anything public, but still somehow you find it which tells me you can find others. >> well, yeah. it's basically information brokerage databases. they sell this information usually for investigations, to investigate fraud or for doing anything in the course of business and this information is bought and sold. so the information is already out there. it doesn't take much to gain access to these databases. usually access to the internet and a credit card and paying your bill on time. the searches are super cheap and it makes it really easy for identity thiefs to steal your identity and you have to be vigilant at checking your credit reports and checking your credit card statements and signing up for some sort of theft protection service and really being vigilant in protecting your identity because it is so easy for a fraudster to steal it. >> i'm on twitter, and i'm on facebook. i have two facebook accounts and

how does social media factor into all of this? does it at all? >> it kind of does because when the bad guys are looking to break into your email account they can leverage information that's on social media and sometimes guess your password reset question. for example, if your password reset question is the name of your pet and you're on facebook posting pictures of your pet, obviously, with its name someone will figure that out. in fact --? keep going. >> there was a guy that hacked into the email of several celebrities. i think this was one or two years ago, they thought that he had some, you know, secret vulnerability to break into their iphones. it turned out he was simply hacking into their email accounts by guessing their password reset questions based on information that was in the public domain. all this guy did was use google. >> oh, my goodness. >> yeah. i kind of love you, but i don't know how much i love you right now kevin mittnick. it certainly is a wake-up call

for all of us. it is out there, you can find it and we need to stop that. we need to protect ourselves. i have to go. i'm brooke bolduan. apparently, you can know more about me, but on that note let's go to washington. wolf blitzer begins right now. >> thanks very much. happening now, one of these men will become the new pope. we'll take you to the vatican and to cities around the world hoping to provide the next leader of the roman catholic church. some in washington, even inside the administration are not charmed by the president's charm offensive. is it all just for show? thousands of sharks head north past florida's beaches, scientists rushing to do some research that may save the lives of shark bite victims. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com

black smoke from the chimney of thevatican's sistine chapel signaling that the cardinals locked inside have not picked a new pope in their first vote. when they do decide, you will all see, all of us in the world will see white smoke. drawing on centuries of tradition and pageantry, the princes of the roman catholic church today began the secret election to choose a new pope. today became with a solemn mass at st. peter's basilica where the 115 voting cardinals trade for guidance. after the cardinals took vows of secrecy in the sistine chapel, the doors were closed behind them and they got down to work, very serious work, indeed. let's go straight to rome. chris cuomo is on the scene for us. so, chris, what's the mood like that? we're about an hour or so after we saw that black smoke coming up. >> reporter: i think you get two very different pictures, here,

right here, the vatican, the people have left and there was a real expectation around the event. very few people expected a pope tonight. it had been a long time tonight since we had a pope on first vote, but the people were satisfied that the process has begun. you get a different picture of mood with the 115 cardinals right now because they're eating dinner together and, wolf, then they'll break into different groups three times and now they know what names are on the table and now the hard talks begin before tomorrow morning when the next set of votes begin, wolf? >> walk us through what will happen tomorrow and the day after assuming they haven't selected a pope yet? >> reporter: this is a very specific and regimented process, the conclave, that means with the key as they locked them in with the doors closing. they said extra omnes. they get up in the morning, they have breakfast and they go to the chapel and celebrate mass.

they then proceed into the sistine chapel. they don't know the chants and hymns they did today and they proceed and get down to business. voting, however, is totally unlikely, but we know from presidential politics. there is no politicking and there is no bickering or bantering, and it is like being in another mass. each man must write down their vote and carry it over their head in a piece of paper and folded into thirds, placing it into an urn saying in latin and this is the man that god believes wants to be pope and they have cardinals count the vote. it's a very specific process and that's why each round of voting can take well over an hour. >> as far as we know, and it's obviously very secretive inside. does one cardinal go over to another? do they start lobbying each other, if you will will, for a certain cardinal to emerge? do they talk amongst themselves? how much chatter, for example, is there? >> in the conclave our

understanding is zero chatter. it's a straight process, almost like a ceremony, ritualistically done with that mind toward a solemnity in prayer and quiet, however, lunch is the ultimate power lunch. dinner and the free time afterwards, heavy politicking that follows up on these ten general congregation meetings up until the day the conclave begins, but a lot of it is just figuring out for them we can't let it go too long because then we don't along strong and unified, but you have such big questions in front of us right now that we have to make sure we have someone that can lead us in the right direction. >> they're in close touch with you. thanks very much. chris cuomo is on the scene for us in rome. in the each in the u.s. there are a number of cardinals that can wind up the next poppe. we're covering the story as only cnn can with correspondents not just in rome, but indeed, around the world. let's begin in new york.

>> i'm deborah feyerick at st. patrick's cathedral home to cardinal timothy dolan. the archbishop of new york is popular, friendly and well-respected by congregants of church leaders for modern teaching of traditional catholicism, global bishops and even benedict xvi have shown confidence in the american choosing him for various positions and honors. but is he too american? too outgoing to lead the world's diverse catholics? vatican watchers say the american is a long shot, but if the cardinal is deadlocked he is certainly on the short list. >> i'm mark preston in boston. the home to cardinal sean ox mally who is quick le becoming the dark horse candidate to be next pope. it's o'malley's efforts over the past decade to address this matter that has put him in this unique position to potentially be the next pope. o'malley's friends tell us that

he's very conservativconservati compassionate and scholarly. he would make history if selected to be pope as the first american to lead the catholic church. >> i'm paula newton in montreal quebec, the home providence of canadian contender marc ouellet. that makes him very important to some looking for change and growth in the catholic church, but he is not a reform candidate. he has very conservative views of ordaining women, about abortion, about same-sex marriage and for that reason he may be seen as a steady hand and someone who would be capable of ushering in reform, but mind you, at a very, very slow pace. many here believe that he would be a good candidate. others believe he would be controversial and in what is the most liberal places in north america, this would be a very conservative choice. >> i'm shasta darlington in sao

paulo where excitement is growing over the possibility that the next pope could be brazilian cardinal odilo pedro scherer. some of the points in his favor include the fact that he's a pastoral pope in the world's biggest catholic country and yet he also has experience in the vatican bureaucracy, working against him are his age. he's relatively young, 63 years old and experts feel that the roman curia could manipulate him. >> i'm ben wedeman in st. peter's square where we've just seen the black smoke of the first vote coming out of the krim me over the sistine chapel. when you speak to vatican watchers one of the first names they mention when it comes to the so-called papabile is angelo scola, the archbishop of milan and one of the cardinals in the conclave. he's the man who worked in the diocese of milan and venice and

considered to be somebody who understands the real-life problems of ordinary people. he's also considered an intellectual along the lines of benedict xvi, but one that is a much better communicator and building bridges between with the vatican and the muslim world. >> we want to thank our reporters around the world for their reports right now. remember, stay with cnn for complete live coverage of the selection of the next pope, but tonight, by the way on erin burnett "out front" an up and comer" within the catholic church and you'll meet the soccer star who gave it all up to be a priest. anderson is live in rome with a close look at celibacy, female priests potentially out there and the future of catholicism. erin burnett starts at 7:00 p.m. eastern "a.c. 360" 8:00 p.m. eastern all later tonight. coming up in "the situation room" the cardinals have taken vows of secrecy and they meet

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try align. it's the number one ge recommended probiotic that helps maintain digestive balance. ♪ stay in the groove with align. >> president obama has been trying to change the move in gridlocked washington, but it's not necessarily all sun shine and roses yet as he reaches out to rank and file lawmakers. not everyone, apparently, is

charmed by his charm offensive. our national political correspondent jim acosta is at the white house reporting on this story. what's going on, jim? >> the president's offensive kicked into gear as he met with democrats before his you upcoming visits with congressional republican, but the trip down pennsylvania avenue has already hit a few speed bumps. >> mr. president, what do you hope to accomplish with this meeting? >>o. >> reporter: for a leader in search of kumbaya on capitol hill, president obama's schmoozing skills are being tested while the president has lined up three days of dates with lawmakers after his dinner with republicans last week, it's a charm offensive that at least one white house official appears to find, well, offensive. the national journal quoted one white house official speaking anonymously who said this is a joke. we're wasting the president's time and ours. i hope you all in the media are happy because we're doing it for you. >> is this a show that the president feels that it is a

joke. >> i saw that story and i appreciate the question. i have no idea who said that, but i can tell you that that opinion has never been voiced in my presence, in the president's presence in the west wing. it does not represent the president's view. he believes that it is important to engage with lawmakers of both parties. >> that engagement is critical to solving what's the budget rubik's cube. he submitted his own budget to congress during the week of april 8th, but that's two months after he's required by law to do so and his plan will be at odds with what's being offered by house republicans who are still calling for the repeal of the president's healthcare law. >> we will never be able to balance the budget because obama care say fiscal train wreck. democrats have their budget that closes tax loophole and deductions and ideas republicans are resisting. >> this week, we're seeing a revealing contrast. the president's reaching out to republicans in the senate and on the other side of the building house republicans are moving

further away from the compromise. >> reporter: but the question is whether both sides can listen to each other. >> that'sa a rule. >> last november, top gop leaders, house speaker john boehner and mitch mcconnell turned down invitations from president obama for a special screening of the film lincoln at the white house. the spokesman for boehner said the invite came at short notice. the offer was just too last minute. so far, it's a political romance story with no happy ending in sight. a boehner spokesman tells cnn the speaker takes the president secretary for his word that the president does not view this latest round of outreach as a joke and the proof will be in the followthrough. meanwhile, republicans are finding some humor and what the white house calls its balanced plan to reduce the federal budget to gop leaders say, the budget according to the white house's plan will never be balanced. >> if the president was supposed

to release his own budget he's not going do it now until early april? why the delay, why didn't he do it on time? >> reporter: they're saying a lot of this was kicked back, wolf, because of dealing with the fiscal cliff, that dealing with that budget crisis really pushed back their work on crafting a budget for this coming fiscal year and of course, the so-called sequester reared its ugly head in early march and the white house's excuse is they've been careening from one fiscal crisis to another and that's the reason for the delay, wolf? >> jim acosta is over at the white house. thank you. so how did today's visit to capitol hill go? our chief congressional correspondent dana bash has been getting reaction from various lawmakers and take us inside the president's meeting with democrats as best as you can. what are you learning? >> we are told, wolf, that the president took a dozen questions from senate democrats inside this lunch on everything from the budget to gun, to immigration and even to his

drone policy which, of course, is controversial among many democrat dps. you would think this would be the easy meeting because it's with senate democrats and the president was a senate democrat. maybe it wasn't easy going in and the reason is because i've talked to many senate democrats who said they are frustrated. it's not that he isn't reaching out and talking with republicans and it's because he doesn't have enough of a relationship with sb at democrat dels. and i spoke to him just after the lunch ended and here's what he said. >> i'm very, very empressed with the tone today that maybe we haven't seen or heard for a long time ask he realizes that we have to work together. >> what sounds about ought for the derm democrat, but it does speak to the relationship or maybe lack there that he has with democrats and it is very clear that the president got it at the beginning of his

presentation and it was the tone that he set out throughout of it. >> the meeting went a little bit longer than it was supposed to go. do we have an explanation why. >> reporter: he kept taking questions. he was taking questions on substantive issues and the budget, entitlements and things like that, but i'm told there were moments of levity and one story i will tell you that i was told is that the president was joking around with harry reid, the senate majority leader. he took his notes and he was looking at them and he was making fun of the doodles that harry reid did saying he should send it to his psychiatrist for analysis. >> maybe that's a good idea. >> thanks very much. coming up, i'll speak with ron formier, the writer of the national journal article which sparked controversy and one senior official, anonymous, saying the so-called charm offensive is a joke.

we'll get reaction to what the white house has to say about that quote, as well. that's coming up in our next hour. not every day that one gets to meet with the president, but wait until you hear how the sultan of brunei made his way to the oval office. even president bush made wobama surprised. awwwww... arigato! we are outta here! party...... finding you the perfect place, every step of the way. hotels.com

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federal jury has reached a verdict in the case of the so-called cannibal cop. lisa sylvester is monitoring that and other top storieses in "the situation room." what happened? >> wolf, a federal jury has convicted new york police officer gilberto valle of plotting to kidnap, cook and eat women. prosecutors say valle used a federal law enforcement database and fetish websites. one of those potential victims was his own wife who tipped off the fbi and valle could get life in prifsh. >> nearly a year after he first appeared in court with shocking dyed red hair, the man accused

of gunning down moviegoers at the screening of "the dark knight rises" was back in court. james holmes is accused of killing 12 people and wounding 58 others and a judge entered a standard not guilty plea, but he could still enter a not guilty by reason of insanity plea at a later date. in other news, syrian rebels are slamming accusations by the u.n. that they've engaged in murder, rape, torture and kidnapping. a just-released report by u.n. investigators accuses the regime and the opposition of atrocities in civil war. it says both sides have recruited children as young as 12 to fight and to act as lookouts and informants. rebels called the report a stung exaggeration. >> michael vick has canceled a string of signings across the country because of what his publisher says are credible threats. the philadelphia eagles quarterback had planned to promote his autobiography "finally free." he spent a year in federal prison after pleading guilty to

dogfighting charges in 2007. it's one thing to meet face-to-face with the president, but wait until you hear from president obama himself how one of the world's wealthiest men, the sultan of brunei, got to today's oval office meeting. >> he got here yesterday and flew in his own 747, meaning he actually piloted it himself. i think he's probably the only head of state in the world who flies a 747 himself, and so in case air force one, the pilot has problem, we know who to consult. >> yeah. i think president obama is probably right. he's probably the only head of state to do that. the sultan is worth $40 billion and he's apparently used to flying himself around. he's piloted his plane to india and south america. it reportedly has wash basins

made of solid gold. how about that, wolf? >> did you say $40 billion, lisa? >> yeah. $40 billion. that's how much he is worth. yeah, i think he can afford a 747, wolf. >> absolutely. thanks so much. up next, if locked doors are not enough to keep the papal election secret, how about jamming devices and electronic bugging? and how scientists hope to save the lives of shark attack victims. that's whoi that's coming up here in "the situation room." before copd...

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>> back to our top story. the secret election to elect the next pope is now under way at the vatican. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> chanting the names of the saint, the 115 cardinals who will pick the next leader of the world's roman catholic church entered the sistine chapel and took a vow of secrecy after everyone else was ushered out, the huge wooden doors were closed with the cardinals locked inside. they will vote and vote again until two-thirds of them agree on a candidate and after the first vote today black smoke was sent up through the vatican chimney meaning no decision yet. when there is a new pope white

smoke will be sent up. we will all see it at that time. meanwhile, the doors are now closed and the cardinals have vowed confidentiality, but there have been leaks in the past. here's the question, how does the vatican keep this secret election secret? cnn's tom foreman has been looking into that and he's joining us now from the virtual sistine chapel, tom, what are you seeing? >> wolf, this is really the only way you can see the inside of the sistine chapel right now virtually, but you can bet many people are trying to get a peek inside so they can understand how the deliberations are going and why we saw black smoke today and why we might see white smoke later on and that has led to an unprecedented level of security around this conclave for modern times and there's good reason. the vatican was embarrassed by high-level leaks last year and as they gather in this, one of the most sacred places in the church for one of the most sacred rites, they just do not want that embarrassment again.

♪ ♪ >> with worldwide media swirling and one imposter already caught, he was a protester who got close enough to shake a cardinal's hand, extraordinary measures have been taken to protect the privacy of the conclave. the doors are are locked, the windows blocked and the cardinals have all taken a vow of secrecy, but here are three ways the cat van code could still be cracked. first, the russian gamut. no one in the chapel is allowed to have any sort of cell phone or blackberry. cardinals are now tweetless. the room has been swept for electronic bugs and a jamming system has been installed beneath the floor, but security experts point out every item brought in from clothing to furniture to the stoves that burn the bals could carry a spy device. the u.s. had to rebuild a brand new embassy in moscow after so man bugs were found to have smuggled into the architecture and fixtures. still, they is not swiss guard can keep the electronic threat

to a minimum. cnn's mark brooks. >> they've gone over all of those pieces with a fine-toothed comb to make sure there's nothing embedded in anything. >> what about the connection? the cardinals deliberate by themselves and sleep only 100 yards away and they need food, water, supplies and possible medical care. each person who provides a service represents another potential leak. >> well, they're threatened with ex-communication from the church. so are they willing to give away any secrets, if you will, while facing possible ex-communication? that remains to be seen. >> reporter: finally, there is the inside man. remember, the oath of secrecy is standard, but after pope benedict was elected some unnamed cardinal leaked information about the other top contenders. so will any of this play out? we don't really know, wolf. what we know is this, this 2,000-year-old institution is

acutely aware of the fact that the entire world is trying to find out what is happening in this room over in rome, and many people will stop at almost nothing to get that information. >> it's a beautiful room, indeed. even though the vatican tries to prevent electronic leak, the united states is grappling with unprecedented cyber security threat. our pentagon correspondent barbara starr has been looking into this and there was disturbing new information, barbara, just released today. >> well, that's right, wolf. the nation's top intelligence officer told congress that the threat of a cyberattack in the u.s., a massive cyber attack is one of the top worries and there is plenty of reason to be concerned. from the nation's power grid to online banking, the u.s. economy is utterly reliant on the internet. the pentagon is now watching the cyber threat to the economy every minute. >> we've seen the attacks on wall street over the last six

months grow significantly. over 140 of those attacks over the last six months. >> reporter: in the face of growing cyber attack, many from china, president obama recently signed an executive order to improve cyber security. >> we cannot look back years from now and wonder why we did nothing in the face of real threats to our security and our economy. >> a recent investigation even pinpointed this building in china that houses part of a shadowy chinese military unit responsible for thousands of hacks into american business and government agency. >> china's massive campaign to steal technology, business practices, intellectual property and business strategy through cyberspace continues and it continues relentlessly. >> for the first time the president's national security adviser saying cyber attacks are now the number one u.s. issue with the chinese government.

>> it takes time to investigate and put a stop to these activities. >> the administration's new strategy to deal with it all, overcome privacy issues and share more information about attacks between government and business. >> think of this as going up to new york city on the new jersey turnpike. the easy pass would see a car going by. what we're telling the internet service provider is if you see a red car tell us that you saw the red car, where you saw it and where it's going. >> reporter: now, a recent dod report noted that even the pentagon's own cyber systems are so vulnerable to an attack that during the drill, an exercise, those playing the role of opponents were very easily able to overwhelm pentagon cyber defenses. >> it's a serious problem out there and i know they're working over time to deal with it and it will presumably get worse down the road, barbara, thank you. aside from sounding the

alarm on cyber security, the director of national intelligence is warning about a nuclear threat from north korea. listen to this. >> i'm very concerned about the -- the actions of the new young leader, and very belligerent and the rhetoric that has been emanating from the north korean regime. the rhetoric, while it is propaganda-laced is also an indicator of their attitude and perhaps their intent. >> does deterrence work with the country like north korea or -- or iran? it's sort of the same question, do they care? mutually assured destruction. are they responsive to that kind of rational thinking that guided u.s. policy for 50 years? are these countries like the soviet union that we can have some confidence that they'll make a rational decision knowing

that if they do something crazy that they're going to be wiped out? >> well, i do think -- i do think they both understand that. i'm not sure that -- particularly to north korea, whether they expect us to use a nuclear weapon, but they certainly respect the capability of our military. >> in our next hour we're going to be speaking about north korea and the latest threats from north korea and bill richardson will join us live with his assessment. britain's queen elizabeth just got out of the hospital and now she's bowing out of several public engagements. up next, we are live in london with the latest on her health. n] from meeting customer needs... to meeting patient needs... ♪ wireless is limitless.

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britain's queen elizabeth is canceling yet more public engagements. let's go right to cnn's royal correspondent max foster in london for more on what's going on. why did she cancel today, max? >> reporter: she canceled her engagements and she was back up and running this week and now we are told she's effectively homebound and any engagement in the palace she'll do, but she's canceling anything that involves going outside. weir told she's at the tail end of her illness. a source told me she's still recovering from her recent illness and is otherwise in good health program people are asking the questions what's really wrong with her? >> well, what's the answer? what do we think is really wrong with her? this is a woman who is what? she's 86 years old? >> people have been going back over the statements we've had

and they keep referring to her recent illness and the system of gastroenteritis and not talking to anything specific and that led one royal correspondent and the respected one trt newspapers to put this headline out today just how ill is the queen. people are wondering if there is an underlying issue here that we should all know about. the palace very much playing that down. if she's not up and running next week as the palace said she should be we'll be asking more searching questions. >> max is on the scene for us. thank you. bacteria from a shark bite can be a ticking time bomb, but some scientists are hoping some bacteria will actually help them save bite victims' liefrs. who thinks more is better than less?

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sharks moving past florida beaches, that's certainly getting a lot of people's attention on the sand, others are wading in so they can stare right into the mouths of the sharks. as john zarrella report, what they're finding could save the lives of shark bite victims. >> reporter: no one went in the water, the sign warned sharks. a lot of them migrating north were close to shore off palm beach, bad for swimmers and good for joshua jorgenson and he had one quickly, fighting it through the waves.

jorgenson working fast got it close enough to grab and pull it to the beach. this wasn't about sport. it was about research. >> watch out, watch out, watch out. >> jorgenson and assistant professor nathan unger. >> 6'1" are hunting bacteria in the mouths of sharks. we're going swab the mouth around the teeth and the gums. >> once the sample's taken, the shark is released. they're hoping to find out what bacteria sharks carry and whether it's the same in every species and we're pursuing tiger sharks and one of the biggest problems doctors face is not knowing what antibiotic will work to fight infection because they don't know what bacteria they're up against. ask anthony. >> the first bite went through the kneecap and the ankle at the same time and it was 17.5 inches

wide, the mouth. >> reporter: he was spear fishing off palm beach two years ago when he was attacked by a 10-foot bull shark, the most vicious there is. he won the are underwent five major surgeries and five weeks in the hospital, much of the time fighting infection that could have cost him his leg. >> you name the antibiotic i had it at that point. they hit you with everything. >> the biggest problem is once with infection sets in and the patient is in the hospital a lot longer than if there was no infection and the whole care becomes a lot more complicated. >> st. mary's hospital in west palm beach where he was treat side participating in the research project. >> what they'll do next is they'll take this and they'll put it in the slide. >> if they can isolate bacteria sharks carry they'll know what antibiotics work best. perhaps helping doctors fighting to save a bite victim's life. as for sessionrich -- >> here's the question, have you

been back diving again? >> as luck would have it, on the very first time, the bull mark. >> no. >> yeah. >> no fear. john zarrell a west palm beach. john tell us us, by the way, they've taken samples from 20 sharks so far and they're hoping to increase that to 100. let's hope they figure this out. just ahead, private information related to the first lady of the united states. michelle obama, the former secretary of state hillary clinton and the vice president joe biden splashed, guess what? all over an internet site. we'll have full details all coming up at the top of the hour. [ pilot ] now when you build an aircraft,

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here's a look at this hour's hotshots. in mongolia, check it out. a boy prepares camels for an upcoming polo match. >> in new orleans, horse-drawn carriages and wait for passengers by historic jackson square with the st. louis cathedral in the background. in boston, a sparrow searchs for something to eat in the snow. remember, you can always send your photos to cnn ireport.com or instagram using th the #cnnireport. >> it was a high-profile condolence call and now iran's president is in hot water with conservative cleric back in iran after hugging the widow of venezuela's hugo chavez. cnn's reza sayeh has the details from cairo. >> reporter: most people would see the images as an innocent mini hug and a holding of the

hand asks that's not what iran's clerical establishment are saying. this incident happened last week at hugo chaff aez funeral. president mahmoud ahmadinejad was in attendance and at one point he came face-to-face with hugo chavez's mother. video posted on youtube shows ahmadinejad reaching out during an emotional exchange and showing chavez's shoulder and it shows an emotional exchange where the two are clasping hands and leaning in with their heads apparently tufrping. >> these are the images that have sparked controversy in iran where a strishth interpretation where a man cannot touch a woman if they are not related. one cleric said president ahmadinejad was clowning around and failing to uphold the dignity of the press doneesy. another cleric said this is clearly a sin and reminded everyone that men cannot touch women in iran unless women are drowning or in need of medical

a attention. the reaction to these images underscore a remarkable political conflict that has emerged in iran where you have president ahmadinejad on one side and members of iran's clerical establishment and political elite on another. ahmadinejad's critics, many of them believe that during his two terms he overstepped his power. he became too prominent. ahmadinejad is not up for reelection in june, but he is hoping one of his aides can make a run for the precedencsidencpr. perhaps one of the intense fallouts is for his aides to run for presidency. as far as the picture goes, some of ahmadinejad's photos have tried claim the photo was doctored and changed, but clearly, many of the critics don't buy it. reza sayeh, cnn, cairo. a fascinating story. we'll see how much trouble ahmadinejad really is in once he

is in tehran. the fallout continues and we'll continue to watch the story closely for all of our viewers. >> and you're in "the situation room." happening now, a senior white house official reportedly called president obama's new outreach campaign a joke. in a shocking new article the white house will respond and we'll have a live interview with a senior adviser to the president, dan five pfeiffer, t hour. personal information from beyons toe michelle obama allegedly hacked. we have details on fbi and secret service investigations that are now under way. north korea threatens to show its enemies, quote, what a real war is like. we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com

at this hour, the fbi and the secret service, they are launching massive investigations alleged personal information like social security numbers, phone number, credit card reports all from people posted on the internet. that is what is now being investigated. the high-profile victims include the first lady of the united states michelle obama, the vice president joe biden among many others. our own brian todd has been digging into this story and he's walking into "the situation room" right now. it's a shocking story when you think about what's going on. what are you learning? >> investigators are taking this seriously enough that they are going after the records of internet service providers. we cannot confirm that all of the financial data for these celebrities being posted on this website is accurate, but two credit agencies say their information was accessed without authorization. kim kardashian's auto loan,

michelle obama's student loan and credit report, ashton kutcher's mortgage, beyonce's address and phone number. a website with a ghoulish-looking girl on the main page is listing information as the financial data of those celebrities and more. some of attorney general's eric holder's information is on there. we cannot verify that this data is accurate, but the credit agency equifax confirms its reports for four individuals were accessed without authorization. another credit agency, trans union tells us its information was breached when sophisticated perpetrators posed as account holders on the internet. >> this is a grotesque invasion of privacy because this is the most private information on anyone you can find in one document. >> reporter: privacy expert offof en evan hendrick. >> only the ndz can know for sure if it's his or her own credit report, but if i had to bet, i'd say this is legit.

>> regarding michelle obama as wellas vice president biden and hillary clinton, the secret service and fiber investigating if the information on the website is theirs and if so, how it got there. a law enforcement official tells cnn investigators will try to get records from internet service providers. we reached out to representatives for kim kardashian, ashton kutcher, beyonce and jay-z. we either didn't hear back or got a no comment from them. this kind of attack has a name. >> experts say this could be what's called i dox attack, d-o-x- or d-o-x-x when people get information about you not from you, and put it online for all of the world to see. >> experts say perpetrators do that by first getting your social security number or date of birth from another source by hacking or another mean. then they call a credit agency and go online posing as you to get all of the financial data they can. some information like property records is already public. i asked former justice

department cyber crime prosecutor mark swellinger how we can protect ourselves. >> the way to do that is put a dreadity freeze on your credit report or pay for a credit monitoring service and they will let you know whenever someone is trying to open up a credit account in your name. >> how do law enforcement actually catch these people? they will check with credit agencies, banks and other firms to see if there are insiders leaking personal information. if it's a case of hacking, he says, they'll trace the digital footprint to ip addresses and database wes information to see if they've been compromised, wolf. >> the website not just posting the sensitive information, but according to experts, actually taunting some of these celebrities? >> that's right. we went on that website and when you click on there, sometimes the file shows an unflattering picture of that person in michelle obama's file, michelle blame your husband, but we still love you. the file of the l.a. police chief has pictures of protests and criticism over the handling

of the case of christopher dorner, the ex-kof wcop who wena rampage and they're going after people for things like that, as well. >> i know you will continue investigating this. appreciate it very much. certainly not clear how much, if any, of the information posted on this website is accurate, but there's no doubt the fbi and the secret service are taking it all very seriously right now. only the high-profile victims know if the information is real or accurate. either way, it's scary and it could happen to you as well. let's bring in our national security contributor fran townsend. how worried should average folks be about the possibility of the sensitive information could be hacked? >> wolf thshgs is a real wake-up call to the american people. this happens every day to average american, we just don't hear about it. we're hearing about it because of who these people are, but you know, there are steps we can take. think of the many accounts that you have on the internet and you often use them linked to the

same, mails and with the same passwords because it's just easier to remember. it's important that people understand changing your password and using upper and lower case and numbers, simple things make it much more difficult to hack. >> the secret service is investigating now and the fbi is investigating. is it likely and is it possible that they'll find those responsible for this. >> it depends how that information was obtained, if it was digitally hacked, yes, it's likely that you can trace that to an individual and the cyber crimes units do this all of the time. but if there were some other way, if they were able to steal the social security number and date of birth and called some of the credit agencies and were able to in an una uth rised way get access that would be difficult. >> are you sure that laws were violated? >> it's likely, wolf, but until we have more packs about how this is done it's difficult to say and there's some sort of

wire fraud involved. >> if it involves the first lady or the president of the united states is it a different standard than average people? >> no. the different standard comes in if it's a physical threat. you can't threaten the first laid or the president of the united states, and in terms of the hacker itself i'm not sure that you would look for a statute that applies because of who they are. >> what is the government doing to deal with this situation because every day we're hearing more and more of these reports. >> wolf, just today there was the annual terror threat hearing and barbara starr talked about that and cyber crime, cyber espionage was high on the list. many are arguing it was higher on the list than terrorism is now. look, this isn't when it's your own personal information it's not usually the government's problem and the government does a lot in tomorrows of the ability to enforce laws and investigate crime, but if americans going to put that

information on the internet and use it for commercial transactions has to take personal responsibility for trying to protection it. the credit agencies and this is a huge problem for them. they have a legal consumer responsibility and had is a real problem for them and they may have liability. >> fran townsend, good information from you. they call president obama's outreach campaign, a joke. the article is coming up. plus dennis rodman, guess what? he's now planning a vacation with his new friend the north korean leader kim jong-un.

president obama is taking his new outreach campaign directly to capitol hill just as leading republicans are reviving parts of their agenda from the 2012 presidential campaign. his former rival house budget

committee chairman paul ryan sounded a lot like he did back out there on the campaign trail last year. our chief congressional correspondent dana bash is joining us live from capitol hill right now. dana, what's the latest that's going on because there's a lot of activity. >> reporter: there sure is. you know, wolf, one of the reasons he picked paul ryan as his runningmate because ryan is considered one of the smartest minds and best spokespeople on the issue of republican economic principles and today ryan doubled down on those ideas. if all this looks familiar, it should. >> the house budget committee republican majority, putting out yet again a budget that addresses america's need. >> reporter: there are some differences between this paul ryan budget and those in years past. the biggest, the election day smackdown ryan and mitt romney got four months ago. he pushed the same economic policies in that campaign and lost. >> the election didn't go our

way. believe me, i know what that feels like. that means we surrender our principles? that means we stop believing in what we believe in? what we believe in this divided government era we need to put out our vision. >> reporter: what's in that vision? cutting spending by 4.6 trillion dollars over ten years and cutting taxes for everyone, especially the wealthy. revamping medicare into a new system of government subsidized private health plans for those 55 and younger. eliminating the federal medicaid program for the poor and disabled and replacing it with lump sum payments of the states. >> this is a document, a plan that balanced the budget in ten years. >> to reach the new ten-year goal ryan incorporates money by tax increases who campaigned against and obama won as part of the fiscal cliff deal. >> the tax bill is coming to you. >> you say that you balanced it in ten years by using $600 billion in new taxes that you

oppose. isn't that disingenuous? >> we're not going to fight the past because that's behind us. >> reporter: obama care is repealed which has no chance of happening in the near future. at the same time he still counts $760 billion in obama care cuts and medicare, the very cuts ryan spoke out against in his vice presidential acceptance speech. >> $716 billion funneled out of medicare by president obama. an obligation we have to our parents and grandparents is being sacrificed. >> reporter: democrats from capitol hill to the white house were quick to call ryan's budget a bunch of gimmicks and misguided policies. the white house is in the midst of a charm offensive and they is also say this. >> the president certainly believes that congressman ryan is sincere in what he believes his budget represents in terms of policy priorities and he

comments congressman ryan for the effort. >> now we're going to see a stark contrast and approach to the nation's fiscal woes tomorrow, wolf. senate democrats will unveil their budget and no surprise, it will follow along classically democratic principles. for example, instead of tax cuts we're going to see a proposal for $1 trillion, trillion with a t, and this is the first time senate democrats will release a budget in four years. >> the president will then release his own budget in early april. so there will abe a lot of stuf floating around. what is the hope that before the debt ceiling will be raised in july they'll come out with some sort of grand bargain, if you will? >> it is going to be a very different kind of scene than we've seen in years past in that we are seeing the way it's supposed to work here. the house unveiled its budget and we'll see a vote there and the senate unveiled its budget and we'll see a vote there and

they'll come together and negotiate in public as opposed to a private between the president and the speaker and, you know, we know from recent history that has not gone well and it will be very, very different and we'll see if that helps to bring them together and they could not be further apart where they stand right now when they're laying out political, philosophical principles. >> in the next hour we'll speak with patty murray and she's the chair of the senate budget committee and we'll get an inside into her thinking and her budget proposal and that will be released tomorrow. dana bash up on capitol hill. paul ryan and house republicans aren't the only ones that's stealing some of the president's thunder on capitol hill. a senior official criticizing the outreach campaign in a pretty shocking new article. and ron fornier is joining us now, the editorial director of the national journal. thanks very much for coming in. >> thank you. >> your piece caused quite a stir when you quoted a senior white house official who you

obviously didn't name and she or he requested anonymity. this is a joke. we're wasting the president's time and ours. i hope all of you in the media are happy because we're doing it for you. that quote, obviously, deprives a lot of us. give us some context of what was behind it. >> i think what's behind it, as you know, wolf, you were behind this, a lot of the senior staff and the people behind the president have spent a lot of times these last few minutes pushing back onning ises that the president get more engaged in negotiations. so once he very abruptly last week began the so-called charm offensive i think a lot of people around him felt hung out to dry and a little upset and kind of pushed it back on the whole narrative and that's what you saw there was a little bit of anger. >> was this official angry or irritated with the president? >> more irritated with us and irritated with the narrative that supposedly it was the press

that built up the narrative that the president is more involved and there's some pushback internally. >> listen to what jay carney, the white house press secretary said today in response to a question to our own jim acosta. listen to this. >> i have no idea who said that, but i can tell you that opinion has never been voiced in my presence, in the president's presence, in the west wing. it does not represent president's view and it does not represent the white house's view. >> you do not want to release the name of the individual. >> jay carney is an honorable man and something like this wasn't said in his presence. i also don't know what the president's state of mind is. i'm not a mindreader and there are some officials in the white house who feel this way. >> another unnamed source in your article said this. even more jarring than obama's lack of engagement was the public protestations that there was nothing he could do to strike a deal with the gop. it made him look weak, with

democratic strategist, and it made him look, impotent. >> a democratic official close to the white house who was watching the news conference when the president said there's nothing i can do. i can't wave a magic wand and have a jed i mind trick and nothing i can do to bring them around. it's not a strong politicalization for the president of the united states to take, that he has to at least look like he's trying and he can't be giving up on the idea of bringing the parties together and solving the generation debt problem. >> you covered this president and other presidents and we go back to covering bill clinton and you covered this president. what do you think? do you think that he is serious about this reaching out to republicans and potentially there can be a grand bargain or is it just for show? >> i don't know. that's the question i do raise in my story. he's a very serious man and a very skilled man. it's amazing that he's been leched twice which shows you

it's pretty remarkable in modern history. he's a very skilled politician. i might take him at his word and it would be interesting to see what happens. he's going against foes and the republicans don't want to give anything and they're talking about no compromise and the president has to work around those talking points and find a way to bring the parties together. >> common sense caucus as he likes to call it. we'll see if he can come up with that. thanks for coming in. >> thank you. >> later this hour i'll get reaction from the senior white house adviser dan pfeiffer and he'll join us live from the white house. >> a day after tweeting about her very uncomfortable patdown, clara mccaskel talks to cnn and why she said it's important that it happened to her, and a round of golf is supposed to be relaxing, but not if you end up in a hole that's not supposed to be there. a very scary moment for one foursome. coming up, we'll have details. you name it...i've hooked it. but there's one...

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the cardinals as the vatican wrap up their first vote. lisa sylvester is monitoring that and other top stories in "the situation room." still no new pope. >> everyone wants to know when? when? black smoke poured out of the sistine chapel a few hours ago and that means the cardinals did not elect a pope on their first ballot. earlier, 115 catholic cardinals swore an oath of secrecy and enclosed themselves in the chapel. the next round of voting starts tomorrow morning. card will nahs are locked in isolation until they pick the next pope. senator clara mccaskill flies twice a week, but her trip yesterday got off to an unusual start. y she tweeted today in my airport screening, more

aggressive patdown, omg ha hashimoto t#very uncomfortable. >> i think it's important that things like that happen to people like me. the rules need to be the same for everyone and if more of us had that exposure to the system perhaps we would be more aggressive about making sure that we're using our sources wisely when it comes to the safety of the traveling public. i get that we need to have protocols and procedures in place to make flying safe for everyone, but they have to be tempered about are we using the resources in the way that makes the most sense and that's a question that we haven't really answered yet. >> she tweeted she has a metal knee and commonly gets a patdown and that official told her it might have been a hand motion that set off that sensor. >> manatees along the southwest coast of florida are dieing in record numbers. 174 have died this year because

of a red tide. wild life officials have rescued 12 others like the ones that you see here. red tides, they happena almost every year when a tiny algae concentrates in an area turning the water brown or red and this year it happened in an area where manatees migrate making their food toxic. and a round of golf for a group of men in illinois was anything, but relaxing. one of the men fell into an 18-foot deep sink hole that opened up beneath him on the fairway of the 14th hole. he dislocated his shoulder in the fall and wasn't able to climb out and good news, one of his buddies climbed into the hole and put a rope around him and he was pulled to safety. >> i keep wondering what is all of this with the sink holes? i keep hearing problems with sink holes. >> who knew? >> now i'm getting a little worried. >> serious issue. >> it is. up next, tensions are mounting between north and south korea right now, but that's not stopping dennis rodman.

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cut their wind pipes. they're holding military drills right now. right in the middle of this cnn's ana coren. >> wolf, as north korea continues to threaten war on the peninsula, the military remains on high alert. we are at the border near the dnc. this saz close as we can get to north korea. the rail line behind me used to go all of the way to pyongyang. now it just crosses the river into the demilitarized zone. even this location is now considered highly sensitive. the south korean military have told us not to reveal their post, identify their troops or show their defense system. this comes in the wake of north korea's scrapping the armistice agreement that ended the korean war in 1953 and it also severed the emergency hotline between the two koreas which means that if there is a military provocation, the two countries have no forms of communication.

>> kim jong-un has reportedly been on the border, addressing his troops on the front line telling them to, quote, throw the enemies into the calderon, and crack their wind pipes on his orders. he has also threatened to attack the headquarters of the south korean marines on an island very close to young yang island which was closed in 2010. while he may be rallying his troop, the united states and south korea are holding joint military exercises on the korean peninsula, and seoul says that if there is any military provocation from the north then tell respond in a resolute and destructive manner. wolf? >> anna coren on the dmz for us between north and south korea. let's discuss this very tense situation right now with the former new mexico governor bill richardson, himself, a former u.s. ambassador to the united nations and someone who has visited north korea on several occasions. ambassador, what is your assessment right now?

how tense, how serious is this situation for real? >> i'm very concerned. what seems to be happening is the hardliners of north korea, the military, the family of kim jong-un, the hard liners there, and they're probably in control and they are stoking the fires, pushing kim jong-un to go beyond the normal negative rhetoric. >> why would they want to do this right now? because this couldec late? >> it could escalate, and if you take a certain step there will be consequences. it could be that the most benevolent view is that they still think kim jong-un needs strength within his own people. he needs to be the de facto military leader. >> the domestic credentials, but it's getting out of hand. >> i've never heard it so negative and so provocative. >> on the other hand, we've gone

through these ups and downs in the north korean relationship with the u.s. and south korea and it goes up and goes down and the less tension and you've been there on several occasions. is it time to come up with a new strategy and reaching out to a certain degree in north korea? >> we do need a new strategy, but we do at the same time need to push these sanctions and the good news is that china helped us draft them and they're tough sanks that are aimed at the north korean leadership and banking. these really hit. the second thing that's different is that there is very strong unanimity among the six-party countries including china that north korea's gone too far. >> you were recently there. you went there with eric schmidt, the head of google and you did not have a meeting with kim jong-un, but dennis rodman. he goes there and they hang out and they're palling around and only yesterday he spoke to one of our affiliates and he had

this exchange with a reporter. watch this. >> the kid is awesome, but i think that his grandfather and his father built this whole thing up because he has to do this. he doesn't want to do anything. that part i know. >> you have been over there and you're back here now. do you anticipate going over there again? >> yes, i will. in august. >> you are going over there? >> yes. >> he says he's vacationing with kim jong-un and you're smiling. you're laughing. some people are laughing and it's a pretty serious situation. he's really the only american except for the other guys he went with from the harlem globetrotters that have actually met with kim jong-un. >> and i'm not trying to diminish rodman by laughing, i just think it is humorous that they've become buddies. i think what we also should consider, wolf, is a new kind of diplomacy, either a direct talk with our special envoy to north

korea. >> the government -- >> or out of the box. without preconditions or with preconditions? >> without preconditions. i think it's tense enough, but you're not giving necessarily anything, by just having a meeting. maybe it could be down around the south okoreans or out of th box, and somebody from the vatican, somebody from the u.n. or someone from the six-party countries. you know, maybe somebody from the entertainment business, if this is what connects with -- >> because there was a report in he new york times" that suggested that you thought michael jordan, that you would bring michael jordan instead of dennis rodman to north korea. what was that all about? >> well, the north koreans and the son and the father are huge basketball fans. a one point i remember talking to the nba and this was several years ago about there was an nba

team going to south korea, would they go to north korea for a day and there was interest from both sides and logistically it didn't happen. the north koreans love robert redford, westerns, they love the nba, and american culture and i think that's why there was a possibility. >> when we were there we listened to kenny rogers. they love kenny rogers. did you approach michael jordan and invite him to go? >> no. i'm a diplomat and i'm a pol tegz. i didn't do it because i don't like to get in the administration's way and they already think i meddle too much. i passed it on. we should consider some kind of out of the box diplomacy and the secretary-general of the u.n. is a former south korean and former minister. the president of the world bank is a south korean-american. i think this is a kind of new

diplomacy to reach kim jong-un, but the bad news is i think he's being influenced by hard liners and that concerns me. >> thank you very much for coming in madeleinaae albright brought a basketball signed by michael jordan and it's cherished. >> thank you. >> the white house respobdzs to that report that a senior official in the white house called his outreach a joke. my interview with dan pfeiffer is coming up next and just in time for christmas. sarah palin resurfaces with a new project. more details on that coming up. [ nurse ] i'm a hospice nurse. britta olsen is my patient. i spend long hours with her checking her heart rate, administering her medication, and just making her comfortable. one night britta told me about a tradition in denmark, "when a person dies," she said, "someone must open the window so the soul can depart." i smiled and squeezed her hand.

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let's get more now on the shocking article quoting a senior white house with official, unnamed, saying this about the president's outreach program, the charm offensive, as it's called. this is a joke. we're wasting the president's time and ours. i hope you all in the media are happy because we're doing it for you. that's the quote from the unnamed senior white house official. just a little while ago i spoke about that with the national journal editorial director ron fornier. he wrote the article and let's get reaction from the white house. joining us is senior adviser to the president dan pfeiffer. thank you very much for coming in. >> thank you, wolf. >> what do you say about this quote? >> i don't know who that quote, unquote, senior administration is, but i certainly know they don't represent the views of the president or anyone else in this white house. >> here's what ron fornier told me in the last hour because i asked him for context on this pretty shocking quote. >> a lot of the senior staff and the political people around the

president spent a lot of time this last few months aggressively and divisively pushing back ontion suggestions that the president get more engaged in negotiations. so once he very abruptly last week began this so-called charm offensive, i think a lot of people around him felt hung out to dry and a little upset and kind of pushed back on the whole narrative. >> it sounds like a little deception. i have known him for years and i assume you know him and he's a serious journalist. >> ron is a legendary white house a.p. reporter and he's a good guy and i have much respect for him. i don't know who gave him the quote and all i can say is what the president's senior team believes and this is not -- the charm offensive is the term the media used and the president used this opportunity to move his agenda forward whether it's his efforts to create middle-class jobs and prevent gun violence and this is part of trying to get things on behalf of the american people and i would say that we have -- we all

through the fall in the winter, we were working directly with the leadership in congress with speaker boehner and with senator mcconnell to get the deal done, and that did not work and both of those stepped a little bit and speaker boehner announced he would never negotiate with the president again. this is a change in tactics to reflect the change in sek stances with the looming fiscal deadline, we have an opportunity to build consensus from the middle out and that's what this is all about. >> you're getting a lot of grief on another subject as well, the decision to suspend those white house tours. yesterday here in "the situation room" i spoke with senator rand paul. listen to what he said. >> when i talk to workinging-class people and they find out that their taxes are being sent to a country that burns our flag and chants death to america, meanwhile, we don't have tours in the white house and you know what the president's done now he's closing the entrances to the office buildings out hill and i

asked the capitol hill police, where are they? are they not working? no, they've been assigned to other looks. so this mickey mouse games that he does and then he gives $250 million in addition to the couple billion we already give to egypt i think is a disgrace. >> you can't afford a few million dollars to keep those tour, but you can afford an extra $2 million to give to egypt the muslim brotherhood-led government. >> the sequester is stupid policy and that's yet president tried to avoid it. it requires you to do things you don't want to do and the choice for the tourists was we can have the hard-working and brave men and women of the secret service to take additional furloughs to essentially pay for congress' inaction or take the step no one wants to take to close white house tours and that was his choice. which is why we have to get out of it and i would say to congressman paul's point, i

think he's referring to decisions made by his own folks up there on the hill. they make those decisions and not the president. >> the decisions whether to cut short some of those so that there will be longer lines. you're blaming the republicans on the hill for that? >> well, no, i believe that those are decisions made by the capitol police up there on the capitol and it's not from the secret service or the president. >> are you open at all to some private contributions? donald trump said he's ready to pay to resume the white house tours. is that something to consider? >> we can't have private individuals paying the secret service and that's not our work, this is about the very tough budget cut that the secret service has to take, and so the donald trump option is not an option and what we have to do is deal with the sequester and we can deal with a whole host of problems for the government. all across the country, people are suffering because of the

failure of congress and the congressional republicans on the sequester. there are folks not getting access to tuition assistance. they deal with all of these problems and it's not just white house correspondent. the president and the first lady feel very strongly about opening the white house, the people's house and sometimes it can affect the things that we think affects us and that seems to affect us across the country. >> dan is the senior adviser. thanks for coming in. >> thank you, wolf. coming up, the former white house press secretary ari fleischer. he says president obama should have followed george w. bush's example. ari is here to explain what he's talking about. r meeting? yup, i brought my a-team. business trips add up to family time. this is my family. this is joe. hi joe! hi there! earn a ton of extra points with the double your hhonors promotion and feel the hamptonality. so if ydead battery,t tire, need a tow or lock your keys in the car, geico's emergency roadside assistance is there 24/7.

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there are lots to discuss in

our "strategy session." joining us now are two cnn contribute obama press secretary ari fleischer. you heard the interview with dan pfeiffer. >> reminded me of my old days. my reaction would be the same as dan's, the press secretary. often was the case, ron, where he wrote it, it turned out to be true. these are the stories that you have to hesitate on. >> do you think there's a little defenseness going on at the white house? that the president doesn't need to do this offensive? all of a sudden he's doing it. they seem a little irritated, embarrassed. >> i think the folks at the white house have been reaching out. the president's been inviting them over for events, for the screening of the "lincoln" movie and they didn't come. they feel they have been reaching out to republicans, and republicans have not been willing to come and meet them halfway. >> you tweeted this today, i'll

put it up on the screen. it's taken president o. five years to do what president bush did in his first month, visit it the conferences of other parties in house and senate. the president did, before he took office, met with republicans before his first term. >> what bush did when he first became president was go to the opposite party's conferences and met with all of the governors, house of representatives. it almost doesn't matter. their job is to pass legislation and figure out the agreements with the president. the president's job is to reach out to the congress, legislatively. the gaps we have right now are not because one person is not having dinner with another person. the gap is we're struggling with a $1 trillion deficit. we have fundamentally hit the point where we face our debt problems. that's what created the clash.

>> i'm encouraged the president is talking to these republicans. my own sense it, might not help, but can't hurt. >> my friend ari is making an awful lot of sense today. but here's where i think some of the frustrations could be. you see all the charm and the president catching flack from the left and right about the charm offensive. the republicans are the ones that need to be on the charm offensive. look at the republicans' job approval, it's 13%. they're less popular than a root canal. they are the ones who need to be reaching out to the president. i reject the premise that the president's who needs to take on the offensive. >> you think root canals has more -- >> republicans have brought themselves to a position they're unpopular in the country. the broader issue here is, nobody in washington is popular. they need to figure out how to make an agreement. the reason it's so hard is these

issues are so bad and big. $1 trillion deficit, something's going to have to get cut, something is going to have to give. too much mistrust in both directions. >> thank you very much for coming. >> thank you. sarah palin has new plans in the works. we'll have to wait months to see them unfold. we have details. stand by. we know the value of your at ueducation of phoenix is where it can take you. [now arriving: city hospital] which is why we're proud to help connect our students with leading employers across the nation. [next stop financial center]

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he's got the details. what are you learning, joe? >> it comes around every christmas, lawsuits and injunctions over nativity scenes, the rights of christians to celebrate versus the rights of people from other religions and atheists not to celebrate the holiday. now, sarah palin who's gotten big bucks from her book is expected to chime in right around christmas. the alleged assault on christmas has been a battle cry of the culture wars in the u.s. >> i humbly come before you to declare war on christmas. >> reporter: former alaska governor, former vice presidential candidate, sarah palin, is coming out with a new book. palin made it to the top of the charts with her 2009 book "going rogue." now she's at it again with an offering that will keep her not just in the books stores and

their websites, but in the memories and hearts of her followers. timothy stanley writes about the connection between politics and ideology in the u.s. >> the reason why she's doing that, is because these cultural issues are still very much what drives and drives the tea party base. >> reporter: harper collins quotes palin in a press release. this will be a fun, festive, thought-provoking book that will encourage all to see what is possible when we unite in defense of our faith and ignore the politically correct scrooges who would like to take christ out of christmas. the war on christmas has been batted around in media for quite a while. on fox news, it's only accepted as fact. >> the agenda is opposed by many people of faith. abortion, gay marriage, legalized drugs, many of those things are oppose the by many americans. that is why folks want to

diminish judea christian tradition, and rename the christmas tree the holiday tree. >> reporter: on comedy central, it's treated, well, like a joke. >> war on christmas. >> reporter: timothy stanley sees this as not just a battle between the religious and secular, but a proxy for the fight between political points of view. >> this is a war on christmas in the sense that christmas no longer in the krichristian tradition has no longer the pull that it has. >> reporter: sarah palin and her agent did not get back to us when we called. we can tell you she got $1.2 million in advance on her book "going rogue" and it sold 2.3 million copies in hard cover. probably a lot of bucks there, wolf. >> it certainly is. he was one of the best selling books that year. and i suspect this new book will be huge as well. she'll probably sell a few million copies of that.

we'll continue to watch this story. joe, thanks very much. happening now, the first round of voting for a new pope. it gets complicated. a senator had lunch with the president today. what women want in a special report. it looks at affordable child care. outrage over a medal for drone operators. plus, what is in a shark's mouth that may be worse than his bite. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com black smoke billowing from the sistine chapel. a signal to more than 1 billion roman catholics around the world that a new pope has not yet been elected.

a secret locked-door meeting called a conclave. necessary two-thirds majority. anderson cooper is on the scene for us. he's joining us right now. anderson, what's the mood there on this night? >> it's incredibly exciting, wolf, not only for the faithful but the tourists who find themselves here in rome. we saw throughout the day crowds gathering in vatican square as people waited to try to get a glimpse of the smoke, that finally we saw billowing out earlier this evening. it was a day really, wolf, where the pomp and pageantry was on full display. take a look. for cardinals about to elect their leader on earth, the day began with asking for guidance from heaven. the mass for the election of the

roman pontiff, one of the last chances for the cardinals to interact with the outside world before being sealed inside the conclave. led by cardinal angelo sedona. >> for the brilliant pontificate for the successor of peter, and benedict xvi, renew in this moment all of our gratitude. >> reporter: hours later, the procession to the sistine chapel. 115 cardinals in order of most junior to most senior chanting the litany of the saints and taking their seats from which

they'll choose the red of the 1.2 billion catholics. an oath in latin, and a pledge to vote in secret before only god and their conscience in the best interests of the church. affirmed individually by each cardinal under the threat of ex communication. finally after a day of prayer and reflection, just after 5:30 p.m. in rome, the transition from public pageantry to secret deliberations with a short or r order, translated, those who are extra leave. the wait begins. for two hours, the eyes of the world trained on a small chimney on a vatican city rooftop. the cardinals underneath it not allowed to discuss or lobby, but only to pray and vote. with the black smoke, the world learns a vote without a decision. the heir to the throne of peter

unresolved for at least one more day. >> anderson, what happens next? >> reporter: -- >> anderson, i don't know if you can hear me. what happens next? obviously we're having a little technical problem. i can tell you anderson is going to have a lot more, full coverage tonight on "ac 360" live from rome tonight, 8:00 p.m. eastern. the cardinals may be under lock and key right now. but there have been leaks in the past out of the vatican. keep the secret election secret. tom foreman is joining us with this part of the story. pretty extraordinary measures are now in place. >> they really are, wolf. i'm standing in front of a virtual sistine chapel. this is the only way you can see the inside of this place right now. the vatican is acutely aware of the fact that people are trying to get a peek inside here, if only they could. the truth is the vatican has put

into place extraordinary security measures to keep that from happening. last year they had high-level leaks that the church really did not like, and once the doors have been closed, as they have now, they really don't want that embarrassment again. with worldwide media swirling and one imposter already caught, he was a protester who got close enough to shake a cardinal's hand, extraordinary measures have been taken to protect the privacy of the conclave. the doors are locked, the windows blocked and the cardinals have all taken a vow of secrecy. here are three ways the vatican code could still be cracked. no one in the chapel is allowed to have any sort of cell phone or blackberry. they're now tweetless. the room is swept for electronic bugs and jamming system has been installed beneath the floor. but security experts point out every item brought in from clothing to furniture to the stoves, to burn the ballots,

could carry a spy device. a few decades ago the u.s. had to rebuild the brand-new embassy in moscow after so many bugs were found to have been smuggled into the architecture and fixtures. still, security analysts suspect the swiss guard can keep the electronic threat to a minimum. cnn's mike brooks. >> i think they've got that wrapped up. they've gone over all those pieces to make sure there's nothing embedded in anything. >> reporter: but what about the connection? the cardinals deliberate by themselves and sleep only 100 yards away. but they need food, water, supplies and possibly medical care. each person who provides a service represents another potential leak. >> well, you know, they're threatened with ex-communication from the church. are they willing to give away any secrets, if you will, while facing possible excommunication? that remains to be seen. >> reporter: and finally there is the inside man. remember, the oath of secrecy is standard. but after pope benedict was

elected, some still unnamed cardinal leaked information about the other top contenders. whether any of this will play out, we don't really know. but we do know this, wolf, this 2,000-year-old church is taking seriously the fact that there are people around the planet that are fascinated with what's going on inside this room and may use every modern means possible to find out what it is. wolf? >> tom foreman in the virtual sistine chapel. tom, thanks for that excellent, excellent report. on capitol hill, a hearing on the biggest threats facing the united states. and the other important stories. but first this one. >> this warning came from the director of national intelligence james clapper. he briefed the intelligence committee on the latest annual threat assessment. it includes north korea, iran and syria. topping all of that is the threat pose the by cyber attack. barbara starr is working this part of the story for us.

barbara, how important is his warning? how big is the cyber threat? >> well, very big. in fact, general clapper, james clapper said it's a top worry. and there is plenty of good reason to worry. from the nation's power grid to online banking, the u.s. economy is utterly reliant on the internet. the pentagon is now watching the cyber threat to the economy every minute. >> we've seen the attacks on wall street over the last six months grow significantly. over 140 of those attacks over the last six months. >> reporter: in the face of growing cyber attacks, many from china, president obama recently signed an executive order to improve cyber security. >> we cannot look back years from now and wonder why we did nothing in the face of real threats to our security and our economy. >> reporter: a recent investigation even pinpointed this building in china, that houses part of a shadowy chinese

military unit responsible for thousands of hacks into american businesses and agencies. >> china's massive campaign to steal technology, business practices, intellectual property and business strategies, through cyberspace, continues. and it continues relentlessly. >> reporter: for the first time, the president's national security adviser saying cyber attacks are now the number one u.s. issue with the chinese government. >> they take serious steps to investigate and put a stop to these activities. >> reporter: the administration's new strategy to deal with it all? overcome privacy issues and share more information about attacks between government and business. >> think of this as going up to new york city on the new jersey turnpike. the easy pass would see a car going by. what we're telling the internet service provider, if you see a red car, tell us that you saw

the red car, where you saw it, and where it's going. >> what you're going to start seeing more of is this effort between the government and private industry that works together to identify these cyber threats, especially the growing threats from china. but inside the military, also a good deal of vulnerability, a recent drill, in fact, showed that the pentagon's own cyber defenses were very easy to overcome. >> barbara, the report names china and russia as two of the most advanced cyber hackers is how they put it. but did the report or any of the officials on the hill today give any idea of -- anything definitive on the likelihood of an attack on the u.s.? >> well, i mean, it's already really under way, isn't it. i mean, businesses are seeing the attempts to get into their systems almost every day. the pentagon sees it every day. it's a combination of putting up better defenses so people can't

get past your firewalls, and for the military, making sure they have the right offensive, so if they see something coming at them in the cyber world, they can deal with it. very tough business. >> very tough to track. as we well know already. barbara starr at the pentagon, thanks, barbara. >> sure. they wage war with unmanned pla planes. portable child care. a special report coming up as well. resources they need. bright students are getting lost in the shuffle. and administration's work gets more complex every year. when you look at these issues, do you see problems or opportunities? with an advanced degree in education from capella university, you'll have the knowledge to meet these challenges and make a difference in the lives of students.

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they wage war by remote control, often from thousands of miles away. >> while no one questions the contributions of the military's drone operators, there's a huge controversy now over a medal for them. jay tapper explains. >> reporter: question at hand is, what does an extraordinary act of service look like? there have been her oh oics on battlefield. >> people losing their lives on the battlefield, that's where the attention should go, in my

narrow view. i think most veterans agree with me on that. >> reporter: it's not actually been awarded to anyone yet, but the outrage came over the fact that it would outrank those medals given to veterans who faced bodily harm. >> they're good people and doing a good job. but they're doing it from a remote area where the level of danger is not in the same realm as certainly as with the bronze star and purple heart. >> reporter: the distinguished warfare medal was created by leon panetta. who said it was high time to honor soldiers fighting on a new kind of front. >> the work that they do, the contribution they make, does contribute to the success of combat operations. >> reporter: the move was roundly criticized, however, and even mocked. in this sketch from comedy central. >> may day, may day, come in. >> what do you want? >> coffee. black.

two creams, and a sugar. >> hurry up. these drones aren't going to fly themselves. >> reporter: and all of this left newly minted defense secretary chuck hagel into a corner. hagel a two-timer recipient of the purple heart wrote to congress last week say he supported the medal. the medal reflects the evolving nature of our warfare, while it in no way degrades or minimizes other acts of valor. but today he was singing a different tune. he sent his spokesman to explain. >> the fact of the matter is, the production of the medal has stopped. no one who's been nominated for this medal, no one is in training for this medal. we do have time to make a final decision. >> they released statements today saying they appreciate the launching of this review, they want them to do the right thing for our combat forces and not allowed the warfare medal to take precedence over the purple heart or bronze star. i have many facebook friends

personally who are members of the military, they serve all over the world and they basically echoed the same concern, they can give out this drone medal, they said, but it should not rank higher than these other medals. wolf and kate? >> a little controversy coming in on this. in the years to come, there's going to be more and more of these drone strikes. >> that's the thing. >> whether for surveillance, communications, actually killing the enemy, if you will, and there's going to be presh pressure to build up the prestige, so to speak. >> this is the new era of warfare. you can understand both sides. people are, for good reasons -- >> like in new mexico, arizona, thousands of miles away, you know -- >> i think i read in one place this is for decades that there's been a new combat related medal created. it's a very big deal. >> jake's new show begins next monday, march 18th, 4:00 p.m. eastern.

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the accused colorado movie theater killer goes back to court. kate's got that from today's other top stories. >> nearly a year after he first appeared with his hair dyed a shocking red, the man accused of gunning down moviegoers returns to a colorado courtroom today. james holmes is accused of killing 12 people and wounding eight others. holmes could still enter a not

guilty by reason of insanity plea at a later date. there are new concerns about the 86-year-old queen elizabeth. the queen was hospitalized last week with stomach issues. but buckingham palace said, have no fear, she's making a good recovery and working from home where she presented medals today. another member of the bush family is making a bid for office. george t. bush has filed to run for texas land commissioner. >> texas is an exceptional state because we as texans are exceptional people. and after hundreds of conversations about how we can make texas an even better place to live, work, and raise a family, the lessons i've learned from one of those exceptional people that came up time and time again. you probably know her as former first lady barbara bush. but to me, she's just gany.

the lesson gany taught me, the importance of public service. >> in texas, the land commissioner post is seen as a stepping stone for higher statewide office. stay tuned. finally, former republican presidential nominee is mitt romney is celebrating his 66th birthday today. one shows romney with cupcakes and diet coke. if you don't remember from the campaign, this is a white bread sandwich with peanut butter and marshmallow cream. he was known for eating lots of peanut butter and honey sandwiches on the campaign trail. >> oreo cookies with a glass of milk. i was on the bus with him when

he was campaigning in iowa. i didn't have a sandwich, but i interviewed them right after the interview, he went and got the peanut butter and honey sandwich. >> nothing wrong with that. >> he likes them. >> i love them, too. add a little banana, call it a day. >> thank you. president obama is up on capitol hill today reaching out to lawmakers. is it all for appearances? a pretty shocking report one white house aide calling it a joke. see life in the best light. outdoors, or in. automatically filter amount of light. the way it's meant to be seen. maybe even a little better. experience life well lit, adaptive lenses. vision center today transitions xtractive lenses enhance your vision.

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a rare appearance today on capitol hill by president obama, lunching with some of his former democratic senate colleagues. >> part of his new effort to reach out to lawmakers. but a shocking report suggests it's only being done for appearances. cnn's national political correspondent jim acosta has been looking at this from the white house. >> kate, president obama's charm offensive kicked into high gear today as he went up to capitol hill with meet with senate democrats before his upcoming visits with the congressional republicans. that trip down pennsylvania avenue has already hit a few speed bumps. >> mr. president, what do you hope to accomplish with your meeting? >> reporter: for a leader in search of kumbayah on capitol

hill, president obama's schmoozing skills are already being tested. while the president has lined up three dates with lawmakers from both parties after his dinner with republicans last week, it's a charm offensive that at least one white house official appears to find, well, offensive. the national journal quoted one white house official speaking anonymously who said, this is a joke. we're wasting the president's time and hours. i hope you all in the media are happy, because we're doing it for you. is this a show that the president -- >> i saw that story and i appreciate the question. because i have no idea who said that. but i can tell you that opinion has never been voiced in my presence and in the president's presence, in the west wing. it does not represent the president's view. he believes strongly that it is important to engage with lawmakers of both parties. >> reporter: that engagement will be critical of solving what's become a budget rubik's cube. the president is expected to submit his own budget the week

of april 8th. but that's two months after he's required by law to do so. and his plan will be at odds at what's being offered by house republicans who are still calling for the repeal of the president's health care law. >> we will never be able to balance the budget if you keep obama care going. obama care is a fiscal train wreck. >> reporter: democrats have their own budget that closes tax loopholes and deductions. yitds republicans are resisting. >> this week we're seeing a revealing contrast. the president is reaching out to republicans in the senate. and house republicans are moving further away from the compromise. >> reporter: but the question is whether both sides can listen to each other. last november house speaker john boehner and mitch mcconnell turned down invitations from president obama for a special screening of the film "lincoln" at the white house. boehner said the invite came at short notice. so far, it's a political romance

story with no happy ending in sight. and it appears the president's charm offensive does not extend to the ryan budget. senior administration officials are unloading on it saying it's so full of gimmicks, it will explode the deficit. but the white house does believe at least tonight that progress is being made. wolf and kate? >> more capitol hill meetings on the schedule for the president yet this week. >> that's right. >> jim acosta, thanks so much. senator patty murray is the chair of the senate budget committee, getting ready to release her budget tomorrow. senator, thanks very much for coming in. >> great to talk to you. >> i know you were at the meeting, met with democrats in the senate today. there's a story in the national journal quoting one of the senior white house officials as saying, this is really a joke, this so-called charm offensive. they have no illusions about what's going on. what do you say about that? >> well, i think the president came to our caucus today to talk

to us about how the balanced approach that we are putting in place with our budget in the next few days, and moving it through the senate, is exactly what he fought for in the campaign, making sure that we grow our economy, and reduce our deficit responsibly. and i think he's very effective with that. >> senator, on your budget, we do know -- we don't know all the details, but we know it will call for roughly $1 trillion in increased revenue. you could call that tax increases. you know very well, you've been involved in all of these talks over the years, that republicans are not going to go along with that. especially after the fiscal cliff, where they agreed to $600 billion in tax increases. now another $1 trillion? this budget you're going to be putting out in opening bargaining position? >> let me just say this. paul ryan has said that there are tax expenditures that are wasteful. speaker boehner has said there are loopholes that should be eliminated. >> that's absolutely right. but that's not $1 trillion.

>> well, there is incredible spending within the tax code that we need to address in america to make sure we get to a deficit that we can manage in this country. they have said there is, we have said there is, certainly we can agree on that. >> there are so many challenges obviously. one of the big questions will be when we see your budget tomorrow and going forward is, how does it address the issue of entitlements? entitlement spending is some of the biggest drivers of our country's debt. medicare and medicaid together make up one-fifth of the federal budget. are you committed to real entitlement reform in this budget? >> well, let's step back for a minute, because obama care that has been thrown out there so much, actually began the process of dealing with our health care spending in this nation. we actually cut about $700 billion in that of wasteful spending and made changes to that program to reduce our overall spending, as we move forward. we are now seeing projections

from cbo that say by the year 2020, we will have saved $200 billion a year -- or $500 billion a year in health care, in medicare, because of obama care. >> you don't think there needs to be any more reforms to medicare? >> i'm not saying that. in our budget, we will add additional responsible spending cuts to our entitlement programs, so that we can manage this in the long run. but there is a huge difference between managing those health care dollars, making sure that beneficiaries get health care as they retire and go into a time in their life when they need it. and the ryan republican budget which says we're going to take that away from you and not give you that security when you get older. >> let's do a few rapid-fire yes-or-no questions and you can give your answers. do you support a cost of living change in the way people get their social security and medicare? >> i think we are showing in our budget that we will put out tomorrow that we can make responsible changes within our

budget. we do not deal with social security in our budget itself. >> what about raising the age limit as far as social security is concerned? what do you feel about that? >> look, i come from a place where i know how important it is that when you work hard, you have a point where you can retire, and be able to know that you are -- your health care is taken care of. my dad had multiple sclerosis. he and my mom literally crawled to the age of 65 to make sure they had the health care they need. i am not in favor of raising that age to a point where our people who work hard, our firemen, or our teachers or our folks who are on the front lines protecting all of us, or even just hard-working americans who work every day at a grocery store, are told, no, you get to work a lot longer before you have health care in this country before you have medicare. i think that is in a short term a punchy phrase that the republicans like to put out. but it is not a way to strengthen medicare in the long run. >> a means testing for richer

medicare recipients as opposed to poorer ones? >> i think there are proposals out there we can look at. that will be determined by the finance committee moving forward. >> your budget that you will release tomorrow does not result in what they call surplus -- a surplus of spending. continued deficit spending for as far as the eye can see. i want to be precise on that point. >> let me ask it this way. you and i were both around when clinton put his budget out in 1993. no one was predicting that. we did that budget by doing smart spending cuts and revenues. that's the path we're putting ourselves on with our budget. >> but it doesn't formally have a 10 or 20 or 30-year fixed timeline when there will be a surplus as opposed to a deficit? >> let me put it this way. our economy is extremely fragile right now. if we put out an arbitrary deadline of getting to zero balance, we're going to put a lot of people out of work and a lot of people in a very insecure

place. we've had enough of that. it's time to put us on a stable path moving forward. that's exactly what our budget does. and exactly what the ryan budget does not do. >> senator patty murray, chair of the senate budget committee. senator, thanks for coming. >> thank you. a major pedophile lawsuit against the catholic church. four men settled their case. for almost $10 million. that word from their attorneys who say the men were abused by a priest on several occasions dating back to the 1970s. the priest pleaded guilty to molesting boys in 2007. cardinal mahoney was accused to helping the priest evade law enforcement by reassigning him and placing him back in the l.a. ministry. still ahead in "the situation room," a lack of affordable child care. advocates say it keeps many women from reaching their full potential. our cnn special report, what women want, is next. ♪

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[ male announcer ] get adt installed for just $99. and ask about adt pulse, advanced home management here today. adt. always there. cnn is looking at "what women want." we have two days of special reporting and what's keeping many women from realizing their full potential. >> an issue that impacts many working moms, a search for affordable child care. lisa sylvester has been looking into this. this is a tough one. what are you finding out? >> if you talk to a lot of working parents, one of the main reasons why a woman might leave the work force is because of child care. it can be incredibly expensive. in some cases, families are paying more for child care than they pay for their mortgage or rent. what do women want? for starters, how about affordable quality child care. on weekends, becky makes sure

homework gets done. >> very good. >> reporter: during the week, it's the au pair who takes over after she and her husband leave for work. like many parents, having quality child care makes the difference. they had no idea how expensive and hard to find child care can be. when becky was still pregnant, she put her name on several day care waiting lists. >> the wait lists were really long. at one place they said, well, if you give us a $500 nonrefundable deposit, we'll give you a priority list. when we got off that list sophia was already 2 years old. >> reporter: they looked at nannies. >> they were getting paid like $50,000 a year. >> reporter: many parents have been in the same boat. a survey by parents magazine of readers who use child care found 84% found it either challenging, very hard, or impossible to find quality care.

the advocacy group said infant care at a day care center can cost as much as $15,000 a year for one child. >> in 36 states across the country, the cost of infant child care and center based programs is higher than the annual cost of a college education. >> reporter: many parents do the math and figure that it's more cost-efficient to have one parent stay at home. more often than not it's the mother. even a temporary break can make it that much harder for a woman to get back in the labor force to continue the upward climb. a group of better balance said employers need to leave in as well. her group wants the federal government to expand the family medical leave act to include paid maternity leave and paid sick leave. >> when women can take the leave and have support, it both makes child care less costly and also keeps women on the job. >> reporter: it's an issue that even nancy pelosi has raised.

women have won the right to vote, have broken barriers in education and corporate board rooms, yet -- >> the missing link in all of it is child care, to fully unleash the power of women, which will be very wholesome for our country. >> reporter: this family opted for an au pair. they're fortunate because they're able to work from home sometimes. >> i think the flexibility from work is critical. and for us, it is a total godsend that we have flexibility in our schedules. >> that goes a long way, having a flexible work schedule. one complaint you hear from parents is why is the schedule 8:00 to 3:00, when the work day is 9:00 to 5:00. and some say make the summer a little shorter. >> it can cost $50,000 a year for nannies? >> here in the washington, d.c. area, yes, he can cost a family as much as $50,000. when you figure the salary, you

know, they're an employer. if you have a full-time legal nanny here in the united states, you have to pay their share of social security. there's the medicare taxes. all of these other fees. you might have workmen's comp, health care benefits, vacation time. it is not unreasonable here in the washington, d.c., area for a full-time nanny to cost about $50,000. an au pair will cost less. this is what they ended up doing as well. >> the search continues for affordable quality child care. >> absolutely. >> lisa, thank you. >> thank you. shark bite, the bacteria in its mouth, researchers are taking extraordinary steps to give shark attack victims a give shark attack victims a fighting chance. ifd. big plans. so when i found out medicare doesn't pay all my medical expenses, i looked at my options. then i got a medicare supplement insurance plan. [ male announcer ] if you're eligible for medicare, you may know it only covers about 80% of your part b medical expenses.

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it's a frightening thought, but if you're attacked by a shark, the bite may not be your biggest problem. it turns out the bacteria in the shark's mouth may be even more dangerous. here's cnn's john zarrello. >> reporter: no one went in the water. the sign warned, sharks. a lot of them migrating north were close to shore off palm beach. bad for swimmers, good for shark fishermen josh jorgenson. he had one hooked quickly, fighting it through the waves. jorgenson working fast got it close enough to grab and pull it to the beach. this wasn't about sport, it was about research. >> look out! >> reporter: jorgenson and assistant professor nathan unger -- >> 6'1". >> reporter: are hunting bacteria, in the mouths of sharks. >> we're going to swab the mouth of the shark around the teeth

and gums. >> reporter: once the sample's taken, the shark is released. they're hoping to find out what bacteria sharks carry, and sha whether it's the same in every species. >> we're also pursuing bull sharks, tiger sharks. >> reporter: one of the biggest problems doctors face is not knowing what antibiotic will work to fight infection. because they don't know what bacteria they're up against. ask anthony segrich. >> the first bite went through the kneecap and the ankle at the same time. so it was about 17 1/2 inches wide, the mouth. >> reporter: segrich was spear fishing when he was attacked by a ten-foot bull shark, the most vicious there is. he underwent five major surgeries, much of the time fighting infection that could have cost him his leg. >> you name the antibiotic, i had it at that point. they hit you with everything. >> the biggest problem is once the infection sets in, the

patient is in the hospital a lot longer than if there was no infection. so their whole care becomes a lot more complicated. >> reporter: st. mary's hospital in west palm beach where he was treated is participating in the research project. >> what they do next, they'll take this, they put it on a slide. >> reporter: if they can isolate what bacteria sharks carry, they'll know what antibiotics work best. as for segrich. here's the question, have you been back in the water diving again? >> as luck would have it, on the very first dive back on the scuba, a big old seven-foot bull shark came by, checked us out -- >> reporter: no! >> yep. >> reporter: no fear. john zarrella, cnn, west palm beach. >> there were 53 reported shark attacks last year. the highest number in more than a decade. one of those attacks was fatal. have no fear, your chance of dying of a shark attack is very low. the number of people who are

killed by lightning in 2012, 28 more than people. >> should be worried more about lightning than sharks. >> that's my advice. >> oh, thank you. the president's charm offensive isn't working. erin burnett is going "outfront" on that. give us a little preview, erin. >> i had aly fun today looking back at what paul ryan has had to say the past two years. it's a little "wayne's world." we'll talk about that. a little bit of white snake as well. we'll be joined by peter king will be our guest at the top of the hour. plus, a really amazing story about a young man who had the girl of his dreams and has made it to pro soccer. he was playing for the new england revolution. he then felt the calling. he knew something wasn't right. he wanted the wife and family. he got the dream and decided to trade his jersey for the clergy. he's one year away from being a priest and we have a special focus on him tonight and his amazing story. and in our essay, facebook

knows absolutely everything about you, including the things that you actually like if you're smart. thank goodness i'm not on facebook because the verdict would be that i'm stupid. >> i know you, you are absolutely, positively not stupid. >> liar. >> very intelligent. see you in a few minutes. >> all right. we are of course all fans of adorable little creatures doing pretty much anything. catching our eye today, this guy. he isn't the only pup trying to catch a free ride. [ male announcer ] how can power consumption in china,

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from an ancient stream bed and analyzed by curiosity show some of the key ingredients of microbial life. we will be moving there soon. an adorable sea creature hitches a ride on a kayak. >> reporter: fritz coleman is not afraid to go diving at night off the california coast. >> oh, my god, you scared me. hey, little guy. >> you can hear my scared reaction. and then he melts my heart. >> what are you doing on the kayak? >> not only was the sea lion pup a stow away, it wouldn't go away. >> you can't stay up here. >> reporter: so what do you do? rick called his wife in his cell