brooke in. >> dan simon in san francisco. thank you.ust think, how much for tickets for courtside could be? marinate on it. you ma i not believe it, next. it's the only listerine® that gets teeth two shades whiter and makes tooth enamel two times stronger. get dual-action listerine® whitening rinse. building whiter, stronger teeth. 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. no nonsense. just people sense. >>> time now for the help desk where we get answers to your financial questions. joining me this hour, the president of consumer education with spart credit.com and lynnette cox founder of the blog ask the money coach.com. john, your question today comes from brandy in kansas writing in my husband and i have enough in savings to buy our hires first home as a cash purchase. but the property we like will likely need work before we move in. should we finance the home purchase or take out a loan for the repairs? >> i

dan simon live in san francisco. dan, you've been talking to people there. how have they been reacting to the news? >> reporter: obviously they're very happy about it. they expected this, quite frankly, and we should point out a little more than three years ago, a majority of california voters said they were against same-sex marriage. well, in this case the federal appeals court said the majority doesn't rule that proposition 8, which defined marriage between a man and a woman, is unconstitutional. from here, brooke, most observers think this case will be headed to the supreme court. it does not mean the fact that same-sex marriage got a victory today that couples can start getting married tomorrow. this ruling is effectively put on hold while this appeals process continues. brooke? >> so ultimately we'll be looking for the next big step to be the u.s. supreme court. dan simon in san francisco. dan, appreciate it. thank you very much. >>> all right. next, we're going to talk a little more about syria. to do that, i want to go to senior national correspondent

let's go straight to san francisco on dan simon. k to me about the significance of this decision today. >> reporter: well, proposition 8 is now struck down, meaning that you can have same-sex marriage in the state of california. however, this ruling is effectively stayed, meaning as the appeals process goes on, we're not going to be able to see people get married right away. this case now is ultimately headed to the supreme court. at least, that's what most legal observers think. nevertheless. it is a huge symbolic victory for same-sex supporters here in san francisco. we're at the court of appeals where this ruling came down a little more than an hour ago. you had several dozen people standing here behind me. they're now marching at city hall, celebrating this ruling, and, of course, it's a big win for them today, brooke. >> what about quickly, dan, on the flip side, i know a lot of people are celebrating. some people are not. >> reporter: that's exactly right. the sponsors of proposition 8, a group called protectmarriage.com, you d

weir on the scene with dan simon.ments in this case? >> reporter: wolf, this double-murder-suicide as investigators are calling it seems to be carefully thought out in advance and investigators tell us as many as ten gallons of gas was spread throughout the house before the explosion. quite frankly, to one can understand how a father can do this to his children, ages 5 and 7. neighbor dale walden knew it was bad. >> i was in my living room just watching the pregame and there was a big explosion, it shook the house. >> reporter: outside, a house completely engulfed in flames. >> i just knew that if there was anyone in there they didn't survive. you can tell that instantly from what we saw. >> reporter: and inside, a troubled father with his two young sons, 5-year-old braiden and 7-year-old, charlie. >> this is all on him. he set this up. he did it. he is the one who started the fire. >> reporter: police believe this was a murder-suicide. josh powell was a person of interest in the investigation into his wife's disappea

our dan simons is standing by waiting for the ruling.nificance today of this decision. >> well obviously there's a lot of anticipation here in san francisco. this is really the epicenter for the gay rights movement, and the significance is, whether or not this court, the ninth circuit court of appeals, will hold up proposition 8, which as you said defined marriage between a man or a woman, or it will say that same-sex marriage is legal in the state of california. now there's a little more than three years ago that california voters went to the polls, and voted in favor of proposition 8. it was by a narrow margin, 52-48% margin. and it effectively ended same-sex marriage here in california. now, 18,000 couples had already gotten married, and those marriages were still valid. but no marriages, no same-sex marriages, could take place after proposition 8. what we saw here at the court a few months ago, it seemed like the three-judge panel was siding with same-sex marriage. so the question that many people here have is if the court rules agai

dan simon is live for us in san francisco. ly the web giants, including google, have agreed to a do not track button. how does that work? >> it sounds great in theory that you have a button on your browser and then they can't track your online activity. that's not what this does. what this does is prevent advertisers from being able to send you targeted ads. but there are significant developments in there. if you click this button, companies cannot use your data for things such as employment, credit, health care, insurance, and as i said, customized ads. on the flip side of it, your data can still be used for market research, product development, and it can also go to law enforcement. so beware here, if you click that button, it really only affects the web marketer's ability to second you those targeted ads. that some people like and some people don't like. >> so it's a do not track button but they can still track you? >> they can still track you. and privacy advocates say it doesn't have a lot of teeth to it. they would prefer

dan simon live from san francisco.e concerned about the privacy of google, what can you do about it? >> reporter: well, first of all, suzanne, i would venture to guess that no one has read a privacy policy. i have taken time to read very few of them. but because google represents the center of our digital lives, i would suggest people read the google policy and you have to actually give them credit for writing one that is pretty easy to understand. number one, people can go on the google site and there are privacy settings and you can tweak those where you can actually edit and delete your search results. and, second, and this is probably more important, if you have a google account and most people do, you can actually sign out of that account and then do your web searches and then all of your searches will be anonymous. but the bottom line here is, this is a very important story and a lot of people are paying attention to it and google -- they really have to get out in front and let people know what is going on here.

as cnn dan simon demonstrates, it's even harder to get control of your own private information these take a look. >> reporter: in the morning i check the headlines on google news. send some personal e-mail using google's g. mail. i may check google maps for driving directions. later at work i remember to do a google search for plumbers. i also need to do research for this story. more searches. later i'll glangs at my google calendar for appointments, upload some videos to youtube, and maybe i'll log on to google plus, the company's growing social network. and some variation of this happens almost every single day. >> google knows almost everything about you. >> reporter: that's why privacy watchdogs like peter eckerlesly are sounding the alarm about their privacy. beginning next month they'll keep track of all of your activity across all of the sites and build a profile. they'll use the information to improve its services, services where, for example, a user is likely to get better search results. >> we'll understand that when you search for jaguar, you're lacking for a jaguar. >> re

dan simon, thank you very much. have a great weekend to you as well. now to washington. gloria borger is in for wolf, "the situation room." >> thank you, brooke. >>> happening now, mitt romney promises what he calls the biggest change to u.s. government in modern history. it was billed as a major campaign event but didn't work out that way. >>> also, new revelations about multiple religious affiliations. they could complicate vice presidential prospects for republican senator marco rubio. >>> now nevada's john ensin has a new career. i'm year yeah borrow ger and you're in "the situation room." >>> it may not be everything, but aappearance is everything on the campaign trail. a lack luster speech, the bang promise by his campaign was more of a fizzle. the gap is down from six points on tuesday to two points today. joe, what exactly happened? >> reporter: well, gloria, mitt romney is still struggling to get his momentum back and today's speech was supposed to be a step in the right direction but for a bunch of reasons. you just would not call this mitt romney's perfect day

it would be embedded in most browsers, dan simon is live in san francisco to talk about this. does it really work? would this possibly mean an end to online tracking? >> reporter: no. this is something that sounds actually really good in theory, being able to go on the browser rg click one button and not be tracked. what this does is prevents advertising companies from being able to send you targeted ads. some people like having targeted ads, others not to get them. this prevents the ads from loading in your browser, but the searches will still be tracked and internet companies still have free reign being able to monitor your internet habits. >> why do you suppose they are offering the button? >> reporter: this is a public relations game here, the web companies and the advertising companies have fought this, this is where they make most of the money by sending you targeted advertisements, so naturally, they didn't want this. we're beginning to see a theme in the early part of 2012, and that's consumer privacy, on the internet. there is a lot of interest with how facebook, what

. >> thanks so much, dan simon. to comfort and preserve our privacy. >>> let's talk about mitt romney. on the stump today in detroit pitching his economic plan. union members were demonstrating in the streets. and taking it all in, our political editor, paul steinhauser. paul, what did you get out of this speech? >> reporter: fred, he talked about a kcouple more details. he said he would limit the capital gains on those making under $200,000 a year. he said all these changes he's proposing would not add a single penny, he said, to the deficit. while he was talking inside to 1200 people in michigan, outside there was a protest against him by the auto workers and they were criticizing romney's lack of support in 2008 and 2009 for the bailouts of the big auto companies in michigan. let's talk about rick santorum briefly. remember our debate two nights ago? i think it's fair to say he got beat up a little bit in arizona. well, santorum is after it again today in michigan. here's what he's going to say specifically, fred

. >> dan simon joining us live.umers are concerned about their privacy on google, what can they do about it now? >> reporter: well, the first thing i would suggest they do, kyra, is actually take the time to read google's new privacy policy. i would probably guess that most people have never read a privacy policy. this one is actually pretty easy to understand. they took 60 policies, threw them all in the garbage, and wrote one up. take the time to actually read it. but there are a couple things that you can do. the privacy controls that google has had for years, they remain unchanged. you can actually go in and edit or delete the web searches that you've done. but the most crucial thing that you can do, kyra, is if you have a google account, you can sign out of it and then do your searches and your searches will remain anonymous. this is a very important issue. it's a growing issue. people should really take the time to learn about it, kyra. >> thanks so much, dan. >>> we've got an update now on that breaking news

and all of and just a reminder that my guests in the studio today are journalist simon shuster and political scientist dan youth political juma we've started talking about this this proposal in the latest pollutants article about placing out web cameras in courts before he before he proposed putting web cameras on polling station so you say this is cosmetic but but but well. some people consider the. being a breakthrough i mean i mean i mean a live streaming from court from polish station this is this is that was unthinkable i mean even a couple of years ago you know i'm a member of presidential council on human rights and we like them so will this work yes or no in the console and my friends call it members of this console we can see it's a very democratic state really yeah you think this will work yes we agree on this point it's very interesting so just and we will do everything that. that will be a real result that is its main point and i would repeat my question to you as a member of this council if it's a closed trial if the court decides it's got to be a close trial will this well web camera be swit

dan, i'm going to start with you if i could. as simon hobbs, i don't know if you were able to hear his report earlier, pointed out that there was a lot of selling just around the 10:00, 11:00 hour and the question is whether or not people are really moving away from the risk trade. whether they've seen too much of a move in stocks. or do we go higher from here? what do you think? >> well, i think, sue, what we have is that we just have a situation where the extremely strong earnings motor that's been driving this market is probably back in neutral temporarily. i mean, we had earnings growth that was 15% in the fourth quarter. significant move in the market in the fourth quarter. and now we're up 9% this year so far. and we've had a full p/e multiple expansion from 12 to 13. so we're asking a lot from this market going at this sprint, you know, to not just take a breather for a period of time. so i think what we're going to see is that the earnings momentum in the flow from now to the end of the year is good. we're on about a 10% run rate

dan ackroyd. >> we've got eight bands competing. every member of these bands makes their living in some fashion in the national security community. >> while the judges may not be the next simonock continental was the senior intelligence advisor under president george bush. >> sounded a little bit like undercover steak out. >> head of the secret defense intelligence agency has a soft spot. >> i personally appreciated the saxaphone. i thought that was great. >> while 2011 saw the death of osama bin laden and american the leader of al qaeda is elite community also suffered losses. among them the 8 killed in downed helicopter in afghanistan. >> when we have a catastrophe such as that there's a lot of children video involved. >> while the bands are good the blues brother finals, memorable. this year the director of national intelligence took the stage with them. >> having my old boss come up, it doesn't get any better than that. >> on this night they raise $2340,000 for scholarship. >> my dream is now coming true. i am a sophomore at stevenson university as a film major. [applause] >> harris: great story. mitt romney wins maine the caucuses there. ron paula close second. just 3%

simon. rick santelli i believe has a guest out in chicago. >> absolutely. with all the news out there i wanted to talk to dan.d to ireland. they have a history of drawing some concessions on some of these key votes. any thoughts on the at least preliminaries, as everybody tries to discuss what the fallout of this vote may or may not be? >> if they decide that they don't want to ratify this you've got some serious problems on that one. the odds are they probably will. but will they draw concessions as you mentioned earlier? it's quite possible they won't. but this is relatively important, even though ireland is not a major country to speak of. it is major in the whole impact of the euro and the eurozone. >> especially they are one of the 17 that share the currency. >> right. i think it's different when the uk or the czechs say no, we're going to bow out of this, bow out of that. but as a euro sharing member i think this is more significant. >> yes. >> the ltro, pretty much tomorrow, and it's nonstop speculation. first on the size and then what the size means. so let's start out. where do you think it's going t