i'm jim axelrod. we begin tonight with reports of a blind chinese dissident make a 300-mile journey from house arrest to the gates of the u.s. embassy in beijing. his as-yet-unconfirmed presence at the embassy would likely complicate prealations with china just as secretary of state hillary clinton is set to travel there. >> reporter: the u.s. embassy in beijing could be protecting this man,. he fled house arrest last week. neither the u.s. nor the chinese government will confirm if he is in u.s. custody. he was imprisoned after opposing a program forcing women to undergo abortions to conform to china's one-child policy. to keep him silent, authorities kept the outspoken lawyer under house arrest, along with his wife and six-year-old daughter. security forces barred visitors and subjected chen and his wife to regular beatings. after plotting for months, chen made his great escape last sunday. under the cover-up of darkness, the blind 40-year-old lawyer waited until the guards were changing shifts. he

inches below average in new york city, is quickly becoming the firefighters' curse. >> pelley: jim axelrod us. jim, you were telling us in the news room earlier that these warmer temperatures portend other things for the weather. >> reporter: that's right, scott. ocean temperatures are warmer as well. warmer water strengthens hurricanes so let's look ahead a little bit. late summer, fall, hurricane season. as hurricanes start to make their way up the atlantic coast, they may very well be much stronger than we're used to seeing, scott. >> pelley: it will be an interesting spring and summer. jim, thanks very much. there was a bit of a fire of sorts in miami today. the marlins suspended their new manager for five games after he caused an uproar in the city. some cuban-americans wanted ozzie guillen fired for telling "time" magazine that he loves fidel castro and respects him for staying in power for so long. guillen, who is from venezuela, made a public apology today. a picture may be worth a thousand words, but a way to share it is worth a billion dollars. we'll tell you why next. you wouldn

. >> pelley: jim axelrod is on the fire lines. and a century after the titanic an irish town tries to make peace with a painful past. mark phillips is there. captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news" with scott pelley. >> pelley: good evening. mitt romney looks unstoppable tonight. in the race for the republican nomination. his closest competitor, rick santorum, quit the race today. santorum, far behind in the delegate count, was facing what could have been a loss in his home state of pennsylvania two weeks from tonight. chip reid was there when santorum bowed out. he joins us from gettysburg tonight. chip. >> reporter: good evening, scott. it was just this morning that rick santorum's campaign announced he was coming here to gettysburg for a campaign rally. so it came as a major surprise when word started to spread that he was coming here to end his campaign. >> this presidential race for us is over. for me. we will suspend our campaign effective today. >> reporter: rick santorum did not say exactly why he's endi

jim axelrod, cbs news, navarv >> good evening.ng to begin with promising news on the jobs front. >> new unemployment claims have hit a four year low. they were down by 6000 last week and tomorrow's jobs report from march is expected to reflect a four straight months of strong hiring. new at 6 o'clock, some of those jobs could be at one of the nation's most prominent employers but not in a way that you think. juliet good rich with cow starbucks is giving the job market a jolt. >> have you seen one of these? a red white and blue bracelet at starbucks brought the nation for $5 and it is says " indivisible " on it. 100 percent the proceeds go to charity to create jobs and we set out to find out where that money is going. >> it is not everyday that we hear about teachers being hired, construction jobs created, and

i'm jim axelrod. we begin tonight with reports of chiind chinese dissident making de300-mile journey from house arrest to the gates of the u.s. 30bassy in beijing. theas-yet-unconfirmed presence at the embassy would likely complicate u.s. relations with china just as secretary of state hillary clinton is set to travel pree. celia hatton is in beijing, >> reporter: the u.s. embassy in beijing could be protecting this man, chen guangcheng, one of china's famous human rights activist. he fled house arrest last week. hither the u.s. nor the chinese government will confirm if he is in american custody. blind from a childhood illness, chen is a self-taught defense lawyer. he was imprisoned after exposing wprogram forcing women to undergo abortions to conform to china's one-child policy. but chen's real nightmare started after he was released from prison. to keep him silent, authorities kept the outspoken lawyer under house arrest, along with his wife and six-year-old daughter. security forces barred visitor

he spoke with jim axelrod. >> reporter: last year the wisconsin capitol was under siege, occupied byized government workers out to defeat the plans of governor scott walker. walker's proposals passed the legislature public employee unions lost the right to negotiate contracts and employees were required to kick in more of their own money for health and pension benefits. the unions think you're a union-busser. are you a union-buster? >> no. i know collective bargaining is not a right. it's an expensive entitlement. it's about time somebody stood up for the hard-working taxpayers of our state. >> reporter: when it's talked about as perhaps the most important nonpresidential election of this decade, they're talking about the philosophical underpinnings to this notion of how much public employees are going to are to contribute. >> the largest philosophical issue is who controls things in government? do the taxpayers or public employee union bosses? because in the past the cycle has been that taxpayers' money goes to pay for legitimate wages and benefits, but on top of that, union dues. t

for the teams, it's a time of fresh beginnings, but jim axelrod caught up with one baseball fan who'sore interested in dwelling in the past. >> this is where we keep pretty much our inventory and, my goodness -- >> reporter: outside chicago, the man with the largest private collection of baseball films in the country couldn't care less that it's opening day. >> i don't follow baseball like i used to. i can't name you the starting lineups of the cubs. >> reporter: not this year's cubs, anyway. to grab ewing's attention, the baseball game has to be at least a half century old. say, the cubs from the 1935 world series. >> because i like it the way it used to be. yes, i like to show people how things used to be. >> reporter: his love affair with baseball movies started when he was a kid in the 1950s. >> my mother wouldn't allow tv in the home. she felt television was evil. >> so, we never had tv. >> reporter: no tv. >> but we did have movies. since i couldn't watch baseball on tv and yet i loved baseball, i got to see it through these movies over and over. >> reporter: in 1980 working for

i'm jim axelrod. a scandal may be brewinged in the u.s. secret service. several agents were recalled there colombia where they were part of an advance team preparing for president obama's arrival for a weekend summit there. senior white house correspondent bill plante is live in cartagena with allegations of misconduct, include prostitution. bill, good evening. >> reporter: jim, good evening. it's an exwargs incident which has distracted from the president's participation in the 33-nation summit of the americas. 11 or 12 members of the huge secret service contingent for the president's visit were sent home from colombia after a noisy altercation involving at least one prostitute. the alleged misconduct and the explosion took place earlier this week before the president arrived friday and attended the summit's colorful opening ceremonies this afternoon. the secret service personnel sent home were part of a large advance party which arrived in cartagena a week ago to deal with the logistics of the president's visit. they were headquarters at the hotel karee

. >> pelley: and on opening day, jim axelrod with the most amazing collection of baseball memories we've ever seen. captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news" with scott pelley. >> pelley: good evening. the national football league, an american institution and $10 billion-a-year industry, is caught up with one of its biggest scandals. the new orleans saints paying players to injury opponents on the field. today head coach sean peyton appeared before the nfl commission tore appeal mis one-year suspension and tonight we have an idea why the league came down so hard on the saints. here's armen keteyian. >> reporter: the violent nature of the nfl is an alluring, often celebrating part of the sport. but even in the confines of these human car crashes, there are rules, legal and ethical boundaries prohibiting the purposeful injury of an opponent. but now an edited audio tape has surfaced on this web site that appears to paint a disturbing picture of the mindset of former new orleans defensive coordinate, greg williams the architect of the saints' pay to injury bounty spaid up t

jim axelrod, cbs news, milwaukee. >> pelley: we checked today and it turns out in u.s.story only two governors have ever been recalled-- north dakota's lynn frazier in 1921 and california's gray davis in 2003 when voters kicked him out and elected arnold schwarzenegger. rising gas prices send americans on a shopping spree. rising gas prices send americans on a shopping spree. that s ready? as i'll ever be. break a leg! i used to love hearing that phrase... but not since i learned i have... postmenopausal osteoporosis and a high risk for fracture. i want to keep acting but a broken bone could change that. so my doctor and i chose prolia® to reduce my risk of fractures. prolia® is proven to help make bones stronger. proven to help increase bone density. i take prolia®. it's different. it's two shots a year. [announcer:] if you take prolia® (denosumab) you should not take xgeva®. prolia® can cause serious side effects, including low blood calcium levels, serious infections... ...some of which may require hospitalization, and skin inflammation, rash and eczema. tell your do

and that's where jim axelrod is tonight. >> reporter: the nasty wild fires whipping through long islanded by 40 -mile-per-hour winds are not normally seen in this part of the country at this time of year. new york's governor andrew cuomo understands the danger. >> all the ingredients were there for a real tragedy. >> reporter: the red flag conditions that create explosive potential for fires to spread will continue to pose a growing threat for months to come, according to suffolk county fire commissioner joe williams. >> if the conditions are right with the low humidity, very dry and the windy conditions you can have a major fire. >> reporter: williams blames the warm, dry winter that has continued into spring. it was the hottest march on record. 8.6 degrees above average. more than 15,000 warm temperature records were broken. >> as we're walking through this, a cigarette butt would set this off. >> absolutely. this tall grass and dry grass would definitely set that off. >> reporter: those severe drought conditions that extend all the way down to florida are creating dire challenges for

but jim axelrod found someone who is immersed in baseball's past. >> reporter: this is where we keepch our inventory. >> reporter: my goodness! outside, which man with the largest private collection of baseball films in the country couldn't care less that it's opening day. >> i don't follow baseball like i used to. i can't name you the starting lineups of the cubs. >> reporter: not this year's cubs, anyway. to grab doak ewing's attention-- >> there was a pitch to the babe. >> reporter: the baseball game has to be at least a half century old. say, the cubs from the 1935 world series. >> because i like it the way it used to be. so, yes, i like to show people how things used to be. >> reporter: doak's love affair with baseball movies started when he was a kid in the 1950s. >> my mother wouldn't allow tv in the home. shoo thought television was evil. no tv but we did have movies. since i couldn't watch baseball on tv and yet i loved baseball i got to see it through these movies over and over. >> reporter: in 1980, working for the atlanta braves, he found a dumpster full of old films the

the campus has responded to dozens of them in just the last few days, and we sent jim axelrod there to find out what's going on. >> reporter: the bomb sniffing dogs were out again this morning at the university of pittsburgh after another bomb threat. this one made 70 in the last ten days. and just like every other time, the dorms have been evacuated in the middle of the night or lecture halls have been emptied. search teams found nothing. law enforcement sources tell cbs news they believe it's the work of a prankster and not a terror plot, but pittsburgh's vice chancellor, robert hill, says the university is taking no chances. >> we have to take everyone seriously. we can't do a "boy that cried wolf" situation. we can't do "oh, it's just one more hoax" situation. we take them all as though they could be real. >> reporter: the threats come mostly by e-mail to university administrators or media outlets, but the longer the source remains a mystery and no explosives are found, students like freshman jenna greensweig grow less scared and more annoyed. >> basically, we'll sit down in the cl

that is a question jim axelrod will be examining in our sunday morning cover story. >> reporter: seven years ago cardiologist robert houser lost a patient, joshua, because joshua's implanted heart device was defective. that led dr. houser to the f.d.a. where he uncovered problems. he's been battling to fix them ever since. did you think you'd still be talking about this in 2012? >> no, it's so obvious. >> reporter: the troubling record of the f.d.a.'s oversight of medical devices. later on sunday morning. >> reporter: patti smith first made her name in the rock music world four decades ago. in the years since she's crossed paths with many of the leading pop culture figures of our time. this morning she talks about it all with our anthony mason. ♪ >> reporter: patti smith wanted to be a poet and an artist. but she became one of the most influential performers of the rock era. >> there was some kind of presumptive bravado that told me that i could do this. >> reporter: patti smith on life, love, and art. later this sunday morning. >> isn't it wonderful when some things don't change? >> o

for "cbs this morning," i'm jim axelrod. >> remember, i interviewed him, greg, before this cbs reportrybody said to me, you have got to read this book. >> and that's how i came across it, a girlfriend of mine, a former colleague said to me, you have to read this, pass it on to my mother and we all have that reaction. you couldn't put it down. it was such a wonderful story. but, you know -- >> until "60 minutes" started looking into funning. >> we should point out, too, a lot of good was done in many -- in many different areas. a lot of awareness raised. so, if there is a good to come out of it, it is definitely that. jamie moyer is still a big league pitcher, pitching at 49 after roving from an arm injury that could have sidelined someone half his age. how is he doing? we'll let him tell you. [ female announcer ] ready for a taste of what's hot? check out the latest collection of snacks from lean cuisine. creamy spinach artichoke dip, crispy garlic chicken spring rolls. they're this season's must-have accessory. lean cuisine. be culinary chic. [ female announcer ] with depression, sim

here's jim axelrod. >> reporter: in his fifth day on the stand and second on cross-examination, defenseneys hammered ang drew young, accusing him of bilking john edwards' donors of hundreds of thousands of money. to follow that money, attorney abby lowell referred to amended tax returns from 2008, filed by young. in them, young said he spent $56,000 on rielle hunter, even though he received more than $550,000. the money intended as gifts was siphoned off to young to build his dream home, complete with pool and home theater system. luxuries that cost $200,000. lowell also grilled young about his final meeting with john edwards in which young claims to have feared for his life. lowell asks, quote, were you afraid of a weapon or a tape recorder? young answered -- both. >> the spotlight was on andrew young the entire time. that's where the defense wants it. the prosecution, however, wants to return it back to john edwards. >> reporter: young kept his cool throughout the grilling. breaking down just once, when talking about what he put his kids and his wife through. jim axelrod, "cbs this mo

jim axelrod reports. >> being a student at the university of pittsburgh these days, means security checks midnight evacuations from your dormitory. >> i think most people are just incredibly frustrated. you know, you hear about this. you don't know if you can do your laundry. you don't know if you can sleep the whole night in your dorm. >> reporter: law enforcement says they believe the threats, mostly by e-mails or local media, are the work of a real prankster and not a real terror plot. but the school has no choice but to treat them all the same. >> we take every threat seriously. and this dangerous world in which we're living, we can't know, with any one threat, whether it's real or whether it's a hoax. >> reporter: so with each threat, out come the lis police dogs and search crews, leaving students frustrated and parents on edge. >> my parents are a little freaked out. i do get calls from my mom that are saying things like, are sure you feel safe? you don't want to come home? they're concerned. but they're also proud of us for sticking it out. >> reporter: one man was arrested before

. >> pelley: jim axelrod is on the fire lines. the titanic an irish town tries to make peace with a painful past. mark phillips is there. captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news" with scott pelley. >> pelley: good evening. mitt romney looks unstoppable tonight. in the race for the republican nomination. his closest competitor, rick santorum, quit the race today. santorum, far behind in the delegate count, was facing what could have been

. >> pelley: and on opening day, jim axelrod with the most amazing collection of baseball memories we'vecaptioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news" with scott pelley. >> pelley: good evening. the national football league, an americanti

jim axelrod, cbs news, new york. >> with us now astro physicist neil degrasse tyson, director of haydonetarium here in new york. >> thanks for having me back. >> sound like science fiction. >> it has just the right amount of crazy and just the right amount of, hey, that's -- you know, there are resources out there. think what we're doing here on earth. we're waging war and fighting each other to pull precious metals and other resources deemed rare out of the ground. this is our life down here on this speck we call earth. there's an abundance of materials in the universe. >> is there enough so in this idea, that little bit of crazy to get you going, is there enough potential reality, though, that you see this as something that could actually work? harnessing an asteroid doesn't sound easy. >> it's creating an entire business model that gets you access to asteroids in the first place. so, initially -- i chatted with him at a recent conference, the founders of the company, and initially you can park telescopes out there. once you know how to access asteroids, whose orbits come near earth,

i'm jim axelrod. >> i interviewed him because everybody said you have to read this book. >> that's howad the reaction, you could not put it down it was such a wonderful story, but -- >> until " 0 minutes" started looking into funding. >> right, and we should point out that there was a lot of good done and a lot of awareness raised. jamie moyer is still a big league pitcher, pitching at 49 after an arm injury that could have sidelined someone half his age. how is it doing it? we'll tell you when "cbs this morning" continues. ks from lean. creamy spinach artichoke dip, crispy garlic chicken spring rolls. they're this season's must-have accessory. lean cuisine. be culinary chic. [ female announcer ] with depression, simple pleasures can simply hurt. the sadness, anxiety, the loss of interest. the aches and pains and fatigue. depression hurts. cymbalta can help with many symptoms of depression. tell your doctor right away if your depression worsens, you have unusual changes in behavior or thoughts of suicide. antidepressants can increase these in children, teens, and young adults. cymbalta

. >> now jim axelrod reports and he made his first extended comments last night here on cbs. upt departure from msnbc keith olbermann has been dropped by another network, this time current tv and each though he played a role in his dismissal, he was quick to say his big mistake was trusting tv in the first place. on tuesday night keith olbermann sat down with david letterman and admitted he was partly at fault for his dismissal from current tv. >> i screwed up. i screwed up really big on this. let's just start there. >> all right. >> i thought we could do this. >> but after seeming to take the blame for his latest professional divorce, olbermann opened up on the left-leaning network co-founded by former vice president al gore and suggested the network wasn't capable of supporting him or his show. >> you know, if you buy a $10 million chandelier, you should have a house to put it in, just walking around with a $10 million chandelier isn't going to do anybody a let of good. >> no. >> and it's not going do any good to the chandelier. >> you're the chandelier? >> but behind all of

jim axelrod son the pitt pampas. campus. >> reporter: this campus at the university of pittsburgh is unlike any other college campus in america. in the last eight weeks they've faced 85 bomb threats. so far, no bombs. being a student at the university of pittsburgh these days makes security checks to get into lecture halls and midnight evacuations from your dormitory. >> i think most people are just incredibly frustrated. in classrooms you don't know if you can do your laundry, sleep the whole night in your dorm. >> reporter: law enforcement tells cbs news they believe the threats mostly made by e-mail is by the work of a prankster and not a real terror plot but the school has no choice but to treat them all the same. >> we take every threat seriously, in this dangerous world in which we're living, we can't know with any one threat whether it's real or whether it's a hoax. >> reporter: so with each threat, out come the police dogs and search crews leaving students frustrated and parents on edge. >> my mom's a little

jim axelrod is here with the story.ning, charlie. 80-year-old helen collins faced a harrowing situation. she hadn't flown an airplane over 30 years and over sturgeon bay, wisconsin she had to take controls midflight helen's husband john had a heart attack and slumped over in the pilot saet seat as they flew in a small two-engine cessna. helen who had little pilot experience, none in this situation, took the controls and called 911 for help. a veteran flight instructor coached helen as her husband robert fired up his plane to guide helen's cessna to the runway. >> hi, kathy. hell of a place to be. >> i know. but it sounds like you're doing great. you don't ever want the air speed to get below 100. you probably know that, right? >> yes, do i. >> reportr: up in the air, robert coached helen through >> pitch up, pitch up, pitch up, helen. you're turning too sharp. fly south. keep going south of the airport. >> i'm getting all these instructions and i'm not paying attention to where i'm flying. >> i'll be joining up with you

. >> bret: you are talking about michelle obama, joe biden, david axelrod, jim messina.ew of them know hillary rosen. >> right. of course. >> then today i saw a "newsweek" journalist talk about this and people on twitter saying isn't this a silly discussion and silly debate? it wasn't a silly debate for a long time when president obama's team was winning the debate. why is it now? i agree with judge and liz that the n the short-term it's likely to flame out. but this is a battle in what will be a longer discussion or debate about women in this campaign. >> doesn't it fascinate you if you go to clinton's campaign for president he and hillary clinton spoke on television due to a similar situation that hillary clinton was on "60 minutes" and said i could have stayed home and baked cookies but i chose a profession. these are touchy, touchy subjects. they do tend to flame out after a while but it shows the argument isn't over. >> bret: next up, taxes and the president's re-election strategy. [ male announcer ] you are a business pro. omnipotent of opportunity. you know how to

i'm sure as you can tell by people like david axelrod and jim messina, president obama's campaign manager condemning comments right away you can tell they are worried having lost that advantage. jon: they seem to be backpedaling a from comments not necessarily made by a member of their campaign. >> exactly. that is exactly right. right away, they were trying to get hillary rosen to disavow those comments. so of course they know it's a lost advantage. already this week republicans are making a big push to say that the obama economy has hurt women more than men for the most part. jon: right. mitt romney in fact said that yesterday in rhode island. let's take a listen. >> the democrats i think in anticipation of the anger of the women in america have been saying oh, republicans are waging a war on women. oh, no, no. the real war on women has been waged by this president's economic policies. they have failed american women. [applause] you know, you know of the 800,000 plus jobs that have been lost during the obama administration, do you know what percentage of them have been lost by women? 92

you also saw jim messina, david axelrod, the top strategist, the obama team immediately distance themselvessaying hilary rosen doesn't work for us, doesn't represent us. it still takes a way agood issue for them. because they were talking about the lilly ledbetter act, the fair pay act which romney had not supported before. the obama campaign was on the offensive but now they're on the defensive. >> ann romney joining twitter last night saying, quat i made a choice to stay at home and raise five boys. believe me. it's hard work." absolutely. any parent out there that has one boy is going to know it's hard work. so imagine times that times five. but when we say hilary's remarks, i think what she could have said more effectively instead of saying -- using ann as the conduit to speak to conservative women and women across this country mitt needs to put it in the first person, mitt romney saying, when i hear from women, when i hear from women their concerns about the economy. do you think that's what she was trying to say? or do you think that she was trying to just demean ann romney's place in

and you saw what david axelrod and jim mess ina from the campaign, the obama campaign. >> that's okay. >> how do you feel that the fellow democrats are going after you like that. >> i felt with what the first lady said about women, what she said is fine. what the rest of them said is politics. the republicans slammed and came at this pretty quickly. people who know me, know that i didn't intend that and my words were not very good. if they want to play politics with it, that's fine. it doesn't change the issues and it doesn't change the fact that i still believe barack obama has the best record to run on that supports women. >> have any of these people or others in the white house or the dnc or the obama campaign contacted you and spoken to you about any of this today? >> i've had several supportive calls. >> supportive. what are they saying? >> well, people know me. they know that i wouldn't attack a stay-at-home mom and that's not what i think this debate is about. so i'm comfortable with that, and people who know me i think are comfortable with it, too. >> you heard in joe johns' r