About a possible blackout months before the super bowl. On cbs this morning. Zbles that he how hard the city of new orleans parties, even their football stadiums blackout. Captioning funded by cbs welcome to cbs this morning. We are learning new details about the end of an alabama hostage drama. Fbi agents raided an underground bunker yesterday shooting and killing the kidnaper. The captive a fiveyearold boy ethan is said to be okay. They had to move in because the kidnaper was growing desperate. Mark strassmann good morning. Reporter good morning norah and charlie. Ethan is waking up with his mother for a first time in the week but bomb technicians spent time in the bunker processing the crime scene and looking for improvised explosives. It began asended as violently as it began with a gunshot. Hes a special child. By the grace of god hes okay. Reporter ethan spent seven days underground, the prisoner of jimmy lee dykes, just the two of them inside a bunker four feet wide six feet long and eight feet high. The standoff ended suddenly when the Fbis Hostage Rescue Team distracted dykes with a pair of loud bangs and blinding flashes from stun grenades tossed inside the bunker. They burst through the door on top. The surprise factor was overwhelming and in seconds, ethan, a 5yearold with aspergers was safe and dykes was dead. Over the past 24 hours our communications with the subject deteriorated and we were certainly concerned. Reporter cbs news learned the fbi got concerned what they saw through a camera inserted into the bunker at some point during the standoff. Dykes had grown increasingly agitated and began carrying a gun as he walked inside the bunker. Commanders green lighted the raid for the rescue team ending a standoff that began last tuesday when dykes boarded a school bus full of Elementary School and demanded two hostages. Dykes shot and killed the bus driver and abducted ethan. The boy was taken to a local hospital shortly after the raid. Relative told us hes been playing and laughing since his reunion with his mother. Im a father. Lot of these men and women that have been sacrificing tireless hours, theyre parents as well. Its a relief for us to be able to reunite a mother with her child. Reporter agents believe that dykes kidnapped the little boy for attention. The 65yearold retired truck driver had antigovernment grievances and thought kidnapping the little boy would get him an audience to listen to the grievantsces. Agents built a mockup to practice the rescue. Ethan is back safe with his mother and just in time, tomorrow is his 6th birthday. Norah, charlie, thank you. Former assistant fbi director john miller is with us. Good morning. How did fbi agents gain access to the bunker . They had been in conversation with him for days sent small objects down the pipe and developed a technique to give larger things that wouldnt fit down the pipe through the top door of that bunker and there was a process, i mean this is basically a storm shelter thats meant to be there if theres a tornado so its got kind of a baton down the hatches on top. Did they have a camera inside . They did have a camera inside and they were able to observe his movements, so yesterday as they watch them handling the weapon he was getting more and more irrational but they had an agreement to pass something through that top door that was too large to fit down the pipe and they created that opportunity and used that opportunity to get inside. What dont we know about what happened . What we dont know is some of the technical aspects, what the camera was how they got it inside and a particular technical aspect of those last moments, and the reason we cant get into that is these are techniques that they work very hard to develop, and that they may have to use the next time and between television and the internet, the next person, whoever that might be could research that. What youre saying john you noticed there was sophisticated stuff you saw going on that you cant say on television in order to save this childs life. This was top notch to save this childs life. They had contingency plan after contingency plan and contingency plan and they have a division at quantico that can custom make anything they need almost at a moments notice. The Toy Department there is quite amazing. The most important thing you have to do in a raid is what . Speed, surprise violence of action. When you have a hostage rescue you have only seconds so you have to have a tactical plan that includes the ability to get in and overtake your opponent before he or she even knows whats going on and thats what they did yesterday. John miller, thanks. It is the First Federal enforcement action against a rating firm over the financial crisis. The government is suing standard poors. The late filing on monday the Justice Department accused s p of giving high ratings to toxic assets. The banks mortgages, the ones that helped fuel the 2008 meltdown. Were less than a month away from massive layoffs and cuts in spending at the pentagon and elsewhere. Nancy cordes is on capitol hill. Reporter good morning. They call this the sequester and both signs long predicted it could harm the economy if the cuts are allowed to kick in. Instead of working together to do something about it they resorted to the blame game a month before the deadline. Republicans may be the party of spending cuts but on monday House Speaker john boehner insisted the looming sequester was the president s idea. The president first proposed this sequester in 2011 and insisted that it be part of the debt limit agreement. Reporter unless Congress Acts the package of cuts worth 1. 2 trillion will start to kick in march 1st, taking a 55 billion bite out of this years Defense Budget and 27 billion from domestic discretionary spending. According to the Congressional Budget Office more than 1 million jobs are at risk. Defense secretary leon panetta had this warning. We are going to weaken the United States and make it much more difficult to respond to the crisis in europe. Reporter the cuts were designed to be so painful they would force congress to come one a smarter way to trim the deficit instead but it didnt happen. House republicans poind out they passed a bill to replace the sequester with cuts to federal worker pay, food stamps and other programs. Democrats say that puts the burden on poor and middle class americans to pay for debt reduction. Remember the American People still believe by an overwhelming margin that the rich should contribute to this. Reporter republicans argue democrats have no plan for replacing the sequester beyond eliminating tax breaks for Corporate Jet owners and oil companies. These arent real solutions, mr. President. Theyre poll tested gimmicks. Reporter the cuts were originally supposed to kick in last month, but a lastminute deal pushed them off for two months. The president is meeting at this hour with labor leaders later this afternoon with Business Leaders and the subject, norah and charlie, is sure to come up. Nancy cordes thanks. Meantime House Majority leader eric cantor will be outlining a new agenda for his party today calling for change. He wants republicans to focus more on issues like education and health care and spend less time talking about the deficit. Congressman cantor is with us this morning. Good morning. Youve got a big speech today asking the Republican Party to change. Is this about tone or ideology . What this is about is about making sure that we can express why were doing what were doing. We believe very strongly obviously in things like fiscal discipline and not spending money you dont have we also believe in that, because it helps people, in the same way weve got to address the plight of so many working americans right now, and those who dont have any work and say that yes, weve got policies that will help you in terms of giving you an opportunity for quality education, in terms of trying to help you bring down the costs of health care. Weve got some real policies that we want to put to work to help people and thats what this is about. So on policy and on Immigration Reform will you today endorse the proposal put forward by senator rubio . Well you know i really admire senator rubio and the kind of things hes standing for. I think hes moving in the right direction. Weve got a lot of issues to weigh around this debate on immigration. Obviously were a country of immigrants and my grandparents came from Eastern Europe at the turn of the last century to flee religious persecution to come to america. Forgive me, i didnt hear an answer yes or no. Were a country of immigrants so i said that i admire senator rubio, hes going in the right direction. We have things i believe need to be addressed from Border Security to worker programs and we need to be addressing the situation where youve got some children in this country that are here because of actions of their parents and know no other place than america as home so weve got a lot of issues and i believe weve got to work in an expedited fashion to address them but do so that we are as secure as a country of laws and that we can help our economy and move forward. Theres this issue that seems to be going in Republican Party circles that the party has to rebrand and reform government jindal called it the stupid Party Senator rubio talking about Immigration Reform. Is this a recognition that the Republican Party has not spoken to the American People about issues that concern them and how government can work for them . Well i think it is more. It is explaining why were doing what were doing. I went to an Inner City School a private school here in the District Of Columbia yesterday and sprung out of a desire to give the kids who are trapped in some of these failing schools a fair shot in actually quality education so their future could be better. This is why were doing it. Were doing it to help the families of that school and all others around america who want a Better Future, and you know our party has always stood for the conservative philosophy of selfreliance, of faith in the individual accountability in government but what were trying to do is to explain that these proposals of ours actually can help people and wed love to see the Democrats Join us in trying to set aside differences and seeing if we can come together to actually get some relief to the millions of americans, frankly, who just want their life to work again. But some who look at the proposals, those on immigration and others that you make in the speech saying including some of your aides youre tweaking and rebranding. This is not a fundamental change that youre recommending. Weve got some new policies in here, weve gotten some policies weve stood for such as empowering parents and giving them a choice for their childrens education. Weve got some proposals that will address the rise in Health Care Costs as a result of the president S Health Care bill. Were trying to be constructive to help people again, charlie and hopefully we can bring folks together on both sides of the aisle, something that has not happened too often here in washington, so we can provide a path to a Better Future for more americans, and make their life work again. Congressman cantor thank you. Thank you. Thank you. The centers for Disease Control says Senior Citizens are dying at the highest rate ever seen from the flu. Dr. William schaffner from Vanderbilt University good morning. Good morning. What is it that makes seniors so vulnerable . Seniors are more frail than young, robust people and their immune systems are likewise frail so when flu strikes theyre more likely to get the complications of influenza. Doctor why is it that this year so many seniors are getting it and dying from the flu . Norah, whats happened is this years flu strain is a bit more virulent. Its more apt to cause serious disease, and so thats a nasty combination, a more virulent virus and seniors, of course, who are frail. So we are seeing complications, hospitalizations and some deaths in seniors. You have specific recommendations for elderly people if you start to feel sick and havent had a flu shot right . Absolutely norah. If you start to feel sick call your health care provider. They can prescribe an antiviral, tamiflu is the most common and that can reduce the duration of the illness, make it milder, and youre much less apt to have the complications. For seniors and others how serious is this flu were experiencing this winter . Oh, its serious but charlie, we have serious flu every winter. Every senior indeed all of us should get our influenza vaccination each and every year. We should resolve to do it this fall for the winter season coming up. Dr. Schaffnor thanks. Time to show you this mornings headlines around the globe. Usa today says investigators are looking for an answer in the fatal bus cra crash that crashed sunday night. The bus failed more than onethird of vehicle inspections during the last two years. The New York Times says there are claims involving the los angeles archdiocese. Lawyers for victims say the church didnt release all its records on sexual abuses by priests. They alleged many names were removed, apparently violating a chunlgs order. In britains daily express the europeans Law Enforcement agency launched the biggest ever probe into soccer match fixing. 425 match official Club Official players and criminals are suspected. Well have more from london later on cbs this morning. The Washington Post says washington has been rated the worst for gridlock. The average driver there burns 67 hours and 32 gallons of gas each year sitting in traffic. And the wall street journal reports Dollar Stores are feeling the pinch. Sales have slowed in part because of rapid growth. Dollar general plans to open 635 new stores this year. Family Dollar Stores will open about 500 all right. We have low clouds stretching well onshore even some high clouds cruising in overhead. Our mount vaca cam showing you some clouds moving on by as we have a weak cold front approaching the state. Not going to bring us any rain. Its going to bring us plenty of clouds throughout the day today. 40s across the board. By the afternoon, highs only in the 50s and maybe low 60s, breezy at the coastline. Next couple of days going to be dry. We could see some cold showers, though, on thursday and friday. Announcer this National Weather report sponsored by kay jewelers. Every kiss begins with kay. Millions oll millions of dollars were spent on the superdomes electrical system before the super bowl and the lights still went out. All we know is we had an interruption in service that occurred. 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