in northern florida, interstate 75 is closed after a string of crashes overnight that killed at least nine people. officials tell us the highway will be closed in that area for most of today. the sheriff s office says visibility was poor because of smoke from a nearby brushfire. all right, in just two days, florida s primary, most delegate rich contest so far. and candidate newt gingrich is heading into it with a new endorsement. i hereby officially and enthusiastically endorse newt gingrich for president of the united states! will herman cain s backing influence primary voters in the sunshine state? a live report straight ahead. and now to the campaign trail, extending beyond florida. ron paul spent the weekend in maine where several towns are holding caucuses over the next several weeks. rick santorum did some fund raising in washington, d.c. yesterday, but skipped appearances today in florida to be with his young daughter who is being hospitalized in philadelphia.
video statement online today saying she has to focus on her recovery. i don t remember much from that horrible day, but i will never forget the trust you placed in me to be your voice. thank you for your prayers and for giving me time to recover. i have more work to do on my recovery. so to do what is best for arizona, i will step down this week. i m getting better. let s bring in cnn s athena jones from washington. what kind of reaction are we receiving? the reaction has been swift here on capitol hill from both sides of the aisle. democratic leader nancy pelosi said i join all my colleagues in congress in thanking gabby for the honor of calling her colleague and wishing gabby and mark great success and happiness. and house speaker john boehner said in his statement, i salute congresswoman giffords for her service and for the courage and perseverance she s shown in the face of tragedy. she will be missed. we also saw a statement from representative steny hoyer saying i
be changing. an american research group poll out today shows newt gingrich surging ahead of mitt romney. 40% of south carolina s likely primary voters according to this poll say they would vote for gingrich. romney falls behind to just 26%. mid-week gingrich and romney were in a dead heat. south carolina is a big state but somehow this morning both gingrich and romney campaigned at the same greenville restaurant at the same time. but romney avoid ad showdown by arriving 45 minutes early and leaving just minutes before gingrich actually showed up. stay right here we ll have a live report from south carolina in a moment. also this morning firefighters contained a 3,000 acre wildfire burning near reno, nevada. flames destroyed nearly 30 houses. about 10,000 people had to leave their homes but evacuation orders were lift ad couple of hours ago. investigators think they know what caused the fire. they say a man came forward yesterday admitting that he improperly discarded firepl
getting some fuel. an american icebreaker helped a russian tanker get through the frozen barring see to deliver gas and oil. there is still a mile of ice between the tanker and the harbor. fuel will have to be piped in through a hose that is being laid out on top of the ice. on what would have been dr. martin luther king jr. s birthday, a wreath was laid at the new king memorial at the mall today. the interior department announced a correction will soon be made on an inscription there which paraphrases a quote from king. and now to the 2012 contenders and the race to the white house. a new cnn sfch/orc poll shows m romney as a clear front-runner, 34%, ahead of newt gingrich. another poll saids light on the possible reason a huge majority of republicans, 71%, said they would rather nominate a candidate that can beat barack obama in the fall than a candidate who agrees with them on the issues. romney s lead isn t set in stone. 56% of gop voters say they may change their min
going to happen in 2012. tell me where you sit right now is 2012 going to be a better year economically than 2011? is there going to be economic growth? are we possibly headed into further stagnation? well, you know, the political strategist side of things i ve never had to look so much at politics to figure out where the economy was going. i tell you, it s like watching the keystone cops. it s ridiculous. going forward we do have momentum carrying us into 2012. we hope we don t lose it because of political ineptitude. that s what would kill it. we have a lot of icebergs ahead. we hope politicians are better at navigating turbulent water than the titanic. a glimmer of hope in the labor market. looks like the situation bottomed out after things fell apart last spring and the summer. we re seeing momentum return to job hiring. some momentum but some is better than none. new business burst, that s important to the backbone of the u.s. economy. that s looking nor strength going