here is christine romans. >> good morning.y more violence at the nato summit today. president obama and the allies are focusing on an exit strategy for nato forces in afghanistan. meantime protesters demanding an end to the war confronted police in the streets sunday. nearby the summit site at least 45 people were arrested. the music world is mourning the loss of another disco i-con. robin gibb died yesterday after a long battle with cancer. he was 62. he with his two brothers formed the bee gees. his voice was an essential part of the group's distinctive sound in the 1970s. did you see it? tweet it? incredible pictures yesterday of the solar eclipse. millions looking into the skies catching a glimpse of the ring of fire. the eclipse, the first of its kind in 18 years, created a golden ring around the moon's silhouette and was visible on the west coast and in asia. it also lit up social networks. people sharing their photos. the next one will happen in 2023. ashleigh? >> sounds like a scene out of twilight. that last shot? >>

christine romans?with president obama to adhere to the kidnappers' demands, or he will be killed. he was abducted last august in pakistan. last december al qaeda ordered all air strikes end and al qaeda prisoners be released around the world in exchange for weinstein's safe return. >>> two police officers are due in court today charge d in the death of a schizophrenic homeless man in the town of fullerton. the incident sparked outrage and protests and investigation as to whether the city officials tried to cover up the facts in that case. >>> two high profile fugitives finally caught after being on the run for 12 years. u.s. marshals have arrested nelson and janet hallihan and they have admitted to running a ponzi scheme in a tanning b business scam. the tv show "america's most wanted" aired the story friday and viewers called in tips and an arrest was made the next day. the couple plead d ged guilty t numerous charges including fraud, money laundering and conspiracy. >>> for the first time in four dec

here's christine romans. >> good morning.etails about how the cia stopped an al qaeda plot to blow up a passenger jet bound for the u.s. a senior administration official telling cnn the intended user of the bomb is, quote, not a threat anymore. but would not elaborate on whether the person is dead or in custody. the fbi now studying a sophisticated metal-free device that may have been undetectible at airports. >>> police in springfield, massachusetts, releasing surveillance video that shows a man walking up to a mother and her 4-year-old daughter with a knife demanding the woman's purse. but check this out. the woman runs away leaving the little girl. luckily she gets away, too. police say the man stabbed the woman in the collarbone as she tried to get into the store. she's okay. the attacker, though, got away. >> a former illinois comptroller pleading not guilty to charges she stole more than $53 million to fund her lavish lifestyle. prosecutors allege 58-year-old rita crudwell diverted taxpayer money from the city of dixon,

christine romans good morning. >> good morning.g 28-year-old james willy has been charged. this is his mug shot. police have linked willy's gun to the separate shootings that left a man and woman dead and terrified people driving in that state. willy was caught tuesday after allegedly raping a woman. that's how police were able to find the gun and link it to the murders. >>> new evidence made public in the trayvon martin case, it includes police photos of shooter george zimmerman with an injury to his nose and lacerations on the back of his head. in the hours after the deadly confrontation with the florida teen. and there's surveillance video of martin in the moments before he died, making a purchase at a nearby 7-eleven and the official autopsy on martin showing he had traces of marijuana in his system. >>> supreme court justice stephen breyer robbed for the second time this year. earlier a housekeeper discovered his home was broken into and burglarized. >>> today's best advice comes from the late steve jobs, in his now legendary

christine romans is here with the low. >> the lowdown and the low, low.s morning in the pre-market. the stock has lost nearly a quarter of its value since its ipo and closed below $30 yesterday, due to speculation it was going to buy this norwegian mobile operator called opera. there are people who are concerned yes facebook needs help in mobile operations but investors were questioning whether this was the right fit overall. the co-founder eduardo savran speaking with a brazilian paper "the decision was strictly based on my interest of living and working in singapore." he already said he has paid and will continue to pay his taxes. he likes mark zuckerberg and he's held true to his mission and goal for the company. >> he didn't make that much money. >> is this a time to buy facebook? >> a lot of people have been asking me that but the options trading opened on trafacebook a the options are more bearish than bullish on facebook, another reason why the stock was down. >> how about apple, we have a rare sighting. >> a bombshell from tim cook who is the ceo.

christine romans. >> good morning. thank you, ashleigh.eaning up. up to 10 inches of rain falling across the region. the storm has been downgraded to a tropical depression. it still brings the rain as it heads slowly towards the carolinas. >>> 13 children have been killed in a fire. most of them died at the mall's day care center. witnesses say the fire didn't set off any loud alarms or sprinklers. officials are now investigating there. >>> a wild fire in michigan's upper peninsula has burned more than 22,000 acres, destroyed 97 structures including 34 homes. despite the recent rains the fire is still going strong because of dry conditions in the upper peninsula. high temperatures, winds, lack of roads. thankfully the fire is halfway contained. >>> after a string of worker sooids and reports of sweatshop conditions, apple supplier foxconn is doubling the pay of workers in china. they're reporting that the changes will take place at the end of next year. the people who make your ipads and iphones will now make at the end of next year $650 a

christine romans?ion to the international space station, a rocket built by the commercial space flight company known as spacex blasting off at 3:44 this morning, launching the unmanned dragon capsule to resupply the iss. >>> was it exactly the perfect crime? far from "oceans 11" just a dumb guy in a wig, a man scheduled to appear in court after police say he tried to pepper spray a black jack dealer and grab some $115,000 in chips at the bellagio. the eye-in-the-sky is always watching in sin city. casino staff wrestled him down quickly. his wig and sunglasses fell off in the struggle while a suspected apolice got away. >>> beer all over the place in daytona beach. tractor trailer hauling 55,000 pounds of bottled beer overturned early monday morning on interstate 95. took workers seven hours to clear up the beer and glass. the tractor trailer driver said another driver swerved and caused him to go off the road but there were no skid marks. >>> rob marciano is here to give us an update, this has a name a

christine roman has come armed with numbers about the comparison in unemployment. christine in. >> unemployment here in the u.s. currently 8.1% as you know. situation in most of europe is far worse. look at the 17 countries where they constitute the eurozone and use the euro as the currency. unemployment is at the highest level overall since 1999. and spain's jobless rate is above 24%. italy is at a 12-year high, almost 10%. greece, portugal, ireland, all above the 14% mark. greece, almost 22%. the three largest economies in the eu are faring a little better, ali. france has a 10% unemployment rate. germany, 5.6% unemployment. britain, which still uses the pound, is not a member of the eurozone but a very important demographic in all of this, it is at 8%. clearly tough times for europe and the concern is if you have fewer euros or pounds in your pocket, you're not spending them on american made goods and that slows the u.s. recovery as well. >> we talk about a spillover effect, it is not like a cup of coffee that spills over and you have coffee on you, it has to do

diane swonk, ken rogoff, christine romans. coming up next, end this depression now.all to arms from nobel prize winning economist paul krugman. >>> sxwl a recovery is when things are going up, a recession is when things are going down. a depression is a time when you have wiggles, but you're basically down the whole time. that's what we've been in. >> a powerful message for anyone who has suffered over the past four years. . my interview with him is next. your finances can't manage themselves. but that doesn't mean they won't try. bring all your finances together with the help of the one person who can. a certified financial planner professional. cfp. let's make a plan. [ roger ] tell me you have good insurance. yup, i've got... [ kyle with voice of dennis ] ...allstate. really? i was afraid you'd have some cut-rate policy. [ kyle ] nope, i've got... [ kyle with voice of dennis ] ...the allstate value plan. it's their most affordable car insurance -- and you still get an allstate agent. i too have...[ roger with voice of dennis ]...allstate. [ roger ] same agent and

christine romans has been breaking down that issue state by state.the election is state by state. >> are they at odds or just behind. are they just not as quickly changing as the rest of the country is? here's is the trend line of public opinion. looking back to 1996. pretty wide apart here. more than a decade ago. those in support of same-sex marriage and those opposed to it. it's been closing generally since then. and today, slightly more people favor same-sex marriage than oppose it. that's what the polls say. what people are doing with their votes or what states are doing, rather is a different story. let's take a look at the country here. this is how it looks in the states right now. 28 states have constitutional provisions defining marriage as between a man and a woman. those are the dark blue states. ten states have statutory provisions. defining marriage as between a man and a woman. this is medium blue. so this is statutory or constitutional provisions saying a man and a woman, that's what makes a marriage. seven states issue marriage licens

here's christine romans. >> breaking news. learned former news international rebecca brooks will face criminal charges for her role in the u.k. phone hacking scandal in the investigation of rupert murdock's empire. she's accused of perverting justice. the couple releasing a statement that reads we deplore this weak and unjust decision after the further unprecedented posturing of the cps. we will respond after our return from the police station. >>> more than a dozen students and their driver recovering from injuries this morning after their school bus slammed into the back of a truck near springfield, illinois. the bus full of sixth graders was returning from a field trip yesterday afternoon when it rammed the truck into a construction zone. >>> ron paul is not officially suspending his campaign for the white house, but he won't be spending anymore money on it. instead of trying to compete in the remaining primary contests, the texas congressman plans to collect as many delegates as he can at state conventions so he can have m

let's bring in christine romans. >> of course. >> it's very interesting. let's get to it. >> institutional investors, windows has closed for them to say they want to get in. those are the big guys. the little guys are waiting to find out what the ipo price will be and put in your limit orders. that's what i keep advocating. what price do you think you want to pay for facebook stock when it starts trading under the ticker symbol fb? one reason there's so much hype around this initial offering is this is a company that everyone knows, right? 900 million people around the world who are on facebook. take a look at this. this is a graphic that shows the connections between users worldwide through facebook. it's a company that has changed how we talk to each other and brought us together with new people in new ways all over the world. i want to show you something else. 20 minutes on facebook, 1 million links are shared in 20 minutes on facebook. friend requests, 1.9 million are accepted in 20 minutes. photos uploaded, 2.7 million photos are uploaded every 20 min

christine romans, what do you have?that's doubled in size and only miles from millions of homes. gladiator fire in arizona still burning out of control, devouring 9 square miles and it's only 5% contained. three homes have been destroyed. fire officials warn that several more homes could burn in the next few days. >>> a "new york times" investigation reveals missteps by sanford, florida, police in their initial investigation of the trayvon martin shooting. they took one foet off zimmerman's injuries. zimmerman's vehicle wasn't secure as part of the crime scene. they didn't protect the crime scene and critical blood evidence may have been washed away by rain. zimmerman wasn't tested for drug or alcohol use either. the teen's family alleges their son was profiled by zimmerman and the shooting was racially motivated. >>> john lennon's killer has been moved to another prison. officials are not saying why. mark david chapman is now at a facility in erie county, new york, after spending 30 years in atica. chapman is serving a

let's go to christine romans. >> good morning, brooke, thank you. france ushering in a brand new era this morning with the swearing in of new president francois holland. he's blasted austerity measures that have defined europe's response to the crises of the past two years. holland is france's first socialist president since 1995. >>> a manhunt happening right now in mississippi. police say a killer may be posing as a fake cop, pulling people over and shooting them dead. there were two fatal shootings just 50 miles apart in the past week. the victims, a 74-year-old man, and a 48-year-old woman, both found dead in their cars on the side of the road. police in the state are actually telling people, don't pull over in mississippi if you see flashing lights. >> the things that we want people to realize if they feel like they're going to be pulled over, the first thing you do is turn on your flashers and dial 911. >> one of the convicted felons pardoned by former mississippi governor hayley barbour is facing new charges in a deadly drunk driving accident

here's christine romans. >> good morning again.our wildfires burning across the state fueled by high winds and extremely dry conditions. the biggest one has scorched nearly 3,000 acres, despite an air attack and hundreds of firefighters on the ground there. >>> trouble at the top for yahoo! the internet company removing its ceo scott thompson in the resume scandal. thompson claimed to have a computer science degree when he didn't, being replaced by ross levinson. before thompson left he told the board he had thyroid cancer. >>> washington state giving out free vaccinations to battle its whooping cough outbreak. doctors say a shot doesn't guarantee you won't get sick but could make symptoms milder, make you less likely to infect someone else. so far there have been no deaths linked to whooping cough but "the new york times" reports more than 1,200 cases through early may. >>> an ohio teen scores a prom date with an nfl player! 18-year-old joyce grendall asked cleveland brown joe hayden to the dance via twitter. she said it was a las

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here's christine romans.dies. >>> north carolina is rewriting its constitution to put a ban on same-sex marriage. a new amendment passed easily with 61% of the vote. the state's constitution will now read marriage between one man and one woman is the only domestic legal union that shall be valid or recognized. >>> mitt romney getting closer to nailing down the republican nomination winning all three primaries last night in indiana, north carolina, and west virginia. he now has more than 900 delegates with 1,144 needed to clinch. romney capturing indiana with 65% of the vote. west virginia with 70%. and north carolina with 66%. >>> joran van der sloot will fight attempts to extradite him from peru to the united states. right now he's serving a 28-year sentence for killing a lima woman he met in a casino. he's charged with extortion and wire fraud in the u.s. in connection with the disappearance of an alabama teenager natalee holloway. a conviction here could jeopardize his chances of being paroled in peru. >>>

i'm ali velshi, christine romans with me. we've been following this company with one thing in mind, after a troubling day for stock, can facebook live up to the hype? facebook, the most anticipated tech talk in history. from a startup in a dorm room to a global community approaching a billion people. facebook is the next paradigm shift on the web. first, the internet was defined by the portal, a one-stop shop for everything you needed. then came search, a single place to answer any question you could possibly ask. but facebook represents something different, the idea that the internet and technology can bring people together, and together the community you choose cure ates your buyer journey through life. is this the most important tool in the world or has it peaked. can facebook live up to the hype. if it really is a paradigm shift, can facebook dominate it. >> we brought together cnn's best time, dan simon in menlo park, california, where mark zuckerberg remotely rang the bell friday. new york nasdaq in new york and the new

christine romans finally gets her steely dan in the playlist. our panel this morning, hello. have john avalon here. senior political columnist at "newsweek" and "the daily beast." his wife, margaret hoover. worked in the bush white house and author of american individualism. hi, guys. >> good morning. >> so cute. and will cain columnist of blaze.com. good to see you all. and our "starting point" today, today is the day we've been talking about for days. it's happening. the ticker symbol fb will appear on the nasdaq this morning. facebook will be a publicly traded company. the social network setting ipo price at $38 a share which would value facebook at $100 billion. the most valuable company ever at the time of the ipo. initial public offering. more valuable than citi or mcdonald's. christine romans is so excited about this story she was talking about it as we were getting made up this morning. so jazzed about facebook. first, we're going to go -- >> we didn't get made up this morning. we wake up like this. we wake up like this. >> don't tell our secrets. >> the secret is out

i'm christine romans.t half past the hour. >>> the escape the chinese activist chen guangcheng is at a medical facility in beijing and will be reunited with his family. u.s. officials now talking about the man in the middle of a dicey at this point in timic fig diplomatic fight between the two nations. this is all as hillary clinton arrives for talks. >>> a deadly car bomb assault in kabul after the president's visit to afghanistan. six people killed. taliban militants reportedly described in burkas attacked the compound housing hundreds of foreigners. >>> and criminal charges expected to be filed today in the death of florida drum major robert champion, whose death was ruled a hazing homicide. five band members facing possible felonies. >> thank you, christine. 31 minutes past the hour. >>> economic meetings between secretary of state hillary clinton and chinese officials are being overshadowed this morning by some new drama surrounding an escaped blind chinese dissident, a real human rights supporter. cn

christine romans will join us with that straight ahead. >>> and yahoo!s resume. it's friday, may 4th. "starting point" begins right now. >>> a little bit of a tough turn, wasn't it, from whatever that starting point heavy duty metal music was to one of the women i love the most, gladys knight and the pips, "midnight train to georgia." it's nice to have you joining our panel, we appreciate it. really i'm joining you in your fair city. also with us is deshawn snow, also former cast mate of "the real housewives of atlanta." we have so much to dish about that because i want to know real, sort of real, completely fake. come on. also joining us, eric ericsson, nice to have you with us. it's weird because i feel like this is not our home. >> atlanta is everybody's home. >> yes, it is. >>> lots to get to this morning, including some new details about the shocking suicide of junior seau. the "l.a. times" says his family has decided to donate his brain. this morning we have an exclusive look at one of the last interviews he ever gave. he made one of his last publi

. >> i'm christine romans. zoraida is off today. >>> details about the death of future hall of famer, medical examiner confirming that junior seau committed suicide. but we don't have the answer to the question there. >>> a woman plunges 1,000 feet to her death in a hanggliding accident. police finding key evidence in the instructor's stomach? >>> and also caught on tape. a scary armed robbery at a dunkin' donuts, a customer trying to be a hero but ends up unconscious. how this all went down, all in matter of seconds. >>> up first this morning, big new developments with the chinese activist smack-dab in the middle of a political firestorm. hillary clinton is scheduled to speak about chen guangcheng in about an hour. we learned that chen can apply to study abroad according to a chinese state-run news agency. u.s. officials also say they just spoke by phone today with chen and met with his wife in person. they're expected to meet with chen in a hospital sometime this morning. the blind activist says he doesn't fe

time to get right to christine romans for a look at the day's headlines.n climbers who died while coming down the southern slope of mt. everest after reaching the 29,000-foot summit. it's believed they died from exhaustion and altitude sickness. the victims include a doctor from germany, a canadian woman and climbers from china and south korea. >>> a break in the case of a missing high school cheerleader in california. police in santa clara believe 15-year-old sierra lamar may have been murdered and they made an arrest. 21-year-old torres is locked up on suspicion of murder and kidnapping. he lives in the same area where lamar disappeared and he's the owner of the car connected to her disappearance. lamar vanished in march on her way to the bus stop. >>> one year ago today, a deadly tornado ripped through joplin, missouri, killing 161 people, destroying 8,000 homes and businesses. president obama gave the commencement at joplin high school yesterday. he says the students are an inspiration. >> if you're from joplin and you're from america, and no matter ho

. >> christine romans now with us minding your business this morning. er, there is more to this headline. like, i don't know, a year ago that headline should have been made. >> it seems like a bold promise but there are a lot of people projecting that the unemployment rate is going to move lower. what you would need to get what governor romney is promising is about 155,000 jobs created every month from here on out. what he is promising is something that is indeed doable. i mean you look at the they're already forecasting that. they're forecasting by the fourth quarter of 20165.4%. >> that's regardless of who is the president? >> right. what policies are, what policies might be. now, governor romney is saying it depends on what happens to growth around the rest of the world, what we see here in the u.s., but that they would get their policies, his policies would get the unemployment rate down quite substantially. the fact is, we are, indeed, moving in this direction, albeit too slowly. here is what we know. we know that the total jobs lost during the obam

here's christine romans. >>> good morning. two u.s. tourists kidnapped in egypt at begun point.orced out of their car by kidnappers in the sinai region key manneding the release of someone who was arrested for drug possession. they're rieg to resolve the situation. >>> the space x dragon space capsule departing the international space station after more than a week in orbit. dragon being released from the station's splashdown in the pacific will come later this morning. it will mark the end of the first commercial u.s. space mission. >>> new york city police releasing this photo of pedro hernandez in custody. he's suspected in the death of etan patz, the 6-year-old boy who disappeared 33 years ago. police say the 51-year-old hernandez confessed to murdering paetz. he's charged with murder is now on suicide watch at a hospital. >>> newly discovered audio recordings of charles manson's right hand man could help solve cold case murders. they're about to get their hand on eight hours of conversations between man son family killer watson and his attorney from 1969. they believe the r

let me bring in christine romans in. stine, we have been studying the price and comparisons to groupon and zynga that opened high and came down. >> reporter: fizzled. >> we talked about this on the first day. nobody that you or i talked to suggested $40. >> reporter: no and here is another thing. you have 400 million shares that are brand new and digested. i want to caution you in the first moments of the printed trade. we have a long day and long way to go. we don't know if it will keep going up. we don't know how many people, ali, are selling it. a quick point of trading at 40 right now. look, it is $44 is what it was trading privately before it became a public company. that would suggest maybe they priced this thing at perfection, right? a lot of other companies have gone public before, ali. gone public not at the top, but with lots of room to grow. google raised $2 billion in august of 2004. that price was actually $85 to $95. microsoft's ipo was $21 a share. the apple ipo, all the way back in 1980, $22 a share. about

christine romans has a look at those.n the deadly earthquake in italy. that's 17 people reported dead. that's the second earthquake to hit the region this month. officials say 14,000 people now have nowhere to live. >>> is she the fall gal? the communications director for newark mayor corey booker has resigned. there are reports she was forced out because of controversial statements made by booker on nbc's "meet the press" earlier this month. booker said he was nauseated by the president's attack ads against mitt romney. >>> chen guangcheng says his country lacked the rule of law. he says china's abuse of treatment of dissidents threatens its political stability and writes of his escape from house arrest after the local police discovered my escape from a village in april, a furious pack of thugs refusing to identify themselves scaled the wall of my brother's farmhouse in the dead of night, smashed through the doors and brutally assaulted my brother. after detaining him, the gang returned twice more severely beating my sis