after several hours, the passage through the strait of hormuz is through without incident. in afghanistan, cnn aboard the u.s.s. abraham lincoln in the strait of hormuz. top of the hour here. welcome back. i'm brooke baldwin. here's a number for you. 40, as in 40 more people, have died today in the government onslaught in syria. but i want to start this by telling you one survivor. this is from last friday, but let's watch this together and i'll explain the back story in just a moment. >> so he fell initially in the middle of that street, a young child running loose a midst sniper fire.

watch again with me. this hero, this man here, grabs this child, swoops him up, whisks him to safety, kind of behind a bit of wall that he can find. then goes back to grab the child's stray shoe. folks, this is life in syria right now. and this is just in to us here at cnn, and you have to watch closely. this video was shot sunday in the capital city of damascus. it appears the bolster planes, they're using civilians as human shields. these men are apparently being forced at gunpoint -- look at them on both sides -- to line up behind this tank. watch what happens. they're forced to kneel and then slowly they go from kneeling to ultimately laying on the ground, and it's hard to tell because i'm not sure what is happening here, but we can semen carrying arms and one can surmise those are the guys calling the shots. laying down behind a tank, not

something one would expect a person to do voluntarily. and as we told you, the syrian government in damascus has refused entrance to cnn crews who are trying to cover this story for the world. however, cnn's arwa damon has managed to get inside syria, and for her safety we can't tell you her precise location but we can tell you what she's seeing and hearing. >> reporter: in the areas where the government crackdown is at its worst, people say there are snipers positioned on every single street corner. you can hardly cross a main thoroughfare without coming across government snipers. then, of course, there's all the tanks at the government checkpoints. people we have been talking to, every single one of them has one horrific nightmare story, and others are afraid to talk about it with their names attached to it.

one man we met, he had four members of his family executed while government sources were raiding his village. he wanted to tell the story, he wanted to put out the images of loved ones. he was afraid because he said at the same time his uncle had been detained. they believe that at the end of the day, at some point in time, who knows when, the regime is going to fall, that quite simply they cannot go back and syria will not go back to the way that it was. but one young activist i was speaking to put it this way. he said, if there is military intervention, yes, there will be a lot of bloodshed, but it's going to be over a lot quicker. if there isn't military intervention, there's going to be even more bloodshed and it's going to take a lot longer to bring down the regime. what a lot of people are realizing and accepting at this stage is that this is going to be a bloody battle, that more lives are going to be lost and that perhaps the biggest challenge for syria, too, is going to be after the regime

topples. >> do you hear that, the biggest challenge after the regime topples. again, arwa damon, my thanks to you reporting from an undisclosed location in syria. as you can imagine, it is extraordinarily dangerous for arwa and her crew. in fact, in the middle of the newsroom today i had a conversation about precisely that with cnn senior correspondent nick roberts, and of course, as you have seen, he has been in multiple similar situations, and here's what he told me. >> given all the dangers in syria right now, and i don't want us to give any details away that would put arwa and her crew in danger, but how difficult -- how dangerous is it for her to get in country, to be reporting in the midst of bloodshed? >> i think the hardest thing is going to be knowing the people she is with who are taking care of her can protect her from the dangers around them, which means she needs to put, her team needs to put their faith in the opposition members they're with

who will be helping them get from a to b and on warwards fro there. that's tough to know because people are often desperate to see the way things are, and they will put you in a position to take huge risks that you would not ordinarily take. >> how well does she know knees people? >> you can judge them. we know she's done this a lot of times before. this will be careful steps and cancellations on her part. of course, she speaks arabic, so we know no one will pull the wool over her eyes. but she will make tough judgments all along the way. >> and how difficult is it to get the story out, a story like syria as opposed to where we saw you for months and months, in libya. >> the opposition in libya had

huge territory, and they would be running to the front line and launch rockets, then they would run run back 20 or 30 miles. there's none of that in syria at the moment. the difficulty would be an opposition. it's amazing they don't have large areas of territory. walking down the road, we could be stopped by the army. so it's much, much different. you are behind the line, essentially, if you're with the opposition. if you're in damascus, the government can really limit where you can go. they have a television network of 200,000 people that anywhere you go on the street and you're film ingwith your camera, any one of them can stop you and carry you off to the government office. so there's limitations that way,

too. >> so there's nowhere that's safe. every moment, you just have to be aware. >> if you're the opposition, there is no way to be safe whatsoever. >> nic robertson, thank you for doing that. speaking from experience. coming up, this. >> what do i think about this? i think i'm outraged. i'm sick of it. >>. coming up next, serious concerns about prescription drug use in the united states. plus, my next guest agrees with dr. drew that the people partying with whin knee houston.

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at meineke i have options... like oil changes starting at $19.95. my money. my choice. my meineke. a private funeral for pop star whitney houston will be held saturday. her body is now home, arriving sunday in this gold hearse at a newark funeral home. ♪ >> a very young whitney houston. it's significant because her funeral will be held at new hope baptist church, the very place there she learned to perform. this youtube clip one of her solos when she was just a child. but how houston died is still such a mystery. the l.a. county coroner is downplaying the amount of prescription medication found in her hotel room.

but still, we are learning bits and pieces from friends that whitney houston had been partying in the days leading up to her death, begging the question, where does a decade-long addict draw the line? i want to bring in bob forrest. he joins me live from los angeles, and bob, as you're hearing bits and pieces, some say it was erratic behavior in her final days, some say she was fine, she just had a couple glasses of champagne, totally innocuous. what do you make of all this? >> it's the worst environment in the world for a newly sober person. she's going to these parties, kind of artificial. one of the things i have to say about whitney houston, i just loved her genuineness. she was the real deal. when you see her talk so honestly and openly about her battle and her life. i saw chaka kahn talking about her planning how to come to these parties. the fact is, you don't have to

come to them at all. there is no reason you need to be there. and to be in an environment where there's druinking and drugs, and more importantly, a false sense of self. that was the worst place on earth for a newly sober whitney houston to be. >> chaka kahn was saying given the history, you arrive at the grammys a day or so before, certainly not a week. she last performed with her friend kelly price. they were at a club friday night and had a couple glasses of champagne. she said it was all fun and good, not all innocuous partying, but especially for a chronic addict, isn't one glass of champagne too much? >> it's always too much. and here's -- you showed drew's outrage. we've been trying to talk about this for years. addicts need to not do anything. they need to not see doctors for sleep medication, they need to

not worry about their backache i ing, they need to not worry about sleeping, they need not one drop of champagne. we've been screaming about this for years, and now well-intentioned best friends going out drinking with them. it's really shocking. >> you have, certainly, enableres, but as i understand it, it's a misperception about prescription drugs. they say, i'm not buying from a shady street corner, i'm getting drugs from the doctor. so it feels safe, i would imagine. >> let's ask keith ledges, anna nicole smith's family. my brother died of a drug addiction. when america is going to wake up to the fact that just because a

doctor tells you to take it doesn't mean it's good for you. >> you use lorazepam as an example found in the bodies of people you just rattled off. one day you're fine and the next you're not. tell us about the combination of that and alcohol. >> more qualified medical professionals could talk about it, i just know my own experience with it. addicts take the same amount of been z benzodiazepam and they don't wake up. it's a deadly disease. it was in michael jackson's system, it was in heath ledger's system, and i believe you'll see it might have been in this situation. >> we don't know. we won't know yet for another six to eight weeks with the

toxicology report the official cause of death. but whatever the cause of death was, this can be used as a wake-up call. you said you lost your nephew. thousands of regular people die from abusing prescription medicine. >> prescription medicines are by far the most destructive thing in our culture and nobody is paying any attention to it. oxycodone, it's all just an unbelievable phenomena. it just appeared in the last seven, eight, nine, ten years. >> how do we change that, though? >> i'd like to see some sort of federal laws looking into if you can prescribe these drugs to children, to minors. they're often used in minors. ritalin, aterol, and benzo for anxiety in a 15-year-old.

it leads to the belief that taking pills is safe, taking pills is expected to be well, and that's why you have this epidemic of prescription drug use. >> just because you get it from a doctor does not mean you can take it over and over and over again. bob forrest, love having you on. thank you so much. >> thanks so much. coming up next, the taliban kills u.s. soldiers in war. so why suddenly are the militants saying they'll only negotiate with americans? in fact, they're claiming the talks have already begun. we're live in the region with that story. also, if you survive a heart attack, we're hearing of a way to heal the heart using stem cells. dr. sanjay gupta is about to give us a look at this cutting edge treatment. stay right there. t i? [ male announcer ] want great taste and whole grain oats that can help lower cholesterol? honey nut cheerios. nyqui tylenol: me, too. and cougnasal congestion.ers?

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the taliban's surprising claim about chief negotiations, they visit the white house. time to play reporter roulette. cnn's peyton walsh in beirut, possible peace negotiations with the taliban. nick, what have you learned and from whom? >> we received an e-mail from the spokesman. in there he confirms the first time the taliban has had official talks with american officials about potentially having peace negotiations in the future, but there is a sting in this particular e-mail, too, because the americans want these peace talks to be between the taliban and the afghan government karzai. this e-mail says the taliban has no interest in talking to the

afghan government. they want to talk to the people with the military and the cash. that could really pull the rug right from underneath this month-long secret american effort to try to negotiate peace. troubling words in this e-mail. >> they want to talk to the americans specklifically, and they're making a claim about u.s. officials. tell me about that. >> this is simple aing a soundi out. they call is building confidence between the two sides. they need to have a meeting where they can begin to work it out. this has always been a very delicate process, and what the taliban has done in this e-mail is say that the major conditions that hillary clinton and all of

them have had for these peace talks, afghan-led, the taliban just wants to talk to the americans, and that's going to be a major, if not potentially fateful hurdle. >> thank you very much. the next reporter, china's president is here in the united states. the u.s. vice president pointed out that the two countries don't always agree. >> reporter: that's right, brooke. it's pretty interesting because this is a trip where sort of both sides, the u.s. and china, are walking a line. they're talking about cooperation but also talking about some pretty sticky issues. right now one of the elephants in the room has to do with syria, not surprisingly, because that security council resolution against syria was voted down by russia and china. and it was vice president biden who addressed that today. take a listen. >> well, the united states and

china, as you have pointed out, mr. vice president, will not always see eye to eye, it is a sign of the strength and maturity of our relationship that we can be candid about our differences as we have been. we saw this in the recent u.n. security council debate about syria where we strongly disagreed with china and russia's veto. a resolution against the unconscionable violence being perpetrated by the assad regime. >>. >> reporter: so highlighting a difference there with vice president g who is expected to be president soon. right there in the room with him, it is a pretty big deal to hear that language coming from vice president biden. but brooke, there is a whole lot of other issues that will be discussed behind closed doors. we may not get a whole lot of details about them. some have to do with the

trade-in balance, that's a sticky issue, as well as military interests. the u.s. just announced it would have military presence in northern australia, right in china's neighborhood, so to speak. china not so happy about that. and also iran, because china is its largest customer of oil, and the concern is that the u.s. does not want china to increase its consumption of that oil. >> so other issues to talk about, also other stops on the u.s. tourism. he headed to the midwest. he has ties there? >> yeah, this is pretty interesting. vice president v will be heading to iowa when he was a local official in the 1980s. he's been to iowa before. he went in the 1980s. he'll be talking about agriculture, and he'll also be heading to los angeles where president obama seemed to let slip during their bilateral meeting today that he might be taking in a lakers game. so, you know, maybe a little fun and games on this five-day

business trip. >> lakers, huh? but maybe no jeremy lin on this tour, right? >> that's what i kept thinking. everybody has linsanity. >> that's right. thanks, brianna. next on reporter roulette, regrowing human heart tissue. i know it sounds like science fiction. scientists are very much doing it. they found it can undo some of the damage done by heart attacks. dr. sanjay gupta explains this cutting edge treatment which uses stem cells. >> people have been talking about using stem cells for some time, but this particular trial san important one. it shows a couple things that are very specific to some questions people have been trying to answer. first of all, you can inject stem cells back into the heart and do it safely. and second of all, and this is a little bit of a surprise to researchers, that they saw the benefit. they saw specific things change in the heart as a result of that injection.

these are patients who have had mild to moderate to severe heart attacks. as a result, they had scarring in the heart. that scarring in the heart sort of impacted the function of their heart overall. so they specifically thread a catheter into the heart and they took some muscle from the heart itself, some healthy muscle. this is the patient's own heart. they pulled that back out and put it into a petri dish where they allowed those cells to grow, to reproduce. then they injected those back into the heart. what they found was a significant reduction in the scar that often accompanies heart attacks. so, again, patients did not have negative side effects that were significant, and they had this regeneration of the heart tissue. one of the things in medical school that we've learned is once heart cells die, they're not coming back. so these patients, once they have heart attacks, they're not going to get that function back. so in this particular trial, again, they showed injecting those stem cells did show about

a 50% reduction in scar. this was an early trial. it was 25 patients. 17 of them had stem cells put in and that was compared to standardized treatment. where this goes next is they have to reproduce this in other patients. again, so much discussion about the promise of stem cells. this is an example of how it can work and how it might work down the line. back to you. >> sanjay gupta, thanks so much. that's reporter roulette on this tuesday. how about this one? a school is paying students to come to class. yep. wait until you hear how it works, and you can imagine the backlash that idea is getting. for the first time ever, we're getting a look at private notes from first lady jacqueline kennedy. find out what they reveal, next.

if it's interesting and happening right now, you're about to see it.

rapid fire. beginning with mitt romney. check out this new poll out of michigan today. see the guy at the top? rick santorum beating mitt romney 33-27 in the research poll of likely voters. michigan primary two weeks away, but rick santorum already has ads on the air. stay tuned to cnn because we'll be releasing new national poll numbers at the top of the hour, half an hour from now. israel on a high state of alert after three bombs went off in bangkok, thailand. they say israelis are to blame. they were attacked in iran and

georgia. they're appealing a decision to overturn the american's murder conviction. knox was cleared last year in the murder of her roommate. knox's lawyer says prosecutors are wrong to try to keep this case going. and how about this? you can get a look into the private thoughts of former first lady jacqueline kennedy talking dinner invitations, notes on decorating. this is all part of a first batch of personal papers being made public by the kennedy presidential library. the documents are also available on line, and one include the transcript of remarks mrs. kennedy made to cuban dissidents captured during the bay of pigs. kennedy's children contributed to these after her death. how would like to get $50 just for being kind? officials believe it will keep kids in class and out of

trouble. i read this for the first time and thought, what? we're all supposed to be on time, supposed to go to school. at least that's how it was when we were going. you talked to a spokesman. what did they say? >> this is how the program works. this is a charter school in cincinnati, brooke, and remember, charter schools play by different rules than public schools, and yes, it's paying students to go to school. this whole thing started yesterday with students getting visa gift cards if they show up every day on time and stay out of trouble. the underclassmen get 10 there are a week, seniors getting $25. they're giving this a try because report cards are terrible. attendance is below average. only 40% of students actually graduated last year, brooke. >> so here is one way, perhaps, of raising the graduation rates. you mentioned visa gift cards. where is the money coming from? >> okay, so what the school has done so far has gotten large donations, it's gotten help from an easter seal grant.

they said the school can use state funds to finance the program. it's not planning to do that but it may have to if the donations fall short. there is a huge controversy about this, but the ceo is defending it saying, you know what, 90% of the students who go to this school are in poverty. they're excited to be in school now and be rewarded. but you flip it over and critics say, wait a minute, why not find out why kids aren't attending school in the first place? is it a problem at home, is it a problem with the teachers? and to reward students with taxpayer money to do something they should be doing, anyway, they say it does not set a good example. you've got both sides on this fiery issue. >> wonder what taxpayers are saying, wonder what parents are saying as well. allison kosik, thank you. now this. she told me that she was pregnant and she was very excited to share the news with

jason. >> she specifically said she did not get the reaction out of jason that she had hoped to get. i said, i'm sorry for your loss, and his response was very odd. he said, cassie has been a real trooper. >> a pregnant woman is found beaten to death with her two-year-old daughter hiding under her parents' covers. the disturbing crime led investigators straight to her husband, and now he's on trial for a second time. sunny hostin is on the case. we're going to talk about this next. ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 you get at some places. ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 they say you have to do this, have that, invest here ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 you know what? ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 you can't create a retirement plan based on ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 a predetermined script. ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 to understand you and your goals... ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 ...so together we can find real-life answers for your ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 real-life retirement. ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 talk to chuck ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 and let's write a script based on your life story. ttd#: 1-800-345-2550

it has been more than five years now since michelle young was found dead in her north carolina home, and there's still no closure for her family. investigators have described the bloody scene, including tiny bloody footprints belonging to her toddler. her husband, jason young, is now

back in prison. the jury couldn't reach a verdict and the case has actually ended in this trial. sunny is on the case as always. sunny, this go-around, what will the prosecution do differently? >> it seems they're trying the same kind of case, brooke. there are cameras in the courtroom, i've been watching this trial day in and day out, and the case doesn't look very different. this is not a strong case for this prosecution. it's a circumstantial case with no physical evidence tying him to a very, very blood y crime scene. no blood in his car, no blood on his clothing, and he has anal buy. he was in a hotel in another state on business. it ended in a mistrial last time, but the vote, brooke, 8-4 for acquittal. so this is a case many of us are watching very closely to see if the prosecution can get a conviction this time. >> just quickly before i move on, if he has anal buy and w al

in a different state, are there any other suspects? >> no, he was always the prime suspect and was tried once before. the question is, will he testify this time? he testified in his first trial. he did quite well on the witness stand, so many of us are wondering, will he get on the witness stand again and deny any involvement in his wife's death? >> women said the horrific scene of the crime and these teeny tiny footprints belonging to this two-year-old at the time, this daughter is now seven. do you think she could play any role in the trial? >> that's been something that many people are wondering, many people are talking about. her name is on the witness list, brooke, but i cannot imagine having her get on the witness stand. at two years old, very rare for a child to remember anything. when i prosecuted child sex

crimes, it was very rare for a child under the age of five to get on the witness stand. so although she is seven at this point, i think it is unlikely she will get on the witness stand. >> i'm trying to question the what-ifs. what happens if the jury can't reach unanimous verdict again? >> it's interesting, i looked this up, and in this part of our country, there is no hard and fast rule from preventing the prosecution to try this case again. if they get a hung jury, they could very well seek another trial against him. i also find that unlikely given the fact the first time around it was 8-4 for acquittal. i think this will be the final trial for this defendant. >> okay. sunny, thank you. let's talk about oprah winfrey, shall we? she's in a bit of hot water after sending out a controversial tweet. while much of the television audience was watching the grammys this past sunday, oprah winfrey sent out a desperate

tweet. quote, everyone who can, please turn on own, especially if you have a nielsen box. some thought it was a violation of policy. nielsen, the company who keeps tracks of ratings, is investigating the incident. they said, quote, we take any violation of policy seriously. and will work with clients to resolve the situation. oprah winfrey has apologized and has removed said tweet. many people were talking about whitney houston's raucous personal life and you'll see some bizarre moments including television interviews and a wild show with her ex, bobby brown. be right back. ew. seriously? so gross. ew. seriously? that is so gross.

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it's certainly no secret that whitney houston had a rocky, personal life and she revealed a lot of those struggles in bizarre interviews. >> reporter: whispers about whitney houston's troubles began to surface shortly after she appeared in this michael jackson tribute concert ♪ >> looking rail thin, the appearance moved rumors that her health was rapidly declining. she defiantly denied those rumors in this infamous 2002 interview with diane sawyer, insisting she didn't have an eating disorder and didn't have a crack addiction.

>> whitney houston. crack rehab fails. >> let's get this straight. talk is cheap. i don't do crack. i don't do that. crack is whack. >> this says $137,000 a year drug habit. this is the headline. >> come on. 130? i wish you mai made that kind o money. >> is it alcohol, is it marijuana, is it cocaine, is it pills? >> it has been at times. >> all? >> at times. >> if you had to name the devil for you, the biggest devil among them? >> that would be me. >> reporter: houston also had a

turbulent marriage to singer bobby brown. married in 1992, some pointed to their relationship as a primary source of houston's troubles. houston publicly denied that brown abused her. >> has he ever hit you? >> no, he never hit me, no. i hit him. >> bobby! >> bobby! >> bobby! >> that relationship and her erratic behavior eventually became fodder on the show "being bobby brown." in her later years, houston tried something of a comeback. she divorced bobby brown and she released a number one on the vocal charts. but she was soon plagued with difficulties. and in 2011, her publicist

admitted she was seeking help. >> i think over the years, new mother, now marriage, mother, the whole thing, i had matured. and my daughter is my greatest inspiration. she has trained me for this role. she has trained me. she trained me good. >> randi kaye, cnn, atlanta. and we invite you to watch sunday night, a look back at whitney houston's life, including her rise, her fall, and of course investigation into her death. 8:00 p.m. eastern, only here on cnn. and in case you haven't noticed, we've actually gone the whole show without mentioning it's valentine's day. but one presidential candidate, well -- >> all i can promise you is that i believe she will be quite

happy tomorrow night. >> we're going to let newt gr g gingrich explain what he's doing for his wife. we want to warn you it gets awkward. we'll come back and talk about your savings account, next. customers didn't like it. so why do banks do it ? hello ? hello ?! if your bank doesn't let you talk to a real person 24/7, you need an ally. hello ? ally bank. no nonsense. just people sense.

time now for the help desk where we get answers to your questio questions. david novak is a personal financial planner. thank you both for being here. your question comes from emily in minnesota. she says, i'm taking a trip to england next month. is it better to change my money now or after i arrive. >> you'll get a better rate if you wait until you get overseas, but you really don't need to have a lot of pounds in your pocket these days. the best way to get a good exchange is to use your credit card or your debit card when you're overseas. you'll get more fair exchange rates and the fees will be lower for converting. one thing you have to keep in mind today, though, is that a lot of the european countries and south america and asia are moving to credit cards that have

a chip and pin in them, and most american cards only have a magnetic strip. if you have someone who can swipe your credit kiosk, you ma not have one. make sure you have enough currency to meet those short-term needs. >> david, your question comes from winter. you have a utma account that i started to pay for my son before the days of the 529 plan the he'll be 16 next month. what can i do with the utma accounts, so that it doesn't hurt us when we apply for financial aid in two years. >> the best thing would to convert it to a utma/529 plan. it's considered a financial asset for a parent, and you get the advantages. the issue with doing that is you have to transfer it in cash, and there could be some tax consequences. an alternative might be you may be able to spend that down on items for the child now before they go to college.

the issue is that it does vary by state, and it can't be what's known as a support obligation, but if it's something paying for child's care or school, whatever, typically you can do that. it may be a way to exhaust the account. >> that's a very good point. folks, if you have questions you want answered, send us an e-mail at any time.

sglooz we have established contact with arwa damon, who's inside syria. i want to warn our viewers, as she is far, far away there's quite a delay, so bear with me. just begin with what have you seen being in country thus far?

>> reporter: our movements are very restricted and we have to be cautious we've effectively been moving from safe house to safe house, coming across a number of activists a few members have had to take the utmost caution. we have seen tanks in the distance, we've been hearing the sounds of artillery in the distance, and then as you can only imagine, the story that people are telling us, they're suffering because of siege they have been effect tiff been put under. the circumstances are unimaginable. from basic thing like not being able to send their children to

school, not having access to basic supplies, to also having to deal with trying to remove from underneath rubble, and also trying to get medical help for the wounded. some of these areas are under such tight military control for days on end people are dies within their hands, because they could get them out of their various locations or get medical aid in. one of the safe houses we were in, they have stacks and stacks of bags of blood, just waiting to get inside one particularly hard-hit area. they were so frustrated, so rangery at the fact they were unable to get supplies in there to be able to save lives. >> back to your point about the blood, the supplies of blood, are people on the ready, you mentioned they've been training medics. talk to me about hospital conditions. can people even get out of their homes to get medical attention,

given the snipers on the corners? >> reporter: it's incredibly difficult. what the activists have been doing now and what we've been able to witness are these secret underground clinics that have been set up, but even calling them a clinic is something of a stretch of the imagination. they're basically a living room in someone's house with basic medical supplies. they tend to move the various clinics' locations around because they're afraid of being detected. on a number of occasions we have heard reports of these clinics being started. the aim of these clinics is to basically treat or stabilize patients enough before they can move them on to a location that's farther art with slightly more sophisticated equipment, move them into some sort of private clinic or a doctor sympathetic to the opposition, or even move them out of the country entirely.

many of the locations are just someone's living room. in many occasions, they're unable to save lives, because they're lacking in the basic equipment that is necessary. many times they're overwhelmed, and of course the shortage of medical supplies in many of these areas. they have set up a network where they put word out to various locations that may not be until as strict military conditions. they try to collect bits and pieces and try to ship it off, but every single step of everything that these people are doing involve plotting, planning, and having to strict whatever plan they have all the while avoiding government

forces. some cases it takes up to five hours. >> you avoiding government -- so you can share the story with the world. my thanks to you, thank you so much, reporting from an undisclosed location. so many other questions. in fact you can watch our entire report coming up with jessica yellin in "the situation room." and now let's continue here talking about this special date, that date being february 14th, it may just be another day on the campaign trail for the republican presidential candidates, but there's no excuse for missing valentine's day. in fact one candidate has big plans for tonight, and he's not keeping them secret. joe johns, good to see you back again, by the way. nice to have you back. busy, busy on the political trail. okay. newt gingrich. hot date? >> valentine's day, one of those days. some guys don't like it, some

guys don't care. newt gingrich is one of those guys that doesn't know how to talk about it. he can talk your ear off about almost anything, but when it list to valentine's day, he seems almost, almost at a loss for words. check it out. >> i really need to know what will you do for your beautiful wife tomorrow on valentine's day. [ laughter ] >> after that question, i need something stronger than water. >> that's a great question. all i can promise is i believe she'll be quite happy tomorrow night, and we'll have a nice private -- i think the first time in a while we have a private dinner, and just hopefully exchange gifts and, you know reconnect a bit. but she's -- you know -- i'm not going to get -- no more details.

she'll be happy, he says. >> hmm, i know. tmi. tmi. rick santorum breaking news. we hear he sent his wife red roses. big surprise. >> that's so nice, red roses. what about this basher shop on capitol hill, the senate side ba barber shop? >> perfectly honest, i had no idea -- i knew there was a house barber shop. i i worked up there for years. here's some pictures of it. craig shultz picked out a few. actually that looks like the -- well, anyway. >> it's been there for years and years. >> since the 1920s. apparently they've had cost overtruns, and the daily.com reports almost $300,000 in the red last year, there's a move afoot to privatize it, because, you know, taxpayers are footing the bill, and that's not a good idea right now. >> they need those