barnes. barnes was a 16-year-old teenager visiting her sister in baltimore when she disappeared. her body was found months later near the conowingo dam. barnesly said justice was served. johnson will spend 30 years behind bars. >>> a mother took her daughters to the ravens celebration yesterday at m&t bank stadium. she said aggressive fans pushed her into their section, trampling children. the mother left early due to safety concerns. >>> a pikesville woman was found dead, stabbed to death with two small children inside. a 33-year-old man is in custody. he was found after a tactical unit entered the apartment and found him walking along reisterstown road. police are still investigating. >>> just a few clouds at times today. depends on where you were, sunny all day. there were times of clouds. temperatures pretty mild for february, low 40s, upper 30s now. not a lot of wind. still a breezy cold period. clouds increase when you wake up. they will start to increase. you'll see a little sun. then we'll cloud up. the next weather maker getting its act together. it's headed our way for friday. going to have a big impact on parts of the east coast.

and the state's case against the man accused of killing barnes barnes. more witnesses will be called to the scene. they listened to the phone calls between michael johnson and offed -- loved ones. he talks about sentences for murder and moving to a country where he could not be extradited. the conversations do not provide any evidence to anything. we will be in court. we'll have updates can you follow us on abc 2 news.com as well. >> this is space shuttle. a result of the loss of communication with columbia. >> seeing inside mission control in 2003. seven astronauts were supposed to be returning home. the country is remembering those as we mark the anniversary of the disaster at 9:16 this morning bells will ring 7 times. they were killed and there will be a wreath laying ceremony. the shuttle was enroute to the when it took place over texas. and it fell apart. can you see the debris falling. >> i remember the day i was going to my game and we were waiting and leave we heard a loud noise. >> we think on that as one a lot of sadness but for people who work

barnes. barnes naked body was found floating in the river. the teenager vanished two years ago. she was the former boyfriend of barnes' half sister. >>> the man accused of opening fire inside the headquarters of a conservative christian lobbying group pled guilty today. among other things, floyd pled guilty to one federal count of crossing state lines with guns and ammunition. he was tackled during the shooting by a security guard in the lobby of the family research council building. the u.s. attorney says if it weren't for the heroic actions of leo action, he would have gone on to kill a lot of people. he is scheduled to be sentenced april 29. >>> d.c. mayor, vince gray, will spend $100 million on affordable housing. that sounds like a lot of money, but housing advocates say the need is so much greater. >> $100 million in building and preserving 10,000 units of affordable housing. >> it may have been the biggest ovation since he took office, and phillips was there in the audience when the mayor announced he will spend $100 million on affordable housing. >> i jumped up to my feet and i said yes, yes. >> we're getting

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with me is russell barnes, phylicia barnes' father. >> we believe that she can rest now. justice has been served. we have been fighting for this over the past two and a half years. this is a bittersweet day. this should have never happened. this has torn up three families. we are still soaking it in. >> you are from baltimore, she was living in north carolina at the time. first of all, it had to be an incredibly painful wait for getting some of the answers in this case that you had anticipated. >> yes, yes. we did our own investigation and we worked with the police. we know that felicia would not cause of the family so we just stop there with it. we know how much she loved our family, how much she loved baltimore. how much she anticipated living a full life. >> the defense family said, his father said that they were very disappointed in the verdict. the defense lawyer spoke at length about the verdicts, obviously very disappointed. the state's attorney spoke and he said he was pleased with the verdict. he was charged with first-degree murder. -- he was not charged with fi

barnes. familylicia barnes's suspected johnson had something to do with the death. >> last person to have seen her. never lifted a finger to help. >> the jury agreed convicting johnson of second-degree murder, ending the case that got national attention and tore apart to families. >> an elephant took one of his feet off my chest so i can breathe a little bit now. >> justice is served. at least we can sleep now. >> it is what is. we still feel in our hearts that michael johnson is night guilty. >> the ex-boyfriend of her older sister was indicted last april a year after the body was recovered from the susquehanna river. he had very little reaction. >> i asked him, are you ok and he said, i am numb. he is in shock and disbelief. >> the case depended heavily on the testimony of an inmate, known as james reilly and james mccray. johnson admitted killing her and needed help getting rid of the body. >> any time you bring a high profile such as this you have to have prosecution and they did not. when you see the jury come back with a second-degree on this type of case that shows a compromise that -- and issues the jury was having as well. >> we're prepared to take the tough cases to court when we feel that the evidence warrants. and at the end of the day of course this is about phylicia barnes and her family. >> sentencing is set for march. maximum penalty, 30 years. about the inmates, prosecutors told jurors the inmate was getting nothing in return for his testimony. today, 10 days were knocked off his 1-year sentence he is serving for car theft in charles county. city prosecutors said they had nothing to do with it. >> are learning a baltimore city circuit court judge has dismissed the lawsuit by baltimore controller over the plan to install new phone system and it is an update to the story the i-team has been falling. accusing the mayor of subverting the bidding process. >> bankruptcy may be the only option for the city of baltimore 10 years down the road if officials do not make some major cuts and reforms. that is part of a city ordered to report what it says. the forecast was published by public financial management, inc.. if the city continues its spending trend it will be more than $2 billion in the hole. $745 million includes a budget deficit, failing infrastructur

barnes. today the jury asked to receive a controversial piece of evidence, a cell phone being taken by phylicia barnes's sister, showing phylicia barneslayfully grabbing the private parts of michael johnson after a late night of streaking. the video was taken the same night her sister saw michael johnson make a pass at phylicia barnes. they suggested he was jealous about the time phylicia barnes spent with others. >> a brazen robbery incited by jet jewelry store. the police department released this video -- a brazen robbery incident inside a frederick jewelry store. the police debar released this video. 3 men pepper sprayed customers and cashiers and took an undisclosed amount of. the suspects fled in a black suv. anyone whatever mission is asked to call the frederick police department at 301-600-8477. >> a columbia high school student was charged with raping is didn't. -- with raping a student. how is the school responding? >> deshawn jones was arrested at the school today. parents found out about the alleged rape and officials sent home a letter to parents late this afternoon. deshawn jones is being charged as an adult with second-d

barnes -- barnes & noble shutting down a third of the stores. that is bad for writers who use the stores to stoke their sales. his book "the finest hours," fitted for a disney movie, and there's a new book coming out, making journalists everywhere jealous of him. how important were the apeenses to you five years ago, and how many do you do now versus then? >> right, the book signings are incredibly important. it's, like, a pop star who goes out on tour to endorse the new album. that's much the same in the book writing community allows writers to get one on one engagement with the readers, sign books, promote within the bookstore community. this is a cut across the chin, but not a death blow to writers. for "finest hours," i had 30 visits. the next book, "animal," comes out in april, i have half of this scheduled right now. dennis: i see. talking about book tours, one answer has been for authors to join together in go on tours together, like a touring comedy tour. you have done this. has it been authors who do this stuff you do, which is, frankly, very manly, nonfiction, maybe fiction, and very manly stuff, or do you have a person who writes a poetry book on the tours? >> well, you know, you try to create a themed program. i created a show two years ago called "masters of suspense," bringing in fellow true crime authors, and we tour at large theater venues the last two years, literally performing our works and our investigations on stage before an audience, allowing that one-on-one engagement with the readers, allowing us to grow the brands and get people interested in our work. dennis: that audience has to be brimming with horned rimmed glasses and patches on the elbows. you didn't wait for a publisher to do this for you; you did this. what about social networking, your facebook page, and those efforts? >> that's right. when you write a book, you need to take off the hemmingway hat. it's off to the authors to market aggressively. that's what i did with that "masters of suspense," a creation of my own, and it's been successful. we have gone through the social, you know, the digital stage and age, as i said, has been a detriment to writers, but we learn to adapt to it. one thing writers are doing now is, obviously, taking advantage of social media, creating facebook pages, creating twitter handles, building and developing their own story narratives and teasers for the book to put right on to youtube. it's all about growing your audience organically when you don't have those venues to lean on anymore. we saw borders go out of business a few years ago. we hope that barnesng the same thing, but we have to prepare for the future as best we can. dennis: all right. i love this, you are surfing the wave rather than cursing it or lighting a candle, whatever it is. you're the writer. >> exactly. dennis: good job. >> thank you, dennis. cheryl: so, the economy may be questionable right now, but one company's sales are going through the roof. the ceo of patron spirits is coming up. dennis: postal service under criticism for announcing an end to saturday mail delivery. i go one-on-one with the postmaster general, himself, next. ♪ at a dry cleaner, we replaced people with a machine. what? customers didn't like it. so why do banks do it? hello? hello?! if your bank doesn't let you talk to a real person 24/7, you need an ally. hello? ally bank. your money needs an ally. >> i'm nicole live on the floor of the new york stock exchange. every 15 # minutes it's covered here on fox business networks, stocks now. chipolte mexican grill up 5.8%, in addition to the report, a

rookie harrison barnes playing in the rising stars game for "team shaq" thompson - shows he can do pointers - throws down ally oop slam thompson: 11 points barnes with the dunk. barnesoints but team chuck dominated kenneth faried of the nuggets with the play of thehanded ally-oop slam faried: 40 points, 10 rebs barkley's team sets scoring record for this game team chuck wins 163-135 stanford at usc stanford women's basketball team ranked 4th in the country 1st half chiney oguimike - works inside for two points og rebs 1st half amber orrange - slices to the hoop with the nice drive for the layup 2nd half jocelyn tinkle - from downtown - the 3-pointer to put game on ice tinkle: 17 points, 11 rebs usc head coach & former laker michael cooper looks on final: 79-55 stanford note: 6th ranked cal women beat #15 ucla 79-51 ryan braun a new document links former n.l. mvp ryan braun to performance enhancing drugs. the document is a hand- written list of names including alex rodriguez and melky cabrera - and how much they paid to biogenesis founder anthony bosch, presumably for performance enhancing drugs. next to braun's name is $1,500. braun tested positive two years ago for

barnes. familylicia barnes's suspected johnson had something to do with the death. >> last person to have seen her. never lifted a finger to help. >> the jury agreed convicting johnson of second-degree murder, ending the case that got national attention and tore apart to families. >> an elephant took one of his feet off my chest so i can breathe a little bit now. >> justice is served. at least we can sleep now. >> it is what is. we still feel in our hearts that michael johnson is night guilty. >> the ex-boyfriend of her older sister was indicted last april a year after the body was recovered from the susquehanna river. he had very little reaction. >> i asked him, are you ok and he said, i am numb. he is in shock and disbelief. >> the case depended heavily on the testimony of an inmate, known as james reilly and james mccray. johnson admitted killing her and needed help getting rid of the body. >> any time you bring a high profile such as this you have to have prosecution and they did not. when you see the jury come back with a second-degree on this type of case that shows a compromise that -- and issues the jury was having as well. >> we're prepared to take the tough cases to court when we feel that the evidence warrants. and at the end of the day of course this is about phylicia barnes and her family. >> sentencing is set for march. maximum penalty, 30 years. about the inmates, prosecutors told jurors the inmate was getting nothing in return for his testimony. today, 10 days were knocked off his 1-year sentence he is serving for car theft in charles county. city prosecutors said they had nothing to do with it. >> are learning a baltimore city circuit court judge has dismissed the lawsuit by baltimore controller over the plan to install new phone system and it is an update to the story the i-team has been falling. accusing the mayor of subverting the bidding process. >> bankruptcy may be the only option for the city of baltimore 10 years down the road if officials do not make some major cuts and reforms. that is part of a city ordered to report what it says. the forecast was published by public financial management, inc.. if the city continues its spending trend it will be more than $2 billion in the hole. $745 million includes a budget deficit, failing infrastructur

the sex video depicts phylicia barnes, her sister deena barnes, michael johnson and his brother. what it means, that the jury asked to see it again is anybody's guess. it was, however, the first time anyone heard from the jury. meanwhile, members of both families remain in the hallways waiting for word. phylicia's father remains confident that the jury will find johnson guilty for his part. it was michael's 29th birthday today. deliberations will continue tomorrow morning at 9:30. reporting in downtown baltimore, brian kuebler, abc2 news. >> if you want the latest breaking news, sub scribe to our rake break alerts and also twitter at abc2 news. >>> weather wise, we're looking at a few snow showers. some of this melting and coming down in the form of a rain shower situation. a few flakes. a little in cecil county where you see showers coming through. another one east of bel air and another one coming through the north side of baltimore. so that's the setup. hour by hour overnight look for temperatures to slowly fall to freezing. anything falling shouldn't create icy conditions. by

. >>> jurors say he is guilty of killing 16-year-old phylicia barnes but michael barnes' attorneys are not done fighting just yet. they are going to expect an appeal or a motion for a new trial. yesterday johnson was found guilty of second degree murder and now faces up to 30 years behind bars. he is expected to be sentenced on march 20th. >>> it seems everyone wants to hear from the baltimore ravens. also, now call them super bowl champs. and tonight, jacoby jones will make the late night tv debut with jimmy kimmel. the star wide receiver set a handful of records during the super bowl on sunday including the most combined yards in a game. 108-yard kickoff return for a touchdown matched the longest play in nfl history. you can see that episode tonight at 11:30 right here on abc2. you will want to hear what the young man has to say. >>> today we're going to hear from the ravens for the last time this season. they are holding their annual season review press conference this morning at the under armour performance center. the president, john harbaugh and the gm will be at the event. the p

barnes -- phylicia barnes. they say he killed barneshours from now, the ravens super bowl parade begins. it starts at 10:45 this morning at city hall and ends at m&t bank stadium. if you can't make it out in person, watch it at home or online. we'll have live team coverage starting at 10:30 this morning. we're also streaming the parade live at abc2news.com. here's lauren cook with a look at traffic. >>> good morning. that ravens parade will cause many, many delays in downtown baltimore. many roads will be shut down beginning at 10:30. leave yourself plenty of time traveling near city hall. if you are heading out, parking is going to be free at the stadium. it's now open. so definitely leave now to get there in plenty of time. we are dealing with delays on the jfx. it's going to take you 21 extra minutes to travel southbound from the beltway all the way down to east fayette street. we are following a crash in woodlawn that has shut down security boulevard. use liberty road or interstate 70 as your alternate routes. here's what 695 looks

barnes famill. 33 good morning guys, he barnes fammly walked out of this courthouse... wwih a seece of peace... served phy can sleep now (nat pop of woman in tan jacket praiiing god) goo) the familyyalways suspecced it was michael 3 year old honor student.it's &pbelieved johnson fooced himself on ppylicia... aad then straaglld heerbecause she -3 wouldn't top cryinn.months later, her body was found floating mong debrissnear the -3 conwingo dam. how it got there... prosecutors could neveerexplain but they cculd point to several inconsistancies in johnson's story.in the end... the jury found johnsoo guilty of 2nd degree murder. as the barnesembbrs thanked ttose who investigated the casee.. up phe street... ichael johnson's father... sharedd -& wiih us his disappointment. p3 1127:24 i'm sure you were expecting a differrnt outcome today ? yes we were but it is what it is and we stiil feell johnson is not guilty.:34 22 this week... is oo looking at spending dozens of 200h.but johnson's defense is planning to appeaa. &p&&pthe testimony... they say had -3 no credibilitt.coming up next 3 mitchell courthouue, i'm megan gglliland, fox45 morning news. 3 a 33-yearrold man is charggd &pwith fatally stabbing a -3 pikesvvlle mother... while tto ccildren were inside the aparrmentt apartment. investigattrr say the two children were not hurr... but he victim... katie hadel... is eaa after being stabbed multiple times. after a manhunt that stretched several ours... pooice found the suspect and 3 (kim boyd)(heavy sigh...) "my heart just goes outtto her cause oh god i just llve children and its just witness someehing like that its traumatic

barn, there's also a barn right to the left of it that's kind of obscured by the trees. >> so you're saying there's a number of cabins on this property. this is kind of the main cabin. and they're rented out? traditional sne. >> yeah, just rented out over the wintertime, people go up there and stay. that's another thing when they said he was trying to escape through the back. if he directly runs up -- on the tv anyway -- there's other small cabins in there he can take refuge. >> that was going to be my next question. if he had left through the rear, how big a property is this besides the other cabins on the property? are there other houses nearby? >> on the property, yeah, there's six and there's about ten acres of the property itself. other nearby cabins of other people are a little ways away. you know, like a mile away or so. >> right. kyle, stand by if you can. chris, i'm just wondering as you have watched this play out, what has been going through your mind? what are your thoughts? >> that's ultimately the indicator if law enforcement can talk him out. you can't negotiate a gunfight or a riot. if he takes the time to stop shooting to communicate, you find out whether he loves himself enough to try to survive to carry on his cause. just as we're hearing this, the one thing in a strange sort of way imencouraged about the report of him trying to escape out the back doesn't sound like it includes him trying to use a human shield. so that tends to indicate more that he might have been alone in the cabin, which, of course, would be very good news. >> the fact, chris, that authorities went in or at least lobbed in tear gas, whether or not they actually entered the cabin itself, would that also lead you to believe that there were not hostages inside? >> well, that in and of itself, they may have done that for a variety of reasons. they may have been trying to protect someone that may or may not have been inside. it may have been dictated by the attack from the inside towards them. and they may have been doing that to suppress the threat that he presented to law enforcement at the time. that's a little harder to speculate on other than the fact that he didn't use a human shield. >> i'm also wondering just given the tactics that he's accused of using over the last several days, it seems like in a number of confrontations he's had with law enforcement, whether it was in riverside where he's alleged to have killed one officer, whether it was lapd or the san bernardino sheriffs or the fish and wildlife who he engaged in a firefight with earlier today, it seems like something of an offensive action on his part. he doesn't seem to be much on the defense. he seems to be taking the fight to them. >> in many cases, yeah, that's absolutely true. in the interim, he's been on the run, trying to protect himself. keep himself alive. a tleemd amount of wariness, he knows they're tactically very capable. but he's been on the offense most of the time. >> former lapd psychologist kris mohandie. we've talked about this a number of times on this program. we had the idea perhaps he was in a cabin somewhere, had broken into somebody's cabin, whether he was holding hostages or not but was maybe watching television, the coverage of this. you tried to make the point to him to get his message across, to get his grievance paid attention to, to surrender. it clearly doesn't seem he's taken that route. >> no. but you have to offer it. you have to always hold out the hope and extend the branch that can lead to a nonviolent resolution. ultimately at the end of the day, you can do all these things and it's the suspect that makes up his mind about whether or not he want to accept that or not. this was a very rigid man, very invested in his cause, unbending, moralistic in his own way and, unfortunately, it appears that he's chosen to end this in a violent way. >> james usara is also joining us on the phone. he met dorner before. they were classmates. i'm wondering your thoughts on seeing what appear to be some or the of, i don't know if resolution is the correct word, but your thoughts the on this man that you once knew. >> sure. i find myself going through a bit of an emotional roller coaster. this person who was a friend and for whom i had a great deal of respect obviously has found himself having a pretty serious problem and taking actions that are horrible. on some level at this point it sounds like things have come to a close. you say not much of a resolution, but hopefully the manhunt will be over and no further violence will be perpetrated. again from my standpoint, there's a bit of a human element to this where i see pictures of chris on tv and he's a person who i considered a friend. and to know that he's alleged to have committed these pretty heinous acts, it's confusing and i just wish there was something in hindsight that i could have done to try and prevent it or to even help bring the situation as it is to a close in a better way. but until it is, it's just a surreal experience having been sort of dragged into this. >> yeah. i can't even imagine, frankly. i just want to give all of our viewers an update of where we are, and there's a lot we don't know at this hour. most importantly, we do not know where christopher dorner is, if he's inside that cabin still, alive, dead, wounded. we don't know if he's been taken out by law enforcement, actually removed from that cabin, wounded, alive or dead. we don't know. we also don't know if he's tried to escape the cabin and maybe somewhere else on the surrounding grounds. you heard from kyle whose mom own this cabin, kyle martin, who said this is a ten-acre property, there's a number of cabins on it. we have been watching this. i know the image is beginning to get somewhat cloudy. i don't know if it's from the smoke from this fire, but for an hour we've been watching smoke billow from this cabin. we've seen fire as well. at times it seemed to consume much of the cabin or the front of the cabin that we've been able to see. no efforts seem to be made to putting it out. you can read into that what you will. a local cbs reporter carter evans was actually describing the situation by cell phone when the initial gunfight broke out. now, this initial gunfight, we believe this gunfight was by the road block that the fish and wildlife deputies exchanged gunfire with this suspect while the suspect was in a vehicle. there's an early report, according to "the l.a. times" saying that the suspect actually crashed this white pickup truck that he was driving that he allegedly stolen, then opened up fire. gunfire was exchanged with the deputies from fish and wildlife. but this local reporter was on the scene. you actually hear -- it's confusing what you're going to hear, but you certainly hear gunfire in the background. a lot of people kind of yelling. let's listen in. >> this is a very -- we're standing here. we don't want to get caught in the crossfire ourself. >> hey, you. come here! >> me? >> you, come here. [ gunfire ] >> hey! get the -- out of here! [ gunfire ] >> there you heard the somewhat confusing exchange of gunfire that we believe that was the exchange of gunfire around the road block. miguel marquez was at the scene. he joins me now. assuming you've not heard any new information in the last ten minutes or so, take a step back and walk me through the timeline and sequence of events that we know about that occurred several hour ago up to now. >> what officials here have just announced that around 12:30, 1:00 today pacific time they got a call from individuals who had been tied up. a car was stolen from there. a white pickup truck. they said the person who stole it matched the description of christopher dorner. a short time later, two officials from -- two wardens from game and fish, amazingly enough, who were helping san bernardino county sheriff's office came in contact with mr. dorner. there were shots fired. neither was injured. mr. dorner went on foot. he ended up in this cabin holed up there when law enforcement deputies from san bernardino county sheriff's office arrived he opened fire on them. one of them was killed. the other one was injured badly. he's in surgery right now. but is expected to be okay. and now this fire about two hours ago now i understood law enforcement said they were going to go in with gas. it is not clear what set off that fire, but they clearly believe that he had no hostages in that building, in that cabin. he had tried to escape earlier using a smoke grenade, it sounds like, but then forced back into the cabin. the big question out there that san bernardino county officials are not able to answer at the moment is is he still alive? they said that they had much of the cabin cordoned off around it. they had choppers overhead. but they could not be 100% sure that he didn't escape into the immediate area around that cabin, into another cabin nearby or somewhere else or if he's still in that cabin. they're basically going to wait for that cabin to completely burn to the ground, then go in, see if they can find him, have the area completely surrounded. but we have perhaps 10, 15 minutes of light. they want to wrap this up before the sun goes down and the advantage then, if he is free and if it is christopher dorner, which it certainly sounds like it is, that he would then have the advantage. anderson? >> i should point out one firefighter source i've been communicating with who has been watching these images, just from their experience says there's nobody who was inside that building throughout that fire could survive that fire even if they had a gas mask given the size of the fire they're witnessing. >> impossible. >> that's just an opinion, but it does seem very difficult that somebody would still be inside that, whether they were in the basement or on the ground floor would be able to survive. andrew blanksteen is a reporter from "the l.a. times." he joins me now. your papers has had a lot of details about what has occurred over the last several hour. fill us in on some of the gaps of what we know. according to your reporting that i initially read, the suspect had attempted to escape through the rear of this cabin, is that correct? >> there was talk of that. there was radio traffic about an open door and footprints. there were definitely two gunfights. the one in the cabin obviously is the one that people were focusing on, the sheriff's deputies who one killed and one wounded. but we don't know -- because there were rumors that at one point during the afternoon he had escaped entirely. but throughout the afternoon, my sources were saying, no, he's in there. then late in the afternoon, as you saw from the smoke and flames that there was a tactical operation that was under way, but obviously until you get close enough to something like that, you're not going to be able to say for sure. you're going to see a lot of report of people saying absol e absolutely he's dead. nobody could survive. until they go in there and have an official confirmation either through dna or some other thing visually, they're probably not going to say officially. >> sure. are you -- have you gotten any information conclusively on what started this fire? we've had a number of law enforcement folks say, you know, it could be an incendiary device, the tear gas itself which ignited a wooden structure, a flash bang grenade or something else. do you have any other nfg on th -- information on that? >> we're hearing from source that it was tear gas. we did a story about a suspect that shot and killed a los angeles sheriff's deputy then holed up in a wooden shed. they fired gas into that temperature which caught on fire ultimately killing the suspect. we did the story of the difference between what's called hot gas and cold gas. hot tear gas is basically something that ignites. you want to get them presumably out of the structure or it's going to burn. we don't know precisely what type of tear gas was fired. all we know is that it was fired. but something that catch on fire that quickly and you noted it was a wooden structure, it would burn quickly. as your ges were saying, it is hard to imagine someone surviving something hike that. >> i want to bring in randi kaye who has more nfg information on game and wildlife deputies who were on the road block and there was shooting between them. what are you hearing? >> from what we understand, anderson, the sheriff's deputies were hunting for christopher dorner around 12:20 or so pacific time but 20 minute after that initial call went out that it may have been dorner who had stolen the vehicle from the couple that had been tied up reported. fish and game had been on alert. a road block had been set up. one of those officers noticed a car matching that description and a man matching the description of dorner heading in the opposite direction that he was going along highway 38 there. as you know, he was spotted at highway 38 and glass road. once he noticed him, that's when he put out the alert, called for more deputies. what happened there was christopher dorner did not stop. he attempted to flee into the forest. hundred of rounds of gunfire were used to try and stop him. he ended up holing himself up inside that cabin. luckily none of those fish and game officers in hot pursuit of him was injured. it was two of the other deputies. >> tom fuentes for the fbi is joining us as well. i know you've been working your sources. at this point what is going through your mind? the key question is where is christopher dorner? is he still in that structure? has he been taken out of that structure, alive, dead, wounded? what other questions do you want to answer? >> the worst case scenario that runs through my mind which i hope turn out to be ridiculous is that he somehow did escape. that he managed to find a weak point in the line of officers that had him surrounded and ran off into the woods. now, i don't think that police believe that, that's what happened because i think right now you would see hundreds of officers in the woods right now that the manhunt would be back on to try to locate him if they believe that he made it through the line and escaped. i think the report from the marshals that he tried to escape but went back inside the cabin, i know the term "pushed back" was used, but i don't believe he meant by hand. gunfire maybe caused him to retreat to the cabin. possibly he was wounded. if the police returned fire as he was going for the cabin, that he may have received a mortal wound as he was entering the cabin and is now still inside there. that we'll know later. but it sure seems like the police believe he's in there. they don't want to confirm it. they can't. they haven't seen his body and pulled his remains out. they are not going to be able to get near it for some time because of the heat and the flames and the danger that something else inside will explode. they'll sit and watch that cabin all night and hope that maybe by tomorrow the embers are cooled and they can make an entry into there and start their forensic work, look for the body. >> i want to give all of our viewers, obviously, the president will be making his state of the union address tonight. we'll bring that to you at 9:00 eastern time when the president's speech is anticipated beginning. you're looking at a live shot of the white house. the president is about to leave any moment now for capitol hill. you just saw his limousine there in the previous shot. you are looking at the ek xit h will be using. we'll continue coverage of this ongoing law enforcement situation in california up until probably about a quarter to 9:00, then our political coverage is going to take it over. we'll give you updates obviously throughout this evening. but we want to continue focusing right now on this image that you're seeing of this cabin, the cabin owned by the martin family. this is not a live shot. this is a cabin owned by the martin family which mrs. martin was actually watching television, according to her son kyle -- there you see the president and first lady. >> how are you? good. >> he replied to a reporter he feels great. how you are? then he heads to capitol hill for his first state of the union in his second term. we have our full political panel obviously assembled to bring you a lot of thoughts on what the president is going to be saying tonight, what kind of a tone he is going to strike. but as we watch them pull out from the white house, that political coverage will begin probably in about 10 or 15 minutes. we anticipate the speech starting around 9:00. we'll have full political coverage after the speech as well with as many updates as we can of this swituation in california. wolf blitzer is standing by along with all our political team that we've asem beld here in washington. it was several hours ago when this incident in california really began anew. it had been several days since any word or action had been seen from the suspect, christopher dorner. the belief had been -- and according to "the l.a. times," to sources there, it seems to have been confirmed that at least for several days he has been holed up in a cabin, not the cabin you see on fire right now, but in a different cabin where he allegedly had taken a couple hostage, was holding them hostage for several days while he basically regrouped and was laying low. there was a massive manhunt, a manhunt hampered by the bad weather system that had moved into the big wear arbear area mt difficult for authorities to track him and to get air assets up into the sky. they had air assets, they had choppers ready with heat-seeking devices but because of weather they weren't able to get those up in the air. now it's believed the suspect was laying low in somebody's house. whether he moved from one house to another, we simply don't know. but at this point the early information was he had taken one couple hostage. he stole a vehicle, then the seri series of events that we have seen play out over the next several hour. it's been a very fast paced kinetic activity, gunfire at this roadblock and at the cabin you see now. it is getting dark. that had been a concern for law enforcement. tom fuentes is joining us. from a law enforcement standpoint, the darkness was a concern all along. it would seem once they realized that there were not hostages inside, as we believe there were not, although that's not been confirmed, because the cabin was said to be empty when christopher dorner went in, it would seem as if the darken was a real concern. law enforcement wanted to try to move in as quickly as possible before darken fell. chris voss is a former hostage negotiator. do you think that's fair that darkness was a concern here? >> the main concern in terms of darkness is whether they've got their inner perimeter established. they're more concerned about getting that. it's tougher when it's dark. that's the real concern. if they establish their perimeter they're prepared to deal with the darkness. they've got counterterrorism training. they can handle that but it was making sure their perimeters are established. >> we also have kyle martin. does it seem to you that the entire cabin is on fire? >> yeah, from what i can see right here, actually looks like maybe the barn is, too. there's a barn ten feet away from it. i can't quite tell, though. >> but it seems like the entire structure is in flames or has been. >> yeah, yeah. >> how big a structure is this, kyle? >> it's about 1800 square feet, i'd say. >> 1800 square feet. it's a one-level structure, then there's a basement foundation underneath? >> yeah, and an attic. >> an attic able to stand up in? >> just a small attic. it's all sad, but this is material stuff. i feel bad for people who have lost loved ones and whatnot. >> sure. tom fuentes formerly with the fbi is also joining us. we were talking to chris about the coming darkness. how big of a concern would that have been for the tactical units on site? >> obviously the concern that he could try to get out of there and run into the woods in the dark, although the police would certainly have night vision equipment. they would have aircraft with infrared ability to try to maintain surveillance coverage from the air. but it's always better even wi

barnes and get the latest on our weather for today. >> let's bring in tucker barnes and get the latest on our weather for today. >> parts of the area will get some snow as things wind down later tonight. >> a little bit. >> snow lovers out there, we'll have to wait for the next one. >> we are running out of time here. >> there are three more weeks. two more weeks of february? >> after mid-march, you call it quits on the possibility of snow around here. >> we hope because by that time, you're done with t you have moved on. >> back in '93 wednesday a big snowstorm in mid-march but not very often. 33 in new york city. 28 in columbus. much of our region has fallen below 33 degrees. make sure the kids are ready for a chilly morning. remember yesterday morning we were in the 40s. here is is a look at your satellite-radar and clouds increasing here. might be a little sunshine to start your day. the clouds will quickly move in. i think the shower activity will hold off until mid afternoon. probably 2:00, 3:00, it will start to move in. high temperatures expected to be in the low 40s. later tonight as the storm starts to push off the coast, it will be enough to draw enough cold air in from the north. we should see a transition start to take place north and west of washington. perhaps even washington and points to the east. thinking of you prince george's county out towards anne arundel county, you may see the transition to a little snow. here is your forecast for today. daytime highs in the low 40s with showers developing by early afternoon and again, we could see some snow tonight, perhaps some light accumulations. we'll talk more about that in a few minutes. >> let's check in with julie wright to see how the morning commute is going. >> we are starting to get busy out here in downtown. before we take you into d.c., let me pull you in from the west. this happened to be the live shot of 66 eastbound. traffic below speed traveling between the two 234 interchains in manassas. traffic slows again headed from 50 to 123. no accidents to report, just volume delays. let's continue with the cameras. we'll show you what is happening in d.c. inbound new york avenue, aslow go approaching the brentwood parkway. the two right lanes were closed off outbound. you should find lanes are open. but the police activity going to tie up your activity here inbound as you travel from bladensburg road. west virginia, moment headed out towards montana. in southeast, that is where we have problems with the vehicle fire tying up a portion of alabama avenue between 4th and irving street. ving street. traffic starting to slow in woodbridge leaving the prince william parkway headed for the occoquan. lanes are open below speed leaving 85 to the truck scales just south of 109. that's a check of your fox 5 on-time traffic. ime traffic. >>> developing in california this morning, where we should soon learn more information in the couch for a former lapd officer wanted for murder. police confirm a body was found inside a burned-out cabin in big bear lake about 80 miles west of l.a. they have not said if it is the body of christopher dorner. officials are now waiting on forensic tests. he engaged in a gun battle with officers tuesday. he is accused of killing four people in a series of vie venge killings after being fired from the force. the force. -- of revenge killings after being fired from the force. >>> president obama covered a broad range of issues in last night's state of the union address including guns and climate change j the president used the speech to talk about the economy as well. melanie alnwick is live on capitol hill with more on that. good morning. >> reporter: good morning. the president's speech focused heavily on democratic issues during that hour-long address. but the biggest applause of the night came when he called for more action on gun control measures. he also did talk about social issues and economic ones saying that was determined to intervene to help boost the middle class. he called on lawmakers to spend more money to fix roads and bridges, to invest in preschool for all 4-year-olds in the united states and to raise the minimum wage to $9 for the first time in six years. mr.obama announceed a reduction in our military footprint abroad. abroad. >> tonight, we stand united in saluting the troops and civilians who sacrifice every day to protect us. because of them, we can say with confidence that america will complete its mission in afghanistan and achieve our objective of defeating the core of al-qaeda. already, we have brought home 33,000 of our brave servicemen and women. tonight, i can announce that over the next year, another 34,000 american troops will come home from afghanistan. this drawdown will continue and by the end of next year, our war in afghanistan will be over. over. >> reporter: gun control was an item that really resonated with viewers. the president told lawmakers that his proposals deserve an up or down vote no matter where they stand. they stand. >> i think when you locked up at the galleries and realized there were dozens of family members of victims of gun shootings in the last decade or so including my home state of virginia, i sure hope it will have an impact on members' willingness to at least re- examine their positions on protecting the public from gun violence. >> nobody has shown any evidence whatsoever that any of the gun control recommendations, the banning of certain colored rifles, the banning of high capacity magazines and rates of fire, nobody has any evidence that that has halted or reduced crime anywhere. >> reporter: as you can see, gun control still a big issue that there is a lot of controversy on. most of the president's proposals do face stiff opposition. earlier, speaker john boehner in the republican controlled house said that immigration is probably the only issue that might pass this year. back to you. >> we'll wait and see. >>> the republicans this morning are dealing with a new watergate so to speak. social media blue up last night over this. gop senator marco rubio taking what and to be a desperate sip of water as he delivered the republican response. he was a little nervous and it is not sitting very closely to him the seemingly overheated rubio had already wipe his brow a few times during his speech. how many times did he do that? we were asleep by then. >> no, they're just looping it. >> it just looks like it. >> we're looping the video. >>> still ahead, a big crowd is on hand at st. peter's basilica as the pope makes his first public appearance since his decision to retire. we'll have more from vatican city after the break.  >>> in just a few hours from now, probes will lead ash wednesday service, his last as the leader of the catholic church. earlier this morning, the pope held his weekly yep audience that had to be moved to a larger venue to hold the huge crowd. the holy father said his resignation is for the good of the church. live look right now at the vatican. planning a very large audience for the day before his rest you go nation takes effect. it is set to be held outside on the massive st. peter's square. a live look there at vatican city. >>> as passengers on that stranded cruise ship in the gulf of mexico continue to complain about the conditions on the boat, the president of carnival is now apologizing and also contradicting the accounts of some passengers. jerry cahill said the ship does have running water and most of its rest room are working. he also downplayed the possibility of an outbreak of disease from unsanitary conditions. the vessel is being towed to mobile, alabama. >> still some very up happy passengers on there. >> why would you come out and say that. >> we'll get to the bottom of it. >> passengers will be talking when they get off the boat. >>> there is a win are in the westminster dog show. coming up, a look at the new best in show pooch. we'll tell you about it when we come back. i already know. >> i know you do. >> you told me earlier.  [ woman ] my boyfriend and i were going on vacation, so i used my citi thankyou card to pick up some accessories. a new belt. some nylons. and what girl wouldn't need new shoes? and with all the points i've been earning, i was able to get us a flight to our favorite climbing spot, even on a holiday weekend. ♪ things are definitely... looking up. [ male announcer ] with no blackout dates, you can use your citi thankyou points to travel whenever you want. visit citi.com/thankyoucards to apply. >> a cute dog. banana joe. this is america's top dog. the 5-year-old ena younger english sheepdog to win best in show at the westminster kennel club. also made history as it mark the first win for the breed which became eligible for westminster in 1991. banana joe is set to fly back to the netherlands with his owner sometime this week. if you said that when allison was up here, she would not talk to you. >> he is super cute. >> he is cute. i never heard of that before. >> i don't know my dogs. i would say it was like a poodle type dog. he is a small dog. >> good way to describe it. >> so we'll talk some weather here. i want to encourage everybody if you want to talk weather with me, join me on my facebook page. what is my facebook page again? >> you don't even know. tucker barnest fox 5 d.c. >> tucker barnes. you don't have to put an at on facebook. >> join me there. and we can talk about sarah and wisdom and whether they are really nice in person. >> you've been dishing dirt. >> of a he got 50 friends now by the way. 50 likes. let me talk weather. i'm starting to sound like tony. >> at facebook. >> sorry. got it confused it twitter. i'll did a better job next hour. 30 in gaithersburg. wisdom and sarah have the same site so go join them as well. 30 in martinsburg. 32 in winchester. we are below freezing north and west. it is to the north appear west where we have the best chance of rain mixing with or changing to snow later this afternoon. really tonight. i think your evening rush hour will be just wet. just liquid here as temperatures are expected to be in the low to mid-40s. later tonight, we could seat temperatures fall back a little bit. it could transition over to snow. there is our little bit of storminess, not very strong. a few tenths of an in. of rain

barnes & noble. go, nicole. >> barnes & noble, the chairman of the company, just like we saw with best buy. like his baby and not let it go in this case the superstores. david: we have the dow accelerating the downward trend right up until the ringing bell. we'll go to s&p to find out what happens with futures in terms of tomorrow. look at that, a 214 point drop. looks like it might settle if this is the session lows this is the low. all the intoday tease hit hard. s&p was hit harder than the dow. blue ribbon stocks held on better. but even they were knocked down. very tough day for the s&p and dow jones. nasdaq down significantly about a little less than the dow. getting hit hardest are the small and mid-size caps represented by russell 2,000. that was down 2%. lauren: shares of ryland were down significantly. two key homebuilder etfs saw a decline as a result. ishares, homebuilder etf and the s&p homebuilder etf. david: despite news that hedge funds cut their bullish bets on gold by the most since 2007 last week, gold rebounding today and posting its biggest one-day gain this month. gold

barnes case.tte grounds they have to appeal.. aad the odds the coovicciin will be oveerurned. you're waaching foo 455morning nees.. all loccl.. all morning. ((break 3)) p the case of a missing ttenager .. hyliiia barnes .. dree nattonal drewwnational ...phylicia barnesthe ccse of a missinggttenager .. ppylicia attentin. her pfter she disappeared hile visiting hee sister in baltimore. this week .. thh sister's ongtime degree murder. hhs attorneys say the case was aal circumstantial .. ann they plan to appeal. aatorney steve allln with hodes katz laww, joins us his morning.-where you sruprised the prossection -key evidence was video of johnson carryinggcontainer the day she disappeared ... pellphone video she exual -3 disappeared ... container the day carrying vvdeo of johnson -key evidence was video of johnson ccrryinn contaiier the day she ccllphone video of sexual inneraction ....testiiony from jail of person who says, jjhnson told him he did it -whattgrounds do they haveeto appeal -should nd will phylicia's sistere, deanna in this case .. obstruction, &paccessory, corrrpting minorr.. 3 about 2 minuues stands between you and 110-dollars! dollarsswe're rawing another 3 facebook page to enterr enter. ((break 4)) the ravens secret weaponhow a honored

prosecutors say michael johnson killed felicia barnes in 2010 while visiting her family in baltimore. johnson was dating barnesyears in prison. >>> there are new details in the shandra levy case. levy went missing 2001. >>> a guilty plea from a virginia man accused of a shooting at the family council research center last summer. >> the man says his plan was to kill as many employees of the conservative lobbying group as possible. here's more. >> reporter: according to the government's evidence the man spent days planning for the attack. first conducting sr. lance seeing if he can get in the building. bought magazinings and chik-fil- a sandwiches he planned to smear in the faces of the victims, but the guard in the lobby was too guard for the suspect. johnson held the suspect until police arrived. "i don't like these people and i don't like what they stand for. h he admitted in court his plan was to gun down employees at the family add have cassie council and go to another council to do the same thing. leo johnson is back at work. >> leo is back and doing great. >> reporter: our requests to question johnson wer

barnes. she disappeared back in 20-11 while visiting family 3 baltimore.tom rodgers ii here wwth reaction from the family morning. 3 the barnes famill walked out of the courthoose yesserday... with a ense of ppace. peace.1:34:33 justice is ssrved phy can sleep now (nat pop of woman in tan jacket praising od) god) the family always uupected it was michael johnsoonwho murdered the 16-yeer-old ooor student. it's believed johnson forced himself n phylicia... aad tten strangled her because she wouldn't stop ccying.as the barnesup the ssreet... michael -3& johnson's fathee... shared with us his disappointment. 3 1:27:24 i'm sure yoo werr today ? yes weewere but it is what it is and we still feel in our eart that michael johnsonnis not guiltyy:34 guilty.:344ohnson was found guilty of 2nd degree murrerr sentenning is et for march 20th.his defense is planniig 3 police release the ame of &ptheeman charged wwth killing a ppkesville mother whill tww children were innide her apprtment. apartment.33 year old jeffrey michael ssiflett is accused of killlig 33 year old katie deaah, tuesday night.police 3 relationship.. but would not - sppcify. 3 (kim bood)(heevy sigh...) "my peart just goes out to her cause oh god i juss lovv children ann its just terrible if thhts their mom to witness something liie that its traumatic.. ya know... " " police saa one child was thh victims aughter.the other was a elaaiie. they were nott hurrthifflett ii now facing charges oo first degree murder. 3 a biiarre accident in san diego.it's a c

prosecutors say michael johnson killed phylicia barnes in 2010 while she was visiting her half sister in baltimore. barnes body was found a month later. johnson was barnes sister at the time. >>> new details in the chandra levy case. the judge met with the prosecution and the defense. the judge is defending his decision saying it is necessary for safety reasons. levy went missing in 2001. her body was found in rock creek park. the man accused of murdering her is facing a 60 prison sentence. >>> hundreds of protesters gathered demonstrating as the hearing got underway over the gun proposals. tom fitzgerald has more. >> reporter: outside the maryland state house in annapolis -- >> this is day one. >> reporter: nearly 1,000 gun rights advocates rallied against sweeping new gun laws being proposed by governor martin o'malley. >> martin o'malley wants to run for president and he isn't going to be out liberalled by anybody in new york. >> o'malley wants a ban on military assault weapons. he is also looking to raise licensing fees, require gun licenses to expire after five years, and mandate training for gun ownership. >> we are also proposing a limit on the s

>> yeah, from what i can see, it actually looks like maybe the barn is too, there's a barn about teneet away from it. i can't quite tell, though. this is just material stuff. i feel bad for the people who have lost loved ones and what not. >> an important point, but you can imagine how anxious he is to see what if anything is left of their cabin. randi kaye spent the day with him. trying to get off that mountain. >> reporter: less than 12 hours after he watched his family's cabin burn to the ground, kyle martin is determined to see what's left. before making the two-hour drive up here to the big bear mountain area, kyle checked online to see if highway 38 was open. it was at highway 38 and glass road where the shootout took place, between the suspect and the fish and game officers. >> i do know it's closed. i do know it's open to residents. as far as how close they'll let me get, i don't know. i think it's still a homicide scene, so we'll try our luck. >> reporter: when the standoff started, kyle's sister texted him to tell him s.w.a.t. teams were on their road at their cabin. she ha

johnson is accused of killing north carolina teen felecia barns while she was in baltimore vis itsing family in 2010. johnson killed barnes and put her body in a container and dumped the container in the susquehanna river. stay with us throughout the course of the day. brian kuebler has been in caught since the trial began, follow him on twitter, as soon as the jury makes its final decision. >> parents if your child rides q the bus to school, you want to know about. this council is taking action after an abc 2 news investigation found that bus drivers were able to blow through red lights without officials ever knowing about it. back in october, our investigation made national news and last night council members voted unanimously to hold the drivers accountable. the measure will require there be copies of every speed or red light ticket. >>> howard county woman is charged with assault and reckless endangerment from beating a man, the whole thing is caught on camera. the video was hard to watch. we blurred to conceal the victim's identity in it. the beating involving 57 year old donna, it happened at a group home. a nonprof

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barnes murder trral. trial. latt tuesday afternoon... jurors ssed to review wo videos... includingg - one of suspected killer miicael johnson taaen from barnes disappeared.ittshows the econd s a ex video of - johnson and barnes' older -3 sister deena.barnes pisappeared n balttmmre tww -3 years go while vvsiting famill over christmas. - a stabbinggin downnown - baltimore... leaves one person dead... nd two others hurt. hurt.it haapeneddaround 1-30 - tuesday afteenoon... just 9 blocks from ravens stadium... &paa the nterrection of hhwaad & and fayette street.the parade wassover... but many people 3&ppere involvee in ssmm soot off &pp3&(roberrtwitness) "i seen them sccffling and fiigtinggbut all &pof them got up and scatterrd &pand thee i looked rrght here -3 on thii side oo the stteet and that'sswhat haapenee, and 3 surroundedd little young guy, young guy."3 plear if tte incidenn as relattd to the ssper bowll celebration meanttme... pplice say the department's purveiilance cameras havee evidence. 3& 3 esttmates ay ore than 220 thoussnd ffns packed downtown por he big victory paradd celeerationnyesterday nd the pictures kkep pouriig in. in. from city hall, oothe sttdium it's being called a by ballimore sports f

barnes and two other people. the state says johnson killed barnes and dumped her body in the susquehanna river. his attorneys say they never proved motive. stay with abc 2 news. brian will be in the courtroom and bring you the verdict as soon as it comes down. you can follow him on twitter for all the latest information. >>> well, this morning police are still trying to figure out what led to a deadly stabbing, the victims, three teenagers between the ages of 15 and 16. now, this happened around 1:30 yesterday afternoon in downtown baltimore just as the raven's victory celebration was wrapping up. one of the victims was killed, the other two seriously hurt. police are still searching for a motive, but they called the fight "petty." it's unclear whether or not the teens were downtown for the parade. >>> there was a celebration fit for a champion with some unforgettable moments like this one. star linebacker ray lewis dancing out of the tunnel onto the field at m and t bank stadium one final time. the super bowl was lewis' last professional football game. the original raven is retiring after bein

barnes. her body was found four months later after she disappeared. johnson killed barnes in her sister's apartment and used a 35 gallon tub to move the body. he faces up to 30 years in prison. sentencing is on march 20. a suspect in custody for the murder of a baltimore county wife and mother. katie heidel was stabbed multiple times but the children were not harmed. her husband was out of town at the time of her death. we only know the suspect is 33 and is an old acquaintance of the victim. >> a policy that has been around for more than a century will remain intact at least for a few more months. a vote on the issue was delayed until may. j. gray has an update. >> the boy scouts of america will stick with their policy of banning gay scouts and gay leaders. the released a written statement which read in part, due to the complexity of this issue the organization needs time for more deliver it review of its membership policy. dozens of protesters gathered outside the boy scouts of america headquarters in texas urging the board not to change the rules that have been in place

barn, i guess. a barn? uh, all right. i just hope snack time comes soon. any more arches? saw some in the blue crate. mrs. read: dw, ready to go? huh? mom? what are you doing here? it's 3:30. time to go home. wow! you girls have been hard at work. dw: it was going to be a barn. i'm really impressed. me too. and i always thought dw and emily found the blocks boring. it's pretty great, isn't it? yeah. too bad we have to go. wait! could you leave it up till tomorrow, ms. morgan? it's not finished yet. well okay, dear. i think it needs a tower. i think it needs two towers. (crickets chirping) (neighing) (dw gasps) it's beautiful! unicorn stables! a mary moo cow miniature golf course! and a museum of all the dopey things arthur has ever done. this house has everything. emily: not yet. we still have to build the petting zoo, the carousel and the bouncy room. let's get to work. (gasps) morning, mom. here's a banana, some juice, and i packed you a yogurt. come on, you can eat in the car. i need to get to school. and that finishes the guest room. and the guest room for imaginary friends. (blocks clattering) (both gasp) dw: hey! what are you doing? i was just helping you fix these walls. (blocks clattering) there. now this one's "fixed," too. (laughing) you two are n

case calling a witness, he killed north carolina teenager barns, while she was visiting her relatives in 20102010. the state says johnson killed barnes, put her body in to a container and container and dumped it in to the susquehanna river. >> lawmakers are being urnalled urged to pass legislation on pit bulls. the law would reverse as a ruling and a neutral standard helping ensure everyone will get their day in court. >>> news around the nation, a young boy held captive in an under grounds bunker for 7 days, is finally safe. he is celebrating his 6th birthday tomorrow. he was taken the the hospital for treatment and was said to not be hurt. >> he is laughing, joking, playing, eating, the things that you would expect a normal five to six year old young man to do. >> the suspect, jimmy lee dikes is dead after agents stormed the bunker where the boy was being held. they inserted a camera and were able to monitor the movements. they went using an ex an explosives after becoming concerned he might act out. he boarded a school bus killing the bus driver and taking the child. >>> boston a construction worker fell 30 feet and was safe from

shares of barnes & noble up on the news that the chairman is planning to buy all of the retail assets of the company, which includes barnes & noble book sellers, and barnes & noble.com. but excludes nook media llc. the book seller is looking to reduce focus on the nook business. david, i'm going to go to you right off the bat. i'm sure you have interesting thoughts. >> i can tell you a few things here. it's quite early. the company did choose to put a statement out but he's not made a formal offer of any kind to buy this. he owns 30%. there are a number of years ago, there was a -- there was an attempt made to take the company private as a whole. since then, they've split the two businesses. remember, nook includes the college retail business, by the way. when he says he wants to buy all retail, he's talking about the brick and mortar stors and barnes & noble.com. that's separate there. they have the investment from microsoft. you have liberty media in there still, with that preferred that they bought, having controlled roughly 17%. >> what are you saying? it's complicated? too complicated? >> it's complicated. listen, these things are still producing an

barnes. i stepped outside the old jail with an associate whom i was horse playing with. i never saw miss barnes because my attention was not focused on the officer. but i wasn't disrespecting miss barnes by exposing myself or masturbating or watching her. >> johnson, however, is no stranger to rule 38. >> he's got 39 disciplinaries total in his file. many of those disciplinaries are for a violation of rule 38, indecent exposure. he has a history of it. >> despite his denial, johnson is quickly found guilty of his charge. >> solitary confinement is only the first half of the prison's disciplinary action for rule 38 violators. >> they have to go through the class, make the guys think about the behavior. we trying to help guys change their deviant behavior. the regular meeting of sexual love addiction anonymous. the only qualify indication is desire to stop living, love addiction. >> the inmates attending the 12-step meeting opened up to our crew. >> i'm just a man, right? you know what i'm saying. >> you might see a female and she might come by you smelling good so you get that urge and desire that she wants you. >> i've been here 12 years. without touching a woman. being around a woman

. >>> state rested in the barns murder trial, called a witness who se he saw the suspect struggling with a tote days after barns was reported missing. the neighbor asked johnson if he needed help and johnson told him no. >>> weather weis, cold and windy, a little bit of clearing late in the day. clouds and little bit of snow actions this morning. winds, west, 15-25, right now, that really keeping the windchill factor down. we had peak wind gusts today's in the mid 40s, gusting to 47 47 baltimore. the current aired chill, what it feels like, one above westminster, 11 above edgewood. 12 above in kept island. this is brutal stuff. it looks like a winter like weekend around here with the chance for more snow, got all the details in a couple of minutes. >>> unless you have been living under a rock, it's purple friday. i got my purple pride on. >> the hair is quite catching. >> when i wear purple, bad things happen to the ravens. i want them to win. >> it's not just any purple friday, no, we are two days away from the super bowl. the ravens have been at work in the big easy all week, endless interviews to practices l

barn. baltimore ravens are super bowl champions. >> the hey is in the barn. >> the hey is in the barn.e we will be able to pay that clip. >> bust out the crap cakes. oh, boy. what a party. >> john kerry, we have a new secretary of state. he took over from hillary clinton, he said i know the question that is on everybody's mind. >> number 4. >> here is the big question before the country and the world an the state department after the last eight years. can a man actually run the state department of? >> if you look back another four years, colin powell as secretary of state, the question could have been: can a white man run the state department? chris christie colorful chris christie on david letterman this week. david letterman has to ask him about his health. >> number 3. >> my cholesterol is normal believe or not. >> that's pretty good. >> what about your blood sugar? blood sugar also normal? >> also normal. >> i am basically the healthiest fat guy you've ever seen in your life. >> the former white house doctor came up and said she was afraid he was going to die if he didn't lose weig

barnes & noble, nicole? >> big time on barnes and knoll. ticker similar bks, a coupe ticker symbol, you talk about the chairman now joining a list of executives who want to buy the companies they founded; right? that reminds you of best buy; right? now, not the e-nook readers. that's not the business he's looking at taking private, but looking more at the books business of barnes a result, just with that chatter alone, you see the stocks is jumping 1 # 1%. this is very interesting. valued at 900 million dollars for this one so this deal would be mainly cash assumption of some debt, and he already owns 30% of the company as it is. we'll continue to follow this story, but, certainly, does very well here for barnes & noble. dennis: okay. thank you very much, nicole. underlying value of the real estate in the chains often under value. we'll look for that. lauren: looming automatic government spending cuts threatening the trade of some ever cultural products, and sandra smith is live from the pits of the cme with the latest. what do you got? >> hey, lauren, the latest is that the cme wrote a letter to its various customers urging the importance of this possible sequester or the automatic spending cuts and impact they may have on trading on the products at the cme. he's an excerpt from the letter sent to the customers saying, quote, it's possible mandatory spending

barnes' isappeaaaace. disappearance.she's live outside the courthouse. 3&pjoyit's hard to believe ttaa - pust over 2 years aaooi was sitting down with phyliciaa-3 barnes' mother and fathhr in 3 prosecutors &p3& say the teen was murddred bb michael joonnon. duringg -&pstate told juroors .. there consistently thhown uu red plaas in this case... and that is michaee johnssn.3 as the llst person to see her alive he called off work the day phylicia diisppeared he was the only person whose cell ppone didn't register with a cell tooer or a 2 hour &pperrod on the day phylicia disaapeared and the listtwenn on...i ssook brrefly with rrsssll barnee as he eft court a shorr time ago. 3ends with hom pumppng arm ,3 ááááwill eed pad ddedback on camera p allo saw memberr oo michael 3 appearee optimistic.onn of te past ttings... the state ssid no wod on how long the jury willdeeiberattetonightt 3 inn... wake of... the connectiuct shootings--/ maryyandds attorneyy ggneral... held a forum toody--/ sriking up taak... betweee law enforcement, ... & community leaders, and students . . the forrm....waa held at the universiiy of & mmryland.... of laww..//. doug gansser ...told

barnes by stringing together the mostly circumstantial evidence they have. it is not one thing, prosecutor said, it is everything. take each piece and put it together. prosecutors believe johnson was romantically interested in phylicia barnes and jealous of time she spent with others. an inmate said he saw the body. in state's evidence shows order for that witness to be believed, johnson would have had to argue with her, forced her to have sex, deal with her crying, and took her to death, call the witness, consult with him, and move her body in a storage bin within a 30--- a 30-minute window. no phone record was presented to back up the story. it does not make sense and it is not possible, defense lawyers argued. despite the work of four law enforcement agencies over two years, they argued the biggest answers are missing. who, what, when, how, and why, defense argued. the state still has not answered. clear motive is one of those big pieces of the puzzle and it does not have a clear answer. the jury started deliberating at 4:00 p.m. and we have not heard from them at this point. >> thank you. there they are. they are getting off that delta flight in from new orleans. the super bowl champions. i would imagine most of these guys are snoring on the plane. they have had a late night of celebrations and they have to get ready tomorrow for the celebration honoring the world champions. >> i hope they had some time to celebrate. i think captain roy taylor is there. >> the players are in the process of debarking from the airplane. an escorted right up to owings mills. there are people here to greet the world champions. we understand there'll lot of people who are trying to slide on the side of the roadway to try and get a peak of the ravens but police are not allowing that. hopefully, they will finish loading up within the next 20 or 30 minutes and will be on their way up to owings mills for them to get in their personal vehicles and go home. we will take them from the airport and follow the escort all the way up to dr. baltimore and baltimore county and up to the goings mills training camp. when we get more information we will update you. i am capt. roy taylor. >> i wanted to ask a quick question before you go. where are the people that you were talking about? there were lots of people. are they on the roadway? >> the people are just the airport people. pretty much at the base of the airplane as you're getting off. police have not allowed anybody, no one to get down here where they are debarking at the cargo facility. you see a lot of people wishing the ravens, these other people who work here at the airport. >> i would imagine all delta workers. >> they're not at the ramp. there on the south side of the airport where the firehouse is. the new cargo facility. >> they do not ever the plane. they usually always come off in a private area like this. >> they used to come over there where the international terminal is over by signature. now they are utilizing this area here which used to be called the south ramp at b w i which is extremely secure. there's only one way in and one way out. it allows them to get the convoy set up to do the motorcade to where they have to go. if the players come down here to go on the airplane and they have to park their personal vehicles they're able to do it right here without having any issues. >> imagine if they came into the terminal. that would be chaos. thank you. >> now your 11 insta-weatherplus forecast was chief meteorologist tom tasselmyer. >> i.t. of 35 degrees. we have seen our normal high temperatures hinging up to 43. a below normal of. look at the high of 72 degrees. the record low is five. going back to 1918. we're still caught in the weather pattern delivering the clippers. the move along quickly. they produce and injured two of snow in this one will be no different. in the mountains it is colder and the absolute of the mountains tends to squeeze the moisture. east of the mountains we're talking pretty much what we have seen for the past several of these. a light coating of snow. there will be slippery spots overnight for sure but this significant snowfall will be in the mountains where temperatures are in the 20's. right around the freezing point in the colder northern suburbs but it will be chilly tonight. in the mountains is where the snowfall will be significant. a higher elevation under the store morning. the advisory's extend across the western japan handle and southwestern pa as well. the snow is approaching baltimore as we head through the next few hours. reaching the city after a p.m. or so. and moving through quickly. by 1 or 2:00 a.m. it is gone off the coast so things should be fine for the morning rush hour. there will be slippery spots and untraded services might have a light coating of snow. partly cloudy skies for the rest of the day and temperatures will warm up a bit. weather conditions for the parade should be fine. we're in that first category in the central and eastern part of the state. a dusting or institute -- an inch or two in spots. some spots out there might go over 6 inches in the highest elevations of western maryland. 23 to 30 degrees tonight. and enter to in some spots. light southerly winds at 5 m.p.h. and sun said it 5:31 p.m. a flurry lingering into the early morning. most of the day, clouds and sun mixing. on the bay, wis averaging 1 foot. look at this chilly bay water temperatures, mid- to the upper 30's. that is where they have some potential for snow in mountains and snow showers on wednesday. around baltimore, temperatures look more normal. highs in the 40's and those in the 20's. liviu wintry mix on friday. -- maybe a wintry mix on friday. >> is not just the ravens fans honoring the ravens. purple parades' are popping up all over the country. all over the country. >> even the empire state building is showing off some purple pride with an impressive light show of its own. -- eliminated eliminated with purple. that was nice of them. the streets of this world were also honoring -- disney world were also honoring joe flacco. >> flacco was whisked through main street, u.s.a. joe flacco made good on his declaration and became the 26th mvp to go to disney world after the win. he threw three touchdowns in the first half of the victory over the san francisco 49ers. >> it was unbelievable. it has not sunk in yet. it was a wonderful ball game. in that fashion it was pretty awesome. >> his fans love him. >> we were on bourbon street at 1230 or 1:00 a.m. we packed it up at 4:00 a.m. and headed to the magic kingdom to see joe flacco, the mvp, baby. >> what time is it? >> game time. >> you're here to support the ravens. >> we won the super bowl. >> even went things got dark inside the superdome. >> it was not that bad. gojoe's conversation should along the lines of show me the money. " she waited to negotiate that contract until after the game was over. what do you say about that? >> i do not know. that will work itself out. not a bad thought. >> he would not want to be anywhere else but with the baltimore ravens. i heard there was another surprising news. a leading to -- are you get ting another raven? >> my wife told me to be quiet on that but everyone pretty much knows. >> a guest appearance tonight and that parade tomorrow. >> within the last few minutes, law enforcement officials have come forward in an impromptu press conference and what they had to say next. but first. >> an emotional moment for john harbaugh to shake his brother's hand but it was not the most powerful momen >> this is a special edition of wbal tv 11 news. the ravens, our super bowl champions./ >> that was us tonight, just the way we do it. gretzky lifted the lombardi trophy in honor of jo brigance. he talked about the bittersweet moment of edging out his brother in super bowl xlvii. >> when i talk to him earlier i asked if it would be hard to know that if you were to win the super bowl, at the same time it would be crashing the dream of your brother. he looked at me and he goes no. bravado.nmore he was devastated to learn that his brother suffered the ultimate defeat. you get that close to the pinnacle and you look across and see jim and know he would not that -- he would not have that. they recognize this is a very special time and something worthy of promotion. he wanted to coach the game. when it went to shake hands, a johns said that was tougher than he thought it was going to be. >> the tavis, deval was walking across the field -- toughest thing of all was walking across the field. there was a relation with an incredible amount of devastation and those feelings went hand in hand. maybe the most emotional part of the night. >> john said the most powerful moment came during the national anthem. that is when he said he was starting to get choked up with his arm around his daughter, alison. >> thank you. you could call it a super bowl, which added up to some extra sleep time. marye amounthe immaculate hearf school allowed students to show up two hours later. >> students were dropped off late to end on purpose at immaculate heart of mary. there were greeted by cheering classmates who were in the spirit of celebration. and has become a school tradition to open late the day after the super bowl. no one had a clue that the ravens would win the big game. >> i had to wake up early early this morning and i was running around the house watching the news. >> we had a great morning and got to sleep in. i hung out with my friends because i car pulled them. >> their work top stories on the morning news. >> this is to recognize the team that gave so much to their school. >> they got up and my son woke up and, like, we won the super bowl. >> students threw a pep rally led by the second graders. more than a year ago, rice and three of his teammates came to the school for a special occasion trading was part of the place 60 contest. designed to help students become active. the immaculate heart of mary received $10,000. >> you have raised more than $3,000. >> they use part of the money to help needy families and organizations. >> a nice story. here is look at our other top stories. deliberations under way in the murder trial of michael johnson, accused of killing north carolina and teenager phylicia barnes. prosecutors are asking the jury to piece together the largely circumstantial evidence they have presented. johnson was romantically interested in barnes, prosecutors say, and was jealous of time she spent with others. police a man was posing as a maintenance worker at the hampton inn in glen burnie when he brought a couple in their '70's at gunpoint. when they found and he was hiding near another hotel. rodney wiggins said he was there to perform maintenance work when he knocked on their door. when the open the door there were met with a handgun. wiggins made off with cash but was found hiding in the parking lot at a nearby days in. no word on the charges he is facing. >> the state fire marshal's office tried to figure out what sparked a fire alarm fire in apartment and business complex in washington county. this was the scene at 7:15 a.m. this morning in williamsport. one person was inside an apartment but managed to escape unharmed. the damage has been set at $500,000. a look at so

barnes. her body was found four months later after she disappeared. johnson killed barnes in her sister's apartment and used a 35 gallon tub to move the body. he faces up to 30 years in prison. sentencing is on march 20. a suspect in custody for the murder of a baltimore county wife and mother. katie heidel was stabbed multiple times but the children were not harmed. her husband was out of town at the time of her death. we only know the suspect is 33 and is an old acquaintance of the victim. >> a policy that has been around for more than a century will remain intact at least for a few more months. a vote on the issue was delayed until may. j. gray has an update. >> the boy scouts of america will stick with their policy of banning gay scouts and gay leaders. the released a written statement which read in part, due to the complexity of this issue the organization needs time for more deliver it review of its membership policy. dozens of protesters gathered outside the boy scouts of america headquarters in texas urging the board not to change the rules that have been in place

barnes & noble. nicole: you talk about the books, that that portion of barnes & noble was going to be taken under another wing, not the nook. the nook, self-financed, manage their costs, generate cash flow in barnesss. with this and the on going discussion continue between the head, the founder, and the committee. which two things, one, it seems like they are going to separate the nook from the rest of it and also obviously supports the theory that this founder is still moving forward with the possibility of taking this part of private. and that's why you see the stock higher. stuart: got it. thank you, nicole. text from my wife, charles. listen to this, please. tempur-pedic was that horrible thing that we sent back. [laughter] charles: that's why the stock got hammered last year. okay. stuart: do you still want to recommend it? charles: i'm a little nervous now. stuart: you should be. california brags about its reliance on green energy, that solar and wind power are the answer. here's the problem, they are having trouble keeping the lights on in california. mike reagan our voice of reason has the story for us and an analysis 10:45 this morning. >>> the white house appears to have threatened wate

founder of barns and noble chain says he wants the bookstores and web site but not unit making the e reader, barnse stock rose 9%. and at and t signed with general motors to take over the on star far phone system now operated by verizon. >> well, yahoo's decision to pull the plug on telecommuting sparked a fierce debate. am lou employees to work from home. the cceo sent a strongly worded memo to employees saying in june, employees must report to the headquarters to work. those that don't want to can quit. other high tech companies say they can't imagine losing the time. >> working from home just changed my personality in outlook on work. i work longer. >> both encourage people to go to the office by offering meals and other freebie autos there is more still to come at 6:00. the i team looks at a cancer causing chemical in the drinking water only to find there is no standard for how much is safe. >> is solution prof detectiving your credit card actually adding to the problem? i'm michael finney. we'll look into the question ahead on 7 on your side. >> actress jennifer lawrence's back stage encounte

started more than 40 years ago but he doesn't want barns and noble college or the nook e reader business struggling to compete with the ipad and kindel. barnsoble is forecastré to ring up a third year of losses in a row this year. well, add microsoft to the list of companies hit by a hack attack. microsoft says a small number of computers were hit with malware. no evidence data was compromised. >> zynga trying to cut costs, shutting it's office in baltimore also consolidating in new york, austin and dallas. shares rose more than 7% today a look at broader markets over km over itally's government. and spot fi teeming up with ford to offer streaming music service in cars. theford eco sport will be the car making spot fi service available through the app link system. ford has partnerships with amazon and others. larry, carolyn, back to you. >> thank you. >> synchronized ice skating is not an olympic sport but it is the fastest growing segment of the figure skating board. now, a team is proving california will work as well. abc 7 sports reporter has their story. >> this is ice skating as a team spot. >> it focuses on unison with all of the requ

admitted to forcing sex with felecia barns but choking her to death when she wouldn't stop crying afterwards. lee said on the stand wednesday he saw the body of felecia barnes in the apartment and told johnson how to dispose of it. to further legit mise lee's testimony, friday afternoon the state called the city police homicide defend who interviewed him. detective ray bennett testified lee quote never asked for anything in return for his testimony, and seemed credible as bennett checked out his story. johnson's defense countered that saying police didn't check lee's story thoroughly enough and there is no record on john's cell phone indicating he called lee on december 28th. now we know the entirety of the state's theory and the evidence it put on. what it doesn't have is any physical evidence, no dna and not that blue tote in question. the defense team, michael johnson's attorneys will have their say with the jury starting monday morning. brian kuebler, abc2 news. >>> a teenager without a monster energy drink or red bull, that's a rare thing to finds. >> they are addicted. doctors say they are at risk. what health risks can cause in young people. >>> shoc

one stock moving higher, barns and mobile chairman saying would he like to buy the retail parts of barnesle minus the nook. >> mary, stay with us. today's drop notwithstanding, stocks have been threatening new highs recently and that's partly because they are getting support from the feds quantitative easing program. some say they are getting a lot of support. how long will that last though? steve liesman is live with us with a look at that. hi, steve. >> looks like the fed is at it again. an easing program but with various members expressing concern which could undermine its effectiveness. the latest round of some fed officials suggestion will cost of open-ended qe could be greater than the benefits it would provide. this comes after the fed in september began, including this policy in its statement. quote, if the outlook for the labor market does not improve substantially, the continue will continue its purchases until such improvement will achieve. now the fed said all along it would take account the purchases. but some fed members appear now to trump the economic gels or concern opt s

barnes & noble book sellers and barnes & noble.com but not the nook digital reader business. a lot of investors trying to figure out whether a deal would come. the company saying it's going to evaluate that in an s.e.c. filing. >>> gunmakers are aiming for record quarterly sales as first time buyers including a growing number of women and pensioners rushed to buy weapons before anticipated gun control laws come into force. president obama's proposals to curb gun violence have increased political investor scrutiny on gun companies accustomed to growth. smith and wesson, they're going to be reporting quarterly results within the next two week. also background checks for firearm sales mandatory for all purchases in gun stores rose nearly 50% year-on-year in december. data from the fbi's national criminal background check system showed all of this. this was the highest monthly percentage rise ever reported for a measurement commonly used to gauge the firearm industry's performance. >> all right, andrew, thank you. let's talk markets. joining us is mark sebastien the coo of option pit mentoring and consulting. also mark chandler who is the chief global currency strategist at brownberger. mark chandler, why don't we start off talking about the dollar. it looked like the dollar is finally starting to relax a little after all the gains we saw against the euro last week. maybe it's the yen that's the big story with this talk thabou the leading candidate to head the bank of japan. >> i think you're right. the yen has been a big driver. the dollar gap much higher in asia on the news that he may get the nod for the boj governor. the dollar/yen had come off in the european session. the other big story of course is the following up on the uk downgrade by moody's before the weekend. sterling also was hit early and also has come back nearly retracing most of its losses earlier in asia. and the third thing is the italian elections. we'll get the results around 9:00 new york time this morning as the polls end. and the fourth thing i'd point out is bernanke testifies before congress tomorrow, and i think we're going to see a correction to the hawkish read that many had on these fomc minutes. i think this is keeping the dollar sort of more volatile than we've seen in recent weeks. >> is your guess that you would not be taking a position in front of the yen with all of this news about the bank of japan, and who the next governor is going to be. >> i think that the boj governor has been already tilted in the sense that we already know that the abe government of japan wants to have a dovish boj governor. i think this is largely a formality now. i think koroda has a lot of great international experience and speaks well for the g-7 and g-20 cooperation. on the other hand he's not as aggressive as some of the boj candidates were, talk about buying foreign bonds. i think he is a -- sort of a middle of the road tip of candidate. definitely easing policy from the bank of japan. starting probably in april or may. >> okay. mark sebastian we've watched the retail stocks today. we've got walmart's earnings report last week. but now we're going to get the focus on many of the other big retailers. is there any direction that the traders seem to be taking ahead of this? is everyone going to be affected the same way walmart was? >> you know, i think it will be interesting. i don't think -- what i'm going to be interested to see is how target and the dollar stores versus macy's move. our macy's customers move through kohl's and jcpenney. are jcpenney customers moving to target and so on. i think that's going to be the interesting thing to watch. is the social security tax affecting the consumer right now, kind of potential sequestration affecting the consumer right now. >> do you think it is? >> i don't. i don't. if you look at the financial markets, they do not care about the sequestration right now. right now it doesn't look like american politicians can stop the s&p. now the italians, maybe. but i don't think american politicians can stop this market from going up. it's just been a juggernaut higher even in the face of some fed announcement last week we bounced right back off 1500. i think we're going to see the dow breaking all-time highs in the next, you know, couple of weeks. and the s&p threaten in the next month or so, as well. >> mark mentioned bernsy's speech tomorrow. is there anything the chairman could say that would change your mind about that? >> i'd be shocked if he says anything that's going to really change my mind. the fed governor is pretty clear on -- fed chairman has been pretty clear on what he thinks. so i think this slow grind higher that we've been having is just going to be more of the same. and i think consumers need to get on this train. >> gentlemen, thank you both very much. >> thank you. >> coming up, lowe's reporting earlier this morning. we're going to go through those numbers, and talk retail and payroll taxes, as retail analysts brian nagel next as we head to break check out the shares of lowe's this morning. because -- i couldn't tell where they were going to raise -- i thought they were going to be higher -- yeah they are higher. 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[ ding ] oh, that's helpful! well, our company does that, too. actually, we invented that. it's like a sauna in here. helping you save, even if it's not with us -- now, that's progressive! call or click today. no mas pantalones! >>> welcome back to "squawk." home improvement company lowe's reporting fourth quarter results earlier this morning and beating expectations. joining us now from new york, brian nagel oppenheimer company senior equity research analyst. >> good morning. >> better than expected pretty much across the board and yet, profits did fall 11% year over year. what do you make of it? >> i think it's a good report. there's a little bit of noise in the numbers, given the 53rd week in 2011, so that profit decline you mentioned was very much expected. i think the numbers here to look at. they did 26 cents. the street was looking for 23. so they beat by three cents. probably the most important thing, they did a 1.the% comp. if you look at the amount of stat basis that assumes a pretty nice acceleration from the third quarter levels. >> we're seeing the stock up 2% in premarket. is that a function of the $5 billion buyback? >> no i think it's more momentum in the business. lowe's said for awhile now they'll be buying back a lot of their stock. so the new buyback announcement today is basically a reflection of that. that's not necessarily new news. with the market concerned here with lowe's is just sales acceleration. you're seeing now this is the second quarter we've seen sales start to pick up, and a pretty decent pace. if you look at the guidance they gave for 2000 -- initial guidance for 2013 that assumes that sales are going to continue to improve there. >> and what's your sense on sales improving? and let me ask that question across the board retail given some of the taxes that are starting to take a cut out of people's paychecks. what's your expectation? >> i think it's difficult to make a kind of a broadbased comment. my view on home improvement retail and i put a piece out for our clients last week talking about lowe's and home depoe, i think it's ticking up nicely here. all the data suggests that with mortgage rates lower, i think comp is improving, housing market improving, that's helping to bolster home improvement spending. we have seen some signs out there. not in my coverage universe, but some signs of weakness related to presumably the payroll tax cuts. that's more spotty than anything broad-based this morning. >> larry bossidy is here. >> home depot and lowe's have competed with each other for years and from time to time one has an edge over the other. it seems to me that home depot is doing more innovative things right now and that lowe's has to kind of refashion itself, if you will, in order to regain position that they had previously. what's your view on that? >> no, i think that's a good observation. you know, i think probably the easiest way to think about that from a number's standpoint is that home depot has been outcomping lowes for eight quarters. we'll see what home depot reports tomorrow. i assume the comp at home depot will be better than it is at lowe's today. but look, i think that gap is beginning to narrow. you know, lowe's talked a lot about over the last year or so remerchandising their stores. you know, evaluating prices, i think that effort is beginning to bear fruit for them. so you're going to see that comp gap narrow over the next few quarters or so. >> brian, i'm just still trying to get a feel for what's really happening with the consumer. i mean that's kind of where the market is playing this whole thing out. is the consumer going to reflect overall what we heard from walmart last week, or was that a walmart specific problem? i'm still trying to get a sense for that and i don't know what your thoughts are. >> look, i can think it's difficult to make a broad-based consumer comment at this point. my overall view, as i look and i wrote a lot about this earlier this year, about these changes in the u.s. fiscal policy. my overall view, the combination of the strengthening housing market, strong equity markets, improving jobs growth, are going to offset, more than offset, any type of higher taxes on consumer spending. but if you have -- if you have these retailers which are sort of staying more focussed on the low-end consumer like a walmart you're probably going to see more of an impact in the near term of the higher tax rates or the expiration of the payroll tax cut. >> larry what's your sense of the situation? >> i think the consumer's been remarkably resilient, and i think that they're going to get through this difficulty, as well. everybody keeps looking at retail sales and expecting them to sag. in fact they continue to move along, not at a risk base, but at least in a progressive way. and i think that will continue, and it will continue throughout the year. >> okay. brian, we're going to leave it there. >> great, thank you. >> thank you. >> kind of interesting that lowe's is you were talking about lowe's needing a refresh. >> yeah. >> and maybe they don't need a refresh. >> depends. in comparison with home depot, i think home depot is outchilling them over the last year or so. all retail businesses need to be refreshed from time to time. >> -- be number two, right? >> there is. but there's more to be made when you're number one, andrew. >> that is the truth. okay. stick around. lowe's on the car, lowe's on jimmie johnson. yeah. saw a lot of lowe's. coming up to the national economic council, and an assistant to the president for economic policy, gene sperling will join us. later, gene will be smiling, he won't look like that. he's going to be in a good mood. later stock picks from president of delphi management, scott black, including one company that specializes in turning starches into sweeteners. it also has some business with some of the biggest consumer companies in the nation. "squawk box" will be back right after this. ♪ [ construction sounds ] ♪ [ watch ticking ] [ engine revs ] come in. ♪ got the coffee. that was fast. we're outta here. ♪ [ engine revs ] ♪ [ male announcer ] this is not my home. there. i said it. they don't have pictures of my kids. they don't have my yoga mat. and still, i feel at home. could it be the flat screen tv? the not so mini fridge? ♪ the different free dinner almost every weeknight? or maybe, it's all of the above. and all the rest. am i home? nope. but it almost feels that way. homewood suites by hilton. be at home. >>> countdown to sequestration. will washington allow $85 billion in automatic budget cuts to kick in by the end of the week? >> we'll talk about the economic impact of the cuts with gene sperling. >> plus best investment ideas from a member of the barron's roundtable. delphi's scott black joins us with picks for your portfolio, third hour of "squawk box" starts right now. ♪ i got gas in my truck >> butter on my biscuit ♪ ♪ >> welcome back to "squawk box" here on cnbc, first in business worldwide. i'm joe kernen along with becky quick and andrew ross sorkin. our guest host this morning has been larry bossidy, former chairman and ceo of honeywell. we will have lots more from larry still ahead. he's -- he's running on fumes, too. didn't miss a minute of the academy awards last night. and like so many people, says he watches for the dresses, and for the makeup, right, larry? >> absolutely. didn't miss a second. >> didn't miss a minute. also joining us -- barry knapp? see any of the oscars last night? >> nope. >> head of u.s. equity portfolios. i'm in a lot of company. i was kidding about larry. >> i did watch "argo." >> you did watch what? >> i watched "argo." >> head of portfolio strategy at barclays. we'll get to barry and larry in just a minute. first, though, becky has your morning headlines. >> joe, we know you were autopsy all night. trying to push that off on larry. we know you were watching for the dresses. we heard you talking about it in the commercials all morning long. the other thing we've been talking about the average price of gasoline. if you haven't seen this yet it's been rising 20 cents just over the last two weeks alone. it's now at $3.79 a gallon for regular on a national average here. prices are now up 54 cents just over the last nine weeks. but widely followed industry analysts lundberg says the two-month upward trend in 3u6r7 prices may be about to end. also barnesn to bid for the company's bookstore business. that includes the retail stores and the online business, but not the company's nook ereader business. this is a pretty big pusharound because that nook business had been what the company had been pinning its hopes on. he is the company's largest shareholder and also the pioneer of the book superstore format. the company put out a statement saying it will evaluate the proposal and that definitely causes shares to jump this morning. stocks up about 17.5% this morning. also home improvement retailer lowe's reported quarterly results a little earlier. earnings came in at 26 cents a share. that was three cents better than the street had been expecting. revenue rose to $11 billion. and that stock is up by about 1.5%. let's check on the broader markets. you've been watching the u.s. equities market and they are indicated higher. dow futures up 67 points. s&p just over 9. overseas in asia, green arrows, as well. the nikkei was the big outperformer