good evening, i'm ali velshi sitting in for erin burnett "outfront" tonight. newt sinking and santorum surging a brand-new poll out of iowa and it has stunning, new numbers. the former front-runner, newt gingrich, plunging from his top slot, down to fourth place. former pennsylvania senator rick santorum doing the opposite, he surged from single digits into third place. mitt romney now leads the pack with 25%, and there's another new poll out of new hampshire where the nation's second contest in the race for the gop nominee will be held one week later on january the 10th. mitt romney dominating his opposition there. he's at 44%. rivals ron paul and newt gingrich trailing 17% and 16%, respectively. let's go right to political correspondent joe johns. he's on the ground in iowa. joe, this is a bit of a shocker. santorum rising as much as he has. he was out there with representative steve king on the hunting trip. king did not endorse him on that trip. it made people wonder, we're so close, this is a guy to every county in the state. he still couldn't get that endorsement. what has done this for rick santorum? >> reporter: ali, i've got to tell you, a lot of people thought that santorum was underperforming in the state of the polls for a long time. like you said. he's been to every county. he's spent more time here than i think any other candidate has been running for president. he also talks and speaks to the issues that so many evangelicals and social conservatives in state really concern themselves with. so it's probably not surprising that rick santorum at last was going to get his day in the sun here in iowa, if you will. it's a huge jump going from 5% in one poll all the way up to 16% in another poll, which really suggests that of all these candidates and the way that the polls have gone up and down, rick santorum may be surging at exactly the right time for a guy running for president, ali. >> it's still a game of small numbers, though. 43% of iowans polled said that they might participate in the caucuses say they could change their mind. which means, is santorum gaining from the undecided? is he gaining from newt gingrich's losses? what about 43%? that's a bigger number than anybody is polling right now. >> reporter: right. and if you think of the arc of the eye caucus race, again and again and again you've seen conservatives come up and then you've seen them go down as people look at their baggage, elect ability, a variety of other questions, backgrounds, personal histories. rick santorum is a guy who basically hasn't gotten his shot yet. okay. so who's the big loser here? it's pretty clear that newt gingrich has just sunk pretty dramatically in the polls. no doubt that has at least a little bit to do with the fact that he's just been attacked over and over again by mitt romney, by ron paul, by others. he's really been quite a target and a lot of people who watch the ads and watch the polls very carefully say the ads might have something to do with gingrich's drop in the polls. >> but, but, we seen, joe, every one of these candidates who hit close to the top spot and they take that hit. this is something that has not happened to santorum or jon huntsman in this race. >> reporter: that's very true. it certainly hasn't happened to rick santorum. i have to tell you, he's something of a known quantity. >> right. >> reporter: he spent quite a while in the united states senate. people know him pretty well and know his record. a lot of people have dug around trying to find skeletons in his closet and i don't think they found a whole lot of them. jon huntsman hasn't spent a lot of time here in iowa at all. >> right. >> reporter: now his moment likely to be in new hampshire. >> right. >> >> reporter: that is a place, of course, where mitt romney appears to be doing great right now in the polls, ali. >> right. but romney is so dominating things in that state. joe, good discussion. we're going to be having a lot of them over the course of the next few days. joe johns and the best political team in television in iowa. let's go to john avlon, kiki mclean, and rich galen. he's a republican strategist. kiki, i feel bad for you. what have you got to contribute to this discussion? iowa is the hottest place for a democrat the last time around. you know john made a point -- i'm going to put to you first, kiki -- but john made a point where he said that the conservatives in iowa self-select in many cases in their participation in these caucuses and you've got an extra dose of conservative in the thing. >> yes. >> so santorum, with a good showing here, really bears very little relationship to the country. >> yeah. it's interesting. there are three or four things i would tell people to pay attention to over the next six days. the first is that i had the benefit of working for president richard gephardt 24 years ago and as a democrat he won the iowa caucuses. the the other thing that's interesting to pay attention to is you don't hear a conversation about new participants the way that you did for barack obama in 2008. are there a lot of new people that are going to flood those church basements and school cafeterias? at the company where i work, the other thing that we've been paying attention to, the analytic team has been combing social media to see where that intensity is and they are really seeing it in the conversations about gingrich. >> yep. >> and the attacks on him and from the paul people. you don't see santorum with an online presence quite with the level of intensity that you do from ron paul's people. so take your polling, measure that with a little bit of analysts of social media, and don't forget barack obama had tremendous intensity in social media and in the digital world last time. then the last thing i'd remind you is that that bounce into new hampshire and buchanan and mike huckabee out of iowa caucuses last time. and the final thing that i would say, this isn't necessarily about who wins and the numbers that day. it's who wins in the trend. >> all right. let me -- >> like bill clinton did in new hampshire. >> let me ask you this, rich, if i were kiki's people, if i were democrats, i would send a thousand volunteers to help newt gingrich. because if romney walks away from this and catches on in new hampshire where he's good a commanding lead, this poses more problems for barack obama than were newt gingrich were the nominee. >> that is true. i think kiki said this earlier -- or you said earlier to joe, this is the terror of small numbers and this is one data point. you have to be careful when these sorts of shifts happen this dramatically, it may make you stop and wait. the register will have the final poll in sun's paper. that means they will release it saturday night and we'll see if those numbers match up with these numbers. if you're the gingrich people you've got to say, oh, this is going to be tough. if i'm advising gingrich, which i'm not, i would say, let's wave to new hampshire, we'll go there for the debates and camp out in south carolina, and we will do battle with santorum in south carolina. wish goes on, loser goes home. >> john, let me ask you something. it's interesting what kiki said about there's no magic of these independents. there's no magic in fiscal conservatives supporting mitt romney. they actually like jon huntsman more in some cases but they don't figure he's got a chance. there's no imagine nick social conservatives choosing between michele bachmann and santorum, and figuring maybe santorum's got the momentum. what about the 43% of those people that say they are going to caucus who haven't got a choice, who haven't made a choice yet? >> momentum can matter a great six days out from a caucus about re caucus are low turnout, high intensity elections and skew overwhelmingly conservative. 80% of caucusgoers are conservatives. what is fascinating about the poll is the surge for santorum, because social conservatives, people looking for that conservative al ternive to romney with gingrich's numbers cut in half now saying, maybe it's santorum's turn, he's been to 99 counties. the other thing that really strikes me is that mitt romney remains stuck at that glass ceiling of 25% and playing it out, whatever happens in the primaries and the momentum game out of iowa and if other candidates start coalescing, 75% of the party that seems to want someone other than mitt romney, that's where things can get interesting. >> let me remind you, four years ago, president obama, who became president obama, won the iowa caucus with just under 38% of the vote. so 60-something percent of iowans wanted someone else but he got to raise his hand january 20th. >> let me ask you this, kiki. mitt romney was on the situation room with wolf blitzer earlier today he responded to newt gingrich's complaints about him about too many attack ads. listen to what romney said. >> you're going to get into a campaign like this, you've got to have broad shoulders and if you can't take on the negative that is part of a primary, you're surely not going to be able whats coming from barack obama. if you can't handle the heat in the kitchen wait until barack obama's hell's kitchen. >> what do you think, kiki? sounds like he's staying above the fray? >> i don't think anybody attaches high levels of personal negativity from barack obama. but mitt romney said something that is very important, and that is, when you see the level of negativity going on, which is not unnatural in the last week in an iowa caucus, but what you see here the sheer volume demonstrates the level of vulnerability that all these of these candidates have. gingrich has a laundry list of issues. you've got people like rick perry, nobody even talks about him except that he's changing his opinion on the issue of choice. you have mitt romney that can't break the ceiling. by the way, why won't he put out his tax returns? what it's demonstrating is the litany of the political vulnerability which i think could come out in a general election. >> he didn't say he wouldn't do it. he say he may do it and if nobody else has put out their tax returns either, all things in their time. i listened to that whole interview. he didn't say he wouldn't do it. unlike, by the way, john kerry who never released his records no matter -- >> none of us are going to be all that surprised to find out that mitt romney is a very, very rich man. kiki, john, rich, thank you. still "outfront," a young girl in indiana is murdered and dismembered by the man who was supposed to be baby sitting her. we learn more disturbing details about the crime and the suspect. and the autopsy results of a family of five killed in a tragic christmas day fire. what we learned about their final minutes. and a funeral marks the end of kim jong-il's reign. and kim jong-il's accomplishments. did he really invent the hamburger? we're going to take a look back. 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[ giggles ] the funeral for the late north korean dictator kim jong-il was held today in pyongyang. it was elab rate and highly choreographed. hearse made it through the snowy streets. a giant portrait of the dead dictator led the way. kim's son, there is he, the expected predecessor, kim jong-un, walked alongside the the black car carrying his father's casket on top, not inside. they wailed as the procession went by. some question whether these cries are a product of true grief or whether they stem from a place of fear as uncertain future and uncertain future lies ahead for one of the world's most repressed societies. with me is a handful of people who knows a little bit about this. governor bill richardson has spent a lot of time in the country. he's had an inside look into the north korean leadership. governor richardson, thank you for being with us. >> nice to be with you. thank you. >> our reporter, paula hancock, who was covering this from south korea, but look at the video, we see the same video, it's all provided by the north koreans, said that there did seem to be a difference between the people up close, up front, like anywhere else mourning and wailing the way that they are and the people in the distance who seemed to be onlookers, who seemed to be looking at the whole thing. in other words, was this outcry -- you've been there -- are these people as devastated as they look that kim jong-il has passed? >> well, it's all very choreographed. i do think there's a lot of grief there. it's a funeral procession that is basically based on the cult of personality. kim jong-un, the youngest son, is now the leader. that's the message that is being conveyed. the root of the funeral, the grandfather, the father of the country, then kim's father, and now i think what is interesting is leading the funeral procession is a signal that kim jong-un is now the leader. what was interesting is that the uncle was right behind him. >> right. >> he's now vice chair of the national defense commission. so it shows that he's kind of going to be a mentor, maybe a reegent kind of help guide kim jong-un in his early days. but now that the ceremony is observe, now that the funeral is over, tomorrow the last funeral event, now you will see the consolidation of power by the military through kim jong-un or you might see some disruption. but i think the odds are that kim jong-un for the next period of time will be anointed leader. >> well, this is one of those weird conundrums where you know these repressive leaders are there and then when they are gone you have equal measure fear that they will be vacuum and lead to in-fighting and then it will lead to instability versus hope that the new leader might be more opened to the outside world. where do you think this falls? >> well, there is some good signs. the good sign is that the new leader, kim jong-un, did meet with south korean leaders, two women leaders that came to pay condolences. he was very proper. and, secondly, he did convey to them the need for south korea's investment in north korea. so he's already acting like a leader. those are two initial good signs. but what you want to watch in the next few days is north korean military leadership, the socialist worker party. those are the two entities that have the power in north korea. especially the military. but it looks like they are anointing kim jong-un, the young man. they are getting behind him. i think the message of the ceremony, the funeral, is unity, the call to personality continues and it's very, very, very closely, tightly held. so even somebody like myself who has been there eight times, you've got to watch these clues and the clues are that the young man is stepping into the most powerful position for now. >> we'll watch it very closely and hopefully you will help us interpret it as we get more signals. governor bill richardson, always a pleasure to see you. >> thank you. when a leader dies, we put together a package celebrating the achievements of their life but it's been difficult to find what is fact and what is fiction when it comes to the claims made by and about kim jong-il. so, please, while watching this keep in mind, some of these things might not be true. ♪ >> double rainbow all the way across the sky. >> "outfront" next, erin's interview with the prime minister of the uae sheikh mohammed. they discuss dubai, iran and the future of the middle east. and the obama administration asks congress to raise the country's debt ceiling by $1.2 trillion. there is nog funny about that. and america's new favorite comedian, arlen spector? with your mortgage, worried about foreclosure. we can help you keep your house. all we ask for in return is that you submit to our plans for galactic domination. [laughing] [laughing hesitantly] [laughing evilly] sign. announcer: if you're facing foreclosure, talk to the right people. speak with hud-approved housing counselors free of charge at... the obama administration is asking congress to raise the country's debt ceiling by $1.2 trillion. let's bring in cnn's congressional correspondent dana bash, who joins us from washington. dana, this wasn't entirely unexpected. is the administration going to face the same obstacles that it saw this summer in getting it approved? >> ali, the answer is no. no doubt that the debt ceiling will be raised and it will happen without the flail-biting political drama we saw in the summer because at the end of the that debt debacle, fair to say it was a debt debacle, the debt ceiling will go up with no economic disruption and in a way that spares these politicians in both parties the political pain of voting for more spending in an election year and what the law says is that if the treasury department determines that the u.s. is within $100 billion of the debt limit, the president has to ask congress for an increase. but here's the catch. congress only has to disapprove about that and has 15 days to do it. and guess what, congress is not here. even if they were here, they probably wouldn't have votes in the senate. but congress is not here. >> despite the fact that this has been prearranged, to come degree, has there been a gop reaction to this request? because you would think that it would at least present an tune for those who voted against it last time to be able to say, this is just more of the same nonsense. >> exactly. and there are definitely a lot of republicans, despite the fact that this was scripted, that are not very happy about not having the opportunity to have this debate on the floor of the house and the senate to rail against spending. and they say they are not happy because this is kind of a power play by the president. he could have easily waited to make this request so that congress is in town but the obama administration knows full well that congress is not here. you may hear a demand from republicans for the senate democratic leader to call the senate back in for the house to do the same but i was told that that's unlikely. but this is campaign candy for those republicans out in iowa who are railing against president obama as a liberal spender. >> it will be one more example that they will use. dana, thank you. >> you too, ali. disturbing details about the final moments of the family killed in a christmas day house fire. we have the autopsy results. then, iran's plan to block the world's most strategically important oil choke point, the strait of hormuz. a real threat or military posturing? and erin's exclusive interview with the prime minister of the uae, sheikh mohammed. she asked him about iran. "outfront," next.te to see ithrough. today, while our work continues, i want to update you on the progress: see ithrough. bp has set aside 20 billion dollars to fund economic and environmental recovery. we're paying for all spill- related clean-up costs. and we've established a 500 million dollar fund so independent scientists can study the gulf's wildlife and environment for ten years. thousands of environmental samples from across the gulf have been analyzed by independent labs under the direction of the us coast guard. i'm glad to report all beaches and waters are open for everyone to enjoy. and the economy is showing progress with many areas on the gulf coast having their best tourism seasons in years. i was born here, i'm still here and so is bp. we're committed to the gulf for everyone who loves it, and everyone who calls it home. nyqui tylenol: me, too. and cougnasal congestion.ers? nyquil:what? tissue box (whispering): he said nasal congestion... nyquil: i heard him. anncr vo: tylenol cold multi-symptom nighttime relieves nasal congestion... nyquil cold & flu doesn't. the u.s. has a warning for iran, pretty simple, don't try it. iran is threatening to block tankers trying to pass through the strategically important choke points you see it at right of the screen, the strait of hormuz. that as the u.s. navy issues its own warning to tehran. anyone threatens who disrupt freedom of navigation in an international strait is clearly outside the community. any disruption will not be tolerated. we should note that both iran and the united states patrol that particular area. to put a bigger perspective on the story, i want to bring in retired u.s. army general, james marks. good to talk to you. >> how are you? >> what do you make of this statement? the navy statement. the saber rattling about the strait of hormuz. it not new. >> no, it's not new at all. and the u.s. central command owns that piece of terrain, that piece of geography, as they say. and the subordinate to that is the u.s. 5th fleet, and the 5th fleet has been headquartered in bahrain for years, they know that strait of hormuz intimately and part of their mission set is to ensure freedom of movement. and that's what the navy does in sea lines of communications all over the world. very specifically, there's a narrow choke point is mission number one for them to ensure that 40% of the oil global oil supply and demand that passes through the strait will be uninterrupted. >> for folks who don't know, it's really a choke point. a lot of it gets loaded into ships and gets sent through that strait of hormuz that is small enough, narrow enough that it big gun on either side could disrupt a ship. the u.s. is there. there's never been -- there's never been an attack on a ship there but the u.s. has always said that it's ready if there's an attempt at disruption. what would that look like? >> first, let's make sure that we're straight on the numbers. 90% of the oil produced in the region passes through the strait. >> so it's 15%, 16% of the world's 6 oil passes through there. >> it's 40% of the world's oil. so it's huge -- so without getting into numbers, it's a huge monster amount of oil. >> phenomenal, yeah. >> it absolutely would disrupt international markets instantaneously. >> sure. >> if it was blockaded. now, to the point of blockade versus disruption, iran can disrupt the flow going through the strait of hormuz from the air, with surface-to-fur says missiles. they don't have the ability to establish a blockade. a blockade is extremely restrictive. >> right. >> it would require actions from the air, subsurface, surface lane of mines, subsurface mine activity, and every one of those actions would be surveilled and picked up by the united states intelligence community instantaneously, meaning that the iranians would never get in a position to fully institute a blockade. just wouldn't happen. >> could they set a tanker on fire? >> oh, sure. but you blow right by it and say, really unfortunate to be on that tanker while on fire. >> right. >> it's not going to disrupt the full passage. strait's 34 miles. >> right. >> but it has three islands and it has two miles of passageway for inward and outward bound shipping. >> right. >> called a two-mile buffer zone. so there's plenty of room to get all of those tanks through. so to set a tanker on fire would have a negligible effect. >> and everything has an effect in markets. everything has an effect on oil markets these days. >> in fact, ali, the fact that the iranians made the statement spiked the price of oil today. it's now metered itself down a little bit. >> yeah. >> but absolutely activities like that would affect the markets. >> but you don't think that anything could happen that couldn't be brought under control by the united states patrolling that area almost instantaneously? >> true statement on your part. the fleet wouldn't let it happen. >> always a pleasure talking to you. >> thanks, ali. opposition against the syrian country continues in homs. air lab league monitors in orange vests taking cover during heavy gunfire. the firefight coming on the same day that the head of the arab league team that says what the monitors have seen so far in homs was messy, there was nothing particularly frightening about it. as you just saw, i vens liz growing in syria. recent scenes in cairo show egypt is in disarray but there are few countries in the middle east which have escaped significant unrest in the arab spring and one of them is the united arab emirates. erin burnett has spent a lot of time in the middle east and in the uae and recently she spent a day with prime minister of the uae, the rule or of dubai. there he is. his name is sheikh mohammed. the man that ex-pats refer to as sheikh mo. locals call his highness. >> reporter: a perfect december day to celebrate the 40th anniversary of one of the youngest countries in the world. this is the united arab emirates and the man who built its crowned jewel, dubai, is still at the helm. >> i had a dream. >> reporter: a dream of skyscrapers where 40 years ago there were literally sand dunes, tents and small forts. now the world's tallest building rises from the desert. the center of the city. and the backdrop for the rich and famous, including tom cruise and his stunt move for the latest movie, "mission impossible" he dangled 153 stories in the air. in the year of the arab spring this city is a haven for people seeking escape. judy is a student from syria. >> living here alone, i never feel unsafe, uncomfortable of living here. >> reporter: even the ruler still walks without a security detail. dubai is diverse. 85% of the people who live here are expats and people from 200 countries pass through so far, though, there's been no suicide bomber in the city. are you worried that extremists, someone would want to target with a terrorist act, you've got people drink in the bars, women can wear bikinis in the middle east? >> that has not been a problem for us. they are living together and have an interest to come here so they work and sent home some money from here and they don't want to disturb that, you know? >> reporter: the sheikh begins his day at his horse ranch, about an hour's drive from dubai. >> the horse and the falcon and the dog is part of our life. >> reporter: in the summer, it's about 120 degrees farenheit. but on a december day we visited, it was about 80. perfect weather to watch emirati governing in action. when they have a chance to directly petition their ruler for everything from more land to liver transplants. >> anybody can come to the ruler and say, well, i didn't get that or that or this department or this ministry didn't give me my right. >> reporter: and they directly ask you? you didn't do this, or i want that and then you have to answer to the individual person? >> yes. and they would complain about that one ministry. so i get hold of the minister and why you didn't do your job? >> reporter: he tells us he likes to sleep in the desert alone every ten days but he is a royal. and in a country sitting on 10% of the world's oil, that means transportation is a $20 million augusta westland helicopter. the ride takes 25 minutes to abu dhabi. the political capital of the emirates. a city literally perched on top of the country's oil. abu dhabi rakes in $9 billion a month in cash. a crash that left some of the famous manmade islands empty. real estate prices are 60% lower than two years ago and one of two homes are empty. according to an expert, he has spent the last decade living and working in dubai. >> clearly they need support and they needed support in 2009 when abu dhabi bailed them out. >> reporter: that bailout meant a loss of political power for shaikh mohammed. even the name of the dubai named after the ruler of abu dhabi. sheikh mow happened's cabinet meetings are in abu dhabi. the one we sat in on was about the budget which is now posted online. a move to transparency that resonates with some students in the midst of revolution, like egypt. monica is egyptian and a senior at the american university of dubai. >> the emirates should be a role model for our country and the way it is ruled. >> reporter: but it's not that simple. >> they have been the front-runner in terms of freedom of the press in the region and relative toaddhabi it's far more open. but since 2008, 2009 crisis, we have seen some missteps. there's been a clamp down in the media. the transparency has been questionable. investors have wanted more access and more data that hasn't really been there. so they are concerned. >> people will say, the press isn't totally free. >> as long as they don't say something wrong about a person or authorities they can say anything they want. you know, and as i told you, we are not perfect. you know, we are still learning. >> do you think that democracy is a good thing? >> we have our own democracy. you cannot transport your democracy to us. >> your son will rule after you. father to son, will that continue forever, do you think? >> as long as the people want that. >> still, in the aftermath of the arab spring, some say dubai sheikh and the rulers in abu dhabi are using money to prevent unrest. salaries for government workers, you recently doubled that. >> yeah. >> and some say it's because you were worried about unrest in the uae from the arab spring. is there any truth in that? >> no. it's not because of the arab spring. we did it before the arab spring started and before that if you look at the last ten years, you will see we have doubled a few times. >> reporter: whatever the motivation, and our many visits here, the young and most of the expats are pro-government. >> i would like to thank his highness for what he has done for us, for everything. >> in one word, sheikh mohammed is a visionary. >> reporter: albeit with a vision of freedom that is different than the west. here you can go to jail if you don't pay your mortgage. but sheikh is not embarrassed of this reputation. >> it is strict but you don't put in jail everybody that comes here. >> reporter: sheikh mohammed is focused on one thing, building a city on a hill where the hills are few and far between. how much farther do you want to go? >> to be number one. >> another issue that sheikh mohammed and erin talked about was iran. erin reported while it's often overlooked iranians own about 20% of their property. iranian money helped build dubai. sheikh mohammed admitted to erin that u.s. sanctions on iran are not good for dubai but he also told her that he doesn't believe iran will develop a nuclear weapon. a family of five killed in a house fire christmas day, the do disturbing d ining details of t moments. a man arrested for a crime. when he murdered and dismembers her he was already wanted for violating his parole. ♪ [ male announcer ] it's easy to see what subaru owners care about. ♪ that's why we created the share the love event. get a great deal on a new subaru and 250 dollars goes to your choice of five charities. ♪ with your help, we can reach 20 million dollars by the end of this, our fourth year. 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[ male announcer ] the new capital one cash rewards card. the card for people who want 50% more cash. what's in your wallet? sorry i'll clean this up. shouldn't have made it rain. autopsy results are in for the five family members killed in a tragic christmas day fire in stamford connecticut. lomer johnson died of head drama after falling through the roof rafters while trying to save one of his grand chirp. that's him in the santa claus outfit. johnson also died of smoke inhalation as did his wife and three grandchildren. the children's mother, new york ad executive, madonna badger, and a friend escaped the deadly blaze. official officials say the fire was caused by ember placed in the back of the $1.7 million home. joining us is a reporter for our affiliate station wfsb. robert, thanks for joining us. the news today is the autopsy results. what else unfolded? the blunt-force trauma clearly from the fall and they've ruled out foul play? >> reporter: ali, yes, there is no foul play being investigated. sources telling us that the fact that even that they put these ashes in an area that didn't properly discard them does not rise to the negligent levels. so they are not pursing that in any way. but there are still questions going on about whether they should have been in certain parts of that home. this was a huge home, as you said. it was a $1.7 million home and there was a major section of it being renovated. so they were not allowed to be actually living in that space so they are looking into that and they are looking into a few other things, including whether the smoke detection system was enabled at that point. >> let me just ask you this. the house -- there was some issue about permits because there was construction being done on this house. that's what the concern was, right? >> reporter: exactly, yeah. they were allowed to be in the house and they were allowed to live in certain parts of it. it was a massive house. but the second floor was being completely renovated so right now they are trying to figure out if they were living in that section, if people were sleeping in that section of the house, if so that was not a safe area to be sleeping. and as part of the renovation they were putting into this new smoke detection system and according to the building inspector at a major news conference, that was not connected. they do not believe that it was connected but they are not able to be sure about that because the damage to the house was so significant. the fire devoured the house. >> right. and they've already taken down the house because it was so unsafe. let me ask you this, robert, where are they getting their information from? have they been able to interview the mother and her friend? >> they talked to mrs. badger the morning after she came out of the house. of course you can imagine, she lost her family in one fell swoop. they were able to talk to her preliminarily there. they are able to get more information out of her and her friend michael, who is actually the one also doing all of the contract work on the house. he just was released from the hospital today. they have not been able to do those follow-up interviews. they're giving her time to grieve, of course. of course she lost her three young daughters and her own parents. >> robert, thanks very much for bringing us to speed on this. such a tragic story. the father of missing mom michelle parker's calling on police to ramp up their search for his daughter. bob parker and his wife told affiliate west that police aren't looking hard enough in the right place. >> search lake conley. that's where her phone was found. >> being that the phone was in that vicinity common sense makes you feel they should focus on searching there. >> police say finding michelle is their top priority. the mother of three disappears more than a month ago, hours after appearing on the tv show "the people's court" with her ex-fiancee, dale smith. smith is the prime suspect in the case. $30,000 reward helping in the search for missing toddler ayla reynolds. they've gotten 100 new leads. the last seen 11 days ago when her father put her to bed in their waterville home. the reward the largest offered for a missing person in maine. more about the friend who has admitted to murdering and dismembering a 9-year-old girl he was supposed to be baby-sitting. turns out he was wanted in florida for violating probation. the florida department of corrections said he was charged with battery on a law enforcement officer, firefighter or ems worker in 2000, sentenced to a year of supervision and ordered to take an anger management class. but instead of serving time he disappear. now he faces murder charges in indiana in the death of lemmon. he's being held without bond. ken freeze joins us. he has confessed to striking her over the head with a brick. dismembering her body and storing some body parts in his freezer. what more have you learned about this? >> the fact we have a trial coming up so we can't say much more than was released yesterday. formal charges been released friday. more information will be forth coming. we have to be concerned about making sure we don't release too much to jeopardize the trial. >> are you able to tell us about a motive? >> we can't discuss the motive. can't discuss too much more than that has been, that the investigation is continuing and is ongoing. >> all right. does this man watching ayleana and her sisters. >> we have an idea where they were. this is a small home, a trailer home. we do know the siblings were in the area. >> how's the family doing? the family is dealing with this as anyone would expect them to. >> it's -- i don't know how you balance the sense of relief that you've solved the case and found the suspect, but what a tragic end for this little girl. >> yes. it's a horrible, emotional roller coster. we had been searching since the 23rd for this 9-year-old girl. and as time marched on we hope -- hope began to wane we were going to find her alive. >> it's shaken the community. sheriff, thanks for joining us. appreciate talking to you. talk about the comedy smi smilismil stylings of arlen specter. it happened and we've got the tape. with your mortgage, want to avoid foreclosure. candy? um-- well, you know, you're in luck. we're experts in this sort of thing, mortgage rigamarole, whatnot. why don't we get a contract? who wants a contract? [honks horn] [circus music plays] here you go, pete. thanks, betty. betty: we're out of toner. announcer: if you're facing foreclosure, talk to the right people. speak with hud-approved housing counselors free of charge at... will be giving away passafree copies of the alcoholism & addiction cure. to get yours, go to ssagesmalibubook.com. a couple of comedians are in hot water over things they tweeted this week. first host of "real time" bill mah maher, following a loss to the bills christmas, he tweeted this, wow! jesus just blanked tim tebow bad and on christmas eve! somewhere in hell satan is thibaulting saying to hitler, hey, buffalo's killing them. according to "the l.a. times" they're calling for a boycott of all hbo shows. ma her's not the only comedian making people angry. denis leary offended islamic group when this company tweeted a link to this video. >> converting to islam. >> i converted when i went to prison. >> charlie brown christmas spoof features charlie brown coping with doubts of christianity. despite it's from comedy central it's a special that's seven years old. critics called it jaw droppingly islam ma phobic. we go from political comedians to comedy from politicians. arlen specter tried his hand at stand-up using material he says he got from his political experience. he performed a mostly sex-filled set and an open mike in philly. a. we can't show you most of the set but here are some of the more tv appropriate highlights. >> next guy, see if i can pronounce his name correctly, arlen specter. arlen specter. >> congress tells a joke, it becomes a law. whatever congress passes a law it turns out to be a joke. his 65th birthday, i said, bill, congratulations on being 65. how do you feel? he said, arlen, i feel like i teenager. the problem is i can't find one.