will open in illinois and the outcome of this primary could be critical. total chaos. >> and a deadly shooting at a jewish school in france triggering fears of a possible copycat attack in this country. police in new york and other cities on high alert. once again, severe weather overnight. this time in texas, a tornado touching down right near san antonio. take a look at that. reports of significant damage this morning. this is part of a slow-moving line of storms stretching from texas all the way to minnesota. >> those storms also bringing some really heavy rain to oklahoma. take a look at your screen. don't do this at home, folks. don't drive through that stuff. floods in tulsa and other parts of eastern oklahoma. you're lucky, buddy. you're lucky that you could get out of your car and get out of that next one. flash flooding into tomorrow. >> someone always tries. i guess you underestimate how deep it is. >> and how much it's moving. >> one minute past the hour. he was 17 years old, unarmed. carrying skittles and a bottle of iced tea. now the fbi is investigating the shooting death of a teen in florida. >> we are working hard. >> who's that crying? >> nearly 100 students and friends of trayvon martin gathering outside a florida courthouse demanding justice for that black teenager who was shot and killed last month by george zimmerman. he was a neighborhood watch captain patrolling his gated community. that teenager's parents say they believe race was a factor. although we don't know who is doing the screaming you can certainly hear it. you can also hear the fatal shot in a 911 call from the area. >> so you think you're hearing help ask. >> yes. >> what is your -- >> there's gunshots. >> did you say gunshots. >> yes. >> how many? >> just one. >> now, that neighborhood watch captain zimmerman has not been charged. he claims he was acting in self-defense when he pulled the trigger. trayvon martin's family wants him arrested and want a jury to weigh in. the stand your ground law is a self-defense law that could make that very difficult to actually do. it is 3 minutes past the hour. just when you thought the race for the republican nomination couldn't get nastier. >> i did. i thought it could. >> it probably will. the polls open in illinois. 54 delegates are up for grabs there. american research group poll conducted over the weekend shows mitt romney with 44%. 14 point as head of rick santorum. and we're seeing some really nasty no-holds barred chicago-style politics. >> we're not going to be successful in replacing an economic lightweight with another one. >> do you believe this country wants to elect someone like that. >> we didn't say them vote early and vote often. shall we check the delegate scoreboard. romney is way ahead at 519. santorum trailing at 239. newt gingrich and ron paul. so many say it's not an option anymore. that's wise anyway. paul steinhauser is live from wheaton, illinois. i feel like a broken record. paul, every time i come to you to advance one of these contests, we tend to say the same thing over and over. lots of delegates at stake. could romney come out as a front runner so i'll ask. is it even possible anymore to have any race determine who si front-runner could be? >> reporter: i don't think a lot will change unless rick santorum wins in illinois. that could send tidal waves around the political landscape but you showed that poll, one of two out in the last 48 hours that indicates romney is starting to build a double-digit lead in illinois. ashleigh, he should because it should be more favorable ground for him especially where i am in suburban chicago, a lot more moderate you could say republican voters casting ballots in today's primary. a natural for mitt romney. should do well. santorum will probably do well in more conservative down state and mitt romney needs to win. we said he needed to win michigan, he did, not by a lot. he needed to win ohio, he did do that, but not by a lot. he needs to win here especially last week after he came in third in the more conservative states of alabama and mississippi. ashleigh. >> i feel like it's a north/south story, not exclusively but generally. not only because of what you just said it's the northern part of illinois that tends to favor romney and the southern part tends to favor santorum but the northern part of the united states is seemingly favoring romney and the southern states are favoring santorum. >> yeah, romney has done well on the coast. he has done well in some parts -- well, some people would not consider florida the south but did well there. santorum has done well in the midwest except for a few states like michigan and ohio and we will see what happens here. listen, mitt romney has pulled out all the stops i think you could say. romney's campaign and independent super pac have outspent him in this state, 7-1 on campaign commercials. >> wow. >> saw a similar thing play out in ohio and michigan. where is newt gingrich? not here, ashleigh. spending today straight through saturday campaigning in louisiana, they have the next contest. >> 7-1. that's just unbelievable. you kind of wonder when is that money going to run out or might it ever? paul, stick around. thank you. >> 6 minutes past the hour. the deadly at a jewish school in france has people across the country on high alert. they were gunned down outside the school in toulouse, france. the killer approached on a motor scooter and just opened fire. france's interior minister says in a tv interview that the shooter had a recording device strapped to his chest. >> here in new york there's also heightened security at synagogues and jewish institutions. the police commissioner ray kelly says there is concern about copycat crimes. >> we have a significant jewish population in the city and we have to take it into account. we know we're at the top of the terrorist target list so we are concerned about the so-called copycat syndrome. >> french president nicolas sarkozy says it was an obvious anti-semitic attack. southwest france is on the highest possible security alert and been a moment of silence for victims scheduled this morning. sad to watch. cnn's diana magnay on the phone from toulouse. what is the latest on the investigation? >> reporter: the latest is this chilling new detail that you mentioned that the gunman had a camera attached to his chest with straps. this idea that he was recording what he was doing as he gunned down those children. he got close enough to really shoot them at point blank range in the back of the head. the youngest as young as 3. the daughter of the director of the school who died in the director's arms and a rabbi, a teacher at this school and his two sons. apparently according to eyewitnesses the man was able to spend really quite a few minutes standing there shooting and making his escape on his scooter and the interior minister said in that interview they were following various leads, one of which was checking to see whether there were any sort of leads amongst neo-nazi paratroopers. there are links, you see, between this shooting and two other shootings in the toulouse area in the last ten days, a gunman on a black scooter using apparently the same .45 semiautomatic pistol killing first last sunday an ununiformed soldier and then the thursday last two other soldiers, all of them of ethic origin, north african origin, so if you put the two together, it would seem this man is motivated by racist hatreds that's going for ethnic minorities. >> diana magnay live from toulouse, france, thanks for those detail. >> nine minutes past 5:00. he is accused of a horrible brutal massacre going door to door in two afghan villages and shooting and killing 16 civilian, nine of them just children. but according to his attorney sergeant robert bales says he cannot remember any of it. john henry browne spoke last night on cbs news. >> he has no memory of -- he has an early memory of that evening and he has a later memory of that evening. but he doesn't have memory of in between. >> reporter: according to people who have been interviewed, eyewitnesses, sergeant bales went from room to room, he shot 16 people dead including 9 children, 5 are wounded. you're telling me he remembers none of that? >> that's correct. >> possibly setting the stage for a diminished capacity defense. sergeant bales' wife karen breaking her silence issuing a statement through her attorney last night and saying this "what has been reported is completely out of character of the man i know and admire. please respect me. when i say i cannot shed any light on what happened that night so please do not ask. i too want to know what happened. i want to know how this could be." >> that is just heartbreaking to think of what she's going through and her family. >> ten minutes past the hour here. severe weather beating up the nation's midsection. a tornado touched down in south central texas near the town of natalia. 30 miles or so from san antonio. look at that. medinah county sheriff's office says it received more than 300 calls indicating damage or injury. the twister is part of a slow-moving dangerous weather system. >> 11 minutes past 5:00 and rob marciano has been watching these systems. it was getting perilously close to the dallas metroplex. did that highly populated area weather that okay? >> they did okay but there was a dangerous line moving through there. really the whole entire i-35 corridor. other stills of that storm that moved through divine, texas, multiple homes that were damaged. no serious injuries thankfully but a dangerous situation no doubt about that. we do have a tornado warning right now in effect for dewitt county east of san antonio. this is the line that brought the tornadoes to that area last night. very, very slow-moving line. it's now, i don't know, about 75 to maybe 100 miles east of where the tornadoes touched down so it's crawling off to the east. the other threat with this, not only severe weather in effect forof southeast texas through the rest of the morning but notice these aren't progressing that far to the east very quickly. so flooding has been an issue across the entire state of texas, especially the midsection for the past 12 hours over a foot of rain in some spots and that rain is going to be moving offer to the east. severe weather threat with the threat for flooding across louisiana, arkansas, meanwhile, the heat continues across the eastern corridor. temperature, 25 to 30 degrees above average. first day of spring, by the way, yesterday. >> first day of spring, oh, i thought that was a month ago. >> yeah, right. >> yeah. >> feeling more like summer these day, rob, thank you. >> all right, guy, 12 minutes past the hour. this just in, you should expect it. gas prices keep going up. aaa announced it's $3.85 a gallon. closer and closer to that $4 a gallon mark. oil prices are still high, $107 a barrel for light, sweet crude and oil is the number one factor driving gas prices higher. >> i always think that sounds light, sweet crude. >> oh, yeah, 13 minutes past 5:00. during an election year let's bring in christine romans to talk about what the candidates say about bringing the gas. i always see $2.50 gas, vote for me. >> i don't want anyone to believe this election year rhetoric. if a president or congress or government can lower gas prices, don't you think they wouldy i mean long-term they could have subtle impacts on the direction of oil prices and as zoraida said oil is the number one factor in how much you're paying at the pump. but presidents don't wave a magic wand and set the price of gas line. they just don't. here are five ways, surefire ways to lower gas prices right away. my tongue is firmly in my cheek right now. cow have a depression. that would lower gas prices, i guarantee it. you could have peace break out overnight between iran and israel and the u.s. immediately lift all sanctions against iran. that would lower gas prices. you could just scrap all the clean air rules in the country because we don't need clean air. that would lower them. china could decide it's never going to put gas in a car or factory and go 100% solar or you could empty our emergency stock -- just empty them, put them in our gas tank so we can pay $2 or something. >> even that wouldn't help, would it? >> last year the president -- >> temporarily, right. >> what i'm saying there is no easy way to do it. anybody who tells you otherwise is lying to you. so, you know, we're -- i feel like people know this too. i feel like people know there is this election year and all this bickering. >> 54% of americans think the president can do something about it. >> longer term he can. all these people arguing about keystone. if you had keystone, that pipeline pass almost every oil e. pert i talked to said you'd have gas prices exactly where they are. that is not to say we shouldn't be diversifying oil. i'm not saying that. i'm just saying that everything that presidents do with congress is longer term and more subtle. i want to also point out something else that tom from the oil price information service was making at this point. good thing we've had such mild weather. one of the reasons why the economic impact of high gas prices might be muted is because people in the midwest and northeast are paying lower heating oil bills. >> strangely i am not. >> neither am i. >> phenomenal to the east coast. >> welcome to the east coast. >> there you go. >> i got to call my oil company. i smell a rat. >> just show them the 60-day forecast and say -- >> what's one that. the lady on the phone said, i don't know. i like that. helpful. >> thank you, christine. 15 minutes past 5:00 on the east coast. first lady appeared on a late night talk show with david letterman. you may have heard of him. first time as dave's guest. asked her about life in the white house and whether she can go anywhere in public. prosecution obama told him about one of her covert shopping trips. >> that's my target run. i went to target. i thought i was under cover. i have to tell you something about this trip, though. no one knew that was me because a woman actually walked up to me, right. i was in the detergent aisle and she said -- i kid you not. she said, excuse me, i just have to ask you something and i thought, oh, coverage is blown. she said can you reach on that shelf and hand me the detergent. i kid you not. and the only thing she said, i reached up because she was short and i reached up, pulled it down. she said, well, you didn't have to make it look so easy. >> you know, she said she's gone undercover as well to petco-taking along with her the first dog bo. >> how is that undercover. >> i don't know. the dog alone is famous. >> i think what a bummer they have to live in cognito. >> we have new developments in the shooting death of an unarmed florida teenager. the fbi is now getting involved. wouldn't be another week without some story about a cruise ship going haywire. how wow like to be on that cruise ship as it careens right into a tanker, ouch, we'll tell you what happened. >> i'm in the middle of planning a cruise. they're called glee on steroids. this is a high cool choir grand champions they have been crowned and they only started singing together 18 months ago. we are going to meet some of them on "early start" this morning live. everything. and more. ♪ lemon burst, blackberry harvest, pina colada... i can't imagine where she is... orange creme... [ grocery store pa ] clean up in aisle eight. found her! [ female announcer ] yoplait original. 25 flavors for you to love. [ female announcer ] yoplait original. fore! no matter what small business you are in, managing expenses seems to... get in the way. not anymore. ink, the small business card from chase introduces jot an on-the-go expense app made exclusively for ink customers. custom categorize your expenses anywhere. save time and get back to what you love. the latest innovation. only for ink customers. learn more at chase.com/ink 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. [ male announcer ] dosing and application sites between these products differ. women and children should avoid contact with application sites. discontinue androgel and call your doctor if you see unexpected signs of early puberty in a child, or, signs in a woman which may include changes in body hair or a large increase in acne, possibly due to accidental exposure. men with breast cancer or who have or might have prostate cancer, and women who are, or may become pregnant or are breast feeding should not use androgel. serious side effects include worsening of an enlarged prostate, possible increased risk of prostate cancer, lower sperm count, swelling of ankles, feet, or body, enlarged or painful breasts, problems breathing during sleep, and blood clots in the legs. tell your doctor about your medical conditions and medications, especially insulin, corticosteroids, or medicines to decrease blood clotting. talk to your doctor today about androgel 1.62% so you can use less gel. log on now to androgeloffer.com and you could pay as little as ten dollars a month for androgel 1.62%. what are you waiting for? this is big news. hi, welcome back. >> here is christine romans. the fbi is investigating an unarmed black teen's murder in florida. trayvon martin's parents say race was a factor. the shooter, george zimmerman, says he acted in self-defense. he has not been arrested. voting begins in less than two hours in the illinois primary. mitt romney and rick santorum stepping up their attacks. romney referring to his rival as an economic lightweight. santorum countering by questioning whether americans really want a wall street financier as president of the united states. 54 delegates at stake. romney with a 14-point lead in illinois. deadly bombings rock iraq -- attacks in seven cities including baghdad and fallujah. at least 20 people have been killed. 167 injured. officials say the attacks are the coordinated efforts of an unknown militant group nine years ago today. nine years ago today they inv e invaded iraq. a luxury cruise liner crash nothing a container ship in the thick of fog off the coast of vietnam. passengers knocked off their feet. luckily no one was hurt. both ships suffered damage and i'll tell you right now the reputation of the cruise line injury has suffered damage over the past few months. >> i stand corrected. i called it a tanker. it was a container ship and what a mess. >> absolutely. >> the bridge, that photo, that was the bridge and nobody has been able to figure out if anybody was hurt on that ship. christine, thank you. 22 minutes past 5:00. early read on these things, local papers, your papers are making some national headlines, as well. papers from new york and california. >> and in "the new york times" this morning a staggering drop in the number of students taking the lsats. the numbers of tests administered more than 16%, the largest drop in more than a decade. it reflects the view that the u.s. legal market is in bad shape. good schools don't guarantee high paying jobs at a law firm. >> what's worse than 100 lawyers at the bottom of the sea, they now say 100 of us. i don't know if our industry is low in the applications to universities either but -- >> liberal arts education, right? >> i hear you. so while we're showing you candy and battered things, this is all about a court case, are you ready for this that pits sugar against high fructose corn syrup. sugar is suing corn syrup. they don't like the wrap that corn s