my thanks to jessica yellin. you've been watching, i've been watching, wolf blitzer, john king, jessica yellin and everyone else in washington watching the major news. rick santorum bowing out of the race today 37 making the news to not only us but just ten minutes prior to us, telling h iz entire staff, he's out, he's done. the race is over for me. coming up, a little more color and what this means for mitt romney and oh, yeah, the other two candidates also vying for the republican nomination. do they have a chance now? meripl was founded back in 1894, they've been committed to putting clients first. helping generations through tough times. good times. never taking a bailout. there when you need them. helping millions of americans over the centuries. the strength of a global financial leader. the heart of a one-to-one relationship. together for your future. ♪ do about medicare and social security... security. that's what matters to me... me? i've been paying in all these years... years washington's been talking

history.officials say they are looking into claims that prostitutes in their rooms in - colombia.as jessica yellin explains... the investigation also involves at least five anddpossibly 10 u-s military personnel who were workiig with the secret serviie ahead of president barack obaaa's trip to the summit oo the americas. 3 &pthe president was in columbii to taak trade and push neww relatioos with cuba. but his pollcy genna was overshadowed by flashy headllnes about prostitutes happened ere in columbba is beingginvestigated by thh service, i expecttthaa investigation to be thorough and i eepect it out that sooe of the turns allegations that have been made in the prees are confirmmd then of course i'll be annry." according to several government officials, days before tte resident arrived in artaaena scret service and mmlitary officers hotel. ppostitution is legal in this part of coluubia, but that's a viooation of the agents code of conduct. when next morning, the hotell alloweddinto the room. they got the police. they went in, and the wwman and the aggnt pere arguing. she said he owed buu he paid i

republicaa ppesidential candidate rick santoruu announced he's suspending his campaiig.as jessicc yellins... with santorum out... preeident obama's campaign is taking irect aim at mitt romney. romney. just after santorum president played cute:some people who are runniig for a ceetain office right noowwho shall ot be named...but it's no secret the president has pben preparing tt face mitt romney in tth fall. just lass week he mocked romnny for pupporting the republlcan budget, and for his upper cruut style -- he said that new budget, anddhe even called - it "marvelous" ---which is a word you don't often hear when ii comes to describing a budget. it's a word you don't hear in general. the democratic romney for months.mitt romnee has spent this entire primmry buying the election. relentlessly calling him a pro-choice and supported roe versus wade, and noww he says he's pro life.and attacking his claim that he created jobs at bain capital.as rrcently as yesterday the obama campaign used he ush for the prroosed milliooaires tax to prod rrmney on his tax returns. romnny supports tax olicies th

. >> jessica yellin is joining us now. you have new details about the involvement of members of the military in this highly embarrassing series of events? >> reporter: that's right, john. this person says that this investigation they believe will ultimately find that all of the following u.s. military personnel were involved in this scandal. i'm going to look down at my notes. there were five army special forces services involved, marines that belonged to an explosive detection unit and one member of the air force. additionally, another u.s. member says an investigator has been dispatched to colombia to investigate the situation. this is separate and apart from the investigation that the secret service is investigating. john? >> that leaves us just shy of a dozen members of the military. 11 secret service members involved. it sounds like at least for now the white house is standing by director mark sullivan. is that fair? >> reporter: yes. it's absolutely more than fair. jay carney says that the president has confidence in

3 the obama would ensure that the hatt - a lowerrinccme tax rate than the miidle class.as jessica yellinorts... this draws its nspiration from who often pointss o his own low tax ratee rate. --reporter pkg-as folllws -- it's the front page of the obama is pushing the buffett "tax reform should folloo the than $1 million a year, yoo percent in taaes. it's a very simple principle, the buffett rule. it says if you ake more hanna million doolars a year, you should not pay a lower tax rrte than your secretaryy"ttisstime there's actually a vote on a bill - ruue woull apply to anyone who pakes more than one million pollars riiht now if that mmney comes from investments in the stock market they could pay 15% or even less in tax -- a far lower than the rate oo income from a paycheck..under the new bbll they''l have to payy30% "there'' zero chance of it ever passing on a stand alone basis because of the republicaa opppsition and 'm sure some democrats in swing states nddswing districts are not going to be commortabbe with voting for a tax rate increase."soowhy push it? "that's whaa votes doo so wh

let's go live to our chief white house correspondent, jessica yellin once again.eporter: wolf, it is indeed a rare sight these days, an unusual sight at the white house, democrats and republicans coming together because they got something done. four democrats and four republicans including senator scott brown, a candidate democrats are targeting for defeat all flanked the president at this white house event. >> the stock act makes it clear that if members of congress use non-public information to gain an unfair advantage in the market, then they're break the law. >> reporter: the stock act was in response to the outcry over the $60 minutes" piece on congressional insider trading. it targets the federal workers for profiting on information they learned on job. if they trade more than $1,000 they have to post it online. some ethics watchdogs say it doesn't go far enough. >> there is an industry of people buying and selling congressional information and have access that the rest of us don't have and that's something that we'd like to address if this bill doesn't addr

. >> joining us now with more details, jessica yellin.t is the latest you're hearing about this? >> the details are sorted for these guys. it happened two days before the president arrived. according to multiple government officials, the people involved range from relative newcomers to nearly 20 year veterans. we're told they went out in separate groups on wednesday night. then one secret service agent let a prostitute stay overnight in his room. then there was a dispute over payment. the hotel called local police. police filed a report. that report went to the american embassy. you can see where this goes. the embassy alerted secret service headquarters and it unravelled from there. >> how big -- it's interacting for the summit in columbia. how big a deal is this for compromising presidential security? >> you know, the service maintains the president's security was never compromised because these guys routinely lock up documents and the president wasn't in the country yet. but the real question is what if? i've spoken to many former agen

it has to do with what warren buffett is saying and some of the comments coming from vice chairman yellin. we're still focusing on the macro and we are getting away from things like earnings but yet this is what has been driving this market over the last quarter to quarter, year to year. so we are at an inflection point right here. we're going to see what happens in the last hour of trading. depending on what focus is, we should carry through tomorrow. if google's earnings numbers, they are going to be impacted by higher gas prices. it may not have an effect on google but some of the other stocks. >> gord gone, lgordon, let me gt your take on wells, lots of focus on, that and we all want to hear what the firms have are to say about the mortgage markets and capital markets. >> it seems right now that investors are getting in behind this market, that we are anticipating a correction and that they are not going to wait too long to get back in. look, we all know what happened last year. the market got sloppy, nose-dived, and never really retracted it there. this year, investors don't want to

jessica yellin reports it's part of the president's efforts to shore up support among young voters. >> margo is bracing for the cost of her student loan to spike. >> it definitely makes my anxiety go up. >> she's one of more than 7 million americans whose federally subsidized loan interest rate is going to double to 6.8% when a law is set to expire in july. so, this week -- >> president obama will outline the administration's proposal to work with congress to keep interest rates down. >> he's going on the jimmy fallon show and pitching his message to college audiences in battleground states, north carolina, colorado, and iowa. just the mention of college loans is an applause line on campuses. >> you got financial aid. or a student loan, a scholarship. >> the president needs these voters badly. in 2008 he won the you vote by 66%. though 18 to 29-year-olds made up only a fraction of the electorate they were crucial to his victory. for example, the president won north carolina by just 1%, but he carried young voters by a whopping 74%. hard to imagine that victory without the college crow

jessica yellin, thanks.e latest on the syria pea cease-fire and the latest in the assad regime's broken promises. we'll talk to ambassador susan rice who has no problem called assad basically a liar. what's the u.s. going to do about it? that's next. >>> keeping them honest. one of america's top diplomats using blunt language tonight about syria's murderous regime, acknowledging what we've been reporting night after night. thousands of syrian murder victims won't be forgotten. and their killer won't get away with it. tonight i spoke with u.s. ambassador susan rice. she said the regime there has lied about slaughtering victims. the biggest liar she says, is the dictator, bashar al assad. here he is on the left, in homs,ed day he promised to pull out tanks and troops, to stop the shelling, stop the killing. there on the right, that very day, video of his forces pounding other parts of that same city. that day, march 27th, 57 syrians died mostly in homs, according to opposition figures. the regime then killed h

i'm jessica yellin. john king is off. we continue with the breaking news in texas. tornadoes rip through the dallas/ft. worth metro area this afternoon, producing incredible scenes of destruction. we watched tractor trailers lifting high in the air, spinning around, and then smashing to the ground. homes were hit, too. we have seen roofs peeled off, power lines down, and trees plinterred and uprooted. the damage is widespread. >>> dallas county sheriff lupe valdez tells cnn her ofrszs are going house to house, checking on casualties until warnings that more severe storms were on the way. the emergency lasted for hours. this call came into cnn over two hours ago. >> if you go north, there's warnings all over the place. it's raining. people are scrambling to try to get out of the offices just to get home, and now it's caused a big problem, a big problem on the streets. the sirens going on. even if you're not even in the tornado warning places. you don't know which way to go. you really can't decide if you want to make a run home or stay where you are. >> cnn's ed lave

i would cite to you just as an example, if you look at vice chair yellin's paper, which she gave, or speech which she gave a couple weeks ago describing a number of ways of looking at the blat 2414 guidance, she showed so-called opt malpolicy rules that come from trying to get the best possible outcomes from our quantitative economic models and what you see if you look at that is that the best possible outcomes assuming perfect certainty, assuming a perfect foresight, unrealistic assumptions, still involve inflation staying close to 2%. so there is no presumption even in our models that you need inflation well above target in order to make progress in unemployment. >> back here. >> trying to make a living out of parsing these statements, noting the seconds on strains in global financial markets, the committee said this time around strain in global, posing a downside risk to the economic outlook. in january the committee said the strains were easing. what are we to read into this apparent change? strange tightening now? and what is your assessment of the situation in europe with the d

yellin's very strange autobiography. that he said he was drunk all the time which we did not notice. 's me when you yesterday mr. murdoch, if you want to judge my thinking, look at "the sun." "the sun" would only know your thinking either because you directly told them about it or because the editors went on the sort of thought process we see coming through mr. yellin's piece. would you not agree? >> that is nonsense. but certainly, i don't flinch from my responsibilities. and i certainly do take part in the policy decisions of "the sun." i think that is my job. >> said if you want to judge my thinking at "the sun," look at the editorials. is there anyway the editors could logically know your thinking either because you tell them or because they work it out? >> i was saying, think i was talking about the politicians. >> no, you are talking about the direct quayle on page 36 of the transcript, lines 15 to 16. if you want to judge my thinking look at "the sun." that is what you said. >> yes. >> i don't parallel every detai

next, let's go to the white house, the chief correspondent there, jessica yellin.l me about the president's message. what was his plan to crack down on the oil speculators? >> hi, brooke. that's right. the president saying part of the high price of oil is attributable to folks who are trading in oil that are driving up prices and he wants congress to pass new laws that would increase some of the penalties on these guys. put more cops on the beat to watch them and put more data in place so they can see how these folks are manipulate iing oil prices and costing us more at the pump. >> we can't afford speculators who artificially prop up the market and drive prices higher, only to flip oil for a quick profit. we can't afford a situation where some speculators can reap millions while millions of american families get the short end of the stick. that's not the way the market should work. >> i can already tell you, this is likely not going anywhere in congress. speaker boehner told our dei are e walsh he wonders where the agencies are. if this is alreadying place bhie ar

jessica yellin reporting for us. thank you. >>> meanwhile, a growing prostitution scandal is swirling around the u.s. secret service. we have new details of what the white house is saying about the agency's director. also, the extraordinary sight that had thousands of people from florida to washington, d.c. staring into the sky. why hasn't rick santorum endorsed mitt romney yet? i'll ask his former spokeswoman alice stewart. she and james carville, they are both standing by live for our "strategy session." [ pilot ] flying teaches me to prepare for turbulence. the key is to have a good strategy. the same goes for my retirement. with the plan my financial advisor and i put together, a quick check and i know my retirement is on course. [ male announcer ] with wells fargo advisor's envision plan, you always know where you stand. in fact, 93 percent of envision plan holders say they will retire on their own terms. get started on the plan you need today -- wells fargo advisors. together we'll go far. wells fargo advisors.

jessica yellin explains. >> it's the front page of the campaign website, team obama pushing the buffette not for the first time. >> tax reform should follow the buffett rule. if you make more than a million dollars a year, you should not pay less than 30% in taxes. it's a simple principle. the buffett rule says if you make more than a million dollars a year you should not pay a lower tax rate than your secretary. >> reporter: this time there is actually a vote on the bill that will happen monday. the rule would apply to any one who makes more than $1 million, right now if that money comes from investments in the stock market they could pay 15% or even less in taxes. far lower than the rate on income from a paycheck. under the new bill, they have to pay 30%. >> there's zero chance of it ever passing on the stand alone basis because of the republican opposition and i'm sure some democrats in swing states and swing districts are not going to be comfortable voting for a tax rate increase. >> reporter: why push it? >> that's what votes do, they put senators on record and we will certainly se

on the former, our subcommittee headed by vice chair yellin to improve transparency and we're looking at everything. there are other ways to make this more useful. again, there's a work in progress, as i said before. the most frustrating aspect of the recovery is that it has been quite slow. as a result, here we are from three years from the expansion and unemployment rate is still over 8%. so we're looking and hoping as the headwinds lift and financial stresses ease, as housing improves, that we will begin to get more rapid improvement in the economy and in the labor market. but it's been a very long slog and that would be the single most concerning thing from. a policy perspective, there are many issues like the fiscal issues, for example. but within the province of the federal reserve, i think it would be the pace of improvement in the labor market. >>> welcome back to the "closing bell." ben bernanke just wrapped up his news conference with reporters. bernanke leaving the door opened to mormon tear stimulus, which is helping to give this market a lift. we're going to get to the co

our chief white house correspondent, jessica yellin, was there witnessing this unusual event. an alliance between eric cantor and the president. tell us. why are these two men finally working together? >> because they want to show that washington can get something done. despite all the acrimony here, both parties suffer because of the gridlock in washington. the republican brand, the unfavorable rating for republicans has gone up ten points over the last year. the president was elected promising to get the parties to work together. so both sides have a motivation to show when it comes to the top issue, getting jobs, getting americans back to work, they can cut some deals and that's what today's bill signing ceremony was about, gloria. >> so, jess, this helps some small businesses raise capital, which is important but there are some democrats who have been complaining that there aren't enough investor protections in this measure. so do they have a point? >> they do. there are some protections still in the measure but it is not just partisans who are complaining, gloria, even th

now, we are monitoring a live speech from janet yellin looking for a possible qe3 here on kudlow. also on the first full day of the general election, president obama once again promotes the anti investor, business, so-called buffett tax. it's more like a romney tax and listen to this. >> wild eyed socialist tax hiking class warrior was ronald reagan. >> i knew ronald reagan. i worked for ronald reagan, and you, my sir, are no ronald reagan. this is a back door capital gains tax hike that will damage growth and is chris christie right with this warning? >> we'll turn into a -- that will not just bankrupt us financially, it will bankrupt us more. then we'll have a bunch of people sitting on a couch waiting for the next government check. >> joining me tonight, herman cain and willie brown to debate the chris christie proposition. first up, stocks staged a comeback. the bulls are back in town. good ooesk, kayla. >> the markets did snap that five-day losing streak today. slight gains across the board. the dow adding 89 points, nasdaq faring a best. we saw pressure easing from europe as

jessica yellin at the white house.e conspire with publishers to fix the prices of ebooks. the federal government is now going after the computer giant and before the killings made him infamous, did the cult leader charles manson father this man? he tells cnn why he thinks the mass murderer is his dad. >>> and look at this. you're looking at live pictures coming from florida. angela corey the special prosecutor, getting ready to make an announcement. we believe she will formally file charges against george zimmerman in the killing of trayvon martin. this is one of the aides for angela corey just testing the microphones there. we'll, of course, have live coverage as soon as it begins. stay with us. you're in "the situation room." [ male announcer ] if you believe the mayan calendar, on december 21st polar shifts will reverse the earth's gravitational pull and hurtle us all into space. which would render retirement planning unnecessary. but say the sun rises on december 22nd, and you still need to retire. td ameritrade's

cnn's chief white house correspondent, jessica yellin was there. jess, it was really a heated briefing at the white house today. jay carney, the president's spokesman did not admit at all that the president had overstepped, right? >> that's right. he made no such admission, gloria. he was -- the president said specifically on the president's words that it would be unprecedented for the court to overturn a law passed by a democratically elected congress. since 1803, the supreme court has been empowered to do exactly that. conservative commentators and this lower court has suggested that it was bullying by the president to suggest otherwise. today, carne did a little fancy footwork saying what the president really meant was that it would be unprecedented for the court to overturn any law related to commerce and the economy. so he was sort of reframing the president's original remarks, which is what the president also did when he updated his remarks in his comments yesterday but, again, this is a little bit of parsing and what's really going on here i

yellin is the queen and the rest are knights. so i think you have a story when one of the three basically concedes and says check mate. but we haven't seen that. until that happens, i think this word submitting in terms of a couple or a few i think is relatively unimportant. >> so is bill gross right? two of the smartest minds on wall street joining me with their takes. larry kantor, good to see you. >> thank you, maria. >> let me begin with you, larry, in terms of the fed, overreaction, worries about the fed not being there, what kind of an impact are you expecting once the operation twist stimulus package goes away in june? >> yeah, my hope is that the economy still looks good enough that the fed's not going to want to continue. so i view -- look, i know day to day this is a selloff and it was unrealistic all year long. we've got growth at 2.5 to 3%. jobs now we have 200,000 plus a month and the unemployment rate is going down. i would be shocked if the fed started another qe on the basis of that. so i do think it's going to ta

. >>> good evening, i'm jessica yellin in for john king. tonight, get ready for more secret service members to lose their jobs in the wake of the prostitution scandal. our sources tell cnn's dana bash at least three more employees are expected to be forced out today. >>> the man who shot trayvon mart be takes the stand and says he says he's sorry to the teenager's parents. >>> plus, three decades later, the search heats up for the first missing child who appeared on the side of a milk carton. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com >>> more fallout from the secret service prostitution scandal. one source tells cnn more members are expected to be forced out anytime now for their part in that night of heavy drinking and escorts in colombia. let's bring in white house correspondent brianna keilar for the latest. brianna, what are you hearing about these upcoming dismissals? >> reporter: jessica, we're expecting that at least three secret service members, three more, i should say, will be pushed out today. now, that is in addition, as you know, t

. >> jessica yellin is here with me. as the investigation goes on, they are insisting the president was never at risk. that it's embarrassing. it's humiliating. but that he was never at risk. when you gauktalk about 11 secr service agencies, ten members of the military -- >> it's not ideal, john, to say the very least. the reason they say he wasn't at risk it was several days before the president orifd. and because they make the point that even if a housekeeper were to come into their room, they are always careful about hide anything sensitive materials. never leaving out anything that could be compromising. at the same time i've spoken to a long list of former secret service agents today and some current government officials who say the one thing they are taught from day one is never mess with prostitutes because there's always a threat down the line of possible blackmail. >> i've known the director of the secret service mark sullivan for some time. he meets with every new agent and officer and briefs them and talks abo

i am jessica yellin. we begin with breaking news in oakland, california, where seven people are dead in a mass shooting. also, a top official of the obama administration resigns in a spending scandal. wait until you hear how your tax dollars were spent. and this might make you glad you didn't win the lottery. a mcdonald's worker says she has one of the winning tickets but her co-workers are saying not so fast. >>> we begin with breaking news. today's mass shooting at a religious university in california. at least seven people died and three others were wounded after a gunman opened fire at a classroom at oikos university. it is a religious vocational and technical school in oakland, california. police say they picked up a suspect several miles from the scene. dan simon is on the story for us there. dan, we know this is a breaking story. what's the latest that you know? >> reporter: hi, jessica. let me set the scene for you here. we are near the oakland airport. this is an industrial area. there is a car d

if it's a democratic, janet yellin. larry summers, 20%. allen blinder and bill dudley, 7%. zoom out for a second if you would. i can't imagine he would stick around for another term of shenanigans by our political leadership. that's diane swonk of mesirow financial. what's happened in the last month since the survey, the market has come closer to thinking bernanke has policy right. note that in the march survey 53% said the fed was too easy. 38% saying -- only 38% saying he had it just right. now that number is 51% saying he has it just right. only 8% saying he is too restrictive. guys, what we have here is most of the market thinks bernanke will be gone by the 2014 term when it expires. brian and mandy, i'm sorry. i didn't get any write ins for your guys' names. >> shenanigans putting it politely. >>> brian shactman, you've got more for us. >> hlx. helix energy. about a $2 billion market cap in the oil and gas space. it had good earnings. take a look at the intraday. it peaked in "street signs" just a few minutes ago at the highs of the day. back to you. >> thanks very muc

two, and more important number one is the dollar, started to get completely pulverized after janet yellinrted to speak last night in new york. again, if you debotch the dollar, you'll get the inflation trades going. people can convince themselves that's chinese demand but reality is there's a big difference between growth and inflation. big inflation trade in the market today. a lot of v-bottoms versus the day prior. >> really interesting tomorrow morning on "squawk" we have john rutledge, one of the experts on what's going on. boots on the ground china. he trades the china wealth fund, among other things, as well as being an instructor over there, so when he comes out with the numbers, not he comes out with the numbers, but his reaction to those numbers, that will be very interesting and must-watch tv. >> he might have told them what numbers to report. >> may have. >> may very well. >> they might listen to john. >> i thought it was interesting to see apple in the market go their separate ways for once. >> right. >> not for once, but that hasn't happened in quite some time. maybe thrill s

the middle class, this drawing iss -- let' bring in our chief white house correspondent, jessica yellin. jessica, the president's getting ready to score some political points on this issue? >> reporter: the white house says this is all about policy, but on a campaign conference call they could not -- behind the push for the buff let rule. >> it's the front page of the website, president obama bushing the buffet rule. >> if you make more than a million dollars a year, you should not pay less than 30% in taxes. the buffet rule says if you make more than a million dollars a year, you should not pay a lower tax rate than your secretary. >> the rule would apply to anyone who makes more than $1 million. right now with that money comes from investments in the stock market, they could pay 15% or even less in taxes. far lower than the rate on income from a paycheck. under the new bill, they'll have to pay 30%. >> there's zero chance of it ever passing on a stand alone basis because of the republican opposition and i'm sure some democrats in swing states and swing districts are not going to be co

let's bring in our chief white house correspondent jessica yellin for the very latest.hose of us like you and me who spent a lot of time with the secret service over the years. >> wolf, the latest developments also include now news that it's grown to ten individuals, the department of defense, ten military individuals who are also involved in this investigation. it would seem that over the weekend, the secret service did not live up to its motto, it's worthy of trust and confidence. the president was in columbia to talk trade, the economy and cu e cuba, but his policy agenda was overshadow. >> i expect the investigation to be thorough and i expect it to be rigorous. itch if it turns out that some of the allegations being made in the press are confirmed. then of course i'll be angry. >> secret service and military officers brought prostitutes to the hotel. that's a violation of the agent's k0ed of conduct. when one woman didn't leave the next morning, the hotel manager went up. >> he wasn't allowed into the room and the woman and the agent were arguing, she said he owed