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much more from and about the hawkeye caucuses later this hour. sears holdings is out with a partial list of the sears and k-mart stores it plans to close. earlier this week sears said it would close between 100 and 120 stores as a result of poor holiday sales. the firm has released a list of 79 that will be closed nationwide. sears said in a statement that it could not say how many jobs will be cut or when the stores will be closed. sears holdings has more than 4,000 stores in the u.s. and canada. a protest in syria turns deadly. hundreds of thoses of pro-democracy demonstrators jammed the streets and homes and other cities across the country as part of what the opposition called the crawl to freedom square. anti-government groups say at least 32 protesters have been killed. witnesses say this video shows a man who had his legs blown off being carried by friends in a ma das tus suburb. crackdown by president bashar al assad s forces continues despite the presence of ....
gingrich is down. let s go outfront. good evening, i m ali velshi sitting in for erin burnett outfront tonight. newt sinking and santorum rising. newt gingrich plunging from his top spot down to fourth place. former governor rick santorum doing just the open sits. he surged from single digits into third place. mitt romney now leads the pack with 25% and there s another new poll out of new hampshire where the nation s second contest in the race for the gop nominee will be held one week later on january the 10th. mitt romney dominating his opposition there. he s at 44%. rivals ron paul and newt gingrich trailing 17% and 16% respectively. let s go right to political correspondent joe johns. he s on the ground in iowa. joe, this is a bit of a shocker. santorumizi santorumize santorum rising as much as he has. this is a guy that s been to every county in the state and he still couldn t get that endorsement. what has done that this for rick santorum? reporter: ali, i ve g ....
cred for the winner. three major contenders running bus towards, all with the exception of jon huntsman are there. ron paul, mitt romney, michele bachmann and rick santorum have events this hour. we ll dip into the events and delve into the latest campaign intrigues in our fair game segment just about a half an hour or so from now. remember all that fuss about raising the nation s debt ceiling? well, guess what? it is time to ask for the final installment in a series of debt hikes authorized back in august. when we came within just days of a government default. this one is worth about $1.2 trillion, pushing the legal debt limit to $16.4 trillion, and this time the fuss should be less, but not non-existent. the increase can only be blocked if both houses of congress pass a resolution against it, and president obama, for reasons unknown, signs it. none of that, of course, will happen. rick perry s not giving up on virginia. one of several gop candidates who failed to ....
not anti-semitic and not homophobic. he ll join me on the phone in the next segment and ask the tough questions. with one week to the way caucuses, it is an easy guess where they are today. five in fact crisscrossing the hawkeye state right now or will be later today, including perry, gingrich, bachmann and romney. on the ground right now in iowa, sanatorium at the gop headquarters in fort dodge. romney was on the stump in new hampshire this morning but is expected in iowa later today. next tuesday s bat sl the first contest in the race for the republican nomination for those living in iowa you can expect an explosion of campaign television and radio commercials. latest american he verge group poll shows a three-way traffic jam for the top spot with paul at 21%. romney at 20%. gingrich at 19%. 12% of likely caucus goers are undecided at this late date. you don t have to be rich to be elected to congress but it helps. you will have lots of company there. data analyze ....