valley. it's a valley only a couple square miles. that's where the smoke stayed. that's where these people drove into the smoke, not even going that fast, but the cars were stopped in front of them on the road. they could not see. as people got out of their cars with this, they said their flashers were on. when they walked ten feet away from the car, they couldn't see the flashers anymore. that's how thick the smoke was. >> absolutely horrible. obviously our thoughts go out to the people who lost their lives and even those who were there and witnessed the accident and couldn't do anything. such a feeling of helplessness. chad meyers, thank you so much. now this. here we go. live from tampa, florida. it is primary day. i'm brooke baldwin. reporter roulette admittedly has a decidedly political tone today for obvious reasons, so let's go. we've got the state of florida to cover for you. i want to begin with john zarrella live at a polling place

not too far from where i am. john zarrella, you're talking to voters. what are they telling you? >> very good turnout here today, brooke. they expect maybe countwiywide, about 40% voters. a lot of them are telling me, we want the guy who will beat barack obama. but then when you get past that, we're hearing both sides, some people saying newt gingrich, others saying mitt romney. so it's going to be interesting to see how that shakes out here, and this is the largest republican precinct, precinct 701, in hillsborough county. about 3800 registered republicans here. brooke? >> we know that the republican party, it's penalizing florida for having its primary today, january 31st. tell me a little bit more about that as i hear you laugh, john zarrella. >> you know, four years ago, the state moved up the presidential

primaries to january 31st, or the last tuesday in january, and the republican party and the democratic party both got pretty angry about that, from march to january. here it is. from where you are in tampa, the republican convention is going to be in august. but florida delegates to that convention, there will only be 50 of them instead of the 99 they used to have. and they're not going to get prime hotels, they're not going to be allowed to bring a guest, and on top of that, at the convention center over at the coliseum there, they're not going to have floor seats. they're going to be up in the rafters in those upper deck seats, those cheap seats. that's the way it stands right now, and i talked to the head of the county's republican party and he said, look, we're hoping the republican party will maybe ease up on us a bit as we get closer to the convention. but as it stands right now, they expect their delegates could be staying 30 to 40 miles outside of tampa, not anywhere near the convention center. so a real slap on the wrist by the party to florida for moving

the primary up. but they say it was worth it. look at all the attention florida is getting now as the fourth state voting. >> how about that. well, i tell you who is happy, the mayor of tampa, who i talked to just yesterday. he is thrilled at all the dollars and cents that are going to be put back in his city. he told me 16,000 journalists alone are coming here for the convention. i want to give you shannon tr travis. he is north in panama city. >> we're here in panama city at precinct 8. it's in the distance behind us, but you can't even get there without seeing these election signs. that one for romney, that one back there for newt gingrich, those two fighting desperately for the vote here and across the state. i spoke with sandy hubbard. she is the precinct clerk, and

she tells me 245 people have cast votes at this voting place so far. that's relatively light, but when you consider the fact, brooke, that about 632,000 floridians have already cast their votes in absentee ballots, that's not a lot left. a number of candidates have visited the past two days trying to win support here, and mitt romney won this county in 2008, narrowly beating out john mccain. brooke? >> what's interesting, and you pointed out some of the early absentee voting, is the fact that 600,000 or so have already cast their votes, but also one out of four floridians undecided. did you talk to people as they went in? do they seem to know? do they own the vote? >> because it's so light here, there are only a few people we've been able to talk to, but

for those that i have, most of them have gone into the polling place rather decided. now, whether they just made their minds up earlier today, yesterday, the past few days, whatever, is a different story. but you're absolutely right, it's the same here in florida as we had going into iowa, south carolina, new hampshire where you had so many undecideds, no one, not one of these four candidates had completely locked up the votes just yet. you had gingrich following mitt romney, and mitt romney saying newt gingrich's campaign is coming apart at the seams. that may play into why so many of these voters are undecided. brooke? >> shannon travis in panama city. shannon, thank you. next, what a treat. this lady next to me, candy crowley. nice to have you in person. chief political correspondent. you've been through so many of these elections. you look at the numbers so far going into tonight, it's looking good for mitt romney.

so my question is, what does candy crowley look at tonight? you talked about the numbers inside the numbers. >> yes. i think you look at the women's vote. remember when newt gingrich went through the whole second wide open marriage thing in south carolina, we all went, whoo, there goes the women's vote. and it didn't happen, in fact. women went for newt gingrich. so we watch the women's vote here because there's some signs they're going for mitt romney. i also want to see the tea party really conservative vote. because mitt romney has to come out of here or come out of somewhere showing that he can attract those really very conservative votes, and this may be the place to do it. of course, key to this, obviously, in florida is the hispanic vote. we expect mitt romney to do very well there. i just think i would be looking at the conservative vote and the women vote. >> what about a refrain we've

been hearing by newt gingrich, this we're going to get them, we're going to take it all the way to the convention. is that almost tea party-esque? >> yes, it absolutely s because that's the core of newt gingrich's support at this point. any campaign can run on fumes. and what we know now is that mitt romney -- i'm sorry -- that newt gingrich did raise about $5 million in the last quart-- $5, last quarter. he's got help. here's why i believe has fueled newt gingrich. those are debates. there's one february 22nd, the next one. so he doesn't have a chance to get that free air time. but certainly when we saw in nevada with the sharon engle tea party backing, and you can see -- and newt gingrich is very

good at kind of gathering that anger and personifying it. if he can convince large bodies of conservatives in the state, you're about to moderate a liberal. he can have the fuel to go all the way. let me say candidates always say they're in it until the end until they quit. >> so you're used to hearing that. >> yes, exactly. >> until they quit. >> yeah. >> you're a music nerd, aren't you? >> yes. >> what one song personifies the race right now? >> heavens, you should have told me this question ahead of time. i have to think about that one. do you have one in mind? >> that was my question for you. think on it. i'm curious. because i know you like music. candy crowley, thank you so much. i really appreciate it. coming up next here, there are concerns. iran is willing to plot attacks

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assassinate the ambassador. remember that? it is now a new threat to the united states. i want to bring in correspondent barbara starr. what is the report saying on aggressive tactics of iran? >> reporter: what they're talking about here is the irani regime may be more willing to conduct attacks inside the united states. that's a pretty shocking development. the thinking behind all of this is that the iranian regime right now trying to decide whether it will go for a nuclear weapon, looking for its own regime survival, basically looking to lash out, if you will. we saw that plot last year to try to assassinate the soviet ambassador at the behest of the iranians. so the question right now is what would make it rathe irania regime to paranoid that they might lash out. the concern is about nuclear weapons. oil sanctions, economic

sanctions aimed at stopping them for thinking they can go for a nuclear weapon, that the price would be so high that they wouldn't do that. and at this hearing today, tough intelligence officials had a bit of a disagreement about whether the iranians are really there yet. is there enough bite on these sanctions to make them think their regime could be at risk and they need to toe the line, or are they still willing to play a very dangerous game, brooke. >> who could forget that, those brazen terrorists targeting the ambassador at a restaurant in washington, d.c. what does this mean for iran's possible nuclear advancement? >> this is now the question that the intelligence community is trying to look at. defense secretary leon panetta has always said there is the possibility that iran could have a nuclear weapon, not the missile to put it on, but a weapon, a warhead, within a year. that would be pretty dire. that might cause the israelis to

act, that would concern the united states, of course. so right now, really, everything is still centered on trying to use sanctions but still do the military planning necessary. a lot of discussion about working behind the scenes with the israelis because the israelis have made it very clear they believe a nuclear iran pose az very threat to their very existence and the u.s. thinks it is a line that can't be crossed. what's it going to take to hit that magic number of delegates, that magic number of 1,144? what happens if one candidate does not actually reach the number? we could be looking at a long fight all the way to the convention. john king is going to break down the numbers for us, next. i've been in your shoes. one day i'm on top of the world... the next i'm saying...

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and welcome back. we are live here in tamp a fla, florida. of course, the reason we're here is it's primary day for floridians. we're talking delegates, collecting delegates via caucus or primary necessary to secure the parties' nominations. i want to bring in our magic ball numbers guy john king. i know he will be working late, late tonight here. but john, walk me through, if you would, what exactly sat stake tonight in florida. >> i'll do it. i won't use the secret spy cam to show viewers just exactly where you are on the map.

delegates. here's where we are coming into the night. romney is ahead but a race to 1144. remember, if this goes on, it's about delegates, not momentum. we're barely getting started. here we are in florida today. let's assume the polls are right and mitt romney wins florida. but remember, you have to get from there all the way over to here. a long way to go. let's go through. let's assume, for the sake of argument. if you're a gingrich supporter, a ron paul supporter, a rick santorum supporter, but let's assume newt gingrich wins minnesota, missouri and colorado. that's a place where ron paul could do well, but let's give it to mitt romney for the sake of argument. if mitt romney runs the map in february, he would get about 236. why is newt gingrich staying in? because even if this happens, we get to march. i'm going to give this to ron paul in this hypothetical. then you come here on super

tuesday, we start to move to the south. gingrich thinks this is where he can do better. so if you watch these stakes play out -- i just gave romney virginia. why? newt gingrich didn't make the ballot. but gingrich starts winning in the south, let's play out the month a little bit. we'll split it, one for romney, one more gingrich. alabama and mississippi vote in the middle of march. he's starting to catch up a little bit. missouri, i'm going to give it to romney. that will be a hotly contested race, though, if they're both still in it at that point. louisiana, gingrich. then you come to the end. march and april, that big prize. number one, ron paul got out. i'll stop here, brooke, but then you have romney just shy of 700, gingrich at 445. still a long way to go. >> nowhere near 1144. >> we could go on a while.

i think obama went to june. >> june. right. so, so far, just talking florida, romney is a clear front runner. gingrich says -- the refrain from him is he's going all the way to the convention. but can you show me how a fight between romney and gingrich, just the two of them, could play out here. >> sure, i'm going to keep going here. i gave ron paul one state. he might win more. the dark red is romney, santorum won iowa, the lighter color is gingrich. let's watch it play out. i just gave santorum pennsylvania for the sake of argument. if you don't agree with me, we can switch out and give it to romney. you keep going. these states here, i gave the southern ones to gingrich, the northern ones to romney. for the sake of argument let's give it to newt gingrich. we keep playing it out. nebraska, oregon, give those to romney up there. the southern states, kentucky, arkansas, give those to

gingrich. come out here, california, here's where money is going to matter. that's when you get to the finish line. when you get to these big states out here. when you start getting out here into the big states, the northern states, that's a problem, but that's way down the line. that would be june 5th. hang in there, bro. don't stay in tampa the whole time. >> you don't want to cover politics until june? >> a reporter's convention is a reporter's dream. we could be here a while. >> john king, we'll be seeing you tonight. we'll be watching a special edition of jkusa 6:00 eastern right here on cnn. i want to bring out a chairman from the state republican party. thank you for sharing some of the florida sunshine with us. >> thank you. >> what is your base level expectation tonight coming out of the primary?

>> we came into today with over 76,000 absentee votes. it's a big number. it speaks of energy and excitement. whatever happens tonight in terms of turnout, the important thing to remember is the party didn't invest time, money resources into the turnout. we'll put our manpower behind it and really turn our voters out. >> we're just talking tonight. what do you say romney wins? by how much would you like to see him win? >> i have to remain neutral in this race -- we just went through the election votes, what it takes to get there. i have to be able to rally floridian republicans. i think whoever wins florida tonight will win florida with a lot of steam. ten major media markets. the state that represents what america represents ethnically,

socioeconomically. a good, solid base. >> there were numbers we were crunching right before the show. apparently 92% of the ads here in florida are negative. in fact, senator mark arubio was on with my colleague, soledad o'brien this morning. >> no candidate in history has one more ads than barack obama, and i don't think that's going to change here in 2012. >> so marco rubio suggesting that the negative campaigning somehow connected to the president. do you agree with that? >> i don't like the negative campaign. the silver lining for republicans is that we're vetting our guys now so it will be old news when we get to the general election. the president will throw everything we've thrown at each other and more. i wish right now, though, our jobs were talking about job creation, free enterprise

system, people want to see jobs, they want to see opportunity, they want to know how our kids will have a future in the next generation. >> do you think it's reflective of a negative campaign that president obama ran? >> i want to see positive campaigning out of our guys. it takes for job location a free enterprise system. >> is the state of florida ready for general elections free of irregularity. you laugh. >> yes. >> what's the answer? >> we have the best system in the world, the way we vote. best system in the world. there could be irregularities, take care of them at the column level. we need one man, one woman, one vote. >> thank you. appreciate t. a man killed his wife because she gave birth to a girl instead of a boy. now there is a hunt for him. plus president obama makes a

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and here we go. it's interesting and happening right now. you're about to see it on rapid fire. let's go, beginning with this. a manhunt is under way in northern afghanistan. police are looking for a man they say killed his wife after she gave birth to a daughter instead of a son. the couple already had two daughters, and police believe he was angry his wife still did not give him a son.

ahmad's mother is still in jail. she says her son is innocent. syria and violence. that voice there in this youtube video says government forces are showi shelling homes, civilians, people at random. 30 people have been killed in syria. the death toll yesterday? 100. the united nations are about debate a resolution for calling syria's president to step down. the chiefs are considering a plan that would bring five detainees out of guantanamo bay. they delivered the u.s. threat assessment on capitol hill. this is cia director david petraeus. >> in fact, our analysts did provide assessments of the risks presented by various scenarios

by which they could be sent somewhere, not back to afghanistan or pakistan, and then based on the various mitigating measures that could be implemented to ensure that they cannot return to militant activity. >> three affected drone strikes in yemen overnight. according to security officers, at least nine people believed to be linked to al-qaeda were killed in these attacks. u.s. officials do confirm a drone strike in yemen. they're not giving any details other than that. keep in mind this comes a day after president obama openly discussed the u.s. drone program. >> they've been very precise precision strikes against al-qaeda and their affiliates. we are very careful in terms of how it's been applied. this is a targeted, focused effort at people who are on a

list of active terrorists who are trying to go in and harm americans. >> and administration authorities denies that the president made a mistake or a slip-up by revealing what had been classified information about those drone strikes. and a huge thrill for some students at this intermediate school in mansville, texas. they actually got to ask members of the crew, the international space station, you know, what's on their mind in space besides the usual questions about space and technology. they asked -- i'll let them ask. >> what challenges do you face when completing day-to-day activities like haircuts, for instance? >> you have to be able to cut hair, and i believe all of us in theory might have practiced that before we came here, but none of us really did it until we got here. we were faced with one of our crew mates who needed a haircut. we'll start cutting each other's

hair, and if we make a mistake, the hair will get a little shorter and a little shorter, and eventually it will be relatively even. >> imagine being a kid talking to an astronaut. too cool. now this. ♪ >> british music star adele set to perform at the grammys. finally we get to hear from her. this will be her first performance in quite a while. maybe your own tickets to her shows that be affected. i know i have. she's had to cancel many a concert in the past year while recovering from throat surgery. take a look at the dates here. it was her entire u.s. tour. adele is nominated for six grammys. now this. yeah, you heard right. that was thunder. this is what they call a thunder snowstorm. it hit youngstown, ohio.

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the controversy in arizona is pitting an american ideal against political practicality. a mother of two was born in the usa, wants to run for office. but her bid is being blocked because she doesn't speak much english. this whole conflict shais happeg in this border town of san luis, population 24,000, where a third of the population is latino. here she is with her story. >> reporter: in the small border town of san luis, arizona, she is somewhat of a political celebrity without having spent one day in office. >> they are my friends. >> the married mother of two made national headlines after her bid for a seat on the san luis city council was blocked by the city's mayor. >> he says i can't speak

english, read and write. >> reporter: at issue, her fluency in english. for those who live on this side of the mexican border, they were raised on this side. she came back to finish high school, but by then spanish was her primary language. most people who speak spanish had never questioned her english skills until she decided to run for public office. >> she does not understand much english. >> the mayor says under arizona law, elected officials must be proficient in english. he says she doesn't qualify to run for office. he filed a lawsuit against her, and she was forced to take an english proficieficiency test t

stop her candidacy. she says this is payback because she pitted two recalls against the mayor. >> not a personal ven did he tell -- vendetta to get her? >> not at all. >> her attorney says her civil rights have been violated. >> she did not pass the profficiency test. >> what test is there to pass, though? there is no test in the statute. they're denying her the political process. let the people of this community decide if they want her on the city council or not? >> what do you tell these people who say, but you're a citizen. you live here now and you're running for office. you need to speak english. >> i do speak english. a little, maybe. but it's enough for the council. >> the governor says she's taking her appeal all the way to

the arizona supreme court. thelma gutierrez, cnn, san luis, arizona. >> thelma, thank you. coming up next, monks setting themselves on fire in protest. this is something the chinese government wants to keep secret. >> and they now must look at our p passports. >> 24 hours after we took you inside this crackdown, the regime has made a huge move against cnn. what they don't want you to see, next. toward accomplishing something is showing up. [ thunder crashes ] and with the most advanced all-wheel-drive system in its class that adapts to conditions as they change, now all you have to worry about is what you accomplish when you get there. ♪

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we want to talk a little more about this government crackdown in china. it is so intense, it has shut down some of cnn's programming inside the country. cnn traveled to the sichuan province to report on people setting themselves on fire to oppose the tibetan rule. >> there was a big pool on the side of the road. we're heading into the mountains to the tibetan community, and of course there is a checkpoint and police are now outside.

>> later, government officers detained stan and cnn's crew at the airport, even taking some of their footage. now chinese authorities are blacking out cnn international television in the country. whenever his story airs, thousands of chinese security forces have now entered the sichuan province. the government says it's because of attacks on the chinese. we have the ultimate pop for you today. we're talking about the obama campaign taking a dig at mitt romney for how republicans treated his dog. plus, mitt romney singing a song, speaking of music. >>. ♪ above the fruited plains >> romney loosening up a bit on the campaign. we'll be back in 60 seconds with your retirement account and your income. stay right there. people with a machine.

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time now for the help desk where we get answers to your financial questions. thank you for being here. we appreciate it, ladies. first question to you, minisha, this comes from chris. i'm about to retire. i contributed to a 40 # account while i was working. i have been told it would be to my advantage to roll the money into an ira account. is this true? >> the reason i personally like seeing people roll them over into an ira, it gives you more choices. you can choose the financial institution with which you want to open that account. i like seeing people have a lot of options for low-cost investment opportunities dependent on the original plans offer. some of them offered to you may take a pretty big chunk out of your return. if you're in an ira rollover,

you have complete control of that. so my vote, roll over. erin wrote in, i will turn 18 in a month. i have a part-time job and i save around 40% of my wages every week. how should i invest? >> i love aaron. how nice if i had started saving at 18. first of all, kudos at being able to save 40%. i assume he's still living with mom and dad and that's why he's able to sock away so much money. mutual funds, index mutual funds if he wants to start saving and investing for the long term. someone like this is going to be one of those millionaires in the making who is saving in their 20s just a little bit every single month. if you do it with mutual fund, it is a low-cost way to get diversification, professional money management, and it makes you not have to worry about picking individual stocks. >> the average person who tries

to play the market just don't do as well. if you have a question you want answered, send us an e-mail any time at the cnnhelpdesk at@cnn..

before we get to the political primary here, you can see the president visiting the auto show where he is really applauding the u.s. automakers' comeback this afternoon. he is about to test out a ford mustang. take a look. >> it goes 200 miles an hour.

>> of course, no one ever drives that fast. supercharged 500 shelby. >> this is what i needed in high school. >> nice carolina blue mistake. i wasn't sure if he said the car was sick or not. mr. president, i'm not quite sure. for you aficionados, he checked out core veries, also a jeep, a camaro, and bright yellow challenger. the president there at the washington auto show. now, back to florida. maybe one of the worst in the nation to lose your job. the highest person of long-term unemployed and many blames the collapse on the real estate market. we talked to christine romans, digging into florida's housing crisis and looking for hopefully some signs of recovery. >> brooke, if you live in florida, you have a 4 in 10

chance your home is worth way less than your mortgage. here in jacksonville experts say median home values are down about $80,000. this agent is going door to door checking to see if the houses are even occupied. the banks own them, don't even know what the status might be or who are there. so many of these homes are sitting neglected. check out how this attorney who represents people going through foreclosure, check out how he describes his town. >> jacksonville is a beautiful, vibrant city, being attacked by a cans are from within, house by house. what we see if these neighborhoods, established neighborhoods and new neighborhoods you start to see vacant houses, decays lawns. >> neighbors paying all their bills? paying some of them? they describe epic embattles with banks and mortgage servicers, but the academics that study the numbers and

houses experts say they see tiny signs that something may be turns. >> did a study going back to the '60s, and times when it's this affordable, five years hence prices have usually gone up significantly. i don't know, this is so unusual and so rare, but this is such a good sign that housing prices will go up in the future. >> reporter: he notes for the first time this is the first time they could afford a home in a decades and mortgage rates are really low, if you request. a big if, no question, but so far many of the buyers in florida and elsewhere are paying cash in the from abroad. while home sales are up, sales are up 10% in florida versus last year, prices are not up. so the housing pain continues. brooke? all right. time for a little political pop

here. republicans very much still sorting out who will face the president come november. the chief strategist is already attacking. david axelrod posted this photo of the president with the first dog bo in the back of his car. the caption reads there. how loving owners transport their dogs. this is a jab at romney for transporting his family dog on the top of his car on a kennel on the top of a family station all the way back in '83. the republican rivals are not shying away, either, here is romney explaining in a new gingrich attack ad. >> this is a completely airtight kennel, and mounted on the top of our car. he climbed up there regularly, enjoyed himself. he was in a kennel at home a great deal of the time as well. we love the dog. >> the ointo mania campaign has launched a facebook page called

pet lovers for obama. it was 11 days ago that he wowed with his rendition of "let's stay together." roll it, roger. ♪ i'm so in love with you [ cheers and applause ] and you know, if you were worried there would be a drought of singing politicians, fear not, my friends, mitt romney got in on the action last night during a florida campaign stop. he is leading the crowd singing "america the beautiful. ♪ oh beautiful for spacious skies ♪ ♪ for amber waves of grain ♪ ♪ for purple mountains' majesty above the fruited plain ♪ says. on the singing theme, it's election season, meaning campaign songs and sometimes

those lead to cease and desist orders. should the artist object to who is using it? case in point -- newt gingrich. now on the receiving end of one of those. ♪ rising up to the challenge of our rival ♪ ♪ and the last known survivor "the eye of the tiger" sued for using this. the composer from survivor filed a copyright infringement diplomat. he says gingrich should know better, quoting he's ought thorred more than 40 copyrighted works. and we have yet to hear a thing so far. coming up next, police say a mother abandons her two kids at a gas station, but there's so much more to this case, in fact it's mysterious. sunny hosten is all over it. on the case is next.

oat case today sarah hatfield is under arrest after police say she abandoned her two young children. the boys were found saturday sitting in a car at a denver area gas station. police believe they had been unsupervised for about two hours, but it took another 12 hours to finally track down and find the mother. hatfield was found several miles away and told police she had no idea how she got there. now she's undergoing tests at a

hospital to see if she might be suffering from seizures. cnn legal analyst sunny hosten is on the case. let's just say for now seizures -- once she gets out of the hospital, what charges could she face? >> certainly two counts of child abuse. it's really odd. that would stem from her leaving the children in the car, not from any physical harm that she inflicted. the keys were left in the car as well as her cell phone, wallet, all of her belongings, so it's a very, very mysterious situation, especially for charges of child abuse, but certainly they believe it was abusive for her to leave a 2 and 4-year-old alone at a gas station in a car. >> we are hearing via our affiliate kusa from her husband. here's what he says. >> they believe that due to family history and the symptoms

she's exhibiting there may be some sort of epileptic disorder that is causing amnesiaic seizures. so if the doctors determine it was an medical condition and epileptic seizures that caused her to up and abandon her kids, will she then be in the clear? >> it's hard to tell, but if she had a psychotic break and she does suffering from these debilitating migraines which could have let to some sort of seeshies, i think certainly it's something that prosecutors and police will take into consideration. the bottom line is, the stat is what is in the best interests of the children. the children are okay. we want to make sure they remain okay. i certainly think they'll take it into consideration, especially if she's receiving some sort of treatment if this is in fact what happened that night, brooke. >> we'll see. sunny hosten on the case as always. i appreciate it. and i appreciate you watches us here.