captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news" with scott pelley. ov pelley: good evening. ns begin tonight in an mesh town where the military has set out to move mountains, mountains of snow. cordova, alaska, population 2,200, is buried under more than 15 feet of snow that has fallen iter the last few weeks. now it has started raining, making the snow even heavier, and on top of that, the town is running out of shovels. we sent ben tracy up there. >> reporter: the national guard is still digging out cordova, working 24 hours a day to unbury homes and businesses, and now with temperatures in the mid- 30s, much of that snow is mirning to slush. the snow is now becoming slop. >> well, yeah, that's today. it might-- it will probably freeze tonight and then you've got a hell of a mess. >> reporter: a steady rain has frde the snow even heavier and harder to move. glenn anderson is the deputy harbormaster. he's trying to keep boats from sinking. ke each shovel lode, i don't laow what it weighs 30-40 pounds, it's like picking large stones out of a quarry. >> reporter: they called in the coast guard to help save cordova's harbor. >> these guys need us. we're here to help. >> reporter: petty officer tyler t do spent hours digging out the piers. what does a boat mean to people out here? >> survival-hood. it means everything to them. guys here, all they have is fishing. ngese boats go down, can't feed their families. can't do anything. >> reporter: those 15 feet of itow contain more than 20 asllion gallons of water. folks here now fear flooding and hemperatures are expected to plunge to the single digits here by friday. so the city is moving as many mountains of snow as it can htfore they freeze into icebergs. there's so much snow here and there's nowhere left to put it so they actually brought in this snow melt or a barge. they dump the snow in there, it heats it to 150 degrees and then bu shoots out as water. where is all the melted snow going? >> out to the inlet. >> reporter: out to the water? > out to the water. >> reporter: making way for more snow to come. february and march are two of cordova's snowiest months. son tracy, cbs news, alaska. >> pelley: we wondered why there's so much snow in alaska and so little in the lower 48. our researchers worked on it today, and it turns out the reason is something called the arctic oscillation. right now, air pressure over greenland is lower then normal, so the high-speed wind, called the jet stream, has pushed father north than usual. the jet stream is blocking cold air from dropping farther south. last year it was just the other way around-- high pressure in the north arctic pushed the stream south and we had record snow in the northern united states. what does it mean right now in ndow plow parks and ski lift stops? we asked cynthia bowers to find out. >> reporter: in northern michigan's tourist towns, the errmer the weather, the colder the cash flow. a long, hard winter here is when you don't have snow? >> yes. >> reporter: don and anne rafton sunk their life savings into this houghton lake motel and snowmobile rental business. normally this month, 15,000 people cram into houghton lake for its annual winter festival, complete with ice fishing and snowmobiling. but this year, with the average temperature eight degrees above normal, the lake didn't freeze over-- hotel bookings here are down 50%. >> reporter: you guys are suffering? >> yes. we depend on the snow and the ice. >> reporter: how many people were in your hotel last night? >> one. we had one motel guest, and that was it. >> reporter: the couple's nine nowmobiles that rent for $200 a day are all sitting idle. you haven't turned these on since when? >> since november. it's a big hit. he would be making a lot of money for the sled rentals. >> reporter: so far, the graftons are out more than n a,000 this season and they're not alone. oesorts across the country, from the poconos to the rockies, are suffering from a lack of snow. in vail, colorado, it's the worst ski season in 30 years. hotel bookings are down 24%. att what's killing resort communities is a financial ecfesaver for big cities. in december of 2010, chicago spent $6 million clearing 16 inches of snow. last month, the city spent only $500,000. new york spent $124 million last winter. this year, they haven't had any snow accumulation since october. amazingly, here in houghton lake today, the temperatures hit an 84-year high of 50 degrees. the good news for folks here is a winter storm is headed this way that's expected to drop umperatures to the teens and up ,o a foot of snow, scott. >> pelley: cynthia, thanks very much. weat arctic oscillation that we mentioned is also causing stronger winds over the atlantic, adding an average of about 20 minutes to flights from london to new york. the head winds plus the use of smaller boeing 757 jets have forced more than 60 transatlantic flights to make unscheduled stops to refuel. laneing was slowing down planes from new hampshire to south carolina today as republican candidates moved on to the next primary state. , st night's winner, mitt romney, has a big lead in the first southern primary, which is a week from saturday. he's at 37%. rick santorum is way back at ll%, followed by newt gingrich at 18, and ron paul at 12. south carolina may be their last chance to stop the front-runner. efr chief political correspondent jan crawford is there tonight. jan. >> reporter: well, scott, the cheers had barely subsided after that big win in new hampshire and romney was heading here to south carolina for what will be his biggest test yet. now, he arrives here with a strong organization already on the ground. he's got $19 million of cash on hand to spend here, and he's picked up some key endorsements people like governor nicki haley, speaking right now at this rally on his behalf. he has some challenges ahead. here are roadblocks in his path he has to get around and he knows it. here's what he said on the plane on the way down from new hampshire. >> and with regards to the south carolina, last time i came in fourth. so, you know, our... our team recognizes this is going to be a challenge. >> reporter: now, of course south carolina is a much more socially conservative state than new hampshire, and, scott, those .oters have not embraced romney. they think he's too much of a moderate, that he's not a true hnservative. and then there are his rivals. they are going to do everything they can over the next ten days to slow down his momentum, keeping him from steam-rolling his way do the nomination. esey are releasing a series of brutal attacks here in south carolina where presidential politics, scott, can be like a knife fight. >> pelley: and a lot of south carolinians don't seem to mind hat very much. thanks, jan. we asked bill whitaker to tell us how other candidates propose to stop romney. bill's also in south carolina tonight. bill. >> reporter: scott, with outside political action committees weighing in this year could be more negative than ever, which is saying a lot for south carolina. romney made himself rich beyond imagination. if posted this film labeling romney a corporate raider who shut factories and sent jobs overseas as head of bain capital from 1984 to 1999. >> and that hurt so bad to leave my home because of one man that's got 15 homes. >> as his record is better and better known, i think he will grow weaker and weaker very fast. >> reporter: while the negative advertising may rankle many republicans across the country, party members here simply say welcome to south carolina. wesley donehue is a much-in- demand political consultant in columbia born and raised in the state. >> we're hot heads here, a little bit of red necks in us here, we like the fight, we have thick skin. >> reporter: donehue earned a name for himself with a web site that secured presidential hopeful fred thompson. he said this state toughens candidates up. >> they can expect to see any dirt or flaws they have come out. if you have dirt, it's coming out in south carolina. >> reporter: whether it's true or not, in 2000, john mccain won new hampshire lost south carolina to george w. bush. anonymous groups bloodied and battered mccain with misleading phone calls to voters and even rumored mccain had a child out of wedlock. >> south carolina is the wall. if you make it out of here, you can go on. if you can't, this is the place that is going to kill you. >> reporter: the stage g.o.p. says the candidates and their supporters could spend $20 million on political ads this year, many of them, scott, negative. >> pelley: bill, thanks very much. the candidates are getting questions about how they would handle iran's effort to build a nuclear weapon. but while they debate, someone is actually doing something about it. today, one of iran's top nuclear scientists was assassinated. it is the latest in a string of attacks, and we asked national security correspondent david martin to look into it. >> reporter: this is the scene of the latest attack in the covert war against iran's nuclear ambitions. in a plot straight out of a robert ludlum thriller, a young iranian nuclear scientist was killed when a motorcyclist drove up alongside and attached a magnetic bomb to his car. the murdered man was identified as the deputy head of this plant where iran is developing the capability to enrich uranium to bomb-grade levels. secretary of state clinton insisted the u.s. had nothing to do with it. >> i want to categorically deny any united states involvement in any kind of act of violence olside iran. >> reporter: but somebody, perhaps israel, is killing iran's nuclear scientists. today's assassination had the same m.o. as two attacks in november of 2010. one killed a scientist believed to be working on the design of a nuclear weapon, the other wounded the man who is now head of iran's atomic energy organization. a remote-controlled bomb killed another nuclear scientist in january of 2010. all told, three nuclear scientists have been assassinated, and that is only one of the covert tactics being used against iran. in 2010, the control systems at this uranium-enrichment facility knre hit by a computer virus known as stuxnet, causing centrifuges to spin out of control and self-destruct. and just last december an explosion at a rocket testing complex outside tehran killed the head of iran's ballistic missile program along with several senior engineers, although it is not clear whether that blast was accidental or deliberate. none of that prevented iran from announcing last weekend it is about to start production at a second uranium-enrichment plant, this one dug deep into a mountain. atsassination and sabotage can slow down iran's nuclear program, scott, but they are not likely to stop it. >> pelley: and the secretary of defense told us on this broadcast that he thinks iran oy be only a year away from a nuclear weapon. david, thanks very much. syria may be headed towards civil war. we're on the front lines. two jets nearly collide on a runway in chicago. and the first lady's candid comments about life in the spotlight when the "cbs evening news" continues. r >> pelley: the ly violence in >> pelley: the deadly violence in syria has been growing for ten months now. the u.n. says 5,000 people have died, mostly protesters, killed by forces loyal to bashar al- assad. for 40 years, the assad family has held syria in an iron grip. assad has kept most foreign journalists out. we applied for visas six months ago, and only today, elizabeth palmer was finally granted official access. she saw only what the government wanted her to see, but there was plenty of violence up close. >> reporter: the group of western journalists were midway through their government- supervised tour of homes when the area came under fire. one french journalist was killed. so were eight syrians, ordinary residents of this middle class neighborhood. just 20 minutes earlier, we'd been on the same street to hear from the people who say the threat of snipers and kidnapping is constant. we weren't allowed out of the sight of our minders but could see from the bus window it is eerily quiet. armed opposition groups opposed to the regime now control whole neighborhoods which are off limits toal government vehicles. our bus driver didn't dare drive across town-- he went around it. to the next destination on the tour, the nader shaqfah military hospital where we were shown injured syrian soldiers in nearly every bed. doctors say an average of 25 wounded soldiers arrive daily, along with four to five dead. in damascus, syria's president bashar al-assad today made his first appearance in person at a rally since the uprising began ten months ago. speaking to this vast crowd of supporters, he once again blamed the violence on a foreign plot and promised to crack down hard. and there are very disturbing signs that in spite of international attempts to mediate in this conflict and quell the violence, on the contrary, the violence is actually escalating. >> pelley: elizabeth, syria is sitting in such a strategic place on the border of iraq, lebanon, and israel, i wonder, what are the chances that this is just going to escalate into a full-scale civil war? >> reporter: i think they're very high. in fact, scott, there's a lot of evidence to suggest we're looking at the opening chapters of a civil war already under way between the two main islamic groups here in syria. and we have talked to people today who are convinced they've been targeted already because of their religion-- very ominous. >> pelley: elizabeth, thank you very much. in pakistan, there is a power struggle brewing that you should know about between the powerful military and the civilian government. the prime minister has fired the secretary of defense, who is an ally of pakistan's top general. how this turns out is important for a number of reasons. pakistan has nuclear weapons. the u.s. is engaged in a drone war with terrorists there, and pakistan is key to u.s. success in afghanistan. so this will bear watching in the days ahead. tough times for a snack food maker. the company that makes twinkies files for chapter 11 next. cc1: >> pelley: on his last day in office yesterday, mississippi governor haley barbour pardoned 200 criminals, including more than two dozen convicted of manslaughter or homicide. barbour, a republican, no reason. today, the state attorney general, a democrat, said some of the pardons may be unconstitutional. he went to court to try to stop them. you might expect crime to go up in a bad economy but crime rates have dropped following the great recession, and today the centers for disease control said that for the first time in 45 years, homicide is not among the top 15 causes of death. there was a close call on a runway at chicago's midway airport. a southwest airlines 737 with 85 people on board had just landed and was cleared to cross the runway on the way to the terminal. but a learjet was taking off from that same runway. the southwest pilot sounded irate when he called the tower. right over his head-- federal officials say the planes missed by 62 feet. it happened last month but we just got word of it today. we called the f.a.a. to find out if anyone in the tower has been disciplined but the agency declined to tell us. it was a hard landing in bankruptcy court today for the makers of twinkies, not to mention ding-dongs, and ho-hos hostes brands filed for chapter 11. sales have been hurt by tough competition and by americans making healthier food choices. michelle obama insists she loves being first lady despite some reports to the contrary. environmentalists. the topic sparking political passions. next >> pelley: finally tonight, the first lady wants to set the record straight about some of the things that have been written about her recently. she sat down with "cbs this morning" coanchor gayle king and here's our chief white house correspondent norah o'donnell. >> reporter: in this candid interview, the first lady dismissed reports of tensions between her and the president's staff. >> you know, i guess it's more interesting to imagine this conflicted situation here and a strong woman and a... you know, but that's been an image that people have tried to paint of me since you know the day barack announced, that i'm some angry black woman. >> yeah. how do you deal with that's, that image? >> you know, i just try to be me, and my hope is that over time, people get to know me, and they get to judge me for me. >> reporter: mrs. obama says she has no plans to read a new book called "the obamas" that portrays the first lady as frustrated and insecure in her role. >> i love this job. it is-- it has been a privilege from day one. now, there are challenges with being a mother and trying to keep your kids sane, and i worry a lot about that. i mean, if there is any anxiety that i feel, it's because i want to make sure that my girls come out of this on the other end whole. but me, barack, we're grown-ups. you know, all the ups and downs, you know, we take it on. >> reporter: mrs. obama does not deny she influences her husband and is one of his biggest confidants, and in this upcoming campaign, she said she will address supporters who are disappointed in the economy. >> people have a right to be disappointed and to feel impatient. but they've got the president who is moving them in the right direction. >> no question in your mind you want another four years, the obama family wants another four years? >> yeah, there is so much more work to do. >> reporter: words words that may ultimately form the centerpiece of the president's reelection message. norah o'donnell, cbs news, the white house. tonight. it's about the last place you d expect to find an overfl good evening. i'm allen martin. >> i'm elizabeth cook. it's about the last place would you expect to find an overflow crowd but tonight there is gridlock out a normally mundane bay area transit meeting. ann notarangelo shows us why people are so fired up and there's a mile-long waiting list to speak. >> reporter: a lot of passion about this issue as you can see hear from the protestor behind me. the metropolitan transportation commission workshop is under way. they expect about 100 people to discuss regional transportation issues for the next two hours. maybe that doesn't sound exciting to you, but they do expect standing room only. >> it's not about transportation. it's about control and money. >> reporter: heather is deeply concerned about the metropolitan transportation commission's intent to drop a plan to reduce greenhouse gases. she is convinced people with agendas liken environmental groups and developers who support public transportation and high density housing are hijacking the system. so she mobilized. >> all we are doing is getting people off their butts, turning off the tv and getting down to these meetings