top of the hour now. i'm jim sciutto. >> i'm erica hill. a good sign for the u.s. economy at the hour. key piece of data which is showing how much you are paying for just about everything is showing that the price increases are cooling, and the fed is going to be using that information of course as it is weighing what to do in terms of additional rate hikes. the other bit of information to

pay a roll is the silicon valley bank collapse. this hour, everything that you need to know. forget frenemies, president trump is acting as if governor desantis is his biggest rival, and the new nickname that trump is using on the trail for desantis and the regret he says that he now has. >> and a powerful nor'easter is hitting hundreds of thousands of people with heavy snow and wind as heavy as 60 miles per hour slamming the northeast and you can see it churning there and a lot to get to this hour, and a lot to begin with the latest on the response to the banking fears. >> cnn business reporter matt egan processing all of the new inflation data which met expectations, and what is the new consensus this morning? >> well, jim and erica, it is saying that inflation is not

gone, but it is cooling off. 6.5% increase in consumer prices over the last six months is not good, but it is triple what is considered healthy, but everything is relative. as you can see on the chart, the trend is going in the right direction, and this is eight straight months of cooling inflation, and this is the smallest increase in consumer prices in 17 months, and all signs of progress. if you are looking and digging into the report, you can see that some things are still getting much more expensive. groceries up by 10% from a year ago and natural gas, pet food, airfare, all of them increasing. the question of course is what does the fed do. so even heading into this month, they face the impossible question of getting the fed under control without breaking something in the real economy or the financial markets, and now we are learning that something does appear to have broken and that is the situation in the

banking market, and if the fed does continue to raise rates, they could add pressure to the banking system, but if they don't raise the interest rates, they could allow the inflation to heat back up, and so, jim and erica, they are facing a no-win situation and it is not easy. >> so looking at the markets, they up with a little bit with the regional banks facing particular focus with the t traders here, and so some of the banks are hit particularly hard yesterday, and they are up pretty big chunks and some of them 49% or 12%, and so, as you are speaking to folks, matt, are you hearing that it is contained? >> that is of course the hope, and the fact that we are seeing the increases in the share prices of all of those regional banks is a very nice change from just 24 hours ago when we saw dramatic declines for the stocks. and, you know, a senior treasury

repo rep reporter phil mattingly said that it is maybe more important than the stock pricing, because it shows calming there, but we have to keep a close eye on the banks and that people stay calm here, and remember, there are $250,000fdic insurance and the federal government has made it clear that they want to protect depositors. and joining us is our federal reserve reporter, and now, they have gotten quite a bit of interest and now they have cpi data showing a cooling, and does this now give the fed data in your view to take a pause on interest rate hikes? >> probably not. i think that the details of the inflation data are pretty

strong, because we are seeing the rapid increases of the measures that they care about, so if you are looking at the services, and especially the services excluding the rent and housing measures, strong inflation data there, and that is what they are going to be focused on here, and all else equal, this would have pushed them to be aggressive and given the situation of banks, most of the economists are expecting a quarter point move here at the upcoming move. >> and jerome powell had said maybe a half a percentage move which would have given him some wiggle room there. and j.p. powers said that when the fed hits the brakes, someone is going through the windshield and you don't know who it is going to be. and so, when you see the rising interest rates and rising interest rates and someone going through the windshield is the

banks, or they are going to be slowing down the increases, and someone else is going through the windshield and so who is that? >> when the fed is slowing down the interest rates, it is going to trickle through the whole economy and changes the whole landscape and that what you will see. the banks were squeezed with the rise of the interest rates and they had planned on a low rate future and a situation where they would keep the rates low for a long time, and this is not what materialized and they are paying the cost of it, and so we are seeing someone go through the windshield at the moment, but the question is if this is isolated or a much broader problem. >> and another question, should the regulators have seen this before that person went through the window, right? because they were taking some risky bets given the direction of the interest rates, and should this have been caught? >> i think that it is an excellent question, and one that

sort of falls squarely at the fed's door, because the fed had tried to make supervision of banking institutions less onor rou -- onerous under the trump administration to make it less transparent, and that fed into the fed situation, and the fed now saying they will be carrying out a review of what the supervision meant, and we will get some of that in may. >> and some reporting of the signs and the concerns being raised even at the end of last year. jeanna smialek, thank you. >> thank you. and this morning, the justice department is suing the retail drug chain rite aid saying they contributed to the

epidemic of opioids. >> paula is following this, and it began as whistle-blower lawsuit, and when did this start or the unlawful prescriptions begin getting filled? >> according to lawsuit, between may and june of 2014, the chain filled hundreds of thousands of prescriptions for opioids and including excessive amounts for opioids including oxycodone and fentanyl and trinities that are filled with codones that are filled. and so justice department anita gupta says that we filled thousands of prescriptions that

did not meet requirements, and rite aid filled prescriptions that had obvious red flags, and they deleted internal notes about suspicious prescribers. last year walgreens and rite aid, two of the biggest pharmaceuticals in this country paid $10 billion for opioid lawsuits, but they did not admit any wrongdoing, and hundreds of thousands of americans have died as a result of opioid overdoses. >> no question, and those deaths continue. paula reid, thank you. former president trump is taking digs at governor ron desantis at a speech in iowa as the speech as a poll shows who republicans want their new gop candidate to be. and now president biden is

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look at that, it is manchester, new hampshire, and a massive winter storm slamming northeast, and some 100,000 homes without power, and the prediction is for some 30 inches of snow. >> i thought that it was almost springtime. >> no, it is new england. >> exactly, new england, baby.

derrick van dam is in worcester, and speaking of new england, and we are watching it get worse, and how is it there, and where does it go from here? >> well, punxatauney phil was wrong. so you can see the storm behind me here with the big snowfall accumulating quickly, and this is a big concern. i spoke with the weather production center yesterday, and it is going to be a increased snowload here which is when the

winds start to pick up, the tree limbs will start to fall, and we will have much of the increased power outages begin where much of the snow will take place. and we have had, already get this 24 inches of snow in western massachusetts where it is piling up. we anticipate 10 more inches of snow in worcester, and if that happens, it is the snowiest march in 2018, and if you recall that is when we had four back-to-back-to-back nor'easters here in this area. there are currently 250 plows out and about in worcester county, and we visited the salt barn earlier this year busy taking the salt and brine prepared for the roads and airport, and we have seen it

already in syracuse with the plane sliding to the runway, and out to laguardia, and so this is going to be a headache, and the massachusetts turnpike is going to be extraordinarily dangerous. >> and another reminder, if you don't have to be out, stay off of the roads. derek, thank you. >> yes, just look at how heavy it is. and president trump is ramping up the attacks on governor desantis as he is gearing up the third 3bid for te white house. >> and did anybody hear of d desanctis and you have to remember that he was a disciple of paul ryan. >> family infighting there, and

desantis has yet to enter the race, but he is expected to be the biggest roadblock for donald trump. and so, some of the polling today, it does show that it is at least a two-person race, kristen? >> yes, we have to remember this, president trump has spent the last few days lashing out against ron desantis and former vice president mike pence. before he took the stage, mike pence said that history will hold donald trump responsible for january 6th, and if they had sent the vote back to the legislatures there wouldn't have been a problem for january 6th, and so he said that you could blame january 6th to pence.

and so he had no legal authority, and so the attacks the on trump and desantis is coming as both of the men are mulling a presidential run, and as the field begins to take shape, and i wanted to go to poll that you mentioned. this is where the minds of the republicans and the republican-leaning independents are at this time. they were asked out of a field of nine potential candidates who they would support in 2024 for the nomination, and 40% saying that they would support former president donald trump compared to 36% who said that they would support florida governor ron desantis, and they were the only candidates who got in there at double digit, and the other two up there for you are former vice president mike pence as well as nikki haley, both of them hitting 6%. i want to be clear, this is very early, and we have a year and a half to go, but it is answering some questions or at least show

us what the field is shaping up to be. there were a lot of questions of whether or not former president donald trump had been severely politically weakened and we talked about it after january 6thhe losses in the midterms, and where he stands in the party, and he is still very much a force in the republican party. >> kristen holmes, thank you very much. today, president biden is going to announce a very important executive order important to the families of the mass shooting. you may remember this one, it is a mass shooting that occurred at a dance studio in monterey, california. here to talk about it is the councilman of monterey park. >> thank you for having me on today. >> first, if ki ask you, seven

w weeks now, and it is difficult to heal, but how is your community now? >> thank you for asking, and it has been seven weeks since the mass shooting where 21 people were killed and 11 of them in our community, and our community does continue to persevere through this tragedy here in monterey park, and also here in california, because two days after monterey park's mass shooting another one occurred in our state at half moon bay. >> it is a sad normality in this country that you wait for the next one after one happens. at least 100 so far this year. and do you feel that because of the frequency that the nation has moved on from your community, and that it does it too quickly in these cases? >> you know, i think that it is very sobering to think about that there have been 100,

actually 100-plus mass shooting incidents since the year has started. i think that is why it is important for president biden to come today to monterey park to console our community and to demonstrate that the community has not moved on to hear the pain that we are going through and to not let the murders that have happened here and since the new year will not go in vain. >> and president biden of course visiting your community today and he is going to announce a new executive order to have the attorney general to at least enforce the background checks for communities going through this and do you consider that a substantive change? >> well, you know, i commend president biden for doing something, because i think that, yes, we do need to increase background checks, keeping more guns out of the dangerous hands

by keeping the awareness about the red flag laws and making sure that people know how to use them and making sure that the communication is in other languages and strengthening the laws of the gun industry and identify those who shouldn't be carrying firearms. >> yeah. california has existing laws that are already some of the toughest in the country, but law enforcement there as they do in other states as i have spoken to them say they will get them across the borders, and so do state laws make a difference? >> i think that the state laws in our community do make a difference, but as you point out, someone can travel to

another state that does not stand up to the gun lobby, but again, the united states has the highest firearm death rate of any country, and as you said, we have more regulations than other state, and california has strict laws, but we are next to other states that have not stood up to the gun lobby. >> councilman henry lo, we wish you the best and the residents in your district. >> thank you for having me this morning. and now, how to make drinking water safer from forever chemicals, and what that could mean for your drinking water. stay with us.

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new this morning, the epa is proposing new guidelines to make the drinking water safer, and it would be the first national drinking water free of forever chemicals. >> what are they? they are used in cookware and personal care and other products. they are supposed to break down over time, or they do, and this is what is leaching into the soil and polluting soil and other systems.

and elizabeth cohen is joining us, and they have been linked to health problems and what would these new recommendations change? >> well, that is right. some people are saying that they are not going to change enough, but that this is a good or good enough start. so let's talk about why we are calling these forever chemicals, and it is because once these chemicals are within you, and they don't last over time, and they don't kind of wash out of your body over time, and that is why they are called forever chemicals. they have been linked to cancer and prenature issues an linked to liver effects, and linked to immune effects, and this is what the proposed regulations will do. first of all, this is regulating six forever chemicals and just six of thousands and i will say more of that in a moment. water systems have six years to comply, and so it could take effect at the end of the year, and they have three years to

comply, and it is unclear what the penalties are for not complying, and the water systems can raise rates if they say they need to in order to comply with the regulations, so it is possible that people will be seeing higher rates, and i mentioned that this is for only six chemicals when there are thousands, and there are six chemicals that are strong suggestions, and studies have shown that there is a link to human health, and the biden administration says that they are looking to other chemicals like these to see if they are regulated as well. jim and erica. >> key question, that i imagine that other people are wondering if the bottled water are containing this stuff? >> well, jim, there are no regulations to say that these can't be in bottled water, and so various people like "consumer reports" have tested them, and they are not in all, but they

are in some that were purchased. >> well, that is disappointing. thank you, elizabeth cohen for following. and now, the biden administration has approved a controversial pipeline drilling project in alaska. >> not everyone is thrilled about it. bob weir is joining us about this, and now, what exactly is this project and what does it entail? >> it is entailing three drilling pads in the willow area in what is set aside in the national petroleum reserve. it is what you have seen as the stark arctic b-roll that we have been showing up there which does not show the full environmental special nature here. it was set up in the' 20s when

the navy was trying to get off of coal, and it stayed wilderness for a long time, and these are the shots when it went to the national wildlife reserve next door which is another point of political fighting which the nationalal conservationists began to fight and won. and if it is called a cons conservationist land, it is easier to preserve than something called a petroleum reserve. so they tried to wall it off from drilling, but joe biden said that i will not drill on federal lands, period, period, period. and so for all of the climate-minded and environmental voters, they are devastated, because it is not just about the

caribou or the other animals up there, but it is about the predictive things that we know about the life there. >> and it is beautiful, but it is cold. and the biden did announce offsets and other protections for federal lands, and how many lands, and is it actual an offset or does it even out? >> someone would say anything that protects wilderness and goals to set aside 30% by 2030 is considered a huge boon at this point. and he set aside pretty much all the arctic sea around alaska, but we are at a transition point where fossil fuels are the villains and everybody wants to get to electric vehicles, but that means that folks want to mine the bottom of the ocean for these mineral, and so there are no free lunches.

and so we have to decide the tradeoffs. >> even with the protections and talking about the national refuge versus the petroleum field, couldn't that be reversed in another administration? >> yes, it could be legally tied up, and the fact that oil won't flow out of willow for six years and with the electrification, and the price coming down, the world won't need a national petroleum reserve in six years, energy experts would say, and so practically who knows how much damage it is going to do, and if it goes full bore and goes 1/10 of what we thought it was 50 year ago, at that point, it is like humanity has given up the fight, you know what i mean? >> some days it feels like that. we will hold out hope. thank you for that. we will be right back.

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anything else i can help you with? like what? visionworks. see the difference. one of the largest legal battles over abortion procedures since roe v. wade was overturned by the supreme court is about to face a federal judge in texas. this is all focussed on the approval of a medical abortion pill, and the federal law is looking to revoke the fda's approval of met apristone, and

federal judge wanted to seek to have that hearing without any public because of the publicity. and so he wanted to keep it secret to have no decissent, an so this would severely limit abortion and would limit 1st amendment rights of americans. and so does this ring true for the limit of rights here.

and certainly, this hearing in amarillo, texas, is not easy to get to. does this ring true? >> well, it is not consistent with the access to court proceedings. and all court proceedings are open and accessible to the public and they have to be properly docketed for the public to attend if they wish to, and it is not just members of the press, but members of the public, and only in rare circumstances is a proceeding not to be open, and so this is clearly an attempt to stop people and press from being at the hearing, and the judge says for security reasons and so on, but i think that we can all see is what it is, is an attempt that people who are concerned to drastically limit the access of millions of women for medical abortion to be kept from being heard, and so it is very troubling. >> if there were security concerns, this is something that

judges do deal with around the nation make, and so you can say this is not consistent with the rules or the constitution and not consistent with the way that frankly things are done in this country in terms of the public access, and does that mean there would be repercussions here? >> well, not really. judge kaczmarek, like all judges is a lifetime appointee, and you could try to impeach a judge, but this would not pass muster in that sense, so there is not much to be done, and you would hope that the chief judge in that district would give him a talking to and re-emphasize the importance of public access, but frankly, there is not any recourse here for people. and the media outlets have been doing the right thing by bringing attention to it, and hopefully it won't happen again, but, you know, besides that, there is not a lot of recourse. >> so that one issue, the hearing in and of itself, and the crux of the case is that the fda approval which was, and so

that happened in 2000, and the plaintiffs are saying that should be overturned, because they believe that the approval process there was flawed. what does that mean? keep it in perspective for a judge to say that the fda did its job wrong. >> well, it is unprecedented. i mean, it would be unprecedented for a judge, a single judge to say that the fda got it wrong 23 years ago. there has never been an instance where anyone has overturned the ruling of the fda against the fda's wishes and the notion that it has been 23 years and the fda has repeatedly reaffirmed the efficacy and safety of the drug makes it sort of ridiculous, and also, the separation of powers issue, and you have here a judge in the judicial branch saying to both the executive branch, the fda who are the subject matter experts here that you have gotten it wrong, and the congress, and we had the whole supreme court decision last term of the epa case of west virginia

versus the epa that said that the congress should have the say over the executive agencies, and the notion that the courts will step into the subject matter expertise is ridiculous. so i hope that the judge doesn't do it, and the anti-abortion leaning suggests that he might, but we are all on tendterhooks waiting. >> and so say you don't like the covid-19 vaccine and you don't think that it should have been approved, and does that mean that somebody could sue saying that they have an issue with the authorization, and they could sue? >> well, it is an overall problem, and that is the case and it is not limited to republicans making the suits, but the notion of a single judge issuing a nationwide injunction shun and ha and having the power to do that are problematic.

because congress could step in and seeking a nationwide injuk shu -- injunction could go to a three-panel judge. and so they specifically went to judge kaczmarek in amarillo to have them have this case, and appointed by trump, and so it is important to not go to one judge here. >> and what if he does overturn this authorization from the fda as you point out has stood for 23 years, and it will have an appeals process, but what does it mean for the people who wants to be yusing this drug, and again, it is not just used for abortion? >> if they don't get a stay, and

the injunction took effect, then women and medical providers would have to find a work-around. it is part 1 of a two-part regimen and it is not as efficacious if you do it that way, and there are other health concerns, but it can be done, so they will have to find a way to work around, and not only problematic, but chaotic with people not knowing what to do and how to proceed from here, and so it is a real problem for women and their health care provides. >> jennifer rodrodgers, we appreciate you working with us to break it down and important to have the facts in front of us. >> thank you, erica. and inflation fell slightly in february and the food prices do remain stubbornly high and continue to rise. why are shoppers paying so much more in particular for groceries? we will explain coming up.

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this is first the on cnn. the biden administration has announced new steps to lowering american's everyday costs and as partf that, the department of health and human services will be lowering the price of health care and prescription drugs. >> hhs is figuring out half a billion new funds to lower the costs of home heating costs, and they will help eligible households pay for broadband internet. the february key index shows that inflation is high at 10%,

but the temperature is coming down, and this is the eighth straight months that inflation has fallen, and you can see it on the graph, but grocery prices are high, and you may have noticed with the data showing a 10.2% increase over the past year. >> joining us is nathaniel meyerson, consumer reporter, and i have noticed that some of the things have gone down a little bit, but some have not, and can we expect this to settle down at some point? >> yes, the grocery store prices are up 10.2% from a year ago and outpacing the inflation, and the reason that we are seeing the higher prices is because the food manufacturers and producers are paying more for labor and transportation and passing the higher costs on to shoppers and able to raise the prices, because demand has not slowed down. after all, we have to go to the grocery store and buy food, and so many trade offs we can make. so once the p prices are higher

it is hard for them to come down. >> so kroger and albertsons are trying to merge in a nearly $25 billion deal, and you see the mergers and this is putting more pressure on the prices. >> this is massive supermarket merger that is two of the largest chains in the country, and last year, the combined companies had over $200 billion in sales and 700,000 workers and so it is a massive deal. they say that the new company would allow them to drive down the prices for customers and better compete with walmart and amazon, but there is a lot of concern about this, because corporate consolidation raises the prices for customers, and the critics worry it is going to drive out the local mom and pops and hurt competition, and ultimately raise prices for the customers. >> that is not what we want to hear, ultimately raising prices

for customers. thank you, nathaniel. a new bill is ensuring that all employees will get 40 hours of paid leave and also covered child care and covered appointments and paid leave, and when it kicks n illinois is only the third state to have that type of law joining maine and nevada. facebook's parent company meta said it is eliminating 13% of the workforce and mark zuckerberg said it would eliminate 10,000 people, and it is part of the changes that zuckerberg is calling the year of efficiency. how about ending on that note? we will end on something brighter. >> yes, get the bracket done,

erica. >> that is what i need to do, and that is because jim wants to steal money from me if that happens. good luck with the brackets. >> having said that now, i'm jim sciutto, and i will probably lose now. kate bolduan after a quickck break. work tririps need crushing... or anniversaries need... celebrating? no matter who you are, where you'u're going, or why. with 24 trusted brands by wyndham to choose from... your wyndham is waiting. get the lowest price at wyndhamhotels.com

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hello, everyone. at this hour, gut check of what led to a collapse of svb. and now, on the west coast, torrential rai