as the gop nominee to be hoping to win back a state that went for president obama in 2008. and he's hoping hispanics will help him out. our colleague on that story in-depth for us in denver. i mentioned 2008. two thirds of the hispanic vote nationwide went to the democratic ticket but the vote in colorado was closer. does romney see an opening and could that spell a difference, do you think? >> oh, he definitely seeing an opening. both kand date candidates do. 12% to 14% of the overall voterless here in colorado and both sides are going at them. romney, the second trip since basically becoming the nominee, at least, unofficially to colorado. he is in the far west shoring up the business interests today and the latino voters, the swing voters and late deciders they hope to bring over to their side. a pollster here in colorado breaks it down why both candidates are after hispanics here in colorado, new mexico and in nevada. >> these candidates are looking at different pathways to get to 270 electoral votes. clearly, colorado's nine electoral votes on a pathway. the western pathway. colorado, new mexico and nevada. every one of them is close and every one of them has a significant hispanic population. >> reporter: and now here in colorado, the reason that they're chasing him so hard is about 2 million votes are expected to be cast in november of this year. little more than that, but they expect the margin of victory here to be absolutely minuscule. about 40,000 votes. so if you can swing 10% in the hispanic community, 10,000 to 20,000 votes right there and almost made the victory, the win on those votes alone. ky kyra? >> immigration issues, very important to hispanic voters and romney's views are hard line. just putting together a couple of quotes he's made. he pledges to, quoetd, finally secure our southern border. to turn off the magnets such as jobs, driver's licenses, tuition breaks for illegal immigrants and vows to enforce immigration law and opposes amnesty which he calls just another mag netd. how are hispanics responding to this? >> reporter: this is going to be a big problem for them out here. he will have to figure out how to get back to the center and highlight those parts of his politics or his policy that is are more friendly to hispanics here. hispanics see immigration as part of a bigger picture, as part of the economy, the biggest concern is economy and that's what romney will hit hard and education but they see immigration as part and parcel of those things. if people fear being deported as they believe romney wants to do, people are less apt to stay here, less apt to spend money here and start businesses here and going to hurt the economy so the economy's number one, education, immigration is a huge keystone issue for a lot of hispanics here and want to see both candidates address it before they make their decisions. >> thanks so much. mitt romney hits another western swing state later today. he'll be in las vegas with donald trump. later this hour, we'll be deep in the heart of texas with the cnn express. new concerns of tuna caught off california's cost contaminating with radiation of japan's nuclear accident. scientists say small amounts of radiation were detected in 15 bluefin tuna caught near san diego last august. five months after the chemical cesium was released. scientists say that the amount of it is well below levels considered dangerous for human consumption. just in, the state department expelled a syrian diplomat. he was told that he and his family have 72 hours to leave the u.s. we found out about this after canada, britain and france took similar measures. coordinated action following a weekend massacre in the syrian town of hula. more on this coming up at 11:30 a.m. another earthquake hits northern italy, killing at least 12 people. a frantic search is under way for the people believed to be trapped inside the rubble of all of these collapsed buildings and homes. this is the same region by the way near bologna struck just nine days ago. barbie, what's the latest? >> reporter: well, the death toll according to unconfirmed reports is 15 at this point and 7 known people missing. searching the rubble of the collapsed buildings and especially the factories where people had arrived at work at 9:00 this morning when the earthquake took place. at least now 12,000 people are homeless. there were 7,000 people displaced from the earthquake last week and we have added to that to a figure of 12,000 people. they don't have enough tents, they don't have enough sup ploois. protection agency is having a nightmare calling from other communities within italy and surrounding area to try to help out to get people to safe place to sleep tonight. there have been 800 aftershocks since the may 20th earthquake and the people are terrified. they don't want to sleep anywhere but get out of there and that's what the people -- the civil protection people are dealing with right now. >> what can you tell us about -- because obviously, this is the same region. what's been the biggest difference between the quake nine days ago and this one? >> reporter: the biggest difference is basically the timing. the quake last week happened at 4:00 in the morning. people were still in the beds. businesses were empty. the quake this morning at 9:00 and a lot of people were in their place of work, including the people that perished in the factories that collapsed and a parrish priest, the dome collapsed on the church and he lost his life in that. the timing was not good logistically for the people. a lot of people are in these buildings repairing damage of last week, as well. that added to the problem here. >> barbie, thanks so much. we'll continue to follow this with you. today's quake was the worst to hit italy since 2009 when an earthquake killed nearly 300 people. of all the times i've been live in iraq -- >> this is the south pole. ♪ how are things on the west coast? ♪ ♪ i hear you... ♪ rocky mountain high ♪ rocky, rocky mountain high ♪ ♪ all my exes live in texas ♪ ♪ born on the bayou [ female announcer ] the perfect song for everywhere can be downloaded almost anywhere. ♪ i'm back, back in the new york groove ♪ [ male announcer ] the nation's largest 4g network. covering 2,000 more 4g cities and towns than verizon. rethink possible. really? 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[ major nutrition ] ensure high protein... ensure! nutrition in charge! there are a lot of warning lights and sounds vying for your attention. so we invented a warning.. you can feel. introducing the all new cadillac xts, available with the patented safety alert seat. when there is danger you might not see, you're warned by a pulse in the seat. it's technology you won't find in a mercedes e-class. the all new cadillac xts has arrived. and it's bringing the future forward. a quick note for you. if you're heading out the door, continue to watching cnn from the mobile phone or if you're heading to work, watch from the desktop. go to cnn.com/tv. all right. receipts, snacks, carry-ones. when does it end? when we fly, we pay. there's going to be another fee. now the tsa wants you to pay even more. cnn's aviation correspondent lizzie o'leary has the details. >> reporter: take two things that many travelers love to hate. the tsa and ticket fees. now add them together. >> what is it that's prompting them to ask for more money? >> reporter: the agent backed by democrats in the senate wants to increase the security fee everyone pays for the ticket. from $2.50 a flight to $5 one way. $10 round trip. >> $10 is a limit. i guess $5 more but i'm wondering, you know, how that fits in with -- they have a budget. >> reporter: tsa's budget like many in washington is set to be cut and democrats say it helps to cover the cost of security like the scanners. the fee isn't hiked in ten years. >> straight ahead. enjoy your flight. >> thank you. >> reporter: but a powerful lobby is pushing against it. airlines. they don't want the cost shifted on to their customers. >> air security is a national security function and it's something that all of us need to be behind as americans and the government should be picking up the cost of that. >> reporter: many travelers we talked to didn't mind. >> i would say it's like using a toll road. if you use the toll road, you pay the toll. >> as long as it makes us secure. >> reporter: but they want to know it's money well spent. does increasing the fee increase the level of security tsa can provide? >> it means that tsa's budget will be a little less likely to get cut just to save money in the overall deficit reduction effort. so, in that regard, it's useful. it's also useful if you can tell where the benefits go. for a particular program. then the people who get the benefits generally should pay for it. >> so lizzie, what exactly happens if the fee isn't increased? >> reporter: well, this is really an open question right now, kyra. you know, number one, tsa says there are a lot of things to do more with less. number two, this is coming up and been defeated multiple times. right now, senate democrats voted to approve this. the full senate got to weigh in over on the house side saying no way. if this happens, they would like to see sort of equal cuts come from somewhere else in the federal budget to offset that and cut some various sort of social programs and right now it's a bit of an open question. what happens next? like many things in washington, it comes down to two competing agendas in congress. >> now the political fight. correct? >> reporter: exactly. >> yep. all right. lizzie, thanks so much. if you're wondering, the average price for domestic airline ticket last year was $355. ahh, now that's a clean mouth. i wish i could keep it this way. [ dr. rahmany ] after a dental cleaning, plaque quickly starts to grow back. but new crest pro-health clinical plaque control reduces plaque and is clinically proven to help keep it from coming back. new crest pro-health clinical plaque control toothpaste. political, cultural and sporting icons heading to the white house today. the president obama is honoring them with the freedom of medal. the 13 who will receive the highest civilian honor. white house correspondent brianna keilar joining us. what can we expect from today's ceremony? >> reporter: this is a ceremony in the east room where president obama will welcome most of the recipients, some of them awarded this honor posthumously. a number will be here for what's the highest civilian honor that president obama bestroes. john glen, the first american to orbit the earth. at 77, the oldest person to go in to space. pat summit, the former coach of lady vols stepping down from the career as the all-time winni winningest ncaa and madeline albright, first female secretary of state and bob dylan, he is being honored in part for the impact that his music had on the civil rights movement. kyra, i mentioned some of these awards being given out posthumously. one to juliet gordon-lowe who passed away in the '20s but the founder of the girl scouts and it is the 100th anniversary of the family of the girl scouts and part of the reason she's being honored here today. >> full disclosure, were you a girl scout? >> reporter: of course. absolutely. yes. >> very good. i only made it to brownies and girl scouts and did as much as i could fill up the patches. shimone perez, also, interesting timing. >> reporter: we knew that he was going to receive this award. we have known for some time but, yeah, the timing is interesting because as the u.s., as president obama urges israel to use restraint as the u.s. and other allieies try to convince iran to abandon the nuclear program, he's looked to perez. he has a ceremonial position as president and a foil to prime minister netanyahu. perez supported president obama and his israel policy, so certainly, looking to him as a friend and giving him the award today but he won't be here. he's the one person living who will not be at the white house to accept the award today. >> brianna keilar at the white house this afternoon, thank you. the ceremony about 3:25 eastern time and watch it here on cnn or on the desktop at cnn.com. all right. take you live to craig, colorado. mitt romney campaigning, hoping to win that state. talking about the economy. >> now, his campaign, these days, is trying to find a twig to hang on to. some little excuse they can grab. they say, look, things are a little better, aren't they? yeah. things are a little better in a lot of places in this country but not thanks to his policies. it is in spite of his policies. every recession ultimately coming to an end but you'd expected the deep recession to come back to an aggressive turnaround and it didn't happen. this president's policies made it harder for america to get on its feet again. you know why. you go through them one by one. that stimulus he put in place. didn't help private sector jobs but government jobs and the one place to cut back was on government jobs. we have 145,000 more government workers under this president. let's send them home and put you back to work. [ applause ] and then there was obama care. does anyone -- my sentiment exactly. does anyone think that obama care made it easier for employers to hire people and put them to work? and then there was dodd-frank. i spoke with an auto dealer this morning. he said it makes it harder for him to get loans for people. i listened to a banker this morning. he said it makes it harder to make loans and small businesses to get going. do you think it helped our economy to get going again? and then there was an effort to impose unions on businesses and employees that didn't want them. by having quicky elections and the right to a secret ballot. this microphone is -- i think the obama administration worked -- do you think -- do you think imposing unions where employees don't want them is helping create jobs in this country? and then there was his tax plan. he wants to raise the marginal tax rate from 35% to 40%. when i spoke to frank and carrie this morning, they told me their business is not taxed at the corporate tax level. it's instead taxed at the individual tax level. they pay taxes in their business as an individual. so when you raise the individual tax rate -- i'm losing sound here, aren't i? i tell you. these batteries were made by washington, d.c. bureaucrats, i can tell. when you raise the individual tax rates, you make it harder for them to keep money in the business. they said it was possible to recarpet the rooms in the hotel. there we go. made it more likely -- there you go. there's a republican microphone there. >> all right. not quite sure where the mike issues are coming from but we are following mitt romney in craig, colora. monitoring everything he says right now talking about the economy, jobs, hoping, of course, to win over the voters in that state. there are a lot of warning lights and sounds vying for your attention. so we invented a warning.. you can feel. introducing the all new cadillac xts, available with the patented safety alert seat. when there is danger you might not see, you're warned by a pulse in the seat. it's technology you won't find in a mercedes e-class. the all new cadillac xts has arrived. and it's bringing the future forward. in the latino communityr retirement. the word that we use is jubilation. as you're getting older, you should be able to do the things that you love. feels like summer. a lot of us are thinking about one thing. vacation. alison kosik with tips on how to find the best hotel deals. what's out there? >> reporter: you know what? getting more expensive to stay at the average hotel. the expected cost of an overnight stay at a hotel this year is averaging around $107. up 5% from last year so the experts and "consumer reports" got tips for the best deal on the stay and maybe best to call the hotel directly and see if you work out a better deal. a survey found 78% of those who tried bargaining with the hotel got an upgrade or a lower rate and don't forget to ask about specials that aren't advertised and remember that most chains and hohn line travel sites will try to match you if you find a better rate somewhere else. a lot of homework to do but it's certainly worth it in the end. kyra? >> anything else besides haggle? >> reporter: yeah. "consumer reports" noted estimated $1.8 billion in hotel fees and surcharges last year. check if there's resort fees which can run between $20 and $50 a day or early check-in or late departure fees and mini bar fees and get charged for even if you don't use those amenities like the mini bar. kyra? >> what else? anything else out there discountwise while i have you? >> reporter: yes. if you're loyal to a chain, see if they have a rewards program to join and discounts for room upgrades and many places offer discounts if you're a member of the military, you're a government employee or you're an aaa member and even your age, yeah, that could land you a deal. some lower priced hotels may offer a discount for older guests, as well. so there you go. tips to get you extra cash in the pocket for that fun summer vacation. kyra? >> alison, thanks. now a check of the markets. dow industrials up 137 points. when you have diabetes... your doctor will say get smart about your weight. i tried weight loss plans... but their shakes aren't always made for people with diabetes. that's why there's glucerna hunger smart shakes. they have carb steady, with carbs that digest slowly to help minimize blood sugar spikes. and they have six grams of sugars. with fifteen grams of protein to help manage hunger... look who's getting smart about her weight. 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