was the only tv producer invited to whitney houston's funeral from any network. so we'll have not only the inside look, but also the explanation from bobby brown as to why he bailed on the ceremony. >> did you hear about the deadly avalanche near a ski resort in washington state. skiers buried in snow after falling 1500 feet. there were warnings of high avalanche danger. they were not supposed to be in that area. reports were it was an out-of-bounds area they were skiing in. we have all the details of that deadly avalanche coming up. the polls just keep coming in on his side. you might call it the santorum surprise. he's opened up an eight-point lead right across the nation in a brand new nationwide poll. does it mean what some people think it means? or is it a blip? we'll talk about it. mardi gras is getting an r rating. they are attempting to enforce a curfew for kids under 16 in the french quarter. how are they going to accomplish that? we'll try to find that out. >> i always thought mardi gras was r rated. isn't it? >> kind of. i wonder how they'll keep those kids out though. how do you do that with the volumes of people. >> i know i wouldn't want my kids out there. a different issue being bandied about that is creating quite a stir. let's move on to our first story of the day, whitney houston's journey home ending sunday with the private burial in new jersey. she was laid to rest at the plot next to her father, it was the cemetery in west field on her death certificate. >> our cnn producer ray lynn johnson was at the funeral. i've got to tell you. we all watched it at home as a family. incredibly moving. what was it like to be there in person? >> really there are no words to describe it but to say that for many of us it felt like three hours of church on a saturday morning. i go to a baptist church. my brother is a reverend. i know what it feels like. it felt like church. we were standing on our feet, singing hymns, clapping, the choir was so moving and inspiring. for so long i didn't realize it was a funeral because, like you said, it's a home going, a celebration of life. you want to send someone off with love and music and song and praise, and that's exactly what it was inside. there were so many moments. r. kelly would see, stevie wonder would sing. the whole entire crowd would be up on their feet as if they were at a concert. it felt more like a concert than a funeral. >> raelynn, i want to watch a moment from saturday and then i want to talk about this. >> what i know about her is she loved the lord. and if there was a grace that carried her all the way through, it was the same grace that carried her home. ♪ who can lose with god on my side ♪ ♪ no more whitney, no more do you have to cry ♪ ♪ you will always be our ribbon in the sky ♪ >> this is what we all saw, the millions of viewers. you say you came back and then you watched it on television the way we all watched it, and you said it was very different. could you explain that? >> it was. when you see it on tv. you only get that one shot from the balcony. i was seated about 20 pews back behind the family. what you didn't get to see is you didn't get to see oprah winfrey walking down the aisle with a faceful of tears. there were people laughing, singing, consoling each other. but the best thing i personally thought was the music and the way stevie wonder, kim burrell, alicia keys, they sound on tv, there's no way to describe the warmth and how much everyone was so happy and celebratory and really, really singing to someone, their be loved, the princess of newark as people know. she's such a big star and will be remembered that way. there was a lot of times, i had to pinch myself and say this is not a concert. it really is whitney houston's final good-bye, our last chance to say good-bye to her. >> you said you were 20 pews behind cissy. this is a sight we were seeing. do you recall what was one of the most difficult moments for her? >> absolutely. it was the moment when the casket was raised by the state troopers, and her song "i will always love you" was playing. the minute they started walking down the aisle at the end of the ceremony, even one just lost it. here you see it right here. it was like an audible gasp the second they hoisted her coffin up. you can see some celebrities, you can see ray jay on one side, he grabs the cassette for a little bit. but to see cissy houston come down that aisle behind her daughter's body completely broken up, i thought to myself, what does it feel like to be her right now, to know that maybe for some time you've been warning your daughter, her friends and everyone in your church community to pray for her because she's had some struggles in her life, and people always say mothers, parents are not supposed to bury their children. that moment really crystallized for me when i saw cissy houston being held up by people. i said that's the kind of grief i don't want my mother to feel. it became so serious and heavy and hard right at that very moment. >> i'm going to switch gears here, because it's something everybody is talking about. and that is bobby brown ranting about the fact that he was not allowed to sit where he wanted to sit. you were there. what did you witness? >> i saw bobby brown come in the church. he came with only three other people, so contrary to reports, those same four people you see on your television right now are the same four people that i saw come in the church including bobby brown and with his wife. he came in, walked past the casket, grabbed his wife's hand and walked up the aisle. when i saw his face, it was completely broken up. i thought, he's just moving to another area of the church. maybe he's going to the balcony. some people were up there because they had more privacy. i thought bobby brown couldn't handle the service. i think a lot of people sitting in the section around me felt the same way. had it not been for twitter reports or a statement released, no one on the inside of that church new bobby brown was having any sort of drama. i want to be very clear about something. in this type of church service at a baptist church there are strict protocols you need to follow. i know this, my bropther is the reverend. when you are part of the family in a funeral, you have to process in with the family and then you are seated. first all the guests are seated. and when the music starts and the family comes and walks down with the body, that's when the ceremony officially begins. so what i think about bobby brown is if you wanted to sit in the first two or three rows, then you needed to process in properly with the family. he was not the only celebrity who had musical chairs going on. the more vips that arrived, the more police and security teams had to sort of shuffle where people should sit. >> he wasn't singled out. >> he was not singled out. i saw that with my own eyes. >> raelynn johnson, your perspective is incredible. thanks for joining us. >> thanks for having me. coming up at 7:00 p.m. eastern, soledad o'brien will talk to reverend jesse jackson about the funeral. every morning we like to give you an early start to your day by alerting you to news happening later, stories developing now. let's start with this. iran cutting off oil to the uk and to france. and the united states urging israel hold off, do not attack. officials at the un nuclear watch dog are going to begin a second round of meetings with iranian officials about that country's nuclear program. the international atomic energy agency made a report warning it thought iran could be on its way to developing nuclear weapons. senator john mccain is in egypt meeting with the head of the egyptian military. he will be talking about the case of american workers who were charged with raising illegal foreign funding. mccain says he will be dealing with their case, but also insists -- listen to they -- he is not bill richardson and is not going to negotiate their release. it was 50 years ago today the world heard the words "god speed john glenn." president kennedy uttered those incredible words and john glenn became the first american to orbit the earth. that mission lasted about five hours and pulled the united states dead even with the russians in the space race. coming up at 7:40 eastern, on "starting point" john glenn will be here live. nasa facing deep budget cuts and hitching rides with russia, do we still have the right stuff. three skiers are dead in washington state. all the skiers are accounted for after an avalanche. authorities say they were well experienced and well equipped. >> at this point almost all of them, probably up to 12 at some point are buried in the snow. they managed to dipping themselves out of the snow. at that point they look and find three of the skiers are suffering from medical issues. they begin cpr and unfortunately they were not able to resuscitate the victims. >> the victims include jim jack, head judge for the free skiing world tour. the fourth skier was saved by an inflatable safety device that kept her from going under. that area was out of bounds for skiers at the resort. there was heavy snow that fell in the area overnight. 19 inches in just the past 24 hours. it is ten minutes now past 5:00 on the east coast. good chance to check in with rob marciano who is keeping an eye on the weather for us. >> good morning, guys. as you mentioned, heavy snow across snoqualmie pass. east of seattle and across the cascades, typically more wealth snowpack. when you get 14 or 20 inches of snow in this case and the skiers want to get out there and get some of the fresh untouched stuff out of bounds that avalanche danger is on the high side. a little more on the way of precipitation. most of the heavier stuff is heading into sierra nevadas where they desperately need it. speaking of snowfall, numbers out of virginia and kentucky, up to seven inches in some spots. most of the heavier amounts were in western parents of virginia. most of it stayed south of d.c. just pop up that virginia snow video any time and we'll take a look at it. the snow lovers just want to see it on the bushes, on the roads. thankfully it was a sunday. so the commute around this area, not terrible. you saw it piling up fairly rapidly. here it is on the radar scope. as far as where it's heading across the del marva and heading out to sea. we'll see clearing behind this. next storm up for grabs is coming into the high plains and out of the colorado rockies. wind gusts with this system as it progresses to the east. east of the mississippi should be a relatively quiet day after a pretty stormy day yesterday. >> rob, i just want to zip back to the avalanche issue for a moment. i'm a back country skier and it's always out of bounds really. but is this sort of a strange year? we've had such a weird winter. is it a strange went winter for avalanches? >> right now because the snowpack has been building especially in colorado, it's getting more and more dangerous. we started out slow, but now the snow is beginning to pile up. once we hear about it on the news, we think, oh, it's been a bad year. but no. we get many deaths every year. they know the risks when they go out there. these guys are prepared. still mother nature takes hold. that's a lot of snow, a lot of weight tumbling a long distance. this was loong avalanche, over 1500 feet. that's a dangerous situation. >> when it's that big it doesn't matter if you're wearing the beacons. if you're too far down and too buried -- "minding your business," now u.s. markets are closed for presidents day. the dow closed at the highest level since may 2008 on friday. about 15 points shy of the 1300 bench market level. the markets reopen tomorrow. alison kosik is filling in for christine romans this morning. i get really tired of saying this over and over again. but wow, greece is the word. >> i know. >> i hear greece is on the verge of default all the time. now we're getting closer to that reality? >> you know what, we really are getting closer to that if you put your faith in all the leaders meeting today. what happens in greece doesn't stay in greece anymore. what happened last week was this big meeting was supposed to happen on wednesday. that was delayed because greece needed to continue making more cuts, pay cuts, job cuts, pension cuts. so it went back to the table and then said, okay, we're going to meet monday. that brings us to today. if it's not monday, there wouldn't be a greece meeting. so we have this meeting happening today. there's this big effort to keep greece from defaulting on its debt. on march 20 pth, greece owes this big bond payment. it's ultimately trying to get this $170 billion bailout. we don't really want greece to default because we can see how its issue can spread to other countries in europe like portugal and italy, and that could cause a slowdown in the eu. we care here in the u.s. if the eu slows down because the eu, the european union, is one of our biggest trading partners. if the eu stops buying products from the u.s., that could, in turn, hurt us. that's why all eyes today, even though the markets are closed, all eyes will be on the greek meetings starting in about four hours, 9:30 eastern time. >> are we going to have the same conversation tomorrow? >> most likely. hopes are high because we're getting close to the march 20th date. >> let's talk about iran and made the decision to halt oil to britain and france. how is that affecting us? >> we're seeing a spike in oil prices overnight. oil prices jumped 1.4%, trading at about $104 a barrel. this is more sabre rattling. the back story is the eu came out and said, iran, we're not going to buy anymore oil from you starting july 1st. iran said we're going to trump you one on that. we're going to stop selling oil to britain and to france and see what happens there. so that's why you see this spike happening in oil prices, because of those sanctions that would be going into effect on july 1st because what these countries want, the eu wants and the u.s. wants is more information about iran's nuclear enrichment program. how this affects us is oil pr s prices are going up. it's going to affect manufacturing, transportation and gas prices. the oil prices go up. it costs more to make those goods and transport those goods from the manufacturing site to the retailer. gas prices are at $3.55 right now. you can expect them to go higher if oil prices stay higher as well. you usually see the lag time of two weeks. >> are you a lin fan? >> how can you not be? >> you can't wake up in the city without seeing lin headlines. this one is "king lin." the reason i ask you is i'm going to segue, jeremy lin did it again, another solid game as a new york knick. >> did you watch it? >> no, i didn't. >> it was incredible. >> knocking off the dallas mavs yesterday at madison square garden, 28 points and a career high 14 assists on the court. also a little controversy here, a lot of bit of controversy. a very controversial headline put out there. it was a racial slur used against jeremy lin. have a listen. >> -- has apologized. i don't think it was on purpose or whatever. but at the same time they've apologized. from my end, i don't care anymore. i have to learn to forgive. i don't even think that was intentional. hopefully not. >> we should tell you it's offensive and we're not saying what it is because it's offensive. you can look it up online. espn fired one of its employees, suspended another employee who used that slur on the air. >> he handles everything with such grace and humility. a winner, a winner. 17 minutes past the hour. a mid-air collision, a chopper clips a small plane. how did no one get hurt? take a look at that. you're watching "early start." ♪ they hatin' ♪ patrolling and tryin' to catch me ridin' dirty ♪ ♪ tryin' to catch me ridin' dirty ♪ ♪ tryin' to catch me ridin' dirty ♪ ♪ tryin' to 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[ding] [fans whirring] announcer: chill raw and prepared foods promptly. one in 6 americans will get sick from food poisoning this year. check your steps at foodsafety.gov. good morning, new york. that's a pretty shot. it's a little dark, but nonetheless, you can see that lovely skyline. we're lucky enough to wake up to that every day. 36 degrees in new york city. warming to 47. 21 minutes past the hour. time to check stories making news this morning. whitney houston has been laid to rest in fairview cemetery near newark, new jersey. family and friends mourned the singer in what they called a private home going service. un inspectors are in iran for another round of nuclear talks. this comes as iran fights back against sanctions by cutting off oil to the uk and france. with the u.s. saying an attack on iran would be premature. president obama's top military advisor says it is premature to be arming the syrian opposition. a rebel commander says their fight against the assad reg eej is a, quote, orphan revolution without international support. nearly two dozen people were killed in the latest violence. a tanker who spilled oil into the mississippi river has been drained and moved to a repair facility. the spill happened friday when two barges collided near new orleans. a deadly avalanche at a report in washington state. as many as 12 skiers were buried in snow after falling 1500 feet. three of them were killed. the rest have been accounted for. authorities say they were in an area that was off limits to skiers. a small plane collided mid air with a helicopter between oakland and sacramento. the helicopter pilot was not hurt after crashing the chopper. the pilot of the plane was also able to lands safely. lucky for both of them. >> way too close for comfort. we're getting an early read on local news making headlines. this morning we have papers from houston and chicago. let's start with "the chicago tribune." apparently more people are choosing a paycheck over a degree. these are community colleges we're talking about. enrollment is falling as tough economic realities hit hard. the students say they can't wait two years to start earning money. in spring 2012, community college enrollment was down almost 3% from last year. the number of full-time students is down 4.5%.