that's all for us tonight. time now for "anderson cooper." >> we begin tonight with breaking news and a warning for tens of millions of you out there. three simple words that could save your life. do not travel. that's because if you do, you could get stuck in this. and if you do, rescuers could get stuck trying to reach you. that warning, by the way, comes straight from the national weather service. texas, oklahoma, kansas, all getting hammered by a storm even more punishing than the one last week. we're talking about more snow in some places than people have seen in the past 42 years. and in one part of oklahoma, drivers are stranded with snow piling up to six feet high in places. details now on the drivers and the storm they're stuck in from chad myers in the weather center. chad? >> anderson, if you left too late to get home from work or

wherever you're coming from, school or whatever, you very well may have had a very hard time getting home because the snow totals are coming down so fast. amarillo, in 24 hours, picked up 19 inches of snow and all the way down to woodward, oklahoma. it wasn't snowing this morning. they are now 15 and it's still snowing and blowing around. some of these winds 60 or 70 miles per hour creating five and six-foot drifts. we're hearing some of the plows are coming off the roads again. as soon as they clear, ten minutes later, the drifts are back in again in parts of texas and oklahoma. this is going to be a very difficult night. i just can't stress any more what you just said, do not travel. do not go out. you could get stuck. and then the people trying to come get those people are getting stuck. they're sending bulldozers literally to clear some of the snow to get to the emergency vehicles that are trying to get to the people that are stuck. it's not a night to go outside in the high plains. >> i was trying to figure out that first image we showed. it was a car buried under snow.

chad, we're going to check back in with you a little later on in this hour as we watch this storm develop. i want to tell you about a storm of a different sort entirely happening. it involves scandal, hypocrisy, con piercy theories, dysfunct n dysfunction dysfunctionality, and we're not talking about d.c. this multifaceted storm involves the vatican and allegations of what could be going on inside the scenes. now surprising allegations against a top british cardinal that some media outlets believe some role in why the pope is stepping down, the first in nearly 600 years to do so. his last day is thursday after which a college of cardinals will meet. as always, they gather in secrecy, but this time their conclave will be accompanied by open, loud controversy. today we learned the archbishop of scotland will step down after allegations that he made unwanted sexual advances allegedly to priests in

training. he was supposed to be part of the papal conclave. now he will not be. card narl roger mahoney of los angeles will be part of the concave despite new damning revelations of his handling of pedophile priests over the years. victims and others say mahoney should not be part of the group choosing a new pope say that it sends a terrible message. explosive allegations about what may have been going on behind the scenes. more on that from our ben wedeman. >> reporter: i will not abandon the church, benedict told the faithful in st. peter's square sunday to the tens of thousands who listened and applauded, it was a sentimental farewell. but to investigative newspaper journalist who has delved into alleged wrongdoing at the vatican, benedict's words carried different significance. "this does not mean to abandon. it means to fight," she says.

"last sunday he said we are fighting against the temptations of power." temptations that may have proven too strong for some. she is one of two journalists who have reported on allegations of vatican corruption and blackmail, of gay clergy members by male prostitutes. damning headlines in "the rome daily," "sex and blackmailed careers are behind benedict xvi's resignation. compromised perhaps to senior levels, says a writer for "the newsweekly panorama." cardinals? >> si, cardinals. >> reporter: the details allegedly contained in a secret dossier prepared by three cardinals containing leaked and highly sensitive vatican documents.

he says he believes attempts by pope benedict at reform were stymied every step of the way by the church's secretive bureaucracy. "in these eight years the pope has repeatedly made calls to stop the divisions," he says, "to end the struggles and to have more transparency, but these calls were not heeded." vatican officials have strongly denied these claims, but it would be hard to deny the catholic hierarchy is in crisis. the latest blow, the resignation of cardinal keith o'brien who stepped down as archbishop of scotland amid allegations of inappropriate acts with four trainee priests in the 1980s. he remains a cardinal but says he won't attend the conclave to elect a new pope. allegations, accusations and scandal darkening the final days of benedict's nearly eight-year reign.

the two italian journalists paint a picture of a holy father overwhelmed by an unholy mess. aging, unwell and betrayed by those who were supposed to support him. >> thank you for the prayers. >> reporter: benedict says he's not forsaking the church, but according to these accounts, it's the church bureaucracy, faction ridden and weakened by scandal, that's forsaking him. ben wedeman, cnn, rome. >> it's obviously hard to pierce the walls of secrecy rounding the inner workings of the vatican. i want to talk about it more with christiane amanpour in rome and john allen there is a senior correspondent for "the national catholic reporter." john, you say the idea of a existence of some sort of network of gay men or gay priests or high officials inside the vatican isn't at all improbable, but do you believe that's the reason the pope is resigning? >> no, anderson, i don't. i think for the most part, you have to take benedict xvi at his

word that he's resigning because of his age and fatigue. on the other hand, i think you have to ask the question why is he so fatigued, and i think at least part of that picture is that he has spent much of the last eight years frustrated that his efforts to be a teaching pope, to conduct a kind of global graduate acceptable yar and the relationship between reason and faith and so on have been hampered by a kind of endless series of crises and controversies and meltdowns, some of them coming in from the outside and some of them self-inflicted. so i think that is indeed part of the calculus. but fundamentally, i don't think there is some deep, dark secret. i think this is one of those cases in terms that what you see is what you get. >> john, what is known exactly about o'brien? the allegations i've heard are a number of allegations apparently made by some current priests and even i believe one former priest of inappropriate efforts to have some sort of relationship or make some sort of pass at these

people when they were priests. and this is a guy who, when the british government was considering, you know, gay marriage, came out vehemently against it, saying, and i quote, their attempt to redefine reality is given a polite hearing, their madness is indulged. their proposal represents a grotesque subversion of a universally accepted human right. if he was making advances at gay priests, the level of hypocrisy is great. >> you're right. it almost defies belief that someone would be leading such a double life and yet taking such a hard line in public. now, of course, it is important to say that cardinal o'brien has firmly denied these charges. he has taken legal counsel. that is, he's hired a lawyer to help him respond to these charges. and so as this story plays out, it remains to be seen how much fire there is beneath the smoke.

i think what's relevant for the vatican at the moment is that this has resurrected the drumbeat of criticism that it has faced over the years, that its sort of moral preaching to the world, in some cases at least not matched on the ground by the behavior of some of its clergy. >> there are some who are alleging that these revelations, these allegations, are being made in a way to kind of influence who the next pope could be. how would that influence who the next pope could be? >> well, you know, this was perhaps, i would have to say in my experience, a typical lashing out by those who are trying desperately to have a better spin on this story right now. i don't buy that. i think it's the typical defensive mechanism of people who simply don't want to hear the truth. and the truth is if the church was trying to prevent, you know, a cardinal from coming here for a reason it couldn't, because there are so many of them.

i mean, the disgrace of this really is that it's touched every diocese in the united states. it's exploded across europe under the auspices of -- or rather during the reign of pope benedict. and i was told tonight that this is probably going on in diocese all over the world. and one of the things that is incredible, one former priest said that, you know, perhaps 50% of priests who enter the priesthood may be gay. i talked to a longtime veteran journalist here in rome who said it's well known that monsignors and others in the vatican conduct affairs either with women or men. the real issue here is there is a difference between having affairs and committing crimes against young boys, which is what happened under these priests for so many generations. >> what do you make of the church -- the vatican coming forward and making a public statement, saying essentially this is an effort to influence

the picking of the next pope? i mean, that's an extraordinary statement for them to have made. >> their insistence is that the secret dossier which allegedly talks about a gay lobby potentially having a role in the vatican leak scandal, this dossier, so far as we know, has only been read by one guy, and that's pope benedict xvi. so the pretense to know its contents may well be open to question. one could argue that some sort of response had to be made, but i think the practical effect of using such high-octane rhetoric in that statement is that it has simply given additional legs to the story and made the hill the vatican has to climb to get over this that much more steep. >> christiane amanpour, john allen, thanks. the search for a family including two young kids in their final message, we are abandoning ship. the latest you need to know about the raw politics happening now in washington. the search in a sea of finger-pointing for a deal to head off budget cuts at the end

of the week. our gloria borger, also ross and charles blow from "the new york tim times" joins us, tell us what their sources are telling them.

let's talk about raw politics and finger-pointing because there's a lot of that going on right now. congress and the white house have less than four days to hammer out a budget-cutting deal before a string of painful, automatic forced spending cuts take effect. remember, these are part of the automatic cuts that both sides agreed to back in 2011 to force themselves to do what voters and business leaders want them to do, which is make a deal. have they? well, the answer is no. president obama's been touring the country warning about pain from the automatic cuts. republicans have been saying blame for the cuts should fall on the president. meantime, "the washington post's" bob woodward says the cuts were a white house idea, but the white house is pushing back on that. at times there are more fingers being pointed than hands to hold them or to hammer out solutions. >> these cuts do not have to happen. congress can turn them off any time with just a little bit of compromise. >> there's no leadership from the president.

>> unless the republicans are willing to compromise. >> he's been out trying to blame republicans. >> so the question is, why won't he work with us? >> they need to come to the table with a proposal. >> i think the american people are tired of the blame game. >> with us now is chief political analyst gloria borger, also cnn contributor and two of "the new york times" best political writers, ross, and charles blow. charles, let me start with you. you said this is an example of feeble government at its most ineffective and self-destructive. >> well written. >> thank you. i appreciate that. you said it perfectly. they did this to force their own hands. and if you can't force your own hand to do something that i cannot, for the life of me, find anyone who thinks that this is a good idea. even the people who are basically saying we will accept it. republicans basically are calling the president's bluff. they're saying we accept the defense cuts because we want the rest of the cuts, but even they are not saying that it's a good idea to have this kind of blunt

instrument used to cut. they think that it's just acceptable. it won't be as bad as the president says. >> ross, it's interesting. before, though, the obama white house was thinking that republicans would not be willing to accept these kind of defense cuts, you know, back when they came up with this idea. but now clearly, a lot of republicans who are willing, because they say cutting the budget deficit is more important. >> right. i mean, i think five years ago the obama white house would have been right. but that was a different republican party. and the balance of power in the party has shifted from defense hawks, you might say, to deficit hawks. and so i disagree a little bit with charles. i do think there are at least -- there are some republicans who think this is acceptable, and there are also now some republicans who will say, you know, defense has to be on the table as well. and so we're willing to do it. >> but is it the economy, though, ross? can you find anyone who says that in the short term, in the near term, that this is good for the american economy to use this kind of blunt instrument to cut

this much from the deficit, that this actually spurs the economy to do better and provides enough jobs, or does it eat into the job base the way that most independents that i've read think that it does? >> i think the republican argument would be that whatever short-term pain it causes to the economy, steps like this, sort of these sort of painful but necessary cuts over an extended period of time are necessary to basically to guarantee longer-term economic growth. but that said, i think the problem republicans have is the long-term deficit problem is an entitlements problem. >> right. >> and we set up this mechanism where we're making these deep cuts to discretionary spending and not cutting entitlements. and there i think the critique was fair. >> this is a piece of the pie. this is the tiny sliver of the pie. the big piece of the pie is medicare, social security, things they're not even talking about right now. so this is not a natural disaster. this is a manmade disaster that

they made. and now that they can't figure a way out of it. >> so is a deal possible? what happens? >> yeah. a deal is possible. >> by friday? >> i'm not going to say that. i'm going to say -- >> because i don't see that. >> you know, i'm not going to say that they can do it by friday, but in the end, they can fiddle, as they always do, and say you know what? we need some more flexibility so we don't take a meat ax to everything so we can decide within a certain agency what is it we want to cut and then come back and deal with it again. >> charles, what do you say to those republicans who, you know, i was listening to rush limbaugh, and he was saying, look, that essentially this is a manufactured crisis, that this isn't a real crisis. this isn't real. these aren't real cuts. this is still more spending than was spent last year. >> right. i think it's manufactured and real. like he's separated it. >> but it doesn't all happen at once either. >> they manufactured it, and it is very real because it affects so many jobs. it has the potential to affect so many jobs. and it ranges from a million to,

you know, 2.1 million jobs at risk, one estimate i read -- i quoted in my last column. that could add, like, 1.5% to the unemployment rate. >> go ahead, ross. >> i mean, the thing that, you know, where rush limbaugh has a point is that if you look at the waves of quote, unquote, cuts that we've had over the last couple years, you know, in dollar terms, they've looked real. but then when journalists go in and do an investigation and go to the different agencies and departments and so on, it always turns out that they find a way to claim cuts, you know, they claim cuts on things that they were actually going to cut already. and so, i mean, there's more wiggle room in the federal budget often than those absolute numbers would suggest. >> ross, here's the problem. the public doesn't know what to believe because we don't actually know what the truth is here. and if you look at all of these fiscal crises that we've gone through, you always have to consider what the default setting is. so when you had the fiscal cliff, they couldn't go over the cliff because they didn't want to raise everybody's taxes. when you had the debt ceiling,

they couldn't do that because the full faith and credit of the united states was kind of on the line. in this particular crisis, and this is why charles may be right, in this particular crisis, what's at stake here? budget cuts which, by the way, lots of people think is a good idea. >> ross, do you see a deal by the end of the week? >> i mean, i've been wrong betting against deals in the past. you know, the story of the last two years is that, you know, john boehner, harry reid, barack obama and so on always find some way to pull a deal out of the fire. so it would be silly to bet against that. but i do agree with charles. it's harder in this case to see -- i think you can draw it up on paper, but it's harder to see where the parties come together. i think the reasonable thing to do would be to say let's cut the amount of spending that we're going to cut in half, and let's just agree on, say, doing a little means testing to medicare, which the white house and republicans are both in favor of. and let's not get so focused on absolute dollar figures. but i'm pretty sure that's not

going to happen. >> well, the clock's ticking. we'll follow it. gloria, appreciate it. charles and ross as well. up next, the desperate search for family lost at sea off the coast of san francisco. and later, a murder trial that is making the casey anthony saga look, well, boring. it's got x-rated evidence, too many lies to count, plus a defendant, well, who won a singing contest from prison. the whole thing is bizarre. we'll be right back. ha ha ha! no no no! not today! ha ha ha! ha ha ha! jimmy how happy are folks who save hundreds of dollars switching to geico? happier than dikembe mutumbo blocking a shot. get happy. get geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more.

breaking news. ferocious, historic, dangerous, the blizzard that's bearing down on parts of ten texas and oklah is all that and more. chad myers has new details on the storm that's pummeling the great plains ahead on "360."

welcome back. rescue teams will work through the night searching the waters off san francisco for a family that radioed the coast guard from their sinking sailboat. this was their final s.o.s. call. >> coast guard, coast guard, we are abandoning ship. this is the charm blow. we are abandoning ship. >> that was yesterday afternoon. besides the sailboat's name, the charm blow, coast guard knows there were two adults and two young children aboard, and they didn't have a lifeboat. their names, though, are a mystery. tonight the coast guard is asking the public for help identifying them. dan simon joins me now. so you've been in the touch with the coast guard. what is the latest on this search? >> reporter: well, we know the search will continue throughout the night. they got aircraft up there. they have boats on the water. they're going to be using infrared technology to see if

they can isolate these individuals. they'll reassess things in the morning. but we should point out that the water temperature, very cold. about 50 degrees. so it would be very difficult for anyone to survive. what we don't know is exactly how they abandoned that boat. were they able to get out on a makeshift life raft? because we know there was no real life raft on board. they mentioned something in their radio communication about a styrofoam cooler and a life ring, and perhaps they could use that to get off the boat safely. but again, very, very chilly out there on that water. so it would be tough for anyone to survive at this point, anderson. >> i don't quite understand how nobody can know who these people are. doesn't somebody own the boat? isn't it registered somewhere? and there were other distress calls. what was said on them? >> reporter: it's a good question about the boat. at this point, there's no registry for this name, for the boat's name. there are some people speculating that this might be a hoax. perhaps it would be a good thing if it were a hoax. obviously, it would be a very cruel prank.

in terms of what the coast guard is saying, they believe this is entirely legit. we should point that out. and the other radio communication, they were able to give an approximate location. that's why the coast guard is where they are. about 65 miles off the coast of monterey. they were able to say there were four people on board, a husband, a wife, their 4-year-old son and a cousin. and they also said that the boat was taking on water very quickly. and obviously they had to get off. >> if anybody can recognize that voice or has heard that name of ship, obviously the coast guard would like that information. dan, appreciate the update. up next, crime and punishment in a trial that's captivated court watchers like few others in recent memory, if ever. the jodi arias trial. she admits she killed her boyfriend. she says it was in self-defense. is it the couple's salacious relationship that has court observers stunned? randi kaye takes an in-depth look ahead.

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in "crime & punishment" tonight, sex, lies and audiotape in a murder trial full of testimony that would make perry mason blush. in arizona, jodi arias was cross-examined again today. it is her tenth day on the witness stand. if she's convicted, by the way, she could get the death penalty. after lying about it to police and in an extended tv interviews, arias now admits the murder of her ex-boyfriend in 2008, but she now says that was in self-defense. to say there have been some surreal moments in this trial is a vast understatement. take this video, for instance, while jodi arias is behind bars awaiting trial on first-degree murder in 2010, she won a holiday singing contest.

♪ oh hear the angel voices ♪ oh night >> in the trial itself, there have been countless twists and turns, dirty text messages entered into evidence, nude pictures, audiotape of phone sex between the victim and the defendant played in court. randi kaye reports on the case that has so many people riveted. first i just want to warn you, as i've said, there's very graphic details woven through this class which may be too explicit for younger viewers. >> reporter: travis alexander never had a chance. 27 stab wounds, a gunshot to the face, his throat slit ear to ear. when friends found his body, he had already been dead five days. >> he's, uh, he's, he's dead. he's in his bedroom, in the shower. >> she said that there was blood. so is it coming from his head? did he cut his wrists? >> no, it's, uh, all over the place. >> has he been threatened by anyone recently? >> yes, he has.

he has an ex-girlfriend that's been bothering him and um, following him and slashing tires and things like that. >> reporter: that ex-girlfriend is jodi arias, now on trial for murdering travis alexander back in 2008. she's facing the death penalty. this case has court watchers riveted. not only because of the sheer brutality of it, but also because of the couple's salacious sexual relationship. they videotaped themselves having sex and took provocative photos. on the day of the murder, june 4th, 2008, the two snapped naked photos of each other at alexander's home. right before the killing. those pictures were recovered from the memory card of a digital camera police found in his washing machine. according to investigators, a photo taken at 1:40 p.m. shows arias posing nude on alexander's bed. later at 5:22 p.m., a photo was taken and deleted, showing alexander naked in the shower.

then at 5:30 p.m., another photo of alexander. police say just two minutes later, he was dead. 5:32 p.m. this timestamped photo shows his body on the shower floor. what exactly happened that night is still unclear, in part because investigators can't get a straight or at least consistent story out of arias. the first time she was questioned, july 15th, 2008, arias said she wasn't with alexander the day he died. this was before she knew investigators had pictures putting her at the crime scene. >> i was nowhere near mesa. i was nowhere near phoenix. >> reporter: then after police matched a bloody handprint at the scene to arias and told her of the photos they had found, she told a different story. this time a home invasion. >> you didn't run to the neighbors. you didn't try calling. you knew they were in his house. >> i was really scared.

i was really freaked out of my mind. >> i don't believe you. >> reporter: two years later in 2010, yet another story. yes, she says, she did kill travis alexander, but it was self-defense. her lawyer is making the case for domestic violence. >> jodi believed that travis was going to kill her. travis left jodi no other option. but to defend herself. >> reporter: as arias tells it, it all started with those naked pictures. she testified that while she and alexander were snapping photos, she dropped the camera and alexander got incredibly angry. so this time, she says, she grabbed the gun she knew alexander kept in his closet. >> i grabbed the gun. i ran out of the closet. he was chasing me. i turned around. we were in the middle of the bathroom. i pointed it at him with both of my hands. i thought that would stop him. if someone were pointing a gun at me, i would stop, but he just kept running. he got -- like a linebacker, he

got kind of low and grabbed my waist. before he did that as he was lunging at me, the gun went off. i didn't mean to shoot him. >> reporter: but what about the knife and those dozens of stab wounds? arias told the court she simply can't remember how that happened. >> once you broke away from him, what do you remember? >> almost nothing for a long time. >> do you remember stabbing travis alexander? >> i have no memory of stabbing him. >> reporter: the couple first met back in 2006 at a convention in las vegas. she was an aspiring photographer. he was a salesman and motivational speaker who was active in the mormon church. they started dating a few months later, even though he lived in mesa, arizona, and she lived hours away in california. arias soon converted to mormonism like her boyfriend and agreed to be baptized.

on the day of her baptism, she told the court, alexander tied her up while they were both still wearing sacred garments. then forced her to have anal sex. >> after this encounter on this spiritual day, how did you feel about yourself? >> i didn't feel very good. i kind of felt like a used piece of toilet paper. >> reporter: arias claimed alexander often abused her physically and sexually. but on the couple's phone sex tapes played in court, she seemed to be enjoying herself. >> the way you moan, jodi, sounds like a 12-year-old girl having her first orgasm. so hot. >> reporter: how things turned from phone sex to this is still a mystery. but investigators say there's no question travis alexander suffered. the medical examiner says he was stabbed first, then shot. so it may have taken him some time to die. crime scene photos show his

hands bruised and bloodied which may indicate he struggled to fight off his attacker who was stabbing him. in court today under cross-examination, the prosecutor did his best to expose jodi arias as a cold-blooded killer. and shatter her account of what happened the night alexander was killed. >> other than you, who would you sure about your statements? >> god. >> well, god's not here. we can't subpoena him, right? >> i don't think so. >> you don't think so. are you sure that we can't? because it seems like you're leaving the door open for that. >> no matter how hard prosecutors come at her, jodi arias has stuck to her story. before the trial she spoke to "inside edition" from jail. >> no jury is going to convict me. >> why not? >> because i'm innocent, and you can mark my words on that one. no jury will convict me. >> reporter: later in court she said that was because she planned to kill herself first. randi kaye, cnn, new york. >> a fascinating trial.

joining me, senior legal analyst jeffrey toobin and defense attorney mark geragos, author of "mistrial: an inside look at how the criminal justice system works and sometimes doesn't." jeff, the details of this case are explicit to say the least. have you ever seen a trial that's been televised like this? >> i didn't know you could say lubed that often on basic cable, but it's just all -- it's unbelievable. the thing is, forgetting putting it on television. why a -- how a judge has allowed this is a very interesting way of -- >> how a judge has allowed her to sit on the stand on direct examination this long before even getting to cross is beyond me. 30 years i've been doing this. i've never seen any defendant on the stand this long. >> the reason is, though, i think is actually straightforward. it's because it's a death penalty case. this is an interesting lesson in why death penalty cases take so long and are so expensive. the judge says, look, this person is on trial for their life.

i'm going to let them try their case. i am not going to really impose the rules of evidence. >> ten days, though. she's been on the stand. >> i've never heard of anything like that. but clearly she's got a defense, which is that i am a victim of various men, feel sorry for me, don't give me the death penalty. i mean, that's the gist. >> mark, how do you defend somebody who has lied consistently? >> you put her on for ten days or eight days or whatever it is, and then, you know, in that piece, the package you just did, that prosecutor was so over the top with that question about, you sure i can't subpoena god? you hope and pray as a defense lawyer that the prosecutor's going to lose his mind and start acting like a fool. because if that happens, the jury might say at the end of the day, okay, we're going to convict her. clearly she's guilty. but after this amount of time, we're not going to kill her. because that's really what it comes down to. >> that's what they're trying to do. and they're trying, i think, to get the jury to know this woman and all her eccentricities and all her sort of

oddness, her crazy history. and say, we're going to lock this woman up, but we will not take the step of imposing the death penalty. >> but she's saying self-defense. i mean, a throat slit so much, the head was almost decapitated, 27 stab wounds. >> that's just the vehicle. all of this stuff, whether it's battered woman's, self-defense, all of that is the vehicle, if you will, for the defense to get her up there and try and mitigate and save her from the death penalty. >> you think they are lawyers -- they're not trying to get her off -- >> they get a not guilty, those guys will faint right in the courtroom. >> this is all about a death penalty defense. and frankly since the judge is allowing it, it's probably their best chance because she is emerging as a personality, as someone with a history who is complicated, who is obviously a mess of a human being. but not someone, at least they hope, that the jury says, we have to take the absolute maximum step and kill her. >> that's really what it is. you put her up there for that

long, what you hope for is that the jury's going to say exactly what jeff was saying. they're going to get to the point where, okay, she's crazy. she did it. we know it. but do we really want to kill her? do we want to put her -- i mean, we want to put her down? and the more you -- usually familiarity breeds contempt. in this case it may have the opposite. >> do you think the prosecutor has been doing what mark has sort of indicated, that he's been making mistakes by kind of going overboard? >> you know, it's very hard to say. that really takes me inside the courtroom and getting a sense of the dynamic. i think the prosecutor is right to show all the lies. i mean, what makes her story so unappealing from a jury perspective, and it's not just this fairly bogus self-defense argument, but, you know, first she wasn't there. then there was an intruder. then she came around to self-defense. she's such an obvious and credible liar as well as someone who killed a man. >> i'll take a shot. they are totally overplaying this. they could have, i think, less

is more when it comes to this. and this kind of just staying up there and being that sarcastic way, that generally does not play well with juries. >> as a defense attorney, i can imagine just watching her talk to police over and over again, giving multiple different stories, and then doing television interviews and saying no jury is going to convict me. i mean, from a defense lawyer standpoint -- >> it's your worst nightmare, but i always told this to clients. i give them my card. i say when the police come, i write on it, i want my lawyer. it doesn't matter. they still want to talk. they do not understand. i explain this to clients. if the cops lie to you, that's good police work. you lie to them. it's a felony. >> police are allowed to lie to you. >> of course. the u.s. supreme court has said that. you lie to them, it's a false statement under 1001 of the u.s. code. it's usually a felony in any other jurisdiction, but people have this idea that somehow they're going to talk their way out of it. you can't stop it. >> usually they don't lie as extravagantly as she did.

>> well, this one is off the charts in terms of the lies. >> but, you know, who's to say the jury isn't buying it? >> what i can't figure out -- the only mystery to me is why cable tv hasn't become fixated on this. not as much as they have. >> we're on cable tv now. >> it hasn't been wall to wall. >> this is pretty much the first time we're doing it. but on "hln," they've been doing it a lot. it's fast nate it's fascinating stuff. just ahead, we're going to update you on the breaking news, the blizzard that is pummeling texas and oklahoma. it's already smashed records. the snow is still coming down. chad myers joins us again with the latest on the storm's path.

more on our breaking news. this is where the texas panhandle is dealing with tonight. take a look. record amounts of snow, historic according to the national weather service. amarillo got 19 inches just today. amarillo, texas. whiteout conditions making it almost all roads in the

panhandle impassable. stranded motorists waiting for the national guard to show up. that's how bad it is. snow has been coming down fast all day. two to three inches every hour. oklahoma's also being hard hit. 56 of its counties are under a state of emergency tonight. a lot of motorists stranded there as well. it's the second major winter storm to hammer the region in a week. kansas is in its path as well. chad myers joins us again with the latest. what are we looking at now? >> looking at snow into wichita. eventually maybe an hour or two into kansas city and pretty heavy. and then pulling out of texas, out of the oklahoma panhandle, pulling away from where it's snowed so hard today. you talked about those stranded motorists. there were emergency vehicles trying to get to those people that were stranded. then got stranded themselves. that's how deep and how quickly the snow just piled up with five-foot drifts. we're still going to get more snow. don't get me wrong. but the snow's going to pull out of oklahoma into kansas and into missouri over the next few hours. and that heavy snow will be there. there's only one little fly here in the forecast of 20 inches or more still to come, anderson.

there's a lot of rain and severe weather along the gulf coast. this rain and severe weather is cutting off some of the moisture, good news, cutting off some of the moisture that could be snow. it's raining the moisture out rather than making snow farther to the north. there's also the potential for some severe weather. those big red boxes there, tornado watch boxes for the next few hours here into parts of mississippi, louisiana, even e are some of the winners, if that's the number you want to call it, 19.0, amarillo. the old record, still the record, 19.3. that's how close they came. >> air travel's going to be messed up because of all that. let's get caught up on some of the other stories. here's isha with a "360 bulletin." >> a "360 follow," the table contractor suspected of rupturing a natural gas line before last week's deadly restaurant explosion in kansas city was working without a permit. one person was killed and several others were injured in the explosion. the long-awaited trial against bp and its contractors opened today in new orleans. a federal judge will decide if

the oil company and others were grossly negligent in the massive 2010 gulf oil spill. if so, bp could have to pay out billions more in civil damages. it's already pleaded guilty to criminal charges and agreed to pay a $4 billion fine. and you may want to stock up on extra virgin olive oil and nuts. a large five-year study of people at high risk of cardiovascular disease found the so-called mediterranean diet reduced the number of heart attacks and strokes they had better than a lowfat diet. anderson? >> isha, thanks very much. coming up, find out who's on "the ridiculist" tonight. it's been pretty tough since jack passed away. it's a good thing you had life insurance through the colonial penn program. you're right. it was affordable, and we were guaranteed acceptance. guaranteed acceptance?

it means you can't be turned down because of your health. you don't have to take a physical or answer any health questions. they don't care about your aches and pains. well, how do you know? did you speak to alex trebek? because i have a policy myself. it costs just $9.95 a month per unit. it's perfect for my budget. my rate will never go up. and my coverage will never go down because of my age. affordable coverage and guaranteed acceptance? we should give them a call. do you want to help protect your loved ones from the burden of final expenses? if you're between 50 and 85, you can get quality insurance that does not require any health questions or a medical exam. your rate of $9.95 a month per unit will never increase, and your coverage will never decrease -- that's guaranteed. so join the six million people who have already called about this insurance. whether you're getting new insurance or supplementing what you already have, call now and ask one of their representatives

about a plan that meets your needs. so, what are you waiting for? go call now! we'll finish up here.

time now for "the ridiculist." tonight i'm pleased to announce

that our long national nightmare is over. for those of us who do not drink coffee, finally there is another choice. today like a 16-ounce neon can of realized dreams, mountain dew started selling soda that you're supposed to drink in the morning. it's called kickstart. it's a sparkling juice beverage with caffeine, 5% real fruit juice and 95%, well, other stuff. plenty of people already drink soda in the morning, but see, this new thing is specially designed for the morning. so i guess you don't really have to feel trashy about it. from the press release, quote, whether it's catching the first waves at sunrise, managing bumper to bumper traffic on the way to the office or hitting fresh powder on the slopes at first light, new kickstart by mountain dew offers a refreshing and energizing take on your morning routine. because really, what better way to start the day than surfing or skiing while simultaneously holding a 16-ounce can of morning soda? i'm just glad there's now a socially acceptable alternative to coffee. the coffee people kind of have a monopoly. and let's face it.

it can kind of get complicated even just ordering it as paul rhoads' character so eloquently demonstrates in the movie "role models." >> large black coffee. >> a what? >> a large black coffee. >> do you mean a venti? >> i mean a large. >> he means a venti, the biggest one you've got. >> venti is 20. >> no, venti is 20. >> danny. >> large is large. in fact, tall is large and grande is spanish for large. venti is the only one that doesn't mean large. it's also the only one that's italian. congratulations, you're stupid in three languages. >> venti is a large coffee. >> really? says who? felini? >> how much is that? here's a 10. you know what? just keep the change. >> personally i'm not a fan of hot beverages. when i tried coffee for the first time on my daytime show, it didn't go so well. >> it just seems watery. yeah, i don't see the point. really? that's what people drink every day? i don't see the point of that. >> yeah. it was my first time trying coffee. so what? when coke came up with a sort of

coke/coffee franken beverage, that didn't go too well for me either. >> since i don't drink hot things, i thought it's the perfect thing. it's coca-cola which i drink all the time and coffee. i thought we'd do a little taste test here. >> i like it. it kind of reminds me of -- >> that was coke black. didn't really like it very much. there's one way to consume coffee that i haven't tried and never will. this, like most cautionary tales, comes from a couple on the tlc show "my strange addiction." >> i'm addicted to coffee enemas. >> for the past two years, trina hasn't been able to function without her daily coffee enemas. a procedure where liquid is injected into the colon to clean out the lower intestine. >> my initial reaction was, my god, that's disgusting. but i tried it. and now i'm addicted to coffee enemas.