forecasters are saying the u.s. will face a historic flood threat this spring. the water could rise in 35 states and already happening in some. rob marciano will show us who is at risk in the wild weather caused. predicting osama bin laden's years in the run will end with the united states quote reading miranda rights to his corpse. we're live in washington with the details of the eye-popping admission. republicans united. the party comes together to take on the plan to get health care reform through congress. hundreds rallied in the capitol with one simple message, kill the bill. our d.c. team is tracking all sides of the story. we begin with damaging and historic flooding while the midwest tries to protect itself in rising rivers in the northeast it will be days before the water recedes in some neighborhoods. trees are down and the power is still out in a lot of places

after the monster weekend storm. anthony johnson from our affiliate, wabc is in patterson, new jersey, this morning. >> reporter: good morning, they are calling this the worst winter rain storm in the state's history. i'm standing in new jersey's third largest city of patterson. this is the poe sayic river. the actual banks a mile from where i'm standing. all around the state as a result of this weekend's terrible rain storm, high winds, a lot of rain, up to eight inches of rain in some places in the state. the winds snapped trees like toothpicks and they came down on power lines leaving hundreds of thousands of people across the state of new jersey without power still to this very day, tens of thousands of people are without power. utility crews are coming in from different areas of the country to help the local utilities restore power.

the governor has redeclared a state of emergency. he is going to be touring many locations in the state to look at all of the damage and hopefully the state of new jersey will be able to get assistance from the federal government as it tries to recover from this. a lot of people have been evacuated from homes and a lot of people live along the river beds had to be taken out. some people tried to stay in their houses but at this point in time folks are admitting they regret it. some houses have up to 5 feet of water inside of them and it could be days before the water starts to recede. >> anthony, thanks. the streets still water logged. forecasters are issuing an urgent message to millions of people, get ready for potentially historic flooding, from across the south to t, up

states could be in danger this spring. rob, in those pictures alone, the raging river looked like a water fall. is it normal to get this type of warning early in the season? >> the setup is what's been here. we've had an unusually wet and cold winter as well. we have all of that coming together with a couple of storms. and especially across the northeast, that is the straw that broke the camel's back. now we have the snow melt and the snow pack across the upper midwest. may very well see flooding like they saw this time last year, which was historic. >> reporter: in fargo, north da coat ka, residents are trying to stack 1 million sand bags in hopes of pushing back the red river. last year about 100 homes in the

area were damaged and thousands of people were evacuated when the red didn't go down for a record 61 days and crested twice. in the northeast, a wild storm has left hundreds of thousands of residents either without power or with most of what they own under water. trees ripped down power lines and crushed cars. the storm is being blamed for 11 deaths. >> i'm living at the school. i got flooded out. i'm helping to pump up cellars. >> reporter: many had to leave the front door by boat or by heavy equipment. you're at the breaking point? >> yeah, i can't get to my cat and it's upsetting. >> it's going to be going on for a couple of weeks ago. we have flood warnings posted from minnesota to iowa up to the dakotas and the rivers continue to rise here. unusual snow pack, to have it this late in the season, you're

looking at the bright colors the amount of water in the snow pack, in some cases 9 or 10 inches of equivalent rainfall we have to get through. here's your fargo flood stage graphic. 38 feet is the forecast crest. looks like late in the day on sunday. the record stage was 40 feet last year. that's way close enough. and these forecasts change on a daily basis. when you get to ice jams to jam up the river, that can raise the flood stage 2 or 3 or 4 feet. uncertainty in the air as we go through the next few days, actually next couple of weeks. the folks across the upper midwest it is a nightmare being replayed from 12 months ago. >> that's astounding. thanks. more than eight years after former president bush pledged to the american people that osama bin laden would be captured dead or alive.

the terror leader's fate is the subject in washington. eric holder said osama bin laden will never face trial in the united states. the reasoning behind that, bin laden will not be captured alive. >> the rereality is we'll be reading miranda rights to the corpse of osama bin laden. he'll never appear in an american courtroom. that's a reality. >> jeanne meserve is live in washington. things got pretty testy. >> the chances of catching bin laden are infit tess mall because he'll be killed by the u.s. or killed by his own people so he can't be captured. what senior military and intelligence officials have been saying for years but the attorney general said it in this language was striking.

>> what was the context of is that exchange yesterday, jeanne? >> he was engaged in a very animated debate over where to try terror detainees. as you know, there's a lot of congressional opposition to using civilian courts, but the attorney general wants the government to have the option of using either venue. pushed back very hard and told the committee detainees would not be coddled in supreme court and texas republican said that reflected a propound disconnect to the american people and led to this exchange. >> they are treated by the military as enemy combatants captured at time of war. >> they are not put against the wall and shot. they have the rights and many the same constitutional rights -- >> severely restricted rights and the military tribunal is the problem.

we're at war. >> the specific case at issue is the trial of mat mastermind khalid shaikh mohammed. a decision will be made in weeks no months. >> a look at other stories new this morning. the u.s. and israel trying to put a serious diplomatic rif behind them. over israel's plan for new housing in east jerusalem during vice president's visit last week, also george mitchell, postponed a trip to start talks. the director of the middle east policy initiative at the new america foundation and yousef mun aer.

looking into an accident involving a prius, the driver in last week's accident says her car accelerated all by itself and ran her into a wall. investigators plan to examine the internal data recorder. toyota has recalled more than 8 million vehicles to address gas pedal problems. facebook proved it had more friends that google. they squeaked by the search engine as the most visited u.s. website last week. more impressive is the yearly growth, up 185% to google's 9% in the same period. only compared facebook and google.com not the related sites. from procedural maneuvers to kill the bill rallies, the battle over health care reform is heating up.

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get 40% off this bonded leather sofa, just $299, with very cool styling and so affordable. at 40% off, just $299. from jennifer. ♪ 12 minutes past the hour. welcome back to the most news in the morning. the battle over health care reform in washington erupting over the possibility that the bill could be passed without a direct vote. the uproar is coming from the

house where the democrats made vote on a rule. it would deem the senate's version of the bill pass. both sides of the aisle claim hard ball politics. lisa murkowski used a basketball metaphor to voice her opposition. a war of words is breaking out on capitol hill. >> the idea that the senate bill could be deemed as passed on the house floor without members of congress being asked to vote for it, i believe is not just tramples on the common sense and insults the intelligence of the american people but focuses on the constitution the united states. >> i didn't hear that when hundreds of timsz the republicans used these methods when they were in power. >> politicians are not the only ones making their voices heard inside the beltway. hundreds of pro teters from the

tea party valleyed with one message. kill the bill. >> kill the bill! >> reporter: as an army of tea party protesters prepared to flood the halls of congress. >> kill the bill! >> reporter: the message was consistent, the bill to kill was health care reform. >> your representative meets with you, stay all day long if you have to. >> reporter: debbie coolly from georgia wanted to track down as many democrats wavering in the house and sound off. >> we believe in free market solutions. >> reporter: such as? >> being able to purchase health insurance across state lines and tort reform. >> reporter: that sounds like what the republican party is saying, i thought the tea party was different? >> we are different --

>> reporter: moments after she finished her thought. tom. how are you doing? >> georgia republican tom price came to give her a pat on the back. >> this is what the american people have been trying to tell speaker pelosi and tell the president for the past eight to ten months. this isn't the bill the american people want. >> reporter: then came arizona republican franks. you don't feel so outnumbered? >> no, we don't. we're outvoted but not outnumbered. >> reporter: for one group of tea partiers outside the office of gerri connolly, reception was different? >> i don't know if she's a constituent. >> reporter: one of the aides complained some of the protesters were not from the district. >> where do you live? >> excuse me -- i've had a enough. you live in the 11th district.

>> reporter: tea partyiers found more sympathetic rallies -- >> grandma isn't shovel ready. >> reporter: steve king issued a dire warning if health care passes. >> in the liberal elitist impose it on america, there will be a reckoni reckoning. i hope it stays peaceful. very hot rhetoric out there yesterday. but the tea partier are not going to get what they want by courting republicans. they acknowledge it's the conservative blue dog democrats who are the catch this week. they are the votes that could make or break health care. >> congressman gerry connolly, didn't seem of to have a whole lot of time for these folks. >> that was his press aide and he was talking to us a couple of days ago and said this is sort

of common practice. a lot of these congressional offices, folks coming in from all over the country, not necessarily and not from that district to make their voices heard. obviously, if you are an american, you have the right to go into any of these congressional offices, but in many cases the staff would like to put the folks who are from that district first and so that was part of the confrontation there. >> jim acosta this morning, thanks so much. republicans are not the only ones in the house reluctant to vote for reform. one small group of democrats may not support the senate's version either. jason at mier is one of them. he joins us to talk by why he's having second thoughts about all of this. >> the conversations with the president who's been putting on the pressure. >> exactly and what he thinks of this so-called slaughter option to deem the bill passed. >> still coming up on the most news in the morning, the top tax

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christine romans qus minding your business this morning". >> tax time, it's almost here. tax time. the irs is listing its dirty dozen of tax scams and this is an interesting list for you to look at this morning. some of these are scams that could happen to you and some are scams that some people out there do to the irs on their taxes. heaven forbid. dishonest tax preparers, be cautious of someone who says give me $500 and i'll make sure you get 6,000 back. they'll have to to be licensed and take certain tests, they are hoping to weed out dishonest tam preparer. make sure you are using somebody reputable. you know what phishing is. the irs will not send you a tweet or fax or e-mail and not call you and say, give me your

bank information because you have a $1,000 refund and we need to get it to you quickly. that's never going to happen. that's called phishing. and phishing at irs.gov. the irs is not looking for your information that way. this is what you sometimes do. timing false and misleading forms, among other things, overstating charitable gift. there has to be a special place in you know wherefore people who say they gave a lot more to charity because it helps on taxes. understating your income, and also arguing with the irs. this is pretty pro livic. tax preparer who's coach you and convince you to argue with the irs about your refund and some of what you may owe the irs and get you some kind of -- it's never a good idea to get in a

good fight with uncle sam. especially if you owe them money. >> by the way, she's the st. patrick's day rememberle wearing blue today. >> 30 days. >> this is how many days until tax day. >> pull out the shoe box, pocket of your coat where all of these things are. make sure you have 1099s. a lot of places are just completely paperless. you might have to go hunting around if you have investment accounts or something to find your 1099s. make sure you've got all of them. next, it's becoming the biggest lobbying organization in washington now throwing its weight in the fight against health care. carol costello with an "a.m. original" the

your top stories four minutes away now. one of washington's largest lobbying groups is flexing its financial muscles. last year the united states chamber of commerce doeled out $42 million for anti-reform bill television ads. it spent more than the two main fund raising and grass roots operations and the chamber's impact on broader elections is yet to be seen. >> hello, ohio! >> reporter: the fight over health care reform is hotting than it's ever been. president obama is in overdrive. >> we need health insurance

reform right now. >> reporter: those who want to block the current bills are in overdrive too. >> to ram through their same trillion dollar health care bill. >> reporter: spending in the millions. >> tell congress to stop the health care bill. >> reporter: a powerful business coalition is behind the ad. it was paid for by the u.s. chamber of commerce, one of the richest most powerful lobbies in the country. dave is from public citizen, a consumer advocacy organization. >> it is the way the game is played, but they've got more resources to play it better than anybody else. >> reporter: once upon a time the chamber of commerce was known as a business associati , association,al ally for the local shop keepers. >> that's swell. >> reporter: today critics describe it as too political with enormous influence over national policy. according to the center nor response of politics, between 1998 and 2009, the chamber spent

606,758 h. 1 $,80 for grass roots organizing. in 2009 alone. $144.5 million on lobbying a variety of issues. >> that is a lot of money but i didn't hear concern about the union spending 420 million in the '08 elections to elect this majority. >> reporter: you guys spend the most money on lobbying? >> so, we're a lobbying organization. >> reporter: he doesn't think the president's plan is a good one. >> i think where the public gets a little ascant where they hear we're going to cut half a trillion over medicare and create long care entitlement trust fund and that is not enough for any center in the

world. >> reporter: other issues like climate change reach beyond its memberships. >> we need you to join the fight. >> reporter: it is called grass roots organizing and many do it. >> what is grass roots, it's people like you, individuals, not just business people across the country who happen to share the views on some positions that we as an institution have developed rk ed developed, by the way with their input. >> reporter: do you really have 6 million people? >> we have a data base of 6 million names of people we can reach out and activate yes. >> reporter: critics say the chamber has too much influence. >> they announced it will spend $200 million to challenge vulnerable democrats in the elections this fall. that is really frightening to members of congress and makes them listen to the chamber's lobbyists.

>> reporter: this week backed by dozens of other organizations on both sides of the issue are concentrating their efforts on one thing. >> it's time to vote. >> reporter: health care. of course. the chamber isn't the only lobbying organization to show its muscle. a few months ago i did a piece on the service employee's international union. it boasts a war room with 400 full-time people working to get the president's plan passed. of course, john, by next week, we may see who eventually wins. maybe. >> so many dogs in this fight. how do you keep track of them? >> and a lot of money. crossing the half hour, democratic leaders in the house coming up short on the 216 votes they need. it remains unclear if speaker nancy pelosi will try a controversial tactic to deem the bill passed. republican lawmakers are uniting

against the plan and hundreds of conservative protesters took to the capitol with one message, kill the bill. the red river is getting set to surge. people are now bracing for a 100 year flood for the second year in a row in fargo, north dakota and across the river in minnesota. volunteers are being bussed in the neighborhoods to help unload a million sand bags. wrong place, wrong people. the fbi says there is no evidence that three americans who were killed attending a child's birthday party in mexico were targeted. hit men were believed to be members of a jaur ez drug cartel and might have been a case of mistaken identity. rogue nations of iran are accused of using a black market network to help develop the nuclear weapons program. the united states appears to be powerless to stop it. that's the assessment of our next guest who paints a terrifying picture of how close

al qaeda came to obtaining weapons just prior to the 9/11 attacks. "peddling peril." david albright. thanks for being with us. >> glad to be here. >> explain how big of a threat this actually is to us. >> well, countries like iran, north korea, syria, they don't build nuclear weapons themselves. they depend on outside assistance, can be cases syria going to north korea to buy a nuclear reactor. case of iran, they got help from a pakistani. plus they go out and shop western markets to buy vital equipment and materials so they can put together facilities to make nuclear weapons materials and learn how to make nuclear weapons. so what you have is kind of an insidious slow effort to try to

acquire this capable that goes on largely behind the scenes. >> what's at stake in terms of our national security? >> well, iran wouldn't be a threat if it hadn't had that kind of outside assist. if kahn had not assisted iran in developing a vital nuclear technology, it wouldn't be anywhere near the threat it is today. pakistan, without being able to steal the nuclear information in europe and then create a smuggling network of its own, almost an unrivaled smuggling network, would only be beginning nuclear weapons now if it was very determined. what you would have is these kind of smuggling networks, countries that could not get nuclear weapons get them and get nem relatively quickly. >> why is it we aren't able or have not been able at this point to do more to crack down on this? >> people haven't -- i think people haven't fully appreciated the problem, both in the public and governments. one, it's hard to stop.

if you think about drug smuggling. it's more sophisticated than that and more stoppable than that. nonetheless, people kind of accept it happens. one is countries like iran are very determined. so they expend a great deal of resources to succeed. and often they find loopholes in law because many of the items are controlled by trade controls. but they'll find a weak link. malaysia doesn't very any controls and set up trading companies there that buy in europe and sell to europeans while it's only going to malaysia. they'll do the same thing in the you had and deceive suppliers. >> there was testimony on the hill about iran and the top us commander said yesterday that he doesn't think iran will be able to obtain a nuclear weapon this year. do you agree? >> yes. i think we came to the same conclusion. one of major reasons is that the united states and allies

discovered the secret enrichment site near the holy city of quaum. it co-insided with they are having problems operating centrifuges. i don't think they are ready. they were put on the defensive by the discovery of this facility. >> if it's not this year, it's an event you'll conclusion they will get a nuclear weapon? >> i think if they decided to build nuclear weapons they could cobble together the wherewithal to do it now. it's a sad state of affairs and will require the united states to find a way to solve this problem. i think if iran chooses to build nuclear weapons it can do so. it may take some time but it has the capabilities in place to move in that direction now. >> so you also talk about and you talked about this at the council on foreign relations that the prospect of containment. how do you in countries like

iran and north korea, who have rebuffed the international community's call to stop this, how do you stop this? >> one of first things is you don't accept it. it's a huge mistake made in the case of pakistan in the 1980s, they get nuclear weapons and people say, okay, we accept it. it's extremely important not to do that. and it was not done in the case of south african libya and in both cases those countries are no longer do not have nuclear weapons or didn't get them. this is the effort has to be maintained to stop them. if they go get nuclear weapons, to get them to give them up. that's certainly the case in north korea, which does have nuclear weapons. then there's a range of things. sanctions are very important. sanctions targeting high technology items useable in nuclear weapons programs are very important. you want to stop them from

getting resupplied and expanding programs. in the case of iran probably will be bolstering naval forces there. we have to strengthen our alliances with allies in the gulf states and other arab nations. we're going to have to more than likely have stronger anti-missile defenses. it's going to be a little bit like a mini cold war, similar to what the united states did in the 0's and 50s with the soviet union. you can check out the book "peddling peril." thanks for joining us. tiger woods getting ready to return to golf. we'll take a closer look at why the game of golf needs him to come back. it's 37 minutes after the hour. wow, that's a low price!

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the redemption of tiger woods begins next month at the masters. a fitting venue for the fallen superstar. >> he hopes to be wearing green too at the end of the tournament. he captured four masters titles and returning to a place that holds a lot of special memories hoping to help him forget the painful ones. gary tuckman has more. >> reporter: tiger woods last month. >> i was wrong.

i was foolish. i don't get to play by different rules. the same boundaries that apply to everyone apply to me. i brought this shame on myself. >> reporter: then he added this. >> i do plan to return to golf one day, i just don't know when that day will be. >> now we know when the day will be. it will be the day next month when golfers come to george jormg trying to win a green jacket. the masters is where i won my first major. after a long and necessary time away from the game, i feel i'm ready to start my season at augusta. he's ready for golf, but is golf ready for him. >> golf needs tiger woods more than tiger woods needs golf. >> closely followed the woods saga that began with the bizarre car accident and culminated with woods apologizing about a multitude of extra marital

affairs. >> the pg amount tour desperately needs tiger woods back on the course. television ratings can as much as double when tiger woods is playing. right now the pga tour is hurting in terms of sponsorship. >> reporter: some of the sponsors have stuck with him like nike. others have kept their distance but maintain contracts like gillette and others said adios. what is his future? >> if it's a family oriented brand, a brand that is going after a certain type of family good guy image, i would definitely stay away from tiger woods at this point. if it's a brand that might be looking to make a splash benefit from the pr associated from getting behind woods, i would look at the brand and say this is a good time to get behind woods. >> reporter: back in 1997 i met woods for first time. just won the masters eight

months after turning pro. a huge crowd turned out to see him participate in what else, a sponsorship deal for a restaurant. i asked him about his future. >> reporter: how can you top this? >> i can always play better. golf is one of those sports can you get better. >> reporter: his fanned believe him and he lived up to his professional promise. i have undergone almost two months of inpatient therapy and continuing treatment. although i'm returning to competition, i have a lot of work to do in my personal life. a statement from a man whose certainly life was not par for the course. gary tuckman, cnn. atlanta. here's a prediction. by the end of this year, he's going to be bigger than ever. >> we'll see what happens. the sponsor that's stuck with them, how is that going to work for them? the pga tour needs him back more than he needs golf.

>> perfect spot for redemption, so much history for him as well, a prestigious tournament. if he does well and finishes it in the top five, he'll be golden. if he wins, that's going to blow wide open. david dusek from the sports illustrated golf group will break down the enormous economic impact on tiger's return and whether this is a shot at redemption for tiger. >> we'll talk to him in a few minutes. meanwhile, rob will have the travel forecast. a lot of extreme weather to tell you about after the break. >> jeanne moos takes on the protesters taking on health care reform. i have astigmatism.

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♪ good morning, new york, a little van morrison to get your day started off. what's going to be a beautiful day here in new york city. it's clear now. 41 degrees. later on today it's going to be sunny and it's going to go up to 61, according to some forecasts. according to others, it may actually hit mid 60s. tomorrows is going to be even better. getting close to 70 degrees. >> it was a nice day for st. patrick's day day. all of the revelers and parade. >> it's not even spring yet. >> welcome back. it's time for your "a.m. house call."

if you're thinking of buying a video game system for your little boy, you may want to consider this. it could slow his progress with reading and writing skills. researchers studied a group of young students giving them the play stations. the kids who got the games quickly exhibit the delays in developing academic skills. a quick check on the weather headlines, rob marciano, obviously huge problems suffering from the flooding. bright side here, we're going to get some nice weather over the next few days. >> you will. we have a number of counties under flood warning for especially jersey, the hardest hit area there with neighborhoods under water. most have crested but it will be a slow recession before we can unwind this rainfall that came in on top of the snowfall that came in months ago. they are prepping out west in the midwest i should say, fargo,

north dakota, once again this year, they are sand bagging to save their lives trying to get a million bags stacked up there as the red river continues to rise. forecast to go into major flood stage today and then eventually close to record stage as it crests over this weekend. this is a scene that was replayed just 12 months ago. good news today for them and the northeast. no rain in the forecast. the rain is down across parts of the south. down into the florida panhandle. this was the storm in texas yesterday riding along the gulf coast and it won't come up the eastern see board for another nor'easter. rain sliding south into the central plains through kansas city. that should be about it. no rain in the forecast for the flood-prone areas. but the problem is the temperature is going to be 60 in minneapolis and 63 in new york, that's beautiful stuff but obviously kind of adds to the snow melt which is one of main

problems especially in the upper midwest. we'll talk about that at the top of the hour. back to you. >> thanks so much, rob. this morning's top stories minutes away as well. attorney general saying we'll never read osama bin laden his rights because he'll be dead. quote, we'll read miranda rights to his corpse. the bold statement and the waves it's making. black box recorders are in cars as well. toyota's black boxes are harder to crack, which raises the question, is the company trying to hide something. >> those stories and more coming up at the top of the hour. i'd like one of those desserts and some coffee.

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♪ >> continuing our st. patrick's day theme this morning. >> sometimes you just have to go for it. >> dropkick murphies this morning. >> they came to the capitol with a message for congress and the president on health care. >> kill the bill. that's what the protesters were saying armed with signs and it turns out some punchlines as well. jeanne moos. >> reporter: a bunch of homicidal protesters descended on washington, their intention -- >> kill the bill. >> reporter: unless you're

wondering which bill to kill, there's president obama popping out of a health care coffin. you can read their minds by reading their signs, angry. you bet cha? >> i'm american and mad. >> reporter: russia called, wanted their socialism back. >> this one back here says stop being a democrat, start being an american. >> reporter: stop spending money we don't have on things we don't want. pelosi spits in america's face. >> these elitist pigs will shove it down our throat. >> i don't want to play doctor with my uncle, uncle sam we saw. >> my favorite sign, grandma isn't shovel ready. >> reporter: some held their signs and wore them. the problem with socialism is eventually you run out of other people's money. at this kill the bill rally, the victim showed up.

>> i brought an abortion to show you today. >> reporter: since there's talk of democrats resourting to a maneuver in which the bill would be deemed rather than passed. >> join me in a new cheer. let's deem it dead. >> deem it dead! >> reporter: oh, what fun it is to chant about obscure congressional strategy. >> say it with me. self-executing! self-executing! >> reporter: the trick is to make yourself heard. >> these folks apparently can't hear us up there. sometimes we have to hold a hearing aid like we seen ons used to have. >> reporter: sometimes a mega phone malfunction can function as a metaphor. for instance when text congressman tried to speak. >> you sunk my battle ship. >> reporter: on that old game. >> battle ship. you sank my battle ship. >> reporter: like they want to sink health care but the kill

the bill folks at the rally were tamed compared to the ones on youtube who really killed the bill. it was flushed, abused and burned. even backed over. warning, smoke sg hazardous to a health care bill's health. jeanne moos, cnn, new york. >> taking it to a whole new level on youtube, don't they? >> yes, they do. three minutes till the top of the hour. we'll have your top stories after the break.

good morning and happy st. patrick's day to you on this

wednesday, the 17th of march. thanks for joining us on the most news in the morning. >> here are the big stories we'll be telling you about. a warning that this is only the beginning as volunteers stack up a million sapd bags in fargo, north dakota, the u.s. will face a historic flood in many other places this spring. the water could rise in 35 states. who's at risk and the destruction the wild weather has already caused. eric holder says the elusive fugitive will be killed. the surprising admission came during a heated exchange on trying terror suspects in u.s. courts. we're live in washington to break it down. most cars have one but the black box recorders can't be downloaded. investigators trying to figure out what caused a crash cannot access critical data and that has some engineers wondering if they have something to hide. we begin with the effort to

hold back the water. millions of americans waking up water logged and wary this morning. the praise is on to save entire communities. we begin our coverage in north dakota where the red river is set to surge. people are bracing for 100-year flood the second time in a row. volunteers are being bussed into the neighborhood to help load a million sand bags. >> here are some dramatic pictures from new jersey, people are trying to paddle their their way out. as much as 5 feet ever water in their homes. the passiac river reached major flooding levels swamping neighborhood after neighborhood and forces thousands to leave. south of the passiac shows what is left after the town's third major flood in over a decade. residents are pumping out as much as 3 feet of water from their homes. the plan to put flood gates

along the river is two years out and at this point probably too little too late. >> all of this comes as forecasters are issuing an urgent metsage to get ready for historic floods in your neighborhood. >> to the east and north and across the south, parts of 35 states could be in danger of serious flooding this spring. you can see the upper midwest in red and under the gun with a high risk of catastrophic flooding. >> rob marciano is live with who's at risk and the damage the extreme weather has left behind. when we talk about being at high risk for major flooding. tell us the reasons why this year in particular is so dangerous? >> we had so much snow for one thing. the fall set up to have a lot of rainfall as well. it's been so cold. that snow has pretty much hung around and on top of the blizzard, the northeast had that spring rain storm and wind storm this past weekend. but now the attention will shift

across to the upper midwest. that is the number one spot. the bull's-eye where we think -- know that major flooding is going to happen. unfortunately it happened the same way less than a year ago. >> reporter: in fargo, north dakota, residents are trying to stack 1 million sand bags in hopes of pushing back the red river, which could crest 20 feet above flood stage later this week. last year 100 homes in the area were damaged and thousands of people were evacuated when the red didn't go down for a record 61 days and crested twice. in the northeast, a wild storm left residents either without power or with most of what they own under water. trees ripped down power lines and crushed cars. the storm is being blamed for at least seven deaths. >> i'm living in the school because i got flooded out. a bunch of others got flooded.

>> reporter: many had to hef the front door by boat or heavy equipment. you're at the breaking point? >> i can't get to my cat right now and it's upsetting. >> reporter: a lot of people want to blame el nino but it was something that happened in the atlantic ocean, the os lags pours cold air one after the other. we saw that the eastern two thirds of the country the snow pack hung around for a long time. this is the water equivalent of the snow pack, bright purple is 5 to 10 inches of watt aer equivale equivalent. and all of that water has got to get through the river systems. the probably the most unpredictable part, the ice on rivers. when you get a ice jam, you'll see the water rise up 2 or 3 or

5 feet in a matter of minutes. it makes the situation ver very, very dangerous. >> the ground is still frozen over that area so the water can't absorb into the ground, right? >> exactly right. we are going to see warming temperatures which will help that situation, but it's a catch 22. the more it warms, the faster the snow melts and we have the flooding all over again. >> wow. that map certainly shows it all. thanks so much. we talked about the warning from meteorologists. then what you do if you're living in one of these neighborhoods and people are going into spring whether or not they are covered by flood insurance. here's more. fema has redrawn the maps it uses to set insurance rates and homeowners may discover the new maps place their homes in a flood plain, forced to pay $200 more a month even though the next next door maybe wouldn't have to. people have complained about the

revised flood zones saying they are being forced to buy unnecessary flood insurance and what flood insurance covers or does not cover. analysts say many policies wont pay for finished basements. he is the face of terror, the world's most wanted terrorist. the obama administration predict he will be brought to justice in a body bag not a u.s. court. eric holder made the surprising remark during a hearing about trying terror suspects in civilian courts. >> talk about a hypothetical that never will occur. the reality is we'll be reading miranda rights to the corpse of osama bin laden. they have the same rights that a charles man son would have. any other kind of mass murderer. >> my constituents and i have deep seated philosophical dlifrns with the obama

administration. >> he will never appear in a courtroom. that's a reality. >> jean ma serve is live in washington this morning. >> the statements track what seep yor military officials have been saying for years. the fact the attorney general said it in this language is strike. that bin laden will be killed by the u.s. or killed by his own people so he can't be captured. he made the comments in the midst of a very testy debate over where to try terror detainees. included this exchange. >> they are treated by the military as enemy combatants captured at time of war. the question is -- >> they are put put against the wall and shot. they have the ability to confront those accused them and many of the same constitutional rights. >> severely restricted rights

and the military tribunal is the problem. we're at war. >> reporter: the attorney general told the committee detain ee would be treated like a mass murderer like charles manson. there has been a lot of congressional and other pushback own the decision to try the self-pro fessed master mind in new york. holder said yesterday a new decision on how and where to deal with him will be made in weeks not months. jeanne meserve, thanks. republicans united against plans to pass the senate's health care reform. will they give in to pressure from the white house? we'll talk to one of the holdout, jason altmire from pennsylvania. it's an "a.m. original." every car has one but it seems investigators can't download crash data from the black box recorders in toyota models

leaving some to wonder if toyota is trying to hide something. >> at 7:39, we're looking at detroit's $1 billion plan to save schools. there are some students there getting things right. we're live ahead. [ male announcer ] as long as we're winding up our doing dials,

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♪ leprechaun. >> was that a leprechaun? could have been a crack head. >> can you please do your -- >> you don't remember that, t leprechaun spotted in a small town and somebody said it could have been a crack head. they have t-shirts, my son has got one. 13 minutes after the hour. already we're having a lot of fun. >> we're going to save your broeg for later. stocks set to open at 17-month high. the market surged yesterday when the federal reserve announced it was keeping its benchmark rates near zero for an extended period of time. the s&p 500 breaking the 1150

barrier on that news. pepsi has agreed to stop selling sugary soft drinks in schools by 2012. the full calorie soft drinks will be pulled from school vending machines in more than 200 countries. the world heart federation is hoping coca-cola does the same thing. prescription drugs stolen from a connecticut warehouse used by the pharmaceutical company eli lilly. they cut a hole in the roof and repelled down and made off with painkillers as well as other prescription narcotics. democrat leaders in the house are coming up short on the 216 votes needed to pass the health care reform. it's unclear if nancy pelosi will be trying this tactic of deem and pass or if that will work. >> republican lawmakers are united against the legislation and there's a small group of house democrats holding out as well. jason altmire is one of them and he joins us live from capitol

hill. great to see you. what are your problems with the current legislation and what would it take to get you on board? >> i've said from the beginning this has to be about bringing down the cost of health care for people who have it now, for families and businesses and seniors. and the initial versions of the bill didn't do as good a job as we could have. that's why i need to see the finished product and see we're retaining the growth of health care because we'll never get our long-term deficit in order unless we address health care costs and we have to bring down the cost for people who have it now. >> three times in ten days, that's how many times you've spoken with president obama. trying to get you on board and trying to get you to agree to any final legislation to pass through the house. are you any closer to leaning in the direction of saying yes this time around? >> i need to see the finished product. there's no cbo score available yet. we expect that perhaps as soon as today. at that point i can go through it and see if the concerns have

been addressed. i will say this. i think the current version of the bill is much better than we had in the house in november, but i don't think the senate bill is passable by itself. so we do have to find a way to adjust for getting the nelson agreement out of the senate bill, bringing down the cost of health care for people who have it now and making sure that the coverage and insurance reforms are still intact. on that point congressman, the senate bill being passable in the house, of course a lot of attention is focused on potential procedural maneuver here that may deem the senate bill to be passed. i mean, don't want to get into the overall mechanics of it. but basically they would pass a fix it bill then deem the bill had been passed, also called the slaughter option. what do you think about the potential for using that process to get health care through the house. >> i don't support that. clearly it's within the rules and yes, it's been used before.

but this is the biggest social policy this congress has been this close to passing in 45 years. the polls at best are mixed on this, perhaps even tilting towards public reluctance to do this. i think the biggest thing is that the public has to accept the process and policy that we've passed. if we start going around the rules in a way that the public is not comfortable with it in a strictly partisan way adding student loans into the bill. we're using the reconciliation process. i think all of this increases the opportunity for the public to say, you know what, i'm not comfortable with this process. >> what are your constituents saying to you, do they want you to vote yes? >> they definitely lean with discomfort with the bill. i've been hearing from them by the thousands this week. there's a sizable number that support it but there's no question that the polls you're seeing around the country are similar in my district and the response we're getting. what i have to be able to do is go back home and articulate why we need to do health care reform

and why this bill addresses the concerns i've had on their behalf since the beginning of the process. but i can't make that judgment until i see the finished product. >> once you see the finished product, if you are comfortable with the finished product and this gets back to process again, should the house decide to use this deem and pass measure, would you be willing to hold your nose and let the process take place? >> i can't control whether they use the processor not. all i can control is what my vote is going to be and that's going to make it more difficult for me to support the bill. i think public acceptance of a policy change has to be part of the equation. >> there's a difference between making it more difficult for you to vote for the bill and absolute no red line. would you be willing to vote yes if you get the bill you want? >> the only absolute definitive red line that there is for me is i will not vote for a bill that increases the deficit by even

one penny. everything else i'm going to look at the bill in total, including the process. it doesn't help me to get the yes to go through this process and i know it's making my constituents more nervous. >> republicans are targeting democrats like you, those who are up for re-election and running former u.s. attorney to try to challenge you. at the end of the day how much is going to be about your political survival as well? you get voted out of office because of it, what are you going to do? >> i still have to look myself in the mirror and know i did the right thing for my constituents. i have to go back home to my community, i have to live there. i have to look at my friends and neighbors. in order to do that with a straight face, i have to know i did what was best. >> good to talk to you this morning. we'll continue to follow your particular role. thanks for joining us.

>> we'll take a quick break. it's 20 minutes past the hour. i want to fix up old houses. ♪ [ woman ] when i grow up, i want to take him on his first flight. i want to run a marathon. i'm going to work with kids. i'm going to own my own restaurant. when i grow up, i'm going to start a band. [ female announcer ] at aarp we believe you're never done growing. thanks, mom. i just want to get my car back. [ female announcer ] together we can discover the best of what's next at aarp.org. [ beeping ]

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♪ 1, 2, 3, 14. here we go. it's about six and a half minutes away from the top stories. an "a.m. original." do you realize that most cars, most modern cars these days come equipped with a black box like the ones installed in airplane snz. >> most vehicles do have one,

called edrs and they record all kinds of data in the final seconds before a crash. in the case of toyota models it seems it was difficult to dawn load. now people people are saying -- wondering is toyota trying to keep crash information involving their cars out of the hands of investigators. >> a lot of lawyers and advocators feel that way. they believe the data stored in the black boxes or similar devices can shed a lot of light on what's been causing the instances of sudden unintended acceleration. >> these houses, the trees, the white metal fence, they were some of the last thing he saw the day he and three friends died. >> mr. hardy had a perfect driving record. and all of a sudden his car shoots through a stop sign and crashes through a metal fence, rick shays off a tree and winds

up upsidedown in a pond. >> reporter: it wasn't the floor mats, those were the in trunk right where hardy put them after receiving the recall notice weeks earlier. it wasn't a seizure, although hardy was on medication, the autopsy ruled that out. so what really happened? what if the car could talk? essentially it can. most vehicles have what's commonly called a black box known as an event data recorder or edr. >> this those kinds of accidents, edr will be invaluable. shawn dennis reconstructs car accidents for law firms and insurance companies. >> it's all the way down. >> reporter: the black box is tied into the air bag system and records two to three seconds of pre-crash data, throttles accelerators, seat belts. >> we see 2.3 seconds before the

crash this person, this driver has gone from brakes off to brakes on. >> reporter: chrysler and gm and ford give people like dennis access to the information through a crash data reader anyone can buy. it's for any car combatible with this system? >> that's correct. >> reporter: and toyota is not catable? >> that's correct. >> reporter: they say it is only for research and development and not reliable for accident reconstruction. >> i think it is. if it provides any kind of data to me about what's going on have the we can, it can be used as a reconstruction tool without a doubt. >> reporter: lawyers for the hardy family thought so too. they require individuals to get a court order. instead, police and federal regulators stepped in compelling toyota to download and decipher the data which only its own engineers are trained to do. the data the hardies were expecting was apparently nowhere

to be found. >> what we see is a section here to record brake and acceleration. and there's nothing. they have -- for whatever reason they've decided not to program their boxes to record this information. >> reporter: are you suggesting that perhaps toyota does not want its cars to record what's going on with the braking and acceleration system? >> we know that they are not programming it to collect. that's what we know. and it makes us very suspicious. >> reporter: there is no law yet specifying which data automakers must record. they say it depends on what features the vehicle has and what kind of data they want to know. the only information the hardy family did get was speed. 45 miles an hour or 15 miles over the limit. leaving them and their lawyers still searching for answers. >> if you're confident your car

is safe and working in a safe manner, you should want to be able to document that all of the systems were functioning properly. it makes me think they have something to hide. >> reporter: now, 64% of all car makers install black boxes. by next year black boxes will have to be standardized so they record the same data at more frequent ip ter vales. and automakers say they need an extra year because of the state of the economy. >> if toyota is the home one to download the data, how do they know it's accurate? >> they don't. it's all about the integrity of the car company. forensic engineer that we saw by downloading that information, what he was able to determine is that the car was likely on cruise control. all of a sudden realized it was about to crash and began applying the brakes 2.4 seconds in advantage. clearly was not enough time to stop the car. imagine you could get what the electronic system is doing and

throttle, all of that. >> and get more time as well. not just 2.5 seconds. >> that's exactly right. they want five seconds of information. there's probably more information stored in the car. any say it's for research and development. the question is, how do they get it back? it's got to be there. >> thanks, deb. we're almost at 7:30 eastern time. means it's time for a look at the top stories, eric holder saying that osama bin laden will never face trial in united states. he responded to criticism about the possibility of trying the terror leader in a u.s. courtroom. he responded by saying, the reality is we'll be reading miranda rights to a corpse. for the first time in nearly four decades, the number of americans being held in state prisons has dropped. there are an estimated 1.4 million people in state prisons, 5,000 less than last year. it did not apply to federal prison, they saw an increase by more than 6,000. the race is on this morning

to save fargo, north dakota as the first of the floodwaters arrive. the red river is more than 11 feet above flood stage. volunteers are working to fill more than a million sand bags. in the northeast it will be delays before the water reseeds in some neighborhoods. anthony johnson is in patterson, new jersey, a very hard-hit area. >> reporter: this is the result of eight inches of rain from the monsterous storm that fell in the state of new jersey over the weekend. this is the passiac river. actual banks about a mile down the road. there's a current running about a hall a block away from where we are now standing. all across the state, the damage totals are coming in. still a lot of damage out there. the governor of the state of new jersey chris christie will be touring the worst hit areas of the state today. join during the storm trees

snapped bringing down power lines all across the place leaving a lot of households in the dark. as a matter of fact, there were hundreds of thousands of people without power. now the number is starting to come down to tens of thousands still without power throughout much of the state. crews are coming in from all around the country to help out the local utilities here in the state of new jersey. but it looks like a lot of people will still be in the dark almost until the weekend. as far as the rain that came in. as we said it was a record rain storm for the wintertime here in the state of new jersey. a full 8 inches of rain. of course that meant the rivers would fill up with water and they did. many of them coming over their banks, a lot of homes had to be evacuated as eofficials told me it was time to get out. maybe there is one silver lining in the whole thing, temperatures over the next few days expected to be in the upper 60s to near 70 degrees. that will give a whole lot of

folks that have been suffering a little time to dry out. john and kiran, back to you. >> amazing to see the amount of water there. they are old friends but israel's plans tore new settlements has strained relations with the united states. hillary clinton renounced the action. could it actually provide a new impetus to start the peace process. joining from washington, the executive director of the palestine center with us here in the studio daniel levy. daniel, the state of relations between the united states and israel. the ambassador miker orrin has suggested that they were at a low point in the last 30 to 35 years. he has since said he was grossly misquoted on that. the secretary of state

maintained a hard line stance and at the same time reiterating israel is a good friend. is the administration overreacting here or was the reaction appropriate? >> well, i think there have been these episodic crises and what you saw this time was the entire administration saying this was unhelpful not only the timing of the decision onset. s but also the substance. there is nowhere close to what happened under the fist bush presidency when loan moneys were withheld in '92 and '92. the difference in the context is that the u.s. is fighting two wars in the broader region. this is an issue that escalates tension and used by radicals against the u.s. that's why general petraeus was explaining why the unresolved conflict, of course we're trying to build a coalition, iran and the nuclear concerns makes that more difficult.

and the other thing is their suspicion that the current israeli prime minister might be choosing narrow coalition and settlement interests over the u.s./israel relationship. >> certainly the interior ministry which renounced the settlement represents a hard line. yousef, could it present opportunities with the way the administration has gone after the israeli government on this issue? >> we need to realize that the reason this spat began was because of a clear difference in the interest of the current israeli government and current interest of the united states in the region. as daniel mentioned, general petraeus made clear yesterday before the senate armed service committee that unless there's progress made on establishing a just peace for the palestinians, that american lives in iraq and afghanistan are going to continue to be threatened by radicals who capitalize on

america's perception of a double standards when dealing with the israeli palestinianish j ipales. this is not the first time the american principal gets embarrassed, it's something that has happened on a fairly regular basis. 20 years ago james baker said when returning from a similar trip, every time i go to israel, i'm greeted with the announcement of another new settlement. and so if over 20 years we've been unable to change this behavior, we now have an opportunity to change our policy towards israel to force them to change their calculations on settlements. >> do you see this as a potential -- i don't want to say breakthrough -- but opening to pursue middle east peace talks? >> i think the administration is starting to come to the realization that current israeli government and israeli governments prior to this have not been on the same page in

terms of settlement policy. and the united states' policy has been clear for 20 years rhetorically but we've never backed it up with more severe actions. and it's about time to do that and take the kind of steps that the george h.w. bush administration took when they commissioned aid to israel. >> daniel, do you see a upon opening here? >> every crisis is an opportunity, john. in this context, i think the thing would be don't necessarily make this about a particular housing development, as problematic as it may be, because of this we have over $500,000 israeli beyond the old border. make it about more, make it a plan for getting a border. we no longer have the disputes over this settlement and that settlement. i would expect the obama administration to consider to put some kind of plan forward. >> we said this time and time again, every break through is preceded by a crisis.

what about the credibility in the eyes of the arab and broader muslim world. the president made the speech promising there would be a new relationship. this incident and the administration's response to it, do you think that will raise the credibility of president obama in the arab world? >> i think, look, frankly, the administration's policies since it took office in the past year has really been damaging to the sort of wave of good faith that the election of president obama -- >> but do you think it could change things? >> i think it can potentially change things if we take further steps. this is not the first time this happens. it is the first time we notice it because the vice president got embarrassed over there. it is more than just borders, the israeli provocations have

been going on and included not only settlement expansion, residency revokation, incurses, there's a number of different issues that the obama administration needs to pay attention to beyond the issue of settlement expansion to create the impression. the people in the middle east and broader muslim world do not see that. >> good to talk to this morning, thanks so much for coming in. shrinking schools and growing debt. detroit's public school system is in crisis mode. we're looking at the billion dollar plan to try to turn things around. we'll be right back. what will happen if your spouse outlives you by many years? what will happen if you outlive your savings? pacific life knows that tomorrow's questions require planning today. pacific life has the financial solutions and strength

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♪ 41 minutes past the hour. in detroit this morning, an sos, save our schools. officials are rolling out a $1 billion plan that would shut down 45 schools, consolidating some and demolishing others. trying to fix a huge drop in

enrollment and massive debt and some of the highest dropout numbers in the country. it's not all bad in the city's classrooms. alan chernoff is looking at the group of schools that are actually getting it right. >> reporter: violin lessons for everyone begin in third grade. mandarin chinese is mandatory beginning in kindergarten and computer challenges reinforce what's taught in the classroom. cornerstone schools, one private and two charter schools part of the public system are overachievers, students on average test a year above grade level at 95 go on to graduate high school. students here come with no special vapg advantages, half live below the poverty line. fourth grader preently transferred from public school to corner stone. >> at my old school, nobody really cared.

>> reporter: at corner stone teachers and parents care enough. the school year is 11 months old. >> only get one month of summer vacation. >> reporter: does that bother you? >> not really when you get the chance to learn about the school. it's actually fun at the school. it's like we're on vacation. >> reporter: easy to see why with after school activities like fencing. >> cornerstone to me embodies what education should be, reading, math, arithmetic, you're learning how to be a well-rounded person and love each other and get along. >> reporter: cornerstone motivates children to achieve. this hallway is decorated with college banners so every day as students walk into the classroom, they see the goal on the college education. cornerstone constantly assesses students but didn't teach to test like many public schools that focus on standardized

exams. >> we fleed to know about every student. what makes them tick and learn. >> reporter: teachers are so committed they work here even though many earn less than they could in public schools. parents and guardians must make a commitment to be involved. >> we say you have a responsibility too, not just the student. we expect to be at parent/teacher meetings and see that homework gets done. >> reporter: witnessing academic success involves three cs, a culture of education and commitment to learning and community, a nur touring environment willing to mentor the children. alan chernoff, cnn, detroit. while detroit plans to close more than 40 schools, it also has plans to open dozens of new

schools over next decade and it's looking to institutions like corner stone to help in that rebirth of the detroit public school system. >> alan chernoff this morning. thank you. here's more, it is an ambitious one they hope to take the 58% graduation rate he mentioned and bring it up to 98% by 2015. they plan on adding more classes to the school day, longer school year, 120 minutes of reading daily. and also teach algebra basics starting in sixth grade. there will be more after school help and more language classes and even some college level courses in the high schools and an adviser for each student. the total tab, $540 million. it's 45 minutes past the hour. we're back in a moment. growing together under the same sun. and now for the first time in new sun crystals, the only 100% natural sweetener made with pure cane sugar and stevia. ♪ finally, all the sweetness of nature

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♪ all right, there's a picture of boston this morning. 37 degrees right now but it is going to be a great day to celebrate st. patrick's day. it's going to be sunny and 62 in bost boston. >> beautiful day in new york city as well. the st. patrick's day parades on the east coast will be blessed with sunshine and fabulous weather. let's check in with rob marcia o marciano. how nice will it be? >> nice warm-up for the next couple of days, with a couple of fair weather clouds to frame a picture perfect shot. all irie isish eyes will be smi. the folks in new jersey and rhode island have a lot of work to get through the rainfall and snow melt into the atlantic

ocean. we have flooding issues although the rivers are receding. rivers rising rapidly across rie upper midwest. as a matter of fact, the red river has risen 13 feet in the last five days, so fargo will be talking about that, and this could approach the record flooding they saw around this time last year. unbelievable that it's happening twice in a row. all right. across the deep south, a little bit of rain across the florida panhandle and southern parts of georgia and alabama and into tampa and ft. myers eventually later on today, but it shouldn't be a real strong storm. the big story will be the warming temperatures, 80 in l.a., 59 in chicago, 60 degrees in minneapolis and 63 in new york city. so enjoy your st. patrick's day. we'll talk more about the midwest flooding situation at the top of the hour. >> rob, thanks so much. 9 1/2 minutes until the top of the hour.

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[ male announcer ] ...for the deepest clean and the healthiest mouth. listerine®. clean deeper. get healthier. ♪ so don't go breaking my heart ♪ >> 54 minutes past the hour. welcome back to the most news in the morning. time for your a.m. house call. stories about your health, and seeing your investments take a big hit can hurt. your bank accounts of course suffer. >> and now there is proof that seeing what's happening to your portfolio and 401(k) could actually bring on a heart attack. a duke university study show that stock market values had a direct effect on the number of people treated for heart attacks. our chief medical correspondent, dr. sanjay gupta, joins us from atlanta. sanjay, is it basically stress? >> yeah, it's interesting, because anecdotally we've known for some time, people get

stressed, it can impact the heart, increase your heart rate, increase your blood pressure. what they did here was interesting. they decided to collectively look at populations to see if there were changes overall in heart attacks, cardiac arrest and people needing some procedure, and that's what they found, when you have some sort of event that's affecting society more globally, whether it's stock market issues, a hurricane, an earthquake, something happening, you do start to see increases in those specific things. i thought what was also interesting here was the why, what exactly seems to happen. we know you get a surge of stress hormones and that causes all sorts of different things, but it also seems too to cause some electrical problems in your heart, as well, which can lead to these sudden cardiac problems. it increases inflammation in the body, which can have longer-term problems as well. there's something else here, sort of a medical mystery, it has been for some time, but this idea that someone goes in with classic symptoms of a heart attack. they have chest pain and all the

symptoms and twhan get worked up, they don't find anything. what it seems to be here is what's known as broken heart syndrome, this surge of adrenaline, the surge of stress hormones sort of stuns the heart. doesn't know show up on any tests and it does get better on its own, but it can mimic a heart attack, as well. those two things do seem to increase during stock market problems and all sorts of things. >> we know it's impossible to remove all the stress from our live, so what's the best advice on how to manage it? >> that's a good point. if you look around the world at people who live the longest with the lowest rates of cardiac disease, i've seen this myself traveling around the world, they don't have less stress than we do. exactly to your point, they manage it in much different ways, i think, than we do here in the states. you know, for example, a few tips that i learned was praying or meditating for about 15 to 20

minutes a day. you and i have talked about this before. i've incorporated this into my own life. it was something that i thought i'd never do but actually sitting down and meditating for about 15 minutes seems to make a huge difference for me. happy hour. you know, besides drinks and on st. paddy's day, you have to talk act happy hour, but more to the point is you take an hour for yourself on any given day, away from work, away from family, to recharge and get yourself happy again. finally, having sex is another big one. and simply laughing. you know, laughter yoga, for example, is something people practice and it seems to increase their levels of happiness and decrease their levels of stress. so tips you can incorporate every day. >> good advice. thanks, sanjay. >> great advice. thanks, sanjay. >> you like meditating, huh?

top of the morning to you, and happy st. patrick's day. it's wednesday, the 17th of march. thanks for joining us for the most news in morning. i'm john roberts. >> a warning that this is only the begin, volunteers stacking up a million sandbags in fargo, north dakota. meantime, forecasters are saying that the u.s. will face an historic flood threat this spring. rob marciano is going to show us who's at most risk and the destruction that the wild weather has already caused. >> attorney general eric holder says osama bin laden with never face trial in the united states because he will, quote, be killed by the u.s. or he will be killed hi business own people so that he's not captured by us. we're live in washington to break it all down for you. and tiger woods hitting the links again. the biggest golf star in the

world is heading back to the greens next month for the masters after his tabloid-style sex scandal. what this will mean for tiger's business empire and his future in the sport of golf. we're breaking it down with christine romans and david dusek. but an effort to hold off the water and get out from underneath it in the northeast and the upper midwest. the race is on to save entire communities. we begin in south dakota where the red river is set to surge for the second year in a row. volunteers were being bussed into neighborhoods near the river to help unload a million sandbags. >> further east in new jersey, people are already paddling out. they have as much as five feet of water in their homes. many people had to be rescued by boat or in some cays by construction vehicles. all of this comes as forecasters are issuing an urgent message to millions of people this morning to get ready and be prepared for potentially historic flooding in your community. now, parts of 35 different states could be in danger this

spring. rob marciano is live in atlanta with more on why this is happening this year. hi, rob. hi, kiran, hi, john. set up east of the colorado rockies certainly lending itself to spring flooding. we're already seeing it. the storm system that rolled across the northeast didn't help the situation and the cold pack in the upper midwest not helping the situation for the folks around fargo. last year they had what they considered to be a hundred-year flood. this year they may have the same flood just one year later. >> reporter: in fargo, north dakota, residents are trying to stack 1 million sandbags in hopes of pushing back the red river, which could crest 20 feet above flood stage late they are week. last year, about 100 homes in the area were damaged and thousands of people were evacuated when the red didn't go down for a record 61 days and crested twice. in the northeast, a wild storm

has left hundreds of thousands of residents either without power or with most of what they own under water. trees ripped down power lines, tore up sidewalk, crushed cars. the storm is being blamed for at least seven deaths. >> i'm living in the school right now because i got flooded out. a bunch of other people got flooded out. >> many had to leave their front doors by boat or in the arms of heavy equipment. you're at the breaking point. >> yeah. i can't even get to my cat right now and it's upsetting. >> you want to blame el nino, that really is not the whole story. the bigger story is why this is happening. because we had such a cold winter, such a snowy winter, as well, and that has to do with what's going on in the atlantic ocean. just a blocking high, a northern atlantic os case, blocking oscillation, and it hasn't been this strong in years. it pours down the eastern two-thirds of the country and rides that storm track up the east coast.

bismarck set a record for seeing 81 days not getting above the freezing mark so, that ground is frozen solid and this snow pack, which has here the equivalent of 5 to ten inches of water, of rainfall, that snow pack has been slow to melt. now we're seeing temperatures rise over a frozen ground and the rivers rise quickly. the red river has risen 13 feet in only the last five days. expect it to crest at 38 feet over the weekend. that would be two feet shy of last year's flood, but last year was historic, so they are battling and they've got a couple weeks to bat this will thing as the spring melt continues. john and kyra? >> rob marciano breaking it down on why this is happening. thanks so much. new this morning, the u.s. and israel stepping back from the diplomatic brink, so to speak, trying to ease their deepest rift in decades triggered by israel's announcement last week during joe biden's visit that it plans to expand settlements in east jerusalem. secretary of state hillary

clinton called that insulting. yesterday she reiterated that the countries have a close, unshakable bond. democratic leaders in the house coming short on the 216 votes they need to pass health care reform. it's unclear if speaker nancy pelosi will try a controversial tactic to deem that the bill has been passed. minority leader john boehner is planning to block that attempt. honda now plans to recall more than 400,000 minivans and trucks saying problems with the brakes could make those vehicles hard to stop. this recall affects 2007 and 2008 odyssey and element models. the carmaker says the brakes may start to feel, quote, soft over time and should be repaired to prevent a crash. in detroit this morning, an sos, save our schools. officials are rolling out a $1 billion plan that would shut down 45 public schools, consolidating some and demolishing others. they're trying to fix three growing problems, a huge drop in

enrollment, a massive debt and some of the highest dropout numbers in the kunl tri. oprah winfrey will be in a philadelphia courtroom late thermo. she'll testify in a defamation suit brought by a former head mistress in a south african school. winfrey is accused of using a cover-up in the event. and peter madoff says the nearly $200 million lawsuit against him is an attempt to blame anyone with the madoff name for his brother's fraud. several family members are trying to get the suit thrown out, but a trustee says his family profited from the ponzi scheme and they should return the money. madoff is serving 150 years in prison. still ahead, some surprising comments by the attorney general about osama bin laden and why he thinks the u.s. will never catch him alive. to a well-equipped buick lacrosse. get inside each. and see what you find.

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♪ just the way you are osama bin laden's fate was the subject of a heated exchange on thrill. attorney general eric holder yesterday said the world's most wanted terrorist will never face trial in the united states.

his reason -- bin laden will not be taken alive. >> we're talking about a hypothetical that will never occur. the reality is we will be reading miranda rights to the corpse of osama bin laden. he will never appear in an american courtroom. >> but it is -- >> that's the reality. that's the reality. >> jeanne meserve is in our washington bureau for us this morning, and barbara starr is at the pentagon with the military aspect of this. jeanne, let's start with you. some surprising comments from the attorney general yesterday but perhaps also a realization of what would probably happen if american forces ever closed in on him. >> that's right, john. the statements actually track what senior military and intelligence officials have been saying for years but that the attorney general said it and in this language was striking. holder said the chances of catching bin laden alive infinitessimal, that bin laden will either be killed by the u.s. or killed by his own people so he can't be captured. he made these comments in the midst of a very testy debate

over where to try terror detainees, which included this exchange. >> they are treated by the military as enemy combatants captured at time of war. and the question is -- >> but they're not put up against the wall and shot. they have the ability to confront those who accuse him, they have the rights to lawyers, many of the same constitutional rights -- >> severely restricted rights and the military tribunal is the problem. we're at war. >> the military general said detainees would not be coddled in court, that a detainee would be treated like a mass murderer, like charles manson. there has been a lot of congressional and other pushback on the attorney general's decision to try the self-propeszed 9/11 mastermind, khalid shaikh mohammed, in new york. that is being reconsidered and holder said a new decision on how and where to deal with him will be made in weeks, not months. >> barbara starr at the pentagon this morning, give us the broad

brush strokes here of the hunt for osama bin laden. is the military really out there actively looking for him, or is it sort of if they come across him they' be happy about that? is there any attempt to take him alive, or do they just basically want to put a bullet in him and say all is done? >> well, all on the table, john. look, by all accounts he's hiding in pakistan, and u.s. forces are not in pakistan. but look at it this way, what holder is really talking about is, if you will, the last hundred yards to osama bin laden. if you thought he was behind a door and you had delta fors, u.s. commandos ready to kick that door down and go in and get him, what would they face? well, osama bin laden's not going to let himself be taken alive. either he has poison that he will take, that may not work fast enough. he always carries a weapon pe he may try to kill himself. but it's also widely believed that the security men who are

with him at all times have taken a vow to the death that they will shoot and kill him so he cannot be taken alive by u.s. forces. so even if they dropped a bomb on him, it's that last hundred yards. if you know he's there, how do you get to him before he kill ls himself or has his aides kill him? john? >> so, what happens if or when bin laden is either captured or killed? >> well, i mean, this is really the fundamental problem for the united states in this propaganda war that is engaged in with the fundamentalist movement. the u.s. has to have a dead body to show with recognizable facial features to show the world that bin laden has been killed. that in itself is a problem. if you drop a bomb on the house where you think he is, you don't have a body left to show the world. if perhaps he is shot and killed and people set his body on fire or go to bury him very quickly, you don't have a body to show.

what the u.s. knows is if bin laden is dead, they've got to show him to the world and have to do something so he is not made a martyr to fundamentalists, john. >> barbara starr and jeanne meserve, thanks, both. appreciate it. 14 minutes past the hour. tiger woods' master plan. he's returning to golf in time for the masters. who will benefit the most.

my mother shaped me as an actor, as a musician, as a human being. so when she was diagnosed with colon cancer, it was like our entire family got cancer. and she died when she was only 56, so this is personal. and hopefully my heartbreak is your wake-up call. you can prevent colorectal cancer. if you're 50 or older, get screened. screening saves lives.

17 minutes after the hour now and time for "minding your business." christine romans is here this morning. because of his announced comeback, we're talking about the business of tiger. good morning. >> good morning. tiger woods by the numbers. this is incredibly important because everyone is looking to april 8th, the comeback of tiger woods. his salary, 2008, more than $7 million, endorsements, $92 million, total take home, almost $100 million. forbes interestingly says over his career he's almost made a billion dollars. tiger woods was asked about that recently at a press conference, well, not recently, before he got into this little, shall we

say, indiscretion, and he actually laughed about that, said, no, i'm not a billionaire, far from it. the sponsor who is dumped tiger after his problems began -- gatorade, at&t, and accenture, you might recall, he was the face, the image of accenture. they had to quickly change gears. nike and electronic arts stood by him, and tiger's role was de-emphasized in gillette and the watch maker tagheuer. this is going to be a very big deal for the broadcasters and they're already stirring it up about what a big deal it will be. i have an opinion, the broadc t broadcasters saying 20% increase in viewership, 14.3 million at the masters last year. it is not the lunar landing, ladies and gentlemen. there's a lot of hype about what this is going to mean and i'm sure they'll keep pushing the hype, but it is the comeback of tiger woods, a lot of money involved here. another interesting note quickly, at&t dumped him as a sponsor but at&t is a sponsor of the masters.

so that is kind of interesting. at&t kind of gets to play it both bayways on that. >> very good. christine, thanks. we talked about tiger's business empire, but what about the actual sport of golf? >> and what will tiger's return mean for the game, his career, and does team tiger still have damage control to do? david dusek, deputy editor with "sports illustrated" golf. what's your take on his return to the masters? >> i suppose it's not surprising. there was a lot of news that started to come out last week that there were reports of tiger coming back. originally, it was orlando. the masters makes a lot more sense for his return. surprising we e got the news kind of yesterday, but not surprising it was coming. we were anticipating this. >> if america loves anything, david, it's a comeback story. >> sure. >> this is a chance for tiger to redeem himself over the course of just four days. how does the venue of the masters play into all this? >> it's the perfect sort of setting, the most golfy place as you can imagine. it's the most pure form of

almost any sporting event you can possibly imagine. there's no corporate village or signage. you're not going to see banners plasted all over with different logos and things. it's about the golf course, the idyllic, tranquil place that's literally a bastion of the sport, the holiest ground of the game. tiger has won there four times. the fans, the patrons as they line the golf course, are the most knowledgeable and respectful fans you could see. all these things will help increase tiger woods' level of comfort in what's got to be a traumatic sort of return. there's no avoiding that part, but in terms of the softest landing, this is the place to do it. >> two questions about the -- how much it matters, how well he plays. >> how much it matter, for tiger woods, this is the first step. for golf in general, it matters a lot. it brings golf back into the buzz. it's the beginning of the championship season, the run for the masters. >> it matter mrs. for golf than in terms of tiger himself? >> in terms of how he actually scores, yeah.

it means a lot for golf in terms he's competing and hopefully more positive stuff, he's rallying at this point. for tiger woods in terms of how well he's going to play, he's never broken 70 in the fist round. if he doesn't have a great score, i can already see the headlines, tiger woods and the effects of the scandal. i think his comfort level gets better and better through the week, i wouldn't be surprised saturday and sunday he could be in the mix. it's his home case. >> they say golf is the game of inches, the six or seven inches between your ears is 90% mental. that's always been tiger woods' strongest part. >> as christine was pointing out, about a less of a tenth of his income comes from his winnings on the golf tour. the majority, the bulk is endorsements. gatorade, at&t, accenture pulled out, but if he does well and this puts him on the road to a comeback, could we see all of those sponsors flocking back in

with new endorsements? i mentioned this earlier today, it is possible at the end of this year tiger could be even bigger than he was before this whole debacle. >> if tiger woods somehow wins the masters or wins the u.s. open and clearly shows that his game has not taken a big hit nearly as much as his reputation and his marketability, at least, at this point, then, yeah, you can see maybe in two or three years that he sort of goes back. i can't see him going back to the $100 million a year person because he was so universally loved, the pitch man was perfect. there are vacancies in the stable right now. for example, an automotive company, a different type of company in the business world, accenture pulls out, that creates openings. as he comes back, over time if he's winning, everybody wants to associate with a winner. as he gets closer to jack nicklaus' record of 18 championships, everybody wants to get on. >> is it going to bring new people in?

>> super bowl. if he's in contention saturday and sunday, cbs will get super bowl bsh. >> new eyeballs. >> sure. of the ten most highest rated television golf events that we've had since 1977, all of them have been sunday masters. >> people want to see what he looks like. people who don't even care about golf want to see what he looks like and thousand howe he's perceived. >> it's not just golf or the masters but the whole thing globally. >> thanks for coming in. >> thanks a lot. >> take a quick break. [ female announcer ] treat yourself to something special for lunch.

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one of washington's largest lobbying groups is flexing its financial muscles in the fight over health care reform. last year, the u.s. chamber of commerce doled out $42 million for anti-reform bill television ads. overall, it spent more than the two main fund-raising and grassroots operations for the democratic and republican parties. and the chim ber's broader impact on elections is yet to be seen. our carol costello joins us from washington. awful lot of money being thrown at this, carol. >> reporter: gobs and gobs of cash, john. the u.s. chamber of commerce is spending millions of dollars not only to fight health care but to influence the midterm elections. it has become a major player in national policy, something critics say is just another sign lobbyists are increasingly controlling what happens in your

life. >> hello, ohio! >> reporter: the fight over health care reform is hotter than it's ever been. president obama is in overdrive. >> that's why we need health insurance reform right now. >> reporter: and those who want to block the current bills are in overdrive, too. >> to ram through their same trillion-dollar health care bill. >> reporter: they're spending in the millions. >> tell congress, stop this health care bill we condition afford to pay. >> reporter: a powerful business coalition is behind this ad. it was paid for by the u.s. chamber of commerce, one of the richest, most powerful lobbies in the country. daybar curb is from a consume iradvocacy organization. >> they've got more resources to play it better than anybody else. >> reporter: once upon a time, the chamber of commerce was known mainly as a business association and ally for the local shopkeeper. >> take that one. i just sharpened it. >> that's swell.

>> reporter: today, critics like public citizen describe the chamber as too political with enormous influence over national policy. according to the center for responsive politics, between 1998 and 2009, the chamber spent $606,758,180 to lobby lawmakers, pay for political ads and grassroots organizing. in 2009 alone it spent $144.5 million on lobbying a variety of different issues. that's a lot of money. >> well, it is a lot of money, but i didn't hear a lot of concern about the unions spending $420 million in the '08 elections to elect this majority. >> reporter: still, by far and away, you guys spend the most money on lobbying. >> so? we're a lobbying organization. >> reporter: the chamber does support health care reform but doesn't think the president's plan is a good one. >> i think where the public gets a little askance when they hear we're going to cut half a trillion over medicare over here, we're going to create a

new long-term care entitlement trust fund over here and, oh, by the way, 50 bucks a day is not very much for long-term care in any assisted living center anywhere in the free world. >> reporter: the chamber says its stand on health care and otherish shies like climate change resonate beyond its membership. that's why it's been reach out to nonmembers. >> now we need you to join the fight. >> reporter: the effort and political speak is called grassroots organizing and many organizations do it. >> what is grassroots? it's people like you. it's individuals, not just business people, across the country who happen to share the views on some positions that we as an institution have developed, by the way, with their input. >> reporter: do you really have 6 million of them out there working for you? is that the goal, or do you have that amount of people already? >> we have a database of about 6 million names of people that we can reach out to and activate, yes. >> reporter: critics like arkush says the chamber has too much

influence. >> they just announced they're going to spend $600 million to challenge vulnerable democrats in the elections this fall. that is really frightening to members of congress and it makes them listen to the chamber's lobbyists. >> reporter: and this week those lobbyists and hundreds of others backed by dozens of organizations on both sides of the issue are concentrating their issues on one thing -- health care. of course, the chamber isn't the only lobbying organization to show its muscle. a few months ago i did an in-depth piece on the service employees international union and its efforts to pass health care reform. it boasted a war room with 400 full-time people to get the president's plan passed. by next week, john, we may or may not see who won. who knows. supposed to be over this week, right? >> no apologies from the chamber of commerce either. you said you spend a lot on lobbying. he says we're a lobbying

organization. >> reporter: no apologies. >> carol costello, thanks so much. >> sure. crossing the bottom of the hour right now, time for our top stories. the red river getting set to surge. these are the latest pictures right now in m.d. north dakota, minnesota, volunteers trying to save hundreds of homes from floodwaters. this is the second year in a row for this hundred-year flood. it comes as forecasters warn us that a third of the country could be dealing with similar threats this spring. attorney general eric holder says osama bin laden will never face trial in the united states. testifying before a congressional hearing, holder responded to criticism about the possibility of trying the terror leader in a u.s. courtroom by saying, quote, the reality is we will be reading miranda rights to a corpse. and a follow-up to a story that we've been following on "american morning." baby jenny rescued by doctors take on the hoim after haiti's devastating earthquake back in january. she's one step closer to being returned to her family in haiti.

elizabeth cohen says dna samples from the couple who claim to be her parents are indeed a match. they've been looking for their daughter ever since the earthquake happened. another story we've been following for you. for nine years, she kept a secret. janet newsome didn't tell anyone in the air force she was a lesbian. just as momentum was building to repeal don't ask, don't tell, she was outed by a third party. it was actually her local police department in south dakota after they saw an iowa marriage certificate in her home. >> she's now discharged from the air force. today the american civil liberties union has filed a complaint against the rapid city police department, saying the officers violated her privacy. the police department, meanwhile, maintains they were simply following routine procedures. she joins thus morning via skype from fairbanks, alaska. good to see you this morning. set the stage here. you got married, as karen said, in iowa last october to your

partner, cheryl hudson. you were sticking by the don't ask, don't tell policy until this incident with the rapid city police department. what happened, and how did your sexual orientation getet report up to the military? >> well, they just came to my home back in november, and like they said, they said they seen the marriage certificate and pretty much reported it to the military. but i think they were upset that i didn't cooperate as well as they wanted me to during the situation. >> now, just in terms, by way of fur explanation and why the police department was at your home, they were there to serve a felony arrest warrant on your partner? >> correct. >> and how did they see your marriage certificate? >> they said they seen it on the kitchen table through the window, supposedly. it doesn't make much sense to me, but that's what they said. >> so, what do you think really happened? >> i think that they were just looking, looking for something

or they might have seen it a little bit and could tell it was some type of document from iowa, but i think that they looked into it further. >> so the real point in all of this, jene, is why the police department reported your marital status up to the military. we know that one of the officers who was there at your home is a member of the army national guard. was there any reason in your mind for the police department to report the existence of this marriage certificate to the military? >> i don't think there was much of a reason. like i -- they wanted me to come home from work so i could open up my home to them, and i was unable to leave work. and i think the officer was upset over the situation and that's why he reported it. he explained to me that he knew how the military worked and he explained to me that he was in the army national guard and he would just let the military handle it. >> in your knowledge, is it common for the police to report to the military if the spouse of

a member of the armed services is involved in some sort of criminal complaint? >> no. no, it's not. >> well, here's what they're saying, the rapid city police officers. they gave us this statement, and i'd like to get your reaction. they said the arrest report was later forwarded by a detective to the united states air force consistent with long-standing practices of communication when military personnel have contact with local law enforcement. they regret the information led to your discharge and say it's best addressed by the air force. they say they were following long-standing practices. you say you don't necessarily believe that. why? >> i don't believe that because usually if the military member is in some kind of trouble with the law and committed a crime of some sort. and that wasn't the case with me. >> and in your knowledge, again, that doesn't extend to the spouse or a family member of a member of the military services? >> no, it doesn't. >> okay. the police department is make

nothing apology, as we said, saying that the officers acted properly according to department procedure. but last month the secretary of defense, robert gates, said that the military would, quote, raise the bar of credible information needed to institute an inquiry in don't ask, don't tell, and might even stop dismissing troops based on third-party accusations, which is what happened here. you were discharged back in january. i'm wondering if, based on what secretary gates said, you might make a case for reinstatement. do you think it's maybe too late, or would you even want to do that? >> well, if they decided to drop don't ask, don't tell all together, it's a great consideration. >> how frustrating is it for you knowing that don't ask, don't tell was pending, the repeal of it, knowing that it's something that has been called for now by many and knowing that you've been discharged because a third party outed you? >> it's very frustrating. i was looking forward to the

change. i believed in the change. and it was a great disappointment when i found out that i was being discharged, especially under the circumstances. >> jene newsome, thanks for joining us to tell your story. we do appreciate it. >> no problem. >> thanks again. 37 minutes after the hour. with an cts sport sedan. ♪ ♪ visit soon. because while there is no expiration date on achievement, on rewarding it, there is. for qualified current lessees: the cts luxury collection. reward yourself.

welcome back to the most news in the morning. 39 minutes past the hour. a tough couple years for the auto industry, but one carmaker is on a roll, and despite being headquartered in south korea, hyundai is helping build up america in montgomery, alabama. our tom foreman has a look. >> reporter: just south of montgomery at the gleaming new

hyundai plant, almost every minute another new car rolls off the line. [ horn honking ] and just about as often, you can find someone like yolanda williams singing the company's praises. >> i love it. i enjoy what i do every day. >> reporter: did you ever have any idea you'd be making a living from the car industry in southern alabama? >>, i didn't. it's changed a lot of people's lives now. >> reporter: winning this massive economic prize over other states that wanted it had local leaders scrambling at one point, making sure hyundai knew how transportation service, power grids and most of all the local community could and would meet all their needs. >> so this location was great. >> reporter: and they made sure that you had everything. >> everything. >> reporter: the land, the communications, the transportation. >> yes. utilities. >> reporter: and it seems like it's working. >> it is working. it's working for them. it's working for us. >> reporter: last year, hyundai was just one of three car companies to increase sales in america, the success for the community -- so you're just

looking to see if there's anything wrong with this piece -- good jobs. >> means the world to me, and i know a lot of other people feel the same way. >> reporter: how secure do you feel in your job? >> i feel really secure. i really do. >> reporter: enough to buy a house, enough to move forward? >> i have. >> reporter: hyundai doesn't make everything it needs, so that means that lots of suppliers have sprung up all throughout this region to make bumpers and sunroofs and dashboards, and that has created many more jobs. about 800 have come from mobis, another korean company that followed hyundai here. i'm guessing a lot of people are pretty happy about this. >> yes, we are. as a matter of fact, i'm one of them. >> reporter: in all, local officials estimate more than 20,000 jobs have rippled out from the hyundai deal, building up south alabama one job, one car, one minute at a time. and this is really more than the

story of a company's success. we can all see that, looking for the sales of cars around the country. it really is the story of a commune's success in finding a way to draw in a big business at a time they needed it here. not only did it work, it's paved the way for others. kia is opening a big plant in georgia and likewise there will be a rippling out of jobs from that plant that will come over here to alabama, as well. so, many, many, many people here very happy about the efforts that their leaders here made to build up this part of the country, and it's helping them build up their individual communities as well. and hyundai is not unhappy about it either. >> absolutely. a great success story. that's good to hear. tom foreman for us, thanks. 42 past the hour. minutes away from an a.m. house call, our dr. sanjay gupta talking about progress and the war on cancer. [ male announcer ] when we built our first hybrid,

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in boston, here in new york, in the mid-60s. >> all the big sesht centers fo patrick's day seeing that. >> we deserve it. new jersey, the river still hasn't crested. they could use a break. >> they could certainly use a break and a little sunshine to bring the spirits up on this st. patrick's day. temperatures will be warm for the upper midwest and the western great lakes into the northeast. a little bit cool at times, showery across parts of the south, so florida not the best, the panhandle included in parts of southern alabama and georgia, but other than that, shouldn't be all that bad. flood risks still there. it will be there for a couple weeks. they are scurrying to get those sandbags implemented across the red river, probably see a river rise close to what we saw last year. unbelieve that believe this is happening two years in a row, but fall rains, a lot of cold air and snow on top of now the snow melt is leading to that. but they're not the only ones in the mix here. a high flood potential for the northern plains, but above-average flood potential

for parts of the southwest and the east coast because of all the snow that you folks have had and the rainfall. it's been relatively wet. but for a lot of folks today it will be relatively dry. so everybody's irish on st. patrick's day, right, guys? >> two different types of people, the irish and then everybody who wishes they were. >> so i'm told. >> there you go. have a nice one. >> see you guys. >> 47 minutes past the hour. i've been an ameriprise financial advisor for 24 years.

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♪ 50 minutes past the hour. time for your "a.m. house call." this morning we're focusing on cancer. some people are claim, even though we talk about advances and cure rates, that we may be losing the war against the disease. >> we have spent nearly $100 billion in federal money searching for a cure in the last

four decades. cnn's chief medical correspondent, sanjay gupta, joins us live this morning from atlanta. where exactly do we stand in the war on cancer today, sanjay? >> it's a bit of a tricky question. first of all, with regard to the $100 billion, you're talking about federal funding. that doesn't count all the money spent by private sector, pharmaceutical company, other areas spending money, probably closer to $200 billion if you tally it all up. where do we stand? it's tricky in part because since this war on cancer was declared 40 years ago the pop leigh has increased by about 30% in this country. the number of people who are 55 or older has gone up by twofold, so it's not exactly an apples to apples comparison, but in the last decade you see about a 1% annual per year decrease in cancer deaths, a 6% overall decrease in diagnoses. what i thought was most interesting about the study, how you can draw a line how much

funding was give on the a particular cancer and how much it's had an impact overall on the outcomes from that particular cancer. for example, breast cancer, prostate cancer, coe lorectal cancer, in 2007, for one year, look at the amount of money given to these particular cancers. pretty significant amount from the federal government alone. and some with the worst outcomes all the time, pancreatic cancer, liver cancer, ovarian canneser, these are cancers that got some of the least funding so you can draw these lines pretty clearly. cancer is still a big cause of death in this country. over 500,000 people a year die of it. but following the money and seeing the impact is sort of an interesting exercise. >> and, you know, there's been some debate over how to best spend this money fighting cancer. can you break down the arguments for us? >> yeah. you know, this is an interesting question from the science perspective. and it's one of these things that, you know, there's been over 1.5 million papers written

about cancer over the last 40 years, 1.5 million papers. to some extent, just this idea of generating more knowledge has become the goal in many ways as opposed to always having that knowledge being translated into treatments for people. that's part of it. do you fund just knowledge or fund treatments? the other thing is when you talk about cancer spreading throughout the body, most people think when the cancer has spread through the body there's really nothing more that you can do about it, and part of the reason they think that way is because the metastatic or spread of disease gets very little funding in terms of its research, less than 1% of funding, those numbers that we talked about. so not only in the lay community but also in the science community they don't spend the money on researching things that are actually killing people from cancer. localized cancer that's just confined to one area doesn't typically kill people. it's when it spreads. we should be spending more money in those areas as well. >> dr. sanjay gupta this morning p an update. thanks to much. >> thanks, guys.

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such as fever, fatigue, cough, or sores. you should not start simponi™ if you have an infection. [ female announcer ] ask your rheumatologist about simponi™. just one dose, once a month. lawmakers are not the only ones battling over health care inside the beltway. hundreds of protesters from the tea party movement rallied in

the capital with one simple message -- kill the bill. here's jim acosta. >> kill the bill! kill the bill! >> reporter: as an army of tea party protesters prepared to flood the halls of congress -- >> kill the bill! kill the bill! >> reporter: -- the message was consistent. the bill to kill was health care reform. >> your representatives meet with you, stay all day long if you have to. >> kill the bill! >> reporter: debbie dooley, a tea party organizer from georgia, wanted to track down as many democrats wavering on health care in the house and sound off. >> we believe in health care reform, but we believe in free market solutions. >> reporter: such as? >> being able to purchase health insurance across state lines, tort reform. we believe -- >> reporter: if you don't mind me saying that sounds like what the republican party is saying. i thought the tea party was different. >> we are different, but we do support the free market solutions with health care. >> reporter: moments after she

finished her thought -- >> tom! how are you doing? >> god bless you. thank you for doing. >> reporter: georgia republican tom price came to give her a pat on the back. >> this is what the american people have been trying to tell speaker pelosi, trying to tell the president for the past eight to ten months. this isn't the bill the american people want. >> another republican right here. hello, sir. >> reporter: then came arizona republican trent franks. you don't feel so outnumbered. >> we're outvoted but not outnumbered. >> we're quite angry, actually. we're not being represented. >> reporter: for one group of tea partiers outside the office of jerry connolly, reception was different. >> in georgia, are they going to get a chance to see their congressmen? >> i don't even know if she's a constituent. she hasn't signed in. >> reporter: one of connolly's aides complained some of the protesters weren't even from the congressman's district. >> everyone else here -- >> and where do you live? >> okay, excuse me, i'm -- >> i've had enough. do you live in the 11th district? >> you know what --

>> reporter: the tea partiers found more sympathetic lawmakers at their main rally of the day. >> grandma isn't shovel ready. >> reporter: where iowa republican steve king issued a dire warning if health care passes. >> if the liberal elitists are determined to impose socialized medicine on america, there will be a reckoning. the best that we can hope for is that reckoning is in the ballot box. i hope it stays peaceful. >> reporter: we hope so, too, but the tea partiers aren't going to get what they want by just courting republicans. even organizers told us it's the conservative blue dog democrats who are the catch this week, john. they have the rotes to make or break health care, as we all know. >> we were talking with one democratic member earlier today who is still undecided, saying that he doesn't like some of the things in the bill, doesn't like this potential for the process of demon pass