john fugelson and john cain. a lot to talk about this morning. that was in unison, i like it. we'll ask the congresswoman about it. this morning mitt romney turning his full attention to the general election after sweeping yesterday's gop primaries in connecticut, delaware, new york, pennsylvania and rhode island. >> a better america begins tonight. tonight is the start of a new campaign to unite every american who knows in their heart that we can do better. the last few years have been the best that barack obama can do. but it's not the best america can do. tonight is the beginning of the end of the disappointments of the obama year. >> but romney hasn't quite clinched the number of nominations just yet. right now he has 764 of the 1,144 needed. newt gingrich 141 and ron paul 75. romney supporter congresswoman mary bono mach. nice to see you this morning. >> you, too. >> rick santorum was holding on for a long time and the cultural conservative kind of vote for so long now and he was on piers morgan last night and i want to talk about whether or not he is endorsing your candidate. listen in. >> am i mishearing things? you just endorsed mitt romney? >> if that's what you want to call it -- >> am i wrong? karen, you know your husband, has he just endorsed mitt romney? >> not at this point, no. we're working through it and talking about it. >> she's sort of clarifying his position on this. congresswoman, do you want senator santorum's support here? >> i'm sure rick will be there all along. i have no idea what was said last night, piers was doing all the talking, as usual. rick will come around. rick recognizes that our best shot in november is going to be mitt romney. that we need mitt romney desperately to turn our country around. i'm confident rick will get there. of course, it will take a little time to get over all the hard work he has done. but i know he'll be there in the end. >> also that lingering concern about the comment from santorum on the campaign trail that your candidate was a worst choice than the president. you can get over that. >> well, look, all sorts of things are said in the heat of the battle of a campaign. it's unfortunate. as you know, negative campaigning have really taken over all campaigns in america. but rick is going to recognize and i'm sure, you know, what is interesting about mitt romney. he's the kindest candidate i've ever met. four years ago i met him right after rudy giuliani dropped out of the race, i was backing rudy way back then and he was very forgiving of me and very kind of wanted to move forward back then. i am sure it will be the same thing now. >> paul saying monday he won't step aside, even if romney clinches the nomination very soon here and gingrich spokesman says the decision on that campaign's future could come in a few days. we heard that before reassessing and reassessing, again. gingrich saying, he's still sticking on the issues that he disagrees with obama and sounding very much like a candidate. listen. >> one of the reasons that we are determined to go all the way to tampa is to fight for a platform that does have these kind of issues in it. >> is newt gingrich a distraction at this point? >> no, newt is, look, he's a great thinker. he has a great mind for american politics. he has a great mind for taking the country in a different direction. he recognizes, i think, at this point in time, that his voice is still quite important in american politics, maybe just not as our presidential nominee. >> ron brownstein. >> good morning, ron brownstein from national journal. speaking of coming together, governor romney campaigned with senator rubio. senator rubio developing a proposal a version of the dream act that would allow young people brought here illegally to stay here legally and is that something you want to see governor romney and the house republicans more broadly embrace? >> well, i think it's a very important topic and i'm glad that senator rubio is leading the way here. we really need to do something with immigration, there's no doubt about it. i think marco has a great voice to do just that. i'm personally very encouraged and i look forward to watching as he rolls this out and working with him to bring some kind of common sense legislation forward. >> can we talk about student loan interest rates. a rare moment of agreement between your president and your candidate. president obama to extend interest rates when they expire in july. your candidate supported that move on monday. listen. >> particular with the number of college graduates that can't find work or only find work well beneath their skill level. i fully support the effort to extend the low interest rate on student loans. >> but back in december he was whistling sort of a different tune. this was an exchange caught on tape by a liberal pack back in december with a student who was worried about higher interest rates. listen. >> federally subsidized loans and they're at 7.9 to 8% interest. >> a student in dental school who have federally subsidized local and at 7 to 8.9%. he said that's a good question. hopefully you get a job. "new york" magazine taking that moment and saying it's another romney etch a sketch moment. >> but the real question here is, while president obama is out on the campaign trail while he's visiting these colleges, is he truly delivering the speeches that he should. that he's borrow oing 40 cents on every day for the spending that he's doing. is he talking about the need to reign in government spending and is he explaining to these students that their futures do matter and what his policies are doing is truly, if you would, it's hold to a large federal government that is fill would waste, fraud and abuse. >> both of those candidates now support, you know, this interest rate move on student loans that will cost $6 billion that we'll have to borrow money to do that. your candidate supports it, too. >> as i said, i'm going to support it, too. i have to look at the final details, of course, but a temporary extension and, now, it's an important time. look, more kids right now are either underemployed or unemployed since they've been taking these numbers. i think there's a real crisis with our youth. my point is president obama used to be making the case and he needs to recognize himself that these are among the hardest hit people from the very policies that he's put into place over his term. >> congresswoman mary bono mack. thank you. we start with breaking news this morning. there is new hope for missing british girl madeleine mccann. authorities are saying she may still be alive. she will be 9 years old this may. she was last seen in portugal on a family vacation since then, a number of unconfirmed sightings. for the second time in five days, a passenger jet departing new york has been forced to make an emergency landing because of a bird strike. the latest incident happened last night at westchester county airport, just outside new york city. a jetblue flight bound for west palm beach forced to turn back 15 minutes after taking back when two geese slammed right into the windshield and damaged it. none of the 54 passengers onboard were heard. listen to it from the cockpit transmission. >> jetblue 571, we have to come back. we hit two big geese. >> jetblue 571, roger and, standby. jetblue, 571 make right traffic runway 1-6. >> would you like to declare an emergency? >> we are declaring an emergency. >> very calm. exactly how you want your pilots to sound. just last thursday a delta flight out of kennedy airport made a quick turn around after birds were sucked into an engine right after takeoff there. and the first u.s. case of mad cow disease in six years confirmed in california. it has people concerned about the safety of the food supply. a random test discovered the disease in a dairy cow in central california. the carcass has been quarantined at baker commodity's rendering plant and it will be destroyed. officials say no meat from the cow was bound for the food supply, still, at least one major south korean retailer has suspended u.s. beef imports in response to the case of mad cow disease. and two more members of the secret service have resigned. the latest casualties of the colom been prostitution scandal. two other cleared of serious misconduct. a total of nine agent are now out of a job. the first criminal charges filed for the gulf oil disaster. bp engineer is accused of destroying 200 text messages related to that spill. he was designed to estimate the size of the spill and they say the text indicate the leak was far worse than the company reported at the time. he faces up to 20 years in prison, if convicted. 11 people were killed in that incident. state police in louisiana joining the fbi and investigating allegations that new orlean saint general manager mickey loomis eavesdropped. that was beginning in 2002. the saints deny the allegations calling them 1,000% false. at 8:00 eastern, we'll talk to the espn reporter that actually broke the story. minding your business, u.s. markets poised to open higher this morning shaking off concerns about europe. corporate earnings continue to be a bright spot pushing stocks up across the board. apple's earnings, in particular, crushing wall street's estimates. apple ceo tim cook report that company profits doubled in the first three months of the year. strong iphone sales playing a major factor there. the company sold on average, listen to this, 385,000 iphones per day in the quarter. that's about 16,000 iphones per hour every hour for three months. if that is not enough, apple stock is up almost 10% in premarket trading this morning. >> 10%. this is a stock no one ever gets tired of looking at that stock chart because you're up 5% over ten years. tim cook who runs that company, he said it was mind boggling. when you heard a ceo say the earnings were mind boggling. 90% market growth and it's crazy. that's why the stock is up so much. if only apple, if only apaal can lift the entire u.s. economy, right? >> they could have afford to give their chinese laborers a second -- it's day two of president obama's three-state swing to college campuses. part of a big push for the youth vote, which included a stop to one of late night's most popular sh shows, "late night with jimmy fallon." >> what we said is simple. now is not the time to make school more expensive for our young people. >> oh, yeah. you should listen to the president. ♪ or as i like to call him >> a good move? >> culture infiniti and amend some alliances with voters on the election year. on one hand you have a cultural and on the other hand pretty tough economic situation for people coming out of college and that's the big opportunity for mitt romney in 2012. >> good location and very good timing. >> i hate to be hypercritical and i'll turn it to you for the entertainment. i wish the president had been a more, a bigger participant in the joke aspect of it. he was being himself. >> you know what happens if he does that, then he gets criticized. >> people like me criticize him for everything. >> we have come a long way. we expect to see our candidates in these kind of pop culture venues. which is not true. >> i can't wait to see president romney on pawn stars. >> we'll play more of the president on jimmy fallon coming up a little bit later. ahead on "starting point" new developments after cops cleared the way for sports cars to peel out on a new jersey highway. we're talking to one of those officers attorney who says, look, he was only doing his job. then, the latest disgusting publicity stunt from the guy who brought you a website from cheaters. this time tim tebow is the target. if you're headed to work, check out the rest of the show online on our live blog cnn.com/startingpoint. from my playlist, rolling stones "jumping jack flash." every communications provider is different but centurylink is committed to being a different kind of communications company. ♪ we link people and fortune 500 companies nationwide and around the world. and we will continue to free you to do more and focus on what matters. all right, flying down the road at more than 100 miles per hour with the police escort. two state troopers in new jersey are suspended after allegedly escorting dozens of luxury cars on a dangerous high-speed run to atlantic city last month. the video you're looking at shows a similar incident back from 2010 which officials are also investigating. char charles is the attorney and one of the troopers suspended this week in connection with last month's joy ride. first of all, what happened last month? >> what happened last month is what happens frequently. you have these escorts given on the road, funerals, security details. >> escorting a celebrity. >> escorting a celebrity. you have giant stadium, people going back and forth. you have these charitable events. you go to the charitable events and you see these high-end cars and people buy these cars, something they do to give back to the community. brandon jacobs, this is a guy -- >> the giants -- >> giants runningback plays for the nfl. and he sticks around for charitable events and knows my client through that. kids hospitals, fund-raisers, calls up my client and says, can we do an escort? >> does your client have permission to do that. >> let's be clear on this. >> wait, before you talk about it, what is safe about going 100 miles per hour with a line of luxury cars down the garden state parkway where you have other people driving and saying, wow, ten amazing cars going 100 miles per hour. >> first of all, that is a fair question. >> what is the answer? is that safe? >> i would suggest it's not safe and has to be looked at, but don't throw my client on to the pr fire because you have to try and tap down the negativity. this goes on routinety. you have the 2010 video. >> if you just call up the cops and get a nice ride somewhere? >> i think that goes too far. what this comes down to, you have community leaders and people get involved and one thing the state police have done for years. my client has been ordered to do this for years my client set this one authorized to do so. these are done by the local station commander. he stepped forward, brandon jacobs calls out and says we have these guys and we're going to lay out our charitable foundation, what we're going to do and he said -- >> this is what i think is hard for a lot of us to wrap our heads around. we've seen police escorts for situations like funerals, as you mentioned. we expect to see that. but i don't understand what, how you get a police escort under situations like this. is it being a celebrity? is that the standard that kind of -- >> 100 miles an hour is not an escort, it's a drag race. >> this is the other thing. death race 20 12, everyone got from point a to point b -- >> i haven't called it that. >> granted, i'm not going to arg argue with you that the posted speed limits and you have pace, all of us, in all due respect, we all go above the speed limit, depending upon what the road is. south jersey parkway, middle of the day, not a lot of traffic. now, you're getting to something where -- we'll get to an investigation at some point where you get the ez pass at this exit and then you'll get the speeds in between and you'll figure that out. but why is my client suspended? we went in on monday ready to give a statement and the newspaper came out on sunday morning, i'm sure the powers at be were all choking on their eggs and bacon. we go in to give a statement and answer these questions. >> this is an institutional problem and i understand your argument that your client is being thrown under the bus for this one instance. >> your client is no way authorized to let civilians disobey the speed limit. >> as troopers we cannot require the public to obey laws that we are not willing to uphold for everyone equally. i will not tolerate this egregious breach of public safety and those responsible will be held fully accountable. do an investigation and change the rules. >> do an investigation. no discipline. he has a stack of accommodations and awards this big. nothing in this file negative. say let's look at our policies and procedures and what happened in that particular case and let's look at it. the first thing i said, these are very rare. that was monday morning. i'm getting all the information a in my own investigation. >> from talking to your client, was an escort necessary in the first place? what convinced him it was necessary. what convinced him it was necessary to travel at that speed? >> first of all, we don't know what speed they were traveling. first, okay. >> that's probably 150. >> above the posted. absolutely. above the pace of the traffic? sure. here's what i'm talking about in terms of necessary. should my client's career be ended over -- >> i'm asking what your client has said to you about why it was necessary for the caravan to travel at a speed above the speed limit? >> here's the technical stuff. you have a trooper car in the front and trooper car in the back. sometimes they get too much space and they close it up a little bit and they slow down. let's get to the investigation on that. let's not turn around and jump to conclusions that everyone is out there running a road race. they all sat in the left lane. that other 2010 video is of someone else who jumped in and joy riding in it. i'm not suggesting that this is an invitation to that type of stuff. a guy with 25 years who jumps into burning cars. the colonel had to admit that yesterday. >> thank you so much. >> thank you for your time. >> thanks, guys. ahead on "starting point" the nba not giving world peace a chance. it's going to cost the lakers big time. the founder of a dating website for cheaters. you expect so much out of a dating website for cheaters. dirt on mr. clean tim tebow. here's a little george michael "faith." 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[ male announcer ] the all-new subaru impreza. experience love that lasts. ♪ who's she? downy unstopables. here to shake up your fresh. toss these little scent boosters in before you wash. and the fresh scent will last until you're ready to wash again. downy unstopables. the fresh too feisty to quit. now it's time to get real. the publicity of ashleymadison.com is at it, again. nole bederman is offering $100 for anyone that can prove they had sex with tim tebow. son of missionaries vowed that he is a virgin and waiting for marriage, even though he might be the most eligible bachelor in the country right now. we think tebow should turn the tables and offer an award to anyone who can actually find a real woman. you expect so much more from a website. >> offering $1 million to anyone who can find -- >> i must say, if mrs. bederman is watching right now, give me a call. >> she's a woman with incredible confidence, apparently. either his mother or his wife. >> now, prostitution is illegal, right? >> yeah. >> this would be some form of entrapment, wouldn't it? >> it's actually called publicity. it's actually a million dollars. paying nothing to get a million dollars. ahead on "starting point" a showdown a deciding factor on election day. arizona tough immigration crackdown heads to the supreme court today and other states with similar laws are watching. we'll talk to a republican lawmaker who was key in getting this legislation passed. want to be less cramped and cranky on your next trip. we have news you can use and it doesn't mean leaving your kids at home. a new study has pinpointed the perfect seat on the airplane. which seat to get on a standard airplane. you're watching "starting point." if you are one of the m