captioning funded by cbs opening statements. laying outist election year '. the president lays out the state of the union address. >> i intend to fight obstruction with action. i will oppose any effort to return to the very same policies that brought on this economic crisis in the first place. hostages freed in a daring early morning raid. u.s. special forces free an american and a danish citizen held hostage in somalia. recovering and returning. congresswoman gabrielle giffords officially resigns today. but hasn't closed the door on a political comeback. this is the "cbs morning news" for wednesday, january 25, 2012.

good morning everybody. thanks for joining us. i'm betty nguyen. we begin overseas and a successful rescue mission pulled off by u.s. military forces in somalia. american jessica buchanan and poul hagan thisted were freed after being held by somali pirates for three month. it was a nighttime rescue using two helicopters to reach their location. the workers were kidnapped in october in northern somalia. they work for a danish group and nine pirates were killed during a gun battle with the u.s. forces. no u.s. casualties are reported and the hoss tanls are said to be in good condition. back home, the underlying theme of president obama's third state of the union address last night was economic fairness. the president offered a proposal to help homeowners and called for higher taxes on the wealthy. in their response, republicans say the president is looking to divide americans. susan mcginnis has details in

washington. good morning, susan. >> good morning, betty. the speech was optimistic, the president spoke to his base. he said anyone who thinks america is on the decline doesn't know what they're talking about. republicans said the president did not cause the economic crisis that we're suffering right now, but that he was elected on a promise to fix them and that things have gotten worse. >> we need to change our tax codes. >> president obama is taking his message of economic quality straight to voters. >> it's time to apply the same rules from top to bottom. no bailouts, no handouts and no copouts. >> off the address, he's kicking off a three-day trip this morning taking him to five key battleground state. he'll visit iowa and arizona today to talk about boosting american manufacturing. the key ingredient, he says, for building an economy that will last. >> it is time to stop rewarding businesses that ship jobs overseas and start rewarding companies that create jobs right here in america. >> last night the president proposed tax breaks for

businesses and helping more struggling homeowners refinance their loans. he also called for higher taxes on the rich. >> you can call this class warfare all you want. but asking a billionaire to pay at least as much as his secretary in taxes, most americans would call that common sense. >> the president may have a tough time getting the proposals through congress. republicans lashed out at his plan last night calling it another attempt to divide americans. >> no feature of the obama presidency has been sadder than the constant efforts to divide us, to curry favor with some americans by castigating others. >> indiana governor, mitch daniels delivered the official response of the gop and other republicans added to the criticism. >> he didn't want to talk about the keystone pipeline, 20,000 to 100,000 new jobs to put americans back to work. >> the president insists he's willing to work with the gop. but will also fight back against any delaying tactics. >> and the president later this

week heads to nevada, colorado and michigan. betty, we'll find out more about some of the proposals he talked about last night in business, energy and education. >> all right. susan mcginnis in washington for us. thank you. the president also addressed iran's nuclear program and warned the iranians that the u.s. would do whatever it takes to prevent them from obtaining nuclear weapons. >> let there be no doubt, america is determined to prevent iran from getting a nuclear weapon and i will take no options off the table to achieve that goal. >> the president also said a peaceful resolution remains a possibility if the iranian's change course. chief washington correspondent bob schieffer has more on the president's address. >> well, this was an election year state of the union speech. the president used it to lay out the themes that he will make the main points of his campaign. basically, it is going to be about fairness. he is going to say we have to redo the tax code, we have to

raise the taxes on millionaires and make them subject to the same kind of taxes that other people pay. this is part of an overall theme of fairness. he stated that over and over again. that's what the democrats and what the president want this election to be about. the republicans want it to be about something entirely different. on barack obama and his erendum presidency. so when governor mitch daniels of indiana gave the rebuttal speech, he said, look, the president didn't cause the economic crisis and the bad economic situation and the joblessness and all of that. but he made the situation worse. we didn't hire him to make it worse. we hired him to fix it and he didn't do that. so there you have it. in those two speeches what this campaign is going to be all about and make no mistake about it, the campaign is under way.

indeed it is. that was bob schieffer reporting. we invite you to stay tuned for "cbs this morning." vice president joe biden will discuss the state of the union and the state of the 2012 campaign. congresswoman gabrielle giffords officially resigns today. a little over one year after she was severely wounded. she left the door open for a possible return to politics. one of her last official acts, giffords attended the state of the union address and got a hug from president obama. she says she'll concentrate on her recovery. she ends her resignation letter by writing "every day i am working hard. i will recover and will return and we will work together again for arizona and for all-americans." now to the race for the republican presidential nomination. a new national poll shows mitt romney is slipping fast. the latest daily gallup tracking poll shows newt gingrich now leading the race. gingrich erased a 23-point advantage romney held at the

beginning of the month. gingrich's gains are mostly from conservative voters. we're learning more about gingrich's working relationship with mortgage giant freddie mac. a contract released last night show his consulting firm was paid $25,000 a month to work with freddie mac's chief lobbyist. gingrich denies he ever worked as a lobbyist an the contract specifically excludes lobbying services. mitt romney says that's splitting hairs. >> campaigning in florida yesterday, romney hit gingrich hard over his ties to the government-backed mortgage industry. standing outside a foreclosed home, romney said gingrich was an influence peddler and that the housing market has become a mess in large measure because the government got in the middle of it. a u.s. marine who admits he gave orders that led to the deaths of two dozen unarmed civilians in iraq will serve no jail time. staff sergeant was initially charged with nine counts of manslaughter in the attack in

2005. but on monday, he pled guilty to just one count much dereliction of duty and in a deal that would let him escape prison time. coming up on the morning news, thousands turn out today to mark a milestone in egypt. plus preparations under way to remove fuel from the grounded cruise ship off italy. you're watching the "cbs morning news." starting at just 6 bucks. are full of delicious ch, choose from savory favorites or our new philly cheesesteak sandwich. layers of shaved steak and grilled peppers served with fries and a tasty soup or salad. chili's lunch break combos. softens the enamel so it can potentially erode. once that enamel is gone, it's gone. my dentist recommended pronamel. pronamel protects your teeth from the effects of acid erosion. i don't have to cut out the things that i love in my diet.

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recovery effort is under way at the site of the costa concordia cruise ship disaster. a salvage barge is now in place alongside the wreck and workers are preparing to begin removing a half million gallons of fuel from the ship before it starts leaking. the pumping operation will probably start on saturday. meanwhile, divers continue to search the submerged portion of the capsized ship for more victims. the u.s. ambassador to italy visited the site yesterday and praised their efforts. >> i know everyone cares a lot. i speak for the united states. we're very grateful for the efforts that's being made to try to recover or find the lost ones. >> 16 bodies have been recovered so far. seven of them still unidentified. 17 people still unaccounted for, including a missing american couple. thousands of mourpers are expected this morning on the penn state university campus to pay their respects to coach joe

paterno. yesterday and late into the night they waited in line for hours to pass by paterno's closed casket. a private funeral service is set for later today. paterno remains a beloved figure at penn state despite being fired in nova mid a child sex abuse scandal involving a former assistant coach. on the cbs money watch, apple surges and yahoo slumps. a high note for garth brooks and his legal battle. ashley morrison has more. >> good morning to you, betty. in overseas trading, market in japan continued to rally. tokyo's nikkei index climbed 1% on positive news if toyota while the hang seng remains closed for a holiday. worries that a deal to keep greece from defaulting set the dow jones down on tuesday. it lost 34 point an the nasdaq gained just two. don't blame apple for the dow's dip. the tech company reported monster earnings thanks in large part to sales of the iphone 4s.

profits rose 118%. apple says it sold 37 million iphones in the last quarter of 2011. that accounts for more than half of the company's sales. yahoo is giving its investors more bad news. the internet company's earnings report shows just how much it's trying to keep up with google. earnings were down 5% from a year ago. yahoo recently hired a new ceo and saw one of its founders step aside. today we'll get an earnings report from netflix. the home video provider is expected to report a smaller profit after it went through a tumultuous year. they lost nearly a million subscribers had it announced it was splitting into two companies. since july the cost of a share has gone down by nearly $200. garth brooks has prevailed in his lawsuit against an oklahoma hospital. a jury ruled that the hospital must return the country music

singer's half million dollar donation and pay him another half million in punitive damages. brooks donated the money to build a cancer center in honor of his late mother. but the facility was never built. that's too bad. >> all right. ashley, thank you for that. we appreciate it. straight ahead shall your wednesday morning weather and in sports, a big night for miami's chris bosh cranking unthe heat against the cavaliers. the crowd went bananas. e crowd went bananas. as a va pharmacist, working directly with our veterans is really gratifying. plus, i have advanced pharmacy systems that keep accuracy high, along with training and other benefits, like being able to work anywhere in the u.s. with my current license. it's good to know you're working with the best. and that's good for our veterans. (announcer) learn more about careers with today's va at vacareers.va.gov.

here's a look at the weather a look at the weather in some cities. new york, mostly sunny, 44 degrees. miami, partly cloudy or sunny i should say. 79 degrees. chicago, mostly cloudy. 37. dallas cloudy, 56. l.a., sunny, 79. time now for a check of the national forecast. a storm moving across texas and oklahoma will bring rain and thunderstorms to the lower mississippi and tennessee valleys, including a tornado threat. rain will also move eastward along the ohio valley. washington, oregon and northern california will see continued rain and mountain snow. it will be dry and sunny in most of the northeast and new england. in sports, plenty of off season baseball news, including a new team for prince fielder and a kings ransom of a contract. a source tells cbs sports the slugging first baseman agreed to a nine-year, $214 million deal with the detroit tigers. fielder will fill a hole in the tigers lineup left by the loss

of d.h. victor martinez to a knee injury. jorge posada hung up his yankee stripes, it's official. the catcher formally retired yesterday after 17 major league seasons. he finished with a .273 career batting average, 275 home runs and more than a thousand rbi's. and in the nba, miami hosted cleveland but the heat didn't give the cavs a warm welcome. in the third, lebron james got two of the 18 points with a drive and a jam. then chris bosh came on strong scoring 17 of his 35 points in the fourth period leading miami to a victory. when we return, a chilling rescue video of a snowmobiler pulled from an avalanche.

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in some cities. washington, d.c., mostly sunny, 47. atlanta, partly sunny, 68. detroit, mostly cloudy, 36. denver, mostly sunny, 52. and some showers in seattle, but 46 degrees there. here's another look at the top stories. u.s. special forces freed american jessica beau kana and a danish citizen who were held hostage by somali pirates. the raid was carried out this morning. president obama's state of the union address focused on economic fairness. he said ensuring a fair shot for all americans is the defining issue of our time. republicans say the president is trying to divide the country. the huge winter storm that wept over the northwest last week left many feet of snow in the mountain, delighting winter sports lovers, but that much snow can be a deadly threat as one snowmobiler learned. amy clancy of our seattle

affiliate cairo tv reports. >> got his head. >> shovels. friends and fellow snowmobilers work frantically to open an air passage for john swanson who was engulfed in an avalanche. i was getting suffocated face first into the snow. i couldn't move anything. my legs, toes, arm, anything. >> the trouble started when swanson lost control of his snowmobile. that's him in the distance walking toward it. then another snowmobiler raced along the top of the hill which set off the avalanche. watch carefully and you'll see swanson disappear in the avalanche. the snowmobiler capturing the event on a helmet camera races off to help along with others in the air wra. >> pretty scary. it was really scary. >> rick, one of swanson's best friends was among those helping dig him out of the snow. most of the others were complete strangers. swanson could hear his rescuers but he thought he might suffocate before they could find

him. >> i guess by the time that thought crossed my mind, i could hear them yelling. where are you at? so i knew that they were close. >> can you breathe? >> we got you. >> the video runs out before they pull him up out of the snow unharmed. >> take the transmission out and tow it to the shop. >> by this afternoon, john and rick had time to think about the close call, their love of snowmobiling and those who ride them. >> everybody looks out for each other on the hillside. that's the great thing about it. it's a great sport. >> rick agrees. but he's gained new respect for the power of a snowy hillside. >> i've seen the avalanche now. never want to see it again. >> both plan to go snowmobiling again this weekend. that was amy clancy of cairo tv in seattle report being. another snow-related close call caught on video. former national hockey league player richard bed nick was practices in slovakia sunday. moments after they left the ice,

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4 minutes before 5:00 on a wednesday morning. >> it is not too bad at all. let's take a look at the day part. 33 right now on tv hill, 42 at lunch on its way to a high temperature in the upper 40s. back down to 36 by the next bedtime. don, take it away. >> thank you. here is what we have our eye on for you today, a u.s. raid in somalia frees a u.s. citizen and others held there. they are wrapping up their meeting this afternoon. the head of nasa will be meeting with engineering and science students at morgan state university. already in the news the president makes his annual state. union address, what republicans are saying about that this morning. two suspects running from

baltimore county police causing a nasty pile up. and a conspiracy in foxboro, what the ravens kicking coach is saying about the end of the afc championship game this morning. more news, first warning weather and your first traffic report of the morning in a couple of minutes. ,,,,,,

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this is wjz tv, wjz hd, and wjz.com, baltimore. >> good morning, maryland, now don scott, marty bass, and the latest breaking news, from wjz's news team, your first warning weather and wjz traffic control with sharon gibala. it is wjz, maryland's news station. >> it is 5:00 on a wednesday morning. as you can see you will be able to see your way clear open the commute this morning. sharon is watching the roads for you know and marty is over at first warning weather. >> let's go ahead and take it