speak in the republican presidential primary. at a small ham house restaurant in greenville is the center of a showdown between mitt romney and newt gingrich literally. both candidates scheduled to arrive for breakfast, a meet-and-greet at the same place at the very same time, but romney got there first. maybe he needs that head start especially after a recent poll shows a stunning turnaround, gingrich surging ahead with 450% of the vote, romney a distant second now, 26%. our jim acosta is there. so, jim, tell us what's happening at the restaurant. >> reporter: hey, gary, we're live outside tommy's ham house. newt gingrich is inside as part of the ham house showdown we've seen all morning long. you can see the former speaker was hamming it up inside the restaurant. he arrived, as we all know, 30 ninlts after mitt romney left the scene and he asked the crowd inside, where's mitt, he was hoping to have a debate with the former massachusetts governor. that was not to be. we were expecting earlier this morning these two candidates might actually collide inside this restaurant, but you can say -- pardon all these ham puns that mitt romney got the upper ham. he arrived a little earlier this morning than expected. i just got a boo for that one. sorry about that. then he made his way through the crowd. reporters tried to ask romney why he was there a little bit earlier than gingrich. he did not answer those questions. he left pretty quickly with his entourage, got on the bus and newt gingrich arrived shortly after that. so it's been an interesting day. this is kind of summing up how this day is going so far here in south carolina. as you probably know, there's a new poll out this morning showing a pretty sizeable lead for newt gingrich. an arp poll shows newt gingrich up 40% to 26%. that's a huge turn of events. i was on the ground monday when everybody was talking about romney as the inevitable dw op nominee. he was way ahead of the polls. all of that has changed over the course of five days. it's been a very dramatic turnaround. gary? >> thank you very much. it's crazy how the polls have evolved and i do think the story at the country ham house, one of the funniest political stories. i wish they both shown up at the same time. i would love to have seen what would happen. alas they did not show up at the same time. so what did tommy's ham house owner have to say about his morning's visitors. he told me even he was surprised to learn both candidates were stopping by. >> his people called me yesterday and toldmy they were stopping by for around 10:45. we were getting ready for him this morning. during the night i got a call from caroline bambi, who's one of newt's workers in greenville and she said -- they woke me up because i go to bed early and she said is romney coming tomorrow, too, and i said well i didn't know it if, he was. that will be fine. so i went on back to sleep and this morning, i opened the front door and i come to the office and i look back out and here comes caroline wanting to put up newt gingrich signs and i said that would be fine. they told mehmet would be coming. we have never had two at the same time, but we'll take care of it. >> i know this is not the first time you've about had a candidate stop by for breakfast. but at this particular sign, how do you design the restaurant? do you allow them to put it up wherever they want, put up barbed wire -- i'm just kidding about that -- >> no, we've got a wide open restaurant. they're not going dom in and talk or debate, i don't think. i think they want to come in, shake hands and meet the people at the restaurant. >> will you be spending time with each of the candidates? >> i've got a lot to do. i've got 7 com70 coming in to t care of. i hope they'll be there later on. i want to get my regular people fed. >> i think that speaks highly of you that you want to take care of your regular people when you may have someone who may be president coming into your restaurant. >> tom soumy sounds like a guy. next time i'm there, i'm stopping by tommy's ham house. here's the unemployment picture for the early voting state. south carolina has the highest rate, 9.9%. that's above the national level, but iowa, new hampshire, are way down, in the 5% level. there's also a big difference in ratio mash-up. south carolina, more than 8%. double the national picture. be sure to stay with them all day. it will be dramatic. we've got the results. tune in at 7:00 p.m. eastern time for the special coverage of the winners, thoe e the losers south carolina primary. wild weather crisscrossing the country. heavy rain. reynolds, is it affecting the voting, do you think? is it heavy enough? >> i would think so. if you're not motivated to go out. for other people it's not going to matter. they're going go out and vote. we've had rough weather all over the country. firefighters are making progress battling a 3,000-eric wildfire. my goodness, that is horrible to see. authorities say it's been about two-thirds contained by last night. it looks like it's going to cooperate. the additional moisture moving in the picture. it will help. to the midwest we go, chicago, digging out from a snowstorm. about six inches of snow fell yesterday. some places as much as 9 inches of snowfall. again, the snow is moving out. so is the rain. now the clean-up begins. when we make our way back over toward oregon, we're not talking about snow. we're either talking about heavy rainfall. look at the result. my goodness. some families evacuated from their homes yesterday. floods ravaged the town of turner. we're going to show you what happened in atlanta. speaking of flooding, no flooding for time being. we have heavy rainfall moving into the city. let's see if we take a towercam outside. you can see hardly anything except giant raindrops on the lens cap. more of the same can beexpected through the afternoon, evening hours. mate last all afternoon monday. with geevet that slow-moving weather system, that frontal boundary that's crawling across parts of alabama into georgia, the carolinas, even the earn seaboard where they're transforming some raindrops into snow flakes, actually toward new england where they could see several inches of snow. one thing to keep in mind. there is a chance of flash flooding in parts of atlanta, perhaps parts of north georgia and maybe into the carolinas. we've already had some big, big rumbles of thunder this morning in atlanta, more in the palmetto state and perhaps places like duke university in raleigh/durham. even in the nation's capital. meanwhile the pacific northwest, we're talking about the snow. it could get heavy, in fact, not just today and tomorrow. if you look at the clock, you see sunday, even into monday, some places, the highest elevations, the cascades, see area, nevada, may get snow. snowfall totals for the northeast, for the next 48 hours i'd say one to two, maybe 5 inchings of snow in boston. a look at your temperatures nationally, 25 in chicago, gary tuck man's home town. 58 in san francisco, 68 in atlanta, 37 in washington, d.c., and 76 in miami. gary, i had to give your home town. >> i appreciate that, reynolds. >> i do. speaking of home towns, this home town atlanta where we now live, rainy, foggy, and that messes up air traffic cross country. busiest airport. >> absolutely. i think we're going to see delays on and off through the weekend. >> reynolds, thank you. >> you bet. today is primary day in south carolina. today is also the second anniversary of the supreme court decision that gave birth to the politically charged super pacs. up next, we'll break down the super pacs. [ hermann ] there's always something that's going to have to be done by a certain date. you always have homework, okay? i don't have homework today. it's what's right here is what is most important to me. it's beautiful. ♪ ♪ they are changing the gop race with huge sums of money. we're talking about super pacs. so what are they, and which candidates are benefiting most from them? our josh levs is here to show us some specific numbers. >> we've been talking about this, this plethora of ads that are all new this year. it's part of a whole new picture of what's going on politically. basically these groups are allowed to take in unlimited contributions from corporations, unions, individuals, and then use them to run ads for or against candidates. i'm going to show you some numbers. first i'm going to remind you candidates are not allowed to coordinate with these groups on expenditures. take a look. the biggest spending, restore our future which supports mitt romney. they've spent $11.4 million. it attracts all this at opensecrets.com. the next group, winning our future, which supports newt gingrich, hat respondent victory has spent $4.6 million, endorse liberty which supports ron paul. they've spent $3.1 million, and red, white, and blue supports rick santorum, and they've spent $1.8 million. you can't quantify who's coming out. you probably notice the names of all of them. they all have similar-sounding teams. our partners at cnn.com say they have unobjective sounding patriotic names. and they're changing the race. >> every year, every cycle we tebd to have more money spent on cam papers than before. the difference is in the past, most of that more money was coming in $2,300, $2,400 checks that were bundled today. now you have the ability of sa millionaire to write a check. >> these are highly controversial. supporters say they're a way of freedom of speech. critics say they can have more influence than they already did. we're talking about it on all of my pages. i will tell you, gary, people are not holding back on this one it's really fascinating and really changed -- this election is so much different than 2008. >> we'll see where it goes from here. there could be more super pacs or there are some people fighting against it. some want to create amendments to keep it from happening. >> we're going to have to sit here in 2016 and talk about it. >> i'm there if you're there. >> we'll still be young guys. >> young enough. >> thank you, josh. i should speak for myself. how would you like to go to work and get a free lunch every single day or go bowling when you need to take a break. the companies that made the list of best places to work coming up next. may seem like the stuff of fairy tales. but if you take away the faces on the trees... take away the pixie dust. take away the singing animals, and the storybook narrator... [ man ] you're left with more electric trucks. more recycled shipping materials... and a growing number of lower emissions planes... which still makes for a pretty enchanted tale. ♪ la la la [ man ] whoops, forgot one... [ male announcer ] sustainable solutions. fedex. solutions that matter. some companies dish out a lot of perks like free food and game rooms to keep their employees happy. here's a look at the top five. as you see, number one, google. boston consulting group, number three. edward jones rounds out the top five, sas institute as number three and wegman's food market as a number 4. the national foundation for credit counseling found that 62% of the americans say their top financial goal for 2012 is paying down debt. but where should you star earlier i got a little help from financial analyst clyde anderson. >> a lot of us racked up bills last month. >> a lot of bills. >> january comes along and you look ought the credit karpd bills and you figure out how do you pay them off? do you pay them all off? >> it ooh's very smart thing but you have to have a strategy. a lot of people want to pay the highest balance or pay the lowest balance. what you need do is tackle the one with the highest apr. this is a smart strategy. you want to eliminate the one you're paying the most interest on. by the time you do that, you go to the next one with the next highest interest rate because you don't want to be paying more on these high interest rate cards just because you paid off one with a $100 balance. >> should you be consolidating when you have a lot of different bills? >> definitely. it depending on how many you have. if you have four or five, the best strategy, again, is just to go ahead and hit the one with the highest apr first. a lot of people consolidate when they've got massive amounts of debt and they can't control, they want to lump them all with one interest rate. i wouldn't recommend that until it's out of your hands and you can't control it. >> what other strategies? >> i've got a couple different ones. one that people aren't recognizinging, we have a stimulus. right now we have a break with payroll taxes. to a lot of people it doesn't seem like a lot of money. >> most of us don't think about that. we say, oh, we think it sounds good. >> break your calculator out. for the average household it's about $992. right now we know it's going through the end of february. if congress can't come to terms, it could extend to the rest of the year. take that and apply it toward your debt. >> is it as much a strategy when december comes, december 2012, it's still 11 months away, maybe not spend as much if you're not sure how to consolidate. >> that te's the best strategy. use cash as much as possible. you pay in the end. it seems fine and dandy until we swipe them until the back's gone but a lot of times you pay for them. a lot of times you pay two times what you would pay. >> speaking of cash, a lot of us don't like to walk around with cash. the question is maybe it's smart to carry around more cash so you don't have to worry about the credit card bills. is that something you advocate? >> for a lot of people, that's what you do. you have the cash in your pocket. you know how much you need and you use the cash. you won't use more. when you see the cash coming out of your handing, it's a lot different than swiping the card. it's real money. >> good advice from clyde anderson. can you imagine getting paid to answer working eames while you're at home. one country's new law that could mean lucrative news for its work force. guinea pig: row...row.took one, 8 months to get the guin: ..row. lile cbby one to yell row! guineaig: ro's kof strange. guinig: row...row. such a simple word... row. anncr: t an easierayof strange. save. get online. go to geico.com. get a quote. e u 15% or more on car insurance. a new labor law in brazil might mean employees who receive work call after hours could be eligible for overtime, but is this breaking ground or causing more addiction to our phones? earlier i suffolk nadia bilchik in our morning passport. >> the president has sign add law saying if you work overtime and you have a great deal of action that has to be taken after hours, it does make you eligible. so who's going to really benefit from this? the lawyers. what are you going to have to go through? think about that. but also, gary, in the last five years, thing about how much your life as changed now that you are accessful 24 hour days. >> i think it makes it easier for me because i can do a lot of things over the weekend and i don't have to worry about it when i wake up on monday. >> that's very nice, but really what they're saying is it's being abused and you have a case. now, they're really formalizing on something that was happening in brazil anyway. a lot of employees were suing employers for taking advantage so they simply legalized it but they need to go through the supreme labor court of brazil to review and that's going to happen in february. what you're going to see is more employees sues employers. what it's going make people do is think twice before they request an action taken. but how are you going to actually prove it because somebody can say i didn't send you an e-mail at that time. it's a glitch on your computer. it's going to take a love to prove. the brazilians work late hours but they're also late for meetings. what she's going do is instead of wasting her time, it's a way of just formalizing the whole situation and making it easier for the employee. by the way, brazil is a labor-friendly country already, so there's concern about what is this going to do? >> labor-friendly, no kidding. could this happen in the united states? >> i can't see it happening but i liked don lemon's e-mail where he said he'd be a millionaire answering all the tweets. you used to have to go to an office or office in your home but you'd have to open your computer. you can now both send e-mails and receive them public from anywhere so what it's saying is not let's abuse is system. what happens to these workaholics, crackberryholiks and others? >> it's such an interesting story from nadia. well, newt gingrich surges ahead on decision day in the polls in south carolina. we go live to the state capitol next. and even in bad economy, new cars at the detroit auto shows are drawing in big crowds. we'll find out why coming up. l.. the gold standard in anti-aging. clinically proven to give 10 years back to the look of skin. nothing's better than gold. [ female announcer ] roc® retinol correxion deep wrinkle night cream. it's the bottom of the hour, time for our top stories. divers continue the search for survivors. 21 people are still missing. it was suspended friday because the ship began to shift. they're said to transition to a recovery effort next. that's bad news. two days after an internet outcry, house and senate leaders pushed two anti-privacy bills to the side. they'll likely never come up again now. they aimed to crack down on piracy but many critics fear the new laws would go too far. several websites went dark wings to protest the new bills. new arrests at florida a&m university. four members of the famous 100 march band have been arrested. they're not related to an earlier ins the, a tragic one. the school promised to crack down on hazing. a nevada man cass come forward to possibly take the blame for starting a devastating fire in reno, nevada. he is said to have improper will i gotten rid of his fireplace ashes. it's destroyed nearly 30 homes and 10,000 people have been evacuated. firefighters do now think they have the upper happened on the blaze. a big boost for newt gingrich's campaign. the latest american research group has been surging ahead of mitt romney among south carolina voters. so what does this mean? let's turn to cnn's political editor paul steinhauser. paul, this is stunning, this turnabout just in the last several days. >> reporter: it really is. this poll as you mentioned, just out in the last hour, hour and 15 minutes, it was conducted thursday and friday. that was half before and half after our debate, our cnn republican debate. here's the new poll. look at that. there's gingrich now at 40%. romney at 26%. this is among people likely to vote right now in today's primary in south carolina. look at that earlier in the week. basically dead even. now, gary, this is probably the final poll. it's already primary day. people are voting and this is just one poll, so, you know, the polls may differ. all of the polls, and there have been a lot, indicate gingrich surge and romney's lead evaporating. >> gingrich's lead is weaker when it comes to fee mamale vot >> reporter: we saw the story line from the debate the other night, his ex-wife marian saying he asked for an open marriage. loot ak this on the poll numbers. it goes against the other polls. right here among women and men, look at that, gingrich's support among men, 38%, women, 42%. so at least from this one poll it indicates he's doing well with female voters likely to partake in today's primary. >> the numbers are stunning. you're an expert, so i'm going to ask you this expert question. if gingrich wins in south carolina, and we didn't expect that necessarily five or six days ago, what will mitt romney have to do going into florida? >> reporter: it's going to change the polling in flid. a gingrich victory here, that will change it pretty darn quickly, but let's talk about it. not as conservative a republican electorate as here. romney's campaign already up with a lot of campaign ads in florida. so it will be a very different feeling in florida. a gingrich win here would definitely change the landscape in florida, gary. >> it's going to be a fascinating day and night when these numbers come in from south carolina. thank you very much, paul. >> reporter: thank you. >> the new poll numbers paul steinhauser just talked about, one of the most fiery moments was his debate performance on thursday night. i talked with republican strategist lenny mcallister and senior democratic strategist maria car dough nah. >> do you think it hope give him a win in south carolina? >> reporter: it did. conservatives feel as though there's a lib rat bias in the media. he played straight to that. e he also was able to attack the whole question of this ex-wife coming up, the timing of it. it's still pivoted against president obama. he did it in a brilliant fashion and he diddet from the outside and with passion. it was enough to get the crowd on his side and may have been enough to get the conservative base here in south carolina behind them where if we leave south carolina the newt gingrich victory tonight, we'll have santorum with a victory in iowa, romney with a victory in new hampshire and game seriously on in florida. >> i think going into this what we have seen with the gingrich surge is a couple of things. first his tremendous performances at the debate, second, the question that lenny was just talking about, the slap-down against the question about his ex-wife, but also, and this is interesting, because as many voters say that they don't like negative campaigning and as many of the political scientists say this has been the nastiest campaign yet in south carolina with all the negative ads, they work. newt gingrich was able to put a lot of negative campaign ads up through his super pac and they work the same way they worked for mitt romney against newt gingrich in iowa and new hampshire. and so i think this is to be all and end all for newt gingrich if he wants go on and be considered to be competitive for the nomination against mitt romney. >> well, the game is seriously on. be sure to stay with cn all day for coverage from south carolina. and tonight, we've got the results. we're starting our coverage at 6:00 p.m. eastern. 6:00. our special coverage of the winners and losers of the south carolina primary. well, this may be a weekend in most parts of the united states to stay inside and curl up by the fireside. a fierce winter storm has taken aim at the midwest and northeast and rain elsewhere, lots of it. reynolds wolf joins us with our weekend forecast. and we'll find out which car is just right for you. states to stay inside and curl ♪ what's he looking for? 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[ female announcer ] roc® retinol correxion deep wrinkle night cream. meteorologist reynolds wolf is back. there must be somewhere where it's beautiful and gorgeous right? >> that's absolutely true. one sfot could be miami. it's all relative. there are people in the rockies so desperate for snow, it's great. we've got places where they've been desperate for the heavy snowfall. they're going to get it today. some highest peaks will get up to a foot of snowfall. for people trying to get around the country, it's going to be frustrating. take a look at atlanta. grand stoppage, wait. philadelphia, not quite as bad. 45 minutes give or take. the reason we have tlas in atlanta, plain and simple, we've got the frontal boundary coming through. if you're in georgia, you may have heard that rumble of thunder. that rectangular box is expected to be there for most of the the day. somewhere else you're going to watch is a chance for snowfall in parts of the northeast. 3 to 5 inches of snow. what's interesting is out by columbus circle in new york, gary, we're seeing as much as 1, 2, 3 inches of snow fall. the first time we saw snow was halloween. pretty interesting there. wind is going to be an issue. dry and very breezy. some wind gusts topping 40, 50 miles an hour. expect that to last through much of the day in through tomorrow. should taper off just a bit. back to you, gary. >> it is the dead of winter. >> for the first time in five years attendance is on the rise for the detroit auto show and if you're in the market for a new car, gas prices are a big concern but how can you get more for your money? bill perkins is the chairman of the north american international auto show, he weighed in. attendance is up. that seems like a very positive sign for our economy, right? >> reporter: gary, we're having a great show. we've had so many people come in to see all the unveilings that we've had here in detroit, and it's a real indicator of how much the market has improved, not only here in detroit, but really across the country here in north america. >> give us an idea for someone looking to buy their first car or buy a car that won't bust the budget. what's affordable? >> reporter: well, there's a lot of new offering. as a chevrolet dealer, we have the chevy cruise, an excellent offering, $20,000 to $22,000. you can get something a little cheaper than that. the sonic is around $16,000 to $18,000, but all of the manufacturers have so many offerings and all of these are on display at the north american international auto show, that anyone that is actually looking for a vehicle, they can go to just about any of their lool de local dealers. >> i rent add sonic recently. i enjoy the ride of the vehicle. what's the best mile lalk if you're looking to not go to the gas station very much. what would you recommend? >> naturally i would say the chevrolet volt because it's a combination of electric and also gasoline. you know, you've about got the new ford focus that has been introducedful introduced. it's getting a lot of good reviews. you know, you've got the chevy cruise. anything within the chevrolet line, they've done such a good job with improving the fuel economy throughout their line, that any of those vehicles are going to get you excellent gas mileage. >> i tell you, it's been good times lately for gm. they're in um before ber one again. gm is having a resurgance. let me ask you about foreign cars. the honda was named car of the year. why? >> people like it, that's the main reason. it gets excellent gas mileage, it has new styling. people are very, very in tune, and they feel that a car like that fits their budget. sol when you see a car with excellent gas mileage and good styling, they're going to buy it. there's good news if for nut gingrich. a new poll just released shows he's way ahead in south carolina. ♪ what started as a whisper every day, millions of people choose to do the right thing. there's an insurance company that does that, too. liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy? my high school science teacher made me what i am today. our science teacher helped us build it. ♪ now i'm a geologist at chevron, and i get to help science teachers. it has four servo motors and a wireless microcontroller. over the last three years we've put nearly 100 million dollars into american education. that's thousands of kids learning to love science. ♪ isn't that cool? and that's pretty cool. ♪ newt gingrich is way ahead in a very new south carolina poll, but it's been a roller-coaster ride for the republican presidential hopeful. check out this when gingrich was in front. then he dropped like a rock. as we got close to primary day, gingrich started surging, and he's surging even more, even though there's a big question mark that swirls around his campaign. a new tactic on gingrich with his relationship with his second wife. >> mr. gingrich, is it -- is it valid to bring up personal issues -- >> reporter: then he spoke up. his refusal to answer was a 180 from thursday when standing with his wife and asked a similar question by a man attending one of the south carolina rallies. >> i've been very open about mistakes i made and being open with god and seeking reconciliation. every time it comes up, i confront it the same way every time it comes and people seem to be satisfied with it. >> reporter: during the last two days, gingrich's crowds have grown bigger and louder as the stakes get higher. on the eve of the iowa caucuses and the new hampshire primary, newt gingrich knew he wasn't going to win, but now he believes victory in south carolina is within his grasp. >> if we win on saturday with your help, i believe i will become the nominee because i do think south carolina, in fact, has an enormous impact. you pick the winner every single primary since 1980. and i believe that we will go on to win florida and then we'll go on to win the nomination. >> reporter: do you think it's critical that you win here in south carolina? >> i think it's critical you win as often as you can. i think that this is -- the number one thing we now know is that when this becomes a two-person race, romney has a huge problem because he's too liberal for most republican voters. >> reporter: as gingrich's poll numbers have increased, so have his spirits. he's eagerly belted out one-liners. >> i want you to think about the president standing with on the >> reporter: gingrich doesn't want to be backed into a corner. but if he doesn't have a strong performance in south carolina, which neighbors his home state of georgia, he'll be increasingly unlikely to hear things like this for real. >> mr. president -- >> not yet, but with your help. >> no matter who wins the south carolina primary, our candy crowley will talk to two of the contenders tomorrow, newt gingrich and rick santorum are guests on "state of the union" tomorrow morning at 9:00 a.m. new room will continue at the top of the hour with fredricka whitfield. fred is very thirsty. take a drink. >> i just did. >> she and i are gabbing. this is amazing with these polls. >> i think we're all salivating over this race in south carolina. it is extraordinary. of course we'll continue to watch it all day long and of course our special coverage this evening as we await those results. but we've got a lot of other things taking place today, beginning at noon eastern time. garth brooks, you know, he's got friends in low places. >> i know the song. do you want me to sing it? >> go ahead. >> no, no, i'm just kidding. that's a joke. >> he's hoping he's got friends in the jury pool as well. according to our richard herman. avery friedman will be along to talk about the case of gaurt brooks making a $500,000 donation to a hospital in the hopes of his mother's name being put on one of the buildings, the facility at that hospital. but the hospital is saying, no, we thought this was an unconditional donation. so this is now finding its way in the courts. and then when you take a bite of chocolate, the last thing you're probably thinking about is the labor force possibly involved in the cocoa plantations? well, an investigation with the cnn freedom project unveils that there may be children involved in these plantations kind of taking the real sweetness out of chocolate. we're going to reveal that investigation. 2:00 eastern time. and then at both noon and 3:00 eastern time, you've heard a lot about the "red tails" movie that is out this weekend. i go face-to-face about one tuskegee airman, bob friend. he talks to me about the 142 missions that he was involved in. extraordinary first happened account of what it was to be a tuskegee airman. and his ideas about the "red tails" movie and why he thinks it's so important that people understand this part of history, american history, he says, not just tuskegee history. >> what all our viewers need to know is that fred's father was a tuskegee airman. >> that's right. and he just like so many of the other airmen, that was just one portion of their life, one phase of history of their life. they all went on to do extraordinary things. in the case of bob friend, he went on to have a career in the air force. he was involved in the ufo project here in the states. my dad went on to be a five-time olympic medalist, so they really are an extraordinary generation offen. >> i know you're so proud. >> i am. i'm very proud of him and all of them. >> you're a great daughter. >> you're so nice. thanks so much. >> we look forward to seeing you all afternoon. we'll be right back right after this. good morning. it's now four minutes away from the top of the hour. let's take a look at news cross country. ♪ my love has come along >> legendary singer etta james died yesterday in a california hospital. she had been suffering from leukemia among other illnesses. her husband and sons were reportedly with her when she passed away. etta james, marvelous talent and 73 years old. in ohio, a man is accused of duct taping up his 12-year-old daughter and sticking her in a dog cage. he's being held on a child earn dangerment charge. his attorney says it was a joke that got out of control. prosecutors say he tied up the girl and put her in the cage twice. his 13-year-old son also took pictures of the whole thing and posted them on facebook. in utah, elizabeth smart, remember her, she's getting a happy ending. the 24-year-old is now engaged. you may remember smart was kidnapped from her home in 2002 at age 14 and survived nine months of captivity. her father told people.com that they are thrilled and looking forward to her moving on to the next stage of her life. new details about the divorce of lakers guard kobe bryant. all choked up about this. wait until you hear this. according to records reviewed by the "los angeles times" bryant's wife, vanessa, will get can say 75 million. oh, i should add this, three mansions in the settlement. >> i'm getting choked up. >> kobe bryant's estimated net worth is more than that. he's worth $150 million. the couple obviously did not have a prenuptial agreement. they were married for ten years. paper textbooks may soon be a thing of the past. that's if apple has anything to do with it. the tech giant wants ipads to help revolutionize how your kids learn. tech guru and hln digital lifestyle expert mario armstrong explains what this is all about. >> is this the end of paper books in school, and when would that happen? >> well, you know, i don't know if this is the end right now but certainly people have a choice and this is what we're talking about. do we want to start carrying textbooks or do we want to start carrying tablets that can have thousands upon thousands of these textbooks inside of one device. what we do know for sure is that education hasn't really changed when it comes to curriculum and textbooks. and textbooks themselves are flat. they're just pieces of paper. you cannot interact with them, you can't search them, they're not digital. so this is, to me, a welcome shakeup to an industry that is so important, and that is education. >> so how would they work? are they practical to use this school? >> yeah. so i've downloaded a couple. it's using an app called ibooks 2. this is an actual page in an ibook that you're looking at. for example, this is biology. if i wanted to dig into the cell, i could tap this image, go into the cell and actually start to manipulate the cell so i could actually see the changes inside of the cell. if i wasn't getting enough, i could tap on this person and start playing back a video. so it kind of does impress me on the different ways that i could actually interact and learn, and we know that many learners have different modes of learning. different students learn different ways. >> so is there an affordability issue, though? will parents have to pay for this in the public schools or will taxes have to go up for the schools to afford to pay for them? >> that's the big question and one of the major concerns, because we have schools right now that don't even have digital classrooms. they don't even have laptops in the school. is this only going to go to private schools that can afford this? that's a big, big issue. so i don't know yet if apple is planning to do any major special pricing. none of that has really been announced in terms of schools. we know you can ged educational