>> i think we will. thanks, paul. and we'll have more on the south carolina primary all day long. reminder for all the latest political news, go to c cnnpolitics.c cnnpolitics.com. that does it for us. suzanne with the new mug. >> they just gave it to me. lamb year anchoring, i guess i get a mug. >> power on. >> nice to see you. live from studio 7, i'm suzanne malveaux. want to get you up to speed. bad news today from the ship wreck in italy. the worst really for the families of people still missing. they have now stopped looking for survivors. and here's why. the unstable ship is moving, shifting in the water. it is no longer safe for rescuers to keep going. there is also something else. even if they searching again, they say the chance of finding anyone alive is zero. too much time in cold water, too, too cold.

more than 20 people still unaccounted for. rescuers are blowing holes in the side of the ship to get where they think people might be located. they found five bodies yesterday nap matt c . confirm death toll is 11. the man at the controls that might is now under house arrest today. prosecutors say they are speechless that he's even out of jail. they want to charge him with manslaughter and abandoning his post. we also learned today that it might not be the first time that that same ship was dangerously close to that's land. more in a couple of minutes. but first listen to this passenger who told us today what it was like. >> people's faces were panicked and they were trying to jump in and they just started hitting people with anything they could,

the oars, poles, trying to push people back. but people kept persisting. and that's really when the screaming started and everyone was screaming and that's when they said we need to go, we need to get this down and it was just heartbreaking to see people still not being able to find a ship. but then again, we were kind of helpless just sitting in the boat knowing that our boat was already full. >> we got the latest developments live from the scene of the ship wreck, that will happen in just a minute. but first, people in seattle preparing for what is likely to be one of the largest snowstorms to hit the city in more than 60 years. schools will shut down two hours early. drivers are being warned about the dangerous road conditions. this is the second major snowstorm to hit seattle this week. i wouldn't bring in chad myers. are they prepared? >> they are prepared because it is a short lived event where things begin to melt. the snow will change over to

rain. portland is farther south. it's a little warmer. the snow has not changed over to rain for seattle. all the moisture pouring in from hawaii. called the pineapple express. we will see four more inches in seattle. you get 600 feet above sea level, and the totals could be 1 to 3 feet. so that's the difference. that's what you have to worry about. >> that is going to be a monster storm. all right. we'll be following that. thank you, chad. smoke bomb, firecracker, whatever it was, somebody threw a smoking object over the fence into the white house grounds. members of the occupy movement held a rally outside the white house last night. it is unclear no word on who actually threw the smoking object. the president and first lady weren't home. they were out celebrating her birthday. and if you've been trying to log into wikipedia this morning,

you're out of luck. the one of several going dark today part of a protest against an anti-piracy bill being fought over in d.c. right how. the bill is called sopa, stop online piracy act. that's what it is. hollywood is pushing for it. but sites from google to craigslist, they think that it could kill the internet as we know it. want to mention cnn's parent company time warner supports the legislation. mitt romney trying to rally his supporters in south carolina, that is happening this hour. he's resisting calls however from his opponents to release his tax returns right away at least. romney rally scheduled to get under way just a few minutes in spartansburg. yesterday romney said he pays an income tax rate of about 15%. mostly on investment income.

the candidates hitting south carolina again today, the first southern primary in just three days. besides mitt romney, several other candidates, rick perry campaigning in greer will hour. and again in the next hour, and then later, rick santorum holding a town hall meeting in laurens. and right now we have live pictures, this is santorum at a family and freedom town hall in spartansburg. trying to rally supporters there. pakistan gives a u.s. envoy the cold shoulder. telling mark grossman don't bother to visit right now because it could fuel anti-american sentiment, the latest sign of bad blood between the two allies. the strained relationship reached a new low in november and that's when you may recall the u.s. air strike killed 24 pakistani soldiers. want to go back to italy now where they have officially

stopped looking for survivors. we have an update on this huge cruise liner that hit this the rocks, flooded while floot florida on its side. most got off safely, but some did not. dan rivers is there. >> reporter: the salvage operation has been suspended since early this morning after rescuers again detected movement of the costa concordia. they have pulled everyone off and are still standing by to see if they can get the divers back down. they're determined to try to finish searching this enormous wreck for the missing 23 people, 11 bodies so far have been confirmed as having been recovered. meanwhile relatives of those who are missing are coming here holding vigil waiting for news. i spoke to one waiting for news of his brother, russell.

are you coming to terms he may not be recovered? >> anything is possible. it's only five days. let's keep hope. that's the only thing i can at the moment because i'm not here to lose hope. i come all the way over here because i have hope and i know something definitely positive will come out of this. >> reporter: the environmental impact of the wreck is also now weighing heavy on the authorities here. they've started to put up around the coast to prevent any spill of fuel. amazingly so far none has leaked, but we've been blessed with very calm weather. they're concerned that it would only take one weak storm to rad deckly destabilize the wreck and cause an environmental catastrophe. mitt romney under attack for

saying he pays around 15% tax rate which is a lot lower in an what many middle class families are paying. it has critics saying that he's out of touch with the american people. so here is your chance to talk back on the big stories of the day. should romney tell his wealth as a political asset? that would be a change here, because lot of people, a lot of politician, very rich. they don't like to talk about it, they don't like to portray themselves that way. >> but why not just own it. mitt romney is a rich man, so rich key not chase away those pictures of his $10 million house or his speaking fee which is added up to $374,000 in one year. i won't even get into the 15% in federal income tax thing. romney tries to down play his wealth by wearing jeans and open neck shirts. and talking awkwardly at times about things many political observers say he shouldn't. >> i know what it's like to

worry whether you'll get fired. there were a couple times i wondered whether i was going to get a pink slip. >> i'll tell you what, 10,000 bucks? $10,000 bet? i should also tell my story. i'm also unemployed. time will tell, but i anticipate that most likely i'm going to get asked to do that around the april time period and i'll keep that open. >> wealthy democratic candidates have appeared awkward, too. remember that shot of john kerry wind surfing? for many voters the image of kerry jiving off the coast smacked of elitism. the editor of fortune magazine as a novel approach. own it. look, america is a capitalist country. money means success. why not say, yeah, i'm lucky. kay from a wealthy family and i became a successful businessman. i'm a devout charitable by, i'm living the american dream and i want to help you do that, too. would such a daring strategy

work? that's what i want to know today. so the talk back question, should romney tout his wealth as a political asset? should romney tout his wealth as a political asset? i'll read your comments later this hour. >> i don't know. i think that could work for anybody to say it the way you did. i'm with you. >> i just wish i was as wealthy as mitt romney. >> and the president himself is a mail i don't know their. they've all got a lot of money. >> yeah, why not just embrace it and say, hey, i'm the living embodiment of the american dream. i'm a rich guy. and now i can help you get rich, too. >> let's see how that goes over. here's a run down of some of the stories we're covering. first, more unbelievable images of what went on inside of the ship wrecked cruiser. and the ship's owner, carnival, has history of safety problems on its biggest ships.

we'll take a look at those, as well. and then $5 for a gallon of gas by memorial day. that is now the prediction. we're already breaking records. also americans starting to cut down on the credit card debt, but there are good ways to do it and bad ways. we'll explain. [ male announcer ] feeling like a shadow of your former self?

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aspercreme breaks the grip, with maximum-strength medicine and no embarrassing odor. break the grip of pain with aspercreme. they have now called off the search for survivors in italy. the wreck of the cruise liner began shifting and moving today after rescuers blew several holes in it. just listen to this.

the wreck of the cruise liner began shifting and moving and those holes you can see that they blew into this, it does not look like anyone is still alive. divers found five bodies yesterday. we asked an underwater recovery expert what those could yscuba are going through. >> you start tying a line off on the outside of the vessel. then that will be run with me attached to me into the first compartment we'll enter. and every time i make a turn, i'm going to do a tie off. so what ends up happening is at no point do i xcompromise my safely line. what we've done is i came in straight in to from the tie-off point outside. i'm now going to make a complete 90 degree left turn to go

further up in to the wreck. to do that, i can't just let my line, my tracer, i can't allow to make turns around pillars where it can get caught. so what we've done is we've gone directly interior straight, tied it off, and now i make a perfect right -- sorry, left angle turn at 90 to go straight into the next compartment. looking at the most recent pictures from cnn on tv, the visibility right now inside the ship in italy is really quite nice. they have good visibility up they get deeper in. i'm sure they're getting ready -- as the commercial crews get in there, they'll start setting this. might be who is going into a compartment or down companion ways that they cannot see outside the ship, we've silted this out on purpose to see how fast one second everything is clear and in in a matter of seconds, the whole place is

sitting osil silting out. so they could easily be in there for an hour or so. i've got to go into the bathroom, the bedroom, a sitting room section. i mean, usually you think about coming in right, working right, coming out. >> chad, you and i have talked a lot about whether or not we think it's possible that there sill could be survivors on board the ship and they have suspended now the search. do you still think there's no chance here? >> i don't know what the search has been like, but unless they've searched every dry cabin and every dry room, which means not water, full of air, and i don't know how cyou do that whe the ship issist willed like this.

so unless they've checked all of those dry spaces, i think it's premature to say that. i know with have two americans on board and that whole family wants hope. i still think that there are spots in that ship that people could still be alive. >> you can't get enough of seeing these pictures. we have actually new pictures now from space where we can see the ship, is that right? >> we have a new picture from digital globe and you'll notice a white line that extends from the ship all the way along the shore. and that white line is actually the orange set of buoys. it's black and white, it's not an amazing high rez image because it's from says. space. there is a boom that they put out to stop the oil leaking. we talked about how much fuel is still on the ship. this ship is only in the water ready to go on a seven day cruise, only cruising for two

hours. so there's all of this fuel on board that they will have to try to pump out. it will become increasingly hard to get that fuel off that ship. and there will take at least two to four weeks to get that oil off. otherwise there will be an ecological disaster around that's land, as well. >> does the temperature of the water impact that at all when you're talking about oil? does that slow the down the process of having that all leak and spill? >> that's a good point. because the gel wouldn't leak as much as a liquid, right some but there were no ruptures in the hull at all. in the oil tanks, two lines oil tanks here. so the fuel tanks are not leaking. there's the ship on its side. that's how close it is to the rock. that ship is 1,000 feet long. so you have to realize that

those smokestacks are less than 100 feet from shore. so people didn't have a long swim unless they got off the ship on the other side and they had to swim all the way around back on to those rocks. at least a couple dozen people did get in the water and swim to safety. that's a little bit crazy at 57 degrees, but they made it. and that white line, it looks almost like a small little rope, but it's much bigger than that. just a pristine eisland that ths have. >> it's unique to see the whole cruise liner there on its side. >> and this is from digital globe imaging. we're going to have sk thask th take an image about 1,000 feet farther to the south. because although there had been reports that this ship was closer at times, where the rock

jetty was, this ship has never been closer. we'll get that in very big detail in the noon hour. i have brand new graphics, satellite images from there. it will be a great segment. >> all right. looking forward to it. if you think gas prices are high now, got to hang on to your wallet. some analysts say we could see $5 a gallon by spring. find out why in a live report. and as gas prices go up, so do the age of cars that are actually on the road. the "l.a. times"s reporting that the average age of our clunkers is the highest it's ever been in part because most of us haven't been financially stable must have to get a new car. average age up next. on my journ,

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how long have you owned your car? if you said ten years or more, you're in good company. the "l.a. times" reporting that the average vehicle on u.s. roads today 10.8 years old. t analysts say because a lot of folks can't afford to buy a new car. good news of course, new car sales starting to jump because of pent up demand. you might feel like you need to take out a loan just to pay for gas these days. so hang on. gas prices already the highest on record for january. analysts say they could hit $5 a gallon in some areas and we're talking about by memorial day. paul cameron hat a gas station. you're look at $5 a gallon, paul why is this happening? >> reporter: not happening quite

yet, although california prices among the highest in the nation at $3.70. you can see the customers that come to this it station are looking for a bargain because it's $3.55 here. national average is $3.37. what this really does is have a dramatic impact on small business owners because you can imagine anybody who is a painter or laborer of some sort and has to get to work each day by driving to the job, they get pounded hard. we talked to one man who is in the business of installing granite countertops and he is really getting pounded right now. >> almost $100 to fill up the tank and before you know it, here comes wednesday or thursday morning, i'm putting another $50 to $100 in the tank. and it's the stop and go driving, the gridlock. no matter where you have to drive in l.a. and we're having to go out of the area. >> reporter: to your point about the clunkers, he says he would love to get rid of the clunker car and get a new truck, but

because gas prices are eating in to his profits, he can't afford to get a fuel economy car. also why so high here, 35 cents a gallon at the pump in tax and also because of our plugs control standards, it costs more to produce gas here. so there you have it. double edged sword. >> i used to have a clunker and everybody used to tease me about it all the time and i said, hey, it runs, it gets me wrihere i nd to go and i'll drive it into the ground. tell me why you think prices are so much higher on the west coast than other areas of the country? >> reporter: a lot of it deals with transportation. but here again we go to that tax per gallon, washington state has the highest nation. so a lot is state to state. and if you have certain plugs control standards for example gas in california can only be produced in california to meet the pollution standards. and the cost of that is very high and there isn't that many

refineries to produce, so also a supply and demand issues. who gets hurt, small business owners and people who rely on their cars every day to get around throughout california. >> and driving around there is so important. everybody is trying to get around. paul, thanks. appreciate it. good to see you. getting back to our main story, the capsized cruise ship off the coast of italy. you are watching the chaos. p the crew, the captain now accused of an ban do you thiban. who will be held accountable? lost your appetite for romance? and your mood is on its way down. you might not just be getting older. you might have a treatable condition called low testosterone or low t. millions of men, forty-five or older, may have low t.

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here's a look at some of the stories we're working on. running out for the missing. after a disaster off the coast of italy. and then if your new year's resolution is to get out of debt, you'll want to stay tuned for today's top p tips. and stephen colbert makes a living by paging fun of politician, right? we're not so sure herman cain is going to be laughing after his latest stunt. now five days since the cruise line of scrimmar capsizeo dozen still missing. experts say the chances of finding more survivors is slim.

it isn't the first time that this cruise liner has been in trouble. lisa sylvester checks out the record. >> reporter: the costa concordia is owned by carnival, the world's largest passenger ship company. taking a cruise can be an affordable way to visit multiple countries. but attorney james walker who has been involved in litigation against the cruise line industry says there have been an increasing number of accidents and mishaps. >> if you go back just over the past two or three yearyears, yo see about 15 major groundings, collisions and fires. there have been a number of cruise ship fires in the carnival fleet. probably the most spectacular fire was the fire on the star princess. >> reporter: the star princess will 2006 operated by carnival and carrying more than 2600 passengers caught fire. one passenger died and more than ten injured. the blaze left a blackened hole on the side of the ship.

these pictures show another ship, the carnival ecstasy, engulfed in flames in 1998, a blaze that began in the crew laundry room. more recently, 3300 passengers left stranded and forced to dine on spam until the u.s. navy air dropped food. carnival says safety is our number one priority and we have an excellent record of safe operation throughout our company's history. all officers and crew undergo comprehensive regular training which meets or exceeds all regulatory requirements. every ship undergoes periodic inspections as mandated by the u.s. coast guard. but cruise ships have grown from mere boats to virtually floating cities. able to accommodate upwards of 3,000 to 4,000 passengers each trip. and more ships are being added to the fleet every year. jim staples, maritime consultant, says maybe that's contributing to the the

problems. >> when you start putting 3300, 3400 people that's a lot of people to be responsible for and you might want to start looking at making these ships not to so big and having so many people on board. >> reporter: carnival stock is down about 14% on concerns about the costs associated with the crash. and worries that people in the short term will stop booking cruises. lisa sylvester, cnn, washington. so clearly it's a wake-up call for the cruise line industry. want to bring in sunny hostin. we know that victims of this disaster, it's confusing here because it's taking place in italy. do they -- can they sue in u.s. courts since it's owned by carnival which is an american company? >> that's right. and carnival is miami based. that's been the question i think on every single lawyers' minds. can these suits be wrought in the united states. that is very youen likely because if you look when you have your ticket and you look at

the fine print, it is very clear that are little contracts written into the tickets that state that lawsuits must be brought in the courts of genoa. so sometimes there's an exception if the if the voyage is to u.s. ports from another country, but that is not the case here. so we will not be seeing lawsuits in the united states. of course mean peopany have cha the ticket, but have been unsuccessful. people say you can sue for anything anywhere. yes, we'll see lawsuits because when you see the high stakes cases like this, lawyers will go for it. are they going to be successful? the case law doesn't support them. >> what about the ship's captain. we know he could be facing charges of manslaughter, ship wreck.

but he's on house arrest now. you have 11 people who died. more than twice that full who are still missing. what is the likelihood here that he is going to get jail time, that he'll be charged with anything? >> i think it's very, very likely. i think we're somewhat familiar with the italian judicial system, right, because of the amanda knox case. it's a vigorous system. he is looking at manslaughter, abandoning ship. that in of itself opens him up to about 12 years in prison. and so as you mentioned, we have 11 known dead at this point and many people are pointing the finger at him. they're saying this is the result of human error, this nautical fly-by that he did to apparently salute the inhabitants of the island. so my sense is that while he's on house arrest, he is in no way, shape or form going to be absolved of this tragedy. >> do we have any idea of the time table that he could be

brought back and charged? >> certainly they have a year to keep him, to hold him while they're investigating this. the judge gave every indication that she's just sort of waiting for the rescue efforts to be done until she decides whether or not he should be remanded to jail. so i think we're going to see something pretty quickly because there are reports now that all of the above water cabins have been checked and there are no signs of-. and so my sense is we're going to see the captain answer charges shortly. >> sunny, thank you very much. stephen colbert hijacks the cain train. that's right. jeanne moos will explain why a vote for cain could actually be a vote for colbert in south carolina. [ female announcer ] last year, the u.s. used

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in south carolina, a vote for herman cain could be a vote for stephen colbert. that's right, he's hijacked the cain train. he's urging people to vote for cain even though cain dropped out of the presidential race. jeanne moos has the story. >> reporter: how did a comedian and a pizza ceo turn politician become one? >> anybody who shares my values can show it by voting for herman cain. >> reporter: it's the latest

stephen colbert caper. even more cunning than his decision to explore his own possible candidacy. >> for the possible of the united states of south carolina. i'm doing it. >> reporter: but how to get on the balance holot? problem. it's too late to get on the ballot and write ins aren't allowed. solution. herman cain is already on the ballot though he's dropped out of the race. so take his place. >> there is one name on the ballot that stands for true americanimity. herman cain. >> reporter: colbert's super pac produced the commercial and he used his show to exor the fans and young people of the internet to -- >> tell the world how much you love herman cain. >> reporter: democrats and independents could vote for cain. and colbert friendly websites were buzzing with colbert-cain

fever. so it impact the real primary? >> short answer is no. we may see a bump. but i think the serious point is that sometimes it takes satire to tell the truth in a spin saturated world. >> reporter: colbert got a chilly reception when he appeared on video as what was billed as a cafe mom town hall. >> mom? >> reporter: full of south carolinian mothers. >> how many of you don't want him to run? applaud. >> he's rude. he mocks. >> reporter: but another mom said she never knew what a super pac was until she watched the colbert report. for the uninitiated company medians like colbert -- >> they're the gateway drug to politics. >> reporter: we wonder what herman cain thinks. but he didn't return our calls. remember what cain said the day he dropped out of the presidential race is this. >> i'm not going to be silenced and i'm not going away. >> reporter: he's not going away

if stephen colbert can help him. >> send them a message. vote herman cain. >> reporter: may the best smile win. make that the slowest. jeanne moos, cnn, new york. sarah palin putting in her two cents. we'll tell you who she wants to see win the south carolina primary and why. also the cruise ship disaster in italy hits home in minnesota. how a community is holding out hope for a missing couple. all energy development comes with some risk,

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cisco. she flirted with the idea of running for president. now sarah palin tells us who she would pick on saturday's south carolina primary? >> if i had to vote in south carolina, in order to keep this thing going, i'd vote for newt and i would want this to continue, more debates, more vetting of candidates. >> we'll see if that actually

happens. paul steinhauser in charleston. i don't know if it's a surprise or not to the gingrich campaign, but are they reacting at all to palin's endorsement here? >> reporter: not a formal endorsement there, but the gingrich campaign very excited about what she said. newt gingrich himself speaking to reporters called the former alaska governor's comments very helpful. let's be honest, sarah palin still very influential among tea party activists and social conservatives and a lot of those voters on the republican side right here in south carolina. when gingrich was at that news event earlier this morning talking to reporters, he also made some news. talking specifically about his taxes, as you know, mitt romney has been in the spotlight on whether he will or won't release his tax returns. and also that he pays a 15% tax rate. well, here's what newt gingrich said this morning about his tax rate. >> we can confirm that i pay the

31% rate and although let me be clear, the 21st century contract with america newt.org has an optional 15% flat rate for every american. so my goal is not to raise mitt romney's taxes. it's to let everybody pay mitt romney's rate. so i'm not going to criticize romney. i'm just going to say shouldn't we all have the option of a flat tax at the same rate that he was paying. but we do know, we've gone through this three times now to make sure i paid 31% rate, we're pulling together the documents. we hope to get it out sometime tomorrow. >> reporter: i bet we'll hear more about taxes tomorrow night. right behind me, that's where the candidates will have the debate. >> we're looking forward to that. and i know this is one of those questions people love to talk about and speculate. i don't suppose that sarah palin will jump in the race, but some people say it's not too late if

she wanted to. there's no indication that will happen. all right no indication it will happen. i think her time is over. and what will be a big deal is if she does make a formal endorsement in this race. >> paul, looking forward to tomorrow. just two days before the south carolina primary. contenders debating the issues right here on cnn tomorrow night at 8:00 eastern. so we're about three weeks into the new year. how is your resolutions going? one of the most popular promises folks make, get out of debt. felicia taylor here with some of the ways to cut down on your credit cards. i just try to pay as much as possible. that's really tough, though. >> absolutely. according to a new report from credit car made.com, consumers never single state will slash their credit card debt last year, so that's the good news.

it fell by about 11% and the average balance dropped to $6576. that is a big amount to face every single month. we spoke to the founder of the financial advice blog ask the money coach.com. and she told us that when it comes to your credit score, credit card debt and other so-called revolving debt can actually do some very serious damage. so you got to be careful about how much debt you actually hold on to these credit cards because that goes against you moving forward. >> and is there a way that's better in terms of closing down your credit cards? >> it's funny, ud think if you were going to shut down all of your credit cards that your score would go up, but that's not the case. lynette told us that it will usually have the opposite effect. why? because your credit store is partly based on your credit utilization rate, the actual fact that you can pay off that debt. that's the amount of credit that you charged versus the amount of

credit that you have available. lynette also recommends that you hold on to the card with the largest available credit. you should also space out your cancellations to avoid a larger hit on your credit score. and because the length of your credit history affects your credit score, hang on to your oldest cards. that's important. >> and there are a lot of credit cards out there with different kinds of promises. so we'll bring you back and talk a little bit about what to look for when actually opening a new card. ♪ he was a 21st century global nomad ♪ ♪ home was an airport lounge and an ipad ♪ ♪ made sure his credit score did not go bad ♪ ♪ with a free-credit-score-dot-com ♪ ♪ app that he had ♪ downloaded it in the himalayas ♪ ♪ while meditating like a true playa ♪ ♪ now when he's surfing down in chile'a ♪ ♪ he can see when his score is in danger ♪ ♪ if you're a mobile type on the go ♪ ♪ i suggest you take a tip from my bro ♪

♪ and download the app that lets you know ♪ ♪ at free-credit-score-dot-com now let's go. ♪ vo: offer applies with enrollment in freecreditscore.com™. a body at rest tends to stay at rest... while a body in motion tends to stay in motion. staying active can actually ease arthritis symptoms. but if you have arthritis, staying active can be difficult. prescription celebrex can help relieve arthritis pain so your body can stay in motion. because just one 200mg celebrex a day can provide 24 hour relief for many with arthritis pain and inflammation. plus, in clinical studies, celebrex is proven to improve daily physical function so moving is easier. and celebrex is not a narcotic. when it comes to relieving your arthritis pain, you and your doctor need to balance the benefits with the risks. all prescription nsaids, like celebrex, ibuprofen, naproxen, and meloxicam have the same cardiovascular warning. they all may increase the chance of heart attack or stroke, which can lead to death. this chance increases if you have heart disease or risk factors such as high blood pressure or when nsaids are taken for long periods.

nsaids, including celebrex, increase the chance of serious skin or allergic reactions or stomach and intestine problems, such as bleeding and ulcers, which can occur without warning and may cause death. patients also taking aspirin and the elderly are at increased risk for stomach bleeding and ulcers. do not take celebrex if you've had an asthma attack, hives, or other allergies to aspirin, nsaids or sulfonamides. get help right away if you have swelling of the face or throat, or trouble breathing. tell your doctor your medical history and find an arthritis treatment for you. visit celebrex.com and ask your doctor about celebrex. for a body in motion. we're talking credit cards.

a lot of different ones with all kinds of offers. so which one is actually the right one you should choose for you? felicia taylor is here to tell us what to consider when opening a new card. >> yeah, suzanne. it's important to remember that one size doesn't fit all. not every credit card is appropriate. and cautioning against accepting the first offer that you find. you really need to look and think about how you're going to use the card. use sites like cardratings.com and find a card that fits your spending and payment habits. the cards that offer perks also probably come with higher interest rate. so if you can't pay off that balance every month, you may want to steer clear of those cards. if you rack up purchases and can pay your bill in full, those rewards cards may actually work bethanier for you. she recommends staying away from store cards.

stick to the top tier ones like a visa, mastercard, or american express. with american express, you are obligated to pay in full every month. >> i always get suckered into the store cards. gets me every single time. see ya. we've been sounding off on our talk back question. should mitt romney tout his wealth as a political asset? these are some live pictures. it's a grassroots rally. he's talking about jobs and the economy trying to rally support there before the big primary. carol, you've got the responses of folks up ahead. all of these guys are millionaires, if not multimillionaires. i don't know. maybe he should own it?

what do you think? >> maybe he should own it. that's the talk back question. he's not talking about how rich he is. here are the responses from our facebook friends. should candidates taught their friends? michael says, i would like them all to tout it. tell the americans how they can make millions. touting his wealth will only prove he cannot relate to 99%. and another says, yes, own it. our world would be better if everyone would be honest about where they stand. this from corey, real men tout their principles. and from michael, shame on the successful. please keep the conversation going. facebook.com/carolcnn. i'll be back with you in about 15 minutes. >> it's really different this go-around, don't you think, with

the occupy wall street movement, that people are actually really talking about this and focusing on the 99% and the 1% and how that's really changed the way people are presenting themselves, even the rich. >> even the rich. and, of course, there's the accusation that the democrats are using class warfare to beat up on the republicans and that will be a big factor when the race has widdled down. >> all right, carol. thanks. see you in a little bit. a couple from minnesota is minutes. they were on the italian cruise line when it sank a few days ago. and people in their home town are not giving up hope. we are there.

a man and wife from minnesota are two of the 23 people still missing after the wreck of the italian cruise ship. even though officials have called off the search, the couple's family, their friends, they are not giving up hope. ted rowlands reports. >> reporter: friends say that they were excited about their 16-day italian vacation. >> they have been saving up for this both this time and energy and money to take this trip. it's a once in a lifetime kind of trip. >> devout christians, attending mass and volunteering, jerry who is retired teaches religious

education. they were among the group of 29 initially reported missing from the cruise ship disaster in italy. >> it's just so hard to take and put it into words. the emptiness that so many of us feel. >> the heils have four grown children. the famtly launched this web page as a way to update the public as they anxiously await news. >> my mother never traveled much until after my dad retired. so they have been going a lot of places and i was really happy for them because they deserved to go on this awesome trip that they had planned. >> at the church, a 24-hour prayer vigil of hope has been established. >> hope is a fascinating term so we're praying for them knowing we can't control the situation. of course we want them to come out fine, as we would everybody. >> reporter: jerry is 69 years

old. barb is 70 years old. the facts of this case clearly don't led themselves to a lot of optimism, and the folks here at the church say they are still hopeful. ted rowlands, cnn, white bear lake, minnesota. top of the hour, i'm suzanne malveaux. want to get you up to speed. when an italian cruise hit rocks, the passengers started to panic. just listen. this video was shot as the massive cruise liner flooded with water started to lean over with more than 4,000 people on board. there is bad news today from the scene of the wreck. the worst, really, for the families of people still missing. they have stopped looking for survivors and here's why. the unstable ship, it's now moving, it's shifting in the water. no longer safe for rescuers to

keep going. there's also something else. even if they start searching again. they say the chance of finding anyone alive is zero. too much time in water that is too cold. more than 20 people are still missing. rescue we ares are blowing holes in the side where they think people may be located. they found five bodies yesterday. that made the confirmed dead to 11. 4,000 people got off that ship after it hit the rock and sank. the man at the controls that night, he is now under house arrest today and prosecutors say they are speechless that he's even out of jail. they want to charge him with manslaughter and abandoning his post. we also learned today that it might not be the first time that the same ship was dangerously close to that island. more in a couple of minutes. have an amazing new picture now of the ship wreck. and this is a different view. this was actually taken from space. this is from the website digital

globe and it gives you a sense of just how big this ship is. over three football fields long, it's lying in a heap now off the italian coastline. people in seattle are preparing for one of the biggest snowstorms in 60 years. they are expecting between five and ten inches. they are closing the schools. portland, oregon, also going to get hit with this storm. it's the second major storm to hit both cities this week. and impromptu valley broke out near the syrian capital. the monitors are there to see if syria's president is honoring a peace plan that he agreed with the arab league. people in the town are pleading for justice and an end to the government's brutal crackdown to protesters. the town is under a military siege and people are terrified.

>> this is a town on edge. a man turns on them in a vengeance. >> reporter: they originally chase canned him down the streets for a minute there was going to be mob justice. people were jumping on him. but he seemed to be able to get away and run off down the street. it is said that he was a policeman. candidates are hitting south carolina again as they hold their first southern primary in three days. mitt romney speaking in spartanburg, south carolina. rick perry in greer, south carolina. if you've been trying to logon to wikepedia, you're out of luck.

they are one of several websites going dark today. it's part of a protest against an anti-piracy bill being fought over in d.c. right now. what is this bill about? it is called sopa, that's called stop online piracy act. google and other websites think that they could kill the internet. time warner supports the legislation. take a look at this. it's an amazing picture. this car kareening off a road, smashing into a tree, exploding into flames. the 87-year-old driver was stuck inside. well, a neighbor who saw it happened called 911 and then smashed the back window and dragged the woman to safety. >> i went into the cellar, grabbed that hammer, it broke, unlocked the door.

i couldn't forgive myself if i just did nothing. >> the driver's son showed up at the guy's house and thanked him for saving his mother's life. mitt romney under attack for saying he pays around a 15% tax rate. it's a lot lower than what many of us pay, us middle class families. critics say that he's out of touch. we want to know, should romney tout his wealth as a political asset? carol costello is joining us. they are all millionaires, if not multimillionaires. could he flip the script here? >> yeah, why not just own it. he is so rich he could not chase away pictures of his $10 million house. i won't even get into the 15% in federal income tax thing. romney tries to downplay his

wealth by wearing jeans and open-end shirts and talking awkwardly at times about things many political observers say he shouldn't. >> i know what it's like to worry whether you're going to get fired. there were a couple of times i wondered whether i was going to get a pink slip. >> rick, i tell you what, 10,000 bucks. $10,000 bet. >> i should also tell my story. i'm also unemployed. >> time will tell but i anticipate that most likely i'm going to get asked to do that around the april time period and i'll keep that open. >> the wealthy democratic candidates, remember that picture of john kerry wind surfing. for many they say it smacked him as an elitism. own it. that's what some say. look, america is a capitalist country. money means success.

why not say, yeah, i'm lucky, i came from a wealthy family, i'm a devout charitable guy. i'm living the american dream and i want to help you do that, too. would such a daring strategy actually work? that's what i want to know. the talk back question is, should romney tout his wealth as a political asset? facebook.com/carolcnn. i'll read your comments later this hour. >> i remember during the 2008 campaign when it was candidate obama went bowling and got a gutter ball there and he couldn't win for trying. he's a millionaire too and he tried to relate to the bowling crowd. didn't work out so well. >> he should have stuck to what he's good at which is basketball and what's wrong with that? >> i know. they just try. they try too hard, i think. >> like hillary clinton downing a beer? >> oh, yeah. >> that was a great moment. >> let's see if this works for romney. >> okay. all right. here's a rundown of some of the stories that we're covering over the next hour.

first, the captain accused of causing the deadly cruise ship is under house arrest. we'll show you amazing pictures. believe it or not, this is not the first time the ship has gotten dangerously close to italy's rocky shoreline. romney tells americans that he pays 15% taxes on most of his income. so what do most of us pay? also ahead, the head of the watch dog group, richard cordray, is going to join us in 15 minutes or so. and two american airmen tell their dramatic stories of falling from their planes into enemy territory in libya. >> pretty much if you're driving your car down a road and you hit ice and your car starts spinning, that's what our aircraft was doing. [ male announcer ] this...is the network.

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the captain of the cruise ship that wrecked in italy may face manslaughter charges. prosecutors say that he's responsible for the deaths of at least 11 people. more than 20 are still missing. just a short time ago we got the news that they have stopped searching for survivors. cnn's matthew chance is in maples. many can't believe that this captain is out of jail. why even allow him to go home? do we know that? >> reporter: yeah, it's outraged a lot of people, not just the prosecutors, suzanne. indeed, the prosecutors are saying that they are going to appeal that decision by the judge. they want him back behind bars. but the judge made her statement clear in a written statement.

she did not believe that captain schettino was a risk flight. she did not believe that he was going to tamper with evidence or repeat the crime over charges that he's facing at least. so she thought that the house arrest here with his family was the most appropriate way of detaining him. that may change, however. because there is such outrage across many other parts of the world as well that this guy is just under house arrest. this appeal may be lodged and if successful he could be back behind bars within days. >> matthews, is there something that we're missing in this story? we certainly don't want to condemn someone before they are found guilty. but how is he explaining his own behavior, especially in light of the audiotapes that we heard, which really made him sound like he was just thinking about himself, that he had abandoned people and had missed his dessert or something. >> reporter: well, of course

it's important to remember he's not even been charged with manslaughter or abandoning his ship or causing a ship wreck. those are the charges he faces should the investigation determine that there's enough evidence to carry out those charges against him. but captain schettino in that very shocking exchange that we all heard between him and the coast guard as the catastrophe unfolded indicated in part that he didn't believe the boat, the ship on its own accord. he said as it listed to one side, he was catapulted out of the ship into the sea. that may or may not be true but that appeared to be the basis of his defense. you may hear more about that as the investigation continues. but just general outrage that he was ordered to go back on to the ship from the coast guard to take control of the rescue efforts and i he apparently failed to do that.

he certainly has a lot of explaining to do, to say the least. >> matthew, thank you very much. we appreciate that. want to bring in chad myers. we found out that this isn't the first time that this ship has moved that close to that island. why did this happen before? >> there's a company called lloyd's list and they were tracking ships all along there. they allowed us to use their data on an august trip. let me show you what the video looks like from this trip because, believe it or not, someone now has sent this in. you can actually see what this ship looked like, right there from land. this is from the island. that's how close the ship is without a long lens zoom. about two and a half football fields from shore. blowing the horns. they just left port. they are not even to their first port yet. they just left and so here we go. let me show you what lloyd's

list showed about this trip and how close this ship was before. we don't know the captain at this point in time. this is where the ship ultimately landed. right in here. that's why this red line is turned. this is the voyage, january 13th. the red line. the blue line is the voyage on august 13th, 2011. look how close it came to where it is resting right now. only 230 meters away from shore. the problem is, it was a little bit farther away. it did not hit a rock on this trip. let me show you exactly why. we go here. this is the island. this is a google map. i plotted those same plots on google map. the blue line is the august 2011 trip. the january 13th, 2011 trip is right here. this rock jetty -- this is the problem. this is the shoal that the ship hit. that's the problem. we zoom right in and if you get data by data by data, you can

even see one of these rocks that he hit. the red line, he was closer than that as he traveled on up, hit it right there with the back of the ship on the port side and it was just a mess. so how do you do this? this is another company that i just talked to. marine traffic can tell you where any ship is almost in the world. i can tell you right now that the carnival fascination is docked in key west, florida. you can do this, too. marinetraffic.com. here's where this ship -- this is where the costa ship ultimately is resting. there's a line here. this is the satellite view from and this is the rocky shore that people were actually sitting on. people were sitting on this side of the ship and dangling themselves off and getting into rescue boats. this boom is the line keeping the oil from coming on shore because there's still an awful lot of fuel on board this ship and if that fuel begins to leak,

this could be a marine disaster like they haven't seen here in this part of the sea in a very long time. >> chad, just looking at that picture, that new picture, it gives you a sense of a scale there. how big is that ship? >> about 1,000 feet long. it's about how long most of them are. to be honest, i am going on a carnival cruise ship in like six weeks. >> really? >> yeah. >> are you nervous? >> no, i'm not nervous at all. i'm taking my 7-year-old son. i'm not nervous about this at all. so many ships travel so many places. and they almost all go well. 1,000 feet from here to here, only 100 feet from here to shore. once the ship started to list, they couldn't get anybody off. the floor is no longer flat and you need to crawl up to the high side of the ship to get up to the high side of the ship. >> have you heard from carnival cruises? have they sent you an e-mail or a phone call and saying it's

going to be okay? >> actually, no. 11:00 yesterday morning i got an e-mail that said if you'd like to upgrade from your ocean view room i'm a cheap skate. i am not scared. i'm still going on the cruise. i really don't think this is a big thing for the shipping industry, the cruising industry but it's a big story and people get scared by the water. my mom and dad would never get on a cruise ship, absolutely not, after this. >> i haven't had the best cruise experience myself. i'll leave that to you, chad. you can report via e-mail, whatever you want to do, text us, tweet us, whatever you want to do. >> you're welcome. just how much taxes does mitt romney pay in taxes? how does romney's tax rate stack up against what the average american pays? we're actually crunching those numbers.

mitt romney is rallying the supporters in south carolina today. the state's primary is just dlee days away. romney is ref sifting calls from opponents to release his tax returns right away. he said that he pays an income tax of about 15%. newt gingrich says his tax rate is 31%. he hopes to release his tax returns sometime tomorrow. i want to bring in jim acosta live from mitt romney's stop in spartanburg. how is this playing out? there's a lot of criticism.

>> reporter: that's right. you also heard him say that he wants to call this 15% flat tax in his campaign platform the mitt romney flat tax. newt gingrich is having a lot of fun with this. i want to point out over my left shoulder, mitt romney is just wrapping up this event here in south carolina, about to get on his campaign bus and off to the same event. we got a sense there that they are starting to see newt gingrich in their rear-view mirror a little more than they have a few days ago. there is a sign. there is a growing sense inside the romney campaign, at least from of surface of things that they are starting to see mitt romney as a threat in the south carolina primary. for example, two romney surrogates held a conference call going off on newt gingrich's time as speaker of the house. and listen to what mitt romney

had to say talking about newt gingrich's claim that he created jobs while in congress. here's what romney had to say. >> the speaker at the debate was talking about how he created millions of jobs when he was working with the reagan administration. well, he had been in congress for two years when ronald reagan came to office. that's like saying 400 in congress and we're all responsible for creating jobs. government doesn't create jobs. it's the private sector that creates jobs. congressman talking responsibility or taking responsibility for creating jobs is like al gore taking credit for the internet. >> reporter: so there you go. those are fighting words down in south carolina when you compare one of your rivals al gore talking about creating the internet. we'll probably hear more about this as the day goes forward, suzanne. and easygoing into the debate on

cnn after going after newt gingrich after an aggressive way in the past. it's a sign that inside the campaign they are starting to see closing perhaps between these two candidates, suzanne. >> and, jim, talk a little bit about the comment that romney made yesterday about how little money he earned in speaking fees. there are some folks raising their eyebrows on that one because it was quite a bit of money and they are saying, does he really realize what this sounds like? >> reporter: that's right. between february 2010 and february 2011, mitt romney made somewhere in the neighborhood of $375,000 in speaker fees. that's looking at his financial disclosure forms. in talking about that, tax rate that he pays yesterday when he mentioned that at that media avail, he said, well, i also make some speaking fees but not very much. he characterized it as not very much. democratic groups latched on to that almost immediately, started

putting out youtube videos, isolating that clip to say that mitt romney is out of touch. you know, while speaker gingrich and rick santorum are going after mitt romney on all sorts of different issues, they are not going after that. while newt gingrich has made money in speaking fees as well. this is something that the obama re-election campaign are storing all of this material, as you know, for the general election campaign and the romney people know that at this point. i would have to think that they know that the comments made yesterday were perhaps a little off message, suzanne. >> okay. jim, thank you. how does romney's tax rate stack up against what your family is paying to the irs every year? felicia taylor is joining us from new york to breakdown these numbers. there are a lot of people upset about this because they say some millionaires pay less than the average working person. warren buffett himself says that

his secretary pays more in taxes than he does. what do we think about someone -- how does this even work? an investor like mitt romney or warren buffett pays compared to someone else who has to get out of bed and make a living every day? >> suzanne, what we're talking about is percentage terms and the irs has six different tax rates that go from 10% to 35%. so, for example, if you make less than $35,000, you may up to 15%. but the average american worker makes about $50,000 a year and they are in the 25% tax bracket. the highest rate, 35%, is for those people who makeover $388,000. now, these very rates make for a lot of angry taxpayers. that's why occupy protesters went out and made tax policy clearly a big issue in the presidential race. in dollar terms, it's not necessarily that the mail nars

pay less, it's the percentage and how it's actually calculated. >> so, felicia, if the top tier is 35%, how do millionaires like romney and buffett pay so much less? >> yeah. okay. so this is where it kind of gets complicated and you have to get the fine-tuning of all of this. and critics say that the tax code favors the wealthy because people like romney and buffett don't get their money from a base salary like you and i do. it comes from their investments. for example, capital gains and dividends are taxed at a much lower rate. it's usually about 15%. so if you've got capital gains on investments, you're paying a lot less than, for instance, you and i might pay in terms of our salary. also, they pay less in social security payroll taxes. we only pay on the first $100,000 on wages. so for most americans, a portion earned goes to pay for payroll

taxes. that's not true for people making over $100,000. taxes on cal tal gains and dividends are set to rise unless congress extends that and that will defend on who is actually the president and we won't know that until november. so it's the way you calculate all of this. >> sure. it's why everybody is paying so much attention to the campaign now to see if any of this changes. >> indeed. we have breaking news here i want to bring to you. this is over the controversial keystone pipeline project. dan lothian is at the white house to expect what we're going to hear from the white house on the announcement of this and the significance of this. >> reporter: the obama administration is likely to announce it is opposition to that controversial pipeline later today. as you know, the keystone pipeline was part of the payroll tax cut extension deal last year

and has until the 21st of next month to make a final decision but there have been concerns here at the white house that there needed to be more review because of environmental, eke logical concerns and that's the reason why they needed more time to fully review it. republicans, on the other hand, have been pressuring the white house saying, here's a chance for many jobs, tens and thousands of jobs to be created with this pipeline that runs from canada across the border into the united states. in fact, we just got a statement from brendan buck, the spokesman for speaker boehner's office. reacting to the reports out there that the administration will be making that announcement later today. brendan buck saying, quote, president obama is about to destroy tens of thousands of american jobs and sell american energy security to the chinese. the president won't stand up to his political base even to kree american jobs. this is not the end of this fight. and i can tell you, suzanne, that already up on capitol hill,

republicans have been looking for al tuternatives if they voto on this to make sure that the pipeline gets done. >> there was a possibility that the white house would delay weighing in on this until 2013. why do you suppose this is happening now? >> reporter: that's right. originally the white house has pushed for this to happen after the 2012 elections but, of course, the reason it was moved up was because this was all part of that deal that was reached at the end of last year, the payroll tax cut extension and the deadline set on the 21st of next month. as for the timing, why the administration would be doing that today, we don't know exactly but certainly we'll find out. >> dan lothian with breaking news at the white house, thank you, dan. so what happens now to the coast of concordia after the search is complete? salvage, scrap, or sink it?

studying the wreckage of the capsized cruise liner off the coast of italy, they have to decide whether they will salvage this thing, save it, or shrink it. >> reporter: it lies there as a stark symbol of strategy. getting that image removed from the consciousness of victims and nearby residents means getting it physically removed. that job will start at a place like this. >> this is a drill for the hard top. it's got a magnet on the bottom, puts it on the hull.

>> used for siphoning fuel from disabled ships. >> how big of a challenge would this be for your guys? >> it would be as big of a challenge that we have ever faced. >> reporter: director of planning at resolve, they have been salvaging and sinking ships for decades. they've refloated a cruise ship so it could operate again, sunk an aircraft carrier to turn it into a reef. as we patrol the harbor, his colleagues show us the kinds of tarv tankers and cruise lines that they work on. >> the best option for everybody would be to get it off in one piece so it's a refloat. >> reporter: that he says would first mean pumping fuel and water out of the vessel and then

a process called par buckling, attaching massive tensions to the ship and pulling it upright and then huge tugs could haul it away to be repaired but salvage teams first have to assess whether it can be repaired. the experts say it could take several days to find out where everything is, where the dangers are and then maybe determine what they can do and might equate it's walking around someone else's living room in the dark. these experts say if the cost of salvage plus the cost of repair is more than the insured value of the ship, another option is cutting the vessel up into pieces. >> jane cutting is where you wrap large chain around the hull and put all of that tension on it and the chain literally tears the metal apart and then in certain places you'll have to use explosives. >> reporter: they could remove the concordia and sink it to turn it into a reef but that wouldn't make any money for the cruise line. repairing it for reuse and

cutting up metals to recoup some of the money lost. whether it's decided to salvage or scrap the coast of the concordia, they say it's not going to be a quick or cheap job. it will take months to complete and possibly cost up to hundreds and thousands of dollars a day. brian todd, cnn, port everglades, florida. a new watchdog in washington, his job is to look out for your money. but how exactly is he going to do that? do we even need a new government agency right now? i'm going to speak with richard cordray. the progresso chicken noodle you made is so good. the vegetables are cut nice and thick... you were always good at cutting your vegetables. and it's got tender white-meat chicken... the way i always made it for you. oh, one more thing honey... those pj's you like, the ones with the feet, i bought you five new pairs. love you. did you see the hockey game last night? [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup.

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it's called the consumer finance protection bureau. it sounds formal, right? but if you have a credit card, a mortgage a. loan, you might want to pay attention to this. this is established by the obama administration as a watchdog meant to protect all of us, consumers. to making rules about basic financial decisions, like taking out a mortgage. and basically it puts an end to unfair lending practices by big banks. president obama came under fire for pointing a new director to this government agency without waiting for the okay from congress.

that job went to richard cordray. he's joining us from washington. you've outlined three main goals for yourself. you say, know before you owe. policing financial firms, and cracking down on lawbreakers. which one is the one most important to address first? >> well, i think they all are, suzanne. people need to know what choices they are making so they can make informed choices. consumers need that in the marketplace. and we have to have enforcement of the law. people need to understand that they need to play by the rules, whether they are big or small. >> what's the first thing you're going to do? >> the first thing that we did upon becoming director was to launch our super vision program for nonbanks, which gives us the ability to go into payday lenders and the like and actually see what they are doing, examine, find problems, and get those problems

corrected. that's very important and it really has not been done at the federal level before. >> and as a consumer, what we would see? what would we experience? would we see anything right away from your agency? >> i think people have understood for having an agency o on people's side, protect them in the consumer marketplace. i think people are starting to see some difference immediately as firms think more carefully about what they are doing, how they are treating their customers and over time i think they will see a lot of improvement if we do our job well. >> can you be a little more specific? how so? >> for example, take the mortgage market which was badly broken leading up to the financial crisis. people got into mortgages where they didn't understand the terms. the terms were buried in fine print and said to be one thing and turned out to be another, interest rates that jumped up to all kinds of sustainable levels.

it eventually got to a point where it broke our entire financial system and led to the biggest economic crisis of our lifetimes. so making sure not only for the individuals involved but good for honest businesses and for the economy as a whole. >> speak to the critics, the republicans that say it's not necessary to have another big government agency, that there are a lot of agencies out there to protect consumers. why this this important? >> well, i think we just saw that we had an economic melt down and a deep recession that we're digging out of. millions of people lost their jobs and homes. in part, that was because the financial markets for consumers were not policed even-handedly or very effectively. you cannot regulate a part of a market and leave it unregulated. the bad practices drive out the good and it was a signal lesson for this country and led to

congress passing this new law and creating this new bureau. >> very quickly, republicans are very angry over your appointment. they say it was not done in a way that got the okay from congress. are you concerned at all that your appointment is going to be challenged legally? >> i am not. we're serving the very same people that all of the congressmen and senators here from every day, people here concerned about possibly losing their homes, people who are drowning in debt. the work that we do on their behalf and people can contact us with their consumer complaints with mortgages and credit cards right now on their website at consumerfinance.gov. the work we do, the congressmen and senators will be able to hear that as well. >> thank you for your time. it's a big task ahead. appreciate your time. thank you. >> my pleasure. imagine you've got a term paper that you've got to right and suddenly wikepedia gone. it sounds like it's not

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it seemsed like a war to control the web and now fighting back, new legislation that could change cyberspace. >> reporter: thousands of people this very minute are downloading

pirated videos from overseas websites, movies still in the theaters like "war horse" can be viewed on a computer screen for free. with websites like thepiratebay.org operating in europe, the u.s. has no authority to shut them down. that has prompted capital legislation called s.o.p.a. and p.i.p.a., protect intellectual act in the senate. the bills, as now written, would require that internet companies in the u.s. block. time-warner is supporting the bill. >> illegal conduct is not free speech. illegal conduct is what it is. it's stealing. and that's what is at the heart of this bill. >> reporter: a huge backer of the bill is chris dodd. the bills would give washington

unprecedented authority in regulating content. >> think of it as a black list. this is something that we haven't seen before in the history of the internet. what would happen is that the oh copyrig co co copy right holders would come up with a list. >> google would be banned from displaying the sites and payment processors like pay pal could do no business with them. collectively the silicon valley has said no-go. they don't feel they should be the internet police and hurling words like censorship at the administration. david runs a successful internet company which gives its companies tools to block websites in their homes or businesses. >> we've never wanted to be the editorial directors and we certainly don't think that the

president should be in that position either. >> dan is live. how should this problem be fixed? >> well, it's a very tough question and you've got a lot of different answers but the bottom line comes down to this. they throw it back at hollywood. if you don't want people to steal your content, figure out a way to get people to pay for it. they look at what ha ped at the music industry? 1999, 2000, when everybody you knew was downloading music for free using napster. and then what happened? apple came in and came out with itunes and now itunes is the single largest revenue generator for the music label. they say, specific out a way for people to pay for the content. >> thanks, dan. looks like we've got gremlins of our own in the broadcast. appreciate it. today's "talk back," should

mitt romney tout his wealth? lisa says, yes, he should. i respect and admire someone with drive and ambition. mitt obtained his status through hard work. more of your responses up ahead. an accident doesn't have to slow you down... with better car replacement, available only from liberty mutual insurance, if your car is totaled, we give you the money to buy a car that's one model-year newer... with 15,000 fewer miles on it. there's no other auto insurance product like it. better car replacement, available only from liberty mutual. it's a better policy that gets you a better car. call...

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sounding off on our "talk back" question, should mitt romney tout his wealth as a

political aspect? carol costello has your response. >> why not own it, right? in a country that has so many people trying to become rich and when you do get rich you'reville lee fied. from julie, no. so few americans actually achieve the american dream and in this economy the last thing i want to do is struggle to pay for gas. and i'd be concerned if my president didn't have personal wealth. and this from tom, if he were to tout his wealth and how to promise you to become wealthy, too he would sound like a prosperity preacher. i don't trust prosperity gospel preachers. please keep the conversation going. facebook.com/carolcnn and thanks, as always, for your comments. >> that image doesn't come to my mind but it would be very

interesting to see if it ever plays well because all the candidates are millionaires, if not multimillionaires. and whoever goes up against obama, he's a millionaire, too. >> and you wonder about that because voters like authenticity. why not just own what you have. say, yeah, i'm a rich guy. take it or leave it. we'll see how that goes. >> thank you, carol. >> all right. they were flying a fighter jet over libya, then this happens. >> driving a car down the road, you have a patch of ice and your car starts spinning. that's what our aircraft was doing. >> that spin ends up in a crash. find out what happens next in a cnn exclusive report. brad, where we going?

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fosh for the first time ever two airmen are talking about when their plane crashed over libya. barbara starr has the exclusive. >> reporter: the u.s. war over the skies of libya was just two days old when f-15 pilot major kenneth harney and tyler start got their mission. conduct air strikes over moammar's forces. harney in the front seat and stark in the back. >> it was the first time to potentially drop come bats. >> reporter: after bombing their targets near ben benghazi they return home but their aircraft

spins out of control. they are headed for a crash. for the first time ever they tell what happened in what would be the most tense hours for the u.s. military in its aid of the nato mission. >> like you are driving your car down the road and your car starts spinning, that's what our aircraft was doing. >> from there it was, i can't believe this is happening. surreal. we are spinning, this is not good. very not good. >> i call mayday, mayday, mayday. >> counting down the altitudes. >> reporter: they bail out and hope they don't land in the middle of gadhafi forces. >> i was scared. there was no doubt in my mind that i was terrified. >> reporter: they have landed in separate locations. on the ground, harnen spent the next three hours on the run, trying to hide and radio his position to u.s. planes overhead. the marines fly in a rescue team, harney wants no miss sfaks. >> as i put my hands up in the air, hoping they don't come at

me hostile. at that point i don't care if they put me in cuffs, i don't care if they throw a bag over my head. i just want to be on that helicopter. >> reporter: stark winds up in a field. suddenly, two vehicles approach, someone calls out. >> we will help you. >> i hear the voice, america, come out, we are here to help. >> reporter: lights are shining at his hiding position. >> i get up and walk to the voice and the light. once i get there, my impression is, okay, you have to assume that they are the bad guys. and so i approach them thinking, okay, i'm caught. >> reporter: he's drive tone a nearby building, still very much on his guard. >> there's a half circle of locals and i'm thinking, this is where the beatings are going to start or this is where i'm going to get a lot of help. fortunately, i walked in the room and got a round of applause. >> reporter: with all the stress, stark can't remember the phone number in he