filming this right now. seriously, the ceiling, look. oh, my god. oh, my god. >> these guys made it out alive but four people were killed. we will show you just how bad the damage was. shelling heard from a roof top. street fighting breaks out in the airport in yemen's capital. flights canceled and there is new concerns of a coming civil war. google says hundreds of personal g mail accounts have been hacked. they blame a giant fishing operation based in china. the sputtering u.s. economy and the creeping fear that things are only going to get worse, that grim outlook sent wall street sliding. the dow plunged near 280 points. that is the biggest one-day drop since last summer. nasdaq also saw its value evaporate by more than 2%. its 66-point slide was the worst one-day loss in four months. >> ali, this is kind of a snowball effect of bad economic news, right? >> yeah. we ought to be careful not to get too far into it. that's what used to happen where you start to think it is going to get bad and it gets bad. first of all, half an hour from when markets open and futures are looking up. hopefully, we don't see a continuation. here is what happened this week. tough on the markets. housing, the s&p housing index showed home prices hitting another new low in the first three months of this year. the prices were down more than 5% compared to the same period last year. you see the big drop. the bottom of that drop is when the recession was. the foreclosure crisis, the mortgage crisis. sin then, a slow increase in the value of houses. now, you see, we have started going down again. it has some people worried about a potential double dip in housing prices. >> the stock market, the s&p 500 over the last five years. the big dip at the bottom. march of 2009, two years ago. that is the worst of the markets. since then, look at that, a general access racial in markets but for a little period early last summer. generally, all the way up. look at the en. that's the downturn we are worried about. may was the worst month for the s&p 500 since august of last year. why do you care? your 401(k) and ira are invested in things that look like the s&p 500. the thing that matters to everybody is jobs. jobs growth has been quite strong. take a look. since october of last year, we have been gaining jobs. we have gained an average of 100,000 jobs every month for the past six months. when you look at the last three, we have gained more than 220,000 jobs a month. that's pretty healthy. most of that in the private sec for. here is the problem. tomorrow morning, we get the unemployment numbers and the job growth numbers for the month of may. some are worried that maybe we are not going to keep pace like we did before. when you take it all together, markets that are weakening and a job market that might be weakening and home prices that are weakening, it has some people thinking, are we in for another dip in our economy. i spoke to an ex tert earlier who said the numbers do not indicate anything close to another one. mitt romney, an early front-runner but far from a shoe-in. paul steinhauser joins us from washington. we are already hearing some of what romney will say today. tell us what you know. >> about three hours from now, el make it official, up in new hampshire. he will say the words, i'm running for president. the all but declared candidate will become the declared president. he will call president barack obama a failure and attack him for what he says are the president's policies that are making the government too big. here is one of the excerpts. he is going to say, we are only inches away from seizing to be a free market economy. i will cap federal spending and finally, balance the budget. he goes on to say, from my first day in office, my number one job will be to see that america, once again, is number one in job creation. of course, his speech comes one day before we see the may jobs report, carol. so for mitt romney, it is all about the economy. >> well, it is all about the economy but he has other problems much the same problems, by the way, he had in 2008. how is he going to deal with those problems differently? >> we are seeing a very different strategy this time around than when the former massachusetts governor made his first bid for the white house four years ago. a couple of the things last time around, he had a big campaign, some would say a bloated campaign. some would say a much leaner machine. he focused on iowa, new hampshire, south carolina. he didn't win any of them. he focuses now this time around mostly on new hampshire. he was the formal suit and tie kind of guy, the businessman, the ceo type. this time, we are seeing a much more casual mitt romney. a mitt romney who is wearing a lot less ties. >> we have the problems with his health care plan. he is a mormon and christian conservatives might not vote for him because of that. >> he has been getting a lot of heat because of the health care plan. at that time, there was no new health care law from president barack obama. this could be an achilles heel. he is trying to explain it. it works for what we were doing in massachusetts and does not work for the nation. he has been very much against the president's health care plan. one of the things, this is interesting. when he makes his announcement, the state that votes has the first primary. he will have to share that spotlight with who else? sarah palin. her bus tour, we are following it nonstop. it is in new hampshire. she has an event up there. ru rudy giuliani, guess where he is? he did better, not which by much, than mitt romney. an interesting day for all in new hampshire. at the bottom of the hour, we will talk to send kated radio host. the president meets with tops congressional leaders of his own party hosting the democratic caucus to discuss government spending and the nation growing debt. he held a similar meeting yesterday with house republicans. it came a day after they crushed the president's request to raise debt limits on government spending. they say the talks were frank and productive but not confrontational. sources tell us congressman, paul ryan, the architect of kron tro version reforms to medicare, called on the president to stop playing politics and to take the lead on the issue. now, the story that just won't go away. congressman anthony wiener's twitter problem. he can't or won't say if the naughty pictures sent from his twitter account is of him. listen to him dance around wolf blitzer's question. >> you didn't send that photo to that woman in washington state? >> i did not send it to that woman in washington state. >> you are not 100% sure whether the photo is actually you? >> i am going to say he with are doing everything we can to try to answer that question. we are doing an investigation. i want to caution you, photographed can be doctored, can be manipulated, taken from one place and put in another. i want to make it clear, this is, in my view, not a federal case. in my view, this is not an international conspiracy. this is a hoax. i think people should treat it that way. of course, wiener claims he was the victim of a hacker. how long will it take to find out who is responsible? we will ask an expert that's coming your way in 35 minutes. familiar scenes across tornado alley. homes demolished, trees toppled, lives taken. this happened in a totally different part of the country. jason carroll joins us from western massachusetts. some incredible damage across a pretty wide area in an area not used to tornadoes. >> reporter: you hit the nail on the head. it is hard to think of tornado alley when you think of springfield, massachusetts. when you take a look behind me, it does look like tornado alley. last night, the tornado just swept through here taking with it and destroying homes along its path of destruction. now, we are hearing it wasn't just one tornado that was hit through person massachusetts. it was, in fact, four tornadoes that touched down in western mass jumping across a 40-mile stretch causing destruction in the path of those tornadoes. at least four people killed. that is confirmed at this point. more than a dozen communities are reporting severe damage. search and rescue teams, we have seen some of them out here so far this morning. we have seen them working overnight. they have been working overtime trying to go into some of these buildings that have been damaged to see if there is anyone inside who is in need of any help. as you say, many of the people who live in this area, many are unfamiliar with tornadoes and still, at this point, at this hour, they are trying to assess the damage and trying to come to terms with what happened. why don't you listen to one woman in particular who we spoke to who lives right here on this block. listen to what she had to say. >> i just started seeing debris. i grabbed my son and the animals and headed downstairs. as soon as he with hit the stairs, it hit. >> that is hilda's house that you see right there. we were told just about 20 minutes ago that her house will, in fact, have to be demolished. it is basically destroyed. there was so much structural damage because of the tornado. her house along with many others will have to be demolished if they weren't already destroyed. jason carroll reporting live from springfield, massachusetts. an e-coli outbreak is sweeping across europe infecting more than 1,000 people and killing at least 16. the source of the outbreak, a mystery. zain verjee is following that story from london. at first, it looked like the source might be spanish cucumbers. has that been completely ruled out? >> well, yes, basically. they thought according to first reports that spanish cucumbers were to blame and then 24 hours later, the authorities said, well, oops, we made a mistake. it wasn't spanish cucumbers. the spanish are really mad, because it affects their economy. there has been a real hit on the farmers there who aren't able to sell or export any of those cucumbers. if you are traveling to europe, you may want to be aware of raw veggies anyway. part of the panic is that nobody knows where the source is and nobody really knows if it is active. take a look at the newspaper headlines. look at the irish times. it says, madrid and per lynn at odds as almost 200 new cases of e-coli reported. the germany e-coli epidemic continues to gather pace against a bad spat between madrid and spain over spanish cucumbers. here in the uk, some advice. wash your salads, families are told. it says, although experts say, the main source has been contaminated food, they don't know what food is causing the outbreak. a leading scientist warned that the outbreak is on a scale never seen before in europe. that's what's freaking a lot of people out. scientists are saying the strain is much more lethal than previously seen. >> flun >> none of the vegetables are exported to the united states? >> no, none were exported to the united states. >> a couple of people have been hospitalized when they went back to the u.s. it is something to be aware of and be careful. >> absolutely. zain verjee, live from london. thank you. mitt romney is about to declare he is running for president. no surprise there. he has all that name recognition, a war chest full of money. why isn't mitt romney a bigger hit among the gop. the man at the center of the missing balloon boy hoax is selling the ufolike kraft to help tsunami victims. really? we will have that story ahead. in just about three hours, mitt romney will make it official and enter the race for president. he is the front-runner. most republicans have a positive reaction to him but despite his numbers and his name recognition, his campaign money and his business background, romney seems to have an enthusiasm problem. >> i don't know him at all. he seems not to resonate. i was beating everybody, including him. it is an interesting thing. he doesn't seem to resonate. he has been running for four years, six years, and longer. you would think that he would be doing better in the polls than he is right now. sheila hewitt is a radio host. he wrote a book called a mormon in the white house. it is good to have you with us. >> thank you. good morning. >> do you think donald trump is right. >> i think there is quite a lot of enthusiasm for romney and a lot of the gop candidates. i haven't enforced anyone but i greatly admire romney and pawlenty and a number of others. i think this assessment from the donald is simply projection of his own ambition on to the race. right now, he is a very significant fundraising base. a great network across the country. most importantly, the worst country's problems become, the better he looks because of his record of turnaround he is going to be running on as someone who can solve very complicated problems. >> one of the problems he had now is his religion. some christian conservatives won't vote for romney, because he is mormon. is that still a problem or has he overcome that? >> that's another one of the issues that is within the manhattan beltway elite. >> it is not one of the issues i ran into when i wrote the book in 2007 when i covered the last five years. >> i think the presence of governor huntsman, also a mormon who is going to make it difficult to use that. he has these problems, pl pl, paw lendy, perry and john huntsman. other governors that have the same skill set that can make the arguments about their capacity to lead. romney will have to illustrate all the companies he turned around, the 2002 olympics which he took over in 1999. how he palled the budget in massachusetts. he is going to make the same argument about how to solve the problems president obama is creating. how to get rid of obama care. >> the president even thanks mitt romney for creating the model for the so-called obama care. how does he get over the fact that he instituted a similar plan in the state of massachusetts when he was governor? >> facts are stubborn things. i debated this for hover an hour. the president likes to say that, to shift blame. mitt romney didn't raise taxes. he didn't cut services to seniors like obama care did. >> a lot of republicans don't like that plan in massachusetts. >> a lot do. some refer not to have individual mandates. four years ago, carol, when the plan was in place, in all of those debates the republicans had, not one republican criticized the individual mandate or romney care because at the state level, where states have the police power at opposed to at the federal level where they don't, mandates are common. you might not like a particular one. there is a man tait kids have to go to school, public, private at home. a mandate that you get vaccines and a business license. mandates at the state level are not the problem that obama care is, a onerous job-destroying blob that is destroying in the united states. the opinion among the manhattan media is not the issues that will drive iowa, new hampshire and florida and when he won last time around, they weren't talking about the mandates. they were talking about who can create jobs. it will be a good debate. >> it will, indeed. thank you for being here. cnn will carry romney's debate at noon eastern. a candle light vigil was held to remember those killed on april 27th. it also honored first responders. los angeles pitcher, rick thompson, is tweeting praises for the pie lot of a team charter jet. the delta airlines plane made an emergency landing at the los angeles international airport after developing hydraulic problems. lakeshia and jane atkins watt continues are the first couple to get a civil license. they began issuing licenses for same-sex couples yesterday. finally, the hot air balloon at the center of a missing child hoax is up for sale. proceeds will benefit victims of the japanese tsunami. in 2009, the nation watched as the saucer-shaped balloon floated over colorado. he claimed his son was inside, he was not. >>. >> will and kate allegedly chatting it up on twitter tweeting about being newlyweds. is it really the duke and dutchess of cambridge? the scoop on the fake twitter account after the break. c s. t adwiwiout food al t [ woman speaking chinese ] thank you. do you have an english menu? no english. [ speaking chinese ] [ gasps, speaks chinese ] do you guys like dumplings? i love dumplings. working with a partner you can trust is always a good decision. massmutual -- let our financial professionals help you reach your goals. hundreds of google e-mail accounts have been hacked including those of u.s. government officials. google says the attack originated in china. let's check back with zain verjee for the latest on this cybercrime. what happened? >> oh, my goodness, basically, google is saying that they managed to track down the hackers to central china that hacked the accounts of hundreds of users, including senior u.s. government officials, chinese activists, south korean government officials and journalists as well. the chinese are saying absolutely not. they didn't hack anything. it is just not true. the white house is saying they are looking into these reports and they have no reason to believe that any u.s. government e-mail accounts were accessed. just to be careful, if anybody has a g mail account here, and they use it, basically, what happened here is that there were trusted sources that kind of popped up as if they were google or someone that would be credible or legitimate and you click on the link and it takes you to another page where it asks you to please put in your user naum and password. it looks real, carol. it is actually a way of hacking. watch out. >> there are big twitter accounts and everything. kate and will are having problems too. yes. if you want to follow william, kate, and kate's sister, pippa on twitter, they have 61,000 followers. so many people thought it was, because there were these tweets that just seemed really believe belie believeable. they were talking about things like kate's upcoming pregnancy and they were going to be traveling to los angeles soon and what it was like having a weekend in the country. >> people thought it was real because it was boring. >> thanks for the sweet welcome. thank you, catherine. guys, welcome to my real account. this is the real pippa here. so mundane you think, okay, it must be them. whoever made up that false account was not very creative coming up, a lot of tornadoes already this year. these late terse are a little different. at least four people killed in massachusetts. most new yorkers already knew who congressman anthony wiener is. others are just getting to know him, not because of his politics but because of his twitter account. >> we will take a closer look at a politician who once thought about about wg being a weatherman. when they came barreling through, most people couldn't believe their eyes. tornadoes carry across western and central massachusetts. amazing video coming out of springfield. the man who shot this escaped but at least four people were killed in the storms. one of the twisters spun right through the heart of the city and across the connecticut river. you can see it is sucking the water right up into a vortex. tornadoes aren't unprecedented in new england but they certainly are unusual. rob marciano has some details on this. how often do tornadoes hit in massachusetts. >> every few years. they are typically not this strong. the last one that hit in massachusetts was in '08. that was an ef-0, judging from the look of this and the damage, it is just coming in now. this was easily an ef-2, if not an ef-3 tornado. winds well over 100 miles an hour. not only trees being taken out but brick buildings in some cases being ripped apart as well. here is what it looked like on the radar scope. we had a couple of cells that rolled through springfield, one at 4:30. that's where this one ca