an 11-year-old boy spoke to cnn about what he witnessed firsthand. the united nations is blaming the majority of the hula deaths on a group of armed men who are loyal to syrian president assad saying the militia went house to house to carry out executions. turkey is joining 11 other nations to expel syrian diplomats in response to the syrian killings. but not everyone is united. china and russia continue to resist calls for military intervention, this despite a report saying a ship loaded with weapons was scheduled to arrive in syria last weekend sent from russia. vladimir putin is asaad's arms dealer. say assad bought nearly 5 billion in weapons in the past decade. so now, the question is what can be done to end syria's 15 months of violence and which country will be the one to lead the effort? joining me now is james spidermarx. so, some u.s. lawmakers said the united states should take the lead and involve itself militarily. why is syria different than let's say libya. syria certainly had a greater population, a smaller piece of geography, therefore, it's a lot more urbanized and it becomes a very entangled and tough target to go against. unlike libya that had pocket of e resistance that were spread out and there seemed to be at some point, a unified opposition against gadhafi. so that answer to the question in terms of the difference between those two. in other words, it's a tougher nut to crack, a harder problem and would entangle us greatly. >> when you say something shouldn't be done, what is that something that should be done? >> well, clearly, what has to happen is the united, let's take it from the top and work our way down. united states is going to lose in this particular confrontation if russia brokers the deal to try to get assad to step aside. russia then is the peacemaker, russia owns the cards and have now caused this great con fill in syria to go away. they have increased their stature relative to the united states. this administration knows that very well and it becomes a very, very thin line if the administration to walk. does it allow this administration to make moves, the risks are high, the tarkts's a lot tougher, but can they allow russia to take a lead in this instance? >> well, there are political issues to consider, too. >> well, there always are. >> most of the american public are not interested in taking on another military intervention anywhere in the world, so that really puts the obama administration in a tough place, doesn't it? >> it does. let's move our focus a little bit oth east and look at iran for a second. iran holds sway in the area of the middle east through syria. if assad goes away, iran becomes increasingly do you achieve that without getting involved in syria and trying to accelerate? what's the accelerant for assad to go away? >> general spider marks, thank you for joining us this morning. >> thanks, carol. >> you're welcome. the jury in the edwards' corruption trial will go at it for an eighth day. the judge caused a stir in the courtroom yesterday when she announced the jury has sent a note that they reached a good stopping point. she meant it as a joke. earlier she reminded jurors not to talk about the trial in small groups or outside of the jury room. edwards is accused of using campaign money to conceal his affair with rielle hunter. we'll have a live update at 10:00 eastern time in about 50 minutes. reports of a tornado have not been substantiated in oklahoma city but the north side of the city was violently pelted with hail last night. some of the hail was more than four inches thick. our affiliate koco reports the storm damaged several homes and left 63,000 people without power and flooded several roads. the pilot of a small plane had to make an emergency landing after his plane's propeller fell off. here it is on a man's roof in california. it's about 75 miles east of san francisco. the pilot landed the plane in a field. he's okay. the homeowner told affiliate kxtv he wants to trade the propeller for new roof. one day there may be an ipad or iphone manufactured within the united states and not in china. that's what apple ceo tim cook says he would like to see but it may not be so easy to do. >> will there be an apple product ever made again in the united states? >> i want there to be. >> will it say on the back of an apple product designed in california, assembled in the united states? >> it may. it may. even though it doesn't say that today, you could put down there several parts are from the united states. >> alison kosik is at the new york stock exchange. so will we ever see a day in the near future that iphones and ipads are made and assembled here in the good old usa. >> first step is discussion and you saw that happening there. apple was sort of making some buzz worthy comments through ceo tim cook. he was at this conference called all things digital yesterday. he said that he hopes that one day you'll see an apple product actually manufactured here in the u.s. of course the company has faced a ton of criticism about its plants in china and the working conditions there especially those operated by apple supplier foxcon. cook pointed out that certain components like chip and glass for iphone and ipad are made right here in america but the problem is it is much more expensive to hire u.s. workers here and there's also this sense that we're not so up to speed in certain areas with critics saying the u.s. doesn't have a strong electronics manufacturing hub. now cook also spent a lot of time at this conference talking about former ceo steve jobs who died in october. specifically he talked about how important it is to keep forging ahead. >> at some point late last year or i sort of somebody kind of shook me and said it's time to get on and so that sadness was replaced with this intense determination to continue the journey. and that's where it is today. so what did i learn from him? i learned we could be here all night and probably all week and maybe a month. i learned that focus is key. >> cook went on to say that in final days jobs told him to do just what's right and don't worry about what he would have done. i'm thinking easier said than done, right, carol? >> that's for sure. alison kosik at the new york stock exchange. the first lady, michelle obama, appeared on the daily show with jon stewart to talk about her new cookbook but was grilled about recent reports detailing president obama's pot smoking habits in high school. >> we're reading these stories now about your husband in high school and in college and when you met him -- >> what was he doing? >> what is that a description of a cheech and chong movie. what's going on? he had already sown those and was done? >> by the time he was in college like so many young people, he realized that he could do more with his life. he had a mother that was always saying you're so gifted. you're so talented. slapping him in the back of the head get yourself together. >> during the campaign for president, mr. obama admitted to smoking pot and inhaling because that was the point. still ahead, doritos, cheetos under attack by the drug cartel and being firebombed by masked men. a party? 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while brushing misses germs in 75% of your mouth, listerine cleans virtually your entire mouth. so take your oral health to a whole new level. listerine... power to your mouth. so take your oral health to a whole new level. you do a lot of no.aking? look i'm going through the rapids. okay... i'll take it. sync your card with facebook, foursquare and twitter for savings. that's the membership effect of american express. the new taurus is going to blow people away... starting with the guys who built it. i haven't driven it yet. i'm going to try take it easy and warm up slowly. hi. do you get car sick or anything? no, is that a challenge? no, no. so with the 2013 taurus i can pretty much voice command anything. pretty much. you're going to be able to change your radio station, make a phone call. all that you can do with just the sound of your voice. all of it? all of it. never have to take your hands off the wheel. never have to take your hands off the wheel... which is good when you're iving. ha ha ha. florida are hispanics. it's a critical significant voting block come november. but who they're going to vote for is not necessarily a given. patrick enjoys a good zbrar at his local establishment. he's a democrat and not a republican. he says the issue that will decide how many hispanics in florida will vote is not what you might think. >> immigration at the end of the day doesn't affect many voting hispanics. schools affect them. social security effects them. medicaid. medicare. all of these other issues affect them. jobs, jobs. >> stereotyping florida's nearly 1.5 million registered hispanic voters as focused on only hot button issues like gay marriage, communist cuba or immigration is long. perez says there's no question about it. >> do it in small batches you receive a product roasted every week fresh. >> reporter: he owns a small business in orlando. he hears and overhears a lot. >> it boils down to the economy. getting people to work. >> reporter: and getting them out to vote. the interstate 4 corridor between tampa, orlando and daytona beach is split nearly 50-50 republican and democrat. with a large voting block of cuban americans in tampa and puerto ricans in orlando. perez himself is 50-50. half cuban and have puerto rican. >> it's amazing. they got a strong opinion but you ask them, i am tired of it. whatever political party can get those particular folks out to vote probably can win or lose. >> reporter: that may come down to which candidate does a better job at courtship. >> the issues are clearly economic like they are for everyone else. but hispanic really like to be appealed to. they love for candidates to come to their fiestas and to events at their churches and to speak a few words in spanish but not look fake about it. >> reporter: there are specific issues that will sway some. cuban american hernandez says one such issue was obama's administration granting raul cast castro's daughter permission to attend a conference in san francisco. >> i don't like obama before and now worse. >> reporter: some hot button issue could gain enough traction between now and november to turn florida's hispanic vote one way or the other. absent that, it will be as patrick says, jobs, jobs, jobs. now, in miami's little havana of course the cuban american community very likely to vote heavily for the republicans in the general election. but others are saying that not so fast. you know, whether it's mitt romney or whether it's obama, they may wait until just before the november election to make up their minds, carol? >> not so unusual for any kind of voter. john zarrella reporting live from miami this morning. the singer marry j. blige thinks no more drama but her charity is dealing with legal drama. she's now responding.s buy mos. 1% cash back everywhere, every time. 2% on groceries. 3% on gas. automatically. no hoops to jump through. no annual fee. that's 1% back on... wow! 2% on my homemade lasagna. 3% back on [ friends ] road trip!!!!!!!!!!!! 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"showbiz tonight's" a.j. hammer joins me to talk about her legal drama and what she has to say about it. hi, a.j. >> on the surface it looks like another well intentioned celebrity charity that was mismanaged. the charity failed to file federal tax returns for 2010 and has been sued by musicians who claim the group stiffed them after 2011 fund-raising gala. they reportedly are suing for more than $100,000. "showbiz tonight" can confirm there's also this second lawsuit from td bank which accuses the charity of defaulting on a loan. fawn, which stands for foundation for the advancement of women now doesn't just have blige's name attached to it. fax designer is listed and sean carter as board members. jada pickett smith served on the board of directors in 2009. >> what's mary j. blige saying about this? >> she issued a statement to "showbiz tonight" saying she's trying to get to the bottom of what's happening and acknowledging that ultimately she's responsible for whatever has gone wrong. she says that she had the wrong people working for her and now they're trying to fix it. ffawn is not closing down and working as quickly as possible with a new team of experts. their goal is to get the foundation back on track and rectify outstanding issues and make good on all of ffawn's obligations. good that she's stepping up and doing the right thing here. >> a.j., thanks. a.j. biwill be back with more showbiz headlines including a letter to his ex-wife and whether it will be sold at auction. some of the best name brand snacks. now in the mexican drug war. we'll tell you why. in seasons to come, they are first and foremost her people so wherever she goes, they follow. at the same time, as she's traveling through many different lands there are other languages that she comes across. >> we have other languages coming up on the show that need to be invented and we hope that david will do those for us as well. >> personally i would love to create projects for tv shows and movies. that's kind of the dream of everybody who sits down to create a language. this country was built by working people. the economy needs manufacturing. machines, tools, people making stuff. companies have to invest in making things. infrastructure, construction, production. we need it now more than ever. chevron's putting more than $8 billion dollars back in the u.s. economy this year. in pipes, cement, steel, jobs, energy. we need to get the wheels turning. i'm proud of that. making real things... for real. ...that make a real difference. ♪ there it is ! there it is ! where ? where ? it's getting away ! where is it ? it's gone. we'll find it. any day can be an adventure. that's why we got a subaru. love wherever the road takes you. wow, there it is. 45 minutes past the hour. checking our top stories, mitt romney has enough delegates to become the republican nominee for president. last night he won the texas primary. that put him over the top. still not official until the republican national convention. that is set for late august in tampa. romney will be the first mormon to become a presidential nominee for a major party. police are conducting an arson investigation at washington state university. there was more water damage from the sprinklers than fire damage at mccoy hall. investigators believe the suspect smashed a window to break into the building and then set the fire. this is the third suspicious fire on campus in a week. eighth day of jury deliberations in the john edwards' corruption trial. the judge caused quite a stir in the courtroom yesterday when she announced the jury had send a note that reached a good stopping point. she was just joking. earlier she reminded jurors not to talk about the trial in small groups or outside of the juryroom. edwards is accused of using campaign money to conceal his affair with rielle hunter. we'll have a live update for you in about 11 minutes. mexican drug cartels are turning their attention to a rather unlikely but well known u.s. brand, cheetos. >> it's not easy being cheesy. >> cheetos snacks. >> you remember the face of cheetos. and now cheetos along with other american made products are caught up in the violence in mexico as cartels target big american companies. thanks for being here, raphael. why are they targeting american companies? >> no information that they are targeting this company because it's american or they have a beef with pepsico. in mexico it is the brand name that people know so there's no indication they are making that connection yet. however, it is a huge company in mexico. it dominates the market. it is certainly something of concern not only for the government but for the business sector that organized crime can launch this kind of an attack. we're talking about five distribution centers in two mexican states in southern mexico. four suspects have been arrested already and they say they belong to a cartel known as knights templer. they are very concerned about this and spoke about how this is not only a threat to security but also to the business -- to the economy in mexico. >> why would drug cartels target these big companies? what's the goal? >> officially what the government is saying is that it's another attempt to extort businesses. this has happened in mexico for the last five years if not more. normally it happens with small businesses and not with this kind of international company but it's happened before. what is new is that it could be extortion but it also may be because mexican security forces use delivery trucks similar to the ones used here to transport weapons and personnel to where they fight organized crime. >> your chance to talk back. a big story of the day. the question for you this morning. should the u.s. get militarily involved in syria? facebook.com/carolcnn. 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