[Tom Foreman, Cnn Anchor:] And I'm Tom Foreman, in today for Fredricka Whitfield. Here's what we're watching this hour. Marisol Valles Garcia is unaccounted for. You may remember her. She made news last year when at just 20 years old she became police chief in one of the most violent towns on the U.S.-Mexico border. Now she's not been seen for several days. A Mexican newspaper reports that she's fled to the U.S. for safety. The mayor of her town says, no, she's on personal leave. We have no way of knowing which one is true but we'll try to find out. Libya, a transition council has formed not in Tripoli but to the east in Benghazi, which is held by rebels. The new council calls itself the only legitimate government in Libya. This is big news. We'll have more on that in just a second. And the NFL players and owners have another week to hammer out a labor agreement. Both sides say in fact they're still talking and that's a hopeful sign. There really are two Libyas today. The chaotic Libya of the present and the unknown of tomorrow. It's that tomorrow Libya that we're talking about now. While officials from all over the world weigh options aimed at ending the violence and removing Moammar Gadhafi from power, the seeds of a transitional government may be germinating this weekend. An interim council centered for now in Benghazi and claiming itself to be the only legitimate controlling body in the country has been formed. A few minutes ago, I talked with Arwa Damon who is in Benghazi.
[Lt. Julie Johnson, New Haven Police Dept:] Twelve cases have been linked by DNA to the same offender. Yesterday on March 4th, 2011, at approximately 2:15 p.m., Aaron Thomas was taken into custody without incident by the U.S. marshals and the Capital Area Regional Fugitive Task Forces while walking on Cooper Place in New Haven, Connecticut. Investigators worked tirelessly for years pursuing this case. This was truly a joint collaboration on all levels. We are proud of our investigation and hope the arrest of Aaron Thomas brings some closure to our victims in our communities.
[Foreman:] Police in south Florida say the bodies of two children found in a canal this week may be connected to a woman found dead months ago in a landfill. The woman is believed to be the children's mother. Her body was found last August in West Palm Beach. The two children were found dead inside pieces of luggage Wednesday in Delray Beach. A suspect is in custody. It's the mother's former boyfriend. You are looking now at a newly released photo of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. Her office says it is the last image taken before she was shot January 8th. We're told the man over there on the left, you can just see him, was shot twice but like Giffords, he survives. The congresswoman was meeting constituents when a gunman opened fire killing six people, wounding 13. There's this development in the shooting investigation as well. A federal grand jury in Arizona has expanded the list of charges against the suspect, Jared Lee Loughner, this weekend faces 49 charges. They include murder and attempted murder. The standoff over the Wisconsin budget continues to rage on. In week four of protests over collective bargaining rights, yesterday, Governor Scott Walker sent notices to the unions threatening to lay off 1,500 workers if Senate Democrats did not come back to work within two weeks. The 14 AWOL senators say they're planning their return but they say meaningful negotiations stopped when Republicans passed a measure to detain Democrats.
[Jon Erpenbach , Middleton, Wisconsin:] I thought we were fairly close yesterday based on what I heard from my colleagues, but here we are today.
[State Sen. Mark Miller , Minority Leader:] It looks as though the governor is not serious about negotiating, so we will assess the timing of when we return.
[Foreman:] When it comes to the federal budget, it's cutting wasteful spending while creating more jobs. That's the balance President Barack Obama says lawmakers need to weigh in his weekly radio and internet address. The president says he's willing to make deeper cuts but he's pushing Congress for more bipartisan cooperation before the temporary spending bill expires on March 18th. But the question remains how Congress would bridge the $50 billion gap that divides the two parties and their budget plans.
[Barack Obama, President Of The United States:] My administration has already put forward specific cuts that meet congressional Republicans halfway. And I'm prepared to do more. But we'll only finish the job together, by sitting at the same table, working out our differences, and finding common ground. That's why I've asked vice president Biden and members of my administration to meet with the leaders of Congress going forward.
[Rep. Diane Black , Tennessee:] Job creation has to be the number one priority for both parties. The policies of the past haven't worked, and despite some signs of life in our economy, the unemployment rate is still far above the levels that the president's advisers promised when the stimulus spending bill was signed into law. What we need is a new approach. A path to prosperity that gets government out of the way by cutting unnecessary spending and removing barriers to job growth. We need to unleash our nation's economy instead of burying it under a mountain of regulation, taxation and debt.
[Foreman:] Hope is still alive this weekend for a deal between the NFL and its players. The two sides agreed yesterday to extend the deadline for a new labor agreement again, this time until March 11th.
[Roger Goodell, Nfl Commissioner:] We continue to work hard and I think the fact that we're continuing this dialogue is a positive sign.
[Demaurice Smith, Executive Director, Nflpa:] here's a commitment from both sides to engage in another round of negotiations at the request of the mediation service. We look forward to a deal coming out of that. What we have always had as our core is the football that our players love to play and the fans who love to watch them. And there's never going to be a day where we're not going to have those two things first and foremost in our minds.
[Foreman:] The two sides are duking it out over roughly $9 billion in revenue. If no deal is reached, the league is expected to lock out the players and that means we'll all be out of a season this fall. Stay with us, because coming up in just about a half hour, I'll sit down with someone who has been at the NFL negotiating table before. Some interesting insights. In Michigan, what really should have been a day of celebration turned into a day of mourning. 16-year-old Wes Leonard suddenly collapsed. There he is, number 35, as his high school basketball team was celebrating a big win. Just moments before, the star athlete had made the game-winning shot, ending a perfect 20-game season. Doctors tried to revive Leonard for nearly an hour and a half before he was pronounced dead of a heart attack. Earlier we talked with a sports physician Dr. Ken Mautner, and he says there is more that can be done to monitor the health of teen athletes.
[Dr. Ken Mautner, Emory University:] This is a very rare condition, but there are screening protocol that they use in Italy which they have been using for years where they will do EKGs on all their athletes and they have shown that it has worked to save lives.
[Foreman:] A Facebook page created Friday for Leonard quickly filled with thoughts and prayers for him and his family. There is a flood threat this weekend for the Ohio and Mississippi Valleys and it's a big one. We're getting reports of a tornado that has touched down. The weather is coming up. Stay with us.