there because people see the flashes that go. they're trying to blow a hole in the hull so rescuers can start getting in there is going to make the search and rescue team have better access and make it easier for them to get out. still looking for 29 people who remain unaccounted for if death toll right now is standing at six. there are also stunning new images coming in from under the water today. i want to share that with you. rescuers have to swim through debris in the hull ways. first flat block box has been picked up already and apparently picking up minute by minute betails. since they now located the second black box and divers are trying to retrieve that black box as well. this morning seeing the transcripts of the recorded conversation between the port authority and the captain of the ship. the first time it comes to us from the italian newspaper and the port authority says this. how many people are on board? the captain whose last name is schettino says, 2, 300. keep in mind there are 4200 people on that cruise ship. port authority says, how come so few people? are you on board? schettino says, no, i'm not on board because the ship is keeling. we've abandoned it. the port authority says, what, you've abandoned the ship? schettino says, no, what, abandoned? i'm here. the port authority says, you must return onboard, climb the ladder, the rope ladder, return to the fore, the stem, and coordinate the work. and shet tchettino says nothing. they say, you must tell us how many people are on board, how many women, how many children, you have to coordinate the rescue operation. commander, this is an order. now i'm in charge. you have abandoned ship and now you are going to go to the stem and coordinate the work. there are already dead bodies. at this point the captain jumps in and says, how many? the port authority says, you should be the one telling me. what do you want to do? do you want to go home? now, go back on the stem and tell me what you want to do. and it ends, we have seen, with schettino saying, okay, i'm doing it. according to newspaper reports though the captain never went back to the ship. absolutely -- absolutely -- >> admission. what he's done by saying the word abandonment, that is an admission. >> he seems to retract it, and i should say she's our former prosecutor so she goes right in on the junk lar on the criminal gas. and rick kaine is here and political science assistant professor at columbia university. nice to have you joining us. so let's talk the criminal case. he says abandon and then seems to back away from the abandon. >> soledad, he does it so quickly that to i peach him on his statement would be so easy for any prosecutor. you know italy is a pretty tough system. we've seen that with amanda knox. and here this case is very analogous, i think, to the dr. conrad murray case because you're looking at what the standard of care was in that job. by breaking it they're going to be able to say that he's reckless. manslaughter is one. >> i'm shocked at this. i'm willing to grand good will, cloak it in competence. you jumped off the ship because you wanted to do something to help. i'm going to assume these things. i did assume these things. his answer, was no, i didn't do anything to go help. this ship is turning sideways. it's going under, i'm getting off. what are you talking about? that was his response. >> today he's facing manslaughter charges, charges of shipwreck, and facing charges of abandoning the ship which is at least 15 years total apparently. >> that's right. >> the other issue here is that most of the staff on the ship were not trained adequately to help the passengers get to safety. how libel are they? >> i will tell you. prosecutors to that goes also to that standard of care. as captain, you are part of your job, part of your duty is to train your people. and by breach that standard of care, again, it could go to the reckless but also the civil suit. huge factor in the civil suit. >> let's get to cnn's barbie nadeau, in the courtroom, the captain is being questioned by a judge. she joins us by phone for an update. where does this stand right now? has the captain said anything officially in front of the judge? >> right now the court is closed to the public but we've got reports coming out. just adjourned for the morning, whether it's for the lunch break or the day. we haven't heard yet. the prosecutor will come out and say a few things and the lawyer is expected to come out and also speak. we do know that from reports and people inside the court who are affiliated with the court who have been communicated with reporters out here that he did answer all the questions that were asked-oim. he reserved his right, would be the guidance of his legal counsel, to not answer all of the questions. but basically today we're not going to get much more than whether or not he has to stay in jail. he's been in custody since saturday and his lawyer right now is trying to get him out of jail for the investigative period. he can be held for one year without being charged by italian law. and he's facing charges for, as you said, manslaughter, abandonment of ship, and shipwreck, causing the wreck. we will know within the next, say, 20 to 30 minutes exactly what happened inside that courtroom and whether or not he has to stay in jail. >> barbie, thanks for that update. we'll be watching that obviously. we've been talking to captain jim staples over the last couple of days now. he's been a captain for 20 years. also joining him is gab sagley, senior editor of travel zoo. captain jim, nice to have you back. there's so much to talk about here. first, if t. black box. there is a recording. it's unclear if it comes from the black box which would indicate the captain is on the ship or the port authority's recording which would indicate that maybe the captain was not on the ship. would the port authority be recording this trans skipt as well? >> possibly on the vhf radio, whatever types of communication they were using. could have been recording that. but on board the vessel there is what they call a vdr which will have all the communications that was being transmitted by the vessel at that time. >> when you hear me read this transcript, i mean, we think it is stunning. as a captain yourself, what was your take on it? >> complete dereliction of duty. he was to be on that boat until the last surviving person was on that vessel. there was no reason for that captain to abandon that ship and leave the passengers to fend for themselves. >> fill us in on these two black boxes. what do you get off the first black box and what do you get out of retrieving the second black box, they identified but in the ro process of pulling out of this ship? >> well, one of the black boxes will contain a lot of the bridge equipment technical stuff that was being done, and the other one may have what was being done in the engine room. most merchant ships only carry one black box which is in the bridge area that takes care of all the communications that's being said over the radios. again, with the motors are being done, engine orders, technical things that gps position for the vessel will be used in ug an investigation. >> gabe, let me ask you a question about the impact to the cruise industry. this is literally of titanic po portions. i think this ship is twice the actual size of the titanic. what do you see and predict? >> i think the cruise industry is on the alert now. talking points are being disseminated between the cruise agencies. the hard core cruiser probably will be unfazed by this. it's an anomaly, as devastating as it is. i think the avid kruszer is still going to go ahead and make their cruising plans. perhaps the new cruiser that is going to set sail in 20 12, those are the folks that i think are going to need a little bit of coaxing. the cruising industry is prepared for a softening of demand here in the immediate term. could expect pretty dramatic marketing opportunities here in the next several months as a way to attract these occasional and brand new cruisers. >> maybe all the marketing in the world won't save some of these people who have seen these horrific pictures. we're going to turn to the the of other top story this morning. mitt romney's corporate record was a big issue with his rivals. governor perry demanding to see romney's tax returns. gingrich and perry pressing romney hard. here's what they said. >> there was a pattern in some companies, a handful of them with leaving them with enormous debt and then within a year or two or think have been them go broke. that is something he ought to answer. >> i visited georgetown, south carolina. mitt, it was one of those town where's there was a steel mill that bain swept in, they picked that company over and there were a lot of people who lost jobs there. >> joining us from mirt approximately beach, south carolina, a senator jim demint. he has a new book which is called "now or nerve, saving america from economic collapse." it's nice to have you back, sir. i know we will be talking as we head to south carolina in the next couple of days. was there a winner in tonight's debate? who do you think did the best job? >> pr soledad, it's good to be back with you. it's good to see cnn all over the state of south carolina. we're looking forward to having you here. it was a feisty debate. frankly when you give the candidates more time to talk, it made it a little harder to decide which one was doing well. but they threw a lot of punches, but i felt good about the whole field after i heard them talk even though they were attacking each other a little bit towards the end. i think they were doing a lot better about expressing their vision for our country. it's hard to tell a winner, but i think they all won in a lot of ways because we could see more depth in each of them. >> that's such a politically down the middle of the road answer. everybody was a winner last night because many people said it was mitt romney who was a winner but i get it. you're not endorsing anybody. the last time we talked you said you had no plans to endorse anybody. you have been annoyed, i think is a fair word, about the focus on bain capital from the opponents of mitt romney. so i want to play a little bit of what newt gingrich said last night in the debate about bain. >> i don't think raising questions is a prerogative of only barack obama and i don't think republicans should allow themselves to be intimidates because every time you raise a question someone yells you're doing something the democrats do. i raise questions that i think are legitimate questions. >> do you think that's a fair response? that, in fact, all the focus on bain which you have to expect is going to come from the democrats as they head into the general election are fair questions? >> well, it's fair to ask questions and i think there is a good chance for republicans to explain how free enterprise works how it makes america so prop prowse. if we can't defend free enterprise, we don't belong in the white house. i'm looking forward to it. i think if you look what the the government does when it tries to run the economy. you can look at solendra. but if you look at the overall record of companies line like bain, you see that the net outcome is job creation, long-term success of a lot of companies, but i was a consultant for a lot of business for years myself. i know that well over half of new companies fail. it's part of the creative destruction process. but the net result is the most prosperous nation in the world. we don't need to go towards europe just because you're trying to make someone look bad. but i think it's a good debate. i don't mind the questions and i just hope romney and a lot of republicans know how to answer it. >> senator demint, i'm going to ask you to stand by for a moment because i want to turn to our panel one second. another awkward moment in this debate was the question about the tax reforms. it was this -- which i thought was interesting because you think that mitt romney by now would have sort of tested that question and worked out whatever the office answer was going to be. it was a very tap dancy quite answer. he says eventually maybe april. >> i heard you say a moment ago that many people are saying that mitt romney won the debate last night. if that's true it's only because he didn't fall on his face or vomit on his podium. he did not do well. this was his worst debate. it's clear. that being said, because he didn't do those two things i just mentioned -- >> because he's such a front-runner. >> mitt romney what we see now is very good when he's prepared. he's prepared to talk about bain. >> how can you not be prepared to talk about the tax snes. >> when he's not prepared, it doesn't come off well. for some reason, he wasn't prepared to talk about his taxes. this one is understandable, he wasn't prepared to talk about the voting rights of felons that rick santorum boxed him into and won a big debate point on last night. >> lots of cheering on that. before relose senator demint i want to throw another question at him. karen martin who runs the tea party in -- where is she? she's -- i can't remember. spar tanburg. she said this, i don't know a single tea party person who does not despise mitt romney to the very core of their being. how big of a challenge is this going to be in terms of a split? because when you look at the polls he does well or better than others on the tea party but you the have these really strong emotions from tea partiers who feel like they will never ever support him. is this a problem? >> i don't think it's true. i think you've got -- no one can speak tort tea party. it's thousands of groups all over the country of citizens who are active, worried about our debt, our spending. and i see in south carolina members of tea party supports all of our candidates. so i don't think that's true at all. i think whoever the nominee is for the republican party is going to get the support of active citizens all over the country because we're afraid of where this administration is taking us. republicans will be united. i think united along with libertarians. a lot of independents. those people who are concerned about our debt and our spending are going to vote republican later this fall. >> senator jim demint joining us. thanks, sir. time to check in with christine romans. she's got a look at other stories making news this morning. good morning gran. >> it's kind of like the first day of school today. members of the house returning to work after the winter recess. this is a live picture of the capitol. the top of the agenda will be funding a payroll tax cut. they face a february 29th deadline to extend the tax break for millions of americans. the senate will back in session next week. the fbi asking farmers and ranchers in montana and north dakota for their help in searching for the body of schoolteacher sherry arnold. arnold disappeared more than a week ago while jogging near her montana home. two people in custody are charged with aggravated kidnapping. jordan's king abdullah is in washington today meeting with president obama. both looking to advance peace talks between israelis and palestinians. king abdullah has taken a more active role in the mideast peace process. what goes up can go up higher. gas prices have been steadily rising and some analysts say gas in parts of the country could hit $5 a gallon by summer, soledad. >> all right. that sounds very depressing for our summer look ahead. christine, thank you. still ahead this morning, europe gets hit with a downgrade, how will u.s. markets react? we're going to talk with our panelists straight ahead. plus, republican presidential candidates make their case. tea partiers in south carolina. we'll talk to leaders to find out if this influential voting block has a favorite yet. storms ♪ south are affecting travel plans. we're going to check in with meteorologist rob marciano who is watching it all for us.as looking for financial advice. back then he had something more important to do. he wasn't focused on his future. but fortunately, somebody else was. at usaa we provide retirement planning for our military, veterans and their families. now more than ever, it's important to get financial advice from people who share your military values. for our free usaa retirement guide, call 877-242-usaa. i've tried it. but nothing helped me beat my back pain. then i tried salonpas. it's powerful relief that works at the site of pain and lasts up to 12 hours. salonpas. ♪ money talks and we're listening. so what will u.s. markets say when they open in two hours from now? standard & poor's have downgraded nine euro zone country on friday. many people knew that was coming as the region struggles to get a better grip on the debt crisis. the question is what effects are we going to see from europe's debt crisis right here in the united states? we've added the people who know the answer to this question to our panel. christine romans and ali velshi, they wrote the book "how to speak money" and they have our panelists back with us as well. so the markets will open because they've been closed for the holiday. what are the concerns going into this opening kday? >> the market reaction will be virtually nothing because we had this rumor on friday. anybody who felt like they wanted to trade on it did. we had european and asian markets open yesterday. not much of a reaction there. we knew this was happening. it's like the u.s. downgrade. it's what you call priced in and not surprising. the bigger issue is the question you asked, is this going to continue to have a larger effect on the world's economy. can europe probably in a recession drag the rest of the world down. things are getting a little better in america we don't need that problem. >> we are watching the credit markets in europe and the big bond markets that matter like italy's, they had a couple of big bond options p they did okay. investors still want to invest in. they are not paying as high a price to borrow money p governments. that's a sign that at least a little bit of that is easing. the eu and out of china and elsewhere you can see that the slow growth or the because it's the biggest stination for our goo. if europe can't get its act to the that means american factory workers will be idle >> o be much smaller than anticipated. instead of 2.5%, it might be 2% or 1.5%. that's going to have an affect by november. >> 1% feels like nothing. >> christine, you said there's been a big bond sales since this downgrade the other day. we know that prior to that they were aaa. we know that six months ago they downgraded u.s. debt to aa. we've had interest rates drop. does it matter what the bonds rating says anymore? >> for big bond yers, the biggest investors, they don't wait for this. >> they knew italy is shaky. >> they know that. here's the problem. there are a lot of mutual -- a lot of pension funds, for instance, that have rules that say you cannot be invested in a country that is not rated aaa. >> they have to have a -- they have to have vul other wise they could be investing in anything with the public's money. >> they've got to sell the bonds and buy something else. but, no, it's not like anybody was waiting for this to find out that yup is in trouble. >> i'm more interested in what the bond markets are going to do there. futures are higher. we're at six-month highs in stocks. if we were worried about europe burning down to the ground, why is stocks higher. if europe can hold the line and u.s. can slowly grow this year. >> another if. >> and both big if sglz that's why stocks will be -- >> thank you. appreciate it, christine and ali. mississippi's long-standing governor trustee program which essentially was a funnel from the trustee ship to being pardoned. we'll take a closer look at that story ahead. stay with us.n grow up, i want to fix up old houses. ♪ [ woman ] when i grow up, i want to take him on his first flight. i want to run a marathon. i'm going to own my own restaurant. when i grow up, i'm going to start a band. 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[ female announcer ] purifying facial cleanser from neutrogena naturals. welcome back, everody. time to get real this morning. and we are learning that someone is getting read in a little bit on that state's trustee and pardon program and that would be the new governor of mississippi. the out going dpover in haley barbour pardoned nearly 200 people including at least four convicted killers. it's put a harsh spotlight on that longstanding program where prisoners knew if they did a good job while working as trustees a the governor's mansion they woub would eventually be pardoned. we've been asking questions about that program to figure out when it started, exactly how many prisoners are involved in the program, exactly how many of those prisoners would eventually go on to win pardons. so far officials have been able to answer those specific questions but new governor is weighing in on the trustee program and giving of pardons. the governor has done away with it and has no intention of giving pardons to anyone. he plans to sign legislation working its way through the state to ban the program forever. while some people talk about it being a legacy he says he's done with it. that is a governor getting real. our prosecutor stunned, not stuntd? >> i'm just -- >> i've never ever seen you without a word. someone mark this moment. >> somehow i think she's going to yell at me if i say the wrong thing. every morning. so this is the situation. and i think we're finally getting to the real issue. is the new governor has a problem with the law. so he's doing something to change it. so last week all this controversy surrounding what haley barbour did, everybody's problem is with the law. you have to put aside what barbour did. now, he has his reasons or he doesn't have his reasons but that's not part of the law. it's a pardon. you get to do it. and now the new governor is really being proactive about it at this point. >> interesting to watch what he does. and if he's able to get that legislation through. i can't imagine that there's so much support because people were furious about that. >> i think that 30-day dissemination rule was a good idea and somewhat strict and i know that last week there was some talk about it being so novel. it's not really. you know, sex offenders, with sex offenders, before they're released into the community there's the same kind of dissemination requirement. it's a different type. >> that's not unusual for other things as well. all right. we got to take a short break. we come back in a moment. members of the house go back to work today. we're going to talk to two of them, tennessee republican marsha blackburn. we're going to talk about the poll numbers which will not reflect well about the members of congress. it's lowest approval rating ever. we'll ask them what they man to do about it. whiteout, 332 inches of snow on the ground in one u.s. city. wow. that's a lot. that's straight ahead. 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[ laughs ] hey! nyquil (stuffy): just reading whatyour label.ing? wait! you relieve nasal congestion? tylenol: sure. don't you? tylenol (another bottle): hmmm...no... nyquil (stuffy): dude! anncr vo: tylenol cold multi-symptom nighttime relieves nasal congestion... nyquil cold & flu doesn't. good morning. welcome back, everybody. welcome back to "starting point." we're getting our first insikt into what happened after the captain of that italian cruise ship steered right into the rocky coast of an you italian island. we have transcripts between the captain and the port authority that had been printed as tra transcripts in the italian newspaper. first, the port authority says this, concordia, we ask you if all is well there. concordia says, all is well. it's only a technical failure. a few hours later. the port authority asks, how many people are on board? and the captain, schettino, says, 2, 300. bear in mind that at that point there were 4200 people on that ship. he had no clue and he wasn't even close. then, the port authority asks, how come so few people? are you on board? and schettino says, no, i'm not on board because the ship is keeling. we've abandoned it. at which point the port authority says, what, you've abandoned the ship? schettino says, no, what abandon? i'm sheer. the port authority says, you must return on board. climb the ladder. there's a rope ladder to get back on the ship. return to the fore, the stem, and schettino does not reply to that demand. the port authority tells us, you must tell us how many people are on board. how many women, how many children. xwland commander, this is an order. now i'm in charge. you have abandoned ship and now you are going to the stem and coordinate the work. there are already dead bodies. which seems to surprise the captain. how many? the port authority says, you should be the one telling me this. what do you think to do? do you want to go home in now, get back on the stem and tell me what you want to do. at which point the captain schettino says, okay, i'm doing it. and newspaper reports that the captain never appears to have gone back to the ship. and it does seem, from many eyewitness reports that the captain at this point was off the ship, in fact. he was doing press conferences. he was, you know, did an interview with italian media from certainty dry land and there were still people on the hull of that ship. so pretty shocking developments this morning, i think. >> do we know -- i'm just throwing this out there. do we know whether the captain was under the influence of any alcohol or -- >> the prosecutor has answered that case so far. i read report that he did not industry. >> did they of do toxicology -- >> the now the captain is facing a judge and we're certainly learning some details about what's happening. dan rivers is live for us in italy with an update on some of those many questions. what do with know, dan? >> reporter: yeah, well, the latest here, soledad, is that they have continued to try and blast their way into the ship behind me. a fifth explosion was heard echoing across the bay here about an hour ago. this is the italian navy using explosives to try and open up parts of the ship that have been inaccessible so far. we've heard from them about the very thick windows, exterior windows on some of these captains that they tried smashing them. they can't. now they're starting to use exclusives to try to penetrate that part of the ship. bhe meanwhile, the number of mising is still confusion, i'm afraid. they left the figure at some 16 yesterday to now 29. now, we think that number of 29 includes a body that was found yesterday. so, in fact, the actual number of missing as far as we can figure out is 28. but unfortunately the information here as you can probably gather has not been coordinated in the best way. the italians are saying that that number includes 14 missing germans, but the german foreign ministry themselves are saying it's 12 missing germans. that gives you an idea of the confusion surrounding the exact number of missing and the information coming out of this. as i'm speaking to you the helicopters again are circling around the ship giving us the impression that they are, again, dropping search and rescue teams on board to resume looking for people, i think, this far on the answers of finding anyone alive are fairly slim. >> gosh, certainly hope they are able to do that. dan, thank you for that update. let's get to christine who has an update. google earth has been so interesting on this because there's that island which is kind of the focus of everything. pull up that island. >> here's the island giglio off the western coast of italy and that's where this ill-fated trip came from. quite interesting how close it came to land just 300 feet off the coast. if you look here, soledad, you can see, took off here from the western side. this is all happening here on this little island over here in the west. ship took off from here and then hit this granite out cropping right here is where it strikes the rock. and the people on board were told it was an electrical problem. they said they felt a shutter. the ship continues on and makes this turn and comes in here closer to the coastline of this island. makes this funny turn. all of this is happening at night, of course. it's pitch-black overall. when you see it in broad daylight, 300 feet off the coast, 200 people. that's what it looks like in broad daylight, left there. you look here. look at the granite big boulder there in the bottom of the ship. you can even see really interesting here. this is sort of the schematic of the different decks. look at the decks as you go through here. the deeper you are, the bottom of this ship, the more under water they are. these are all passenger cabins. wow, the whole thing just tilting on the side there. pretty interesting stuff. in other news here, other morning headlines for you. in syria, opposition groups say 13 people were killed by government security forces in the latest file vens there. comes just after. the saudi suspect accused in the bombing of the "uss cole" in 2000 will be the first detain fee to be tried under revised military commission rules at guantanamo bay. a hearing is scheduled to begin today on thanchts in wisconsin, deadline for a petition drive to recall governor scott walker. the governor angered democrats and labor unions when he stripped public workers of collective bargaining rights. they say they have the half million signatures needed. but walker remains confident. >> the optimist in me say the overwhelming majority of people in the state chose not to sign that. i earned the trust of majority last time to serve as gov her. >> "new york times" is reporting the federal government will force drug companies to report the money paid for doctors for research, consulting, even travel and entertainment. researchers found that such payments can influence decisions on treatments and contribute to higher costs with more expensive drugs and medical devices. quick check on weather and how it might affect travel today. good morning, rob. >> good morning. we start you off with video fresh overnight across nevada. missouri, this town saw some rough weather as in much of central and eastern missouri. lightning and thunder, even a couple of tornado warnings and tornado watch which is about to expire, quite the light show. likely woke you up in the show me state. show me a tornado warning south of bloomington, indiana. daveys, green, lawrence, and martin counties are under a trn tornado warning for the next 45 minutes. off to the north, north of chicago, milwaukee, a little bit of snow on the back side of this but the front side is mild and that's why we have the severe weather. there is some cold area in places in the northeast. winter weather advisory but the precip is moving off to sea. temperatures barely above freezing. next batch of precip comes in tonight. because of that another winter weather advisory up. winter warning in for this one, big one. already seen snow across seattle and portland. seattle could see the most they've seen in over a decade. 6 to 12 everythiinch necessares. and as mention we'd the next batch of moisture coming into the northeast tonight, one to two inches, mostly away from the bigger cities and a threat for severe weather with this front barreling across parts of the south. one quick picture of alaska or valdez, one of the snowiest parts of alaska, they've seen 322 inches of snow this year alone, christine. so far, they are on tap to break a record. they're shoveling snow furiously off of rooftops and boats. that's where the snow and cold air has been, if you are wondering. >> i guess we will be happy for the reprieve we're seeing in other parts of the country. solesoledad, back to you. the house returns from winter break and on the agenda, eb extending the payroll tax cut. we're joined by democratic congressman emanuel cleaver of missouri and republican congresswoman marsha blackburn from tennessee. before i get to what's on your plates as you move forward with the work, let's get to the review. and i got to warn you ahead of time it's not very good. if you look at this cnn/orc poll that talks about how congress is handling its job, the approval rating is 11%. this is literally the lowest in the history of cnn polling on this issue. explain this number to me. why don't you start, congresswoman blackburn? >> thank you, soledad. i think that what we are seeing is people are just frustrated with the fact that washington cannot seem to get things done. a great example of this is the house has passed over 30 bills that are jobs related bills. many of these are with a bipartisan vote of support. and they are sitting in the senate waiting for action and they are not being taken up. and the economy is just really struggling. people are struggling with jobs. they want to see some action on these issues. they want the spending to be cut back. they want the size of government to be cut back. and it's frustrating when they see washington continue to spend more to grow more and nothing being done about the economy and jobs. >> congressman cleaver, when you hear congresswoman say people are frustrated with washington, i'm like, y'all are washington, you're it. you're to a large degree, both of you and the kol leerks of course colleague, is if t. focus of everybody's ire. how do you fix that? >> first of all, 11% of americans who think that we're doing a good job need therapy. this is a very, very sad moment. i'm embarrassed. and every member of congress ought to be because, look, you can't make honey and sting at the same time. the congress of the united states has become a body of stingers. and if we continue to do that, it's going to -- irreversibly do damage to the body of politics because the american public is angry. we can't get anything done because i think we become pat logically partisan. and instead of trying to work together, we look for new ways to agitate each other and i think we're going to see that when we get back, a resolution of disapproval with regard to the debt ceiling is very likely going to hit the floor. it's not a good time, and, frankly, the american public is going to eventually bail out on all of us. >> so when you look at -- and i'll ask this of both of you. the head to head numbers. when you look at mitt romney up against barack obama in the general election, if that is, in fact, how it turns out, they're neck and neck. literally right next to each other. i think that number is 48% to 47% for president obama. does that mean that down the road whoever wins, it's so close that actually we're just going to see more of this partisan bickering because there's not sort of one person with a mandate potentially if that number bears itself out? >> soledad, i think that what we are seeing here, and with all due respect to my colleague from missouri, what people do want to see is items like the resolution of disapproval on the debt ceiling. they do not want washington take money. washington takes too much money and it spends it on programs that people do not want. and bureaucracies that are broken. what they want to see is not just reforming but beginning to remove and replace some of these programs out of washington. get rid of reredundancies. get rid of duplications. and stop the out of control spending. that will help with the jobs projections and everything else. when it comes to the head-to-head numbers on what we're seeing with the presidential election, think about this. people are paying closer attention now than ever to the issues that are coming out of washington. they're listening. they are researching. they are coming well prepared to town hall meetings. >> they're also disillusioned. look at the poll numbers, really unhappy. >> yes, they're very frustrated. you're exactly right. and i think with due reason they're very frustrated because they want washington to stop the spending, to stop this overreach of bureaucracy. they're very upset that members of the administration and the bureaucracy maybe more money than their colleagues in the private sector p and mr. cleaver -- >> i'm going to have to stop you there because we're out of time but i think all of that will be interesting foder to see exaltly what happens. that disillusionment what that means for the primary process but also the general election. thank you for joining us this morning. >> sure po. good to be with you. gop candidates made their pitch in south carolina. we're going to talk about what came out of that and what does it mean for the tea party. that is straight ahead. forty years ago, he wasn't looking for financial advice. back then he had something more important to do. he wasn't focused on his future. but fortunately, somebody else was. at usaa we provide retirement planning for our military, veterans and their 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[ male announcer ] if you can't afford your medication, astrazeneca may be able to help. will kaine is like finally, my music. my husband at home, too. you can be my tv husband, will cain. >> supposed po. >> hardly. you and my husband have the same musical tastes. welcome back. that will start them>> gist whe about mitt romney. what's the reality? >> i think the reality is that each of the various tea parties around the state which we were able to bring together over the weekend, they each have their own views and their own convictions about who they think needs to be the next occupant of the white house. i believe that they didn't go away with the consensus and that was not our intention. our intention of bringing folks here was to, first off, educate them with the very quality lineup of speakers. we've had most of the state elected officials here. we had governor haley, senator demint, four or five conservative freshmen congressmen. we had subject matter experts on just about every subject that is of importance in today's world. i believe that everybody left here better informed about the issues that we face. >> but if they're better informed but there's no consensus around one candidate, isn't that a big problem? >> no, that's not a big problem. having the choice and the ability to look at the options of the candidates is a good thing. it's healthy for our system. we're glad we have that opportunity. in the end, we're going to vote on saturday. we're going to select who we believe needs to be the next occupant of the white house. we'll walk away united behind a candidate and i think that that's very healthy to have this debate before the election. to have this group of people talking together and finding -- learning their message and go away and vote our conscience. >> how united can you be? i want to throw up numbers of registered voters who are enthusiastic. i think this might kind of get to the heart of how united everybody might come out. if you look at from october to now and look at only the republicans, that's the first line there. that number has dropped 10 points for people who are enthusiastic. isn't that enthusiasm rating really very correlated to who turns out in a general election and who's really united at the end of the day? isn't that poll problematic? >> no, i don't think it's problematic. it's very typical during the primary season that the candidates are trying to get their message across. during the season they're all trying to gain the upper hand and that causes some friction. at the end of the day we're going to walk away with with a candidate that i believe we're all going to get behind and support very enthusiastically. >> why are people in the tea party not getting behind ron paul enthusiastically. let me play a little bit of the debate last night. >> we should have the lowest tax we've ever had. up until 1913 it was 0%. what's bad about that? >> a big cheer out of that and yet at the same time when you look at how he's polling in south carolina among tea party supporters, it's romney at the top and ron paul is only at 13%. that surprises me. why do you think that is? >> well, i think each of the candidates brings to the table their set of issues and congressman paul has some strong ideas about debt reduction and this trillion dollar bill to reduce our debt is a good thing. he also has other opinions about foreign policy, for instance, that i think a lot of the tea party folks are having a little bit of troubles with. >> it sounds like he's hit a ceiling there. >> we're going to walk away and vote our conscience. >> thanks for joining us. we'll come back in a moment, a mother says her young daughter, 3-year-old, was denied a life saving kidney transplant. we will tell you why. it's pretty shocking. welcome back to "starting point." a mother is claiming that a very prominent children's hospital is denying her 3-year-old daughter a life saving kidney plant because the little girl is developmentally disabled. our senior medical correspondent is in atlanta this morning. >> we're talking about the children's hospital of philadelphia, soledad. here is the story. a meal yeah rivera, she's 3 years old. she has wolf horschorn syndrome. her parents say she needs a kidney transplant to save her life. when they had a discussion with the doctors last week they said, no, we are not going to put her on the list for a kidney because she is, and these are according to the mom, these are the doctor's words, mentally retarded. that's the reason we're not going to put her on the list. he also mentioned that the drugs she would need to take once she got the kidney could aggravate her condition. the main thrust of it was she's mentally retarded and therefore we don't think she really needs to get a kidney. there are other people who need that kidney. >> has the hospital said that in fact what the mother has said, which she put on line and it started this online brouhaha, has the hospital said, yes, in fact, that did happen or are they saying no? >> right now the story is in her words. the hospital says, children's hospital of philadelphia says this is an individual case and we don't comment on individual cases. they also said they've never denied a child a transplant solely on the basis of their cognitive abilities and status. they also added, i'm going quote from them, that they are taking action to review all existing policies to make sure they reflect the core values that we live by. it is interesting also the mom got a phone call yesterday. she says the hospital called them and said, hey, we're going to do this again, have another meeting with the transplant team. give us a call and we'll set up an appointment. >> wow. that is so hard core for this little girl who's apparently not going to survive if she doesn't get this. elizabeth cohen for us. do you have something to say? >> i would love to hear from the hospital on this. soledad, these hospitals are constantly in fear of being sued. i do want to give them the benefit of the doubt. i do think there may be -- >> in their comments they didn't say, it's not true. there's the option of it's not true. what they said was we don't comment. >> i think they want a meeting. they want another meeting to review what's in front of them and perhaps it is more than just, okay, this is not the right candidate. maybe there are some issues with her condition, her physical condition, her mental condition being incompatible with the transplant. i'm hoping that's that. we know children's hospitals around this country are incredibly prestigious. they do great work for kids. they don't turn people away because they can't pay. in general children's hospitals. so i'd like to give them the benefit of the doubt. hospitals, doctors, they just constantly live in fear of being sued. it's a really tough business for them. i have sympathy on that end. >> it'll be interesting to see what they have to say or if the family comes out after that meeting. clearly there's been a meeting that's been called. straight ahead this morning, the chocolate industry pledged to fight child slavery on cocoa farms but have they? cnn travels to the ivory coast for some answers about that. plus we'll talk to a survivor from that italian cruise ship disaster. i'm always looking out for small ways to be more healthy. like splenda® essentials™ no calorie sweeteners. this bowl of strawberries is loaded with vitamin c. and now, b vitamins to boot. coffee doesn't have fiber. unless you want it to. splenda® essentials™ are the first and only line of sweeteners with a small boost of fiber, or antioxidants, or b vitamins in every packet. mmm. same great taste with an added "way to go, me" feeling. splenda® essentials™. get more out of what you put in. >> good morning. welcome back. our story is the italian cruiseship disaster. those little dots are people who have formed this human chain trying to get to safety as they hold onto the hull of the ship. this is infrared so these are pictures that were taken overnight, pitch black, while they're trying to figure out how to get to the boats and get off the ship. all the life boats, we're told at this time, had left and made their way back to the shore. then we have the captain of the ship telling the port authority it's only a technical failure. it ended up being much, much more serious than that. we're going to investigate what happened and talk to a woman who survived this. it was a smaller field, much sharper tone and from the audience at the gop debate last night. how did the man who's the front-runner, mitt romney, do. take a closer look at his performance. then the police in oakland on the lookout for someone who is suspected of sexually assaulting two women and we'll tell you how young the suspect is. plus, children working as slaves in the cocoa industry. that industry promised to crack down on that industry but have they? those stories, much more ahead, as "starting point" ahead, as "starting point" begins right now. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com >> we've got a panel. seam ma is here. she's a former prosecutor. dorian morn is a political science instructor from columbia university. will cain is a columnist. let's talk about this italian cruise ship disaster. there are so many developments. i want to start with a couple of things from this new video from the italian navy. it is showing the rescuers trying to blast a hole in the side of the ship because they've got to get back into the ship. you watch the little flashes on the left side of the screen, that's a blast. it's going to make it easier for the search and rescuer teams to get in there. there's still 29 people who are unaccounted for. the death toll is 6. these pictures are underwater pictures of the rescuers having to swim literally through debris to try to get -- these are the hallways inside the ship. the first black box, we're told, is already providing minute-by-minute details of how this disaster unfolded. they've said they've located the second black box. the divers are trying to retrieve that black box now. then this morning we're seeing these transcripts which are crazy. it's a recorded conversation between the port authority and the captain of the ship for the very first time. this comes to us an italian nooups. the port authority says how many people are on board and the captain says two, 300. the port authority says, how come so few people? they know the ship holds roughly 4,000 plus. he says, are you on board? the captain says, no, i'm not on board because the ship is keeling. we've abandoned it. the port authority says, what, you've abandoned the ship? he says, no, what abandoned? i'm here. the port authority says, you must return on board. climb the latter, rope ladder, return to the fore, the stem, coordinate the work. he does not reply. the port authority says, you must tell us how many people are on board. how many women, how many children, you have to coordinate the rescue operation. commander, this is the operation. you have abandoned ship and you are going to go to the stem and coordinate the work. there are already dead bodies. so at that point the captain says, how many? the port authority think it sounds like they are stunned by this question says, you should be the one telling me. what do you want to do, do you want to go home? now go back on the stem and tell me what to do. the captain says, okay, i'm doing it, although newspaper reports say that the captain actually never went back on the ship. pretty stunning developments as we get these transcripts. i'm sure there will be more transcripts following. i want to bring in lauren moore. she was on the "costa concordia" cruise ship. she joins us. i know you're back home now so you must be relieved. this was your first cruise. i know you were at a dinner when you fill the something. what did you feel? what happened? >> we were at dinner, and we felt the initial impack of us hitting the rock. and someone made a comment to the effect of, was that an engine blowing? and all of a sudden we heard all the plates and dishes begin to hit the floor and crash. and the boat started leaning. and everyone started getting up and running out of the dining room almost immediately. >> what were the -- what were they saying over the loud speakers? were they giving you advice? were they telling you to go to your rooms, get off the ship as fast as possible? >> it took a while for the first announcement to come overhead. >> how long? >> at least half an hour probably. the first announcement said, ladies and gentlemen, stay calm. we have the situation under control. it's an electrical problem. and we'll be back up and running in a short while. >> at that point, that 30 minutes later, was the ship already listing to the side? was it sort of hard to make your way to your room? >> it was. it was leaning and it wasn't completely difficult to walk, but you could tell it was getting harder and harder, yes. >> i've seen some of these pictures, infrared pictures which i find just stun where the little black dots are people, there they are, as they're trying to hold on to that hull. i think by this point the life boats had already left for the shore, those that existed. you were able to get on a life boat. tell me about that process. was it as chaotic as i imagine it to be? >> it was. that was the most chaotic part of it all. as you can imagine, people were just fighting for their own lives at that point, and breem ju people were just scrambling to get on a boat. getting on the boat and getting pulley system down to the water was just agonizing. i'm just so thankful that i wasn't one of those people trapped on the ship without a life boat to get on now that i see those infrared images, it's just terrifying to see. >> when you hear, i don't know if you were able to hear a little bit of the transcript that i read from the captain talking about abandoning the ship and sounding incredibly confused about even the number of people who were on that ship, what do you make of those words from the captain? >> i think when you see and read that transcript, you can see why there was such chaos on the ship because there was no leader on the ship at that point. >> lauren moore, we're glad that you made it out well and okay. as we've mentioned, there are 29 people they're still trying to figure out what happened to them. they're going to go back and restart that search and rescue this morning. thanks, lauren. time to check in with cnn's christine roam manage. she has a look at other stories making news. >> thanks, soledad. a california teenager wanted in connection with two alleged sexual assaults. police in oakland say the 14-year-old boy is suspected of attacking two women. they're asking for the public's help to locate him. the fbi asking farmers and ranchers for their help to find sherry arnold. she disappeared more than a week ago while jogging near her home. two men in custody in connection with the case are now charged with aggravated kidnapping. a probation update for lindsey lohan just because everyone wants to know, right? she'll be back in court today in los angeles for a judge to assess her progress in fulfilling community service requirements to keep her out of jail. lohan's been working at the county moirg. it's part of her sentence for stealing a neck class. apple has suspended sales of its new iphone 4 in china. the company fears for the safety of its store owners. there are plenty of iphones for sale. the black market is booming and bogus apple stores are popping up all over beijing. aaa says the price of gas is $3.39 on average. 30 cents higher than this time last year. that's the highest ever for january. some research analysts say gas prices to hit $5 in some spots, $5 a gallon by summer. now let's get a check on the markets. u.s. stock futures pointing to a higher open after a good report this morning on growth in the chinese economy. european markets also up on that report as well right now. 100 points higher dow futures are. don't count on a lot of volatility in the near term. citigroup, the big american bank, big international bank, just announced it earned $1.2 billion. the weak u.s. economy still affecting its business. >> christine, thank you for that update. it was ten years ago that the chocolate industry pledged to end the use of child slaves in west african plantations. the question is has the industry made good of that pledge. david mckenzie traveled to the interior to look for some saens ers. all this week, david, cnn is examining this problem. he's live in na robe by, kenya. back us up ten years. what was the agreement that everyone went into this chocolate industry? >> reporter: well, that's right, soledad. it's really great that we're putting focus on this issue because it's such an under understood issue. ten years ago the harken angle protocol was signed. that was a senator and representative from the u.s. government who pushed this end to the practices of child labor and child trafficking in west africa as you say. in that protocol what they said, that as a matter of urgency they wanted to stop these bad labor practices and child slavery in the plantations of ivory coast. i want to put it into perspective very quickly, soledad. in the u.s. alone several billion pounds of chocolate are consumed every year, and as you know, it's home to some of the biggest brands in america. what we found in ivory coast ten years after all these promises were made was deeply shocking. >> so is there a sense that they recognize that it's deeply shocking, that they actually haven't fulfilled the promises that they originally agreed to ten years ago and that there's any sense at all that they want to change it or is it just we're going wait for the focus to leave and we'll continue to do business as usual? >> reporter: i was hoping to run a little bit of video there which showed two children there who have been actually enslaved effectively by the cocoa industry. yes, there's a sense on the ground in ivory coast that not enough is being done. when we put the question, soledad, to the companies, a lot of them don't actually want to answer directly to cnn. they want to push us over to their industry representatives who do say that not enough is being done but they put it in quite generic terms. i think for anyone who makes an effort to go ivory coast to see what is going on in those farms, to be honest, it's not that hard to find, they would be deeply shocked. when you go into a mall and buy your chocolate, get your groceries, what you should know is that other than a few fair trade brands, when you buy chocolate guaranteed that company's source of chocolate from ivory coast. 80% of their sourcing they don't know where it's coming from. so really it's time for this industry to clean up its act say most activists. >> let me ask you a quick question before i let you go. if i go to the store and buy chocolate, i want to look for a fair trade stamp? that will help ensure there are not children, slave laborers who are harvesting that chocolate that i'm going to have here? >> reporter: i don't want to prescribe what anyone should do themselves. what people should do, i think, is understand this issue a little bit better. maybe put some pressure on these companies. the power of this industry lies with the branlds, with the brands that you see in your store. it doesn't lie with the farmers in the ivory coast or the children who obviously are harvesting that chocolate, that cocoa. they have no power. the value chain of this all lies or mostly lies with the brands. they're powerful companies we all know about. the hershey's, the mars, nestle. we've asked them all to come forward and say what they think about this. only nestle came forward directly and said they're disappointed with the level of change that they've seen through the harken engle protocol. others referred it a trade group. what people need to do is think about this issue and understand it a little better. when they see children like we met like a 10-year-old abdul who has been working for three years, soledad, chopping at the plantations, cracking open cocoa pods, he's been there for three years, he is a only 10 years old, these are the people, exactly. breaks your heart. these are the children who are in these terrible situations. the consumer ultimately holds the power. >> david mckenzie joining us with that yuch date. thank you. ultimately -- >> i buy a lot of chocolate. >> we have the power of being able to stop this. >> these are examples. students across campuses at the end of 10, 15 years have been able to end sweat shops. they targeted nike, rebook, etc., they were able to put pressure on those companies. >> as david said, it's knowledge about who's doing what. >> can the u.n. get involved in terms of like regulating all these companies? we're talking about child labor. >> it's a good question. i'm going to go to commercial break. still to come on "starting point." we'll go back to talking about the republican debate. mitt romney under fire. we'll see if the hits were able to hit their mark. also, you won't be able to access wik can i paid yeah tomorrow. we'll tell you why they're blocking out the website in protest. straight ahead. stay with us. no problem. you want to save money on rv insurance? no problem. you want to save money on motorcycle insurance? no problem. you want to find a place to park all these things? fuggedaboud it. this is new york. hey little guy, wake up! aw, come off it mate! geico. saving people money on more than just car insurance. i want healthy skin for life. 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[ female announcer ] aveeno daily moisturizing lotion. and for healthy, beautiful hair, try nourish plus haircare. only from aveeno. good morning. welcome back, everybody. republicans at the debate in south carolina know their enemy. it was mitt romney. they were focusing on his record at bain. perry to romney said, show us your money. take a listen. >> mitt, we need for you to release your income tax so the people of this country can see how you made your money. >> my record is out there. proud of it. i think that if people want to have someone who understands how the economy works, having worked in the real economy, that i'm the guy that can best post up against barack obama. >> let's get right to ron brownstein. 's a political analyst. he's editorial director of the national panel. he's in washington, d.c. we're with you, but remotely. big take away, do you think, from last night? i also want to at some point mention the audience which was way over the top, i thought. what would you say was the main thing to take away from this debate? >> it was the dog that didn't bark. the opponents that were running out of time. if he wins he might effectively win this race and they failed to make a systematic, coherent race. we saw newt gingrich on "face the nation" on sunday day. he sharpened the ideological case that mitt romney is someone that conservatives cannot trust. that never came through the debate. their attacks were episodic, disjointed. there was a great deal of fuss about whether they can have a bell or buzzer. >> which they should have had by the way. >> i think they needed an alarm clock because they needed to wake up these candidates. they are really running out of time, and they simply did not display the sense of urgency you would expect for opponents who are on the brink of watching the front-runner potentially lock up this nomination in a matter of days. >> i was surprised to see how ron paul really struggled. he was booed a couple times by the audience. let me run a clip of that. he seemed to be the most, i think, challenged in this debate. listen. >> maybe we ought to consider a golden rule in foreign policy. don't do to other nations what we don't want to have them do to us. so we endlessly bomb these countries and then we wonder why they get upset with us. yet it continues on and on. >> it was not his audience. >> this is not his audience. remember, the crowd boos ron williams, too, when he's asking newt gingrich why he's engaging in a certain kind of dog listing, what i think is a racially coded dog whistling around the president. they booed ron williams too even though he's very popular as a conservative. it was a very interesting debate for both ron paul, who was the loser, but also for newt gingrich who landed punches even with some racial coding behind it in the state that still wishes they could fly the confederate flag. >> i think we search for bigotry too often. more often than not, it's not there. the food stamp rolls are primarily made up of white people. to see rashal coding in this argument, you're wanting to see it. where i do agree, newt gingrich was the winner last night. ron's point. what's the take away? there is no take away. newt gingrich may have won the debate but mitt romney still stands in first place. although he had his worst debate to date, he still stands in first place. >> ron, hold that thought. we have to take a short break. on the other side we'll continue this conversation about the debate last night, who won, who did not. stay with us. forty years ago, he wasn't looking for financial advice. back then he had something more important to do. he wasn't focused on his future. but fortunately, somebody else was. at usaa we provide retirement planning for our military, veterans and their families. now more than ever, it's important to get financial advice from people who share your military values. for our free usaa retirement guide, call 877-242-usaa. we're back. decoding 2012 with ron brownstein plus our panelists as well. let's talk a little bit about the tone of the audience, which i thought was way over the top. the candidates, you could see they were totally wrong, pandering to the audience. i think partly because there was no time limits helped that along a little bit. what did you make of the audience? >> well, south carolina's a much more conservative place than new hampshire. 70% of republican voters in the primary called themself conservatives. you heard that in the hall. it was a very raucous crowd. they were particularly raucous at one point. ron paul underscored the ceiling that he faces in his republican support. his worst answer wasn't even the one you showed, it was when he got totally lost and i thought befuddled trying to explain whether the u.s. should have gone into pakistan to take out osama bin laden. and where he was asked a series of questions about whether republicans were being insensitive to racial minorities. he was openly jeered by the crowd. newt gingrich returning to that role i think as will suggested as playing to the crowd. got that big applause for suggesting that personal responsibility was the key to uplift in the minority. it was a reflection of where the republican head is and heart is in south carolina. it's very different than in new hampshire. again, despite that, the candidates chasing romney failed to make a cogent, coherent, crisp, ideological case against him and let him go through another checkpoint on the road to this nomination. >> too late? >> too late to attack romney. >> he's saying, no, no, no. >> you don't think so. >> we have three things at work. there is still the impact of anti-mormon sentiment in this state. what's going to happen with the evangelical endorsement of santorum. there's one more debate. romney could falter on thursday night. >> he's not going to. >> i actually think he has to literally trip on the stage for people to feel like that didn't go well. >> he's always the best out there. he sells himself as a president. >> how will that play in the general election? what he's done is managing it well. when he fails is when he's knocked off guard a little bit, when he doesn't expect the answer, when he doesn't know what's coming. in the general election i think that you're going see people try to knock him off kilter. >> he always keeps his composure. >> not always. >> he has that cute little smile. >> better than obama. >> we saw some cracks last night. if there's one thing mitt romney came away last night, he can be flustered. he's an extremely premeditated man. when he's prepared, he will knock it out of the park. >> people, one at a time for god's sake, please. we were doing so well. >> bell. >> where is the alarm clock? i need that for my panel. ron, what do you think? do you ultimately think that that is going to be the case, that he's too far ahead and that he really has no cracks? unless he falls on his face, as will suggests would be the one thing that could happen? >> divide and conquer has worked for him all the way through. there's no sign that it's going to stop working any time soon. i think mitt romney is a plurality nominee if he wins. there is not a majority of the party that affirmatively wants to nominate him. he still doesn't get more than 35% in the polls. that more conservative part of the party fractures between santorum, perry, so he is in the strongest position. he's consolidating the center more than anyone is consolida consolidating the right. that leaves him with not an overwhelming position but enough to be steam rolling towards this nomination. >> will, give you something to think about as we go to commercial break, which is what happens in the general erection, righ election. as you go through the general election and you see those numbers, people are enthusiastic start to go down, isn't it about turnout, turnout. i want to remind everyone -- take your time. thursday night, 8:00 p.m. eastern. you want to watch it here. we will be talking about it the next morning. still ahead, the italian cruise ship captain is facing the judge right now. we'll update you on what is happening. plus wikipedia going dark for 24 hours. it's all in protest of the u.s. government's anti-pie ras si act. stay with us. 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you've abandoned the ship? now the captain contradicts himself says, no, what abandon? i'm here. port authority says, you must return on board, climb the ladder, the rope badder, return to the fore, the stem, and coordinate the work. the captain doesn't reply. the port authority says you must tell us how many people are on board, how many women, how many children. you have to coordinate the rescue operation. commander, this is an order. i'm in charge. you have abandoned the operation and you are going to go to the ship and coordinate the work. there are dead bodies. >> the captain says, how many. the port authority is sent completely over the edge and says, you should be the one telling me this. what do you want to do, do you want to go home? go back on the stem and tell me what to do. the captain says, okay. i'm doing it. but it doesn't appear, according to newspaper reports, that the captain went back to the ship. there are some people e-mailing me saying if there is a language issue where he contradicts himself because what this is going to hinge on in fact is did he abandon that ship. that number 2 to 300 is so off. is he talking about people evacuating. is he saying he's evacuate sng it's one of those things we're going to understand as we figure out what happens in this courtroom where the captain is seeing a judge for the very first time and they'll be able to parse through exactly that conversation. dan rivers is updating us now on what is happening in the search and rescue efforts. i'm wondering, dan, if they're still on rescue or if it's just search at this point? good morning. >> reporter: they are. yeah. they've been using explosives this morning, soledad, to blast their way into the ship to try and access parts of the ship that have so far been inaccessible to them. the italian navy has five times this morning used explosives, huge, big blasts echoing around this island as they continue to try and search for the 28 people that are missing. there's been quite a lot of confusion about exact breakdown of that figure, but one thing's for sure, the figure has increased dramatically since 24 hours ago because they think there are a party of german passengers aboard that so far have not been accounted for that are now included in the missing list. so quite a significant number of people still missing and basically the message from here is they will continue to search until they have made absolutely certain that every single inch of the ship has been completely cleared and that no one is left inside trapped inside this wreck behind me. >> let's open it up to the panel. you're a prosecutor so let's talk about what could be happening in that courtroom. we know there are two black boxes. both of them have been discovered. only one's been recovered at this point. >> i think the interpretation of the black boxes is going to tell us a lot. it's going to be very dpelg information for the judge. right now the captain, he's facing charges of manslaughter, what i believe to be based on a wreckless theory that he breached his standard of duty as a captain. and like i said, this is very analogous to dr. conrad murray who breached his standard of care as a doctor. by breaching that standard, that's an element of the manslaughter charge and it proves wrecklessness. now he's also facing charges of abandonment. >> ship wreck and abandonment. >> that's right. with those charges i believe it's up to 15 years. also, of course, the captain, the cruise ship company, the cruise ship itself, they're all facing civil charges by all of these passengers and their families. now i'd also like to hear about, at some point i think this will come up, if there's separate maritime charges because maritime law takes effect as well. >> soledad, i'm sympathetic to the e-mails you got suggesting maybe there's a language issue. i want to give someone the benefit of the doubt in this. to simply abandon ship and run for the shore seems beyond comprehension. but as you read that entire transcript, that, in fact, sounds like exactly what happened. he says, where are you? what have you done? he said, i'm out, man. the ship is keeling. >> the ship is keeling. >> he did an interview from land. there are still 29 bodies at the very least or hopefully people who are survivors who are on that ship. the captain is supposed to, go down with the ship. >> we all know that. >> at some point he's in a tv studio doing an interview so, you know, it's unclear -- >> hard to give this man the benefit of the doubt. >> this is going to have a huge impact on the cruise industry as many americans and people around the world book their tickets this month for the entire year. sales are going to drop tremendously. >> it's been revealed that there have been prior accidents, which is really an interesting issue because in criminal practice we use prior incidents as showing guilt, a preponderance of evidence, but in this instance i think they can use that in the civil suit to say look at all these prior incidents of accidents with the same company. >> all right. we will check in with christine romans. >> good morning, soledad. the house is back in town. members returning to the nation's capitol today from their winter recess. they have work to do. a new cnn poll shows congress's approval rating at 11 percent percent, a new low. soledad asked representative cleaver about that. americans are giving us more credit. >> i think the 11% of americans that think we're doing a good job need therapy. this is a very, very sad moment. i'm embarrassed and every member of congress ought to be because, look, you can't make honey and sting at the same time. the congress of the united states has become a body of stingers, and if we continue to do that, it's going to irreversibly do damage to the body of politics because the american public is angry. in wisconsin organizers of a petition drive to recall wisconsin governor scott walker. they have more than the half million signatures required by today's deadline. 's been under fire for limiting the bargaining rights of public employees. wildlife employees say at least 20 dolphins have died after washing up on cape cod. nearly 50 have been found stranded next to shore. official alzheimer's aren't sure why. wikipedia shutting down tomorrow for 24 hours. they're protesting anti-piracy legislation being proposed by congress. the steve jobs action figure project not happening. a chinese sculpture maker had planned to start selling the j.i. jobs figure reason, apple no surprise having none of it threatening to take legal action if it ever hit store shelves. a positive growth of the chinese markets. u.s. futures looking up. european markets are up too. earning season continues. big bank citigroup just announced a disappointing profit report as well. we'll closely watch citigroup shares today. the weak u.s. economy still affecting its business. company stock is down 3% in pre-market trading. let's get a quick check on the weather and how that might affect you. rob marciano joins us. >> good morning, christine. a little bit of a boost for temperatures across the east coast. once again, the cold air short lived. first off, this video out of nevada, missouri. rough night last night. big light show across the state. severe weather rolled into parts of illinois. tornado watches been allowed to expire. the threat for severe weather across parts of indiana and ohio has this bit of moisture making its way into the northeast. new york and philly you'll see delays because of incoming rain. boston as well. chicago and detroit, rain/snow as well with wind. severe weather across parts of the tennessee valley in through parts of alabama and mississippi. warming up across the northeast. the biggest story across the northwest. already cold air and snow in place across parts of seattle and portland, which is pretty rare. average about five inches of snow per year. they may double that with this next storm system coming into seattle tonight. the snow quickly changes to rain tomorrow in portland but could see three to six inches of snow before that happens. maybe several feet in the cascades. they need that. here's your warm air, 59 in d.c., 47 degrees in new york. where is the cold air? it's in alaska. showed this video. val deez has seen the most snow they've seen to date. so far shoveling it off of rooftops, both just trying to keep things from collapsing under all that weight. if you're wondering where the cold air and snow is, christine, it's up in alaska. it's been mild down here. >> rob marciano, thanks. soledad? still to come on "starting point" this morning, our reveal. how you can skip the drive-through in favor of fast food delivery. plus he nearly drowned as a little boy. he's an olympic gold medalist in swimming. you're watching "starting point." built for the purpose of driving innovation. one that's transforming how companies from every industry-- and of every size-- are doing business. a platform built for now. and for what's next. this...is the cisco intelligent network. cisco. life with crohn's disease is a daily game of "what ifs". what if my stomach pain and cramps come back? what if the plane gets delayed? what if i can't hide my symptoms? what if this takes too long? what if? but what if the most important question is the one you're not asking? what if the underlying cause of your crohn's symptoms is damaging inflammation? for help getting the answers you need visit knowcrohns.com/tv and use the interactive discussion guide to speak with your gastroenterologist. according to the cdc ten people die every day from drowning, and two of them, two of those ten, are under the age of 14. cullen jones almost became a drowning statistic when he was a little boy. now he is the first african-american world record holder in swimming. dr. sanjay gupta has today's "human factor." >>. >> reporter: beijing, the 2008 olympics. cullen jones wins the gold medal in the 400 freestyle relay becoming the second african-american swimmer to take home gold and the first to hold a world record. but growing up, learning to swim was the last thing on his mind. >> my dad was a basketball player. he was like, do you want to play basketball? >> reporter: but a trip to a water park at the age of five changed his life. >> we went down a ride and i ended up flipping upside down because i was so light. i almost drowned. my mom tried to save me. she couldn't swim. the life guard had to come get me. my dad had to get my mom. >> reporter: after that learning to swim became a priority. not easy when you're growing up in the inner city neighborhood. >> i grew up in an area that wasn't the nicest area, wasn't the friendliest person walking around in a little brief. >> reporter: he found challenges in simply being different. >> 15 years old, i'm like, dad, there's no black people here he's like, well, if you would have stuck to basketball you wouldn't have that problem. we laughed about it. that was a big step for me. overcoming it was hard. >> reporter: that's why it was so important for him to inspire other kids like him. >> i was getting sixth and seventh place. now i've got an olympic gold medal. there is hope. you have to stick with it, keep with it. that's what i tell kids. there you go. >> reporter: jones is sharing his story with kids who never imagined they'd be getting swimming lessons from an olympian. >> this sport has given me a lot. i want to make sure i give back to t make sure i can shine the path to another kid. >> reporter: he's not stopping there. 's going for gold again and he hopes to compete in the summer olympic games later this year in london. >> cullen jones winning in a time of 22.52. >> if you learn anything from my story, it can happen. as long as you stick with it. there are going to be rough days. i still have rough days. it's not easy. it's never easy. but it's worth it. when you can sit back and you're standing on the podium, you hear your national anthem, that's what i swim for. >> reporter: dr. sanjay gupta, cnn reporting. >> gold medal would make it all worth it. still ahead this morning, you might be able to soon order that whoper without leaving the comfort of your own home. we will tell you how straight ahead. dad, why are you getting that? is there a prize in there? oh, there's a prize, all right. [ male announcer ] inside every box of cheerios are those great-tasting little o's made from carefully selected oats that can help lower cholesterol. is it a superhero? kinda. ♪ they sound awesome tonight. and when i do find it, i share it with the world. you landed the u.s. tour ? done. this is fantastic ! music is my life and i want to make the most of it without missing a beat. fly without putting your life on pause. be yourself nonstop. american airlines. it worries me that you just said that. she said to will, i like that you're suspicious. nice little togetherness around the panel we have today. my goodness. >> politics. >> time now for our reveal. today we're talking about fast food delivery. it's easier to get fast food to your door. burger king, they've started testing home delivery of itsburg gers and friegs. they're doing that in maryland and virginia. they're planning on expanding that in a couple of other states. why haven't other people done this, if you've ever done the drive through, everything is cold and not as crunchy. burger king says they have something called proprietary, our lawyer can tell us, that means they can sue you, i didn't go to law school, i know that, proprietary thermal packaging technology that ensures that the whopper will be delivered to you the way you want it. it's a $2 delivery fee. most stores require 8 to $10 minimum. ordering starts at 11:00 a.m. for lunch. mcdonald's offers that kind of and only to businesses. it's hard to compare sales. you can can look at stock prices. mcdonald's is way up from the low 70s to over 100. yum brands is up to 46 over 60. burger king which was just sold to a capital company is up from four years ago where it was at $17. >> awesome. >> i'd love it if it includes beer, vodka, being delivered to my house. >> i want chipolte to be delivered. can't they use the same technology that dominos and all the pizza places use? >> it's not promiscuous proprietary. it's the bag with the foil inside. that's the proprietary technology. >> keep it warm. >> that they've copyrighted. >> i wondered though, $2 for a delivery fee plus you probably have to tip the guy. >> right. >> you're talking about meals that are incredibly inexpensive. that could make your basic meal double in cost. >> it feels like we're not touching low hanging fruit here that you no longer have to gut off your butt to go get fast food. >> we thought that was clear. reference back to low hanging fruit, yes. take a short break. our "end point" with our panel is up next. stay with us. 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[ male announcer ] the new citi simplicity card. no late fees. no penalty rate. no worries. no late fees. no penalty rate. hey, i'm really glad we took this last minute trip me too. you booked our room right? not yet, thanks for reminding me. wait, what? fret not ma'lady. i have the hotels.com app so we can get a great deal even at the last minute. ah, well played sir. download the free hotels.com app and get exclusive mobile deals. hotels.com. be smart. book smart. welcome back, everybody. it's time to get to the end. by that i mean the "end point." sema, start. what's your take away. >> my take away is the recount from iowa may be in on santorum. so we may actually have a new winner. now whether that has any impact or not, it may not, but it'll be interesting to see that if the recount is finished, if he actually did pull it off. >> might have won iowa. >> maybe. >> you're going to tell me there's no impact. my end point is something that doesn't matter at all. right? >> so we talked earlier about the disapproval of congress. well today is the fourth anniversary of occupy wall street. today is occupy congress. >> today is the fourth anniversary? >> four month. four month anniversary. >> it's our fourth anniversary. >> four-month anniversary. occupy congress is happening today with thousands of occupy supporters going to congress. they made appointments with their representatives. that will send congressional approval rating down lower. >> also speaking of anniversaries, happy birthday to muhammad ali. >> enthusiasm? >> all time low. >> we had stuff get in the way. other news. enthusiasm gap. isn't that at the end of the day going to be a big problem? >> no. i don't think it will be a big problem because i think it exists for both candidates. >> mitt romney, barack obama. >> assuming mitt romney is the nominee, barack obama will suffer from a lack of enthusiasm that was there four years ago. whether that includes young people, people who voted because they wanted a black president, i don't think that will be there a second time around.