10 things you need to know today: February 12, 2012

Whitney Houston performs at Wembley Stadium in London in 1988: The six-time Grammy winner died Saturday at the age of 48.

(Image credit: REUTERS/Peter Skingley)

last updated 8 January 2015

1. THE WORLD MOURNS WHITNEY HOUSTON

Whitney Houston, the '80s and '90s mega-star behind hit songs like "I Will Always Love You" and "Saving All My Love for You" (and the popular film The Bodyguard), died Saturday at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles. Houston, who had seen "much of her success crumble away amid the fumes of addiction and reckless ego," was 48 years old. The cause of her death remains unknown, though authorities are planning an investigation. [Los Angeles Times]

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Romney won a pair of potentially momentum-shifting victories on Saturday, "reasserting himself in the GOP presidential race with a win in the straw poll at the Conservative Political Action Conference and later emerging triumphant in the Maine caucuses." Romney won the CPAC straw poll with 38 percent, followed by Rick Santorum's 31 percent. In Maine, Romney edged Ron Paul 39 percent to 36 percent. Neither Santorum nor Newt Gingrich contested the Maine caucuses. [Politico]

After his victories last week in Colorado, Minnesota, and Missouri, the former Pennsylvania senator has catapulted to a 15-point national lead over Mitt Romney in PPP's latest poll. Santorum has surged to 38 percent, with Romney at 23, Newt Gingrich at 17, and Ron Paul at 13. "It's been an amazingly fast ascent to first place for Rick Santorum," says PPP's Dean Debnam. But remember, when Romney inevitably attacks, Santorum's lead "could evaporate just as quickly as it was created." [PPP]

At a meeting Sunday, the 22-member regional group will consider reviving its "suspended observer mission in Syria by expanding it to include monitors from non-Arab, Muslim nations and the United Nations." The Arab League yanked its observers out of Syria last month "under heavy criticism for failing to stop the bloodshed engulfing the country." Thousands have been killed in President Bashar al-Assad's brutal assault on pro-reform activists. [Associated Press]

Catholic bishops still have "grave moral concerns" over President Obama's birth-control mandate. The president bowed to pressure by giving religiously-affiliated employers an exemption from having to directly pay for employees' contraceptive coverage, mandating instead that insurers provide these services directly to workers. But bishops are still condemning what they call "a nationwide mandate of insurance coverage of sterilization and contraception." [Politico]

Whitney Houston's death will surely cast a pall over Sunday's 54th Annual Grammy Awards. But as far as the honors themselves, "the soulful British chanteuse Adele" is the odds-on favorite to dominate the evening. The young singer, who hasn't performed publicly since undergoing vocal chord surgery in November, is expected to sweep Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Album. [Regional News Network]

New York Knicks point guard Jeremy Lin led his team to its fifth win in a row Saturday night, a 100-98 victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves. Lin, a massively underated, undrafted point guard from Harvard who's still sleeping on his brother's Manhattan couch, continues to amaze basketball fans, and himself, with his shockingly strong play. "I feel like I'm in a dream right now," Lin said. [ESPN]

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