>> reporter: hey there, kyra.will be a very emotional and probably very heartfelt send-off for congresswoman gabrielle giffords this morning, and it will all be happening in just really the next few minutes. how this is going to play out, prior to congresswoman giffords making her formal -- submitting her formal letter of resignation, the house is actually going to be voting on a bill that is one of her legislative priorities and has been one of our legislative priorities. it's a boardrder security bill t will really crack down on drug smuggling across the u.s. using ultralight aircraft. congress will be voting on that and steny hoyer said he would not be surprised if there was unanimous support of this piece of legislation. that will happen, a legislative achievement as she heads off. and following that there will be a rare moment of bipartisanship where there will be a list of very high-profile members of congress, of the house, coming forward to speak, honoring her service. we'll be hearing from the democratic

>> yeah, look at this, kyra. this poll you mentioned, nbc marries pole was conducted mon and tuesday. both before and after that debate where a lot of the pundants say newt gingrich had a great performance. mitt romney looked a little defensive especially over the issue of his taxes. let's break down that poll. monday, monday only in that poll, there's romney at 37%, gingrich at 22%. 15-point lead for romney. go to tuesday. this is just the tuesday results from that poll. look at that. romney advantage down to just 5 points. also another new poll out in the last few hours from polico. romney is at the top, seven points over gingrich. this was first recognized by our cnn time orc poll, back just, what, not even 24 hours ago with romney's lead going from 19 points down to 10. things are definitely tightening up here. the romney camp starting to step up attacks on gingrich yesterday on the campaign trail. boy, kyra, it is getting really interesting here. two days to go. >> i'll tell you what, in tonight's debate. we

kyra? >> you talk about our especially trained forces and new technology, i think it would be pretty hard to say that our u.s. military couldn't defend our country, if need be. with that said, chris, does the pentagon, how does it go about cutting nearly 50,000 soldiers and marines over the next five years without putting our security at risk? >> well, if you, the army, u.s. army officials i've spoke to said carefully because it's really the army and the soldiers that are going to take the brunt of those cuts. they're very worried that if the draw down in soldiers comes too quickly, you're going to end up with a situation where a lot of these noncommissioned officers are basically going to be laid off in a very, very tough economic climate right now. what they want to do is sort of, they know they've got to get smaller, but they want to draw it out and make it slower so it's not so rough a cut by pushing these people out into the civilian workforce. >> that's scheduled for 10:50 eastern tim

kyra? >> paul, thanks so much. and keep it on cnn now through november. best political coverage on television. and then the cnn presidential debate live right here on cnn on thursday. >>> just moments ago, the owners of the cruise ship that ran aground say that the captain had never had an accident before. and rescuers have now suspended the search for any possible survivors because the ship is sort of shifting. but the owners are holding out hope that they will find more survivors. the ship is starting to move, and that's posing a lot of danger for the divers. now the ship's captain is being accused of deviating from a well established route taking the ship too close to shore. he has been arrested, and now he could face manslaughter charges. survivors are still in shock, as you can imagine. >> there wasn't anybody to help you. really, the passengers were loading the life boats by themselves. >> we had to go about four or five gates down before we found a life boat we could get into. and th

>> kyra, i wish it was better news. james has been released from the hospital, she is terminally ill. she is currently in stable condition. she's at home with her husband and family by her side, but an attorney for her sons telling cnn that she is, as they put it, nearing the end of her time. the legendary singer has spent the last two weeks in the hospital. she's home now and she's resting comfortably. kyra, i am a huge etta fan. truly a legend. reveered as one of the greatest singers of all time. she's won multiple grammy awards. she's a member of the rock and roll hall of fame. her version of "at last" that's the one that made the song a classic. >> such a remarkable background. broke so many barriers. a.j., i am with you on that. >>> much different story, shall we say. tiger woods' ex-wife wanting to get rid of the old, bring in the new. >> yeah. she had a house that she was going to do some work on. instead, called in the bulldozers. this was supposed to be a complete remodel. instead, it turned into what i am comi

kyra? >> and rick santorum. tough time with his daughter right now. what exactly do we know, paul, and he's back on the campaign trail, right, but not in florida? >> he is back on the campaign trail today. but father comes before candidate for anybody. and that is definitely the case with rick santorum. if you're not familiar, a lot of our viewers may not be familiar with this, his 3-year-old daughter, bella, suffers from a chromosomal condition called trisomy 18. very serious. she was rushed to the had not in philadelphia over the weekend. santorum stopped his campaign events and was at the hospital with her. listen to what he said last night on a conference call to supporters in florida and he talked about her condition. take a listen. >> she is on the mend and really miraculously on the mend. she went through a very, very tough time the last 48 hours. and this afternoon, she made really a remarkable turn, and just feeling so blessed. >> so because of that, now rick santorum is going to r

kyra? >> zain verjee out of london. thanks so much. >>> and we are learning about a big break that police had in their investigation of jerry sandusky. it was in the pages of the former coach's own book. we'll talk with the reporter who broke the story next. >>> and tucson marks one year since a gunman put the city in the headlines. one year since the survivors and the city began the healing process. we'll show you how far they've come. ♪ he was a 21st century global nomad ♪ ♪ home was an airport lounge and an ipad ♪ ♪ made sure his credit score did not go bad ♪ ♪ with a free-credit-score-dot-com ♪ ♪ app that he had ♪ downloaded it in the himalayas ♪ ♪ while meditating like a true playa ♪ ♪ now when he's surfing down in chile'a ♪ ♪ he can see when his score is in danger ♪ ♪ if you're a mobile type on the go ♪ ♪ i suggest you take a tip from my bro ♪ ♪ and download the app that lets you know ♪ ♪ at free-credit-score-dot-com now let's go. ♪ vo: offer applies with enrollment in freecreditscore

kyra?s very hard to do water skiing. i tried it once before. you have to have really strong thighs. i know you do, kyra, but -- >> yes. well, i'm looking -- betsy anderson, who's one of our producers, i don't know if you remembered her when she lived here. she's a famous barefoot skier. she said, they cheated, they used skis. >> it's not a cheat, betsy. >> exactly. >> it's hard. look at that. look at that video. that's dramatic. i think they beat the one before. i think there was like 114 people, kyra. >> wow. >> this was 145. is betsy on the begin necessary book of records committee? >> you know what, stay tuned. that's part two. thank you, zain. poor betsy. >>> all right. well, our auto insurance companies gouging poor people? new study finds some pretty startling unfairness, shall we say. felicia taylor has been following this for us. >> kyra, have i to admit, i loved to water ski. would i have been even more impressed if they did it on one ski as opposed to two. i think your producer's

kyra? >> all right. so police think one person is -- or do police think that it's one person responsible for setting all these fires? because there has been talk out there, casey, that there might be more than one individual. >> there have been those reports. they will not tell us whether they believe it is one person or multiple people. they have been looking into both those possibilities. what i can tell you is they have been very concerned about copycats in the area. and they have released very few details about how these car fires were set, other than to say that some type of incendiary device was used. they were also urging the public to keep their cars locked, to remain vigilant, and to report any suspicious activity and any sightings of the person who they -- that was in that surveillance video. i can tell you from all of the reports on twitter and the people we have spoken with, this is a city very much on edge over the last couple of days. in fact, if this is a significant break in the case, a l

kyra? >> all right, joe, you let us know as you hear things. appreciate it. because you're there on the ground. you're connected. >>> mitt romney is the only republican who has sat at or near the top of the iowa polls in recent months. so, many ways he went into last night's caucuses with a simple goal, don't lose. did he really accomplish that? john is laughing. cnn contributor and contributor for "newsweek" and "daily beast." we were talking about this. all this enthusiasm and the video from last night and you're saying, if you look at it, romney flatlined when he came to the numbers. >> turn up was not up, not significantly up where it was four months ago. that hillary/obama campaign. pretty steady at 110,000. that shows certain enthusiasm deficit after all the attention on iowa and after the wake of the tea party surge that drove the 2010 election. second of all, mitt romney didn't win iiowa by eight votes. i think in some cases a moral victory for rick santorum in that david versus gol

kyra? >> yeah, indeed. we'll be talking again tomorrow and also throughout the morning and the afternoon with you, joe. thanks so much. don't forget tonight, just days before the florida primary, cnn and the republican party of florida teaming up to host our next presidential debate in jacksonville at cnn tonight 8:00 eastern. >>> we've got a former front-runner coming to visit us here in studio 7. herman cain joins me at 9:45 eastern. we're going to ask him about the gop race, stephen colbert, and his tea party response to the state of the union. >>> lawmakers typically play nice, shake hands, shake hands, you know the drill. this wasn't your typical face to face. arizona governor jan bremer said she got an ear full. you can see the moment there. apparently he's not a real fan of her book. >> bottom line is that i wanted to be there, to welcome him, to come and see firsthand what arizona has done in regards to our economic recovery. he wanted to talk about the book, and i thought that he was very thin skin

alison kosik, tell us more. >> 70,000 jobs, kyra. that's what home depot is going to be looking to fill. they're looking to fill for temp workers. that's 10,000 more than last year's target even though it ended up hiring 70,000 people last year. here's the really good news. these jobs, they may start out as temporary jobs, but they could turn into permanent ones. home depot's got a pretty good track record. you look at the seasonal hires. half of the seasonal hires last year stayed on as permanent workers. its rivalries, lowe's, plans on hiring 40,000 temp workers. we think of holiday season as the peak time. for home improvement stores, peak time is spring. kyra? >> we're hearing wall street has earnings from jpmorgan chase to consider today. how's that factoring into stocks? >> exactly. shares of jpmorgan chase are down 2%. they're pressuring the broader market. its fourth quarter profrt dropped more than 20%. its revenue number came in much weaker than expected. they're struggling with falling profits and asset management units. t

we have to get to "cnn newsroom" kyra phillips. kyra phillips. that begins now. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com >>> good morning, everyone. we start off this hour. new infrared video of that recked cruise liner. passengers line up trying to get to safety. as the camera goes down, you can see a rip in the ship's side. they smashed windows and swam through the hallways. they've recovered one black box. the coast guard is saying they know where a second data recorder is. does this look like a technical failure to you? because that's how the captain described the disaster according to port authority transcripts reported in an italian newspaper. here's part of the conversation. port authority, we ask you if all is well there. concord yeah, all is well. it's only a technical failure. >> port authority, how many people are on board? >> captain, 2, 300. >> port authority, how come so few people? are you on board? >> captain, no, i'm not on board because the ship is keeling. we've abandoned it. port authority, what? you've abandoned the ship? >> cap

>> reporter: kyra, good morning.re will be a press conference later today in less than an hour, where they'll explain their next step. this is the first time for the champion family to be here in orlando. to be here at this hotel where their son, robert, was killed back in november, here in the parking lot. i can tell you from sitting down with them today that this was very difficult for them to be here. it was important for them to be here to announce their next step. he launched his own investigation and now plans to sue a bus company based here in florida, throughout the course of his investigation some of robert's friends told him that robert may have been gay and that may have been one of factors. pam champion said that he was never really defined by his sexuality. take a listen here, this is something that they never considered. >> was this a surprise? >> actually, i never considered that. my thing was to never considered that at all. >> so, this was a surprise? >> yes, yes, it was. >> my son was slated to be t

kyra? >> rob, thanks. apparently we are working with someone in alabama in emergency management. >>> eight days to go until florida votes in its republican presidential primary. after newt gingrich's come from behind double digit win in south carolina, well, you better believe he's the new prime target. >> he was a leader for four years as speaker of the house. and at the end of four years, it was proven that he was a failed leader and he had to resign in disgrace. >> newt is the guy that, you know, in my opinion is the very high risk candidate. not only is he wrong on the mandate, government health insurance which he supported for 20 years, he is wrong on the wall street bailout. he was wrong on global warming. he's wrong on the immigration issue. >> all right. paul, i apologize for that because we are working on an interview right now about these tornado warnings and the severe storms in alabama. so do we want to hold off on that, finish up with paul here and move on to that? ok. paul, i apologize. joini

kyra, it's live tv. sometimes you get the right sound bite, sometimes you don't. >> what's great with you, you roll with it. whatever happens. paul, thanks so much. we appreciate you. >>> well, the road to the republican nomination for president's stop next in south carolina for its primary election. watch cnn saturday night 7:00 eastern as the contenders and you wait for the final results. >>> six u.s. marines have lost their lives after their helicopter crashes in southern afghanistan. they were serving as part of nato's international security assistance force when their chopper went down. pentagon correspondent barbara starr joining us from the pentagon or from washington, rather. barbara, what exactly happened? >> reporter: well, kyra, the investigation is underway. the u.s. military though strongly believes it was some sort of mechanical failure or other type of technical failure that brought this ch-53 down in helmud province in southern afghanistan. six marines losing their lives in this crash. no

>> hi, kyra.sident is proposing a number of steps to try to actually force colleges to keep tuition affordable creating incentives for them to keep down costs using actual federal dollars to sort of favor those colleges that do have lower costs and also make it more evident. they didn't use the word transparent, but sort of make it more obvious to people who are applying to college which colleges are adding extra costs, how they're doing it so that you know when you're applying what you're really getting yourself into. part of this is because, you know, college costs are really going up. colleges are a little upset about this saying, look, state budgets are being squeezed. we don't have that far to turn. they're setting up everything up there. people think the president's -- it's not the president coming. but colleges are saying, you know, we don't have that far to turn so we have to increase tuition a little bit to get the job done. part of this also though you have to keep in mind is the preside

kyra?ks so much. >>> and the other story we're talking about this morning is the new beginning for stocks. the first trading day of 2012. and after a pretty dismal 2011 we're all looking forward to a fresh start. isn't that right alison kosik? >>> it looks like wall street is ready to ring in the new year with a new rally, futures pointing up. opening bell ringing in seven minutes. wall street is focusing on overseas reports they got on manufacturing, they did show improvement and here in the u.s. we are expected to get some manufacturing and construction spending reports as well that are expected to show improvement as well. so overall, as we begin 2012 the first trading day investors focusing on the positive. the bulls look alike. they're going to be taking charge. kyra? >> ali is othanks so much. trying to win over uncommitted voters. mitt romney is hosting a grassroots rally. a full schedule of events today. we will check in on most of them. >>> and on the ground in iowa. our political

kyra, let's be honest. he's been coming under a lot of criticism lately, a lot of questions about his time at bain capital. that was the private equity firm he headed in the 1980s and 1990s. question about whether he destroyed jobs in those years. he was asked about it at the beginning of this news conference. he said, the companies we helped when i was at bain, over the years they've created over 100,000 jobs. you've heard a lot of republican candidates going after him as well as democrats. as he runs for president he touts job creation. can he do a better job creating jobs than the current person in the white house, president barack obama. it's part of the main push for him running. when he gets criticized, it goes to the heart of his campaign. last night sarah palin, somebody respected by a lot of conservative republicans, here's what she had to say. >> governor romney has claimed to have created 100 thousand jobs at bain. people are wanting to know, is there proof of that claim and was it u.s. jobs crea

>> that's right, kyra.aking roughly $40 million and paying 14% in taxes on that $40 million over two years, that's not a big problem for mitt romney with the republican party. republicans are not going to begrudge the fact that he makes lots of money or pays little in taxes. they're going to like the fact he gives a lot of money to his church and to his charity, the problem for mitt romney today, is sort of the optics, the way this tax return, these tax returns are coming out, on the same day that he's trying to offer a pre-buttal to the president's state of the union address. what the romney campaign has put up this morning a giant obama isn't working banner over where mitt romney will be giving his speech. he will be talking about how the president's handling of the economy could have been much better. we're standing inside an abandoned warehouse, mitt romney will make the argument this warehouse is abandoned, the factory is closed because of obama economics. the problem for that, though, is that the pres

i'll testimony you something, kyra.re's some very curious things that you can mine through those conversations that he was having with the port authority that can play perhaps for and against him in this matter. and i was very interested to see the accusations by the port authorities where they said, look, ske teen know, that's the captain, you may have saved yourself from the sea. this will put you through a lot of trouble. it will be very bad for you. get back on board for "f" sake. that sounds really damming, we have to remember. this was very dark. schettino was essentially in a life boat. who knows if it was possible to get back on board. so, listen, if anything is clear at this point, prosecutors are livid with the notion that he is on house arrest right now. they've already announced that they're going to appeal this and suggest that he be jailed instead awaiting the charges. >> is there a law in italy that a captain has to stay on that ship until he or she knows that every passenger is safe? >> that's an awesome

fragile relations between islamabad and washington, kyra. >> ressa, thanks. >>> in syria, an activist tells cnn the government's crackdown on protesters has left streets littered with dead bodies and wounded. that video posted online supposedly shows troops opening fire on demonstrators in the capital. in recent weeks, hundreds of people have reportedly been killed, and now the united nations is stepping in. zain verjee is following this for us from london. what is going to happen this week? >> well, what we are hearing from opposition groups, first of all, is that they are saying that 64 people were killed in syria just on sunday. there's a huge amount of political pressure from the united nations on syria, as well as the arab league. now the arab league is saying they are leaving. there's too much violence, and they are pulling out their monitoring mission, which was supposed to protect people from more violence. there have been more clashes today in different suburbs

please welcome kyra sedgwick!mmy: you look beautiful. >> thank you so much. >> jimmy: thanks for coming back. you were here when we first started. >> i was. how many years has it been? >> jimmy: two and a half years. >> wow. >> jimmy: yeah. >> yeah, i -- >> jimmy: you were one of our first guests. >> oh, yeah. >> jimmy: was that rough? was i sweating too much? >> no, no, you were great. no, i don't know how i was. but you were great. i mean, you invited me back so i must not have been bad. >> jimmy: oh, you're phenomenal. you're always great, please. >> but you -- i have not seen you since i've become totally obsessed with your -- your song parodies. >> jimmy: oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. >> i mean, they're amazing and -- >> jimmy: oh, thank you. >> i mean, i don't know how many people know about the troll series. >> jimmy: that's going back there. yeah, the troll dolls. >> yeah, totally. yeah, the troll dolls. >> jimmy: when i first started -- >> auditions. >> jimmy: -- stand up comedy, i used to do these impressions. t

secularists who have links with these groups so that the big tension really between washington and kyra. left off cell phones and more than twenty boxes of documents were reportedly seized during raids by the police authorities promised all will be returned yet several questions remain what prompted the raids and what could possibly be so suspicious about enjoy all of the races in post-revolutionary egypt. and the members of the arabic center for an independent judiciary never did get an official explanation for the confiscation of their documents or the eviction from their office that followed. we don't know what they were searching we told them we could give them anything they wanted but they came in search of everything and didn't give a simple answer whether they wanted bank statements or anything else other than one person from the camp sitting on a sidewalk by their former office the vixen to n.g.o.s workers point out a certain irony this never happened when mubarak was in charge he says i would surprise. the police but the. tickets. just. can't take a position. against the human