[Kirk Graves, Josh Powell's Brother-in-law:] We're in shock. We are simply it's beyond belief. We have had suspicions of various things Josh was capable of, but I for one, didn't think he was capable of this.
[Malveaux:] Colorado and Minnesota, next two stops on the road to the Republican presidential nomination. Both states hold caucuses tomorrow. Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich rally their supporters in Colorado today. Rick Santorum and Ron Paul campaigning in Minnesota. Santorum event on health care got under way in Rochester, Minnesota, just last hour. And some California parents are furious now because they think a Los Angeles school didn't do enough to protect their kids from two allegedly abusive teachers. They are protesting in front of the school right now.
[Unidentified Female:] They don't need no privacy. For what? So they can get
[Malveaux:] We are still learning details about this bizarre and disturbing case. Our Thelma Gutierrez has some background.
[Unidentified Female:] I'm angry. I'm disgusted. I'm sad.
[Thelma Gutierrez, Cnn Correspondent:] Investigators say the case against Berndt broke in 2010 when a film processor noticed disturbing images of Berndt with his arm around the children or his hand over their mouths. Others showed the children with their eyes blindfolded and mouths covered with tape. Some depicted children with Madagascar-type cockroaches on their faces.
[Sgt. Dan Scott, La Co. Sheriff's Dept., Special Victims Unit:] The children felt this was a game. They didn't realize they were being victimized. They thought they were just being blindfolded and gagged as a game.
[Malveaux:] We're going to have a full report from Thelma Gutierrez just a little bit later. State Department shut down its embassy in Syria just hours ago and it's urging Americans now to get out. Syrian activists say 56 people were killed today alone in the city of Homs. That is after what they describe as a weekend bloodbath that left hundreds dead. Activists accuse the Syrian government of intensifying its brutal crackdown. Russia and China gave Syrian president Bashar al Assad, a lifeline, vetoing a U.N. resolution that would have condemned him. Flooding has forced thousands of people from their homes in Australia, rising waters threatening communities along the Balonne River in Queensland. Now, this part of the country is still recovering from last year's devastating floods. The NFL and NBC are apologizing today for offending Super Bowl viewers. Performer MIA gave the middle finger during her halftime performance with Madonna. It happened so fast, a lot of viewers didn't even notice. Her finger here is blurred. The NFL, which produced the halftime show, said the obscene gesture in the performance was completely inappropriate, very disappointing, and we apologize to our fans. She was a White House intern who says she had an affair with the president, right? Sound familiar? Well, this Washington sex scandal allegedly took place five decades ago, and the president in question, John F. Kennedy. Mary Snow she joins us with the latest on this story. It was always rumored, Mary, that Kennedy was having affairs and was a playboy. This woman now is coming forward and giving details, things we have never heard before.
[Mary Snow, Cnn Correspondent:] Yes. Suzanne, this book is a very salacious one, with a very detailed account by Mimi Beardsley Alford, as you mentioned, now 69 years old. "The New York Post" obtained a copy of this book, in which Alford claims she had an 18-month affair, that she claims she met the president just four days into her internship at the White House, and she was invited to swim with the president at the White House swimming pool. And she claims things progressed from there. She did do an interview with NBC News. It is an exclusive interview in which she describes what she claims were these sexual encounters and talks about them. Take a listen.
[Mimi Alford, Says She Was Jfk's Mistress:] I think overpowered in the sense that he was the president. He was this unbelievably handsome man, 45 years old not overpowered physically that someone had grabbed me and made me do something that I wasn't really willing to do because I really think I was willing to do it.
[Snow:] Now, in this book, Suzanne, Alford claims that the affair lasted until November of 1963, just about seven days before President Kennedy was assassinated.
[Malveaux:] Mary, do people believe she's credible?
[Snow:] You know, we spoke with Robert Dallek. He's an historian who revealed this alleged affair for the first time in his book in 2003. And that's when Mimi Alford first came out and released a statement saying that she had had an affair with President Kennedy. And the reason why Robert Dallek wrote about it was because a former White House press aide wrote about it or spoke about it in an oral history that is available at the JFK library. And that aide has since died. But in that history, the White House aide that have that oral history she does talk about Mimi Alford and writes about what she says was a special relationship with the president, and also mentions these swimming parties, also saying that Alford had traveled with the president on various trips. So that is what historian Robert Dallek is basing based why he wrote about it. You know, we spoke with another historian, Douglas Brinkley. He says he has question marks about it. So and it's very difficult because so many people in that administration are now dead, so we can't get many accounts of this...
[Malveaux:] Right.
[Snow:] ... besides hers.
[Malveaux:] And Mary, do we have any idea she's a 69-year-old grandmother. Why did she come forward now? Why did she wait to come forward now, what the timing of this?
[Snow:] That is unclear, why she has this book deal at this point. She signed this book deal about two years ago. And as I said, you know, she released a statement back in 2003, but gave no interviews. So why at 69 now she's deciding to come out still don't know 100 percent why.
[Malveaux:] OK. Mary Snow, thank you. Appreciate it. Well, it's your turn to talk back on one of the big stories of the day. Does President Obama deserve a second term in office? In a live interview that aired on ABC just before the Super Bowl, President Obama told Americans he does.
[Barack Obama, President Of The United States:] I deserve a second term, but we're not done. Look, when you and I sat down, we were losing 750,000 jobs a month. Now we're creating 250,000. We created 3.7 million jobs over the last 23 months. We've created the most jobs since 2005, the most manufacturing jobs since 1990. But we're not finished.
[Malveaux:] Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney says the president's economic policies have failed, that the economy is not creating enough jobs.
[Mitt Romney , Fmr. Gov., Presidential Candidate:] Not so fast, Mr. President! This is the 36th straight month with unemployment above the red line your own administration drew. And if you take into account all of the people who are struggling for work or just stopped looking, the real unemployment rate is over 15 percent.
[Malveaux:] So what has the Obama administration done? The president says he's responsible for creating over creating jobs over 22 months. In 2010, he signed his signature health care bill reforming the system. If he gets a second term, he'll be able to fight to keep it. He also ended the "Don't ask, don't tell" policy, now allowing gays in the military to serve openly. Last spring, he ordered special ops forces to out bin Laden in Pakistan. And in December, he got U.S. combat troops out of Iraq. So what is left to do? He's got to tackle the federal deficit, save the Pentagon budget, deal with immigration reform, and still the nagging problem of more than 8 per percent of Americans now out of work. So and the "Talk Back" question, Does President Obama deserve a second term in office? Leave your comments at my Facebook. page my Facebook page, Facebook.comsuzannecnn. We're going to air some of your thoughts later in the hour. Here's a rundown of some of the stories that we're covering over the next hour. First, a sad story. A man in Washington state sets his house on fire, killing himself and his two boys as a social worker watches in horror from the street. Then, Republican candidates prepare to duke it out in Colorado and Minnesota. And later, we're going to take a look at, yes, the middle finger slip-up at the Super Bowl, plus highlights of Madonna's extravagant halftime show.