>> a high-stakes pardon showdown. could we learn today if most of those prisoners released in mississippi will have to go back to prison? along those, four convicted murderers. >> classes are resuming at that l.a. school where the entire staff was fired after two teachers were arrested on child abuse cases. investigators at this point have made yet another disgusting discovery. >> they were not fired, they were reassigned temporarily. >> should say not fired but cleared out. >> the bombing is unrelenting in syria. families are afraid to escape their homes. these are some of the most disturbing images our network has ever seen. >> we'll do that story, first we'll begin with what is welcomed news for almost 1 million people who own homes in this country. if you owe more money than your house is worth, you're under water, but there could be finally some relief coming your way. >> all of this comes as new york and california are signing into the deal. so let's run the numbers. we're talking about a $25 billion part of money. it's part of a settlement between the government and some of the largest mortgage lenders and servicers. what that means to you? you could be getting $20,000 relief on the principle you owe. christine romans is here to tell us more. >> they are still negotiating. we were told they were still negotiating also a night. the details are forthcoming, but we know more states are on board, it's a much bigger settlement. it could be worth up to $30 billion, and that this is meant to help 1 million underwater homeowners, people who owe more on their house than the shows worth. california, new york, florida said to be on board. here are the banks who would be ponying up. the biggest names, bank of america, wells fargo, jpmorgan chase, citigroup and ally financial. not only would there be relief for those million homeowners who are underwater to the tune of $20,000 in principle, there could be cash payments to borrowers who were in foreclosure between september 2008 and december 2011, $1500 to $2,000 each. still working out details on that. if you're in the foreclosure process right now, one of the goals is to amp up the accountability of the banks and servicers, to make them accountable. how many times have you heard i'm paying my bills, they're telling me i'm late. i'm trying to refinance, the bank is giving me a hard time. making things smoother for people in the foreclosure process this is being compared to the 1998 settlement against the tobacco industry for how big it is. this is the most important i industry settlement of claims against consumers in a long time. does this relieve the banks of all responsibility? >> some, but not all. homeowners would still be able to pursue a claim in the bank in the future, but states are limiting some of those charges. one of the problems for the big states, they have big, pow everifeverpowerful investigations going on into the shenanigans. these big states don't want to give up their own investigations and they don't have to. >> people need to know this is about the bad, sloppy paperwork as opposed to i'm underwater because it got so awful under my community. >> this is about robo signing, remember where -- where some of these banks were just -- they were signing so many foreclosure documents per second, it's physically impossible to have actually reviewed them. that's what's part of this problem. >> christine romans, thank you. the mississippi supreme court could decide in a couple hours from now that most of those 200 plus pardons are invalid. we're talking about the haley barber last-minute pardons that happened. the controversy started when he released those criminals. >> there were so many and among them some serious hardened killers. four convicted killers, but all of this could be decided today and all could be reversed or not. martin savidge joins us from jackson, mississippi. is this going to be basically a decision just over how powerful a georgia governor can be? >> reporter: that's right. that's what it boils down to. in the state of mississippi, they are trying to determine how far did the powers of the governor of this state go? of course very serious, which is why it is in the state supreme court so quickly. and it all comes down to the clemency granted by governor haley barber in the last-remaining hours when he was governor here. he granted over 200 pardons. that outraged the public on two fronts. number one, just the sheer number, but then there were those murderers, four of them that worked in the governor's mansion, they were all pardoned. murder is a terrible crime regardless, but their murders were particularly heinous. the argument is on what stated there, does the governor have absolute power to grant a pardon? or as the state attorney general is trying to point out here that there is a certain, well a certain thing you have to follow, which is that you must publish for 30 days that you will be let out of prison. this is a requirement put on the convict themselves, and to take out a classified ad in the paper in the county where they were convicted of their crime. it must run for 30 days consecutively. they found most of those who were pardoned didn't do that. the murderers, by the way, did it 28 days, but the attorney says 28 is not 30. that's what the constitution of the state says. that's the basic arguments. >> i misspoke when i said mississippi, when i said georgia, it's mississippi, and the mississippi governor at the time, haley barber, has been so widely criticized for this. but i read he filed a brief in this, so he's doubling down, he's not suggesting he's not doing the right thing, he's saying absolutely i had this right. >> right. he has not backed off at all. he said this is a state that believes in the christian idea of a second chance and he believes that these men, whom he said he got to know in the governor's mansion are changed men. as a result of that, in his heart, he knows that they can come out and have this opportunity to once again be contributing to society. there are others who say, wait a minute, he was too close to these men to really make a kind of honest assessment, but that's just part of the argument being heard in court. >> thanks. it stands to reason, they are so serious about this. it's hopscotched up to supreme court in that state. want to turn to the humanitarian crisis in syria it's getting worse by the moment, it seems, as government forces continually bombard and attack their own people there. in the city of homs where so much of the fighting has been focused, 60 people were reported killed just today in the fourth day of the massive shelling in that community. look at the pictures, they are just simply remarkable. many of them coming from cell phone cameras in a place where they can barely charge them because they have to electricity. the u.n. secretary-general calls this appalling brutality. an activist describes this grim situation. >> there is no other choice. we are dying, and we try to save each other at least to keep somebody alive. because we believe we all will die here. the city is isolated. it's being under shelling and bombing and everything. and there's nothing to do. >> you really believe you all are going to die? >> we do. >> turkey is now reportedly entering the situation telling reuters it could no longer sit by and watch. the country wants to host new diplomatic talks. we will go live to istanbul, turkey and ivan watson. good morning. i want to read something else that came across this morning th. this is an activist who says some bodies bore signs of electrocution and that children are targeted for torture and rape. what is turkey planning on doing? >> turkey is trying to bring countries together from the region to resolve this somehow, zoraida. but in the meantime the cost of this, in lives, just keeps growing. we are not allowed into director right now or homs. but look at this video that some courageous activists are streaming via bamboozer. this is a skyline of homs and we hear gunshots and explosions almost every second. we may hear one now. just take a brief listen. this is a live feed again from homs, where when we talk on the phone to the people enduring this siege, and this indiscriminate shelling there, we often hear, zoraida, explosions in the background. we just talked to a doctor who is working in a makeshift clinic in there. he gave us his name, ali hazuri. he said this morning alone he has received 40 new bodies and more than 100 wounded people. he said he has basic supplies, rubbing alcohol, gauze, sutures, no antibiotics whatsoever. he cannot operate on these wounded people who are coming in. and you hear the desperation in his voice when he said "everybody is sitting in their homes and waiting for their turns for a rocket to hit them and for us to find them dead under the rubble." zoraida? >> ivan, speak about the humanitarian aid effort there. is turkey trying to do anything about that? we do keep hearing those reports you're talking about, children dying because they don't have medicine, they don't have food. is there any effort to try to get that into that region? >> there's no official effort underway right now. the syrian government is still the predominant military force and security force in syria. we do know activists are smuggling themselves, smuggling some weapons, some aid across borders, but there is no official effort underway thus far. i've talked to activists in the capital damascus, they got food together and want to send it into homes, but that the area is circled by tanks and they cannot get in there. it's not the only city, there's another city by the lebanese border also encircled now. we have gotten reports after shelling of that opposition strong hold for several days, that the syrian military moved in over night. we do not know what's happened thus far because the telecommunications have been cut off to that town as well. >> ivan watson, thank you very much. >> also hearing that it's just difficult to even air drop any supplies into there because of the danger of where you're air dropping it. a, you could kill someone in an airdrop, and anybody coming out to get supplies could be killed right away. >> here's a look ahead on "early start." students at a los angeles elementary school will return to classes today with a whole new staff. you will remember two teachers at that school were arrested on child abuse charges, now investigators say they found 200 more photographs of students allegedly taken by one of those teachers. in the uk, hacking probe. heather mills, the ex-wife of former beatle paul mccarthy will testify about piers morgan. and it's a conservative political action conference time. it's cpac 2012 and it kicks off in washington. it's the largest gathering of conservative leaders and activists, and on saturday it's the big one, the straw poll to endorse a republican candidate. for the next few days, soledad o'brien will broadcast from cpac. it is 13 minutes past the hour, we head over to rob marciano. good morning. just when you thought winter was never here, it will be here in a couple days. >> say it ain't so. >> not too bad. you got a taste of it yesterday. a little pulse of snow, maybe enough to dust the roadways in d.c. or north and west where we saw a couple inches of snow. it's heading off to cape cod and out to sea. colder air, here it is see the cloud streaks? it's up there in canada it's been there all winter long. if you are traveling, boston to detroit, wind. showers in miami and seattle. san francisco, low clouds. you look at this weather map, it's quiet. just a couple of snow fur thinks across the midsection. weak storm there. west coast looks dry, at least so cal. and a pacific storm system coming into the northwest. temperatures today about where they should be for this time of year, maybe a few degrees warmer again in new york. 48 degrees. 55 degrees in atlanta. look as we go through time today and through the next couple of days. that arctic cold front will make inroads towards the great lakes. 40 for the high temperature tomorrow. as we get towards friday, temperatures drop into the teens and 20s and 30s across the western great lakes. we'll drive this as far south as dixie where temperatures will struggle to get into the 30s in nashville and 37 in new york city. with that a bit of snow. no major snowstorm or blizzard in the offing. keep the parka handy. >> like he's excited about it. tosses it to us. >> thanks, rob. still to come, a bizarre story and sad at the same time. he's the victim of a vicious beating by a gang that was showing anti-gay slurs. he has come forward and is demanding justice. you will hear him in his own words. and new this morning, roles for women in the military may be changing. why they may be getting jobs closer to the front lines. you are watching "early start." capital one's new cash rewards card gives you a 50% annual bonus! so you earn 50% more cash. according to research, everybody likes more cash. well, almost everybody... ♪ would you like 50% more cash? 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what was that thing inside of you? because once they put it out there, they set themselves up. >> police believe it was a neighborhood gang that basically was behind this attack. they believe that one of the men involved uploaded that video online and that's when branden says he realized that it was online. his family and friends helped him make that decision to come forward to speak publicly and talk to police. what's fascinating about this, as well this may be a 30-second attack, but it could end up leading to a long future in the state of georgia. it could pave the wait for a hate crimes law. right now there isn't one. there's no statute in that state for hate crimes. >> there's a lot of talk about that. the family, friends, definitely want to see the federal government get involved that will be the only way to see this prosecuted under hate crime laws. but, again, definitely a lot of talk about that given what happened here in atlanta. >> also the u.s. attorney is looking into civil rights violations, so there could be a whole heap of trouble here, but they don't have anybody. what's the status in trying to find the guys who abodid it. >> just yesterday the atlanta mayor doubled the reward from $5,000 to $10,000. always the concern these men may have left atlanta and georgia. getting the word out is important and getting the information out about this reward, $10,000 for any information leading to the arrest of these men who clearly recorded themselves and put themselves out there. >> george howell, thank you very much for that. coming up later this morning at 8:00 eastern, soledad o'brien will speak live with brandon white. again, that's cnn's "starting point" at 8:00. 25 minutes past the hour. still to come, top stories are up aft