a confident retirement. those dreams have taken a beating lately. but no way we're going to let them die. ♪ ameriprise advisors can help keep your dreams alive like they helped millions of others. by listening. planning. working one on one. that's what ameriprise financial does. and that's what they can do with you. that's how ameriprise puts more within reach. ♪ the rush in the u.s. housing market is hard to argue against. new home sales surged in january up 29% from a year ago. prices are rising. that's right. home prices are rising. home prices rose 7.3% overall

last year. meanwhile, existing housing inventory is drying up. nationwide the amount of top tier properties listed on zil w zillow.com saw a 20.5% decrease which is part of the reason remodeling activity is making a comeback. if you are buying, selling or staying put, you need to be smart if you're spending more money in your home. how did this, start with this? >> we have four children and the reridge -- refrigerator was small. it turned into a family room and laundry room and upstairs the bedroom that's being expanded. >> as the housing market has bounce ed back homeowners feel good about putting money into their home. it hit the highest level in six years. >> when we figured out what the

addition was going to cost, my husband said maybe we should just move. so this summer we looked at everything in town. anything i could afford, mine was better. anything i loved, i couldn't afford. >> the decision to move or renovate is never easy or cheap. not all pay the same returns. did you know most renovations don't return your entire investment. building an attic bedroom, a minor kitchen remodel or upgrading to vinyl siding. those return more than 70% of your cost. on the other hand, look at backup generators, sunroom additions, home office remodel, those recoup half of what they cost when it comes time to sell. >> kitchens and baths are attractive rooms. they are the rooms that buyers look at and pay a lot of attention to and an upgrade in one of those rooms can make a big difference in resale value

of the house. >> if you plan to sell, focus on basics. >> anything that has to do with the systems of the house. the mechanical systems, hvac, heating, air conditioning, good roofing, good siding, good windows, all of that is taken for granted. if they need upgrade, you want to do those first. >> if you plan to stay, focus on things that improve your quality of life. >> long-term goal over short-term goal is important. if you plan to be here for 20 to 30 years, just put the improvements in that make you enjoy your home. >> no matter the intention, remodeling is tough. >> it's not convenient at all. i keep saying eye on the prize. it will be fantastic. you do what you got to do. >> the dow hit a record high this week but do you feel any richer? find you the on facebook and twitter.

then join me again right here back at 1:00 p.m. eastern for "your money today" where ali velshi finds out if rudy giuliani is ready to make another run for the white house. >> i did try it once and it didn't work. >> that's history. what's the future? >> i was moderate on social issues. >> you haven't changed on that front. >> i haven't changed at all. i've become more moderate. >> isn't that likely -- if republican party stands a chance to win -- >> you want to know what i think? >> what does he think? you'll have to tune in. "cnn saturday morning" continues now. good morning, everyone. i'm brianna keilar in for randi kaye. >> i'm victor blackwell. we start this morning with good news for the northeast. good news. you know that violent winter storm, it's moving out into the atlantic. but not before causing all kinds of problems for residents who

already have seen lots of snow this year. the late winter storm dumped more than a few headaches on parts of new england but it wasn't just snow. look at this. a house blown off its foundation on massachusetts plum island. high tide brought extremely high waves to the coastline and that caused flooding. this cnn ireport was sent to us from nantucket island. >> we're here two hours after high tide. again, all of lower easy street is flooded. >> to the north the story was snow. lots of it. more than a foot fell in some areas. travel was almost impossible and thousands of people lost power. >> i'm done with the snow. after the last one, it really beats you up. >> some people use the storm as a chance to make money but the majority of people seem to have had enough of winter. >> i'm done with it. i've had enough. ready for spring.

>> i'm a fair weather boy. i like 90-degree weather. >> it's supposed to warm up but not to 90 degrees. the northeast is going to get a nice weekend. the sun expected to make an appearance and temperatures in boston and new york are expected to creep into the 50s by monday. >> i'll take it. that's an improvement. as the weather improves, air travel in the northeast is getting back to normal. that winter storm canceled almost 700 flights across the region. other flights arrived at newark an average of four hours late. that is not a fun day. new york's laguardia and logan airport in boston also had significant delays. now, we are following breaking news out of cleveland where a dump truck is hanging off of a pedestrian bridge. >> take a look. according to cleveland police, the dump truck was pulling a trailer along interstate 90, hit the bridge, which flipped the truck over. now police have shut down i-90 in both directions. they have to clear this accident.

they tell us that there are no injuries. delta air lines is pushing back against a new rule that lets passengers carry small pocket knives on airplanes. ceo richard anderson says lifting the knife ban, which was in place after 9/11, is not worth the risk. those are his words. meanwhile, the president of a second flight attendants union says the change "makes no sense." this takes effect april 25th. a surprise jump in the number of americans hired last month sent the unemployment rate falling to its lowest level since 2008. 236,000 americans got jobs according to the latest report. that brought the jobless rate down to 7.7%. two of the bright spots in the report construction hiring and jobs in health care. the white house is cheering the uptick in job numbers as you can imagine but it is also warning it could be short lived. >> neither democrats nor republicans seem to be declaring

sund surrender on the forced budget cuts. jim accosta is at the white house. jim, good morning. >> reporter: brianna and victor, after positive jobs numbers came out, white house officials certainly have a spring in their step but they are well aware there are plenty of obstacles that still exist that could trip up this recovery. after the latest jobs report found the nation's unemployment rate had dipped to levels not seen since before president obama took office, the white house wanted to know one thing. where were all of the questions about the good news? >> i suspect the jobs numbers have been different it would have taken less than four people to ask me about them. that's the nature of our work i think here. >> reporter: the obama administration warns don't get too excited. the report does not account for automatic budget cuts that just took effect. >> democrats and republicans agree the sequester is going to have a negative impact on job creation. >> reporter: which makes president obama's latest outreach to republicans all the

more important. a charm offensive that just so happened to coincide with a secret dinner the first couple had with bill and hillary clinton more than a week ago. the clintons have their own history of brinkmanship with the gop in the '90s. >> did former president clinton mention that as advice to the new president that outreach would be a good thing. >> they enjoyed the meal and conversation. in terms of the president's bipartisan outreach, that is something that started before that dinner. >> reporter: whenever it started, one top republican urged the president to keep it up. >> this is a change that i think we should encourage whether it's motivated for all sorts of reasons we don't understand or not. >> reporter: more budget drama could be on the horizon. republican senator marco rubio told a conservative radio host he may not sign on the latest temporary spending bill aimed at keeping the government running. >> i voted for the first continuing resolution and then i announced that it is the last stop gap member that i'm going to vote for. i will only vote here on on

something serious. >> reporter: asked whether that means he may filibuster the bill, a spokesperson says we're reviewing our legislative options. back at the white house where officials say the automatic cuts are forcing them to cancel all public tours starting this weekend, visitors are losing their patience. >> i just think it's unfair because it's supposed to be government for the people and by taking away the tours, they don't let people see the government. >> reporter: they are conducting business in secret holding meetings that officials won't talk until well after they happen. the obama administration is evolving in the second term but doing so cautiously and quietly. >> jim accosta reporting for us at the white house, thank you, sir. chuck hagel says today's bombing attack in the afghan capital demonstrates it's a war zone. a suicide bombing at the afghan defense minutistry in kabul.

it happened just hours after hagel arrived in afghanistan. he was at a briefing a mile from the blast and was not injured. the taliban claimed responsibility and says the blast is a message for hagel. the vatican says the election to pick the next leader of the catholic church begins tuesday. 115 cardinals will start this closed door process with a mass and then enter the sistine chapel and stay there until a new pope is chosen. they finished installing a special chimney and we'll know when the cardinals have decided on the next pope when white smoke comes out of that chimney. venezuela has a new leader temporarily. nicolas maduro has been sworn in. a new president will be voted for in 30 days. fighting as a woman but born a man. is it fair? we'll put that question to one of the opponents of a transgender mma fighter.

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blast of cold feels nice. why don't you use bengay zero degrees? it's the one you store in the freezer. same medicated pain reliever used by physical therapists. that's chilly! [ male announcer ] bengay zero degrees. freeze and move on. last hour we told but a controversial story from the world of mixed martial arts. look at this knockout that's at the center of this debate. >> they both are back up on their feet. >> good throws and reversals by both fighters. >> the girls are getting right into it. fox. that's it. fallon fox. holy cow. >> wow. what a beautiful knee. beautiful tie clinch right to the chin. >> that was featherweight fallon fox kneeing erica newsom in the head to advance in florida's women's tournament last saturday. if you're a fan of maa, you have

seen knockouts like this before. the thing is that fox is competing as a woman but was born a man. fallon kept her history private until breaking the story to "sports illustrated's" loretta hunt this week explaining back in 2006 she went through gender reassignment surgery. fallon's last opponent who you saw in that video, erica newsom, joining me now along with her agent matthew hamilton and i'm joined by loretta hunt. erica, you did just get kneed to the chin just seven days ago. how are you doing? that looked pretty brutal. >> i feel fine. i fieel great. >> i know if you're an mma fighter, you're pretty tough. i wonder what you think in the wake of this. at the time of the fight you didn't know that fallon fox was born a man. now you know. do you think it was unfair that you didn't know that at the

time? >> unfair i didn't know but it didn't matter that she fought me. >> you don't think it matters? you don't think this is something that should have been disclosed? >> i feel that it should have been disclosed to me ahead of time. >> why do you think that's important for you or any other opponent of fox's to know? >> so we are aware and able to be better prepared for the situation. >> you think -- what do you think you need to be better prepared for? >> well just knowing that, you know -- help me here. >> she's trying to say knowing what you're getting into. not having any disclosure of something of that nature, you know, approximate it puts a lot of stress after the fight obviously as this story is breaking.

you know, it's something that the managers know they should disclose in which they didn't. >> loretta, you have done a lot of stories on mma fights. this isn't a new issue but it is to mma. this isn't a new issue for athletics. the international olympic committee has tackled this issue. the ncaa has put in place standards for exactly how transgender athletes can compete. what is the situation for the mma? are there any standards? >> there actually are guidelines, recommended guidelines that were produced last july by the associate of boxing commissions. so state commissions can take these guidelines and adopt them into their own set of rules. at the moment fallon is active. she's an active licensee in florida. they haven't frozen her license. however, i believe when she is presented again and she does have a fight lined up there, i

believe they will probably ask to have these transgender policies put into place so she can be tested adequately to make sure the health and safety of both fighters is set. >> do you think other fighters who find themselves in erica's position, do you think they're going to agree to go in the ring with fallon? >> it remains to be seen. i think it was a shock in the first couple of days because we've never had a transgender t athlete come out in mixed martial arts. at first there was hesitation. i know that a ufc fighter came out saying i would have no problem fighting fallon. i think it's just a new concept. i think as information is being disseminated, i suspect and i hope that other female athletes will want to fight fallon because she's a worthy opponent. >> the issue here is people wondering, critics, they wonder if there's an advantage, of course, that fallon fox having

been born a man even though she's had gender assignment surgery and gone through hormone replacement, she has advantage for being a man. the ioc put in place a policy that says if you have gone through the surgery and a couple years of hormone replacement therapy, they feel that you erase the advantage. do you think we'll see something maybe like that being clearer or accepted among the community, loretta? >> absolutely. the abc guidelines which are already set, they're the recommended guidelines that any athletic commission can start to incorporate into their own guidelines is very similar to what you just stated with ioc. in fact, in mixed martial arts you don't have to get surgery. that's not a requirement. however, the two years of hormone therapy, whether it comes after the surgery or it's just on its own, that must be done and you must be tested throughout the two years by a board certified internist and those papers must be submitted

to the athletic commission for review. >> to you, erica and matthew, will you appeal this loss to get it off your record or if not, would you take on fallon fox again? >> definitely. definitely. we would love a rematch. actually, we are appealing with the athletic commission not on that basis. the basis because if you do watch the fight from multiple angles, you'll see she takes a grazed knee to the chin but she took no real damage. she didn't get knocked out. she didn't go to sleep. she didn't go cattonic. she slipped upon impact. it looked like the knee rocked her but she popped right back up and if you noticed, the referee looks at fallon and looks at newsom and looks at fallon and looks at newsom and waves off the fight. she walks away before even confirming the fight is over.

these are professional athletes. they get paid to get hit and take a beating. just because they're female, you can't take one little clip and say, okay, you know, the fight is over. if you ask erica, she'll tell you, i mean, were you in any time damaged? did you get hurt? did you get knocked out? >> no. >> no. so they should have let the fight go. she should have thrown at least one to two more shots to confirm it. on that particular basis, that's one of the things we'll appeal with as well as not having it disclosed. >> we'll be looking for that to see what the decision is and also if there is a rematch that would be of course very interesting. erica newsom, matthew hamilton, loretta hunt, thanks for joining us. >> thank you for having me. another close encounter relatively speaking. an asteroid skimming by earth this morning. we'll tell you just how close just ahead.

for the more than 400,000 children living in foster care, the small things that can make a big difference in their life are often just out of reach. this week's cnn hero is trying to help change one wish at a

time. meet daniel gluto. i've been in and out of foster care for most of my life. when you move from place to place, you don't really get the same connections that your peers have. you get very insecure. you don't think that people really care about your desires and wishes. >> when i became a foster parent, i realized a lot of these children decide that it's not worth wishing anymore because it isn't going to happen. people have made promises to them that they haven't kept. do you want to take any of the babies? >> sure. >> here you go. >> that's cute. >> everything's brand new. i thought, how do we give them the feeling that people are out there that care about you even if you've never met them? my name is danielle gletow, and i've helped wishes come true for thousands of foster children all over the country. anybody, anywhere, any time can look at hundreds of wishes from children in foster care working on auditioning for a play, he needs the radio to practice with his audition cd.

wishes are as unique as the children who make them. and so personal. >> yay! >> isn't that beautiful? >> yes. >> these small things make an enormous difference in the life of a child. it's really just a kid being a kid. >> my wish was for a suit so that i could attend a family member's funeral. it meant a lot that someone took the time and knew that that was important. >> this looks awesome. when a child's wish is granted, we are reassuring them that their voices are being heard. >> i love you. >> that there is this big world out there that just want to wrap their arms around them and protect them. and we need to all step up and do that. [ nurse ] i'm a hospice nurse. britta olsen is my patient. i spend long hours with her checking her heart rate,

administering her medication, and just making her comfortable. one night britta told me about a tradition in denmark, "when a person dies," she said, "someone must open the window so the soul can depart." i smiled and squeezed her hand. "not tonight, britta. not tonight." [ female announcer ] to nurses everywhere, thank you, from johnson & johnson. [ female announcer ] to nurses everywhere, chances are, you're not made of money, so don't overpay for motorcycle insurance. geico, see how much you could save. as your life and career change, fidelity is there for your personal economy,

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[ male announcer ] engine light on? come to meineke now for a free code scan read and you'll say...my money. my choice. my meineke. there is a big party going on in austin, texas. thousands of people are there for this year's south by southwest festival. it is a meeting of the minds where music, film, and technology come together. our entertain correspondent is there to follow all the action this weekend. this is a bit of a star-studded event, right? >> reporter: oh, absolutely. by the way, because this is such a party here at south by southwest, the weather's getting yucky, so i moved into the party bus. that's where i'm talking from this morning. we talked last hour about steve carell, jim carrey, and olivia wilde, their new movie, "the incredible burt wonderstone." that's not the en