by stabbing, you won't believe who he's targeting, a former fbi profiler and a crime consultant takes us inside the investigation. politics and beer? believe it or not, there is a connection, and it could decide who wins in new hampshire. >> sam adams with the lagger and i'm voting for jon huntsman. and exclusive, the queen of soul, the legendary aretha franklin on her plans to remarry. >> well, i might get marry now. i need someone to take care of me. >> that and more, right here, right now on cnn. hello, everyone, i'm don lemon. thank you so much for joining us. you're in the cnn newsroom. i want you to imagine this, a stranger showing up out of know where and taking your child and the court makes you stand by and just let it happen. that's exactly how a south carolina couple feels after losing custody of the 2-year-old girl they adopted and raised from birth. they're in a nasty battle with her biological father. who turned up and took her away with the full blessing of a judge. george howell explains why the federal law is on his side. george? >> this story has generated a lot of responses from our viewers, some outraged by who has happened to the family. others concerned about 2-year-old veronica, who at this point is caught up in a custody tug of war. veronica, a toddler, adopted and raised by the couple she's known since birth, taken from them by a court order on new year's eve and turned over to the native american biological father she has never met. a family torn apart by a law designed to keep indian families together. >> matt said when we had to do the transfer, it was like he was failing her as a father to siene her off with people she didn't know, what she must think of us. >> the family says it was an open adoption. but when veronica was four months old, the biological father, dustin brown filed suit to get her back. he claimed he had been tricked into signing papers to give up his daughter. the law was designed to keep indian children and their families together. cnn legal analyst avery freedman says in this case, the law was misused. >> it's a wonderful law which seeks to preserve the integrity of families of native americans, but it cannot be used as a bludgeon to destroy the integrity of an existing family. >> the assistant attorney general for the cherokee nation says the law is clear. >> some of the protections provided by the indian child welfare act, there's a placement preference, if children are removed by the state or if they're placed in a private adoption placement. the first choice is a family member. >> reporter: but in cases like this, what about the child? >> everybody keeps saying how bad they feel for us. but i mean, she's a 2-year-old girl who got shoved in a truck and driven to oklahoma with strangers. >> reporter: they thought the transfer would happen on new year's day but it happened on new year's eve, a lot sooner than they were prepared for. they've gotten to speak with veronica once a day after she was taken away. >> she said, hi, mommy, hi, daddy, i love you, numerous times. >> reporter: their daughter starting the new year with an entirely new family, the only family veronica has ever known, starting the year without her. dustin brun's attorney released a statement saying the indian child welfare act was not used as a loophole and he would have won custody regardless in south carolina. at this point the family plans to appeal to the south carolina supreme court and that case could be heard later in the summer. don? >> thank you very much for that. we appreciate it. we're learning new information this evening who vanished the day after christmas. her car was found with the engine still running but there's no sign of the 36-year-old. i spoke with her parents. they told me they just learned there was a 911 call about her car three hours after she was last seen. also, police say they want to requestion a man who was visiting english for the holidays. i asked stacey's parents what they know about him. there was someone with her that night, in st. louis now. i don't know if it was someone she was dating, but it was a friend. did they get into an argument and he left? >> by his admission, and we're only hearing one side. she asked him to leave. argument, dispute, whatever it was we don't know because we hear one side. >> and that was here in atlanta and now he is back in st. louis. >> that's correct. and so now this new timeline has come forth. someone had to see something. >> do you know this young man? did she ever talk about him? had you ever met him? >> she talked to me about him on christmas eve. because while i was talking to her, i know that he came in and she said that he was coming into the house and she says, oh, he's a friend of mine and it's not real serious. >> uh-huh. >> but they had been dating, is my understanding. >> if it's someone she had been dating and friendly with, did you try reaching out to him? is he available to talk to you? have you spoken to him? >> yes, personally, we called a few days after the first contact to him was made by the apd. and then a few days later, my husband and i just picked up the phone and called him and said, hey, have you heard anything from her? have you reached out to call her? and he said, no to both questions. >> so investigators are not calling that man a person of interest. and according to a police report, the man told investigators that english was aking out of character during his stay. he says he left after english began asking him if he was satan and told him to go home. we have a cnn exclusive. the family of a toddler missing in maine is speaking out. 2-year-old ayla reynolds vanished from her home three weeks ago. police have launched an official investigation. her paternal grandmother tells cnn family members had nothing to do with her disappearance. >> it's a very creepy feeling to think that somebody had been casing your house, that they had been watching the family's activities. i would give everything i own if we could have her back. >> police say the dipietros have fully cooperated in the investigation. time is real short, real short, and the pressure is high tonight in new hampshire, just a few days until the nation's first presidential primary. cnn political reporter shannon travis joins me now from manchester, all smiles, even though he's working night and day, working day and night as michael jackson says. shannon, there are two debates between now and the primary. one them is going on now. does it still look like mitt romney's race to lose her? >> reporter: i mean, look, mitt romney is basically trying to solidify his lead here in new hampshire. and part of the purpose of the debate, don, is for all of these candidates to make their last-ditch effort to voters here in the nation's first primary here in new hampshire. mitt romney has been the front runner, he's basically lived in the state for the past few minutes. jon huntsman has been here as well. rick santorum, he's got that fresh burst of steam now coming out of the iowa caucuses. being only eight votes behind mitt romney. ron paul, he's been doing real well in the polls. there's a battle for mitt romney to keep his lead, and there's also the battle for number two, who will emerge as pretty much the anti-romney candidate. >> that's why even though romney is taking most of the flack as a front-runner, his challengers, they're going after each other, because they're thinking if i'm not going to be number one, i want to be number two or close to it. >> that's right. the general thinking is you probably won't be able to stop mitt romney here in new hampshire but maybe you can decrease his margin of victory here. we want to be careful that we're not handing him a victory. he does hold a sizable lead in all the polls we're looking at. in this debate and the campaigning we've seen recently you've seen ron paul going after rick santorum. he has a new ad that will be airing in south carolina, calling him a not so true conservative. rick perry, after his re-assessment period jumps into the fray. there is this pitched race for the number two spot and going on from here, straight into south carolina, don. >> look at you with all of those reporters. looks like you're in a busy call center. that's kind of what it is. >> it's called multitasking. >> thank you, sir. appreciate it. make sure you stay with the best political team on television for complete coverage of the new hampshire primary. join wolf blitzer, erin burnett, candy crowley, john king, anderson cooper. and what does the taste of beer have to do with picking presidents? >> i'm voting for ron paul. >> i'm voting for newt gingrich. yeah, go, newt! >> doesn't that look good on a saturday night? before that. not this. this is a coast guard cutter and plowing through waters in alaska. we'll tell you why they're going and buy it's being called historic. back after a very quick break. welcome. i understand you need a little help with your mortgage, want to avoid foreclosure. smart move. candy? um-- well, you know, you're in luck. we're experts in this sort of thing, mortgage rigamarole, whatnot. r-really? absolutely, and we guarantee results, you know, for a small fee, of course. such are the benefits of having a professional on your side. [whistles, chuckles] why don't we get a contract? who wants a contract? [honks horn] [circus music plays] here you go, pete. thanks, betty. we're out of toner. [circus music plays] sign it. come on. sign it. [honks horn] ...homes around the country. every single day, saving homes. we will talk it over... announcer: if you're facing foreclosure, make sure you're talking to the right people. speak with hud-approved housing counselors free of charge at... i want to take you around the world for some big international stories. ant anti-government protesters in damascus are the latest victims in this shakedown. this video appears to show plain clothed security forces attack i attacking demonstrate force. you can clearly see people being clubbed, beaten and kicked. some are thrown into a white van and driven away. as always, we must warn you that cbs nn can't independently confirm the authenticity of this particular video. iran says its new nuclear power plant is just weeks away from operating at full capacity. tehran says they have also shown it's -- the iranians deny western claims that they are developing a nuclear program for military purposes. as king of water against somali militants ramps up, it's warning against terror threats. al shabaab militants are in the process of planning attacks in places like hotels, shopping centers and beaches. troops sent inside somalia to battle militants after a series of cross border attacks. secretary of state hillary clinton is set to meet with qatar's foreign minister wednesday. analysts agree this could be a breakthrough in ending the war in afghanistan. but the taliban demands that maybe more than washington will accept. those include freeing inmates at guantanamo bay and removing the taliban from official terror lists. a cargo ship that ran aground after the coast of new zealand, has broken in two pieces. look at that. high seas are battering the vessel named "marina." and severe weather is expect for the next several days. the ship is spilling cargo containers into the ocean and officials are worried about the threat of spilled oil to wildlife near the ship. workers are working to unload as much oil and cargo as possible. an alaskan town is running low on fuel and right now a u.s. coast guard ice breaker is cutting a path for a russian fuel tanker to nome, alaska. a week ago, the police department ran out of diesel. gas pumps could run dry in a month. november november bad weather stopped the town's much needed fuel deliverly. if all goes well, they expect this ship will arrive. mayor, what exactly is the fuel on that tanker? >> i just want to make -- there's some misinformation going out there, so i want to clarify. >> go ahead. >> after the 2011 storm bonanza fuel and delta came to a us and told us after consulting with crowley, they looked at their inventory and the historical use and said by march, which is in the middle of winter for us, the iditarod is running then, that we'd run out of unleaded and low-grade diesel. >> is it march instead of february, as we've been saying? >> i still need updated information from both vendors. we have had four back to back snowstorms and this below zero weather snap for almost two weeks now and so there is more use of the low grade diesel for heavy equipment to clear snow. there's no issue with our nome-owned power plant and utilities. we have enough fuel, diesel fuel for the power plant to run. >> this is critical to you, you do need this particular ship to get through to help out there. so, listen, i have to ask you, how did that initial shipment get blocked? what happened. >> that information is still being worked out by bonanza fuel. the issue for us, yes, right now it's not an emergency, but come march, we would have a serious issue because the fuel barge can't get here until june when the ice is cleared. >> mayor, thank you, good luck and thank you for joining us. we appreciate it. >> okay. thank you. is president obama's presidency a monarchy? wait until you hear what a long-time washington insider has to say about it, coming up next. good for you! how'd you do it? eating right, whole grain. whole grain? whole grain. [ female announcer ] people who choose more whole grain tend to weigh less than those who don't... multigrain cheerios has five whole grains and 110 lightly sweetened calories per serving... more grains. less you! multigrain cheerios. president obama says he is tired of gridlock so he is going it alone. >> when congress refuses to act, and as a result hurts our economy and puts our people at risk, then i have an obligation as president to do what i can without them. >> but it is that stated goal along with this week's recess appointments and other extensions of his executive powers that have critics accusing him of acting like a monarch and they point to his chicago background as one inspiration for power politics as they call it. i asked long-time political writer, john kass, is he acting like a monarch? >> he's not acting like a monarch. we don't have monarchs in chicago, we have bosses. you know this. you were here, you know what politics is all about, this is the epicenter of politics and here's where it's played and it's all about leverage. >> go ahead, it's all about leverage, and this is a criticism that he is playing chicago style politics, he's taken a chapter from the mayor daly book where he can do whatever he wants, he can do this, he can do that and he doesn't need to get anyone's approval. >> first of all, you know, i -- let's give the president some credit here, he doesn't -- he shouldn't have to run his appointment list past sally quinn or george matron. it really doesn't matter what they think. he's from chicago, he's going to put people around him that are his people that he trusts. so all that is nonsense, that part of the criticism. the myth of barack obama was -- and you know the difference between the man and the myth. the myth was sold by david axelrod who is rich daly's mouthpiece. he told it to the national media, that barack obama was transcending politics as if he was floating in some plastic bubble, across the united states with a wand like glenda the good witch. you know, i'll transcend here, i'll transcend there. but reality, okay, but reality is that he's from chicago and we have bosses and they take control and they do what they want. that's the reality. that's not transcending politics, that's playing politics. you. >> know it better than anyone else. as you were talking about it, i'm sure people are like, the guy's from chicago. you were critical of mayor daly, critical of politicians and as you've said here and in your columns, you're critical of the president. you call it as you see it. >> i like president obama personally, right, but i cannot -- see, in chicago, a few of us, we wear the tinfoil hats that they don't wear in the "washington post" and the "new york times." they should get them. because if you wear them, then when david axelrod starts sending his, you know, his channeling, you can kind of keep your mind clear when you're basically politics is politics no matter where it's played. in chicago, as you know, because you were here and you covered it. there's a little bit more honesty to it. in the sense that it's all about the money and about the power. and it's not about transcending, it's not about hope and change and all that nonsense. it's about breaking people to your will and getting what you want done. >> president's spokesman when asked about the monarch criticism said the president wants to work with congress, but that gridlock is not an excuse for inaction. my thanks to john kass for his insight on that. a tennessee man is accused of opening fire on his family in a hospital. that and more of our top stories, up next. ♪ you want to save money on car insurance? 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. when i'm out with my kids, my daughter's like, "mom, wait up!" and i'm thinking, "shouldn't you have more energy than me? you're, like, eight!" [ male announcer ] for every 2 pounds you lose through diet and exercise alli can help you lose one more by blocking some of the fat you eat. simple. effective. advantage: mom. let's fight fat with alli ♪ let's get you up to speed on your headlines. a tennessee man is accused of gunning down his estranged wife and mother-in-law inside a north according to our affiliate, wtvc, james benson was asked to leave the waiting room after he got in an argument. police say he went to his car and returned to the hospital and opened fire. benson drove to the police department and turned himself in immediately after that shooting. a connecticut paramedic is charged with raping a patient in the back of an ambulance while on the way to a hospital. the woman says 49-year-old mark powell assaulted herr while she was unconscious and strapped to a stretcher. the 22-year-old woman had fallen and suffered a concussion at a holiday party. the police chief calls it outrageous and horrifying conduct. >> obviously it's shocking. no member of the public should or would expect to be sexually assaulted during a ride in an ambulance. >> i should tell you that powell is free on $25,000 bond. a new head coach has been named to lead the troubled penn state football program. bill o'brien, the current new england patriots offensive coordinator will try to fill the shoes of joe paterno. in november, penn state fired paterno after a fallout of a child sex abuse scandal. man hunt for a serial killer in california who's been stabbing homeless men. fbi profiler jim clamente joins us to talk about this case. 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