abc's steve osunsami shows us how some passing strangers saved the day. >> reporter: they weren't going to let it happen. two men passing by and three lifeguards watching a car with three children inside, driving straight into the ocean. it began like this. one of the good samaritans driving down the beach and see hearing the children screaming. that's a child waving out the wind. tim from north carolina, jumps out of his car. his wife, recording it all. the young boy, still waving. >> there's one kid in the backseat, just screaming. help us. help us. our mom's trying to kill us. >> reporter: 21-year-old stacy robinson, at the beach with his girlfriend, runs into the water, as the car falls into the sea. >> by the time i ran over, i noticed the son was snatching at the wheel, trying to get her to come to shore. >> reporter: the mother kept driving. >> when i was speaking to her, her eyes were like -- >> reporter: wide. >> wide. >> reporter: he uses the power windows to get the windows down and his arms around two of the children. the surf, up to his chest. he told us, he wished he had t

steve osunsami, abc news, daytona beach. >>> and next, here, tonight, we take you inside a kind of power lunch, where potential candidates and presidents are tested. it's the conservative political action conference, cpac. and every speech, every jab at the democrats, can create a star. so, who came out swinging today? abc's jeff zeleny tells us. >> reporter: it's spring training for republicans. >> thank you for being here. >> reporter: senator ted cruz, mobbed by conservative activists, taking aim at his own party. >> you want to lose elections, stand for nothing. in '06 and '08 and '12, we put our head down, we stood for nothing, and we got walloped. >> reporter: and governor chris christie, besieged by scandal, attacked president obama's leadership. >> if that's your attitude, mr. president, what the hell are we paying you for? >> reporter: a parade of republicans at the political action conference. all trying out for a bigger role. paul ryan, the last gop vice presidential candidate, offering a subtle welcome to the new stars. >> sometimes it's hard to tell who is here to start a ca

here's abc's steve osunsami. >> reporter: we have to say this first.1998, chris vogt was sentenced to 48 years in a colorado prison for helping kill a man. >> i am in prison on a murder case that i'm guilty of. >> reporter: but for the families of nine autistic children, this convicted murderer is a savior. for years, they've allowed prisoners here to train service dogs for the blind and deaf. >> good boy. >> reporter: but prisoner 100765 did something amazing. he read all he could and taught himself to train service dogs for children with autism. >> you're teaching him. >> me? >> yeah, that's right, buddy. >> reporter: the dogs come from local shelters. he trains inside his cell, acting out problem behaviors himself -- this dog trained to help a child sleep at night. >> good boy. >> reporter: the parents of 9-year-old zachary tucker were desperate. he was refusing to be touched. his teacher says he would stop class. >> he was bawling tears. he would crunch down in the fetal position at his desk. >> reporter: so, on weekends, the family sent their son

abc's steve osunsami has the new details. >> reporter: look into the eyes of this pregnant mother of three who police now say drove this minivan into the atlantic ocean on purpose, with her kids inside begging her to stop. they've charged 32-year-old ebony wilkerson with three counts of attempted first degree murder and three counts of child abuse. she has yet to enter a plea. >> you're supposed to protect your children at all cost and you're not supposed to try and kill your children. >> reporter: police say she told the children, ages 3, 9 and 10, to close their eyes and go to sleep. that she was taking them to "a safer place," but her son seen waving for help in this eyewitness video wasn't having it. >> are they saying help? >> reporter: two men and three daytona beach lifeguards answered his call, rescuing the family. at the hospital, police say, all three kids kept telling them, "mom tried to kill us." her frantic son saying, "mom was going to drive us in the ocean to die." they called their mother "crazy," a "lunatic," "she was going to kill us all dead." wilkerson's family ha

>> all right, steve osunsami reporting in. thank you, steve. >>> and now we turn to new jersey governor chris christie who has been under fire because the scandal about that traffic and that bridge, the george washington bridge, here from new york to new jersey. we have one of the central figures in the scandal weighing in tonight. but yesterday, we sat down with the governor one-on-one and we'll bring you more of that interview, as he held his first press conference today, insisting that controversial lawyers' report exonerating him is going to stand the test of time. the governor today, back in the lion's den, giving it to the press just like the old days. >> christine, stop. you have to get the facts right if you're going to ask me a question. this is my press conference. not hers. what was the first part? i did answer that. the single most important thing for me to do is to learn from this experience, to learn from what i have read and what i have heard and to do my job. >> reporter: and he told me, one of the lessons for

steve osunsami, abc news, atlanta. >>> and up next right here tonight -- march madness. the basketball game that erupted into mayhem on the court, the call tonight to change the rules when it comes to celebrating a win, is a crackdown coming on the fans? we're back in two minutes. we asked people a question, how much money do you think you'll need when you retire? then we gave each person a ribbon to show how many years that amount might last. i was trying to, like, pull it a little further. [ woman ] got me to 70 years old. i'm going to have to rethink this thing. it's hard to imagine how much we'll need for a retirement that could last 30 years or more. so maybe we need to approach things differently, if we want to be ready for a longer retirement. ♪ [ female announcer ] we eased your back pain, you turned up the fun. tylenol® provides strong pain relief while being gentle on your stomach. but for everything we do, we know you do so much more. tylenol®. we know you do so much more. your hepatitis c.forget it's slow moving, you tell yourself. i have time. after all ther

. >> steve osunsami, daytona beach. >> kudos to the men who took action.up next here, the little boy born into silence. the experimental surgery that might change everything, and the moment his family learns whether it worked. and later on "nightline," what provoked oprah to lay into lindsay lohan on camera. >> you need to cut the [ bleep ] you really do. [poof!] [beep] [clicks mouse] nice office. how you doing? good. automatic discounts the moment you sign up. ♪ see what's new at projectluna.com with over 100,000 miles. most vehicles on the road that's the power of german engineering. some brokerage firms are but way too many aren't. why? because selling their funds makes them more money. which makes you wonder. isn't that a conflict? search "proprietary mutual funds". yikes!! then go to e*trade. we've got over 8,000 mutual funds and not one of them has our name on it. we're in the business of finding the right investments for you. e*trade. less for us, more for you. the fund's prospectus contains its investment objectives, risks, charges, expenses and ot

abc's steve osunsami has the story. >> we have to say this first.ntenced to 48 years in a colorado prison for helping kill a man. >> i'm in prison on a murder case that i am guilty of. >> reporter: but for the families of nine autistic children, this convicted murderer is a savior. for years they have allowed prisoners here to train service dogs for the blind and deaf. but prisoner 100765 did something amazing. he read all he could and taught himself to train service dogs for children with autism. >> you're teaching them. >> yeah. that's right, buddy. >> reporter: the dogs come from local shelters. he trains inside his cell, acting out problem behaviors himself. the parents of 9-year-old zachary tucker were desperate. he was refusing to be touched. his teacher said he would stop class. >> he was bawling tears. he would crunch down in the fetal position at his desk. >> so on the weekends, the parents sent their child 200 miles to this state prison to work with mr. vogt. prison guards are nearby. zach's dog, clyde, is learning to know when zach's auti

on a scale of one through ten, this is like a three. >> reporter: for "good morning america," steve osunsamiabc news, memphis. >> unapologetic to be sure. thank you, steve. >>> turn to nick cannon who today is under fire for posting this photo of himself. this is a photo of him in white face. some are calling this racist but cannon is defending himself and abc's mara schiavocampo has the story. >> reporter: though it's hard to tell this instagram picture is of nick cannon and, yes, he's in whiteface. the rapper and tv host posted the photo monday with the caption "it's official, i'm white" followed by a string of hashtags seeming to reference stereotypes about white people including beer pong, farmers markets and fist pumping all to promote his new album "white people party music." >> by seeing him do this, it immediately puts the album title in your head, so it's actually a very smart move even though it may offend some people. >> reporter: some tweeters found the post funny tweeting things like, welcome to being white @nickcannon, but others called it racially insensitive and not much diff

for "good morning america," steve osunsami, abc news, atlanta. >> wow.nd, again, social media, i don't know, when you log on and twitter and everybody was talking about it, not just josh but the other patients who will get that life-saving drugs. >> all good thoughts. >>> another check of the weather and it's all still bitter, bitter cold. >> the numbers here, there's wind advisories from san antonio, texas, up to philadelphia. so you put the cold on and you're going to feel a windchill. let me show you as these numbers tick. find your place and go to tomorrow morning. what it's going to feel like in new york city, 7. it'll feel like 12 below in buffalo. burlington, 13 below. 18 in atlanta. so this extends the cold pretty far south. and then that dry heat out the the west and some fire danger that we're keeping our eye son. that local forecast coming up in 30 seconds. first the snowest cities. >> eight days, everybody, eight days until spring. that's the countdown you want to hear. you know, sometimes it does. we're going to go ahead and pretend it does.

abc's steve osunsami has that story for us. >> it's amazing what i'm seeing right here. >> reporter: what you're watching is a dangerous rescue. an injured mountain climber outside charlotte, north carolina, stuck on a cliff. and the drama unfolding on live television. >> he is dropping down to the area where the injured hiker is. >> reporter: the 23-year-old was rappelling off this mountain with a friend when he fell nearly 40 feet. bouncing off one ledge before landing on another. his friend and another climber nearby called 911. >> i'm calling 911 right now, man. >> burke county, 911. >> i'm on the side of the mountain and i just watched a climber take about a 40-foot fall, had a pretty bad impact. >> reporter: authorities had to bring in a blackhawk helicopter. it was firefighter david bowman on the end of the rope they lowered from the chopper finally reaching the injured climber who was still conscious. >> i had a short conversation with the patient, you know, letting him know that we're here, that we're going to take good care of him. >> reporter: captain chris hendricks along

abc's steve osunsami has more about how the family got help from thousands of strangers. >> reporter:o save josh, convincing tens of thousands of americans to lobby the drug maker and even the white house for compassion. >> the one thing i would want to share with america is thank you so much for the love and support. >> reporter: 7-year-old josh hardy beat cancer and then needed a bone-marrow transplant. that transplant compromised his immune system. he is now losing a battle with a virus that threatens his breathing and could ultimately end his life. >> none of us could fight as hard as he has. >> reporter: the drug they so desperately need is called brincidofovir. it fights the virus. for years the small firm developing it gave it away long before it was ready the patients who begged and pleaded. but the company says its government assistance ran out in 2012. since then they have been forced to spend every resource trying to get the drug fda approved. which means refusing hundreds of requests each year. >> from the family point of view and little josh, they need the drug. and they

steve osunsami picks up the story from there. >> reporter: they weren't going to let it happen.ing a car with three children inside driving straight into the ocean. it began like this, one of those good samaritans driving down the beach, sees the minivan, and hears children screaming. >> are they saying help? >> reporter: believe your eyes, that's a child waving out the window. tim in the green jacket from texas jumps out of his car, his wife recording it all. the young boy still waving. >> is boy in the backseat is screaming, help us, help us, my mom is trying to kill us. >> reporter: at the beach with his girlfriend, he runs into the water as the car runs into the sea. >> by the time i run over, i noticed the son was at the wheel trying to get her to come back towards the shore. >> reporter: he says the mother just kept driving. >> when i was speaking to her, her eyes were like -- >> wide. >> wide. >> reporter: he uses the power windows to get the windows down and his arms around two of the children, the surf up to his chest. he told us he wished he had three hands because he

abc's steve osunsami is in texas. >> good morning. they hauled away that barge that was sinking into the bay and leaking all that oil. their investigation continues today. >> this grainy video shows the moment when a ship crashes into this barge in the middle. the impact spilling massive amounts of oil into this busy shipping channel outside houston saturday. those light colored patches you see in the water, all oil. at one point, 60 ships, three of them cruise ships were stuck on either side of the slick. families and students on spring break were stranded. >> it's an adventure. >> that's a good way to look at it. >> and it continues. >> reporter: the coast guard and other authorities have been trying to clean up the waters all night. they say as much as 168,000 gallons spilled into the bay. the barge was carrying a total of 1 million gallons of oil. now the race is on as federal, state and local cruise use buoys and hoses to keep it contained to prevent it from spreading to nearby wildlife sanctuaries. >> we're trying to pay keen at

abc's steve osunsami is in daytona this morning with the latest on the mom behind the wheel. eve. >> reporter: good morning, robin. police are telling us that this mother who was driving into the ocean from the beach directly behind me is pregnant and is undergoing mental evaluations at a local hospital this morning. this dramatic rescue on the beach, a mother with her three kids inside her minivan driving into the ocean. >> are they saying help? >> reporter: her son waving out the window for help. this morning, the two men who tried to convince her to stop tell us she ignored their pleas. >> i'll never get the picture out of my head that little boy had his outstretched arms saying please help me. my mom -- our mom is trying to kill us. >> reporter: tim tesseneer from north carolina was at the beach with his wife who was recording the video. >> when i was speaking to her, her eyes was like -- was -- >> reporter: wide? >> was wide. >> reporter: stacy robinson and his girlfriend were just about to head home when he raced to the minivan driving into the surf. >> by the time i ran