Pressure Primaries: Four States Voting Tuesday; Poison Mystery: Motel Room Discoveries; Jobs in the USA: Ohio & Texas Facts
NARRATOR: It's 3:00 a.m. and your children are safe and asleep. But there's a phone in the White House, and it's ringing. Something...</s>BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. So it's 3:00 a.m. somewhere this morning. The race is heating up as to who will answer that call next year. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama crank out competing commercials. And CNN equals politics, and we are packed with your campaign news today.</s>T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Also, back from the battlefield. Prince Harry, he's back in Britain, but with some mixed emotions.</s>NGUYEN: And take a look at this fire. We're going to tell you what happened to the pets inside. From the CNN Center, this is CNN NEWSROOM. It is Saturday, March 1st. Good morning, everybody. I'm Betty Nguyen.</s>HOLMES: And hey there, everybody. I'm T.J. Holmes. 10:00 a.m. here in Atlanta, Georgia, 3:00 in the afternoon in London.</s>NGUYEN: And we do start with politics, the pressure-packed race for the nomination. A busy campaign trail today ahead of Tuesday's critical primaries in four states. Barack Obama is in Rhode Island and Ohio today. Hillary Clinton in Texas. For the Republicans, Mike Huckabee's also campaigning across Texas today, but John McCain, well, he is taking it easy. Yes, he is back home in Arizona. Wherever the candidates are though, the best political team on television is right there with them. Consider it our own full-court press ahead of the Tuesday primaries. We've flooded the zone. Today our reporters are in Ohio, Rhode Island, Arizona, and of course, Texas.</s>NARRATOR: It's 3:00 a.m. and your children are safe and asleep, but there's a phone in the White House, and it's ringing. Something's happening in the world. Your vote will decide who answers that call, whether it's someone who already knows the world's leaders, knows the military...</s>NARRATOR: It's 3:00 a.m. and your children are safe and asleep, but there's a phone ringing in the White House. Something's happening in the world. When that calls get answered, shouldn't the president be the one, the only one, who had judgment and courage to oppose the Iraq war from the start, who understood...</s>HOLMES: Yes, sleeping children and ringing telephones the center of the ads that are at the center of the presidential campaign this morning. And CNN's Jessica Yellin has more on those ads and what the Democrats are doing today.</s>JESSICA YELLIN, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Barack Obama is heading to Rhode Island today. It's one of four states that will hold a primary on Tuesday in the next big showdown in this race. Obama has a special tie to that state. His wife's brother coaches the Brown University basketball team. Now, this visit comes as Obama and Clinton are engaged in an increasingly intense ad war here in the state of Texas. Senator Clinton put the first ad up on the airwaves here in which she accuses Barack Obama, essentially, of not having the adequate experience to be commander in chief when the red phone rings in the White House in the middle of the night. Obama hit back quickly with an ad of his own in which he basically argues that judgment -- his judgment -- matters more than Senator Clinton's experience. It's a fight over national security and an attempt to appeal to voters' fears about terrorism. Now, all this comes in the lead-up to the March 4th primary must- win votes here in the state of Texas and in Ohio for Senator Clinton. Barack Obama's team trying to raise the stakes, saying Clinton needs to win by 10 points or more to stay in the game. No doubt, Clinton's team doesn't quite see it that way. Jessica Yellin, CNN, Houston, Texas.</s>NGUYEN: All right. Those ads, they are highlighting the high stakes in Texas, and here's just how close the race really is. Barack Obama leads with 48 percent in our poll of polls, just ahead of Hillary Clinton's 44 percent. But look at the number of people who still haven't made up their minds. That's 8 percent. The Republican race is a little more clear-cut, according to the polls. Presumptive nominee John McCain leads with 53 percent, more than doubling Mike Huckabee. Texas Congressman Ron Paul is at 9 percent. Well, a lot of Texans still haven't made up their minds with just three days to go, so what are they thinking? Well, CNN's Ali Velshi has been hanging out on CNN's Election Express in Texas all week, and is joins us now on the phone from Seguin, Texas. Good morning, Ali.</s>ALI VELSHI, CNN SENIOR BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Betty. We are, as you say, in Seguin. We're right in the heart of the central Texas oil fields. Now, you know, we've been talking to people all week about the record prices of oil. We've been talking to them about gas prices. You know, that's the concern across the country. When it comes to the economy, we're talking about houses, we're talking about mortgages and jobs, and the market and oil, but oil has been the thing that people have been talking about because they are feeling it on their kitchen tables in terms of how much they are paying for the food that they buy and the things that they spend their money on. Now, well, that was kind of surprising, because Texas is the largest exporter of goods in the United States, the biggest of any state, and that's because most of the exports are oil. You'd think that a lot of people are getting rich off of oil, but frankly, for those people who have to ranch or farm here in Texas -- and there are many of them -- they're really feeling the pinch. Listen to this one gentleman whom I spoke to.</s>DAVID MOORE, TEXAS RANCHER: It's getting costly when you're paying $3.50 for a gallon of diesel for, like, my truck, or you're paying $3.09 for a gallon of gasoline for a vehicle. It costs you to get down to the ranch and get back every day.</s>VELSHI: Well, we had spoken to a number of people who expressed the same concerns. So what we did -- we were in San Antonio until last night, where Hillary Clinton was and Barack Obama was nearby. We took the Election Express and we drove it into oil country. So we're headed now for a place called the Darst Oil Field to find out what people who make their living off of the petroleum industry are thinking about these prices, because they've got to drive the trucks and they've got to buy the same things that everyone has to. But are they feeling that this high price of oil is actually benefiting them in their economy? So that's what we are going to be doing today, and we will be back with you many times after we've spoken to people and figured out how those oil drills work.</s>NGUYEN: Well, that's going to be interesting, to hear what the people who making their living off of oil have to say, because a lot of people looking at those folks and just thinking, you know what? You're getting rich off of this, so what are you complaining about? But, you know, everyone's got to pay for gas, everyone's got to pay for electricity, so we'll see. Thank you, Ali.</s>VELSHI: OK, Betty.</s>HOLMES: So, just how important are Tuesday's primaries? Here, a look at what's at stake for the Republicans -- 256 delegates. That's enough to clinch the nomination for John McCain.</s>NGUYEN: But for the Democrats, 370 delegates are up for grabs, and believe me, the candidates are grabbing for every last one at this point.</s>HOLMES: Well, here's the story in Ohio right now. John McCain getting 56 percent of the vote in our poll of polls. That's compared to 26 percent for Mike Huckabee. A lot closer on the Democratic side. Hillary Clinton ahead there with 47 percent, Barack Obama 40 percent, but there are still 13 percent who say they haven't decided, and that's a pretty big number, just days away from the election.</s>NGUYEN: So, are you still undecided who you're going to vote for? Well, hear what the candidates are saying about the issues, all of it uncensored. CNN's "BALLOT BOWL" begins this afternoon at Eastern.</s>HOLMES: Well, police still trying to figure out how the rare, fatal poison ricin ended up in a hotel room. During the course of the investigation now, we've got a lot of new discoveries that are popping up, adding new confusion to this story. Head out now to Las Vegas. CNN's Kara Finnstrom on the story for us. Good morning to you.</s>KARA FINNSTROM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, T.J. The FBI, local police both investigating this morning, and we are starting to learn some new details. We have now learned that in the room in the hotel just behind us, where that ricin was found, police also found anarchist literature and guns. And that literature had specific references in it to ricin. We've also learned that those discoveries were made two days before the ricin was allegedly found and handed over to police. And that the discoveries made police suspicious enough at that point, that they made an unsuccessful search of the room for ricin.</s>CAPT. JOSEPH LOMBARDO, LAS VEGAS POLICE: Acting on that information, they requested the presence of our armored team to do a test of the room for any presence of ricin. There was no positive test within the room and the room was determined not to be contaminated.</s>FINNSTROM: That was two days after that that a man who says he's a relative of the person now in the hospital says he simply found this white powder in the room and turned it in to police. We asked authorities how it could be that he found it and their search didn't turn it up. They say they don't know, and that that remains under investigation right now. One other development in this overnight. Police also searched a room at the Excalibur hotel, a room which this relative who found the ricin had stayed in on Wednesday night. They tested that room for ricin. They say it was just a precaution and the test did come back negative. All of this has kind of prompted some new questions about whether this could, again, be related to terrorism, but police are still saying they don't believe it is. They say simply finding anarchist literature and guns does not make someone a terrorist --</s>T.J. HOLMES: A lot to sift through out there in Las Vegas. Kara Finnstrom for us there. Thank you so much this morning.</s>NGUYEN: Well, a homecoming for Britain's Prince Harry after his removal from Afghanistan. The 2nd lieutenant arrived back in England this morning, and British defense officials blame media reports for the prince's sudden withdrawal from combat. They say an Internet site reported his deployment in Afghanistan. They feared media exposure could have placed the prince and soldiers with him in greater danger. Not too good that his cover was blown, but obviously, a lot of people saying that for there to be a media blackout as long as it was, CNN was also aware as well as many other outlets that he was there. And he was there for what, 10 weeks?</s>HOLMES: He was there for 10 weeks. As much as the media certainly in America, but also the British tabloids pretty notorious for putting stuff out there...</s>NGUYEN: Oh, that's true.</s>HOLMES: ... kept a blackout there. That was a really big deal, and people were saying, hey, the media can do the right thing in some cases.</s>NGUYEN: That's right. You hear that at home? We can do the right thing.</s>HOLMES: Well, we didn't -- I don't want to toot our horn here, but if you want to, go ahead there, Betty.</s>NGUYEN: Well, on this occasion. Let me put it that way. All right. So I'll admit, there are some things that I just won't do, like jump into the water with man-eating sharks.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Crawl in a stockcar and go 180 miles an hour around a speedway. We should be able to go in the water with a high population of sharks.</s>NGUYEN: Maybe with a cage or something that's protecting you from them, but wow, look at that picture. Why diving companies are being scrutinized.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We work with these animals every day. And they're a big part of our lives.</s>HOLMES: Oh, poor thing there. She's upset here because of this fire. It happened at a pet store. We'll explain to you what happened here and really the result of it.