With Martin Savidge, who is in for fredricka whitfield. I will hand it off. Thank you very much. Nice to see you. Lets get started. It is the top of the hour. Welcome to the cnn newsroom. Im Martin Savidge in for fredricka whitfield. Here are the top stories at this hour. New details about that disturbing rape case in a small town of subenville, ohio. Last hour city leaders talked about their investigation. Early in the case during the first week after we were made ware of this incident, we obtained this video. I, too, as all my officers who investigated this, were appalled by these morally inept statements made. The new prosecutors, special prosecutors for the high attorney a. G. s office, everything was submitted to them. They decide what charges, if any, would be filed. The charges to be filed mentiond are against two 16yearold boys, malik rich monday and trent mays. Theyre accused of raping an underage girl while she was allegedly drunk or unconscious. That trial is slated to start on february 13th. National correspondent Susan Candiotti joins me from steubenville, ohio. Whats the latest this hour . Reporter hi, marty. Theres a big protest going on on the steps of the Jefferson County courthouse. Police estimate around 300 people or so. This is not the first time people have been staging protests. Their main beef, as they see it, many of these people here, theyre coming here for different causes. Some are calling for justice for jane doe, the alleged victim in this case. Many other people here are not happy with the way they feel investigators have been looking at this case. They dont think some of them that police have done a thorough job of investigating it. They allege that there has been a coverup. Now, authorities and the city insist that there has been no coverup, that they are doing a thorough investigation and that the people that have been charged will have justice done at a trial coming up next month. But there are a lot of people here on both sides. Theyre staging a noisy protest here. And many of them feel that the city hasnt done enough to get down to the bottom of this. Well all find out as that trial begins. Marty . And i understand you have exclusive new details of an alleged text message that was sent from the 16yearold to trent mays, and he of course is one of the boys accused of raping her. What did the text say . Reporter this thats right. This comes to us from the defense attorney for trent mays. Now, he tells us, and it says, quote, i know you didnt rape me. Now, he says that this was sent on august 14th. But lets keep in mind, here, he did not show me the text. We also dont know the context of it, whether thats the only text, whether there were several texts, did some precede it, follow it, what was the tone. These are all some of the Unanswered Questions that we have. Heres the time line to remind people of this. The alleged rape occurred on august 11th during a night of partying where the alleged victim was described as drunk or unconscious much of that time. On that same date at excuse me. On august 14th at 1 40 in the morning, that is when police say the mother, after seeing a lot of tweets and seeing this explode on the internet, found out about it and went to police to file a report. On that same day, august 14th, that is when the text message was allegedly sent, the particular one that were talking about. Marty . I know, susan, theres been sort of some discrepancies talked about the victim and what state she might have been in. And im wondering, what does her attorney say about her physical state . Reporter well, that, of course, is what we wanted to know, too. He will not comment, nor will many other people, about the evidence of this case or about the text message in particular. But he did have this to say about the text message or messages that may have been sent ba that night. Listen. This young girl was unconscious, so she wouldnt have the ability to know whether she was raped or not on the day after or two days after or three, whatever the timing of that was. We also dont know whether the defendants were texting, trying to coerce or talk people into making statements and trying to build up a defense for themselves after they started realizing this thing kind of unfolded. Susan, im wondering, you know, we just heard the attorney make the comment that she was unconscious, so how do we really know what happened that night . Reporter well, in fact, theres even been testimony at a probable cause hearing back on october 14th that she told police she didnt remember anything about what happened that night. However, there are at least three witnesses that testified at that hearing. One of them testified that he saw this 16yearold girl being raped. So of course we just know a tiny bit of evidence right now. So much more to be heard. And everyone is saying wait and see how this plays out at the trial. Lets not get ahead of ourselves. Marty . Of course. And the protest behind you is for what purpose . Reporter yes. The people here also, of course, want to hear about what happens at their trial. Many of them calling for justice for jane doe, as theyre calling her. But many people here feel that the police are not getting the whole story, that there are more people out there, that there is an atmosphere in this town and perhaps among, as they put it, football players, who are who are not being properly supervised. And they are even alleging that there may be a coverup involved here. The city denies it. The Attorney Generals Office te nighs it. Clear there are a lot of people demonstrating. Susan candiotti, thanks for keeping us up on this story. Four people including a gunman are dead in aurora, colorado, after a standoff inside a home. We know from our affiliate kusa that that incident started early this morning and that Police Negotiators were on the scene. Authorities havent said much more than that. Youll remember aurora, of course, is where 12 people were killed and 58 injured when a gunman opened fire last sumner a Movie Theater there. A plane carrying a famous Fashion Designer is missing. Vittorio missoni, his wife and four others were on board that plane when it vanished off the coast of venezuela yesterday. Searchers are still looking for any signs of a crash. Missoni and the others were on apparently on vacation when the plane took off from caracas. Lance armstrongs attorney is denying that his client talking with the u. S. Or world antidoping agencies about publicly admitting using illegal performanceenhancing drugs. His lawyer did not address claims in the New York Times that the cyclist was considering the confession as a way to restore his athletic eligibility. Armstrong has been stripped of his seven Tour De France titles and banned from cycling for life. But armstrong has always denied using banned performanceenhancing drugs. Well, there have been no reports of damage. That is the good news after an earthquake struck early this morning off of the alaskan coast. It was big, 7. 5 magnitude quake triggered a tsunami warning for parts of the state and for parts of canada. But the warning was canceled after the wave measuring just 6 inches washed ashore in far southeastern alaska. Well, after surviving the fiscal cliff, washington now faces a new obstacle cutting spending and the debt. Both sides are digging in. And prosecutors are ready to outline their case against the man accused of burglaring a dozen people inside that colorado movie shooting. Cmon dad im here to unleash my inner cowboy. Instead i got heartburn. [ horse neighs ] hold up partner. Prilosec isnt for fast relief. Try alkaseltzer. Kills heartburn fast. Yeehaw but dont just listen to me. Listen to these happy progressive customers. I plugged in snapshot, and 30 days later, i was saving big on car insurance. With snapshot, i knew what i could save before i switched to progressive. The better i drive, the more i save. I wish our company had something this cool. Youre not filming this, are you . Aw camera shy. Snapshot from progressive. Testdrive snapshot before you switch. Visit progressive. Com today. Try capzasinhp. It penetrates deep to block pain signals for hours of relief. Capzasinhp. Take the pain out of arthritis. It is the political version of chicken. A divided gop and the rift between congress and the white house will both test washingtons ability to fix a struggling economy. Whos going to blink first . Heres jim acosta. Reporter martin, it seems old habits die hard. Remember all those feelings of kumbaya when members of the 113th congress were sworn in . Well, never mind. After surviving a failed coup led by his own members, a beleaguered house speaker, john boehner, wants to take that same fractured party into battle. In a closeddoor meeting of House Republicans, a source in the room tells cnn boehner said he will demand budget cuts that are larger than any increase in the nations debt limit. With the fiscal cliff behind us, he told his members, the focus turns to spending. That puts republicans in congress back on a collision course with the white house after the president insisted earlier this week he will not negotiate over the debt ceiling. I will not have another debate with this congress over whether or not they should pay the bills that theyve already racked up through the laws that they passed. Reporter if the president wont come to the bargaining table, one stop republican in the senate, john cornyn, says in an oped in the houston chronicl chronicle, it may be necessary to partially shut down the government. Democrats warn, watch out. Risking government shutdown, risking not raising the debt creeling is playing with fire. On this vote, the yays are 354, the nays are 67. Reporter a preview of that brinkmanship came in the house, where 67 republicans, including house budget chair paul ryan, voted against 9. 7 billion in aid for victims of superstorm sandy. Despite the tonguelashing they got from new jersey governor chris christie. Shame on you. Shame on congress. Reporter the fact that the rest of the storm relief is now up in the air until a vote late thermowas a letdown for new york and new jersey lawmakers. Even the freshmen. Im new here. I dont know all the rules of washington, but it sure seems like the rule here is to put off till tomorrow what should be done today. Reporter it was a return to the reality of broken government in washington. Take a chance on your reputation here. Reporter after all that goodwill on display when Vice President joe biden was swearing in members of the 113th congress and hamming it up with their loved ones. One day later we asked the Vice President if things have changed. Back to a season of bipartisan here . His response off camera, were back to certifying the election. Biden was heading into the house to confirm the results of the president ial election, a ritual mandated in the constitution and a reminder of the few things that can get done without a fight. Asked whether the congress is returning to its old pattern of brinkmanship, one top gop aide told cnn, absolutely. Adding the next few month ls wont be fun. Martin . And this reminder, at the top of the hour on your money, ali velshi looks at whats wrong with our budget process and ways to solve it. After barely avoiding that fiscal cliff, what will congress and the president be able to accomplish moving forward in 2013 . Cnn contributor ryan lisza is the washington correspondent for the new yorker. Ryan, lets talk about this cliff deal. Good morning. It was limited mostly to tax issue, much of the disappointment of many people. Now we face Big Questions on spending and another socalled crisis moment with the next debt ceiling vote. Lets start with the debt ceiling. President says hes not going to negotiate. So how far will House Republicans push on this vote to try to leverage spending cuts . I think theyre going push pretty far. You know, as the conservative wall street journal editorialized yesterday, the wall street journal giving house with republicans some advice, they said dont take a hostage you arent prepared to shoot. And i think that thats the view among a lot of republicans in the house that theyre not going to take this hostage, the debt ceiling, unless theyre prepared to hit it. And remember last time we went through this, there were quite a few republicans who actually argued that it would be okay to hit the debt ceiling, that it wouldnt be as catastrophic as the white house and the Treasury Department and most economists believe. So i think its i think its very real, and when you have a senator like john cornyn threatening to shut the government down, were in for a pretty serious fight here. Well, we know that congress had a year and a half, essentially, to agree on these spending cuts before the fiscal cliff and they couldnt do it. Yeah. Theyve given themselves now two more months. Is there any real hope of agreement . Martin, i wish i was not so pessimistic. I think after the election i was much more optimistic that washington wld operate a little bit differently now that obama had been reelected. And, you know, if youre a conservative republican you could argue that you wanted to beat obama at the ballot box, but if you could dont that, then its time to cooperate with him. I think the last few weeks have showed us that thats not the lesson that most republicans took away from the election. And were in for bitter, acrimonious debate for the rest of the year. Very, very hard to see how much gets accomplished. And, you know, as you point out, they had months and months to deal with this socalled sequester, the automatic spending cuts, and they couldnt do it. Theyll do something because they have to, but i wouldnt be too optimistic about kumbaya washington returning anytime soon. I agree with you there. President obama has said, though, the gun violence, immigration, theyre at the top of his secondterm agenda. Will he find any support in congress with all this going on . If you look at his agenda, gun control, immigration, and these fiscal issues, they are the three issues that divide democrats and republicans more than anything else. I mean, for conservative republicans, gun control and socalled amnesty, which is what they would argue as part of any most comprehensive Immigration Reform plans coming from democrats, those are the hottest, most issues that get the conservative right riled up more than anything. And those are two of the president s top issues. And that fight is going to come simultaneously with a big fight over spending, which is the other top issue. So, again, i dont see the common ground, at least in the house of representatives, and especially if john boehner is willing will insist that any legislation that gets to the floor of the house have a majority of republicans for it to get there. And so, again, i hate to be so pessimistic in the new year, but the last few weeks of debate have not really given me much cause for optimism. Well, lets talk about john boehner. And we only have a little bit of time left, but what role do you expect him to play here and what role can he really play . Does he have to keep going back to the most conservative members . He has a tough job. Its a fractious caucus. When he took the job, he promised to give his chairman more power and the members more power. Hes got a divided republican conference that is split on some of these big issues. I would not want that job. I dont think any other republicans in the house would want that job. And hes got to keep his right flank in line and at the same time he occasionally wants to cut a deal with obama. So far thats proven extremely difficult to satisfy those two goals. Going to be a very rough couple of weeks on capitol hill. Well wait to see how it plays out. Rough few months. Absolutely. Thanks for joining us today. Thank you, martin. A disgraced champion looking to get back into the sport . Were talking about the reports that Lance Armstrong may admit to using performanceenhancing drugs. Our legal guys are on it. It is the most important Legal Development so far in the case of an alleged colorado Movie Theater, james holmes. And it happens early on monday morning so lets bring in our legal guys. Avery freedman, a civil rights attorney and law professor in cleveland and richard herman, new york criminal defense attorney and law professor and he joins us from las vegas. Let me remind everyone here about the facts in this particular case. Its been a little while. James holmes charged with 166 counts of murder, attempted murder, and other offenses in that shooting rampage in a Movie Theater in near denver in july. 12 people were kill and dozens were injured in that attack. The preliminary hearing on monday is the first time the prosecutors will outline their case against him in detail. And the denver post is reporting that prosecutors have created a chart just to try to keep track of all the different victims and their injuries. Hundreds of people are expected to attend this hearing. So lets get started. This hearing starts monday. But it could actually just last all week. Its a hearing, after all, not the trial. Were talking about a lot of new evidence and testimony. So, richard, let me start with you. What is the new stuff we expect to hear or see . Marty, what happens in this preliminary hearing is the judge makes a determination whether or not he believes there is sufficient evidence to go to trial. Now, this probably could be completed in an hour. However, like you said, this is most likely going to last the entire week as the prosecution lays out their case. Its just a Broad Spectrum that theyll lay out. Its not the trial. Its just a map of what they are going to bring during the course of their case. And instead of going to a grand jury, they do this preliminary hearing on right. It gives defense an opportunity to see where the case is. But, look, you dont need to be a brain surgeon to see the outcome is not a question. No. We know it proceeds to trial. Avery, what are we looking for from the defense, indications of an insanity plea . Isnt what what everyone expects . Well, thats further on down the road, marty. I think for purposes of a preliminary hearing, again, the function is for judge william silvester, the district judge in arapahoe county, to determine if theres sufficient evidence. You really dont know what tack the defense is going to take. Are they going to sit back, listen to understand what the prosecution is going to be, or are they going to be more actively involved . My bet in