their son, a florida band member. and first lady michelle obama meets at walter reed hospital for a pre-easter celebration. that does it for us. here is keira philips. good morning, everyone. we have a busy hour. let's get straight to the news. the deep south has a close eye on the skies today, hoping not to see the storms that battered the dallas-ft. worth area yesterday. there rescuers are looking through the ruins of more than 400 homes hit by several tornadoes. so far, it still appears no one was killed, which mike rawlings calls a miracle. here's the mayor of forney, texas, moments ago. >> it is difficult to look at the damage to the homes and look around the town and call this a situation where we're blessed, but if you really think about it

the fact that everybody that woke up in forney yesterday morning is still alive today in forney, that's a real blessing. zero fatalities. >> as tornadoes go, these were relatively small. but look at what a small tornado can do. these are semi-trailers being tossed around like toys and an empty one weighs 14,000 pounds. we'll get a live report from arlington in a minute. several passengers injured on united airlines flight this morning after that plane encountered severe turbulence over lake charles, louisiana. that plane landed safely in houston. medical crews attended to the 12 people who suffered the minor injuries. many of whom are in local hospitals right now. and the man accused of lining students up one by one and shooting them execution style will be arraigned today. 43-year-old one goh was a former student at oikos university in california. they say he was angry after being expel and he was targeting

a special administrator. after he couldn't find that person, goh went on a rampage, killing seven people with the semiautomatic. goh now faces murder and kidnapping charges. his arraignment comes less than 24 hours after that community gathered for a memorial service to remember the victims. and mitt romney sweeps primary night. wisconsin, maryland and d.c. all in the kitty. the scoreboard now looks really favorable for him with 654 delegates. he's even sounding like the presidential race has begun. >> thank you to wisconsin, maryland and washington, d.c. we win them all! >> next set of primaries, april 24th. some good and bad news on the job front. private companies continue to add jobs last month. 209,000 to be exact. this is definitely a move in the right direction though, despite being a little shy of 230,000

jobs anticipated for march. apparently warm weather helped construction groups get more work over winter. on the downside, yahoo says it will lay off 2,000 employees now. it may be the first of several rounds of job cuts. the ceo says it's part of the company's next step toward a nimbler, more profitable company. the restructuring is expected to save that company $375 million a year. and an investigation is launched into a salmonella outbreak that may be due to sushi. an e-mail sent out by the fda reportedly identified spicy tuna roll as highly suspect. the fda and cdc is still working to determine the scope of the outbreak. the federal law that defines marriage as one man and one woman faces another battle in court today. that law doesn't recognize same-sex marriage and denies gay

married couples federal privileges such as filing joint income tax returns and collecting social security survivor benefits. at issue -- whether or not that law violates the constitution. two years ago, massachusetts court declared the defense of marriage act unconstitutional. tv host keith albertman admits he mess -- keith olbermann messed up when he left msnbc and went over to current tv. >> al gore, does he know what he's doing on tv? >> i screwed up. >> he took the blame saying it was his fault that things didn't work out. olbermann has worked for numerous networks including cnn and fox. letterman had fun with that. poking at olbermann's frequent job hopping making him this adjustable business card to switch out the former employers.

back to our top story, a new threat of violent storms in parts of the southeast. more than 200 flights are cancelled today. where hail damaged more than 100 planes, some 1400 passengers from flights cancelled yesterday had to spend the night there. elsewhere, folks in dallas, lancaster, arlington, all stunned at the devastation, but amazed that no one apparently was killed. miguel martinez is there for us. are officials still looking for people who may be trapped? >> they are. they're going through houses not only like this in arlington, but across dallas, forney, lancaster. they're going through the structures right now. making sure that there's no one trapped, no one in need of help. as you said the airport is still struggling to get back to normal. if you're flying out of here today, you better make sure your plane is actually going. if it's going to have ripple

effects across the entire system. the other thing going on right now is the national weather service is sending out teams across texas as well to determine how many tornadoes actually touched down. it was a massive system across hundreds of square miles with a dozen or more tornadoes it looks like. kyra? >> okay. now, does it look like right now, miguel, that folks feel they had adequate warnings at this point? >> at the moment, it does. especially in places like forney and other places. they're crediting their early warning system with getting out word and getting people aware that these storms were coming. of course, it happened over such a long period of time. there was that one part that took place where you saw those containers flying around in circles and then there was a second round of storms, so people were on alert. people were paying attention and it was -- a lot came down to plain luck.

kyra? >> well, plain luck. miguel, i have to ask you about the folks who were out shooting video to cover this. not real smart. >> you know, it is incredible. you know, we are in this neighborhood, and if you have never been in a tornado, if you have never been in the middle of it this is what it looks like. >> oh, my god. >> it is incredible. that video went from absolute calm to absolute hell on earth within seconds. the guy who shot it is with me now, mike chambers. what were you thinking standing out on your patio shooting that? >> well, i had just opened the

garage and i was photographing the size of the hail that had just fallen. it went from very calm to we saw the tornado come up over the neighborhood in seconds. it was very fast. >> you hit the deck. this house was in tatters. what did you do then? >> well, i climbed up over the brick wall and went in to see if there were any survivors. these were bedrooms. when i saw the bedrooms and cars parked in the driveway, i thought i needed to help. so i went in and found three people. they had done the right thing, went to the restroom, i found them in the master bath. >> extraordinary. did you think that anyone would survive this? >> i didn't know. you know, you don't have time to think. i just reacted. and didn't do anything anyone else wouldn't have done but i found them in the bathroom. everything turned out fine. i was afraid that somebody would be buried under the rubble. >> there's the story we hear across texas, kyra, people coming together and helping each other. the lawrence family showed up here a little while ago. they are doing okay. they're staying with a mother-in-law. one of the sons is staying down the street with friends because

he goes to school in the area. the insurance man came around a little while ago and said they'll be taking care of i. they're fully insured as are others in this neighborhood. at least in this one little bit of texas, things are playing out okay. they're lucky to be alive. >> thanks. up next we'll check in with the dallas command center about the latest rescue efforts going on right now on the ground. but first an army staff sergeant turns real-life action hero. a bank robber hits this bank in sarasota, florida, but inside is eddie peoples who just happens to be a battle-tested army staff sergeant home on leave. you can see him in the back there. he was actually putting his sons underneath some chairs. meanwhile, this bad guy clearly picks the wrong guy to mess with because peoples goes in combat mode and he twists the robber's arm, strips his gun and slams him to the ground.

by the time the police arrive, peoples had the robber's gun in one hand, the bag of money in the other. so now the army has awarded peoples a soldier's medal for what he did. that makes you staff sergeant peoples a true rock star. ♪ ♪ i'm bad, i'm bad you know i'm bad, i'm bad, you know it ♪ .. i'm like...yeah, ok... little did i know that one week later i wasn't smoking. [ male announcer ] along with support, chantix is proven to help people quit smoking. it reduces the urge to smoke. some people had changes in behavior, thinking or mood, hostility, agitation, depressed mood and suicidal thoughts or actions while taking or after stopping chantix. if you notice any of these stop taking chantix and call your doctor right away. tell your doctor about any history of depression or other mental health problems, which could get worse while taking chantix. don't take chantix if you've had a serious allergic or skin reaction to it. if you develop these stop taking chantix and see your doctor right away as some can be life-threatening. if you have a history of heart or blood vessel problems, tell your doctor if you have new or worse symptoms.

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with odor free aspercreme. powerful medicine relieves pain fast, with no odor. so all you notice is relief. aspercreme. we are following the story for potential victims of the sudden outbreak of tornadoes around dallas-ft. worth. here's what they looked like on the radar. now, take a look at some of them on the ground. hundreds of homes damaged or obliterated and several people hurt. but no deaths have been reported so far. and authorities certainly hope it stays that way.

i've got maria reed on the phone, a public information officer at the dallas county command center. tell us what's happening right now in the worst-hit areas. >> well, you have been reporting and obviously know that two of our cities -- actually, i'm in dallas county, so one of the cities was declared a disaster area. that was the city of lancaster where that big boy hit. it just goes to show the nature of these storm systems and particularly tornados that have a mind of their own. they're very unpredictable. this particular tornado hit hutchins yesterday in the middle of the afternoon. it only touched ground thankfully in a wooded area and then immediately turned its ire on lancaster. the poor city of lancaster then, you know, it just -- it took it on like a blender going through some of the structures and it's just been devastating in that city. so they activated their emergency operations command center as did dallas county where i am right now at about 1:15 yesterday.

and subsequently declared a local disaster. 300 structures in total have been damaged in the city of lancaster. and 160 of those structures were severely damaged. thankfully, though, no fatalities were reported. >> okay. so no fatalities reported. what about any reports of people found trapped, injured? >> you know, a lot of those reports we'll get later. they're having another briefing very very shortly and we'll get the assessments. i don't have accurate information on anything -- no, i have no reports -- i had reports of a few injuries and people were sent to area hospitals and taken care of, but nothing serious that we know of. >> what time is that briefing, maria? >> we have been very surprised about that. that briefing, we're going to talk about damage assessments. >> what time will that be? >> oh, i'm sorry. they're having one as we speak, i believe. >> oh, okay. all right. i'll make sure we're monitoring that then. we're reporting about -- more than 200 people left homeless.

have they been able to find shelter? what have you been able to do for those folks? >> we're basically again talking about the city of lancaster, and yes, they have actually set up a shelter in the city of lancaster and at the library staging area for volunteer coordination for those folks as well. our number is about 250 people who have been reported to have come in and out of that shelter right now. and as soon as we get better numbers on assessing what their needs are, then we'll know better how to help those people, but obviously this has been a multijurisdictional effort and coordination effort between counties here. with all the eocs in place and that -- what you just said, that's the number one priority to try to figure out where the danger zones are and what's left. and it's just real -- it's bad. we know that once we get those numbers, those assessment numbers for those damaged areas

and we have about five different hot zones in lancaster, the numbers will not be good. >> and -- yeah. i think that's what folks are fearing the most right now. i have got to ask you because so far you have said no fatalities. did the warning systems work as expected? >> absolutely they did. they worked as expected, but, you know, there is the crux right there where you say as expected. because you don't really know what the expectation is in that sense. what you hope for is that everybody will take a very strong approach to hearing a siren, hearing the warnings. you live in this region you know when you see a wall of cloud that you really need to hunker down into an interior room away from windows. you know the drill. but a lot of people don't do that. you see them outside taking pictures and kind of checking it out. we just -- every single time

that this happens, kyra, every single time we have to go on the air again and say, please, please don't do that. please take shelter. we see so many of them now talking about how, you know, you hear this stuff, you hear it, you see it written and spoken about. but until it hits you, you don't really know how devastating -- you know, sometimes people say it sounds like freight train coming through. some say it sounds like a bomb has hit. you know, this happens very, very quickly. and the only safe place you can go is into an interior, you know, inside area of a structure or building of your home. >> maria arita, thank you for calling in. chad meyers in the weather center. where's the danger zone today? >> you know, there isn't a big danger. i know now our awareness is high because it happened yesterday, but a chance of a tornado anywhere today is less than 2%. given that said, there's still a

chance for severe weather all the way from richmond and the outer banks, all the way to wichita and down south into new orleans. most of the weather today will be wind or hail damage. there won't be tornadoes today. not like yesterday. and i think we're going to find that some of those tornadoes yesterday were probably ef-2 tornadoes. about 130 to 135 miles per hour. that probably will be the max. yesterday wasn't a big tornado day. what yesterday was a city got in the way of a small tornadoes and the cities got in the way. if this was 50 miles to the west we wouldn't have had the conversation. it would have knocked down a couple of feed mills and that would be it. dallas and ft. worth yesterday got in the way. so here we go. here's what we have. large hail, damaging winds possible for today mainly in an area across the deep south where it's very moist. it's this juice. this humidity is everywhere here. here's what happened in dallas yesterday. storms formed. when you see the dot that's where the tornado went on the

ground. 14 separate tornadoes they're out assessing how big the storms were. i think we'll find that down around mansfield and kennedale that's the widest and strongest part of any tornado that hit the ground yesterday. there are still many more tornadoes to come. look, we are just the beginning of april. may and june are peak, 267 it's like being june 1st in hurricane season. we have a long way to go, kyra. >> yeah, we do. chad, thanks. well, it's sentencing day for the new orleans cops convicted in the killing of two unarmed civilians days after hurricane katrina. we're taking you live there next. wow. wow. but you can help fight muscle loss with exercise and ensure muscle health. i've got revigor. what's revigor? it's the amino acid metabolite, hmb to help rebuild muscle and strength naturally lost over time. [ female announcer ] ensure muscle health has revigor and protein to help protect, preserve, and promote muscle health. keeps you from getting soft.

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well, for decades new

orleans police department has been known for corruption and in 2005, right after hurricane katrina, the danziger bridge shooting puts the cops back in the national spotlight launching a massive civil rights probe. right now, these four former officers along with the former detective are being sentenced in federal court. they were convicted last august of killing two unarmed civilians, injuring four others an then covering the whole thing up. the feds uncovered they had planted evidence, fabricated witnesses and faked reports. jeffrey toobin has been following this case closely. he joins us via skype. so jeffrey, give us some perspective on this. this has taken years to resolve. why? >> well, this is just an unbelievably difficult investigation. for starters, you had katrina so you had the city nearly demolished. law enforcement was not about investigations. it was about just trying to keep the city functioning. then of course the people who usually conduct investigations

are the police and here they were the targets of the police. so you had to bring in the fbi, federal investigators. you had a cover-up which takes a long time to resolve. here we are seven years later at sentencing. it is really not surprising that it took this long. >> and the jury never said murder, but rather civil rights violation. explain that and how that's going to factor in today. >> well, what it really has to do with is the difference between federal court and state court. homicide, murders, the traditional just murder cases are almost always prosecuted in state courts. this was a federal investigation and federal crimes are somewhat different. they don't prosecute murder alone as in and of itself. they prosecute violations of civil rights. that's what the charge is here. that's what the charge was in the rodney king case when those cops were prosecuted in federal court after they were acquitted in state court. here in new orleans they went directly to federal court and

that's what the charge that they're being sentenced on today. >> when you look at the federal guidelines for the crimes they have been found guilty of, i mean, we're talking decades in prison, right? >> 30 years probably minimum. probably 60 years for the cop who was one of the shooters. i an, when you think about it, this is about the worst kind of police misconduct you could even imagine. here you have people killed in cold blood and then the police using their authority to create this elaborate cover-up including putting other people in prison for a time. i mean, if there's ever a case that calls for a harsh sentence this is certainly it. >> well, interesting that you made that point because the word out there and why so many people are paying attention to this is because the sentencing could no doubt send a very powerful message, yes? >> yes, but, you know, the new orleans police department has been sent a lot of messages over the years. including by the united states supreme court and there are still deep, deep problems.

i mean, this goes back seven years, so presumably there has been some improvement. but i think we're all entitled to be skeptical about improvements in this department until we see it in real life. >> it's a shame. i used to live and work there and one of the stories that i got involved with was an investigative piece on how cops were guarding drugs in the housing developments and this has been a big issue for the police department for so long, these issues of corruption. but we should point out too there's also a lot of cops that have been there for a really long time that do a pretty darn good job in a city that is filled with corruption. >> and they are tainted by their colleagues who are on the take and worse. and, you know, until the department really cleans up its act, the good cops will be tarred with the behavior of the bad. >> jeffrey toobin, we'll be watching that sentencing today. at first glance you might think it's movie poster but look

again and look closer. it's actually a threat to new yorkers that al qaeda is coming back. so is it credible? we're talking about that next. ♪ he was a 21st century global nomad ♪ ♪ home was an airport lounge and an ipad ♪ ♪ made sure his credit score did not go bad ♪ ♪ with a free-credit-score-dot-com ♪ ♪ app that he had ♪ downloaded it in the himalayas ♪ ♪ while meditating like a true playa ♪ ♪ now when he's surfing down in chile'a ♪ ♪ he can see when his score is in danger ♪ ♪ if you're a mobile type on the go ♪ ♪ i suggest you take a tip from my bro ♪ ♪ and download the app that lets you know ♪

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that's why we bought a subaru. ♪ well, al qaeda is vowing to return to new york. it's actually posted on a website and definitely has the attention of the nypd and the fbi. who exactly is behind it? mary snow reports. >> reporter: at first glance, it could be mistaken for a movie ad. al qaeda coming soon again to new york. the message is on a website known to the new york city police department who say it's used by terrorists and jihadists. officials say they have no evidence that it's tied to in any specific threat to new york. but the website is being analyzed by the fbi and the nypd. is this significant at all? >> well, this is a major forum. it's been in existence for a while. we believe it's used for inspiration. but also can be used for

operational messages. it exists in several different languages. and, you know, it's been a concern of ours for a while. >> reporter: new york city police commissioner ray kelly says analysts believe it's connected to an egyptian national based on the language that's used. kelly says he was struck by the level of sophistication of the graphic and the expensive software used to create it. but whether it's a threat. >> where it's associated with a plot that's not clear at all. my guess is that's nothing really to this. you know, if there was a real attack about to happen on new york my guess is al qaeda wouldn't advertise it on the website. >> reporter: this isn't the first time threatening messages have appeared on jihad did sites. the federal authorities and the police department say any threat must be taken seriously. >> and, you know, sort of in your face and we have seen that before. but, you know, it is -- it is sort of direct confrontation.

you know, trying to get our attention. believe me, they have our attention. >> reporter: but the posting didn't seem to faze new yorkers who have become accustomed to terrorism threats. >> it's propaganda. they want people to get uptight. >> you have to live your life. go about your every day business. >> reporter: the internet is the new afghanistan, that it's used for radicalization and training and that's why he says the sites are so closely monitored. mary snow, cnn, new york. well, despite the fact that some people don't seem to be too rattled by the latest threats, security officials say they take every threat seriously. we just got video in here to cnn. i'm just getting the details. a suicide bomber went off -- killing two somali sports officials. let's roll the video and i'll give you more details. [ explosion ]

>> all right. this is what i can tell you. that apparently, it was a female suicide bomber who blended into the crowd here that was gathered for this occasion. it was the opening of the national theater in the capital city and we're getting reports now that two top sports officials were killed when the suicide bomber detonated herself. apparently the head of the somali football federation, also the somali olympic committee chief. we're following more details out of somalia there. up next, who's out of touch now? mitt romney flipping the script on president obama. take a listen. >> president obama thinks he's doing a good job. i'm not kidding. he actually thinks he's doing a great job. he thinks he's doing an historically great job. >> so is this new political tactic one that will stick?

plus, sarah palin wants romney to go rogue. wait till you hear her pick for vp. that's all next in fair game. [ jane ] how did i get here? with determination. courage. and all the points i earned with my citi thankyou card. [ male announcer ] the citi thankyou card. redeem points for travel on any airline with no blackout dates.

well, a huge sweep for mitt romney, wisconsin, maryland and d.c. in the bag. so can he throw in the gop nomination as well? that question is fair game. democratic strategist jamal simmons and georgetown associate dean mets her are joining me now. is it over for the gop candidates? >> >> yeah, it is. the fat lady has sung. the other candidates are putting their hands over their ears because they don't want to hear the fat lady singing. look, at this point, the remaining candidates can do the best thing for the party and withdraw. because the more time that governor romney has to spend with these other candidates, the worse off it is guys, great run, step aside.

>> jamal, are you hearing the tune? >> oh, yeah. i think this is over. you know, it's almost like we're on a treadmill now. everybody is going to keep running but we're not going anywhere. we know that mitt romney is going on the nominee and we think the president kind of acknowledged that yesterday when he got busy trying to take after him a bllittle bit. >> as you heard, both romney and the president targeting each other by name right now. and how about this, romney saying the president is quote, out of touch. let's roll it. >> president obama thinks he's doing a good job. it's enough to make you think that years of flying around in air force one surrounded by an adoring staff of true believer telling you you're great and doing a great job, it's enough to make you think you'll get out of touch with that and that's what happened. >> okay, jamal, you'll want to weigh in on this i know first. that will get chris going. >> well, if you take out the air force one reference, it sounds like mitt romney is pretty

familiar with the scenario. a lot of people telling you how great and wonderful you are. he clearly is somebody who is not the best messenger on this. i think when it comes to having teleprompters up and reading teleprompters, covering the health care bill and who's out of touch? mitt romney is not the best messenger in these attacks on the president. >> and chris, mitt romney has gotten blasted for being out of touch and now he's saying it? >> yeah, but here's the thing. you can't take out the air force one reference. the fact of the matter is the distinction here is that the president is flying around on taxpayers' dollars doing speeches and fund-raisers, so the out of touch message certainly can resonate. and so in terms of the administration, i mean, you know, far be it for me to give any advice to a democratic administration. however, the central problem with this administration has in fact been a lack of diversity of

thinking in the cabinet and i think that romney can actually pound that message home and do it extremely well. so, you know, out of touch i think romney can really make this work. >> all right. >> chris, mitt romney spends time with nascar team owners and he has elevators for his cars. because they have so many of them. >> yeah. talking about -- >> we're talking about being -- at one of his vacation home. >> at his open expense. >> jamal, come on. it's okay if it's a vacation home for goodness sake. you have to put them up and put them away. come on, guys. sarah palin as you know always making news. and now she says, okay, i want to see florida republican allen west for vp. romney's got to go rogue. chris, interesting. what do you think? allen west. >> yeah. interesting, but no. i think that in this particular case, what mitt romney cannot

afford to do is have a conversation over and over again about this vice presidential nominee pick. a couple of things. first of all, i don't know of anyone who said i voted for the top of the ticket because of the vice presidential nominee. number two, i don't think he needs to go rogue at all. i think he needs to stick with conventional choices. i would say suzanna martinez, carlos sandoval. i would say paul ryan. i think those are three good choices, because the focus has to be on obama, not on who the vice presidential pick is. that would be a mistake. >> well, i know, jamal, you're saying paul ryan. i want to get your reaction, jamal, to allen west. >> oh, yeah. you know, that's ridiculous. allen west -- that's -- you do not want allen west in front of a tv camera and a microphone every day for two months. it's not a good way to try to win the presidency. >> so both of you guys are

agreeing on this. you're both saying allen west, no way. you're kidding me? >> yeah. but kyra, a lot of republicans who probably should be on the vp list but they won't do it because mitt romney is in such bad shape. if you look at somebody like mitch daniels the governor of indiana or chris christie, they have an actual chance to be the nominee in 2016, but why jump on the band wagon with mitt romney who is getting less popular the more the american public sees him? >> oh, wait a minute. >> is that not true? >> it's not. >> have you seen the polls? >> yes, i have seen the polls and what i've seen last night is that mitt romney won in a number of significant demographics in which he had not before. in addition to which, i think if you really talk about unpopular, look, the president not exactly in a strong position. he's not exactly a strong candidate. and by the way -- >> he's beating mitt romney with double digit s the women.

>> it's very, very early, jamal. you know that. it's very early at this point. so you guys are going to continue with this -- it's just kind of like the spin that you all had about the war on women. all of these kinds of things that you'll try to make stick. narrative is not going to work come november. we've got plenty of time to do that. and i'm not going to sing about time is on our side again. >> okay. we'll leave it there. promise to bring you both back. thank you, guys. it's always been an all boys club but that could change. up next, the big decision in augusta on this woman. could she be the first to break a near 80-year barrier? all energy development comes with some risk,

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well, 80-61 the lady bears win the ncaa title, taking down notre dame. and our girl brittany griner ruled the court. when it comes to slamming it home, she is a monster. >> baylor are the national

champs in 2012. >> by the way, baylor becomes first ncaa basketball team, women or men, to finish a perfect season with 40 wins and no defeats. well, speaking of women, fabulous, powerful women, since this is 2012 there are not a lot of places that still revel in the fact that being archaic in your thinking is a virtue, but the augusta national golf club in georgia still does. it's a men's only club that historical historically offers membership to the sponsor' ceos, but one of the biggest sponsors this year, ibm, is led by this woman. virginia rometty. just moments ago the augusta national chairman billy payne addressed the media. patrick snell was there, so patrick, will we see history being made? >> kyra, the answer is no. the masters chairman wrapping p up, we had a packed press

conference a few yards in front of me, getting inside there. we awaited with bated breath if he would even address the issue during the annual remarks ahead of the season's first major. it wasn't to be. he outlined a number of things, but on the agenda was not the issue of female membership, kyra. i can tell you that. there were a not -- a number of attempts the get him to talk, including one from my good self, but all attempts with met with, look, this is a private matter, we're a private club, we don't go there. let's listen to what chairman payne had to say within the last few minutes. >> whenever that question is asked, all issues of membership are now and have been historically subject to the private deliberations of the members and that statement remains accurate and remains my statement. >> there you have it in a nutshell. i counted five separate attempts to get billy payne to address this further. one attempt from one media

member who said, look, you're a grandfather too. what would you say to your granddaughter, but again, it was that same answer. it's a private membership issue, and we will not comment about it. kyra? >> okay, so he didn't say no. he didn't say it won't happen. he didn't say there will not be a female wearing a green jacket. he just said, issues of membership are private, right? >> well, let me elaborate a little further because one of my attempted questions was i specifically asked him, i specifically asked him about mrs. rometty and he said to me in response to that the very fact that you mentioned her name, you're personalizing this. i can't comment because it falls under the private deliberation of the membership. but i will say this. it's possible that this club does have male members. how would we know? unless we hear from the female members themselves, we're not going to know. the club says we don't talk about female membership. it's possible that mrs. rometty has been offered membership. we just don't know at this

point. and really, the onus is on ibm and mrs. rometty herself to come out and sort of dampen the fuels of speculation and tell us what has been the situation in her particular case, kyra. >> all right, patrick, the fact that you say there could be female members makes me want to giggle. patrick snell, you know if there was a female member, someone would have leaked it. obviously we'll stay on this story. ibm has a female ceo. we know the rest of the story. we'll keep our eyes on it. you keep asking those questions, patrick. we're depending on you, all right? >> okay. >> patrick snell, thanks. well, it was 44 years ago today that reverend martin luther king, jr., was assassinated and today in tennessee, a very special honor. up next, the dedication that have many people saying it's about darn time. ything ok? just stay off the freeways, all right? i don't want you going out on those yet. mmm-hmm. and just leave your phone in your purse. i don't want you texting, all right? daddy...ok!

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we got some action at the white house. apparently a rogue intruder. no, it's not somebody, but rather something. can we take a look -- there we go. now i can see it. apparently a water main break at the white house. construction workers out front there working on the system there and broke a water main. it's on the north lawn of the white house. it was 44 years ago today when martin luther king, jr. was

gunned down on the balcony of a hotel in memphis. city officials say that renaming linden avenue seemed best. in 1968 dr. king marched down linden avenue in support of sanitation workers that were on strike there. so santa monica, california, where college students protesting tuition heights were pepper sprayed by campus police. two people were hospitalized. others suffered minor injuries. police are looking into what happened and according to local reports, students say about 100 were protesting outside a board of trustees meeting yesterday when they were pepper sprayed. police were reportedly trying to keep the protesters from disrupting the meeting. now to hopewell township, new jersey, where firefighters risked their lives to save a massive litter of puppies. crews were called to the house fire. two people inside were able to get out safely. according to "the times of prese trenton" firefighters found the puppies in the basement of the

home. they were able to rescue 15, but one puppy died of smoke inhalation. rick santorum says the gop race is now at halftime after mitt romney's clean sweep last night, but is it more like the end zone for the former senator. that's next. but first, you haven't heard the last of rick santorum, newt gingrich, or ron paul. but it's time we heard less. mitt romney now has more than half of the republican delegates that he needs to claim the nomination, and by our count if he manages to win just 44% of the delegates still up for grabs, he's home free. so santorum, on the other hand, has to win almost 80% of them. ron paul, 96%. now, mathematically possible and, yes, some delegates technically can change their minds, but come on, santorum, gingrich, paul, any republican hopeful not named romney, your hope is 3r0b8 lprobably misplac

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years washington's been talking at us, but they never really listen... listen...it's not just some line item on a budget; it's what i'll have to live on... i live on branson street, and i have something to say... [ male announcer ] aarp is bringing the conversation on medicare and social security out from behind closed doors in washington. because you've earned a say. you could spend as much as $200. olay says challenge that with an instrument that cleanses as effectively as what's sold by skin professionals for a whole lot less. olay pro x advanced cleansing system. with mitt romney scoring big in last night's primaries, rick santorum has been left out in the cold, but santorum looks like he has no plans to get out of the race. >> this isn't halftime, no marching bands.

we're hitting the field. the clock starts tonight. we've got three weeks to go out here in pennsylvania and win this state, and after winning this state, the field looks a little different in may. >> mark preston, what's next for santorum? does the field really look that different? >> you know, sigh rkyra, he has events in pennsylvania, his home state today. he is putting it all on pennsylvania. there are four other states though holding contests that day. that's why he's not talking about them because he's not expected to do well, those states include new york and rhode island as well as delaware, connecticut. these are all states that mitt romney is going to do well. rick santorum wants to get into may because he thinks he'll do better in states such as kentucky and texas and states that tend to be a little more conservative. >> we made this point just a few minutes ago. you have got to look at the delegate math. can santorum realistically,

mark, catch up to romney? >> this is my favorite saying rye now. it's possible but it's highly improbable. you said it yourself. he needs to win 80% of the delegates over the next couple months, but his goal right now, kyra, is to try to get this fight taken all the way into the convention in august. he wants to try to deny mitt romney of getting the 1,144 delegates that romney needs to win the republican nomination. the question is, can he do that? the fact of the matter is the republican establishment really has lined up behind romney and it's going to be really difficult for rick santorum to stay in the race much beyond april 24th. >> mark preston, thanks so much, and thanks for watching, everyone. you can continue the conversation on twitter @kyra cnn or on facebook. cnn "newsroom" continues now with suzanne malveaux. live from the cnn headquarters in atlanta, it is

12:00 noon, 9:00 a.m. on the west coast. i'm suzanne malveaux. it is wednesday, april 4th. rescue crews are back out in force around dallas today. they're searching for anyone still trapped after a series of tornadoes swept through the area yesterday. storms flattened hundreds of homes and businesses, hundreds of flights were can semed at dallas-ft. worth airport. these pictures were captured as this tornado sent tractor trailers swirling through the air. several people were hurt in the storms but there are no reports of deaths. the mayor of arlington, texas, talked to wolf blitzer last night. >> we had about 150, 155 homes partially destroyed. we had a nursing home that was partially destroyed. but you know what, wolf? three people were transported, and of those three people, two are okay, one is in serious

condition. but we dodged a huge bullet today. >> we have a live report from dallas, the area just a few minutes from now. and it is a sea change in the race for the white house. after sweeping three states last night mitt romney now more than halfway to the total number of delegates he needs to clinch this gop nomination. romney has now racked up 654 delegates and he's got a lead over his rivals. we're here with the candidate live in just a moment. and easter starting early at the white house. the president hosted a prayer breakfast this morning with religious leaders from across the country. he used faith as an analogy for fixing the country's problems. >> we all have experiences that shake our faith. there are times where we have questions for god's plan relative to us, but that's precisely when we should

remember christ's own death and eventually his own triumph. >> the man accused of shooting seven people execution-style in a california religious college, he's going to be arraigned today. eg he is charged with murder and kidnapping. last night hundreds of people attended a memorial service for the victims. oakland's police chief described the kidding as a cold-blooded execution in the classroom. four former new orleans police officers, they're going to find out shortly if they're going to spend the rest of their lives in prison for killing unarmed civilians. this happened, you may recall, it was on a city bridge in the chaotic aftermath of hurricane katrina. prosecutors say police shot six unarmed people killing two of them. sentencing hearing is under way now and a fifth former officer also is going to be sentenced for covering up the crime. today in memphis it is

paying tribute to a civil rights icon. 44 years after the reverend martin luther king, jr. was gunned down there on a balcony, memphis is finally naming a street in king's honor. the location linden avenue, it has special sig canificancesign. it's where king led a march. and this is a storm that slammed north texas heading east today. now cleanup under way in several cities and towns year dallas. there are hundreds of flights that were canceled at dallas not wor -- ft. worth airport. hundreds of planes damaged by the hail. cnn reporters captured the sound. severe weather expert chad myers here tracking the storms, keeping an eye on all things, including air traffic. what is happening now, chad? that was incredible to see

yesterday. it came so sudden it seemed. >> it truly did. there was the big hail threat. we have severe thunderstorm watches which means hail and wind and then they were upgraded to tornado watches and warnings. these were side by side almost like simultaneous tornadoes moving straight up i-35. one i-35e, one i-35w. look at the damage that's been caused. this is lancaster. this was one of the areas that was hit hard. this is the dallas county storm where the other storm was the tarrant county storm. the dallas county storm came out of ellis and the tarrant county storm came out of johnson county right on up into -- and luckily at some point in time this never got to be a monster ef-4 tornado. it fizzled out a little bit, but that right now is what i can see ef-3 damage at about 135 miles per hour or a little bit greater than that. the video was quite i would say

breathtaking at time. when we saw the tractor trailers being tossed into the air and you will get this, and we will get more and more video as the days go on because there were so many people there. millions of people live in that metroplex. if this entire event happened 50 miles farther to the west, west of weatherford, it would hit a cattle farm, knock down a couple trees and a fence line and that was it. because a city literally got in the way of the tornadoes, that's when all of this damage occurred. and the video we have, the helicopter shots, this is as it's coming down the lyndon b. johnson. you see those are the tractor-trailers at a schneider trucking yard. no one in those trailers -- those were empty trailers just waiting to be filled and moved somewhere else, but watch as we get a little farther into this. there will be orange trailers that will get picked up, i'm not k

kidding you, 200 feet into the air and they were thrown around like my son throwing a train at me. it didn't even look real at the time. >> i have a question here because you take a look at that video and it really is unbelievable. how is it that no one died from what happened yesterday? they said injuries but no one lost their life. >> everybody that was inside a home was safe yesterday. they were not tornadoes that we call unsurvivable. what i have seen so far, no one was caught on the roadway and tossed into the air in a car. because had that not been a tractor-trailer that was empty, had that been a suburban, your suv, that was picked up thrown down, would have killed somebody. >> it's just extraordinary. we wish the folks there, obviously they have a lot of cleanup ahead, but no one lost their lives. >> and for today there's less than a 2% chance of anywhere getting a big tornado. so this isn't going to continue to the east today. there's a chance of some hail and wind, but we're not going to

get big maxi tornadoes. here is a rundown of some of the stories we're covering. we're going to go live to arlington, texas. that's where people are cleaning up the damage from the storms. and they call this the woman problem at the masters. it could be decision time at the biggest boys' club in golf. and later, check your chocolate. could be the bitter truth to the basket of easter goodies. yeah! if you're looking for a place to get together, you came to the right place. because here at hotels.com, we're only about hotels. yeah! yeah! noooo. yeah! finding you the perfect place is all we do. welcome to hotels.com

until i had the shingles. i have never encountered such a burning sensation... it was like a red rash.

like somebody had set a bag of hot charcoal on my neck. i had no idea it came from chickenpox. it's something you never want to encounter. for more of the inside story, visit shinglesinfo.com want to go live to washington, d.c. mitt romney is speaking before a newspaper editor. this is the same group that president obama addressed yesterday. let's listen. >> heralding the new voices and the unfiltered or supposedly unbiased sources.

frankly, in some of the new media i find myself missing the presence of editors to exercise quality control. i miss the days of two or more sources for a story. when at least one source was actually named. how your industry is going to change, i couldn't possibly predict. i happen to subscribe to yogi berra's famous dictum, forecasting is very difficult, especially when it involves the future. but i do know this, you will continue to find ways to provide the american people with reliable information that is vital to our lives and to the nation, and i'm confident that the press will remain free, but further i salute this organization and your various institutions that make it up in your effort to make it not only free, but also responsible, accurate, relevant, and integral to the functioning of the democracy. thank you for that work.

now, given the number and the scale of our nation's challenges, this november's election will have particular consequence. it will be a defining event. president obama and i have very different visions for america. both of what it means to be an american today and what it will mean in the future. the voters will expect each of us to put our respective views on the table. we'll each make our case buttressed by our life experience. the voters will hear the debates. they will be buffeted by advertising, and they will be informed by your coverage, and hopefully after all of that they'll have an accurate understanding of the different directions we would take and the different choices we would make. of course, for that to happen the candidates have to be candid about their views and their plans. and in that regard president obama's comments to president medvedev are deeply troubling.

that incident calls his candor into serious question. he doesn't want to share his real plans before the election either with the public or with the press. by flexibility he means that what the american public doesn't know won't hurt him. his intent is on hiding. you and i are going to have to do the seeking. now, president obama's exchange with the russian president raises all sorts of serious questions. what exactly does president obama intend to do differently once he's no longer accountable to the voters? why does flexibility with foreign leaders require less accountability to the american people? and on what other issues will he state his true position only after the election is over? but instead of answering those vital questions, the president came here yesterday and railed against arguments no one is making.

and criticized policies no one is proposing. it's one of his favorite strategies. setting up strawmen to distract us from his record. and while i understand the president doesn't want to run on his record, he can't run from his record either. now, i have said many times before, the president did not cause the economic crisis, but he did make it worse. he delayed the recovery, and he made it anemic. when he took office, millions of americans looked to him to turn around the economy and to lead us back to full employment. he failed these americans. the first three rules of any turnaround are focus, focus, and focus. but instead of focusing his attention on the economy, he delegated the stimulus to nancy pelosi and harry reid. the $787 billion stimulus included a grab bag of pet projects that languished in

congress for good reason for years. it was less a jobs plan and more the mother of all earmarks. the administration pledged that their stimulus would keep the unemployment rate below 8%. it has been above 8% every month since. the president's attention, it was elsewhere. like a government takeover of health care and apologizing for america abroad. he handed out tens of billions of dollars to green energy companies, including his friends and campaign contributors at companies like solyndra. they're now bankrupt. president obama's answer to our economic crisis was more spending, more debt, and larger government. and by the end of his term in office, he will have added nearly as much public debt as all the prior presidents combined. no president has ever run a

trillion dollar deficit. the new normal the president would have us embrace is trillion dollar deficits and 8% unemployment. through all of this president obama has failed to even pass a budget. in february he put forward a proposal that included the largest tax increase in history and still left our national debt spiraling out of control. and the house rejected it unanimously. of course, no fiscal challenge is greater than the one we face with entitlements. as the president himself acknowledged three years ago, this is not a problem that we can kick down the road any further. i'd be willing to consider the president's plan, but he doesn't have one. that's right. 3 1/2 years later he has failed to enact or even propose a serious plan to solve the entitlement crisis. instead, he has taken a series

of steps that end medicare as we know it. he is the only president to ever cut $500 billion from medicare. and as a result, more than half of doctors say they will cut back on treating seniors. he's destroying medicare advantage h li advantage, eliminating the kofage that millions of senior depend on and reducing choice by two-thirds in the program. to control medicare costs, he has created an unelected, unaccountable panel with the power to prevent medicare from providing certain treatments. the result, of course, will be fewer treatments and services available to patients and nowhere else for them to turn. a couple months ago we saw a fascinating exchange on capitol hill that epitomized not only this administration's inaction on entitlements, but also its appalling lack of leadership. treasury secretary tim geithner testifying before congress,

congressman paul ryan who by the way unlike the president has had the courage to offer serious solutions to the problems we face, he was pressing geithner on the administration's failure to lead on entitlement reform, and geithner's response was this, we are not coming before you today to say we have a definitive solution to that long-term problem. what we do know is we don't like yours. take a moment. think about that. we don't have a solution. all we know is we don't like yours. it almost makes one long for the days when the president simply led from behind. and now in the middle of the weakest economic recovery since the great depression, the president purports to have experienced a series of election year conversions. as president he has repeatedly called for tax increases on businesses. now, as candidate obama he decides that a lower corporate tax rate would be better. as president he's added

regulations at a staggering rate. now, as candidate obama he says he wants to find ways to reduce them. as president the delayed the development of our oil and coal and natural gas. now as candidate, he says he favors an energy policy that adopts an all of the above approach. nancy pelosi famously said that we would have to pass obama care to find out what was in it. president obama has turned that advice into a campaign strategy. he wants us to re-elect him so we can find out what he'll actually do. with all the challenges the nation faces, this is not the time for president obama's hide and seek campaign. president obama has said he wants to transform america. i don't want to transform america. i want to restore to america the values of economic freedom and opportunity and small government that have made this nation the leader it is. it is opportunity that has

always driven america and defined us as americans. my grandfather was in the construction business and he never really made it himself, but he convinced my dad that he could accomplish anything he set his mind to. my dad didn't have the chance to finish a college degree, and he apprenticed as a lathe and plaster carpenter. and based on that excellent experience, he went on to turn around a car company and later became the governor of the state of michigan. my father made the most of the opportunities that came before him. by the time i came along, i was the fourth of four brothers and sisters, i had the chance to get the education my dad couldn't. i loved cars and i was tempted to stay in michigan and go into the car business. but i always knew i'd wonder if any success i might have was due to my dad. so when i got out of business school, i stayed in massachusetts and got a job with the best company that would hire

me, and perhaps more importantly i was married and on the way to having five sons. over the next 25 years my business career had ups and downs, great successes, definite failures, but each step of the way i learned more and more about the power of the free enterprise system. now, i'm not naive enough to believe that free enterprise is the solution to all of our problems. nor am i naive enough to doubt that it is one of the greatest forces of good the world has ever known. free enterprise has done more to lift people out of poverty, to help build a strong middle class, to help educate our kids, and to make our lives better than all of the government's programs put together. if we become one of those societies that attacks success, then the outcome is certain. there will be less success.

that's not who we are. the promise of america has always been that if you worked hard and took some risks, that there was the opportunity to build a better life for your family and for the next generation. i'm offering a clear choice and a different path. and unlike the president, i have a record that i'm proud to run on. after my years in business, i used my experience there to help save an olympics and to help turn around a state. when i became governor of massachusetts, the state budget was out of control and the legislature was 85% democrat. we cut taxes 19 times and balanced the budget every one of our four years. we erased a $3 billion budget shortfall and left office with a $2 billion rainy day fund. i cast over 800 vetoes and cut entire programs. if there was a program or agency or department that needed cutting, we cut it.

one tv commentator said that i didn't just go aefer the sacred cows, i went after the whole herd. and i cannot wait to get my hands on washington. unlike president obama, you don't have to wait until after the election to find out what i believe. or what my plans are. i have a pro-growth agenda that will get our economy back on track and get americans back to work. this administration thinks our economy is struggling because the stimulus was too small. the truth is we're struggling because our government has grown too big. as president i'll get the government out of the way and unleash the power of american enterprise and innovation of the american people. seven months ago i presented a detailed plan for jobs and economic growth. it included 59 different proposals that would help strengthen the economy. now, i understand some people are amused that i have so many ideas. but i think the american people

will prefer it to president obama's grand total of zero. i will cut marginal tax rates across the board for individuals and corporations and limit deductions and exclusions. i will repeal burdensome regulations and prevent the bureaucracy from writing new ones. >> mitt romney talking to newspaper editors. want to talk about it with mark preston, our political editor. one of the things we noted when we saw this speech was that he went after -- he's going after obama's character. talking about him being weak. he's saying he's running this hide and seek campaign. it seems like that's the focus now. i mean, he's talking about policy but really talking about what kind of person obama is as a leader. is this the strategy moving forward? >> it's certainly the strategy. the take aways from the speech as well is it was a very somber speech a serious speech. in many ways what mitt romney did in this speech is what he has done so well in business as a salesman. he's been a salesman his whole life. what he was doing was standing

before all these very unfl influential journalists and saying it's your job to go and look into president obama's record, look into the promises he's made and hation s he kept . i was looking for some kind of alliance with the media which is very interesting because often we hear from the republicans that the media is in the pocket of the democratic party. >> i notice he's trying to down" play. that his father didn't finish school. >> it's something he's had a lot of difficulty with. if we were to look at the exit polls out of all these contests, he does very well with people who make over $200,000, but he's done poorly with people who make anywhere below that. he did okay last night in wisconsin with the numbers, but by and large he has a middle class problem. mitt romney now is going to try

to go out and convince these voters, these people who make $50,000 a year that he's the one that can turn it around. >> is there anything he said in his speech that was directed to women th thatwould appeal to women? i didn't hear anything, and that's one of the gaps with president obama he's going to have to deal with. >> we haven't heard that. he's going to take questions we think before this gathering and that could potentially come up. what we'll see regarding the republican problem with women is that those numbers will turn around. we know they're having some issues right now. but once the primary is officially over, we expect the numbers to get better for republicans and then let's see what ann romney does because she really is a superstar. she could help mitt romney. >> she's got a great sense of humor. people really like her. finally, mark, i have to ask you this because wisconsin, maryland, d.c., clean sweep for romney. does this essentially mean he's the guy now, right? >> mathematically and certainly if you're the republican establishment, you believe that to be true. if you're rick santorum, you don't believe that to be true. he's holding three events today in pennsylvania.

santorum says he's going to continue on, but if you were to look at the numbers right now, rick santorum would need about 80% of the remaining delegates to win the nomination nice and clean. mitt romney only needs about 44%. >> okay. we're moving forward with this thing. >> moving into the next phase. >> all right. thanks. online giant announces a massive layoff. we're live from the new york stock exchange up next.

mitt romney in washington, d.c., before newspaper editors taking a few questions. let's listen in. >> -- the failures of the last three years, there's no question. the president the other day said that his has been a great presidency in line with great

presidents of the past as he defined them, and i don't think this has been a great presidency. as you look at the pieces of legislation he's enacted, they did not get the economy to work again. and i know some will say but the economy is getting better. yeah, 3 1/2 years after the stimulus has expired. of course, every recession ends and people come back to work but the rate of recovery under this president, under his recovery has been the most recovery. i saw an article in "the wall street journal" that said this has been the slowest economic recovery including that following the great depression. so this is hardly a record to be proud of. it's a record i think he's going to have a hard time defending, and it's a vision for america that i'm yet to hear laid out. how in the world can you be running for president -- can you be president as well and not have put forward a plan to make sure that medicare and social security are solvent?

>> the usa gallup poll released monday showed you leading president obama by one percentage point among men but trailing him by 18 points among women. why do you think you face this gender gap? >> i know our party has traditionally faced a gender gap. i think the democratic party has done an effective job of trying to mischaracterize our views. i think that in the final analysis i will win by having the support of men and women in the battleground states and across the country. that will be by focusing on the issues that women and men care most about. my wife has the occasion as you know to campaign on her own and also with me, and she reports to me regularly that the issue women care about most is the economy and getting good jobs for their kids and for themselves. they're concerned about gasoline prices, the cost of getting to and from work, taking their kids to school or to practice and so forth after school. that's what women care about in this country, and my vision is

to get america working again. short-term and long-term. look, we're on a path to becoming more and more like europe. and europe doesn't work in europe. it sure as heck is not going to work here. and so we're going to have to maintain the -- [ applause ] we're going to have to maintain those unique features that make america the economic powerhouse it has always been, and a strong economy allows us to do a lot of good things. one, have good jobs, rising incomes, a growing middle class. it also allows us to have the revenue from all the taxpayers who now have jobs to pay for great schools, wonderful care for our seniors, a strong military to defend us. but at the heart of these good things is a strong and vibrant economy. and the president -- almost without exception if you look at the policies that he has pursued

and the acts that he signed, they have made it harder for our economy to reboot. i mean, do you know any businesses that said, hey, let's hire some more people because obama care is coming? or in the financial services sector do you find smaller banks saying i'm willing to give more bones because of dodd/frank? or when they heard about card check and the boeing decision in south carolina that they said, hey, this is a good time to be hiring people? almost every measure that the president has taken made it harder for small business to decide to grow in america or big business to stay here. it has been an anti-business, anti-investment, anti-jobs agenda, and i don't think that's what the president intended it to do, but that is what it has done. >> mitt romney before newspaper editors. you've been listening to his comments as well as taking some questions from the editors. essentially it's game on in the fight for the white house. mitt romney looking more and more like he will be the

republican nominee. president obama now is calling him out by name. this is what he said yesterday. >> one of my potential opponents, governor romney, has said that he hoped a similar version of this plan from last year would be introduced as a bill on day one of his presidency. he said that he's very supportive of this new budget. and he even called it marvelous, which is a word you don't often hear when it comes to describing a budget. >> all right. so just minutes ago same stage, same group, romney striking back. >> nancy pelosi famously said we would have to pass obama care to find out what was in it. president obama has turned that advice into a campaign strategy. he wants us to re-elect him so we can find out what he'll actually do. with all the challenges the nation faces, this is not the time for president obama's hide and seek campaign. >> here to talk about it republican strategist lenny mccalster and democratic

strategist robert zimmerman. first of all, let's talk a little bit about what we just heard here. essentially hearing romney going after president obama's character. he said this hide and seek campaign, leading from behind, this grab bag of pet projects. he wants folks to take a close look at president obama and his record. he's almost insinuating here, lenny, there's something the president is hiding. is that actually a smart strategy? >> the way he's articulating it right now i probably wouldn't do it that way, but i would articulate if you're going to go with this hide and seek approach, say that president obama's trying to hide behind the feel good right now, the economy slowly coming back, and hide what's actually happened in the administration since 2009. the high unemployment, all the controversy over obama care, the back and forth that he's had on certain positions, the wars we've been in. somebody that was supposed to close down gitmo that did not do

that. in fact, had us in libya, other places as well. that i think is the approach he needs to take if he's going to say hide and seek. if he's going after character alone, it seems like a personal attack, i think it will backfire. if he starts talking -- >> that's why lenny -- >> looking at the last year it's going to make a difference and it's going to resonate with the independent voters. >> that's yu get more independent voters than milt romney and probably do well in terms of closing the gender gap because you're prepared to talk about issues. unfortunately, what we saw from governor romney today, what we have seen during the course of his campaign, is to engage in character assassination and personal attacks which i think really underestimate the american people. at the end of the day this campaign is going to be about the definition of the role of government in our society or if we believe in the need for government in our society. >> robert, one of the things that he mentioned here, the reporter asked him about this gender gap that president obama leads by 18% when it comes to support from women. romney hit back and said that

what women care about is the fact that they need to get their kids to and from school and to practice, that type of thing. i imagine it's a lot broader than that, but he did bring up one of the things that's a weakness here. he talked about gas prices. that's something that everybody is talking about and wants to know what the plan is on obama's side. is that a weakness? >> look, clearly every president is going to be impacted when gas prices go up. in fairness both the democratic party blamed the bush administration as we see now the republican party blaming the obama administration. but the difference is this president at least can point to a record of a policy where we see domestic oil production at an eight-year high, dependency on foreign oil at a 16-year low. plus, we're also seeing through fuel efficiency standards the fact that americans are saving money in terms of their cars because of the car fuel efficiency standards they put in place. the real challenge is going to be this, whether the republican party is going to come to the table and put on the table a program or a policy that deals

with more than just oil subsidies for the oil and gas industry. we've not seen that yet. we've not seen them embrace the idea of alternative sources of energy and we have really the highest -- 12-year high in terms of production of wind, solar, and thermal energy. >> lenny, i have to get you in here -- >> but, robert, the two things that they're not going to put on the table are failures from the solyndra and failures from blithe solar power where they're wasting billions of taxpayer dollars. that's something the democrats have on the table that governor romney and his team will -- >> are you suggesting we should ignore investing in developing alternate sources of energy? it's an important policy. >> if you're going to do it that way, yes. if you're going to involve yourself with crony politics and people that contribute to your campaign, it's a failure for the american people. >> would you give obama the oaks credit for the fact we have a 12-year high in terms of production of solar and thermal and wind power in terms of

alternate sources of energy? >> if you're going to give president obama sacred for that you have to give him credit for $4.70 gas going on in chicago, illinois, right now and high gas throughout the country as well and the shutdown and the failure to get the keystone pipeline going. you can't take some of the credit and not all the credit. >> i agree with you the keystone pipeline should have been approved by the president but you know, as i do, you can't blame the president for gasaffe geopolitical markets. >> obviously the economics behind the energy policy going to be a very important topic on the campaign trail and it looks like these are the two that could be debating it. we'll have you on to discuss it. >> happy easter to you both. >> thanks, suzanne. in syria the u.n. tries again to stop the killing. the syrian president promises to go along with the peace plan but then there are more civilian deaths today. we have full details in a live

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the united nations diplomats are trying again this syria trying to stop the fighting, trying to get independent observers there in the country, trying to convince the government to pull troops, big weapons out of these populated areas. at least 48 people are reportedly killed today in clash was syrian forces. more than 70 people died yesterday. cnn is in abu dhabi watching the developments. mohammed, let's just go down the line here. the u.n. has made very little progress with the syrians so far. you have no resolution. you have kofi annan's peace plan on shaky ground. what does the u.n. hope to accomplish today? >> reporter: well. >> you zahn, i should mention we have updated numbers from syria saying 54 people across syria killed today because of violence. that's just one reason there's so much skepticism that this

u.n. plan will do anything to really end the violence there. it's two days since president assad promised to start withdrawing troops. now we know a u.n. advance team is going to be going in on thursday to try to set up a monitoring mission so they can get this cease fire going on there. and yet the violence continues. the activists we sepeak with across syria say it's not just bashar assad hasn't started withdrawing his forces, it's that the violence has escalated. we've seen this time and time again. whether it's the arab league or the u.n. they press bashar assad, the assad regime makes promises to stop the violence, and then even when monitoring bodies or groups arri arrive, it seems the violence only escalates and the crackdown only intensifies. >> mohammed, what is next here? the arab league, they tried and failed to keep their observer team in syria because it was too dangerous. you mentioned it could happen all over again if the u.n. gets involved and is on the ground. what's the alternative?

>> well, the problem is that there is no clarity as to what will happen as to what the ramifications will be if bashar assad doesn't keep his promises once more. we must remember the six-point peace plan that was agreed upon by kofi annan and bashar assad was based not on any kind of resolution. the u.n. security council has tried to come up with a resolution condemning the regime so there could be consequences or at least the threat of consequences to the assad regime could feel the full force of pressure from the u.n. and the international community but china and russia keep blocking that. so the problem is the assad regime doesn't feel any real pressure. they feel they still have their allies. they feel they still have their backing and they don't feel compelled to do anything to stop what's going on. >> all right. we'll see if there's the impasse -- if they can get beyond that, but so far not good

news. thank you, mohammed. biggest names in golf gathering for the annual masters tournament. so why is this woman dominating all the news off the course? live report from augusta up next. so creamy, right dad. ah, but my carrots have that crunch. it's my milk in the rich sauce coating the chicken and the pasta. boys! don't you think stouffer's steam perfect bag should get some credit? my carrots. my milk. my carrots. my milk. [ female announcer ] new from stouffer's. farmers' harvest steam meals for one in the steam perfect bag seal in all the goodness. they taste so good, we'll bet the farm on it. nestle. good food, good life. carrots! creamy! do about medicare and social security... security. that's what matters to me... me? i've been paying in all these years... years washington's been talking at us, but they never really listen... listen...it's not just some line item on a budget; it's what i'll have to live on... i live on branson street, and i have something to say... [ male announcer ] aarp is bringing the conversation

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the masters tournament opens tomorrow but not all the talk is about big names like tiger woods and phil mickelson. the augusta national golf club is facing new questions about its all-male membership as well as the traditional honors for tournament sponsor whose ceo happens to be a woman. want to bring in patrick snell in augusta. patrick, we have heard from the augusta chairman, billy payne, today. how is he explaining this? >> reporte we lost him. okay. sorry about that. we lost him. we're going to try to get that report to you right after a break. [ male announcer ] a car is either luxury or it isn't.

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all right. so before you start buying the easter chocolate this weekend, something you should contribute. is it contributing to child slavery. most of the world's cocoa fields are in west africa. hundreds of thousands of children are forced to work in those fields. >> reporter: on this farm we find abdul. he survived three years of work. he's just 10.

he earns no wages for his work, he says, just food. the occasional tip from the owner, and the torn clothes on his back. put in the simple lest of terms abdul is a child slave. we move away from the group so he can speak more freely. and through our translator, he tells us his story. if he had a choice he wouldn't work. abdul says he's from a neighboring area. when his father died a stranger brought him to ivory coast. abdul has never eaten chocolate. he tells us he doesn't even know what cocoa is for. we met jacob on the same farm. my mother brought me when my father died, he tells me.

jacob insists he's 16, but he looks much younger. his legs bare machete scars from hours clearing the bush. the emotional scars seem much deeper. i wish i could just go to school, he says, to learn to read and write. but jacob says he's never spent a day in school. >> david mattingly's report is part of cnn's freedom project. it's a commit to helping end modern day slavery. it is one of the lead stories on cnn's eatocracy website. first of all, a lot of people would not suspect this is happening, that this is taking place. if you're buying chocolate, how do you know if it's contributing to child slavery like the little boy we saw there. >> this is really disturbing and new information to a lot of people and especially since we're coming up upon easter which worldwide is the biggest

chocolate buying time of the year. we thought we would come up with a list of tips people can look at to help guide them toward slavery-free chocolate. the first is to go organic. that's very little chance that any organic chocolate you're going to buy is going to be made with slave labor. the trees are generally on the ivory coast 25 years old and not grown under organic practices. that's a really great route to go. you should start to consider the origin of where your chocolate is coming from. because of the act it's easier to find out the origins of the cocoa that is used in your chocolate. so while it might be coming from asia or from a few other places, it might not be perfect, but it's better than chocolate you're going to find coming from the ivory coast. now, another thing you can do is to look at the labels. ethically source chocolate is generally going to have a stamp on it that says it's either rainforest association certified or it's fair trade certified.

look at the label. and actually one of my favorite routes to go is to really go to the local chocolatiers that are springing up because so many of them have a direct relationship with the people who are growing the chocolate and the fewer links in the supply chain, the more accountability there is. and the fewer people who are trying to make a buck off the chain and they're really working with the farmers directly to get them the best price possible, and they're really going to be happy to work with you to develop a taste for this kind of chocolate. >> and, kat, that's great. i have a chocolate place in my own neighborhood that just sprung up. i know it's pretty popular. do we have a sense of whether or not this chocolate is like the kind of chocolate we grew up with and whether it's more or less expensive. >> it may not be exactly like the chocolate you grew up from but one taste and you get it. maybe two tastes. so it might not have quite the butter fat content in it that you're used to -- sorry, the cocoa fat content, but we

challenged our ireporters to come up with recipes that would make people really just sense what was wonderful about this chocolate. we got everything from sourdough chocolate recipes to chocolate soup to chocolate cookies. people really put their heart and soul into emphasizing what is beautiful about this chocolate. what you're really looking for is chocolate that's of great quality but also makes a difference in the quality of people's lives. >> that's great. that's delicious combination there. thank you, kat. >> thanks for having me. we're going to bring you up to speed on today's top stories including new developments on the cleanup after those devastating tornadoes in texas.

76 masters tournament opening tomorrow but not all the talk is about the big names like tiger woods and phil mickelson. instead, the tournament's moment, the augusta national golf club, facing some new questions about it's all-male membership as well as traditional honors for tournament sponsor whose ceo happens to be a woman. i want to bring in patrick smell. we heard from augusta chairman billy payne today. how is he weighing into this? what is he saying? >> reporter: yes, we did hear from chairman payne in the previous hour. the ceo of ibm is virginia rometty. a lot of people thought this might be the opportunity for the famed augusta national to come out and publicly declare its first female