome to "The Story Is" for the very first time.

ISAAC BRYAN, DEMOCRAT, MEMBER, CALIFORNIA STATE ASSEMBLY: It's good to be with you.

MICHAELSON: How's the bill work? BRYAN: It's pretty simple, right now, there's a loop hole in California law. It allows for local law enforcement to take on secondary employment with the Department of Homeland Security. We don't know how frequent this is happening. We need to collect that data. The bill requires that data be collected, but it also bans that process. Going forward, we know how I.C.E. is recruiting, and we want to make sure that our law enforcement officers who sign up to protect and serve our communities don't moonlight, terrorizing and kidnapping people from those very same communities.

MICHAELSON: I mean, but how is that legal? It's legal to work for I.C.E. It's -- these are folks that are how is it legal?

BRYAN: Same with any kind of employment contract. You work at CNN, you may not also moonlight at Fox, right? If you are serving our communities in a capacity at the local level, the state can prohibit you from serving at a federal level.

MICHAELSON: And this is not only just state police, like the CHP, this is all local police, so LA PD, San Francisco PD, they all would be under this.

BRYAN: Absolutely and very grateful to the city of Los Angeles, who has already begun to move this conversation forward. The city of San Francisco is going to join us in this fight. Next week, we expect the city of Oakland to join us. I think jurisdictions across California are going to stand up in this moment, because I think folks want to be think folks want to be very clear about who our local law enforcement are and who these I.C.E. agents are, and there's a distinguished difference, and we're seeing that play out across the country.

MICHAELSON: So I.C.E. is enforcing federal immigration law. This is law that was passed by Congress. They're doing so, I mean, why is it the agents fault. You could be mad at the people running the agency, but the agents themselves, aren't they just doing their jobs?

BRYAN: I think systems that are harmful to communities that were designed to be harmful, that are then run by harmful decision makers, can have lethal consequences, and that's what we're seeing in Minneapolis. We have an agent there who opened fire on a mother as she was driving away with her dog in the back seat. That agent needs to be held accountable, and the reason they are not being held accountable is because the entire institution needs to be held accountable.

MICHAELSON: So but who is supposed to enforce immigration law? Like, for example, in this situation in Portland, the accusation at least, is that these two individuals were tied to Tren de Aragua, a gang. One of them accused of being involved in a prostitution ring, the other one accused of a DUI who had a court order to leave the country. Who's supposed to enforce that? And what's wrong with enforcing that?

BRYAN: I think we need to be clear that our immigration laws are flawed in their inception. We have a broken process. That's a bipartisan problem. That's why the last time comprehensive immigration reform was put on the table, then former President Trump called in to hold Republicans back from joining Democrats and the Biden administration from passing sensible policy. We've got to change this from nuts to bolts. Congress needs to tackle this issue. We need sensible laws that are rooted in compassion, humanity, dignity, that preserve and protect life, not just here, but around the world, and that's not what we have right now.

MICHAELSON: We know that California last year passed a law to ban masks for people working for immigration services that's being challenged in court. Do you think you have the votes to pass this bill?

BRYAN: I know we've got the votes in the legislature, and we don't mind taking fights to court. In fact, just today, we secured $10 billion in funding that the Trump administration was trying to withhold from California. We're going to fight legislatively. We're going to fight in the courts, and we're going to use our voice and our feet to get outside.

MICHAELSON: So just to be clear on that particular thing, we had Rob Bonta the Attorney General on last night talking about that there was a temporary injunction granted to allow that, but that will proceed in the court, so we'll see what happens. But for now, at least a judge has granted what California wanted, which was to free up that $10 billion in funding.

Isaac Bryan, thank you so much. Great to see you. Appreciate you sharing your perspective.

BRYAN: Thank you for having me.

MICHAELSON: Want to get a different perspective right now from Chris Clem, who is a retired Chief Patrol Agent with U.S. border patrol. He joins us live right now. Your reaction to what you just heard?

CHRIS CLEM, RETIRED U.S. BORDER PATROL CHIEF PATROL AGENT: Well, my reaction is, it's just kind of crazy, right, that you have a member of Congress at the state level, or even some of the U.S. Congressmen and women, calling I.C.E. and immigration enforcement that they're terrorizing communities.

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I find it really interesting too that we had four years of practically open borders. I was a chief during that time, and watched communities suffer because of literally 10 million people entering the country illegally and then being transported and released into communities across the country to include so many of these gangs and criminals that we're actually going after right now.

So I think it was a little premature for him to get out in front of this. I think we need to see stuff play out. But my gosh, we need men and women in elected positions to stand with law enforcement so they can get the job done to protect communities, to root out the bad actors that are there because they are there, and then cooperate with federal authorities. We wouldn't be in the situation today that's playing out right before our eyes. If we had cooperation at all levels to enforce U.S. laws, then we can get to nuts and bolts and fix an immigration system, but the security piece is critical.

MICHAELSON: When we see -- you see that new video that came out today out of Minneapolis, what do you see? And do you think that the agent followed protocol, including the idea of being of capturing this with a cell phone in his hand and shooting in that particular instance.

CLEM: The video I saw today and the angles I saw from yesterday, clearly, he was struck by that the driver and that vehicle, and that becomes the weapon, right? And how he was videotaping the circumstances surrounded that. Look, the environment to operate has changed so dramatically over the last year that we're having to take on different tactics. I wish we weren't having to talk about that. But you know what that agent has a right to stand his ground and defend himself and protect his agents. That is a split second we went from recording and conversation some exchange of remarks to he had to draw a weapon and take a life because she had hit him. He did not know what was going to happen, and he had to respond split second. I feel for him. I feel for the loss of life. No law enforcement agent wants to be in that situation. I can guarantee you that.

MICHAELSON: There's been so much said about border patrol and I.C.E. As somebody who's actually worked on that. What do you think is the biggest misconception that's out there?

CLEM: The biggest misconception is, is the public, both media, individuals, elected officials, conflating immigration and border security and immigration enforcement. We're not after immigrants or after those people that have violated our immigration law. When you look just at Minnesota alone, over 133,000 illegal migrants are in Minnesota on the docket for I.C.E. 33,000 of those have orders of removal. They failed to depart the country after a judge order them. And 11,000 have criminal convictions in the United States. That's what we're targeting. That's what our federal agencies are talking. That was a prior to this administration.

I think what's happened is the conflating of immigrant and immigrant populations versus the criminals and those that are violating the U.S. law. That's where we need to cooperate and work with the local so we go after the ones that are violating U.S. law, and stop getting the public riled up talking about immigrants versus those that have violated immigration laws.

MICHAELSON: Chris Clem, thank you so much for sharing your perspective. And while we've got Isaac Bryan here. I just want to ask you a follow up based off of what he just said, which this is something I hear from a lot of folks in in law enforcement, they say, work with us. Open up the jails, honor I.C.E. detainers, get the bad folks out behind bars. And because you're not doing that, because you're not cooperating with us, we have to go on the streets. We don't want to go on the streets. Help us. Help you. What do you say to that?

BRYAN: That's -- it's a disingenuous offer. In fact, federal law enforcement is not working with local law enforcement in Minneapolis right now, and the same way our previous guests talked about the bad apples, but won't recognize that this officer who discharged three bullets into the head of a mother driving away is a bad apple. There's no accountability and there is no collaboration, because they believe that the laws, our immigration laws, are there to protect the institution, not the people of this country.

MICHAELSON: It's your perspective, obviously a different perspective from Chris, and we appreciate having a bunch of perspectives here, and viewers can make up their own mind. Thank you so much, and thanks again to Chris as well.

Now to some other news.

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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Iran is in big trouble. It's a very dangerous place right now, and again, I tell the Iranian leaders, you better not start shooting, because we'll start shooting too.

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MICHAELSON: Another stark warning from President Trump. He was threatened to hit Iran where it hurts if it uses violence against protesters, widespread anti-demonstration, anti-government demonstrations are happening right now. They've raged for nearly two weeks. This is footage from the Capitol Tehran, where some protesters chanted long live the Shah. They're calling for the end of the Islamic Republican, the return of the Shah's exiled son. These have been Iran's largest protests since 2009 with demonstrations reported in more than 100 cities, CNN's Nada Bashir has more.

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NADA BASHIR, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: A stunning show of defiance against the Iranian regime. In Mashhad, the hometown of Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the flag of the Islamic Republic is lowered and torn to pieces. Protesters here have a clear message. They want the regime gone. What began as organized demonstrations in Tehran's bazaars and universities over the country's dire economic crisis with inflation soaring, a plummeting currency and everyday items becoming unaffordable, has now become a large scale protest movement against the Islamic Republic.

In this video, protesters are heard chanting death to the dictator. According to the Norway based Iran human rights NGO, dozens of protesters, including children have been killed since demonstrations began in late December. With state security forces reportedly using live ammunition in some locations to suppress the protests. Hundreds more have also been reported injured and over 2,000 people detained the NGO added.

In a televised address on Friday, Iran's Supreme Leader blamed, quote, agitators who want to please the American president for the unrest gripping the country. The video shared online by protesters across the country shows the scale and force of the movement, with protests gaining momentum across more than 100 Iranian cities. Roads blocked, filled with crowds of protesters, buildings set alight. Iran security forces, in one instance, targeted in a counter attack.

But the country has now been plunged into a total internet and communications blackout, a tactic often used by the regime to suppress demonstrations, making it more difficult to organize and to share videos evidence from the ground, and while we have yet to see the full force of Iran's security apparatus unleashed on protesters, there are fears the blackout could be an indicator of more violence to come. The threat of a potential U.S. attack, meanwhile, continues to loom large.

With U.S. President Donald Trump warning again on Thursday that if protesters are killed, the U.S. may once again attack Iran.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I think they're going to get hit very hard.

BASHIR: Nada Bashir CNN in London.

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MICHAELSON: Last hour, I spoke to Gissou Nia, the Director of Strategic Litigation Project at the Atlantic Council, and I asked her about how President Trump's rhetoric could be impacting the protests in Iran.

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GISSOU NIA, DIRECTOR OF STRATEGIC LITIGATION PROJECT, ATLANTIC COUNCIL: one of the differentiating factors in this protests, because we've had successive protests in the country since December 2017, so for about a decade now. But what I would say is different about this time around is that there's a lot of external pressure. So if you look at the last round of protests in 2022 most of the senior Islamic Republic of Iran officials who were responsible for the violence at the national level, and the military and the police and so on. Almost one-third of them have been killed by Israel last summer in the 12-day war. So obviously those kinetic means are having, I would assume, some impact on the regime's calculation of what to do next here. And President Trump's pretty pointed threat, I imagine, must be on their mind, especially when coupled with the actions in Venezuela last week.

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MICHAELSON: Coming up. If we don't do it the easy way, we're going to do it the hard way. That's what President Trump said about controlling Greenland with an intense threat for the Arctic territory. Nick Robertson traveled there to talk to people in Greenland check in with him next.

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MICHAELSON: President Trump emerged from a White House meeting with oil companies executives, apparently short of a deal to invest 10s of millions in Venezuela's oil industry, Although the President said a deal had been formed. His Energy Secretary said the executive showed tremendous interest, but made no firm commitments, called The Art of the Deal in the Trump World. Trump earlier said oil companies would invest at least $100 billion of their money to build up Venezuela's oil infrastructure, but the executives raised some concerns.

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DARREN WOODS, CEO, EXXONMOBIL: If we look at the legal and commercial constructs and frameworks in place today, in Venezuela. Today, it's un-investible, and so significant changes have to be made to those commercial frameworks, the legal system.

RYAN LACE, CEO, CONOCOPHILLIPS: The debt needs to be restructured in the financing to deliver the billions of dollars that are required to restore their energy infrastructure.

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MICHAELSON: The U.S. military seized another sanctioned oil tanker in the Caribbean Sea on Friday, according to U.S. Southern Command. It's unclear where that tanker is registered from, but it was listed as sailing near Venezuela, variously under a Timmer list flag, as well as an unknown flag called the Olina, it was listed under sanctions linked to Ukraine's-Russia war. So far, the U.S. has seized at least five tankers since the Trump administration has imposed an oil blockade on sanctioned vessels.

President Trump is doubling down on his threats towards Greenland.

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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: We are going to do something on Greenland, whether they like it or not, if we don't do it in the easy way, we're going to do it in the hard way. We're going to be doing something with Greenland either the nice way or the more difficult way.

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MICHAELSON: Now, Diplomats for Greenland and Denmark met with White House officials on Thursday, insisting that Greenland is not for sale. Still, Greenlanders say they're worried about President Trump's threats to take over their home. CNN's Nic Robertson traveled there.

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NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Greenlanders here have woken up to not just the ubiquitous snow, and of course, they're used to it. I mean, just look at their dogs here. They can handle this stuff, the snow, the freezing temperatures, but what they've woken up to, as well, is President Donald Trump doubling down on his desire to have and control Greenland. He says that it's not enough just to have the current arrangement, that it's important to own it, psychologically important to own it.

He says he gets more out of it that way. That's a better deal for him. So this is what Greenlanders here have woken up today, an uncertain future, increasingly uncertain. And I was speaking to some Greenlanders a little earlier today, and they said, look, we've heard that Donald Trump wants to offer us $100,000 each per person. This is being reported by Reuters, $100,000 per person. And they said, look, for some people here, think about the fishermen whose livelihoods are being changed.

I mean, we're looking at snow, right? But climate change, they say, is making the temperature here much warmer. Some of the traditional jobs, the hunting and fishing, that the Inuit and a large part of the population here do, that's not possible. This person said to me, look, there are some people for whom that $100,000 is a huge amount of money. And I said, well, would you go for it? And they said, look, no, we don't want to sell the country, even if it's a lot of money.

But the reality is, all the minerals here in Greenland, they say that's worth so much more than 57,000 people, a $100,000 each. The message coming back from people here again is, this is Greenland. We don't want the United States to have it. We're going to defend it. This is the message that's coming from Danish and Greenland politicians, their ambassadors in the U.S., have been on Capitol Hill, lobbying lawmakers there.

At the European Union, Denmark is putting the issue of Greenland in the United States, Donald Trump's claim to it, putting it on the agenda there for ambassadors of the EU to talk about this isn't going away. Donald Trump isn't making it go away. And just before we started filming, a man came up to me and said, we're going to defend Greenland. And I said, well, how America is big? And he said, look, this is our country. This is for us. We want it this way. Nic Robertson, CNN, Nuuk, Greenland.

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MICHAELSON: And maybe he'll get some help from that dog. That thing was huge. All right. Nic Robertson, thank you for that. It's been a heavy week. There's a fun weekend when it comes to pop culture. We're talking about college football playoffs, NFL playoffs, talking about the Golden Globes. We're talking about the CES this week, Shagun can talk about all of it. He's joining us live just back from Vegas, just back from CES with some amazing new technology. Stay with us. Let's have some fun on "The Story Is."

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MICHAELSON: Indiana University trounced the University of Oregon in the college football playoff semifinal at the Peach Bowl, 56 to 22 the Hoosiers now one game away from winning it all, they'll face the University of Miami in the national championship game for college football on January 19th. You can't wait that long. There's more football this weekend. The NFL playoffs kick off with the Los Angeles Rams and the Carolina Panthers tomorrow or Saturday, followed by the Green Bay Packers and the Chicago Bears.

Plus this weekend, the 83rd Annual Golden Globes Award airs on CBS Sunday. Comedian Nikki Glaser returns as the host for the second year. For the first time, the globes will honor podcasts, in addition to film and television, a lot to watch this weekend. Let's break it all down with Segun Oduolowu, an Emmy Award Winning Host, Journalist, Commentator, one of our favorite guests here. Welcome back.

SEGUN ODUOLOWU, EMMY AWARD WINNING HOST, JOURNALIST & COMMENTATOR: Good to be back.

MICHAELSON: So Indiana just dominated tonight. Let's talk about this. This is one of the best stories in sports in years.

ODUOLOWU: This is arguably Elex, the greatest story in college football history. So let's just drop some facts. Indiana University is the most losingest team, if that's the word losingest team in the power five conference in history, and the last two years, they're 25 and two, and the two losses were to Ohio State last year, who won the national championship and Notre Dame, who is the runner up. So coach Cignetti is doing something that's never been seen before, and he's doing it with players that were also rants. He brought them from JMU. These aren't five star I got them in Alabama and Florida and all these great players.

A transfer quarterback in Mendoza from Cal bunch of hippies out there at Berkeley. He transfers in and a bunch of players that nobody, nobody seemed to want, and he's beating the blue bloods of college football. It is forcing me to say on television to my dear friend Harrison Silverstein, a proud Indiana grad, congratulations, dude, you're one game from a national championship. I hope you enjoy something that will probably never happen again.

MICHAELSON: Oh, who knows? The coach is that good? Maybe it will happen again, and maybe they'll get some more people there, but it will never feel as good as it feels right now. But what do we think about Miami? They're on quite a run too.

ODUOLOWU: So we almost had a cool setup where the coach of Miami, coach Cristobal would might have played Oregon the team he left to go back to his alma mater, Miami, except that Oregon got trounced by Indiana. Now Miami gets to do something that no team has ever done in college football, play for the national championship in their own home stadium in Miami. So we will see it's never been done before. Will that homefield advantage be, and be the tipping point? I don't think so. I think Indiana is about to curb stomp them. As we like to say in sports.

MICHAELSON: And Indiana has one of the biggest alumni in the entire country. And if you're an Indiana alumni member, you're spending whatever money you need to, to get to that game in Miami. I'll be interested to see which team actually has more fans, even though it's in Miami, because for Indiana, this is such a big deal a big deal for Indiana or Miami as well.

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ODUOLOWU: Huge deal for that team.

MICHAELSON: So let's talk about the NFL playoffs, which start this weekend. For the last few years, the NFL playoffs has been all about Patrick Mahomes. For the first time in many years, the chiefs are not there. They're not a part of the playoffs. Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens not a part of the playoffs. Joe Burrow not a part of the playoffs. So in the AFC, though the familiar quarterback, Josh Allen now doesn't have to go up against all of his rivals that have beaten him year-after-year, the Buffalo Bills. Can that be enough for him? Or can the new kids you think, take it?

ODUOLOWU: Here's your chance, Josh Allen. Your boogeyman is gone, OK? Patrick Mahomes and the chiefs, the Kansas City Chiefs, were his Boogeyman. They would beat him at every turn. It was like Lucy and Charlie Brown in the football. She pull it Josh Allen would lose. Now, it's a bunch of quarterbacks that we've heard of, but they don't have the same pedigree as Josh Allen. He's the reigning MVP of the league. This is your best chance to beat these kids that we don't really know yet. I think if he doesn't, it's never going to happen.

MICHAELSON: Yeah. So we're talking about Bo Nix with the Denver Broncos, Trevor Lawrence with the Jacksonville Jaguars.

ODUOLOWU: Trevor Lawrence, yeah, you've got Bo Nix with the Denver Broncos.

MICHAELSON: Drake Maye with the Patriots who having an MVP level season.

ODUOLOWU: I have shoes older than Drake Maye. Let's just be honest. And I can't, I can't have the Patriots come back and be something again. So I'm pulling for Josh Allen. Do something. Keep the AFC free of the New England Patriots. I can't say they're favorite.

MICHAELSON: The NFC with a lot more familiar names when we see the Rams and the Eagles who won last year and the Sea Hawks and all of that. And the forty niners as well.

ODUOLOWU: Jalen Hurts come on Eagles.

MICHAELSON: Come on, handsome quarterback. I mean, what about our backup quarterback? Jimmy Garoppolo on the Rams?

ODUOLOWU: Yeah, we never see him because that you stop him. Let him touch the --

MICHAELSON: All right, let's talk about CES which is the Consumer Electronics Show happened in Vegas. You were there this week, getting busy. You saw all the different stuff you participate in events there. But couple things you wanted to highlight. One was an exoskeleton that you tried on. ODUOLOWU: This hyper shell exoskeleton was the coolest thing. Like I got to wear it. I put it on and it makes you like a bionic man, like you can literally climb steps with more ease. There's me just walking up steps like I'm doing it for the first time. But the practical implications for people with mobility issues, sometimes tech, and especially in CES it's so future, you need a PhD in advanced theoretical physics. This is practical, and I can see right away where would be useful. So this was -- this to me was something super cool.

MICHAELSON: So this is not somebody who's fully paralyzed, but somebody who's maybe older --

ODUOLOWU: A little bit older maybe knee problem.

MICHAELSON: Struggles to walk a little bit. It's going to help give them that push.

ODUOLOWU: Hip replacement, all types of joint pain. This is something that's going to benefit them right away. And you can buy it right now on Amazon.

MICHAELSON: You also saw a TV that's like this thick, right?

ODUOLOWU: Yeah, like a TV by LG that is the width of a number two pencil. And when I saw it, they had it on the wall, like wallpaper or like paintings put in a in a picture frame, and then they showed it in this glass, and they show you how thin the glass is, and the TV is encased within. Right now they were saying it is around $8,000. So yes, it is very expensive. But if you're one of those, I'd like to have keep up with the Joneses. This thing is brilliant. And LG the way they displayed it, super cool.

MICHAELSON: So now let's go to the Golden Globes this weekend, we just saw the Critics' Choice Awards last weekend. But this going to get more attention than that. So they split the categories into drama and comedy, including for the movies, where they have movies that aren't really comedies, but they call them comedy. So let's start with drama. You think Sinners is going to win?

ODUOLOWU: It not only Sinners going to win. Sinners is a cultural behemoth, right? Look, I worked at the Martha's Vineyard African American Film Festival last year. We showed a screening of Sinners. People who had seen Sinners already packed the theater to see it again, just to talk about what they saw. And I actually interviewed people and asked them, how many times did you see Sinners? A lot. And they had conversation. No other movie in 2025 did that. You weren't seeing it multiple times. Michael B. Jordan, he's up for best actor in drama. He's -- I -- we want him to win. Coogler is up for Best Director. We want him to win. And like I've said before, if he doesn't, we march it on. OK. We march it on.

MICHAELSON: We've take it for comedy, one battle after another wins the pit you think is going to win for drama for TV show, the studio win for comedy for TV show, one battle after another, about as funny as the bear is, which is often nominated for comedy. But you know what? That they get more they get more people. There more stars that way. They'll be fun to watch all that. Segun, what a weekend, what a week.

ODUOLOWU: It's a lot packed in. Hopefully it will make people smile. The news has been kind of sour of late. There's little I'm apt, I'm glad I was able to add a little sweetness.

MICHAELSON: Thank you so much. Appreciate it. Brown sugar. I love it.

ODUOLOWU: There you go. See. I got you to say it on live TV.

MICHAELSON: Up next Kyung Lah returns to Altadena one year after the fire.

[01:40:00]

Stay with us. We'll be right back.

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MICHAELSON: These were the scenes in Altadena this time last year, almost exactly a year ago, after the Eaton Fire tore through neighborhoods. 35 miles to the west, much of Pacific Palisades in LA was destroyed by another fire. Those fires are some of the most destructive in the history of California. At least 31 people were killed. More than 16,000 structures left in ruins, not many of them rebuilt at this point.

CNN Kyung Lah went back to some of the hardest hit areas where challenges remain, including Altadena. Kyung?

KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: You have been out there. We both know how difficult it is, and what we are learning now a year later, after the fires are out, after the smoke is out, as the environmental remediation continues. What the people who are trying to rebuild are starting to understand is that they are facing a true financial crisis.

[01:45:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: It's been a year since the LA fires, and now survivors are hitting a hard economic reality. I remember being here on this very street, and that's where I met Robert Lara.

ROBERT LARA, ALTADENA RESIDENT: Just yesterday, I had it all. This is just a heartbreaking. We have so many memories here.

LAH: When you look at this, it's -- like it's all gone.

LARA: It's all gone. The physical stuff, the material things, are gone. The memories are still there. So this was our pool here.

LAH: How much has money been a challenge?

LARA: Big, big challenge. The reason why I'm here. It comes down to money. We continue to pay the mortgage. This will also mentally drain you where you know you see yourself in a vacant lot, just a pile of dirt. There's no way, no way I could afford to rent a place out. We didn't have the proper coverage for a total loss situation. Everyone I speak to here, all my neighbors, everyone's like, we're in that same boat. We're all under insured.

LAH: Robert is a general contractor, so he's rebuilding his own home. But the big unknown is cost. How long before do you think this is built? If you had to guess.

LARA: I'd say about a year and a half. Yeah.

LAH: Wow.

TIM KAWAHARA, EXECUTIVE DIR., UCLA ZIMAN CENTER FOR REAL ESTATE: It's not a great time to have to rebuild.

LAH: UCLAs Tim Kawahara understands the market forces hitting Altadena. This is his hometown, where 1000s of homes need to be rebuilt.

KAWAHARA: The tariffs, obviously, building materials would be impacted by tariffs with the I.C.E. raids 41 percent of our construction work force in California are immigrants. Some have status, some do not. Even people that are documented are scared to show up to work sites now.

LAH: That means Trump's immigration crackdown hits California especially hard. Fewer workers means higher costs.

KAWAHARA: When we talk about fire victims, they truly were victims. The path forward will seem impossible to a lot of the folks that are up here.

LAH: Which one is yours?

TROY LASTER, FORMER ALTADENA RESIDENT: This is it right here. This is a lot.

LAH: It felt impossible to Troy Laster.

LASTER: This is where I used to live in Altadena. Love this area because had the mountains right here to my north and south.

LAH: Troy was an LA PD cop, mainly in narcotics. He's now retired. He raised his family here. Does this feel like home?

LASTER: My home won't like this. No. It felt like somewhere else. When I put it on the market, it pretty much sold pretty fast, and I went with it because I got the most money. I wanted to do the best thing for the family to get them back to normality, and I couldn't wait for everything to be done.

LAH: Troy doesn't live in Altadena anymore. You have arrived. We visited him at his new home in Las Vegas.

LASTER: Right now. We're at peace. My mortgage payment is exactly the same and the balance is lower.

LAH: Hi, Tammy, I'm Kyung. Hey?

TAMMY LASTER, FORMER ALTADENA RESIDENT: Hi. Nice to meet you.

LAH: Nice to meet you. Thank you for letting us into your home.

LASTER: Sure.

LAH: How does it feel to you?

LASTER: I think Troy is a little stronger than I am, but heart still hard, and I'm totally fine, as long as I don't talk about the wildfires.

LAH: For your mental health, this is the path.

LASTER: Yeah, 100 percent I'm not going back. I just don't need the constant reminder of what was

LAH: Altadena strong. It's going to be fine. Is that reality?

LASTER: I think a lot of people want it to be reality, but I don't think it is.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: So, Kyung, I was out there this week, and I talked to some of the leaders out there, and they said there are 1000s of people who have chosen to rebuild, but 1000s who haven't, and that the family in Vegas not alone in that.

LAH: Definitely not alone. The people who have been able to sell early some of them actually say they're kind of lucky. But there is another group of people, the people who are younger. Think about the millennials who just moved into the Pacific Palisades or to Altadena, and what they have done is they have bought these very expensive houses, even with high paying six figure jobs. I met one man who owes $1.5 million on his mortgage, even if he sold, he's going to be broke for the rest of his life with a full time job.

[01:50:00]

So the financial crisis isn't just in the rebuilding, some of it is the insurance and then just being under water.

MICHAELSON: And you talk to a lot of the folks, what's the biggest obstacle so many of them say insurance.

LAH: Absolutely. Kyung, thank you, and we're thinking of all of our friends who are still suffering one year later, more of "The Story Is" right after this.

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MICHAELSON: NASA says the four astronauts at the International Space Station will return to earth after a medical issue affected one crew member, reportedly in stable condition. The crew includes two NASA astronauts, a Japanese astronaut and one cosmonaut. The SpaceX Crew-11 expected to land early Thursday morning, a month ahead of schedule. Marks the first time a crew has returned early from the ISS due to a health concern.

Elon Musk AI chatbot Grok has added restrictions on its image generation tool, limiting some features to paying subscribers on the social media platform X.

[01:55:00]

The update comes following days of international backlash after the chatbot was used to digitally undress people, some without their permission, including children.

The Olympic Torch Relay made its way through centuries old seaside Italian villages. Torchbearers carry the flame through Carrara marble quarries in Tuscany and along the Cinque Terre on the Italian Riviera. The relay will end in Milan in February. Thanks for watching not only tonight, but this week here on "The Story Is." As you think about it, a week ago, at this moment, we were first reporting of military action in Venezuela. In the last week, we've seen the shooting in Minneapolis, the shooting in Portland, the one year anniversary of the fires here in California. It's been a heavy week. We've gotten through it together. I hope this weekend you have a moment to rest and reflect and we hope we have better news to report next week.

I'm Elex Michaelson. Have a great weekend. See you on Monday.

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