good morning to you. welcome to "early start." i'm very ride da sambolin. >> i'm a ashleigh banfield. let's get started. the big funeral over the weekend drew a lot of attention. it drew a lot of television coverage. and one cnn television producer

was the only tv producer invited to whitney houston's funeral from any network. so we'll have not only the inside look, but also the explanation from bobby brown as to why he bailed on the ceremony. >> did you hear about the deadly avalanche near a ski resort in washington state. skiers buried in snow after falling 1500 feet. there were warnings of high avalanche danger. they were not supposed to be in that area. reports were it was an out-of-bounds area they were skiing in. we have all the details of that deadly avalanche coming up. the polls just keep coming in on his side. you might call it the santorum surprise. he's opened up an eight-point lead right across the nation in a brand new nationwide poll. does it mean what some people think it means? or is it a blip? we'll talk about it. mardi gras is getting an r rating. they are attempting to enforce a curfew for kids under 16 in the french quarter. how are they going to accomplish

that? we'll try to find that out. >> i always thought mardi gras was r rated. isn't it? >> kind of. i wonder how they'll keep those kids out though. how do you do that with the volumes of people. >> i know i wouldn't want my kids out there. a different issue being bandied about that is creating quite a stir. let's move on to our first story of the day, whitney houston's journey home ending sunday with the private burial in new jersey. she was laid to rest at the plot next to her father, it was the cemetery in west field on her death certificate. >> our cnn producer ray lynn johnson was at the funeral. i've got to tell you. we all watched it at home as a family. incredibly moving. what was it like to be there in person? >> really there are no words to

describe it but to say that for many of us it felt like three hours of church on a saturday morning. i go to a baptist church. my brother is a reverend. i know what it feels like. it felt like church. we were standing on our feet, singing hymns, clapping, the choir was so moving and inspiring. for so long i didn't realize it was a funeral because, like you said, it's a home going, a celebration of life. you want to send someone off with love and music and song and praise, and that's exactly what it was inside. there were so many moments. r. kelly would see, stevie wonder would sing. the whole entire crowd would be up on their feet as if they were at a concert. it felt more like a concert than a funeral. >> raelynn, i want to watch a moment from saturday and then i want to talk about this. >> what i know about her is she loved the lord. and if there was a grace that carried her all the way through,

it was the same grace that carried her home. ♪ who can lose with god on my side ♪ ♪ no more whitney, no more do you have to cry ♪ ♪ you will always be our ribbon in the sky ♪ >> this is what we all saw, the millions of viewers. you say you came back and then you watched it on television the way we all watched it, and you said it was very different. could you explain that? >> it was. when you see it on tv. you only get that one shot from the balcony. i was seated about 20 pews back behind the family. what you didn't get to see is you didn't get to see oprah winfrey walking down the aisle with a faceful of tears. there were people laughing, singing, consoling each other. but the best thing i personally

thought was the music and the way stevie wonder, kim burrell, alicia keys, they sound on tv, there's no way to describe the warmth and how much everyone was so happy and celebratory and really, really singing to someone, their be loved, the princess of newark as people know. she's such a big star and will be remembered that way. there was a lot of times, i had to pinch myself and say this is not a concert. it really is whitney houston's final good-bye, our last chance to say good-bye to her. >> you said you were 20 pews behind cissy. this is a sight we were seeing. do you recall what was one of the most difficult moments for her? >> absolutely. it was the moment when the casket was raised by the state troopers, and her song "i will always love you" was playing. the minute they started walking down the aisle at the end of the ceremony, even one just lost it.

here you see it right here. it was like an audible gasp the second they hoisted her coffin up. you can see some celebrities, you can see ray jay on one side, he grabs the cassette for a little bit. but to see cissy houston come down that aisle behind her daughter's body completely broken up, i thought to myself, what does it feel like to be her right now, to know that maybe for some time you've been warning your daughter, her friends and everyone in your church community to pray for her because she's had some struggles in her life, and people always say mothers, parents are not supposed to bury their children. that moment really crystallized for me when i saw cissy houston being held up by people. i said that's the kind of grief i don't want my mother to feel. it became so serious and heavy and hard right at that very moment. >> i'm going to switch gears here, because it's something everybody is talking about. and that is bobby brown ranting

about the fact that he was not allowed to sit where he wanted to sit. you were there. what did you witness? >> i saw bobby brown come in the church. he came with only three other people, so contrary to reports, those same four people you see on your television right now are the same four people that i saw come in the church including bobby brown and with his wife. he came in, walked past the casket, grabbed his wife's hand and walked up the aisle. when i saw his face, it was completely broken up. i thought, he's just moving to another area of the church. maybe he's going to the balcony. some people were up there because they had more privacy. i thought bobby brown couldn't handle the service. i think a lot of people sitting in the section around me felt the same way. had it not been for twitter reports or a statement released, no one on the inside of that church new bobby brown was having any sort of drama. i want to be very clear about something. in this type of church service at a baptist church there are

strict protocols you need to follow. i know this, my bropther is the reverend. when you are part of the family in a funeral, you have to process in with the family and then you are seated. first all the guests are seated. and when the music starts and the family comes and walks down with the body, that's when the ceremony officially begins. so what i think about bobby brown is if you wanted to sit in the first two or three rows, then you needed to process in properly with the family. he was not the only celebrity who had musical chairs going on. the more vips that arrived, the more police and security teams had to sort of shuffle where people should sit. >> he wasn't singled out. >> he was not singled out. i saw that with my own eyes. >> raelynn johnson, your perspective is incredible. thanks for joining us. >> thanks for having me. coming up at 7:00 p.m. eastern, soledad o'brien will

talk to reverend jesse jackson about the funeral. every morning we like to give you an early start to your day by alerting you to news happening later, stories developing now. let's start with this. iran cutting off oil to the uk and to france. and the united states urging israel hold off, do not attack. officials at the un nuclear watch dog are going to begin a second round of meetings with iranian officials about that country's nuclear program. the international atomic energy agency made a report warning it thought iran could be on its way to developing nuclear weapons. senator john mccain is in egypt meeting with the head of the egyptian military. he will be talking about the case of american workers who were charged with raising illegal foreign funding. mccain says he will be dealing with their case, but also insists -- listen to they -- he is not bill richardson and is not going to negotiate their release.

it was 50 years ago today the world heard the words "god speed john glenn." president kennedy uttered those incredible words and john glenn became the first american to orbit the earth. that mission lasted about five hours and pulled the united states dead even with the russians in the space race. coming up at 7:40 eastern, on "starting point" john glenn will be here live. nasa facing deep budget cuts and hitching rides with russia, do we still have the right stuff. three skiers are dead in washington state. all the skiers are accounted for after an avalanche. authorities say they were well experienced and well equipped. >> at this point almost all of them, probably up to 12 at some point are buried in the snow. they managed to dipping themselves out of the snow. at that point they look and find three of the skiers are suffering from medical issues.

they begin cpr and unfortunately they were not able to resuscitate the victims. >> the victims include jim jack, head judge for the free skiing world tour. the fourth skier was saved by an inflatable safety device that kept her from going under. that area was out of bounds for skiers at the resort. there was heavy snow that fell in the area overnight. 19 inches in just the past 24 hours. it is ten minutes now past 5:00 on the east coast. good chance to check in with rob marciano who is keeping an eye on the weather for us. >> good morning, guys. as you mentioned, heavy snow across snoqualmie pass. east of seattle and across the cascades, typically more wealth snowpack. when you get 14 or 20 inches of snow in this case and the skiers want to get out there and get some of the fresh untouched stuff out of bounds that avalanche danger is on the high

side. a little more on the way of precipitation. most of the heavier stuff is heading into sierra nevadas where they desperately need it. speaking of snowfall, numbers out of virginia and kentucky, up to seven inches in some spots. most of the heavier amounts were in western parents of virginia. most of it stayed south of d.c. just pop up that virginia snow video any time and we'll take a look at it. the snow lovers just want to see it on the bushes, on the roads. thankfully it was a sunday. so the commute around this area, not terrible. you saw it piling up fairly rapidly. here it is on the radar scope. as far as where it's heading across the del marva and heading out to sea. we'll see clearing behind this. next storm up for grabs is coming into the high plains and out of the colorado rockies. wind gusts with this system as it progresses to the east. east of the mississippi should be a relatively quiet day after a pretty stormy day yesterday. >> rob, i just want to zip back to the avalanche issue for a moment. i'm a back country skier and

it's always out of bounds really. but is this sort of a strange year? we've had such a weird winter. is it a strange went winter for avalanches? >> right now because the snowpack has been building especially in colorado, it's getting more and more dangerous. we started out slow, but now the snow is beginning to pile up. once we hear about it on the news, we think, oh, it's been a bad year. but no. we get many deaths every year. they know the risks when they go out there. these guys are prepared. still mother nature takes hold. that's a lot of snow, a lot of weight tumbling a long distance. this was loong avalanche, over 1500 feet. that's a dangerous situation. >> when it's that big it doesn't matter if you're wearing the beacons. if you're too far down and too buried -- "minding your business," now u.s. markets are closed for presidents day. the dow closed at the highest level since may 2008 on friday.

about 15 points shy of the 1300 bench market level. the markets reopen tomorrow. alison kosik is filling in for christine romans this morning. i get really tired of saying this over and over again. but wow, greece is the word. >> i know. >> i hear greece is on the verge of default all the time. now we're getting closer to that reality? >> you know what, we really are getting closer to that if you put your faith in all the leaders meeting today. what happens in greece doesn't stay in greece anymore. what happened last week was this big meeting was supposed to happen on wednesday. that was delayed because greece needed to continue making more cuts, pay cuts, job cuts, pension cuts. so it went back to the table and then said, okay, we're going to meet monday. that brings us to today. if it's not monday, there

wouldn't be a greece meeting. so we have this meeting happening today. there's this big effort to keep greece from defaulting on its debt. on march 20 pth, greece owes this big bond payment. it's ultimately trying to get this $170 billion bailout. we don't really want greece to default because we can see how its issue can spread to other countries in europe like portugal and italy, and that could cause a slowdown in the eu. we care here in the u.s. if the eu slows down because the eu, the european union, is one of our biggest trading partners. if the eu stops buying products from the u.s., that could, in turn, hurt us. that's why all eyes today, even though the markets are closed, all eyes will be on the greek meetings starting in about four hours, 9:30 eastern time. >> are we going to have the same conversation tomorrow? >> most likely. hopes are high because we're getting close to the march 20th date. >> let's talk about iran and made the decision to halt oil to britain and france. how is that affecting us? >> we're seeing a spike in oil prices overnight.

oil prices jumped 1.4%, trading at about $104 a barrel. this is more sabre rattling. the back story is the eu came out and said, iran, we're not going to buy anymore oil from you starting july 1st. iran said we're going to trump you one on that. we're going to stop selling oil to britain and to france and see what happens there. so that's why you see this spike happening in oil prices, because of those sanctions that would be going into effect on july 1st because what these countries want, the eu wants and the u.s. wants is more information about iran's nuclear enrichment program. how this affects us is oil pr s prices are going up. it's going to affect manufacturing, transportation and gas prices. the oil prices go up. it costs more to make those goods and transport those goods from the manufacturing site to the retailer. gas prices are at $3.55 right now. you can expect them to go higher if oil prices stay higher as

well. you usually see the lag time of two weeks. >> are you a lin fan? >> how can you not be? >> you can't wake up in the city without seeing lin headlines. this one is "king lin." the reason i ask you is i'm going to segue, jeremy lin did it again, another solid game as a new york knick. >> did you watch it? >> no, i didn't. >> it was incredible. >> knocking off the dallas mavs yesterday at madison square garden, 28 points and a career high 14 assists on the court. also a little controversy here, a lot of bit of controversy. a very controversial headline put out there. it was a racial slur used against jeremy lin. have a listen. >> -- has apologized. i don't think it was on purpose or whatever. but at the same time they've

apologized. from my end, i don't care anymore. i have to learn to forgive. i don't even think that was intentional. hopefully not. >> we should tell you it's offensive and we're not saying what it is because it's offensive. you can look it up online. espn fired one of its employees, suspended another employee who used that slur on the air. >> he handles everything with such grace and humility. a winner, a winner. 17 minutes past the hour. a mid-air collision, a chopper clips a small plane. how did no one get hurt? take a look at that. you're watching "early start." ♪ they hatin' ♪ patrolling and tryin' to catch me ridin' dirty ♪ ♪ tryin' to catch me ridin' dirty ♪ ♪ tryin' to catch me ridin' dirty ♪ ♪ tryin' to catch me ridin' dirty ♪ [ mom ] hi, there. why do we always have to take your mom's car? [ male announcer ] the security of a tiguan,

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announcer: chill raw and prepared foods promptly. one in 6 americans will get sick from food poisoning this year. check your steps at foodsafety.gov. good morning, new york. that's a pretty shot. it's a little dark, but nonetheless, you can see that lovely skyline. we're lucky enough to wake up to that every day. 36 degrees in new york city. warming to 47. 21 minutes past the hour. time to check stories making news this morning. whitney houston has been laid to rest in fairview cemetery near newark, new jersey. family and friends mourned the singer in what they called a

private home going service. un inspectors are in iran for another round of nuclear talks. this comes as iran fights back against sanctions by cutting off oil to the uk and france. with the u.s. saying an attack on iran would be premature. president obama's top military advisor says it is premature to be arming the syrian opposition. a rebel commander says their fight against the assad reg eej is a, quote, orphan revolution without international support. nearly two dozen people were killed in the latest violence. a tanker who spilled oil into the mississippi river has been drained and moved to a repair facility. the spill happened friday when two barges collided near new orleans. a deadly avalanche at a report in washington state. as many as 12 skiers were buried in snow after falling 1500 feet. three of them were killed. the rest have been accounted

for. authorities say they were in an area that was off limits to skiers. a small plane collided mid air with a helicopter between oakland and sacramento. the helicopter pilot was not hurt after crashing the chopper. the pilot of the plane was also able to lands safely. lucky for both of them. >> way too close for comfort. we're getting an early read on local news making headlines. this morning we have papers from houston and chicago. let's start with "the chicago tribune." apparently more people are choosing a paycheck over a degree. these are community colleges we're talking about. enrollment is falling as tough economic realities hit hard. the students say they can't wait two years to start earning money. in spring 2012, community college enrollment was down almost 3% from last year. the number of full-time students is down 4.5%. officials say the trend will continue until employers start to hire and the economy recovers.

i used to run a broadcasting program at community colleges, the median age is 27 orr 28. it's tough to stay in school. a person with an associate degree is paid $8,000 more a year compared to a high school degree. if you can figure it out, it's well worth it financially. >> i think that's the problem, trying to figure it out t. houston chronicle has a story you may appreciate. we talk a lot about energy independence, especially with all this business with iran cutting off uk and france. guess what? there is some bright spots on the horizon at this point. we're hearing that we are now producing more oil here -- there's a surge in our projections. we have more rigs in the united states oil fields at work than the rest of the entire world, and not only that, but our oil fields and the rigs here have quadrupled in the last three years to over 1200. that's good news when you're worried about importing oil.

the forecasters are saying actual energy independence could be on the horizon, even with the oil boom, the crude prices though, alison kosik was talking about it, they remain at record highs. we'll continue to watch that story. nice to know we're doing well in this country. 24 minutes past the hour. still ahead, a new nationwide poll shows rick santorum pulling away. a bitter fight for michigan with the primary just eight days away now. you're watching "early start." e and still reach your weight loss goals? you can with green giant frozen vegetables. over twenty delicious varieties have sixty calories or less per serving and are now weight watchers-endorsed. try green giant frozen vegetables with sauce.

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nice to have you back with us. good morning everyone. it is 28 minutes past 5:00. welcome to "early start." i'm ashley banfield. >> i'm zoraida sambolin. inspectors are in iran for another round of talks. it comes as iran fights back against eu sanctions by cutting off oil to the uk and also to france. singer whitney houston was laid to rest over the weekend. her "bodyguard" co-star kevin costner gave one of the many moving speeches. they say it's premature to consider arming rebels in their fight against bashar al assad.

general martin dempsey says they need a much better idea of who these rebels are. lawmakers including senator john mccain have suggested providing arms to the opposition could be a good idea. the trial against former president hosni mubarak is resuming today. he and his co-defendants are charged with ordering the killing of protesters during last year's revolution that forced him from power. three skiers killed in a deadly avalanche in washington state. authorities say a dozen skiers were buried. the rest have been accounted for. jeremy lin leading his team to another win. he says he accepts espn's apology after a racial slur against asians was used in an online headline. a brand new poll shows the candidates going in different directions. rick santorum is now leading nationally, count them, by eight

points. it's a gallup poll. sanitorium is coming in at 36%, followed by mitt romney way back past the margin of error by 28%. gingrich at 13%. there's ron paul pushing along at 11%. do the numbers mean anything, especially since that lull in between contests and debates is getting smaller? joining us to talk about it republican strategy trey harden, political white house reporter joe williams and cnn contributor and democratic strategy maria cardona. joe williams, you're the reporter in the mix here. when you see these numbers rolling in one after the other and they show a lot of the same trend, does it surprise you? >> it is surprising and probably more surprising to the mitt romney camp because this wasn't supposed to happen. this wasn't supposed to be in the script. basically you have mitt romney expecting to grab the nomination and having stumbling blocks including in his home state of

michigan because santorum seems like the more authentic conservative. mitt romney has had this problem all along because he's been the red governor of a blue state. he speaks conservatism but with a massachusetts accent. rick santorum, on the other hand, seems true blue and authentic, believes what he's saying. that's a problem romney has had getting across to the voters. >> some people seem surprised by the numbers because they hear an increased rhetoric and the stride dent nature that keeps bleeding its way not just into the commercials run by the super pacs but also by the candidates. i want to play something over the weekend, rick santorum talking about the president's religion. have a listen. >> it's about some phony ideal, some phony theology -- not a theology based on the bible, a different theology. >> trey harden, jump in here if

you will. i get core conservative values and i get red meat. this is something i don't get. president obama has said over and over again he's a christian. and yet it doesn't seem to be well accepted. in fact, when pressed, rick santorum even said i take him at his word which is a far cry from saying he believes 4e's a christian. is that a dirty low blow, like the birther movement and everything else. >> infusing religion into politics is not a winning strategy. >> but he's winning. >> you have to remember who he's winning among. he's winning among hard core conservative republican voters. those wins he had recently in those states, very low turnouts, high tea party states. not a surprising message, but not a winning message in the general election. we have the highest number of registered independents we've seen all time. 20% from 2008 of the democrats who voted for obama. >> but you can't get to those

independents until you've gone through the gauntlet of those folks in this primary. >> right. but i would argue that this is who rick santorum is. he has no chance of beating barack obama just for this reason. he believes in this. it's his core principles, but not a winning strategy. he has no chance of beating him. you're right, he is going after a certain base right now. >> maria cardona, if the numbers keep coming with rick santorum in the lead, are you keeping a ledger? are you and the democrats taking a ledger of all these extraordinary statements and comments thinking this will play well to the independents when it comes time to the general election? >> there's no question about that, ashley. in fact, i would say most of the ads for the campaign have already been written, not by the democrats but by the candidates themselves using their own wrords. that i think is what should be so concerning to the republicans. i completely agree with

everything that trey said. yes, we understand do have to right now serve this red meat to their gop base. but that's exactly the problem. the gop base has moved so extremely to the right that it's going to be almost impossible for any candidate to move back to the center -- >> maria, i feel like we say this every couple years, whether we're doing midterms or presidential elections. i keep hearing the same things over and over, it's never been dirtier, it's never been nastier, we've moved farther to the right, farther to the left. is it just me? >> no. i actually think this time it is, in fact, true. it's interesting you say that because republicans do like to make the comparison between what's happening now and what happened in 2008 when you really can't compare because between hillary clinton and barack obama, first of all rnlgs it never got this nasty. they never got personal, and what they were doing was really fighting for those independent voters even during the primary.

so they never moved way to the left. >> ashleigh, with all due respect to maria, clinton and obama went to june. it was extremely nasty. >> i thought it was pretty nasty, yeah. >> running for president in your party for the nomination has become an ugly business. at the end of the day it's a healthy process because all the voters get a chance to vet their candidates. >> one last comment from joe williams. remind me. was it as ugly as i remember it? >> there were some nasty spats in 2008, let's be sure about that. but from my perspective, the thing pushing this thing further into the mud is the fact that we've got unregulated money, these money bomb ads taking everybody out and obliterating anything and subsuming any legitimate political discourse. >> i hear you. trey, joe and maria, you're coming back in an hour for even more of this conversation. thank you. >> thank you. >> i want to remind our viewers,

don't miss the last presidential debate before super tuesday. cnn's arizona debate on wednesday at 8:00 eastern. 36 minutes past the hour. still to come on "early start," john mccain is leading a congressional delegation to egypt. the military there plans to prosecute 19 mayor cans in a crackdown on ngos, those are nongovernmental investigations. one of the defendants is sam lahood, son of transportation secretary ray lahood. mccain says he's not there to help secure his release. why is he there? we have a live report from cairo. check out the scenes. you see them every year. new orleans gone wild. girls and boys gone wild. the cops are starting to crack down saying yourks know what? we need a curfew for the teens? how do you weave your way through those rounds and actually enforce it? we'll get to the heart of that in a moment. fore!

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♪ >> want to hear that for a while? it says new orleans. where are we? in new orleans where it's 46 degrees right now. 65 later. good morning, new orleans. >> good to wake up to elvis, isn't it? welcome back to "early start." it is party time officially in new orleans. of course, that means mardi gras. i know you knew it. i just wanted to remind you. there is one big change this year. police are enforcing a new curfew at night for teenagers. >> so the curfew bans teens 16 and young frer the french quarter after 8:00 p.m. ed lavandera shows us how they are trying to enforce it. >> reporter: new orleans mardi gras is an intoxicating splendor to see especially for wide-eyed

kids but they shouldn't see everything. new orleans police are enforcing a big change to the city's curfew, no one under 16 allowed alone. >> we were having kids being victims and perpetrators of crime. at night it turns into more of an adult entertainment area. >> reporter: the clock has struck 8:00 at night here in jackson square in new orleans and now it's time pour the crazier side of the french quarter to come alive. and we're going to go find it. we found maria walking with her children. >> you think this is good place to be for kids after 8:00? >> no, not down there. >> why not? >> crowds are getting rowdy. things that they shouldn't see. >> don't tell them that. whisper that to me. >> we hide his eyes. >> reporter: just how many kids are running around unsupervised at night? new orleans police say during this mardi gras 170 have been

arrested so far for violating the curfew. that's 20% of all mardi gras related arrests. this seems to be one of the harder parts of enforcing the curfew, just how do you find someone under the age of 16 in a crowd like this? charles dorsey sees underage revellers every night and sees 17-year-olds taking care of 13-year-olds. >> you have children watching children. >> reporter: curfew supporters say the french quarter's wild side are too dangerous and some sights are so bizarre, they can't be explained to a kid. that curfew will continue throughout not just mardi gras which ends tomorrow, but will con for the foreseeable future. i was surprised by the number of curfew arrests that have happened in the last week and a half alone. >> that is a huge number. were you watching that video

with us? >> reporter: i saw part of it, yes. >> that last shot you left us on. >> ed, i'm going to be on record, i don't think anyone under 40 should see that shot or that scene. >> reporter: it takes a lot of therapy to get over. >> thank you for that. we appreciate it. >> thanks, ed. 43 minutes past the hour. still ahead, the standoff with iran is costing you. oil prices are shooting up on iran's latest move. also. are you a fan of stephen colbert. you can exhale, he's going back into production. we'll tell you what happened and why he's back. you're watching "early start." it is yoplait. but you said it was greek. mmhmm. so is it greek or is it yoplait? exactly. okay... [ female announcer ] yoplait. it is so greek.

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nuclear program and as iran fights back against eu sanctions by cutting off oil to the uk and to france. oil prices hitting a nine-month high on that move from iran, trading near $105 a barrel. gas prices in the u.s. are the highest they have been on presidents day weekend. a deadly avalanche at a report in washington state. skiers were buried after falling 1500 feet. three of them were killed. authorities say they were skiing in an out-of-bound areas when the avalanche broke loose. a brand new gallup poll shows rick santorum has an eight-point national lead over mitt romney. just a few days ago the two were in a statistical tie within the margin of error. comedy central's colbert report is expected to resume production today. the show abruptly shut down last week citing unforeseen

circumstances. it ended up that stephen colbert's mother was ill. he tweeted he was grateful and touched by all of his fans' concerns. >> happy to hear he'll be back. still ahead on "early start," john mccain on a mission to egypt trying to resolve the crisis over american workers charged in a crackdown on nongovernmental organizations, ngos as they're known. we're live in cairo with the report. the magic keeps coming from jeremy lin. can we say that? can we say magic and jeremy lin in the same sentence when talking basketball? he's opening up about his new-found fame. hear from him. you're watchith "early start."[] ks, other merv. mr. clean magic eraser extra power was three times faster on permanent marker. elsewhere against dirt, it was a sweep, with scuffed sports equipment... had it coming. grungy phones... oh! super dirty! and grimy car rims... wow! that really works! ...all taking losses. it looks like mr. clean has won everything. the cleaning games are finished?

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welcome back to "early start." it's 5:51 on the east coast. senator john mccain leading a congressional delegation to egypt, important talks with the country's military leadership in that country. 19 americans are among 43 people who are awaiting a trial in that country. they're accused of illegally raising money for pro democracy groups. egypt has set february 26th to begin that hearing. the case has strained u.s.-egyptian relations now. the u.s. is threatening to cut off more than a billion dollars in aid. mccain says he is not there to negotiate any release.

cnn's ian lee is live in cairo. among the prisoners is transportation secretary ray lahood's son sam. if he's not there to try to negotiate a release, what is his objecti objective? >> reporter: well, zoraida, what we've seen him doing today, he met with the american chamber of commerce. this was seen as more as a trip to build ties, economic ties between the united states and egypt. he met with the american chamber of commerce. so it had american business men, egyptian businessmen to build close ties. he said egypt's revolution depends on coming out with a strong economy. he said the united states is willing to help. he did give a speech at that meeting. nothing was mentioned about the americans, though, who are right now going to be put on trial next sunday. but we're waiting -- we're going to talk to him later and we'll ask him more about that.

>> now, we know this is a criminal court that they are going to be heading into. we see that mccain said that this is a serious situation and had serious implications for our relationship. is that a setup as to what he hopes he's going to be able to accomplish? >> reporter: this is really a low time for relations between the united states and egypt, and this could really jeopardize the way the united states goes forward with egypt, and they will be in criminal court. we will see these americans behind bars which is typical of egyptian criminal court. this is something that many people have never really seen, americans behind bars like this. this really will strain the relations. but when mccain spoke today, he did mention how he would like to keep strong political, economic, but also military ties with egypt. and that would -- that comes with the over a billion dollars

that the united states gives in military aid. from what it sounds like, he's not too keen on giving that up and not -- and pulling that back. it sounds like he is still willing to give that aid and try to move this process forward. >> has there been a history of problems with the nongovernmental organizations, the ngos as we call them? >> reporter: this is something during mubarak's regime it was kind of in a gray area where they were allowed to operate. not a lot of questions were asked about how they operated. so talking to some lawyers about this situation technically, these ngos were operating. some of them were operating illegally. but in the past mubarak -- during the mubarak regime, they were able to operate and he kind of let this happen. so this is something that has changed with this new government that's coming if place. we're seeing one politician in particular trying to lead the

drive against the ngos. there's a real strong anti-foreigner feeling right now. this is something that will have to play out and we'll see what happens. >> cnn's ian lee live in cairo for us. thank you. ahead in our next hour, we have exclusive details about whitney houston's funeral from the only tv producer that was actually inside attending the funeral as an invited guest. and iran is playing the oil card as the un arrives in tehran for talks. just what will those talks actually produce? or more importantly, what will these nuclear facilities produce? we'll get into it in a moment. -y with our t-a-b-l-e-t? [ mom ] i think it's fine. it's the new element from at&t so it's w-a-t-e-r proof. cool. what else does it d-o? it's fast. it's 4g lte. 4-g-l-t-e? mhhmm.

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good morning to you. welcome to "early start." i'm sor raid day sambolin. >> i'm ashleigh banfield. 6:00 on the east coast. let's get you started. one of the only television producers producers in the church was our cnn producer, invited to whitney houston's funeral and is reporting to us. what the mood and the scene was like inside. very different from the images seen on tv. and also some insight into why bobby brown bailed and left. iran is fighting back against sanctions. it is holding oil hostage now. particularly from france and the uk as u.n. talks takes place in tehran. they were swept more than 1,000 feet down a mountain. it was a deadly avalanche in washington state. we've got the details.

three dead, but many rur soosur candidating trying toen conekt with voters. even having trouble in their home states. we're taking a look at how they are trying to win overall the doubters. whitney houston's journey home ending sunday with a private burial in new jersey. she was laid to rest next to her dad at a cemetery in westerfield, new jersey. >> and the private moment following the family's home ggog service on sunday. r rayland was inside. thank you for joining us this morning. >> i have to say it was one of the most touching days that i've ever experienced and one of the most touching stories i've covered here at cnn. as you're watching right now, that moment when whitney houston's body was being carried down and sound track to her life, to so many of our lives "i

will always love you" playing, it was a moment i can't fully describe to you because for so long it was such a joy use, happy, service, clapping, singing, dancing, until the casket was raised and it came down the aisle and cissy houston was completely broken up. and the entire church just lost it at that moment. >> i know we talked to you earlier in the hour and you said there was a distinct difference in being there live and for us watching it live from home. so i want to play a little bit of it and i want you to chime in on what was different. >> what i know about her is that she loved the lord. and if there was a grace that carried her all of the way through, it was the same grace that carried her home. ♪ who can lose with god on my side ♪

♪ and whitney no more do you have to cry ♪ ♪ you will always be our ribbon in the sky ♪ >> how was it difference? when you came back and you wa h watched it like we were watching it from home, how was it different? >> what you can't see are the tears, the people who were consoling each other or the moments when people were laughing because someone recounted a funny story of whitney. those are the moments that you can't see. on tv there's just one angle. i sat about 20 pews behind the houston family. and there was so much to take in and absorb. and for a minute -- it took me a while to sort of grasp the fact that here is one of the brightest stars in the world in a newark church who is surrounded by dilapidated bind i buildings. for seven days the whole world has been on newark, new jersey, and whitney houston and on the inside it felt like we were

having church for three hours on a saturday morning for a girl who was skinny nicknamed nippy and she had whole lost host of friends and family. >> cissy really kind of introduced the world to this church and put it on the map now. was that in an effort to try to keep it small because she really made it global? >> well, i don't think that was cissy's effort. i think in many strong families or baptist communities, people who grew up in the church, i certainly did, my brother is a reverend. there is a tradition that when -- when you go back home, as we say, or go backed to lord, you know, you want to come back to the church, the place that has kept you for so much of your life. whitney houston was brought back to the place where she was born. she learned to sing at new hope. that choir, she's been singing with those people in that choir

for years. her mother is still the choir director there. so cissy houston shared her daugher with the world for so long. i think she just said, i'm bringing my baby back home to her church, to her town, and this is just where we're going the celebrate the end of her life right here. >> raelon, we appreciate your perspective inside that church. coming up at 7:00 eastern, we're going to talk to reverend jesse jackson about the funeral and how the houston family is doing. he's going to sit down with soledad o'brien with that on "starting point." other stories making top headlines. with iran cutting off the oil to the uk and france, officials with the u.n. nuclear watchdog are going to start a second round of meetings with iranian officials about that country's nuclear program. our senior international correspondent matthew chance is live in london. so, matthew, we've been watching this cat and mouse game going on for decades but certainly of

late, things are ramping up. in november the iaea issued a report that was critical suggesting these were not efforts that medicine or energy, these nuclear efforts. and now we hear that they're coming in for two days of meetings. does anybody think they're going to get any traction or make any headway? >> no, in fact, the iaea has said quite clearly they don't believe these meetings they're engaged in for right now for two days, second in this month, remember, are going to clear up all of the questions that have been posed by the u.n.'s atomic agency and others about the nature's of iran's nuclear program. there are, questions, of course, which center around is the nuclear program focused on the developments of a nuclear weapon, of course, that's what it boils down to. certain questions need to be answered by the iranians. the inspectors looking for access to a military site in iran. whether they belief a detonation device may have been tested by the iranians and they twont

speak to nuclear scientists inside iran that they believe is closely link wedsed with a poss weapons program. at least these visits are under way which i think indicates there may be room for negotiation to perhaps bring iran back to the negotiatie ini table so that perhaps in the future some kind of conflict can be avoid with these. >> matthew, some people think that perhaps this is just iran's way of buying some time, you know, that critical time that it needs to really shape up its reactors and process uranium. is that sort of a reality? is this something the iaea feels is potentially on the or rhoriz for them? >> certainly the iranians have been dragging their feet when it comes to negotiations. what they say clearly is they have no intention of building a nuclear weapon device. they are merely engaged in

generating a peaceful nuclear program. they've been enriching uranium for 20% and they have fuel rods they've been inserting into their research reactor in tehran to manufacture medical reactive devices to cure cancer and things like that. but they stopped short, of course, for going or highry enriched uranium that is necessary for construct a nuclear device. a lot of concern and questions about whether they would ever do that. certainly they said they won't. ashleigh. >> matthew chance live for us in london. thanks very much for that. it is eight minutes past the hour. three skiers are dead after an avalanche in a resort in washington state. the skiers fell about 1500 feet. they were all experienced skiers. dozenses were buried in the snow. they had to big themselves out. all the skiers we understand are accounted for now. as i said, the authorities say they were not only well experienced but they were also well equipped. that area we understand was out of bounds for skierses at the resort.

a lot of lheavy snow overnight, just 19 inches in 24 hours. a fourth skier was saved by an inflatable device that kept her from going under. the victims include jim jack, the head judge for the free skiing world tour. >> second time in a month i have heard about the inflatable device saving someone in an avalanche. remarkable new units. it's not just devices that you wear so someone can find you. these are devices that keep you up on top of the snow and allows you not to get buried. remarkable stuff. we'll continue to follow that. we're also following this story. it's on the front page of every paper in the live in the new york area. king lin, lin sanity. jer jerry lin had mismost solid game yesterday at madison square gardens. ready for this? madison square garden, 28 points. look at him. it's like it's just natural. just every single time he go up

to the basket, it goes in. nobody around you. look at this stuff. 14 assists as well. he also responded to an espn headline that used a racial slur when talking about him. >> apologize and, you know, there's no -- i don't think it was, you know, on purpose or whatever, but, you know, at the same time, they've apologized. from my end, i don't care anymore. you know, i've had to learn to forgive and i don't even think that was intentional, or hopefully not. >> and that, my friend, is what you call class with a capital "c." espn ended up firing the employee who wrote the headline and suspended another that actually announced that slur on the air. >> this guy is an overnight sensation. we rarely hear him complain, right, but he has asked the media in taiwan to leave his family alone because they can't do anything without being followed around, trying to get

their hands on anything that is lin-related. what a superstar. love him. >> he deserves all the great headlines. still ahead, new nationwide poll shows rick santorum pulling away. and not only that, we've got a guy who pulls away every day, ahead of the pact, ahead of the curb, his name is rob marciano. he'll get you ready for your day. >> the snowstorm that read across now beginning to pull out. to see and hear and look at the totals from yesterday. most of it stayed south of the d.c. area. 9.8 inches in covington. virginia seeing eight inches. roanoke seeing almost six inches of snow. there it is on the radar. beginning to see it to tail off. quiet across i-95. it is will chilly, though, chilly compared to the rest of the year. storm across the mid section. 40s in chicago and 45 degrees in new york city. that's a quick check on weather. "starting point" is coming right back.

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there is a new poll out and it kind of shows what it's been showing all along, that rick santorum is doing well. >> santorum is now leading by eight points. that's a bit of a shift there. higher than last week. santorum at 36%. romney at 28%. gingrich at 13%. paul at -- 32%, excuse me, gingrich. and paul at 11%. let's talk to our political panel. political strategist, tray harding, joe williams, cnn contributor and democratic strategist maria cardona. if we could put the poll numbers back up again and talk about those. i'm going to begin with you, trey. those numbers are wrong there, folks. santorum with an eight-point lead at 36%. romney, 28%.

gingrich, 13%. and paul 11%. those are the official numbers. is this a sign that the message is resonating with santorum and should romney be worries? we're going to start with you, trey. >> yeah, what it's a sign of is that rick santorum has run a very disciplined campaign from a message standpoint. and mitt romney has been a little inconsistent on that front. the electability argument or the electability message speaks for itself. mitt romney does not need to spend much time on there. he needs to get back to three or five good points he keeps hitting home and shows some discipline and not get too distracted on some of the other issues. >> maria, i want to talk about that electability, particularly among women when it refers to santorum. santorum made some comments this weekend. pretesting natal, while in ohio. >> prenatal testing, am any oh

sent me sis does, in fact, result more often than not in this country in abortion. that is a fact. >> so he said it twice this weekend. you know, this comes after many controversial comments made by santor santorum. politico just had an article saying he has a problem with women. do you think this alienates women? >> no question about that, zoraida. we were just talking a little bit about this in the green room where you have those kinds of comments being the focus of rick santorum it might help him among the key religious and most socially conservative voters in the gop but it's doing absolutely nothing to make him electable in the general election. in the general election, independent women are the biggest block of voters. when you have more women than men voting this is not a voting bloc you want to alien. the women say this is not something who understands women, this is not something who is going to fight for equal rights

for women and not somebody who understands women. i don't think it's a good stand for him to take if he's looking to be electable in the general election? >> any of you men want to weigh in on this? >> certainly a call out to the base. i mean, these are the sort of issues that they like hearing rick santorum talk about. he sounds authentic when he does it. garnering krounds. he made some equal ly equally questionable 125i7statements ab the president that the white house took irshoe with and fired back. so far it's working. what happens after that remains to be seen. if romney can get back on track santorum is going to have another series of problems and hurdles to get past. >> trey? >> i would say, listen, we are seeing the largest registration of independent voters all time. to maria's point, she's right-on that you have an enormous

independent voting bloc out there, specially among women. rick santorum has zero chance of winning a general election against barack obama. zero chance. it's going to be a lot easier for conservatives to go to mitt romney than independents to go to santorum. romney has work to do to get pack back on message but he's got the money and the electability market, so he's got to fight for a little longer. >> and a certain amount of time, yeah. we're talking also it's a lifetime between now and the general election. even a lifetime between now and the next primary. so there's plenty of -- >> and there's another debate coming up. >> yeah, we have that debate coming up. time for one final question for you. here's my rule. only a one-word answer. i'm going to have you take a look at this first. romney with his wife ann back in october. >> i'm thrilled to let people also know the other side of mitt, which you might not all get to see. and that's -- oh, dear.

i saw that again this week and i thought it was just so funny. given his recent polling nationally in michigan, is this what romney needs to do to connect? it's a yes or no answer here. trey, i'm doing to start with you. >> no. he needs to focus on three to fay messages. >> one word answer. >> sorry. >> maria? >> desperately. >> and joe? >> no. >> no. >> all right. thank you so much for joining us this morning. we appreciate it. of course, do not miss the last presidential debate before super tuesday. cnn's arizona republican debate on wednesday at 8:00 p.m. eastern. it's now 20 minutes past 6:00 on the east coast. time to get your top stories to you this morning. u.n. weapon inspectors in iran for another round of nuclear talks. not inspections, talks. it comes as iran fights back against the eu sanctions by cutting off oil, at least the uk and france.

rebel commander in syria says their fight against the assad regime is, quote, an orphan revolution without foreign support. all of this as u.s. joint chiefs chairman says it is, quote, prewhat sure to decide whether or not we should help to arm the syrian opposition. and a small plane clips a helicopter midair in northern california. it happened sunday. and get this, both pilots walked away from this with only minor injuries. both of them, bringing their aircraft down to the ground. 20 minutes -- 21 minutes past the hour here. still ahead, paying the highest gas prices ever on president's day weekend. that is what you are doing. we're all doing, i suppose. the news from iran is making it even worse this morning. we're going to get more details on that in our money report. you're watching "early start." you know, because you been, you know, this is what you had been doing. you know, working, working, working, working, working, working. and now you're talking about, well you know, i won't be,

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you know, it just seems a day doesn't go by without a story about iran, whether it's oil, money, inspections. it's announced now it's stopping the shipments of oil to france and the uk. that is in retaliation for what text u did, all 27 eu countries put sanctions on iran's oil experts. that's starting in july. >> so alison kosik is here with us this morning filling in for christine romans. could these problems with iran oil experts hurt our u.s. recovery? seems everything is always tighter. >> it can't just hurt, i'd could actually stop the recovery in its tracks right now. that's according to a top oil an les. he says the higher oil prices hitting the gas pump are not going to help, especially with

the way demand is these days. demand for gas is actually at an all-time low. the higher oil prices mean the cost to power the machines to manufacturing the gootsds that you and i buy, those costs will go up higher. means companies can wind up passing those costs on to us. it will cost more to transport those goods to the retailer as well if they pass those down to us. you touched on this, price, oil prices are spiking overnight because iran said it's not going to sell oil to britain and france. it's in retaliation for sanctions that have been put in place. going into effect july 1st. because the european union, the u.s., they want more information on iran's nuclear enrichment program. so what we're seeing happen overnight is oil prices are spiking to $104 a barrel. although, you know, although what iran is doing won't hurt our oil and gas supply, we don't get any of our oil and gas from iran. there's a fear factor in the trade that you see happening

with oil prices, that these traders really trade on the fear of what could happen. and this is in addition to what's happening with oil prices already. you see oil prices are up in january. already 6%. so this is not going to help things. it's not going to help consumer's pocket books because any extra cash they have is going to go to filling up their cars. >> we just did a story last hour about hour our production is way up, we're going to be energy dependent soon. why isn't britain and france calling the u.s. saying we need some of your oil? >> they don't get a lot of oil from iran. britain gets 1%. france said they got 4% at the beginning of last year from iran. it's more of a saber rattling and symbolic at this point as far as what iran is doing to britain and france. >> all right. alison kosik, thank you for joining us this morning. still ahead, the battle for michigan. it's every yeah right? michigan, michigan, michigan. but this guy, oh, does he want michigan, so thus the guy and rick santorum happens to be the

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welcome back. it is 30 minutes past the hour. welcome back to "early start." i'm zoraida sambolin. >> hi, i'm ashleigh banfield. bets le let's check your top stories. u.s. weapons inspectors in iran for another rounds of talks, talks with iran this time. comes as iran fights back against the eu sanctions by saying, all right, you want sanction, fine, we're going to cut off your oil supply, at least to the uk and france. in the news, whitney houston laid to rest. the singer buried saturday after what the family called a private home-going service. oprah winfrey and mariah carey among the celebrities who attended that service. president obama's top adviser, military adviser says it is, quote, premature to be arming the syrian rebels. rebel commanders say their fight against the assad regime is, quote, orphan revolution without

international support. nearly two dozen people were killed in just the latest round of violence there. and three skiers killed in a deadly avalanche in washington state. authorities say a dozen skiers were buried in all. the rest have been accounted for. the u.s. coast guard says it has drained and moved a tanker barge that spilled almost 10,000 gallons of oil into the mississippi river. it collided with another barge friday near the coast of new orleans causing that spill. and knicks feel monday jeremy lin leading his team to another win over the defending champs, dallas mavericks. lin accepts espn's apology after a racial slur was used in an online headline. well, michigan is certainly the next big gop battleground next week. it is 6:32 in the morning, folks. if you need more proof that this is a killer state for these two, listen up. the polls have the man on the right leading the man on the left. trouble is, man on the left,

born in michigan. not good. also, the polls have rick santorum ahead in ohio. that is also a swing state. also a super tuesday state. michigan goes without saying is a must win for romney. home state, dad was governor. so what are the candidates doing to try to fix this or keep going? joining me now is michael, his company studies what works and what doesn't when it comes to candidates connecting with voters. and they regularly do the testing on tv. i've seen you and your partner doing this. i'm always fascinated by this. i don't know if it's science or just really, really cool. let me ask you about this, michael. is connecting with voters a state-by-state endeavor in a campaign or is it something much bigger than that? >> it can be state by state depending on the makeup of the state. it's a larger issue at play which is how can candidates

connect in general, what they're good at, what they're able to communicate in a credible way, what the voters are going to give them permission to talk about. often that's where candidates go wrong. they decide to do something they're not comfortable in doing, they're not strong when doing it and it gets them into a lot of trouble. >> what if they have the right idea but then they just don't execute it to right way? >> it's often actually easier to get the right idea than it is to execute it. i think we're see that with romney now. also with santorum in some respects when we talks about some of the socially conservative messages that he likes to talk about. it can hurt him with independents and women, certainly. >> let me scoot you back to romney because i tell you what, i don't know that a lot of people expected to see what we've been seeing transpire in the polling in michigan. we kind of just thought that was a place he might not have to campaign. turns out not so much. here is a piece of a commercial that i want to play for you from mitt romney, trying to basically remind the people of michigan, hey, i'm just like you. have a look.

>> a little history. i was born and raised here. i love this state. it seems right here. the trees are the right height. i like seeing the lakes. i love the lakes. just something very special here. the great lakes. but also all the little inland lakes that dot the parts of michigan. i love cars i grew up totally in love with cars. >> i love cars, too. i really like that. i thought that was a commercial. apologize. i misspoke. it was an event he was at friday night. here's what i don't get, michael. that seems pretty darn clear. i want you, i like cars, i'm a michigan boy. what was wong with this? >> we sounded a little like a kindergarten at show and tell. >> rrrr. >> but, i mean, something in his polling said that the like ilkt factor, his ability to connect with people is really low. so he said, let me figure out how i can connect with people. >> is it robotic, not believe?

what's the problem? >> at little bit robotic. it's just not him. his strong suit is talking about being a businessman, talking about solving problems. he can do that in michigan. when he does, he's going to connect with the voters in an authentic way. when he tries to be somebody he's not, which is the handshaking, kissing baby politician, it just doesn't feel right. >> he was opening up a can of whoop you know what at one of the last debates just basically hammering away at newt gingrich. it seemed to be all about the record about his ability to be a businesspers businessperson. seemed to suit them fairly well, didn't it? >> yes. that's where he's going to win. you have to stick at what you're strong at, what the voters are going to give you permission to talk about. >> what is he doing what he's doing if you and i can figure this out, why does he continue to do what he's doing? >> i think it's what often happens. you see numbers in the polls that say you have a deficit somewhere, people don't like

you. your response is no to make people like you. when you go back to dukakis in the tank or john kerry trying to be personal -- >> or howard dean, wahoo, sure, sure. >> some people just have to know what they're good at. >> is it too late to pull it back and maybe get michigan under his belt? >> no, but he's got to get back on message and paint the picture of a vision for a better michigan economy. that's where he's strong. that's what people are going to respond to him about. >> i hope you will come back, especially if things start to change. >> great, thank you. >> good to talk to you. 37 minutes past the hour. still ahead, senator john mccain is in egypt trying to resolve the crisis involving american workers that are facing criminal charges. we're going to have a live report from cairo. stay tuned for that. you are watching "early start." are you still sleeping? just wanted to check and make sure that we were on schedule.

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it is 6:40 on the east coast. welcome back to "early start." >> senator john mccain is in egypt leading a congressional delegation. they're actually three senators total there that are meeting with military leaders over a case of 19 american workers to be tried as part of a crack down on non-governmental organizations. also known as ngos. cnn's ian lee is live in cairo. want to start by talking about these ngos because ray lahood, transportation secretary, and his son sam is one of those in jail right now who says it is a bit puzzling to him because ngos have been part of a democracy-building effort and they thought tharn well within their right to do it. so what is the problem?

>> well, what we're hearing, zoraida, is under the mubarak regime there was no problem with ngos working openly, but after the revolution there's been a tide of anti-americanism and more just fear of foreign elements trying to influence the country. and there's been certain politicians that have come out and called these ngos foreign spies. they're trying to work against egypt's transition. they're working against the revolution. so right now in egypt there is a lot of animosity towards these sort of groups as they're seen as spies. so this took a lot of people by surprise though because these groups have been working here for years. >> and they're actually facing a criminal court. now, i was reading here that senator mccain says that he is not going to negotiate the release of the prisoners. so what is on his agenda?

>> well, what his agenda is is more building close economic ties are egypt. he was here this summer with senator kerry, and they were promoting american businesses. he was -- he met with the american chamber of commerce this morning with egyptian and american businessmen to promote close economic ties. he said that the success of egypt's revolution depends on its economy and that america should have close economic ties with egypt and he hopes to expand that as the transition continues. >> i find it difficult to understand though why on his agenda would not be securing the release of the prisoners as, you know, most people think he should. >> well, what we're thinking is that he's not trying to get people's hopes up that this -- that a rescue mission will happen. he is here to build close economic ties, but you're right, this is something that is, you

know, on the agenda. people are talking about it here and in the united states. this is a big news story, so there will be talk about that. but talking to his office, they are insistent that this is not a rescue mission that this is to build close economic ties. but in building close economic ties they hope that this is -- the two countries to kind of move through this political crisis and come to an understanding. and also be able to work together better. >> ian lee live in cairo for us. thank you for that. it is 44 minutes past the hour. it's time to check stories that are making news this morning. >> u.n. inspectors in iran for another round of nuclear talks. it all comes as the u.s. and great britain urge israel not to attack iran over its advancing nuclear program. it also comes as iran fights back against the eu sanctions by cutting off oil to the uk and to france. also in the news, oil prices hitting a nine-month high

because of that move in iran, of course. trading there $105 a barrel this morning. gas prices in the u.s. are the highest they have ever been on a president's day weekend. also, syria continues its assault on opposition forces. 23 more people killed in the latest round of violence. a rebel commander says there is an orphan revolution without foreign help at play here. u.s. joint chiefs of chairmen say it is just premature to consider arming syrian rebels. deadly avalanche at a resort in washington state. skiers buried in snow after falling 1500 feet. three of them have died. authorities say they were in an out-of-bounds area when the snow came crashing down. a brand new gallup tracking poll showing rick santorum with an eight-point lead over mitt romney. just a few days ago the two were in a statistically tie. comedy central's colbert report expected to resume production today.

the show shut down last week after stephen colbert's mother became ill. he sent a message on twitter saying he was grateful and touched by his fan's concern. >> we're glad he's back on the air. >> i hope his mother is doing well. >> wishing his mother well for sure. soledad o'brien doing the duty live now with what she's got coming up. >> coming up in roughly 15 minutes on "starting point," we're going to talk about whitney houston. as you know, she was laid to rest over the weekend with her funeral and then her burial was yesterday. we'll talk with reverend jesse jackson this morning and also talk a little bit about what exactly happened in that bobby brown controversy. also, snl pokes fun at the jeremy lin racism controversy. we'll share that with you. it's if 50th anniversary of the first u.s. spaceflight. we're going to chat with senator john glenn about that. that's all ahead on "starting point." "early start" is back right after this commercial break.

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...we inspected his brakes for free. free is good. free is very good. my money. my choice. my meineke. ♪ a little van halen to wake you up this morning, "standing on top of the world." a way to wake up, van halen. >> there's a reason we're play that for you. a fabulous 27-year-old american who just happens to be a fabulous downhill skier named

linds lindsay vonn. on saturday, she won her fifth consecutive world cup downhill title. and if you're counting, she has won 50 world cup races. she joins us now live from moscow. lindsay, i know you're in moscow because that is where you've been racing, in russia. i'm so glad we can go halfway across the world to talk to you. right off the bat, congratulations. you must feel awesome. >> thank you so much. it's been an amazing season. a great career, 50 world cup wins is something i never thought i would be able to do. i'm really excited. >> what is this all about, you're just 27? >> yeah. i feel a little bit older but i'm the world cup tour for a couple of years now, but 27 is still young sprip a lot more years of racing left in me. i'm just extremely proud of what pooif been able to do so far. >> might be a reason why you feel a little old. i happen to have done some

things like you. i used to race downhill as well on a league of about this much of yoers, zero compared to you. but you take some big spills. you get hurt a lot. that is fast. how you ski, it is faster than how most cars drive. people don't realize how much it hurts when you go down. >> yeah, it definitely is not that much fun when you crash, but it's a part of the sport. you know, i have had some major spills in my career, especially in torino olympics and right before the 2010 olympics in vancouver. so i've had my share of spills. but i at least try to get up as fast as i can and keep racing. yeah, it doesn't kill you makes you stronger, right? >> no kidding. you do it and you look gorgeous doing it, too. as if you didn't feel good enough just with your win, i want to read something to you from the "new york times" regarding your 50th world cup race win. "the times" is trying to explain it to the non-skiing reader. they said it this way.

it's kind of like a baseball player hitting 600 home runs. which, lindsey, puts you in the lesion of babe ruths and the hank aarons of the world. that is a big, big deal. do you feel that? >> that's a huge statement. i didn't actually know they said that. i'm very honored. it's kind of hard to really keep things in perspective. i'm still racing and still trying to win more world cup races. i think after the 50th world cup victory i look back and see what i've done so far and i definitely really excited and really proud. i don't know -- i don't know -- i -- it's hard to compare myself to other people that i've looked up to my whole life, you know, like another one who 50 world up with wins and he's a legend in our sport. it's really sur sur real. >> that guy rev loouolutiorevol.

skiing. let me ask you this. your personal life for a famous skier works its way in no matter how much you don't want it to. your husband, you divorced him recently, but he was your coach. h is a big deal. you lost your coach. it's still no change in your juggernaut? how did that not affect you? >> it was definitely tough. you know, whenever you get divorced, it's tough. but especially if, you know, your husband is your coach. but something that i've really realized is that no matter who my coach is or who is surrounding me, i'm still the racer in the starting gate and no one else is skiing for me. i'm ski for myself. and i think i've really come into my own and skid exceptionally well despite everything that's gone on. it may not always be in the media every day about the divorce but it's something that i continue to struggle with

every day. >> sure. >> but skiing is what i love to do and i really feel, you know, peace and quiet when i'm on the mountain and it's really been the best therapy for me. i'm just -- >> nice to be mentioned among all those top athletes. there's one more athlete you're in the headline about, about tim tebow. about dating tim tebow. do you want to set the record straight? what's going on between you two? >> i'm not dating tim tebow. i'm just friends with their family. i'm really good friends with his brother robbie. they're just a great family really obviously amazing athlete. i've gone to a couple of their games and i'm definitely a big fan. but i am not dating him. >> well, there you go. there's the headline. you know, i'm a skier, like i told you before, so you're a real hero of mine. congratulations. i would love to meet you in person. when you get back from moscow, maybe swing through new york, you can say hi and maybe one day we can do some turns.

>> okay. definitely. that would be awesome. >> lindsay vonn, just a joy to talk to you. congratulations, thanks. still ahead, reverend jesse jackson remembers whitney houston. he attended saturday's funeral. and happy golden anniversary, john glenn. 50 years ago today he became the first american to orbit the earth. he is going to be here. he is joining soledad o'brien on "starting point." you are watching "early start." .

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we are at the end of our program and i never got the world of the day in. it's kind of cheating. >> all right. soledad o'brien, "starting point." >> don't you have to work it into a sentence or something? >> how about you do it for us? >> here, i feel like a little vagabond on my own little island over here as "starting point" gets under way. >> adorable. >> good morning, everybody. we are talking about our "starting point" this morning, person swept down a thousand feet from a mountain.