we're very happy you're with us this morning. it's 5:00 in the east. breaking news in france. police have a home surrounded. they say an al qaeda suspect wanted for committing that jewish school massacre is inside. france also says two officers were wounded in a shootout there overnight. we'll take you live to that scene? just a few moments now. and a big night for mitt romney after a decisive 1 -point win, he's setting his sights on louisiana. romney has near ri half the delegates that he needs to secure the nomination. and shocking new ref layings in the shooting death of a florida teenager. the girlfriend of 17-year-old trayvon martin says she was on the phone with him just minutes before he was killed. an now lawmakers are calling his death a murder and a hate crime. in assessing the damage in mexico after a strong earthquake rattled the massive capital all the way to the resort city of acapulco. hundreds of homes were damaged. at least 11 people are injured. luckily no deaths reported there. water rising and raging in texas. take a look at this. the fire department forced to pull a woman from her car that was carried downstream after she ignored a warning and drove around a barrier. severe storms expected to unleash flooding across the south and the plains today. this is cnn breaking news. >> we've got breaking news this morning, about 300 police are surrounding an al qaeda suspect right now in france. he's apparently wanted in that horrible massacre at a jewish school. we're told he's surrounded inside the home, the interior minister saying they want to get him alive. he is expected to surrender and for some reason they're thinking that could happen in two hours. there were two officers already wounded in this incident. the person inside is accused of murdering a rabbi, his two young sons and another person at that school. the man said he wanted revenge for palestinian children. this aco koccording to reuters. a suspect whose brother was inside the house turned himself in to police already. all of this happening in a raid in the southern city of toulouse in france. that's less than two miles from the jewish school where that massacre actually played out. it's already near the sites of three deadly attacks, just over the past several days. our diana magnay is live in toulouse, france right now. this sounds like such a developing situation, diane. maybe you could get me up to speed on exactly where we stand right now in this situation. >> reporter: sure, ashleigh. this is the seventh hour of this operation. as you said, 300 police involved in this. after an unprecedented manhunt, really to find who people were considering a serial killer. it's a fairly fluid situation. you have police coming up and down this road all the time. the interior minister has been here overnight and police officers have been in negotiations with this 24-year-old suspect through his door. we heard from the mayor earlier that he was being uncooperative, very stubborn and very determined. then we heard this development that he'd thrown a gun out of the window and said that he would surrender himself in a couple of hours time at 12 noon local. so the interior minister says he certainly hopes that will be the case. police do, however, presume that he is heavily armed. he is capable of carrying out more attacks despite this gun, there was a heavy exchange of gunfire earlier. it remains to be seen what will happen over the next several hours. they have said they want him brought out alive. ashleigh? >> how do we know that this might wrap up in two hours? that seems leake a lot of information for a situation that's currently in a standoff. >> reporter: well, because the suspect has himself said that he would hand himself over in two hours time. he has been talking to police, not in a very cooperative fashion but talking to them through the front door. and he's apparently admitted to the fact that he committed the attacks in the jewish school to avenge the deaths of palestinian children. he also says that he was the man responsible for killing those three soldiers in two separate attacks last week, soldiers of northern african origin. and we also know a little bit about how investigators came to that man, came to this house. that was the first killing of the soldier, sunday a week ago. it happened at a rendezvous where that soldier said he wanted to sell a motorbike. that happened via e-mail. the ip address on that e-mail was traced and at that point they'd already got this man under suspicion, apparently, ashleigh. >> diana magnay, good job. we'll keep tapping in to find out what the developments are in toulouse this morning. it was five minutes past the hour. here it was a decisive win in the illinois primary for mitt romney. the former massachusetts governor now the clear front-runner with more than half the delegates he needs to clinch that nomination. the final totals, romney 47%, santorum, 35%, newt gingrich dead last with 8%. cnn's delegate estimate, romney 562, santorum, 249, gingrich, 137, ron paul with 69. mitt romney is sensing this could be his campaign's defining moment. he is urging the party to rally behind him. >> each day we move closer not just to victory but to a better america. join us. join us, together we're going to ensure that america's greatest days are still ahead. thanks, you guys. >> and next up here we have saturday's louisiana primary, 46 delegates at stake there. washington, d.c., maryland and wisconsin primaries follow on april 3rd as well. let's talk to cnn political editor paul steinhauser. he's live in washington, d.c. i was doing some math this morning. i didn't get it right the first time. if you add up all of the delegate counts mitt romney is still ahead, add up santorum, gingrich and paul, he still has more delegates. how did he do in the exit polls, though? >> he did pretty well. he won where he needed to, the suburbs in chicago. he took over the vote in that heavy populated area. they said beating president barack obama, the most important thing. take a look at this, here from the exit polls. almost 40%, 4 in 10 said electability, most important issue for a candidate quality. of those people who said can this candidate defeat barack obama, look ott who's on top by far. mitt romney. almost three out of four of those who said it was important went for mitt romney. that's part of the story he won. the exit polls indicate he still has a problem and santorum won the vote with the conservative voters, the strong tea party supporters own those people who say they are evangelical christians and santorum did win the true conservative areas in southern illinois. of course, louisiana is next. as you mention. that's a more conservative state. zoraida? >> how did romney do with women. >> he won women again as he has in almost every state we've seen in the exit polls. >> let's talk about newt gingrich. yesterday he said phase one is taking romney out. i was thinking perhaps he drops out in order to help santorum take romney out. >> his statement did not indicate that. it was critical, the statement he put out after the statements came in. he said he's looking ahead to tampa, the convention in louisiana in late august. i don't know, i can't get in newt gingrich's mind. zoraida? >> we want you to stay fired up for us, the more ammunition, the better. thank you very much. paul steinhauser in washington. a major earthquake has rocked southern mexico, the epicenter is located about 200 miles southeast of mexico city. apparently 200 to 800 homes, i know that's a wide estimate but that's all we have right now, flattened in one particular town. this thing measured 7.4 magnitude as well. you can see some of the facade damages at least in the initial video that's coming in to us. the tremors were felt in mexico city, also in acapulco. obviously emotions running deep at this point. we know of 11 people who were injured but right now, no reports coming in of deaths, thank god for that. the quake also shook the mexican parliament and here's something we don't often report. the president and the first lady's daughter was on a school trip, the media does not cover that normally but because of what's happened in mexico, we do. malia was on a vacation, a school vacation in mexico. first lady's spokeswoman says malia is okay and that she was never in any danger and that's the reason that the press has been given the green light to report that. because of the potential danger for the first lady and the president's child. >> in the video where you saw the woman who was very upset, it's because she was happening right when she was in her car. you can hear somebody saying don't move, don't move, stay still. >> i'd be frozen in fear if anything, right? >> rob marciano is at the cnn weather center with word of tornado warnings in deep south. >> it's a slow moving system. it hammered texas yesterday with flooding rains and tornadoes. this system is now in through louisiana, southern louisiana is where we're seeing tornado warnings right now, in through parts of cameron, arcadia parish, geoff davis parish, along the i-10 corridor between lake charles and lafayette. these are moving from the south to the north, all with this circulation that's not making much eastward progress. tornado watch in for most of louisiana and a sliver of arkansas for the next few hours as these storms slowly edge to the east but mostly go from south to north and with this slow movement we've got a tremendous amount of rainfall obviously going over one play. flood watches and warnings across much of western louisiana, getting up into arkansas as well, up to 6 inches possible and in some cases we've already seen that. a tremendous amount of rainfall coming out of this system as it moves slowly to the east, into a big bubble of warm air. temperatures continue to bake. chicago unbelievably, another day of 80 degree plus temperatures, 85 in chattanooga, 83 degrees in cincinnati. these are more like june as opposed to the middle of march. >> no kidding. i'm hearing about it on facebook, come back home, taste the weather over here. it's tough to watch. thank you. >> all right, guys. 11 minutes past 5:00. our breaking news, this just in. i have bad news for you. it's not just bad, it's double bad. the gas prices are ticking up again almost twice as much as it has every day. the national average jumping almost 2 cents. i'm sorry. it's according to aaa. you can blame them, well, i think you can blame a lot of people for it. national average is $3.86. it's been on the rise for 12 straight days. we'll continue to see the prices this high until the cost of oil all around the world on that pesky world market goes down. all right. maybe it will happen, speaking of oil, the keystone pipeline extension is back on the fast track now. sources telling cnn that president obama wants to cut the red tape for the extension of the oil pipeline. what does this mean? >> here's the catch. part of the pipeline. how good is the pipeline if you only have part of it? the president has been criticized all over the campaign trail for blocking the permit. why the 180 or is it even a 180? or is it only a 60? i'm not quite sure. i'm confused if you build a southern part of the pipeline. >> we already have a lot of big pipeline in this country. make no mistake. this isn't the only oil pipeline. right? i'll show you a picture of what this is supposed to look like. the keystone pipeline, republicans have been hammering the president. the part that the president wants to fast track is the part by that green arrow down from cushing, oklahoma to port arthur. you look up, you can see there's an awful lot more that needs to be built. it goes through the sand hills of nebraska. that's the big sticking point. this part has not been approved yet. transcanada wants to build a pipeline under a fragile and beautiful part of the country. i think most people would be surprised. it's so fragile and desolate and beautiful at the same time. i was there in 2010. it has oil dereks. underneath there's a huge aquifer and there are countries about the pipeline and the aquifer. transcanada and people who support the pipeline are trying to figure out where to root this thing. the president wants to fast track the southern portion of this pipeline extension so it can be under way. people in the oil business are saying longer term it's good to have this diverse supply line for oil from north america but we're not there yet. >> how significant is it right now, though, with the suffering that folks have at the pump? >> it's not going to do anything today to your price of oil and gas. all of these things are subtle and long term and there are political fights over this. there was something else that moved oil prices yesterday. this administration also giving some waivers to 11 different countries for the business that they're doing, buying oil from iran. and those waivers on some sanctions for iran actually saw oil prices drop sharply. >> these are waivers to say you can do more business? >> yes. they have already decreased their purchases so substantially of iranian oil -- >> amazing. >> a little bit of a waiver there. there's a lot beginning on in the international markets of oil that we're watching closely. >> thank you, christine. >> you're welcome. 15 minutes past the hour. police in new york clashing once again with occupy wall street protesters, this is lower manhattan. 300 demonstrators removed overnight from union square. one person was arrested. the city says it can tolerate 25 demonstrators at a time but they cannot sit down or lie down. digging deeper into the case of trayvon martin. he was that unarmed black teenager who was shot and killed by a self-appointed neighborhood watch captain. the focus is now on the stand your ground law in florida. we talked about tornadoes, now we're going to talk about fires. flames rising from the debris and threateningi the homes that were just rebuilt in tuscaloosa. and can an aspirin a day keep cancer away? ponder that thought and come join us again, you're watching. "early start." because it starts working faster on the first day you take it. zyrtec®. love the air. it's so great to see you. you, too! ahh, cloudy glasses. you didn't have to come over! actually, honey, i think i did. oh? you did? whoa, ladies, easy. hi. cascade kitchen counselor. we can help avoid this with cascade complete pacs. over time, a competing gel can leave cloudy hard water deposits, but cascade complete pacs help leave glasses sparkling. shiny! too bad it doesn't work on windows. okay, i'm outta here. there's only one cascade. love it or your money back. this reduced sodium soup says it may help lower cholesterol, how does it work? you just have to eat it as part of your heart healthy diet. step 1. eat the soup. all those veggies and beans, that's what may help lower your cholesterol and -- well that's easy [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup. 19 minutes past 5:00. that's a good time to check the top stories making news this morning. let's follow breaking news in france this morning. police have a home surrounded. they say a man claiming to be an al qaeda terrorist wanted for committing that jewish school shooting, he's inside that house. france says two officers were wounded in a shootout there. the interior minister saying they want him alive and he's expected to surrender within the next two hours. illinois goes to mitt romney. the former massachusetts governor scoring a decisive win in last night's primary, picking up 47% of the vote. good enough for a 12-point margin over rick santorum. romney is nearly halfway toward the 1,144 delegates needed to clinch the nomination. a wildfire that's already burned nearly 100 acres in alabama has jumped a containment line. it's burning in a debris field near homes that were rebuilt after the deadly tornado in tuscaloosa county that killed dozens of people last april. so far, no one has had to evacuate the area because of that wildfire. a daily dose of aspirin might significantly reduce the risk of cancer and prevent tumors. researchers found people who took aspirin regularly for five years reduced their risk of developing cancer by 37%. experts warn that the drug can cause dangerous side effects like stomach bleeding. for an expanded lack at all of our top stories head to cnn.com/earl cnn.com/earlystart. the mother of trayvon martin says she cannot eat or sleep until her son's killer is arrested. the martin family attorney says brand new witness accounts reveal martin was murdered by neighborhood watch captain george zimmerman. trayvon martin's girlfriend has come forward. she says she was on the phone with the teenager minutes before he was shot to death. phone records confirm that he said zimmerman was following martin and she told him to run. >> he said he lost the man. but the man trayvon said was following him. i asked him to run and trayvon said he wasn't going to be running. >> martin was killed just moments later. zimmerman is claiming self-defense. the fbi and justice department are now investigating. jo john zarrella is live in florida with the latest for us. if we can first begin with the eyewitness accounts. what did they say they saw? >> reporter: zoraida, what we are hearing right now is, of course, the police department has come under a great deal of fire over what happened and the handling of it. the police here are telling us they are confident in the way they handled it and they are inviting the federal officials, the doj, the fbi, the florida department of law enforcement to come in and take a look. last night on the anderson cooper show, anderson talked to two women who live in that gated community who have apparently talked to police and given statements but now they are talking exclusively with anderson cooper about what they say they saw inside that gated community. >> so you saw mr. zimmerman on top of trayvon martin? >> exactly. >> when you say on top of, how so? >> straddling him. >> exactly. >> i don't believe it was self-defense. what we saw when we walked out on the porch. if it was self-defense, why was he on trayvon's back? >> now, police here have not released that transcript of the interviews that they have done with these women at this point. but, again, you heard there what they say transpired on the night of february 26th. here last night as well, in sanford, just a few blocks from here at a local church, there was another major rally. the community coming together again asking for some -- for zimmerman to be arrested, for zimmerman to be picked up. as we know, george zimmerman has not been charged with any crime nor has he been arrested. ashleigh, zoraida? >> john zarrella, live for us in florida. thank you very much. ashleigh, back to you. it is now 23 minutes past 5:00 in the morning. it's the time we get a chance to do an early read on the local news that's making national headlines. this morning, got a whole stack of them. we start with the "chicago tribune." here's what's coming out of good old, illinois. that state is having a real tough time coming up with the money for college students and aid to go to school. apparently it's running out. the students who apply for state tuition to get help paying their tuition next year, a lot of them will be turned away because apparently the funds are being awarded on a first come, first served basis. the money is depleted in record time. there's a huge percentage of kids in illinois that won't qualify for it. because too many people want it and there just isn't enough. >> the 529 program in illinois, a mess as well. >> there are federal programs as well. don't be in despair. there are other places but that one spot isn't as good as it used to be. lawmakers in michigan say kids should be older when they enter kindergarten. the state is considering raising cutoff age. kids need to turn 5 years old by december 1st to enter school and the bill proposes a cutoff date to be september 1st. supporters say younger kids aren't ready for the challenge of kindergarten and smaller classes save the state money. opponents say parents would have to eat the savings and alternate child care as well. it's the school of thought, whether your child is ready, whether they should be challenged. >> it's all those parents who are sneaky, too, saying i want my kid to be the biggest and the oldest and smartest kid. he's 7 when the rest of them are 5. >> they hold them back for that reason? >> interesting. >> mostly for sports. >> i would never do that. >> it's a huge trend, mostly for sports. the trend goes right through the nhl. if you look at nhl hockey players who are the biggest, baddest and brightest, many of them were younger -- were older when they went into first grade. >> 26 minutes past the hour here. ahead on "early start," president obama headed to south korea next week for a nuclear summit. he's going to do something there that he has never done before as president. >> that's a tease. also, do you remember that oil tanker, man was this a long time ago. exxon valdez, folks. it was the ugliest environmental nightmare up in alaska, 24 years ago. it's being sold for scrap. what someone paid for the exxon valdez. will it become someone's luxury liner? who knows but we'll fill you in in a moment. but you said it was greek. mmhmm. so is it greek or is it yoplait? exactly. okay... 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[ male announcer ] introducing new febreze car. eliminates odors for continuous freshness so you can breathe happy. it is 5:30 on the dot on the east coast. welcome back to early, early, "early start." i'm ashleigh banfield. >> and i'm zoraida sambolin. a big 12-point victory for mitt romney. he picked up 47% of the vote with the backing of conservatives and tea partiers. saturday's louisiana primary is next with 46 delegates at stake there. >> and breaking news this morning, police in france are said to have surrounded a suspect and cornered him in his very own home. started off with a big raid. he's the man who's wanted for killing four people at a jewish school just a few days ago. he claims to be a member of al qaeda. france says two officers were injured in that late-night shootout and raid overnight. >> the band sugarland is refusing to give depositions in last year's deadly stage collapse lawsuit. seven people died there when a strong wind gust blew down the rigging at the indiana state fair just minutes before the band's concert. that was last august. president obama's gearing up for next week's nuclear summit in south korea. while he's there, he'll visit u.s. military troops stationed in the demilitarized zone. it will be his first trip as president to the heavily fortified border. a ship demolition company has paid $16 million for the oil tanker formerly known as the exxon valdez. in 1989, 11 million gallons of oil from the chip spilled into alaska's prince william sound. it was the worst tanker environmental disaster in u.s. history. magic number is 1,144. by now doesn't everyone know what that means? >> it's engrained in our brains. >> if you don't know you're in big trouble, folks. you should be reading the papers. it's the delegate count. come on. mitt romney is about halfway there after a very convincing win over rick santorum in last night's illinois primary. that's the thing that happened last night in illinois. i'm teasing you now. here are the final vote totals, the big one with the checkmark, mitt romney with 47%, rick santorum falling 12 points behind at 35%. look at newt gingrich. way, way down, even lower than ron paul. he sunk to 8% of the vote. that is a significant drop for newt gingrich as well. cnn's up to the minute delegate estimate, looks a little like this, everyone. 562 delegates for mitt romney. 249 for rick santorum. newt gingrich still in third place there, though, with 137 delegates and ron paul still doing his thing, making his way to the convention at 69 delegates. rick santorum is trying to put a positive spin on last night's setback. >> with 54 delegates athe stake we think we'll win sa, 17, if we're lucky, maybe 20, which isn't a bad haul, in a state that's not necessarily the most friendly to a conservative in the state of illinois. we thank you very much for coming out and we look forward to coming here in about five weeks after a big win in pennsylvania. >> there's a long way to go before the pennsylvania primary. next up is saturday's louisiana primary. it's 46 delegates at stake in that state. washington, d.c., maryland and wisconsin primaries, they follow on april 3rd. so there's a lot to talk about as we move forward. live from washington, our political reporter for "roll call" magazine. and in new york, boris epstein, republican strategist. rick santorum said, i believe, coming in to illinois if i win illinois, i can guarantee you i am going to be the nominee. well, that didn't happen were boris. if i show you the leaderboard again, he's so far behind mitt romney at this point, i don't know what he was thinking or where he thought the math might pay off. where exactly is he headed in this game? >> if he wins illinois, he can guarantee it. that's probably a safe thing to say because he knew he wasn't going to win it. rick santorum has the worst loss of any sitting republican democrat as an incumbent ever. he lost by 18 points in 2006 in his home state of pennsylvania. i don't i don't know that i'd count on pennsylvania that much if i were him. the nominee will be mitt romney and he should face barack obama in november. >> let's have a look at the exit polls so we can get an idea of what people are thinking and what they're thinking when they vote that way. in illinois, the evangelical and born-again numbers amount to 42% of the vote. those who consider themselves very conserve pitch, 29% of the vote. fast forward to one of the next contests in alabama and see how the numbers compare. are you ready? in alabama, that evangelical vote goes up to 75%. illinois is 42%, alabama 75%. for those who say they're conservative, 36%, don forget, illinois, they were just 29%. so, tim, it kind of looks obvious. those who are very conservative and religious tend to vote for santorum and those who aren't so much tend to vote for mitt romney. does that tell us anything, though, in the votes that are coming up in the states that still have to elect their nominee? >> well, it certainly tells you there will be a lot of up and downs still to go. i think everybody views louisiana as a state that rick santorum will win. and to me, what it really says is the big story coming out of illinois is not so much romney's win which i think was expected given that he outspent santorum 7-1 and frankly had to win after losses in mississippi and alabama. the big story coming out of illinois is newt gingrich's loss, especially coming in under 10%. what i think you're really going to see now is not the party coalescing around mitt romney as he suggested last night in his speech, but really a push from conservatives to coalesce around one candidate. i think with gingrich being so far behind in louisiana and some of the southern states and santorum getting the momentum. santorum is only behind 4 to 5 points nationally. if gingrich gets out he has a shot. you'll see conservatives pushing that gingrich exit pretty quickly. >> i misspoke. the reason i was quoting the alabama exit polls, people exited the poll because they had that vote already. i was extrapolating for alabama. your point spoke beautifully to that. thank you for saving me. speaking of speaking, gingrich had something to say last night. he released a statement after illinois and it seems to me that increasingly, these concession speeches are really nasty or at least they kind of have a dig. that's how you could read into this one. this is how gingrich responded to the results in illinois. to defeat barack obama republicans can't nominate a candidate who relies on outspending his opponents 7-1. instead, we need a nominee who offers powerful solutions that hold the president accountable for his failures. i get it, take the fight to obama. because that's a better thing to do. do you have to be so snarky to the winner of the race from last night? >> well, at this point, newt gingrich has to do something to get attention right now. he's certainly not winning contests. another notable thing about that statement he put out, he's remarking about how much mitt romney is spending at 7-1 spending margin. i think if you're a republican voter who will go up against a president who might raise as much as a billion dollars this cycle, is that really such a bad thing that you'll have a well-funded nominee? newt gingrich is in a precarious position. he wants to keep going. i'm sure a lot of his people, supporters are telling him to stick in there, wait until the convention, see if you can gal saloni i galvinnize delegates on the floor. he's not really campaigning. he's no the a candidate anymore. he's not in this race. >> you make a great point. you could look at that like you bought that thing, or hey, man, you can raise a lot of money and buy a lot of things. i have to cut it off right there. we'll talk to you in an hour if you can all stick around. >> absolutely. >> so glad they are. >> good to hear. 38 minutes past the coming up, things that go boom in the night. this is bizarre. what is behind the loud noise waking everyone up at night? i'd be out of there. plus, peyton's in place in denver. does tim tebow even have a prayer of staying with the broncos. >> oh, he has a prayer. >> he always has a good prayer. you are watching "early start." time out. sweet. 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[ male announcer ] want great taste and whole grain oats that can help lower cholesterol? honey nut cheerios. in chicago it's 85. we're talking about how nice and warm it is in milwaukee. >> this is the milwaukee tower cam. we keep telling them it's so warm so early. right? 61 degrees in milwaukee. if you're one of those people driving, put your windows down. if you're not, and you're going to go outside later and pick up your newspaper -- >> i don't think they can hear you. >> unless they're on satellite radio. >> hello. >> 79 degrees in milwaukee, wisconsin. 79 degrees. amazing. >> lovely. good morning to you on that note. a mystery this morning in clintonville, wisconsin to be specific. it's a small town not too far from green bay. people are flooding 911 with calls trying to figure out what's going on there. they have been awakened by underground rumblings, rattling windows and lots of nerves. >> just like constant boom, boom, boom. >> almost felt like a heavy duty thunderstorm. >> we didn't know what was beginning on. >> a weird, weird feeling. >> we're, weird, yes. scientists have no explanation for that. a town meeting is scheduled for this evening to talk about all of it. city administrator lisa koss is trying to get someone to figure it out. she is on the phone with us this morning. good morning to you. >> good morning. >> so tell me what specifically you have heard? >> i experienced it myself. i don't actually live in the region that's most affected by it but i did hear it because i've been out there a lot and the loudest i heard last night. it is a -- people describe it, it sounds like someone exploded something if you're in a building just outside the building. like a firecracker. >> has anybody recorded the sound? >> again, because we were hoping after the first night that it didn't continue we didn't set anything out. the second night we do have recording audio and video devices at our utility building which is in that area and we'll be able to check that stuff this morning. >> has anything like this ever happened before in the town's history? >> no, it has not. >> and so has a seismologist looked at this? >> we have confirmed with geologists both at two different universities and through the different stations they have, which is about 30 minutes away that there is no official recording of any earthquake activity. >> we said in the intro going into this story that it's only happening at night. is that true? and how odd is that? >> again, we don't know if it's geology which would be affected by temperature. it's clearly been most worst at night. it doesn't mean we're reporting nothing during the day. >> is everybody freaking out about this, worried? >> i think certainly people are concerned and unnerved. by no means is there utter chaos. people obviously want answers just as much as we as city officials want answers. i will report that whether people are not calling as often or they were not actually woke up last night but i did speak to my police dispatchers prior to coming on the air with you and we have the no received any official calls since 11:20. how far, my two police officers and dispatcher did report feeling or hearing something at around 3:00 a.m. and we have a live news feed from our larger newspaper in appleton, wisconsin, that thought they felt something around 1:00 a.m. >> i would imagine the kiddies are freaked out as well. clintonville city administrator, thank you so much for joining us. >> thank you. >> it's the monster from tremors. i'm just telling you. >> can you imagine? >> 46 minutes past 5:00. still ahead, losing control. take a look at your screen. that's not something you want to be near, as a gas station pump explodes. you know what this was all about? an impatient driver cut in line. >> oh, no. >> oh, yeah. and a brand new hundred for amelia earhart's plane. 75 years ago she disappeared and it's one of our biggest mysteries. a new photo might help to solve it once and for all. we'll tell you all about it. it's so exciting, i can't wait. you know how to mix business... with business. 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. i could get used to this. [ male announcer ] yes, you could business pro. yes, you could. go national. go like a pro. 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. ♪ kinda. what a bargain! [ female announcer ] sometimes a good deal turns out to be not such a good deal. but new bounty gives you value you can see. in this lab demo, one sheet of new bounty leaves this surface cleaner than two sheets of the leading ordinary brand. so you can clean this mess with half as many sheets. bounty has trap and lock technology to soak up big spills and lock them in. why use more when you can use less? new bounty. the clean picker upper. the sleep number bed. the magic of this bed is that you're sleeping on something that conforms to your individual shape. wow! that feels really good. it's hugging my body. it works in a minute. i can get more support. if you change your mind once you get home you can adjust it. so whatever you feel like, the sleep number bed's going to provide it for you. at our semi-annual sleep sale, save $400 to $700 on our most popular bed sets. sale ends soon. only at the sleep number stores. where queen mattresses start at just $699. welcome back. 49 minutes past the hour. it is time to check the stories making news this morning. here's christine romans. in france, police say they now have a gunman claiming links to al qaeda cornered in his home right now and that he may surrender soon. cnn has learned his name is mohammed marah. he's wanted for killing four people in the jewish school shooting this week. france says two officers were injured in a shootout there overnight. illinois in the win column for mitt romney. he picked up 47% of the vote last night. good enough for a 12-point margin over rick santorum. romney winning thanks to strong support from conservatives and tea partiers. frightening moments at a gas station in miami. witnesses say a jeep tried to cut in front of a hummer. the braver lost control and slammed into the gas pump, causing a fiery explosion. the driver escaped unharmed and was not charged. the jeep, though, was destroyed. tebow mania is out, peyton manning is in. he was announced as the new quarterback yesterday. it's expected tim tebow will be traded. manning says it will be just fine if he stays on. >> if tim tebow is here next year, i'll be the next teammate i can be to him and he and i are going to help this team win games. if other opportunities pren themselves for him, i'll wish him the best. he's going to be a great player wherever he is. >> the new york jets and the jacksonville jaguars are the teams reportedly interested in trading for tebow. zoraida and ashleigh. >> that video at the pump was the lesson of the day. don't cut in line because you could blow up. >> be patient, everyone. >> who's cutting in line to pay $3.85 a gallon anyway? >> and in a big, big truck. >> 5:51 on the east coast. a black jack player cleans up in atlantic city. it's pretty shocking. also, new clues in the search for amelia earhart, 75-year-old clues. how good are they? you're watching "early start." pina colada... i can't imagine where she is... orange creme... 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[ male announcer ] we can't hide how proud we are to have nine 2012 iihs top safety picks. so we're celebrating with our "safety in numbers" event. that's the power of german engineering. right now lease the 2012 passat for $219 a month. will be giving away passafree copies lease the 2012 passat of the alcoholism & addiction cure. to get yours, go to ssagesmalibubook.com. ♪ you've got to know when to hold 'em ♪ ♪ know when to fold 'em >> there's a reason we're bumping in with this music. >> sing it. ♪ know when to run >> this is our pop culture thing for you today. he literally broke the bank in atlantic city. his name is don johnson, which could not make the story better. he apparently single handedly nailed down $6 million in one night. he broke the revenue stream for a month for tropicana. and that wasn't the only time he was able to bring in a big win. 6 million in one night. he took another casino for 5 million and he took caesar's for $4 million. >> $15 million, folks. >> you think somebody was watching him? >> they were all over him like white on rice. >> even though the security cameras were on it, the pit bosses were on it. they have come to the conclusion this guy was just great. he's just a good card player. >> what a great story. >> unbelievable. >> there's a new search for amelia earhart. she disappeared on a flight across the pacific 75 years ago. historian rick gillespie says a photo takenen a remote island three months after her plane vanished may show the landing gear sticking out from a reef. really? >> and we missed it before? the crew will head there on july 2nd, 75 years to the date that she disappeared with high-tech subs and a discovery channel crew in an attempt to pull up the plane. >> can you imagine? >> i know you'll be speaking to rick gillespie in the next hour. looking forward to that. >> a lot of questions about it and why hillary clinton is big on it also. >> yes. coming up next hour, we take you live to france as they speak with an al qaeda suspect that might be behind the shooting at the french school in toulouse where four people died. you're watching "early start." used dishcloths. they can have a history that they drag around with them. for a cleaner way to clean try bounty extra soft. in this lab demo, one sheet of bounty extra soft leaves this surface 3 times cleaner than a dishcloth. it's super durable too. it's the cleaner way to clean. bring it with bounty extra soft. in the pink pack. and try bounty napkins. and who ordered the yummy cereal? yummy. 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[ male announcer ] it's a network of possibilities -- helping you do what you do... even better. ♪ weso to save money, services can get kind of expensive.do... even better. i've found a new way to get my profile out there. check me out. everybody says i've got a friendly disposition and they love my spinach dip. five foot ten... still doing a little exploring. but... my sign is sagittarius, i'm into spanish cheese, my hairline is receding but i'm getting a weave. getting a weave. there's an easier way to save. who wants some ronald tonight!? who wants some ronald tonight!? geico. fifteen minutes could save you 15% or more. ♪ good morning. it is just about 6:00. it's "early start" and it is 6:00. i'm ashleigh banlfield. >> i'm zoraida sambolin. we're bringing you the news from a to z. >> breaking news in france, police have a home surrounded that they say inside is the gunman, a gunman who claims to have links to al qaeda and is wanted for committing that jewish school shooting. he's inside now. they think they're going to get him out. officials say two officers were wounded in a shoot-out there during that overnighting raid. mitt romney is close to securing half the delegates he needs to clinch the nomination. after an impressive double-digit win in illinois overnight in the primary there, that victory made it possible for him, conservatives and the tea partiers backing him pretty strongly. new witnesses speaking out on the shooting death of trayvon martin. the florida teenager's family say new revelations prove martin was, in fact, murdered and they will not sleep until his killer is arrested. office buildings hundreds of miles away feeling the power of a 7.4 magnitude earthquake in southern mexico. hundreds of homes were damaged or destroyed. at least 11 people injured in this, but luckily so far no reports of any deaths. water rising and raging in texas. fire department forced to pull a woman from her car that was carried downstream after she ignored one of those very important warnings, and drove around a barrier. there's the result right there. warning to you at home, read the warnings, follow them. severe storms expected to unleash more flooding across the south, and the plains today. breaking news in france right now, police said to have the man wanted for that jewish school shooting. they're surrounding his home right now. we're now confirming his name is mohammed mehra and he claims to be a member of al qaeda and says he will surrender in an hour from now. 300 officers are involved there and two of them wounded in a shoot-out. he is accused of murdering a rabbi, his two young sons and a young girl. the man has also said he wanted revenge for the killing of palestinian children, this is according to reuters. the raid happening in the southern city of toulouse, less than two miles from the site of the shooting. diana magnette with the latest from toulouse. >> reporter: this raid that been going on for six hours it appears there's an end in sight. the suspect told police he's prepared to hand himself over in the afternoon. he threw a gun out of the window but the police believe that he is heavily armed, and so they want to take it slowly really to make sure that they bring him out alive. there was a heavy exchange of gunfire in the hours before dawn, this raid starting around 3:00 a.m. local time. two police officers injured in that attack and we have been able to ascertain quite a few details about this man and how police found him. he's 24 years old, a french national of algerian origin, apparently spent considerable time in pakistan and afghanistan and has links to al qaeda. he said that he carried out the attack on the jewish school to avenge the deaths of palestinian children and we're also hearing that, from media reports that he used his cell phone around the jewish school, which drew the attention of investigators to him, but that he was also linked to the killings of those three soldiers and that he'd been under investigation at that time because of an e-mail that he had sent to the first soldier killed who was trying to sell his motorbike, they set up a rendezvous and at that rendezvous the soldier was killed. that is where the investigation stands at the moment of this operation and that is how investigators were able to come to this house in this residential neighborhood of toulouse, three kilometers up from the jewish school. diana magnay, cnn news. mitt romney taking a giant leap with a decisive win in the illinois primary last night. we were all up watching it, right? >> yes. >> [ snores ]. nope. >> i was watching the e-mails and tweets. >> we tivo and watch it in the morning. see the big checkmark, that's because he got 47% of the vote, next to rick santorum's 35, 12 points behind. the big story look way down, way, way down, newt gingrich at the very bottom of the heap, dead last. normally he's only second last. what does that mean for him? what does it mean for the top guy, the middle guy, what does it mean for all of these guys? mitt romney is at 562 delegates, rick santorum a long way back with 249 and newt gingrich ron paul rounding out the final four. mitt romney is urging the party to rally behind him. >> each day we move closer, not just to victory, but to a better america. join us. join us. together we're going to ensure that america's greatest days are still ahead. thanks, you guys. >> you're welcome. as you can probably hear them say. next stop louisiana's primary gets under way with 46 delegates at stake. after that a big long list, washington, d.c., maryland, wisconsin, those primaries all following up on april 3rd and then of course a whole heap of them after that, too, big old new york and california still to come as well. cnn's political editor paul stein ha ste steinhauser is live in washington, d.c. are these ones coming up winner take all or proportional? is this going to end any time soon? it's not like i don't love talking to you every morning. i do. >> sorry, no, most of the remaining states are proporti proportional are winner take all. romney won where he was supposed to win, in the heavily populated suburbs taking more than half the vote in the collar counties and suburban cook county. i was at a polling station and asked people what was most important to them, they said beating president obama in november. what was the most quality? can defeat president obama. go to the next board, look who won overwhelmingly, 3 out of 4 mitt romney on that. electability, electability, electability. let's talk about rick santorum he still did well with his base, people who are very conservative, strong supporters of the tea party movement and people who describe themselves as evangelical christians. he won mostly in down state areas, the more conservative parts of the state and in his comments last night he was definitely very critical of romney and kind of comparing him to barack obama over health care, remember the big anniversary of the obama health care plan is on friday. >> i did not remember that so thank you for that. i'm sure that's going to come up at length on friday and probably before that. >> reporter: um-hum, yes. >> quick question, newt gingrich not good last night, coming in dead last. does that mean that he's got to really rethink things? is he going to keep putting on the brave face? where is sheldon adelson in all of this? >> and the super pac money. he was anything but conciliatory. he was critical of romney in illinois and talked about going all the way to convention. that test saturday in louisiana a southern primary, if gingrich doesn't do well, will he jump out? who knows? i don't know. only newt gingrich knows. >> are we waiting for the pundits to roll through this today? is it the pundits that create the momentum? clearly a 12-point win was a big old deal for mitt romney. >> reporter: very big deal. >> i'm not so sure i hear that into an oh, finally, it's inevitable. >> it's getting closer and closer with every win from mitt romney. >> so it's mini mojo is what you're saying. >> i like that. >> nice to see you. thanks for getting up early. >> it is eight minutes past the hour. just hours ago police are clashing with occupy wall street protesters in lower manhattan. 300 demonstrators were removed around midnight from union square. take a look at that, at least one person was reportedly arrested. the city says it can tolerate up to 25 demonstrators at a time but demonstrators cannot sit or lie down, they say. it is nine minutes past 6:00 and every morning we like to alert to you the news that's happening later today. gas prices up almost twoents c that was a big whopper. president obama is touting his plan to cut costs. the president embarking on an energy tour, traveling four states in two days to talk high gas prices and his new plan for the keystone pipeline. students in henryville, indiana, are finally going back to school this morning. henryville is recovering from the deadly tornadoes that hit that town three weeks ago. mystery in wisconsin. what is causing that whole lot of shaking going on? there's some booms in the city of clintonsville. officials have ruled out gas leaks, mining explosions and even military activity, but it's going boom, boom, underground and seemingly only at night, which is really, really weird. press conference is set to be held a little later today. >> they're trying to get tape recordings so they have it and they can share it. kind of weird. the new ipad is hot, hot, hot, hot. >> literally. >> people started complaining the device heats up way more than the previous version. >> that's nice if it's a cold winter but it hasn't so we don't need it to heat up and it drains the battery, too. why is it getting hot? >> it's getting hot. i'll tell you what the company says about it in a minute. a lot of reports of the new ipad, this new ipad been out for five days they're saying it gets real hot especially when we're playing these high speed intensive games. "consumer reports" found it got 116 degrees, 116. >> you can burn. >> you can play a game and fry an egg at the same time. here are the thermal images from "consumer reports." the ipad 2 is on the left. the more yellow and red the hotter it is. the new ipad gets up to 13 degrees hotter than the ipad 2 in playing a game. here is what "consumer reports" did with it. this is the new one. chandra has it. i don't. i took a picture of you guys on it. this is infinity blade 2 uninterrupted plugged in running for 45 minutes the device's 4g connection was not turned on, wifi link was and got it up to 116 degrees. we asked specifically apple what they're saying about this and they say the new ipad delivers a stunning retina display, support for 4g lte, well operating well within our thermal specifications. if customers have any concerns they should contact apple care. if you're calling apple care i whatnot to know what they're telling you should do. apple says it meets their requirements. >> a lot of kids play with these and maybe they don't have that protection. >> if you're on an airplane you might be doing it for a long time. a story in "the journal" shows five days of having this ipad people have run through their data limits because look, this is what they are, they're fast. you can get lots of cool stuff. you can do lots of great video, consume all kinds of streaming stuff taken sucks up your memory. you have to pay more to do more stuff. >> i just took a picture of you. >> chandra is not getting it back. that actually is very scary. i'll tweet a link so you can read the "consumer reports" report yourself. tweet us and let us know. >> it's still cool which tells me you're just cool. >> oh, that was sweet. >> but i think that's weird, if it gets hot i don't like it. >> i don't play 45 minutes of high intentionive action video games so probably won't happen to me. >> i don't get 45 minutes of anything. 13 minutes -- except this show. 16 minutes past -- 13 minutes past 6:00 on the east coast. we're digging deeper into the case in florida getting a lot of talk about trayvon martin, looking at the track record of shooter involved and his killing. the local police, also a law that may have allowed this man to shoot trayvon and still be okay and walk away from any kind of charges. first a tornado, now fires. flames rising from debris threatening homes that were just built in tuscaloosa, alabama. also do you remember this car, a datsun? doesn't look like a datsun but you have to be old enough, it's coming back from the scrap heap. get your fuzzy ice. you're watching "early start." ashlee! ashlee! ashlee! ashlee! what were you looking for when you bought your edge? um, i was definitely looking for fuel economy. that's the whole reason we, we wanted to look at the ecoboost. can you talk a little bit about the style of the edge? um, well, i think it's very hip. i even have several guys were like "whoa, do have twenties on those". like, don't even know what that means, but i guess it's cool. (laugh) water, we take our showers with it. we make our coffee with it. but we rarely tap its true potential and just let it be itself. flowing freely into clean lakes, clear streams and along more fresh water coast line than any other state in the country. come realize water's true potential. dive in-to the waters of pure michigan. your trip begins at michigan.org. welcome back. 17 minutes past the hour. time to check stories making news this morning. here again christine romans. we start in france, cnn learned the suspect in a string of shootings, mohammed merah, had a car nearby the apartment. police have surrounded that car, contained more weapons. the suspect is wanted for committing those deadly shootings in a jewish school. he is inside that home. officials say he claims to be a member of al qaeda, says he will surrender within the next hour, clearly a very dangerous situation in toulouse, france, this hour. tea partiers an conservatives helping mitt romney to a 12-point win over rick santorum in last night's illinois primary. romney getting 47% of the vote, he has an estimated 562 delegates, nearly half the amount needed to secure the gop nomination. firefighters in alabama are keeping a close eye on a wildfire that jumped a containment line in tuscaloosa county. scorched 100 acres of a debris field near homes that were rebuilt after a tornado that killed dozens of people last april. no evacuations so far as the wildfire ranges. the datsun is making a comeback. nissan announcing the return of the sporty low-cost brand after a 30-year hiatus, introduced in indonesia, india and russia in 2014 with plans for expansion after that. nissan planning a green line of datsun cars. for an expanded look at the top stories head to cnn.com/earlystart. >> christine, thanks very much. a brand new witness is speaking out in the controversial shooting death of a florida teenager named trayvon martin. mart martin's girlfriend was on the phone with him just minutes before the shooting killed him, that shooting by a neighborhood watch captain named george zimmerman. the girlfriend told abc news that zimmerman was following martin and she told him over the phone to run. >> he said he lost the man, but the man trayvon said was following him i asked him to run, and trayvon said he wasn't going to be running. trayvon said he ain't going to run like that, he was gonna walk fast. >> trayvon martin was gunned down moments later. zimmerman says all along he felt threatened and stood his ground and fired his gun and that young man was killed. the attorney for the martin family says the new testimony actually proves murder instead. >> pursuing trayvon martin. how do we know? this young lady connects the dots. she connects the dots. she completely blows zimmerman's absurd self-defense claim out of the water. >> it does make a fascinating piece of evidence in this case. however it's not just a local case anymore. no. the fbi and the justice department have now suggested they are entering into the fray. they are investigating this as well, probably two-prong at this point, not only will they be looking at the local police to see how they handle all of this and looking into the potential civil rights violations as well and the state attorney in this case says that this thing is going before a grand jury april 10th so a lot more people are going to be weighing in on this than just the local police who cleared zimmerman and said he stood his ground, all within the law, we don't have probable cause to arrest him. >> how about the eyewitness counts on "anderson cooper" last night? one said that the police actually lied, that originally what they said she said was not what she said to them. >> it's a fascinating part of all of this. they actually say they saw zimmerman on top of the young man. >> straddling him. >> straddling him. here's the problem. they may have come in somewhere in this melee but the most important part is the beginning of the melee. the law kicks in when you feel threatened and when your actions started. did you feel threatened by someone and make your money or did someone else feel threatened by you and make his move? had. >> that's a hard one to prove? >> hugely hard. zimmerman had a bloody nose and blood and grass stains on his back, too. >> then there's that face of that 16-year-old boy. >> that face and that's very powerful emotionally. the law is not emotions, it's fact. >> thank you very much. so ahead on "early start," mitt romney wins big in illinois. is the republican race nearly over, folks? and new video from mexico, and it is rocked by a 7.4 magnitude earthquake. we're going to get more details on that. you're watching "early start." -one. -two. -three. -one. two. three. one. -two. -three. -one. -two. -three. 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[ female announcer ] yoplait. it is so greek. so still ahead, brand new hunt for amelia earhart, di disappeared many years ago and now a photo may be all it takes to find her plane. a man was on his way to a hearing when he dropped his gun on the floor. a state lawmaker has a lot of splaining to do. you're watching "early start." active naturals wheat formulas restore strength for up to 90% less breakage in three washes. for strong, healthy hair with life, new aveeno nourish+ strengthen. aflac! ha! isn't major medical enough? huh! no! who's gonna help cover the holes in their plans? aflac! quack! like medical bills they don't pay for? aflac! or help pay the mortgage? quack! or child care? quack! aflaaac! and everyday expenses? huh?! blurlbrlblrlbr!!! [ thlurp! ] aflac! [ male announcer ] help your family stay afloat at aflac.com. plegh! two of the most important are energy security and economic growth. north america actually has one of the largest oil reserves in the world. a large part of that is oil sands. this resource has the ability to create hundreds of thousands of jobs. at our kearl project in canada, we'll be able to produce these oil sands with the same emissions as many other oils and that's a huge breakthrough. that's good for our country's energy security and our economy. welcome back to "early start." i'm zoraida sambolin. >> nice to have you here with us everyone, i'm ashleigh banlfield and it's time to check the top stories making news this morning. the illinois primary could turn out to be the defining moment of mitt romney's campaign. former massachusetts governor registering an impressive 12-pointer over rick santorum last night, with strong support coming from of all people conservatives and tea partiers. >> is it defining? >> is it defining? that's the question. next up louisiana could set things straight for him, or not. that happens saturday, 46 delegates at stake. we are following breaking news, police in france say the suspect, mohammed merah, has stopped communicating with them now. he is wanted for killing four people in that jewish school shooting. officials say he had a car nearby the apartment that he's holed up in right now. it contains more weapons. the suspect also claiming he has ties to al qaeda. a major earthquake in southern mexico rattles lawmakers in parliament. the 7.4 magnitude quake was centered 200 miles away from the capital city of mexico. as many as 800 homes damaged or destroyed. 11 people reported hurt but here is the good news. so far no one reported killed. president obama among the leaders attending a nuclear summit in south korea next week. while there he'll visit u.s. military troops station million-dollar the demilitarized zone. it will be his first trip as president to the heavily fortified border. a republican member of the new hampshire house of representatives is offering up an explanation after dropping his gun on the floor during a committee hearing into public safety of all things. kyle tasker says he donated blood yesterday and was feeling a little bit loopy. i kid you not. he was feeling a little loopy. the gun didn't go off. all was good. the fit wasn't necessary. new hampshire's tea party controlled house voted last year that it was okay to bring your guns into the state house. so why they had the conniption fit i don't know. >> those were facebook photos we were showing. >> you were supposed to mention conniption. >> conniption is the word of the day. >> three times, gentlemen, three times, conniption fits. >> gingrich was throwing one. >> four hits on the foword of t day. the magic number to clinch the republican nomination is 1,144 and mitt romney is nearly half way there after a convincing win over rick santorum in last night's illinois primary. illinois's final totals, romney 47%. santorum 75%. newt gingrich fading fast, dead last behind ron paul and here is cnn's delegate estimate. romney with 562. santorum at 249. santorum putting a positive spin on the disappointing setback. >> there are 54 delegates at stake. we think we'll win anywhere from 15 to maybe if we're lucky 20 which isn't a bad haul in a state that necessarily the most friendly to a conservative in the state of illinois, so we feel good, we thank you very much for coming out. we look forward to coming here in about five weeks after a big win in pennsylvania. >> it's a long way to go before the pennsylvania primary. next up, saturday's louisiana primary, 46 delegates are at stake there. washington, d.c., maryland, and wisconsin primaries follow on april 3rd. so let's talk to our political panel live from washington, shira it uplets and democratic strategist tim punk and here in new york city republican strategist boris epstein. thank you for sticking around. >> absolutely. >> we've talked a lot about mitt romney so i want to hyperfocus on newt gingrich. he came in dead last below ron paul. i want you all to weigh in on this, got 8% of the vote. reports his campaign is in serious debt, according to reuters. he owes a lot of money to a lot of people. plus listen to what he said on fox news last night. >> phase one has to be stopping romney because the fact is if he gets 1,144 votes he's the romney. fair and square, it's over. >> all right, but looking at the delegates, gingrich is over 100 delegates behind saner totorum. he won zero delegates. he dropped out votes are almost split even between romney and santorum. could he drop out, stump for santorum and achieve his phase one, shira? >> i think if he drops out it's not going to make as big of a difference as a lot of people think he will. he only got 8% in the polls. if that 8% went to rick santorum he still wouldn't have defeated in are mitt romney in the illin primary. newt gingrich is so much of a non-factor. you mentioned his dead i wonder at what point sheldon adelson says no more, we are cutting off the super pac. forget the delegate count, it's all about dollars. >> boris, do you agree, disagree? >> i'm having a conniption fit -- >> that's five! >> -- i don't understand why he's in this thing. the message has been completely muddled by hess own negativity talking about mitt romney spending 7:1. why is that a bad thing? talking about the yankees spending too much to win the world series. winning is a good thing. mitt romney spending is a good thing because as was said in the last hour makes him the strongest candidate to go up in november because he'll have the money to compete against the obama machine that wants to have a $1 billion against the republicans. >> that was shira's point, a really good one. tim i know you're a democrat but i'll let you weigh in. >> gingrich, if he wants to stop romney the best thing can he do for rick santorum is drop out of the race and i disagree with shira here. i've seen polls that gingrichs vote go to santorum. part of it ends up in momentum. you see states become more competitive, wisconsin, pennsylvania, new york become easier for rick santorum to win. he's going to win louisiana anyway. if he comes away with some of the states in april as a result of gingrich dropping out of the race it's more about momentum than anything else. >> stand santorum is as much of a long shot as gingrich is. gingrich supporters are not going to santorum. he'll be a lose are in november not justice presidential but senate, house and local tickets. newt gingrich supporters will not go overwhelmingly to santorum. >> that's what the polls say but sometimes the polls aren't on track, right, shira? >> sometimes the polls are a little off. we saw some variation even in illinois last night. we saw mitt romney and all knew mitt romney would win this thing but saw the last week ten points to maybe even 20 points. the polls can be a little off. but i think newt gingrich because a lot of these southern primaries have already passed in the calendar, i don't know how much more of an impact he would have in the primary calendar going forward. would he pick up much support in pennsylvania with rick santorum there or in wisconsin? i don't think so. a lot of the southern primaries are behind us, he's pretty much a non-factor in this race. >> santorum could easily lose pennsylvania because he got crushed the last time he ran for statewide office in 2006. if mitt romney stays on course he'll be the nominee and the strongest one to oppose obama. >> thank you very much, shira, boris and team, see you next time. >> special points to boris for the word of the day, he made it five. >> nicely done. >> boris gets a free ride back, and maybe a car service home. 6:37 on the east coast. put down your toothbrush or egg flipper and watch your monday center. still to come a reason why you should not be rude, don't be pushy, don't skip in line because that's what's going to happen to you if one guy's incident is any example. this is all over a fight to be first in line at a gas station. >> look at that video. >> unbelievable stuff. >> it's a miracle people didn't die there. >> we'll show you the moment when he slammed into it and the fire erupted. one of the greatest mysteries on earth, of the 20th century, amelia earhart. might we be able to find her plane? hear one guy who says there's a photograph leading us real, real close. first get you up on your travel forecast. rob marciano doing the job for us. >> good morning again, looking at thunderstorms with the potential of tornado as cross louisiana and they're slow movers so not only are we looking at winds and the potential for tornado touching down but flooding rains within this, as we progress slowly off to the east. tornado watch for eastern louisiana, right on until noontime as this thing makes its way against the east. we have flash flood warnings for louisiana and arkansas and the heat continues across parts of the eastern third of the country. check out the high temperatures yesterday, chicago blowing records out of water, 85 degrees. 85 in louisville, 84 in nashville and we'll see similar numbers today. you're up to date weather eyes. "early start" is coming right back. it is 42 minutes past the hour. time to check the stories making news this morning, here is christine romans. >> good morning. following breaking news out of france, police in france say they have a suspect cornered in his home right now. police expect him to surrender within minutes, but then they say he suddenly cut off contact, just in the past few minutes. he's wanted for killing four people in that jewish school shooting. we know he had a car nearby the apartment full of more explosives. a decisive victory for mitt romney in the illinois primary, defeating rick santorum last night, thanks to strong support from conservatives and tea partiers. next up on saturday 46 delegates at stake there. witnesses say a jeep tried to jump in front of a summer but the driver slammed into the gas pump causing this fiery explosion. the driver escaped unharmed and was not charged. hsh hsh happe #happybirthda turns 6 years old today. it has well over 300 million members. the very first tweet came from co-founder jack dorsey, just setting up my twitter. he's got one of the best on ones @jack. soledad o'brien joins us with a look at what is ahead on "starting point." >> so much ahead. good morning to you. coming up on "starting point" we're going to have an exclusive interview, a 16-year-old american boy, you might remember the story, he is now free after spending three weeks in jail in syria. we talked to his family a couple of weeks ago when they were panicked about his whereabouts and what was happening with him. his name is hadi, he's been released about what happened. also you've been talking about mitt romney's big win in the state of illinois, this morning the romney campaign will join us, talk about what went right, we'll also talk to the santorum campaign to talk about what went wrong there, that and much more is coming up on "starting point." we'll see you right at the top of the hour. pina colada... i can't imagine where she is... orange creme... 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>> it's a treat for me, ashleigh, i'm great, thank you. good morning. >> we'll start from scratch for our audience. what are you doing? >> well, we're doing what we've been doing for the past 24 years, trying to find amelia and we like to say investigation is a process, not an event. this has been a long process, but we've got a new clue that really pinpoints where we need to search for that airplane and that's what we're going to do. >> as i get it, this is about a $500,000 bucket of private money, but a lot of backing from the federal government in support and oomph, so to speak and here is what i don't get. it's a photo from a long time ago that maybe just is shedding new light. why is that? >> well first of all, let me say that i wish it was only 500,000. it will probably be closer to a couple million. we're working on that. the photograph is a photograph we've had for a long time, but because i was working with a cropped version of the photograph, we didn't understand what was in it until one of our forensic imaging specialists looked at it just before our 2010 expedition and when we saw the full frame of the photograph we could see something poe trro truding from the water, 1937 after her disappearance, something protruding from the water where it shouldn't thereby. it's where we theorized it should have gone over the edge of the reef so this is great confirmation. what the state department did for us -- go ahead. >> we were looking at the. ic tour at the time you were saying it and that little thing that's protruding up from the water on the reef, do you think that's the landing gear of her lockheed electra? >> what we can say is that forensic imaging specialists, including u.s. government forensic imaging specialists say the shapes and sizes, components in that image are consistent with the elements of the landing gear of a lockheed electra. that doesn't mean that's what it is but when you have several experts telling you they see the same thing it's a pretty good indication that that's probably what it is. >> so rick here is how i get it. it's the island or the atol of nukumuroto, maybe now it's the make of nirabati. if it's sticking out of water, the level of the ocean doesn't go up and down so much. why is it we haven't seen this before? is it that incredibly remote? >> oh the island is very remote. if this thing was there in october 193, the spot where it was, very dynamic area in the surf zone and many forces acting on that, wouldn't expect wreckage to stay there very long and it was probably gone within a few years, washed down over the edge of the reef with the rest of the airplane. so this was here -- it was there for a moment in time. a photographer happened to catch it without realizing it was even there. >> it's amazing. >> and then all this time for us to catch it. >> just a couple seconds left but i'd be remiss the human remains found in that area originally thought to be a man but then later those bones measured more to be a woman of european descent and some artifacts that would comport with amelia earhart. can we do dna testing or anything on the remains to finally put this to rest and say it's her, we found her, god bless her? >> if we had the bones we can do dna testing but the bones were misidentified in 1941, and apparently lost. >> ugh. >> we've searched the site for more bones so, so far just tiny fragments of bone that aren't enough to get a dna sequence. we're still working on that. >> if anybody can do it you can and i already said to you yesterday, come back and tell us how this thing goes and be careful with the money. you want to stretch it out as much as you can. we'll see you as soon as you have some answers and hopefully you'll get the ones you want. >> i hope so. thanks, ashleigh. >> thank you. >> great smile. >> i want to go on that expedition, i want to put in for some pto days. >> that would be great. is discovery channel going on as well? >> i hope i've given the right credit. i'm going to make this my mission and see if i can't get the live shot. >> we'll take a quick break and be right back. whwheeee! ! whwheeee!! whwheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! ahah h heaeadsds u up. whwheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! evevererytythihingng y youou l , nonow w momobibilele.. dodownwnloloadad t thehe n nep totodaday.y. i like yoplait. it is yoplait. but you said it was greek. mmhmm. so is it greek or is it yoplait? 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"starting point" is next with soledad o'brien. >> and good morning, welcome, everybody. our starting point is breaking news, a suspected terrorist is now cornered after a shoot-out in france. he is wanted for a string of killings, including shooting three children, killing them at a jewish school. we're live with the latest. plus mitt romney gets a big bounce, takes president obama's home state of illinois and now looking to louisiana. other three candidates say, so what? this is going to go to the convention. and demanding justice for tray onmartin, the unarmed black teenager who was shot and killed by a