♪ i will always >> that's all for us tonight. "ac 360" starts right now. good evening, everyone. it is 10:00 here in the east coast. we begin tonight with the very latest on the death of whitney houston. her funeral on saturday will be private and her hometown, newark, new jersey. governor chris christie today ordering flags to be flown at half-staff on that day. her family deciding against a big public memorial. earlier reports said they were considering a 20,000 seat arena. instead, no wake, no public viewing. services will take place in the neighborhood church that she grew up in, new hope baptist in newark. the church she first sang in, sitting in those very pews, is where people first heard the incredible voice coming from the choir. janet jackson knew and admired whitney houston and her voice. i talked to her today about her friend and the gift that she had. you'll hear her shortly. dr. drew pinsky joins us to help us understand the role of

prescription drugs that houston was taking might have played in her death. and "360" sanjay gupta is on to talk about how houston's history with narcotics could have broken her body down over time. first, though, more on the very latest. the gold colored hearse was greeted by crowds of fans shortly before midnight last night as it pulled up to this funeral home in newark, new jersey. houston's mother, cissy arrived earlier. friends say she is overwhelmed but staying strong. newark is houston's hometown and a funeral will be held saturday at the house of worship she attended as a child, the new hope baptist church. how the 48-year-old singer died is still unclear, and the investigation has so far yielded very few answers. authorities examining a bottle of prescription pills found inside her hotel room the day she died.

friends said she was taking medication for throat infection and the drug, xanex for anxiety. houston had a well-known struggle with drugs and alcohol in recent years, however a family friend sells cnn she was no longer an addict and didn't use hard drugs anymore. she had let it go, a friend said and we were proud of her. authorities down played the significance of the pills found in the hotel room saying the amount they found is less than usually found in an overdose situation. they said they'd still be looking for any signs of illegal or prescription drugs in her body at the time of her death. >> no matter what medications they're taking until we run a tox and see the level of what's in the system we will not speculate. >> reporter: investigators are also speaking with houston's medical team, according to "the los angeles times," to learn of any underlying conditions she may have had. on saturday, she was found unconscious and unresponsive under water in the bath by her assistant, mary jones, who called for help. her staff pulled her out of the tub and authorities arrived on

scene moments later. they tried to resuscitate houston but it was too late. she was pronounced dead in the hotel room. >> share this moment with me. >> reporter: days after her death, the music world continues to pay tribute to houston. aretha franklin honored her in a private concert monday night shown on "good morning america." >> miss whitney elizabeth houston. ♪ i'll always love you ♪ i'll always love you >> in four days, houston will be laid to rest. it will be weeks until investigators have final answers over what may have caused her sudden and shocking death. ♪ i'll always love you >> let's dig deeper now in the role if any drugs especially prescription drugs may have played in whitney houston's death. a close friend says she was in his words no longer an addict and no longer using hard drugs. he said she had been clean from

hard drugs for three years but took xanax for anxiety and not unusual for her to have a drink when she went out. we won't know for several weeks if she combined the two before she died or took excessive amounts of either. joining me is sanjay gupta and dr. drew pinsky, host of "dr. drew" on hln. we don't know what houston died of. we're awaiting the toxicology results. what can happen to a human body when even a small amount of prescription drugs are mixed together, and, worse, when alcohol is added to that mix? >> you think about the umbrella term central nervous system depressants, a big term, but basically it means these medications, even in isolation can depress your central nervous system and affect the things you don't think about in your body, ability to regulate your heart rate and blood pressure and drive to breathe.

it says something that people should try to be mindful of. when you add things together and mix in alcohol as well, it's not a 1 plus 1 equals 2 situation. when they say this term synergistic, they're saying in combination, they're somehow worse rather than being additive. the things you don't think about are affected, blood pressure, heart rate, breathing is a possibility with mixing these medications. >> dr. drew, whitney's last performance was with singer kelly price, impromptu two nights before her death. kelly price said she saw houston drinking champagne as many did. i want to play that. did it worry you to see her drinking at all, given her past? >> no, i wasn't worried about it. i didn't see where it was excessive. i didn't see -- i saw her with a couple of glasses of champagne. and our interactions were normal.

there was nothing that seemed that it was over the top. she didn't seem to be intoxicated to me. again, i know intoxicated when i see it. i wasn't worried about it at all. >> you said that hearing from her friends like that makes you angry. why? >> oh, anderson, i -- no disrespect but this is the highest level of ignorance. the fact is that just because somebody isn't doing hard drugs does not mean their addiction is not active. please, everybody, i'm trying to get this message across to the world. it seems to be falling on deaf ears. if you have addiction today, you will not die of hard drugs, you will die a prescription death. that is how addicts die today. period, every one of my patients in the last five years that died of their addictive pathology was taking medications, that a doctor prescribed, often the way the doctor told them, but they happened to put them in combination because they're an addict, they take a little more than everybody else and put them in alcohol. seeing whitney with champagne in her hand should have been an alarm sounding for all of her

friends. they should have pulled her aside and said, whitney, you were in treatment just last may, you seem to not be doing so well. let's get you to a meeting right away. not because it's mean or mean spirited. it saves lives. people with addiction do not put pills in their mouth without being in harm's way. when are we going to learn this, how many deaths? brittany murphy, michael jackson, go down the list, every celebrity you have seen die in the last five years has been a prescription death with the duplicitous involvement of their physician just as their friends are not understanding it. >> and there are people who take xanax and have a glass of champagne, no? >> absolutely. they're not drug addicts. anderson, i have to interrupt you again. these are excellent medications used properly. opiates, pain medication, exceedingly important medications unless you're an opiate addict. at the turn of the century, it

was called god's own medicine, we can eliminate suffering, it is extremely expelling for physicians to give opium and end suffering. the problem is for people with a certain genetic makeup, it has a very dark side that will kill them if they continue to be exposed to it. sanjay, don't you agree with me? >> i think there's a certain percentage of people when they take these things in combination, even if they haven't been addicts, people think there's a perception that prescription drugs, because they're prescription drugs are safer somehow than the illicit drugs like cocaine and heroin. and people die every 1.5 minutes of overdoses. the business traveler takes a xanax, maybe has a drink and takes an ambien to sleep -- >> that's somebody that is in trouble. >> that can get them in trouble regardless whether they had an

addiction history in the past. it is frightening. they call this the silent epidem epidemic. >> sanjay, not so silent. we're reporting on it every night here on cnn and hln. i'm talking about it every night on my show at 9:00. the fact is we have to understand this is what kills people. i will refer you back to leagues of rock stars did god knows how much elicit drugs. look at ozzie and rolling stones, they did tons of elicit drugs, they're alive. since we graduated to prescription drugs the death rate of addiction has gone up dramatically. go to any 12 step meeting in this country, filled with people with pill problems. it wasn't that way five years ago and it's much more pernicious. we have trouble getting people to understand it's dangerous. >> i find what you said interesting. i never had a xanax. if you take a xanax and ambien and have a sip of alcohol or couple of alcohols that can be a problem for somebody who's not even an addict? >> that's right. more than a sip of alcohol

presumably. the thing about it is it goes back to the idea again these medications in isolation have a certain impact on the central nervous system. while no one -- the perception is while no one says having a drink is a good idea and you're warned when you get these medications not to take these in combination with alcohol, the message probably hasn't been loud enough that, look, it is not just a bad idea, you could die from this, unintentionally and it is the number one cause of death now among a certain aged population in this country. and more common cause of death than cocaine and heroin combined. it is more common either intentionally or accidentally than car accidents in this country. think about car accidents and how common they are. >> interesting, dr. drew, to hear the source, a family friend saying to cnn she was no longer an addict. most addicts i know will say, i'm still an addict, i'm just not using. >> let's be super clear. if you ever had sufficient relationship with a chemical you

are given the diagnosis of addiction and you meet criteria for admission to a drug treatment center, that is the same as saying you're a diabetic or asthmatic or you have cancer. there is criteria, you met that criteria, and just like those other conditions, it is a chronic disease like diabetes that will be with you the rest of your life, period, and it has to be managed on a daily basis, or it is active. the degree of activity varies, as high as i'm dying to have a drink or i'm taking heroin. somebody diagnosed with this toasting with champagne, they are in harm's way. >> pardon my ignorance, this is a larger more important conversation, is it ever okay for somebody who's been an addict with pills or cocaine or whatever to then have a drink of alcohol even if they're not using the other? if you're an addict in one thing

are you an addict in all? >> not to put your audience to sleep with this biology but it is a disorder of the deep region of the brain called the median forebrain bundle, and anything that triggers that award apparatus with an extra physiological biology triggers the disease of addiction. all chemicals that cause addiction share that potential. any of those things will reawaken the dragon. >> it's a tragic discussion to have but important one. dr. drew, appreciate it. sanjay as well. thank you. >> you got it. thanks. >> important to point out we don't know how whitney houston died or if drugs played a part. that said, drug abuse is a serious problem in this country. as sanjay said, one person in america dies every 19 minutes from prescription drug misuse. sanjay also pointed out, they're not all drug addicts. it is a very serious problem. let us know what you think. we're on facebook or google plus. add us to your twitter tonight.

@andersoncooper is the address. just ahead, janet jackson on the whitney houston she knew, the unforgettable voice and the loss her family is now feeling. bobby brown talks about his daughter and a look at their explosive marriage and turbulent life together. hello, how can i deliver world-class service

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whitney houston was admired by more than just her fans. her voice left even her fellow singers breathless, janet jackson among them. she admired whitney houston's talent and been through the loss and investigation and questions and rumors the houston family is now experiencing. i spoke to janet jackson for an interview that will air monday on my daytime program "anderson." here's some of the moments that stood out. we've all been reeling from the death of whitney houston. when you heard the news, what did you think? >> i couldn't believe it. i immediately, i started shaking. i was trying to text everyone i knew to let them know. i was speechless. i could not believe it. >> where were you? >> i was home, here. i just so happened to be watching tv and i saw this newsflash. i still can't believe it.

>> we've all been kind of re-listening to her and her performance singing "the star-spangled banner." to you, what was she like as a performer? >> incredible. she was known as "the voice." she would open her mouth and this instrument would come out, you would obviously understand why. she was such a sweet, sweet soul, especially back in the early -- the late '80s, early '90s is when i connected with whitney the most. it doesn't matter if we're doing an awards show, we would always take the time out to find one another. either she'd come to my dressing room to say, hey, and i'd be in makeup or find her, we'd always find time to talk to one another, she was such a sweet soul. >> my thoughts obviously and i think everybody, with her daughter, bobbi kristina, who

has just got to be reeling. >> very devastating. i pray for her and her family. even bobby. he's going through so much, they're all going through so much. her mother. it's very sad. >> her mother spoke to her a short time before she passed. for a parent to outlive a child is just -- you know, it's the worst thing there is. what advice do you have for her family, for her kid? for her child? >> it's very, very tough time. even though it's still a loss. i lost my brother, she lost her mother, there's still a difference even though it's still a loss from the family. i don't truly know what that is like being so young. but it was hard for me, it was very, very difficult for me. i didn't want to accept it. it's very difficult. you have to come to terms at some point.

you have to actually give it up to god and it sounds so mean but you have to move on. you can't hold on to that. it can be very devastating. sometimes therapy is the best thing. >> and tv people always use that word "closure" talking about loss. as someone who has lost family members as well, i don't think there is such a thing as closure. i think that's a made up tv word. >> i don't think there is either. you have to go on with life. you figure out a way to move on with life. it's always right here. there's never a day i don't think about my -- not one day has gone by where i don't think about my brother and my other brothers and sisters have said the same thing. >> janet jackson earlier today. the full interview airs next monday on my daytime program "anderson". check your local listings for that. friends of houston said she battles deemens even in her early days.

as far as the public was concerned, whitney houston's unraveling only became apparent after she and bobby brown married in 1992. brown canceled a concert tour, rushed back to los angeles last night. the one in this blue hoodie in the middle of that pack of photographers. late today, brown issued a statement concerning his daughter, bobbi kristina, hospitalized shortly after her mother died. it reads, "my daughter did visit with doctors at cedars-sinai medical center in los angeles on saturday and has been released and presently with my family including her siblings. obviously, the death of her mother is affecting her, however we will get through this tragedy as a family, however i ask for privacy during this time. privacy has not always been top on bobby brown's agenda or whitney houston's. randi kaye has more. >> on saturday, bobby brown took to the stage to declare his love for his ex-wife.

>> i would like to say, i love you, whitney. >> reporter: as this ireport shows he was there for a reunion of the 1980 boy band new edition. ♪ my girl's the best and that's no lie ♪ >> reporter: "new edition" had a string of hits. but brown's onstage antics and and a feud with a fellow band member led the band to kick brown out in 1986. ♪ they say i'm crazy really don't care ♪ ♪ that's my prerogative >> reporter: undaunted, brown went on to a successful solo career with hits like "my prerogative" and "every little step" from his 1988 album, "don't be cruel."

♪ it's like that girl brown and houston married in 1992, on the surface, it seemed perfect, the pop princess and the r&b singer. but there were signs of trouble. in 1995, brown was present at a shooting outside a seedy boston bar that claimed the life of his bodyguard, steven seely. he was shot in the head several times and died inside a bentley registered to whitney houston. then there were brown's arrest for dui in 1996, for marijuana possession and speeding in 2002, parole violations in 2003. >> bobby! >> reporter: in 2005, the couple put their rocky marriage on a short lived reality show called "being bobby brown" for all the world to see. >> [ bleep ] it's not right. it's not right.

>> reporter: by the time that reality show aired, houston's career was already in tatters. two years later, so was her marriage. they divorced after 15 years together and brown was not awarded custody of their daughter, bobbi kristina. brown explained to "the insider" why their marriage had been so volatile. >> how often did you and whitney use together? >> i used an awful lot. >> what was your drug of choice? >> cocaine. cocaine, it is a powerful drug. i think i was bored and just gotten married and things wasn't right. unfortunately, i turned to alcohol and drugs. >> reporter: but brown was trying to leave that type of behavior behind. despite their tumultuous marriage, "people" magazine reports on saturday, brown cried on stage over the death of his ex-wife. randi kaye, cnn, atlanta. >> we will have much more ahead, including a rare look at whitney houston performing when she was young. also ahead, there are reports

that houston was close to broke when she died, facing foreclosure on at least one of her homes, living off advances. the question is, are those reports true? we'll investigate ahead. [♪...] >> i wish my patients could see what i see. that over time, having high cholesterol, plus diabetes or high blood pressure or family history of early heart disease, can put them at increased risk for plaque buildup. and they'd see that it's more important to get their cholesterol where their doctor wants. and why for these patients, when diet and exercise alone aren't

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we showed you the inside of new hope baptist church at the top of the program. what we didn't show was what people might have heard from the pews when a very young whitney houston was singing the gospel then. now we can. the video quality is not good, i warn you, but the beauty of it the beauty of her voice and the potential of it shines through. watch.

♪ she had her whole life ahead of her in that video. this weekend whitney houston will be back in the new hope baptist church. she's come home and surrounded by people who knew her, knew that voice, knew that child. it's our job to report on the facts of her death and her life. sometimes those fakct s facts a that pleasant and haven't been this week. so many people want to remember the beauty of whitney houston's voice, they're buying her music once again. right now, there are seven whitney houston albums on the top selling. and sadly, she was short of cash when she died. some reports are that she was leaning heavily on her meant, clive davis, to keep homes in atlanta and new jersey out of foreclosure. those things often surface when a superstar dies.

but it was kind of murky and at one time no one was bigger than whitney houston. tom foreman has details. ♪ whatever you want from me i'll give you everything ♪ >> reporter: measuring the wealth of whitney is difficult at best. a good starting place is her 1992 hit movie "the bodyguard." over 20 years, it has made almost $411 million. the soundtrack has sold 17 million copies in the u.s. alone. according to the recording industry association of america, that's the most ever, more than purple rain and saturday night fever and, of course, the film also gave us that song. ♪ and i will always love you ♪ >> reporter: "i will always love you" sold 4 million copies in its first year alone. that's seven records every minute. it was great news for houston and maybe even better news for dolly parton, who wrote it.

under recording law, parton, not houston or her estate is the one that gets paid every time you hear that song on the radio. she talked about the tune recently on anderson's daytime talk show. >> then, when whitney did it and made all that money, i got all the money for the writing and i bought a lot of cheap wigs. >> reporter: still, houston's music was the cornerstone of her empire and her records broke records time and again. she produced more number one singles in a row than even the beatles. her songs not only climbed the charts fast but stayed near the top for long periods. how much she earned from all that is uncertain. when abc's diane sawyers asked about rumors of using crack, the singer herself suggested she had enormous wealth. >> first of all, let's get one thing straight. crack is cheap. i make too much money to ever smoke crack. let's get that straight, okay?

i don't do crack, i don't do that. crack is whack. >> reporter: now, her songs are dominating online sales, just as michael jackson's did after his sudden loss. that could be worth many millions. in the two years after his death, billboard says he sold 16 million songs and almost 11 million albums. certainly, there have been celebrities who have spent their fortunes as fast as they have made them but houston would have had to work at that. after all, in the mid-90s, she was widely regarded as one of the wealthiest entertainers on the planet. she owned property, made tens of millions of dollars touring. in 2001, she signed a record deal worth $100 million. >> the show underwent a huge transformation. >> reporter: and her appeal continues, the grammys packed with references and tributes to houston scored its biggest audience in almost 30 years. when her final film "sparkle" is released later this year,

industry experts expect it to build even more on the fame and fortune of whitney houston. tom foreman, cnn, washington. >> randi kaye is following other stories for us tonight and joins us with a "360" news and business bulletin. >> breaking news from capitol hill, house and senate negotiators hammering out a tentative bill on extending the payroll tax cut and jobless benefits. the deal would prevent cuts in medicare payments to doctors. a vote could happen by friday when congress adjourns for a week. reports of some of the worst shelling yet on neighbors in syria, as snipers fire on just about anyone out on the streets. new video shows what appears to be a government gunman targeting a young child. human rights groups report at least 40 seerians died today alone. cnn cannot independently verify these reports or video. and chinese vice president

g ginping in a visit to the white house today and president obama reminding the man in line to be his country's next leader of the perhaps of a trade balance between the u.s. and china. anderson. still ahead, rick santorum hoping for a victory on mitt romney's home turf of michigan and new poll numbers out. the race there heating up. we'll look at what rick santorum's surge in michigan means and break down the race nationwide right now. former mississippi governor haley barbour trying to stay out of the spotlight and turned down our invitation for weeks to explain hundreds of controversial pardons. our ed lavandera caught up with him. >> reporter: governor, can we talk to you about the presidential pardons? we'll wait out here, then. ♪ oh!

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in "raw politics" tonight, rick santorum surging in mitt romney's home state of michigan. the primary is two weeks from today. the santorum campaign is turning up the heat launching a pair of new tv ads today, hoping for a big win where romney was born and his father served as governor. all this comes as brand new cnn orc poll numbers show romney losing his nationwide lead. he's now in a tie 34-32% and that is within the poll's margin of error. and another poll shows santorum with a 14 point lead with conservative voters. let's talk with ari fleischer and cnn democratic strategist,

cornell belcher, a pollster and strategist for the obama campaign. rick santorum's numbers up, winning evangelicals and blue collar voters and looking for intensity at the moment, has far more stronger supporters than mitt romney. what is going on here? >> mitt romney is decaying support of conservatives. they didn't trust him, didn't think he was one of them, deposit think he was authentic. what conservatives have been waiting for is someone to take on mitt romney one-on-one and that's where mitt romney has always been vulnerable. this is the problem mitt romney has. he needs to take rick santorum down a few notches and move himself up in the favorable area a few notches by connecting with republican conservatives on economic policy. >> cornell, before you get too happy on the democratic side, 68% of those polls say romney is going to win the nomination. in other words, they may be trying to send a message, but

romney is going to be their guy, isn't he? >> i wouldn't say us get happy. i think we're fine with taking on either one of those guys. here's the problem. if you go back and look at our primary in '08, the majority of voters and democratic primary voters thought that hillary clinton was going to win because that was conventional wisdom was the saying. i think what's really interesting, not from a partisan perspective but from a historical perspective, you look at the last couple of election cycles, what's going on here, you have the grassroots of both parties rejecting what the establishment says is their best candidate, rejecting what the establishment wants and i think it's really remarkable. this sort of fluidity in the electorate and the volatility in the electorate means anything can happen and real grassroots on the right speaking up and saying, no, we don't want the establishment wants and want to go in a different direction, it is unique.

>> it is amazing in this race, everybody has been a front-runner at one time or another, santorum the last guy standing and surging. no one gave him a shot a few weeks ago, it's extraordinary. >> if you remember, anderson, last summer you and i started talking about this. the one thing i said then there is no solid foundation underneath any one candidate. every candidate's foundation is built on something shifting and changeable. that's highly unusual for moderate republicans. republicans are very hierarchical. we almost always know who's next and flock to that candidate. this campaign has been wide open why you saw so many people from bachmann to santorum to newt to cain, back to santorum surge and take the lead. it's not too late for mitt romney, he has a lot of money and running in states others are not running and that is important when it comes to the delegate chase. but what we thought was a good month for mitt romney is anything but that. >> doesn't he need to keep this from becoming a two man race between him and santorum.

>> the fact that ari is pulling back from mitt romney, saying the establishment is pulling back from mitt romney, i think is really news. that's interesting. i think right now if you're romney, you want newt gingrich in this race, especially when you take the swing through the southern states. you have to have newt gingrich in that race. i don't know, perhaps a matter of not being able to poll, right now, they have to turn their attention to santorum and stop what's happening now. i said this a while back, that core conservative evangelical base of the republican party coalesce around one candidate, that candidate, i like their chances of being their nominee. if you're romney right now, you're terrified in fact you are effective at tearing down newt gingrich and now they're coalescing around santorum who has a lot of conservative bonafides hard to tear down. >> ari, a, are you pulling back from mitt romney, and, b, i

mean, after that santorum sweep of those three states, people say, well, now mitt romney is going to focus the fire on santorum. doesn't seem in michigan. the super pac is. >> on one, i've always been neutral. i'm having a lot of fun being an analyst and watching each of the different republicans trying to say what they did right and did wrong. i'm calling this as i see the race unfolding. i've always been in the neutral camp. once we have a nominee, i will be fully unneutral. as for michigan, i do think he has to set his sights on santorum. newt is fading. if i were mitt romney, i would treat this as a one-on-one race against rick santorum. i wouldn't worry about what the pundits are saying about don't go negative. this is a campaign and they're made for big boys. he has to do what he needs to do, hopefully policy oriented, that's where it needs to be, not personal. if there are differences, need to bring them out. i think there's electability issue here. mitt romney continues to do much better among independents, but

not as well as he used to than rick santorum. that's an important issue, who at the end of the day can win in the fall. >> thank you. appreciate it. we've been asking governor haley barbour to come on this program and answer questions or doesn't have to be on this program, about the pardons of convicted felons. he's refused so we sent ed lavandera to track him down and keep him honest. we'll see what happened. coming up, prosecutors trying to put amanda knox back in prison. we're america's natural gas

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♪will be giving awayt passafree copies of the alcoholism & addiction cure. to get yours, go to ssagesmalibubook.com. tonight, "keeping them honest" and searching for former mississippi governor haley barbour in the pardon scandal that left victims' families in tears, asking how some of these murderers could have been set free and given pardons. and we're hearing from the attorney general trying to get the pardons overturned. the one person who will not talk to us is haley barbour himself. for one month he wouldn't come on the program. since he wouldn't come to us, we decided to try and find him. we finally did find him. we'll show you how that went in a moment. first, a recap. right before he left office, governor barbour granted more

than 200 pardons, including four convicted murderers, these men here who worked at the mansion in a work release trustee program. barbour said they committed what he called crimes of passion and according to him, that makes them unlikely to commit another crime. claims that's what experts say. "keeping them honest," experts said that is not true. barbour said he and others in his office talked to victims' families before he pardoned those that killed their loved ones. we talked to then families and they said that's not true and they did not try to get in touch with them. why would barbour say that? one of the questions we tried to ask him. he won't come on the program. ed lavandera tried to get answers. here's what happened. >> reporter: since haley barbour won't come to us, we thought we would go to him. we found the former mississippi governor giving a speech in lexington, virginia.

hi, governor, ed lavandera from cnn. can we talk to you a bit? >> let me get my instructions first. >> reporter: can you give us a second? he wouldn't give us a second but walked right inside the building, but not before he told us what he thought about the questions. governor, can we talk to you a second? we'll wait out here. >> stay where it's cold. >> reporter: he said to stay where it's cold. he didn't come back. he gave his speech. the theme ironically enough is how government needs to do a better job of explaining its actions. >> i learned a great lesson about government when we did the census in 1970s. the government is not a very good communicator. the government doesn't do a good job of getting things across. i've been trying all my career to do a better job. >> reporter: governor barbour wasn't in the mood to practice what he just preached. governor, can we have a few minutes to talk with you about the pardons? >> when the supreme court rules,

we can talk. i'm not so presumptuous as to predict what the supreme court will do. when they rule, we can talk. >> reporter: the families want to hear. why won't you talk to them? we waited outside to give him one last chance. this time, he surrounded himself with security. governor, we can knock this out in five minutes. can we get five minutes? >> when the supreme court rules we can. >> reporter: why can't you talk to these families who want to hear from you, you refuse to meet with? do you regret pardoning -- >> thank you very much, sir. >> ed lavandera joins me now. i love when he said to you, stay out there where it is cold. >> it was cold, just started snowing. >> and the speech about the importance of communicating is obviously ironic. >> the irony speaks for itself? >> amazing someone as seasoned a politician as haley barbour is

has not talked about this issue very much. he was on john king's program, answered a few questions about it, but we had plenty of experts who say that the idea of so-called crimes of passion mean you're not going to ghit other crimes is just not true. and calling these crimes of passion, some were premeditated, well thought out killings. >> the interviews he gave early on was before you really got a chance to unravel. there's 200 pardons, a lot to get through. it's taken a while to unravel all this. all the interviews he's done, he's done early on, glossed over big picture ideas as to what he was thinking. there are much more specific questions we have at this point and obviously, you see the way he's reacting to them. >> we talked to a number of family members and you talked to victims' family members, who want answers. what do you think they want to hear? what do you think they want to ask the governor? >> they want to sit across the table from him and even if it's

an answer they don't agree with, every one we've spoken to, we want him to look us in the eyes and tell us why he did this. i think, with that, that would go a long way. they haven't gotten that. >> a number said they wanted to be able to have pled their case before the pardons were granted, an opportunity they never got. >> many who worked at the governor's mansion knew they could get this and if they got that trustee job that was one step closer to getting pardoned and they tried to fight it along the way and said they never got a chance. >> randi kaye has a "360" bulletin. >> italian prosecutors have asked a judge to overturn the acquittal of american student amanda knox. she was convicted of murdering her roommate but later cleared. they call it harassment.

a "360" follow. minnesota's largest school district voting to reverse rules requiring teachers remain neutral when discussing sexual identity issues. and they're trying to reduce bullying. researchers looking at private dinner invitations, and other documents belonging to jacqueline kennedy onassis. they're releasing papers to mark the 50th anniversary of her televised tour of the white house that attracted 80 million viewers. anderson? >> coming up, spending the evening alone, take heart, we're putting valentine's day on the prediridiculous next. [ male announcer ] be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. he's my success story. [ laughs ]

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time now for the "ridiculist." it's only appropriate tonight we're adding valentine's day. i know, some people really love valentine's day, mostly people who own chocolate shops, flower shops, teddy bear manufacturers. no denying, it's a greeting card holiday. roses cost twice as much today, restaurants are a living nightmare. the whole pressure leaves a lot of people feeling like linus from the charlie brown valentine special. >> i spent all my money. i made a fool of myself. this one is for love. this one is for valentines!

this one is for romance! this one is for elizabeth barrett browning! >> a reference to victorian poetry in a peanuts cartoon. i'm telling you, those things have layers. so how do we loathe thee valentine's day? first, let us count the ways, buy the candy and balloons and card and then spent a lot on a prefixed dinner if you have someone to go out with. who needs it? but i have to tell you, there are some pretty awesome alternatives. believe it or not, white castle takes reservations on valentine's day. and judging by pictures, looks like some people enjoy it. why spend money on jewelry when a slider says i love you just as well. maybe your town doesn't have a whis c white castle. good news. there's another option. >> welcome to waffle house. are you guys ready to order? >> asked me to come to the candlelight dinner at the waffle house and i was excited. thought it was unique and different. >> the passion? at waffle house? it's great.

>> i know something you were thinking, white castle, waffle house, that's not upscale enough. if you really insist on spending a boat load of money, you can go with this. pizza hut has a tie the knot with a $10 special, including pizza, bread sticks, and cinnamon sticks, along with fireworks, a ruby ring, videographer. it costs about $10,000. there you go, fancy smancy. if none of this strikes your fancy, you can go with nightclub recommendations from stephan on "snl." >> this around the top party, this place has everything, pugs, geezers, duop groups, a wise old turtle that looks like quincy jones and you'll have your own when harry met sally moment when you share a special kiss with gizmo, the coked up gremlin.