peppers, "californication" i love that. i like it, i like it. joining us is will cain, mark lamont hill, professor at columbia university and john fugelsang, political comedian. i love watching the shuttle take off going into retirement after 39 different flights. >> even when it's taking off on top of a jumbo jet? >> yes, will cain. >> it's amazing, look at how huge that is. >> i watched it many times from my parents' yard in florida. >> 39 times, more than any other shuttle. it's a piece of history. they'll take the enterprise, which is at the smithsonian now, and was a test model in the 1970s and bring that enterprise to new york, the intrepid museum right near where i live and they'll swap and the "discovery" will go into the smithsonian so it's a win/win. >> both enjoy their retirement and hear my jimmy buffett song. >> papers filed and waiting to hear if the judge in the trayvon martin will remove herself from the case. george zimmerman's defense saying judge jessica rickseidler has a conflict of interest because her husband is a partner with mark nejame. mark o'mara represents zimmerman. mark nejame, thanks for being with us. >> good morning, everybody. >> are you surprised at the request to have the judge removed from the case? >> no, actually i would expect it. i think it's appropriate. lawyer has to do what a lawyer has to do in the best interests of the client and the biggest issue is not whether she has a conflict of interest but whether there's an appearance that she may. so the public is safeguarded and they look at the legal system in the best possible light which is a challenge and these are the reasons these are done to make it so the system maintains integrity. >> were you surprised she waited to be asked versus immediately when it was clear that you're a partner with her husband which a lot of people thinkment hmm, this is going to be a problem, she didn't offer? >> i don't think it's going to be an issue. she could have done it one of two ways and i think a lot of people would suggest she did it the right way, she waited for the lawyers who are really the parties in the action to file the appropriate paperwork so that the record would be clear and she would be doing the right thing based on the motions filed. so either way it could have been done but i think this is rather routine taken will happen very fast. she routinely recuses herself from any cases we're involved with. this is a twist. i'm in this position as a cnn legal analyst and her husband happens to run the personal injury division of our law firm so it's not the normal swigs. i don't think she did anything out of the ordinary for this extraordinary situation. >> mark, will cain. i don't understand, how is it your firm's relationship to the run judge and your relationship with cnn creates a conflict. can you explain how that works? >> it's an appearance of a conflict or appearance of impropriety. you read the blogs and many people have a conspiracy theory but could i be speaking to my partner to get word to her about the way she's acting on the bench if she was presiding over a case, could she be talking to him at home and him say something to me and that would affect what i would say which would affect the case or the impression. those are the types of things that wouldn't happen, didn't happen but some suggest could happen so to avoid all that, to avoid the suggestion that anybody's acting with prejudice or bias you avoid the impropriety or appearance of, by leaving and allowing a fresh start to occur. >> let's talk about the other judges, the honorable john galluzzo, the honorable kenneth lester and the honorable debra steinberg nelson. can you tell me about the judges? >> every one of them has a lot of experience. they've been around, i don't know of any significant controversies surrounding any of them. i think that a fair trial will, with mr. zimmerman with any of the judges i don't think anybody has a negative thing to say. they're all going to be under the public eye. i'm not sure any of them have had a case of massive publicity the way this has but they're mature on the bench and they'll act appropriately and do the case proud as it relates to rulings. >> mark nejame, we appreciate your time this morning. >> my pleasure. thank you all. good morning. >> a thousand more times as this case is followed. zoraida sambolin has a look at the headlines. >> breaking news, five more victims who died in the wreck annual of the "costa concordia" cruise ship have been identified. the bodies were found last month. they include two germans, an italian and the two americans who have been identified as barbara and gerald heil of minnesota. 30 people died in the disaster and two others remain missing. the prostitution scandal shaking up the secret service is wid widening. 11 members of the agency have had their security clearance yanked for allegedly bringing prostitutes back to their hotel rooms in colombia two days before the president arrived for a summit there. the chairman of the house committee telling cnn's wolf blitzer this is the worst possible transgression. >> no matter what the ultimate penalty is, this is a serious, serious violation of everything the secret service stands for. what these 11 agents did put the potentially puts any president at risk or themselves at risk, leaves themselves open to blackmail and to threats. obviously finding out who those 11 women are and exactly what their backgrounds are, what their connections and associations are is vital to the investigation. >> ten members of the u.s. military are also being investigated for possible involvement in the prostitution scandal. in an attempt to hike taxes on the richest americans not going anywhere in the senate. senate republicans voted down a plan to move ahead on a so-called buffett rule which would require millionaires to pay a minimum 30% tax. the president responding to the vote blaming republicans for $choosing once again to protect tax breaks for the wealthiest few americans at the expense of the middle class." the gop argued it would hurt small businesses and wouldn't make a dent in the deficit. the treasury says it would only hit 1% of them. new poll shows an overwhelming amount of americans support the buffett rule, 72% in favor of the tax hike, only 27% oppose it. minding your business on wall street, stocks are set for modestly higher open, dow, nasdaq, s&p 500 futures up about half a percent which follows a rally overseas. investors are pleased to see the report on confidence came in higher than expected, noteworthy because it comes against the backdrop of the continuing debt crisis in europe. earnings from goldman sachs, coke coloo and john john&johnson are due out before the bell. a mega mystery solved, we're finally going to find out which lucky person owns that final winning ticket in the $656 million mega millions jackpot. the winner will be revealed at a ceremony today in red bud, illinois. ever heard of it? that's where the ticket was purchased. the lucky person is accepting a $218.66 million check. illinois requires its winners to go public. the others are none muss. >> i feel badly for that person imagine if you really don't want people to know you won millions. >> i was wondering why you feel badly for that person. >> not for the money, really happy for that person for the money but they'll lose their privacy. >> would you sell your privacy for $250 million? >> in a hot second. i sell my privacy every day on the show. exactly. the space shuttle "discovery" now in its final voyage to a retirement home, aka, a museum in washington, d.c. just moments ago the shuttle took off on the back of a 747 jumbo jet making the trip from florida up the eastern seaboard to be on permanent display at the smithsonian air and space museum in washington, d.c. john zarrella joins us live watching us from kennedy space center. good morning, john. >> hey, soledad. just absolutely spectacular, "discovery" headed down the beach now, we're expecting it to turn around and come back over us one more time here at the kennedy space center and make it up to washington, d.c. flying over several landmarks before landing at dulles. "discovery" the oldest of the three remaining orbiters, threw 39 missions, 148 plus million miles and it's tough here because so many people have lost their jobs with the end of the space shuttle program, so many people wished the shuttles were still flying and so many think they could still have been flying if not for politics, they basically decided nasa was going to go in a new direction and they were going to retire the shuttle fleet and go back to expendable rockets and capsules. lot of things changing here in florida, and not the least of which is the retirement of these magnificent wing flying vehicles that in our life times we will likely never see again anything like this. soledad? >> that's such a beautiful shot as people watching as the sun is rising and seeing that takeoff. john zarrella thanks for updating us. ahead on "starting point" another day, another hearing on the gsa, today the whistle-blower who blew the lid off the $800,000 conference scandal. we'll talk to the republican chair what they expect the whistle-blower to say. maybe it is a metaphor, she this, shattered, oops. crystal, not handled carefully, awkward as my daughter would say. check out our live blog at our website cnn.com/startingpoint. john zarrella has a playlist, listens to ozzy osbourne, who knew? "mama i'm coming home." is ♪ i could listen to lauryn hill all morning, that's off of john's list. for the first time since the gsa spending scandal broke, how long have we been talking about the gd sarks? >> two weeks? >> two and a half i think. the woman who blew the whistle on the lavish conference which cost taxpayers more than $800,000, in a few hours the house transportation and infrastructure committee will be holding the second of four congressional hearings looking into the matter. on monday the house oversight committee held its hearing on the matter, one of the tough es was between jason chaffetz. >> why were you giving out bonuses when the president said there was a pay freeze. >> i don't think the pay freeze affected the bonuses. >> would the gentleman yield for one question? >> as long as it doesn't take my time. >> the gentlelady seemed to say entitled. i thought it was there were possibly going to be granted. entitlement seems to be something the gentleman may want to follow up on. >> there are a lot of good federal employees that are frugal with their money but when you see this widespread abuse of money and you as the former administrator say well they were entitled to it, that's where there's frustration steaming out of our ears. it is totally unacceptable and for the president of the united states to look at the american people in the eye and say we got a pay freeze in place while you're getting bonuses and going on trips is totally unacceptable. >> joining us this morning the man who will chair today's hearing, republican representative john micah, republican of florida, head of the transportation and inf infrastructure committee. thanks for talking with us. why four committee hearings? why do we need four? >> well they have different jurisdictions. i serve on the house oversight committee and that committee has very broad jurisdiction. they went in to some of the questions about what the white house knew, when they knew it and did nothing about it. our committee is a little bit different. we do have public buildings. we oversee gsa in a legislative authorization manner so we're more responsible for a lot of the operations and legislation for gsa and i think what we're seeing here, too, is just the tip of the iceberg of an agency that's out of control. >> and maybe an agency that had been out of control for quite a while if you believe ms. johnson, doing her testimony yesterday, susan brita will be testifying today, the whistle-blower and it was interesting to hear her role in the hearings yesterday. what do you expect to hear in your testimony? >> first of all, she worked for our committee, and she's an outstanding public servant. as soon as she heard about this, she blew the whistle and rightfully so while others tried to cover up the outrageous expenditure of taxpayer monies. really, this is just the tip of the iceberg because this agency is losing billions of dollars sitting on incredible public assets. we did a report that was entitled "the federal government must stop sitting on its assets" and highlighted gsa, that's online. people can look at it. this is more than two years ago when we held our first hearing just a couple blocks from the white house in a property vacant for 15 years, we dragged the bureaucrats in there in 38 degree weather. some of the people will be on the panel today, we've been after them and they've stonewalled us so now we're going to get answers. >> you mentioned coverup and i didn't really get a sense of that in the testimony yesterday. who do you think was responsible for the coverup? >> we'll look at the sequence of when things happened. looks like susan brita did go. as soon as she heard about it, she went to the inspector general and proper authorities. people from the white house knew about it, did nothing, kept it quiet until just a few days ago when a statement was released by the president condemning the act but we think that again they've held this information, we've been asking for information on their -- >> forgive me sir, i just want to understand, are you alleging a white house coverup in this? >> again we want to find out exactly the sequence of who knew what and when, and who went forward. it also appears the bureaucrats within gsa tried to deep as quiet and sweep it under the rug as much as possible. >> who specifically? reading that testimony yesterday i didn't see that. who specifically at the white house would you say had a coverup and who specifically would the bureaucrats try to sweep it under the rug when you read miss johnson's testimony sounds like she was slow and wanted to wait for a full report. >> we have hundreds of pages of testimony and some of that will come out in today's hearing, and in fact, people did let the white house know, and the white house did not choose to intervene or to take action early on. nothing happened until just a few days ago and thank goodness for people like susan brita and also for the inspector general, who got, who blew the whistle and got the information and made it public, but again this is small dollar amounts, when they're wasting billions of dollars, we have 14,000 buildings and properties they oversee that are partially vacant or vacant sitting around for years wasting taxpayer dollars so this is an agency in need of some serious reform. >> it was fascinating to watch yesterday and very rarely do i tell people to look up a transcript but it's really an interesting read so i would recommend that, and also obviously to watch what you're hearing in the transportation and infrastructure committee is going to be doing today, congressman john mica joining us, republican of florida. thank you for your time. >> thank you, good to be with you. bye now. still ahead and joining us the man who led the panel in grilling gsa official democratic official elijah cummings, the ranking member oversight committee chairman, he was on fire, some of the details are fascinating, we've been following the story for a while. interesting to continue. still ahead our "get real" this beautiful crystal trophy cost $30,000. it's a trophy for college football's national championship. someone dropped it. wait until i tell you how, so sad. also doctors are blaming facetime and skype for an explosion of one kind of plastic surgery. is it because you look so bad in skype you need to get work done to look good? here's mark's playlist. >> that's music right there. ♪ green grocery. there's a little green for your grocery. thank you. absolutely. and as part of my saving stimulus package from progressive -- this can go in my wallet. that can go in your wallet. 30 bucks. whoo! ♪ all right, that's rolling stones "shattered." >> your audience is in tatters. >> it is. >> if i were taking bets it would have gone john, will, and then it's close between you two. >> listen, that's my song and i have to say it's kind of my husband's song, we got married, it was my collection and his musical collection which was the rolling stones and grateful dead but 17 years later we're working it out. most embarrassing thing -- >> anything you want to talk about -- >> just musically. worst thing you've ever done in front of a large group of people that would make it to the news? anybody, most embarrassing thing. i'll share a horribly embarrassing thing. >> i offered a hot gay sex show to -- >> how was the next? >> hey, hey, hey, my children watching the show, they haven't gone to school yet. anybody else want to jump in? >> i can't think of anything. tell us yours. i'll be thinking. >> you cannot beat this. alabama, football player's father accidentally tripped and knocked over the $30,000 trophy from the display, smashing it. now the zafrt is working to get it replaced the bcs trophy is hand made, sculpted in ireland, made of waterford krisial. >> not easy to fix? >> after trying to glue gun it together the crystal doesn't work like that. not the first time the covet the trophy is destroyed. the captain of the spokane chiefs. >> that was great. >> sad. broke the memorial club after winning the hockey club tournament and last year they're holding the trophy, watch clo closely. re reale madrid dropping the trophy and it was run over by the bus. >> $30,000, much less expensive. a british lawmaker accused of putting a bounty on president obama's head doesn't go over very well. an exclusive interview with the man accused of gunning down five african americans, killing three. she'll tell us why he's not a racist. joins us with a prison interview, she's incarcerated. you're watching "starting point." we're back in a moment. what we achieved here. what we learned here. and what we pioneered here. all goes here. the one. the accord. smarter thinking from honda. [ female announcer ] weak, damaged hair needs new aveeno nourish+ strengthen. active naturals wheat formulas restore strength for up to 90% less breakage in three washes. for strong, healthy hair with life, new aveeno nourish+ strengthen. ♪ >> got to love zoraida's play list. good morning to you. let's get headlines. >> good morning, that's gotten me through a lot of workouts. on to the news now. great britain's laib party has been suspended for the bounty of president obama's head. he has criticized the united states for offering a $10 million award for information leading to the arrest of a founder of ai pakistani militant group who is accused of attacks in media. british newspaper accused ahmed using words to that effect. anders breivik took the stand a day after pleading not guilty to the charges. he's a self-described right wing extremist. one of the five judges has been dismissed for saying the death penalty was the proper punishment for bay vick. tough cleanup getting under way after deadly twisters across the south and the midwest. six people recall killed after a a tornado barrelled over woodward. one woman found her wedding ring, left it on a bathroom counter and searched all day with a metal detector. rob marciano talked to her as she went through the remains of her home. >> so what went through your head when they said they found it, when you got word finally? >> oh my goodness. really? i mean -- right now i'm justover whelmed. i'm so excited but i couldn't believe it, in all this wadness that one of the ladies searching is the mother of one of my students that i teach and she was bound and