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New Threat Against Americans; High Gas Prices A Hot Topic For Obama; Alabama, Mississippi Primaries Today; Militants Attack Near Afghan Massacre; Afghans Launch Anti-U.S. Protests; Taliban Vow To Behead Americans; Obama "More Determined" To Withdraw; Flexible Spending Deadline Is Thursday; Hackers Mine Social Networking Sites; Former Murdoch Aide Arrested Again

Aired March 13, 2012 - 10:00   ET

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

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. I'm Carol Costello. Just ahead of the NEWSROOM, anger in the streets of Afghanistan. Protesters rail against the United States as an army sergeant stands accused of slaughtering civilians. This as the Taliban vows new retaliation by beheading Americans.

Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich are betting on Alabama and Mississippi. Voters of both states going to the polls today. A total of 84 delegates up for grabs. Democrats can cross over to vote.

And they're hoping to beat President Obama in the November election. The president, by the way, continues to get grilled on gas prices.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two thirds of Americans today said they don't feel as though you're doing enough to control gas prices.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: So what did he say? We'll hear the response a little later.

We begin this hour in depth though in Afghanistan and a reality check on the safety of American troops there. Anti-American protests are boiling up this morning. Two days after a killing spree.

The Taliban now is vowing to avenge the killings by beheading Americans anywhere in the country. The suspect in that attack, a U.S. army sergeant has been moved to a safer confinement area in Kandahar.

A few hours ago, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta arrived in the region. He will try to shore up the strained relationship between the two allies as it threatens to unravel.

Also this morning, insurgents opened fire on a delegation of Afghan government officials as they visited the site of the massacre. At least one brother of President Karzai was among the group. He is safe, but a soldier and a civilian were wounded.

We want to dig deeper this morning. Barbara Starr is at the Pentagon for us with how our troops are protecting themselves and Sara Sidner is in Afghanistan.

Let's begin in Afghanistan with Sara. Sara, tell us a little bit more about the chilling threat from the Taliban.

SARA SIDNER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, the Taliban sent me an e-mail this morning and in it, it basically talked about the fact it has to avenge those who were killed and it said that it would take revenge on any American by beheading any American who is on Afghan soil.

So a very strong threat there from the Taliban. Now, this threat came after we heard from someone who was in the village, the same village where this soldier accused of opening fire and killing 16 civilians.

We heard from one of the villagers and an official in the area saying during a funeral that had some high-level Afghan officials and the brother of President Hamid Karzai that there was rocket propelled grenade and some small arms fire that broke out.

We understand at this point that four Afghan soldiers have been wounded. We have not gotten any more information out of the area at this point in time, but four Afghan soldiers wounded and this attack -- no one claimed responsibility yet for this attack.

But certainly a terrible thing to have happen when people are trying to bury their loved ones. We also saw some protests. In Jalalabad, which is in Eastern Afghanistan, far away from where this particular incident happened, the massacre on Sunday, but still, about 400 to 500 people took to the streets, many of them university students, Carol, who took to the streets.

They were screaming things like down with America, down with President Obama. But it didn't turn violent and you remember that last month there were much more violent protests that spread in much more of the country when Korans were burned.

So we're only seeing this in an area, one area right now where protests are breaking out. We're not seeing protests in other places at this point in time -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Sara, you are in Afghanistan. Not that you could ever easily move around that country, but what it's it like now for you?

SIDNER: You know, in Kabul, things have been quiet for the most part. People are definitely taking precautions though. We have heard from several different groups and there's a lot of concern as you might imagine with aid groups.

Because with the Taliban saying they're going to behead any American here in the country, oftentimes aid groups are considered a soft target as they go into villages and try to set up programs to help villagers so a lot of concern there.

And obviously there's going to be concern on any base and so the definitely are seeing heightened security here in Afghanistan.

COSTELLO: Sara Sidner live for us in Afghanistan, thanks.

The U.S. military is not releasing the suspect's name because it wants to, quote, "protect the investigation." But we do know a little bit more about that suspect.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO (voice-over): Military sources tell us he's in his mid-30s with a wife and children. He is an infantry sniper trained to fire fatal shots from up to 800 meters away. We've also learned the suspect had suffered a traumatic brain injury in 2010 during his third and final deployment in Iraq.

He was treated for the trauma, cleared for duty and deployed to Afghanistan in January. His medical history is now part of the investigation, which is being handled by the U.S. military. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta says the suspect could face the death penalty if he is found guilty.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Defense Secretary Panetta is also talking about the future of U.S. troops in Afghanistan. There have been calls to step back and reassess. "The New York Times" reporting the administration may even speed up that 2014 deadline for a complete withdrawal. So is that possible?

Barbara Starr is at the Pentagon for us. So Barbara, what is Panetta saying about the war strategy?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, let me start with this, Carol. U.S. officials have from President Obama on down have said very strongly, very publicly in the last couple of days that the war strategy will not change because of this incident.

In fact, I spoke to a senior ISAF official, NATO official this morning. He said General Allen, the top commander has made no further decisions about troop withdrawal recommendations. That everything is staying on track as it currently stands.

Secretary Panetta traveling in the region spoke to reporters about this and his view about the need to maintain the commitment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LEON PANETTA, DEFENSE SECRETARY: We have been through a series of challenging events over these last few weeks in Afghanistan. And as I've told President Karzai when I talked to him, we seem to get tested almost every other day with challenges that test our leadership and our commitment to the mission that we're involved in.

(END VIDEO CLIP) STARR: But look, the reality is people, you know, Congress, American citizens, asking a lot of questions about this continuing war now more than 10 years old. And certainly, I think it's going to continue to be front and center in the presidential campaign --Carol.

COSTELLO: A lot of people are worried about the safety of the troops in Afghanistan. I understand some of those troops are taking extra precautions to keep themselves safe. How are they doing that, Barbara?

STARR: Well, you know, security for the troops is always at the highest levels. This is the combat zone. But since the Koran burning, certainly more awareness, more caution across the board.

Security is up to local commanders at various U.S. bases across the country. Some reports emerging now U.S. troops wearing more protective gear, more of the time. Patrols, people standing guard duty together.

U.S. troops together. More guard duty. So that no U.S. troop is perhaps left more vulnerable if there are disgruntled Afghans. That goes to the question after the Koran burning of some killing of U.S. troops by Afghans.

A lot of concern about the retaliation, a lot of concern that the Taliban will try and mount some spectacular attacks and take advantage of the situation -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Barbara Starr at the Pentagon for us.

On to politics now, the GOP candidates are battling it out in the Deep South today for 84 delegates in the Mississippi and Alabama primaries. Newt Gingrich looking to sway voters in Alabama today while Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum looking to contests in Missouri and Louisiana.

In the meantime, President Obama is traveling with the British Prime Minister David Cameron to Dayton, Ohio, for the opening of the NCAA basketball tournament.

Turning now to the rising costs of gas because it has everything to do about politics these days. Some say as gas prices go so goes the election. Maybe, but the more pressing question, does anyone have a viable plan to bring gas prices down?

Look, gas prices went up again to $3.81 a gallon. President Obama is keenly aware of that and had this to say to his critics in an interview with our Orlando affiliate, WFTV.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two thirds of Americans today said that they don't feel you're doing enough to control gas prices. It's huge for the Florida economy.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Well, look, as long as gas prices are going up, people are going to feel like I'm not doing enough. And I understand that because people get hurt when they're going to that gas station and seeing those prices rise every day.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Your opponents say that they can get gas priced in $2, $2.50 range. What do you think Americans should be OK with?

PRESIDENT OBAMA: First of all, nobody believes that. That's just politics.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: So does that make you feel better, worse? What is the president's plan to control the rising price of gas? Gingrich's or Santorum's or Romney's?

Our business correspondent, Christine Romans is here to tell us all about those plans. Hi, Christine.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Hi, there. You're making assumption first and foremost that the president can control the price of gasoline, right? I mean, because, look, I mean, there are things you can do to bring gas down.

You can tap the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. That's temporary. Have a big recession. That brings gas prices down. You can handle very carefully the Middle East and what happens with Iran. That can bring prices down.

So this idea on the campaign trail that immediately to bring gas prices down is a little bit tough to swallow for people who follow the energy markets, but it could very well be hurting the president.

Because you look, Carol, at his polling and "The New York Times"/CBS poll showing that his disapproval rating is now up to 47 percent and the same poll had shown a 50 percent approval rating not too long ago.

Newt Gingrich, of course, really deriding the president on the campaign trail saying that a vote for Newt Gingrich is a vote for $2.50 gas and that the president is in the pocket of environmentalists and radicals who don't want more drilling and don't want to really gas prices down.

You also have oil shale drilling. More domestic drilling is what Mitt Romney says, nuclear power as well, more alternative energy research. Rick Santorum says more drilling. Getting the theme here -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Drill, baby, drill.

ROMANS: And they all want to approve the Keystone XL. Rick Santorum says he would do it on day one. So those are the plans and in a nutshell, but there's a lot of politicking in here.

There really is because people are hurting because of gas prices and GOP candidates want your vote, right? So they want to say, I'm going to be a powerful president who will be able to bring down gas prices. The president saying those are phony campaign talk.

COSTELLO: OK. So we're just going to have to be stuck with high gas prices then?

ROMANS: I think gas prices could -- look. You can tap the Strategic Petroleum reserve, right? That's one thing to do. The president did I think last year with Libya. That has kind of a near-term effect.

You want to make sure that things are handled properly in Iran with the whole situation of Iran. A lot of price of crude oil right now, at least $10 a barrel of crude is because of the Iran fear factor. That's really important.

And then there's the really long term. Are you going to have a strategy that's going to wean American dependence on foreign oil? Are going to have lots of different -- I mean, these are things we have been talking about for years.

But the bottom line, Carol, is that you have Brazil. You've got India. You've got China. You've got emerging markets that are gobbling up crude oil, right? And energy resources, sometimes what's moving the needle isn't us. It's the rest of the world now, a new world.

COSTELLO: I know. You tell me these things all the time. It's sinking in. It really is. Christine Romans, thank you.

ROMANS: Bye, Carol.

COSTELLO: Now to the primaries and caucuses today. Alabama, Mississippi, Hawaii and the contests American Samoa holding contests. Paul Steinhauser in Garden Dale, Alabama.

Paul, I was reading the local papers and there's a guy running for a judgeship. He's going to arrive at the polls on a horse. I just thought you should know that in case you wanted to cover that.

PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN POLITICAL EDITOR: I will have my eyes on this one, Carol. I promise. Listen. Polls open here 7:00 a.m. local, 8 a.m. Eastern. There are about 50 people lined up ready to vote in advance of that.

There's been a steady stream of voters here at this polling station. We're about 30 miles north of Birmingham, largest city in Alabama. Turnout as you mentioned expected -- take a look at this.

The Secretary of State office said 28.9 percent is what turned out as expected to be today in the Republican primary here. Not that, but look, it was a lot higher back four years ago.

You could see over 42 percent. Remember, four years ago, a democratic and republican primary. This time around, not just the presidential preference primary so a pretty solid turnout today, not a record breaking one, but a solid one -- Carol. COSTELLO: Still depressingly low, isn't it? Even 2008 was depressingly low, right? So Paul --

STEINHAUSER: Well, compared to some other countries, yes.

COSTELLO: Yes, exactly. Will today do what Super Tuesday could not by actually narrowing the Republican field?

STEINHAUSER: I know. What a letdown, right? Everybody seemed won on Super Tuesday. Everybody came away a winner. Well, yes, there's a chance of some more clarity after the results here at a neighboring Mississippi. Why?

Let's take Newt Gingrich for instance. This is home turf for him, right? Supposedly, he's from Georgia across the border. If he doesn't do well here and the polls indicate he will, but if he doesn't, the chorus of criticism for to get out of the race will grow.

What if Rick Santorum doesn't do well here? Well, that kind of hurts the argument that Gingrich should drop out and a two-person race between Santorum and Romney. And the flipside, what if Mitt Romney does do well here, Carol?

This is not supposed to be friendly ground for him. In fact, he's lowered expectations. He said this is an away game for me, but if he does perform well here. It could hurt Gingrich and Santorum's arguments for the nomination.

Carol, stay tuned. It should be an interesting day and night here in Alabama and Mississippi.

COSTELLO: We will stay tuned. Find that judge on a horse. I want to see that. Thank you very much.

STEINHAUSER: I'm looking.

COSTELLO: Thanks, Paul.

CNN coverage of the Alabama and Mississippi primaries begins at 7:00 Eastern with Erin Burnett followed by complete live coverage of the results at 8:00 Eastern with Wolf Blitzer, Anderson Cooper and the CNN political team.

And mark your calendar. The deadline to use your flexible spending account is this Thursday. We will tell you how to spend it before the deadline.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: A hearing is getting under way on Capitol Hill about the Energy Department's controversial Loan Guarantee program. Energy Secretary Steven Chu is set to testify before a senate committee.

Lawmakers are focusing on a report commissioned by the White House following the Solyndra scandal. The solar panel company went bankrupt after receiving $535 million in federal loan guarantees. President Obama came under heavy criticism because of that. We'll keep you posted.

Mississippi and Alabama in the political spotlight today. Polls in the two southern states are already open and later tonight Hawaii Republicans will vote in their first-ever caucus.

There are a total of 110 delegates up for grabs in today's contests. CNN senior political analyst, Ron Brownstein is here. Hi, Ron.

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Hi, Carol. Good morning.

COSTELLO: So let's talk some more about the polls because they show Romney and Gingrich are neck and neck. Romney is doing is surprising well in the south.

BROWNSTEIN: Yes, you've got kind of a three-way mash-up, the worse nightmare of conservatives coming out to play in the two southern states.

You see Romney is still around 30 percent, which is basically been his ceiling in the south because he struggles with Evangelical Christian voters who are much more plentiful there than anywhere else in the country.

But with Santorum and Gingrich both in the race, dividing up that conservative vote, you have three converging right about, you know, 30 percent each and that puts it within reach for Romney. I think if Romney wins either or both, you will hear just enormous howls on the right for either Gingrich or Santorum, more likely Gingrich to get out of the race.

COSTELLO: But Gingrich is holding steady saying he's in it to the convention. I mean, could this really be his last stand and what would it take for him to like get out?

BROWNSTEIN: Well, look. I mean, I think if Newt Gingrich loses both states, it's very hard to win an argument of winning the nomination and what we have seen over the weekend is an important shift in the language certainly of Santorum.

And probably from Gingrich, as well, going forward, which is that they're not arguing they can get to a delegate majority on the first ballot, but rather they can prevent Romney from getting a delegate majority if they stay in the race and thus allow an open convention to reconsider.

So that's kind of dramatically lowers the bar. But if Gingrich loses both, I think it's much more difficult for him to argue about going forward since this is right in the backyard and the only states he's won so far, of course, have been the southern states of South Carolina and Georgia.

COSTELLO: I want to talk about Rick Santorum because he was on fire there just a short time ago. He doesn't seem so much on fire anymore. BROWNSTEIN: Well, he has been a little bit of a one-trick pony as we discussed before. He had done very well with Evangelical Christian voters, but he struggled to reach out beyond that.

He is not doing as well with blue collar and middle income Republicans as kind of impugn to him given the message and his focus on kind of a blue collar populism. Among Non-Evangelical voters, he hasn't won more than 31 percent of the vote in any state with an exit poll so far.

So that means while he can do well in states where those voters are a big bloc of the Republican electorate it really is too narrow a bandwidth for him to overtake Romney. He can trip him up, give him black eyes and good days.

But unless he can appeal to a broader spectrum of the party, he can't beat him. Of course, now you see the other problem he faces, Gingrich dividing the vote with him.

COSTELLO: Yes, Ron Brownstein, thank you. I know you have a long night ahead of you. We appreciate you being here this morning.

BROWNSTEIN: Thank you, Carol.

COSTELLO: Today at 5:00 Eastern, Mitt Romney will join Wolf Blitzer in the "SITUATION ROOM" to break down how he thinks today's contest will shake out and also talk about what he needs to do to put his competition away for good.

If you have a flexible spending account, you may want to schedule some time now to spend what's left in it. Details on a deadline you need to know about next.

Plus, using social network to network, think twice about the information you post. Mario Armstrong tells us how to protect that information.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: A lot of you used flexible spending accounts to save money on your health care costs. The deadline to spend the flex dollars is this Thursday. Alison Kosik is at the New York Stock Exchange. So, Alison, what happens if you don't use the money?

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: OK, well, this is a situation where it's either you use the money or you lose the money. The FSA accounts, flexible spending accounts, Carol. What they do is they let you use pre-tax money for eligible, medical expenses.

And if you don't use the money that you set aside, you forfeit it. It's just like throwing it out and surprise, you know, it's pretty common for people to do this. Take a look.

A study shows that the average employee actually leaves about 75 bucks in the account letting it sit there and go away. Now, most employers give you an extra two and a half months in the New Year to spend the money but listen up that grace period, yes, it ends this Thursday -- Carol

COSTELLO: So what do you do if you have money left over? Do you rush to the doctor?

KOSIK: All right, so here's some things to do. First of all, keep in mind that the rules have actually changed because of the 2010 health care bill.

In past years, you could just run to the drugstore and stock up on the over the counter medicines like cough syrup and aspirin. But those are not eligible anymore unless you have a doctor's prescription. OK, so what is eligible? We put together a bit of a list here. Take a look.

It's eligible, yes, with SPF higher than 15. Stock up. Summer is just around the corner, band-aids, contact lens solution, ankle braces and reading glasses. It counts.

You want to check your plan before you go ahead and buy it because companies do have some flexibility in determines which expenses they demonstrate eligible. Here's one more way to spend down you flex money. If you take medication on a regular basis, go ask your doctor now to write you a prescription for this year's supply. In that way, you can buy it now using the leftover 2011 flex money. That's a good tip, as well -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Right. Unless, of course, the prescription is for OxyContin then he probably won't do that.

KOSIK: Figured you would say something like that.

COSTELLO: Alison Kosik, thank you.

KOSIK: This time actor Chuck Norris is throwing his support behind Newt Gingrich. You will hear his message to voters in Alabama and Mississippi. It is priceless and it's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Checking our "Top Stories" now.

Anger in the streets of Afghanistan, protesters railing against the U.S. as an Army Sergeant stands accused of slaughtering civilians. This as the Taliban vow the fresh retaliation by beheading Americans.

President Obama is getting grilled on gas prices.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two-thirds of Americans today said that they don't feel as though you're doing enough to control gas prices. It's huge for the Florida economy.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: That's one of the reasons why we passed the payroll tax cut at the beginning of the year so that people would have more money in the paychecks and more money in the pockets to -- to help absorb potential high prices of gas.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: And Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich are betting on Alabama and Mississippi. Voters in both states going to the polls today, a total of 84 delegates up for grabs in those two states.

"Political Buzz", it's your rapid fire look at the best political topics of the day. Three questions, 30 seconds on the clock. Playing with us today: Sirius XM, political talk show host and comedian, Pete Dominick; founder and editor of Citizen Jane Politics, Patricia Murphy; and Republican strategist and former McCain aide, Boris Epshteyn. Welcome to all of you.

BORIS EPSHTEYN, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Good morning.

PATRICIA MURPHY, FOUNDER AND EDITOR, CITIZEN JANE POLITICS: Hi, Carol.

PETE DOMINICK, SIRIUS XM, POLITICAL TALK SHOW HOST: Hi, Carol.

COSTELLO: Hi. First of all, let's talk about rising gas prices and the race for the White House. Listen first to Jay Leno.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAY LENO, TALK SHOW HOST: Here are some very scary news. They say gasoline could be $6 a gallon by summer. But the good news is the White House says President Obama is aware of the problem and will continue to talk about it between fund-raisers. So that's good. He's working on that problem.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Oh, ouch. So what do you guys think? Will gas prices decide the presidential election? Patricia?

MURPHY: Well I think the economy will decide the presidential election and gas prices are a huge piece of that. And if you look at for example, the benefits of the payroll tax cuts, the rise in gas prices over the last month alone have wiped out a quarter of the benefits of the payroll tax cut. So as much as the President wants to do about the economy if gas prices are rising and dragging down consumers, that's going to hurt him at the poll. There's just no doubt.

The problem for him is that -- and any economist will tell you -- there's very little a President can do in the short term to affect gas prices. All he can do (inaudible) and he's trying. That's what he's doing now.

COSTELLO: Time's up. Boris?

EPSHTEYN: What he can do is he can show the American people that he's doing his best to lower gas prices and vetoing the against the Keystone Pipeline is the opposite of that. That is something the American people understand, that's a hit they can get in ten seconds. This president does not want to build a pipeline that will A, reduce gas prices and B, build more jobs in America. That is bad.

Jimmy Carter in 1980 under him gas prices were in today's dollars $3.50. If it will go to $5, forget even $6 that Jay Leno is talking about -- if they go o $5 there's huge problem for the President. Approval ratings that are in January and February do not mean much in November. In 1992 George H.W. Bush has 76 percent approval.

COSTELLO: Ok. You got that in quickly. Pete?

EPSHTEYN: I'm sorry.

DOMINICK: Well, there's -- there's I read all the experts this morning. There's no evidence that says oil and gas prices really affect the elections. I agree with Patricia that it has a lot to do with the economy and there's also no evidence that the Keystone Pipeline will bring down gas.

There's a number of things you need to worry about, the amount of refineries, the political unrest in the rest of the world, supply, demand. We should stop using so much fuel in this country. We should do our best to conserve. The people in Europe pay way more and they haven't spiraled out of control because of it. And they've been doing that for a long, long time. This is -- there's no -- nothing the President can do right now.

COSTELLO: Ok. Second question, laws requiring voters to show their ID at the polls were struck down in Texas and in Wisconsin. In the Wisconsin case, the judge wrote, "Voter fraud is no more poisonous to the democracy than voter suppression. Indeed, they are two heads on the monster".

So a question for you. What are voter ID laws really about, Boris?

EPSHTEYN: Voter ID laws are about preventing voter registration fraud and voter fraud. I was on McCain 2008 and I was part of the anti-voter fraud task force. What you saw is the whole Dallas Cowboys offensive line register in Nevada, you saw a ton of voter fraud on Ohio which had same day registration and voting, it's a problem.

The Supreme Court has already ruled on this and Crawford versus Marion County and Stevens, a very liberal judge that lead the opinion which said Indiana's voter ID law is constitutional, it is constitutional to require the identification to vote just like a Constitution require identification to go on a plane, get a book out of a library or go to a public high school.

COSTELLO: Pete?

DOMINICK: Yes, I'm guessing the offensive line of the Dallas Cowboys didn't actually vote in that election. This is a legislation clearly designed to disenfranchise people are most likely to vote for Democrats. It's not a problem. Here, Carol, watch me make up a racially motivated law. I think anybody wearing their hats backwards should not be allowed to vote because it really hurts the curtain closing in the booth. There's no evidence for that but let's just throw it out there. And why didn't these laws come up, Boris, a long time ago? Boris and I have been arguing from the makeup room all the way to the TV.

COSTELLO: Oh my goodness, Patricia.

EPSHTEYN: We've been fighting that.

MURPHY: Yes Carol this two, they got in a fist fight in the makeup room over this argument.

EPSHTEYN: No, not quite a fistfight, I'd win that easily.

MURPHY: Not quite a fistfight there maybe -- maybe mud wrestling. But it demonstrates that voter ID laws are about politics. If you are a Democrat, you interpret this to be a clear case of voter suppression. If you're a Republican, you don't, you consider it a way to get to voter fraud, the problem is there hasn't been a lot of evidence of prosecution of voter fraud.

Boris told me in the makeup room that that's all about prevention and not prosecution but if you don't have a number, if you don't have demonstrated evidence of huge massive voter fraud, why do you have laws coming up in an election year?

I think that's what you have to ask and where is the balance between voter suppression and voter I.D. that this Wisconsin judge made the decision.

COSTELLO: All good point;.

EPSHTEYN: These laws were put in place on 2010.

COSTELLO: All good points. Ok, let's go over to the third question now. This is our "Buzzer Beater" 20 seconds on the clock. As voters in Alabama and Mississippi head to the polls today, they've been receiving robo-calls from actor Chuck Norris. Listen.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

CHUCK NORRIS, ACTOR: Hello. This is Chuck Norris. As my wife Gina and I watch the GOP debate and went to their Web site, we were trying to decide which of the candidates would be best to do head to head combat with President Obama.

Now, I didn't say hand-to-hand combat. Even though I think they would win there, too. Gina and I decided that Newt Gingrich would be the best man to beat President Obama.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Although, on second thought, he had an interesting point. Maybe hand-to-hand combat would be a better way to decide the presidency. Thoughts? Pete?

DOMINICK: Hello. This is Chuck Norris. I'm a talented hack and I can't even read well on a robo-call. Head-to-head, if it was size of the head, Newt Gingrich would beat President Obama. He has a huge head but clearly he couldn't beat him in an actual fight. President Obama is in awesome shape and it looks like Gingrich hasn't exercised perhaps ever, with respect.

COSTELLO: Patricia?

MURPHY: Just in honor of the Mississippi and Alabama vote today, I say a grits eating contest. And can you identify grits and do you know the difference between cheese grits and cheesy grits? That would tell us.

COSTELLO: That would be very telling. Boris?

EPSHTEYN: Look. I would love to see like a WWE wrestling mania last man standing get all the Republican candidates in there. Bring back Herman Cain with 999. Bring back Rick Perry. Throw in a couple of others and then put Obama in there and just see what happens and then let Obama pick some of his own team from the Democrats, maybe Nancy Pelosi. I'd be scared on Nancy Pelosi. Harry Reid is actually a professional boxer back in his day. He'll be a ton of fun.

COSTELLO: Who would be afraid of Nancy Pelosi?

DOMINICK: It would be all -- it would be all dudes.

COSTELLO: Dudes and Nancy. Pete, Boris and Patricia, thanks for playing with us today. It was fun.

MURPHY: Thanks, Carol.

EPSHTEYN: Thanks Carol.

DOMINICK: Thanks Carol.

COSTELLO: One of Rupert Murdoch's former top executives now under arrest. Ahead why British police took Rebekah Brooks into custody along with five others this morning.

Plus, the brakes on the plane failed to keep this jet on the runway. We will explain what happened to this Delta Jet.

Stay tuned.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Oh, the long wait is over for fans of the ABC series "The Bachelor". Ben's search for his soul mate finally ended. And A.J. Hammer is here to tell you who the winner was.

A.J. HAMMER, HLN HOST, "SHOWBIZ TONIGHT": Thank goodness we know who won this thing. Courtney Robertson, Carol, took the ring from Bachelor Ben. It seems when you look back at the season, a lot of fans just loved to hate it. If they weren't making fun of the bachelor's floppy hair cut, they were just going crazy over Courtney's behavior. They've really seen her as the villain throughout the season.

She loved breaking the rules. She always seemed to take her clothes off and she also staged this mock wedding on a date with the bachelor a few episodes ago which really peeved some people. But ultimately Ben picked Courtney over all the other nice bachelorettes on the show. And the happy couple ended the finale with their promises of love and future together.

But of course, the tabloids already have them splitting up in real life. They published photos of Bachelor Ben looking for love with other ladies. And I sit here in shock this morning, Carol, that it just may not be eternal love for the two of them.

COSTELLO: I know. I like -- it tears me up inside, too, it does.

HAMMER: Yes, yes.

COSTELLO: Talk about "The Hunger Games" because a lot of people are really looking forward to that movie or I guess it's a series.

HAMMER: Yes. And this looks like -- it is a series. It's a trilogy and it looks like the film that opening this weekend could wind up being bigger than "Twilight". You could see how excited the fans were last night at the premier of the film. It is reportedly on track for this huge opening weekend. The "Hollywood Reporter" is actually predicting one of the biggest debuts ever.

Now, pre-sales have been better for this than the last "Twilight" film to give you a sense of how it's going. The reason seems to be that men are as interested in this film as women. And the movie, of course, is based on the best selling trilogy of books, all about a young woman who's living in this warped future where she's forced to fight other children to the death simply for the amusement of a televised audience. All that while dealing with a love triangle between the good boy and the bad boy she grew up with. So, it will be interesting to see how it plays out this weekend but it will be huge -- Carol. Make no mistake.

COSTELLO: Man, it sounds depressing yet fascinating. A.J. Hammer, thanks so much.

You want information on everything breaking in the entertainment world, A.J. has it tonight on "SHOWBIZ TONIGHT" at 11:00 Eastern on HLN.

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COSTELLO: The calendar says spring is still a week away but, boy, it already feels like it across parts of the country. Take a look at this picture from the National Parks Service Web site in Washington, D.C. 61 degrees in Washington today. And the day's just getting started. CNN meteorologist Rob Marciano is here and the cherry blossoms are already starting to bloom -- way early.

ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes.

COSTELLO: So what's the deal? I mean it is warm everywhere.

MARCIANO: Well, what's crazy is that we had such an incredibly warm winter and that's -- rolling right in to spring. We think of spring as really March 1st. So as far as weather guys are concerned, we are in it right now. We were the fourth warmest winter on record for the U.S. in New York and Boston; second warmest, D.C.; the third warmest, Minneapolis.

You get the idea. Nearly everybody saw an incredibly warm winter. Well, we're striking that cord real quickly here as we get into the middle of May. Yesterday, it was 84 degrees in St. Louis -- all-time record for St. Louis there for the day. 73 degrees in Newark. Central Park seeing 71.

COSTELLO: Wow.

MARCIANO: Syracuse, seeing 68 degrees. That will get you the orange men fired up for the journey. This will look at what the average high temperatures are. A lot of these temps 20 and in some cases today and tomorrow we could 30 degrees above average. All right? That's pretty incredible stuff.

The average high in New York is 49 degrees -- 71 degrees is what we expect to see today. And similar numbers, 77 degrees the average high temperature or 55 degrees the average high temperature in D.C. and 77 degrees is the expected high temperature today. And that's for the northeast. As far as the upper Midwest is concerned, we saw 84 degrees in St. Louis yesterday. We expect to see 81 degrees today, that's a good 20 to 26 degrees above average and places like Sioux Falls could be 30 degrees above average.

Seattle, meanwhile, 43 degrees. That's below average.

COSTELLO: There's always a spoiler.

MARCIANO: And often, when we seeing one side of the country really, really hot, the other side will be pretty cold. It snowed on the beach today in New Port, Oregon. Inches of snow there so they're getting finally a little bit of a taste of winter but, yes.

You know, the positive signs that we have seen over 20 -- over 200 record high temperatures set in the past few days but your heating bill, you know, piece of cake this year.

COSTELLO: That's right. It's just your air conditioning bill now.

MARCIANO: That's for sure.

COSTELLO: Yes. We're going to talk a lot more about this tomorrow. So I hope you're here.

MARCIANO: All right.

COSTELLO: You're here right?

MARCIANO: Oh, absolutely, yes.

COSTELLO: Ok. Just checking.

If you're looking for work, chances are you've already posted some personal information online. Social networking allows us to share information fast. It's also made it easy for hackers to steal. HLN's digital lifestyle contributor Mario Armstrong is here to teach us to how to protect ourselves.

Welcome, Mario.

MARIO ARMSTRONG, DIGITAL LIFESTYLE CONTRIBUTOR, HLN: Hey Carol, how are you?

COSTELLO: I'm good but disturbed with what you're about to say. I mean, exactly what personal information are hackers using against us?

ARMSTRONG: Well, you know, it doesn't take a lot these days, carol. So it can be as simple as a cell phone number. It can be an e-mail address. It can be a snail mail address. It doesn't really take a lot to grab little bits and pieces of different information from different locations. It could be on one social networking site or another and then compile all of that information and aggregate it altogether to be able to open new lines of credit or other damaging things that you're not expecting to have in your credit history.

COSTELLO: Well, there's this story floating around about LinkedIn and how hackers are using information on LinkedIn to hack in to companies.

ARMSTRONG: Right.

COSTELLO: What are they doing?

ARMSTRONG: Yes. So this is interesting. So hackers go where many people go and we're talking millions of users on LinkedIn, which is a phenomenal site. I recommend it for people trying to broaden their careers, make good networks. We have a lot of people out of jobs in America looking to find their job or find that connection and LinkedIn is a source for them to do that.

However, people are setting up fake LinkedIn accounts, These hackers are setting up fake personas, fake identities and people giving them friend request and they're getting accident. Once you say, yes, I'll accept you as a freedom then they're getting to get into, not only all of your information, what school you graduated from, what jobs you used to have, where you used to work.

But also potential access to your friends, as well, that you have in there. Your Rolodex, your contacts; a Rolodex information. So they can set up fake profiles and within these fake profiles, they can also put links that if you click on the links could send you to sites that would to farm out or phish for personal identity information from you.

COSTELLO: So ok. What's smart way to handle this? How do you protect yourself?

ARMSTRONG: Number one, I think we need to get away from the blind trust culture. I think we're really stuck in this. Oh, let me see that invite -- I'll accept you. Without doing our own due diligence. Why would you just accept someone for the sake of accepting them?

But I think there's four quick steps. Number one, keep it business on LinkedIn. No personal information. Change a password frequently making sure that you're safe and you changed it even if you feel, especially if you feel there's been suspicious activity. If you log in to LinkedIn, any social networking sight -- do it on a secure connection, not in a Public Wi-Fi hotspots. And then number four, monitor and really check those friend requests before you just go ahead and accept.

COSTELLO: Ok. We'll try to follow all of the rules. Mario, thank you for being with us today.

ARMSTRONG: Yes. Thank you so much, carol.

COSTELLO: You're welcome.

Steak and burger lovers, listen up. If you want to live longer, stop eating red meat. Results of a pretty scary study straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Checking stories across country now. Louisiana is getting a bit of a break today after record flooding. More than a foot of rain fell in several parishes in a short amount of time causing flash floods. Those floods left many people stranded in their homes and businesses. Rose and Lafayette were covered in as much as 8 feet of water.

Closing arguments begin today in the Rutgers Roommate Spying Trial. A former Rutgers student is accused of spying on his gay roommates, Tyler Clementi who later committed suicide. Dharun Ravi faces 15 counts in connection with that death.

A Delta plane rolled off a taxi wait at Atlanta's airport early this morning. The plane's engines were being tested when there was a problem with the plane's brakes. Luckily no passengers on board.

If you're thinking about having a hamburger or a steak for dinner tonight, you might want to change your plans after hearing this. A new study says eating just one serving of red meat a day increases your risk of an early death by 13 percent. Harvard researchers suggest eating more protein sources like fish, nuts and whole grains. The study is the first to estimate the effect of swapping out red meat on a person's life span.

British police moving in this morning and arresting several people; one of them the former Murdoch aide and editor at the now closed tabloid investigated for alleged film hacking. We're going to take it live to London, next.

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COSTELLO: British police investigating the alleged phone hacking scandal or alleged phone hacking, I should say, arrest six more people this morning. "Wall Street Journal" and Sky News say those arrested includes Rebekah Brooks and her husband. Rebekah Brooks is a former top executive for Rupert Murdoch's media empire. I think she was the third most powerful person there.

Our senior international correspondent Matthew Chance is following developments. He's in London. What more can you tell us, Matthew?

MATTHEW CHANCE CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm setting aside Scotland Yard, the headquarters of the metropolitan police and there's been a statement, a number of them issued throughout the course of the day saying that these six individuals have been arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. So very serious offense the charges sort of relating to not so much hacking itself but the suppression of evidence when it came to the police investigation of that hacking.

You're right. Over the course of the past few minutes, they only. These internationalists confirmed that Rebekah Brooks along with her husband, Charlie Brooks, are amongst those arrested. It's significant because she's senior-most figure essentially at News International that's been taken in to custody -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Matthew Chance live in London, thanks.

Let's turn it over to Kyra now. You'll have much more on this later, I'm sure.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Sure will. Thanks so much, Carol.