call for rescue. so he calls his father from libya. >> who's number do you know off the top of your head? i called him up. i said i need you to make a call for me. >> reporter: stark was sheltered that night by the friendly libyans until an italian boat could come and pick him up and bring him to safety. what went wrong? investigators found one of the flight maneuvers threw the plane off balance for technical reasons that the crew could not have anticipated. barbara starr, cnn, the pentagon. cnn "newsroom" continues right now with randi kaye. >> hi, suzanne. i'm randi kaye. it's 1:00. we have a very busy hour ahead. divers are planning to blast more holes in that capsized italian cruise ship in the hopes of finding some two dozen people still unaccounted for. this is a live picture of the ship. but time and rough seas aren't on their sides.

five days after the coast of concordia ran aground, search teams have repeatedly had to pull back as the wreckage moved and shifted. but the captain is now out of jail and is facing an array of charges of manslaughter and abandoning ship. the first congressional vote of 2012 is worth $1.2 trillion but doesn't amount to anything. as part of last summer's ex cruise ating debt ceiling drama, the house gets to impose another which the senate will ignore. and as per the earlier agreement, the deal also called for more than two trillion in spending cuts over a decade. we could be hearing from the white house about their decision in the keystone pipeline despite pressure by the republicans according to a democratic source. the obama administration is

expected to reject fast tracking the controversial pipeline project. it would run from northern alberta in canada to texas' gulf coast. some say the time line would create thousands of jobs but the obama administration is refusing to rush the project pointing to environmental reviews still under way. newt gingrich says we may be three days away from deciding this year's gop presidential nomination. he says if south carolina gives him a victory in saturday's primary, he'll be the party's nominee. if mitt romney wins, gingrich says the republican race is over. for what it's worth, the gop running mate says the race shouldn't be over yet. >> 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. >> palin stopped short of endorsing gingrich outright. on a side note, gingrich said he paid 31% of his taxes last year in contrast to romney who paid

closer to 15%. we'll talk about that in just a few moments from now. it's a dark day for the internet, parts of it any way. as you may have noticed, wikepedia and other hugely popular websites have self-imposed 24-hour blackouts. content providers say virtual pirates are costing them actually billions but the silicon valley says that it would kill the web as we know it. >> in the worst versionses of the bill, wikepedia would be defined as a search engine and we would not be able to link to something like the description of what pira bay is. >> full disclose sers, time-warner, supports the anti--piracy legislation. in hollywood, a bizarre discovery. two women found a human head

while hiking under the hollywood sign. the head belongs to a man, possibly in his 40s. they are searching the area for the body. it is snowing heavily in seattle. this is the downtown area where you can't see much as you can kind of see there, except a big white haze. at least four to eight inches of snow, most schools closed and officials are telling people to stay home. the city isn't used to much snowfall and if it tops seven inches, it could rank among the ten top storms since the early 1940s. president obama is going to disney world. he will be there to talk tourism and travel. it's part of his "we can't wait" agenda. he will talk about tourists from china, india, and brazil. if you're planning to go on thursday as well, be prepared for long security lines. still ahead, he makes a

whole lot more money than most americans but does he pay a lower tax percent sage than you? >> what's the effective tax rate that i've been paying? it's probably closer to the 15% rate than anything. >> does the tax rate revelation show that he's out of touch with americans or could it actually help with his campaign? first, a nurse goes above and bond for a patient she barely knows. clay's kidneys failed and his nurse decided to give him one of hers. making the decision was easy because she felt connected to him immediately. >> my children came to meet him and they fondly refer to clay and his family as our kidney-in-laws. so it -- just an immediate bond. >> now he's planning a summer wedding with his college sweetheart and plans to save a special dance for allison. forgiving your patient a gift of

life, you're today's rock star.

in america your tax bill depends on how much you earn and how you earn it and how much you can write off and how many kids you have and an accountant you have but most people still expect rich people to pay more than ordinary people and that explains the backlash to this statement yesterday from gop presidential front-runner mitt romney. >> what's the effective tax rate? probably closer to 15 years because in the last ten years my income comes overwhelmingly from

investments made in the past rather than ordinary income or rather than earned annual income. i get a little bit of income from my book but i gave that all away and then i get speaker fees from time to time but not very much. >> okay. first of all, when romney says not very much, this is what he means, $374,327.62. that's how much he says he earned giving speeches in 2010 and early 2011. but now back to taxes. newt gingrich says everybody should pay what he calls romney ds rate and points out that his tax plan would let us. he also says that he personally paid a 31% tax rate last year. take that, mitt. my next guest says is there are many things to criticize but the tax bill is not one of them. low taxes and economic freedom, an gr andrew, nice to see you.

venture capitalist as romney was paying a lower tax rate than middle class plumbers? >> here's the shocker. romney is not doing anything illegal. if we work hard, save, and invest, we'll get the capital gains tax rate that romney pays, which is 15%. all of us can do it, all of us should aspire to do it and because the gains tax rate is lower than for a lot of americans, it's a good incentive to invest and save. it's a great thing that we have a low tax rate and we should lower it even further. >> let me play you a clip from a very rich guy who has an opposing view. listen to this. >> i think we should raise taxes on the very rich and i think maybe we should cut taxes for the middle class. >> cut them more than the bush tax cuts? >> it could very well be. i believe that in terms of -- we're taking in about 15 and a

fraction person of gdp in the united states. that's not enough. we're going to have to get more money from somebody. the question is, do we get more money from the person that's going to serve me money or should we get it from me? >> that was warren buffett speaking with poppy harlow. doesn't he have a point? >> no, i don't think so. first of all, he's not talking about the economic effects of higher tax rates that will hurt the economy, especially when we're in a recession. second, it's not going to hurt warren buffett a bit because he's already made his wealth. what about a lot of people trying to build their wealth that could get hit by the taxes or have the incentive not to earn a lot of money because they would get hit by tax rates. third, let's just face it, it's just not bad politics. it's -- raising taxes is not a good idea. people don't want higher taxes. it may play well to do a class warfare idea but overall it's just a bad idea. >> so you like mitt's tax plan

for himself but generally speaking your group isn't really a fan of his? why is that? >> well, romney's tax plan is not that good. he may be the front-runner but out of all of the candidates tax plans, he gets last place because it's very uninspiring. all he wants to do is extend the d tax cuts. we can do a lot better than that. we can get rid of a lot of loopholes that both republicans and democrats want to get rid of and lower rates down to 25, 20%, get rid of the capital gains rates so we can create wealth and build factories and create more r and d and create a lot more jobs and he's not doing that. he's got a lot of ways to go before he can get the support of a lot of pro-growth conservatives. >> whose plan do you like and has club for growth endorsed anyone? >> we have not endorsed anybody. the club for growth is taking an educational role when it comes

to the presidential race. we've got white papers that we've written on all of the candidates where we examine all of the economic issues, taxes, spending, regulation, free trade, your viewers can see it at clubforgrowth.org. the best tax plan, it depends. rick perry has a fantastic plan where he wants to lower rates down to 20, 15% and get rid of the capital gains tax rate. that's an excellent plan and i wish more people knew about it and would respond accordingly. >> andrew roth, thank you very much for your time. appreciate it. >> thanks for having me. bad weather in italy is spelling bad news for the rescue efforts happening now live. these pictures are happening right now. the hope to find any survivors is quickly fading as search efforts are suspended. plus, the captain accused of causing that? well, he's out of jail and back at home. we'll tell you why coming up.

there is a sfuning new twist to the italian cruise ship disaster. the coast of concordia took a similar trip to the giglio island. the ship passed within 250 yards of the coast. that is even closer than where the ship hit rocks and capsized. in another controversial development, a judge has released the captain from jail and placed him under house arrest. that triggered outrage for the prosecutors who may appeal that

decision. today, more live pictures here, bad weather forced rescuers to suspend operations as hopes faded of finding any more survivors on board. matthew chance joins us near naples, where the captain lives. >> reporter: the judge said that the captain does not represent a flight risk, that he was unlikely to obviously tamper with any evidence and would not be able to repeat the offense. and so she assessed that the best course of action was to put him under house arrest. that's caused outrage across italy and many other places as well because of the seriousness of the charges which may be leveled against him. particularly in light of those shocking conversations that were recorded between the captain and the italian coast guard as the

ka as it str ka as it stroe fee unfolded when he abandoned his ship when there were passengers on board. there was a moment in the exchange when the coast guard ordered the captain to get back on the ship and to take control of the rescue efforts that which he did not do, apparently. and it's because of that and because so many people have lost their lives that there's been outrage and the prosecutors are saying that they may appeal this judge's decision. he could still be put behind bars. >> i'm curious about what the judge had to say to the captain. there were pretty harsh words there. >> reporter: yes, there were. there was simply harsh words from the judge. she spoke of how grave errors were committed and the

investigation hasn't got under way in earnest yet and will take weeks if not months to conclude that we'll really know what really caused this and to what extent the captain is culpable of this. but clearly those conversations that are recorded between him and the coast guard are very damaging for his position. so it will be interesting to hear what his defense will be. >> and we know that search operations have been hampered and do we have any idea when they may resume, matthew? >> well i think it will be dependent on the weather conditions. certainly it seems that the search for anyone living on board the ship has come to an end. it's turned much more from a rescue effort into a recovery and salvage effort now. so the big question being asked now in terms of what can be done

with the ship is how they are going to get it off these rocks that it's impaled on. remember, there are tens and thousands of gallen ons of heav diesel on board that ship and if the fuel leaks, that could pose a very severe environmental hazard. >> is there concern that the ship could sink? >> i think there is. there have been obviously salvage he can perts th salvage experts appears to be perched between two rockbeds and it's sort of a bridge between two rocks and water is flowing under need it and so what salvage experts say is that it

wouldn't take much in terms of a current or high winds or a change in weather conditions in some other way for that ship to be knocked off into waters which are as deep as 100 meters. so it's possible that if the ship continues to move in the way it has been, it could sink entirely under the water and so salvage efforts are being stepped up and there's a sense of urgency to try to get this vessel refloated and taken out of the area before there is that environmental impact. >> matthew chance reporting from naples, italy, thank you. another maritime tragedy. dozens of and dozens of dolphins are stranding themselves alive. why it's happening in cape cod and why the situation is so dire. i'll talk to the man leading the rescue efforts there. you do not want to miss this interview.

a troubling mystery along the coast of cape cod. dozens of dolphins have stranded themselves in unusually long numbers. before we go any further, i have to warn you, this is disturbing. experts were able to save and release them. now, if you're familiar with cape cod, you know that stranded dolphins this time of the year aren't -- certainly isn't unusual. in fact, cape cod unfortunately is known as one of the dolphin stranding capitals of the world. but what is happening is much worse than previous years. rescuers are working to rescue

dolphins. joining us is dr. robertson. thank you for your efforts on this. we know that this began on thursday. how many stranded dolphins are we talking about? can you update us on the numbers? >> well, as of yesterday we had around 60 dolphins but people have been out to rather more remote locations and i believe the total number now is 75 of which we've released 19 successfully to the wild. >> and how is it different this year? are there just so many more dolphins doing this? >> well, the first thing is, this event has been over a very large stretch of coastline, some 25 miles of coastline. so on saturday when we went out and first heard of a dolphin stranded we then heard of dolphins stranded up and down the coast until there was 25

miles of coastline until we recovered dolphins alive. it's a very widespread event. the other is the number of dolphins in so few days. just since thursday, between thursday and monday, we had 60 dolphins, including some 25 actually seen alive. of those 19, we've managed to return to the wild. >> dolphin stranding is not unique. it's a routine phenomena that happens from january to april or so. can you explain why they do this? >> nobody really knows exactly why dolphins strand, but it's obviously got something to do with the geography of cape cod. it's like a giant arm stretched out into the atlantic ocean and it forms a trap. we know that dolphins are present in the bay, they are feeding in the bay. that's normal for them. but they seem to get into shallow water, into these big areas of sand flats and mud flaps and creeks and literally get lost.

also, they are very social. so when one animal is in trouble, the other animals stay with them. they all stay together. so when one gets in trouble, they get a lot more following or staying in and end up stranded. what was 20 feet of water a few hours ago suddenly becomes dry land. >> as we're talking at you, looking at these incredible pictures of teams trying to work with these dolphins and test them and save them, i understand there is a rescue team on call 24/7. you can see them wrapped in blank kets. can you give us an idea of what happens once you find them, how you go about saving them? >> okay. the volunteers on call and ask them to go down and and let us know the status and is it good or poor condition and that volunteer will stay with the dolphin and observe is and give

it immediate first aid until we arrive and the conditions we had over the weekend, subsurface temperature, they chill. sometimes they over heat when they are out of the water and they also need to be kept upright. this keeps them less distressed. when we get there, we have vehicles and basically we will -- sorry. >> no, finish what you were saying. >> basically we pick the animal up in a soft stretcher and take it into one of our vehicles where we can do an accurate health assessment. the important thing is when we are releasing the dolphins to only release those that are healthy and strong enough to be able to survive back in the wild. >> yep. >> and we do a health assessment and give some treatments. >> i do want to point out -- >> the last thing we do is we move them. >> i just wanted to point out -- i want to remind our viewers that i know we're looking at

some pictures and video and there is blood involved here but these were dolphins that survived and have been rescued. so continue what you were saying. >> yeah. they do get superficial cuts and bruises. often they are there on mud which has got shell fish in it and stone and it it causes superficial abrasion. we do get a little bit of blood but this is really nothing to worry about. the main thing is, if you push the dolphins back where they came from, they still think that they are in that trap. they don't know their way out of that. we transport them across cape cod to a beach which is facing out into the atlantic ocean where they've got direct access to deep water and that really is the key to the success of our operation. if we can get them back to deep water where they know they are safe and they can directly access water where they are not going to become restranded, then we have trand success in releasing the animals. >> and what are the odds of these animals having been

through, that they will be okay and they will survive this? >> well, firstly, we do very careful health assess mets and treatments and we do monitor everything we release. everything bears some kind of a tag, even if it's just a small plastic tag so we can identify if the dolphin washes up dead after release. and also a number we do satellite tag and in the recent years we have been satellite tagging more animals and we've been very pleased with the results that we have seen. we've actually managed to prove and show that these animals do swim back out into deep waters, that they do associate with other wild dolphins and they do survive over a period of time. >> dr. ian robinson, that's fascinating. i would love to talk more with you about this and i do hope that you can do more good for the dolphins that you've already saved. thank you so much. newt gingrich is making a bold prediction. have you heard this? if i carry the state on

saturday, i will be the republican nominee. >> he's also predicting something else. if mitt romney wins south carolina, then he will be the nominee. is he right? could we be in for a major game changer come saturday? that's next in fair game. first, a question for political junkies watching today. we know that speaker gingrich once served as speaker of the house. how long did newt gingrich serve in congress? tweet me the right answer @randikayecnn. i'll give the answer right after the break. weight. thanks. you noticed. these clothes are too big, so i'm donating them. how'd you do it? eating right -- whole grain. [ female announcer ] people who choose more whole grain tend to weigh less than those who don't. multi-grain cheerios -- 5 whole grains, 110 calories.

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before the break i asked you how long newt gingrich served in congress. the answer? 20 years. he represented georgia's sixth district from 1989 to 1999. brandon from manhattan was the first to tweet the right answer. very nicely done. night gingrich is framing the south carolina primary as a do or die. if he wins, he says he'll be the nominee. if he loeses, the says the path

is clear all the way. let's talk to maria card don't na in washington and lenny mccallister in chicago for us. lenny, i'm going to talk with you on this one. >> it's a contest where a true conservative should win the race and if he can't win in south carolina, he's not going to have the money to compete in a large diverse state such as florida where he's going to be the online media, traditional media, and the money to move around the state in order to compete on the 31st. this is his do or die. i think he could win especially with the debate coming up tomorrow. i think with that and the rest of the campaign momentum, he can do it. in a big way, he better do it. >> maria, you know that gingrich is now suggesting that rick perry and rick santorum actually drop out, endorse him, bring the conservatives together as one united front so they can beat

mitt romney. here's what he said this morning. listen. >> well, i think it depends on how rapidly we can con sosolida conservatives. we're getting close to having them come together. that's my goal. >> maria, what do you think? wishful thinking or could this work? >> well, i think it's both and that's exactly the problem. the only way mitt romney is going to be stopped by the conservatives and evangelicals who absolutely hate him if they were able to consolidate under one candidate. right now, and this was a headline, south carolina evangelicals are frustrated but they are divided and as long as they divide their votes and their support among what is now the unholy trinity of gingrich, santorum, and perry, there's no way to be able to find their own

saviour and if that happens mitt romney is going to make it to the promise land of the nomination. >> let's talk about sarah palin, lenny. she gave what i guess would you call a half endorsement to newt gingrich. listen to what she said. >> if i had to vote in south carolina in order to keep this thing going, it vote for newt and i would want this to continue more debates, more vetting of candidates. >> lenny, does sarah palin help or hurt newt gingrich? >> well, in this regard perhaps she gave newt gingrich her blessing in this regard to get back to the promise land that mitt romney is already going to. i think it can definitely help because they understand the person at the top of the polls that comes to the anything but romney candidate is going to be within striking distance to make it a race. listen, if you look at santorum, perry, and gingrich, between one of them, they are going to not

have enough money to compete in florida. whoever that second person is, should be able to coalesce and stay at the number two spot international. >> maria? >> i was going to say sarah palin still has a lot of followers and especially among the wing of the republican party that really does need to come together. so if she can move folks to go and support newt and to go out and vote for newt, there could be some coalescing. and i think if newt gingrich comes within a razor thin margin, even, behind romney, i think he lives on another day to fight on in florida. >> just a quick 20, 130ekds here. lenny, talk about romney and this whole tax mess. he says that he's in the 15% tax rate. newt gingrich has come out and said that he's at the 30% rate.

did romney blow it by not releasing his taxes by now and coming out with this information? >> if romney would have stuck to what he did in december and said, listen, i'm not the guy struggling to grow up, i'm not the guy with privilege, don't hate me with it, i'm going to move forward and help america, if he would have done that now it would have been great. instead, he acted like the rich guy that didn't want to release his tax returns because he was embarrassed by his wealth and at a time of a recession, that's the worst image to have. you can't look like the 1% when you're trying to represent 100% of america. >> 20 seconds, maria? >> he should have absolutely follow followed in his father's footsteps. lenny is right, if he doesn't do this, if he takes longer, it's -- he's going to continue to be the guy that doesn't get the middle class and doesn't care about them. >> lenny, maria, as always, that was great fun. thank you. >> thank you, randi.

tomorrow, two days before the south carolina primary. be sure to watch the southern republican presidential debate tomorrow at 7:00 p.m. eastern. george lucas wanted to make a movie so bad he paid for it himself. we're talking about the tuskogee airmen. when you have tough pain, do you want fast relief?

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the new movie "red tails" is getting a lot of buzz. the film is about 1,000 african-american pilots that overcame racism in the military to become recognized fighter pilots in world war ii. another reason people are drumming up support for the film, george lucas paid for it. he said it was hard to convince hollywood that this movie would sell. here's what he had to say on the daily show with jon stewart. >> i fi naned it myself and figured i could get the prints and ads paid for my the studio. i showed it to all of them and they said, no, we don't know how to market a movie like this.

>> incredible. so how did he pull it off? joining us from new york is director of the movie "red tails" and one of the stars of the film actor nate parker. he plays the welcome to both of you. anthony, i'd like to start with you. george lucas got a lot of push back as we saw on this film. how was he able to convince hollywood that now was the right time for an african-american action movie. >> hopefully the film will dictate that. it will allow us that all of our stories need to be told. it's a story told through the inspired tuskogee airmen and that we all need to come together. now is the right time for us to see that. >> nate, i saw some of the clips with you. this is, of course, one of the first all black films to ever be made. how do you feel of being part of what not only these men

accomplished but also part of this history? >> i feel very proud. it's patriotic to want to know the stories that came before us and being part of a black community and knowing the issues that we deal with today, whether it's the broken system, we need inspiration and those inspirations are in our past. to have the opportunity to be someone standing in these shoes and play this part and really try my best to exemplify what they stood for, it's a great honor. >> cnn had the honor of speaking with one of the original tuskogee airmen about their hopes for the future. listen to what they said. >> i hope that our young men and women of america will look at this experience and the story of these tuskogee airmen and from

it make themselves to perpetuate the legacy that these airmen have left. >> we were making history, a part of history never occurred to us and we were just doing the best we could. >> anthony, i know that you worked with these men. you introduced the crew to them. you wanted them to get to know them. what were they like? >> amazing. i always felt like -- i grew up never had the chance to meet my grandfather. so it felt very close and warm. and just to be able to sit and talk with them, to let them shed their wisdom, their experiences, it was beautiful to watch them to become 19, 21 years old again. you know, as we did a lot of the training for the pilots and just to have them walk around the set and the attention to detail that was done was really amazing and it was rewarding for me to just look back and see the thumbs up

and the smiles in their face. they would get really animated when they would fly in planes and how they told the pilots to fly the planes and to be with them when they saw the film, it was just really -- for me they are the true critics of the film. just to see them light up, i was proud. >> speaking of flying planes, nate, didn't you and members of the cast see what they actually felt before filming this? >> yes. >> what was that like? >> it was incredible. we had an opportunity to experience bell rolls and nose-dives and all of the things that they felt physically. it gave us a better sense of even what they did. these men were the best and brightest. they were handling the most sophisticated machinery and weaponry of the day and they did it in an excellent fashion. to be able to get a sense of my imagination what it must have been like was something really close. >> anthony, i understand that your faith is very important to you and you did bring a new scene that wasn't originally in the film to this film where the

crew and the tuskogee airmen are praying. can you just tell me what that meant? >> it went a lot. especially at this time in our history, all they have is their faith and support with one another. and it was a very close community. so just to have a lack of that or void of that at all just felt wrong. and it's something that we all pull together in the beginning and realize before we even started production of this film that we knew we had to be on the same page and that that was going to get us through it. so to include that in the film, it still gives me chills because it kind of transports me back to that time and i break out in hives when i watch it. >> again, the movie is "red

tails" and hits theaters this friday. >> thank you. still ahead a. mystery illness sweeping through high schools. 12 teenage girls suffering from bizarre health symptoms and health experts are baffled. bats are dying from a mysterious illness and now scientists fear an extinction shun.

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time now for a look at stories making news across the country at street level. in seattle, winter has come with full force. these are live pictures from seattle, our affiliate king. possibly more force than the city has seen in many years. the metropolitan area is expected to see 4 to 8 inches of snow. that's not a lot for many places, but for a city not used to that much snow, well, it can be pretty tough. officials are telling people to stay home and out of the way of treacherous road conditions. schools are closed, some flights canceled and the city is at work de-icing bridges and overpasses and opening emergency shelters. officials say today's snowfall may go over its annual average. 12 girls in a high school in new york have a mysterious illness and parents want to know what is causing it. the girls are suffering from tics and involuntary vocal sounds.

doctors have ruled out causes of the illness, including drugs. bats are dying from a deadly fungal infection. it's killing bats in caves and mines found across north america, and could result in an extinction of the bats. they don't have what causes it, but they have a plan to combat the disease. an anti-hazing campaign was launched across the region. it's in response to a florida a&m drum major last year. they're asking colleges to report and recognize hazing activities. and they're trying to raise awareness and prevent hazing. as a wisconsin governor looks at a possible recall election, two other challengers have already jumped into the race. that after they collected a million signatures.

the current governor may stay in election until they recount the ballots. they want to reclaim their power. you thought the tv ads were bad? wait until you see the mailers going out today. we'll show them to you next. a political question for our political junkies. there is a lot of talk today about the republican candidates and their income taxes. so what about president obama? what was the first family's tax rate in 2010? do you remember? if so, tweet me the right answer at randikaye@cnn and i'll give a shoutout to the first person to reach me. [ male announcer ] it's simple physics... 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.

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before the break, i asked about the first family's income tax in 2010. the answer is 26%. in 2010 so income of about $1.7 million. congratulations to richard. he's from texas and he was the first to tweet me the right answer. nice job. let's head straight to the campaign trail in south carolina. cnn political reporter peter hanby standing by at the debate. just a little reminder there.

peter, we hear so much about the negative ads in this campaign, but now postcards are showing up in mailboxes there. what do you see? >> the tv ads get the most media attention, but some of the sharper attacks in political campaigns come in phone calls and mailers that hit all of the state. they kind of fly under the radar on the media, but our sources here have been pretty good about giving us some of these mail pieces. one the gingrich campaign sent out today harshly attacking mitt romney's abortion record when he was governor in massachusetts, highlighting some of the pro-choice positions that he took as governor, such as appointing a judge to a state court. they accuse him of taxpayer-funded abortion. this follows up on a tv ad against romney trying to soften his support against some of those voters who might care more about social positions than economic ones. we do know, though, that economic concerns with the top issue here in south carolina. let's show you another one, a

mailer that the rick perry campaign put out today, really drilling gingrich and santorum, his two main rivals for that conservative anti-romney vote in south carolina. he's hitting gingrich for his connection to freddie mac, all the money he earned for consulting for freddie mac, and also calling santorum a liberal fallout for supporting abortion. these are pretty tough mailers but they're absolutely flooding mailboxes here in south carolina, randi. >> is there any evidence that rick perry or rick santorum might actually drop out and endorse newt gingrich and bring the conservative movement against mitt romney, as gingrich is suggesting? >> as much as gingrich would like that, there is no evidence of him making phone calls. rick per are you says absolutely

not. he's excited about the debate tomorrow night. and santorum says, i beat in you new hampshire, you should drop out. there is no indication this race will take on a different shape before saturday's primary, ran di. >> just one, big, happy family. thank you for your reporting. and thank you for watching as always. i would love to hear what you think. you can continue the conversation with me on line. you can find me at randikaye@cnn.com. hi, brooke. >> hi, randi, i'll take it from here. let's go, beginning with protests. it has already drawn protests just like this, but a proposed pipeline to carry crude oil all the way from canada to the texas gulf coast is about to hit a big hurdle, that being the white house. the obama administration is expected to announce its opposition to the keystone xl pipeline as early as today.

that is according to a democratic source who has been briefed about the issue. they're very concerned about the effects on the environment, but proponents say this would create jobs, thousands of jobs. we'll keep an eye on the story as it develops through the afternoon. a search for the cruise ship passengers off the coast of italy is called off. the costa concordia has shifted slightly and rescuers are concerned about the safety of the search crews. also today, this. an italian prosecutor says he maya peel mayappeal a judge's decision to move the captain from jail to house arrest. we'll tell you what's happening in a couple minutes. also right now, a blackout is happening on line like this one here with wikipedia.

they have shut down their pages in protest, including people asking themselves, why? >> if wikipedia really believes we ought to be shutting down illegal sites offshore that are jeopardizing jobs and content, then why in the world at this very hour are they going black? >> that's the question. what's the answer? we're going to let wikipedia founder jimmy wales let you know. he's joining me live. a gruesome story out of los angeles today. a human head was found by two women just walking their dogs on the trail just below the famous hollywood sign. police say the dogs started playing with something they found in a bag. the women took a closer look and discovered it was a severed head. according to the l.a. times, police believe the head belongs to an armenian american man in his 40s. an apparent smokebomb tossed

over the fence at the white house. protesters were holding a rally at the time. president obama was not home. he and the first lady were at a restaurant a couple blocks away celebrating her 40th birthday. secretary leon panetta just announced reducing sex assault in the military. better investigations, better training and more uniform data system. last year there were more than 3,000 reports of sexual assaults in the military. >> the most important thing i think we can do here is to try to train leaders at the command level to make sure they're aware of this issue and that everyone, both enlisted and officer alone, are able to say, when they see the possibility of these situations either developing or beginning to occur, that they take steps to stop it. >> secretary panetta believes sex assault is underreported,

and the actual number of cases in the military last year is believed to be closer to 19,000. if we need another sign that folks are hurting, still, in this economy, here's an example. the average age of cars and light trucks on the road grew again last year. it's 10.8 years, to be very precise. who is benefiting from this? your local auto repair shop, that's who. take a look at these pictures. the latest snowstorm has brought about 10 inches to some areas. the snow started falling in the early morning hours and it just keeps on coming. look at that. homes, businesses. this is live -- there we go, live pictures through king, seattle washington schools as a result shut down. flights delayed across the region. check ahead of time if you're trying to get out of there or head there, i should say. more trouble for o.j.

simpson. the former movie star and football star is facing foreclosure on his south florida home. he stopped making payments back in 2010. simpson bought the house after being acquitted of killing his former wife nicole and robert goodman. it's a fight that could forever impact what you share on line and on the web. about why his site, wikipedia, and others are going black. the cruise ship comes to a sudden halt. >> one thiminute everything is clear. >> a look at the challenges crews face underwater. a little girl is brutally murdered, and we're now hearing the disturbing details of how this monster lured her in.

>> he found one of her skates. it's closer to the 15% rate. >> plus, mitt romney reveals his tax rate but not his income. now one of his biggest supporters, the gingrich front runner, gives very public advice. jay-z and beyonce's daughter hasn't even been in the world two weeks, but apparently somebody is already trying to cash in and trademark her name. but wait until you hear how.

a lot has happened with that cruise that where he courecked coast of italy. crews have stopped searching for survivors. more survivors are speaking now and sharing their stories, including this woman from kentucky. >> people were trying to jump on when they were full already and overcrowded, and the crew was having to hold people back, and people were screaming at other passengers to stay off, and the pulley system going down, and we were dropping suddenly, and it was a surreal experience sitting on that boat. >> also, this development today. see the guy in the middle of that? that's the captain of that cruise ship and a prosecutor wants to know why he's under house arrest and why he's not in jail instead. prosecutors say he is to blame for the death of at least 11 people. at last count more than 20 are

still missing. matthew chents is now in naples, italy. matthew, why is that, the judge's reasoning to let the captain go home for house arrest instead of sitting in jail, and what can prosecutors do about that? >> reporter: well, the judge said that the reason he's in house arrest is there is no flight risk, first of all, that it was unlikely or impossible that the captain would repeat the crime, nor was it likely he would tamper with any of the evidence if he was on house arrest. this is a figure pretty much despid despised in italy. there is outrage, and the prosecutors said they're considering appealing against it and they want him back behind bars. >> we saw him escorted into the back of this patrol car.

i'm curious if you even know what people were shouting at him. also, you went looking for the captain today at his house? did you find him? >> reporter: i don't know, first of all, what they were doing with him, and i haven't seen the actual video because i've been traveling to get here. yes, we have been here for the course of the past several hours. we found the house of the captain. it's not difficult to find. it's on one of the windy back streets in the middle of this town which is on the coast and overlooks a beautiful panoramic view of the mediterranean sea. i rang on the bell. it's got his name on, captain schittino. we understand from his neighbors that he's there with his wife, other family members as well. a local official appeared sometime during the course of the day, and when that official came out, he made a comment to

the reporters saying, this guy is a hero. he says that he's been misjudged by the media and that he actually saved the lives of more than 4,000 people. so that's the frustration of how much loyalty and how much sympathy there is here in mecca, the hometown for captain schittino. >> is there a law that makes the captain go down with the ship, makes the captain stay on board? >> well, international law says there is not any necessity for him to do that, but there is a moral code. it's passengers first, then crew, then the captain. there isn't an actual law, though, and it appears the captain may have broken it by abandoning ship. >> we've shown a lot of pictures over the past couple days of the

stricken cruise ship. this image is taken from space, and it shows just how close the wreckage of the costa concordia is to shore. you see the ship on its side, you see the land. the detail is stunning. now i want you to listen to an expert in underwater recovery as he explains what it's been like for all these naval divers to search under water near this vessel. >> we started tying lines off on the outside of the vessel. then that will be run to me into the first compartment we're going to 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 compromise my safety line that's going to take me back out. right now what we've done is that i came in straight into -- from the tie-off point outside. i'm now going to make a complete 90-degree left turn to go

further up into the wreck. to do that, i can't just let my line, my tracer, i can't allow it to make turns around pillars where it could get caught. so what we've done is we've gone directly interior, straight, tied off, and now i make a perfect -- sorry, a 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've got good visibility until they get deeper in where they lose all their light. i'm sure as the real commercial crews get in there, they'll start setting this. anybody who goes into a compartment or a companionway, they cannot see outside the ship. we put this here on purpose so you could see how fast one minute things are clear, and the

next things are soaking out. some of that is probably going to be done in 15 or 20 feet of water. so if they take their time and relax, they could easily be in there for an hour or so, and if you're on surface supply, they can be in there for two or three hours in those depths. it might be i've got to go into the bathroom section, i've got to go into the bedroom section, they might have had a sitting room section. usually you think about coming in right, working right, coming out. >> and again, this diver has suspended the search today because that ship had shifted. massive snowstorms in the united states. blankets of snow covering everything. here's a live camera. downtown seattle. it doesn't snow there, people. coming up next, we have the latest track of the storm from chad meyers, plus mississippi's former governor clem entine

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let's bring that seattle power cam back in, guys. the entire pacific northwest getting hit with this giant snowstorm, and remember, you know, seattle, portland, vancouver, these are places kind of known for the rain, not snow, and certainly not this kind of snow. chad meyers, you were talking yesterday about how they may be seeing one for the record books. is that the case in some of these cities? >> very, very close. from olympia up to tacoma. not so much for seattle right

now. only 4 inches for seatack, but we know if you go up several hundred feet, all of a sudden you have feet of snow. it isn't so much the snow, the entire area surrounding puget sound is hilly, so it's not like throwing snow on kansas, it's throwing snow on mountains, and people have to get from the seattle area where they work up to their nice little nest in the sky where they can actually see the sound, and you're going through big-time snows from winlock at 16" and olympia at 13". and certainly not stopping any time soon. the snow continues through today and tomorrow. it appears the way i'm looking at it now, there's hawaii back down here. the pineapple express because they used to grow pineapples in hawaii. they don't so much anymore, as i understand. maybe just a few. the snow had been through oregon

and california, where some spots in northern california could pick up 15 inches of rain. i'm not saying snow. 15 inches of rain. think about what that would do for mudslides and flash flooding. this is from all the way around eureka southward into northern california. there's the snow tapering off right now. winter advisories going on for a while last night. we had i-95 closed because there was too much avalanche danger and that will be the case for tonight as well. they were actually shooting avalanche howitzers at the snow, exploding the snow, allowing the avalanche to come across i-90 and taking it away with snowplows. >> i know you mentioned 4" so far, but you were talking earlier about how seattle could get or has gotten a whole year of snow in one day? >> that was maybe going to happen yesterday. if you get to seatac, because

nobody really lives at airport, and you get up into three or four miles away from seatac where the measurements are taken, there are record-breaking snow amounts for the year. like yearly totals of snow, 8, 10". that's how much the area gets an entire winter. they got it in 24 hours. >> that picture is just gorgeous, though. >> gorgeous unless you have to drive in it. >> i love this city. what a wonderful city. i love seattle. chad, thank you. we're also getting some great shots of these snowstorms again. let's scroll through a couple more. yikes for this van driver. we always want to see these storms not on the road and stuck. go to ireport.com, and your videos we lo to show them on cnn. a transition from state governor where he pardoned 200

prisoners. several of them were murderers, which caused an uproar. they are also known as trustees at the governor's mansion. >> in my town, all but one of them have been murderers because the experts say those are the people least likely to commit another crime and that they are the ones who will serve the best. i have found that to be the case. these people that are at issue here, you're talking about david g gatlin, these guys have served an average of 20 years in the penitentiary. david gatlin never had one infracti infraction. >> david gatlin was jailed for killing his wife in 1973. tom cruise, he did it in

"mission impossible." keanu reeves did it. what am i talking about? how one company is using these concrete balls to help solve the problem, and we're talking about a 125-pound emerald. i'll show it to you in two minutes. be right back. [ hermann ] there's always something

that's going to have to be done by a certain date. you always have homework, okay? i don't have homework today. it's what's right here is what is most important to me. it's beautiful. ♪ ♪

we told you that the obama administration is expected to announce its opposed to the

pipeline that's going from canada to texas. as for the administration, we now know what their line will be here. as we just heard from jay kearney, spokesperson from the white house. here he is moments ago speaking from the briefing room. >> the pipeline, concerns were raised about environmental impacts, on the air quality in nebraska. by others, the governor of nebraska, a republican, a decision was made that an alternate route be sought. and that, therefore, the process had to be delayed so that an adequate review could be undertaken following the same standards that have always been in place, that were in place in the beginning of this process for this particular pipeline and that have been in place for these kinds of projects for many years. >> so, again, jay carney

speaking at the white house on the briefing today, and we will bring that to you live. voting today is under way at capitol hill and a resolution denied president obama, the authority to raise the nation's debt ceiling, anand one of thos voting in favor is ron paul. he is taking the day off from debating to cast his vote. it was part of a deal struck last year and is expected to sail through the republican-controlled house but then die in the senate. people riding on top of commuter trains, this is in indonesia. look at this. this happens every day until now. the country suzing these balls that will be descended just above the passing trains to, they hope, used to thwart train surfers. passengers climb to the top of the carriages just to beat rush

hour crowds, or for others just the thrill of the ride. these thrill rides account for one or two deaths a month chlts a . if these work, more will be going up in the near future, they say. a 16,000-carat gemstone. my goodness. perhaps your dream ring? i don't know. here's the thing, though, as you can guess, it's 25 pounds. it's too heavy to be made into jewelry. it was mined in brazil. it's called the gift of god. it's the world's largest cut emerald valued at more than $1 million. the gem will be auctioned off in canada later this month. sopa, it is the stop on-line piracy act. it's all over the news today because thousands of web sites shut down temporarily today in protest of the legislation. but this is not just a story here about web sites, folks, it's a story about what you'll be able to get access to on line. coming up next, how the

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let's say you don't know what the capital of south dakota is, or what year a beetles song came out. i know a lot of you go to wikipedia for the answers, but today you can't do that. here's what you will see if you

go to wikipedia right now. you can see the site is blacked out in protest because of these two different bills that are in congress, the stop on-line piracy act or sopa for arka for that's in the house, and expected to go to the senate. if you google for answers today, you'll see this. this is the blackout logo. when you click on that on your occur so cursor, you are sent to a petition page of what we just talked about. here's another example for you. craigslist certainly doesn't look like this, but craigslist are putting up a slate that users have to click through just to get to their site. and one other example for you, this is reddit, totally blacked out as well. they say today we fight back. the conflict really boils down to hollywood versus silicon valley. content providers, like movie studios, want to stop piracy on

foreign web sites, foreign web sites, but many tech companies fear the laws could lead to widespread senscensorship in th united states. in the past day or two, the legislation started losing backers. sen marco rubio pulled his in the senate. also representative terry lee no longer backs sopa in the house. we have to point out to you that the parent company times warner does support these anti h-pirac acts. really, what does this mean to you, the user? i'm bringing in dan simon to explain this. give us an example. i'm going to scroll through the number one movie in america right now, this is "contraband." i don't want to go to the theatre, but i want to watch this on my computer.

if sopa goes through, becomes law, could the user potentially face charges? >> this isn't aimed at the user, brooke. first of all, let me say at the outset, i think sopa at this point is pretty much on life support. you mentioned these legislators that have pulled their support, the white house is opposed. what's happening on line is making a huge impact. so i think sopa as we know it is going to go away. but let's look at the legislation in its current form. it does not target users, it targets these overseas web sites and that's where the piracy comes into play. there is a site called the pirateplay.org. that's actually in sweden. what this bill aims to do is it aims to stop internet providers in the u.s. for actually having that site -- in other words, you would type out anti-pirate

bill.org and you would get nothing. they don't want to be told by washington what you can click on and what you can't click on. >> this is an example of the site you were just talking about out of sweden. this is the pirate bay, and these are some of the sites the legislation is actually looking to target. but here, dan simon, is where it gets tricky. if you type in google, watch "contraband" on line, and you get 27,000 responses. so under sorpa, what would happn to google for displaying all these illegal links? >> well, they would actually get a list from the u.s. government, from the justice department, a so-called black list saying these are the pirated sites that we don't want you to advertise. if you type in "contraband," in other words, these wouldn't pop up.

if they violate that law, they could face charges. but let's face it, google just want a better law on the book, and that's the bottom line, brooke. >> but is the reason they have black tape or they're protesting on the internet is because they're worried that this will ultimately become a catalyst on clamping down on widespread sharing in the nation on line. >> it all comes down to who should be in control of what you view on the internet. should the government be in control or should the end user have the option of clicking on these sites? the bottom line is nobody wants piracy. the question is how do you go about it. i've talked to a lot of silicon valley executives about this, and what they tell me is what hollywood should do is they should innovate. they look at what happened in the music industry back in 1999 and 2000. practically everyone you knew was down loading music

illegally. then along came i tunes with apple and suddenly people started playing music. and that would be cut down on piracy. whether or not that's going to happen, we don't know, but they believe this charged the problem today versus a few years ago, is that you have larger hard drives in order to store this content, so that's why you've seen an explosion of people downloading movies and tv shows from sites called the pirate. >> i had no idea you could get 20 million sites to see this movie illegally. pushing hard on the story and one guy fighting hard to squash this legislation is the owner of wikipedia, jimmy wales. i've got revigor.

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every once in a while, there is a story that impacts the life of a child that i am compelled to tell you about it on this show. this is really just a reminder to all of us that as a society, we can do better. if you're with me on this, i want you to use the phrase, kind of a hash tag on twitter that i use at the bottom of the screen. hash tag we can do better. okay. it's a 40-degree night, pretty

chilly. a homeless man crosses the street and notices two children huddled together in the bushes. he continues on to mcdonald's. on his second pass, he notices the two kids are still sitting there in the cold and still shivering. what does he do? flags down police. this is what they told our affiliate. >> i came back and they were still there. i said, are you okay? they said they were waiting for their mom. i was concerned because they might be waiting there for a long period of time. i have a son who is going to be nine, and being a parent, it's disgusting to see things like this. >> well, the mother of those kids did eventually show up with a big bag of hamburgers. she had been in that mcdonald's as well. police say she was drunk. and by the time officers had already seated her kids in the back of their warm police cruiser, here she is, the mother, farris martin.

she was arrested, charged with child endangerment and the judge placed a bail of $60,000. the kids have been placed with another family member at least for now. we wanted to hear from martin to see if she would tell us what happened, but she doesn't appear to have a lawyer, and from what we understand, she's homeless. so just like the man who discovered her kids huddled in the bushes. luckily he did the right thing. a reminder to us all, we can do better. a reminder about one of our top stories today. we are expected to hear from the republican leaders in the house. we're talking about speaker john boehner, eric canter. in 40 minutes from now we're estimating they will be speaking about the news. we are hearing from the white house today that the obama administration will reject the keystone excel pipeline project going from alberta, canada all the way down to texas in the gulf. this is a developing story. we're going to keep an eye on it for you. also, this normally, when we

tell you a story about obesity, it's typically bad news. hallelujah, today we've got some good news for you coming up. brand new information about how exercise can help fight alzheimer's. but first, take a look at this with me. quote of the day. think on this one. thinking of getting into the leg-breaking business so i can profitably sell crutches later. who said it? think about it. what's been in the news this week? be right back.

who said this? look at the tweet. thinking of getting into the leg-breaking business, so i can profitably sell crutches later. chef turned tv personality anthony bourdain. in case you haven't been following this war of words with paula deen, deen just revealed she has type 2 diabetes. bourdain failed to comment further, but in the past she has called deen the most dangerous chef in america for all her butt butter-based recipes. obesity. about 1 in 3 americans are obese. yes, that's bad, but it's not worse. it seems america's weight

problem is actually stabilizing. i was saying earlier kind of joking that finally some good news when it comes to obesity. >> aiit's a sad day when we say only 36% of americans are obese. >> but it's true. >> it's true, 36% of americans are obese. not just overweight, but obese. if you're 5'4" and you weigh 145 pounds, you're overweight. if you weigh 174 pounds, you're considered obese. if you're 5'10", over 174 pounds is overweight, and over 209 pounds is obese. we can't sustain this. 40% of us are going to have heart disease. it's unsustainable. it's going to cost more money, you'll see more deaths, you'll

see children who don't live as long as their parents live. this is a serious problem. to relate this to the paula deen story, i think that's why so many people get so angry because it's like, wow, she is sitting here teaching people how to become obese. that's how a lot of people see it, and that's why she's gotten the kind of emotional outcry that she's gotten. >> i had a great-grandmother, she see alzheimer's, and i saw this article in the paper sort of potentially linking if you're exercising, it might lessen the likelihood. >> it might. it's a little complicated, but i'm going to try to break it down. about 20% of us have a gene that makes it more likely we'll get alzheimer's. when experts looked at those folks, they found that people who exercise are less likely to have brain plaques, and brain plaques are associated with alzheimer's disease. there is some evidence that exercise can help prevent alzheimer's. when i hear this stuff i think, well, that's great, but it's yet another reason to exercise.

we ought to be exercising, we all ought to be eating well and there is not an option anymore, these are things we have to do. if you go to cnn.com/powerpatient, you can see other things to try to prevent alzheimer's. >> feed the brain, feed the soul. >> pretty much. >> romney says he will release his tax returns in april so we can all see how much he pays in taxes. he says he probably paid at a rate of 15%. presidential candidate newt gingrich has an idea for him. >> the 20th century contract of america has an optional 15% flat rate for every american. so my goal is not to -- my goal is not to raise mitt romney's taxes, it's to let everybody pay mitt romney's rate. >> coming up next, how romney's rate for the white house. how will it be influenced by all of this? be right back. [ male announcer ] this...is the network.

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i think you know this rpgs, just how much mitt romney pays in taxes has been the chatter this week on the political trail, and he's been asked to release his records. >> my income tax records have been out every year, and newt, i think you're going to let your income tax come out thursday. and mitt, we need for you to release your income tax. >> they can dodge, they can dance, they can do whatever they

want to. very simple question. is he prepared to release his taxes? >> chief local analyst gloria borger joins me from beautiful charleston, south carolina. we've heard the sound bite, gloria. the question is talking about dodging and dancing. all republicans backing mitt romney into a corner to release his tax information. >> i think they are backing him into a corner. i mean, you heard him at the debate the other night. he said sort of around april. in talking to sources involved with the campaign, it's very clear to me that there is an internal discussion going on now about whether, in fact, mitt romney can wait until april. i was told by one source that there are a couple things going on here internally. first of all, mitt romney is a little sensitive about how wealthy he is. i don't think it's something he likes to broadcast. and secondly, i think there was a feeling that when you see his tax returns, you're going to see that he's given quite substantial amounts of money to the mormon church. and the question was, how would

that play in the southern primaries, particularly with evangelicals in a state like this, south carolina, when you see that romney has given away millions of dollars to the mormon church? so i think it was something they wanted to put off. but now that you have newt gingrich out there saying, you know, i'm releasing my tax returns maybe tomorrow, i pay the 31% rate, i think romney has really no choice because, honestly, he says he's paid around a 15% rate. there really isn't anything left to hide. >> i know you're talking, though, gloria, to potential primary voters. we're talking about the republican primary race, so does the issue of releasing tax records really even resonate among these folks? >> well, i think -- you know, there's always a sense, first of all, if you don't release something, what are you hiding, okay? so there's that question. but you're right, brooke, in a republican primary, everyone wants lower tax rates. so if you discover that mitt

romney, who doesn't earn income anymore, but rather gets investment income and pays a lower rate as a result, if you say, well, he's paid 15% rate because he doesn't really work anymore, he's a wealthy man, i think in a republican primary, that's probably not going to be as big a deal as it would be in a general election. but again, i think that the question of where he gives his money, how much does he give to the mormon church, for example, could become an issue fiore vor for evangelical voters, which, by the way, he's been doing pretty well so far. >> you said in your column that when it comes to romney, experience matters. and you quote, in his bain-ish way, romney looked at his failure in 2008 deconstructed it

and decided one important thing for the debate, that he would look forward, not backward. >> i think one thing he has done pretty well and he said, i'm not going to relive and flip-flop things from 2008. if i get asked about that, i'm going to say essentially asked and answered. he's done that with mormonism. he gave a speech about that in the last campaign. he doesn't feel it necessary to do that in this one. one important thing, brooke, shelt ca is health care. he decided he wasn't going to change anything on health care, even though it contains the same m mandates has that barack obama has. you know what, it's good for massachusetts, not good for the entire country, repealed obama's health care plan. in the poll last week, who did republicans rate as the best able to handle health care in their field? mitt romney. to go figure.

he's handled that issue pretty well so far, brooke. >> republicans put their family feud on display. read it and somehow connect it to the polls story. only you, gloria. want to take you to washington to the white house. we've been reporting all day there. expected to hear oppositions to the pipeline. this is the proposed pipeline that was scheduled to be something like 1700 miles in length and would be carrying this crude shale oil from canada all wait south, cutting across the united states mid section of the country and ultimately ending up at the texas gulf coast. this has been held up all across the country, including at the white house. when should we be seeing the results? >> what a great setup, brooke. you have all the details there. we expect an announcement to come out of the state

department, not the white house, because this has been a state department issue. they're the place that's supposed to oversee this issue. we expect this afternoon -- there was some reports that it would happen around 3:00, so we're waiting to see if that does come in just a little over two minutes. the logic, when we do get this, it won't be surprising to hear them saying no because the white house has made clear for some time now that they don't believe -- let me repraihrase t. the president does not have the time in this 60-day a lotment, to approve this. this is not an acceptable time frame because, one, there is not a clear route for nebraska, but the company itself has not laid out their routes and couldn't possibly approve it. and two, they don't know the environmental impacts yet and they won't have their hand forced by politics. that is the white house logic. as you know, this is also part

of the larger fight over the payroll tax cut because it was put into the payroll tax cut bill at the end of last year before congress went on the break, so this has become a political football, and they're trying to get this sort of dealt with before the state of the union address next week so they can move on to other issues afterwards, brooke. >> we heard not too long ago from white house spokesman jay carney. it was interesting how he specifically pointed out how nebraska's governor there, who has been pretty out spoken, that this would go through a reservoir or aquifer and there is concern there in nebraska. i want to bring in another chief, chief correspondent ally velchi. the other issue is, we talked to transcanada, and he said this would create 20,000