that s where they will try to determine the cause of death. a music industry executive stayed in the room just above houston s and says she heard two loud booms and a man s voice around 20 minutes before houston was pronounced dead. i get so emotional, baby every time i think of you it is hard to know where to begin or how to describe the life of whitney houston, as both an entertainer and person. she s being described as larger than life. born in 1963 to gospel singer cici houston. her debut album entitled, of course, whitney houston sold 12 million copies in the u.s. alone. she recorded a string of billboard flb one hits in the 1908s and 1990s, including saving all my love for you and how will i know. and i will always love you i will always houston went on to star with kevin kosner in the hit the bodyguard. the soundtrack was one of the top ten biggest selling albums of all time, and it included a remake of dolly pardon s i will always love you. she
border. we ll tell you why. plus, we could be seeing the highest gas prices of all time here in the u.s. $5 a gallon, really? we ll explain where your money is going. i hope you re sitting back getting a little r&r this morning. we re going to start with the campaign trail in florida. newt gingrich and mitt romney have events coming up this morning. gingrich has been in stewart, florida, attending a lincoln day breakfast. it serves in about 30 minutes. as for mitt romney, he ll be holding a rally in pensacola in about an hour. florida is the biggest prize so far. it s anyone s ball game at this point. paul steinhauser is going to break it down for us here. good morning, christi. just three days away now from florida s crucial primary. it s a winner take all primary. 50 delegates at stake. that is the biggest haul so far in this primary and caucus season. you ve got former massachusetts governor mitt romney and former speaker newt gingrich campaigning in the state all we
fix. and would you ask your boss s wife out on a date? especially if your boss is the president of the united states? announcer: from cnn s world headquarters bringing you news and analysis from around the globe, live from studio 7, this is cnn saturday morning with t.j. holmes. let s start with the senate. open for business today. it will be open about three hours from now. they have some work to do. they need to work on a couple of bills. one is a big spending bill that will fund the government through september. a deal is reached that will keep us from having a government shutdown. the government was supposed to run out of money, a one-day extension so they could vote today. looks like crisis averted there. the other issue is payroll tax holiday extension. that could mean an extra $1,000 in your pocket. at least mean you won t lose that $1,000 at the beginning of the year. a compromise keeps it going for another two months. okay. two months is not something that
over and out. the u.s. military lowers the flag in baghdad. the final u.s. troops leaving iraq with pride. and putting a fragile nation in the rear view mirror. breaking news for your paycheck. big compromise on capitol hill that could put $1,000 or more back into your paycheck next year. occupy gingrich. newt gets heckled by wall street protesters. they get it back on this american morning. good morning, everyone. it is thursday, december 15. welcome to american morning. good morning, carol. good morning, christine. good morning to all of you. it s over. minutes ago u.s. forces lowered the flag at baghdad and retired the colors to mark the end of the nearly nine-year iraq war. final few thousand u.s. troops are leaving iraq ahead of the new year s eve deadline to get out. it is a war that started with shocking and awe. today the departing soldiers are remembering more than 4,000 who did not come home alive. the long journey home. let s get to barbara starr. s
threat as well this morning. reynolds wolf standing by. he ll be here in a moment with the latest from there and all over the country. and herman cain is out. so who s in the best position to take iowa and maybe even take some of his supporters? we ve got new poll numbers out. going give us some clues. let s get through some of the morning s headlines now. police in riot gear swept into a portland park kicking out occupy protesters overnight. a number of them were arrested. they had set up camps there after being kicked out of another park by police a few weeks ago. after police cleared the park, city workers came through, tore down all the tent. while they were doing that, the occupy protesters roamed the streets looking for a new place to set up. one of the reasons that i ran for president of the united states was such that i could change washington, d.c., from the inside. plan b is that we are going to have to change it from the outside. [ cheers ] yeah. he moved on