>> it all starts this morning. thank you for watching. see you tomorrow morning at 4:30. and happy st. patrick's day. good morning. breaking news. the u.s. government gets set to begin evacuating americans from japan as danger levels remain high at the crippled nuclear plan this, despite new attempts by military helicopters to cool off the plant's overheated reactors and fuel rods. the top u.s. nuclear regulator says conditions at the plant are much worse than japanese officials say and recommends that americans say 50 miles away. this morning questions about nearly two dozen nuclear reactors with the very same design "early" this thursday morning, march 17th, 2011. captioning funded by cbs

good morning. welcome to "the early show" here on a thursday morning. scenes from earlier. military choppers, japanese military helicopters dropping sea water on this nuclear plant a part of the last-ditch effort to bring sea water in ho help cool down the fuel pools and also the nuclear rods there at this facility. >> that is the effort from the sky. also hearing about water cannons on the ground as they try to bring things in there. we are learning this morning that the pentagon is sending in teams to assess the situation and see in a larger military presence may be needed. also that they are moving military dependents out of japan into korea and sending more potassium iodide to japan. a quick look what is happening now. the latest in terms of stats, if you will. the u.s. this morning is sending charter flights to japan. to evacuate any americans there who want to leave. the u.s. ambassador says the

situation is deteriorating as radiation levels at the plant in fukushima are extremely high and potentially deadly. u.s. officials are telling americans within 50 miles of that plant should leave the area or at the very least stay inside. the day dropping sea water on the plant to cool down nuclear reactors and fuel rods. workers, in the meantime, are trying to restore power to the plan's cooling system. we begin our coverage in tokyo with cbs' lucy craft. good morning. >> reporter: good morning. well, right now, the japanese government is redeploying a group of trucks that are carrying high pressure water cannons. ed the idea to douse the troubled plant. amid growing concerns of a possible nuclear threat, state department and the pentagon announced wednesday night they will begin voluntary evacuations from japan.

charter planes carry diplomat families back to the u.s. this as authorities in japan are racing to cool the dangerously hot nuclear reactors at the cripple fukushima daiichi plant. military helicopters dropped sea water on the reactors on thursday. the biggest concern -- plant operators fear that steam rising from reactor three suggests water is videotaping evaporating and a great concern of a meltdown. chief cabinet secretary continues to express optimism saying we are currently doing our best effort to cool down the reactors right now. officials claim they are close it restoring power to the facility which would bring the original cooling system back online. the last line of defense at the failing plant are the 180 workers who remain behind. being held as heroes. the volunteers reportedly work in short shifts of 50 wearing air-tight hazmat suits and working by flashlight and

risking exposure to high radiation level and their task is called a suicide mission. a young woman praised her father on twitter when she learned that he chose to stay. i heard that he volunteered even though he will be retiring in just half a year. and my eyes are filling up with tears. today, i was really proud of him and i pray for his safe return. in much of the country, fear continues to spread. faint levels of radiation have already been detected 70 miles away from the plant. in tokyo, 140 miles from fukushima, citizens worried about radiation are fleeing the city and store shelves are bare and atms have been hit or miss all day. okay. well, the u.s. military is also sending in extra supplies of potassium iodide pills and also air-lifting out military dependents from the bases around tokyo to neighboring korea. back to you, erica. >> lucy craft in tokyo this

morning, thanks. despite president obama's public statement of support, it is clear u.s. officials don't exactly agree with the japanese assessment of the dangers at that nuclear facility. in fact, they are now asking americans to stay 50 miles away from it. jeff glor is here now with the latest on the growing gap between what we're hearing from the japanese government and what it seems many u.s. experts believe. >> already dire situation seems to get worse every day. more than 45,000 people are now displaced. offers of foreign aid coming from around the world. japan has onlied accepted 14 and u.s. charities raised $49 million for japan and pales in comparison to the 296 million raised after the 2010 haiti earthquake. the nuclear crisis, the head of the u.s. nuclear regulatory commission says the levels much radiation are, quote, extremely high. his comments are far more serious than what we are hearing

from japanese officials right now. nrc jeffrey commissioner gregory jaczko all of the water gone from the reactors and raising the possibility of widespread fallout. if it's true possible nothing would stop the radioactive fuel rods from overheating and ultimately melting down and concern that the outer shells of the rod could ignite with a force to propel that radioactive fuel over a wider area. >> here in the united states we would look to evacuating to a much larger distance. there are different standards for emergency workers and of course, in the end those are up to the japanese to make decisions about. >> japanese officials continue to say anyone within 19 miles of the plant should not go outside but u.s. officials are now recommended that any american within 50 miles of the fukushima site either evacuate or tleat lt stay indoors. joining us from washington is nuclear safety expert james

act acton. i want to have you clarify some of the things jeff talked about. the first one is the discrepancy in, i guess, sort of the danger zone. hearing from the japanese authorities there is this 19-mile radius in terms of evacuation. u.s. officials are saying a much wider swath, more than twice the size, 50 miles. americans within that area should evacuate. why the different takes here on the situation? >> good morning, erica. i think you have to remember that there is a big difference between americans in japan and japanese in japan right now. that is the americans in japan can go home. they have somewhere else to go. the nuclear crisis is just one part of a much broader crisis in japan. japan is being hit by a massive earthquake and a massive tsunami and over 500,000 people have already been evacuated. and the japanese authorities have to factor that into their plans. if they extend the evacuation zone and vac more people but not

able to shelter those people or feed those people probably better for those people to stay where they are and inside their houses which is better radiation protection than it might first appear. >> that paints one picture for us. what about the comments we're hearing which we have heard from the chairman jazz jaczko. things the u.s. knows and japanese government does not or simply different communication style? >> erica, this is pretty hard to explain. i mean, we have heard basically conflicting statements from the chairman of the nrc in the united states and from the japanese authorities about whether there is any water left in this spent fuel pond. i can't explain the discrepancy. i don't know who is right and i don't have any information. what i could say, again, given the triple disaster in japan, i'm inclined right now if the japanese government has made a mistake to give them the benefit of the doubt and believe it was a genuine mistake rather than an attempt to conceal information.

though these issues clearly have to bed and very carefully afterwards. >> whether or not there is water here is key. talk to us about what that water actually does. >> well, that water actually has two functions. it's a shield against radiation and it's also a coolant to keep those highly radioactive fuel rods cooled. now, as far as the shield against radiation goes, if you lose that shield, then those fuel rods are going to be irradiating an area around that fool pool and make it much harder for engineers to get in in order to repair it. the cooling issue is a little bit more complicated. the national academy of sentences and department of energy disagrees over whether radioactive spent fuel rods can ignite. so the truth here is actually we don't seem to know right now how much of a danger is posed if you lose the cooling function of the water. >> quickly before we let you go. we have seen the helicopters and heard about the water cannons on

the ground and also efforts to restore the power line for the coolant system. if that coolant system is restored, is it enough? >> we will see. and, you know, we have to very much hope that that power line is restored as quickly as possible. the thing that i will point out, though, is if you have power but the cooling system is damaged, then there is no guarantee that restoring power is going to bring this terrible crisis to an end. >> of course, one of the hardest parts of all of this are those workers and 180 workers working in different shifts who are, as lucy pointed on what some are calling a suicide mission. james acton, thanks for being with us. >> thank you. with the drama unfolding in japan many questions about this country's nuclear power systems are being asked. just how safe is it and could this kind of failure happen here? cbs news national correspondent jim axelrod is in peekskill, new york. jim, good morning. >> reporter: good morning,

chris. new york's governor andrew cuomo wants a safety review conducted on indian point which sits on one of the most populated areas in new york. judging from lawmakers in washington he will not be alone. congressional hearings held wednesday over growing concerns about the safety of nuclear power in the united states. >> china, venezuela and countries shutting down older plants and scrapping plants for newer ones. we need a seismic approach in our shift to nuclear reactor safety. >> reporter: of particular interest is what is used in daiichi plant. called the mark one designed by gm in the 1960s. there are 23 mark one reactors currently operating in 16 sites across the country. dale bridenbaugh quit his job in 1976 as a ge safety manager over ge's concern over the mark

dependability. >> anything that would wipe out the backup power system to those plants could result in the same thing that is happening at fukushima. >> reporter: yn electric says modification have made the mark one safe but not just the mark one that is raising concerns across the country. the indian point nuclear plant here in new york is a different design, but still worries governor andrew cuomo. >> as attorney general, i did a lot of work on indian point. my position was that it shouldn't be relicensed. my position was that it should be closed. >> reporter: indian point sits 35 moles north of new york the city with the highest population in the u.s. and right near a seismic fault line. officials from the company insist the plant is safe and can withstand a quake up to a magnitude of 6.1. >> they shouldn't be concerned because the likelihood of an earthquake greater than than what we're already prepared for is extremely low. >> reporter: the spokesman for the company that owns and operating indian point, steets says it wasn't the earthquake that damaged the plant in japan, it was the tsunami and that the

odds of a tsunami hitting here are even more remote than an earthquake hitting here. chris? >> cbs' jim axelrod, thank you. david lochbalm is a long time nuclear safety activists and joins us from chattanooga, tennessee this morning. sir, good morning. >> good morning, chris. >> reporter: not to alarm people here, but this situation in japan has prompted some renewed focus here in the u.s. i guess question is should it happen here in the united states result in the same type of nuclear disaster we are seeing over there? >> we use similar reactor designs with similar regulations so something like that were to happen here we should have similar results. >> now, we're hearing some pretty strong words about needing a seismic shift in safety. when you look at nuclear plants across the u.s. do you think an overhaul needs to start and exactly how the nuclear plants operate? >> it couldn't hurt. as jim pointed out earlier the

indian point plant, last year, nrc inspectors found a safety device installed at that plant for the sole purpose of protecting against water loss in case of an earthquake had been leaking since 1993. the plant's owner and the nrc says it only leaks when it's filled with water and they have allowed that to continue. that kind of behavior is just simply unacceptable public policy. >> let's talk about overall. the nrc, the nuclear regulatory commission talking tough yesterday about the situation in japan. how good of a job do you think they do overall here in the united states watch dogging the nuclear plants here? >> i think the nrc does a good job setting the safety bar at the level and where they have problem is enforcing those situations and let too many limbo beneath the safety bar instead of meet the safety regulations. >> if can i get your thoughts on a lot of these licenses for these nuclear plants here in the united states they have this arbitrary number their licenses get renewed over 40 years and when they are renew it's stamped

another additional 20 years. where do they come up with the numbers and do you think those requirements are accurate? >> the original 40 years was an arbitrary. it matched what the fcc gave for radio stations. they were licensed for 40 years so they gave nuclear plants licenses for 40 years. 20 years is thought to be roughly half of that. since we've never been in though territories we will go half of that and take a look after 60 years. >> like jim mentioned 23 identical plants in the u.s. to the mark one that is currently having the issues in japan right now. 105 total nuclear plants here in the united states. now their cooling system and backup batteries basically ran out and that is why they are having the problem that they are having out there is that a system an aspect of the system here in the united states that needs to be looked at to make sure something like that doesn't happen here? >> when japan, the batteries were sized to last for eight hours and that wasn't enough. only 11 reactors in the united states are sized for eight

hours. 93 of our reactors have 43-hour bastry capacity. it wasn't enough in japan and we have roughly half of that and not likely in ours we would fare better with less battery capacity. >> doesn't sound like much for people hearing those numbers. thank you for your time. >> thank you, chris. let's get you a check of the weather on this thursday morning. marysol castro is standing by with our first look at the national picture. good

thanks so much. that's your latest weather. >> looks beautiful. >> have to agree. still coming up this hour on "the early show," the desperate search for missing americans in japan continues. >> we have an update on the one of them, taylor anderson' brought you her story on "the early show." we have advice for families trying to find their loved ones in japan. stay with us. you're watching "the early show"

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the images of destruction that we have been seeing for nearly a week now out of japan, and with each new picture, it's still just stops you in your tracks as you look at what has happened. this morning, we're going to talk a little bit more, and we've been looking at taylor anderson, the search for a young american teacher in japan. one of hundreds of americans in the tsunami zone in northern japan. >> her parents, if you remember, were mistakenly told that she'd been located. now they're back at work trying desperately to find her. we're going to give you the very latest on taylor's situation. and a red cross official will tell us how hard it is to get good information in this kind of crisis. we'll be right back. >> this portion of "the early

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this morning, san jose police tell us that a man who was shot execution- style is on life good morning. it's time for news headlines. i'm frank mallicoat. san jose police say a man who was shot execution-style is on life support. the victim was shot in the head outside bascomb avenue yesterday. a surveillance camera captured the suspect running away. three schools were locked down after the shooting. pacific gas and electric could face fines of a million dollars a day from the california public utilities commission. the utility failed to turn over key safety records yesterday imposed after the deadly san bruno pipeline explosion. if you are going to big sur, make new plans. the 30-foot section of highway

one fell down a cliff yesterday south of big sur. it could take months to fix it. got your traffic and your weather on this st. patrick's day coming up right after this. ,,,,,,,,,, ,,

good morning. it is jammed solid through lafayette right now. westbound 24 in the commute

direction, an injury crash right now, paramedics on scene near acalanes. a line of brake lights extends back towards 680. so yeah, really slow going. closer to orinda, speeds improve. at the bay bridge toll plaza, our delays are minimal. not too bad. backed up to the end of that overcrossing. you see there in the distance only about 10-minute delays right now to get you on the bridge. then it looks okay right now on the upper deck. and if you were watching us earlier we had an earlier injury crash in livermore on westbound 580 before north first street, pretty much back to normal. here's lawrence with the forecast. >> not a bad day around the bay area. about as dry as it's going to be for the next seven days or so. not a bad start over the bay right now clear skies there, a little chilly though out the door, 30s and 40s now. by the afternoon partly cloudy skies, the temperatures running in the 50s and 60s. there is a chance we could see some showers north of the golden gate bridge. more rain on the way for tomorrow.

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half past the hour now as we welcome you back to "the early show." for the past few days, as we have been following the devastation and the aftermath in japan, we've also been following the search for missing loved ones, including taylor anderson. a virginia woman who was there teaching, went missing in northern japan. her family was mistakenly told earlier this week she had been found. we have now hearing at least two other americans reported as safe initially are actually still missing, as well. >> this really shows you just how hard it is to get accurate information in the middle of a crisis of this magnitude. coming up we're going to ask a red cross official just about that and how to get some advice for worried families who are still searching for their loved ones. there's so much information, both good information and bad

information coming out of the crisis in japan. it's very, very difficult. >> want to help them sift through that. get them the best possible information. first we want to check in with jeff glor over at the news desk with a look at the top headlines we're following for you on this thursday morning. >> these are the headlines on japan this morning. the u.s. is chartering planes to begin evacuating americans from japan. the head of the u.s. nuclear regulatory commission, meanwhile, says the spent fuel at one reactor at the fukushima daiichi plant is totally exposed, and that radiation levels are extremely high. japanese military helicopters are dumping sea water on the plant. that's a last-ditch effort to cool the overheated fall. workers are attempting to install a new power line to the cooling system. and the white house is urging americans within 50 miles of that plant to

the state department says more than 1,000 americans were working in northern japan at the time of last week's earthquake.

it is unclear how many of them are still missing or unaccounted for. but what is clear is that this is a nightmare for their families back home. virginia native taylor anderson was teaching english at a school near the epicenter of the quake. this morning her family is still desperately trying to locate her. cbs news correspondent nancy cordes is at the anderson's home in midlothian, virginia, just outside of richmond. nancy, good morning. >> reporter: good morning, erica. this family is awake all night every night, because that's when it's daytime in japan, when they can actually hope to get updates when the search is taking place. they thought they had a major breakthrough two days ago. but that turned out to be a false lead. 24-year-old taylor anderson left the elementary school where she teaches english right after the earthquake struck. but before the tsunami came ashore. her city of ishinomaki sits on the ocean. sections of it were devastated. while other areas on higher ground were spared. but which part was taylor in? >> this is basically the route

we think she would have taken to work. >> reporter: no one knew so her parents, sister and boyfriend sprang into action. >> right over here. >> reporter: combing internet message boards, blasting out messages on twitter and facebook, even posting her typical bike route between the school and home online. two days ago, just before they appeared on "the early show," the andersons got wonderful news from taylor's teaching program. taylor was found. she was safe in a shelter. >> i couldn't believe it. i was so relieved. >> reporter: but 12 hours later, they learned it had been a mistake. a false rumor from a region where communication is sporadic. >> so i can forward you this chart, the one that i've started. >> reporter: frustrated by the lost time, but refusing to lose hope, her family got back to work. directing the search from 7,000 miles away. do you think about going to japan? >> yeah. we tried. and they, you know, strongly -- said strongly, no, you shouldn't do that.

you can become a liability. >> reporter: the state department says it has received hundreds of inquiries about missing americans. and has told the andersons that finding taylor is one of its top priorities. >> these people over there are doing the best they can with what they've got. the problem is they don't have much. they don't have sat phones. they don't -- it's hard to get food, water, gas, shelter. they're running around sleeping in vans. i mean, they're not equipped. >> the andersons are trying to remain upbeat. they say they are convinced that she's fine and at a shelter somewhere, just unable to call out. there are about 1,000 people in taylor's teaching program. only about four of them, erica, right now, are still missing. >> nancy cordes for us this morning outside of richmond. thanks. taylor anderson's story shows just how difficult it can be to find loved ones in the middle of this disaster. david meltzer of the american red cross joins us now this morning with more on that. as we just heard from in nancy's piece and we heard from the andersons, they do seem

remarkably upbeat. they're clearly focused in this search. when you hear what happens it begs the question, how does this happen, this misinformation? >> well, when you realize we're dealing with not one, but two, and even three terrible disasters, one of which is still unfolding, and you have close to half a million people are homeless, so we are seeing what the military calls the fog of war. the fog of disaster, and maintaining contact with people when communication lines is always, always very difficult following a disaster. >> so is that what you would say is the biggest challenge is the communication or lack thereof? >> it is, unfortunately. we live in a very technologically dependent society. so when the phone lines go down, when the cell towers go down, we see many cases of people unable to locate missing loved ones. >> so when that happens, what is the best strategy for someone trying to locate a loved one? >> well, the best strategy is go online, you can go to redcross.org and you will see a number of phone numbers.

the state department maintains a phone number for looking for u.s. citizens. there are various websites, such as icrc.org, family link, where people can register, i'm looking for someone. and also see who is registered by the icrc, as well as many other organizations. >> there's been some question about, you know, whether the american red cross would be in there or should be in there on the ground helping to look for people. where is that situation stand right now? >> right now, we have the red cross, the japanese red cross, is actively looking for people, including ms. anderson. the japanese red cross has 2 million volunteers. they speak just japanese. they understand the culture. and they are already on the ground helping to reunite families such as ms. andersons. so searches are under way. >> and they're the best prepared, especially in that region. we heard her parents say they tried to go. they were trying to get to japan, and they were told pretty strongly, they should not. is that what you would say to

any family thinking, you know what, i'm going to go in there and i'm going to start this search myself? >> we so much understand the compelling need for people to go and do everything possible. it's human nature. but, really, if you don't speak the language, if you don't understand the culture, and if a disaster is still unfolding, as unfortunately it is in japan, the best thing is to maintain contact through the phone, talk to friends of your children, and start a phone tree. and you never know when one call may make a difference. >> we should point out, too, even though some of these regions may not have internet access, may not have phones, the internet can really be your friend here, especially social networking sites. >> it absolutely can. we see it in case after case where someone is able to find a missing person through the internet. and we see this after years, in some cases. so my advice would be not to give up trying, to keep on searching through the internet, as well as calling friends of your children, and hopefully one

thing will lead to another and you will be reunited. that certainly is our hope. >> great advice. david meltzer, thanks for your time this morning. >> thank you. just ahead, the tax man cometh. in exactly a month. in case you weren't keeping track. we are on top of it for you. including the latest on some big changes you should definitely know about before you file. all the tax goodies, just ahead. this is "the early show" on cbs. vegetables have important vitamins and minerals that can really help protect you. and v8 juice gives you three of your five daily servings. powerful, right? v8. what's your number?

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in this morning's "moneywatch," tax tips. the irs deadline is april 18th this year and according to turbotax more than a quarter of all americans wait until the last two weeks to file. cbs news business and economics correspondent rebecca jarvis is here with some big changes that you need to know about before you do file. but first, that strikes me as odd. why would people procrastinate when it comes to doing their taxes? >> people just obviously don't want to do them. they don't want to get to them and they don't. >> totally kidding. lots of new changes like we did mention for people filing their taxes. and, if you're unemployed you really need to watch your ps and qs before you file this year.

>> yeah, because your inemployment compensation in 2010 is actually taxable. in 2009 that wasn't the case. but in 2010 you got to pay taxes on it if you went on unemployment in 2010. >> let's say you're self-employed. what are some changes you need to know about. >> one of the big things is going to benefit you. if, for health insurance for your child, and even if your child isn't claimed as a dependent on your taxes you can be reimbursed and take a deduction for your child's premium, if you were paying them as a self-employed individual. up to 27 years old. >> 27 years old. okay that was my question. let me ask you this, if you are filing as self-employed, there are a number of different caveats you need to watch out for, as well. because you could draw some additional attention to yourself and that's never a great idea. >> yeah, you don't want to get flagged by the irs. and the irs actually has a formula, depending on what you claim your income as, they have a formula for how many are too many deductions. so you just have to be careful. you have to be mindful, and obviously you have to have that receipt backup for everything that you claim as a

self-employed individual. >> and it's almost best to kind of keep a file all year round to keep all the receipts because you never know when you are going to get that call saying that you have an audit and you need to have records of everything. >> exactly. you want to keep a file. the rule of them is that you need to use it exclusively for business purposes. so if you're claiming something or deducting something as a self-employed individual, you need to be able to show that you exclusively use that item for your business. >> let's talk about some of the little add-ons here that could add up and mean quite a bit of money to you when you are filing your taxes. we'll talk about the deduction of car mileage. because that has also changed during the last year as well. >> yeah, it's actually gone down. previous years you could claim 55 cents a mile. this year, you can claim 50 cents per mile. for your business use of a vehicle. so, just make sure you're mindful of that. and also keep records of that. because the irs can come back to you and say how many miles did you travel? we need to see every single trip you're claiming. >> and also, for people who bought homes, they got the first-time home buyers deduction. >> yes. well there's this $8,000 tax

credit if you are buying for the first time. up to $8,000. if you're a second or third or whatever time buyer, you can claim up to $6,500 in that home buyer credit. but the important thing to keep in mind, you need to file your taxes on hard copy. you need to file them by paper in order to get that credit. >> before we leave you here, what's the biggest mistake people make overall when filing? >> one of the biggest issues is that people have math errors. and a math error is a red flag to the irs that you've screwed up. if they come back to you, after a math error, they're going to tax you not only on the error that you made, but payment with interest. so you're going to be paying interest every single day before that math error you made, whatever day you made it on. and you just don't want to do that. and also, i mean, an audit, it's just costly and it will drive you crazy. it really will. >> to say the least. >> stay away from it. >> rebecca jarvis, thank you. file those taxes. don't wait till the last minute. coming up next, serious visits for prince william as he meets earthquake victims in new

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whoops. no sequel for that guy. you may be aware that prince william has moved again. >> yeah. >> he's on the move. he's actually in new zealand this morning. and he's there, of course, in the wake of the earthquake, the 6.2 magnitude quake there last month. he's in the central city area which has been closed off to all but rescue workers. he calls the damage unbelievable. >> his mom, as we know, one of the great humanitarians. he is following in her foot steps. we'll have more. macy's is giving somebody a million dollar makeover. we're down to eight contestants, now we need you to help us choose the winner on facebook. you could even win a 500 dollar macy's gift card. macy's million dollar makeover.

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at yoplait dot com. the yoplait you love, now in a 4-pack. try it today. b-s five... i'm frank mallicoat. it could be months before anyone can drive on highway one in the big sur area. that's because a 30-foot chunk of the liff, it is 7:55. i'm sydnie kohara. it could be months before anyone could drive on highway 1 in big sur because a 30-foot section of the road went down a cliff. some drivers had to walk to safety. san jose's old city hall about to change hands as parts of a deal settle a lawsuit. santa clara county sued the city's redevelopment agency for $63 million over past debt. the county will get the old city hall which has been vacant since the new city hall opened downtown in 2005. and today is st. patrick's day. traditionally, it's a religious holiday in honor of st. patrick, patron saint of ireland. but in the u.s., most of the

celebrations are full of rock and roll and green beer at bars and pubs including many here in the bay area. we'll look at traffic and weather right after this. ,,,,,,,,,,

let's check the drive on westbound 580 out of the altamont pass. unfortunately, it's still a busy one. there was an earlier accident in livermore approaching north first. long since cleared from lanes for at least an hour or so. unfortunately, it's still backed up in the area. so you may want to consider

altamont pass road as an alternate. at the bay bridge toll plaza, hey this looks great. totally different story here. traffic nice and light right now heading into san francisco. unfortunately, a lot of people may be stuck in the backup on westbound 24. an accident near acalanes road in lafayette just cleared. unfortunately, it is still stop and go from beyond the 680 interchange. that is your traffic. for your forecast, here's lawrence. >> all right, we are looking for that pot o' gold en sunshine around the bay area. we'll see it early on today but some parts of the bay area seeing clouds rolling in again and yes, folks, we are looking at showers developing in parts of the north bay, skirting north of here. most of the energy will stay to the north. so the rest of the bay area should be mostly dry. with that in mind, shouldn't be a bad day outside. we'll see partly cloudy skies temperatures in the 50s and 60s in the afternoon. tomorrow a good soaker. it's going to get progressively wet throughout the day tomorrow, possibility of some thunderstorms, gusty winds, some no down to about 3,000 feet.

-- some snow down to about 3,000 feet. ,,,,,,,,

welcome back and welme welcome back to "the early show." top of the hour. chris wragge with erica hill. looks like there's some type of chlorine problem at the white house. must be a budget issue. they've let it go. >> that's not green for the organic garden? no. st. patrick's day, everybody. >> exactly. >> happy st. patrick's day to you and yours. >> get ready to celebrate on fifth avenue in new york. >> big parade. >> big day. we welcome everyone back to "the early show." coming up this hour, we've got the latest technology to help you live a much better life. in fact, some of this amazing stuff can save lives like a military robot that could be used to help quake victims in japan and also shoes with gps trackers. a laptop controlled by your

eyes. >> i'm fascinated by that. >> it is amazing to be honest with you. don't want to give it away but katie linendoll will show us how to use it all. it is brilliant technology. >> also ahead, we are checking in on the royal wedding, six weeks to go, a frantic pace as you can imagine. prince william is actually -- you see prince harry there, kate middleton, new photos have surfaced of miss middleton the princess to be and some concern maybe she's getting too skinny. how about that? we're going to be live in london with the latest. all the royal scoop including a little more on prince william we nexted who's in new zealand in the wake of the quake. >> first let's go back over to jeff glor at the news desk for the latest news from japan and the headlines this morning. >> good morning to you, good morning to everyone. the u.s. has begun the process of evacuating americans from japan this morning as the situation at a crippled nuclear power plant worsens. this morning helicopters dropped

sea water on the fukushima daiichi plant in a last-ditch effort to cool down overheating nuclear fuel and lucy craft is in tokyo with more. >> good morning, jeff. while work continues here around the clock at the fukushima daiichi nuclear complex, the question for many visitors here is how to find a way out. the exodus out of japan is well under way this morning, with foreigners many wearing face masks flocking to airports to flee. when some passengers land on flights from japan, they are facing radiation checkpoints like this one in seoul this morning. for the first time the u.s. state department is offering charter flights to evacuate its employees who voluntarily want to leave as well as other american civilians who want to evacuate. for those who choose to stay in japan, u.s. officials are telling americans within 50 miles of the plant to evacuate the area or stay indoors. that is 2.5 times as wide as as

the danger zone established by the japanese. >> i will not judge the japanese evaluation of the data. i will say based on our analysis and our expert analysis, this is what we would do if this incident were happening in the united states. >> reporter: last night in a phone call, president obama offered prime minister kan the full support of the u.s. as japan struggles to recover. at the crippled plant, japanese military helicopters this morning dumped sea water on a reactor hoping to cool overheated fuel rods. emergency workers are also using water cannons normally used to quell rioters to spray high pressure water from a distance. japanese officials also claim they're close to restoring power needed to run cooling systems. but newly released images show the extent of the damage to the reactor four at the plant. u.s. authorities believe the spent fuel pools at this reactor are dry which could cause fuel rods to melt down but japanese officials deny those claims. the pentagon is sending an assessment team to japan to see

whether a much larger military unit called a chemical biological radiation nuclear engineering consequence response force is needed. jeff? >> thanks. the u.s. government says the risk in this country from the radiation in japan is minor. this is a forecast from the comprehensive nuclear test ban treaty organization showing the projected path of the escaped radiation might follow. the forecast does not show actual radiation levels, though, and experts emphasize any radioactive plume will be diluted as it travels and even in a worse case little impact in the u.s. this morning the u.n. security council is expected to vote on establishing a no-fly zone over libya. in libya both rebel and government troops claim to control the city of misurata this morning. rebel forces are said to be barely holding on to parts of ajdabiya, the last major city on the road to the rebel stronghold of benghazi where this morning, the reports of gunfire at the airport. cbs news correspondent mark phillips is in tripoli in libya this morning with the latest.

mark, good morning. >> good morning, jeff. well, after a week of steady losses, the rebel forces, the ones opposing moammar gadhafi, are fighting a desperate rear guard action around ajdabiya. it is very much the gateway to the area of the country that the rebels control. if that falls, the road up to benghazi would be open and the road to tubruk further toward the egyptian border would also be open as well, allowing the government troops to perhaps swing around and cut off benghazi from there. as you said there are reports of heavy fighting around ajdabiya. the government forces are said to be on three sides of it. the only open side is the north side along the road toward benghazi. reports as well about bombing at the airport at benghazi where the rebels have claimed, unconfirmed, but claimed to be flying a fueled airplanes with sorties of its own. a manager at the airport tells us, in fact, a bomb did fall but it fell harmlessly in some

outside area of the airport. >> mark phillips, thank you, mark. secretary of state hillary clinton says one term as the nation's top diplomat will be enough. asked yesterday in cairo if she would continue to serve in a second term obama administration, a potential second term administration, clinton said no. she also said she will not run again for president. president obama is ready for march madness, it appears. he broke out the brackets at the white house yesterday and made his picks in the ncaa basketball tournament. didn't exactly go out on a limb, though. for his final four he chose all number one seeds, ohio state, pittsburgh, duke and kansas, who he thinks will win it all. a reminder you can watch action of the march madness and the ncaa tournament beginning at noon today, including right here on cbs. what a brilliant time of year it is. >> it is. >> when you can hear that music. >> he picked kansas? >> he did pick kansas. >> kansas is the number one seed playing a 16 seed, boston university. go terrors.

>> what is the president thinking. >> erica hill has bu over ku in the first round. >> a stunning first round upset. >> some day history needs to be made with a 16 seed beating a number 1 seed. i say why not on friday at 6:50 p.m. >> we need to get on the phone to the white house and tell the president he should have gone on out on a limb there. >> marysol castro is here with another check of the weather. you take care of the weather i'll make the phone call. >> i'm not going out on the limb in terms of the weather. because everyone gets very angry at me. light snow in the rockies, east coast gorgeous. morning clouds will give way to afternoon sunshine. then we see a little persnicketiness, i made that word out, in the great plains. it's also just an all rain event. ahead of the storm, windy and warm, behind the storm it's dry and cool. it should be done by your evening commute. over to the southern plains it continues to be warm. 70s, 80s and 90s. this is all above normal by about 30 degrees. we are keeping an eye on some

fire dangers all the way from texas to,,,, >> this weather report sponsored by ashley furniture. the number one name in furniture. >> thanks so much. that's your latest weather. here's chris. >> that was a scintillating forecast. >> i said commute, it's really commute. it's thursday. >> tomato, tomato. >> coming up next, new technology to help us live

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>> t in this in in the this morning's health watch high tech devices are on the market that can help everyone from burn victims to alzheimer's patients. katie linendoll is here to show us each and every one of the items. good to see you. >> good morning. >> start with this first one. >> the first one is really exciting, this is from i-robot, which you might know as the creator of the roomba. they also make military technologies. this is a pac bot. $100,000 robot. a lot of people don't realize one in 50 soldiers in afghanistan is a robot. its main job is to stay in the line of fire and it can actually be thrown into a window in a hostage situation, it has cameras on it, it can beam back

the imagery. we put it in places where we don't want our soldiers. it was used in 9/11 in rescue operations. they've offered assistance. they can actually sample the air for radiation and chemicals and keep soldiers at a safe distance. >> you saw the movie "the hurt locker" and ied snooze yes. is this really hard to work off? no, he's controlling it with a playstation 2 controller. >> not bad. $100,000 each you say into yes. >> great tock noechnology. >> this looks like a regular shirt from underarmor. inside is a bug. that bug is a computer trip. it can track the breathability, their acceleration. >> heart rate. >> everything. so these statistics can be tracked real time sending it to a handheld device or computer. so much that this was recently used at the combine. up to 30 athletes had their

statistics tracked in the moment and sending them on the nfl network. >> all the pro coaches and general managers watch them before they draft them. >> wii things like wi-fi this allows you to not only track your progress on a scale. it can track eight users. you hop on it. it will track your progress and set goals too. if you want to get really intense you can tweet your weight daily. if everybody is seeing your progress, you might feel more motivated. >> won't be doing that. >> move on to the sneakers. these have a gps in them. alzheimer's patients. >> i want to talk about alzheimer's technology. from my mom's experience in dealing with my grandfather sometimes they go into wandering situations. new technology looks like a regular loafer. comes in a loafer or sneaker form from gtx corp. they make apps with gps technology. inside, gps, so any time you suspect somebody wanders off you can see instantly where they're

located via web or six message and also set up safe zones. go outside the safe zone, and then they get an alert. >> how about this? >> same kind of situation, this is an m finder. looks like a regular watch. you can't take it off. there's two different devices. you can't take this off without somebody helping you. if you suspect somebody has wandered off you call 911 they call m finders, they will triangulate your location and show you where the patient is. >> like a low jack for human beings. >> these pills? >> i love this technology for alzheimer's. this is connected, this is a pill cap, regular pill cap, glows when you're supposed to take your medication. glow caps. if you forget to take it it will send a ring tone, you can actually hear it going off there. if you really forget in two hours it will call you. >> we have this laptop, which is eye sensory. >> from tobey assisted and lenovo. you don't need to use your hands. imagine being able to create

efficiency tracking everything you do fast with only your eyes. how remarkable is that. >> is it optical? >> yes. >> so all the sensor bars are here. it will track your eye in a 3d model and communicate using only eye technology. >> what about these apps over here. >> this is dragon dictation. this converts everything you say to text. if you've ever been on a small keyboard and tying really fast, dragon dictation allows you to increase technology by five times, 150 words per second. free app on any mobile or handheld device. >> for the foreign language student. >> type in a little sentence here, right, and then actually translate it to 50 different languages. this is google translate, another free app, and what's awesome, you can have it speak to you. imagine being able to take this on vacation and translate 50 languages. if i wanted i could blow it up and communicate what i'm trying to say. >> we just have the one for

people for burn victims. we have a video we want to show. >> very fast. the skin cell gun, this is an amazing technology, actually worked with 12 patients to date. it is a gun that uses your own stem cells for second degree burns and you can spray it on just like a paint gun, creating new skin. >> great. katie linendoll, thank you so much. >> thanks. >> these are life-changing products. >> it's amazing. >> for more on these products go to our website, earlyshow.cbsnews.com. coming up next the latest on wil and kate's big wedding, all the news from london and the photos that have people wondering if she's getting too thin. this is "the early show" on cbs. >> "cbs healthwatch," sponsored by campbell's to help you eat well and feel good, it's amazing what soup can do. how about eating soup to get there? campbell's soups fill you with good nutrition, farm-grown ingredients, and can help you keep a healthy weight. campbell's. it's amazing what soup can do.

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six weeks to go until the royal wedding. and there is plenty to talk about. including prince william's

latest royal mission as a newly released photos of kate middleton that are sparking a weight debate. poor kate can't catch a break. cbs news royal contributor victoria arbiter joins us from outside buckingham palace with the very latest. good to see you, as always. >> good to see you, erica. good morning. >> good morning. or good afternoon, i should say. let's start quickly with prince william. we touched on this a little bit. he is in new zealand today and he is there, of course, in response to the quake which struck, specifically he's in christchurch, which struck last month. >> yes, that's absolutely right. he arrived in christchurch this morning and went immediately to the red zone in the city center. which is still closed to the public due to the dangerous nature of the buildings. there he met search and rescue teams and also visited the most damaged buildings. he then went to the country's south island to meet families who lost love ones in the pike river mining disaster at the end of last year. tomorrow he'll attend a memorial service for the quake victims and on saturday he'll travel to

australia to see the areas that were damaged by the recent cyclones and floods. >> really another show of this increased role for the royal family. >> absolutely, yes. >> kate was not with prince william today. but we are getting plenty to talk about when it comes to miss catherine middleton this morning. one of the first things i want to touch on is this dress. we've heard a lot about the fact that she caught prince williams eye when she was modeling the dress you see here. i use the word dress in quotes. at a fashion show when they were both at university at st. andrews. it's now being auctioned off. >> yes, it is. and if you have any spare change lying around it's reported to fetch around $15,000. >> whoo. >> of course, if there's any avid royal collectors in the crowd it may go for a lot more pr the infamous dress is said to have sparked the romance. >> definitely sparking something. that's for sure. that's not the only kate news we have this morning. there are these pictures which have emerged of a trip that she took in 2006, i believe it was,

with prince william. these are new photos from that trip of her in a white bikini and now has people talking as to whether or not those photos compared to the kate middleton we see today, if she is a little too thin at this point. >> it's interesting, as you mentioned, erica, that the weight debate has surfaced. it's a harsh lesson to kate in a way that a flippant remark she made in belfast has been misconstrued and the crowd on the walkabout said to her, don't lose any more weight and she just casually laughed and said, oh, it's all part of the wedding plan. well, of course, everyone now think that's smacks of an eating disorder and worries. most brides like to look their best on the day, especially when the whole world is watching. perhaps she's lost a little weight. but she looks very healthy in her face. as you said, those photos are five years old. >> she's very athletic, she's very sporty. so one would imagine she's really just in great shape. let's look at a couple things they've checked off the to-do list. they've got the music down, we know they have the charity

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announcer: at sutter health, our story is you. for more stories, visit sutterhealth.org. looking for a suspect and a motive... after a man was shot in the head, outside a mcdonald's restaurant good morning, it' time for news headlines. >> a man was shot and killed at a mcdonald's at bascomb avenue. he was brought across the street to valley medical center. he is now on life support. the state is threatening to fine pg&e a million dollars a day for failing to turn over key safety records by tuesday's deadline. that's after the san bruno explosion. the puc asked the company to supply documents that prove its gas pressure levels are safe. puc's executive director said pg&e made a deliberate decision not to comply. a section of highway 1 is shut down near big sur for good

reason, because it's a mess down there, folks. a big 30-foot chunk of the highway just fell down a cliff yesterday. apparently caused by steady erosion from rain and waves. nobody was hurt but it's going to be a long time before they get that up and running once again. traffic and weather around the bay area in just a moment. stay with us. ,,,,,,,,,,,,

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good morning. an accident southbound 880 approaching tennyson was just cleared to the right shoulder. unfortunately, we're still seeing a lot of slow traffic from at least winton. farther up the nimitz freeway 880 through oakland, unfortunately, just starting to see that typical bottleneck there in those northbound lanes past the coliseum. so again about a half hour between 238 and th maze. accident northbound 280 before saratoga avenue causing slow traffic towards the 880 interchange. but the bay bridge another day for a great ride into san francisco. that is your traffic. here's lawrence with your forecast. >> it's looking nice so far, elizabeth. a lot of sunshine in most of the bay area. but yeah, folks, we do have some changes coming in the north bay. we have some rain already showing up there in bodega bay just north into occidental, guerneville showers there, good cell towards the coast. most of that will stay in the north bay today, the rest more passing clouds. more rain for everyone tomorrow. ,,,,,,,,

welcome back to "the early show" on this st. patrick's day. you know, the fifth avenue sign here in new york city may be green every day. but fifth avenue does not always have that fancy green stripe. it does today. huge parade kicking off at 11:00 a.m. eastern time. just don't the street from our studios here. it is actually a perfect place to watch the parade from the plaza here at 59th and 5th. >> all we do, really, we rotate this couch right around. just sit back a little. put the legs up, and we're good to go. >> you got that right. >> very nice. >> just ahead -- >> sit on that a little bit. >> before we get to that. you have likely noticed, i think we all have, the price of

groceries continues to rise. get this in february, wholesale food prices, up 4%. taking me aback. the biggest one-month increase since 1974. you are going to feel that pricing very soon. susan koeppen, though, here as you see, to tell us how buying in bulk, heading for the freezer section, making some other smart moves in the store, can really pay off. >> eat your carrots. without a doubt. >> for years that will benefit you. the old eyes. >> if you are going to the supermarket today, we don't want you to forget to walk down the beer aisle. >> hello. >> we're celebrating st. patrick's day with some fine irish brews. nothing better for you for anything that ails you out there, and i said walk down the beer aisle. we've got our own beer aisle, mr. ray isle, from "food & wine" magazine is going to help you. >> how long did it take you to think of that one. >> he was up all night. >> what's best for you, jeff? stout, ale, lager? >> lager mostly, but i do like

the stouts. >> nice. >> guinness has -- >> the brewmaster here. we'll all get a chance to sample all of ray's fine libations. >> tough gig. before we go do that, we want to get the check from marysol of the weather before anybody has a sip of anything. >> thank you very much. before you sip your coffee or your lager, let's take a look at the national picture. the east coast has some morning clouds, but by the afternoon, it will be absolutely gorgeous. we have some rain in the northern plains. light snow in the rockies, but take a look at the pacific northwest. they have a brief reprieve of rain for this morning. but then by the afternoon, overnight hours, we're looking at more. a quarter of an inch of rain in seattle. a quarter inch in san francisco. bozeman and sat like, one to two inches of a mixture of rain and snow. and then in homage to, because everyone's irish. luck, wisconsin, 50 degrees. shamrock, texas, 88. >> oh! >> but windy. chicago river, you will have 64,

partly sunny skies.,, thanks so much. that's your latest weather. now over to chris. >> marysol, thank you very much. wholesale food prices jumped almost 4% in february, the largest monthly increase in 36 years. no doubt we're going to see that rethreated at the checkout counter, so "early" show consumer correspondent susan koeppen is here to help us save some big-time money on our groceries. how are you? >> good. just what we want to hear. food prices going up. >> we've been talking about it for the last couple of weeks. one thing leads to another.

now we're all going to start feeling it at the grocery mart. this is a thing, i am a huge, huge offender of and that's convenience buys with just fruit alone. >> plenty of ways to save at the grocery store. we're going to talk about a few of them. the first are these convenience items. okay. you buy everything that's already chopped up, prepared for you. don't do it. don't do it. just buy the real thing and chop it up yourself. so we have an example. the pineapple, okay? the whole pineapple, $1.38 a pound. compared to the chopped up pineapple. >> look at this. $6.38 a pound. that is like giving your money away. here, take my money. you know. >> you know how lazy i am, i buy convenient packs of grapes. i mean, is that ridiculous. >> that's pretty bad. >> and i mean, it's true. your fruit, your vegetables. vegetables are going up huge time. so if you can. if you have the time, it's really not that hard. you just buy the real deal and

chop it up yourself. it takes what? five minutes? >> okay. >> okay. >> save a lot of money. >> $5 on a pint of pineapple. you also say buying in bulk. >> you can save 25% to 50% if you buy in bulk. buy your fruits, vegetables already in a three-pound bag, our example are the potatoes that we bought yesterday, in this bag they were 80 cents a pound. compared to $1.60 a pound buying them loose. >> that makes perfect sense. >> the only downfall for this one, i think, is that you can't individually inspect each and every piece of fruit, or each vegetable. so sometimes, you know, in say the apples you might get an apple that has a ding in it and you didn't realize it. >> seven out of eight -- >> if you can deal with that. then going with the bag is the best way to go. >> it's surprising. you say buy yogurt in bulk. that's something i don't think i would ever think of. >> it's really easy to buy the little containers, the single serving.

but if you're buying your yogurt in bulk you're going to save about 20% to 50% on your yogurt. and also the other thing, you look at the expiration date on these, yogurt usually stays good for a week past the date on your yogurt. so don't feel like you have to toss it, you know, on the day that date is right here. >> once you break the seal, it's okay for a couple of days, too. that would be my concern. that's why i like the little individual ones better. >> right. if you're not a huge yogurt eater, though. >> yeah. >> we're talking a lot about dairy and thichx like that. those are things that are going up, if you're not a huge yogurt eater, maybe not the solution for you. if you love your yogurt, your family eats it every day, buy it in bulk. >> why is it so great with cheese, eggs, things of that nature? >> saving money on dairy. we're talking about store brands. when you go into the store look for the store brands. we went shopping yesterday, buying cheese, buying eggs. and by shopping the store brands, we saved almost 50%. so you know, if you're getting hit in the wallet, you know, with these dairy products, with

the eggs, shop the store brands. you're going to save a lot of money. a lot of money. >> frozen food aisle is somewhere where you can save some big dollars, as well. >> produce. you can save up to 40% in produce just by shopping the frozen food aisle. buying frozen produce. especially if it's out of season. also think about how much you waste. if you buy fresh food, and you only use a little bit of it, the other part sits in the fridge and goes bad and you usually toss it out, the great thing about buying a bag of frozen vegetables is you just kind of pour out, you know, what you want, heat it up in the microwave and you still have the rest sitting in the freezer. with the fish you can save up to 50% buying frozen fish. fish is usually frozen anyway. by the time you get to that "fresh" counter, so just buy it frozen. >> the fact it's in the little plastic container. >> who cares. >> and what is this called -- >> the sale cycle. so stuff usually goes on sale every 12 weeks. so when you see something that

you like that you buy on a regular basis, stock up on it. and don't be afraid to use your freezer. so stuff like cheese or deli meat, you can put deli meat in the freezer for three months. stock up when it goes on sale. >> i like what you've done here. >> wrap it up and date it. >> you date it. >> so you know. >> yeah, exactly. susan koeppen, thank you so much. >> now over to erica. >> my mom does that with cold cuts. i never knew they lasted that long. spring begins this weekend. yes! if you are planning a little spring cleaning, we're going to help you out this morning. jamiee zanziger is special project director for "women's day" magazine and brought in some of her favorite items to organize all the little goodies around the house. good to have you with us again. >> good morning. thanks for having me. >> i love organizational things because i think, like a lot of people, sort of inspire you to get more organized. so that is our goal this morning. you're going to help us with that. starting with this piece, which just, it holds so much. >> i mean, this thing works in any room of your house. this is the ultimate door organizer from functional fabrics.

it's great in bathrooms because you can store extra toilet papers, products, cleaning products, in a mud room. in a grudge. >> it has a bunch of these straps but this one for the paper towels. >> this actually is ingenious. this velcros off into a tool belt. so you can walk around your house with your tool belt. >> wrap it up. this is fantastic. that's about how much? >> about $30 at hsn. on the back of the door. >> we love that. >> keeping with the vein of hanging things, the purse organizer. >> so no more digging around at the bottom of your closet for that handbag you used six months ago. this is the whitmor hand bag file and brings all of your hand bags up to your eyesight. great about this, clear files that you can store more than eight different bags. >> and you can use both sides which is great. >> hangs on a closet rod. really space saving. >> this next one, the jewelry one i have to say, i have been using these for probably ten years, at work, at home.

>> saves so much space and you can see everything. >> yeah and that's a major time saver. because you don't have to go rooting around your jewelry box for that one missing earring. everything is here in clear little pockets, there's no zippers. everything is at your fingertips. >> this one is double-sided, too. so you get a lot of storage. >> 80 pockets. that's a lot of jewelry. >> we should go shopping to fill it up. up next when it comes to children there's a lot of stuff, and sometimes keeping that contained can be really difficult. >> yes. you know as well as anyone that kids come with a lot of stuffed animals. they seem to multiply into a zoo, right? so here we have the boone oval animal bag. and this is great because you can corral all of those stuffed animals into a machine washable bag. >> oh. >> that doubles as a bean bag chair. >> how fun. >> so what's great here is that there's a little mesh window so your kids can still see all their friends inside. >> hello. >> and then you can use it as a pillow or a bean bag chair. >> you can sit on it to watch tv. educational tv, of course.

i love it, in the bathtub, toys get messy, they get gross if you don't clean them. >> this is the oxo whale pail. super fun. it swims through the water. the kids will do it themselves. picks up all of the bath toys. these holes on the side actually drain the water so the toys don't get moldy. and then it attaches to this holster that suction cups to your bath. >> perfect. i love the suction cups. you want as many as possible. a lot of people may have seen the frog pod, this is super cute. it's now a lady bug. >> this is from boone, a similar idea. it attaches to your wall for $15 extra, there's a built-in shelf on the back where you can store shampoo and bubble bath. >> this is a scoop, too. >> holder to the wall. >> i like it. plus it gets them to clean up. >> exactly. you trick them into it a little bit. >> i want this. it's a giant tool bucket. >> i mean, this is something that every man and woman can get

behind. 45 pockets on this tool organizer from klein tools. stores your pliers, your power drill, your screwdriver, and it fits around a five gallon bucket. so it's really great for lots of different types of organizing projects. >> bucket not included. >> but they're really cheap. >> they're easy to find. who doesn't need a little help organizing all the clutter, the mail that comes into your house? >> so much mail. so much junk mail. and keys. yup never have to look for them again if you use these lettro wall organizer by umbra. you can pop your mail into the back slot. >> perfect. and it's so nice and clean and minimal. >> right. >> it will inspire you to stay more organized. clipping coupons. >> well, clipping coupons is great, as you know, but they can float all around your kitchen. this is a great thing. it's a little booklet that actually sticks your refrigerator. inside is not only a pocket for your coupons but there's a note pad and pen for your grocery list. and on the front it moonlights

as a picture frame. so coupons get concealed. >> three in one. a little short on time. this is about $100. you scan your receipts in. >> everything. it uploads them into excel, even turbo tax. >> ooh, much easier. if you have slides, lots of pictures you don't know what to do with at home. >> the i-convert from brookstone. it's $100. you scan them right in. it uploads everything into digital files for you. so you keep them forever. >> perfect. and for those of us who have too many gadgets, a couple of tools for that. i'm going to make you look at them on the website because we're running a little low on time. it will be worth logging on to earlyshow.cbsnews.com for all that information. jamiee zanziger, always great to have you with us. chris, over to you. >> erica, thank you very much. sorry. let's be honest, st. patrick's day just wouldn't be the same without some good old irish beer. but there are lots of choices out there. so we asked ray isle, wine editor at "food & wine" magazine to help us pick the perfect pint for the hole low dap.

and ray joins us here this morning. >> great to be back. >> good to see you. >> i'm on the beer editor today. >> we've taken wine right out of the equation. people have lots of choices. >> there are a lot of choices. two basic dividends, ales and lagers. that's the basic beer division. make both in ireland. classic case of hearth lager, probably the irish lager. lagers are cold fermented. lighter and crisper than ales. delicious beer. >> so this is what we're going to start with? this is one of the most popular ones. >> it is one of the most popular ones. you can't go wrong with harp. >> i've never actually had a beer. >> it's good for you. you know, it's a healthy way to start the morning, i guess. and then what's happening also is interesting you're getting a lot of craft brewers in the u.s. who are doing irish style beers. >> it's light. >> it's light. got a little bitterness to it. in the same style of beer as,

you know, miller, budweiser, all that. but it's an irish version of it. >> this one -- >> this is rogue irish style lager. so it's american beer from oregon made in the same style as something like harp. a little, you can see, a little yeast in, why it's cloudy. it's got a little more oomph to it. >> a little murky. >> but that's intentionally murky. it's good murkiness. >> hold on, one more. >> and -- yeah. >> it's okay. >> this is a good segment. we've got a number of things here. >> all good. something about a good pint. with all due respect to these two i'm thinking something a little darker. >> this is a classic pint, you know, pint glass, in fact, which is these things are irish beer. smithwick's is the classic irish red ale. it's called a red ale because they toast the barley a little bit which gives it a kind of ruddy color and a tiny caramel note to it. >> a bit of smell to it.

>> so ales, warmer fermenting, the yeast stays on top. richer, darker style of beale. little more texture to them. a little more oomph. now sam adams does a version of this. >> classic. >> again, you know, sam adams, classic american craft brewer. they do an irish red. it's an american version of the classic irish red beer. >> red comes in where? >> they toast the barley a little bit so it gets that kind of ruddy color when they make the beer. >> oh, that's good, too. >> and it's a little lighter than the smithwick's. i think they're both terrific beers. >> hold me up here. >> we've got a ways to go here. >> now we're moving on to stout. >> moving on to stout. >> i'm here to help. >> you've got to help. >> also i arrived at my favorite part. >> stout is, you know, if you're thinking of irish beer you're going to think of guinness. murphy's is one of the other great irish stouts. big, dark, rich.

why don't i pass that down. >> all right. >> stout, you know, you get the red color in this from toasting the barley a little. this you toast a lot. so give that dark -- and murphy's has an almost coffee espresso. >> it does. >> guinness, on the other hand, which is the irish beer of all time. >> come on, jeff. >> i've never seen more people -- >> here, have a guinness. you know, it's a meal in a glass. >> i was going to say. this looks like a meal. >> but it's lighter than -- >> people think of guinness as being fairly rich. it's fairly light in alcohol. it doesn't have many more calories than light beer. >> is it really full of iron? >> that's kind of an old wife's tale. >> i'm sticking with it. >> women are often anemic. >> the skim milk -- >> less calories than skim milk. >> one of the reasons to do it. >> it tastes so much better than skim milk. >> is it good for my bones? >> i don't know if there's time

for a cocktail here. >> oh, sure. >> we're calling it an irish strongman. a variation on something called a coney island strong man. a little bit of chartreuse. aromatic liqueur. a little bit of shaking. >> you want to do shaking honors? >> and, this is -- a restaurant in boston -- >> so it's already. >> there you go. hold that on. >> it smells good. >> yes.es >> aromatic -- >> the mixture. there'ses mixture. >> oh! >> and this is from a couple restaurants did a wonderful thing, we took it to the magazine, twisted it around a little bit, made it an irish strong man. a little more beer in that. >> a little more beer in that. >> and -- >> mixology right here on "the early show." >> "early" show mixology. >> sample. >> i'll sample. >> you want to sample? >> and that's, you know, st.

patrick's day. you've got to have irish beer. >> group toast here. >> i'm just going to go -- >> really refreshing. >> cheers. >> nice job. >> happy st. patrick's day. >> cheers. >> ray, nice job, as always. >> that's why we invite him back. >> for more on these beers go to our website, earlyshow.cbsnews.com. and we'll be right back. this is "the early show" here on cbs. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

welcome back to "the early show." we showed you this picture earlier of the white house. look at the fountain, it's green, it's great. all the staffers quick to make the fountain green in celebration of this st. patrick's day holiday. a live picture right there. this was earlier one of the staffers inadvertently -- oh. >> there we go.

>> he had too much laucher. >> there we go. >> somebody had breakfast with ray isle this morning apparently. >> he had to swim out of there. >> that's okay. >> although i guess the outside -- >> whoa. >> green water on st. patrick's day, better you do it in the white house fountain, which is easy to get out of, than say in chicago. in the river. >> you don't want to do that. >> that would be a little worse. >> just go to the lincoln bedroom, use the shower, clean yourself off. >> you'll be fine. >> make you a nice meal in the kitchen at the white house. >> the white house is doing their own beer now. >> no kidding. from our beer shepherd. >> doesn't rival any of the beers we had before. >> there's only one way to find out. >> white house. >> next stop, 1600 pennsylvania avenue. >> they're on notice. >> yes, good to have all of you with us this morning. >> happy st. patrick's day. we mention the big parade outside our studio. however you celebrate, please do it responsibly. we'll see you back here tomorrow. >> your local news is coming up next. have a great day. ,,,,,,

headlines... officials in japan have suspended army helicopter flights that dumped water on an overheated nuclear rea it is 8:55. good morning, i'm sydnie kohara. officials in japan have suspended army helicopter flights that dumped water on an overheated nuclear reactor to determine whether the effort in fukushima has been effective. meantime the u.s. government now sending planes to evacuate american citizens who want to get out of japan. united nations experts say traces of radiation could be detectable in southern california by late tomorrow. a plume of radiation is currently crossing the pacific ocean. but experts stress that the radiation will be extremely diluted if and when it hits the west coast. and it's highly unlikely to cause any harm. more protestors expected today when the uc regents meet for the third and final time.

protestors say regents are balancing the budget at the expense of students and staff. administrators say the uc system says they should be prepared to lose a half billion dollars to $1 billion in public support. traffic and weather coming right up. stay with us. ,,,,

good morning. here's a live look up and down the nimitz freeway. 880 through oakland past the coliseum. not too bad. typically this time of the morning you see a lot of slow traffic in the northbound lanes. not the case right now. i do have a new accident reported coming out of san francisco, southbound 101 at silver avenue. we have learned that the left lane is blocked and you can see from our sensors very slow right now down the central freeway. also, a very slow ride through silicon valley, westbound 237 very heavy from 880 towards zanker road. that's your traffic. for your forecast, here's lawrence. >> elizabeth, a couple of minutes to fill out the brackets, get ready to go, march madness is under way. we have nice weather across the south bay, the central bay. look what's going on in the north bay, we have some showers up there towards santa rosa. scattered showers mainly to our north for today and the rest of us just a couple of passing clouds 50s on the 60s for highs. everybody getting a good soaking for tomorrow.

showers likely through the weekend. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,