one person has been killed. officials say things are looking better than they thought, though. but at this point, the fire has not been contained. and florida and the federal government are suing each other over an effort to purge the state's voting rolls of ineligible voters. the justice department says purge violates federal voting rights laws. now governor rick scott says florida is suing the government. he says the state needs access to a database that will help identify people who should be removed from the voting rolls. >> the homeland security has been stone walling to give us a database we're entitled to. we've been asking for months. it will give us, make sure we do it the right way and so we were put in a position where we had no choice but to sue homeland security to get that database to make sure that your right as a citizen is not diluted by somebody that's a non-u.s. citizen illegally voting in our state. >> as you hear right there, governor scott says this is all about making sure noncitizens don't get to vote. critics, though, say the effort unfairly targets minorities. are you feeling poorer these das? if you are, you are not alone. that's because the typical american family lost 40% of its wealth in three years. yes, 40% gone. that amounts to 18 years of family savings and investment. alison kosik joining me again from new york. not good news. this is a pretty stunning number. what's being pegged as the main culprit of all this, i guess? >> you know what the biggest reason is, kate? your home. home values just tumbled. your home is considered your biggest asset. also, there's massive layoffs that happened throughout the past several years. they took away income. then, of course, you pile on all those unrealized capital gains, k declining value of mutual funds, retirement accounts. that fell more than 10% in the 3 years. that was a result of the recession. you know what, this happened to everybody. whether they were young, old, educated, not educated. in all parts of the country. it is getting a little better since 2010. housing values are coming back. but still any way you cut it a typical american family is poorer today than before the recession. >> i'm sure that's not a surprise to many american families to hear that. when you're talking about -- we're talking at worth, wealth, what about how much families are makes, about income? >> exactly. you saw that fall as well. the fed said the decline was the biggest among highly educated families who live in the south and the west regions of the country. guess what? how unemployment was the biggest factor. of course, there's no job, there's no income. then you saw the jobless rates rise because you see the jobless rate was at 5% at the end of 2007 and spiked to 9.4% at the end of 2010. today it's sitting at 8.2%. the fed also said incomes fell for families who run farms, small businesses, or are self-employed. of course, all of this is another result of the economic downturn. kate, you know, it's going to take years for families to recover from the recession. you know, others may never get that net worth back. kate? >> alison kosik at the new york stock exchange. thanks so much, alison. >> sure. authorities in alabama say the reward for information leading to a triple murder suspect is up to $30,000. the manhunt continues after police surrounded and searched a house for more than six hours. they're looking for 22 year esmonte leonard accused of killing three people at an off campus party near auburn university. the dead include two former auburn football players. police say they're determined to get their suspect. >> if he's watching i want him to realize this. doesn't matter where he's at. we have the fbi on this case, the u.s. marshals, we'll find him. we will bring him back to auburn, alabama. he will be incarp racerated som point at taken to jail. >> david mattingly has been following developments for us. pretty amazing. they were at the house. did they come up empty handed? what happened? >> they did come up empty handed. they feel like it's possible they just missed him authori. authorities are defending their actions because of the tremendous amount of manpower and time they spent at this house. today they were saying they got three credible calls directing them to that house. two of them in particular, one was from a man who says he dropped the suspect off at that house. another came from a woman who owns the house saying she came home and saw him on her couch. so they acted on those two calls. got there they say within 15 or 20 minutes of the call but he wasn't there. they didn't know that when they went in. they say they went in, they did everything by the book. very slowly to make sure nobody got hurt. and that's why they were there so long. they thought they heard someone coughing, moving around in the attic. so they lobbed some tear gas in there. now today they say they have a situation of cleanup to do at the house, still have officers there but he was not at that house. >> they still don't have the man they're looking for. when you think about just this whole case, it is absolutely a parent's nightmare. you send wyour kid off to college. you do not expect them to end up dead after an off campus party. walk us through what kind of unfolded at this party and i guess i don't know, does the suspect have a connection to the actual university? >> no. what we're looking at here was an unofficial off campus apartment complex. there was a very casual pool party going on at the time. there were two men there who were approached by a couple other men who confronted them, started arguing with them about a woman. from that, the argument turned into a fistfight. from there, shots were fired and that's when people got killed. among the three that were dead were two former auburn football players. they weren't a part of this at all. they were just victims of what police chief there describes as a brutal shooting. and there was one other auburn player among the wounded. he was treated and released and there's still one person who was wounded there, shot in the head who is in the hospital right now. the family doesn't want any information released about his condition. >> you said you were following these press conferences by the authorities. what are their next steps? are they waiting for more leads? obviously they're not tipping their hand probably. >> they say they're still going forward just as they always were, but as far as their actions last night, they're defending themselves saying we did everything right. we were acting on information that we had. we acted the way we should have, thinking there was a man who was accused of a triple homicide hiding in that house. and they said if it happened again tomorrow they'd do the same thing again. but right now, they're having to do a lot of explaining about why they didn't get the guy. >> and all the while, three people dead, two, you know, we think we're showing some pictures behind us of some of the victims. three people dead, three others wounded. still they do not have their man yet. >> right. >> david mattingly, keep following it. we want to know how this ends up. >> thanks. >> thanks, david. here's what we're working on for this hour. trapped for nine days. after a devastating blizzard. this couple survived by soaking up heat from natural hot springs. plus, a high stakes game of chicken. and a major u.s. city is caught in the middle. why a lawsuit has detroit on the brink of bankruptcy. and the search for black holes. nasa wants to shed some light on the darkest and most mysterious parts of the universe. sorry. sore knee. blast of cold feels nice. why don't you use bengay zero degrees? 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[ male announcer ] time tot! check your air conditioning? come to meineke now and get a free ac system check. meineke. we have the coolest customers. new details now about hosni mubarak's health. a government spokesman says the former egyptian president is clinging to life and slipping in and out of consciousness. the 84-year-old is in a prison hospital. he's serving a life sentence for his role in the killing of pro democracy demonstrators last year. the spokesman say says mubarak's two sons are beside him and his wife visited him today. and thousands of people are protesting in the streets of moscow. they want to get rid of russian president vladimir putin but putin is putting his tough guy image to work it appears. he's cracking down on the crowds and the protest leaders. our phil black checks in with the crowds. >> reporter: a big crowd. it has been a long, slow shuffle along the narrow moscow road known as the boulevard. this is the latest protest against vladimir putin and his continued leadership of russia to become regular events in moscow over the last six months and again tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets to show how unhappy they are with the state of democracy in this country. but this one's taking place in a slightly different context. if is the first since vladimir putin's inauguration as president and first since he recently signed into law new rules which strictly control the behavior of large demonstrations like this and punish violations with very big fines. those new laws are being interpreted by human rights activists and leaders of this opposition movement as an attempt to stifle this opposition's movement from growing any larger. and, again, only yesterday russian police raided the homes of the most prominent members of the movement. they say they're investigating the violence which took place at the last big rally back in may, but, again, it is being interpreted as an attempt to intimidate and persuade people it's not a good idea to join these marches. that last rally back in may on the eve of putin's inauguration was violent. it was when a huge crowd like this came up against several strong lines of police in full riot gear. the result was clashes, hundreds of arrests and dozens of injuries. today we have seen a lot of police, though not many in full riot gear, and behavior of the crowd has been absolutely peaceful. phil black, cnn, moscow. so imagine surviving a snowstorm in the new zealand mountains by soaking up heat from natural hot springs and sleeping in hammock tents. does not sound like vacation for many. for nine days that's what alec brown and erica clintworth of wisconsin did. they're studying in new zealand and decided to take a camping trip in the mountains. a nasty storm hit. they toughed it out in the rain and snow rashing tra irationing. >> it's pretty much the river ran through, an island in the middle. the main river ran through one side. the other side was more of a floodplain where the hot water came out of. we had to dig away some of the rocks and make ourselves a pool. it was really nice and hot. nice, clean water. a great place to be stranded in a blizzard. >> and how long were you spending in that hot water each day? >> pretty much as soon as we got up maybe around like 9:00 or 10:00 we got in and got out. some days it was around 5:00 or 6:00 when it started to get dark. other days it was until maybe 9:00 or 10:00. >> they were able to make it out on their own but not before a search and rescue was under way to find them. here's new zealand reporter jessica row. >> reporter: the rescue helicopter hones in on the spot where wisconsin couple alec brown and erica clintworth toughed out last week's big snowstorm by lying in natural hot pools. but they reject criticism they were unprepared. >> we were wearing hoodies and, like, just not the type of thing you want to be wearing and have when you're stuck in a mountain storm. but i think when it came down to it we were a lot more prepared than everybody thought. >> reporter: they were hiking the river when the bad weather came in, the snow came down thick and fast and temperatures dropped as low as minus 8 degrees. unable to cross the swollen river the couple was stranded. they hunkered down, keeping warm by sleeping in a hammock tent and spending hour after hour in the natural hot springs. >> clearly we were pretty comfortable where we were and survived it no problem. we had all the right gear to get through it and have clean, fresh water and stay warm and dry. >> reporter: it was not until yesterday that river levels dropped low enough for them to safely cross and walk out of the brush by themselves. west coast search and rescue coordinator sergeant john chad says it could have been avoided if they had been properly prepared for the forecast. >> it's frustrating. a lot of work gone into this operation. taxpayer dollars, the use of the helicopter and obviously the search and rescue volunteers we used. a lot of the time has been used up b the weekend and perhaps needlessly. >> reporter: the couple spent last night, and are expected back in christchurch this evening. jessica row, 3 news. a dingo took the baby. 32 years after an australian mother's frantic cries about a wild dog grabbing her child, the cause of death is now official. and while that leaves a little room for balls and tees, it doesn't leave room for much else. there's no room left for deadlines or conference calls. not a single pocket to hold the stress of the day, or the to-do list of tomorrow. only 14 clubs pick up the right one and drive it right down the middle of pure michigan. your trip begins at michigan.org. [ male announcer ] for our families... our neighbors... and our communities... america's beverage companies have created a wide range of new choices. developing smaller portion sizes and more low- & no-calorie beverages... adding clear calorie labels so you know exactly what you're choosing... and in schools, replacing full-calorie soft drinks with lower-calorie options. with more choices and fewer calories, america's beverage companies are delivering. disturbing new accounts coming from syria today. children are being tortured, beaten, and used as human shields. that's according to a new report from the united nations. the report says children whose parents are suspected dissidents are being whipped with electric cables, scarred by cigarettes, even in one case subjected to electric shock to the genitals. report comes as clashes move to the capital city of damascus. our ivan watson reports. >> reporter: this is a syrian rebel ambush. a roadside bomb hitting a convoy of buses carrying syrian troops. the rebel's camera captures soldiers running for cover in the suburb of duma a few miles from damascus. the sound of fierce fighting echoing across damascus at night has shattered the security bubble in the capital. syria experts say the battle for syria's two largest cities has begun. >> we've seen events pick up on the ground with more and more clashes occurring in area of the country which the regime seemed to control in particular the larger city, elepo, the country's economic capital, if you will, and the administrative capital, damascus. in both places we've seen not just more armed clashes than ever in the past but also a revival of the protest movement in its peaceful dimension. >> reporter: a secretly filmed activist video shows the historic hamadea bazar in the heart of damascus shuttered. a massacre in the village of hula allegedly by pro government militia. >> this is really a very strong signal suggesting the historical alliance between the regime and business establishment of the capital is at least partially broken. >> reporter: the strike spread to neighborhoods in allepo, prompting government troops to lash out and force merchants to reopen their shops. >> what we see see is a regime whose narrative boiled down to us or chaos, but increasingly what we see is them and chaos. the regime has been incapable of imposing law and order. >> reporter: more than a year of violence compounded by economic sanctions is taking its toll on ordinary syrians. prices of basic commodities and fuel have skyrocketed. activist journalists sent us this video of a woman, complaining that she can only afford to feed her children rotting onions and stale bread warmed over a wood fire because she can't afford to buy cooking fuel. the syrian regime is still far from defeated. it still has fervent supporters and vastly better weapons than the rebels. but with its soldiers now using the main sports stadium in damascus as a staging ground, the image of a government in control has started to crack. ivan watson, cnn, istanbul. they were scolded by the catholic church, now some american nuns are taking their case all the way to the vatican. and don't forget, you can watch cnn live on your computer while you are at work. don't feel bad about it. it's important to watch. head to cnn.com/tv. if you are one of the millions of men who have used androgel 1%, there's big news. presenting androgel 1.62%. both are used to treat men with low testosterone. androgel 1.62% is from the makers of the number one prescribed testosterone replacement therapy. it raises your testosterone levels, and... is concentrated, so you could use less gel. and with androgel 1.62%, you can save on your monthly prescription. 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