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Survivors Battle Grief, Rubble; Obama Prefers Peace, OK with Force; Chopper Crash Caught on Video; "Bloody Sunday" March Re- created; Storm Survivors Head to Church; Russians Pick a President; Syria Clashes Kill 15 People; Cantor Endorses Romney; Bachmann Not Revealing Her Pick

Aired March 04, 2012 - 14:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: You're in the CNN NEWSROOM. This is Sunday, March 4th. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

A busy, painful day of cleanup as survivors of a deadly storm system battled grief and immense piles of rubble. The death toll has risen to 37. The National Guard is helping with the cleanup and providing security patrols in at least four of the hardest hit states. We'll have live coverage from the devastated town in just a moment.

President Barack Obama says the United States is committed to standing by Israel. He talked to the largest American Jewish lobbying group today amid concern from Israel about where the U.S. stands on threats from Iran. The president said while he prefers peace, the possibility of military action is not off the table.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Israel and the United States have an interest in seeing this challenge resolved diplomatically. After all, the only way to truly solve this problem is for the Iranian government to make a decision to forsake nuclear weapons.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: And a vintage helicopter in flight during the shooting of a television show crashes and amazingly no one is killed or even hurt. It happened in Collage, Arizona.

The pilot and crewmen on board that vintage military chopper were able to walk away. The aircraft was being filmed for an episode of "Top Gear Korea." The cause of the crash is still under investigation.

In Selma, Alabama, today a huge crowd will walk across the Edman Pettis Bridge to commemorate the day known as "Bloody Sunday," that was the day in March 1965 when Alabama state troopers and local deputies attacked civil rights marchers.

All right, back now to our coverage of communities struggling after being hit last week by a deadly storm system. But today, on this Sunday, prayer in Henryville, Indiana. Survivors headed to church amid devastation. Parishioners were giving thanks. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you for our community. Thank you for our loved ones. Thank you for the hands we hold every week as we seek your direction and will. God, thank you, that you supply not open our physical needs but emotional, spiritual needs.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: In hard hit West Liberty, Kentucky, homeowners are being allowed back into their town for the first time today. CNN's Jim Spellman just toured the devastated area. So Jim, what are residents in for?

JIM SPELLMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, right now, they've finished the first phase of this operation, which was search and rescue. Late last night, they wrapped that up. They didn't find anybody after the initial storm trapped in this building. That's good.

Next step, getting rid of all this debris. Take a look at this, Fredricka. There's barely can you walk 20 feet where you don't find this kind of destruction around here. They need to get all of this cleared out and the next thing they need to do is get electricity back into this town.

There hasn't been electricity nonetheless phone or cell service. You can see these power lines here that were knocked down in the storm. But already look at this, a brand new power pole going up.

This town is still on lock down. They're not letting people into the heart of the city. We have seen some people coming back on the outskirts, stunned when they see the level of destruction here. They've been gone since after the storm.

It's stunning to see houses just gone. Sometimes the pile of debris is across the street from where the house began, Fredricka, really an intense emotional experience for the people coming back.

WHITFIELD: OK, so when are people allowed to head back in?

SPELLMAN: Here in the heart of West Liberty, it could be a couple more days. It's just not safe to be in here with this kind of destruction around. They can't have anybody in there.

The National Guard troops and state troopers here trying to be sure that also there's no looting. Fortunately, there's only three ways in and out of this town, pretty easy to keep it locked down.

But they want the message out that do not come back if you live in West Liberty at this point, stay put. People are spread throughout this county, mostly staying with family members barely anybody in the shelters.

So they feel like everybody is safe and sound. That's where they want them to stay for a few more days until they get a better handle on safety issues here in town. WHITFIELD: All right, thanks so much, Jim Spellman, appreciate that.

All right, so let's talk to our Jacqui Jeras now about what may be on the horizon. A lot of folks are still out of their homes, but while the big storm system is out of the way, there's yet something else that's moving in, in the form of very cold temperatures.

JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes. Cold temperatures and even some snow and some light rain. Even in West Liberty, there was snowflakes flying there earlier this morning and they're going to see some occasional snow showers.

So this isn't a major storm. No severe weather is expected, but it kind of complicates things. If there is anything that's out there that people are still trying to clean up it needs to be sealed in plastic bags.

There you can see the radar picture. And in Eastern Kentucky, for example, West Liberty where you just saw Jim there, that was a very powerful tornado that moved on through. They'll see occasional snow showers.

We've got some light rain that's moving into Southern Illinois. If you remember, Harrisburg tornado, that caused so much devastation there, so some wet weather coming in those areas as well. And then of course, Indiana, they're doing OK at this time in terms of active weather.

But you can see that moisture heading their way, looking for a little rain, changing over some snow tonight. Now winter weather advisories have been issued in some of these areas. Accumulations will be around one to three inches.

But even for people who didn't have so much damage to their homes, a lot of folks still don't have power. And so that's a great concern when you're talking about snow moving in and temperatures, which are going to be dropping well below the freezing mark.

For tonight, here's the clipper. You can see it's moving through very quickly and by tomorrow, it's going to be out of there and they're going to be looking for improving conditions.

Your current temperatures right now into the 40s and 50s across the region, but if you look at the overnight lows, Fredricka, yes, we got upper 20s and lower 30s around there.

WHITFIELD: Boy, all right, thanks so much, Jacqui. Appreciate that.

All right, news from overseas now, an apparent big win for Vladimir Putin. It is presidential Election Day in Russia and early exit poll results show Putin with more than 63 percent of the vote and if that percentage holds, he'll avoid a runoff and win a six-year term. Putin served as Russia's president from 2000 to 2008.

Two passenger trains collided head-on in Southern Poland overnight. Sixteen people were killed including an American citizen. At least 60 others are hurt.

And more deadly fighting all over Syria. At least 15 people were reportedly killed across the country today and also today, Israel is offering humanitarian assistance to people of Syria.

And a frightening scene in Southwest China. Several small children were buried in the rubble of a house that suddenly collapsed. Firefighters dug through bricks and wreckage with their bare hands and pulled out three kids, one of them just 4 years old. They were all taken to a local hospital.

All right, we're counting down the hours to Super Tuesday in this country as four contenders travel to 10 states. Former GOP presidential candidate, Michele Bachmann tells me just how tough the campaign trail can be and if she'll endorse one particular person.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney is relishing both a win in Saturday's Washington State caucus and a big endorsement today that comes from House Majority Leader Eric Cantor speaking on NBC's "Meet the Press."

Representative Cantor said Romney is the only candidate who's put forth a bold pro growth, pro jobs plan for America. Former GOP presidential contender Michele Bachmann says she isn't ready to make an endorsement yet.

I spoke with the Minnesota congresswoman earlier today about the tightening race and she says she's certain voters will unite behind a candidate well before June and send that person to the White House. She also talked about how tough the campaign trail can be.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPRESENTATIVE MICHELE BACHMANN (R), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It's a very difficult process. It's a process that really beats the snout out of candidate that decides to run. I think that's a good thing because we want whoever the nominee is to be at the top of their game. They'll need to debate the president of the United States to be the next president of the United States and these are crucial issues at a crucial time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: But she's not willing to say who she thinks that could be. Congresswoman Bachmann did tell me that whatever happens comes the Super Tuesday races perhaps that might whittle things down, but she does see that this is going to be a long primary caucus season.

You want to be sure to join later on today for the contenders, the 2012 contenders at 4:00 Eastern Time to hear more from Michele Bachmann and others.

All right, so Tuesday is the single biggest voting day in the Republican race for president, 419 delegates in 10 states up for grabs. Could it push one candidate out of the running and propel another frontrunner to frontrunner status?

Joining me now is our political editor, Paul Steinhauser. It's good to see you. OK, a lot at stake in these 10 states, 419 delegates. So are these candidates spending, I guess, the last few hours in some particular pivotal states?

PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN POLITICAL EDITOR: Yes. I guess not all states are created equal on Super Tuesday and it is, as you mentioned, the single biggest night. Those 419 delegates, that's more than a third of the delegates you need, 1,144 to clinch the nomination.

This is more than we've had on all the nights so far put together. That's why this is important. And where are they spending their time, yes, some important states like Ohio, Georgia today, Mitt Romney in Georgia, not far from here in Atlanta, Tennessee, even Oklahoma. I think those four are standing out more than the rest.

WHITFIELD: There are some new polls that are out indicating that it's still a very tight race in some portions and then others there may be a break through?

STEINHAUSER: Yes, let's start with Ohio. Brand new poll this morning from NBC News/Marist and look at this. This is about as close as you can get, Rick Santorum at 34 percent, Mitt Romney at 32 percent.

Another poll that came out in Ohio had the same story. So Santorum had a little bit of a lead in Ohio. It is gone. It is basically dead even, such an important state not only in the primaries, but also in the general election. Remember, Ohio such a big battleground state.

Let's go next to a poll right down here in Georgia if we have that. That's from the Atlanta Journal Constitution. It just came out here. And well, look who's on top by double digits.

WHITFIELD: He's counting on that.

STEINHAUSER: He's counting -- and he said that a number of times. I need to win my home state and if I don't or else. Well, I guess this is good news for Newt Gingrich.

WHITFIELD: Even if he wins one state, Georgia.

STEINHAUSER: Is that enough?

WHITFIELD: Is that enough to make you a viable candidate? Someone who really has the staying power through the spring or summer?

STEINHAUSER: It may be enough for him to continue a while longer, but if he doesn't win, boy, I don't know how you continue with the nomination. That's why he's putting all his emphasis on Super Tuesday right here.

And then finally, one more, let's go to Tennessee. Just to the north of the west of us there and look at this, another state really interesting. This is a real good southern state to look at, a lot of delegates at stake. But it doesn't have the Gingrich factor so it much more wide open. Santorum did have a little bit of a lead there. It has dissipated now. It's basically dead even between him and Romney.

You know, in Tennessee, Georgia and even Oklahoma, social conservative voters so important. Santorum really appeals to a lot of those.

WHITFIELD: All right, Paul Steinhauser, thanks so much. We'll see you again in the 4:00 Eastern hour. We'll talk about the race for the White House. All right, thanks so much.

And then of course, Super Tuesday, March 6th, just a couple days away at 12:00 Eastern Time. Wolf Blitzer and CNN's Political Team will host a new program for the day, "CNN ELECTION ROUND TABLE." It's a live insider chat about the day's implications for the presidential race. Go to cnn.com/roundtable to get a preview.

All right, also straight ahead tax advice that could help you avoid an audit by the IRS. Straight ahead, if perhaps you have a home office or if you deduct business dinners on your tax returns, we'll tell you how to avoid eight tax pitfalls.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right, it's tax time. You have just over five weeks until your return is due. So what can you do to avoid an IRS audit? According to learn vest.com, there are eight things that could flag your return for audit, reporting the wrong taxable income for starters, trying to deduct a lavish steak dinner with clients as a business expense.

How about deducting your car as a business expense when you also take the kids to soccer and run errands and making errors like filing the wrong deductions or math errors, all those things could trigger an audit.

So what are the other four tax audit triggers? Alexa Von Tobel, CEO of learnvest.com, a personal finance and lifestyle web site for women joining us right now.

All right, Alexa, good to see you. Nobody wants to be audited.

ALEXA VON TOBEL, CEO, LEARNVEST.COM: Nice to see you.

WHITFIELD: Let's talk about --

TOBEL: No, they don't.

WHITFIELD: -- talk about some of the other audit triggers. Say, for instance, you make donations all year long, but if you have a small budget, there has to be some real equilibrium here. So you can't have huge donations and small budget. Explain.

TOBEL: That's exactly right. Here's when it's perfectly OK. Let's say this year you donate write a check to your alma mater and then you lose your job. That ultimately make sense and again, you're not really triggering something that seems odd.

What does seem odd and where it's not OK is, let's say you decide to write off your 1995 Camry that you've donated for $15,000. Large donations like that when you're not making a lot of money really trigger the IRS' attention.

And the take away here is, if you're going to donate anything over $500, you're going to need to fill out form 8283 to ultimately substantiate that donation so just make sure that the dollars make sense.

WHITFIELD: OK, and what about your home office, a lot of people work from home and they want to be able to deduct that work space from I guess their overall home expenses. How do you that or can you do that anymore?

TOBEL: So you can do that, but here's again when it's perfectly OK. Let's say you do have a home office where your computer is, office supplies, and here's the key, where you do the majority of your work.

What does not make a home office is a laptop in the corner of your living room that you work on from time to time watching TV at night. I think it's really important this is one that again the IRS pays a lot of attention to.

And if you have any questions about whether or not you have a home office, check out IRS publication 587 on their web site, read through it and actually they have a nifty flow chart that helps walk through a series of questions to ultimately tell you if you're on the up and up and can claim a home office.

WHITFIELD: OK, and then a big red flag is when all your numbers seem to, you know, look perfectly perfect. There are no cents, everything is dollars, all rounded off. That's a big red flag. I thought you do that for the sheer idea of convenience.

TOBEL: Yes, so here's why that's a big red flag. So here's when it's perfectly OK. If you're going to round a dollar amount, let's say $6,301.25 to just 6,301, that's OK.

What's not okay and again, not rocket science here, the IRS will pay a lot of attention if all of your numbers on your tax form are rounded to the nearest hundred or thousand or 50.

If everything looks very tidy and all your numbers convenient, they're going to wonder if you've just made things up, but then two, if you're not keeping really good records and again, they want you keeping the best records possible.

So just use the actual numbers and if you need to round to the nearest dollar that's OK, but be careful about rounding other numbers.

WHITFIELD: And what's this about a business that's losing money?

TOBEL: So again, if you have a business and here's when it's OK to claim a business that's losing money. If you have a business that is legally set up as a business where you run it like a business and intend to be profitable.

And you happen to have, you know, a bad year or two where you're going to claim losses, that's OK. What's not OK is when you have a business you think of as a business that's not set up as a business that maybe is more of a hobby for you.

So let's say fixing antique bicycles or running a small vineyard business or cup cake business you don't have set up like a business and not intended to be profitable, and you claim losses against that.

So the real take away there is, make sure you have a legal business set up as a big and that the real way to think about it, it has to be profitable three out of five years to be qualified as a business.

WHITFIELD: All right and then how likely are tax audits? I mean, people can expect one out of a few thousand will likely get audited?

TOBEL: So the way to think about that is, if you let's say as of 2011 make more than $200,000, one in 25 people were audited. If you made less than $200,000 one in 98 people were audited.

As much a recent CNN Money article over the last three years the IRS has increased their audits and has been more vigilant to find tax fraud. So it's not as unlikely as you think.

WHITFIELD: Yes, OK, is the rule still hold on to your tax returns, receipts and all that for like seven years?

TOBEL: Yes, as always. So if you do get audited, here's the most important take away.

WHITFIELD: OK.

TOBEL: You want to make sure that you've kept track of all of your forms as clearly as possible, kept them the a safe place, and if you've used an accountant they can represent you to the IRS and if you've used a tax software like H&R Block they can represent you to the IRS.

WHITFIELD: All right.

TOBEL: So make sure you keep all your forms safe.

WHITFIELD: All right, thanks so much. Sorry to cut you off, we're running out of time.

TOBEL: No worries. Thank you.

WHITFIELD: We'll have much more right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: As CNN reporters and producers we have the inside scoop on great places to go. Brianna Keilar shows us where she goes to unwind.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I'm Brianna Keilar and I cover the White House for CNN. One of my favorite places in the D.C. area is old town Alexandria, Virginia. It's about 7-1/2 miles south of the White House.

This is a place where you can come and get a great meal, do a little shopping and even get a history lesson. This is after all the hometown of George Washington and here at the old Presbyterian Meeting House you can find the gravesite of his personal physician James Craig. It's a little spooky, one of the stops on the ghost tour here in town. But I say we get out of here and go find some other spirits.

This is one of my favorite places to end the evening. This is the PX Speak Easy. It's completely unmarked. The blue light means that they're open. So you can just knock on the door and come in.

When you get upstairs at the PX, you might be lucky enough to show up on a night where Todd Thrasher, the owner and bartender here, is here to mix you a drink. So what are we having tonight?

TODD THRASHER, BAR CHEF: What are you in the mood for, rum, vodka, gin.

KEILAR: Let's try gin.

THRASHER: So this is the Leblanc, fortified wine from France, purple basil, put a little dash of gin, three drops of citric acid, a little bit of ice, stir 30 times, not that I'm counting, smack it wave it, cocktail gods, sweet basil.

KEILAR: That's amazing.

THRASHER: Thanks very much.

KEILAR: Cheers from old town, Alexandria, Virginia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: After sharp criticism from the left and the right conservative talk show host, Rush Limbaugh, apologizes for offending a Georgetown law student.

In a statement Limbaugh says quoting here, "My choice of words was not the best and in the attempt to be humorous, I created a national stir. I sincerely apologize to Miss Fluke for the insulting word choices," end quote.

All right, I'm Fredricka Whitfield. I'll be back in one hour, just a couple days away from Super Tuesday. I spoke with former president candidate Michele Bachmann. Hear her answers about the campaign and her very strong opinions about how the U.S. should be protecting Israel. Our conversation coming up.

But right now, it's time for "YOUR MONEY" right after this. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)