come out with a war on religion and now, the white house is ready to walk back its decision to make catholic institutions pay for employee's birth control and a source according to a white house source, the administration is going to talk about it at least later on. the white house held a news conference. a conference call with religious activists today promising to make religious universities and hospitals exception. an announcement is expected from the president next hour. 12:15, the president will talk about that. we will carry that for you live on cnn. and we are going now to syria. that's what it looks like, tens of thousands of syrians are holding demonstrations across the country today. this one is in hama. the crowd is chanting support for the people of homs who have been under heavy bombardment all week long. today's nationwide demonstrations were also called to show opposition to russia for its veto of a u.n. resolution condemning the violence. women and children are among hurricanes of civilians being killed and injured. >> this is one of the houses. look at these children. how can you stand and watch these children be like this? >> the activists you just saw with those children will join us at the bottom of the hour. amazing stories to tell you. more amazing images coming into cnn. this is chaos outside the greek parliament. protesters there are furious over the cuts in the country's budget. now, top european leaders are saying those spending cuts aren't deep enough. they're demanding more aggressive measures and unions are respond wg a two-day strike. traders on wall street are watching all this european instability and right now, you can see the dow is trading low. 115. and we will continue to check that. it is down 115 points. stand by. for more live from the stock market coming up. jerry sandusky back in court today. prosecutors are asking a judge to forbid him from going outside his own home. sandusky lives next door to a school playground. he is accused of sexually abusing young boys over a 15-year period. prosecutors say neighbors have expressed quote grave concerns about seeing sandusky outside. the former coach wants a judge to allow him to visit his grandchildren. what a horrifying scene. want you to look at this schoolbus. fully engulfed in flames. listen to that. that is in charlotte, north carolina. what you don't see are are the six elementary school kids who all got off safely thanks to the quick work of their bus driver, lindora richardson. >> at this time, i just decided to stop, park, get the kids. and get me and the kids to safety. they saw the smoke and they were heroes as well because they did not panic and when i did see the smoke, i did ask them to go to the back of the bus. away from the smoke and as i secured the bus and made sure the bus wasn't going anywhere, i went to the back of the bus and used the emergency exit and got them all off. >> we asked richardson what she was going to do today, she says she's getting a new bus and going to go back to work. same route, same kids. charlotte fire department will honor her next week. congratulations to her. call it the political equivalent of preaching to the converted, but for the republican presidential candidates, it could be the biggest sermons of their political careers. they're addressing the conservative conference in washington. it's considered the largest and most influential gathering of conservatives in this country. the crowd just heard from rick santorum. mitt romney, newt gingrich coming up a little later on today. you'll hear from them on cnn as well. want to bring in wolf blitzer. he is in our d.c. bureau. jim acosta is at the cpac meeting. santorum coming off his triple victory this week, was he able to build on that momentum in this speech or does that remain to be seen? >> i would say yes, don. this was a very well received speech from rick santorum. at one point, i think one of the highlights of the speech is when he referred to romneycare, the health care plan romney passed in massachusetts. he referred to that as a stepchild of obamacare. so some tough talk. i want to bring in now a key supporter, foster friess. you've been a key supporter for a super pac that has been very much supportive of rick santorum. at the beginning of your remarks, you told a joke and said that i'm paraphrasing her, that a liberal conservative and moderate walk into a bar and the bartender says, hi, mitt. there were some laughs, but also some boos. >> where do you suppose the boos came from? >> that was kind of tough. you think that was a good idea to tell that joke? >> i'm known to tell audience inappropriate jokes, so i became a christian a few years back. the downside, i have to maintain my best jokes at hunting camp. >> and let me ask you, this is a big day for rick santorum. why is it do you think that conservatives are taking a second look at his campaign because for a while there, it looked like he wasn't going to last long. >> i don't think they're taking a second look. i think they're taking a first look. he has not been running for six years for president. he swrus started a few months ago, so when they take their first look at him, they never said gee, i don't like this guy. they love everything about him. he has like a 75% approval rating and he's so likable and the fact he has all three legs of the reagan stool. he's a conservative in terms of authoring the iran security and freedom act, the syrian accountability act and so, he's been very forceful in the national arena standing up to the jihadists, being brave and taking on with what's happening. he's been running for five years. >> let me ask you about the donations to this super pac. you know, a lot of people are saying there's really no difference between the super pacs and these campaigns. when you look back at this campaign, you going to feel okay about all this money you put into the coffer of that super pac in is that you know, the best our democracy can do, do you think? >> oh, i'm just so excited about the fact that hopefully i can look back to this day and hopefully i had a big role in turning america back to our founding fathers. the crossing of delaware, washington saw blood in the snow. so i give maybe a million bucks or whatever sh it's nothing compared to these 18, 19-year-old kids who put a gun on their back and go to afghanistan and iraq. i'm kind of shoulder to shoulder with them to say what is america about? and so i can feel excited about playing a role in that. >> thanks so much for your time. good talking to you, sir. >> thank you so much. >> don, as you heard there, senator santorum is not hurting in terms of financial support. i was talking to foster before that live interview and he was saying maybe he doesn't need much of my help anymore because he's receiving so many individual donations coming in. and that is true. since tuesday night, more than a million dollars has come in and he was very well received. i would imagine the money's not going to stop. >> and not so fast because he said i want some of your wealth. you can go and he gave his website during the speech. i'm sure he'll take all the help he can get. i want to bring in wolf blitzer. we've been talking about president. expected to come out at 12:15 and to talk about this contraception ruling. the administration backtracking on the issue of contraception coverage that turned into a flash point really for conservatives and very religious people, christians, roman catholics and so on. how is this playing out for the administration and for the gop candidates as a matter of fact? >> it's not a good situation for the white house within a few days of making a major announcement then all of a sudden, backtrack and say you know what? we're going to come up with some new formula. they should have really done this in the weeks and months leading up to that decision by kathleen s kathleen sebelius. they knew the catholic church, the bishops across the country, were going to be opposed to mandating that catholic institutions, not churches, but university, hospitals, charities, are forced to provide the kind of birth control pills, the health insurance that would pay for contraception and they knew there was going to be an angry reaction from the catholic church and bishops and obviously, they didn't fully appreciate how angry that was going to be and the potential for a lot of catholics out there and others. not just catholics, to be upset by the white house decision. so now the president is going to have to come out and explain. he's going to do this on the 12:00 hour. he's going to explain yes, here's what the administration is going to mandate and they're going to try to fin nis this and point to some examples. for example, in hawaii, the issue between the rights of women to get the kind of birth control pills and contraceptions they need obviously, but at the same time, not forcing the catholic church and other churches, other religious institutions to go against their religious values, so it's a sensitive issue. difficult issue and it's not one the white house is looking that great on because it was mishandled, i think it's fair to say, in terms of the communications in terms of how they did this. >> you have to come back and do backtracking, i think you're correct on that. >> it's the last thing the president wants to do now is have to explain what they should have done earlier on before this uproar developed. >> thank you. we're standing by for the president, wolf is as well. going to talk about social issues, religion, the economy. wolf will be back with us to talk about some of the issues in focus at the cpac conference and what the president is doing in the next two hours. what conservatives want to hear as well at that conference. here's your chance to talk back on one of the big stories of the day. forget the candidate's stands on the economy, immigration. we want you to weigh in on their music play list. remember, these blasts from the pasts? listen. ♪ well i was born in a small town ♪ ♪ ♪ here we go they're designed to get the crowds at the campaign events pumped up. check out some of the songs on president obama's play list. he's got sometha franklin, dare rouse rucker and yes, al green. ♪ >> not bad. simon cowell could never say the president was a little pitchy. the president's crooning boosted sales for al greene, but not all are thrilled. newt gingrich's turning to the heavies, how do you like me now, after his win in south carolina, but the band did not like that at all. and served the gingrich campaign with a cease and desist letter. mitt romney's main campaign anthem, take a listen. ♪ i was born free i was born >> that is kid rock born free. does that inspire you? what do you think should be on the candidate's play list? pick a candidate. pick a song. put them on my facebook page. don lemon cnn on facebook. we'll air some of your responses later this hour. we have a look at the rundown of some of the stories we're covering for you. >> you know, i was married for 23 years to the love of my life and he died six years ago. >> a washington state lawmaker shares her personal story of love and loss and her support for same-sex marriage. don't want to miss that. and later on, new violence, different city. dozens of people are reported killed. we'll go live to syria, then it's grammy weekend and chris brown returns to perform three years after his arrest for all the. the judge has also ruled on whether to end brown's probation. vacations are always wasn'ta good ideaa ♪ priceline negoti - - no time. out quickly. you're miles from your destination. you'll need a hotel tonight we don't have time to bid you don't have to bid. at priceline you can choose from thousands of hotels on sale every day. save yourself... some money ♪[music plays] ♪[music plays] purina one beyond. food for your cat or dog. 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. actually, head & shoulders is for more than dandruff. it gives me a healthy scalp and great looking hair. does it do anything else for you? 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[ male announcer ] head & shoulders. 7 benefits. 1 bottle. ...we inspected his brakes for free. free is good. free is very good. my money. my choice. my meineke. one political activist calls it the center of gravity for conservatives right now and we're talking about the cpac meeting in washington. so what exactly is it? cpac stands for conservative political action conference. it was founded back in 1973 as a small gathering of dedicated conservatives. it's now an annual gathering of party activists and elected officials from around the country. it has grown to include thousands of attendees. the conference ends tomorrow with the highly anticipated straw poll of republican presidential candidates. more important this year because it's an election year. three of the four candidates are speaking at the conference today. they're trying to rally supporters and appeal oth conservative base. wolf blitzer joining us now. let's talk more about the major issues of the year now. we talked about the contraception issue earlier. the economy of course. what do conservatives listening for? what do they want to hear? >> less government spending. that's issue number one for so many of these conservatives. they love it when they hear these candidates say they're going to cut government spending. shrink the size of government. get government as they say off their back. that's music to their years. they want to hear that. they want to hear that the next president will repeal the health care law. in of these republican candidates say that. they want to see less taxes. they want to see a lot of them wabt to see a flat tax if you will or a fair tax. that's a very important issue. on all the domestic issues, the economic issues, there will be clear differences between any of these republican candidates on the one hand and the president of the united states on the other hand. there will be a clear line of difference. on national security, they want to have a strong national security. they want to make sure they hear all the important lines about protecting the u.s. military and defense spending. strong support for israel will always get a very good line going after al-qaeda going after iran. going after terrorists. that will always get a big round of applause at the same time. then on the social issues like an antiabortion rights for women on a lot of these other issues like gay marriage, that will get a big ride. in the santorum speech we just saw, we didn't hear him address a lot of these social issues, but i think it's fair to say these conservatives gathering, they know where he stands on so many of these issues. he really didn't have to underscore that. i suspect mitt romney will probably get into it more. >> what you just talked about, the contraception issue, same-sex marriage, that has fired up the conservative base. we're expecting the president to come out, 12:15, to address this, a possible compromise. that's fired up the base. what does it mean for the obama campaign here having to do that? >> well, on the one hand, they want to make sure that women, a key base of the democratic party, are going to support the president and support democrats, so when they say that women as part of the president's health care reform law starting later this year, that all women will be eligible for contraception for birth control pills, they won't have to make copays to their insurance companies, that's something that will be appealing to a lot of women. they're also going to stress you're going to get that benefit just as all other women employees will be getting that benefit, but we're not going to force the religious institutions where you work for example let's say georgetown university hospital here in washington, catholic charities. they employ a lot of women. they're going to be able to get that benefit, but they're going to finesse it in a way where the catholic bishops will not have to directly be responsible. i'm not sure this compromise that the president is getting ready to announce is going to satisfy the catholic bishops. i suspect they won't be completely satisfied, but we'll see how it plays out. >> it's going to be interesting, too, to watch and listen to what happens from the pulpits across the country come this sunday. we'll be checking back with you. you heard wolf talk about the issue of same-sex marriage and you don't have to be gay to make a stand for gay rights. here's an example. a republican state lawmaker did that this week in the battle to pass washington's new same-sex marriage bill. maureen wallach told her colleagues that everyone should have the opportunity to experience the kind of love she shared with her late husband. >> when i think of my husband and i think of all the wonderful years we had and the wonderful fringe benefit of having three beautiful children, i don't miss the sex. you know? and to me, that's kind of what this boils down to. is i don't miss that. i mean, i certainly miss it, but it's not -- it is certainly not the aspect of that relationship, that incredible bond that i had with that human being, that i really, really genuinely wish i still had. and so, i just, i think to myself, how could i deny anyone the right to have that incredible bond with another individual in life? to me, it seems almost cruel. >> she says she was able to hold back the tears until after the speech when she got a text from her lesbian daughter that read, you rock, mom. washington is expected to become the seventh state to legalize same-sex marriage on monday. a man takes lessons he learned in beating addiction here and turns them into a source of support for others. we'll introduce you to the first cnn hero of 2012. we have a lot happening here. very full day of news. you're looking at live pictures of the white house because the president is going to come out at 12:15. he's going to talk about a compromise in the controversial contraception ruling. he will announce the details at 12:15. shortly after this, the person you want to hear from could get answers. kathleen sebelius will join me live here on cnn. stay tuned. so today, we're honoring the first cnn hero of 2012. an every day person changing the world. his name is scott strode. after beating his addiction to drugs and alcohol, he used sports to fill the void left behind and what works for scott is now helping hundreds of others stay sober while experiencing a healthy high. >> i get on my bike and go ride up in the mountains. it really just brings peace and in my drug and alcohol use, it was the opposite. i got into it pretty young. by the time i was 15, i was using pretty serious drugs. when i got sober, i lost my group of friends because they were still out drinking and using. i got into boxing, triathlon. climbing. i had this new group of friends. i completely redefined myself. i want to help people find a better life being sober. welcome to friday night climbing. it's good to see you here. we offer about 50 events a week. all the programs are free to anyone who has 48 hours sober. you see that you're capable of whatever you put your mind to. we have this common connection, so it's easy to make new friends. we do bike rides, hiking, triathlon training, strength traininging. . it really is just a new community of folks to hang out with. i'm an example of hitting rock bottom. i had a heroin overdose. they had to jump-start me with