the cause of death, and it also told us some things that couldn't have happened. the defendant, on the other hand, insisted on an injury pattern that was not reflected on the body. and his story was inconsistent with reality, so that made it with reality, so that made it pretty straightforward. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com major developments overnight on flight 370. debris spotted and now, more information on just who had those passports. talks in crimea hit a diplomatic road block. the state department and vladimir putin now battling over even needing to discuss the future of ukraine. and with a referendum now just five days away, ukraine's ousted president speaking out. physically ill. oscar pistorius breaks down in court, even covers his ears as a doctor describes the injuries that ended his girlfriend's life after pistorius shot her.

>> dramatic. he is falling apart. >> absolutely. all right, good morning, everyone. welcome to "early start." great to see you this morning. i'm john berman. >> and i'm christine romans. it's tuesday, march 11th, 5:00 a.m. in the east. let's begin with breaking news miles per hour authorities in malaysia have now identified one of two passengers traveling with stolen passports on malaysian airlines flight 370. that plane with 239 people on board simply vanished four days ago on route to beijing from kuala lumpur, leaving investigators and loved ones desperate for answers. much more on the search in a moment, but first, let's go live to cnn's nic robertson live in london for us this morning with more on these mystery passengers. nic, what's the latest? >> reporter: christine, so much scrutiny on who was using those two stolen passports. now malaysian officials ident y identifying one of those passengers traveling on the austrian stolen passport as being puria miridad, a young

19-year-old iranian. it appears he was essentially seeking asylum. the reason they say they know this is because his mother was waiting for him in frankfurt. when his flight didn't arrive, she contacted authorities. but police are also saying that they don't believe that this young man is connected with terrorism. >> we believe that he is not likely to be a member of any terrorist group, and we believe that he is trying to migrate to germany. >> reporter: so, the police have released a photograph of this man, and they've also released a photograph of a second man who they say was traveling on the stolen italian passport. a picture uploaded to cnn's ireport late last night named that second person as somebody called reza. at the moment, we haven't been

able to name that down, but this upload to ireport also said this second passenger was also a young iranian. the photograph does show a young man. but again, all these elements we're trying to track down. and of course, we do know from yesterday that it was an iranian who purchased the tickets for these two young men traveling on the stolen passports, christine. >> certainly a mystery, and little pieces becoming clearer by the moment. thank you, nic robertson. >> even if that is cleared up, it doesn't solve the entire mystery of where flight 370 is right now. authorities have now expanded the search area beyond the plane's flight path as another reported debris sighting. they've seen large debris. they're sending ships and aircrafts out over the ocean to look for any more sign of this boeing 777. cnn's david mckenzie following that part of the story, live in beijing. david, what's the latest? >> reporter: well, the latest, john, is as you describe. they seem to have seen more debris in the ocean, but there

have been many false starts up to this point. dozens of ships and airplanes in the area, multinational effort, including u.s. navy, on the scene to try and find any sign of where this plane is. they say without finding any debris or those flight data recorders, they can't begin to solve what they're calling an incredible mystery. john? >> david, as you said, there have been these debris sightings before. that's got to be so hard on the families to have these moments of hope only to have them dashed, because so far, the debris's turned out to be nothing. they're out looking at one more spot right now. how are the families getting information? how are they getting the information they're asking for right now? >> reporter: well, john, the families are very frustrated. they're getting information from malaysian airlines here in beijing. hundreds of them in this hotel behind me. most of the passengers on board that ill-fated flight were chinese. now, today they're banning together, refusing initial financial assistance from malaysian airlines, and many of

them, despite the offer, don't want to leave china until that plane is found. i spoke to one counselor here. he said the most difficult thing is the not knowing, that unanswered question, the holding out on hope, even if hope is slim at this point. people still want to believe that their loved ones are alive, though as the hours tick by, incredibly unlikely that's the case. but that not knowing is really grating on the emotions of family members here in china and around the world. john? >> think of the confusion we all have right now, just how hard it must be on these families. david mckenzie for us in beijing, thanks for being with us. new developments in the legal battle over the nsa's surveillance of phone records. a federal judge in san francisco has now ordered the spy agency to preserve all of the metadata from its monitoring of u.s. phone traffic, to preserve it all, that just days after an intelligence court judge issued the opposite order, rejecting a government request to keep the data for more than five years. for now, the justice department says it will abide by the order to keep the materials.

nsa leaker edward snowden is defending his actions and calling for more public oversight of government spying. he was speaking to the south by southwest festival via video chat from russia. snowden said he had no regrets in stealing and then releasing thousands of pages of classified documents. >> so, when it comes to what i did, aga -- would i do this aga the answer is absolutely yes. as far as what happens to me, this is something we have a right to. i took an oath to support and defend the constitution, and i saw that the constitution was violated on massive scales. >> he spoke at the same time as south by southwest's lena dunham, and i was seeing tweets that lena dunham had a much higher turnout rate than snowden did. snowden did call on internet users to better protect their information. he was apparently routed through different servers to hide his location from the government. >> it was a warm reception from, as "usa today" put it, the scuffle

scuffly one in south by southwest. attorneys for two former chris christie staffers will be in court today trying to convince a judge why they shouldn't be forced to turn over text messages and other private communications related to the bridgegate scandal. bill stepien and bridget kelly say complying with subpoenas from state legislators carries the risk of self-incrimination. kelly was fired back in january after e-mails emerged linking her to the orchestrated lane closings at the george washington bridge, apparently as political payback. governor christie has denied any involvement. breaking overnight, congress now demanding answers from general motors about why it took the automaker nearly a decade to recall some 1.6 million vehicles with faulty ignition switches that have been linked to some 13 deaths now. the head of house energy and commerce committee say they plan to investigate and hold hearings on the slow recall. gm, in the meantime, has hired its own lawyers to lead what they call an internal investigation. happening right now, these are live pictures of the senate floor, where more than two dozen

senate democrats pulling an all-nighter in an effort to get congress to wake up to the danger of global warming. it's not any kind of filibuster. the senators concede that right now a climate bill would almost certainly fail. the marathon speech fest expected to continue until 9:00 eastern time. >> instead of putting actual legislation on the floor, they're talking all night. and they did quote dr. seuss again, which is always a good thing in congress. new details this morning of just how bad the winter has been for air travel. the four largest u.s. airlines say they had to cancel nearly 75,000 flights in just january and february this year. all of that the result of extreme weather that just shut down so much of this country. delta alone says the cancellations cost it some $90 million in lost revenue. >> well, we used to complain about sitting on the tarmac, right? then washington got involved and said you can't just keep people sitting on the tarmac, we're going to fine you. so, what do they do? they cancel flights at the first hint of bad weather, and there was plenty of bad weather. >> so you sit at the airports

instead of on the tarmac. >> right. >> well, as for that winter, at least for the time being, it's gone, right? feels like spring here in new york city. >> for now. >> which is fantastic, but i don't think it's going to last. is it, indra petersons? >> well, john, if you just want to look at today, here's the first number. just look at the 60, right? maybe you want to look at the rest of the week. >> no. >> look at this forecast. it's easy to see that bad boy, that blue, 20s in the forecast just two days away, and we are not alone. let's first talk about the good part, right? today it is beautiful out there because we're behind the warm front, meaning, yes, warm air kind of filling in from the south, but we know there's a cold front out there and another storm that's going to be changing all this, so we're not going to be the only ones talking about these temperatures that are really dipping down. today, though, enjoy it. cincinnati seeing 70s, 20 degrees above normal. new york city, 60s today, 12 degrees above normal. here's the roller coaster effect. it's going to be affecting a lot of you. chicago going down to the 20s already by tomorrow. d.c. 70s down to, what is that, 30s? yeah, there's a big ouch factor coming our way, and it's all thanks to this storm, expected

again today, kind of in the upper midwest, upper plains there, starting to make its way across. you'll see some snow, icing and rain farther to the south. as it makes its way across, eventually into the northeast wednesday night into thursday. the heaviest amounts of snow staying well to the north. several inches in the upper ohio valley, but vermont into maine seeing about a foot of snow. good news for now, the big cities, not here yet. >> but today it is warm. i'm running outside in shorts today, so -- >> focus on the 60s. >> let that be fair warning. i'm warning you right now that it's going to happen. be warned. fair warning. >> wear your sunglasses around john berman. thanks, indra. stocks around the globe really trying to recover from a bumpy start to the week. let me show you stocks in asia. they closed mostly higher. european stock markets up. things looking okay for the u.s. stocks as well in the early going looking higher. u.s. stocks ended wlolower on monday, down about 34 points, but they had been down 100 points with worries over china's state of economy. that sparked monday's selling.

the gloves are off. ceo of sprint's softbank says he wants a three-way heavyweight fight in the u.s. wireless carrier business. >> uh-oh. >> in an interview on charlie rose, the ceo said no deal has been made, but he would like to buy t-mobile and merge it with sprint. softbank acquired sprint last year. the ceo says if a deal were to be made, he would wage a massive price war against at&t and verizon. such a deal would likely face regulatory concerns. >> but that could be good news for consumers, right? >> interesting. that's right, and that's the important part of that story, is that's a good consumer -- that's good for consumers. >> drive down prices. >> absolutely. 11 minutes after the hour. investigators getting to the bottom of a scary bus accident here in new york city. look at this. the bus full of children was heading down a street. oh, man! you can just see it swiped monday afternoon by a taxi there. and then the bus wound up flipped on its side. you're looking at it right there. nine people, including six special needs students, were taken to the hospital. all of them, thankfully, expected to survive.

>> thank goodness. coming up, five days to go before crimea votes on joining russia permanently, and this morning, ukraine's ousted president is set to speak out about who he thinks is in the right. any guesses? >> yeah. >> we're live with the latest. and justin bieber at it again. look at that. you can just tell in this video of the pop star he's at a deposition. he's not happy with the questions. he's acting out. it's tuesday. we will show you more right after the break. dad, why are you getting that? is there a prize in there? oh, there's a prize, all right. [ male announcer ] inside every box of cheerios are those great-tasting little o's made from carefully selected oats that can help lower cholesterol. is it a superhero? kinda. ♪ kinda. everin a day is building up layer, upon layer, of bacteria. and to destroy those layers? you need listerine®. its unique formula penetrates these layers deeper than other mouthwashes, killing bacteria all the way

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permanent part of russia goes forward. in the meantime, let me show you live pictures right now. this is the former president of ukraine, viktor yanukovych. he is giving a live address right now, his feelings on where this should all go. you can imagine, they are most likely for a pro-russian tilt. let's go to fred pleitgen right now, cnn's fred pleitgen live in moscow. give us the latest, if you will, of what the former ukrainian president is saying. >> reporter: hi, john. yeah, i've been listening to the press conference, which literally just started 2 1/2 minutes ago. and right now, what viktor yanukovych is doing is he's railing against the new government that's in power in kiev. he's basically comparing them to fascists and nazis. he's saying that they're trying to take over the military forces of ukraine and use them against civilians. he's likening what they're doing to what happened in world war ii with a lot of ukrainians collaborating with the nazis at that point in time. so, it seems as though he is

going to obviously take on a very pro-russian position. he's going to reiterate again that he believes that he is the legitimate president of ukraine, which is also something that vladimir putin has said as well. and one of the things that is going to be interesting to see, which he hasn't gotten to yet, will be what his position will be on that referendum in crimea, because it's seems as though that is what everything hinges on at this point in time. it's what the russian decision hinges on and also what diplomatically everything hinges on with the u.s. and russia and whether or not they're actually going to be able to start talking again. so, we're waiting for him to come to that point, but right now, the rhetoric is one of defiance, is one of calling the new leaders in kiev, in ukraine illegitimate and again saying that he is the true president of ukraine, john. >> and while that's happening, fred, no progress between the u.s. and russia on getting any closer to any kind of real communication here. >> reporter: yeah. well, you know what? it's not even no progress. it seems as though things are hardening between the two sides. you had that statement yesterday by the russians saying that they

are very sad that john kerry won't be coming to russia. he was apparently supposed to come here today to talk with vladimir putin and also with foreign minister sergey lavrov. that apparently is not happening. the u.s., of course, is saying there's not going to be any u.s. top officials visiting moscow until there is some sort of progress, especially on the question of the crimea referendum, but it seems as though the russians are just remaining absolutely hard on that question. not only are they saying they are going to let this referendum go through, they're going to support the fact that this referendum is going through, but the duma, the parliament here in moscow, has already said that it's going to debate the results of that referendum only a couple of days after it happens. of course, those could be the initial stages of crimea becoming a part of russia. so, i wouldn't even say it's not any movement, i would say that things have actually gotten more difficult between the u.s. and russia on the ukraine and on the crimea issue, john. >> backwards an awful bad direction in this crisis. fred pleitgen in moscow. thank you so much.

another day of testimony at the oscar pistorius murder trial in south africa. the court heard more details of reeva steenkamp's autopsy from pathologist chert simon. during his first day on the witness stand on monday, pistorius broke down. he was physically sick, vomiting in the dock as he listened to the graphic description of his girlfriend's fatal wounds after he shot her. a bill changing the way the military handles sex assault cases now headed to the house. the senate has approved it 97-0. this measure would eliminate the so-called good soldier defense, allowing the accused's service record to be taken into account, but the bill faces an uncertain future and is not even scheduled for a vote in the house. a west memphis minister who faced a trial after officiating his son's same-sex wedding is off the hook after the case was dropped against him. father ogletree agreed to take part in a public forum debating gay marriage in the methodist church.

last year, a united methodist pastor from pennsylvania, frank schaffer, was defrocked for officiating at his son's wedding. he called the different outcomes unfair but said he's hopeful the decision is a sign that things are changing in the church. all right, this morning we are getting a new, yet a new, different look at justin bieber. this time, it's in a deposition he gave in a case of a bodyguard allegedly beating up a photographer. you can see bieber. he was hostile to a lawyer trying to ask him questions. you have to look at this. >> remember earlier today when i asked you -- >> no. >> why don't you listen to what i have to say first, and then maybe you can tell me yes or no. >> i don't have to listen to anything you have to say. >> i didn't hear your response. again, sir, i'm pleading with you -- >> i didn't finish. >> oh, i'm sorry. i didn't want to interrupt. >> oh, really? you don't want to interrupt. >> i don't have to listen to anything you want to say. a lot of people think sometimes the media focuses too much on justin bieber, but this is a

legal proceeding, a deposition here. i would think most lawyers would advise you not to behave like this in this kind of proceeding. you can see bieber getting angry when a lawyer asked about ex-girlfriend selena gomez. that's what he's waving his finger about there. bieber says the lawyer should not ask him about selena gomez again. hmm. there it is, justin bieber, for today. coming up for us next, a medical scare. this was awful. this is in the middle of a hockey game last night. a star player rushed to the hospital -- >> oh, my goodness! >> -- after collapsing on the bench. this was terrifying. you need to hear what happened next. andy scholes has more in "bleacher report" coming up. usi. seeker of the sublime. you can separate runway ridiculousness... from fashion that flies off the shelves. and you...rent from national. because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle... and go. and only national is ranked highest in car rental customer satisfaction by j.d. power. (natalie) ooooh, i like your style. (vo) so do we, business pro. so do we.

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a really frightening moment during an nhl game last night. the dallas stars' rich peverley collapsed on the bench after suffering some type of cardiac event in the game, and the game had to be postponed. andy scholes joins us more now with more. the players real shaken up about this. >> they were, christine. this was a really scary moment. rick peverley had just come off the ice after his shift and was on the bench when he collapsed six minutes into the game. the stars staff immediately carried peverley into the tunnel to begin treatment. after using a defibrillator on him, he regained consciousness, and peverley did miss the preseason and season opener this year because of a procedure to correct an irregular heartbeat. right now, the stars say he is doing well and is in stable condition. >> i thought the medical staff did an unbelievable job tonight.

i was there firsthand. if it wasn't for our doctors and all the members reacting so quickly and so efficiently, we could be standing here with a different story, but they did an absolutely fabulous job. >> the players on the stars and blue jackets are clearly shaken and both sides agreed to postpone. no word yet when it will be made up. trending right now on bleacherreport.com, clippers going for their eighth straight win hosting the phoenix suns last night, and blake griffin was unstoppable in this one. the suns got so frustrated, they tried to fight him! check it out. given and p.j. tucker get tangled up and tucker throws a punch at griffin. he's ejected from the game. griffin finished with 37 points as the clippers beat the suns. all right, mets/marlins, spring training. a ball lands over the fence in the outfield, and check this out. this fan -- >> oh! >> -- abandoned his son in the

cart. >> oh! >> it goes crashing into the fence. check out mom, guys. >> oh! >> she is not happy about this. >> oh, oh, oh! >> safe to say this guy will not be winning father of the year -- >> oh, no! >> -- any time soon. >> dude, bad move! >> he didn't get the ball, though, right? the most important part, did he get the ball? >> no. >> he got nothing. >> looks like that kid probably won't get in that cart again. probably traumatized. >> makes us look bad there. dads everywhere, everyone. everyone's okay. that's what's important. >> mom to the rescue. >> i would do the same thing, sadly. all right. thanks so much, andy. it's been four days now since a malaysian jet went missing with 239 people on board. this morning, the search is widening. there are new clues we need to tell you about in this hunt. what happened to flight 370? we now know one of the people flying on a stolen passport, we know the identity. we'll have the very latest on that and some new debris sighted, right after the break. the day we rescued riley was a truly amazing day.

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breaking news this morning. a midair mystery. we now know one of the people flying on a stolen passport when flight 370 disappeared. one of those people was iranian. will it shed any light on what happened to that jet with 239 people on board? we are live with the very latest on this developing investigation. moscow saying no to the latest proposal that could end the crisis in ukraine. and with five days before crimea could vote to join russia, is there any chance now of a

diplomatic solution? >> welcome back to "early start." i'm christine romans. >> and i'm john berman. 31 minutes past the hour right now, and we do have breaking news this morning in that search for a malaysian airlines jet with 239 people on board. we now know the identity of one of the people flying on that plane who had a stolen passport. authorities in malaysia say it was a 19-year-old iranian. however, he had no apparent connection to -- i shouldn't say however. this is a 19-year-old iranian who had no apparent connection to terrorism. he may have simply been trying to emigrate to germany. they say his mother was waiting to meet him there. meanwhi meanwhile, the search for flight 370 has been expanded. overnight there was a report of large, solid debris spotted in vietnamese waters, but previous debris sightings have turned up nothing, so people are being careful to hope too much here. cnn's sima motion is in kuala lumpur and just got back from a flight of crews looking for debris. sima, what'd you find?

>> reporter: you know, john, they are insistent, everyone on board that plane, that this is still a search-and-rescue operation, and they said, we are hoping against hope, we will not lose hope, as long as the people of malaysia and everyone related to those people on board flights mh-370 are praying for us and holding out for us to find the plane and find the people on board. we will continue that search. so, we boarded that plane early morning today here in kuala lumpur from the air base, it's a c-130 military plane that's been doing regular search-and-rescue missions, scouring the seas. let me just explain to you how much of a vast area they have to cover. 12,500 square nautical miles, john, and that's no mean feat. so far, they have 42 ships, including ships from neighboring countries like vietnam, indonesia, singapore on board,

and of course, the united states and australia and new zealand. and just today, brunei announced that they were joining this fleet as well. and in the skies, aircraft as well from the united states, australia and neighboring countries joining forces, too. 32 of them scouring by air, while the ships and those people from the navies scour the seas for any signs of the aircraft, of the people that were on board that plane, 239 of them. and of course, any clues. now, you mentioned that they have found debris floating in the waters. and john, let me tell you that the malaysian minister for defense and transportation, who was on board that flight, the first time that he has gone out to survey the massive operation that's under way right now, he said that every debris that is found is -- they go out there, they pick it up and they check and investigate as to whether that is linked to the missing plane, mh-370.

let's remember that they found various numbers of oil slicks around the vietnamese border and oceans as well. they were investigated, and just yesterday, departments of chemistry and departments of environment here in malaysia said that, no, this was not from this aircraft. so, the mystery surrounding the disappearance four days ago -- let's not forget, friday night going into saturday, when this plane suddenly disappeared off the radar -- imagine that, john, flying out from kuala lumpur, heading to beijing. it was due to transfer from malaysian air traffic control to vietnamese air traffic control when it disappeared. they did not manage to hand over that plane. and as you mentioned, there was some mystery surrounding the stolen passports that had been used on board that flight. we now know one of them was a young iranian man, perhaps an asylum-seeker, perhaps trying to make his way to europe. he was named earlier today as

pouria mehrdad, just 19 years old. they say he is not being linked at niz sort of terrorist connection to this, and that is one of the things adding to the mystery surrounding the disappearance, just why has this plane disappeared? what exactly happened? and that's what the people related to those on board really want to know. john? >> so many questions for everyone, including the families of people on board. seima mohsin coming back from the search in this vast, vast area, looking for any signs of debris. thanks. we're hearing this morning from ousted ukrainian president viktor yanukovych who fled to russia. in a news conference, he railed against the new government in power in kiev, comparing it to fascists and nazis, claiming the government illegitimate. yanukovych still insists he is the legitimate leader of ukraine. meanwhile, the u.s. and russia in a diplomatic impasse over the crisis there. secretary of state john kerry has put off a planned meeting with president vladimir putin.

u.s. officials are urging putin to end the military incursion into crimea. this morning, the nsa is holding on to phone records it had been told to destroy now that a judge in san francisco has ordered them to keep all of the metadata from the monitoring of phone traffic. on friday, an intelligence judge issued the exact opposite order, saying the nsa can only hold on to records for five years and ordering the records deleted. for now, the justice department says it will abide by the order to keep the materials. we know this winter was really horrible for a lot of us. it's still horrible, actually. so much snow, so much cold. in many places, it made it tough to get around. now we have just a better sense of how terrible it was. the four largest u.s. airlines now say the bad weather meant they had to cancel nearly 75,000 flights in just january and february this year. >> wow. >> delta alone said the cancellations cost it some $90 million in lost revenue. we could see more flight cancellations in coming days as this beautiful weather comes to an end with snow and rain. indra petersons has that forecast.

>> take it indra! how's that? >> why do you guys give such a bad forecast? that's so weird, guys. that's not right. let me give you some good news. we're talking about that warm front continuing to bring even warmer weather today to the northeast. just keep in mind, we know there's a cold front behind it, so things are going to be changing quickly, but let's talk about today. look at these numbers. new york city talking about 60 degrees. you almost need a second take when you look at d.c., talking about 73. temperatures a good 19 degrees above normal. but you're going to start to see the change. notice st. louis about 79, 20 degrees above normal. look at the drop by tomorrow, already going to 15 below normal. tomorrow, the high, 79, drops down to 39! that is not cool. talking about a 40-degree temperature drop there and this eventually shifts to the northeast, where new york city is talking about 20s as their highs, just two days away. d.c., forget those 70s. you'll go down to a high of 35 in two days, thanks to this guy, not me, this guy. this is a system making its way across, looking for snow in the upper midwest today, tomorrow in the ohio valley and tomorrow

into thursday making its way into the northeast. strong winds with it as well. keep in mind, the heaviest snow looks to be upstate new york in through maine, several inches in through chicago and the ohio valley, but not into the major metropolitan areas. see, that is how you deliver good news, guys. >> indra petersons passing the buck, recusing herself from responsibility of anything that might happen this week. >> obviously. stocks are struggling to recover from a bumpy ride on monday. asian markets mostly higher, stocks in europe mostly flat. early going shows the same in the u.s. the dow ended a two-day winning streak yesterday, closed down 34 points. it could have been worse. the dow had been down more than 100 points during the day. the dow is still about 1% from its record high, so one good breakout rally and you're there at records again, folks. the s&p 500 dropped its record run yesterday as well, but still very strong gains recently. another number we've been following, pot sales lining the coffers in colorado. new information this morning that the state took in about $2 million from taxes from recreational marijuana in

january. in the first month pot was legal to sell for non-medicinal purposes there. so, $2 million in taxes for colorado coffers. 39 minutes after the hour right now. spring training in florida not just for baseball. we're talking politics. big election today. both democrats and republicans with their eyes on this crucial race that could tell us so much about november, pouring in millions here. we'll tell you why after the break. [ male announcer ] considering all your mouth goes through, do you really think brushing is enough to keep it clean? while brushing misses germs in 75% of your mouth, listerine® cleans virtually your entire mouth. so take your oral health to a whole new level. listerin®... power to your mouth™. so take your oral health to a whole new level.

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happening today in florida, special election in the clearwater area. many say it could set the stage for this fall's midterms. democrat alex sink facing republican david jolly to replace late congressman bill young. both parties see the race as a test of their messages over obamacare and the issues facing the country. cnn political editor paul steinhauser here to explain, why, oh, why is this vote today so important, paul?

>> reporter: great question, because if you don't live in the area down by st. pete and clearwater, why care about florida 13, unless maybe like me, you get paid to cover politics? here's why, christine and john. there are not a lot of swing districts left, i guess you could say, competitive districts, house districts left in the country. this truly is a swing district in a swing state of florida. we all know the history florida's had lately. that's why both sides, not only the candidates in the parties, but outside groups, the so-called super pacs and other groups have been pouring in millions of dollars, over $11 million spent on this race. you also mentioned obamacare. republicans are hammering the democratic candidate here over obamacare. they think they have a winning message here and they think the results will show that obamacare is an issue voters care about. remember, there are a lot of seniors in this district. finally, is it truly a bellwether for the midterms? listen, let's be honest, elections this far out from november rarely tell us what's going to happen in november, but the party that wins here, guys, is going to be getting all the bragging rights for the next couple months, saying their

message worked. that's why this race, i guess you could say, is important. >> look, the democrats got the candidate they wanted, this would be a pickup for them. they want this desperately. they can taste it. republicans equally so. speaking of republicans, paul steinhauser, my twitter a little bit on fire last night, over the last ten hours or so, over a spat between some republican senators who may be running for president one day. ted cruz/rand paul. what's going on there? >> reporter: two high-profile senators, rising stars in the party, and you're right, both of them thinking about running for the 2016 nomination. this kind of started on sunday, john, when ted cruz was a little critical of rand paul's foreign policy, saying he didn't agree with paul's libertarian style of politics when it comes to foreign policy or his views. rand paul pushed back yesterday in an op ed, but also last night on fox news, when he said i'm not real excited about him -- him being ted cruz -- mischaracterizing my views, and you know, i won't let that pass. a little bit of bad blood here. maybe this will play out, maybe it will go away, or maybe it's a

foreshadowing of things to come in 2016, guys. >> what about bad blood, rick santorum/chris christie, santorum suggesting that christie is compromising republican values to win. >> reporter: this started at cpac when chris christie gave a pretty good speech and said winning is important. we can't just stick to the mantra, we have to win elections. rick santorum, a very social conservative and fiscal conservative, pushed back a little bit at cpac and he pushed back again yesterday on cnn's "crossfire," when he talked about his efforts fighting the cause, fighting for social justice, fighting for marriage, traditional marriage, and he said other candidates, other people like maybe chris christie talk the talk but don't walk the walk. again, two men who may be running in 2016. a lot of bad blood out there and very public. we are seeing it on the democratic side, but not nearly as public as we're seeing it on the republican side. >> just goes to show the race is competitive and people are jockeying for position even now. >> nice to see you on a tuesday morning, steinhauser. talk to you again soon.

thanks. all right, let's take a look at what's coming up on "new day." special guest, brooke baldwin joins us now. good morning, brooke. >> good morning, you two. wonderful to be here. i know you've been all over this, so we'll continue with the breaking news on that missing malaysian airlines flight. so, we are learning more this morning about those passengers who boarded with stolen passports. listen, there are a lot of questions about what happened when this thing took off saturday, if this new information has anything to do with the plane's disappearance. we're digging on that one. also, we will show you what it's like from one of the search planes trying to find debris. we'll talk to one of the correspondents who flew over this area and see what she saw and what other investigators are telling her. also ahead this morning, special guest, former special assistant to president obama, reggie love will be in studio, so we'll talk to him about everything from obamacare to the president's year of action, as well as -- remember just a couple weeks ago, he was introducing this new program from the white house, it's called my brother's keeper. so, it's an initiative that

reggie apparently feels passionate about, really meant to help young black and latino men prosper in this country. so, we'll talk about that. and if you didn't know, you two, he is also a duke graduate. i did not go to duke. i went to that other school down the road, so let's just say it's going to be interesting. >> yeah, well, indeed. can't wait to see that. great guest, great show coming up. thanks so much, brooke. >> thanks. >> go do. coming up, a family forced to hide because of a rampaging pet. you're going to hear their call for police begging for help from their pet, next. spokesperson: the volkswagen passat tdi clean diesel can go 795 highway miles on a single tank. huh... so you could drive from los angeles all the way philadelphia with just three stops for fuel. that's just a hop, skip, and a jump. try that in another midsize sedan. it's more of a hop... a skip... a jump... a leap... maybe a schlep... probably a hurdle... a little bit of a trek...

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happening now, the defense in oscar pistorius murder trial going after a pathologist on cross examination who delivered some potentially damaging testimony. he may have undercut the blade runner's timeline on the night

his girlfriend, reeva steenkamp, was killed, and he said reeva could have screamed when he shot her. it follows a dramatic day in court monday with the blade runner breaking down, vomiting in the dock as he listened to the pathologist describe steenkamp's fatal wounds in very, just disturbing detail. new developments in the sex assault court-martial of army brigadier general jeffrey sinclair. the judge putting the trial temporarily on hold, ruling that the pentagon may have interfered in this case after e-mails emerged suggesting that high-ranking officials bowed to political pressure in deciding to go ahead with the case. sinclair stands accused of threatening a female captain and forcing her to have sex with him. the judge gave general sinclair until today to submit a plea offer for the government to consider. we're finding out more now about the case of a pregnant woman who drove a van with her three kids inside into the atlantic ocean last week. ebony wilkerson now faces three counts of attempted murder and child abuse.

and according to a newly released police report, she told investigators she was abused by her husband. a judge is now considering whether those children will remain in state custody. all right, this morning, we're hearing the frightening story of an oregon family who was forced to lock themselves in a bedroom because of their cat. this happened in portland, when the cat named lucks apparently went berserk, attacking their baby. so, they retreated into the bedroom with the family dog and called 911. listen. >> he's charging us. he's at our bedroom door. >> one moment, okay? >> do you hear him screaming? that's the cat. >> yeah, i hear him. hold on. keep the door shut, okay? >> he started hissing, this really, like yowls, not a meow, but yowls, like he was really crazy, going crazy. >> police arrived and rawrangle the cat into a pet carrier. nobody was hurt, the baby is fine. right now they're trying to decide what to do with the cat.

>> i would not keep the cat. >> you don't want a cat in the first place. >> i don't cant a cat in the first place, but a rampaging cat? definitely don't want one of those. >> i wonder what the dog was thinking. coming up, sprint's leader says he wants to grow and maybe launch a price war. this could be phenomenally good news for you and your cell phone bill. christine romans will explain that and much more in "money time," next. are you still sleeping? 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.

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good morning. welcome back to "early start." it's "money time." the big question for your money today, whether the stocks can get back on their winning streak. the dow was down yesterday, futures down 14 points now. european stock markets pretty much the same. asian stocks closed mixed. talk of a massive price war in the u.s. wireless carrier business this morning. the ceo of sprint's softbank says he wants a three-way, heavyweight fight with at&t and verizon. in an interview with charlie rose, japan's softbank ceo says no deal has been made, but boy, he'd like to buy t-mobile and merge it with sprint. softbank acquired sprint last year. such a deal would likely face regulatory concerns by the

federal communications commission, but big talk. >> the heavyweight fight talk, while painful for them, might be good for you. >> if it happened, yeah. >> lower bills. all right, thanks for watching. "new day" starts right now. he is not likely to be a member of any terrorist group. >> they identify an iranian national on the missing malaysian airline flight. now this discovery is helping connect the dots in this mystery. and diplomatic roadblock. growing tensions between the united states and russia. can both sides come together on the future of ukraine before this weekend's referendum. and the ousted president adding fuel to the fire this morning.

>> and a school bus flipped over. all caught on camera. how did this happen? >> your "new day" starts right now. this there is breaking news as we follow the developments of what happened to the malaysian airlines flight. brooke baldwin by my side. we do have breaking news for you. one of the two passengers who boarded malaysian airline flight 370 with a stolen passport has just been identified. he's 19 years old, an iranian national. he does not appear to have any ties to terrorism. however, that doesn't mean he isn't part of the security problem revealed here. this is a pre