killing families in afghanistan is refusing to talk. voting also under way in the deep south as mitt romney hopes to seal the deal. it's time to play reporter roulette. more fallout from the massacre in afghanistan. chris? >> reporter: this was no mere apology. this was the strongest words yet we've heard from an american president in describing what happened during that shooting in afghanistan. >> the united states takes this as seriously as if it was our own citizens and our own children who were murdered. we're heartbroken over the loss of innocent life. >> reporter: the thing is "murder" has a very specific legal connotation, and this suspect has yet to even be charged with a specific crime. defense secretary leon panetta also said that capital punishment is a possibility in this case. a lethal injection is the method by which service members would be put to death. but ashleigh, that hasn't happened since 1961. the last time that a president even authorized the killing of a service member was in 2008 when president bush approved the death penalty for a soldier. but that soldier's crimes were actually committed in the late '80s when president bush's father was president, so it's very likely that by the time this moves through the long, legal process and appeals are exhausted, it will be some future president that may have to ultimately make this decision. >> and that is a tough row to hoe. chris lawrence, thanks very much for that. moving on to decision day in the deep south. voters in alabama and mississippi heading to the polls today. next on reporter roulette, shannon travis following today's tight race in mississippi joins me live now from ocean springs. lovely temperature, it looks like, shannon. >> lovely day, and i'm sweating a little bit so forgive me if you see a few beads up there. but ashleigh, absolutely right. we're here at a polling station at the ocean spring civic center. this is a very republican part of mississippi. of course, you know that mississippi is republican. obama lost the state by 13 points in 2008. in this county alone, jackson county, 33 points to john mccain. so we've been watching the voters come in and out and trying to basically ascertain who are they going in and voting for between mitt romney and ron paul and newt beginning rim or rick santorum? a lot of voters have differing opinions, of course, but by my very unofficial count, i've been hearing a little bit more weighted in terms of romney, and that's noteworthy because this is the south. even romney himself has said this is an away game for him, so he has a lot to prove in terms of showing that he can win these kinds of very conservative voters in a state like mississippi. again, we want to wait until later to see what the official tallies will look like. but he's been doing well so far with a number of people i've spoken with, ashleigh. >> heating up in mississippi. shannon travis, thanks so much. moving on to a look at the alabama primary. senior congressional correspondent dana bash. i'm guessing it's just as warm where you are as where shannon is. >> it's not as warm, actually a nice change. this is the state to watch tonight, primarily because it has the most electoral votes, but also because mitt romney has been doing surprisingly well in recent polls, neck and neck between him and newt gingrich, and rick santorum may be trailing a little bit behind. i'm here in jefferson county because this is the most populist county in the united states. about 20% of the vote will come into this particular county. i'm actually standing outside where we're going to later on see the cars and trucks drive up to this loading dock with the actual ballots. they're going to come in from the 177 precincts from around this county, ashleigh, and they're going to -- right now that doesn't look like much, but behind that door there is actually a vault and that is where the ballots are going to go in and through there is where they're going to be tabulating the results for this very, very important counting of jefferson county here. you talk to mitt romney's people and they admit they have to really run up the votes here. this tends to be a more affluent county where i am, and they need the voters to count up big, but we heard that turnout is pretty low in this county, at least so far today. ashleigh? >> ip thoug thought you were go tell me on that loading dock were the 47 delegates. is it 47 for alabama? >> exactly. 47 for today. >> dana, i can't believe how close -- paul steinhauser always says how knotted up the race is between newt gingrich and mitt romney, i think particularly because i expected rick santorum to be closer into that margin of error. >> reporter: yeah, you know, it is kind of fascinating that rick santorum hasn't necessarily taken off here. i think -- or as well as maybe you would think. part of it is maybe because of a north/south divide. you talk to people down here and they say he just -- he doesn't really connect with the voters and hasn't been connecting with the voters as well as he has in other sort of socially conservative pockets of the country. then again, it is surprising that mitt romney, who also doesn't necessarily connect in talking about cheesy grits -- >> i was just going to say that, cheesy grits. >> exactly. he seemed to be connecting a little bit moran he ce anecdota jobs and employment, and mitt romney has sold himself a little bit more on doing better with those issues. >> there's that sweater vest thing, too. maybe they don't wear a lot of sweater vests in mississippi and alabama. >> i have not sign lot of sweater vests here. >> i am not the least bit surprised, my friend. take care. just two weeks after deadly tornadoes ripped through the northwest. they are not going to be getting any cash from the federal government, and one senator is none too happy about it. dick durbin from illinois standing by live. he'll talk to me about it next. not in my house. with maxwell house french roast, you let gravity do the work. 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[ shapiro ] we created legalzoom to help you take care of the ones you love. go to legalzoom.com today and complete your will in minutes. at legalzoom.com, we put the law on your side. at meineke i have options... like oil changes starting at $19.95. my money. my choice. my meineke. as the state of illinois recovers from a killer tornado and a series of storms that is now facing rejection from the federal government. the federal emergency management agency has shot down that state's requests for funds after the tornadoes hit illinois in late february. i had a chance to be in that area just afterwards. here's some video of my producer and me in the storm. >> we have just entered into an area that's considered under a tornado warning, and so we're watching extremely carefully as we follow in behind a semi. we're looking for an underpass. >> we actually visited the scene of an ef-4 tornado. it is the second most severe, and it hit the harrisburg area where at least six people died and the devastation was ugly, to say the least. the leader of fema said in a letter to the governor the damage wasn't bad enough for the federal government to step in for the state, to use its own resources. handle it on your own. here's more from the head of fema who decides who gets the federal money. >> what will be the unmet needs, particularly how many people didn't have insurance and had those type of impacts, and then we look at that against the entire state and the population of resources of the state to make those determinations. >> joining me now is senator dick durbin of illinois. he's in washington, and i also have meteorologist chad myers standing by in atlanta as well. senator, i'd like to begin with you, if i may. you heard fema's response. they made a clear argument for why the state doesn't qualify. why is that not good enough? >> i was shocked by it. ashleigh, you saw it firsthand. a as you mentioned, it was an ef-4 tornado. i've grown up with tornadoes. i've seen a lot of damage as congressman and senator. 147-mile-an-hour winds ripped the place apart. 70 people lost their lives. i thought for sure we would be declared a devastation area, but apparently not. so i've asked fema to meet with us tomorrow. we want to go through this thing in detail. >> do you think you may have suffered somewhat because of this series of storms just a day or two after the storm that devastated harrisburg, went on to become more damaging and more deadly in the surrounding states? >> i certainly hope not, and i'll tell you why. so far we've had 300 reported tornadoes. for those who don't believe in climate change, they should take notice that last year at this time we had about 50. now we've had over 300. if we're going to do this comparatively and say only the very, very, very worst are going to receive federal declaration, a lot of states are going to be left in terrible devastation. >> there is a lot of debate over whether climate change is the problem here or just happenstance. as the senator talks about damage in illinois, we saw damage in kansas, we saw damage in six or seven states at last count. why so sporadic, where was it worse, and can you shed a little light on why fema would come in and say one state qualifies and one doesn't? >> you know, i don't, and i want to ask the senator more about what he thinks he needs. does he need private money for people to rebuild their homes, or do we need to rebuild the infrastructure of that entire town. but in eight days you are going to experience another outbreak of tornadoes. this is not over. 300 already this year. we're not into spring yet, we're only into the middle of march. a storm gets to your area tuesday into wednesday, so there is more to come. what were the uninsured losses? that's what director fugate was talking about, the uninsured losses and what he thinks the state can handle. what do you think the state can't handle? >> our state is broke. in fact, we're in a deep deficit. we're talking about cutting medicaid coverage for the poorest people in our state. i think that's pretty well known throughout the midwest. so when the senator says the state can rely on its resources, i really want to challenge that. but the bottom line is this, they do a calculation that's compensible, that can be handled by the federal government. it's based on the population of the state. i live in a highly populated state, it's sixth in the nation. so this community and our state may be disadvantaged because of that. >> let me tell you, coming up in eight days from now, the populated part, the much more populated part around chicago, will be under the gun for weather just like this. >> so senator, jump in with me. i always want to ask whether the federal government isn't under an obligation to look at the larger picture. when doling -- i'm told we just lost the senator, unfortunately. chad, if you're still there, maybe you can help me here. >> yes. >> when it comes to the damage, when i was in harrisburg, i have to say i drove into that town very late at night in the dark and thought i was in the wrong place because it looked fine. it looked absolutely fine. i arrived on small pockets of absolute demolition. without question, demolition, but small pockets. my first thought was r, this iso katrina and this is not what i expected. is that part of why fema would come in on that? you had bad pictures but it wasn't full scale. >> the bad pictures where the strip mall was and it was only about half a mile. the southern half of town was damaged beyond belief. the northern part did not hit up there. if you take a look at the town, i'm sure populationwise, more than 50% were definitely affected. seven people died in the storm. so by that town's threshold, certainly it would qualify. but when you look at the size of the state and the number of people paying tax in that state and the people that did not get hurt in that state, the cities that did not get hit, the small fraction of one town wasn't big enough to get by the fema's threshold to get them federal money. but we will be doling out federal money this year. this will be one violent year for tornadoes and hurricanes. >> i'm so sorry we lost you for a short moment there, but i did want to ask you, doesn't the federal government have an obligation to weigh those who may be more in need against those who perhaps are not in as much need? >> there's no question about it, and we haven't said flat out don't even look at the numbers, reverse your ruling, we're going to sit down and go through the numbers. you take into consideration the impact, it's the federal impact, too. you look at the people who spend extra time, firefighters and rescue squads, hospitals and all that. all of that is calculated in. i want a fair calculation here. when i see the damage that you witnessed and i witnessed as well, i find it hard to believe we're not going to make the number. >> i think you're going to be doing some voting today, if i'm not mistaken, is that correct? >> i am. as a matter of fact, i am. >> senator durbin, thank you for taking the time to talk to us and we'll follow this case. closing arguments under way in the case of a student accused of spying on his roommate during a sexual encounter, a roommate who just days later killed himself by jumping off a bridge. today the defense told jurors about a surprise the suspect got on his webcam. it's coming up next. sorry. sore knee. blast of cold feels nice. why don't you use bengay zero degrees? 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[ sigh of relief ] [ short breath ] [ longer breath ] [ short breath ] [ male announcer ] new bengay zero degrees. freeze and move on. is this where we're at now? we just eat whatever tastes good? like these sweet honey clusters... actually there's a half a day's worth of fiber in every ... why stop at cereal? bring on the pork chops and the hot fudge. fantastic. are you done sweetie? yea [ male announcer ] fiber one. ♪ ( whirring and crackling sounds ) man: assembly lines that fix themselves. the most innovative companies are doing things they never could before, by building on the cisco intelligent network. now to the web cam spying trial in new jersey, specifically that case that ended with that rutgers student, tyler clemente, committing suicide by jumping off a bridge. in closing arguments today, the attorney for ravi's roommate said he wasn't ready for what he saw on his web cam, clemente getting intimate with another man. with tyler's family and the defense in the courtroom, he said ravi was acting like a teenager but not acting like a criminal. zeez an 18-year-old boy, a kid, who just graduated high school, who is hett erosexual, hangs ou with guys and girls, and he finds out he has a gay roomie. he hasn't lived long enough to have any experience with homosexuality or gays. he doesn't know anything about it. he just graduated high school. >> dharun ravi is facing 15 counts, including bias and intimidation, which is a hate crime, and also invasion of privacy, among other serious charges. many parents can be critical of who is teaching their kids but perhaps too timid to speak up about it, so one parent had an idea, having kids have a hand on deciding what they learn. >> why did we start a school? well, i think it started with our own conversations about our own educations and knowing how hard it was for us to find our own perfect place in the world, wishing our school had done a different job, better in some ways than it had and wanting to know if there could be a better way to do it. and then maybe doing some research, finding out that there is a bunch of people out there that think there is a possible better way to do things. >> and don't forget to catch cnn's brand new show "the next list" featuring some of america's brightest minds. dr. sanjay gupta hosts. it is on sundays at 2:00 p.m. eastern right here on cnn. the redhead at the center of a hacking investigation is arrested again. but this time the drama includes her husband. what is the story there? it's coming up. and if you lose your smartphone, there's an 89% chance that the person who finds it is going to snoop through your personal information. i'll let you know how we know that, next. look, every day we're using more and more energy. the world needs more energy. where's it going to come from? ♪ that's why right here, in australia, chevron is building one of the biggest natural gas projects in the world. enough power for a city the size of singapore for 50 years. what's it going to do to the planet? natural gas is the cleanest conventional fuel there is. we've got to be smart about this. it's a smart way to go. ♪ if it is interesting and happening right now, you are about to see it. it's rapid fire. let's go. the former editor of rupert murdoch's british tabloid newspaper "news of the world" has been arrest aed a second ti in connection with a phone hacking investigation. the former news editor, rebecca brooks, was among six people arrested on suspicion of conspiracy. her husband, charlie brooks, also arrested according to reports from the wall street journal and sky news. "news of the world" was accused of widespread phone hacking last year and the paper shut down back in july. president obama is talking trade rights today and trying to level the playing field with china. but the big sticking point, something called rare earth elements. what are they? they're used in a loft things like grain products and high tech products. >> we want our companies building those products right here in america. but to do that, american manufacturers need to have access to rare earth materials which china supplies. now, if china would simply let the market work on its own, we would have no objections. but their policies currently are preventing that from happening. and they go against the very rules that china greed to follow. >> the u.s., european union and japan have teamed up to ask the world trade organization to intervene. not what you want to see. explosions and heavy shelling continuing in homs, syria despite opposition activists declaring today a day of mourning across the country. they were asking for businesses and schools to close and for streets to be blocked. meanwhile, it was 36 people were killed by security forces, an opposition group is reporting. an opposition general assembly is now saying nearly 80,000 people have been killed in this conflict and many of them women and children. a delta airlines jet veers off the runway, apparently having some problems with its brakes. skidding off the taxiway today in atlanta. no passengers on board, no injuries, happy to report, but that plane you're looking at on an angle did suffer some significant damage. airline passengers, by the way, are stranded as direct air cancels flights out of the blue. about 50 people stuck last night at a local airport in florida and the passengers were peeved. >> people were very upset because they weren't giving