couple and i know you've worked with many folks before. so thanks again. >> thank you, suzanne. >> all right. "cnn newsroom" continues right now with ashleigh banfield. hey, ashleigh. >> hey, suzanne. nice to see you, and hello, everyone. it is 1:00 on the east coast, 10:00 on the west coast, and we have a very busy hour ahead, so let's get you right into the zone. shall we? the dow hit the 13,000 mark for the first time in almost four years. pretty exciting stuff, because it had been flirting with the benchmark on and off for the past week. investors just seem to be more optimistic now that the eurozone finance minister has pushed through the latest greek bailout deal. that deal gives greece the funding it needs to avoid default next month, at least for now. president obama praised congress for working together to pass the payroll tax extension. and he's also challenging congress to keep the bipartisanship alive. wraerl earlier today at the white house, he and vice president joe biden were joined by twitter users and people who

visited the white house website. they shared how losing the tax cut would have impacted their daily lives. >> so congress did the right thing here. they listened to the voices of the american people. each side made a few compromises. we passed some important reforms to help turn unemployment insurance into reemployment insurance, so that more people get training and the skills they need to get back in a job. >> the president has promised to sign the bill into law when it hits his desk a little later on this week. the arizona sheriff who was publicly outed by an ex-gay lover and then went ahead and quick the mitt romney arizona campaign says he is not a hypocrite. during an interview with wolf blitzer, paul babeu says the scandal is a smear campaign meant to derail his gop congressional bid. >> this is outrageous that this has been brought up because i'm a conservative republican and

now they think that somehow there's hypocrisy because i'm gay. i've never worn it on my sleeve, like, this is why am. i don't define myself. i don't think we in america -- we're different in america and we celebrate our differences. and we see it as a strength, the beauty of our country. >> the sheriff's ex-lover who goes by the name of jose says he decided to fight back after babeu allegedly threatened him with deportation. and by the way, the sheriff denies that that actually happened. the supreme court is going to take a brand-new look at affirmative action, specifically whether the race-conscious admissions policies of the university of texas violate the rights of white applicants at that school. an applicant sued the university when she was rejected back in 2008. the university says, we're defending our policy. they say that they consider race among many factors like test scores, service, leadership, and work experience in order to create a diverse campus. so how high are gas prices set to go?

well, the national average is over $3.50 a gallon right now for regular unleaded. that's around 50 cents more than it was at this time last year. but the experts agree that $4 a gallon is probably just around the corner for everybody. in fact, it's already here for people who live in dallas. just check out the price, $4.19 a gallon, and we're not done with the uncertainty in the middle east, either. that's really a factor here, because the experts agree that $5 a gallon may actually not be that far off. the syrian military may be prepping for a larger assault on the city of homs. that city has been the epicenter of the anti-government uprising and in a haunting development, the people there say more armored vehicles are being brought to the outskirts of the city right now. just today, the syrian military fired hundreds of shells into one specific neighborhood there. the activists say as many as 40

people were killed in homs today. several of them children. the red cross is asking for a cease-fire so it can create some kind of a route to at least bring supplies in for the civilians who are caught in the middle of this deadly conflict. a massive crackdown is underway in cameroon to stop the unprecedented poaching of elephants. it's happening in a national park in that african nation and we are talking about a lot of elephants. about 300 slaughtered elephants in just the last month. got to warn you, the images you're about to see are very, very disturbing. by some estimates, it could be one third of the entire population at risk here. poachers from sudan are being blamed for this massacre. they are killing the elephants for their ivory tusks and just about that alone. but the killings are also making orphans out of the elephant calves and officials are fearing

that the baby elephants may also soon die because of hunger and thirst. the former los angeles elementary schoolteacher who's accused of engaging in lewd acts with his students was supposed to be in court today to enter a plea in this case. mark berndt faces 23 counts. some of the things that he's accused of doing would actually make your jaw drop. things like having cockroaches crawl across children's faces and other things that were sexual in nature, caught on camera. cnn's casey wian is there at the courthouse in los angeles. so what happened? we were expecting this to happen. what's the problem? >> reporter: yeah, we sure were, ashleigh. we were expecting this arraignment of mark berndt to begin about an hour and a half ago. my colleague, alan duke, is in court and he sends word that the judge was outside of the courtroom for some part of that time and has now returned to the courtroom and is proceeding with other cases. mark berndt has so far not made an appearance in court. we do not know what the delay is

is at this point. and just to recap the charges against him, he's facing 23 individual counts of lewd conduct against children at miramonte elementary school. he is being held on $23 million bail, $1 million for each count that he is facing. you mentioned those photographs. investigators have collected now nearly 400 photographs that they say show berndt with children at that school. many of them depicting bondage and other very disturbing, despicable acts. sheriff's investigators are also very concerned, i should mention, though, that there may be other victims. and some of these parents who are the parents of children who they allege also were victimized by berndt have not spoken with sheriff's investigators yet. instead, they have hired private attorneys. some of them have even appeared on the "dr. phil" show. investigators very concerned about the impact that all of that could have on an eventual jury in this case, ashleigh. >> all right. well, casey, keep an eye on it.

let us know if that arraignment gets underway. without question, a lot of people following this. casey wian in los angeles, thank you for that. it is the size of a tube of lipstick. but take a close look. that thing right there is not makeup. have you heard about it? they're called aeroshots. and get this, they allow you to inhale your caffeine. yes, inhale it, in powdered form. but here's the question everybody wants to know. is it safe? the fda is taking a closer look. and up next, i'm going to speak to the man behind the aeroshots, inventor david edwards. looking forward to that. first, though, what began as an ordinary day for a 13-year-old boy in connecticut took a very unexpected turn, one that he will likely never, ever forget for the rest of his life. started with boarding the school bus in norwich, connecticut. he just had a feeling something was wrong with his bus driver, steve kimball. the bus driver repeatedly told noah, don't worry, i'm okay. all that coughing, don't worry.

but it started getting bus. and when noah got off the bus, he didn't stop there, he called his parent who then took the bus company and kimball was taken to the hospital. it turns out he was having a heart attack! and he also needed emergency surgery! so that bus driver is now crediting the kid with saving his life. noah says, eh, i just did what i thought was the right thing to do. and noah, my dear, for your quick thinking, you are today's rock star! [ sniffs ] i have a cold. [ sniffs ] i took dayquil

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most of us drink a cup or two of coffee every day, and in some people, like morning tv anchors, about ten. but now you can actually breathe your caffeine fix instead of having to drink it. here's what i'm talking about. something called aeroshots. they're already on the shelves in new york, massachusetts, and france. it's the size of a lipstick tube, but don't let that small package fool you. aeroshots can deliver 100 milligrams of caffeine or what amounts to about a shot of what you get in your coffee cup, just in a few sniffs. but here's the deal. they're also being sold as a dietary supplement, and that's stirring up some controversy. now the fda is launching an investigation into whether inhaling your caffeine is really safe for you to do, which is why we wanted to give it some face time and talk to the inventor of aeroshots, david edwards. he's joining us live from paris. okay, so david edwards, that's the question on my mind and i think a lot of other people's minds. is it safe to breathe in your

caffeine? >> well, it is with the aeroshot, ashleigh. the aeroshot, just to be really clear, is designed to deliver caffeine and vitamin bs in a natural lime flavor to the mouth through the act of breathing. so while we refer to it as breathable energy, the fact is, it is the act of breathing, but we're not delivering caffeine to the lungs, we're delivering caffeine to the mouth, as you deliver with an energy drink or with a caffeine pill or with a cup of coffee. >> so it's sort of like, i guess as you've been talking about it, like a breathable food. and for anybody who's watching and saying, what does david edwards know about this kind of stuff, i should mention, you are a professor of biomedical engineering at harvard, so you're no joke. but are you a little bit concerned that the fda haze taken a closer look at this after senator charles schumer decided he wanted the fda to look at this a little closer? >> well, i think there are a couple points, ashleigh. i think number one, just to

point out, i have started several companies related to inhaled insulin and tb vaccines, so i'm very familiar with medical aerosols and the idea of delivering drugs and medicines to the lungs. i think senator schumer was rightfully concerned about the energy drink problem with particularly young people, and mixing energy drinks with also alcohol. and neither of which we are encouraging, whatsoever, with the product. but nevertheless, there is, as you know, an atmosphere of concern about that combination. the second thing, i think, is that this is a very new way of consuming food and drink. the idea of breathing it into your mouth. so it is natural that the senator was concerned and wanted to understand better what the product really was about. so we really welcome the

dialogue with the fda. it's completely normal and the fda, indeed, said at the end of the summer that they would respond to the senator's questions. we think that's appropriate. and so we think that the public deserves to understand the safety of the product and i really thank you for giving me the opportunity to talk about it right now. >> well, and i'm glad to talk to you, but i also want to play the devil's advocate. because while i am a huge consumer of caffeine, i get up at 1:00 in the morning to come and do my job, i also know that i have to drink it. and so the delivery vehicle takes a little time. i actually e-mailed my colleague, sanjay gupta, who's going to be on the show a little later, and i said, how dangerous is this to take in a lot of cough between, and if you want to take it in fast, take it in fast. and he told me, you've got to worry about the cardiac rhythm issues, things like atrial fibrillation, heart attacks can be a concern, also hypertension, anxiety. all these things don't sound very good. i've got to be honest with you, david. and if i had the access to do this every couple of seconds, i'm worried what it could do to me. am i wrong?

>> well, i think that your concerns about having caffeine into your body too quickly are absolutely justified. i'll reassure you that this product doesn't deliver caffeine into your body faster than other energy drinks or coffee. and so we do, we have, of course, done clinical studies internally to validate that the caffeine is being absorbed as it should. we're simply putting it into the mouth. we've done nothing to the caffeine to make it go into the body faster than it otherwise would. what happens with a drink, and you know, if i just say that the reason for this product and it's not to replace coffee, but the advantage of the product is you don't have to drink. so you can put caffeine into your body, and you don't need to put it all in your body. so you don't need to take an entire caffeine drink, an energy drink, or an entire coffee, which you normally would. you can take a little puff, have a little bit of caffeine, and take some caffeine later on, and not have to have it all in your body at once. so, in fact, you can actually get more boost out of less

caffeine than the opposite. so the main point is that it doesn't enter your body faster than it would with a drink. >> well, it will be interesting to find out what the fda discovers, if anything. and then maybe if there's some controversy, we'll have you back and find out how things are going. but thanks and have fun in france while you're there, david. >> thank you very much. thank you, ashleigh. >> all right. take a look at some of the images now coming out of afghanistan today. yeah, that's never good. hundreds and hundreds of furious afghans. they're demonstrating outside of our air base there, the bagram air base. that's where all our guys are. and it's all because of what went on inside that air base. korans and other religious material burned by u.s. troops. what were they doing and why? we'll explain in a moment. need. [customer:] we need to protect the environment. [worker:] we could do both. is that possible? [announcer:] at conocophillips, we're helping power america's economy with cleaner, affordable natural gas.

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the burning of the koran and other islamic religious materials by u.s. troops has sparked outrage in afghanistan. take a look. yeah, that right there is hundreds of protesters swarming into the streets, just outside the u.s. air base at bagram.

and they're shouting "death to america" and "death to the afghan government" too. an official says some of the materials that was burned contained, quote, extremist inscriptions, and that they may have been used to communicate extremist messages. bagram is the major airfield for u.s. and nato forces who are waging war against the taliban. the u.s. commander of nato forces was quick to apologize for this. >> i offer my sincere apologies. as i have this morning in phone calls to a number of the senior afghans here in kabul. i offered my sincere apologies to the president, to the government, but most importantly, to the noble people of afghanistan. >> that may be the general saying that, but we also have the white house as well. the spokesperson saying, we apologize to the afghan people and disapprove of such conduct. by the way, take a look at this

picture, because it isn't the first time that afghans have taken to the streets in protest for misuse of the koran. this florida pastor burned the koran last year, and that triggered deadly protests right across afghanistan and all around the world, in fact. violence erupted in several afghan cities, including an attack on a u.n. compound that killed 12 people. cnn's nick paton walsh joining us now for more on today's protests. and i've got to say, nick, when i saw those pictures, i thought, day don't look good. but i'm just sort of curious if they're in check, if it's under control, or if thing's getting out of hand? >> reporter: no, so far, we understand, in bagram, the protesters have gone home, understandable given the cold snow, frankly, and the fact that it's long been dark in that part of the world. but exactly the area where nato does not want to see a large number of angry afghans. it's their operational hub, frankly, for much of the country. bagram airfield, where many of their operations from the east are supplied and controlled

from. a very bad scene for them, indeed. and as you can obviously image, that you alluded to yourself, the fear being, if this spreads over the coming weeks, we've seen this happen before. much of the transparency nato has tried to have in the recent hours may not have a huge impact in calming the anger of afghans. because we understand, actually, in the crowd, that there had been a mass burning of korans inside the build, maybe fueling some of that anger. untrue as the information was, actually. >> nick, so the white house put out this comment saying this was an unintentional action, and jay carney, the spokesperson at the white house says this is under investigation, and we just saw the general who leads that force apologize. apologies all around, it looks like, nick. but i am curious as to what the heck happened. accident? were they just getting rid of a lot of junk that piles up when you bring in people who bring in their material and they leave it behind. is there some thought this could have been intentional? what is the story? >> reporter: well, it does

almost beggar belief, to a certain extent, that something quite so culturally insensitive could be done by a force that's been there for a decade now. one military official gave me an explanation that seems to make some sense. he says these were materials gathered inside the detention facility known as par one, with adjacent to the base where many afghan insurgents are held. apparently these pieces of religious texts were being used to pass messages they referred to as an extremist nature around and perhaps even out of that particular detention facility. they learn of this, they gather up the material, and then go to dispose of it. we don't know exactly what they originally planned, but it appears that plan went wrong and these bags ended up at the incinerator for trash at the base, causing afghan workers to find it and all of this furry to be sparked, ashleigh. >> well, it then makes sense that they would want to burn the stuff, especially if there were these naughty messages, but at the same time, i guess i

understand the apologies for the way it was done. but clearly, this isn't over. nick paton walsh, thank you very much. appreciate that. got a shocking statistic for you. are you sitting down? out of all of america's teachers, less than 2% are black men. so there is a big push to get that changed. up and next, you will meet one amazing teacher leading the way and you'll find out why it is a critical move. ♪

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now, either i'm crazy and that's jimi hendrix and i'm feeling awesome right now. so this is a fundamental question, especially during an election year. what does it mean to be american? over the past month or so, we asked our ireporters that question. we wanted them to share their personal stories. how they've seen the country change, ethnically, religiously, economically. and all this week we're sharing some of their stories with you. so today we head to washington,

d.c., and the story of a teacher. a teacher whose passion transcends his kindergarten class. now, statistically, he is only one of a few african-american men at the head of that classroom, and he knows his role is as much as a mentor as an educator. and he says more black men need to step up to the plate and teach. george howell explains. >> reporter: in the heart of anacostia, one of washington, d.c.'s toughest neighborhood -- >> i'm talking, so you shouldn't be talking. >> reporter: teachers are sometimes the last line of defense for children. >> it's a "g." >> a lot of them don't have a man in their home. a lot of them don't have a man to go to to talk to. >> we have art today. >> it's going to be hard, guys, we have to focus, okay? for a lot of them, i'm big brother or dad, but it's important -- the. >> reporter: dad? >> well, for some of them. for some of them, they don't have a father figure at home,

and for some of them when they get to school, i am that figure. can we find another chair? >> yes. >> can we find another chair? they need someone in their lives who's strong. they need an african-american man in their lives. >> reporter: terence king not only teaches the basics, but also finds himself teaching life lessons to the kindergarten class here for a school that serves just over 50 children from low-income homes. statistically, king is what the secretary of education describes as a rarity in american classrooms. >> about 17% of our children, our public school students across the nation are african-american. about 7% of our teachers are african-american. so less, you know, very disproportionate. but if you look just on the male side, less than 2%, less than 1 in 50 of our teachers is an african-american male. >> so a few years back, you launched this program to recruit more black male teachers. has that been successful? >> well, we have a long way to go, but it's been encouraging.

so i think, again, the goal is not to have a black male teacher, the goal is to have a great black male teacher, or a great hispanic male teacher or a great whatever teacher. >> reporter: to that end, duncan says in his new budget, the department of education will offer brand-new incentives to encourage school districts to raise the pay scale for starting teachers. >> all of our information is on there. and there's a link that says teacher training course. >> reporter: as a teacher himself, working to recruit graduates at moorhouse college in atlanta, brandon gillespie believes that more pay is only part of the solution. >> some are pretty hesitant as based on the salary, but at the end of the day, salary shouldn't be one of the hugest factors. we should give back to our communities and educate our community. >> reporter: back in washington, terence king says he's trying to do just that. >> they love to learn, as you can see. my goal here every day is to make sure that they love to learn and that they're having fun.

but at the same time, making sure that they can compete with anyone across the country when it comes to academics. >> reporter: and king believes through his work here, he's preparing his boys to change their community. >> i am terence king and we are america! >> we are! >> reporter: george howell, cnn, washington. >> and for more of what it means to be american, just go to ireport.com/iamamerica. now, as we told you a little earlier, we've got an update from breaking news to tell you about. los angeles elementary schoolteacher who was accused of engaging in lewd act with his students, he was supposed to plead in court today, and a few moments ago he did it, mark berndt entered a not guilty plea. he's facing 23 different counts. and some of the accusations are so vial, we can't even describe them to you. but we can say this. at least some pictures show

cockroaches crawling across children's faces, other photographs depicted sexual acts in nature. he's being held on $23 million bail. it is $1 million for each of the charges he's facing. and now we at least know this. there's a preliminary hearing that's been set for him and it will get underway on march 28th. coming up, for voters out there who do not like mitt romney, there is rick santorum or newt gingrich. and if you don't like them, there's ron paul. so if you're still on the fence and you don't like any of them, what's in there for you? apparently, you are not alone. so could a new candidate be entering the race? a whole bunch of whisper rumors going on. we'll sort it out, give you the facts, talk about it in fair game. it's all up next. i am loving this greek yogurt.

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all right. so, this is the part of the show where we go to the heart of the political debate. where all sides are fair game. rick santorum opened up a double-digit lead over mitt romney in the latest gallup poll. but you know something, that might be good news, but there's other news out there that might not be so good. not for him, anyway. check this out. "usa today" and gallup have this poll showing that 55% of people just aren't satisfied with any of them, the four candidates. none. so they can't all be rick perry or herman cain supporters, now, can they? so just exactly who do people want if they don't like the four they've got? joining me now, cnn contributor and democratic strategist maria cardona and ana navarro. we are going to have some fun, ladies, you ready? since those four aren't doing the trick for a lot of americans or at least gop voters, anyway, i have lined up a flip chart to

take a looksy at some of the others that could swoop in. sarah palin as well as chris christie -- i wish i had a drum beat or something. indiana governor mitch daniels, much talked about. and also, former florida governor, jeb bush. all of them glossy, lovely, wonderful. people are begging for these people to enter the race. but i'm going to start with you, ana. they have worts too. the grass is not always greener. so what's everybody's freaking out over? >> well, it's worse than they have worts. they don't want to do it. i ran into jeb bush just a couple of days ago and he thinks all this talk is crazy. he's not open to it at all. so we just have to stop being wishful thinkers and get on to what we have on our plate. >> so not only him, but also marco rubio, right? i hear the way politicians answer those questions and i'm sure you are astute in the way you asked the question, but did they say something cagey, like, this time, it's not my attention, or were they really

definitive? >> no, listen, jeb bush is a great guy. he's a serious guy. he doesn't play games. it's not like he's scheming in his office and counting up delegates and figuring out how he's going to jump on stage and run away with the trophy while the other four are bickering amongst each other. he's just not open to that. it's not in the cards for him. >> so you got the straight dope. all right. so, jump in, maria, because this constant nattering sound of brokered convention keeps coming up. and i'm sort of curious as to just exactly what that would solve in all of this. because i don't see any of these four or anybody else, for that matter, swooping in and saying, vote for me. >> well, i don't know. the last time sarah palin jumped in and opined about this, she kind of left quite a big opening, in case there was this sort of talk when we got to the convention and people were not satisfied with the candidates. look, this is a real possibility now. a month ago, it might have been, at least for democrat thes, w t

wishful thinking. but we are seeing more what the polls show, which is there is no enthusiasm for any of the gop candidates. and frankly, it's because they're not talking to the people they need to be talking to. you had rick santorum yesterday comparing the obama administration with hitler, for god's sake. his positions on women, only god. >> you're jumping! you are good at your job, but he backed off on that. so let's get hitler out of this show. this is not fox news channel. stop, already! let me move to the money, okay? >> his words, not mine. >> yeah, but he really did tamped it down and mitigated what he said about that. let's move to money. there's been a whole lot of shaking going on when it comes to the piggy banks. mitt romney was raising money for his campaign, 6.5 million coming in. newt gingrich behind him at 5.6 million. both rick santorum and ron paul were tied at $4.5 million apiece.

this year, particularly, super pacs are the big story. it doesn't count that the super pac money. and rick santorum has picked himself up, another $1 million man out there. a big, big money giver. so i thought with all this mojo that rick santorum would be pulling in a lot more money. but it still looks like mitt romney is out in the lead. ana, is that going to change any? >> well, that was the picture for january. and it was, i think, an accurate snapshot in time for january. but, you know, january was just three weeks ago. and that seems like it was a century ago. back in january, gingrich had the mojo for the first two weeks, romney had it for the last two weeks. he left florida the conquering hero and now look where we are. so a lot has changed since january. i think the numbers you just read are an accurate reflection of what happened in january. >> but is that going to change? yes, january was a century ago in politics, especially on this roller koser, but i think the money takes a little time to catch up. maria, what do you think?

>> i think that's exactly right, ashleigh. but what was interesting to me about the numbers, and ana's correct that last month or in january, romney was still seen as the conquering hero, especially coming out of florida, but he didn't really outpace his republican -- the other republican contenders by all that much. they are sort of equal, which tells me that his money is starting to diminish. now, we haven't taken into consideration the super pacs, though. clearly, the super pac money here is what is going to make the difference. and what we're seeing, the kind of money that mitt romney's super pac is spending many michigan, he's going to try to do to santorum exactly what he did in florida, which is just eviscerate him and carpet bomb him until the on thing -- the only outcome possible is for him to come out the winner. we'll see if it works, because santorum really is, i think, surging, because clearly, none of the other candidates are speaking to the issues that are so important to conservatives right now. >> i'll tell you what it speaks to me -- >> one of the big problems is that romney -- >> go ahead, real quick. >> a lot of his money comes from traditional donors. comes from the large republican

donors. and you tap out those donors sooner or later. whereas you've got folks like santorum, even ron paul, who do money bombs through e-mails and raise millions of dollars through e-mail. romney seems to not have been able to tap into that base for money donations yet. >> there's the big "y," the big yet. and not only that, we haven't even touched on the sheldon addles adelsons of the world. this is what this says to me. >> i want to be adopted by the adelsons. >> you get behind me in line, my friend. ana navarro and maria cardona, it's good to talk to you. >> you guys can compete for that. >> talk to you soon! okay. seeing all the physical signs of addiction, often very painful and very obvious. but what about on the inside? what's going on in the body? coming up next, some fascinating new research that actually shows what addiction does to your brain physically. my pal, my colleague, dr. sanjay

gupta joining me for that story. sanjay, i can't wait to talk to you, my friend. we're going in depth, next. be right back, my friend. your profile said you were milk...? yeah, i am.

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whitney houston's battle with drug addiction may or may not have played a role in her death, but either way, it has brought to the light the issue of addiction in the united states. according to the national survey on drug use and health, 23 million of us are battling with addiction to drugs and alcoohol.

break that down, that's approximately one in every ten americans over the age of 12. staggering numbers. and now new research is revealing that substance abuse causes lasting changes in brain function. the result, cravings as powerful as thirst or hunger. dr. sanjay gupta is here to explain. you know, up until now, i did not know that it could be this critical, that it could be this serious, sanjay. >> well, people don't think of this as a brain disease. just calling it that as you just did changes the way people think about this in the first place. and we have real science now to sort of back that up, ashleigh. and this is obviously a very fertile area of research. but here's the way i put it. and this is somewhat simplistic, but i think important. you know, people have what they call an anticipation of taking some sort of thing, whether it be sugar to a drug, the anticipation that it's going to make you feel good. and take a look at this animation. we showed this a little bit earlier, but let me explain this, ashleigh. you take something and you see

these white particles that are released? that's dopamine, that's the feel-good substance. it makes you euphoric, it make warehous you feel good. you say, i like that, i like the way it makes me feel. but take a look at this picture, on the left, a nondrug user. see how it stays bright? that sense of well-being persists. but in an addict, it starts to diminish. why is that important? because it doesn't last very long, and as a result, the person takes more and more of the substance to preserve that feeling of well-being. and that's sort of a little bit of an example or an explanation of how addiction develops in the brain and what it looks like. >> i've always been concerned about the permanence of this kind of damage. and i remember the ads long ago, this is your brain, and this is your brain on drugs. it is something that you can recuperate from? >> well this is a, you know what, a somewhat controversial area of science. but the way that i would put it is the sort of idea that the brain can eventually go back to a brain that has normal senses of euphoria in response to

whatever. you know, in response to sugar, in response to whatever it may be, i think that can happen. people say three days after leaving a substance, there's acute withdrawal, which is painful. three months is the most sort of vulnerable people where someone could have a relapse. and three years before that brain could go back to what it was. but what doesn't change, ashleigh, is the memory of the addiction. let's say you're a cigarette smoker, you stop smoking for ten years, pick up a cigarette again, and very quickly you can go back into a state of addiction. whereas if you were never a smoker and you pick up a cigarette, it would take you some time to build up to an addiction. if that makes sense, it's this idea that your brain doesn't forget, even though it can heal itself. >> so that old adage that once an addict, always an addict, that's the plain and simple truth? >> i think there is truth to that. and that's more than anecdotal. i think there's physiology now, actually scanning people's brains and being able to prove that. so it's not a disease. again, a disease is the important term here that can be cured, so to speak. but it is one that can be very

effectivelytreated. so people can live a normal life, they can live a normal life span. but, again, the relapse rate is very high because of some of those brain images that i just showed you. >> can i just throw food in there as well, is it as strong as the other afflictions? >> some people say sugar, for example, the addiction to sugar can even be stronger than some elicit drugs. i just fitted a place in oregon where they're showing that exact thing. >> that's just fascinating. sanjay, thanks so much. i should say, dr. gupta. >> call me sanjay. >> you got that right. i want to let our friends out there, also, sanjay, know that you've got your "sanjay gupta md" so folks can tune in for that as well. so if anyone's going to offer advice to up-and-coming superstar jeremy lin, it's this guy right here, you know him,

tim tebow. he's got a message to the knicks' new phenomenon and you're about to hear it.

time now to check our top stories making news at street

level. in new brunswick, new jersey, jury selection begins in the case of a former rutgers university student, darren ravi. he allegedly streamed images of his roommate with another man and then secretly broadcast the images, sexual images, live over the internet. it wasn't long before clemente committed suicide, sparking thoughts about a hate crime as well as invasion of privacy and other charges, too. a report from des moines, iowa points to a nationwide trend. more and more women are buying and carrying handguns. manufacturers call it the pistol-packing princess movement. i'm not kidding. pistol-packing princess movement. women can buy purses now with special holsters built in. in des moines -- get this -- twice as many women as men now

have a permit to own a gun. frightening story from rocki rockingham, north carolina. bats in festing a hospital. staffers caught a bunch of bats. they shut its doors, it got so bad. only the er stayed open. patients had to be evacuated. one obvious concern, rabies. also bat droppings can make you sick. there is no decision today from the health department on when that hospital would be able to reopen. now to santa monica, california and the hall of d dadame awards. tim tebow has advice for jeremy lin. be true to yourself, he says. here's something for you you might not know. trivia, courtesy, espn. in lin's and tebow's fifth pro

game, both went 9 for 20 and scored the winning points. how about that? so this time last week we were all scratching our heads over the colbert reports of serious blackouts. but have no fear, the show is back, but so is mr. colbert and he had a pretty good excuse, too. ♪ ♪ wow... ♪ [ female announcer ] sometimes, all you need is the smooth, creamy taste of werther's original caramel to remind you that you're someone very special. ♪ werther's original caramels. a living, breathing intelligence that is helping business rethink how to do business. in here, inventory can be taught to learn. ♪

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audience absolutely loved it. steven colbert back at his desk. take a look. >> thank you, ladies and gentlemen. >> that dude is a movement, isn't he? star of comedy central colbert reports disappeared for a couple days, shutting down production. people were worried. the rumors started to fly. is he in rehab? is the show canceled? is he having plastic surgery. it was none of the above, folks. it was his 91-year-old mom. she wasn't feeling well, and colbert went to be by her side. >> evidently, having 11 children makes you tough as nails. confidential to a lovely lady. >> adorable. and by the way, colbert is the youngest of those 11 children. he tweeted that he is touched by the concern of his fans. and they are thrilled that he is back. so all eyes now are going to be on arizona for tomorrow night, big gop debate. haven't had one in a while.

pretty excited about it. the last one, too, before tuesday's primaries, and not surprisingly, the new front runner, rick santorum, catching some heat. we're going to have an updated gallup poll on the race, and our paul steinhauser is live from arizona. do you have some of those fresh polls right out of the oven? >> i've got some brand new numbers, ashleigh, just for you, and our brewers, of course. they do it every day, that's why it's daily. here you go. once again, rick santorum, former senator from pennsylvania, in the top spot. ten points ahead of mitt romney. this is republican nationwide. you can see gingrich and ron paul, the congressman from texas, down lower. nothing changing in the national polls, but ashleigh, this is, as you know, a race between the delegates. that's why this debate is so crucial. polls indicate it's a pretty tight race here in arizona and michigan. one week before those big primaries. >> any buzz about who is going to be doing what?

it seems there is always a big moment that comes out of these debates. >> oh, yeah. and i think you're going to look to see if newt gingrich can have a big breakout performance. he needs something to generate some mojo right now. as for rick santorum, he's going to be in the spotlight. he's definitely going to be coming under attack probably from mitt romney and the other candidates as well. this is the last debate before the primary and the super tuesday primaries as well, ash looe leigh. >> you're going to be busy in the next few days. thank you, everyone, for watching today. it's nice to step in for randi. now it's time for brooke baldwin, who is doing the duty. hi, brooke. >> saw you yesterday on the treadmill. here you are again. let's get caught up on everything making news. rapid fire. i want to begin with this. we begin here on wall street. take a look at the numbers with me. you can see just below the magic

number, 13,000. we did hit that milestone once today so far. still have about two hours to potentially hit it again. keep in mind the first time we hit this since 2008, since before the financial crisis. will it hit again? we'll be watching. meantime, something you do not want to see. rising gas prices on the rise for 14 days in a row. aaa reporting the national average for a gallon of gas now $3.57. oil prices, they did go up yesterday on the news of iran cutting exports to both u.k. and france. president obama today giving americans a pat on the back for helping push the payroll tax cut extension through congress. >> we are here because of you. this got done because of you. because you called, you e-mailed, you tweeted your represent tifatives and you demd action. you made it clear you wanted to see some common sense in

washington. and because you did, no working american is going to see their taxes go up this year. that's good news. >> the president urged congress to pass more help for the middle class. the payroll tax break is worth just about $80 a month for somebody making $50,000 a year. and the supreme court will revisit a controversial subject and talk about affirmative action. the court agreed today to hear the case of this young woman who says she was denied admission to the university of texas because she is white. the school has a policy saying race is only one of the many factors used to determine acceptance. the case will be argued this fall at the height of the presidential campaign season. and this next video is tough to watch. this is vasurveillance video. keep an eye on this driver plowing into a pedestrian after pulling out of a liquor store. in fact, his car dragged the man 20 feet and then takes off. the driver then hit a second

pedestrian. there he goes. he's okay. the first victim does have severe head injuries. police are still looking for the driver. now this. do you hear that? yeah. crazy storm blew through parts of kansas causing all kinds of damage. hail the size of nickels pelted these cars. high winds blew trees down, sent a roof flying at a community college in the area. that same storm system is now moving east. got a lot more to cover for you in the next few hours. watch this. 15 years old and she weighs only 70 pounds. i'll speak with a man who found this teenager on the streets crying, looking for food, as he shares about her dark past. i'm brooke baldwin. the news is now. they're shouting death to america as word gets out the

troops may have burned korans at a base in afghanistan. a dad is shot to death in front of his kid's daycare in broad daylight. find out how the man accused of pulling the trigger will use barry white and olivia newton john in his defense. the star of "silver house," jennifer jimenez, will talk to me about addiction and what kept her alive. just one year ago, chris brown was not even allowed to be ne near rihanna, but now the stars have reunited, at least in the studio. looking good! you lost some weight.

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a military official says nato troops in afghanistan burned korans and other religious materials gathered from the detainees' library because they contained extremist in skrip inscriptions. this is the protest today. they consider the qurans the word of god, and burning it is unheard of. >> we look into the manner in which the decision was made to dispose of them in this manner. i will tell you this. i'm going to take steps inside these headquarters to issue an order today on how we will

handle religious materials for the sake of islam henceforth by isaf. i offer my sincere apologies. as i have this morning in a number of phone calls to the senior afghans here in kabul, i offered my sincere apologies to the president, to the government of afghanistan, but mostly to the noble people of afghanistan. >> i want to bring in nick walsh covering the story in afghanistan. first i want to get to the how, nick. how did this burning happen in the first place? first they said it was a mistake, and now they said it was to get rid of extremist communications. which is it? >> reporter: the manner in which it was disposed was the mistake. a military official said to me that they were collecting these materials from a detention facility known as polawan chfls

connected in this die gram. pieces of paper were being used to pass extremist communications, they were afraid, and someone was told they were extremist in nature, anyway, so they gathered these up to keep the prisoners from talking to the outside or to each other. but when they went to dispose of them, and this is where the mistake was made, they were supposed to be disposed of differently, with respect, but instead they were taken to the incinerator on the base run by local afghans on the base, and that's where this whole thing began, brooke. >> what next? how did all these afghans find out these qorans were even being burned? >> reporter: the rumor spread there were pictures purported to be damaged. the rumor mill is very fast indeed. apparently the rumor inside the protest was that there had been a mass burning of qorans inside

that base. what we have to look for in the days and weeks ahead is this information, and actually anger, nato admitting to having damaged these sacred texts, that sparking protests and other cities, perhaps in kabul, maybe. we've seen it before where nato had burned qurans. in this case, they made high-level apologies, but that may not stop it from spreading, brooke. >> the actual burning of quran is sacreligious, but the nato admitting they burned the quran makes it that much worse. >> reporter: absolutely. instances like this let people who feel inferior from a decade-long presence often come on the street and express anger at not having got what they wanted to get, sometimes

explosives by insurgents. recent in another city, it led to an attack on a u.n. building, and that was said to be hijacked by the insurgency. lots of worry about in the days ahead, brooke. >> nick walsh, we'll be following right along with you. thank you, sir. also, hundreds of photographs surfaced of kids forced to do awful, awful things in the classroom. just a short time ago, the teacher accused of these lewd acts appeared in court. find out what happened next. o00 [ beep ] [ man ] you have one new message. [ mom ] hi scooter. this is mommy.

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a california teacher involved in a child sex abuse scandal appeared in court today. mark berndt pled innocent to charges of child sexual abuse. they discovered roughly 600 very graphic photos of this man's students, some of them just too disturbing for me to sit here and try to describe these for you. casey wian is outside the courtroom. did he speak? did he even utter a single word? >> he did not speak. his not guilty plea was entered by his attorney. berndt appeared in an orange jumpsuit, the standard prison issue uniform. the one difference was he was allowed to sit at the defendant's table next to that public defender. there were some other defendants in court who made appearances

who were in the back of the courtroom in sort of a cage that they keep these defendants in. but for some reason berndt was, in fact, allowed to sit at the public defender's table. as we mentioned, he did not speak, but his attorney did make a very shocking allegation in court and in front of the cameras after this hearing. mr. asovedo, the public defender, claims that during the time berndt has been held in custody at the local jail, which is run by the sheriff's department, that sheriffs department personnel at the jail announced over the loudspeaker to other inmates that berndt is a child molester. >> there is absolutely no reason why that kind of behavior should ever be justified or tolerated in any way, especially because he is currently in what we call pre-trial detainment. he has not been convicted of anything, he hasn't been found guilty of anything. his bail has been set. he obviously does not have the ability at this time to bail out, so he will remain in the custody of the sheriffs'

department until this case reaches whatever resolution it is going to reach. obviously the concern is for his personal safety. we cannot have the sheriffs' department deputies acting in such a way to essentially put a bull's-eye on his head, so to speak. so that is my concern. >> reporter: now, we reached out to the sheriffs' department to find out what they had to say about these allegations. sheriff's spokesperson telling me he had not heard this before, he will look into it and get back to us later. meanwhile, berndt will remain in jail on $23 million bail, $1 million for each of these 23 counts of lewd conduct with children that he faces. a preliminary hearing has been set for march 28. >> i'm glad you reached out to the sheriffs' department. that was precisely the question i had, if they would confirm they even said that over the loud speaker. let us know if that is, in fact, the case. in connection with the lewd acts on a child, those 23 counts,

could there be more charges filed against this man? >> reporter: it's possible there could be, and one of the concerns investigators have is that so many lawyers have now become involved in this case. some of the parents who alleged their children were molested have not spoken to the sheriffs' department, instead have hired attorneys. it should be noted that noted los angeles attorney gloria allred was in court today. she represents one of the alleged victims in this case. gloria allred telling us that, in fact, the victim is someone who has spoken to the sheriffs' department, but if more allegations can be substantiated -- and you mentioned these hundreds of pictures that are out there. the last thing we heard from the sheriffs' department, as many as ten children in those pictures have not been identified, so it's very possible more charges could be brought, brooke. >> kis kwasie -- casey wian,

thank you so much. the government is warning this. we will attack our enemies even if they don't attack first. so why did iranian ships dock at a port in syria? jim clancy in the studio going to join me next. when you have tough pain, do you want fast relief? try bayer advanced aspirin. it's not the bayer aspirin you know. it's different. first...it's been re-engineered with micro-particles. second, it enters the bloodstream fast, and rushes relief to the site of your tough pain. the best part? it's proven to relieve pain twice as fast as before. bayer advanced aspirin. test how fast it works for you. love it, or get your money back.

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i want to talk once again about syria today and the war there against it. its own people today have claimed more than 100 lives. 40 people have died in the city of homs which remains under constant shelling. 106 people in all have died today, including 65 in lib. you know, jim, we heard the suggestion today that the syrian army is sort of tethered or tied down in homs and they haven't been able to move around to other neighborhoods or other parts of the country quite as

much. is there a fear that perhaps this is becoming a little bit of a quagmire for the assad regime? >> i asked them what's going on here, and believe me, we haven't had a direct fight between the syrian army and the syrian military. they sent militias who have f forged through the neighborhoods, but they're firing military rounds, mortar shells from a distance. they're not engaging them. he said one of the reasons is they may be afraid of the number of deaffectifections they would. >> they would -- >> people switching sides. that's from their perspective. >> what about other groups with other agendas, for example, exploiting the chaos? in syria we have to talk about iran, and specifically syria's

ally bringing two war ships to syria. in fact, we have the video. one of the war ships apparently heading back through -- here it is -- back through the suez canal. i imagine just the symbolism of docking these ships, they're hoping it will send a strong message to the world. >> that ship has no military significance. did it bring arms to syria? maybe, but they're already shipping arms by air regularly by commercial flights. you know, the iranians are not allowed to ship arms. >> that's not what matters, though, right? >> it's showing support for the outside of the regime. it's showing iran intends to expand its fear of influence all across the region. it's going to be there in the mediterranean and it's got the will willpower to do that. and brooke, come on. it's a finger in the eye on everyone who has slapped sanctions on syria, sanctions on iran. >> are you surprised the ships have left? >> it's only when they're on the move that they've attracted a

lot of attention. it gives the israelis something to look at, and i think the iranians like to make the israelis nervous for a change because israel has made them nervous, of course, with talk of a strike on their nuclear facilities. >> let's pull the map back up again because i want people to look at the geography here. you have syria, right. syria is off to the west. ireyiran a huge country to the and iraq smack dab in the middle. if assad were to fall in syria, what would happen? >> if he does fall, it will set back the dreams of empire for iran substantially. they want them in the region without syria. without that alliance, they're not getting it. the militia in lebanon is where they're expanding their influence. they're crippled without assad

in power. >> if assad goes away, what happens to iran? >> if assad goes away, iran has to wonder, what does china, russia, syria all have in common? they're all regimes. if he can be taken out, the iranians are worried about the revolutions that started at the last election in iran. that could come full circle. >> thank you. appreciate it. coming up next, she is 15 years of age. she weighs only 70 pounds. we are now hearing what led a teenager to walk the streets, 28 degrees out, in her pajamas, crying, looking for food. we'll talk to the man who found her who stopped and did something. next. whwheeee! ! whwheeee!! whwheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

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regularly on this show, we really try to cover stories that

show how we can do better for children who have no one else looking out for them. but today, i'm going to speak with someone who did the best he could and perhaps, perhaps saved this young girl's life. the 15-year-old girl, she lived in this house in madison, wisconsin. court documents describe how the girl couldn't leave the basement, actually had an alarm to alert the family if she tried to walk up the stairs and open the door. she didn't have a full set of clothes, regular meals, even a bathroom. she told detectives her family would punish her with her own waist if she -- waste if she re herself in the wrong place. she quoted, they will make me eat it or drink it or rub it in my own face. her stepbrother has been charged with sexually assaulting her, and we are not showing any of their faces to conceal this girl's identity. she is now in state custody, and according to these court documents, the family said they put her in the basement after

she made threats to them. but court papers also say she made one threat when she was nine years old. then february 6, fearing a beating, the girl told police she left. she left the home, she ran, and that is when the man now on the phone line stepped in. i want to welcome mike vagega. he spotted her and decided to help what he thought was an eight-year-old child. mike, i know you're with me on the phone. before we launch into this, i just want to say thank you. because we do segments like these, people, neighbors, passers-by can all be aware, and that includes me and anyone watching, you did better, and i salute you for that. mike, just take me back. when you're out driving, you see this girl. tell me what it was about her that caused you pause. >> i had come from the store getting milk for my kids, and i came around the corner in a semi-busy street in madison,

wisconsin, and what looked like a young girl eight or nine years old in pajamas. it was about 28 degrees that day, so i thought that was odd. as i came around the corner, i looked at her and i could tell she was upset. i drove a little further, looked in my rearview mirror, and she wasn't wearing shoes. so i put the car in reverse and rolled down the window and asked her if she was okay, and she said no, she needed help. >> she said no. and once she said no, what did you do? try to get her in your car? >> i got out of the car, basically kind of picked her up, put her in the car, and wrapped her feet up in a coat and turned the heat up in the car and we started talking. i didn't know where she came from or anything. and we had a conversation that was very disturbing, and after a few minutes, i told her i needed

to call a friend and went outside the car and called 911. >> mike, let me jump in, because you made a point a second ago i want to go back to. you said you thought she was eight. she's actually 15. what was it about her physical appearance that led you to believe she was so young? >> she was tiny, very skinny. you could see the -- her eyes were set back like she was very dehydrated. you could see the bones in her arm like the ulna and the radius and her collarbone. and she told me she was 15, and the only way i could best describe it is she looked like she just came from auschwitz at that age. >> came from auschwitz, a concentration camp. you, sir, are the father of three young children. as a father sitting across from her, i imagine your heart just broke. >> yeah. it was very upsetting based on our conversation, and the things

she was saying and how she didn't want to go back, and i don't want to be hurt and the things that she said her stepmother would do to her if she went back. i promised her she was going to be okay and nothing was going to happen, not knowing, obviously, what some of the allegations are now. you know, the state and the police and the detectives have done a great job working with her and getting her in the right place. >> we often think in situations like this, would i have stopped? would i have intervened? what message do you have just to all of us about that? >> you have to get involved no matter what it is. it doesn't matter if it's a child or an elderly person or your neighbor or whatever the case may be. i think everybody in the united states tends not to care about one another, and i think if we just kind of, as a community -- don't get in each other's business, but just care enough,

a lot of children who are abused and people who are neglected won't be. >> mike vega, again, i thank you. perhaps you saved this girl's life. we'll never know for sure, but i thank you. and just for all of you watching and perhaps wondering how you can help, i do want to say that made son police are trying to set up a fund for the 15-year-old victim, so we'll keep you post odd that and as soon as we get information, i'll tweet it out on brookecnn. scientists pulled out a major feat after a big discovery. find out what they brought back to life 31 years later. plus, got a lot of you talking this morning. chris brown and rihanna joining forces on not just one, but two, songs. is there more to this reunion than merely music? that coming up.

hey, here's a fun image for any of you who have always wanted to go to the mardi gras parade. live video coming from new orleans. let's just listen in. >> why don't you come right over here. >> okay, this way? >> go, tigers. there you go. happy fat tuesday to all of you. and now this. who are we? it seems like every election year we hear the rhetoric about americans, what politicians think we are, but this week, cnn newsroom is examining what defines us by looking at the individuals who make up our

towns, our neighborhoods and communities. what are we like? what do we believe in? what unites us? today we meet up way diverse cla -- with a diverse hollywood high class. >> mickey rooney, carol burnette, james garner and cher. ♪ now a new generation of hollywood high students pursue their dreams of stardom. but this production is in full color. [ foreign language spoken ] >> this is how hollywood high looked in the 1940s. now 20 languages are spoken there today. >> hollywood always struck me as a place where it doesn't matter where you're from or it doesn't matter what you believed in, you

are welcome here. >> reporter: sophomore robert neal whose father is white and mother is black said he usually felt like an outsider at hollywood high. >> they just accept you. i've never had that before. >> ibiyemi was born in nigeria. >> it's cool to have our backgrounds. i have a friend who is greek, and i want to learn her language. >> now she's editor of the school newspaper and about to be valedictorian. >> i feel that's what immigrants bring here. they bring fresh ideas, fresh blood. they prevent america from becoming stagnant. they bring progress. >> reporter: but they also bring challenges. she has resisted pressure from her parents to get a job and have an arranged marriage.

she cherishes rites many americans take for granted. >> i'm so glad to be here and have my right to talk and nobody is going to say, oh, you're saying this wrong. >> reporter: maria, as we'll call her, was sent to the united states when she was six months old, illegally by her mother was unmarried, uneducated and barely surviving by cleaning houses in mexico. >> i'm just like any other teenager trying to succeed in life. trying to go for my goals. >> reporter: now maria is thriving at hollywood high but facing an uncertain future. she can't afford college and her illegal status blocks her from receiving most financial aid. >> i tried so hard, and to think that i won't be able to go on because i don't have the money for it? >> reporter: but most of the students say they relish being in this true melting pot, including alex mashenski whose

parents are from russia and ukraine. >> i learned how to talk with different people, and maybe in the future, i could help maybe get a job. >> we tried to make you at home. it doesn't matter where you come from, it doesn't matter what you believe in, because we believe that everybody needs an education. ♪ >> reporter: and a chance, perhaps, at being a star. casey wian, cnn, los angeles. talk about a remarkable discovery. this group of russian scientists have revived a plant that's been frozen since the time of the woolly mammoth. the plant's seeds were buried deep in the ground for 35 years. how in the world is it even possible? >> scientists digging down in the permafrost find burroughs from squirrels from 30,000 years

ago. these plants are still in their that the squirrels didn't eat. they take them to the lab, they find the placenta part, the tissue of the middle. you couldn't just plant the seeds. they would have rotted. >> the central part of the seed. >> and they took it almost like science fiction. this is like, i'm thinking here come the dinosaurs. they probably tried to do this years ago with the woolly mammoth. it didn't work. the dna had broken down. they planted the seed that it made. they grew a real plant. took those seeds from that plant, planted it again and now a 30,000-year-old far extinct gone plant that doesn't exist anymore. >> is this the first? >> they did something like this with a date seed back in 2000, but this is by far the oldest

seed that's ever been revived. >> 30,000 years. that's wild. >> the woolly mammoth is coming next. >> you got very excited. so did i. now this. because i'm a conservative republican, and now they think that somehow there's hipocrisy because i'm gay. i've never worn it on my sleeve. >> a sheriff is outed because he threatened to deport a former lover. but first we showed you those pictures from new orleans a second ago. it's fat tuesday. happy mardi gras to you. while you're out and about celebrating the last hours ahead of your linton fast, here's a look at america's fattest cities. number 5, tampa, florida. gosh, i was just there recently and the food was mighty good. number 4 here, good barbecue. memphis, tennessee. number 3, cleveland, ohio. so could you be living in one of the top two fattest cities in

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we showed you the 5, 4 and 3 fattest cities in america. who has the largest waistlines? coming in at number 2, detroit, michigan. and the number 1 city, according to men's fitness magazine, houston, texas. the magazine blames the heat and the long commute for a sedentary lifestyle. to arizona we go now. prominent sheriff and rising star paul babou is responding to claims that he threatened to have his ex-boyfriend deported. all of these allegations came to

a head last week when these photos were given to an arizona paper. we spoke exclusively to the ex who is identified only as jose. >> do you think he was trying to make you leave the country? >> maybe. he just, what i think he just want me to keep me as far as, so i don't say anything about him or about his behavior. >> now sheriff babou is responding. he spoke with wolf blitzer, told him that the claims were both politically motivated and embarrassing. >> this has been trying to get rolled out by numerous political opponents and now it has, under this slanderous, baseless attack, and all of a sudden everybody reports it as if it were true from this tabloid. and nobody has verified any of the facts. >> he said there were phone calls and text messages where you were supposedly threatening

him. >> this is documented as well. i said, how do you think you're going to do a business? he had a business on line. he stole my web site and put slanderous information on my web sites. how can anybody expect to do business? because i have lawful authority for arrest, there was no arrest, there was no lawful authority. i did what you and most other citizens would have done. went to an attorney, the attorney handled the matter. i thought it was done, and now as i'm approaching five months into this election, i'm ten points ahead in the poll over an incumbent member of congress, and all this stuff comes out. >> now, babeu went on to also address why he decided to step down as mitt romney's arizona campaign co-chair. here's what he said. >> explain why you decided to step down as co-chairman of the romney campaign here in arizona if you've done nothing wrong? why did you step down? >> one, i didn't want this to splash over onto mitt or any of the other campaigns. >> what's that, this campaign or

the fact that you're gay? >> certainly not that i'm gay. the romney campaign, and i don't think anybody should have a problem with my personal life or who i am. it doesn't take away from my patriotism or my service, and if you asked my of the candidates, i don't think they would disagree with that. >> babeu said he didn't have the authority to deport anyone and that jose was living in the u.s. legally. just a year ago, chris brown was not allowed anywhere near rihanna after he was accused of beating her up. but now, the exes are back together at least in the studio, and the lyrics have everybody talking. we're going to get your thought on this, next. ♪ thank you. [ cellphone rings ] working on it. ♪ hi. hi. how are you? [ female announcer ] outlast your day, any day,

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trending today, the rumors are true. chris brown and rihanna are back together, at least musically speaking here, folks. the former couple is reuniting on two songs, and they tweeted each other at length to the tracks yesterday which was also rihanna's 24th birthday, and that has fueled speculation that the two are also dating again. but don't forget, let me take you back to 2009, that infamous fight. chris brown beat her so badly he left her looking like this. take a look at this with me. tmz obtained this photo from the night of the altercation and it's an image burned in a lot of people's minds. brown did plead guilty to felony assault. he completed six months of community service and an anger

management class. he is now serving five years probation. and while rihanna may have forgiven him, and who knows if she has or not, many in the public cannot. is that fair? wendy walsh, co-host of "the doctors," wendy, can a person with a history of abuse ever truly be rehabilitated? >> certainly one single person can, and that's got to be a person with a tremendous amount of willpower. unfortunately, though, brooke, a lot of the studies on rapes -- going back to domestic violence again after treatment are pretty high for a lot of people. it talskes a long time. it's like being an addict, in a way, you fight it for life. going back to the same triggers, like the original relationship that may have caused it, it puts you in a dangerous, vulnerable zone. >> the other thing a lot of us

were talking about on our team this morning was just the sheer age when this happened. i know a lot of our viewers have kids that age. chris brown, who was just 19 at the time. he completed this anger management class, but is it especially difficult for a person, wendy, in their teens, maybe early 20s, to move past this? is it more difficult or more easy? >> the thing we have to remember is there is no one kind of domestic violence perpetrator. there obviously is the classic profile. you'll hear of somebody who is controlling and intimidating and bullying and uses violence to control his relationship because maybe he has low self-esteem. or she, because either gender can be violent in relationships. >> absolutely. >> but then there's the one who just has an impulsive rage. when they get overwhelmed with stress, their body in an i impulsive way, almost a

reptilian way, they lash out. that almost comes back to something personal with them. >> i always wonder, were they involved at all in some abuse as a child? it could be mom or dad, abuse goes both ways. and something chris said about his family life as a child. he spoke to giant magazine. i'm going to quote him. he's talking about his stepfather. quote, he made me terrified all the time, terrified like i had to pee on myself. i know one night he made her nose -- bleebleed, referring to mother. i was crying and thinking, i'm just gonna go crazy on him one day. is it domestic violence against domestic violence? >> yes, this is a family circle of domestic violence. it's very tragic. i know it's hard for a lot of people in the public who saw those pictures of rihanna to be able to forgive.

but you have to understand that even domestic violence perpetrators have been victims themselves, and it's about who is going to stop and break that cycle and do the work. at least so far we see that chris brown has done everything he was supposed to do. his six months of community service. i'm sure the court appointed him a full year of anger management therapy, that's usually what they give, and that's the minimum. and i assume he's going to continue on. i don't suggest that the two of them get back together ro mantically because the triggers might be there and might be just too great, but you've got to give it to him for doing the work and trying to make the effort, especially in the public eye where he is being shamed and rid kuiculed by everybody. >> he is being shamed and ridiculed, but now that they're collaborating musically, i heard someone say this morning, i am not buying another rihanna cd, because of this collaboration. all we know so far is it's musical. what do you make of that? people are outraged over this. >> i think there are a lot of people in america who had

injuries themselves, so it's easy to project onto some celebrity and say, i hate that person, when really they hate what happened in their own life. it's important to go tie place of forgiveness. here's this man who has done everything he's supposed to, apologizing to her, apologize to go his fans, doing the community work, doing the therapy. are we saying he can never have a relationship or be a father because of this one incident? some people may believe that. i believe there is room for forgiveness. >> wendy walsh, thank you. a school district is strapped for cash yet taxpayers are buying plastic surgery for teachers. plastic surgery. gary tuckman has the story. >> reporter: this buffalo plastic surgeon has a lot of happy patients. >> let's just suppose that i was a woman who weighed over 300 pounds and i lost maybe 150 or

160 pounds. >> reporter: indeed, that's what happened to buffalo schoolteacher valerie akaloa. it's not just the results that make her happy. it's the sweet deal that she gets. the sweet deal that all the 3400 teachers in buffalo are eligible to get. under one of their insurance plan options, they're billed nothing for one plastic surgery procedure like botox, tummy tucks. and there is no deductible. linda botar teaches second grade and says she gets regular treatments. >> i wouldn't want to see it another way. >> reporter: dr. colette bangou has been a plastic surgeon in buffalo for about 40 years. >> reporter: i feel the teachers have been given a gift and it would be wrong to take it from them. >> reporter: the school insurance covers every single

penny. >> reporter: they would come in for, like, hair removal on their lips, face -- >> do they also come in for liposuction? >> yes. >> breast enhancement? >> yes, they do. >> facelift? >> yes. >> whiryahinrhinoplasty? >> yes. >> so it's busy? >> yes. >> reporter: last year the school spent $9 million on plastic surgery. the buffalo teachers have had this rider for nearly four decades. >> i have been unable to identify another district that has a cosmetic surgery rider for schoolteachers. >> reporter: you would think they would be flush with cash to offer perks like plastic surgery, right? wrong. roger from the board of education says he's projecting a deficit in next year's budget. >> if you had that mo