"the next list." for more on this episode and other agents of change go to cnn.com/thenextlist and on facebook at facebook.com/the next list. also my life stream, cnn.com/sanjay. thanks so much for watching. i'm dr. sanjay gupta. see you next sunday right here on "the next list." you're until cnn newsroom. this is sunday, march 4th. i'm fredricka whitfield. >> a painful day of cleanup as survivors of a deadly storm system battled grief and immense piles of rubble. the death toll has risen to 37. the national guard is helping with the cleanup and providing security patrols in at least four of the hardest hit states. live coverage from the devastated town in just a moment.

president barack obama says the united states is committed to standing by israel. he talked to the largest american jewish lobbying group today amid concern from israel about where the u.s. stands on threats from iran. the president said while he prefers peace, the possibility of military action is not off the table. >> israel and the united states have an interest in seeing this challenge resolved diplomatically. after all, the only way to truly solve this problem is for the iranian government to make a decision to forsake nuclear weapons. a vintage helicopter in flight during the shooting of a television show crashes and amazingly no one is killed or even hurt. it happened in arizona. >> oh, my god! >> the pilot and crewmen on

board that vintage military chopper were able to walk away. the aircraft was being filmed for an episode of top gear korea. the cause of the crash is still under investigation. in selma, alabama, today a huge crowd will walk across the edman pettis bridge to commet rate the day known as bloody sunday, the day in march when alabama state troopers and local deputies attacked civil rights marchers. back to our coverage of communities struggling after being hit last week by a deadly storm system. ♪ amazing grace how sweet the sound ♪ >> today, on this sunday, prayer in henryville, indiana. parishioners were giving thanks. >> thank you for our community. thank you for our loved ones.

thank you for the hands we hold every week as we seek your direction and will. god, thank you, that you supply not open our physical needs but emotional, spiritual needs. >> in hard hit west liberty, kentucky, homeowners are being allowed back into their town for the first time today. cnn's jim spellman just toured the devastated area. jim, what are residents in for? >> right now, they've finished the first phase of this operation which was search and rescue. last night they wrapped that up. they didn't find anybody after the initial storm. next step getting rid of this debris. take a look at this. there's barely can you walk 20 feet where you don't find this kind of destruction around here. they need to get all of this cleared out and the next thing they need to do is get electricity back into this town. there hasn't been electricity or cell service. you can see the power lines here that were knocked down in the storm.

but already look at this, a brand new power pole going up. this town is still on lock down, not letting people into the heart of the city. we have seen some people coming back on the outskirts, stunned when they see the level of destruction. they've been gone since after the storm. stunning to see houses gone, sometimes the pile of debris is across the street from where the house began. really an intense emotional experience for the people coming back. >> so when are people allowed to head back in? >> here in the heart of west liberty, it could be a couple more days. it's not safe to be in here with this destruction around. they can't have anybody in there. national guard troops and state troopers here trying to be sure that also there's no looting. fortunately only three ways in and out of this town, easy to keep it locked down. they want the message do not come back at this point. people are spread throughout this county. mostly staying with family members. barely anybody in the shelters.

they feel like everybody is safe and sound. that's where they want them to stay. >> thanks so much, jim spellman, appreciate that. let's talk to jacqui jeras about what may be on the horizon. a lot of folks are still out of their homes but while the big storm system is out of the way, there's yet something else that's moving in in the form of cold temperatures. >> yeah. cold temperatures and even some snow and some light rain. even in west liberty there was snowflakes flying there earlier this morning and they're going to see some occasional snow showers. this isn't a major storm. no severe weather is expected. but it kind of complicates things. if there is anything that's out there that people are still trying to clean up it needs to be sealed in plastic bags. see the radar picture. and in eastern kentucky, for example, west liberty where you saw jim, that was a powerful tornado that moved through. they'll see occasional snow showers. light rain moving into southern illinois. if you remember, harrisburg tornado, that caused so much devastation there, so some wet

weather coming in those areas as well and indiana, they're doing okay at this time in terms of active weather but you can see that moisture heading their way, looking for a little rain, changing over to snow tonight. winter weather advisories have been issued in some of the areas. accumulations will be around one to three inches. even for people who didn't have so much damage to their homes, a lot of folks still don't have power. and that's a great concern when you're talking about snow moving in and temperatures which are going to be dropping be lo the freezing mark. for tonight here's the clipper. you can see it's moving through very quickly and by tomorrow it's going to be out of there and they're going to be looking for improving conditions. your current temperatures right now into the 40s and 50s across the region but if you look at the overnight lows, yeah, we got upper 20s and lower 30s around there. >> thanks so much. appreciate that. news from overseas now, an apparent big win for vladimir putin. it is election day in russia and early exit poll results show putin with more than 63% of the

vote and if that percentage holds, he'll avoid a runoff and win a six-year term. putin served as russia's president from 2000 to 2008. two passenger trains collided head-on in southern poland. 16 people were killed including an american citizen. at least 60 others are hurt. and more deadly fighting all over syria. at least 15 people were reportedly killed across the country today. and also today, israel is offering humanitarian assistance to people of syria. and a frightening scene in southwest china. several small children were buried in the rubble of a house that suddenly collapsed. firefighters dug through bricks and wreckage with their bare hands and pulled out three kids. one of them just 4 years old. they were all taken to a local hospital. we're counting down the

hours to super tuesday in this country as four contenders travel to ten states. former gop presidential candidate michele bachmann tells me how tough the campaign trail can be and if she'll endorse one particular person.

republican presidential hopeful mitt romney relishing a win in saturday's caucus and a

big endorsement today that comes from house majority leader eric cantor speaking on nbc's "meet the press" he said romney is the only candidate who's put forth a bold pro growth, pro jobs plan for america. former gop presidential contender michelle bachmann says she isn't ready to make an endorsement yet. i spoke with the congresswoman today about the tightening race and she says she's certain voters will unite behind a candidate well before june and send that person to the white house and also talked about how tough the campaign trail can be. >> it's a very difficult process. it's a process that really beats the snout out of candidate that decides to run. i think that's a good thing because we want whoever the nominee is to be at the top of their game they'll need to debate the president of the united states to be the next president of the united states and these are crucial issues at a crucial time. >> she's not willing to say who

she thinks that could be. she did tell me whatever happens comes the super tuesday races might whittle things down but sees this is going to be a long primary caucus season. be sure to join later on today for the contenders, the 2012 contenders, 4:00 eastern time to hear more from michele bachmann and others. tuesday is the single biggest voting day in the republican race for president. 419 delegates in ten states up for grabs. could it push one candidate out of the running and propel another frontrunner to frontrunner status. joining us is paul stein highser. a lot at stake. 419 delegates. are the candidates spending i guess the last few hours in some particular pivotal state this is. >> yeah. i guess not all states are created equal on super tuesday. the 419 delegates, more than a third of the delegates you need, 1,144 to clench the nomination. this is more than we've had on

all the nights so far put together. that's why this is important. and where are they spending their time important states like ohio, georgia today, mitt romney in georgia, not far from here in atlanta, tennessee, even oklahoma. i think those four are standing out more than the rest. >> there's new polls that are out indicating it's still a tight race in some portions and then others there may be a break through. >> let's start with ohio. brand new poll from nbc news/maris and this is about as close as you can get. rick santorum at 36%, mitt romney at 32%. another poll that came out in ohio had the same story. santorum had a little lead in ohio it is gone and dead even. such an important state. not only in the primaries but also in the general election. ohio such a big battleground state. let's go to a poll down here in georgia if we have that. it just came out here. and well, look who's on top by double digits. >> he's counting on that and said that a number of times. i need to win my home state. >> or else. >> i guess this is good news for newt gingrich.

>> even if he wins one state, georgia. >> is that enough? >> is that enough to make you a viable candidate? someone who has the staying power through the spring or summer? >> it may be for him to continue a while longer but if he doesn't i don't know how you continue. he's putting all his effort here. one more to tennessee. just to the north of the west of us. another state really interesting. this is a real good southern state to look at. a lot of delegates at state. doesn't have the gingrich factor, much more wide open. santorum did have a lead there. it has dissipated now basically dead even between him and romney. in tennessee, georgia and oklahoma social conservative voters so important. sachb santorum really appeals to a lot of those. >> see you again in the 4:00 eastern hour and talk about the race for the white house. thanks so much. of course, super tuesday. march 6th, a couple days away at 12:00 eastern time. wolf blitzer and cnn's political team will host a new program for the day, cnn election round

table a live insider chat about the day's implications for the presidential race. go to cnn.com/roundtable to get a preview. straight ahead tax advice that could help you avoid an audit by the irs. straight ahead, if perhaps you have a home office or deduct business dinners on your tax returns, we'll tell you how to avoid eight tax pitfalls. just wanted to check and make sure that we were on schedule. the first technology of its kind... mom and dad, i have great news. is now providing answers families need. siemens. answers.

all right. tax time. you have just over five weeks until your return is due. what can you do to avoid an irs audit. according to learn vest.com. there are eight things to flag your return for an uds it. reporting the wrong taxable income for starters. trying to deduct a lavish steak dinner with clients as a business expense. deducting your car as a business expense when you also take the kids to soccer and run errands and making errors like filing the wrong deductions or math errors. those could trigger an audit. what are the other four tax audit triggers? alexa, ceo of learnvest.com a personal finance and lifestyle website for women joining us now. good to see you. nobody wants to be audited. >> nice to see you. >> let's talk about -- >> no, they don't. >> talk about some of the other audit triggers.

say, for instance, you make donations all year long, but if you have a small budget, there has to be some real quill lib brum here. you can't have huge donations and small budget. explain. >> that's exactly right. here's when it's perfectly okay. say this year you donate write a check to your alma mater and lose your job, you're not triggering something that seems odd. what does seem odd say you write off your 1995 camry you donated for $15,000. large donations like that when not making a lot of money trigger the irs's attention and the take away here if you're going to donate anything over $500 you're going to need to fill out form 8283 to ultimately substantiate that donation so just make sure the dollars make sense. >> what about your home office, a lot of people work from home and want to deduct that work space from their home expenses

can you do that? >> you can do that. here's again when it's perfectly okay. say you have a home office where your computer is, office supplies, and here's the key, where you do the majority of your work. what does not make a home office the laptop in the corner of your living room you work on from time to time watching tv at night. it's important this is one that again the irs pays a lot of attention to. and if you have any questions about whether or not you have a home office, check out irs publication 587 on their website read through it and they have a nifty flow chart that helps walk through a series of questions to ultimately tell you if you're on the up and up and can claim a home office. >> a big red flag is when all your numbers seem to look perfectly perfect. there are no cents, everything is dollars, all rounded off. that's a red flag. i thought you do that for the sheer idea of convenience.

>> here's why that's a big red flag. here's when it's perfectly okay. if you're going to round a dollar amount, let's say $6,301.25 to just 6,301, that's okay. what's not okay and again, not rocket science here, the irs will pay a lot of attention if all of your numbers on your tax form are rounded to the nearest hundred or thousand or 50. if everything looks tidy and your numbers convenient they're going to wonder if you've just made things up but if you're not keeping really good records and again they want you keeping the best records possible. just use the actual numbers and if you need to round to the nearest dollar that's okay but be careful about rounding other numbers. >> a business losing money? >> so again, if you have a business and here's when it's okay to claim a business that's losing money. if you have a business that is legally set up as a business where you run it like a business and intend to be profitable and

happen to have a bad year or two where you're going to claim losses that's okay. what's not okay when you have a business you think of as a business that's not set up as a business that maybe is more of a hobby for you, so let's say fixing antique bicycles or running a small vineyard business or cup cake business you don't have set up like a business and not intended to be profitable, and you claim losses against that. so the real take away there, make sure you have a legal business set up as a big and that the real way to think about it, it has to be profitable three out of five years to be qualified as a business. >> all right. how likely are tax audits? people can expect one out of a few thousand will likely get audited? >> the way to think about that is, if you let's say as of 2011 make more than $200,000, one in 25 people were audited. if you made less than $200,000 one in 98 people were audited. as much a recent cnn money article over the last three years the irs increased their

audits and has been more vigilant to find tax fraud. it's not as unlikely as you think. >> is the rule still hold on to your tax returns, receipts and all that seven years? >> yes. as always. here's the most important take away. >> okay. >> make sure you've kept track of all of your forms as clearly as possible, kept them the a safe place, and if you've used an accountant they can represent you to the irs and if you've used a tax software like h&r block they can represent you to the irs. >> all right. >> make sure you keep all your forms safe. >> thanks so much. sorry to cut you off. running out of time. >> no worries. >> thank you. >> much more after this. the invention that i came up with is the hot dog ez bun steamer. steam is the key to a great hot dog. i knew it was going to be a success. the invention was so simple that i knew i needed to protect it. my name is chris schutte and i got my patent, trademark and llc on legalzoom. [ shapiro ] we created legalzoom to help people

start their business and launch their dreams. go to legalzoom today and make your business dream a reality. at legalzoom.com, we put the law on your side. chocolate lemonade ? susie's lemonade... the movie. or... we make it pink ! with these 4g lte tablets, you can do business at lightning-fast speeds. we'll take all the strawberries, dave. you got it, kid. we have a winner. we're definitely gonna need another one. small businesses that want to grow use 4g lte technology from verizon. i wonder how she does it. that's why she's the boss. because the small business with the best technology rules. contact the verizon center for customers with disabilities at 1-800-974-6006.

as cnn reporters and producers we have the inside scoop on great places to go. brianna keilar shows us where she goes to unwind. >> i'm brianna keilar and i cover the white house for cnn. one of my favorite places in the d.c. area is old town alexandria, virginia. about 7 1/2 miles south of the white house. a place you can come and get a great meal, do a little shopping and get a history lesson. this is after all the hometown of george washington and here at the old presbyterian meeting house you can find the gravesite of his personal physician james craig. it's a little spooky, one of the stops on the ghost tour here in town. but i say we get out of here and go find some other spirits. >> this is one of my favorite places to end the evening, the px speak easy. completely unmarked. the blue light means that they're open. you can knock on the door and

come in. when you get upstairs at the x you might be lucky enough to show up on a night where todd thrasher and owner and bartender is here to mix you a drink. so what are we having tonight? >> what are you in the mood for, rum, vodka, g ishin. >> let's try gin. >> this is the leblanc, fortified from france, dash of gin, three drops of citric at sid, little ice, be stir 30 times, not that i'm counting, smack it wave it, cocktail gods, sweet basil. >> that's amazing. cheers from old town, alexandria, virginia. imagine if you could always see life [music] in the best light. every time of day.

outdoors, or in. transitions® lenses automatically filter just the right amount of light. so you see everything the way it is meant to be seen. maybe even a little better. experience life well lit, ask for transitions adaptive lenses.

after sharp criticism from the left and the right conservative talk show host rush limbaugh apologizes for offending a georgetown law student. in a statement limbaugh says quoting here my choice of words was not the best and in the attempt to be humorous, i created a national stir. i sincerely ap apologize to miss fluke for the word choices. i'm fredricka whitfield. i'll be back in one hour, a couple days away interest super tuesday. i spoke with former president candidate michele bachmann hear her answers about the campaign and her strong opinions about how the u.s. should be protecting israel. our conversation coming up. right now, it's time for your money right after this.