top of the hour. want to get you up to seed. newt gingrich gets ready to pull the plug on his presidential campaign. sources telling cnn gingrich is going to officially end his run for the white house next week, throw his support behind mitt romney. gingrich expected to help republicans try to win back the senate and hold onto the house. here is what he said earlier today. we re going to stay very, very active. we re working out the details of our transition and we ll have information for the press the next couple days, but i am committed to this party, i am committed to defeating obama. we will find ways to try to be helpful. i do think it s pretty clear that governor romney is only going to be the nominee and we ll do everything we can to make sure he is, in fact, effective. a major retailer in south korea is pulling u.s. beef from its shelves. the store is stopping sales after a single case of mad cow disease was confirmed in california. the u.s. agriculture department
breaking public health scare. a confirmed case of mad cow disease in california has the agriculture department here in washington on full alert. the fatal brain disease not only can be passed among cattle, scientists think an equally deadly variation can be transmitted to humans who eat contaminated beef or dairy products. the first confirmed case here in the united states in six years. elizabeth cohen joins us from the cnn center in atlanta. elizabeth, one of the reasons people get so scared is the potential. what does this mean for the food supply? you know, for this one cow that really this one cow doesn t have that much importance for our food supply. the usda doesn t appear to be panicked, even critics of the usda don t appear to be tank panicked. the reason why is this cow was never going to be eaten, it was a dairy cow. and experts say milk of an infected cow is not infectious. you can t get the disease from drinking the milk. john. how did they find out that thi