against president obama is not someone who called him a remarkable leader and went to be his ambassador in china. >> this nation is divided, david, because of attitudes like that. [ applause ] >> we want someone when the time gets tough, and it will in this election, we want someone who is going to stand up and fight for the conservative principles, not bail out and not run, and not run to the left of ted kennedy. >> can we drop a little bit of the pious baloney? you have been running consistently for years and years and years. so this idea that suddenly citizenship showed up in your mind. just level with the american people. you have been running at least since the 1990s. >> well, mitt romney is trying to seal the deal. he is out rallying supporters in new hampshire, trying to win over last-minute converts. cnn's jim accosta is at the romney event and will join us in just a few minutes. also, joe johns with rick santorum. we will talk to him coming up in just a few minutes. ok. let's talk about the latest strain on your wallet. gas prices on the rise. some experts saying that we could see new record highs by this summer. christine romans, why are those prices climbing? >> why do i have to have the bad news. >> you had good news last week, and now we wrapped up a great friday. >> interesting you point that out. you look at the job gains in the market and the economy overall. could that be undone by higher gas prices? we're seeing gas prices up about 12 cents over the past three weeks. why? because oil prices are moving higher, and they are moving higher, $3.37 a gallon is the national average, that's about 30 cents more than it was a year ago at this time. so you're feeling it. this acts as a tax on consumers, kyra. this is the thing that you're most economically sensitive to. every week, every 10 days, you're filling up the gas tank. so this is money out of your pocket immediately, that you're not spending on something else. it's important to watch. >> how high could the prices go? because it really has been fluctuating. >> it has. we're watching iran. believe it or not, the strait of hormuz is directly tied to your service station. and i'm not kidding. you look at that tiny little strait there. and iran's sabre rattling about pressuring the u.s. and the international community is putting on its nuclear program, and iran says we can shut that strait of hormuz. 40% of all the world's traded oil goes through there. there's a two-mile wide naf igable straight there. there is something called the u.s. fleet they have to get past. >> don't underestimate the u.s. navy. >> but the worst-case scenario is maybe $40 more a barrel. that's significantly higher. that's the worst-case scenario and unlikely, but that's what we're watching. tensions in the oil market even as the economy is just barely moving higher. >> we'll keep talking. thank you, christine. this hour as i mentioned, rick santorum is reaching out to the right with a taown hall meeting on faith, family, and country. right after yesterday's debate, he jetteda up to south carolina, right? >> that's absolutely right. he is sort of trying to straddle the primary races, both here in new hampshire and in south carolina. it's been a tough crowd here in new hampshire frankly. he is only up about 10%, which is better than he was doing but not great. the only person he is ahead of is rick perry, who has given up on the state for the most part. and south carolina, he went down there yesterday. right after the second debate. reaching out to social conservatives. they are more in his wheelhouse. traveling there with gary bauer, who is a very well known movement conservative that so many people there in south carolina look up to. mr. santorum has essentially been saying to the people in south carolina, look, this may very well be the last stand for true conservatives in your state. so he's calling on them to help him out. let's listen. >> if south carolina doesn't stand up and say, we want a conservative on the ticket, ladies and gentlemen, we very well may not have one. it's up to you. it's up to you. that the most critical election in the history -- well, maybe since the election of 1860, but certainly in your lifetime, the most critical election in your lifetime, what are you going to do? >> most critical election in your lifetime. that's the message of rick santorum to the people in the state of south carolina. and after the primary here in new hampshire tomorrow, he'll be able to devote his full attentions to that state where he hopes he might do better than he's doing in the polls here right now, kyra. >> we should talk about how important it is that santorum does well in new hampshire before the south carolina primary. >> yeah. well, i mean, it's just hard for him here. we know from last week that rick santorum actually got booed at one point because of his positions on same-sex marriage. he's talked a lot about sort of his populist appeal, if you will. the common man here. but it really just hasn't worked for him. and it's interesting too because he came out of iowa with so much momentum, you know, finishing so close. and he could have been the winner, you know. but for seven or eight votes. but he's just not looking so good right now in new hampshire. >> joe, thanks. >> still has time, though, right? >> anything is possible, as we will know, joe. as we have been watching so far. >> yeah. quite a primary race. >> yes, it has. and it's going to keep getting better. we'll have more from new hampshire throughout the next couple of hours. and tomorrow night, all eyes on new hampshire as the new political year is heating up. make your best choice for politics. wolf blitzer, anderson cooper, candy crowley, john king, all part of our live coverage tomorrow night 7:00 eastern, right here on cnn. all right. isra iran sentences an american to death. the former marine was arrested in august while visiting his grandmother. zain verjee is watching this story for us from london. give us the details. >> his name is amir hekmati. he is 28 years old, from arizona. now, this is what the news agency from iran had to say. they say he was working for an enemy country, for membership in the cia, and also for his efforts to accuse iran for involvement in terrorism. now, hekmati has done one tour of iraq. his family is saying this is totally ridiculous. he is not guilty. he just went to iran back in august to visit two of his grandmas who live there. they also say that they tried to get him legal representation 10 times, they tried to get him 10 different lawyers, and the iranian government rejected it and eventually ended up appointing a state appointed lawyer for him. but he only met once at his trial. now for the u.s., they are saying release him. he is not guilty. the u.s. are represented by the swiss in iran, and the swiss weren't even allowed in the trial. iran is saying he confessed, he confessed to his crimes on tv. they taped it. but a lot of human rights groups around the world say that's a joke, they are forced into those confessions and they have no credibility. >> the reports this morning that iran is enreiching uranium at a new nuclear site. what's the latest? >> i was just looking at that. and this is a site they are saying is deep in the mountains in the north of iran. this is called the fordo nuclear enrichment plant. and iran is saying it's immune to military attack. they say they have activated some 3,000 centrifuges. this has got to worry the u.s. and other western countries that have accused iran of pursuing a nuclear weapons program. kyra, iran is saying, look, it's ok. everybody relax, because we are trying to get radio isotopes by enriching this uranium because there are 800,000 cancer patients who need it. kyra? >> zain verjee out of london. thanks so much. and we are learning about a big break that police had in their investigation of jerry sandusky. it was in the pages of the former coach's own book. we'll talk with the reporter who broke the story next. and tucson marks one year since a gunman put the city in the headlines. one year since the survivors and the city began the healing process. we'll show you how far they've come. ♪ he was a 21st century global nomad ♪ ♪ home was an airport lounge and an ipad ♪ ♪ made sure his credit score did not go bad ♪ ♪ with a free-credit-score-dot-com ♪ ♪ app that he had ♪ downloaded it in the himalayas ♪ ♪ while meditating like a true playa ♪ ♪ now when he's surfing down in chile'a ♪ ♪ he can see when his score is in danger ♪ ♪ if you're a mobile type on the go ♪ ♪ i suggest you take a tip from my bro ♪ ♪ and download the app that lets you know ♪ ♪ at free-credit-score-dot-com now let's go. ♪ vo: offer applies with enrollment in freecreditscore.com™. mitt romney trying to seal the deal, out rallying supporters in nashua, new hampshire, trying to win over last-minute converts. >> had similar ideas in different parts of the country and raised capital and began other businesses. but think what happens then. when the president and his people pick one company in which to invest $500 million, guess what happens to the other people seeking private capital for their solar energy ideas? who's going to put $2 million or $3 million into a solar startup when they hear the government has put $500 million into something called silindra? nobody. so the investment he made was lost but also crippled investments in other ideas in solar technology. so rather than encouraging innovation in solar technology, it discouraged it. that's what happens when people in government thinks that government is the answer to our economic challenges. government is not the answer. it's the problem, as ronald reagan used to say. let markets work. have government create the conditions that allow markets to work. fair tax codes. updated regulations. opening markets for american goods. getting energy at a low and effective cost basis. having fair labor rules. not slanting it one side or to the other. these are the kinds of principles i want to bring to washington. i happen to believe that the principles upon which this nation was founded are principles that were not temporary in their impact but are permanent. when i think back to the declaration of independence and those famous lines, where the founders wrote the creator had endowed us with certain rights, among them life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, our declaration made it very clear it would not be government that would guide our lives and tell us what we could do or how we could run our enterprises. it would instead be free people making their own choices. >> mitt romney speaking live in nashua. we'll check in waith all the candidates as they are holding their rallies. one of the biggest breaks for police in the jerry sandusky case came from his own biography, "touched." that's when we learned when we spoke to one of the mothers of the victim. what did this mother tell you, sarah? >> she told me the story, and she told it to me because she is upset with the -- the allegation that jerry sandusky's attorney has been making that a lot of these victims knew each other, and got together after they heard of one allegation and decided to substantiate the allegation and make more stories up, seeing lawsuits and seeing money coming from penn state. but she told me this story for that reason. and this is what she said. she said when police came to her in early 2010, when said, you know, we know your son came forward 10 years ago and made an allegation to police, and wasn't believed. tell us what happened. she sat down with them and she said, my son had a lot of friends back then. they all hung out together. they all hung out with jerry sandusky. and i think you should talk to these other boys too, not knowing what they would say. she pointed them in these boys' direction. and they were from the pages of that book. she sat down with police and went through the book and identified several of the victims that ended up being in that grand jury presentment. >> so basically, the key to this case was right there on the shelves of the penn state bookstore? >> it's very interesting. a lot of these things were out and obvious. a lot of the keys to this case. because, you know, that's one big break. but the other one was finding that mother, finding victim six's mom, and remember her name and her phone number was sitting in that police report that was at penn state's police barracks that had been closed, and no charges came of it. but it was sitting there in the police barracks for over a year after that victim one came forward, after the police investigation began, before they actually contacted her. so some of the keys to this case were out there, which goes right back to that overriding theme that prosecutors are now talking about, that many people knew something, and did nothing. >> sarah, before i let you go. a number of former penn state football players are pushing back against the hires of bill o'brien as head coach. how did the search committee come to this decision? >> they say that contrary to reports, it was not a toxic job. they had a lot of applications. that bill o'brien's name was someone that they knew of from the beginning, and slowly they just became enamored with him. they really fell in love with him, and it had nothing to do with being a penn state guy, but finding someone who had penn state heart is what they said. and they said that's how they landed on their guy. you know, it seemed like he said all the right things on saturday when he was introduced, and he did get a loud applause from some penn state fans. about 100 fans showed up for that announcement. >> sarah, thanks so much. checking stories across the country now, a cashier at a pappa john's pizza joint in new york is fired over this racist receipt. if you look closely, you can see how an american asian customer was identified as lady chinky eyes. she posted it on her twitter account over the weekend, which quickly went viral. nearly 100 soldiers are on lock downright now. commanders at joint base lewis mccord are reacting to reports of missing sensitive military equipment, including night lasers and gun scopes. and look at this planned implosion. just a few seconds in it all took for the 20-story building in houston's medical district to come down. the houston chronicle says an aging foundation and asbestos made the building too costly to maintain. straight ahead, the irs is coming up short as americans skirt the tax man. how big is the short fall? and this is the video we can't stop watching. not only did a young woman's bungee accord snap, it snapped over a river full of crocodiles. you just can't get any closer to death than this, but she's ok and she's talking about it, next. now to that unbelievable story of survival in zimbabwe. a young woman goes bungee jumping over a river full of crocodiles, and the cord breaks. that's where the thrill ends and the fight for survival begins. zain verjee has all the details and of course the video. oh, my gosh, zain. >> oh, my god, kyra. take a look at this video. it tells it all. she's from australia. erin langworthy just jumped off into the river. and the cord that was frayed just snapped and down she went into the water. you know, that is a place near victoria falls. you have victoria falls behind you, and she is actually jumping into the river in front. and sometimes there's no water there. it's totally dry. she is so lucky. listen to how she put it. >> it went black. straightaway. and i felt like i had been slapped all over. i actually had to swim down and junk the bungee cord out of what it was caught into. it's definitely a miracle that i survived. >> it say miracle, kyra, because those rapids are so powerful. the rocks there are so large. and she also had a towel wrapped around her feet to do the bungee jump. so that as well as the rope was still there. she had to swim her way through. she was so lucky she wasn't thrown against a rock. and by the way, there are crocodiles there too. not necessarily on the rapids but in other parts of the river. so she is very lucky. that's a very exciting new year's eve, though, kyra. >> almost as exciting as your vacation. hanging out with the giraffes. i'm sorry. after you sent me this picture, i had to go there. what is the story with this? are you that desperate for a little loving? >> well, no. i mean, look, this guy is the kind of guy who i like the height of. you know, got a little bit of action over here. this is my new year's eve kiss, kyra. we had chemistry. he is a little bit tall for me maybe. and, you know, i put a little giraffe food in my mouth. and he came and gave me a big old wet kiss. and by the way, if you ever kiss a giraffe, its strong is like sandpaper. it's very long. this is a rothschild giraffe. there are only 650 in the world. this is one of 10 in kenya. i think we can agree this takes necking to a whole new level. >> yes, it adoes. you made my monday. thank you, zain. glad you're back. big sloppy wet kisses to you. all right. a lot of americans skirting the tax man, leaving the government billions of dollars short. allison kosik, not dissing any giraffes, thank goodness. >> you know, i always wanted to kiss a giraffe. she beat me to it. what can i say? >> well, give us some good news about the markets. try to here. >> well, i'll get to the markets first. let's talk about the irs, our next favorite subject next to giraffe kissing. did you know that 15% of federal taxes went unpaid in 2006? so in real dollars, that means the irs didn't get $400 billion. meaning that money just didn't get to the irs. now the biggest reason that this is happening is because many people and businesses, they underreport their income, meaning they don't include all of their receipts, they overstate their expenses. and they claim incorrect amounts of deductions as well. and of course this is all coming as the u.s. government is $15 trillion in debt. and that is one of the biggest reasons why politicians are calling for tax reform. that $400 billion unpaid, that's a lot of money. but get this. americans are still among the best in the world at paying their taxes, what they owe. give ourselves a nice pat on the back. >> the last thing we want is to be chased by the irs. all right. let's talk about the markets. what kind of day are we expecting? >> ok. looking at a mixed open in about five minutes when the opening bell rings. one thing that may trump all the attention on europe, the start of the fourth quarter earnings season gets underway after the closing bell today. now overall, expectations for corporate earnings, they have been falling because of the weak global economy. so that is going to be on the radar. there's corporate earnings. but still, europe is still going to be front and center. german and french leaders met today. they say negotiations are going well, and an agreement could be reached by the end of this month on a broad financial overhaul. we shall see. kyra? >> allison, thanks. coming up, we'll talk about all the hits that mitt romney has been taking in new hampshire, and whether the damage from his own party could hurt his electability if he becomes the nominee. and reports say jay-z and beyonce produced their biggest production yet. details coming up. have i got a surprise for you! a mouthwatering combination of ingredients... i know you're gonna love. 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