the housing meltdown took down with it countless homeowners. in fact i'm probably talk about many of you. today federal and state officials announced a $26 billion foreclosure settlement aimed at righting some of the wrong. the settlement was made with five of the nation's largest home lenders. let's bring ali velshi. what will this mean for homeowners? >> citi group, bank of america, wells fargo and -- it's $26 billion and it's going to spread out the pot this way. first of all no more robo signing home foreclosure. if you were foreclosed on you may get $2,000. if your home is underwater you could get an average of $20,000 in principal reductions as long as your loan is not with fannie or freddie or backed by them. these are private loans. the lenders get immunity from future state claims. they don't get immunity from criminal investigations. homeowners can still pursue claims against the banks even if they take either the $2000 or the $20,000 in reduction. and states still have the right to pursue criminal investigations. missouri, they've indicted one of the mortgage servicers. we just spoke to attorney general bo bide enin delaware who said he is still pursuing investigations. those attorneys general who didn't sign on initially were convince today do so because they retained the right to sue. oklahoma by the the way didn't sign this deal, john. >> so ali, 2 million homeowners get help here. how big of a piece is this in what needs to be done to get the broader housing market back in a stable track? >> teeny tiny, john. we're talking about a market that's $1 trillion underwater. probably $700 billion in straight underwater money. the amount of capital reduction, the amount of actual mortgage that's being reduced by this deal is $17 billion. some critics say a slap on the wrist for these five banks. but others say that until they knew there was a settlement, the banks wouldn't move forward and start to clear this backlog of foreclosures which is necessary to get this housing market back on solid footing. so a lot of people are holding their nose and saying, look, this was a deal that allows us to move forward. it doesn't move the needle on house prices. it does help a number of people out. but there's still a long way before this housing crisis is over and this probably needed to happen to allow us to move forward, john. >> excellent. ali, thank you. a ray of hope tonight in the fight against alzheimer's, the sixth leading cause of death. a cancer drug may hold the key to treating, possibly even reversing alzheimer's. the findings were released just a few hours ago. to explain this important development let's bring in our senior medical correspondent elizabeth cohen. straight up how promising is this? >> reporter: john we've been talking to doctors this afternoon. they're very excited about this. they say look this is just mice and it might not work in humans but it is really promising in mice. and they feel sort of confident that hopefully something that it will work in humans. and basically what they did, they took a cancer drug that's already on the market and they gave it to mice that have alzheimer's disease. they found that it changed really important biomarkers in their brains and it changed their behavior. so you might wonder how do you measure mice memory? take a look at the cage on the left, the messy one. when researchers put tissues into a mouse's cage that, mouse on the left has alzheimer's. he doesn't know how to make a nest because he has alzheimer's. they then gave him a cancer -- this cancer drug. all of a sudden within 82 hours he knew how to make a nest. his instincts came back. that is a big deal. but again, this is just mice. and so it is possible that this may not work at all in humans. but they say that they really have great hopes and they're hoping to try this out soon. >> you say try it out soon. when would the treatment be available at least even on an experimental basis? >> reporter: what's interesting they're hoping to start trials in humans, not big trials but little ones in the next two months where they would give this cancer drug to healthy individuals to see if it changes their biomarkers that would give them some assessment of whether or not alzheimer's disease might develop. so in the next two months they're going to do some work. but really this is probably years away from truly being available and fda approved if at all. >> we'll keep our fingers crossed. elizabeth cohen, thank you. u.s. marines in afghanist afghanistan -- the infamous ss as you know committed unspeakable crimes against humanity during world war ii. the discovery of this photo comes less than a month after the world saw images-the image we're about to show is explicit showing marines urinating on taliban bodies. it's another embarrassment to the u.s. military caught on camera. our correspondent chris lawrence is with us tonight. chris how did this come to light? >> reporter: they actually took the picture john in september of 2010. it was when it got posted on the internet that people started to get alarmed. just recently, over the last few months when this really came out some religious organizations have been calling for heads to roll over this photo. but ultimately, i spoke with a marine corps official about an hour ago who said what the marines thought they were doing was they looked at that ss, the lightning bolt, standing for scout sniper. she said those two lightning bolts have been sort of an unofficial symbol of the marine copps scout sniper, not sanctioned by the marine corps but it has popped up on t-shirts, hats, even some tattoos over the years. take a look at the official marine corps statement on what they determined after investigating this picture that the unit took. they said, "the incident was found not to be racially motivated. those involved acknowledged that the symbol could be misinterpreted and is not in keeping with our marines corps ethos and values." the commander determined that disciplinary action was not warranted. further, all marines in the unit reminded that any such behavior would not be tolerated and further display could result in punishment. " john? >> internally, chris, they decided no disciplinary action was warranted. externally did they feel a need to do damage control? >> reporter: i don't think so. the sense i got from talking to the marine copps official is look, these were probably a lot of very junior n.c.o.s, a lot of corporals. they just didn't make the historical connection between that symbol and the ss. she even said sort of off-handedly she said i'm sure you might be able to go out in public, show those two lightning bolts and not a lot of people in public would be able to immediately connect that with the ss. nothing to the effect of that which you showed earlier with the marines, the video of them urinating on the corpses. that has gone all the way up to the top, the secretary of defense condemning it. afghan president hamid karzai calling it inhuman. and that is now a criminal investigation by the ncis. >> chris lawrence at the pentagon, chris thank you. moving overseas now, more than 130 people killed today alone across syria. 11 of the dead are children according to activists. they say president assad is now using more muscle, more fire power trying to stomp out the resistance. >> you hear the sounds there. the government says it's only targeting armed militants. but activist says no one is safe. here's his view from the streets. i want to warn you, you might want to turn away. >> this is a house. piece es of bodies are laying here. >> these are bodies. these are civilian bodies. these are civilian bodies. this isn't the army. these are children, men, women being killed. >> that's a disturbing perspective from the ground level in the city of homs. we want to give you now the unique per respect itch of what this looks like from above. these are satellite images. this is broader of the city of homs that has been under siege for months especially in recent days. this taken a few days ago, february 5th. let me start here. excuse me one second. look on the left. this image is august 2010. you see a little traffic in the streets. if you look closely at the rooftops of the buildings they're all in pretty good shape. now let's look over here. this is just a few days ago. look at the tops of the building. you can see a lot of damage. a bomb crater here. more damage over here. we're not there. but this powerful satellite imagery tends to support the accounts of activists there's a lot of shelling going on in the city. let me show you this one out. a little then and now that gives you perspective of how under siege this city is. again look at the intersection. you see buses, cars, traffic coming this way, traffic going this way. again the rooftops pretty intact. pretty organized looks like a clean neighborhood. now look over here. like a ghost town with know no cars at all, damage on the roads. so much damage on the top of the buildings up in here as well. that's that burn degree i showed you earlier. one last image, again august 2010 here, february 2012 here. you see the tops of the buildings. you see much more damage here and a bit of a fire right in this area here. a lot of damage to the struhe s over here. we're not on the ground but images tend to support the view you get from activists this has been under siege. a fascinating way to look at it from satellite images taken from space. we'll stay on top of that story. coming up in about 15 minutes here we'll see e-mails of top syrian officials. they were hacked. you won't believe how they're trying to spin this brutal crackdown to americans. and we'll hear from rick santorum on -- >> church's moan and forcing them to do something that they think is a grievous moral wrong. how can that be a right of a woman? that has nothing to do with the right of a woman. like available blind spot monitor... [ tires screech ] ...night view... and heads-up display. [ engine revving ] the all-new 2013 lexus gs. there's no going back. the all-new 2013 lexus gs. have i got a surprise for you! yeah, [ bait's beneful healthy fiesta. gotta love the protein for muscles-- whoo-hoo! and omega-rich nutrition for that shiny coat. ever think healthy could taste so good? [ woman announcing ] beneful healthy fiesta. rick santorum now setting his sights on proving the wins are no spoof. here's proof mitt romney takes rick santorum more seriously. he has his own letterhead questioning santorum's past support of earmarks and pork barrel spending. the former pennsylvania senator took issue. >> governor romney's campaign has been about serially tearing down opponents without offering any kind of vision for what he wants to do for this country. >> senator santorum now joining us from tulsa. senator good to see you. i want to go through things you said at your event today. at one point you were cite chris sidesing the president's decision to oppose the keystone pipeline. saying that would make us more dependent on foreign oil and we would have to buy more oil from opeq. then you said this. >> what are we doing? we're throwing israel under the bus because we know we're going to be dependent upon opeq. we're going to say iran we don't want you to get a nuclear weapon. wink wink nod nod go ahead just give us your oil. >> folks, president of the united states is selling the economic security of this country down the river right now. >> senator, you believe this president of the united states is picking iran over israel, that he is sacrificing a decades-long alliance with israel to make friends with iran? isn't that loud crouse? >> well, no. look at his actions, john. look at his actions with the secretary of defense comes out and says that israel is planning an attack on iran, this is our closest ally in the region. and the secretary of defense goes out and divulges information, sensitive information about what israel's plans are, then wreaks scorn on them and invites the skrorn of the rest of the world in that that is somehow what a friend does? and then at the same time as i said before the president who fought tooth and nail against putting sangs on iran and only ca pit lated at the end. this is a president who is not standing by our allies, it's trying to appease, trying to find a way to allow clearly to allow iran to get this nuclear weapon. he's doing absolutely nothing in a consequential way to make sure they don't get this weapon. >> it's different to say i don't agree with his policy, i don't think he's doing enough. if i read your policy what you just said you think he doesn't care? >> i think he is looking past iran with a nuclear weapon. i believe now -- you hear it from voices within the administration. the idea of containment. you don't hear any of the real things that has to be put on the table that will stop iran. you have almost 40 nuclear sites. the idea that israel alone could actually take out those sites without any kind of carrier presence in the gulf is simply from a military standpoint highly improbably. and so you have a president who's now basically telling israel, don't do this. we're not going to help you. we're not going to be a partner in this. and we're going to have to live with containment. that seems to be the clear policy of this administration from its actions. >> want to bring up another controversy. that is the administration's decision to require catholic institutions, other religious institutions if they provide healthcare insurance to their workers to make sure that insurance includes contra accept tiff coverage. you call that a violation of religious freedom, making institutions provide coverage that goes against their moral religious beliefs. you talked about a former opponent, former colleague in the united states senate. i want you to listen. >> barbara boxer sort of is the dog whistle for me when i came to the united states senate. anytime she'd get up on the floor of the senate i just felt this magnet to run. and she said, "women's rights trump religious rights." maybe we need to look at that first amendment again. [ cheers and applause ] >> i want you to address your response here to women who might disagree with you on this issue. it's a tough policy call, and it's become dicey politics. but to a woman who say favors abortion rights or to a woman who says this is an access to healthcare issue who disagrees with you on this issue, what would you say to her? >> i would say that you have the right to go out and purchase that product. no one's telling you that product should be banned. but you shouldn't be able to tell a catholic church that they have to pay for it. that's the issue here, is making someone pay for something, using money from the church. it's the church's money. and forcing them to do something that they think is a grievous moral wrong. how can that be the right of a woman? that has nothing to do with the right of a woman. this has to do with the right of the church not to spend their resources in a way that's inconsistent with their faith. this is not a casual health position. this is something -- we're not talking about denying women the access to contraception. they can go and get it. but we're talking about forcing a church of which they happen to choose to work for, and they know their positions in working for them, you're now forcing them as a condition of employing people to pay for something that is again a grievous moral wrong. no. a woman's right to free contra accept tiff coverage being paid for by someone who believes it's a grievous moral wrong is not trumping that constitutional right of freedom of religion. >> more of that conversation with senator santorum later in the broadcast. did you ever think to hear kodak is getting out of the camera business? how it plans to stay alive ahead. and the striking video of a young boy forced to run nearly make ned the snow. no, it's not punishment. it's his dad's idea of good parenting. today my journey continues across the golden state, where everyone has been unbelievably nice. mornin'. i guess i'm helping them save hundreds on car insurance. it probably also doesn't hurt that i'm a world-famous advertising icon. cheers! i mean, who wouldn't want a piece of that? geico. ah... fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent oh dear... or more on car insurance. like in a special ops mission? you'd spot movement, gather intelligence with minimal collateral damage. but rather than neutralizing enemies in their sleep, you'd be targeting stocks to trade. well, that's what trade architect's heat maps do. they make you a trading assassin. trade architect. td ameritrade's empowering, web-based trading platform. trade commission-free for 60 days, and we'll throw in up to $600 when you open an account. welcome back. mary snow is here with the latest news you need to know right now. >> reporter: nuclear officials approved licenses to build two new reactors in georgia. the first time since 1979. the two new reactors will be built about 170 miles east of atlanta. the first is expected to come on line in 2016, the second in 2017. kodak, the company that invented the hand held and digital camera is getting out of the camera business all together. instead kodak says it will focus exclusively on photo printing services. the company filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last month. kodak says it will license its name to other cameramakers. and a dad who forced his crying toddler to run nearly naked through the snow says he did it to toughen the boy up. the video's been viewed tens of thousands of times. as you can imagine, people are furious. the family's from china but this happened during a vacation in new york state. and during the phone interview with cnn, he said he's strengthening his son who was born premature and has health problems. so it's just so hard to watch, john. >> it is hard to watch. i'm just going to leave it at that. there are ways to strengthen a boy but that's not in my view. mary, thanks. when we come back more with my conversation with the surging rick santorum. when will the american public finally get to look at his promised tax returns? i'll test him on that. and stephen colbert has criticized her for years it wills democrats not to talk to him. now nancy pelosi gets her revenge. the multi-point inspection. every time a vehicle comes into a ford dealership you'll be presented with one of these. we check the belts, hoses... brakes. tires and the pressures... battery, all your fluids... exhaust system, transmission... we inspect your air filter... it gets done,it gets done quickly and it gets done correctly. the works. oil change, tire rotation and more: $29.95 or less after rebate - at your ford dealer. you're a doctor... you're a car doctor. maybe a car doctor... that is better than today. since 1894, ameriprise financial has been working hard for their clients' futures. never taking a bailout. helping generations achieve dreams. buy homes. put their kids through college. retire how they want to. ameriprise. the strength of america's largest financial planning company. the heart of 10,000 advisors working with you, one-to-one. together, for your future. ♪ '?ww@ñwill be giving away. passafree copies of the alcoholism & addiction cure. to get yours, go to ssagesmalibubook.com. in this half hour president obama versus the catholic church. and why rorz error thinks having more women in combat isn't such a good idea. be ready to pay a hefty fine in one of america's sunniest cities. every day sometimes by the hour we report new horrors from inside syria carried out by the regime. now thanks to some allegedly hacked e-mails we're getting an inside look at how syrian president bashar al assad and his cronies are trying to spin the crackdown. spoiler alert, they apparently don't think too m