there's a lot of pressure on the roirls right now. don't want to be seen to be overspending on anything. it's the jubilee this year. don't want to be seen spending public money when the economy is in a bad state. maybe there was a bit of that involved, as well. come here knowing that particular magazines would have seen that dress before and got straight on to the story. >> max foster, thanks so much. that does it for me. i'll throw it over to kyra phillips. >> hello, everyone. it's 11:00 on the east coast. we have a pretty busy hour ahead. sometime today the u.s. army staff sergeant accused of killing afghan civilians in cold blood is due to meet face to face with his lawyer. robert bales has yet to face formal charges but eight days after the massacre that could change the course of the afghan war, he's in military custody at ft. leavenworth, kansas. seattle based attorney john henry browne says you couldn't imagine a more difficult case.

afghans want him tried in their country but the ambassador to the u.s. says his government trusts the american investigation. and the world's most valuable public corporation now wants to share its wealth. some of it anyway. apple just announced a quarterly dividend of $2.65 a share beginning sometime this summer. it also plans to buy back $10 billion worth of shares over the next three years. together those -- that outlay rather costs 45 billion or as apple might think of it pretty much lunch money. the maker of iphone, ipads and imacs has more than $97 billion cash on hand. the land of lincoln is the battleground. mitt romney may still have puerto rico on his mind. over the weekend romney absolutely crushed rick santorum in the puerto rican primary. 83% to 8. campaigning this morning, springfield, illinois, at a diner there romney showed a bit

of an appetite for victory. >> i need only one thing from you, number one, pancakes and number two, i need you to go vote tomorrow. i need you to -- as we used to say massachusetts, vote early and vote often. that happens to be a chicago line, as well. >> 54 delegates are at stake in the primary. the shortest month of the year was huge for president obama. his re-election team says it raised more than $45 million in february. almost all of it in donations of $250 or less. the average was $59 per donor. that brings team obama's total to more than $300 million since fund-raising kicked off last april. what you're seeing here is fighting in the syrian capital

of damascus. most intense fighting seen so far in the capital. anti-government forces targeting a neighborhood that's home to security buildings and embassies. at least eight people have been reported killed in the fighting across syria today. the rebel-free syrian army says it's making important gains against the military. no end to the protest of the shooting of an unarmed team. supporters of trayvon martin say justice demands the arrest of martin's killer who claims he was defending the neighborhood and acting in self-defense. race is the only part of the controversy. martin is black. george zimmerman is hispanic. there's also a florida law called stand your ground. i'll talk more about ha with a reporter for "the miami herald" at quarter past the hour. warnings going out across france after a shooting at a jewish school in toulouse. one three years old. the attacker came up on a

motorbike and just started shooting and escaped the same way. the french president flew to the school calling it a national tragedy. the third attack against ethnic minorities in that country in a week. jewish organizations across the country are being told to look out. $162 million for the victims of the bernie madoff scheme, the money, well, the money is coming from the owners of the new york mets. they were being sued for more than $300 million by the trustee who is trying to get the madoff money back. jury selection in the federal trial was supposed to begin today. mets were investors with madoff, but the owner, fred will bon says he didn't know he was a friend -- his friend rather was running a scam. well, a tsa is giving older americans a break starting today. a new test screening program kicks off at four airports, chicago, denver, portland, oregon and orlando. the new rule says that people 75 and older can keep their shoes

and sweaters on. take a second pass through the metal detectors before getting patted down. if this works out tsa will try it at all the other airports. we are watching a developing story off the coast of vietnam. apparently a cruise ship, the silver shadow, rather,s that collided with a container ship. a cnn i-reporter tells us there is a hole in the bow and they were called to the emergency station. it happened in thick fog off the vietnamese coast. it will be checked out in hong kong. it can carry 700 passengers and crew. more information we'll bring you as soon as we get it. catherine is in the spotlight. the duchess of cambridge gave her first solo speech this morning. she was at the opening of the new children's hospice center in ipswich, england. catherine became a royal patron earlier this year. that announcement set up what her public role will be as prince williams's wife. she called the people at the hospice an inspiration and said

she only wished that the prince could be there to share it all with her. we're learning a lot more about that u.s. soldier accused of a killing spree in afghanistan. friends and neighbors are talking to cnn about army staff sergeant robert bales now. he set to meet with his attorney behind closed doors at ft. leavenworth, kansas. ted rowlands is there with us. we'll check in with him next. plus, what did bales' wife blog reveal about their family. that's all coming up. but first, a mom who proves we will do anything to protect our kids, even from a shark. 15-year-old sidney labee and her mom lala were surfing in florida. sydney was pulled off not once, twice, a shark had her ankle in its mouth. >> the girl was getting sucked under. i said there is no way this thing is going to kill my

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[ male announcer ] brake problems? stop in to meineke today for a free brake inspection and you'll say... my money. my choice. my meineke. bales is meeting with his lawyer for the first time today. that is taking place at forth leavenworth's military prison in kansas. army staff sergeant robert bales is now in custody after being transported from kuwait. sergeant bales is expected to be formally charged sometime this week. as he sits with his attorney and begins to build his defense, the

killing spree that bales is accused of committing and the fallout from his alleged actions have evolved into a military, political and diplomatic nightmare that reaches far beyond prison walls. ted rowlands is on the ground for us. he is joining us live, ted, this is the first time sergeant bales will be meeting with his lawyer. what more can you tell us about their get-together. >> reporter: well, the first time they really talk about the indication, john henry browne, the attorney from seattle as you mentioned has now wanted to talk to his client about the case during their phone conversations, he said he wanted to make sure he was face to face before discussing it so we've heard some things out of john henry browne about different ways the case could go. i think after today's meeting we'll get a better understanding of what at least his client is telling him. if he shares it with us, now, he's been talking a lot. that may change after he meets wist hint clean talks about the facts of the case with that client. >> now, it seems like bales'

attorney is using ptsd to build a case. is that right? >> reporter: basically he's speculating in the media at this point saying that, yeah, this is a young man that had a brain injury, he did three tours in iraq. went to afghanistan, did not want to go back to afghanistan so throwing that out there to get garner some public sympathy obviously like a good lawyer would and does and i think if you listen to what he's saying, so far, i think you'll see maybe a change after he finishes with his meeting inside ft. leavenworth, maybe not. we'll have to wait and see. >> all right, ted, we'll keep talking throughout the afternoon, ted rowland, thanks so much. so who exactly is army staff sergeant robert bales? we've told you a lot about his past tours in iraq. his traumatic brain injury but in the week that's passed since the killing spree in afghanistan. we're getting agent clearer but complicated picture of this man who's been accused including

details from otherwise own wife. his wife, carolyn, talked openly about her husband and military life on her blog. it was titled "the bales family." now, her blog has since disappeared following the shooting rampage, but "the new york times" was able to get some screen grabs of the blog. here they are. her posts give us an insight into her husband's personality, their life together, their hopes, their disappointments, and according to "the new york times," carolyn mostly paints bales as a caring dad. she talks about giving birth to their first daughter, getting a call from her husband in kuwait, she also blogged this, here's a quote "it was so good to hear his voice, he got to hear quincy squeaking in the background. he'd be home in only two day, i was so excited." she also writes in the blog about the staff sergeant failing to get promoted last march. she went on in the blog about

turning that disappointment into an opportunity to move beyond joint base lewis-mcchord in washington then she posted this. right now, i would classify our top five locations as, number one, germany, best adventure opportunity. number two, italy, second best adventure opp. hawaii, nuff said. number four, kentucky, we would be at least near bob's family and number five, georgia, to be a sniper teacher, not because it's a fun place to live. but perhaps the most poignant part is this comment that she made about the family's hopes despite bales' failed promotion. here's what his wife wrote. says this is such an unknown path for us, i am hoping to blog about it and look back in a year to see how far we have come from right now. oh, this is a far cry from the reality her husband faces now. straight ahead, a teenage boy

gunned down holding a pack of skittles and a can of iced tea. now his parents are asking the fbi and justice department to investigate why their son was killed. coming up next, the 911 calls from the neighborhood watchman who shot the boy. wait till you hear what the dispatch told him just before he pulled the trigger. there's big news. presenting androgel 1.62%. both are used to treat men with low testosterone. androgel 1.62% is from the makers of the number one prescribed testosterone replacement therapy. it raises your testosterone levels, and... is concentrated, so you could use less gel. and with androgel 1.62%, you can save on your monthly prescription. [ male announcer ] dosing and application sites between these products differ. women and children should avoid contact with application sites. discontinue androgel and call your doctor if you see unexpected signs of early puberty in a child, or, signs in a woman which may include changes in body hair

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he was shot to death by a self-appointed block watch captain. but supporters and defenders of the florida teen are standing their ground to say the least. they want to know how an unarmed 17-year-old can legally be killed by a 28-year-old civilian who pursue ed him in a car, claimed self-defense and opened fire. happened in a gated neighborhood near orlando. trayvon martin was walking back to his father's townhouse with a bag of skittles and a can of tea, george zimmerman on the right was watching. here's what he told 911. >> something's wrong with him. yep. he's coming to check me out. he's got something in his hands. i don't know ma his deal is.

these [ bleep ], they always get away. >> are you following him? >> yeah. >> okay. we don't need you to do that. >> okay. >> but here's the deal. zimmerman followed trayvon anyway and minutes later, other neighbors called 911. >> so you think he's yelling help? >> yes. >> all right. what is your -- >> there's gunshots. >> you just heard gunshots? >> yes. >> how many? >> just one. >> police say they can't disprove george zimmerman's self-defense claim and florida has a so-called stand your ground law which gives armed citizens the right not to flee from dangerous situations. now, we should point out zimmerman has a permit for his gun and even though the 911 operator told him not to follow trayvon, he didn't break the law by refusing. frances robles is a reporter for "the i'm herald" who covered the

story and george zimmerman in depth. so, frances, what more do we know about this volunteer that proe patrolman? >> he would stop at people's doors and telling them, hey, the other day you had your window open. you should probably close it. i saw someone casing your house so he was very deeply sloughed in in and also have been other reports of him getting involved in -- if he sees an altercation he'll go after the person. he takes this citizen participation if you will really, really seriously. and he does it with a semiautomatic weapon we now know. >> frances, police knew him, right? neighbors knew him. did he respect him? did they always take him seriously? >> they said he was really normal and really nice. i want to be very clear on that.

the people who thought he was a weirdo was the ones who saw him walking around with a dog but the people he interacted with, even african-american neighbors were like, cool, thanks for letting me know. i'll make sure to keep my windows locked. >> so interesting. so this argument or what he is saying is self-defense, can you tell us more about what you have discovered from that? i mean we've learned that he was -- that the teen, that trayvon was walking home with skittles and ice tea heading back to his dad's house. can you tell more about this defense argument? >> the police are being pretty cagey as to what exactly is contained in george zimmerman's statement but the key point that they're going to make or that zimmerman is making is that he did not continue to follow trayvon. that trayvon came at him. so i think he's going to argue that he said to him -- there's a

quote in one of my stories, if i say to you, hey, what are you doing here, do you live here and you jump me and beat me up, are you justified? so right there he's telling you that that's what he is going to say happened. came at him, got the better of him, gave him a bloody nose, tussled on the ground then when he felt fear, he shot him. so the big question here is does florida stand your ground law apply when, you know, you kind of stuck your nose in the business where it wasn't yours. that will be the big yes. >> well, and that's where critics are jumping in saying, you know, tell us more about this stand your ground law. it sounds like it allows pretty much for anything to happen. >> there's something called the castle doctrine. you can protect yourself in your home. if there is an intruder in my living room, i can shoot him, that's cool. the stand your ground doctrine puts it outside the home. i no longer have a duty to

re-create which is the case which for many years had been the standard nationally. and it makes it very, very difficult in a lot of these cases, we've seen cases in florida, for example, where one bad guy is shooting another bad guy and then somebody shoots back and kills a little kid and then nobody gets in trouble for the shooting of the little kid because, well, i was just shooting at someone shooting me and i have the right to do so understand your ground and they have historically held up in court. >> frances, you're doing a great job covering this story for "the miami herald." keep us updated as you break news. >> absolutely. thanks so much for having me. >> thanks, frances. still ahead today a 12-year-old girl is suing her school district after she was forced to give up her facebook passionword. so were her rights violated? does she even have privacy rights as a minor. legal questions. we'll talk about it coming up. so you're calling to tell me you're giving me the silent treatment? ummm, yeah.

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i know a lot of you are in this position. you can't stand your job, you want to quit but in these hard economic times, it scares you to death. greg smith quit his job in an explosive "the new york times" op-ed. he made a lot of news for his extreme method, definitely got our attention and alison kosik, so if you want to quit your job, alison, let me ask you this way, can you do it with confidence and grace? >> you know what, look at greg smith, you mentioned him. his way of quitting his job was extreme to say the least. you know, whether you're leaving on your own or find yourself with a pink slip, you know, you may not want to burn bridges especially that way. brad karsch says, no matter what

the reason you never know who you will work with again or what contacts you could lose if you leave ungracefully. as tempting as it may be to tell your boss how you feel about him or her it's not worth it in person or do it on social media. circles, they could be small in so many feels and you can't rely on somebody for forgiving you for burning that bridge. >> we don't want to burn bridges or rant on social media. i think everybody has learned that lesson at some point. if you're looking for a new job, though, before you leave the ole one, what's the best way to do that? >> the best advice, keep it quiet. no matter how good a friend you are with your co-workers, sharing those details about where you're searching for a new job with your colleagues can land new hot water if your boss finds out. unhappy, don't slap on your current job responsibilities. trying to look for another job wines up being a full time job in itself. you want to work as hard as you did on your first day.

if you do get that job as much as you may not like your boss, be professional bit, resign in person or in an official letter or both. kyra. >> so what if you quit, you want to quit but you can't. you know, every day you come into work saying grin to win, grin to win. >> there you go. you said it. if you're not willing to quit, again, watch where you complain. you know, whether it's in person to your co-workers, over e-mail. you don't want that stuff getting back to your boss. rod kurtz says find tangible reasons for what you don't like and figure out how to make the situation better. bosses like proactive employees. list your goals. ask for quick feedback and if the reason is because you were passed up for a raise or promotion, he says performance reviews are a good time to express your concerns, kyra, not leave nasty notes for your boss. >> in my next -- i guess i'm assuming what you'll tell me next, if you do find a new job, you never i guess you never

count your blessings the wrong way, right? you never want to go back and track that former employer. you want to take the high road. >> exactly. take the high road. yeah, if you land a dream job it's inevitable you'll be ask the why you left your last job. resist trashing your former employer or boss because he says your new boss might do the same. the debbie downers around the workplace, it's about not burning bridges. and that includes the old ones, as well as the new, kyra. >> alison, thanks. well, rick santorum made a pretty bold prediction over the weekend. have you heard this? >> i guarantee you -- i guarantee you when we will win this nomination. >> but rick's guarantee has one big caveat. he's got to win in president obama's home state tomorrow and if polling is any indication, that's not going to be easy. the battle for illinois next in fair game.

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well, just before the break a asked you who was the only u.s. president born in illinois. a lot of you thought abraham lincoln. he was born in kentucky. it was ronald reagan. abraham lincoln was a congressman, however, congrats to alex, by the way for tweeting me the right answer. all right, illinois, it's your turn to be fair game. that's the battleground for the republican presidential race. 54 delegates up for grabs. this is what one candidate is saying about the outcome already. >> a huge or surprise win, i guarantee you, i guarantee you we will win this nomination.

>> all right. winning this nomination, he's guaranteeing it. republican strategist anna navarro and ed espinosa. what do you think of his assessment. ed? >> well, every win that santorum has has been a surprise. if he wins on tuesday it won't be any different but at this point in the election, every primary matters but here's the thing about illinois that's unique, all of the delegates are unbound. doesn't matter how they go on tuesday. if the momentum in the race shift, the delegates can shift with that momentum. it's very unique. it's really one of the weird things about the republican primary here is that all 50 states have different primaries. very different primaries. >> anna? >> well, you know, there's been a lot of warranties given throughout the primary election. i get what rick santorum is doing. it's very important to show confidence, to tell your donors, your supporters, voters there is

a path to victory. i think that is what he is doing, but, you know, i've seen a lot of states be the key state of the moment throughout this primary. two months ago it was florida. then it was michigan, now it's illinois. they're -- there just seems to be a lot of keys to the kingdom but nobody seems to be able to open the door. >> shall we talk puerto rico right now and i'm going to say it perfectly in honor of rick santorum. >> that was a beautiful pronunciation. >> all right. [ speaking spanish ] >> i'm just kidding. mitt romney as you know, he crushed it in puerto rico. 83% of the vote in yesterday's primary and here's what he said about it. >> most people who don't think that latinos will vote for republican, need to take a look in puerto rico and see there that conservative principles and latino voters go together and that hispanic vote remembers going to vote for republicans if

we stand for something conservative principles that bring growth and good jobs and rising home values. that's how we're going to win. we're going to get latino voters to help us out. >> okay, guy, really? the win in puerto rico tells us that all latinos are going to go republican? ed? >> it's a bit of a stretch. it's really hard to gauge latino turnout when your entire electorate is latino. in this case, he hasn't really shown momentum in any other state mongla tino populations. i've done a lot of latino mobilization in arizona, colorado, we haven't seen that turnout for republicans there. key distinction in puerto rico, 120,000 people participated in the primary. compared to four years ago where we had more than 350,000 so that's not the definition of momentum. >> ana? >> well, you know, i would say, first of all, i give mitt romney credit. he went to puerto rico and did

exactly what he had to do in puerto rico, got the endorsement and support of the governor who in turn put out his entire machinery, political machinery to work on this. and got earth done. and also went to puerto rico for two days and didn't get embroiled in what's the very dicey issue of statehood there which cost rick santorum dearly. that being said, i do agree with ed. i think it is a stretch, puerto ricans from the island don't volt in a presidential race. and i think one of the keys to winning the hispanic/latino vote is precisely understanding we're not all home genius. we're different and look different, think different. there's different issues that matter to the different communities. understanding those nuances is key to really doing well with the latino vote so i do hope that mitt romney or whoever our nominee ends up being gets those nuances and we'll see a hard-fought fight for the latino

vote. >> how do i say it's a stretch in spanish. [ speaking spanish ] >> ed? >> i'm going to go with that. >> okay, i'm going to have to practice that one, ana. let's talk about newt gingrich and what his supporters are thinking. this new gallop pole says that 40% would actually go romney's way. santorum is basically saying he'd get them all if newt drops out. what do you guys think? ed? >> you know this, is the thing about gingrich supporters and the gingrich's candidacy in general. what does he stand for? we don't really know. but what his voters are doing is aing that we don't really like the other two guys. and if he wasn't in the race we'd evenly split. nobody is in favor of romney or santorum. there's a lot of complacency there. but what that does in this race in a three-way race, these gingrich supporters slow down

the path to the nomination for these other two guys and they end up being the ones with all the cards. if gingrich is not in this krra, there is a largely likelihood for this to wrap up. if wist voters there this could drag on. >> ana, sorry, we ran out of time. ed and ana, thanks. that's "fair game." a sixth grader says her constitutional rights were violated after she was forced to give up her facebook password. could you be forced to give yours up to employers.

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okay, this next story could redefine what is considered private on social media. i want you all to think about the post that you put on your facebook and other social media sites and even those comments you think are protected by your passwords and your privacy settings. here's why. a 12-year-old minnesota girl is suing her school district for searching her private facebook posts. among other things, the lawsuit claims that school workers pressured the girl into giving them her password. so the aclu says the school

district totally violated the girl's 1st and 4 amendment rights and brings up rights. paul will try to break it down. the school district still maintains it did nothing wrong. we have a quote from the district. it says "the district did not violate the student's civil rights and disputes the one-sided version of events set forth in the complaint written by the aclu" s that true and how will it argue that there's grounds to request the student's password? >> it's a complicated case and there are two parts. the first part is the student posted something on her facebook wall saying that a hall monitor hated her -- that she hated the hall monitor because the hall mon for was mean and the school district thought that was a public attack on a school official and they called the girl in. and then they forced her to give up her passwords and they found some other things on the

facebook account that indicated she was talking about sex and they came after her on that ground. so it's really a two-part thing. one, did they violate her free speech rights to criticize the hall monitor? and the supreme court's ruled on this fairly recently in 2007 and said if you substantially disrupt the educational experience in some way, the school district can punish you even for something you do outside of school. >> well, did she disrupt? i mean -- >> well, here's the test. the court looks at it and they -- this is the test. they say would the posting materially and substantially disrupt the school? now, i mean let's say you said your english teacher, you know, was -- well, some really bad thing like a prostitute or a criminal or something like that the school district would say, well, that's so disrespecting a teacher that it's going to affect the ability to teach.

hall monitors is a little harder but the school district might say if you let these kid as tack the hall monitors, publicly, we're not going to get hall monitors and they'll lose their ability to discipline children. so i think the school district has an argument here that that posting could be disruptive of the educational experience. >> interesting. >> but that's different than the password issue which is separate. >> let me ask you about the password. apparently the sixth grader got in trouble six times then after the third incident she had to meet with the deputy sheriff, school counselor and school employee and she said i was intimidated into giving up my log-in and passwords for facebook and my e-mails. can i school district do that and also the lawsuit claimed that the officials didn't even have permission from her mom to search her e-mail and facebook page. >> no, they didn't and this is where i think she has a much stronger case than the first amendment claim she makes about the hall monitor. the school people forced her to

give up her passwords then they go into the account and they find out there's some things indicating maybe she's talking about sex and in an inappropriate way and maybe they think it's indicative that she's having sex so they get very, very worried about the situation and they call her parents in and they then engage i guess in some kind of a disciplinary process. i think she has a strong argument here this has been an invasion of her privacy and since it didn't publicly affect the school district in any way, i question whether the school district would get the benefit of this -- that we're kind of acting as the parents of the middle school children exception. so i've got a little bit better case here although i will tell you that the courts apply a less stringent standard in searching high school kids or middle school kid, for instance, if a kid says one kid says another kid has a knife, you go out of the principal's office and he says empty your pockets and you

do and there's a knife, most would think that's reasonable for the school district to do that. we don't want to be going to a judge to get a search warrant to do that so the school district is saying the password is the same thing as that. i don't think it is. i think it looks to me like an invasion of her privacy, but, you know, kir remarks the courts are wrestling with this stuff. >> and facebook rules say you can't use facebook if you're under 13. this kid was 12. there's another issue there. interesting to see if there will be a domino effect and affects others. we'll follow it, paul, for sure. >> always great talking to you too. we always love to talk about social media. have you been following us on cnn? all of us anchors and our ncaa brackets online. if not, get to it. because we are number two. yes, we're still going to beat her. chad myers will break down the bracket challenge for us coming up next. greetings from the windy city of chicago.

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it's time to brag about our brackets. >> your brackets. >> here is the deal though.

i'm going to tell you, my dad, huge basketball fan, he went to byu, he played basketball his whole life, all weekend that's all i heard. the screeching of air jordans throughout the house. he was given me the updates, all the upsets, talking to me about my bracket, his bracket. but i'm not doing so badly. >> you are doing great. your issue is that you are -- you're head to head with brooke. you're head to head with brooke and you go all -- >> what does she know about basketball? >> i'm not sure. i have to bring this up. but she has unc going to the final four and winning the thing. you have syracuse. i'm sorry, you have kentucky. but you have syracuse here. so your east and midwest brackets are completely different. you're ohio state -- >> your mike is rubbing a little -- >> i can hear it. >> fabulous. sorry, the technical things we have to deal with. all right. so tell me -- i know where we did well but let's toot our own horn here. i also want to make it clear it was a team effort.

my entire team, we all came around, put our brackets in. >> i see. >> so -- >> so you took them all together -- >> i can't take full credit. jim >> i am on the bottom. >> you screwed up rolling solo. >> and i went to a football school, i went to nebraska. what do i know about basketball? >> can we bring this up higher where we just see me? yeah. knock brooke out of there, would you? number two. >> the issue is how many points you still have to go. you can still get 120 points. brooke has four more teams in it than you do. she can get 128. if you get syracuse to go anywhere near the final four, you are in charge. >> they have a great team. i troo i had ied to get into th journalism school. what do we have to keep our eyes on?

you have this all crossed out for me. >> you lost vandy, but you have syracuse coming down and into the final four. >> i want to point out i did pick wisconsin, thank you very much. >> and you can point out to suzanne malveaux that you didn't pick harvard. >> you know what? can i tell you i wanted to pick har vvard just because i love jeremy lin, but the team took me down on that. >> here is where you diverge. un c and kansas because brooke has unc winning the whole thing. you have them out in the elite eight. >> so does my better half. maybe he and brooke ought to be hanging out. >> and i had murray state going to the final four so i'm done. >> you and one of my writers. he was a big murray state fan. >> i didn't think they were a cinderella story because they only lost one game all year but they didn't do so well after that. you are in good shape. i love these brackets. you can look at all the brackets. this is what it looks like if you go to the cnn leaderboard.

>> that's another thing, too. i want to be on the record with this. everybody was saying how difficult it was to find it online. just go to cnn.com -- is it slash brackets? >> slash brackets. >> everybody was saying they were having a tough final finding it. >> soledad only has 104 more points possible because she's lost a couple teams, and harvard was one of them. she has harvard going a very long way. keep going, dave. keep going so you can find me. keep going. there's rob, don -- >> loser! lucky 13. we're now out of time. chad myers, thank you so much. >> i'm still ahead of carol costello. >> i know, and she's a basketball player. what's up with that? still ahead today, the republican battle for president obama's home state, tomorrow's crucial vote, illinois, down to two men. where in the world are the other two? but first, she was the comedienne who would save the struggling oprah winfrey

network. rosie o'donnell given her own talk show to help ratings and revive her career, but just a few months in the rosie show went from pretty funny and carefree to downright depressing, and to no one's surprise, down came the network's ax as well. rosie, what happened to this? >> look out, skate them away. >> whoa! >> packing it on just for christmas. >> so much -- exactly. >> rosie, what the heck happened? you used to be so funny, so alive, so energetic, so self-deprecating. so as much as we hate to say it, perhaps it's time you consider something else, something out of the spotlight. maybe some deep talks with deepak chopra. your 15 minutes are up, my friend. my daughter's grabbing some yoplait.

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immass 5 snoop illinois has 54 delegates at stake. paul steinhauser is live at the political desk in washington. paul, what are we looking for in this illinois race? >> you know, remember when we said romney had to win michigan and then we said the same thing about ohio? i guess we're saying the same thing about illinois. a more moderate state when it comes to the republican electorate. romney adding events in illinois to his schedule on friday, saturday, sunday, all day today,

as well. take a listen to what he said this morning. >> i'm someone experienced in the economy. i'm not an economic lightweight. president obama is. we're not going to be successful in replacing an economic lightweight with another economic lightweight. we're going to have to replace him with someone who knows how to run this economy. >> not bad right there in a 15-second sound bite criticizing the president and his main rival, rick santorum. the latest poll came out an hour ago from american research group. you can see who is on top, r ram -- romney by double digits. santorum not really liking that sound from mitt romney. he's basically criticizing romney and questioning whether romney has a core, whether he is a man that believes that -- says what he does and does what he says. and what about newt gingrich? everybody has been asking where is newt gingrich? he's not in illinois, hasn't been campaigning there at all. he will be campaigning in louisiana later this week. he was there on friday. louisiana, it has a primary on saturday. kyra, that's what i know, back

to you. >> sounds good. see you tomorrow, paul. thanks so much. thanks for watching. you can continue the conversation with me on twitter at kyra cnn or facebook. cnn "newsroom" continues now with our suzanne malveaux. live from cnn headquarters in atlanta, it is 12 noon here and 9:00 a.m. on the west coast. i'm suzanne malveaux. i want to get you up to speed for this monday, march 19th. the american soldier accused of massacring 16 afghan civilians is expected to meet with his lawyer for the first time today. army staff sergeant robert bails is being held at the u.s. military prison in ft. leavenworth. that is where the military is preparing the charges against him. a man opened fire at a jewish school in southern france killing four people, including three children. police say he drove away on a scooter. the attack may be linked to two

other incidents in the past ten days in which a man on a motorcycle fired on ethnic minorities. french president nick lar saar koz -- nicolas sarkozy calls it a national pratragedy. on ireporter on the silver seas silver shadow says the liner collided with a container boat. the silver shadow has a hole in the bow. full extent of the damage is not known. we'll have more and a live report minutes ahead. and apple holding almost $100 billion in cash reserves. well, this morning the company announced what it would do with some of that cold cash. apple announced a $10 billion stock buyout that could begin in october. also said it would begin giving shareholders a quarterly differ dend for first time since 1995.

and a first for the duchess of cambridge. a touring of a children's hospice in england. she gave her first official speech as a member of royalty. she has come a long way from the days when she was just kate middleton. >> what you do is inspirational. it is a shining example of the support and the care that is delivered not just here but in the children's hospice movement at large up and down the country. >> this american soldier accused of going on a deadly shooting and stabbing rampage in two afghan villages. well, he's expected to meet with his attorney for the first time today. staff sergeant robert bales is accused of massacring 16 afghan civilians, including 9 children. ted rawlins is live in ft. leavenworth, kansas, where bales is being held in a military prison. what have we heard about this meeting that's to take place between bales and his attorney?

>> reporter: well, his attorney, john henry brown, says this will be the first time he has a chance to actually talk about the facts of the case with his client. he says he's had conversations over the phone with staff sergeant bales, but they have not talked about the case at all. so he'll do that today here at ft. leavenworth, and then proceed from there in terms of a strategy. when he landed in kansas city last night, he talked about the complexity of this case moving forward. take a listen. >> i think there's an effort to try to paint him as someone who rather than having a serious brain injury and maybe he shouldn't have been there to begin with, had some other factors. his financial situation, for all of us it's stressful, i think, but nobody goes and kills women and children because they had financial stresses. >> reporter: so the clearly, suzanne, there are a lot of things, a lot of questions out

there. the premiere question, what caused this otherwise well-respected member of the military to apparently go berserk and do this? >> does it seem odd to you as a journalist, it seems odd to me, that the attorney is doing so much talking to reporters before he's had some real serious in-depth conversations with his client. do you suppose he's trying to get ahead of the game because he knows this guy is going to be tried in the court of public opinion as well? >> reporter: i think there's a lot to that, to sort of defend the image of this young man or 38-year-old staff sergeant who does have a good military record. i think he's doing that to help out the family and also having met him on previous occasions and interviewing with him, this is a guy who likes to talk. some people don't like to speak with the media, but this is one attorney, john henry brown, that does like it, and he does it very well in that he does

interject things without obvious facts, which is a clear example that you just pointed out. he hasn't even seen the facts and he's talking about it. i think it's a lot of personality here that is behind this. >> ted, do we know anything about the facts from the military's standpoint, what they might be charging him with? >> reporter: we don't know, but obviously we're anticipating several murder charges, 16 murder charges to be exact. now, where it goes from here, there are a lot of questions that we don't have answers to. will he stay here at ft. leavenworth or will they transfer him possibly to the west coast to seattle or will they move him somewhere else? will the actual court-martial, once they get to that point after the article 32 hearing, will that take place here? a lot of those we just don't have answers to. hopefully we'll get those in the next few days after the charges have been preferred. >> thank you, ted. because of this massacre there is pressure mounting for u.s. troops to get out of afghanistan earlier than the current time

table that is of 2014. i want to bring in chris lawrence from the pentagon. so, chris, we saw over the weekend it was a bit of back and forth here. afghan president hamid karzai demanding that the u.s. troops withdraw from the villages, return back to these big bases immediately. we also heard from retired general spider marks who spoke to don lemon over the weekend about how american forces could conceivably get out of afghanistan. i want you to listen to this. >> don, first of all, you know that president karzai has directed that all forces leave the villages and return to forward operating bases, the larger bases. that doesn't take place immediately. it doesn't take place overnight. there has to be a relief in place with afghan forces and security forces. so that takes about a week. they've been into it, the forces in afghanistan have been into that about a week. but if those forces are not -- those u.s. forces are not going to come back into the villages and resume those missions, the united states' mission is fundamentally changed, and our

commanders on the ground will determine that probably within about another week. so within a couple weeks it would not be unusual if there has not been a change in our posture inside those bases that you could see u.s. forces coming back. it's not inconceivable that that could happen. >> so, chris, listening to him, that seems pretty significant. what are your sources telling you about the time table, perhaps a new time table for u.s. troops leaving afghanistan? >> yeah, suzanne, i spoke with a senior military official in afghanistan this morning, and his first words to me were not true, not happening. he said the operations on the ground there have not changed. another u.s. official is telling me that there have been no changes to the deployment schedule in response to president karzai's demand. just a little bit of context here also as well, a senior defense official who was traveling in afghanistan last week said right before president karzai made some of these remarks, he had sent his own

investigative team to the village to talk to some of the villagers, the survivors of that attack. that investigative team had just come back and briefed him, and the defense official said that briefing and what he heard from his team was clearly on president karzai's mind before he made some of these statements. now, an official i spoke with last week said, look, karzai has a history of making very, very tough demands and then backing down. the u.s. has a history of sort of ignoring some of those demands and then negotiating nuance in there. i think you're already starting to see afghan officials tone it down a bit, back off. an official just this weekend speaking to our own candy crowley even suggested that this demand to get out of the villages is something that will be worked out over perhaps months of negotiation. so already hinting this isn't something that's going to happen today or tomorrow, but will involve months of negotiations, and then after the negotiations, even then you have got a time

table for implementing the change. >> how is the pentagon reacting to what the american people want? are they listening to what everyday folks are saying in terms of the mission in afghanistan? seems to be a lot of people really kind of tired of this. >> interesting poll by gallup that was taken after this attack in the village of afghanistan. it asked about the american people's preference for the military preference in afghanistan. about 24% say stick with the time table, which would be get out in a few years, 2014. 50% say speed it up, bring the troops home sooner. and about 21% say stay until the job is done. a split among the american people although clearly the largest percentage would like to see the troops brought back home sooner. >> thank you very much. here is a run down of some of the stories we're covering. 911 tapes released in the shooting death of a florida teen. >> they always get away.

>> this guy looks like he's up to no good or he's on drugs or something. >> and john mccain says it is the nastiest campaign he has ever seen. see what he thinks and why the super pacs are destroying american politics. and then put away the winter coats, break out the short sleeves, unless you're in the southwest. that's right. we got some crazy weather going on. jirntion not in my house. with maxwell house french roast, you let gravity do the work. [ male announcer ] maxwell house french roast. always good to the last drop. water, we take our showers with it. we make our coffee with it. but we rarely tap its true potential and just let it be itself.

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another cruise ship accident. an ireporter on board the silver seas silver shadow says the ship hit a container ship off vietnam today. brian todd is joining us with some of the details. brian, you are following this developing story. what do we know about this? >> reporter: suzanne, we just spoke to that passenger you mentioned, andrew lock, who

apparently took some of those pictures we're going to see. we can put up that one you just showed. that apparently according to mr. lock is a picture of the damaged bridge of a container ship which this cruise ship struck on friday. according to andrew lock, this passenger, the ship "the silver shadow" a cruise ship a few hundred feet long at least containing a few hundred passengers, struck that container ship, basically broadside, on friday morning. this was off a bay in vietnam. that was on a cruise from singapore to hong kong. they were almost finished with it. the cruise ship struck that container ship basically broadside and damaged that bridge there. mr. locke says there were no injuries on board the cruise ship. i interviewed andrew locke via skype a few moments ago. we'll see if we have that sound bite for you. >> there was a certain point in time where the foghorn at the front of the ship suddenly sounded and there was much, much

louder, and it caused us to look up, and, in fact, we looked up straight out of the window and through the fog we -- to our horror we saw this vietnamese container ship appear sideways on, and it was as if our ship was perfectly lined up to hit it in the side. so it was a horrifying moment, and in less than about five seconds after the ship appeared, we did, in fact, collide right in the side of it. >> andrew lock there describing the moment of impact on friday when the crews ship "the silver shadow" hit a vietnamese container ship that did not have containers on it, but had a manned crew on board. lock said he did see some injured crew members on board that container ship lying on the deck of it. i do have a statement here from the silver sea line.

it says "silver shadow" was involved in a minor incident on march 16th as it was approaching the vpilot station. there was contact between silver shadow and a local commercial vessel. guest safety was never compromised. the ship was fully operational. silver sea will carry on an investigation into this incident. we'll be making a lot of calls and trying to find out the nature of what happened on the container ship as well. >> for the cruise ship, there were no injuries aboard the cruise ship but actually the container ship there were members of the crew on the container ship that did sustain injuries? is that right? >> that is according to this passenger that we interviewed, andrew lock. he told me he saw people lying

on the deck of the container ship appearing to him to be injured. again, we're just getting initial information on this. some of this, of course, has to be confirmed. we'll be making allotted of calls on this to see who, if anyone, was injured on the container ship. he thought at one point that his own vessel was going to go down, and again he said there was almost no visibility. the fog was very thick. foghorns were going off all morning on board his vessel. then you heard him describe the front foghorn went off. they came through the fog and literally five seconds from impact they saw the other ship in front of them. >> do we have any idea if radar plays a part in this? obviously radar is used to help these ships navigate even in times of heavy fog. >> they were. they've done some training exercises and radar is a big part of this. we don't know whether radar

played a part in this. obviously visibility was very minimal. you would think they would use some radar but it's unclear whether that played any role. >> thanks. as you get more details, we'll get back to you. thanks again, brian. no justice, no peace! no justice, no peace! no justice, no praes! >> a florida community is demanding justice on the case of an unarmed teen who was shot and killed. on february 26th trayvon martin carrying nothing more than a bag of skittles and an iced tea was killed by a neighborhood watch captain. police say george zimmerman told them he shot the teen in self defense. 911 calls are out and they tell a much more complicated story. david mattingly reports. >> police, fire, or medical? >> police, i just heard a shot behind my house. >> reporter: shock, confusion, and fear, you can hear it in the voice of every caller.

>> he just said he shot him. yes, the person is dead laying on the ground. >> just because he's laying on the grass -- >> reporter: seven 911 calls in all beginning with this one from george zimmerman. >> [ bleep ]. they always get away. >> reporter: that's zimmerman's first impression watching trayvon martin walking alone and acting strangely. >> this guy looks like he's up to no good or he's on drugs or something. >> reporter: zimmerman says martin then comes toward him. >> something is wrong with him. yep. he's coming to check me out. he's got something in his hands. i don't know what his deal is. >> reporter: less than a minute later, martin is running away. zimmerman gets out of his car. >> are you following him? >> yeah. >> okay. we don't need you to do that. >> okay. >> reporter: but then just a few minutes later there's another call. >> 911, do you need police, fire, or medical? >> maybe both. i'm not sure. there's just someone screaming

outside. >> reporter: in the background listen for the sound of a fight and a panicked voice yelling for help. >> and is it a male or female? >> it sounds like a male. >> and you don't know why? >> i don't know why. i think they're yelling help, but i don't know. send someone quick, please. god. >> reporter: ten seconds later the shrieking continues, then a gunshot. >> so you think he's yelling help? >> yes. >> what is your -- >> there's gunshots. >> you just heard gunshots? >> yes. >> how many? >> just one. >> reporter: the identity of the person pleading for help is in dispute as well as the number of gunshots. but there is no doubt the calls capture the sounds of a deadly end to a tragic encounter. >> i want to bring in david here. first of all, do we know why the sanford police released the 911

tapes now? >> reporter: well, it's actually the decision of the entire city, the mayor, the city manager, they all got together and decided to put these out there. the mayor saying it was in his power to do that, so they wanted to because there was so much scrutiny on this case. police have been telling us they're very confident in the way they handled this case, perhaps looking for these 911 tapes to bolster their case in public. but at this point it doesn't appear that happened. the people that are of the opinion that this is not a case of self-defense came away from listening to those tapes unchanged. >> the attorney for the team, they have asked that the justice department actually get involved in this case. do we know anything about whether or not they are going to step in? >> reporter: well, at this point it's not only coming from the family, this request to the justice department. it's also from the local congresswoman and also the mayor of the city of sanford who has gotten involved and said, yes, that's fine, let's talk. the police department of sanford is welcoming this kind of

scrutiny again showing the kind of confidence that they might have in how they've conducted this investigation. >> david, thank you so much. appreciate it. just getting some information here, this coming in from espn as well as the nfl, tweets they're sending out that the former indianapolis colts quarterback, peyton manning has made a decision. he's going to sign with the denver broncos. you may recall it was just recently that he appeared emotional with team officials of indianapolis saying that he was leaving the team. he had suffered several injuries. they had a big deal that was on the table. they came to a mutual decision that it was time for him to leave that team, and so he is moving on. college grads make $650,000 more over their lifetimes than people who only go to high school, but as we know, college isn't cheap. costs are going up. in the end is it worth it? we're going to break it down. [ male announcer ] aggressive new styling. a more fuel-efficient turbocharged engine.

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all right. college is pretty expensive. any parent of a teen can tell you this, but is this degree worth the money? well, the answer is it depends. christine romans explains. >> so you can't afford to go to college, but you can't afford

not to, either. a pew research study center finds typical college graduates made $650,000 more over their working lives than their peers who only finished high school and a college degree, bachelor's or higher, hassen unemployment rate of 4.2%, half of that high school grads. ali velshi is cnn's chief business correspondent and host of "your money." tony, is college worth it? >> it is but it all depends on what you take. college in general is not worth it so much anymore. it's college in particular that you have to think about. >> ali, it has to be an investment. you have to think of it as an investment. you're going to have all this student debt. you're not going to be guaranteed a job coming out. you have to be training for the right job. >> that's correct. so you have to decide what undergraduate you're going to take that's going to pay you unless you plan to be independently wealthy or have your parents finance you or marry rich. at that point you have to decide whether you need further education or whether you need further vocational education.

if you're going to go for a degree beyond a bachelor's degree, then go to a college for three years and go into that degree as opposed to four years. lots of places allow you to accelerate. the bottom line is wile it may be expensive, we need to make sure we don't excuse that with valuable. it is expensive and it is valuable. >> how do we make college more affordable for everyone? >> the only way we can do that because we don't have the money to buy all the college education we need is we need to urge people to know what the outcome will be, how they'll do to know before they go whether the degree will get them a job or not. >> and the degree that will get them a job, tony and ali, a s.t.e.m. science, technology, engineering, and math. >> some of these professions are things people want to do. the mistake you need to not make is going for something that's not going to get you a job and that's not going to pay well that was just something you

chose because somebody told you to. there is research in there. tony make that is point. people can research. if you're going to school you, should be start enough to get on the google and figure out what pays. >> no more spending three or four years to find yourself. it's too expensive. anthony, ali, thanks so much. for "smart is the new rich" i'm christine romans. mitt romney thinks the economy is improving. >> i believe the economy is coming back, by the way. it's had ups and downs. i think it's finally coming back. >> you can bet the democrats will pounce on that comment. we'll hash it out with our political panel up next. in america, we believe in a future that is better than today. since 1894, ameriprise financial has been working hard for their clients' futures. never taking a bailout. helping generations achieve dreams. buy homes.

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their attacks on each other a day before they face off in the illinois primary. at a campaign stop this morning, mitt romney called rick santorum an economic lightweight, that's right, while san toer to rum said romney doesn't have a core. whoa. want to bring in democratic strategist kiki mcclain and conservative independent amy holmes. good to see both of you this morning, monday morning. trying to sort all this out. so it really is a game of the numbers here, right? we're talking about 1144 delegates to win the nomination. romney has a big lead here, but can he get to the magic number before the republican convention? amy, game this out for us? do you think that's possible? >> well, it is possible, and, of course, there's a lot of pressure being put on newt gingrich to drop out. i think one of the most interesting findings that we have is that gallup found that this gingtorum vote is really split pretty evenly between newt -- if newt gingrich were to

drop out between rick santorum and mitt romney. so, of course, the pressure is being brought to bear. >> all right. so you're going to need one of these guys to drop out before the convention. kiki, weigh in here. could president obama be still wondering who his opponent is 160 days away with a possibility of this open convention? >> sure, he could. because anything can happen, and what's most interesting out of this is that you've got santorum, who gets the headlines because he's got more delegates and i participated in a primary in 2008 where it was a real delegate fight. you have santorum who comes behind him and then gingrich. why would either santorum or gingrich drop out, no real value. for gingrich, a former speaker of the house, this is all about the inside rules, the machinations of things that most voters don't even know about. it's what he did as speaker of the house, it's what he loves. i suspect he doesn't drop out before then, but i think that it could, in fact, lead to a lot of uncertainty. and then the other question is

who is it not only by name that president obama faces, but who is it substantively he faces? and the reality is for weeks now these three candidates have done nothing but talk about process and they have had no message conversation whatsoever. >> let's talk about that, amy, because if the republican nominee is determined in august, that really gives whoever it is two months to fight what is likely going to be a $1 billion obama machine. is any of them in that position of strength to actually do that? to pull that off? who would it be? >> well, it would certainly be, you know, a difficult uphill climb to be able to face a $1 billion machine but as "the washington post" just reported, president obama is actually facing some lower fund-raising numbers than one would have expected -- >> but out of the republican candidates who do you think, amy, would be able to take him on with just two months left facing an obama campaign? >> well, with just two months

left, you know, i guess the conventional wisdom is that mitt romney would be stronger because of his, you know, stronger ties even with the financial community, but, again, the question would be would the gop be able to rally around that candidate to generate the enthusiasm and, you know, be able to give that person money after this really lengthy battle up until august so that's yet to be seen and has a lot of gop rather worried actually that the gop needs to have his candidates soon. >> i want to play a little bit of sound. senator john mccain over the weekend saying this was really the nastiest campaign that he has seen. this is mccain on "meet the press." >> this is the nastiest i have ever seen, and, again, when you have las vegas casino mogul who, by the way, gets part of his money from a cow, pouring $20 million into one campaign and most of those are negative ads, obviously that drives up people's unfavorableness. >> kiki, can these candidates,

is it too late for them to turn the tone, turn the message here and create more of a positive campaign so it's not turning off all these folks? >> no, it's not too late. here is what happens. i actually think come labor day at the end of the conventions, because democrats will meet in charlotte at labor day to renominate president obama and vice president biden. there's almost this sort of -- you know the miss america pageants when you get to the final 12, you scoring starts fresh. we have seen the different bumps candidates get out of a convention. it's a whole new scoring system, and then more voters, people who had never paid attention to the primaries begin to pay attention and it becomes a clean conversation at that point, all right? and the question is what kind of person do they view you as going into the race in the fall? are you an honest broker? do you tell it like it is? and then what's your message? so i would actually say i think the fall campaign will be close regardless of who it is because the republicans will close ranks behind who they want. they have got a lot of money out there. it starts anew come labor day.

>> amy, you have to weigh in here. very little time here left. >> well, certainly come labor day, you know, that's when people start paying attention. those independent and swing voters. but leading up until august, you know, we're going to keep seeing this fight, and i'm really curious to see if the media as in the democratic primary in 2008 is going to start putting pressure on santorum or gingrich to drop out as they did on hillary clinton. >> all right. that was a battle to the end, the fierce end there. amy, kiki, good to see you both. >> thanks. tomorrow's the first day of spring. already feeling a little bit like the if irs day of summer. what is with all the crazy weather? we're going to let you know.

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here in atlanta we seem to have skipped right over winter and spring and landed right in the middle of summer. we're not the only one seeing crazy weather. it is now i understand, chad, snowing in arizona. is that right? >> 55 inches of snow in snow

bowl, arizona, which is flagstaff in the past seven days. there are frost advisories for southern california. that's where the cold air is today. the warm air was in the central plains and it's going to get moved out. when cold air pushes out warm out in the spring you will get severe weather and we will get tornadoes today. we will definitely get severe weather as gulf moisture comes in from the gulf of mexico, warges up t warms up the east coast. we have hundreds of record highs in the east the past couple days where the cold air has been back out to the west. the clash was from north platte to texas and oklahoma. tomorrow it slides a little farther to the east. we could see heavy rain into parts of iowa and missouri. maybe into illinois. some of those storms could be strong to severe again. we're worried about tornadoes today and also very large hail. the biggest cities in the way would be oklahoma city, maybe now that it's rained so much maybe we wrecked our atmosphere, you may be okay, but dallas-ft.

worth, waco to san antonio, there could be baseball sized hail in those big cities. when that happens you can get an awful lot of damage to cars, buildings, and glass. arizona knowbowl, five more inches down totally 36 inches. tupelo, mississippi, yesterday was 83. st. louis was 82. it's the warm and the cold, that same warm and cold will clash. we even have spots in the central plains right there. that purple, that will be 6 to 10 inches of rainfall where flash flooding will happen. especially at night, don't drive into water. you don't know how deep it is and we will lose people if you drive into that water. turn around, don't drown. >> i'm loving this weather though, chad, in atlanta. 80 degrees, right? >> the pollen is a little crazy. >> the poll sentence a little crazy, but the warm weather is nice. it's going to continue, is that right? >> it will continue for three more days and then we will get the severe weather by thursday, friday. >> thank you. they watch for every move, now the duchess of cambridge is giving her first speech.

today the duchess of came bridge did something she's never done before. she gave her first official speech as a member of british royalty. she toured a children's hospital in ipswich, england, smiling, shaking hands with families and patients and staff. she also spoke with for a few minutes starting with something warm and personal. >> i am only sorry that william can't be here today.

he would love it here. a view of his that i share is that through teamwork so much can be achieved. what you have all achieved here is extraordinary. you as a community have built the treehouse, a group of people who have made every effort to support and help each other. when i first visited the hospice, i had a preconceived idea as to what to expect. far from being a clinical, depressing place for sick children, it was a home. most importantly, it was a family home, a happy place of stability, support, and care. it was a place of fun. today i have seen again that the

treehouse is all about family and fun. for many this is a home from home, a lifeline enabling families to live as normally as possible during a very precious period of time. >> they witnessed a massacre but not everyone saw the same thing that terrible night in afghanistan. >> translator: it was around 3:00 at night that they entered the room. they took my uncle out of the room and shot him after asking him where is the taliban?

people living in one of the afghan villages where a u.s. soldier allegedly massacred 16 civilians, they are now speaking out about that horrible night. sara sidner spoke to them, and she has their story. >> reporter: graves in this village, a place now haunted by the memory of a massacre. ali ahmed described what he saw. it was around 3:00 at night that they entered the room. they took my uncle out of the room and shot him after asking him where is the taliban. my uncle replied that he didn't know. ahmed said the worst happened next door.

finally, they came to this room and martyred all the children in the room. there was even a 2-month-old baby, he said. once the shooting stopped, the villagers said some of the dead were piled in a room and set on fire. at daybreak in the back of trucks, evidence emerged of the burning of bodies and killing of babies. u.s. officials say this was the work of a single soldier acting on his own. army staff sergeant robert bales is under arrest accused in the crime. most of the villagers say they do not believe the u.s. version. but when it comes to actual eyewitnesses, their stories conflict. one of the young witnesses said, he was an american. it was just one person the boy next to him chimes in. but some adults in the village tell us they have evidence more than one soldier was involved, but none of them have said more than one soldier was firing a weapon.

they went through a field of wheat and there was more than one set of footprints. the villagers have seen them and signs of knee prints as well. in an exclusive interview, a taliban commander from the area told cnn, we don't think that one american soldier was involved in the attack. the foreigners and the puppet regime are blind to the truth of what happened there. but if this was the act of one soldier, we want this soldier to be prosecuted in afghanistan and according to islamic law. after the attack, the taliban suspended initial peace talks with the u.s. he told us the reason was twofold. the burning of korans in february by u.s. troops and he claimed the u.s. rescinded its offer to move five taliban members from guantanamo bay prison to qatar. our peace talks with the americans were limbed to discuss the prisoner deal, he said, and those promises were not kept by the americans. but the u.s. state department

said it has not made any decisions on the transfer. back in the villages, it isn't peace talks, but justice that's being demanded right now. something the u.s. has repeatedly promised will be done. in the streets and in the afghan presidential palace, anger and skepticism reign. so far three protests have erupted in the last week with calls for justice and death to america. >> sara, do we know anything more about the 16 victims? >> reporter: just a bit. we do know that in one household, 11 family members were killed and one of the villagers there had said that the village seems completely empty, as you might imagine, these villages aren't highly populated. there were another two families that were effected, three in another house and two in yet another house. we're talking about several different houses and that's partly why the villagers are convinced that this was the work

of more than one person. but again and again, what you're hearing is they believe it's more than one person but they have not said that more than one person was actually firing at them. >> do we know anything more about the families, what they did or who they were or people talking about them? >> reporter: many of them farmers. the village elders came in and spoke with the president on friday. they were quite adamant that, you know, how can this keep happening to us? we've been trying to make a living, and now people come in and they do this to us, referring to the americans, and president karzai responded in pashto saying we're caught between two evils referring to nato and the taliban. >> sara, thank you very much. excellent reporting, as always. thank you. we're learning more and more about staff sergeant robert bales. his friends say he was a nice guy, he had a wife, two kids, but what do we know about the people he's accused of killing in afghanistan? we're going to give you a side

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the u.s. media has treated the 16 victims as statistics, not human beings. if they were human, we would at least know their names and ages. we might even have heard from their classmates or family members about the kind of people they were. maybe they, too, were happy-go-lucky like sergeant bales. and why do you suppose that the media in general, we have not heard more about the victims in this case? >> you know, that's my question, suzanne. why don't we hear the full portrait of robert bales? he's 38, two children, we hear about him vacationing, playing high school football. we've heard testimonials from friends and fellow soldiers. we haven't heard his religion but we can safely assume it's not muslim because if it was it would be the headline. we have heard the 16 people described as villagers, 9 people and 3 women, but what about their names, their ages. let's hear about them as shuman beings and not statistics. why does the media do it?

maybe because they think we don't want to hear it. let's hear about them. let's put a human face on this loss caused undisputedly by american hands. i don't think there's ni dany dispute about the u.s. involvement in this. >> do you think it's possible that americans see the afghans as a whole as the enemy? that people are not distinguishing the afghan people from the extremists from al qaeda from the taliban? >> i think that's one of the consequences of not learning about the other side. it's very easy to demonize the other when they don't have a human face, when you don't know about their dreams and hopes like you hear about ours. if someone loses a child, you hear about their story and backstory. we don't know much about them. that's why it really moves me to say we need to hear more about them. it does paint a different, more full human picture about who these people are. >> what do you think that is?

is that's racism? is it just people who are focused on their own lives and they're not really paying attention to people who look different than themselves? >> i think for the average american we look to you, the media, to give us that information. americans obviously are busy people. it's a tough economy and making ends meet. naer not going to investigate the people in afghanistan or the middle east. that's where we need the media to fill in that gap. i don't think americans are inherently racist, but i think if they don't have any information to balance it, they're only going to see the negative. let's hear from their classmates. let's hear what they were going to do with their lives. we don't even know their names. you look it up, it's so hard to find. two biggest families that lost relatives, it was so hard to even find in any mainstream media. >> well, we do have sara sidner who is doing a pretty good job -- >> great. >> -- of explaining who they are on the