>> reporter: good evening, scott. we're at a viewing party on the campus of the university of south florida in tampa. this is part of the i-4 corridor, an area that is evenly split between republicans and democrats. but it is also home to a large number of independent voters. this county, hillsboro county, is a significant bellwether. since 1960, voters in this county have picked the winning presidential candidate in every election except for 1992 when they picked george h.w. bush. now, as for today there have been no reports of any major problems at the polls here in florida. however, there have been some extremely long lines, people waiting upwards of three hours in miami-dade county. now, elections officials tell us that is due in part to the long ballots here in florida. for instance, in hillsboro county it is six pages. those voter lines, though, could actually have been much longer but some 4.5 million people here in florida actually cast their ballots early and, scott, that's about 38% of registered voters here

scott? >> reporter: virginia critical to both candidates but really central to the planning of the romney campaign. wyatt, thank you so very much. america is not just choosing a president tonight, of course, control of the congress is also at stake and our chief national correspondent byron pitts is following the house and the senate races for us tonight. byron? >> scott, you're right. both parties have plenty at stake in both the senate and the house. first the senate, there are currently 53 democrats and 47 republicans. one-third of the u.s. senate is up for election tonight. that's 33 seats. 23 democratic and ten republican. in order for the republicans to take control of the senate, they would need to win four seats. that bat logical take place in about a dozen states from places like connecticut and massachusetts out east to nevada and arizona out west. cbs news considers six of these states true tossups. that's massachusetts, connecticut, virginia, wisconsin, north dakota, and montana.

scott, it's too early to call. we thought it was about even going in but the enthusiasm gap was on the republican side. and the turnout to vote it was about even that means we win. that's what i'm expecting and i think it's an opportunity and energy message is what's going to carry the day here but it will be an hour or two before we know what's going on. >> pelley: virginia used to be reliably republican. you're a republican governor. i wonder why you think it's so close tonight. >> well, it was reliably republican for 40 years for the presidency. the president won by 7 points four years ago ran a great campaign. but at the governor level, at the state house level it's been back and forth for that same 40 or 45 years. five republican, five democrat governors. so this isn't saying the people will vote the person and the issue not the party. and we're just hoping this is the year that the romney message of jobs and opportunity and debt reduction and dmer energy independence with one people will gravitate to. >> pell

mark. >> reporter: scott, this prosecution moves away from the b.p. spill's environmental and economic impacts. instead, its the preventable deaths of 11 people. bob kaluza oversaw safety for b.p. aboard the deepwater horizon when the rig exploded. >> i did not cause this tragedy. i am innocent. and i put my trust, reputation, and future in the hands of the judge and the jury. >> reporter: donald vidrine, another b.p. senior supervisor aboard the rig, also pleaded not guilty. they were in charge of a test that indicated a combustible gas had seeped into well. the indictment alleges kaluza and vadrine didn't call engineers on shore to discuss the abnormal readings as required. instead, they allowed work on the well to go on. hours later, volatile gas came up the well and exploded. >> i'm angry that the two middle management guys are going to take the fall. >> reporter: stephen stone, a worker on the deepwater horizon, escaped on a life boat. he's haunted by memories of fellow workers, some injured, shers jumping 60 feet into the gulf. >> i used to be a

>> reporter: scott, that is definitely the case. we spoke to a group of irish runnerrunners who arrived just . they are furious. they say they spent some $30,000 to fly over here today. they understand what the people are going through but they just believe that postponing the race this late in time was just the wrong decision. some 47,000 runners were expected to compete on sunday but critics say that starting the race in staten island, a place so devastated by the storm was insensitive and that it would be a drain to vital emergency services. mayor bloomberg origina originay insisted it would not be but then the outcry grew louder and louder-- from victims, from city officials even from some runners. and then this, from the mayor. >> reporter: scott, this is the first time, it's history, that the new york city marathon has been canceled. >> pelley: michelle, thank you. power may be restored to 160,000 homes and businesses in lower manhattan by midnight tonight. jim axelrod is on that part of the story. jim? >> reporter: well, scot

>> reporter: well, scott we're here at columbus,, ohio. over the weekend i was talking with one of his senior advisors and i said "what do you have planned in these final days?" and he had a one-word answer and he said "praying." he laughed and said it with a smile but it reflected the underlying tension and uncertain any a race that could not be any closer. >> if you believe we can do better and if you believe america should be on a better course and if you're tired of being tired then i ask you to vote and work for real change. >> reporter: with the campaign in its final hours, romney's hitting four tossup states today after a weekend of crisscrossing the country as he tries to close out the race with the win. >> this is much more than our moment, it's america's moment of renewal and purpose and optimism and we've journeyed far and wide in this great campaign for america's future and now we're almost home. one final push is going to get us there. >> reporter: romney is still expressing confidence, but in ohio yesterday he acknowledged wi

>> reporter: scott. this mini city is a state-run shelter camp, a series of tents that stretches across 40 acres in the parking lot of a racetrack. it's in partnership with fema's disaster response here along with hundreds of mobile homes now on their way to areas devastated by sandy. this is the evacuee mess hall? >> yes. >> reporter: fema took us inside the camp, complete with hot meals and hot showers. it was built for utility workers a week ago. it now houses 4,000 utility workers, first responders, and contractors in large, heated tents. >> we have some linemen from canada that are here. the other people are processing in. >> reporter: but 200 storm victims also live here now. more show up everyday. >> we're here to assist them and we're going to do everything possible to help them along the way. >> reporter: fema hopes to relocate the evacuees within a couple days to other temporary housing. and the goal of everybody in this room essentially is to get -- >> get the power back on, get into housing a

[applause] >> thank you, scott. appreciate it. i did mention that the library is thriving? did i mention that last year we had 7.2 million visitor to our libraries? it's exciting to know that and it's the only larguishan library that did not suffer any reductions or cutbacks during the economic downturn. you provided that stable funding and thank you, again for all of your terrific support. with that i would like to call to the mic our great partner, the department of water and the folks that oversee the entire construction and management of the projects, mohammed. thank you [ applause ] >> thank you, and good morning everyone. are you as excited as i am? all right. let me just start by thanking the community for this long-awaited project. we went through several hoops. it's been ten years. we have gone through almost every commission. we went through the legal battle and you all stood with us and we're here today to break ground on this great library, big hand for all of those who put that effort in. [ applause ] this project is the 24th library that our agency has been in

scott? >> pelley: anthony, thanks very much. as nancy cordes was just telling us, we're about seven weeks from those automatic tax increases and budget cuts that are due to kick in automatically. congress design the so-called fiscal cliff to be so painful that it would force a compromise between the white house and capitol hill. but the voters have returned the same politicians wh politicianst reach a deal last time. here's wyatt andrews. >> just weeks away from now loom it is so-called fiscal cliff. >> reporter: under pressure from the fiscal cliff, house speaker john boehner started a public negotiation with the president. saying republicans would accept an increase in tax revenues if they're tied to tax and entitlement reform. day one after the election and the speaker said it was clear voters want solutions. >> mr. president, this is your moment. we're ready to be led. >> reporter: but what sounded like a concession was mostly a challenge. boehner specifically rejected the way the president would raise revenues: higher taxes

>> reporter: scott, white house officials told me today that u.n. ambassador susan rice is the front-winner to replace hillary clinton as secretary of state despite some strong opposition from some republicans. the 47-year-old u.n. ambassador is a close confidante of president obama, a former rhodes scholar who served as an assistant secretary of state under president clinton. she came under fire from republicans for what she said five days after the attack in benghazi, libya, that killed four americans. here was race on "face the nation." >> we do not have information at present that leads us to conclude that this was premeditated or preplanned. >> reporter: that would later prove to be untrue, though the white house insisted rice was working off the c.i.a.'s best information at the time. several republicans on the senate foreign relations committee have suggested they might try to block her nomination. florida's marco rubio was noncommittal today. >> obviously she based those comments on directives or information she had and it's important to know

captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news" with scott pelley. >> pelley: good evening. this barrier island on the new jersey shore is one of the areas hit hardest by hurricane sandy. in a moment, we'll show you what the storm did to this community and talk to some of the people who live here. they're facing a fourth day without power as the nights grow colder. but first, the number of people who lost their lives in this storm is now up to at least 87 in nine states. in new york city, firefighters and police went door to door checking on residents. mayor michael bloomberg said the death toll in the city is up to 37 now. today, police recovered the bodies of two staten island children who were literally torn from their mother's arms and swept away on floodwaters monday. millions of people in 11 states from virginia to new hampshire are spending a fourth night in the dark. nearly 4.5 million homes and businesses are without electricity. but the cavalry is on the way. the air force is shipping utility trucks and power generators from california aboard 17 aircraft. and the

like a construction road [ laughter ] we have got to get all of these roads built and this is what scott wiener and others works on:we have the opportunity to unite everybody and it's up to us in government to have listened carefully, and be responsible with your money and get the job done. are we ready to get the job done? >> yes! are we ready to build the future for your kids? >> yes. >> are we ready to support the great parks in san francisco with proposition b? >> yes! let's go forward and keep another world series and escambia keep our san francisco successful! thank you, mr. mayor, we're going to have a celebration this morning. he reminded me it's about community spaces too. so take a moment and look up. look up. because that is where the meeting room will be on the second floor with after-hour access for all the poets and all the kids' story times and various activities. it's going to be fantastic. we want to continue our theme of partnerships and teamwork by acknowledging the great staff that has put it all together and it's going to continue to offer services here in the neighb

scott? >> thanks so much. what do you make of the fact we can throw up a number of different retailers today and you're going to see retailers are getting killed. >> all of those online shopping figures are as a result of people shopping for discounts online. they're not benefitting the stores, cyber monday's actually not a real thing because they had the discounts up online on thursday night and friday morning. the whole sector that's the s&p retail, that's locked in the down trend since the first week of september. and quite frankly, it's just not a positive thing. i don't know why anyone would want to speculate in this group as a whole. you've got to be really specific if you want to play retail. >> you were specific last week on tjx. >> i was, and got out of half the position today. the stock should be much higher given that tjx has done relatively well here in the last couple of days. we're extending hours, offering more discounts, they're selling smartphones, tablets, they're selling tvs. this plays righ

>> scott, a very tough day for s.e.c.al and especially for steve cohen, the hedge fund's founder. they have spent recent years fending off -- amid charges that two former employees engaged in insider trading and later destroyed evidence of their behavior, but in the case today, yet another former employee stands accused of insider trading and cohen appears to have been involved in the trades at issue. whether or not he knew he was dealing with will gotten information remains unclear. this case centers on allegations that starting in 2006, an s.e.c. analyst named matthew martoma recommended buying shares of elan and wyeth to only sell them in 2008 based on illegal obtained information about a drug trial that yielded bad results. sac allegedly made a quarter of a billion dollars and martoma took home a bonus of more than 9 million. they are saying this is the most lucrative insider trading case ever and raises questions about what more is to come. maybe the most detrimental is july 2008 conversations between martoma and ste

but they were not able to recall scott walker.ans had made a big deal o the democratic try fell short. they thought that indicated they would have a great game inerform. >> this is a huge differenc tries. we're seeing this wonderful in hat for a governor's race. this iy=s waiting to see race betweeno. and brown. a different electorate than last year. a lot more people voting. voting for president of the united states, we have a ionship withody watching right now has a personal feeling about barack obama. one way or the other. you don't have a big personal feeling abou state. and probably not to the senators. probably your mayor if you live in a big city. butpresident that has the emotional contact. you like him, don't like him, you really connect. you want to vote on that election. it's just really democratic. all these special elections and don't convinced that the right thing to do. 19% of the people out elect going to support that voted for scott walker. it was an interesting dynamic. you pointed out correctly that overtook the

chip. >> reporter: well, good evening, scott. here on long beach island, as in many beach communities, people keep building closer and closer to the water. it's a gamble that many people on the jersey coast have now lost. one after the other, homes along the shoreline on long beach island, new jersey, are in shambles. this one appeared to have floated in from somewhere farther up the beach. massive dunes had been built to protect these homes, but hurricane sandy deposited those countless tons of sand in the street where it takes a bulldozer to carve a path. sandy tossed boats around here like toys, leaving some in piles, others scattered far and wide. bob davis, who rode out the storm in his home nearby, says in 40 years on this island, he's never seen a storm with anything like this kind of power. >> we made it through. and it's just the cleanup now. but it's going to take-- my estimation, with two years to get the island back in shape. >> reporter: kyle scheibner and jen smith's house took on four feet of water. they found safe

comes back to west point, and with the support of people like scott -- scott becomes a permanent general during the war of 1812 -- he is able to systemize the west point curriculum and experience that been the had not been the case before. >> host: when was west point founded? >> guest: 1802. i think historians still argue about what thomas jefferson was really after when the school was founded. but no one disagrees the school is institutionally weak, unclear what the purpose of the institution is. there's not very systemized instruction. cadets are older, some younger, and to this day he is called the father of west point because he puts it on sounder foundation and and that's the army that will produce the armies of the civil war and where all these -- most of the war generals get their initial professional experience. >> host: well, professor, the title is, west pointers and the civil war. who are some of the west pointer who we have heard of that were generals in the civil war, both sides. >> guest: generally most of the famous ones. sherman, grant, lee, hood, all -- about -- to give

scott. >> pelley: carter, thank you. speaking of climate, we got surprising world today that polar ice is melting three times more rapidly now than it was in the 1990s. that in a report in the journal "science." we asked ben tracey and our los angeles bureau to tell us what that will mean to the rise of the seas. >> reporter: the researchers, including nasa scientists, say antarctica and greenland have lost nearly five trillion tons of ice since 1992, causing sea levels to rise by nearly half an inch. >> we didn't really know that we were going to find such a dramatic speed-up. >> reporter: nasa's erik ivins worked on the study. scientists say human activity, such as burning fossil fuels, is warming the atmosphere. >> each year, we're getting longer and longer melt seasons. this year, we had one of the longest melt seasons that we've ever seen. >> reporter: melting ice sheets now account for 30% of the rise in ocean levels, making flooding from storms such as hurricane sandy even more destructive. along the california co

scott pelley with the c.e.o. of goldman sachs warning of the dangers of the fiscal cliff. >> what you won't repair is people's attitudes towards the united states. >> glor: and dean reynolds on why there's a smaller bounty to share with the hungry this thanksgiving. captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news" with scott pelley. >> glor: good evening. scott's off tonight. i'm jeff glor. i eight days of bomb blasts and a celebration in gaza tonight after israel and hamas agreed to a cease-fire. a deal was announced in cairo by secretary of state hillary clinton and egypt's foreign minister. israel agreed to stop air strikes in gaza, where at least 161 palestinians have been killed since last wednesday. hamas promised to stop firing rockets which have killed five israelis. there were fears the deal might not happen after a bomb went off on a bus in tel aviv this morning. 27 people were hurt, no one has claimed responsibility. we have reports from gaza and israel tonight. we begin with clarissa ward in

>> reporter: good evening, scott. the four-month investigation by the f.b.i. was wrapped up just days before the election. in the end, agents did not find any evidence of an intelligence breach. instead they uncovered the tawdry personal affair that brought down c.i.a. chief david petraeus. it started as a low-level cyber investigation in tampa, florida. jill kelley, a socialite, who's done fund-raising for the u.s. military, told a friend in the f.b.i. that she'd received a series of anonymous harassing e-mails. agents quickly traced those e-mails to a former military intelligence officer paula broadwell, the author of the biography "all in. the education of general david petraeus." a further investigation turned up numerous e-mails, some of them sexually explicit between broadwell and petraeus at first blush, investigators wondered if someone breached petraeus's private e-mail. investigators actually stumbled across an extramarital affair. officials suspect broadwell sent those e-mails to kelley believing her to be a romantic rival. sources say when petraeus

>> reporter: hey, scott. right behind me they have had trucks coming in all day long, supplies, food, equipment, police coming through with barricades. it's just a huge endeavor and i want to reset for people how big it is. last year they had 47,000 runners. 8,000 volunteers, 1,000 staff, and 340 million in economic activity which is pretty much why they're still running the race. another reason, thousands of runners came here just for the race and they spend a lot of money. we saw so many runners this morning, most of them were foreign. they weren't oblivious to the situation but they didn't waver in wanting to run. so many don't want them to run. images like these generators are part of the problem. they're for the marathon but they could be used for just about anything. and they're huge, they could power a building, could power a gas station, scott, and there's a lot of frustration that they're not being used for other reasons. you can't blame the runners, of course. it's not their decision, not their faul

because governor rick scott would offer no help. south florida after asking for help on thursday night, south florida woke up to longer line this is weekend. very early this morning the florida democratic party sued in federal court, asking a judge to do what the governor is refusing to do, mainly to make it possible to vote without enduring a marathon to do so. faced with that lawsuit and with the evident problem of voters not being able to vote a few ft. counties decided maybe they ought to do something on their own. they came up with a make do work around plan. you still could not technically early vote today in most of florida, but around the the city of tampa county, you could pick up an over the counter ab centiballot. fill it in there and hand it in there. you can do it all day in greater tampa. in orange county a judge ordered the day of early voting after a bomb scare kept the polls closed there for several hours. the situation in miami-dade county got really kind of nuts today. at least that's how it seems to me. i was wat

did a big bus tour with scott brown just a few days before election day.rown also campaigned alongside new hampshire senator kelly ayotte. there she is outside of a massachusetts deli shouting into a bullhorn that scott brown is holding. it might be mr. brown's famous truck behind them. i can't quite tell. kelly ayotte and susan collins are from sort of neighboring state. maybe that makes sense. this guy is not from a neighboring state. >> this man is the one i want most in the united states senate working side by side with me. [ applause ] >> scott brown is the one i want most in the united states senate. john mccain, kelly ayotte, susan collins are the three republicans. they are pretty much the only three republicans that scott deemed not too toxic to bring to massachusetts during his campaign. now that a senate seat might open in massachusetts, guess who is doing all of the dirty work to make sure that massachusetts senate seat opens up? i know it seems nuts. i if ul will i admit that it seems nuts. it makes a heck of a lot more sense than what john mc

now back to scott and more "fast half."ou. >>> let's go to brian shactman watching shares of facebook. >> lock-up scmock-up. up, last week, 22%. even with the feared 800 million shares coming to market, it's had a heck of a run. over 23 bucks a share now. back the you. >> i'm glad that shactman said that about the lock-up. everybody thought that when you had that many shares potentially coming to market that this stock was going to hit the skids again. and it was up huge, more than 10%, i think, that day. here you go, doc, up more than 23 bucks. >> kudos to them that called exactly this scenario here on this show or the 5:00 show. >> ennis. >> tanner, too. kudos to you. >> there it is exactly. keep it in the pocket. >> i will. >> i like to thank my dentist for talking about facebook last woke. >> the shorts have been screaming. >> thank you, dr. j! >> very welcome. hope the check's in the mail. >> take a check, speaking of checks, on apple, as well, today, because that's a sfapt story. this stock has been in free fall as yo

scott? >> pelley: major, thanks very much. it appears the new president of egypt may be backing away from the biggest crisis there since the revolution. there have been four days of protests after president mohammed morsi seized near absolute powers saying that his decisions cannot be overturned by the courts. well, tonight we're hearing that talks between morsi and the supreme court continue with an eye toward compromise. it's a developing story and holly williams is in cairo tonight. >> reporter: in cairo today, they buried a young man who died in violent protests against egypt's first democratically elected president. after days of clashes, today there were few confrontations. on tahrir square, the heart of the revolution which ousted long-time dictator hosni mubarak hundreds of peaceful demonstrators are staging a sit- in. their sphere that mohamed morsi has plans to become egypt's new strongman. the people who have set up camp here say they won't leave until president morsi rescinds the decrees that have give given him sw

and if you need a getaway stock, scott, you also need a gun.fcase can always steal more than a man with a gun. ruger up 863%. smith & wesson 372%. >> i know you've been following ruger. guys, what about some of these stocks? whether it's the smokers or the drinkers or the shooters? >> why choose? guns, cigarettes, let's get going. >> sounds like a party. >> grab a drink, have a smoke. >> does the ruger dividend come with bullets? is that going to be actual cash? >> i think it's a thesis that goes beyond the developed economies. i think it goes into the emerging markets themselves. uk company. latin america, great company doing well. 52 week high today. >> murph, a trade? >> you have to be careful with the travel companies. expedia, pricelines. these things up 700%, 600%, you wouldn't want to chase those. gun stocks, there could be more room there. >> it's been a wild ride for gold. metal rebounding from yesterday's big selloff. its biggest drop in a month. with the fiscal cliff looming, is there a play to be made? commodities ding dennis gartma

>> yeah, governor scott -- yeah, governor scott and the current and past legislative leadership, theyieve in winning at all costs. they believe that we have to -- >> governor crist -- governor crist to his point when he was governor, he said, this was talked about in 2008. he didn't like the talk, and he said, i'll veto anything that comes my way if the legislature passes stuff like that. that curtails the ability for people to vote. do you think that the current republican governor, rick scott, didn't have the same opinion and said i will not veto anything like that, in fact, i think it's a good idea? i need to know whether you think he did this or not. >> yeah. ashleigh, absolutely. governor scott agrees with and believes in what the republican party political strategists, what the legislative leaders have done with the elections law -- >> was he in on any of the meetings? >> no. he wasn't. we didn't reeally know governor scott at that time. he wasn't on our radar screen. >> aim glad to talk to you. i'm very, very disappointed that this conversation would go on without one screaming

>> reporter: good evening, scott. ambassador rice asked for the meetings on capitol hill today in hopes of patching up differences she has with at least three republicans. the senators have vowed to stop a nomination of rice because of comments she made after the attack on the u.s. consulate in libya. today for the first time she acknowledged her comments were wrong. ambassador race met her toughest critics behind closed doors to explain why she called the september attack on the consulate a spontaneous demonstration when u.s. intelligence suspected it was actually a terrorist assault. after the meeting, republican senators john mccain and lindsey graham had this reaction. >> we are significantly troubled by many of the answers that we got and some that we didn't get. >> all i can tell you that the concerns i have are greater today than they were before and we're not even close to getting the basic answers. >> reporter: both senators accused rice of misleading the american public during a series of t.v. interviews fiv

the elizabeth warren/scott brown race was pretty close by massachusetts standards. the margin in the senate race, this election, had the democrat winning by eight points, which sounds like a lot in a normal state that would be a lot. but in the presidential race, the democrat won the presidential race by a heck of a lot more than 8 points. the democrat won by 23 points. and that is a fairly normal margin by which democrats beat republicans in the state of massachusetts. so given that, scott brown losing by only eight can be considered kind of a victory. it's at least pretty close. and after that loss, that scott brown loss, and than credibly-expensive and hard-fought race, immediately thereafter, republicans wanted to talk about how to get scott brown back to washington. and now today to them it seems so close they can taste it. because although john kerry is still a senator from massachusetts, after his very high-profile role in the obama campaign and speaking gig at the democratic national convention, after that john kerry's name was put forward as one possibility

. >> it absolutely is, scott. a number of points he raises, he's asking for hp to answer for this $5 billion write-down. he's pointing out that under the accounting rules that he used in europe with autonomy, which are completely above board if they're used correctly, he believes that a number of the things that hp has said were fishy were absolutely appropriate. the way that revenue was recognized for hardware sales, for instance, the way revenue is recognized through sales. he goes on to ask can you really say hp that none of the write-down is because of the way hp managed autonomy after they bought it and what about all the members of the team that left after hp bought it? so a number of these questions might be things that hp is now in the position of responding to, whereas, the way they phrase things in that earnings call last week, they might have hoped to say hey, here's the write-down. here are the issues. we believe there's fraud. this is a number of years figuring it out. now let's move on. it doesn't lo

also. >>> i'm scott butma i'm scott budman. what you can do with your money now to stay ahead of what comes next. >>> higher taxes. government cuts. the election may be over. the fiscal cliff is looming. >> lots may be asking what is the fiscal cliff? and how will it affect me? we go to our business and tech reporter, scott budman who went looking for the answers. scott. >> good evening. let's get one thing out of the way. the fiscal cliff is not new. it's the result of both parties. and extending our nation's debt ceiling last year, pushing the deadline for taxes and budget cuts until the end of this year. now that the election is over, it is what we are focusing on and the deadline is getting close. >> i've got the pen. ready to sign the bill right away. i'm ready to do it. >> it won't be that easy to avoid what is being called the fiscal cliff. a series of tax increases, and government cutbacks, set to hit at the end of the year, unless a budget compromise is reached first. >> right now, if congress fails to come to an agree