. >> john terret, happy thanksgiving to you, too. enjoy the celebration. >>> as the nation marks this thanksgiving day with that big parade in the big apple and that early start to the holiday shopping season, the day means much more to some. nearly two weeks after that string of deadlytons, families in one town in illinois, coming together to give special thanks. andy is live in the tornado-ravaged town of washington. andy, how many of those who were displaced during the toranados are expected to turn out there today? >> reporter: they are expecting up to 1200, dale. this is turning out to be quite a spread here at the crossroads united methodist church here in washington. they have this one big room that they are setting aside foall of the folks they are expecting to come in. they have another big room behind here for even more folks. they don't know exactly how many but they are preparing food as if 1200 at least will show up. these volunteers who have put this whole spread together have been here since 5:00 in the morning working

. >> and i'm john terret with the big balloons of maci's thanksgiving parade. will they fly tomorrow morning? right now that's up in the air. power of the people until we restore >> welcome back to al jazeera america. here is a look at tonight's top stories. millions of americans are on the roads, rails, and in the skies. it is the big thanksgiving get away. people who drive to their destinations will face crowded roads. those who fly could days delays due to a big storm in the northeast. the obama administration said vice president joe biden will be backing up japan in disputes against china. china has raised tensions by setting up an air defense zone around islands claimed by both countries. >>> and it's the annual thanksgiving turkey pardon. but a break in the tradition. two lucky birds were granted clemency, and it was legitimately a turkey of a contest. i'm not sure what that means. >>> a weather forecast could be bad news for "spider-man" and hello kitty, a few of the balloons that could be grounded from the new york macy's parade due to high winds. john

. >> all right, john terret for us in new jersey. we appreciate it. thank you. from a state leadership to the nation's largest cities, the new mayor will take over in the motor city and it's bankruptcy problems. but first new york city is poised to elect it's first democratic mayor in nearly a quarter of a century. randall pinkston joins us from brooklyn. joe lotus said the numbers will shock everyone. why does he believe he has a shot to win? >> reporter: he's looking at the last 20 years under the republican leadership, giuliani and bloomberg. they've brought this place to a pretty good place. crime, murder rate is way down to levels that have not been seen since the 60s, and if the current trend continues new york city could see murder rates down as low as in the 50's. of course, all the election polls say that he will loose. >> what will the major policy differences between these two candidates? >> well, crime. they promise to stop the stop and frisk, which a lot of minorities hits them especially hard. the democratic candidate, bill de blasio said he will e

learn to john terret. we spent friday with shoppers, how are you doing out there? >> i'm doing fine. i'm collecting bargains, and it seems to most of us in the mall that america is changing a little bit, really. we saw all these chain stores nationwide. we saw is it of them opening at 6:00 and 8:00 on thanksgiving itself, and there were those who did i wasn't the holiday interrupted, but it was just the opposite. it was attended all across the country. families went out after their turkey dinner together to shop in the malls. so it does look as if it's going to be different to row back from this one. we shall see. let's talk about the sort of big numbers that we have available to us. the early numbers. these are pretty raw, o on jona. you get an idea. let's look at protests at walmart and around the country. walmart tells us between 6:00 in the evening and 10:00 yesterday evening they made $10 million cash registered transactions. 10 million right across the country. let's hear from the walmart president ceo bill simon, he says that the walmart was simply reacting

. >> john terret. >> reporter: why do we really care? >> why do we care? >> reporter: because ordinary people are really hurting. because you know, there is little doubt that the reason these talks are taking place in geneva at all right now is because iran's economy is really in a bad way. in the past seven years the u.n. the european union have all imposed crippling sanctions against individuals and companies and entities that have literally wrecked iran's petrol economy, and we're feeling the pinch. iran's economy is the 21stageest economy in the world by gdp or growth. of course it's dominated by gas and oil production but there are 40 industries listed on the tehran stock exchange. but the effect of the sanctions has been to seal iran off from the rest of the world. it cannot easily import or export materials for a long time. it was assumed that the materials that iran needs to keep going was coming illegally from china to the east. however, i think that either to have gone away because right now the trade at iran's ports have seized up. exchange rate