those former lawyers just yesterday. and now it's mitt romney and the rest after rick santorum says it is over. >> this presidential race is over for us, for me, and we will suspend our campaign effective today. >> now the main event, mitt romney about to charge full force at president obama. it was one of the most horrifying crashes ever witnessed. this, a plane dive bombing into a crowd at last year's reno air show. now there's talk of changes that might just ensure this never happens again. north korea defying the world and fueling a long range rocket. the critics say the north isn't fooling anyone with its space program. first at one minute past the hour, the trayvon martin case, a brand new twist. the legal team representing george zimmerman, the man who shot and killed the florida teenager, has quit. they say they have lost contact with zimmerman and that they can no longer speak for him. attorneys craig sonner and hal uhrig say their client went rogue, contacting the media, contacting the special prosecutor who's investigating the case. he did this on his own. they told cnn's anderson cooper that george zimmerman gave them no choice. >> we felt we had an ethical obligation to kind of step aside. we got nothing against george zimmerman. we believe in his case. we believe in his innocence. we were prepared to defend him all the way, but we simply cannot defend somebody who won't communicate with us and who is off the reservation, talking with people we've advised him not to talk to. >> in the meantime, special prosecutor angela corie is planning to release new information on the trayvon martin shooting sometime in the next three days. cnn's george howell is live in sanford, florida, following these details. they seem to be coming fast and furious, george. >> reporter: good morning. indeed they are. here's the thing. if this announcement turns out to be a decision, there are a lot of questions. first of all, how would the prosecutor contact george zimmerman? clearly, it wouldn't be through his attorneys because they're no longer on the case. also, where is he? would he be considered a flight risk? just some of the questions that the special prosecutor, the state prosecutor, must be looking into. you can imagine, as she looks at that bombshell announcement that came out yesterday from his former defense team. we even had some experts come on our air to suggest that we shouldn't be surprised if the prosecutor were to make a decision sooner in this case. all along, she has stated she is going to have a very thorough investigation, a very methodical look at all the facts. here's what she had to say. >> if you make an arrest on probable cause and you couldn't prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt, then that's a short window of time the perpetrator will serve in jail. we always try to work with the police to build stronger cases before we make the arrest. >> reporter: now, we know that, again, those attorneys no longer have contact with george zimmerman. in fact, they lost contact on sunday. we do also know from that news conference yesterday that zimmerman apparently contacted sean hannity with fox news. he also reached out to the prosecutor, but the prosecutor did not speak to him because, again, he does not have a defense team at this point. we also learned from his former defense team that he set up a website, the real george zimmerman, that they were unaware of. in fact, they thought it might have been a fraud at some point, but they determined it was legit. all of this caught them off guard. at this point, they say they are also concerned about his mental stability. take a listen. >> george zimmerman, in our opinion and from information made available to us, is not doing well emotionally, probably suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome. for those engaged in the late easter egg hunt looking for him, you can stop looking in florida. look much further away than that. >> reporter: that is the question this morning, where is he? is he still in the state of florida? we've been given indication that perhaps he is not in florida. that will be the challenge, clearly, for prosecutors as a decision comes in this case, ashleigh. >> and, of course, the special prosecutor in this case announcing late last night that in the next 72 hours there will be a press conference. is she tipping her hat at all as to what she's going to announce at this press conference? >> reporter: you know, just reading into the release that we received, it's just an announcement. it could be information maybe about evidence in the case. you can speculate. it's unclear exactly what that announcement will be. could be a decision in this case, but we know that things are moving quite quickly, especially after the big surprise announcement we got from his former defense team yesterday. >> and also, george, just quickly, the mood in sanford. every day there's either a protest or some showing of support for one side or the other, but mostly for trayvon martin. do we know how the news is sort of being digested for those who want an arrest right away? >> i think that at this point, regardless of what your opinions are on this case, i think everyone is, quite frankly, surprised at that announcement yesterday. no one expected for the defense team to walk out and tell the public that they are no longer speaking for george zimmerman. that came as a surprise to everyone. and at this point, people just waiting to hear how the state prosecutor will deal with that information. >> george howell, thanks. live for us in sanford this morning. at the top of the next hour at 6:00 eastern, we're going to talk live with george zimmerman's now former legal team. you just heard george howell talking about them. attorneys craig sonner and hal uhrig will be with us live to explain a little bit about what that press conference was all about and where does this case go from here? it is six minutes past the hour. there's a much clearer picture of the 2012 race this morning. mitt romney expected to go full force at president obama after rick santorum ended his bid for the gop nomination yesterday. it was a bitter fight that put republican against republican, and in the end, rick santorum didn't even mention romney in his concession speech. >> well, this presidential race for us is over, for me. and we will suspend our campaign effective today. we are not done fighting. >> this has been a good day for me. i had the chance to speak with him this morning. we exchanged our thoughts about going forward, and we both have a great deal of interest in seeing the country take a very different path. >> well, now the healing perhaps, and already at least one of rick santorum's big money donors has reportedly swung to team romney. cnn political editor paul steinhauser is live in washington, d.c., for us. that big donor happens to be foster friese. there's a lot we want to talk about. his adviser says santorum campaign does want to help mitt romney. however, his communications director says the endorsement not an inevitablity. santorum's not saying anything. what's the deal here? >> i guess the real story will be -- mitt romney's right, his job is to get rick santorum on his team, get an endorsement from rick santorum. gray bender is a longtime trusted adviser to rick santorum. he told cnn last night, when romney and santorum spoke yesterday morning, romney asked to meet with santorum, and that meeting is now going to be put into the works. and then at that meeting you would think that you would get a santorum endorsement. remember four years ago, after mitt romney and john mccain had a bitter battle in the primaries. mccain came to boston, romney's headquarters. the two had a public appearance. romney endorsed him and then became a big supporter of john mccain. i think romney would like to see the same thing for santorum. why? because, look, santorum had some major support in the primaries and caucuses from spoerbl consersocial conservative voters, tea party supporters, a base of the party that romney really needs help with. that's why it's so important for romney to get santorum on board. >> let's talk about suspending, rather than ending the bid. just for our viewers, can you explain the difference. >> there is a technical difference here. the campaign is not over. it still technically lives on. most importantly, rick santorum can still raise money fe needs to, and just as important the delegates, the delegates that he's grabbed and won in the primaries and caucuses over the last couple of months. most of them remain in his camp. it's up to him to release them or hold on to them all the way to the convention. zoraida? >> i know you're a poll junkie. i can't let you go without reviewing the polls. in case there's a matchup here. obama-romney, what does it look like? >> a brand new poll from nbc/"washington post" came out yesterday. the president has a seven-point advantage according to this poll. our cnn poll from two weeks ago and gallup poll also had the president on top. go to this screen, and this is interesting. the gender gap. zoraida, we've been talking about this over and over and over. in this poll, romney ahead with men. in women, a very large advantage for the president. it's probably why you saw romney yesterday at his event talk about women's issues and blame the president for job losses among women. >> trying to explain the war on women. at 6:00 we want to talk about potential running mates. get ready for that one. paul steinhauser live in washington for us. thank you. ten minutes past 5:00. a major scare in the air. a korean airlines jet was forced to make an emergency landing in british columbia after a bomb threat. the boeing 777 had just taken off last night from vancouver international airport. it was headed to seoul, south korea, but u.s. air force fighter jets had to be scrambled and divert that plane to land at a nearby canadian military base. officials say 149 passengers were on board, and that the bomb threat had come into a korean airlines u.s. call center based in los angeles. authorities were searching the plane. so far haven't found anything, no explosives. new developments this morning from north korea. the communist country has begun fueling a long range rocket for a planned launch sometime this week. pyongyang insists the rocket is designed to put a satellite in orbit and not , as the u.s. and south korea believe, a nuclear missile that could bring a nuclear war head as far as hawaii and south korea. south korea has threatened to take appropriate action. >> we're waiting for the bell. this is your daily gas price check, folks. i've got good news. lucky enough, we're on a five-day winning streak if you want to call it that. national average for a gallon of gas, $3.92. i know that's high, i'm sorry to report. here's the good news, it's down .7 of a cent from yesterday. prices are up more than 19% since the start of the year. hi to debbie downer that. sorry about that. new rules for air races. the feds are looking at these few seconds over and over again. they want to make sure the horror of last year's reno air show crash never happens again. and a big time college football program canning its coach. calls himself a family man, but he crashed his motorcycle with a woman half his age riding on the back. that's never a good thing. 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have a look. >> no, no, no! oh, god! oh, my god. >> it was just a devastating accident that claimed the lives not only of the pilot who was flying that plane butworld war ii plane. that made it very fast and very dangerous. at the time of the crash, he was estimated to be going as fast as an f-16 pilot, about 530 miles an hour. the investigators believe it might have been the g-force that incapacitated him before the accident. a couple of things that play in there. the ntsb is going to suggest safety checks for all modified aircraft at the air shows, but also the pilots wear flight suits to offset the g-force. let's move on to the detroit free press. civil rights leaders rallying for this woman who was fired after a trayvon martin student fund-raiser she sponsored. brook harris is her name. she lost her job teaching after trying to help students raise money in honor of trayvon martin. apparently, they were allowed to wear a hoody. they donate a dollar for that privilege, and then the school would donate the money to the boy's family. harris was fired for claiming she was being an activist and not a teacher. the superintendent says that's not why the teacher was fired. she violated the rules by having the fund-raiser. she did not use proper protocol. >> hard to placate everyonen a situation like that. it is 25 minutes past 5:00. with president obama set to talk about taxes and rich people this morning, president bush is talking about the tax cuts that bear his name. >> i wish they weren't called the bush tax cuts. >> what does he want them to be called? he had something to say. we've got more on what the former president said after the break. 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[ sigh of relief ] [ short breath ] [ longer breath ] [ short breath ] [ male announcer ] new bengay zero degrees. freeze and move on. today is gonna be an important day for us.es. you ready? we wanna be our brother's keeper. what's number two we wanna do? bring it up to 90 decatherms. how bout ya, joe? let's go ahead and bring it online. attention on site, attention on site. now starting unit nine. some of the world's cleanest gas turbines are now powering some of america's biggest cities. siemens. answers. it's 24 minutes past 5:00 on the east coast. nice to have you with us. minding your business, as we like to do. it was a pretty dismal day. >> it was a really dismal day. dow had its worst one-day drop since november. all three indices losing 1.5%. that's five straight days of losses. among that is further concerns about slowdowns in europe and china. >> let's bring in christine romans. more of the same on stocks today? >> i think you might see things look up. alcoa had an earnings report that was a surprise. $100 million in the quarter. that was something for industrial companies. and remember are the first quarter was the best one in ten years. i'm not really surprised that people suddenly are looking at things happening around the world and taking money off the table in some stocks because we had a really great first quarter. i wouldn't get too worried about just this last five-day period. that's what i would say. >> hard to tell. >> yesterday we're all talking about taxes. less stocks, more taxes. taxes, center stage of the campaign trail. the president is going to be speaking today, talking about the buffett rule. tax the rich. make them pay their, quote, unquote,