may officially get behind him or will they? we have details meetings, planned ahead. >> and birds cause another scare in the sky. this is the second one this week. a flight with 54 people on board turns around after geese smack into the windshield. ew! >> and president obama slow jamming on student loans with jimmy fallon. >> now is not the time to make school more expensive for our young people. >> oh, yeah. >> the president going late night to grab some young voters. we'll have the highlights for you. >> he looks too serious in the background. >> mitt romney so close to the republican nomination now he can taste it. the former massachusetts goer sweeping to victory in the biggest day of the gop primary voting since super tuesday winning new york, connecticut, pennsylvania, rhode island and delaware. it seems inevitable he will clinch the nomination next month. last night he tore into president obama, promising a better america under his watch. >> because he has failed, he will run a campaign of diversions and distractions and distortions. that kind of campaign may have worked at another place and in a different time. but not here. and not now. it's still about the economy. and we're not stupid.ç >> cnn political editor paul steinhauser is joining us live from washington this morning. paul, it seems romney has finally put the proomry politics behind him and he is zeroing in on president obama and the general election. what does his speech last night say about his strategy against the president? >> and he has been trying to do this, zoraida, for quite some time. i guess you could say last night's speech was 15 minutes in length by the way, long on rhetoric, mostly short on specific policies. was basically a taste you could say of maybe the speech he will give at the republican convention in tampa in late august. a look ahead, firing away on president obama what he's done for the past three years. did he use the word conservative? no, he didn't. i went back and checked. maybe he's trying to pivot from a primary campaign to a general election campaign. another interesting thing, zoraida, polls indicate mitt romney, most americans think has a problem relating to average americans and the problems they're dealing with. take a listen to what he said here. >> for every single mom who feels heartbroken when she has to explain to her kids that she needs to take a second job and won't be home as often, for grandparents who can't afford the gas to visit their grandchildren anymore, for the mom and dad who never thought they'd be on food stamps, to all of you, i have a simple message. hold on a little longer. a better america begins tonight. >> mitt romney tried to reach out to average americans. i think you'll hear more of that. on his to do list, immediately, fund raise, fund raise, fund raise. he trails president obama 10-1 in campaign cash. >> a lost folks thought he connected with that speech. >> yes, exactly. you know, he realizes one of his problems is likability. president obama has it, he doesn't, according to most polls. i think he tried to do that in the speech and i think, to a degree, he was pretty successful. >> an interesting moment on piers morgan. piers talking to rick santorum and asking him about endorsing mitt romney. let's listen first and we'll talk. >> you got it. >> he's the person that's going to go up against president obama, it's pretty clear. we need to win this race. >> is that an endorsement? i'm not mishearing things? you just endorsed mitt romney. >> you can call it whatever you want. >> am i wrong? >> look, i believe -- >> karen, you know your husband. has he just endorsed mitt romney? >> not at this point, no. we're working through it, talking about it. >> we're working through it, we're talking about it. why won't he just endorse romney? >> you know, you have to give piers credit for trying. >> oh, yes. >> here's what we know, top santorum advisers are telling us there will be a meeting on may 4th between santorum and romney. not an endorsement meeting, a meeting to talk about that. the people that backed santorum in the primaries, what kind of role they could have the in general election. this process will go on. what about the other guy, newt gingrich. >> yes. >> you saw him in north carolina campaigning ahead of the primaries in two weeks. he did not have a good night. he lost in delaware where he really worked hard, lost by a 2-1 margin to romney. he said in his speech we'll have to look realistically at where we are and where we're going. he did not drop out. he said he would continue to campaign in north carolina through the weekend. stay tuned, zoraida. >> stay tuned, indeed. paul steinhauser, live in washington, d.c., thank you very much. for the second time in less than a week, a passenger jet departing new york has been forced to make an emergency landing after being hit by a bird. the latest incident happened at westchester county airport, in suburban new york city. not far from the main airport. a jetblue flight headed to west palm beach was forced to turn back 50 minutes after it took off because two geese slammed into the jet's windshield. none of the 54 passengers on board was hurt. they were all put on another plane but the windshield is a different story. it did suffer damage. listen to this incident as it went down from the cockpit radio transmissions. >> contact new york departure. >> 7571 we have to come back. we hit two big geese. >> jetblue 571 roger and stand by. >> jetblue 571 make right traffic runway. >> you have to hand it to the pilots and controllers. how calm are they after they say we're declaring an emergency? these pictures, that was just last thursday, a delta flight out of kennedy making a quick turnaround after birds were sucked into an engine right after takeoff. >> scary çmoments. mad cow disease in california? that's right, the first confirmed case in the united states in six years now. the agricultural department says it was discovered at a random test on a dairy cow at a facility. the carcass is being quarantined while the plant waits for word on the usda of how to dispose of it. south korea plans to strengthen inspections of beef imported from the united states in the response to the case of mad cow. two of the country's retailers have halted sales as well. a former aide to john edwards will be back on the witness stand for a third day of testimony. andrew young is set to be cross-examined by the defense. prosecution's star witness telling the court yesterday about detailed plans that john edwards made with him in order to hide his affair with a pregnant mistress, rielle hunter. andrew testified about a day that rielle hunter made so many frantic calls, he said somebody better be preg nan or dying. she reply, no one's dying. edwards called her, quote, a crazy slut and, quote, there's a one in three chance that it was his child. eight minutes past the hour. jimmy fallon taking his late show on the road to the university north carolina where president obama was courting the student vote. the president was fallon's special guest. >> how mad were you? >> pretty mad. look, secret service, these guys are incredible. they protect me, they protect michelle, they protect our girls, our officials all around the world. 99.9% of them every day, they're putting their life on the line and do a great job. so a couple of knuckleheads shouldn't detract from what they do, but what these guys were thinking, i don't know. that's why they're not there anymore. >> easy to understand. a couple of knuckleheads. you want some of that obama/fallon slow jam, we'll have it later for you this hour. gas prices dropping again this morning. the new national average just announced by aaa, $3.84 per gallon for regular unleaded. we're doing the math for you. it's down about a dime from the start of the month. many experts say we've seen the peak of gas prices for the year but only the tension with iran remains in check. if oil prices go up, you know what happens, gas prices usually follow. ninth consecutive decrease. that's good news. >> very good news. ten minutes past the hour, still ahead, scary surveillance video of an over-the-counter bat attack at mcdonald's. no one saw him coming. he just started swinging. and give peace a chance? how about give suspension a chance. the nba handing down punishment to metta world peace, also known as ron artest for throwing a violent elbow on the court. here it is. ow! it hurt. it's going to cost the lakers in the playoffs. you'll find out how much in a moment. helps transform dry, thinning skin, by strengthening its moisture barrier, for improved texture and elasticity in 2 weeks. reveal healthy, supple skin. aveeno skin strengthening. reveal healthy, supple skin. 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[ male announcer ] marriott hotels & resorts knows it's better for xerox to automate their global invoice process so they can focus on serving their customers. with xerox, you're ready for real business. 13 minutes past 5:00 on the east coast. newt gingrich is re-assessing his candidacy after mitt romney swept all five contests. the former house speaker was hoping to pull off a primary victory in delaware last night. now he's contemplating his future. >> over the next few days we'll look realistically at where we're at. we have worked very, very hard. we've had a lot of support from an amazing number of people. we're going to it be here in north carolina all week. i'm confident we'll have lots of folks to talk with and we're going to talk about a lot of key ideas. i also want to do that as somebody who is a unifier and somebody who's realistic. >> gingrich's campaign is $4.3 million in debt. he has 23 events scheduled in north carolina this week and says he plans to attend every one of them. police in lakeland, florida, are searching to are this guy. take a close look. he went after a manager of a local mcdonald's. in his hand, if you squint, a baseball bat. from the start to finish, the customer's attack just off camera lasted just a little under 30 seconds but employees said they recognize this guy because he apparently visited before and complained about the service. nba suspended metta world peace of the l.a. lakers for seven games, for throwing a nasty elbow. take a look at it there, that floored oklahoma city's james harden on sunday and left him with a concussion. that means world peace will miss the entire first round playoff series unless it goes seven games. the u.s. supreme court is taking up the fight on immigration. today justices are hearing oral arguments an arizona's controversial immigration law. that arizona law is known as sb-1070. it requires local police to check immigration status if there's a reasonable suspicion the person is in the country illegally. some people say that's profiling. but arizona says federal government has failed to control the problems that that state says it has to suffer through on a regular basis. our kate baldwin is live in d.c. she's been covering this. she's a supreme court expert right now with medicare and all the rest. this looks like a classic supreme court battle between state and federal jurisdiction. >> you absolutely hit it right there. the justices will hear one hour of oral arguments today, state versus federal authority, a classic battle before the supreme court. the key issue before the court is who should be enforcing illegal immigration laws. they also say the law is meant to assist, not interfere, assist in their view, the federal government to stop illegal immigration. state officials are saying that they're stepping in where they believe the federal government has so far failed. the obama administration, though, says it's absolutely the opposite. they argue that arizona would be interferining with what is exclusively federal authority and the law in their view could damage relations with immigration and make matters worse. i talked to a phoenix police officer and the head of a private group patrolling the border. both men on the front lines of the fight against illegal immigration but they couldn't be farther apart. listen here. >> i think it's a racist law. because that law was basically picks and chooses certain people. when i took an oath 20 years ago, iç said i'm going to enfoe all laws and treat everyone equal, i can't treat the has panpa -- hispanic hispani hispanics equally because i'm going to profile them. >> we are going to make sure the federal government gets all the help it needs to do the job. >> after oral arguments happening later this morning, we'll likely get a decision from the justices in the next couple months. another election year battle, the political stakes couldn't be higher either. >> no kidding. today only eight justices hearing the case. why is that? >> another wild element to this. only eight justices, justice alena kagan has pulled herself out from hearing this case because she was involved with the obama administration and this law. it raises the possibility of a 4-4 split, meaning this election year fight could be pushed to another day. that would be very interesting. >> it just keeps getting more exciting, don't it? supreme court wild, who would have thunk that we'd put those together. good to see krogh. a quick check of the weather. meteorologist rob marciano in atlanta. good morning to you. >> good morning, guys. it's going to remain cool across the northeast. the pattern that brought that crazy storm the past couple of days is still there. it's still rotating, a few showers. probably won't get to the new york city or philadelphia area, certainly upstate, rain and snow showers and that circulation driving down into the carolinas as well with light rain here. another quick system is moving across the northern tier state. that will bring the threat for severe weather across the great lakes and in through the ohio river valley with a warm front. that will create a threat for mostly large hail, damaging winds possible. and isolated tornadoes although not a huge threat butt be on yor toes for that. the other issue is out west, a couple of big storms moving northwest and the southwest corner of the u.s., l.a. 96 in roswell with 88 degrees yesterday in the mile high city of denver. we'll see similar numbers again tad. some of the spots will be over 20 degrees above where they would typically be for this time of year. 90 degrees expected in dallas. how about that? 90 in kansas city. a cool 60 degrees in new york. >> 90? hot stuff. wow. i did 33 days straight over 110 degrees in dallas. lived through that. >> my kind of weather. >> ew! serious? you burn your hands on your steering wheel if you don't park in the shade. we digress. thanks, rob. time to get an early read of all the news -- we read every one of these, start to finish, top to bottom. >> after the show, pretty much. >> they make it in here right for show time. we have papers from new york to chicago. let's start with the "new york times." this one's a bit annoying to say the least. ever been in an emergency room? you might find yourself in an emergency room being visited bedside not by a nurse or doctor but by a debt collector. ain't kidding here. there's a big accusation about wicked tactics this group is using. the minnesota attorney general is at the helm of this. she says accretive put employees into emergency rooms. at times they didn't necessarily identify themselves about debt collectors and actually made threats. so far we're not hearing about any violation, though, that's officially being charged which may be just down the road. but we know there's a civil suit that may be pending in this case. let's head to the "chicago tribune." a florida man is facing five years in prison for stealing a $1 soda from mcdonald's. he asked for a cup for water and therapy he filled that with soda. he has a long history of theft convictions and that is what bumped up this case to a felony. funny thing, his nickname is red clown. he has absolutely no relation to that guy, ronald mcdonald. people are upset about this. for a buck, really? >> you should see the string of mug shots this guy has. it's a string of all these things that he had done. they finally decided not a three strike issue, like a 23 strike issue. >> keep him behind bars. >> yes. >> taxpayers money, but you might not have to take another mug shot of him. save on the polaroid. still ahead, 16,000 iphones sold every hour. the most valuable company in the world gets even bigger.ç staggering numbers in apple's quarterly report. christine romans, true to form, telling us it's true, folks. this company is unbelievable. we're minding your business, next. 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