afte after. >> where would you like me to send your body? >> reporter: jeanne moos, cnn, new york. >> wow. thanks, jean knee. thanks for joining us. i'm wolf blitzer in the situation room. the news continues next on cnn. good evening. i'm john king. tonight a $26 billion settlement aimed at helping 2 million homeowners hurt when the bubble burst but will it put the broader housing market back on track? the policies of held care and contraception. and recorrick santorum is t the moment in the republican presidential race. i'll ask him does he really believe obama wants to snub believe obama wants to snub israel to curry favor with iran. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com the housing meltdown took down with it countless

homeowners. in fact i'm probably talk about many of you. today federal and state officials announced a $26 billion foreclosure settlement aimed at righting some of the wrong. the settlement was made with five of the nation's largest home lenders. let's bring ali velshi. what will this mean for homeowners? >> citi group, bank of america, wells fargo and -- it's $26 billion and it's going to spread out the pot this way. first of all no more robo signing home foreclosure. if you were foreclosed on you may get $2,000. if your home is underwater you could get an average of $20,000 in principal reductions as long as your loan is not with fannie or freddie or backed by them.

these are private loans. the lenders get immunity from future state claims. they don't get immunity from criminal investigations. homeowners can still pursue claims against the banks even if they take either the $2000 or the $20,000 in reduction. and states still have the right to pursue criminal investigations. missouri, they've indicted one of the mortgage servicers. we just spoke to attorney general bo bide enin delaware who said he is still pursuing investigations. those attorneys general who didn't sign on initially were convince today do so because they retained the right to sue. oklahoma by the the way didn't sign this deal, john. >> so ali, 2 million homeowners get help here. how big of a piece is this in what needs to be done to get the broader housing market back in a stable track? >> teeny tiny, john. we're talking about a market that's $1 trillion underwater. probably $700 billion in straight underwater money. the amount of capital reduction,

the amount of actual mortgage that's being reduced by this deal is $17 billion. some critics say a slap on the wrist for these five banks. but others say that until they knew there was a settlement, the banks wouldn't move forward and start to clear this backlog of foreclosures which is necessary to get this housing market back on solid footing. so a lot of people are holding their nose and saying, look, this was a deal that allows us to move forward. it doesn't move the needle on house prices. it does help a number of people out. but there's still a long way before this housing crisis is over and this probably needed to happen to allow us to move forward, john. >> excellent. ali, thank you. a ray of hope tonight in the fight against alzheimer's, the sixth leading cause of death. a cancer drug may hold the key to treating, possibly even reversing alzheimer's. the findings were released just a few hours ago. to explain this important development let's bring in our senior medical correspondent elizabeth cohen. straight up how promising is this? >> reporter: john we've been talking to doctors this

afternoon. they're very excited about this. they say look this is just mice and it might not work in humans but it is really promising in mice. and they feel sort of confident that hopefully something that it will work in humans. and basically what they did, they took a cancer drug that's already on the market and they gave it to mice that have alzheimer's disease. they found that it changed really important biomarkers in their brains and it changed their behavior. so you might wonder how do you measure mice memory? take a look at the cage on the left, the messy one. when researchers put tissues into a mouse's cage that, mouse on the left has alzheimer's. he doesn't know how to make a nest because he has alzheimer's. they then gave him a cancer -- this cancer drug. all of a sudden within 82 hours he knew how to make a nest. his instincts came back. that is a big deal. but again, this is just mice. and so it is possible that this may not work at all in humans. but they say that they really have great hopes and they're hoping to try this out soon. >> you say try it out soon.

when would the treatment be available at least even on an experimental basis? >> reporter: what's interesting they're hoping to start trials in humans, not big trials but little ones in the next two months where they would give this cancer drug to healthy individuals to see if it changes their biomarkers that would give them some assessment of whether or not alzheimer's disease might develop. so in the next two months they're going to do some work. but really this is probably years away from truly being available and fda approved if at all. >> we'll keep our fingers crossed. elizabeth cohen, thank you. u.s. marines in afghanist afghanistan -- the infamous ss as you know committed unspeakable crimes against humanity during world war ii. the discovery of this photo comes less than a month after the world saw images-the image we're about to show is explicit showing marines urinating on taliban bodies. it's another embarrassment to the u.s. military caught on camera. our correspondent chris lawrence

is with us tonight. chris how did this come to light? >> reporter: they actually took the picture john in september of 2010. it was when it got posted on the internet that people started to get alarmed. just recently, over the last few months when this really came out some religious organizations have been calling for heads to roll over this photo. but ultimately, i spoke with a marine corps official about an hour ago who said what the marines thought they were doing was they looked at that ss, the lightning bolt, standing for scout sniper. she said those two lightning bolts have been sort of an unofficial symbol of the marine copps scout sniper, not sanctioned by the marine corps but it has popped up on t-shirts, hats, even some tattoos over the years. take a look at the official marine corps statement on what they determined after investigating this picture that the unit took. they said, "the incident was found not to be racially motivated. those involved acknowledged that the symbol could be

misinterpreted and is not in keeping with our marines corps ethos and values." the commander determined that disciplinary action was not warranted. further, all marines in the unit reminded that any such behavior would not be tolerated and further display could result in punishment. " john? >> internally, chris, they decided no disciplinary action was warranted. externally did they feel a need to do damage control? >> reporter: i don't think so. the sense i got from talking to the marine copps official is look, these were probably a lot of very junior n.c.o.s, a lot of corporals. they just didn't make the historical connection between that symbol and the ss. she even said sort of off-handedly she said i'm sure you might be able to go out in public, show those two lightning bolts and not a lot of people in public would be able to immediately connect that with the ss. nothing to the effect of that which you showed earlier with the marines, the video of them

urinating on the corpses. that has gone all the way up to the top, the secretary of defense condemning it. afghan president hamid karzai calling it inhuman. and that is now a criminal investigation by the ncis. >> chris lawrence at the pentagon, chris thank you. moving overseas now, more than 130 people killed today alone across syria. 11 of the dead are children according to activists. they say president assad is now using more muscle, more fire power trying to stomp out the resistance. >> you hear the sounds there. the government says it's only targeting armed militants. but activist says no one is safe. here's his view from the streets. i want to warn you, you might want to turn away. >> this is a house.

piece es of bodies are laying here. >> these are bodies. these are civilian bodies. these are civilian bodies. this isn't the army. these are children, men, women being killed. >> that's a disturbing perspective from the ground level in the city of homs. we want to give you now the unique per respect itch of what this looks like from above. these are satellite images. this is broader of the city of homs that has been under siege for months especially in recent days. this taken a few days ago, february 5th. let me start here. excuse me one second. look on the left. this image is august 2010. you see a little traffic in the streets. if you look closely at the rooftops of the buildings they're all in pretty good shape. now let's look over here. this is just a few days ago. look at the tops of the building. you can see a lot of damage. a bomb crater here. more damage over here. we're not there. but this powerful satellite imagery tends to support the

accounts of activists there's a lot of shelling going on in the city. let me show you this one out. a little then and now that gives you perspective of how under siege this city is. again look at the intersection. you see buses, cars, traffic coming this way, traffic going this way. again the rooftops pretty intact. pretty organized looks like a clean neighborhood. now look over here. like a ghost town with know no cars at all, damage on the roads. so much damage on the top of the buildings up in here as well. that's that burn degree i showed you earlier. one last image, again august 2010 here, february 2012 here. you see the tops of the buildings. you see much more damage here and a bit of a fire right in this area here. a lot of damage to the struhe s over here. we're not on the ground but images tend to support the view you get from activists this has been under siege. a fascinating way to look at it from satellite images taken from space. we'll stay on top of that story. coming up in about 15 minutes

here we'll see e-mails of top syrian officials. they were hacked. you won't believe how they're trying to spin this brutal crackdown to americans. and we'll hear from rick santorum on -- >> church's moan and forcing them to do something that they think is a grievous moral wrong. how can that be a right of a woman? that has nothing to do with the right of a woman. like available blind spot monitor... [ tires screech ] ...night view... and heads-up display. [ engine revving ] the all-new 2013 lexus gs. there's no going back. the all-new 2013 lexus gs. have i got a surprise for you! yeah, [ bait's beneful healthy fiesta. gotta love the protein for muscles-- whoo-hoo! and omega-rich nutrition for that shiny coat.

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rick santorum now setting his sights on proving the wins are no spoof. here's proof mitt romney takes rick santorum more seriously. he has his own letterhead questioning santorum's past support of earmarks and pork barrel spending. the former pennsylvania senator took issue. >> governor romney's campaign has been about serially tearing down opponents without offering any kind of vision for what he wants to do for this country. >> senator santorum now joining us from tulsa. senator good to see you. i want to go through things you said at your event today.

at one point you were cite chris sidesing the president's decision to oppose the keystone pipeline. saying that would make us more dependent on foreign oil and we would have to buy more oil from opeq. then you said this. >> what are we doing? we're throwing israel under the bus because we know we're going to be dependent upon opeq. we're going to say iran we don't want you to get a nuclear weapon. wink wink nod nod go ahead just give us your oil. >> folks, president of the united states is selling the economic security of this country down the river right now. >> senator, you believe this president of the united states is picking iran over israel, that he is sacrificing a decades-long alliance with israel to make friends with iran? isn't that loud crouse? >> well, no. look at his actions, john. look at his actions with the secretary of defense comes out and says that israel is planning an attack on iran, this is our closest ally in the region. and the secretary of defense

goes out and divulges information, sensitive information about what israel's plans are, then wreaks scorn on them and invites the skrorn of the rest of the world in that that is somehow what a friend does? and then at the same time as i said before the president who fought tooth and nail against putting sangs on iran and only ca pit lated at the end. this is a president who is not standing by our allies, it's trying to appease, trying to find a way to allow clearly to allow iran to get this nuclear weapon. he's doing absolutely nothing in a consequential way to make sure they don't get this weapon. >> it's different to say i don't agree with his policy, i don't think he's doing enough. if i read your policy what you just said you think he doesn't care? >> i think he is looking past iran with a nuclear weapon. i believe now -- you hear it

from voices within the administration. the idea of containment. you don't hear any of the real things that has to be put on the table that will stop iran. you have almost 40 nuclear sites. the idea that israel alone could actually take out those sites without any kind of carrier presence in the gulf is simply from a military standpoint highly improbably. and so you have a president who's now basically telling israel, don't do this. we're not going to help you. we're not going to be a partner in this. and we're going to have to live with containment. that seems to be the clear policy of this administration from its actions. >> want to bring up another controversy. that is the administration's decision to require catholic institutions, other religious institutions if they provide healthcare insurance to their workers to make sure that insurance includes contra accept tiff coverage. you call that a violation of religious freedom, making institutions provide coverage that goes against their moral religious beliefs. you talked about a former opponent, former colleague in

the united states senate. i want you to listen. >> barbara boxer sort of is the dog whistle for me when i came to the united states senate. anytime she'd get up on the floor of the senate i just felt this magnet to run. and she said, "women's rights trump religious rights." maybe we need to look at that first amendment again. [ cheers and applause ] >> i want you to address your response here to women who might disagree with you on this issue. it's a tough policy call, and it's become dicey politics. but to a woman who say favors abortion rights or to a woman who says this is an access to healthcare issue who disagrees with you on this issue, what would you say to her? >> i would say that you have the right to go out and purchase that product. no one's telling you that product should be banned. but you shouldn't be able to tell a catholic church that they have to pay for it. that's the issue here, is making someone pay for something, using money from the church. it's the church's money. and forcing them to do something

that they think is a grievous moral wrong. how can that be the right of a woman? that has nothing to do with the right of a woman. this has to do with the right of the church not to spend their resources in a way that's inconsistent with their faith. this is not a casual health position. this is something -- we're not talking about denying women the access to contraception. they can go and get it. but we're talking about forcing a church of which they happen to choose to work for, and they know their positions in working for them, you're now forcing them as a condition of employing people to pay for something that is again a grievous moral wrong. no. a woman's right to free contra accept tiff coverage being paid for by someone who believes it's a grievous moral wrong is not trumping that constitutional right of freedom of religion. >> more of that conversation with senator santorum later in the broadcast. did you ever think to hear kodak is getting out of the

camera business? how it plans to stay alive ahead. and the striking video of a young boy forced to run nearly make ned the snow. no, it's not punishment. it's his dad's idea of good parenting. today my journey continues across the golden state,

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welcome back. mary snow is here with the latest news you need to know right now. >> reporter: nuclear officials approved licenses to build two new reactors in georgia.

the first time since 1979. the two new reactors will be built about 170 miles east of atlanta. the first is expected to come on line in 2016, the second in 2017. kodak, the company that invented the hand held and digital camera is getting out of the camera business all together. instead kodak says it will focus exclusively on photo printing services. the company filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last month. kodak says it will license its name to other cameramakers. and a dad who forced his crying toddler to run nearly naked through the snow says he did it to toughen the boy up. the video's been viewed tens of thousands of times. as you can imagine, people are furious. the family's from china but this happened during a vacation in new york state. and during the phone interview with cnn, he said he's strengthening his son who was born premature and has health problems. so it's just so hard to watch,

john. >> it is hard to watch. i'm just going to leave it at that. there are ways to strengthen a boy but that's not in my view. mary, thanks. when we come back more with my conversation with the surging rick santorum. when will the american public finally get to look at his promised tax returns? i'll test him on that. and stephen colbert has criticized her for years it wills democrats not to talk to him. now nancy pelosi gets her revenge. the multi-point inspection. every time a vehicle comes into a ford dealership you'll be presented with one of these. we check the belts, hoses... brakes. tires and the pressures... battery, all your fluids... exhaust system, transmission... we inspect your air filter... it gets done,it gets done quickly and it gets done correctly. the works. oil change, tire rotation and more: $29.95 or less after rebate - at your ford dealer. you're a doctor... you're a car doctor. maybe a car doctor...

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in this half hour president obama versus the catholic church. and why rorz error thinks having more women in combat isn't such a good idea. be ready to pay a hefty fine in one of america's sunniest cities. every day sometimes by the hour we report new horrors from inside syria carried out by the regime. now thanks to some allegedly hacked e-mails we're getting an inside look at how syrian president bashar al assad and his cronies are trying to spin the crackdown. spoiler alert, they apparently don't think too much of your intelligence. here's cnn's brian todd. >> reporter: it's days before a big interview with an american network and bashar al assad is being coached to spin this crackdown one aide writes "don't talk reform. americans won't care or understand that." the aide advises the syrian president to talk about

"mistakes, blame his own police." american psyche can be easily manipulated when they hear that there are mistakes done and now we are fixing it." here's what assad then said about the crackdown in that early december interview with abc's barbara walters. >> this is individual and that's what we call what i describe as individual mistakes. >> okay. done by the military or done by whom? >> we don't know everything. in some cases done by the police, in some cases done by civilians. >> reporter: that e-mail on what to say was apparently from the president attache and syria's mission to the u.n. to one of assad's press aides in damascus. the hacker group anonymous posted the e-mail passwords of top syrian officials. hackers like this one cited by foreign policy magazine claim to have downloaded the e-mails and posted them online. cnn has seen the e-mails. they appear legitimate though we cannot independently verify their authenticity. this e-mail advices assad on a

quote to give "syria doesn't have a policy to torture people." said he can contrast that with the u.s. and refer to abu graib. it says "at one point h.e. was viewed as a hero and in other times h.e. was the bad guy. americans love these kind of things and get convinced by it." >> they say that the american public is very stupid. >> this man is a syrian dissident who says he was once imprisoned and tortured by the regime. >> it is what they told us at the school the americans, the worker has no rights in the u.s. and they really think so. they think the american is easy to fool. >> reporter: david kenner of foreign policy magazine says it reflects an amateurish effort to present syria's case to the world. >> what is their current media strategy? >> honestly i think at this point they think they have lost the western media, they've lost the united states. >> reporter: kenner says at this

point bashar assad's government is more concerned with winning public government opinion and public support in russia and iran. contacted by cnn, a syrian official at the u.n. said the information reported with the alleged hacked e-mails is baseless, poisonous and illegal. brian todd, cnn, washington. former gop presidential candidates michele bachmann, rick perry and herman cain can kicked off c pack here in washington. they jumped at the opportunity to reassert their political swagger, bachmann was humorous admitting her fight for the white house was filled with history lessons and geography lessons. >> running for president of the united states is really one series of humiliations after another. but it's also a very educational experience. and i learned three things when i was running for president. first of all i learned where john wayne was born. that's very important

[ laughter ] >> and then second, i learned the day that elvis presley was born. these are vital issues to our republic. and third i learned never forget the three things that you learn. >> governor perry there at the end all in good nature. must be something in the water. nancy pelosi also trying a little comedy today. the house minority leader targeting the web of campaign finance law with a punch line, stop stephen colbert and his seven figure super pac. >> stephen colbert used to be my friend. i even signed his cast when he hurt his hand. but since the day he started his super pac, taking secret money from special interests, he's been out of control. even using his super pac to attack my friend newt gingrich. and if that weren't enough, i hear he doesn't even like kittens. >> he doesn't even like kittens. wow, that's a tough attack there. our senior congressional correspondent dana bash is with

us. number one let's start with the attempt of humaner. a bit out of character for the former speaker, now democratic leader. she tends to be more reserved. >> reporter: that's what makes it so funny. we see her more serious or stately. don't see her doing deadpan especially when it's aimed at stephen colbert. her aides are hoping colbert responds on his show tonight because they're trying to get attention for the issue that she was talking about which is super pacs. they reintroduced legislation the democrats of the house today to have better transparency to disclose who the donors are, the secret donors are for these super pacs. and they're trying to really push the republicans on this issue saying you say you want to change washington. how about this? >> they're trying to get political gain out of all of this saying full transparency. if corporations can give that's fine but they have to disclose. democrats say -- in trying to make this case, in trying to push through the disclosures and push the democratic position she walked up pretty closely to an

important line. let's listen. >> democrats in their fundraising will be fully disclosing. and by the way, we're asking people to contribute to us if they want to elect more reformers to congress so that we can do away with super pacs, we can do away with secret contributions. >> explain why she was marching up pretty closely to a do not cross line tlampblgts do not cross line is that you cannot ask for -- solicit donations when you're standing on federal property. that is something you see members of congress leaving the capitol all day long to go across the street and dialling for dollars. when she said we're asking people to contribute that certainly raised some flags. we talked to a few legal experts who say technically she may have violated the law that says you can't ask for money on federal grounds, but her aides say, come on. she was simply trying to talk about what they tell donors when donors say what are you going to do and they tell donors, look, we're going to disclose things.

she wasn't exactly soliciting. and other people we talked to say it's probably not actionable but it's still the way she said it she probably would want to say it more differently next time. >> the way she said it her republican critics probably won't give her the slack and try to make an issue in it. you know newt gingrich released his taxes sometime back. governor romney did his as well. rick santorum said he left his at home. then he said he finally went home and got them, an accountant is looking them over. they're still looking. back to my conversation with senator santorum and the tax question. >> i'm looking forward to the day i can stop asking this question. we've been through this for awhile. when are we going to see your tax returns? >> oh. pretty soon. you know, i had to go to actually have an accountant take a look at them to make sure that i had all the papers that i was supposed to have. and i'm hopeful tomorrow that i'm actually going to meet with that guy and then we can get them out the next couple of

days. >> the next couple of days. let me hear another one for you president santorum might face. the pentagon is easing roles on women taking a frontline role, some frontline roles in combat as medics, people involved in communications, perhaps opening the door to a broader role for women in combat. good idea or bad idea? >> look, i want to create every opportunity for women to be able to serve this country. and they do so in an amazing and wonderful way. they're a great addition to the and have been for a long time to the armed services of our country. but i do have certains about women in frontline combat. i think that can be a very compromising situation where people naturally may do things that may not be in the interests of the mission because of other types of emotions that are involved. and i think that's probably -- it already happens of course with the camaraderie of men in combat. but i think it would be even more unique if women were in combat. i think that's probably not in the best interests of men, women

or the mission. >> ace said at the beginning of this interview you have governor romney's attention at the moment because of your three big wins on tuesday night. among the things he said to try to convince conservatives you're not all you claim to be is this. >> during senator santorum's time in washington, the government grew by 80%. and he voted to raise the debt ceiling five times. this may work in washington, or it may have worked in the past. it will not work in the future. >> now, i know you say he doesn't like to talk about his record. but right there when he was talking about yours, was anything he said not true? >> i admit republicans made mistakes. and i was a party to some of that. but i think if you look at my record on spending it was better than just about anybody there. we never voted for appropriations increase. i always fought for entitlement reform. i led the charge on welfare reform. if you look at governor romney's record, he doesn't talk about his record of spending in the state of massachusetts. he doesn't talk about his record of exploding a brand-new

entitlementment that cost billions of dollars not just in massachusetts but in medicaid dollars that you all across this country are paying for that are sending money to massachusetts to subsidize the huge expansion of their medicaid problem. so governor romney has a pretty bad record on spending and on entitlements. we have actually a very good record on those two topics. >> it is a debate that has now intensified because of your success and one that will continue at least through super tuesday. senator santorum, thanks for your time tonight. >> thank you. great to be here at oral roberts. i want to thank everybody that's come out. about 5,000 people here. a great crowd. still ahead, the truth behind the president's controversial decision on contraception. plus a top aide to former congresswoman gabrielle giffords now running to be her replacement.

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at least no one is trying to pass the buck. ask top white house officials who made the decision to is set off a battle royal at the catholic church and the answer is this, president obama. all say it was a tough call. on the one hand advisers urging the president to require all healthcare plans to provide free birth control to women. on the other, senior advisers who are catholics including the vice-president and the former white house chief of staff urging some kind of exemption or loophole for religious organizations who oppose birth control.

tonight's truth can you 90s both side of the debate. no matter your view on the policy question it has been handled in a happen handed which. now church officials say the president broke a promise. several catholic democrats are warning of a backlash. tim kaine is running for senate in virginia. >> i think the white house made a good decision in including a mandate for contraception coverage in the affordable care act insurance policy, but i think they made a bad decision in not allowing a broad enough religious employer exemption. >> senator robert casey is seeking re-elections in pennsylvania with the term casey democrat kind during his anti-abortion father's day in government. senator casey says this "religiously affiliated organizations like hospitals and universities should not be compelled by our federal government to purchase insurance policies that violate their religious and moral convictions." the liberals who applauded the president's decisionç chafing w that they hear talk about a possible white house retreat or compromise.

>> my colleagues and i stand in solidarity with american women who have waited decades for equity in contra accept tiff coverage. we have fought for too long. >> truth is, this was going to be a hard one no matter what the president decided. just within his own party. knowing that, the could have, should have been handled more carefully. now it's messy politics on top of difficult policy. let's talk this over and talk truth with cnn contributors and republican strategist. first with a democrat in the room and someone who knows senator casey very well, a state like pennsylvania very well. some people will say if you look at the polling, we have some polling. let's put it up on the screen. among all americans 55% say yes, employers should be required if they give healthcare to include contraception coverage. a majority of catholics also say yes. a majority of catholics do. if you're in a 50/50 race in pennsylvania those conservative

catholics, the casey democrats matter. >> oh, yeah. i mean, first of all the politics was from the polling that said never interrupt your opponent when he's destroying yourself. the republicans are in a difficult primary. they're attacking each other now. what do we do? we inject an issue thissue that unites republicans and divides democrats. these are not disloyal democrats. you start putting people like senator joe manchin, another re-election coming in west virginia also has broken with the president on this. these are people who in the main, casey and kaine very close and loyal to the president. this decision which secretary sibelius was driving. it has divided my party, united the republicans. taken very difficult policy and made it very bad power. >> you disagree completely with this decision. but you could argue if the

president knows a friend like bob casey or tim kaine is going to be mad if he made the decision it's right policy decision you could make the argument on principle good. >> the problem is that principle and politics and compromising gets to be a very muddy business. when you have catholics and evangelicals, the president has done what jesus christ cannot do. he has united jews, christians, southern baptists all against him. muslims, jews, catholics, southern baptists all together against a presidential decision. he didn't have to go as far as he did. that's the problem. >> you're the policy expert. these guys are good political guys. you're both good politically and smarter. >> i'm not saying that. >> if you have his position on the issues, which you don't, you're a republican. but if you share his position on the issues how does he thread the needle? >> more importantly i'm a catholic. i think you've probably got a few on this panel which is emblematic or why he made a mistake.

he could have gone with the hawaiian approach which has been discussed where you make sure that workers have available to them easy access to affordable health insurance option that is would cover these things that are so abhorrent and really anti-to the catholic church. the problem is that this decision feels personal. even some might answer a poll and say sure i'm in favor of contraception, i use it personally, whatever, that is not the same as how they will respond when they believe a basic tenet of their church has been purposefully violated. >> what does it tell you about the political antenna? you've worked in the white house. good calls, bad calls, calls you'd like to get back. what does it tell you about the political antenna. doing it it's a tough one anyway. now you think wow. >> i think it's basic policy to not drive this train. the president is doing what he thinks is right. and i do admire that. but politically it can't help him. and now we saw it. a wonderful democrat,

terrifically loyal to the president, other democrats you could have a male-female fight among democrats in my party which is a disaster. we had that when hillary ran against barack. put it back together again. we don't need that fight again. >> the best thing to happen to republicans in awhile. >> both parties fall into, this is not a partisan issue. you will see parties take issues and generate polling themselves saying see don't pay attention to the critics. the polls say they love it. we saw that with the healthcare decision in 2010. look what happened. we see that now with a lot of democrats coming out waving the poll saying catholics love this decision except you're seeing politician, have better read of it. and they're running from it. >> the republican candidates for president have jumped on this one. let's listen to a snippet from two of them. >> this kind of attack on religion and on our first freedom, our right to worship and to believe as we choose and have a conscience that is protected, this is wrong. >> when you marginalize faith in

america, when you remove the god-given rights -- french fre >> the french were all catholic. what is he talking about? >> michele bachmann was here yesterday. she said she think santorum's success was because this was front and center and planned parenthood and he was more on the issues than governor romney. >> talking to people at cpac where he has the heart of the crowd. it's interesting. they bust in on the fans and today you get a real authentic sense. the crowd liked rick santorum. two issues helped him, this and romney's comment on the poor

energized catholic republicans. >> it's not just the faith. the swing vote, catholics in swing states and white catholics in particular that obama had a hard time with in 2008. again, this feels personal because in part you had really pretty much the liberal faction of the catholic church go to bat for him and say we know he'll do the right thing on this, and he just put them to shame. >> but here's what the -- this is part of the opportunity cost of this for the democrats, right? while we're talking about this, what the democrats ought to be talking about is mitt romney's position on contraception is to ban all funding for title 10 which they have sup importanted for decades which supports contraception. it doesn't force the church to do anything but forces contraception for poor women. rick santorum has gone further. he says contraception is harmful for women. that's what democrats should be talking about, these really

extreme positions. >> let's get a quick update before you go. you mentioned you're here for the cpac. it was here four years ago governor romney bowed out. what's your sense in a sentence or two of where the race stands? >> i think it's completely up in the air in part because of in comments, they're rarely beaten by an opponent, and that's pretty much what we've got to hope for at this point because there just doesn't seem to be excitement. >> there doesn't seem to be a lot of excitement. >> three words, fractured, open, and dangerous. this is dangerous to the parties and to the candidates because if they blow themselves up with a nasty race, who wants to stick with the guys in general. >> four words. music to my ears. >> eric and nancy, thanks for coming up. 250,000 apple fans are turning the table on apple.

details about protests around the world. and you may want to think twice before you throw that pigskin or frisbee at the beach. we'll tell you which county is making it illegal. that's next. what's this? [ male announcer ] quaker oatmeal squares have 46 grams of whole grains... mmmm. ...and a touch of sweetness. you'll be delighted to discover how good they taste. get your free sample of quaker oatmeal squares on facebook.

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better car replacement, available only from liberty mutual. it's a better policy that gets you a better car. call... or visit one of our local offices today, and we'll provide the coverage you need at the right price. liberty mutual auto insurance, responsibility -- what's your policy? welcome back. here's mary snow with the latest news you need to know right now. hello, again. >> hey, there, john. a top aide for gabrielle giffords just may be her replacement. john bauerer says he will run

for her seat she left last month. he was wounded along with giffords during the deadly shooting last prilt. while we're all feeling the impact, young adults have taken the hardest hit from the slow economy. that's according to a new report by the pew research center. 18 to 24-year-olds with jobs is at a record low. just one in two adults have a job. the report finds 189 to 24-year-olds are less likely to have a job than at any time in history since world war ii. fbi files a release just today are giving us a rereeled look into apple co-founder steve jobs. the fbi conducted a moral character background on jobs. the fbi says the investigations were reportedly part of a presidential appointment by george w. bush and a bomb threat against apple. the threats call into question jobs' honesty, his details to

twist the truth and it goes into jobs' illegal drug use of marijuana and lsd in the 1970s. meanwhile protesters take on apple. more than 250,000 people signed online petitions that demand apple improve working conditions at chinese factories making apple products. apple says it's committed to providing safe working conditions and wants its suppliers to treat workers with dignity and respect. take a look at this. believe it or not, there were half a dozen little kids on that bus just before it exploded into flames. according to affiliate wsoc, the bus driver was able to get all the kids off the bus safely, thankfully, before the bus consumed the entire bus. firefighters say faulty electrical wire inside the bus's dashboard so the blame for this. this is a live look at the southern california beach from earthcam.com and at most beaches

footballs and fris bees is practically a fixture. forget about throwing them on memorial day or labor day unless you want to be fine $1,000. the board of trustees agreed to raise that fine this week. officials say the ban on footballs and fris bees is necessary for safety. no word yet, though, john, if there's an official ban on fun. >> okay. take the fun out of going to the beach. what else can we do. >> exactly. >> i guess we'd better bring books if we can't bring a football or frisbee. finally the moment you missed. president obama's playlist. he released his songs, 28 tracks, a little bit country, a little bit rock 'n' roll, even a little bit hipster. bring it up right now. there's something for everyone. aretha franklin, reo s