time will tell. >> and mississippi's governor is under fire. 200 pardons in his final days. new information on who was set free and what these convicted killers are now allowed to do. we also understand that these are unconditional pardons, which means that their constitutional rights are restored. we're going to find out a little bit more about that. apparently, they're going to be able to vote and own guns. >> 2011 was so last year because 2012 got some stocks on a tear. the dow climbing to the highest level since july. what the what? >> we're going to figure all this out with christine romans in just a few moments. and the death of actress natalie wood, who died back in 19 1981. was she killed? new this morning, what police found since they reopened this investigation two months ago. >> that woo hoo you heard at the top of the news cast, could be sounding like the power train for mitt romney as he heads to the next stop. i wonder if this is going to be a sweep. is south carolina going to sweep the table for mitt romney? that was serious history being made? 90% of the votes have been counted. still counting this morning. it's a foregone conclusion. romney dominant. look at that, 40% of the vote. ron paul coming in a sweet second at 23%. jon huntsman not too shabby. he said, i'll take third, thank you very much, at 17%. didn't do badly at all. >> look at the rest of the field. newt gingrich fourth with 10%. rick santorum 9%. rick perry at 1%. romney says tonight, of course, we made history, then he turned up the attacks on president obama. listen up. >> we do remember, when barack obama came to new hampshire four years ago, he promised to bring people together, he promised to change the broken system in washington, he promised to improve our nation. those are the days of lofty promises made by a hopeful candidate. today we're faced with the disappointing record of a failed president. >> political director mark preston joins us this morning. the history he was talking about, first nonrepublican incumbent to win iowa and new hampshire back to back. we did just mention with 95% of the precincts reporting, romney has 40%. a lot of people saying he was going to be somewhere in the 30s. he beat expectations here. >> he beat expectations and reached the threshold here. had mitt romney ended up 34%, 35%, 36%, there would be an argument made that he still was not able to grow the support, and he showed that last night in new hampshire. he grew the support. a lot of people will still say there's a conservative movement against mitt romney, but the fact of the matter was he has won the first two, and as ashleigh said, he's got momentum. >> he's got the freight train going, and it started with not only the 40% but this speech we're looking at now. i can't tell you how presidential that seemed to me. i was a maesly little viewer watching the set as the returns came in. i watched a teleprompted speech which he'd done away with before, and a speech that sounded very presidential as opposed to a man still on the campaign. >> they're all heading down to south carolina now. while we spent last week in new hampshire, and this week we're sitting here and talked about the big win out of iowa for rick santorum and mitt romney. now we're talking about the big win out of new hampshire for mitt romney and head to south carolina. >> let's talk about the tea par party. i have here 40% of the tea party vote went to him. i don't know if those numbers changed this morning. that was a big win for him. >> it was a big win because, again, it goes back to can mitt romney get the republican base to get behind him. we saw that last night. what we should note is that tea party supporters in new hampshire tend to be fiscal supporters. tea party supporters out in iowa and perhaps down in south carolina, will also tend to embrace more of these social conservative views. >> so the tea party in south carolina may not be the same as the tea party in new hampshire. i was talking to christine romans about it a little earlier this morning. it's almost like, if this is a family, they're fourth cousins. >> they're fourth cousins, but they're still family, remember. and the hope is, if you are a republican, that at some point the family will come together because they have one enemy, barack obama. >> but will newt gingrich be able to chip away at what we saw happen in new hampshire down in south carolina? he's been pushing some mean old ads down there. >> not only newt gingrich but we saw rick perry on piers morgan say he plans to go at mitt romney. rick santorum plans to go at mitt romney. it's going to be ugly the next few weeks. >> what do his numbers in south carolina look like? >> mitt romney is going to do well. mitt romney got two big endorsements the past two weeks, john mccain who won south carolina in 2008, and nikki haley, the governor of south carolina. the question is can he hold on to the evangelical vote down there. >> thanks for joining us. i think you're going to stick around. >> absolutely. >> we'll have you all morning. thank you. let's bring in the political panel. john, senior political columnist with "newsweek" and the daily beast. will, columnist with the blaze. and democratic strategist hillary rosen. will, i want to begin with you. as we're here with this big win for mitt romney, the question is will this momentum continue into south carolina? so here are some things that are happening. the super pac is beginning a $5 million ad campaign against him this week. we heard that perry said in south carolina, i know the difference between venture capitalism and vulture capitalism. and i want to listen in here. piers morgan asked rick perry last night if any candidate could seriously beat mitt romney. here's what he said, and then we'll talk about it. >> one of the reasons is because south carolina is a winner take allstate, and so winning here, i can promise you, wipes out the caucus victory and new hampshire. if mitt's thinking he's got it in the bag, i think he's going to be in for a great surprise in south carolina when he shows up here. >> what do you think? can he keep it going into south carolina? >> all indications are yes. look, he's got momentum and money. there's no indication that mitt romney is going to be tripped up any time soon. that being said, we've performed primaries now in two states. there's a lot to go. all of these guys -- rick perry, rick santorum, jon huntsman -- their future relies on the other opponents get out. they each need each other to get out. there needs to be a solid, unified alternative to mitt romney, but no one's doing that. they all want to be the guy that hangs on until someone else is out. until that happens, no one is r -- mitt romney is running away with it. >> it's instructive to know why the other guys are staying in, which as he saw from the exit polls last night, there's still over a third of the republican primary voters that are not happy with their candidate. of those people who are not happy, you know, half of them actually voted for mitt romney. so there's just no intensity for this candidate, and there's no passion for it clearly among that republican base. so they are still searching. those other guys see those polls, and they say, you know what, it could be me still. >> so, hillary, let's talk about ron paul then. he came second, but he actually won 3% more of the independent vote than romney, and he is the only one to also finish in the top three outside of romney. so what do you think is his end game? a lot of people say that he is not electable. >> well, i'll just say this about ron paul. most people think that last night was his high watermark. the kind of candidate he is appeals mostly to these early primary states. but -- and the romney people clearly are thrilled that ron paul is coming in number two to sort of back stop all these other candidates from getting position. here's my warning to mitt romney, which is be careful what you wish for. ron paul is not going to get out. eventually, these other guys will get out, but ron paul will stay in to the end and needle him for a long time getting his 10%, 11%, 12% in almost every state. >> he has a lot of passionate supporters out there. john, let's go back to mitt romney. and the good news coming here out of the exit polls. the question is will it continue to translate into south carolina? we were just talking about the conservative vote there, that tea party support. do you think they will rally around him? >> well, look, you've got two dynamics. the south carolina electorate is fundamentally different than the new hampshire electorate. here you've got 40% are independents of it's the least relinlius state overall. south carolina, the real key players are the social conservatives. that sort of tea-vangelist overlap between the tea party and the republican party. last night you've got to give mitt romney. this was a solid win. he had impressive margins across the board with evangelicals, tea partiers, et cetera, but south carolina is a tougher sell. that's why newt gingrich, rick santorum, rick perry have all decamped to south carolina. their base is wining in that state. it's going to be a tough sell for mitt romney. last time john mccain won. mitt romney came in fourth in the state. there's room for a center right candidate to win in south carolina. but it's an uphill climb for him. he has to show a continued ability to broaden his base. south carolina will be his toughest test by far. >> so you don't predict a sweep here? >> look, romney's in good shape. they clearly want to go through the january gauntlet and run the table. but remember this is a march ultimately to 1,143 delegates, and this has been a drop in the bucket to date. he's in a very strong position, but anybody who moves forward and says this is done isn't paying attention to how things get done. south carolina traditionally has been a dirty campaign, and it can be tough going. >> thanks for chiming in. thank you very much. you can keep it on cnn for the best political coverage on television at 7:30 eastern. winner mitt romney will be live on "starting point" with soledad o'brien. >> it's ten minutes past 5:00 on the east coast. we like to give you an early start to your day. stories that are just start to go develop but will probably be pretty big tonight. texas is about to start enforcing a law that requires doctors to provide a sonogram to pregnant women before they get an abortion. yesterday a federal appeals court cleared the way by overturning a lower court's decision that had blocked that law. penn state looking for a new quarterback coach today after jay paterno handed in his resignation. his father, the legendary joe paterno, was fired in the fallout from the jerry sandusky child sex abuse scandal. you can crack that ice. coast guard arctic icebreaker and a tampger hauling 1.3 million gallons of fuel should be getting through the final 100 miles of ice to reach nome, alaska, sometime today. the city is running pretty low on fuel supplies because it's been iced in since last november. don't complain about the weather, folks. >> no kidding. and power to the people. the people's choice awards are happening tonight. one of the fan faves, katy perry, with seven nominations, announced she's not going to be there. the ceremony was perry's first public outing since her breakup with russell was announced. >> jacqui jeras is in the house. >> it's going to be a bad hair day anyway. >> is it really? >> if you live in the east anyway. there's a lot of moisture, a lot of fog. give it another day because we're going to dry things out and cool things off quite a bit. >> like nome, alaska cool? >> not quite that cold, but it's going to be darn close across parts of the upper midwest. we'll show you the big stories we're watching today. it's really two systems we're going to be dealing with. in the southeast, a big rain maker here and a very strong arctic cold front. a true arctic cold front is going to be making its way through. you're not going to believe the difference in the temperatures we're going to be looking at ahead in the coming days. if you take a look at the radar picture, showers, embedded thunderstorms. very wet go around nashville, pushing up toward indianapolis as well as the cincinnati area. and winds coming in with that cold air that could be gusting up to 50 miles per hour causing delays in places like minneapolis and down towards des moines. look at the temperatures. it still isn't too brutal just yet. we're looking at 30s in the upper midwest. highs today staying in the 30s, which means the temperatures are changing a lot until they start dropping in the afternoon highs. tomorrow we'll be back in the teens, ladies. that cold air is on the way. one more day for us here in the east. >> thank you. it is 30 minutes past the hour. time to check the stories making news. mitt romney solidifying his lead in the gop race with a big victory in new hampshire. texas congressman ron paul finished in second, but they said they are now nipping at his heels. and rick santorjon huntsman puty face on his showing. a nuclear scientist killed in a terror blast. iran is now blaming israel for this and saying it's a car bomb attack. officials say the attack is similar to other ones in recent years that have targeted iranian scientists. and they are back. occupy wall street protesters returned to their original camp at new york city's zuccotti park. hundreds of people filled that park last night after police barricades were removed. don't know if you heard this one, but we've got a couple of good stories coming up. this one is outrageous really in mississippi. the governor, on his final day in office, the parting gift was pardons and lots of them, and not to just run of the mill convicts. we're talking convicted murderers, ruthless murderers. cnn's ed lavandera is on that story, and he's going to let you know not only what these folks did but now what they're going to be allowed to do now that they're out. and natalie wood's death investigation was reopened. it's about to get a new ruling. cnn is talking with the sheriff's office. we're going to try to find out the details of that. did they find out anything new? 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[ male announcer ] find your program at phoenix.edu. will be back. good morning to you, new york. right now it's 37 degrees. later, sunny and 44 headed your way. >> that ain't bad for january. >> it's great for january. i believe the temperatures are going to be plummeting soon. we'll pay for it. >> we always do. 17 feet of snow last season at my backyard. we had no snow right up till christmas, and, bam, that was it. 18 minutes past 5:00 on the east coast. 18 minutes past 2:00 a.m. on the east coast. early reads. this is a great time we get to pick out local papers and grab headlines where we're making national news. we want to get you up to speed on something going on in anchorage, alaska, as well as l.a. let's start with alaska. the christian science monitor in alaska has fabulous reporting out of cordova. look at these pictures. you think you've got problem? try 17 feet of excess snow. how about this? 24 days of snowfall. 24 days straight. they are shoveling like mad men and like mad national guardsmen because they needed the help. here's the weirdest part. are you ready? it's not just that they are running out of shovels and having a tough time buying shovels, the shovels are breaking. people are using shovels, and the snow is so heavy that their shovels are breaking. when they go to their local store to try to get a shovel, there aren't any left. >> wow. you know buying a snow blower probably would have no effect when it's that deep. however, when people are shoveling, heart attacks go up. you have to be careful. >> be very, very careful. it's a remarkable story. roofs are collapsing in because it's so heavy. think about it next time you complain about the weather. >> about our snow? >> yeah. this comes to us from "the los angeles times." the reports that the l.a. county sheriff's department has uncovered no new evidence in the case of natalie wood that would suggest her death was anything but an accident. chief of detectives is quoted as saying the actress' demise was an accident. here's the deal. careen winter checked with the sheriff's office, and they told us the investigation is actually not closed yet. it is still open. there is a potential for new information that is headed our way. we're going to check in with her in about 20 minutes, and she's going to tell us why they're not closing the investigation. >> is it weird they haven't talked to robert wagner yet? considering all the news that's been made in the case lately was about things that robert wagner said or allegedly didn't say. >> but they talked to the captain of the boat. >> he's always talking. that guy's had a different story every day. but it's really his information that got them wound up. >> started them back up again. >> it's a real csi in any case. and there's this other crime making headlines, you probably heard of it. joran van der sloot. you probably heard of him. if you didn't, here's the primer. he's involved in a murder trial in peru that's actually getting back under way today. it was put on hold last week because he was charged with killing 21-year-old stephanie flores, a local who lived down there. that happened in a lima hotel room back in 2010. so the reason things were suspended was because he needs to decide whether he's going to plead guilty or a certain kind of guilty or whether he's going to go straight through to trial and really risk a very long sentence in a peruvian prison, which i'm sure you can understand is not that pleasant. why does he name sound familiar to you? because he's also the prime suspect in natalee holloway's unsolved disappearance that goes back to 2005. he was arrested twice, never formally charged in that case. but cole thompson, the co-author of "portrait of a monster" knows all about both cases. not only are you the author of that story, but you're my former colleague from court tv. i remember living this story with you, cole. nice to see you. how are you? >> good. congratulations on the show. you went from natalie wood to natalee holloway. >> listen, it's great you came in. you're a great definitive source on this story. you