lisa sylvester is joining us now, when you look at the impact it could have it is really enormous. >>lf, it gets to the heart of the issue, people say it is important to have the rule of law and not to reward rule-breakers. and that is a very good argument on the macro level, but when you take it down to the micro status, with mixed families, some of them legal, some of them not. a close-knit family always worried they could be torn apart. this couple is undocumented immigrants, her baby, a u.s. citizen. her brother just received temporary legal status. they all want to stay in the u.s., the place they call home. >> this is my country. i was a teenager when i came here. >> reporter: when marcella and her brother came to the u.s. from el salvador, she was 16 and he was 2012. they went to school, graduated from high school. they always lived in the shadows, ricardo was diagnosed with bone cancer. later, he is cancer-free. now he dreams of becoming a doctor. >> helping folks is what i always wanted, especially after my cancer. like i think i owe the american people back for giving me my

lisa sylvester is outside the courthouse. we're talking about the possibility of jail time. >> reporter: that's right. in fact, the preceding are still going on as we speak. i just came out minutes ago. they are all inside the courthouse. he is in the process right now of pleading guilty. he faces one charge of conspiracy to commit mail fraud, wire fraud and making false statements. that carries a maximum of up to five years in prison and also a $250,000 fine. i can give you kind of a sense of what is going on right now in the courthouse. first of all, his father, the reverend jesse jackson junior is also in the courthouse arrived today. his wife is also facing charges for filing a false tax return. she has her own separate hearing this afternoon but she's also in the courthouse as well as judy smith. this is a name that is quite familiar here in washington. she's the crises manager, famous for cases like monica lewinsky, many famous cases where essentially she comes in and helps the defense. we're going to see what happens a

lisa sylvester is joining us now.e been taking a closer look at these ads that we'll see sunday, we'll be talking about monday. >> i want to first talk about some of the numbers. all right in $4 million for a 30-second ad. $8 million for an 8-minute ad. it comes down to how much impact these ads have and how much buzz. it's all about the big reveal. who is going to have the most talked about super bowl ads. zf and that milkaholic wasn't over? >> milk a what? >> but this year companies aren't even waiting for super bowl sunday. they are rolling them out now. >> there's the tail wagging the dog here? yeah. that's what's happening now. before the super bowl even gets here, there's hype about the ads. so for guys like me who make our living this way, we couldn't have it any better. that's great. that's what we want. >> here's a look at a couple of the ads you'll see on sunday. ♪ >> no worries, man. everything will be all right. >> yeah, man. >> this one from volkswagen, instead of getting kudos, is generating controversy

lisa sylvester is monitoring that. what's the latest on the las vegas shooting?s vegas police say their top priority is finding whoever was in the black range rover who fled the scene of the shooting yesterday. officers warn that the folks in that car should be considered armed and dangerous. three people were killed in the shooting and the car crash that followed after it. one was a rapper kenny clutch. he was a good father trying to become a success. we'll have a live report on this story in the next hour. >>> and the vatican is retiring. the pope's twitter account when he steps down. the catholic leader has more than 12 million followers on twitter. >>> and the cdc says this year's flu vaccine, well, it didn't work for most people over 65 years old. for that age group, it was effective in just 9% of the cases. researchers say rates of hospitalization and death for the most common strain of the flu this year were some of the highest ever seen. doctors still aren't sure why. the vaccine did help half of those under 65, which is sort of curious that it helped som

lisa sylvester is monitoring that. what happened?f a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. the country singer was found sunday at her home in the same spot her boyfriend died five weeks earlier. a friend says it was a perfect storm that hit her in the days before her death with a proposed court order which would have taken away her children. >>> in another news, hackers reportedly are responsible for a string of attacks on apple, facebook and twitter. they appear to be looking for research, intellectual property or other information that can be sold in the underground market. no user data was compromised but twitter accounts may have been hit. >>> take a look at this. dramatic pictures showing a massive 150-foot chunk of roadway buckled. weather is not believed to be the cause but rather some kind of geological event. and the white house has unveiled the official portrait of the first lady michelle obama. what do you think there? it was taken last week in the green room. the first lady, who just recently debuted is going to begin

lisa sylvester is monitoring that, some of the other top stories in "the situation room" right now. i, wolf. well, forecasters say a brewing nor'easter could bring more than 2 feet of snow to parts of new england by the weekend. a blast of cold air from the great lakes is expected to combine with a storm heading up the east coast friday into saturday morning. the national weather service issued a blizzard watch for most of eastern massachusetts and north and central remind. and photos taken by the new york mother killed during a recent vacation in turkey are now on sale. friends say the family is selling her work online to help support her two young sons. the amateur photographer was found dead last month in istanbul, where she had traveled alone. turkish police have detained a man, but no charges have been filed. >>> and take a look at this in ft. lauderdale, florida, this morning. a frightening sight on interstate 95 after a bakery delivery truck crashed and then dangled precariously over the ramp. you see it right there. police say a passenger in the truck died and another victim

lisa sylvester has a ppeview of this year'' commercials.t sound...ad.it'ssall aboot the bbg eveal. nats sound...aa who is going to have the most talked abbut super bowl aasnat nnt sound...clyyesdale ad.nat sound: m and msbut this year 3 companies aren't ven waiting &pffr super bowl sundayy they're i mean, ah, yeahh hat's what's & bowl even gets here, ttere's hype about the ads.so for ggus - likk me, who make a livvng &pthis wayy we couldn't havv itt any better. iimean that's preat. that's what we ant. here's aallok at a couple of ads you'll see nnsunday.nat volkswagon, 3 instead of gettinn kudos, it's ggnerating controversy or v-w. nat sounn ...vw ad.the ad didn't o ooer welllwith ome memmers of the pnel on cnn'' staating point.i always have problem with ccents hattare superimpossd on other people. it'ss ot so the quality of tte acceet. it'ssthe fact the &accent was oming out oo peoppe who seemingly were not supposed to bb from jammica. -3 it's done as a joke.vw says they ttst arketed the ad to make sure it wasn'' oofensive and collaborated

sheer lisa sylvester. lisa? >> reporter: it was something that came out of the blue.ing sounds [ crashing and screams ] >> reporter: a bright streak across the sky. an explosion and a loud bang. [ screams ] >> reporter: a meteor exploding over russia. the russian interior ministry says 1 thousand people suffer -- 1,000 people suffered injuries mostly from broken glass. scientists were rehashing what happened even as they were keeping their eye on another separate cosmic event. an asteroid passing only about 17,000 miles from earth. closer than our weather and tv satellites in space. melissa hayes-gerke is a scientist at the university of maryland where they keep a data base of asteroids and comets that could pose a problem for earth. >> we want to get a good idea of what sizes of objects are out there that could hit us and how many of each size object out there. and we're finding that the really big ones are rare which is great. but the small ones are much, much more common such as the one that passed over russia. >> reporter: while scientists can see cosmic rocks com

our lisa sylvester has been looking into this. so lisa, what are you finding out about all of this?hing called astroturf, a fake grassroots movement that's made to look like you have a lot of concerned citizens weighs in when in fact you don't this and this is a story that's been blowing up online, but we went to see what was actually real and what was fake and we found some interesting things along the way. take a look. it's a claim that got picked up quickly by several blogs and news organizations. representative steve stockman's accusations that obama supporters are sending out fake tweets to pressure lawmakers on the gun control issue. the congressman from texas put out this news release, claiming his office and others were receiving messages, not from real people, but from accounts manufactured by obama supporters. we caught up with him on capitol hill. >> we're calling for more information so we can find out exactly who send the fake tweets out and why they're sending them out, and exactly what they're agenda is. and we open to expose on that, and i'm sure we will, get to the

lisa sylvester's here.n the "the situation room." what's the latest, lisa? >> wolf, several thousand people still have no power and there's widespread damage in seven mississippi counties. pretty bad storms swept through that area yesterday evening, damaging or destroying hundreds of homes. dozens of people were hurt, two of them critically. a tornado slammed hattiesburg. that is where the university of southern mississippi is located. and the governor there, phil bryant, he has declared a state of emergency. >>> near dallas, texas thousands of mourners were on hand at cowboys stadium for today's memorial service for a former navy s.e.a.l. sniper who was shot and killed allegedly by a fellow veteran. 38-year-old chris kyle and a friend were gunned down at a shooting range february 2nd. kyle served four tours in iraq, received two silver stars, and co-authored the book "american sniper." he will be buried in austin tomorrow. >>> in other news, one step at a time for boeing and its troubled dreamliner. the ai

lisa sylvester is monitoring some of the other top stories in "the situation room" right now. on wall street. over 14,000. record high for five years at least. i remember at one point it was 6500, i believe. a few month after the president took office. 6500 and now 14,000. >> yeah. i'm sure a lot of people are happy to see those numbers and there was plenty of clapping when the closing bell rang today. the s&p closed at the highest point in five years. the dow closed at just under 14,036. it's still about 130 points short of its all-time high. reports of a possible merger between office max and office depot drove today's gains. >>> and nobody was in danger but nasa lost contact with the international space station for about three hours today. this is something that we all could probably relate to the reason why. it was caused by a computer problem while engineers were uploading and installing some new software. the space station has other computers to plug in and everything has been fixed. >>> attention you 300 million hotmail users. your days of seeing this screen is going to

lisa sylvester joins us now. good morning, lisa. >> hi, good morning, carol. just about ten minutes or so ago jesse jackson jr. and his wife, sandy, actually arrived here at the courthouse and as you mentioned he is expected in about an hour and a half or so to plead guilty. he faces one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud, wire fraud and making false statements, and this carries a maximum penalty of about five years with a $250,000 fine and it will ultimately be up to the judge to decide how much time if any he actually will have to serve. also his wife is facing a separate charge of making, filing false tax returns. her hearing is later on this afternoon. she resigned from her post as city council alderman in chicago last month. i got to tell you, carol, what a fall from grace for this family and the legacy of the family, the jesse jackson name, obviously the son of the reverend jesse jackson so we will see in a matter of hours what their fate is but i can tell you that their defense attorneys and both the couple they're going to try really hard that if

lisa sylvester's here with details of this heart-wrenching story. >> there are a lot of different voices gun debate. this is the story of one mother. she's not opposed to people owning guns. she grew up with guns. she knows what gun violence can do to forever devastate a family. sand yes phillips of san antonio texas was 10 years old when she received her first gun as a present from her parents who were avid hunters. >> so i have a lot of respect for weapons. i also have a lot of respect for life. sometimes those two do not go well together. >> reporter: her 24-year-old daughter jessica died, shot twice in an aurora, colorado movie theater. >> i got a phone call from the young man with her telling me there had been a random shooting. i asked him if he was okay. he said, i think i've been shot twice. i said, where's jesse? he said, i'm sorry. at that point, i guess i was screaming, from what my husband has told me. i was screaming, please tell me she's not dead. then my daughter was also taken out of the theater by two policemen that came across her body. and she was still breathing. she

cnn's lisa sylvester is working the story for us. lisa, give us some background.with the lawsuit? >> reporter: hi there, wolf. $5 billion is the amount the u.s. government wants standard & poor's and its parent company, mcgraw hill, to pay up. it's a scheme to defraud investors. it helped bring about the collapse of the housing market. 2004, home values were shooting up and getting a loan from a bank was easy. no money down loans, interest only loans, no prove of income loans. they were packaging them up and selling them. who bought them? private pension funds and 401 k managers. they had raided many of these. aaa, the justice department now says many of these portfolios were super risky, and one by one, those folks who bought more than they could afford went into foreclosures. the investments started to go bad. now who is to blame? the u.s. attorney general's office says, among others, the standard & poor's rating service. one of the nation's main credit rating agencies. >> it's sort of like buying sausage from your favorite butcher and he assures you that the sa

lisa sylvester is monitoring that and other stories. what's going on? >> hi, kate. high school among other things where he talked about hadiya pendleton who was gunned down in chicago after attending inaugural festivities in washington. earlier today, the posthumously awards today. >>> jesse jackson jr. admit he and his wife spent $750,000. the agreement calls for jackson to pay back hundreds and thousands of dollars. >>> and the storm-battered town of seeside heights is making a comeback after superstorm sandy. it is rebuilding its iconic boardwalk. the mile-long walkway should be completed by may 10th but amenities like railways, lighting, and ramps will come after that. >>> tiffany is suing costco for millions of dollars in damages, alleging the warehouse club was selling counterfeit versions of its diamond rings, selling rings they advertised as tiffany diamond engagement rings. the lawsuit filed with the u.s. district court is seeking damages to triple the amount of any profit costco made on the sale of the rings, some of which it says are being sold as much as

lisa sylvester is monitoring that and some of the other stories in "the situation room." 1-year-old bangladeshi man says he expresses remorse. he was arrested in october just as he prepared to detonate what he thought was a 1,000 pound bomb in front of the building. he's facing a possible life sentence and a $250,000 fine. >>> michelle obama will face the funeral service of the 15-year-old girl gunned down. the honor student had just been here in washington performing in guess stiff festivities. police say she had no gang affiliation and was likely not the intended target. >>> iran has released footage of a drone they claim to have knocked down in 2007. it was posted to youtube. cnn cannot independently verify the authenticity of this video. at the time of the incident, u.s. officials acknowledge the drone was missing and president obama asked iran to return it. >>> and it is off to the racetrack, at least the ice racing event of stock cars is a winter tradition in, where else, minnesota. drivers use studded front tires and added weight in the back for more traction. roll

lisa sylvester is monitoring that. >> we have just learned this new information, that it was a leakye of its engines. the u.s. coast guard says the fire began when a fuel oil return line made contact with a hot surface. the flexible hose pipes are supposed to get regular preventive maintenance. the coast guard commander also praised the crew for doing, quote, a very good job containing that fire. >>> one of the country's most iconic magazines is in financial trouble. the parent company of "readers digest" filed for bankruptcy today. the court's documents says its $465 million in debt but intends to keep publishing its u.s. magazines while it restructures. "readers digest" which has been around for 90 years and was once the most popular magazine in the country also went through bank is bankruptcy in 2010. >>> the hacker changed burger king's profile picture to a mcdonald's logo and send out a tweet announcing the company had been sold to mcdonald's because the whopper flopped. twitter suspended the account about an hour later. for the record, mcdonald's denies having anything to do wi

lisa sylvester is monitoring that and some of the other top stories in "the situation room" right nowing on with this front? >> sources close to jesse jackson jr.'s family tell cnn he has signed a plea deal. he was being investigated and significant prison time. lawyers representing jackson have not returned phone calls from cnn. the pakistani teen activist shot in the head by the taliban is out of the hospital. this is surgery of her after doctors repaired two operations to repair her skull and hearing. the 15-year-old will continue her rehabilitation at the family's temporary home in england. taliban shot her in the head for speaking out in favor of girl's education. >>> and in other news, boeing is warning customers, their deliveries of 787 dreamliners may be delayed as an investigation continues into problems with the jet's batteries. european carriers and norwegian air say they were told not to expect their fleet on time. the dream liner was grounded for three weeks following problems with battery fires. >>> take a look at this. a high-speed chase ends in a firery crash in califo

lisa sylvester is tracking the story from washington. uld get up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. why does jackson's lawyer believe that he actually might get a reduced sentence? >> you know, his lawyers have come out and it they are essentially saying, look, this is a guy who has health issues. i mean, he has talked about having depression, bi-polar disease. but, boy oh, boy, that's going to have to be weighed against some of the things we are now learning from these court documents that just came out today. jesse jackson, he was essenti essentially using his campaign credit card like it was his own personal spending account, paying for everything from home appliances, restaurants, dry cleaning, fur coats, a $5,600 spa outing at the martha's vineyard holistic retreat. and then, as you mentioned, all of the memorabilia, and a lot of it, too. like $8,500 for two michael jackson hats and $4,000 for a michael jackson and eddie van halen guitar. now during the court proceeding jesse jackson jr., i can tell you i was in the courtro

well, lisa sylvester, she was in the courtroom when jackson entered the plea.l, what was his demeanor? did he seem that he acknowledged what had happened and that he felt a certain sense of responsibility or remorse? >> reporter: he definitely took responsibility for this. suzanne suzanne, during this court proceeding, jesse jackson jr. looked back at his parents who were in the courtroom, and that key moment, when the judge asked him, how do you plead? he looked directly at him and dabbed his eyes. he turned back to the judge and said guilty, your honor. jesse jackson jr. also told the judge, "i used moneys that should have been for campaign purposes." he is pleading guilty to a felony, conspiracy to commit mail fraud, wire fraud, and false staltements. the judge also asked him about his state of mind, getting a sense of is he aware of what's'haiwhat's happening in the proceedings? as you well know, jackson suffers from depression and bipolar disease. he acknowledged he was a patient for a while at the mayo clinic. but jackson's attorney told the press that th

lisa sylvester's following this story. pretty surprising decision. what's behind it?blazer. the first female engineer at google. youngest ceo of a fortune 500 company at the age of 37. now making headlines in a different way and it all starts with a memo. >> marissa meyer named one of the most powerful women said she has to prioritize. >> god, family and me in that order. >> she returned to work two weeks after giving birth is shabing up the debate over balanced issues. in this memo all things deep, the human resources said no more working from home. to become the absolute best place to work, communication and collaboration will be important. we need to be working side by side. that is why it is critical that we are all present in our offices. workers currently telecommuting have until june to get comfy working out of the office or leave. the new policy was ripped by commentators. they said the commission seems backwards at a time when remote working is easier and more effective adding yours truly never worked out of an office and never will. the blocker writing for t

lisa sylvester is monitoring that. what's the latest? countries in the region are analyzing intelligence reports suggesting movement of syria's chemical weapons in recent weeks. it's believed this could be an effort to consolidate storage due to deteriorating security conditions but officials say they don't know the extent of the movement at this time. >>> and reuters report that prosecutors are asking for whit whitey bulger cannot who is 83 years old spent 16 years in hiding and on the fbi's ten most wanted list until his arrest in june 2011. he has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges. >>> and this year's best in show is hitting broadway. the "new york times" reports banana joe, the winter of the dog show, is temporary joining the cast of a popular musical. and what a cutie pie he is. he's also busy making the rounds, hitting the talk shows and doing a few interviews as well. >> on broadway. >> a cute little guy, isn't he? >> very cute. lisa, thank you. >>> get back to the top stories right now, including a fiery end to a massive m

lisa sylvester has that. >> this is really sad. the crash left eight people dead and 42 injured.ety records show the company has been cited repeatedly for brake and tire issues. the bus rear ended a seed sedan mountainous area east of los angeles. >>> and there's the bell. the dow didn't enjoy much time above 14,000. the index closed below that mark today at 13,880 after closing above it friday for the first time since october of 2007. analysts blame europe for most of the pullback. corruption allegations against spain's prime minister and a banking scandal in italy frightened skittish investors. >>> new york mayor's michael bloomberg, rudy giuliani and former president bill clinton with andrew and mario cuomo in the pew behind. among the who's who of politicians attending the funeral of the late new york city mayor ed koch. >> we were told not to speak long. this is not my speech. these are the letters, just the letters, i got from ed koch when i was president. >> ed will be buried at trinity cemetery in upper manhattan. just think about it. a polish jew in an episcopal graveyar