drywall factory and here we are now standing in front of a house that's been foreclosed on in southwest florida. so this is what the romney campaign feels like has been working well for him. they feel like he's more effective on the campaign trail when he's talking about the president and not focusing on his rivals. that's what we're seeing today, brooke. >> what do we expect to hear from mitt romney once he speaks there in tampa again? >> reporter: well, i think it's going to be more of the same. you know, it's been interesting because, you know, he has been going after the president today. the last few days, yes, he's been going after newt gingrich. a marked departure from that approach all day today. he went after president obama earlier this morning, talking about, you know, the way that he feels the president has bailed on the economy. there's an interesting little back and fort going on between the romney campaign and the white house over the release of these tax returns. as you know, mitt romney released those tax returns. they showed he played roughly a 14% tax rate. that's roughly what borne buffet pays, so the white house going tit for tat saying they were going to have the secretary to warren buffett sit in the first lady's box at the state of the union address tonight. the romney campaign already had a line in his speech earlier this morning that was sort of tailored to that potential response from the white house. mitt romney saying in his remarks, well, the unemployed don't get to sit in the first lady's box so it's been going back and forth all day long. i suspect what's that the rum knee campaign wants. they want him going after the president and not spending as much time going after newt gingrich. >> we looked at the list today in the first lady's box and the secretary is there and no one out of work is. jim acosta, thank you so much for us from tampa. next bob van dillen in alabama where people are trying to salvage what they can from their homes after that powerful tornado hit near clay. bob, this is the first time. yesterday chad and i were talking and sort of assumed given the track that this thing took that it was a tornado. now we can definitively say it was. how powerful was it? >> reporter: this was a strong one, an ef-3 tornado. that's about 150 miles per hour. when it went through this subdivision in clay, that subdivision had about 100 houses. 20 to 30 of them are just completely demolished where you can not rebuild them. it was absolutely amazing that anybody survived. >> we know that one 16-year-old girl, she died. she was found still on her mattress. but beyond her tragic story, people were able to survive it, yes? >> reporter: yeah. that was in a different subdivision than where we were. that was immediately after it. where i was standing, it looked like the path was probably about 100 yards wide. all the people i talked to that rode it out and survived, there are no basements where these people were. the water table is too high, they can't dig in there so they all went to interior rooms, either a closet or a bathroom and just hunkered down into the shower. and they survived. there were a couple of injuries, one was severe. a guy got thrown out of his house and landed pretty hard on the ground. immediately next door a lady got thrown out of her house, she was still sleeping in bed and neighbors came out, put her on a door and got her out of there. some of the tales of survival are just absolutely gut-wrenching. i couldn't believe my eyes when i walked down there. >> it's gut-wrenching but when you're there on the ground and covering the stories it's amazing how these neighborhoods come together during the cleanup process. how's the cleanup going? >> reporter: when i got there, there was hardly anybody around. once that first daylight hit, all the people around came in. i didn't see them at one house, i saw people walking around handing out water bottles. i saw all kinds of things like that. i was talking to one guy, matt, and he rode it out with his wife. as soon as he found out that his family was fine, he walks outside and goes, babe, i've got to go. where are you going? i've got to make sure all my neighbors are fine so he's walking around and helping everybody out. it was absolutely amazing. this is the same guy after i interviewed him, he said, hey, if there's anything i can do for you, my house is down there. he's asking me if there's anything i can do for me. >> that's amazing. >> reporter: your house was almost destroyed. it's just a testament of the people i interviewed today. >> you're like, no, how can i help you. >> reporter: exactly. >> thank you for sharing those stories. a fast-moving solar storm heading towards earth. chad myers standing next to me. is this what we were talking about a couple of days ago or something totally different. >> is this deja vu all over again? we talked about this on friday. >> solar flares. >> another one happened on saturday into sun and it's here today. >> i thought they only happen like every lesson years. >> well, the solar maximum happens every 11 years. we are now knit. these solar flares can happen every three or four days. this can be a common occurrence where you may lose some power, you may lose your cell phone, sal satellites could go down. all the satellite companies are anxious to make sure their satellite doesn't get knocked off the air. big cme. think about this. a solar flare, brooke, is like when you're looking at a pot, a crosswa crock pot or a pressure cooker and the steam is flying out. it's the radiation that comes out. a cme is when you put a pot of spaghetti on the stove and you get a bloop. >> burp. >> it's helium, but the sun has gas. those protons, those neutrons, they're all flying at us now and everything was good. this is almost like an earthquake, the same kind of description i'd have. flat line, flat line, flat line. ten:00 this morning, boom. this thing started and the entire atmosphere is now rocking. it's rocking back and forth. the solar wind is coming in. we are seeing this possibly have some fantastic aurora coming in for tonight. the polar auroras from both the north pole and the south pole, you could get great what we call northern lights to dumb it down a little bit. they could be with us quite some time. but the fact that we had one of these on friday has now kind of loaded up the atmosphere with protons and neutrons and x-rays. last night they took some planes that were supposed to fly over the north pole and said, nope, don't go that way, go around. they took some of the planes over northern canada and said you must fly at a lower altitude because you're putting your passengers in danger of radiation. so there are some things we have to worry about. this is a g-3, not a g-5. kind of like -- it's a cat 3 hurricane. not a g-5. we could see some power outages, some sporadic spacecraft, satellites not work very well. >> for how long? >> at least three more days. if this were a g-5 a lot of things could happen. power could go out. it could charge power lines so much that they would blow the transformers out on both sides, so that's how we lose power. if a g-5 hit right now, it could do a lot of damage. when it hit back in 1913, another one in 1859, not a big deal. not as many satellites in space in 1859, right? well, now we're relying on these things. >> solar flares and solar burps. >> you've got it. >> i have collected myself and we're moving on. >> that is today's reporter roulette. you have heard mitt romney is in the same tax bracket as 80% of us. that means a lot of you may have something in common with a multimillionaire who would love to become president and you may not have even realized this. then stick around for this. this is so cool. behind the scenes for capitol hill's big event tonight, dana bash had breakfast with the house speaker. there's so much more to dish on, like who's already saving their seats. we know who. we're naming names. later, how a family's cat became a victim in a political showdown. this is sick, it is twisted. also a dad's decision to turn his own son in for a relentless beatdown recorded on camera. we'll be right back. [ female announcer ] lactaid milk is easy to digest. it's real milk full of calcium and vitamin d. and tastes simply delicious. for those of us with lactose intolerance... lactaid® milk. the original 100% lactose-free milk. but when she got asthma, all i could do was worry ! specialists, lots of doctors, lots of advice... and my hands were full. i couldn't sort through it all. with unitedhealthcare, it's different. we have access to great specialists, and our pediatrician gets all the information. everyone works as a team. and i only need to talk to one person about her care. we're more than 78,000 people looking out for 70 million americans. that's health in numbers. unitedhealthcare. checking my clock here, state of the union less than six hours away. joining me now live from the white house, the president's deputy chief of staff. nancy, nice to see you. right out of the gate here, tell me is this a campaign speech or is this state of the union? >> this is state of the union, brooke. tonight the president is looking forward to speaking to the american people about his vision for an american economy that's built to last. he'll be talking about how do we rebuild our manufacturing sector and american energy and skills for american workers, and he'll be talking about renewal of american values. he's really looking forward to this, because he believes this is a make-or-break moment for the american people. that it's really what's at stake is the survival of our basic american promise that if you work hard and you play by the rules and you pay your fair share, that you have a fair stake in this economy. and remember that we've come from the brink, the precipice of a huge economic disaster. when the president took office in 2008, the house of cards that was built on derivatives and things like that had collapsed and he took office and we moved forward and the last 22 months we've added more than three million jobs to the economy. but we have to keep that momentum going an that's what he's going to be talking about tonight. >> let me jump in, we're going to get to the economy in a minute and i don't want to get you in trouble with your boss, nancy, but give us a little surprise if you can. can you just give me something, one little nug thaet we'll see tonight that might not otherwise -- we may not expect? a little something? >> well, what if he's watching, brooke? i really think i need to let him give the details of his speech tonight. he's looking forward to really sharing that with the american people. i can tell you that he'll be talking about some ideas that really republicans and democrats alike have supported in the past. he'll be talking about problem that say we're facing as a country. and his vision for how we solve those problems. and the good news is there are things that we can do, we can work together to get them done. >> let me bring you back to the numbers you just mentioned and i want to tie this into the global economy. you have the good news, three million jobs in the last 22 months. unemployment, that number has slowly been decreasing, now it's at 8.5%. that's a heck of a lot better than it once was. how do you expect to win an election ten months from now if this report from the imf proves correct and the global economy does not grow as earlier predicted, what then? >> well, what we're focused on is growing the economy. we're not focused on winning an election, we're focused on doing the things that need to be done to move this country in the right direction. that's why the president will be talking about rebuilding american manufacturing. we're bringing jobs back. we'll talk about some of the companies that have done that. he'll be talking about -- >> that's all interconnected with the global economy. >> well, he'll be talking about building the skills of american workers and that's something that will help our economy move forward and be more durable than it's been in the past. so those are the things he's focused on right now. he's not focused on the election. >> would you say that we're here, that we would totally be out of the mess here we're in if republicans in congress hadn't watered down the stimulus, didn't water down health care reform, hadn't resisted various job plans and hadn't resisted raising the debt limit as they did? is that your contention, that we would perhaps be looking a little better now? nancy, did you lose me? oh, we lost her. it happens. nancy deparle at the white house, thanks anymore. mitt romney's taxes are out today and he's around the 15% rate, like a lot of us. so what is he doing with his millions to deep his tax rate so low? and better yet here, is it something the rest of us could be doing as well, even if we're not multimillionaires. we'll get to the bottom of this whole tax issue next. back then he had something more important to do. he wasn't focused on his future. but fortunately, somebody else was. at usaa we provide retirement planning for our military, veterans and their families. now more than ever, it's important to get financial advice from people who share your military values. for our free usaa retirement guide, call 877-242-usaa. surprise, surprise, mitt romney has released his tax returns. his return for 2010 plus an estimate for 2011. no surprise, mitt romney is rich. perhaps like a lot of you would like to be. we're going to get to the numbers here in a minute, but first politics with chief political analyst gloria borger. romney had said he was going to wait until april to release these tax returns. the presumption seemed to be that perhaps he'd have the nomination sewn up by then. lo and behold this morning, boom, here they are. what happened? >> well, he got a lot of pressure. he got an awful lot of pressure from newt gingrich who happened to win south carolina. and i think the more pressure he got, there was a feeling inside the campaign that, look, we have nothing to hide. you heard mitt romney before he released his taxes say that he paid an effective rate of 15%. turns out to be 14%. we also know that he tithes his income to the mormon church, so you saw that he's given $4 million to the mormon church. so once those -- they dribbled out those details, then they were ready to kind of release his taxes and to sort of just stop the -- you know, the challenge from newt gingrich. one of the rules of politics is if you don't have something to hide, don't hide it. >> be transparent. >> yeah. >> so we have his numbers. we'll take a closer look in a minute. but as we said at the top, look, being honest, a lot of people want to be successful, a lot of people want to be rich. that said, does the extent of romney's wealth hurt him at all, especially giving the fact that he's not even drawing a salary? he's not even drawing a salary like a lot of measures certainly do. his income comes from investments and dividend and interest. >> first of all, everybody has known as you pointed out earlier, mitt romney is wealthy. we probably didn't know the extent of his wealth until we got these recent tax returns. we know that he doesn't have -- he doesn't earn his income, he lives off of capital gains, and so that's why his rate is at 15%. the question and the problem mitt romney has is he seems to be so uncomfortable in talking about his own wealth, the question that i have is now that this is all out there, will he be able to talk to it in a way that says, you know, i'm rich, but i still understand what the middle class is going through and how the middle class is suffering. you know, he's had some moments in this campaign where he said, you know, i know what it's like to be worried about a pink slip or he made a $10,000 bet with rick perry. that didn't work out so well for him. so if this makes him more comfortable, then it's a good thing. in the general election, that's a different story. >> well, you mentioned the middle class and perhaps the issue of relating and also timing here, because, you know, obviously tonight is the state of the union, the release of the tax returns as the president signalled he's going back tonight as we've heard time and time again, he's going to bat for the middle class in his state of the union address. talk to me about the timing, how this could help or hurt romney. >> well, in a way romney's tax return becomes the proxy for the larger battle over how to reform the tax code. i think everybody in this country agrees for one reason or another, both parties, that you ought to reform the tax code. so if you're republican, you're going to say, you know what, that low rate is good and newt gingrich last night in the debate said we should -- mitt romney should pay no taxes on capital gains. democrats will say, you know what, we want to make the tax code fairer so that lower rate can be available to more americans. and you know they're going to talk about the warren buffett rule where he said he paid a lower rate in his taxes than his secretary. and there's an argument in this country over -- 80% of americans, by the way, pay a rate that's lower than the effective 15% rate. so there's a way to use the numbers here in this argument and you're going to hear that from the president in his state of the union speech tonight, without mentioning mitt romney, i might add. >> right, of course. and we're going to deep talking taxes. gloria borger, thanks. fess up, folks. we're looking for ways to keep a few more of our hard-earned dollars, in other words, pay a little less tax, of course legally here. we want to take a look at how mitt romney did it. so i'm going to walk over this way. what we've done is taken a picture of what's been released today, so some of his tax returns from -- we have 2010 and an estimate from 2011. so here you go. we're talking about romney's taxes. as i swipe this, this is actually a copy of part of his 2010 filing. he's going to release an estimate of what he'll be paying for this past tax year, 2011. so romney's taxes, take a look at this. this is the 2011 estimate. mitt romney plans to report some just about $21 million in income for the tax year 2011. he plans to pay a tax rate 15.4%. ultimately do the math, it's about $3.2 million in tax dollars. so this is pretty fascinating. try to see where you fit in in this whole graph. so you look at the different federal tax brackets. they run all the way from 10%, the highest is a 35% rate. so in other words, if you look way down there, you could be making between zero and 8500 bucks a year, your federal tax rate is 10% and it graduates all the way up to 35% so that affects folks if you're making $379,150 each and every year. so back to mitt romney. romney, he's reporting this $20.9 million in income and therefore he's paying the top tax rate of 35%, right? no. i don't know if you can see the x, he's not. mitt romney is not paying the 35% rate on his $20.9 million, he's actually paying $15.4%. let me bring in lex harris. i want you to help me if you will, managing editor for cnnmoney.com. i hope you liked our explanation of how all this works. obviously we understand write-offs but there's no way that mitt romney has $20 million in writeoffs to get his tax rate down to 15.4%. does he? >> no, that's exactly right. but it is completely legal and actually no one -- we've spoken to a lot of tax experts today and a lot of the tax strategies are very above board and really what we're going to end up having is a discussion about whether the tax laws as they are written are fair. but as gloria even mentioned, really the reason he's paying a lower rate is because most of his income comes from investments and capital gains. yeah, that's exactly right. >> now, as we understand it, lex, he didn't draw anything resembling a paycheck, did he? when we look at this figure of about $21 million, this is all investments and you mentioned capital gains. is that kind of income treated totally differently? >> that's exactly right. and there's a good reason for it. the idea is to encourage investment. it's actually a good thing to have an advantage in the tax code to encourage people to investment. where it gets dicey is you have -- usually it's really rich people that are making the investments, so you can have someone like romney, who's not really working, who has all of his money working for him, and it just -- every year and he can kind of churn out $20 million in income. as you say without any wages that would be taxed at that higher 35% rate. >> okay. so just for fun, and i know fun and taxes don't often go in the same sentence, but for fun walk me through this. so you have rich, richer and richest. obama $1.8 million, gingrich $3.2 million, romney $21.7 million. this represents their 2010 returns. walk me through the pie charts because there's some other stuff in there as well. >> yeah. so i mean the story here is that they're all really very wealthy, it's just a matter of degree at this point. in the case of -- you hear about the 1%. in the case of romney, i think it's the 0.0006%. in the case of gingrich, he's a much higher tax rate. he's at a 31% rate. the reason is because most of his money is coming from business investments. he had some capital gains and some investments, but not nearly as much as romney did. in the case of obama, in addition to the $400,000 salary that comes with being president, he had a very lucrative book deal. i think it was about $1.5 million. so that's where the difference in the rates come. >> but back to mitt romney and his newly released tax returns, as we all sit and marinate over doing our own taxes for 2011, is there anything we can learn from how mitt romney did it? >> oh, man, that's a tough one. you've got to start by getting really, really rich. >> what if we're not really, really rich, lex? how can we use what he did? >> well, it's -- you know, there's some very simple personal finance strategies. in other words, take advantage of all your tax shelters. i mean he has a lot of money in an ira, for example, that shelters where your money grows tax-free each year. he took advantage of gifts to his kids each year and that money can be made tax-free. so it's little stuff like that. this stuff doesn't even scratch at what romney ultimately was able to accumulate. but those are the kinds of things that ordinary folks have to do if they want to work down their tax rate. >> yeah, the little stuff can dough go a long way. thank you so much. appreciate it. as we've been mentioning, we are a couple of hours away from the state of the union and as always there will be regular folks sitting with the first lady. coming up we'll catch up on one of the guys who sat with her last year. i'm talking about a man by the name of jim houser from portland, oregon. we just wanted to check in, how is he doing one year later? we'll ask him next. [ mujahid ] there was a little bit of trepidation, not quite knowing what the next phase was going to be, you know, because you been, you know, this is what you had been doing. you know, working, working, working, working, working, working. and now you're talking about, well you know, i won't be, and i get the chance to spend more time with my wife and my kids. it's my world. that's my world. ♪ oh, there's a prize, all right. [ male announcer ] inside every box of cheerios are those great-tasting little o's made from carefully selected oats that can help lower cholesterol. is it a superhero? kinda. ♪ presidents make a lot of promises during their state of the union speeches, so today we're holding president obama accountable. the concept is simple. tom foreman takes a fine-tooth comb through the issues and tells us is this a promise kept, a promise broken, compromised, a work in progress or stalled. here now we talk about the promise about earmarks. >> the president drew a few lines in the sand in his last state of the union, and this was one of them about spending. >> if a bill comes to my desk with earmarks inside, i will veto it. i will veto it. >> true to his word, he has not signed any bills containing earmarks, at least none that we can find. he didn't veto any either because they never came his way. the senate appropriations committee declared an earmark moratorium not just because of the veto threat but also because the house said it would not approve any bills with ear marks. the president has often straddled this fence. he's been a sharp critic of earmarks but also signed bills containing multiple pet projects, including a spending bill in 2009 that had almost $8 billion worth. not his fault, but we'll have to say circumstances left this pledge a promise kept, though only on a technicality. >> tom foreman, thank you. we want to rewind back one year, president obama's state of the union speech and health care reform. huge hot button issue in washington. sitting with michelle obama were 21 regular americans, including small business owner jim houser. on that night last january he really became the health for health care reform. >> i'm not willing to tell jim houser, a small businessman from oregon, that he has to go back to paying $5,000 more to cover his employees. >> houser and his wife own and auto repair shop in portland, oregon, and qualified for the small business health care tax credit, something that falls under the affordable care act. but a lot has changed in the last year so we want it to talk to jim, bring him back and see how his small business is doing. jim, nice to have you on and nice to meet you. let me first ask in terms of money here, how has that tax credit translated for you in terms of dollars and cents? >> well, i can tell you that at that time the president was being very conservative in estimating. we had estimated between $5,000 and $10,000 and actually it came out to $12,903 was our tax credit for our health insurance that we paid for our ten full-time employees and their families. so it was actually quite a bit better than we had even expected. our accountant had made an estimation, but in fact he underestimated. so it was actually pretty wonderful. >> just about double, it sounds like. >> well, it's one month's -- the equivalent of one month's free health care premiums. it puts us back to probably 2007 is when we last paid that little. our premiums had doubled from 2001 to 2008. so it's like a time machine for us. >> so with this time machine and this chunk of money, what exactly, jim, does that money mean for a small business like yours? how did it help things? >> well, it meant we didn't have to cut our wages. it meant we didn't have to ask employees to pay for their health care, which would have had the effect of a pay cut. i mean everybody -- nobody would want to do that to their employees, to ask them to work for less. and so we didn't have to do that. we've actually hired one more full-time employee in 2010 and then in 2011 just in december we put on one more full-time employee who also happens to be an afghanistan vet. >> wow. i'm just going to go on a limb since you were sitting there last year, that you will be sitting, i'm assuming, at home watching the state of the union tonight. and if so, what do you want to hear from the president? >> well, what i think has to be the first -- the first thing is jobs, because we need more customers, and we need customers. right now we have customers, but they are doing the minimum. they're ignoring some of the needed maintenance. they're putting it off. we need more customers who are in a position to take care of their investments, like their car, and so we need a program that puts people back to work, gives people the income they need. hard-working americans that can have an income they can rely on so they become my customer and can take care of their investment, which is their automobile. >> as you talk about, though, adding customers and adding jobs, obviously we're covering very closely the republican presidential race and a lot of these candidates, they say they have solutions, they can create jobs and they say their plans are better than the president. any chance you're going to vote for one of those guys instead of obama? >> i haven't seen the program. the only program i've seen is that we hate obama. i haven't seen any programs come out. i mean they talk about cutting regulations. regulations aren't going to create any jobs. they talk about cutting taxes. that's obviously not created any jobs. we've been cutting taxes since 2001 and meanwhile spending went up through all of those years. that hasn't created any jobs. the stimulus did a pretty good job, at least in the portland area, of saving teachers and firefighters and health care workers. >> you sound like a lot of people, though, that i've talked to who say enough of this negative campaigning, whether you're slamming one another or the p. whatever side you fall on, we want to hear specific solutions. perhaps we'll be hearing that as the months continue to creep toward november, we certainly hope so. jim houser, thank you. best to you. and tonight cnn's special coverage of the president's state of the union address begins 8:00 eastern, live from washington, d.c. now to this, a chicago teenager is turned in by his own father. this after his dad saw video of his own son beating up a kid. we're going to go on the case next. no problem. you want to save money on rv insurance? no problem. you want to save money on motorcycle insurance? no problem. you want to find a place to park all these things? fuggedaboud it. this is new york. hey little guy, wake up! aw, come off it mate! geico. saving people money on more than just car insurance. when we were determined to see it through. here's an update on the progress. we're paying for all spill related clean-up costs. bp findings supports independent scientists studying the gulf's environment. thousands of environmental samples have been tested and all beaches and waters are open. and the tourists are back. i was born here, i'm still here and so is bp. talk about tough. parents, think about this. one nafather in illinois had to make a choice after he saw this video. [ bleep ] [ bleep ] [ bleep ]. >> it shows this gang of seven people beating up, pummelling the student. this is in a chicago neighborhood. now, the father, who is a sheriff's deputy, by the way, recognized his own son as part of this group throwing some of the punches, so michael palomino turned in his 17-year-old boy, raymond. >> it's disturbing what they did to the poor -- did to him. when i asked him why he did it, he said he didn't know why he did it. he knows what he did was wrong. now he's got to suffer the consequences. >> sunny hostin on the case. sunny, the video is brutal, it's long. could the father's actions play into how the judge treats this young man, this suspect? >> you know, we want the law to be color blind, status blind, and in this case even though his father turned him in and his father is a law enforcement officer, his son should be treated under the eyes of the law just the way anyone's child should be treated. they should be held accountable for their actions. so many people are saying, well, perhaps his son should have been released on his own recognizance because his father did the right thing by, you know, turning him in. >> yeah. >> that's just not how the law should work. so, no, i don't think his father turning him in should have any bearing on this case. >> and dad says he did the right thing, doesn't regret it, but he's upset for a couple of reasons. first, the fact that his 17-year-old son is being charged as an adult and the other six suspects are all kbruryounger a facing juvenile charges. could the judge transfer the 17-year-old's case to juvenile court, is that a possibility? >> sometimes that is a possibility, but he's already been charged as an adult. i don't think that's going to happen here. and that is of some concern, i'm sure, to his father. he was the only child to my understanding on this video without his face covered so many people are saying perhaps he is the ring leader here. i've got to tell you, he's looking at significant time because under the robbery charge, that's about three to seven years in illinois. even for the aggravated battery charge, that's two to five years on average. so i can completely understand why his father feels the way he feels. let's face it, brooke. i'm a parent. you hope that when faced with a decision like this you would do the right thing and turn your child in. >> so he does this, but this father can't afford the bail to get his kid out of jail. six others have been released, bail for raymond palomino set for $100,000. is that high, sunny, for charges of robbery and aggravated battery? >> it's not high for the charges, no, it isn't. and it's unfortunate that the others were released and that this child still remains in jail. my understanding is his attorney is trying to raise the money, has a sort of online petition trying to make sure that he does at least get free on bond. but these are very serious accusations. and it's just so very unfortunate that not only has he been charged as an adult but that he still remains in jail. but that's how the law works. and again, i have to say as a parent, we would hope that most people would do the right thi and turn their child in. i just -- i don't know that most people would. so kudos to his father for forcing this child to take responsibility for his actions. >> kudos to him. by the way, he, michael palomino, dad, will be joining me live tomorrow at 3:00 eastern hour, so we'll continue that discussion. got a lot of questions for him. we'll see how raising that money to get his kid out of jail, how that's going. sunny hostin on the case. thank you, sunny. sunny mentioned she's a parent, perhaps a lot of you, you pack your kids' lunch. you know those little ice packs that you put in the kids' lunch, maybe your own lunch to try to keep your food cold? some of those packing little packs, they have anti-freeze ingredients in them. we'll tell you which ones. stand by for that. 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[ male announcer ] the new citi simplicity card. no late fees. no penalty rate. no worries. all your important legal matters in just minutes. now it's quicker and easier for you to start your business... protect your family... and launch your dreams. at legalzoom.com, we put the law on your side. and launch your dreams. what's he looking for? i think he's looking for savings. ♪ i can't watch this anymore. stop! there's an easier way! we compare your progressive direct rate to other top companies so you get a great price. no more running around. ha ha ha! wouldn't you love to see the world through his eyes? i bet i look like the strongest man in the world. the best place to find a great deal. now, that's progressive. call or click today. time now for the help desk, where we get answers to your financial questions. joining me this hour, mennisha and lynnette is the founder of the financial advice blog ask the money coach.com. ladies, thank you for being here. the first question comes from betty in milwaukee. betty wrote us i have no savings and my student loans will come due in may. shall i cash out phi 401(k) and pay off my 28 grand in credit card debt? >> short answer, no. you have multiple challenges to deal with here. while it might seem very easy to take that 401(k) money and cash it out, you'll have to pay a penalty and taxes. your student loans aren't coming due in full, it's your first payment. what i'd rather see her do is take on some extra work, earn some extra income, tighten that belt and start paying an extra $50 a month on those credit card bills, $100 a month if she can and make sure she can make the minimum payment but don't touch the 401(k) money. >> huge tax implications there. lynnette, your question comes from jeff in anchorage, alaska. he wrote although i pay off my credit cards each month, i think i have too many accounts open. how should i close down the cards while avoiding damage to my credit credit cards each month, i think i have too many accounts how much. how should i close down the cards, while avoiding damage to mea credit score. >> great question. you don't want to close all the accounts at once. that can backfire against you and cause your score to be becomed. you also want to make sure you leave open the account that you've had the longest or the account that has the highest credit line, because part of your credit score is based on the length of yew credit house torrie as well as the utilization rate, which means how much you have charged versus how much you have available sequentially over time, not at at once, and no matter don't get any more. >> use them wisely. that's the key. thank you so much. if you have a question, just send us an e-mail anytome to cnn.com that's not in our policy. i will transfer you now. my supervisor is currently not available. would you like to hold ? that department is currently closed. have i helped you with everything you needed ? if your bank doesn't give you knowledgeable customer service 24/7, you need an ally. ally bank. no nonsense. just people sense. for you today ? we gave people right off the street a script and had them read it. no, sorry, i can't help you with that. i'm not authorized to access that transaction. that's not in our policy. i will transfer you now. my supervisor is currently not available. would you like to hold ? that department is currently closed. have i helped you with everything you needed ? if your bank doesn't give you knowledgeable customer service 24/7, you need an ally. ally bank. no nonsense. just people sense. check your lunch bag. the jell packs may be part of a recall. the safety commission says a dog reportedly died after buying into a cryo-freeze, made out of the canada. it contains poisonous chemicals used in antifreeze. it says the coolers wsh sold under c-sport or traveling chef, costco, walmart, cost you less stores. there is a refund if you still have one of these gel packs. in five minutes you have "the situation room" with wolf blitzer coming up. we always get mr. blitzer with a little preview. you know, i was talking to someone at the white house earlier they said without a doubt this is a steve union speech, not a campaign speech. what does wolf blitzer say? >> there's no doubt it's an important speech, setting the stage for the campaign, the reelection campaign, a lot of the themes we'll hear tonight will certainly continue over the weeks and months to come. this will heat up dramatically over this period, especially once the republicans settle on a presidential nominee. we're going on go in depth on the state of the union. right now jay carney, the white house press secretary is standing by to join us live. paul begala, mary matalin, they were worked in democratic white houses. we're going to go through what happens. also the presidential campaign, newt gingrich sort of backed down last night in the debate. what happened? we have a lot of that. >> we'll see el later and tonight, of course. dana bash will go behind of scenes of the state of the union address, give us a sneak peek inside the house chamber floor. we'll be right back. you know organization is key... and so is having a trusted assistant. and you...rent from national. because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle...and go. you can even take a full-size or above and still pay the mid-size price. here we are... 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[ male announcer ] red lobster's four course seafood feast is back. get soup, salad, cheddar bay biscuits, dessert and choose one of 7 entrees. four courses for only $15. offer ends soon. i'm jody gonzalez, red lobster manager and i sea food differently. all right we're five hours away from the state of the union. you can see the video set upthis is statutary hall. where lawmakers will be heading post-speech to give all the interviews, and special political pop by ms. dana bash. she's been covering this for years. we talk about who sits where and how long are they saving seats? who is saving seats already? >> i think the people who you might recognize from tv, from years and years and years past. they're there again. our interrupt producer deidra walsh just took a peek. we could show a picture, because they're not in session. she said there's about seven members of congress. some have been sitting there since 8:00 this morning. elliott engle from new york, for example, i talked to him about this many times. he's been doing it for decades. republicans in the white house, democrats in the white house, it doesn't matter. he lives to shake hands. that is the kind of things his constituents remember. had doesn't matter the bills he votes for. although is sheila jackson-lee. she likes to wear bright green, she's wears it again this year. t the aisle streets are critical. >> early this morning you said breakfast with speaker boehner. how did that go? >> it was interesting. myself and a few other reporters, about an hour in his suite. had el had some coffee and we had some pastries. he talked about what he expects from tonight, what he expects from this year, which of course we could forget is a campaign year. he did say that he hopes the president gives an olive brand tonight, but also was pretty tough. he says they're already in full-fledged campaign mode, and 's