stand by to learn more about edith and carolyn, who solved the case of the missing votes. we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. i m wolf blitzer, you re in the situation room. tuesday s new hampshire primary is just around the corner. get this, the dramatic anticipation is building for the republican presidential candidates. the first southern showdown will take place on january 21st, our new cnn poll is the first snapshot of support in south carolina, taken after the squeaker in iowa this past week. look at this, mitt romney now has an 18 point lead in the state of south carolina, which wasn t seen necessarily as all that friendly of a place for him. rick santorum has shot into number two in south carolina after his near victory in iowa. romney has an even wider lead in new hampshire, where his closest rival at least right now is ron paul. rick santorum has gained ground in new hampshire as well, his support climbing into the double digi
it comes from a federal justice department probe more than three years in the making and is detailed in a 22-page letter to the maricopa county attorney. detailing, a pervasive culture of discriminatory bias against latinas at the mcso, the maricopa county sheriff s office, that reaches the highest levels of the agency. in addition, the letter details a study commissioned by the department of justice that found latino drivers, quote, are four to nine times more likely to be stopped than similarly situated non-latino drivers. there s more in the report, documenting detention officers at the sheriff s jail using offensive slurs and profanities. calling them, quote, wetbacks, stupid mexicans, and slurs we can t mention on the air. according to the assistant u.s. attorney general for the civil rights division, they re also reviewing allegations that sheriff joe arpaio s department failed to investigate hundreds of alleged sexual assaults and child molestation cases. many of t
bruised, battered and possibly in champion s case, beaten to death. okay. is he awake? he wasn t responding. we thought he was breathing. he was making noises. but i don t even know if he s breathing now. okay. is he awake? do you know? his eyes are open. his eyes are open. he s not responding. okay. but is he breathing? i have no idea. i cannot tell you that. that was the 911 call november 19th, after a game as robert champion lay dying on the band bus. other members say he may have undergone a rite of passage crossing bus krp p they describe crossing bus c is walking backward through the bus getting beaten as you go. this is less than three weeks after a clarinet player, bria hunter, was beaten. after her beating was reported to campus police. after she ended up in the hospital with blood clots and cracked thigh bone. three fellow band members are charged with that beating. bria is leaving a & m and plans to sue the university. in a moment, you re going to see
some pretty deep ties with the white house? and why is it that the company with deep ties to the white house, the company that just got a big contract for a drug that s not been proven yet, why is it going to make an 85% profit on its government contract? coming up we re going to talk with a member of the company s board of directors, a familiar face here at cnn. we first got wind of this story in the los angeles times but since then have learned a lot more. investigator drew griffin is keeping them honest. reporter: it s just another good business deal for billionaire investor and big-time democratic political supporter, ron perlman. this major political contributor to both parties but particular friend of the obama white house owns the controlling shares in a company called siga technologies, and siga this year won a sweet $432 million no-bid contract from the u.s. department of health and human services that even a democrat says is a little bit too sweet to ignore. h
he told espn the abuse started in 1994 when he was 12 and continued for more than a decade. he waited until 2002 to phone syracuse city police who told him they couldn t pursue charges because the statute of limitations had expired. the city s police chief admits they could have done a better job. he said that in 2002 that the procedures which are in effect today were not in effect back then, the procedures that would mean an allegation would be logged into a computer database. back then they did next to nothing. not only did they not pursue charges. they never started an investigation or filed a report. no paperwork at all. the question is that unusual? the nypd tells suzanne candiotti that its own investigators are required to document any and all interview with alleged victims. one reason sex abuser rarely stop at one victim. if the allegations against bernie fine are true and right now that is a very big if he hasn t been charged with anything gettettyet, but i accu