the turn too late. >> and also in politics, newt gingrich is making up some ground you might call it. he is closing the gap the front-runner mitt romney in south carolina. trouble may be brewing, though. his daughters are having to come to his defense after an interview which is scheduled for today is about to go after him from his ex-wife. >> and a rare winter storm that pounded the pacific northwest. it is now heading east. rob is tracking the forecast. where it will go next and how much snow we are actually talking about this morning. don't know if you're a tune or it's been a while since you were a student. things are different now. reading on an ipad. how about reading your textbook on an ipad? >> that would be fantastic. >> how nice would it be not having that backpack that weighs 50 pounds. rescuers resumed their search for the nearly two dozen missing cruise ship passengers. new fears this morning that stormy weather could push the doomed cruise liner into deeper waters. the captain who has been the focus of this investigation admitting that he made a navigational mistake. this was according to leaked interrogation transcripts to a british newspaper. he reportedly told a judge yesterday that something went wrong while at the helm. he says, quote, i was navigating by sight because i knew the depths well and i had done this maneuver three or four times but this time, i ordered the turn too late. and i ended up in water that was too shallow. >> we're also getting some incredible new evidence this morning as we look at these pictures once again of the passengers who were stranded on the listing vessel. the time line, the full transcript from the port authority has given us this information. 10:06 p.m., the police are first made aware of problems. 10:14, the ship officials say this, it's only a power outage. and then 10:26, the captain actually, finally calls the coast guard. this is 20 minutes into this thing and reports there is something along the lines of an open hole in the ship. at 10:48, we're now 42 minutes into this, the coast guard is told that they're actually under an evaluation but then nearly an hour later, the actual evacuation process begins. >> we are joined live on the phone from florence, italy. if we could talk about the chronology here. because it strikes us that at 9:45 p.m. is when the ship struck the rock formation and actually at 10:03 p.m. it was a passenger who called police to tell them that there was a problem on board. >> reporter: that's right. you know, you have to think about how traumatic this was as people on board were probably starting to panic, wondering among themselves what was going on. you have people feeling the shudder, the lights are going out. then you have a lot of the italians calling the emergency numbers here to either the port on the mainland, calling their relatives who then called emergency numbers. as more details emerge about what happened that night, you can only imagine how difficult and scary it was for these passengers. meanwhile, the captain is under continuing investigation right now. as the evidence comes forward, he is more and more in trouble. a lot of people, a lot of legal strategists are telling me he's making these admissions, yes, i ordered the turn too far. potentially we don't know if this is strategic, potentially to set himself up for a plea bargain, called here an abbreviated trial in which he could potentially admit a certain amount of guilt for a lesser sentence. that seems to be why he's making these admissions at this point, with his lawyer's direction. >> one last thing. we're going to lose you here in a moment. i wanted to know about the house arrest and what is the latest on the appeal of that? >> reporter: the prosecutor in the province in control of this situation has appealed to the judge in grocetto. >> barbie nadeau reporting live from italy. thank you very much. in about 30 minutes from now, we'll talk to captain jim staples. he's been a captain for 20 years. about whether he is surprised this accident didn't happen sooner. tonight on 8:00 eastern on cnn, five candidates will go head to head and head to head to head. they'll debate for two hours for that republican nomination. did i do enough of those head to head to head? we have two days now, two days before the critical south carolina primary. a lot of people saying it could be all over by then. some big problems for newt gingrich. abc news is about to hit the airwaves with an interview with maryann gingrich, his second wife, on who he is reported to have cheated and is now with his third wife, calista. they are concerned about this story. his daughters from his first marriage have sent a letter to abc and they're talking about some of the timing of the abc report. they write this, failure of a marriage is a terrible and emotional experience for everyone involved. anyone who has had that experience understands it is a personal tragedy, filled with regrets and sometimes differing memories of events. we will not say anything negative about our father's ex-wife. he has said before privately and publicly that he regrets any pain he may have caused in the past to the people that he loves. >> and newt gingrich is taking another hit as well. listen to former president jimmy carter on piers morgan last night. >> gingrich in the south carolina debate, i watched part of it, watched the first half of it. i think he has that subtlety of racism that i know quite well. >> really? >> and gingrich knows quite well that appeals to some people in georgia, particularly the right wing. >> you think he's doing it deliberate? >> i think so. he knows as well the words that you use like welfare mamas and so forth, that have been appealing in the past. in those days of segregation of the races. he's appealing for that in south carolina. i don't think it will pay off in the long run. >> that's a pretty serious charge to level at newt gingrich, that he's being racist. >> i wouldn't say he's racest but you knows the subtle words to use. >> interesting distinction that he was trying to make there. the naacp, another civil rights groups have called gingrich's views on race divisive and problematic on several fronts. make sure you stay with cnn for the best political coverage on television. at 7:00 this morning, our friend, soledad o'brien will broadcast live from charleston, south carolina. one of her real big gets, the authors of the big "the real romney." interesting stuff in that book. she'll have it tonight on "starting point." and a two-hour town hall debate live from charleston. it will be moderated by cnn anchor and chief national correspondent john king. tune in for that. we really like to get you ahead of the game. it's so early in the morning, you think we're giving you yesterday's news? heck no. we're giving you tonight's news. in a little more than three hours, something will happen that could change the way you think about the republican race. the republican party of iowa is going to publicly release the certified vote totals of the january caucuses. important? sure. why not. mitt romney will know for sure whether he really did win in that narrow eight-vote victory over rick santorum. and you know what, there's some drepcy here. >> can wait to get those results. and the top u.s. military commander is in israel for high-level talks. this is martin dempsey's first official trip to israel. topping the agenda, concerns that iran is trying to develop nuclear weapons. we're waiting for a big travel announcement from the white house. the president is going to disneyland, folks. he is heading to orlando. the speech is aimed at creating tourism and boosting more jobs here. >> you're going to disney, you should bring the girls. >> they have school. >> they have to go to school. >> there's that whole thing. >> we're minding your business now. u.s. markets closed higher across the board yesterday. the dow gained almost 1%, the nasdaq 1.5% and the s&p 500 just over 1%. >> and i hate not to just focus on upward arrows, they're great and we love them. listen, man, this pipeline from the transatlantic pipeline folks, it's usurping political news and business news. >> it is political news and business news. it's come at a time when it got tacked on to the payroll tax holiday. the white house had 60 days to say whether they were going to approve this new pipeline, to get sticky, icky oil out of the sands. it takes a lot of work to get it out. this is people who say we don want to be independent of middle eastern oil. canada's already our biggest oil supplier. this is the kind of oil at $100 a barrel that makes financial sense in some cases to be getting this oil out of here. environmentalists hate it. they've never liked it. they've been fighting about it since the summer. the white house says it just didn't have enough time to make a 60-day decision on it. we'll be talking about the pipeline again. >> i started in this business 24 years ago and worked in alberta. >> then what was oil a barrel? >> 19 bucks a barrel. >> it didn't make sense to squeeze -- >> they were there. >> at $100 a barrel with the way the world is gobbling up oil, any place they can find oil. does it degree rarail our push n energy? the oil companies say they've gotten better at getting this oil out and they've lowered the carbon footprint of getting the oil out. it takes more energy to make energy out of this oil. >> and money. >> by the light sweet crude that you stick a straw in the ground and suck it out. >> right. >> we want to move on to at&t. we walked in this morning and when i heard the head line of the rates going up, i thought oh, my gosh, you're kidding me. the percentage shocked me. i'm not going to share it because i could be wrong. just explain it. >> if you have an at&t wireless plan for your tablet or smartphone, you'll be paying higher prices. we'll be paying higher prices for the data plans. why? because we're gobbling up 40% more. we're using a lot more. as we're getting hooked on smartphones and tablets, we're using more and more. the cheapest plan will be $5 more, 20 bucs a month. they'll throw a little prize in there and they're going to add 50 megabytes per month. you'll be able to send 150 more tweets, facebook posts, half an hour more streaming video. this is for new customers only t. starts sun. up until sunday -- >> new customers. new customers. so love the plan you have. i actually am trying to figure out if my ipad plan is going to go up. i pay like 15 bucks and i'm con stanley running out of data. >> you're an existing customer. the pacific northwest coping with a rare winter storm. it's a record amount at the seattle tacoma airport. the storms, guess where they're headed? east. rob marciano tracking it it in atlanta for us. good morning to you. >> good morning. take a look at this video out of olympia. there over a foot snow falling that broke a record also. and western washington seeing some of the highest snowfall totals they've seen in decades. there is some of the video there. very, very close to seattle itself. what a different just a few miles makes, in some cases, the further down the road, they saw a ton of snow as well. power outages in washington and oregon where winds were impressive. we'll show you that in just a second. chehalis, 16 inches, olympia, 14 inches. the winds in oregon, 110 mile-an-hour wind gusts. newport, pretty populated, 95 mile-an-hour wind gusts there. very, very strong winds with this and rainfall and now especially in oregon, a lot of the rivers are in flood stage, tremendous amount of rain coming in there and flood warnings are posted for a good unk which of that. at the higher elevations, we get some there. there's a clipper system moving across parts of midwest and western great lakes. because of that you may see delays in chicago and detroit and behind that system, guys, very, very cold air. the high temperature in minneapolis, 1 degree. we haven't really said that much this winter. >> yikes. >> that's chilly. stay warm. >> thank you far that. >> big debate, did you hear? tonight on cnn. we're pretty thrilled about it. our next guest says this man, rick perry, governor of texas, should drop out before tonight. before the debate even gets under way. why? >> you know the washington monument has been closed since august, right? it was badly damaged by the earthqua earthquake. i'll tell you about a man who sign a check for $7.5 million to fix it. >> his own money? >> his own money. i'd love to sit and chat with him for a while. give him ideas on how else he could spend that money. ♪ so don't let odor stop you. gillette odor shield. turns odor into freshness. your doctor will say get smart about your weight. that's why there's new glucerna hunger smart shakes. they have carb steady, with carbs that digest slowly to help minimize blood sugar spikes. 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[oinking] [hissing] [ding] announcer: cook foods to the right temperature using a food thermometer. 3,000 americans will die from food poisoning this year. check your steps at foodsafety.gov. have more fiber than other leading brands. they're the better way to enjoy your fiber. good morning, santa monica. i hear that is the famous santa monica pier. have you been, ashleigh? >> i've never been. >> later it will be sunny and 65 degrees. perfect weather. >> it's a good time to be in california, isn't it? >> so at 17 minutes past 5:00 in the east, we want to get you an early read on some of the local news around the country that is making national headlines. >> yes. >> you'll be interested in these. we have papers from l.a. and washington, d.c. let's start in l.a. this is a bizarre story and a real one for the "csi" fans. horrible discovery on the hollywood sign. a human head was discovered by some hikers but that's not all, folks. when the dozens of police and cadaver dogs showed up they then found two hands and then found two feet. here's what might be a real clue to this mystery. this person has not been dead for that long. so they may actually be able to use the dental records for starters. but the fingerprints from those hands are still somewhat viable. the forensics experts may be able to get in on this. they can say he has graying hair. an awful find. >> horrific. >> i've got a good story. >> good. thank you. billionaire david rubenstein is cutting a check for $7.5 million. he is going to help repair the earthquake-damaged washington monument. so one month ago, rubenstein gave $4.5 million to national zoos struggling giant panda program. love this guy. washington monument closed since the 5. 8 magnitude earthquake in august. rubenstein visited the monday yum as a little boy. he says that's memorable. he said you got a cracked monument? how can i help? >> oh, come on. >> seriously. >> did they say we have a security breach here? >> they took him seriously. >> thank you very much from the bottom of my heart. as a new american i appreciate that. crunch time. you know what tonight is. debate time. you know what, debate-schmate. two days to go before the primary race. it is getting tighter and nastier. >> things are changing. >> we got a new orc/"time" poll. newt gingrich has kind of squeezed the lead to just ten points. it was 19 not too long ago. the momentum he's had has certainly been helping to close gap. you can see that rick santorum is running behind in third place. and look, way down at the bottom at the 6% range, that's rick perry. who's in the very last spot. our next guest says those numbers are telling. it's time for rick perry to get out of the race and then go as far as to say he should endorse newt gingrich. erickson, a friend of ours here on the program. editor in chief of redstate.com. he's posting that perry just has to go ahead and do this. all right, eric erickson, here's what i have to say to you. is there no shot for a man in last place to transsubstantiate this position into something better like second or third? is it worth it and why would you go so far as to say quit before the debate. >> it is too early for me to process transsubstantiate. >> i want to share a secret. we have a joke going with our crew and this is what they gave me today. they gave me transsubstantiate. >> look at who you gave. >> you guys, i named that tune in 20 minutes. >> just so you know, i'm presbyterian, not catholic. >> good for you. >> those are my boys out there. let's get to the business. i do want to know why you think you have the power to say these kinds of things to a guy who's been working real hard. he has supporters. he's got money and sarah palin even said it's good to drag this thing out and get people more vetted. >> that's the problem, though. i don't know if i have the power to say it. i introduced him on stage back in august as the jobs governor, the next president. he announced it at an event i was holding. he's going to drop out. does he quit on sunday or today? he wants someone to advance his agenda, make washington as inconsequential as possible. he's not going to be the guy to do it. i think his campaign knows it. they're winding down to drop out on sunday or monday. why not do it today? he has 6% right now. his people really like him. polls show that newt gingrich is the second most viable person for his supporters. there's still a number of undecided people. he could be the guy who makes newt gingrich win the race. >> you've got to admit he's fun to watch in a debate. >> oh, yeah. >> he's certainly the topic a lot of headlines. i want to show you how he responded to our john king who said you're running at 6%. >> the idea that we're going to do anything else other than try to impact this election, that's why we got in it. we didn't get in it because it was our purpose in life to be the president of the united states. we did it because it was our purpose to serve this country and that's what we've been calling for and that's what we'll continue doing. >> just real quickly on that last point, do you think that rick perry is ruining the chances for newt gingrich or rick santorum to become the alternative conservative to mitt romney? >> you know, i've always said that people need to be able to convince the voters themselves. i really like rick perry. i'm afraid if he doesn't drop out before sun anden course someone else he'll be viewed legitimately as the spoiler, the guy who helped mitt romney win south carolina by refusing to drop out. he said in the interview he wanted to impact the race. the most he could have right now is to leave before saturday and endorse someone else. >> i have to get paul in here for a second. bear with me as i awkwardly get my computer up. i think we've got some maris poll numbers. you're the subject of this e-mail, my friend. you e-mailed this to he many be with the new nbc/maris poll has newt gingrich coming in at 24%. my goodness, that sounds familiar. that's a ten-po