its record. the nasdaq and s&p 500 are not far behind that. we re keeping our eye on oil prices. oil continuing to fall. the price of crude dropping to $42.85 a barrel. a month ago. we were hearing of oil comeback. now the price could drop lower than $40 a barrel. you are seeing a lot of nervousness in the oil pits with investors saying we are not seeing a bottom yet. you told me this was happening yesterday. a big deal. thanks. the man accused of shooting two police officers in ferguson, missouri in court. his lawyer offers a different explanation than what we heard. that is after the break.
that the cold war ended more than two decades ago. wolf blitzer is off today. i m gloria borger and you re in the situation room. captions by vitac www.vitac.com the average price for a gallon of regular gas today is about $4. make that $3.92. our new poll shows nearly half of americans expect that price to hit $5. that s $5 this year and most blame the oil companies. president obama tried to hitch a ride on those sentiments today. chief white house correspondent jessica yellin is here. jessica, is the president going after big oil? again. believe it or not, it really felt like today was let s play politics with gas prices day in washington. the president played his part from the rose garden. think about that. it s like hitting the american people twice. he called on the senate to pass a bill that would have eliminated billions in tax breaks for oil companies. american oil is booming. the oil industry is doing just fine, with record profits and rising prod
polls. economic conditions vary greatly from state to state. let s take a look at a few. vermont s unemployment rate is at 5.1%. that is much lower than the 8.3% national average. in january, only one in about 21,000 homes in vermont were in the foreclosure process. a very different picture in ohio. unemployment much higher there, 8.1%, though lower than the national average. 1 in 616 homes is in foreclosure in ohio. in georgia, it s seen some of the worst numbers. unemployment there, 9.7%. higher than the national average. 1 in 328 homes are in the foreclosure process in georgia. cnn s chief national correspondent john king joins us now. as if john king needs an introduction to anybody who watches tv. john, as we just pointed out, we just pointed out three states. every state has a different economy. so what economic issues are going to be the most important both in super tuesday and in the election? ali, you make a very critical point going state by state because we often