bob schieffer and jan crawford bring us the latest. a cutting end technology that could mean a whole new source for humid an body parts. in london, mark phillips has details. and running to remember, at the marine corps march thon, elaine quijano shows us a widow and her daughter following their hero with every step. captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news" with russ mitchell. >> mitchell: good evening. we begin tonight with the october snowstorm that socked most of the northeast this weekend. surprisingly heavy snow buried communities from maryland, clear up to maine. more than 3 million people are still without power tonight. and at least five are dead. jim axelrod has more on the prehalloween trick that was one for the record books. >> reporter: if they hadn't seen it. >> never saw this before in my life. >> reporter: they might not have believed it. but up and down did east coast, there was simply too much snow to ignore. >> i can't stand it. i hate it. hate it, hate it, hate it. i can't even express how much i ha

jan crawford has that story. chopper down. michelle miller on a frantic rescue effort in the murky waters of new york's east river. apple on the line. the tech giant shows off a talking iphone with some surprising answers. >> do i need a raincoat today? >> pelley: and i'm scott pelley from afghanistan where ten years into the war u.s. forces are fighting their way into new territory. captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news" with scott pelley. >> hill: good evening, scott will join us from afghanistan in just a moment. but we begin with campaign 2012 and a big shift in the republican presidential race. a cbs news poll out tonight shows mitt romney and herman cain are tied for the lead favored by 17% of republican primary voters. rick perry, as you can see, has slipped to third place. and it's beginning to look like the g.o.p. field may be set-- especially after new jersey governor chris christie's announcement today that he is not running. here's political correspondent jan crawford. >> new jersey, whether you

political correspondent jan crawford is in washington with more. >> reporter: well, scott, after months and months of teasing people with would she run or would she not run, sarah palin has just released a statement. let me read it for it. after much prayer and serious consideration i have decided i will not be seeking the 2012 g.o.p. nomination. she goes onto say as always my family comes first, she gave it a great deal of thought, and then she says in the statement that she believes she could, quote, be more

jan crawford, thanks so much. now it can be told.that led to the arrest of gangster whitey bulger in june came from this woman, anna bjornsdottir, a former miss iceland, lived part time in santa monica, california, where every morning she saw bulger and his girlfriend feeding a stray cat. on a trip back to iceland she saw a news report about bulger and phoned the f.b.i. for that she collected a $2 million reward. a popular drug for treating inflammation is giving patients sticker shock. why the pills suddenly cost 50 times more. so easy, you just need campbell's cream of mushroom soup to make them and a hungry family to love them. campbell's. it's amazing what soup can do. >> pelley: more than half of american adults take dietary supplements but a study out today suggest older women may face a slightly greater risk of death if they take multivitamins or mineral supplements, researchers say they don't know why and found no direct link between these supplements and health problems but this study in the "archives of internal medicine" w

candidacy and on a new controversy involving declared candidate rick perry, we're joined now by jan crawford in washington, our political correspondent. jan, good evening. >> good evening, russ. mitch much christie has said, i'm not running for president. in fact, he's said i'm not ready to be president. what are you hearing now? >> he's reconsidering because a lot of big-time donors are begging him to get in the race. they feel they have a real shot to beat president obama if they have the right candidate. they think christie is that candidate. christie was listening to them. now he's talking to his advisers about what he would have to do to get in this race, and russ, he would have to do a lot without much time to do it. people will start voting in just over three months, in january. so that's why you're starting to see people being a little sceptical today about whether he can really pull this off that quickly. we're going to hear soon his plans. i'm told this week. >> let's talk about rick perry. a story in the "washington post" today said the perry family, at leased a hunting camp, let'

political correspondent jan crawford is in washington with more. >> reporter: well, scott, after months and months of teasing people with would she run or would she not run, sarah palin has just released a statement. let me read it for it. after much prayer and serious consideration i have decided i will not be seeking the 2012 g.o.p. nomination. she goes onto say as always my family comes first, she gave it a great deal of thought, and then she says in the statement that she believes she could, quote, be more effective in a decisive role to help other true public servants to office, suggesting that she sees her role now as an outsider, something that could potentially be more powerful. this was something that palin alluded to last week during an interview with fox news where she started speculating about whether or not the title of president of the united states could be too shackling for her. she said, "i like to go maverick, i like to go rogue" suggesting then she may not be running for president and now she has just confirmed it. she will remain an outsider but of course someone wit

political correspondent jan crawford is in new hampshire. jan? >> reporter: scott, expectations were high for romney going into tonight's debate on the economy, that's his signature issue. but his campaign got a big boost even before he takes that stage. (cheers and applause) in his typical no-nonsense style, christie got straight to the point. >> america cannot survive another four years of barack obama and mitt romney is the man we need to lead america and we need him now. >> reporter: the announcement came over a week after christie crushed the hopes of some republicans after he announce head would not run for president. christie's endorsement allows romney to claim he is the choice of the g.o.p. establishment. >> he's a man who has a following of a lot of folks across this country. >> reporter: romney has retaken the top position in the polls after falling behind texas governor rick perry. perry, who entered the race just two months ago has struggled in his first three debates. >> i kind of feel like the pinata at the party. >> reporter: the

jan crawford and john dickerson on what that will mean. the incredible story of a 67- year-old man found and rescued six days after his car plunged off a california cliff. and steve hartman on the time he spent a few minutes with andy rooney. >> it costs money for three elevators to come to the lobby at the same time. captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news" with scott pelley. >> schieffer: good evening, scott's on assignment, i'm bob schieffer. well, our military and intelligence forces have been tracking him for years and today they found him and killed him. anwar al-awlaki who apparently inspired the fort hood major who killed 13 service members and whose ties to al qaeda may go back as far as the 9/11 hijackers was tracked down leaving a funeral in yemen and killed by a rocket fired from a u.s. drone aircraft. we have reports tonight from david martin and bob orr. first to david at the pentagon. david? >> reporter: bob, the hunt for al-awlaki was code named "objective troy" and has been in high gear for months. a c.i.

here's political correspondent jan crawford. >> new jersey, whether you like it or not, you're stuck with me. i with his signature straight talk, new jersey governor chris christie crushing the hopes of some republicans said today he will focus on his state, not a presidential campaign. >> now is not my time. i have a commitment to new jersey that i simply will not abandon. >> reporter: for months, christie's answer had been the same. >> i'm not going to be the republican candidate for president or vice president in 2012. >> you know, there's no chance. >> no chance, no way, no how. the door is closed. >> reporter: but with some in the republican establishment unhappy with the g.o.p. field, big-time donors urged christie to reconsider and he did. it became an all out media frenzy after his speech last week at the reagan library. >> we need you. your country needs you. (cheers and applause). >> reporter: christie said today he was thinking about running when he gave the speech. he'd already heard from so many others. >> it's been unbelievably humbling and inspiring. >> reporter: but w

jan crawford has more from washington. >> reporter: for weeks, the big time republican donors have beenistie to get in the race. >> now is not my time. >> reporter: after months of denials and in weeks of reconsidering, chris christie got straight to the point. he is not running for president. but, instead, focusing on his work as governor. >> i asked for this job. i fought hard to get this job. and my job here sent done. >> reporter: on the campaign trail, front-runner mitt romney with one less republican competitor has nothing but praise for governor christie. >> where are you from? >> new jersey. >> chris christie country. >> reporter: a new poll shows romney still in the lead with support from 17% of likely republican primary voters. 1 out of 3 say he has the best shot at beating president obama, but romney's main competition may be changing. would weeks ago, texas governor rick perry was leading the poll and now it's businessman herman cain tied with romney. perry has lost half of his support at 12%. cain says it's because voters want something different. >> i don't have national n

our political correspondent jan crawford has the latest on the fallout from all of this. >> reporter:ing questions about the racial slur, rick perry said his father painted over the word after he leased the land. but the "washington post" quoted visitors to the camp who insisted they saw it on the rock when perry went hunting there. when asked his views on the story sunday, herman cain was blunt. >> the name of the place was called niggerhead. that is very insensitive. and since governor perry has been going there for years to hunt, i think it shows a lack of sensitivity. >> reporter: but today it was not perry but cain who grew up in the jim crow era in the segregated south taking heat from conservatives like rush limbaugh. >> so here you have the "washington post" with an unsupported non-story and here comes herman cain piggybacking on it, trying to capitalize on it. >> reporter: cain, who has captivated voters with his straight talk told reporters today he had made his point. >> all i said was the mere fact that that word was there was insensitive. i am not attacking governor perry

jan crawford on the man who said once and for all, no. >> new jersey, whether you like it or not, you're stuck with me. >> with your signature straight talk, chris cristie crushing the hopes of some republicans, said today he will focus on his state, not a presidential campaign. >> now is not my time. i have a commitment to new jersey that i will not abandon. >> more months, cristie's answer has been the same. urged cristie to reconsider and he did. it became an all out media frenzy after his speech last week at the reagan library. >> we need you. your country needs you. >> cristie said today he was thinking about running when he gave the speech. he had already heard from so many others. >> it's been unbelievably humbling and inspiring. >> with only three months left before primary voting begins, time was running out for cristie to launch a campaign. even if the establishment was behind him. today's poll showed 63% of republican voters either hadn't heard enough about him or undecided. in his trademark style during a 50 minute press conference, cristie took on skeptics who were raising q

here's political correspondent jan crawford. >> it was supposed to be a head-to-head battle: the establishment candidate mitt romney and the brash challenger rick perry fighting it out for the republican nomination. but someone forgot to tell us that herman cain. >> we are the greatest nation in the world. i will never apologize for it. >> reporter: this political outsider is rewriting the story of this campaign. the new cbs news poll shows cain leaping to the top to take on romney and at the expense of rick perry. in a month, the two have switched places. cain has skyrocketed 20 points. perry has plummeted 17 points. romney's support in second place or tied for first has held steady. with his campaign struggling, perry is going on the offensive. today he unveiled an economic plan centered on a flat tax of 20% for individual and corporate incomes. which he says will lower taxes. and to get down the cost of entitlement programs like medicare and social security, he proposes raising the retirement age though he's leaving the details to congress. >> it reorders the way they do business in washing

political correspondent jan crawford has the late-breaking developments. >> reporter: he's a front-runner under fire. >> sir, excuse me! >> reporter: today herman cain was on the defensive, flatly denying accusations of sexual harassment. >> i'll let the rest... while at the restaurant association i was accused of sexual harassment. falsely accused, i might add. i was falsely accused of sexual harassment and when the charges were brought, as the leader of the organization, i recused myself and allowed my general counsel and my human resource officer to deal with the situation. and it was concluded after a thorough investigation that it had no basis. >> reporter: the intense scrutiny was triggered by a story that broke late sunday night on politico, a non-partisan web site for political reporting. it said at least two women had accused cain of sexual harassment in the 1990s when he was head of the national restaurant association. according to the web site, the women accused cain of improper language and gestures. cain's chief of staff mark block told cbs news that cain recalls one incident

jan crawford is in hanover, new hampshire, with that story for us. >> reporter: expectations were high for mitt romney going into last night's debate and focused on the company. that is his significant issue. after two hours on stage, he showed why. there were eight candidates around the table but last night's debate on economic issues may as well been called the mitt romney show. >> with the american people in the kind of financial crisis they are in, they need to know someone who knows how to create jobs and i do. >> can you name all 59 points in your 160-page plan? >> herman, i've had the experience of my life of taking on some tough problems and i must admit that simple answers are always very helpful but observe times inadequate. >> reporter: texas governor rick perry hit him on the massachusetts health care reform law. romney turned the tables on perry. >> we had the lowest number of kids as a percentage uninsured in any state of america. you have the highest. i'm still speaking. i'm still speaking! >> criticism. >> i'm still speaking. we have -- we have less than 1% of our kids

jan crawford is in washington with more for us. jan, herman cain is now in the lead here, 25%. on romney followed by 21%. rick perry has slipped to sixth place as we see geng rich move up. walk us through these numbers, jan. >> what's striking about this poll is how big of a hill rick perry is going to have to climb if he is going to get back into this race. he led our poll one month ago and now his numbers have almost flipped with herman cain. they just jumped right back each other. the more that people see rick perry, the more they seem to like herman cain. the other thing we see in this poll, is that mott rimny's numbers, while people flip back and forth, mitt romney's numbers stay consistent. throughout your our polling, he's been in second place, like he is today, or tied for first. so we see him have this ground of support that i think will bode well for him as he goes forward. >> and looking at some of the other numbers from this poll, a lot of people are paying attention to this race. 70% of registered voters are paying attention. republicans a little bit more than demo

cbs news political correspondent jan crawford is in washington this morning with more on that. jan, good morning. >> reporter: good morning, erica. perry is taking a huge hit like you said. he has gone from first place on fifth place and now he is gettingrap getting aggressive and trying to get things back on track. trying to jump-start his struggling campaign, governor rick perry unveiled his much awaited economic plan centered on tax reform. >> it reorders the way they do business in washington. by reinventing the tax code. >> reporter: the plan includes a 20% flat tax but gives people the option of sticking with their current rate. social security reform by allowing younger workers to choose to put their income in private accounts. and raising the retirement age above 65, but leaving the details to congress. perry's rollout came as the latest cbs news poll shows his support plummeting among republican primary voters to 6%, putting the onetime front-runner in the middle of the gop pact and contributing to his following numbers is the loss of tea party support. once favored by

jan crawford on mitt romney as his mormon religion becomes an issue in the presidential campaign.d in what was supposed to be their golden years, many seniors depend on the government for food, but some could soon be cut off. >> i can think of things to probably cut back on, this is not one of them. captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news" with scott pelley. >> hill: good evening, scott is off, i'm nora o'donnell and we begin tonight with wall street

jan crawford is in washington with the latest. >> reporter: that new poll coincide with cain's appearance this week on "face the nation" now he is a front-runner he is facing increased scrutiny especially when opponents ask if he would support abortion. bob schieffer gave mr. cain yesterday the opportunity to set the record straight. >> pro life from conception, period. i was that -- that piece that was pulled out was taken totally out of context when we were talking about -- >> so, in other words, you would not even believe in abortion if rape, incest, or the health of the mother was involved? >> correct. that is my position. >> that is your position? >> that is my position. >> reporter: a few missteps aside, the des moines register poll shows him edging out mitt romney for first place in iowa. >> my message is connected and people are connecting with me and the specific solutions i'm putting on the table. >> reporter: another reason may be cain's unconventional style. he is not your typical politician because he isn't a politician. he admits when he doesn't know something. states like a

jan crawford is in las vegas with the latest. good morning. >> reporter: good morning. we are in front of caesar's palace and hunter s. thompsomho said if you're a loser, las vegas can be the meanest place on earth. in last night's debate, i don't think any obvious losers but one thing was for sure, it was mean. it was the most contentious debate yet. the, changes at times were personal especially with rick perry on the attack. >> mitt, you lose all of your standing from my perspective because you hired illegals in your home and you into knew about it for a year and the idea that you stand here before us and talk about that you're strong on immigration is on its face the height of hypocrisy. >> rick, i don't think i've ever hired an illegal in my life. would you please wait. are you just going to keep talking or let me finish with what i have to say? look, rick. >> the republican follow the rules. >> a tough couple of debates for rick. i understand that. so you're going to get -- you're going to get testy. >> reporter: perry has been criticized for his controversial imm

referred to is david axelrod, the campaign chief strategist and joining us from washington is jan crawford. what are the other gop candidates saying about iraq this weekend? >> reporter: they have been all been pretty consistent the president is not respected and operating from a position of weakness and basically allowing iraq to throw us out of the country. front-runner mitt romney said it's driven by politics saying this was a sudden change of policy and raised the unavoidable question as romney put it as to whether this decision is result of naked political calculation or is simply sheer ineptitude and whichever one it was,, obviously, not words of praise from the gop there. >> jan some say the president has been on a foreign policy role so far this year. bin laden, now the troops withdrawing from iraq. these are big score points from the american people and not getting the bounce, though, politically. >> reporter: when you think about the president's use of deadly force to knock out our enemies, you just ran through some of them. ironic. obama won the nobel peace prize two years ago a

, high-tech lynching that justice thomas said he received from the news media and the left. >> jan crawford in washington this morning. jan, thank you. >>> we want to bring in now chief washington correspondent, host of "face the nation" bob schieffer. it's always nice to have you with us. what is the fallout this morning in washington? because it's certainly getting a lot of attention in terms of headlines. >> well the bottom line here is it's not so much what we know but what we don't know here. these kinds of things have happened before. we had allegations like this in '88 against gary hart. we had allegations against bill clinton when he ran for president involving paula jones and gennifer flowers. but in those cases what, started out as anonymous stories that came from anonymous sources they were soon fleshed out. we had names to go along with the allegations. what we don't know here is who exactly made these charges, exactly what the charges were. the cain campaign first said well, they were just tired old allegations that had been settled amicably. what does that mean? and then they

jan crawford, cbs news, las vegas. >>> this morning, as president obama pushes congress to pass key parts of his jobs bill, vice president joe biden is getting live attention over tough language. >> critics say references he made to murder and rape were insensitive. senior white house correspondent bill plante has more for us this morning. >> reporter: the president and vice president have been out there pushing congress to vote more money for police, firefighters an teachers, but the vice president really took off the gloves. in flint, michigan, last week, biden argued said fewer police mean more, rape and murder. >> in 2010 when flint had only 144 police officers, the murder rate climbed to 65 and rapes just to pick two categories, climbed to 229. god only knows what the numbers will be this year for flint if we don't rectify it. >> reporter: after the complete jobs bill was voted down last week, the white house set out to get the legislation passed piece male including $35 billion for jobs and some for first responders. some republicans in the senate are pushing back. >> the president'

. >> first, jan crawford is in washington with the latest on the race for the nomination. jan, good morning. >> reporter: good morning, chris. when rick perry announced two months ago he was running for president he shot to the top of the field and he has seen his support crumble and yesterday his wife said don't count him out. >> it's kind of been a brutal month but we are survivors and we are warriors and we are climbing up that hill to try to save america. >> reporter: it's been a rough stretch for texas governor rick perry. he has downplayed a series of rocky debates. >> there may be slicker candidates and smoother debaters but i know what i believe? >> reporter: he has taken heat for what he believes in, especially immigration as he signed the first in the nation law giving tuition discounts to illegal immigrants and controversy over mitt romney's mormon faith prompted by a perry supporter. >> in my estimation mormon is a cult and it would give credence to have a momon candidate. >> reporter: perry plummeted 31% last month to today 13%. the beneficiary of his misfortun

cbs political correspondent jan crawford is in washington for us. as we mentioned, herman cain now in the lead here. 25%. romney follows by 21 and rick perry slipped to sixth place now with 6% support as we see gingrich move up. walk us through these numbers, jan. >> what's striking about this poll is how big of a hill rick perry is going to have to climb if he gets back into this race. he led his our poll one month ago and now his numbers almost flipped with herman cain. they just jumped right past each other. what is also very interesting is i think that says the more that people see rick perry, the more they seem to like herman cain. the other thing we're seeing in this poll is that mitt romney's numbers while these two are flipping back and forth and we've seen people come and go, mitt romney's numbers are staying very consistent. he has been in second place, like he is today, or tied for first. so, we're seeing him kind of having this ground of support that i think will bode well for him as this thing goes forward. >> when we look at some of th

>> jan crawford in las vegas. thanks. >>> also joining us, john dickerson who is up early in las vegas as well. take a look at this. as jan said, perhaps bruised in a lot of cases. everyone is talking about mitt romney and rick perry. which one of them did what they needed to do last night? >> well, whatever they were serving before the debate they are now serving it in the casinos with the risk-taking and gambling the candidates were doing. clearly rick perry came to press his case, show passion. he was in mitt romney's face a lot of the debate. he was also -- sometimes he didn't take the bait and go after romney. he took those opportunities to make a forceful case for his energy plan, his record in texas. what was clear from the back and forth is these will be the last two standing. for rick perry who's been in a tailspin this was a good night to get back in shape. >> a big change for him. he came out of the gate, gloves clearly off in this one. we heard it would happen in the last debate and it didn't. did you

jan crawford has that story. chopper down.r on a frantic rescue effort in the murky waters of new york's east river. apple on the line. the tech giant shows off a talking iphone with some surprising answers. >> do i need a raincoat today? >> pelley: and i'm scott pelley from afghanistan where ten years into the war u.s. forces are fighting their way into new territory. captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news" with scott pelley. >> hill: good evening, scott will join us from afghanistan in just a moment. but we begin with campaign 2012 and a big shift in the republican presidential race.

jan crawford on a big boost for mitt romney. an endorsement from chris christie. dr.udy that links vitamin "e" to an increased risk of prostate cancer. and celia hatton on the search for the american dream in, of all places, china. captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news" with scott pelley. >> pelley: good evening. tonight, the united states is accusing the iranian government of plotting to assassinate the saudi ambassador to the u.s. with a bombing attack on a restaurant here in america. one man who holds u.s. and

. >> we'll speak to the governor in just a minute, but jan crawford is in washington with the latest on the race for the nomination. good morning. >> when rick perry announced he was running for president, he shot to the top of the field but he's seeing his support crumble and yesterday his wife, anita, said don't count him out. >> it's kind of been a brutal month but we're survivers and warriors and we're climbing up that hill to try to save america. >> reporter: it's been a rough stretch for texas governor rick perry. he's downplayed a series of rocky debates. >> there may be slicker candidates and there may be smoother debaters, but i know what i believe in. >> reporter: but he's also taken heat for what he believes in, especially immigration, as texas governor perry signed the first giving discount to illegal immigrants. then controversy over mitt romney's mormon faith prompted by remarks by a texas minister and perry supporter. >> mormonism is a cult and give creediance to a colt to have a mormon candidate. >> reporter: all that caused perry's support to plunge from an average o