is mitt still it? does it even matter who wins? not according to john huntsman. >> one of the reasons i'm here, in iowa there is activity playing out. they pick presidents here in new hampshire. >> seeking justice. prosecutors preparing for the first criminal charges against pb in connection with the worst oil still in u.s. history. downsizing. soon there will be fewer generals. what it means for military readiness. where is the snow? the nation's ski resorts are off to a slow start and worried if they will see a winter wonderland this season. richard louie for tamron hall. the new shape of the republican race in iowa. five days before the caucuses and a new time seen in polls showing mitt romney now leading the pack going ahead of ron paul and shows rick santorum surging

into 30 place ahead of newt gingrich. the bottom three huntsman. here's what rick santorum said about his sudden surge. >> the people of iowa over the course of the last few months have been sizing up the candidates and looking for someone they can trust and go out thereç and fight the battl and be the sharp contrast to barack obama and now the folks are making that decision. they are coming to the guy that has the best and strongest record and land to get this country going. >> joining us now on the phone, peter alexander who is traveling with the new front-runner. when we take a look at this, the time poll big news. romney at the top. >> according to that poll with 25%, that's the same figure he wound up with in 2008. that was a devastating campaign losing to the candidate.

this time around, it has been fracturing of the conservative vote and even though they are surging right now. rick perry and newt gingrich. romney is benefiting from that. we will show you live pictures from what is the music man square in iowa. the music man is the famous musical that was written by a woman from this town and focused on the positive themes. patriotic theme that is the people throughout much of the mid-western parts of the country have been here too. we are looking at the answer to the economy. 500 and over with the crowd this morning in a diner, they have been hoping that they are the concern adding to the problems existing. the opponents are attacking one another and fighting out the other 50% that is available with them sharing the other 50% of the voters. >> a lot happening there. with the front-runner, mitt

romney. we want to check in with the nbc news and rick santorum's surginç campaign. he joins us from iowa. rick santorum looks good. hard work paying off. number three in the latest poll. >> that's right. on top of the poll, seeing increased crowd numbers and speaking in iowa on the mississippi across from illinois. it's probably about 100 voters and caucus goers here and on top of that, a large media contingency. for the first time in his campaign he is playing an important role. he was mentioning the words momentum behind his name. he did not happen up to this point. not everyone coming up to that is necessarily going to caucus for them. a lot of the workers are undecided and we are seeing the big crowds with the candidates and the voters are trying to

decide who exactly they are going to caucus for on january 3rd. >> they made a decision right now. thank you so much. i want to move over to the gingrich campaign in iowa. alex moe is there and joins us by phone. how is he handling the slide in the latest poll? >> the campaign is being pretty positive. the campaign is about to pull up in northwest iowa where they will continue to talk about the economic plan and has been telling warks that tell ing iowa even if he finishes third or forth which is where he is polling, he can be successful going forward. >> alex moe, thank you so much. let's go to the ron paul campaign. we have all the bases here in io.ñ on the phone with us, she on his way to atlantic iowa. ron paul has a new high profile

endorsement at the cost hereof michele bachmann. >> he is expected in council bluffs and the former manager here in the state of iowa. they are rolling in now to show that the support is increasing and i met another woman who claimed he was in the county and cease momentum going towards january 3rd. congressman paul has rallied against the status quo and the establishment republicans and saying voters can send a message on january 3rd to show the country that people are coming his way. >> voters are okay on issues, but they don't feel like he is electable necessarily. >> right. the campaign knows if they can repeat that, they will see if

she electable and shake your hand and listen to you, they are hoping that people on the fence will come out and vote for ron paul if he does get the top three finish. >> great stuff on the ground again. anthony, appreciate that, rounding it out, let's bring in deputy political director mark murray watching from d.c. mark, what do you make of this? the campaign manager and kent sorenson announcing he is now supporting ron paul. what do you make of this? >> it was a big blow to the bachmann campaign.ç he closely identified with bachmann's efforts and to have ron paul take him was a blow. one thing worth noting, part of sorenson's explanation is someone needs to beat mitt romney and ron paul when you look at the time cnn poll, she the person best poised to do that. you see that a lot of

conservatives in the contest whether it's michele bachmann, newt gingrich, rick santorum and rick perry seem to be dividing up the conservative vote which is allowing mitt romney to win with just about 25% of the vote as peter mentioned earlier. that was the percentage he won in 2008 and according to the poll, he could come out on top with 25% when 25% four years ago got him second place. >> santorum, is he spiking or moving up at the right time. he has new ads closer to the caucus date. there is electability when it comes to santorum. what does he need to do? >> he needs to surge and ride this wave. we have seen over the last four or five months. a new conservative getting a bump in the polls and it seems to be rick santorum's term according to the one poll. there is a lot of reasons why. he is seen as a consistentwaik3w

conservative and someone who won in a battle ground like pennsylvania and lost by a large margin in 2006 and a strong hawk on national security issues. his rise is not all that surprising. his problem is the same problem we saw beset herman cain.ç is that enough for them to bolster the organization challenge of what we have seen in virginia. >> it's nice money if you are able to capitalize and build off of it more. if he was going up in the polls and that $9 million that he would be able to get for the quarter. if he was able to use that, the problem he is confronting is that nine million and we are seeing what he was getting out

spent by the romney and the perry campaign and the $9 million is nice. when you are at this stage of the contest, you need to be in the tens of millions. >> should he save that money since he knows that's where he needs to win? >> you think that would be the strategy and of course how much is that going to be able to buy you in south carolina. >> for iowa, that gives you the momentum for the other states and it starts to win in the field. we heard them say look, i don't need to win iowa and i need to win south carolina. the question is whether he can survive. we saw rudy giuliani saying i don't need to win the contests and i will sit in florida and sometimes when you don't need to win the contests, the people who do will be able to end up doing better. >> let's take a look at president obama and we were hearing earlier today, i was looking at the video from his

campaign manager. he was reallyç emphatic as thi will be a billion. >> the billion came out at the beginning and saying look, they could raise that amount of money. at the time all the people in the obama campaign in chicago were saying look, don't buy that amount. we will raise a lot of money, but maybe not that amount. we have seen them raise that doesn't get close to the one billion number. you can see that they raise a lot more money. you get closer to the general election when they start asking the supporters and the millions of people who have given money over the internet. >> as always, thank you for your help. >> thank you. >> we want to remind you that they will interview mitt romney in west des moines iowa. 1:00 eastern on msnbc. the justice department is considering filing criminal

charges against bp for the in the worst offshore oil spill in history. the explosion killed 11 people and dumped more than four billion barrels of oil into the gulf. the probe centers around whether bp employees knowingly gave false achlgz about risks at the well while drilling is under way. justice correspondent pete williams joins us. thank you for being here. give us a run down of charges here. >> it's fair to say that criminal charges are going to be filed against bp. no question about that. they will be charged with violations of the environmental laws for certain. the big question will be will the government bring in essence criminal negligence charges? those things areç all in the future. what we learn from a report in the "wall street journal" which officials have said is a potential action is one of the many things prosecutors are looking at is filing charges of

false statements by engineers at bp in the gulf who according to the initial investigation may have given misleading information to regulators about well pressures which are a critical safety issue. that's one possibility if the charges are filed. that would only be a very minor start to the case. the big question has been the other charges that i talked about and whether they will be coming. this is a possibility by no means definite in terms of the false statement charge. >> thank you so much. coming up, the pentagon downsizes for the first time since the cold war. the military cuts down the upper rank brass. we talk about what the changes mean, plus -- >> we are making the best of it with the two runs we have got. >> where is wind sner the first snowless december since the 1800s. not good news for thousands who

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>> with the iraq war over and troops leaving afghanistan, the pentagon is trimming the ranks. 27 jobs for generals and admirals have been eliminated since march. the first since the aftermath of the cold war and more reductions are planned. joining me now, military analyst, general, most of these reductions will be one or two-star generals and ç102 in total. what does it mean for the

military readiness? >> probably not much one way or the other. i think what's happening is we came out of iraq and afghanistan and a bunch of these operational senior positions should disappear. there is also been a growth in the pentagon staffs overtime. i think both secretary gates and panetta are right on target to cut back the senior officers. i notice there was a story talking about the pentagon will be more nimble when we reduce the generals. i thought that was nonsense. you have a giant bureaucracy. >> the point was being made for a flatter organization is faster or nimbler. >> that's different. if we take out layers of command, that's true. i think the focus and the obsessive attention inside the beltway is on the actual flag

ranks. there is all sorts of liaison and coordination staff whose purpose is dim at best. i am sure pa98 is experience and smart enough to sort that out. what i don't want to see happen is the three generals that are in army combat division. >> according to a study, iraq and afghanistan war vets are not using va benefits fashlly because of location or have concern about the quality of care. >> it's a huge challenge.ç we have two million young men and women who have served in combat. half of them on at least two deployments. 54,000 kill and wounded and others showing up with ptsd and traumatic brain injury only half

have signed up for va benefits. the veteran's administration is one of the most effective departments in the government. thank god for secretary rich and the senior leadership. they have gotten a lot more moan. they are up to $60 billion a year now. they still have to communicate with the veterans. they are on facebook now. 152 veterans administration medical centers now have a facebook page. i direct our viewers to my website where i have been giving a presentation around the country taking care of america's veterans. there good numbers. they try to make the right decisions when it comes to health. >> overwhelmingly most are in great shape and disciplined and

experienced. they have leadership capability. we don't want to characterize them as damaged goods. the unemployment rate, there is 850,000 veterans unemployed. what we need to recognize is what a valuable asset they are to america's businesses. there is also too many of"átz homeless and again, secretary rick made it a target to get every one of them off the streets i think they will achieve the goal. >> one out of three ares. that's definitely a concern. thank you. >> good to be with you. >> north korea's power brokers declared kim jong un the new leader. it came 8 massive memorial service the day after his funeral. jim jong un stood with his head bowed at the capital and inherits the absolute rule his

father and grandfather came before him. why david petraeus was urged to step down. the u.s. strikes a $30 billion deal with saudi arabia that will help boost the military strength at a key ally in the mideast. details are straight ahead. my name is robin. i'm a wife, i'm a mom... and chantix worked for me. it's a medication i could take and still smoke, while it built up in my system. [ male announcer ] along with support, chantix is proven to help people quit smoking. it reduces the urge to smoke. some people had changes in behavior, thinking or mood, hostility, agitation, depressed mood and suicidal thoughts or actions while taking or after stopping chantix. if you notice any of these, stop taking chantix and call your doctor right away. tell your doctor about any history of depression or other mental health problems, which could get worse while taking chantix. don't take chantix if you've had a serious allergic or skin reaction to it. if you develop these, stop taking chantix and see your doctor right away as some can be life-threatening. if you have a history of heart or blood vessel problems, tell your doctor if you have new or worse symptoms. get medical help right away if you have symptoms of a heart attack.

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>> snow plows are gathering dust and the lack of snow so far led to a lukewarm start to the ski season in many parts of the country. if the snow does not fall soon, a lot of folks could lose a lot of money. mike joins us live from lake tahoe, california where they are at a quarter of normal. mike, you have gotten the machine snow, right? >> right behind us. what you are seeing is machine made snow. you know this area with the hill behind me. you can see it's mostly brown and green and a big day for a

hike. not yet skiing. protjection is this is about a quarter of what it was was generous. this has been a brutal start that is world class. they have five open for skiing. it's not just the west coast and the ski areas that are having it in illinois and new england.ç skiers will make do, but they need snow and the weather systems you talked to as we have too, this is big unusual jet stream that is keeping the cold air from the arctic and canada and the wet air from the pacific. that's not happening yet. there is the potential for help on the forecast upcoming. that's not good for man made

snow and the possibility of actual snow that is what this place needs. the snowpack was twice my height. 12 feet of snow. they skied until july last year. extraordinary season here and in many areas and the snow-bound season last year. that was then, this is now. they are waiting for the big snowfall to happen here so that the skiers can get back up and start feeling like it's winter again. it doesn't feel like that now. >> you can enjoy the top of the hill. thank you so much, mike. always. straight ahead, iowa's republican party is counting the talk us results at a secret location this year. we will find out what's behind that decision. why a tourist brought a gun to the 9/11 memorial. being slapped with a new fee for making payments online. details are next. [ male announcer ] with the new year comes resolutions.

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>> details on the fighter pilot deal today. why the economy remains the number one issue and a new sleeper issue emerging. immigration and end of the road. why sineed o'connor is dwoergs her fourth husband after 16 days of marriage. i will talk to the snend who said tucson's mexican american studies program is against the law. it is a done deal. nearly $30 billion ofç equipme are headed to skrab. congress approved the sale and the obama administration confirmed that governments have signed off on the deal. white house correspondent kristen welker is traveling with the the president in hawaii. why is this sale so important?

>> first of all, a couple of points about the sale include 84 new f 15 boeing-made fighter jets as well as up greats to 70 existing jets. the united states estimates this sale will add about 50,000 new jobs and could boost the u.s. economy by about $3.5 billion annually. it's a big deal for that reason. we expect the first fighter jets to arrive in about 2014. it's also a big deal because it's reinforcing the united states strong alliance with saudi arabia and also sending a message and the united states has a vested interest in the stability of the country. now the white house put out the statement and i believe we have a graphic of it. the white house saying this agreement reinforces the strong and enduring relationship between the united states and saudi arabia and demonstrates

the u.s. commitment to a strong saudi defense capability as a key component to regional security. again the white house making the point that this will add u.s. jobs, but also send a message to that region in the broader mideast that the u.s. does have a vested interest of that region. >> kristen, there was concernç earlier on from some pro israel lawmakers about the deal. what was the concern? >> that's right. some lawmakers were concerned that this could under cut the military edge in the region. the u.s. has made the point that that won't happen. what you are seeing is sort of this broader agreement amongst israel and saudi arabia and the united states that iran does in fact pose a threat. at this point it seems as though lawmakers and congress is on board with this deal. richard?

>> kristen welker with the president there in honolulu, hawaii. >> leaders are apologizing for smuggling terrorists. this mistake led to clashes in istanbul against the air strike. the military admits they killed 35 smugglers and others that it thought were kurdish militants. a spokesman expressed regret and also hinted at possible compensation for the victims. a tennessee woman faces jail time for allegedly bringing a loaded pistol to the new york's 9/11 memorial. meredith graves asked police where she could check her loaded gun. that question landed the tourist in a new york jail on a gun possession charge. she since posted bond and is due in court in march. starting january 15th, verizon customers will have to shell out $2 to pay a phone bill online or by phone.

the fee will offset payment processing costs using electronic checks and payment ifsks will be free there. >> it could be one of the sleeper issues of the 2012 campaign. immigration is hitting home in iowa that has a growing hispanic population. according to the office of latino affairs, the population in iowa in 2009 was just over 134,000. look forward to 2040 projected to grow to 384,000 by 2040 and about 11% of the population they estimate. in the town of perry, iowa where ron paul is campaigning, in three residents is latino there. executive director of voter latino is the msnbc contributor. let's start with this. gingrich as well as perry have made statements in the past that may not necessarily bode well for those voters in iowa because

they teend e tend to be the most conservative of the gop. >> that's true, but you find that immigration is not a top tier issue. there was a poll that found that most voters agreed there needed to be a path to immigration and that was one of the reasons why they found gingrich so appealing. now what they don't want is individuals flooding the country and taking away american jobs. the majority of voters whether you are latino or not will agree with that. what i would caution with the majority of the candidates and romneyowy6zñrñiçóoki specifica up being the front runner is not to alienate the voters. iowa is not reflective of the rest of the country. >> how important will thisç ise be to the iowans as they come in about five days. the sleeper issue as we were describing? >> most of iowa recognizes they need to figure out how to fix immigration because they have a booming population.

the yet that iowa if you can remember about years ago had one of the largest rates in the country and the town was devastated after they removed all the la teenos and the undocumented workers. they need to figure the balance between that and making sure they talk about the issues that they care about. >> you have seen this poll from the hispanic center saying that 6-10 hispanics disapprove the handling of illegal imgrant deportations. what's your thought? could that hurt the president come 2012? >> the president right now what he faces more than anything is enthusiasm gap. there were a lot of promises made in 2008. what he needs to do is go into the communities where the vote will make a difference. it will make a difference in florida, arizona, nevada, colorado and north carolina. he will have to talk spreading the message not just about the immigration policies, but the stuff he has done. he created jobs and done jobs

with health care and education is one of the number one reasons why they go to the polls. latinos more than anything will be issues driven and about what candidates are talking their language and they marginalized themselves. >> i want to dig down further. you bring up good points. the same poll showing the hispanics overwhelmingly support president obama. i will give you the in a matchup against president obama, he will win 68-23, but we take you back to 22008, hispanics voted for obama over john mccain 67-1. >> we are seeing enthusiasm gap for president obama, but one of the sleeper issues for 2012 is the voter id laws. strict laws in very high concentration of latino and young voters. in the states that matter. florida has various and texas,

for example, you can be a student and show the opportunity id. they won't accept you at the polls and if you show a concealed weapons id. it's the voter id laws that will make the difference at the polls on a local level. that's one of the reasons why the attorney general is going after south carolina and the other states that are passing. the prevention of the polls and in order for a republican to win the white house, they need at least 40%. as the poll noted, mitt romney is not even close to that. >> thank you so much. >> still ahead, why tomorrow will never come for people living in the small island nation of samoa. how they are skipping friday. first, there is a lot going on and here are things we thought you should know. a new biography on david petraeus saying that the general was urged by mentors and friends to resign as commanders of the war over president obama's decision to quickly drawdown surge troops, but doing so would

be a selfish grandstanding moves with huge ramifications and the biography all in the education traces his entire military career. police in iowa arrested five protesters from the occupy the caucuses movement, an off shoot of occupy wall street. the arrests were made outside of ron paul's headquarters in des moines. demonstrators gathered in protest of paul's plan to dismannedle the epa if elected. the republican party will count this year's caucus results at a secret location because of security concerns. the "american idol" winner kelly clark is showing support for ron paul on twitter. he has her vote if he gets the republican nomination. after praising paul, clarkson was blasted for beliefs on gay marriage and the death penalty. she said she is sorry if she oftened anyone. i support gay rights, straight

rights, women, black, purple, orange rights, those are the things we thought you should know. #ç

> coming up at the top of the hour, mo moment um for real. he longs strong in warks and new half shur shirt and beyond. the gop candidates are crying foul over the electoral laws. perry can cry us a river. we will tell you why, up next. >> thanks a lot. at the stroke of midnight, the small island nation of samoa will leap across the international dateline and into the future a little bit to the left. the plan to move west means no friday for sa mo ans and for more than 187,000 south pacific islanders december 30th 2011 will just cease to exist.

why the drastic move? >> we will move the dateline to be in line with new zealandç a australia. >> why is this so important? >> richard, basically is goes back 120 year ago when american traders convinced them they would be better off shifting the dateline to the west so they can trade with california. it took a bit of time, but finally they realized they would be better off on the other side. the way it is set up, what happens and when it's friday, a work day for samoa, it's saturday in australia. they lose two working days a week. richard? >> that kept the days very, very short. what are sa mo ans saying about it, are they glad to be on the other side of the dateline?

>> some are and some took pride in they were the last sunset for the day in the world. now they will be the first sunrise and the first country to celebrate the new year. they go from being the last to the first. there some people celebrating that. think about the loss of a day means for the country. no births or death or car beings and no one goes to work. they are girl an teed they will get the paycheck, but it's gone. it's a wrinkle in time. >> in the zone there. thank you so much. chimpanzee controversy and new details on the 16-day marriage of sineed o'connor. get the scoop from courtney hazlet. >> the great chimp mystery. we will start with that. we were talking about the chimp thaw might knowç from the clasc tarz an movies that reportedly died over christmas eve.

the chimp would have been more than 80 years old if this is indeed the chimp we are talking about. there in lies the controversy. there is a lot of skeptics saying that primates don't live this long. if this was the iconic chimp from the movies, this would be one of the oldest chimps ever on record and that would be something more than a few people would have taken note of. another layer is that the person who would have had the records of this chimp being at the primate centers, they went up in flame years ago. kind of like the dog rate my homework excuse. >> that are happens. >> for does. >> going from a long time to a short time. >> sineed o'connor's marriage lasted just 16 days. take that, kim kardashian. new details about why it was a short marriage. she alluded to the fact that drugs may have played a role and her own blog post announcing

that she was divorcing or beginning the proceedings for a divorce. now she told britain's sun tabloid that what happened is she and her new husband went on a run looking for marijuana and ended up in a really dangerous situation where they were handed a bag of crack and she knew that she probably shouldn't be doing this with that person who was her husband and a drug counsellor to add another layer. that is the explanation. >> that are goes deeper and deeper. >> now we can get on with our weeks. another mystery solved or in the process of being solved. if you:ujut a fan of alfred hitchcock's the birds, this was somewhat based on a true event. the birds smashing into the sides of houses in the california bay area. a few years before hitchcock did his film. after a series of scientific investigations in incidences over the decades that were similar to what happened in the

birds, the scientists think they narrowed down that the births consumed an algae that caused amnesia and disorientation and seizures. the event was real. it wasn't just a crazy fake thing. >> the birds can be real. >> if this one algy is ingested, i'm not planning on it. nor are you. >> do we have time for mary tyler moore? >> i would love to do a shout out. she turns 75 years old today. we know her from the dick van dike show or mary tyler moore show and she is part of pop culture. a quick happy birthday to ms. moore. >> ageless. >> fantastic, yes. >> for the latest, logon to scoop.oeds at any time com or be a fan on facebook. >> the gut check is up next and the arizona superintendent who calls the ethic studies program illegal. a judge agreed with him on that.

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joining the "news nation" on twitter. find our twitter page at "news nation." time for the "news nation" gut check. an arizona judge ruled a mexican american studies program available at public schools violates state law. a law passed in 2010 prohibits ethnic studies programs and a judge that handed down the ruling said the mexican american program promotes racial resentment and political act vichl against white people. the public schools face millions in penalties if that ruling is ç upheld. joined now by the superintendent of public instruction overseeing the tucson school district. thank you for being here with us. >> great to be here. >> i want to start with us. teachers are saying the ruling is "a result of racial bias and

anti-hispanic beliefs and sentiments." what's your reaction? >> you have the state's second largest school district with a broad pattern of malfeasance. they are below academic averages to low hispanic and low income and hispanic kids. this function within the mek can american studies classes is say part of this pattern of failure for the kids. >> you are saying this program is not good. it does create some sort of resentment and these teachers are saying this is a front to the focus and the importance of the hispanic latino population in the state. >> we're took a lot of months that very carefully look at the curriculum and the lesson plans. if we were able to go in front of the judge and say this is the evidence. we took a lot of months carefully and went over this.

>> the result here -- >> it's a problem. >> your investigation, you came up with the assertation that you believe these classes in general here, demonize white people. is that your feeling? it is said by some that that is the feeling here. >> absolutely. that was an overwhelming focus2 of what was going on in the classroom. >> how does it demonize? >> well, what they did was set up a consistent pattern of going back and interpreting historical events in racial terms. and doing it in only one way. a caucasian race and o pressing an hispanic and not giving a richer fuller spraination. you can teach about oppression in history. what you can't do is teach it in one way and claim racial tensions. we were able to show a pattern of that. >> you also did sanction and

approve another study that district officials say that it was okay, there was no observable evidence that the class violated state law. this audit is contradictory to what you are saying. >> yeah. when we had that audit, in a sense it was revealing because people don't do inappropriate thing when is they are being observed. by comparing the lesson plans which were delivered with the audit results, you could see what the teachers themselves, the behaviors that were going on that were inappropriate. >> you were looking at it? >> people were not doing that when being observed. >> that are begs the question quickly here if you can, you have african-american studies program in the tucson school district. what does this mean for that program? >> well, we didn't get the same complaints for african-american

or asian studies that we did for mexican american studies andç reviewed the lesson plans and see these patterns of behavior and this teaching going on. you simply can't -- this below average performance for low income hispanic kids and we want them to have the same opportunities all of us have. >> thank you so much. a good conversation and i appreciate your time. what does your gut tell you? should this study be banned? vote on that. that does it for this edition of "news nation." ezra kline is up next. yoo-hoo. hello. it's water from the drinking fountain at the mall. [ male announcer ] great tasting tap water can come from any faucet anywhere.

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>> i have been talking about music lately and happen to love the patriotic songs of america.