crowd. plus, sarah palin speaks today. will she officially endorse anyone? but there may be more political intrigue in maine, as well. we'll take you there, as well. >> from cnn's world headquarters, bringing you news and analysis from across the nation and around the globe. live from studio 7, this is cnn saturday morning. >> and maine is where we'll start this morning. maine's republican voters are heading to the caucus site this morning to choose their candidate for president. it's pretty much a two-man race for the state's 21 delegates. ron paul has a strong ground game white mitt romney is making a last-minute push. shannon, good morning to you. set the scene for us. people very excited up there in maine and the country, as well. >> you're right. the caucus goers are just getting started. you just had the pledge of allegiance and this is about to get under way. this is no ordinary contest like we've seen. this is a little different. for one, we're expecting mitt romney and ron paul to come here to this caucus site here in sanford, maine, around the same time. we expect them to be maybe about 45 minutes to an hour separated. they'll both be here talking to caucus goers. this is mitt romney's first time coming to a caucus site on voting day. he hasn't done this. he hasn't done that this entire election season. and in terms of another first, obviously, ron paul hopes to make this his first win. he's zero for eight right now in all of these contests. another interesting thing, ron paul essentially had this state all to himself, right, ted, while his other three opponents were in florida a few weeks ago. ron paul was here and i was here with him. he was campaigning for those delegates that you mentioned. basically at the 11th hour, mitt romney's campaign said, you know what? we're going to go up there and campaign. so he came here this first election season and campaigned last night in portland. he'll be here today. so there are a lot of firsts here. it's rather unique. it's a two-man contest between ron paul and mitt romney because rick santorum and newt gingrich are not campaigning here. >> why not, shannon? why did newt gingrich and rick santorum decide to forego maine? they basically made a calculation that maine was not in the cards for them. so that left it would it wide open for ron paul and mitt romney. again, in terms of -- if you think about who might have the edge here, ron paul has a huge following, a lot of young people, a lot of libertarians up here in maine. but mitt romney is from a nearby state. he was the governor of massachusetts, as you know. and he's been here campaigning in republican circles for many, many years. >> shannon, thanks. cellular phone's coverage of the main caucuses begins at 6:00 p.m. with a special decision of the situation room with wolf blitzer followed by cnn's situation room followed by complete coverage at 7:00. cpac will end with a speech by sarah palin and by announcing the results of its presidential straw poll. three of the four gop candidates address the convention yesterday. mitt romney used his speech to try to convince conservatives he's one of them. newt gingrich took a swipe at the gop establishment for lacking toughness and rick santorum focused mainly on attacking president obama. so what exactly is cpac? one activist calls cpac the center of gravity for conser conservatives right now. cpac stands for the conservative political action conference. it was focused -- or founded in 1973 as a small gathering of dedicated conservatives. it's now an annual gathering of party activists and elected officials in the country has gone to thousands of pendees each year now. as we mentioned, the conference ends today with the highly anticipated straw poll and the results of the presidential candidates. a rising republican star florida governor rick scott addresses cpac today. we'll talk to him two hours from now, as well. there is no end in sight to the bloodshed in syria. prodemocracy advocates say 64 civilians are among 110 people killed in syria on friday. here is restrictions on journalists making it impossible to verify reports or video. this amateur video shows the total chaos in the northern city of alapo. that's where a state media is plaming terrorists gangs for suicide bombings believed to have killed 28 people. ivan joins us live from istanbul where he's keeping track of the developing situation in syria. what are you hearing in terms of the latest as the day progresses in syria? >> good morning, ted. we just got word from activists in the southern provinces, which has been a real hot bed of protests from the very beginning. five minute were killed in a village town of mouseffa. we can't confirm this because we're now allowed in by the syrian government. the siege-like conditions continue in the city of homs, the third largest city in syria, which has been she would day after day by tanks, artillery, rockets and mortars with one resident making a desperate plea to us to please help get the children out of that city with the syrian military, saying not allowing for food and medicine in to help the beleaguered hospitalization of that city. the syrian government has reported state news agencies that a senior military doctor who ran a hospital in da ma damascus was murdered outside his hope. this does not bode well for the future of this country in the heart of the middle east. >> reports say that saudi arabia has drafted a new u.n. resolution for the general assembly. will we see any difference here? what can you tell us about that? >> if this is proposed in the u.n. general assembly rather than the security council, which we saw last week, there is much more of a chance of this going through. what we saw last week was russia and china vetoing a resolution and that many have argued has allowed the syrian government, given it a blank check to move forward and intensify its attacks on the opposition. the saudi propousal would coincide with the u.n.'s high commissioner for human rights who is expected to address the general assembly on monday. she has repeatedly accused syria of crimes against humanity. while saudi arabia is criticizing syria for its human rights abuses, it's not saying anything about bahrain, its ally and a u.s. ally which has committed numerous human rights abuses and the anniversary of the bahrainy protest movement is a couple days away in bahrain. no mention about the ongoing crackdown in that country. >> ivan watson, watching the situation for us from turkey, a developing situation in syria. thanks, ivan. homs, a city under siege. here firsthand accounts of the government crackdown from those living and suffering through it. that is tonight 10:30 p.m. eastern. the cia website is back up and run this morning after the hacking group known as anonymous took it down yesterday. haeshgs also claim they crashed the state of alabama website. hackers got access to the personal data of tens of thousands of people in al, including social security numbers and criminal records. icy roads near flints, michigan, have caused a massive pileup. a local sheriff's office says it has reports of at least 100 accidents on local highways. the road is still open, though. drivers are being told it may be best to go around. we have no reports of any serious injuries from any of these crashes. snow in the northeast in the ohio valley in the south is feeling chill, as well. let's bring in meteorologist reynolds wolf. reynolds, a lot of people here in atlanta got up this morning and felt a little chill. >> of course. a lot of people here in atlanta have been wondering when is winter going to get here? winter is thumping this morning all around the southeast. we've got the cold, a little colder in parts of the midwest, then we have bone chilling stuff, especially in parts of the northern plains into the upper midwest. we're going to give you the whole deal coming up in just a few moments. you're watching cnn saturday morning. see you in a little bit. ters tht and rushes relief to the site of your tough pain. it's proven to relieve pain twice as fast as before. bayer advanced aspirin. about its stated intemgzs of handing over a government to a civilian power or to a civilian body, even though presidential elections are scheduled for later this year. now, today, there's supposed to away general strike, an open ended strike until the military council steps down. but by the looks of it, congress seems pretty normal. it doesn't appear that with the exceptions of some universities and schools and other workers groups that many people have responded to that. many citizens worry that with continual unrest, the economy is beginning to suffer. in fact, it is suffering severely and there is a consensus among the majority that the country needs to just get back to work. >> and quickly, ben, why is there a low turnout in your estimation? >> i'm sorry, could you repeat the question? >> you say the scheduled strike today, there was anticipation that there would be a lot of people coming out and you're saying not too many have come to the streets. why is that, do you think? >> it's very difficult to say. it might be a case of revolutionary kaufton. here in cairo over the last year, we've seen almost every single friday, large demonstrations in tahrir square. parts of the city are now walled off to protect, for instance, the ministry of the interior to protect the parliament from demonstrators. normal life has been severely disrupted over the last year and many are simply weary of it. they're frustrated with some of the actions of the military rulers. their tendency to play revolutionary for all the country troubles. but at the end of the day, i think people are simply tired of this turbulence. ted. >> live this morning, up next, your weekend forecast plus cnn's bonnie schneider wrote a book about how to survive extreme weather conditions. she'll join us in a few minutes with some tips. stay with us. lemon burst, hm, cherry orchard, blackberry harvest... my daughter's grabbing some yoplait. pina colada, orange creme. i can't imagine where she is... strawberry cheesecake. 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[ major nutrition ] ensure. nutrition in charge! and a beautiful shot of atlanta this morning. good morning, everybody. it is 16 minutes past the hour. welcome back to cnn's saturday morning. it is, yeah, just after 8:15 here. time to check our weather with reynolds wolf and, reynolds, we have a messy winter storm. >> we really do. i have to tell you, there are a lot of people that look at this storm system and think, this is kind of late in the season. well, it's here, folks, and we just have to deal with it. the question many people have is how many precipitation, namely snow, how much are we going to see? right along parts of the ohio valley, you would imagine we'll see snow from there. when the moisture makes its way up into the higher spots, he'll see the snow back up a little more. we're forecasting anywhere from 6 to 10. we have a few random spots where you'll get up to a food or so. as we fast forward from saturday into sunday in this map, we have that big cold blast. and you're feeling it this morning in duluth where temperatures are at 6 below. 1 degrees is the current temperature for you in minneapolis. 8 in milwaukee. 10 in chicago. 13 in springfield and 11 in detroit. take a look at this map. you see a big trough that we have in the center view. that's where you have that big trough, a lot of that cold, polar air coming in for many people. iefrt the first time of the season you're dealing with it. maybe a thunderstorm or two, but you can't argue with 72 degrees. 59 in san francisco. our friends in seattle, good morning to you. 47 degrees, the expected high. boston and into new york into the mid to upper 30s. with that high pressure, it's going to be nice and comfortable for you. expect those scattered showers to continue for south florida. north florida, though, fire threat, very, very dry companies. one thing you'll be dealing with is really a few travel problems possible in parts of south florida later on today with those thunderstorms. atlanta, not too much of an issue. speaking of travel, i want to talk about a friend of mine who has been doing a bit of traveling. get that thing going. and that would be a friend of main named bonnie schneider. bonnie schneider is here to talk about her new book, you see the name right there, "extreme weather." she's here to basically give us an inside look to her survival guide. bonnie has always had this incredible ability to take a complex subject and make it understandable. tell us about this new book. >> well, yeah. this book i wrote as a survival guide to everyone. you know, here at cnn, we cover every type of extreme weather nationally from tornados all the way to snowstorms wherever you are in the country. so i really wanted to write a book that everyone can use anywhere they are in the country. each chapter begin wes a real life survivor story, a little bit about the science of the phenomenon and then it gets into tips, what to do if you find yourself driving in the road or if you're stuck on foot in a snowstorm. i give practical bullet points on how to take care of yourself and your family and even your pet. >> create basic emergency supply kit. when you say emergency supply kit, what are you referring to? >> food, water, things like that, but how much you should have per person per household and what you should have for your pets, as well. basic supplies. a lot of people i interviewed that were caught in these dangerous situations didn't have these things at home. i know it says a lot of air, but it's important to make sure you have this. especially now that we're in the winter season because during a snowstorm we can lose power for days or week at a time. make sure you have a family disaster plan and that means perhaps what you would do in the event of a natural disaster in your home. everybody should have a role and now how to execute their plan. practicing that plan is so important. >> basically, if they hear tornado sirens, you want the kids to know instinctively where to go. >> right. and some family ves basements, which is the ideal place you want to go. but, for example, here in the south, many people don't have basements. so i give other visits on what to do if you're in that situation. or for the hurricane chapter, a lot of people in florida live in mobile homes or high rise kones condos. be aware of the forecast, it's obvious, but some people find themselves in that mode where you're driving out for a vacation and, for example, if you're out camping, it's important to have that noahh weather radio and be aware of the forecast and keep checking it if you are about to travel. that's very important. >> this is all about survival. i'm sure in the course of doing research for your book, you came across some pretty interesting survival stories. do you have a favorite? >> well, there were some really compelling stories that i got the chance to interview and talk to people from all over the country, all different types of weather sdraefrts. one of them was a land slide occurred and i interviewed a young woman who was 18 years old, santa barbara, she found herself in a home and she thought she was about to undergoing an eshg. the wall caved in, she felt dirt on her face and the house collapsed on top of her. miraculously she survived. a neighborhood saw the landslide, he rushed to her and literally clawed her out to safety. they had a reunion, actually, years later. so it was an incredible story that you'll read about in "extreme weather." >> if you don't have one of these books, you need to pick one up. bonnie, unbelievable book. congratulations for your success. and still reach your weight loss goals? you can with green giant frozen vegetables. over twenty delicious varieties have sixty calories or less per serving and are now weight watchers-endorsed. try green giant frozen vegetables with sauce. you're looking at a live picture of presidential hopeful ron paul at a caucus spot in sand ford, maine. we're expecting that mitt romney will be arriving in the same location in about an hour from now. this is turning out to be a two-candidate race in maine where they are caucusly throughout the day. ron paul and mitt romney going head to head. we'll have more on this throughout the day. as you can see, mr. paul shaking heads, asking people for their support in maine as they go to the polls. a mystery in the waters off of san francisco. take a look at this. it's a car in the water on the beach. the driver is in the hospital right now with unknown injuries. firefighters came to his rescue, but they're not sure or they're not saying how the car got there in the first place. oceans across the globe got a little smaller in the past year, even as heavy rain sparked flooding on several continents. what's behind the change? john zarrella talked to scientists about the causes and the potential impact. >> standing on the shore looking out at the water, you see a difference? no, there's no way you'd notice it. despite all that talk of rising sea level, scientists found that last year, it actually fell just an itsy bitsy bit, about .2 of an inch. why? just one of thoughts freak things. more water happened to fall on land. >> so about a trillion tops of extra water fell on land that normally would fall into the ocean. >> the biggest recipients of all that extra water, australia where it caused terrible flooding that's still going on and the northeastern part of south america. >> we can see the rainey seasons and the dry seasons over the continent. >> but it was just a hiccup in an otherwise steady rise in global sea level, which has been faster during the past 100 years. snas sa scientists say that any signs during the past 2,000. >> so what this paints is a picture of sea level rise that looks like a hockey stick. it's pretty stable for several thousand years. then at the end, it goes up. that is us. >> a new satellite study of the earth shows why. the blue shade indicates places where the land ice is being lost. red is where it's gaining. human amounts of the planet's land ice, greenland, antarctica and the ice caps are, the study indicates, melting annually and contributing to sea level rise. some spots in the u.s., alaska, louisiana, could be hard hit. south florida already is seeing it. >> during these extreme high tide events, it will be completely inundated with water extending from one waterway to another. >> here is what it looked like two years ago. jennifer herrato is responsible for helping broward county deal with rising water. the county is one of four from palm beach to the keys, developing a regional climate action plan. drainage improvements, roads elevated, well fields moved inland. it's hoped federal dollars could cover much of it, but some improvements, like raising a sea wall -- >> it may be a community would need to come together and jointly agree to fund an improvement like that. >> study indicates sea level rises in florida from 9 inches to two feet by 060. john zarrella, cnn, ft. lauderdale. >> so is the u.s. headed towards world war three? iran's nuclear warning today could make keeping the peace even more difficult. time magazine's foreign policy correspondent joins me live in just a few minutes and she says iran may be itching for war. in america, we believe in a future that is better than today. since 1894, ameriprise financial has been working hard for their clients' futures. never taking a bailout. helping generations achieve dreams. buy homes. put their kids through college. retire how they want to. ameriprise. the strength of america's largest financial planning company. the heart of 10,000 advisors working with you, one-to-one. together, for your future. ♪ golly, that is deep snow! yeah, can you get me out of it? of course. travelocity? that's how i got here! that's amazing! but i'm still stuck. come on man, dig it! [ female announcer ] travelocity. get great deals on all kinds of beach vacations. at meineke i have options... like oil changes starting at $19.95. my money. my choice. my meineke. it is 31 minutes past the hour. welcome back. i'm ted rollins. thanks for starting your day with us on cnn. let's check the top stories. republican voters wrap up their week long caucuses today. gop front-runner mitt romney is hoping to close strongly against ron paul. paul has been on the ground in maine more than his rivals and has run a well run campaign in the state. newt gingrich and rick santorum have not not recently campaigned in maine at all. atlanta police this morning tell us they have now identified a third suspect in the videotape beating of a 20-year-old gay man. authorities say the suspects could be heard yelling anti-gay slurs at the victim, brandon white. the attack happened in broad daylight outside of an atlanta area store. a judge could rule monday if jerry sandusky gets to visit his grandchildren. former penn state staent coach will get to see his grandchildren. the trial is set for may. in saudi arabia, one man was killed today when police clashed with protesters demanding social and political reform. this is video posted by a political activist. saudi state run television calls the protests illegal. here is the latest now in syria. opposition activists say at least seven people who were killed today by syria's military. syria's restrictions on journalists make it impossible to verify reports or video. this amateur video shows the total chaos in one of the northern city necessary syria. c cnn. a large number of kids have been injured or killed according to specific reports. >> the most important things, the kids has been injured. a lot of kids has been injured. there is a few women lost their babies. pregnant and they lost their babies. we hope the armys just give us safe passages so we can send women, the children out of the area. but he's surrounding the area very strong. and he's preventing the -- to come on. we just want to give us permission to move the injured babies. they are just the babies. they are not army, they don't have -- they have to leave the area to have a good treatment. this is horrible. he doesn't even let us safe on streets or injured babies. >> tonight, cnn's airs a special report on syria's upriding. see and hear firsthand accounts of those living tonight at 10:30 p.m. eastern. the fireworks may be coming from iranian president mac plume ahmadinejad. he says within days, iran would have, quote, several major achievements in the nuclear area. israel could strike iran sometime this spring. could this be the beginning of what could be a possible world war three scenario? time magazine foreign correspondent jay newton small is here. jay, political analysts believe that war with iran is very unlikely. you write, though, about possibly by the end of this year and you say on some level iran wants a war with the united states. explain that. >> well, look, like in the united states, iran has elections coming up. in the beginning of march. and they're incredibly -- the government has a lot o problems right now. is sanctions in place are incredibly painful. there's hyper inflation going on. they're increasingly isolated from the rest of the world. and, re, even before the arab spring starteded you had protests in iran and the government is not that popular. so if you provoke a kind of skirmish with earth israel or the united states that would involve some sort of aerial bombing of these nuclear sites, you achieve two things. first of all, you go from being the bad guy that everybody is really unhappy with right now to being sort of more sympathetic character, perhaps russia and china might back off on some of these sanctions that have been hurting iran's economy. and then you also get the support of your people ahead of these big parliamentary elections. >> now, a war is not something that's going to be on the forefront of many people's mind in the u.s., specifically what could compel the united states into a situation where they have no choice but to engage iran? >> well, one of the triggers that the analysts that i spoke to, the military analysts are the administrative issues, where you have u.s. naval ships, iraqi naval ships and in the past, during the iran/iraq seven-year war, there was a lot of accidental fire between all three of these militaries. and in in one case, the u.s. shot down an iranian commercial liner and killing near 300 passengers on board because they thought they were under attack. some trigger happy person on any of these military persons could open fire and it could snowball from there and that could become a flash point that could lead to a war in the region. >> i mean, in a naval war, it's a flash point, it's a nuclear program, that would be an aerial bombing more in which you would see probably a few weeks to a month of sustained bombings of these sites because many of them are very deep and you need to bomb them repeatedly in order to penetrate the ground. so sustained bombings in order to delay or sustain as much as possible these programs. >> to be clear, with you wrote four different scenarios where the united states could be sucked into a war or skirmish with iran, it is not likely. that's not the likely scenario here. >> no. it's something that nobody really wants. americans are war weary. do we want another war with the middle east? can we afford it when we're cutting billions and billions of dollars from the pentagon budget? and it's really not something that i think a lot of people in the middle east want at this point. it's the kind of thing where it could get dragged in depending on these different scenarios where something could happen, like a misfiring in the street of hermuz or certain triggers that could happen where you could get a war almost by accident. >> interesting stuff, thanks. thanks, jay. >> thanks, ted. you hate those long airport lines. who doesn't? find identity what's in the works to get you on the plane a lot faster. that coming up next. but before we get to that, it is time for travel insider as cnn reporters and producers, we often have the inside scoop on great places to go. our reynolds wolf knows exactly where to go. he traveled about an hour north of atlanta here where he found one of the oldest gold mines in the country. >> at first impression, you see this beautiful building here in the parking lot. but it's what is below ground that really captures the imagination. you know, this wasn't dug just yesterday. it's been around since 1898. and this is dee harbor b, the general manager of the mine. steve, how long have people been digging for gold in this part of the world? >> gold has discovered in 1828. it became the first major u.s. gold rush. >> what type of mining is this? >> this is hard rock gold mine. >> but there are other types, right? >> absolutely. >> show me how this is done. >> some of that water, the heavy gold has fall.to the bottom. >> gold. check it out. and i've got opinion panned. >> you better keep your day job. >> thanks for your time. >> all right. we've got to hit the road. imagine if you could always see life [music] in the best light. every time of day. outdoors, or in. transitions® lenses automatically filter just the right amount of light. so you see everything the way it is meant to be seen. maybe even a little better. experience life well lit, ask for transitions adaptive lenses. 8% every 10 years.age 40, we can start losing muscle -- wow. wow. but you can help fight muscle loss with exercise and ensure muscle health. i've got revigor. what's revigor? it's the amino acid metabolite, hmb to help rebuild muscle and strength naturally lost over time. 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[ major nutrition ] ensure. nutrition in charge! welcome back. it is time for our entertainment minute. beyonce and jay-z have released the first public photos of their new bundle of joy. pictures of blue ivy carter were posted to jay-z's website with a note that said we welcome you to share our joy. thank you for respecting our privacy during this beautiful time in our lives. the carter family. singer adele is opening up about her throat surgery. she says she used a smartphone app to help her speak. >> it was really hard. >> i sense you like to talk. >> yes. >> how did you communicate for five weeks? >> i had an application on my phone and you tap the words in and it speaks it. but i love to swear and i found a swearing app where you can swear. >> ll cool j is hosting the grammy awards. he spoke to cnn about how he's handling the pressure. >> i wouldn't say i'm nervous, but i'm not cocky like, i have this under control. it's a large challenge, but i want to meet it and i want to make sure that everyone who see these show has a good time. >> and a man who is convicted of stalking singer madonna has escaped from a mental hospital. authorities describe 54-year-old robert hoskins as highly psychotic and possibly violent without his medication. the los angeles police say that madonna has been notified. she was notified immediately after hoskins escaped. the transportation security administration is changing the way we go through airport security, thankfully. we could help thousands speed through lines, those long lines that we all dread. nadya is here and join us with more. you've gone through the new lines. >> i have. and the first time was surprised. but in my -- and got through and what was so nice is i did not have to take off any shoes or my jacket and did not have to put toiletries on the line or take out my laptop. it is marvelous. it is called the tsa precheck. it is available at seven airports including atlanta, dallas, detroit, l.a.x., miami and minneapolis. it is coming to 28 more cities by 2012. now, the current ones are in association with american or delta or sometimes both, but they're expanding their airline base. >> now, are there separate lines, then? >> and when you go through the line, there's a wonderful sign that says, you don't have to take off your shoes, you busy traveli traveli traveling, you.. the only time you have to take off your shoes is, for example, the boots i was wearing at the time had buckles and they did beep. so it's not completely exempt, but it's certainly so much easi easier. 350,000 people have gone through the tsa precheck. >> it begs the question, was this really a needed part of establishing security with the shoes and the laptop and the toiletries and why not just abolish it for everybody? >> well, that's a very good point. but what they're doing is making sure that the people who have been prechecked can go through at a very accelerated pace and that there's a way of qualifying for this. so two things can happen. you can either be opted in by your airline. at this stage, it's delta or american but it's going to expand. or you can pay $100 and go on to the custom board of protections trusted traveler program. you go on to globalentry.gov. it is globalentry.gov and there's lots of information on tsa's.gov for more information and that way they will do a full background check, fingerprints and all and for $100 you can go through the precheck. but the tsa administration says, let's face it, most people and most passengers do not pose a threat to security. >> nadya, thank you, $100 and you're zooming through the airport. >> sounds good. thanks, nadya. forget tim tebow. there is a new sports star and you need to see what he pulled off last night. don't go anywhere, this is a great story. but first, the gaming world is buzzing about a video game that's won numerous awards and had record sales. but it didn't come from a giant company. it started with one man and a simple idea. reynolds wolf has his story in this, start small, think big. >> marcus passion, also known as notch, had the itch to build something. >> i realized i wanted to do something on my own. so i left the job as a web developer and started doing games in my spare time. >> minecraft is not your typical video game. it has no story line or rules. no fancy cinematics or advanced graphics. notch's idea was to build a world made of blocks where you create your own adventure. >> early on, they figured out just being able to have a simple component to build something out of it. >> notch started to sell the game as soon as it was playable. and as the game developed, he released free updates, which created excitement in the gaming community. >> the biggest advantage to doing things for free, release early, you get people to pay. so you get people who are more invested in the game. >> this strategy helped register more than 18 million players, making mine craft a huge success before it was even finished. it was officially launched in las vegas. the game is bigger than ever. >> it's very overwhelming. the reason i started working on mine craft was because of people playing it. and now we have like 5,000 people here for a game for minecraft. >> if you build it, they will play. reynolds wolf, cnn. i'm robert shapiro. over a million people have discovered how easy it is to use legalzoom for important legal documents. at legalzoom we'll help you incorporate your business, file a patent, make a will and more. you can complete our online questions in minutes. then we'll prepare your legal documents and deliver them directly to you. so start your business, protect your family, launch your dreams. at legalzoom.com, we put the law on your side. 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[ alarm blaring ] where the cost to repair your home, replace what's inside, and stay somewhere else if you need to are covered. because you never know what lies around the corner. to learn more, visit libertymutual.com today. good morning, new york. a chicago of columbus circle just before 9:00 on a chilly saturday morning around a lot of the country. welcome back and thanks for joining us here on cnn. i'm ted rollins. as we roll around this saturday morning, tim tebow who? there's a new sports superstar. this guy is lighting it up. joe carter is here to give us the formal introduction. he just came out of nowhere and he's lighting it up. >> you said it. the knicks squaremy lane is a name you have to know. literally came out of nowhere. this guy went from being on the bench one week to now being the talk of sports. he has a great back story, didn't get drafted out of college. was dumped by two different teams earlier this season. the knicks scooped him up. they put him on the roster but they happen like, we don't have a lot of room for him, but we're going to send him to the d leagues. injury by default, he was brought back to the knicks and now this unknown asian-american with a degree of all things in economics from harvard is basically putting up lebron james-like numbers. in four games, he's averaging 28.5 points. last night he outplayed kobe brients and the knicks rattled off four straight wins. it's essentially become lin-sanity in new york. the best thing on stub hub this week. he's taken over twitter with names like the linstigator and super lintendo. he's been living with his brother in new york city and sleeping on his couch because he didn't have a guaranteed contract. so he was making very little money. and now the knicks have given him a guaranteed contract on wednesday, so he can start apartment shopping in new york city. so the lin-sanity could continue in new york. >> and if he were to be at the all-star game, will ferrell could introduce limb and come up with a good name. >> great segue. earlier this week, will ferrell did great introductions. here is the clip. >> at forward, 6'10" from mechanics whoa, he doesn't speak a lick of english, but we still love him. gustavo at center, 6'10" from connecticut, where he majored in ee con, but he minored in love, omeka ukabu. ironically, he hates italian food, marco belanelli. >> so it's absolutely hilarious. they would like him to do the introductions at the all-star game. i think it's great for the nba. it's something, obviously, sports has been missing, an entertaining, razzing, roasting-like player intros. >> joe, thanks, appreciate it. courting conservatives in washington. who will get the seal of the approval and the most influential gathering of conservatives in the country? with less chronic low back pain. imagine you, with less pain. cymbalta can help. cymbalta is fda-approved to manage chronic musculoskeletal pain. one non-narcotic pill a day, every day, can help reduce this pain. tell your doctor right away if your mood worsens, you have unusual changes in mood or behavior or thoughts of suicide. antidepressants can increase these in children, teens, and young adults. cymbalta is not approved for children under 18. people taking maois or thioridazine or with uncontrolled glaucoma should not take cymbalta. taking it with nsaids, aspirin, or blood thinners may increase bleeding risk. severe liver problems, some fatal, were reported. signs include abdominal pain and yellowing skin or eyes. tell your doctor about all your medicines, including those for migraine and while on cymbalta, call right away if you have high fever, confusion and stiff muscles or serious allergic skin reactions like blisters, peeling rash, hives, or mouth sores to address possible life-threatening conditions. talk about your alcohol use, liver disease and before you reduce or stop cymbalta. dizziness or fainting may occur upon standing. ask your doctor about cymbalta. imagine you with less pain. cymbalta can help. go to cymbalta.com to learn about a free trial offer. checking top stories, after months of debate and complaints and inspirational but inaccurate phrases described in the granite of the martin luther king memorial mall will be removed. it reads, i was a drum major for justice, peace and righteousness. it will be replaced with what dr. king's exact quote was as he delivered it in 1968. yes, if you want to say that i was a drum major, say that i was a drum major for justice. say that i was a drum major for peace. i was a drum major for righteousness and all of the other shallow things will not matter. eyes are on syria today as the bloody crackdown by troops continues. activists say the military has surrounded the city of homs with tanks and heavy weapons. some fear that the syrian army could be about to move in to wipe out the resistance. stay with cnn throughout the day for updates on this developing story. and in georgia, a storage facility fire destroyed part of a museum's collection of classic movie memorabilia, including movie posters and paintings from the 1939 classic gone with the wind. a museum spokesperson says that the unit was insured and estimates losses in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. and now a quick update on the story we just told you about. the man who was once convicted of stalking singer madonna is now back in custody. 54-year-old robert hoskins staepd from a mental hospital earlier this week and he is now back in custody. to politics now, ron paul has maintained a strong presence in maine leading up to today's gop presidential caucus. but now mitt romney is making an 11th hour move to win the contest himself. it's between those two and our of it all. we saw ron paul and now romney is coming, as well? >> we expect romney to do the same thing any minute now. ron calm, he came a short wall ago and shook hands and signed pictures. all of it, a last-minute push to convince caucus goers to support them. now, a few things. this is mitt romney's first time appearing at a caucus site on voting day. so that's pretty significant. also, this is his first time campaigning in maine this entire election cycle. we weren't even expecting him to be here, necessarily, but he came looer here last night. he's going to show up here as we just mentioned a moment ago as this caucus site. this is basically not only to deny ron paul his potentially first win, ron paul is zero for eight in all of these contests so far, but it's also about not having another embarrassing headline for mitt romney. you know web lost all three of those contests on tuesday. so this is about a few firsts for both men in both situations. ron paul hopes to pull this out. this could potentially be his first win. >> the music is starting in the background. why did the other two -- why did sanatorium and newt gingrich say no to maine if you can hear me? >> yeah. it's basically not a part of their delegate calculation campaign here. they're focusing on other states. so that's pretty much why they're not here. >> shannon travis, enjoy the day and enjoy the music in maine starts caucuses. we'll have awl results on cnn tonight. cnn's cover aemg of the maine caucus begins at 6:00 p.m. with wolf blitzer followed by cnn's complete live coverage of the caucus results starting at 7:00. meanwhile, in washington, rick santorum and newt gingrich, mitt romney all took their part courting from the conservative action conference. cpac wraps up today with a much anticipated straw poll and a key note speech by sarah palin. cnn's paul steinhauser has more. paul. >> good morning, ted. the final day here at cpac. that stands for conservative political action conference. this designed of like the super bowl, a big political convention for conservatives nationwide. you've got the top conservative leaders and activists meeting here. you've got the battle for the presidential nomination going on as we speak and it's quite a contested one. yesterday you had three of the four republican candidates right here. sheer a tape of what they said. >> who has supported, in fact, the stepchild of obama care, the person in massachusetts who built the largest government run health care system in the united states? someone who would simply give that issue away in the fall. >> i happen to be the only candidate in this race, republican or democrat, who has never worked a day in washington. i don't have scores to settle or decades of closed room deals that i have to defend. >> all of you have seen the washington establishment and the wall street establishment. all of you have seen them say things that are profoundly false. and there's a good reason they're doing it. this campaign is a mortal threat to their grip on the establishment because we intend to change washington, not accommodate it. >> a lot of action later today here at cpac. we've got the results of the presidential straw poll that's much watched by political reporters and republicans across the country. guess who closes out this conference? sarah palin. a lot of action yet to come here at cpac. ted. >> thank you, paul. rising republican star florida governor rick scott will be addressing cpac, as well, later today. we'll get a preview of his speech when he joins us live here next hour. there is no end in sight to the blood which he had in syria. opposition activists say at least seven people were killed today in syria at the hands of syr syria's military. syria's restrictions on journalists make it impossible to verify reports or video. this amateur video shows the total chaos in the northern city of aleppo. an explosion there killed as many as two dozen people yesterday. ivan watson joined us live from istanbul, turkey, where he is monitoring what is happening in syria. what is the latest on the ground there? >> ted, le met just bring you up to date. we've just gotten word that turkey, which is syria's most powerful neighbor, turkey's foreign minister, who is on a visit to washington right now, has just announced that he's going to make a formal request to the united nations, to their headquarters in geneva to try to start sending humanitarian aide into syria. we're learning that from the officials anatolian agency which is here in turkey. that is one of the first new measures that we've heard from any of the regional powers to try to assist the beleaguered people, particularly in that be sieged city of homs, which has been ringed according to residents by syrian troops and has been subjected to a week of military bombardment that has led to the deaths of hundreds of people and that bombardment is continuing as we speak. so that may be a sign of some of the new measures that countries are considering to take to try to alleviate tess conditions where people say they don't have access to antibiotics as they dooed deal with shah rap natural wounds every day. >> what are the logistical problems with trying to do that? clearly the world is watching a horrible situation unfold there and is powerful in terms of bringing supplies and bringing aid in. can it be done? can -- i mean, you can't get there very easily. can it actually be done to get aid to these people that need it? >> well, i mean, that is a big question here. if you want to get aid to a be sieged city that's being be sieged by syria's own military, theoretically, you need permission from the syrian government to do that. and we've seen a lot of ip transgents from the syrian government on even letting humanitarian observers into the country or journalists for that matter. so that's going to be a big challenge. alternatives, there has been a lot of talk about trying to establish some kind of a buffer zone in syria, but that would take a military to actually come in and establish that zone or to get the syrian government to say, okay, we're going to surrender this border region and establish a humanitarian corridor. all of that would have to be worked out if somebody was going to try to ship aid into opposition communities inside syria that are currently facing attacks from the syrian security forces, ted. all right. ivan watson following what is a very disturbing and changing situation in syria. thanks, ivan. homs, a city under siege tonight at cnn will air a special on the syrian uprising. see here first hand accounts of the government crackdown from those living and suffering through it. that is on cnn tonight at 10:30 eastern. coming up, want to read the secret sex diaries of 2,000 people? well, my next guest did just that and wrote a book about it. she'll tell us what's really going on behind closed doors. wow, and having to follow that up is kind of tough. i'll be darned. we're going to try. one of the big stories we have today is the arctic blast that much of the nation is going to be dealing with today. plus, we're going to show you where we're seeing snow in parts of the northeast. you're watching cnn saturday morning. okay, team! after age 40, we can start losing muscle -- 8% every 10 years. wow. wow. but you can help fight muscle loss with exercise and ensure muscle health. i've got revigor. what's revigor? it's the amino acid metabolite, hmb to help rebuild muscle and strength naturally lost over time. 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[ horn honking ] ♪ ...all through the night [ man ] maybe that's why we go to so many memorable places. ♪ [ male announcer ] the subaru outback. love the road you're on. let's take a look now at what is happening across the country. we'll start in louisiana where the biggest two-week celebration of the year is under way. new orleans is full mardi gras mode. the celebration draws crowds by the thousands for two weeks of parades and over indulgence. in charlotte, north carolina, a quick-thinking school bus driver is being hailed as a hilo after hustling six kids off a burning bus. lendora richardson says she was able to stay calk and guide the kids out the back door. >> you don't want to, like, be hysterical and make them hysterical. so you have to -- you know, i was calk and they was calk and i felt like that's what aided in a safe deliver for the kids. >> next week happens to be school bus driver appreciation week. the charlotte fire department plans to owner richardson during a ceremony on monday. in ohio, a middle school basketball team knows how to pull one off with seconds left on the clock. take a look at this. a seventh grade basketball team was down by one point when the player decided he had nothing to lose and launched it. he made the lucky shot from across the court to help his team win by two. several parts of the nation are under a winter storm warning today. reynolds wolf will be along with all the details in just a bit. but first, dr. sanjay gupta talks to a man who has made it his mission to get kids and adults to make things, anything, really. dale doren is the founder of make magazine. see why he made cnn's next list. >> we're just going to may say make a mess, which every good kid wants to do. >> are you calling me a kid? >> so here is a model. put two pieces of the conductive play-doh in between an insulator. first of all, we're going to put a battery on. wow. so we're able to plus that in anywhere. >> that's pretty amazing. >> tune in to watch the next list sunday at 2:00 eastern. stick with us. we'll be right back. i don't want healthy skin for a day. i want healthy skin for life. 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[ female announcer ] daily moisturizing lotion. and for healthy hair every day, try new pure renewal hair care, with balancing seaweed extract. only from aveeno. much of the country is waking up to frigid temperatures this saturday morning. reynoldses wolf is here with us. it's about time. we've had a pretty mild winter. >> we are seeing all kinds of cold weather around the country and a little precipitation out there, too. case in point, take a look at long eye las land, the jersey shore. this is radar. you can see a few snow flurries. a better shot is right at this level. even higher above, you can see a few rain drops here. more than anything, you freeze your eyes on it and, well, i promise you, there were some larger snowflakes there just a short while ago. dog gone it. i know i'm going to drop this thing off and we're going to see some huge flakes. that's the way the always works. this is part of the big frontal system. it runs out of a line of moisture. no rain expected in the deep south, at least in parts of georgia and for much of the carolinas. if you'll go back to the midwest, we're going to see some snow there. but the place that might seem the heaviest might be in the lowest elevations of the appalachians. west virginia, we could see locations that could get up to 10 inches of snowfall, all due to this area of low pressure. a lot of cold air is they're feeling this morning across parts of the upper midwest and through the great lakes. we're going to keep a sharp eye on that forecast four. again, 6 to 10, some places up to 12. what you can intekt in your travel weather is moments away. back to you. >> reynolds, thank you, sir. my next guest claims she has the belt job in the world. she collects sex diaries, over 2,000 of them in four years. she took the best and put them into a book called the sex diaries projects. marian joins us now from portland, oregon. first of all, what inspired you to write this book? >> curiosity. you know, diaries a seven day anonymous journals of everything that has happened happens in somebody's private life. what you get out of that is a snapshot of how they're connecting and disconnecting from people. when you get 2,000 of those, you get a portrait of what americans are doing behind closed doors. we all assume that people are doing something similar to what we're doing, but let me tell you, you have no idea what people are doing behind closed doors. >> let's read a couple of the things that people have wrote into the diaries. this is one entry. last night, it appeared to be the nancy purposefully rolled over on her stomach so i couldn't touch her. that's from an 81-year-old sarasota county, florida, man. next one, you might be the odd one out because sex and relationships don't compete for my time as much as the kid, the house and the dogs. that's from a 43-year-old in atlanta. came home, had some vodka, played pretend with the husband. wow, i needed that. that's from a 30-year-old baltimore, maryland, woman. and all i think about is sex. i feel like i'm going to explode. a 23-year-old from dayton, ohio. were you surprised? maybe not from that last one, but were you surprised by what people are saying and were open about and what they're doing behind closed doors? >> oh, absolutely. i think i was really surprised by two things. the first is that i grew up with this idea that people are either in a relationship or dating to be in a relationship. and that's not true. about 20 mers of the diaryists are what i call solo, which means they're not looking to be in a relationship and they're meeting their own emotional and sexual lifestyle needs. that doesn't mean they're sell bit, it just means they're not trying to be in a relationship. the second thing that surprises me is that couples are not similar. one couple is not the same thing as another couple and i was able to map out the three different kinds of couples that i found and track their goals and the pros and cons of their relationships. and i think it's really helpful for people to know what kind of couple they're in and how it works. >> how do you know people are telling the truth and how do you get them to do it in first place? >> i ask everybody i see at the grocery store, on the street, and i like to say that no is the first step on the path to yes. people, i asked them and they say no. they say they're single or that they're busy or that they're not an exhibitionist. and i say, that's great, you're perfect for this project. and we often talk about how everything we learn is from what we see other people doing in our careers or in our lifestyle. you see somebody do something and you say, oh, i really want to do that. in our private lives, we're closed off from information and it's a disservice to people to not know what their options are. >> all right. a arianne cohen, thanks so much. >> thanks for having me. coming up next, the fight for the republican presidential nomination is in maine and mitt romney is in maine at this hour. you can see he's about to be introduced there to the crowd. he's going to go around and talk to some folks. we saw ron paul there earlier today. that is the latest site of the republican nomination battle. we'll have more on that throughout the day here on cnn. stay with us. [ male announcer ] this is coach parker... whose non-stop day starts with back pain... and a choice. take advil now and maybe up to four in a day. or choose aleve and two pills for a day free of pain. way to go, coach. ♪ at meineke i have options... like oil changes starting at $19.95. my money. my choice. my meineke. eyes are on syria today. activists say the military has rr