history. later if it is monday morning, time for the weekly look at all the nfl action. we will tell you how our picks and yours did. week seven. week seven already. flying by. first, president obama and governor romney have battled to a draw. that s right. a new poll of likely voters shows the presidential race is an absolute dead heat. a nail biter. one mistake can make all the difference. candidates are preparing feverishly for tonight s final debate. abc s david kerley reports on the debate with just 15 days to go. reporter: taking a break from debate preparation, mitt romney flipped a coin for a football game between his staff and reporters who were still asking questions. would you be open to one-on-one talks with iran? reporter: no answer on the report that iranians are ready to talk directly to the u.s. about its nuclear program. one republican called it an iranian ploy. as to iran they have quadruple uranium to make a bomb before obama got in office
sweeping gun control efforts. the national rifle association is vowing the fight of the century to block that. we ll talk to the nra s president coming up. an inside look at scientology. an exclusive interview with oscar winning director and former scientology member paul hagut says he thinks the religion is a cult. the church dismisses him as the hypocrite of hollywood. we ll speak with him and talk to the author of a new book that explores the link between scientology and hollywood. we want to get to breaking news. nbc s nichelle cokosinkski liven london. reporter: this has been changing by the moment. first, the report that a number of hostages has escaped. now that algerians have raided the facility and a number of have been killed, including hostages. 41 people held, among them americans, british, norwegians, and they called this retribution for french intervention in neighboring mali against militant there. at this hour scattered reports out of the algerian desert
jennifer: last night on cnn, larry prat the president of the group gun owners of america proposed an idea for how to stop mass killings. flood the country with more guns so all of that so-called good guys are armed. with guns come safety if the guns are in the hands of the good guys. if you believe and understand that there is evil in the world, you try as your first line of defense to solve it psychiatrically. you protect yourself with a gun. jennifer: in other words create an army of individual landties. listen to this. good guys carrying guns can and do make a difference. the best way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. jennifer: but the facts just do not bare that out. consider the gabby giffords shooting. an armedman was there and afterwards he tells reporters this. i carry a weapon and when i heard gunfire i ran out and i would have shot him. jennifer: the man he thought was the shooter was not actually the shooter, it was another man wh
mcgrath on the tidal basin with more on the centennial celebration. good morning. reporter: good morning. what better way to spend the first day of spring than to come down to the tidal basin and take a look at the beautiful cherry blossoms. today is the first day of the peak blood perio peak bloom period. we had a little rain. could get more off and on. but right now is a terrific time to come down. bring an umbrella in case we get a shower or two. how long the blossoms stick around? that depends on the weather. rain and the wind. we get a lot of wind that can blow the delicate blossoms off the trees. great time to come down here, take it all in. in fact, the morning is one of the best times to come. you can beat the crowds. have more access to limited parking in the area. also if you re coming later in the day. metro is probably your best bet. we are expecting big crowds, because, again, today is the first day of is that peak bloom period. reporting live, megan mcgrath, n
effective today a year over from being shot in head, gabrielle giffords announces she is stepping down. she says she needs to focus on her recovery. i m getting better. every day, my spirit is high! i will return. today, giffords heads to tucson to meet with other victims of the shooting rampage. tomorrow night, she ll be in the audience for president obama s state of the union address. a special primary will be held in april and the general election will be held in june to replace her. while you were sleeping, severe storms ripped through the south and the midwest. so check out this video right there. stormchasers following a huge storm through helena, arkansas. hope that s how you say it. those flashes you see in the distance, they re exploding transformers, unfortunately, on top of the power line but strong winds even blew tractor-trailers off the road to destroy buildings and the storm is making its way across the upper midwest. other areas could see as much as 2 inch