half of the usual price. >> that was nice of them. >> yeah. they were big in the '80s. >> yeah. they were huge. great stuff. thanks for watching "around the world." that will do it for me. i'll see you tomorrow. >> all right. you got it. >> you carry on. >> "cnn newsroom" starts now. a suspicious letter sent to president obama. we are live at the white house with the very latest. plus, speaking out for the first time, this mom of seven begs for her freedom from inside a mexican jail. >> i need to be back with my family. i need to be out of here. i need help. >> and prisoners in new jersey received unemployment benefits while they were behind bars. inmates were mistakenly given more than $23 million in benefits. this is "cnn newsroom" and i'm suzanne malveaux. here's what we are working on. we begin with breaking news.

this is out of washington now. authorities have intercepted a suspicious letter that was sent to the president. a law enforcement official says that the letter looks similar to two threatening letters that were sent to new york mayor michael bloomberg. those letters to bloomberg apparently contained the deadly poison ricin. i want to bring in our jim acosta, he's covering the story from the white house. we've got deborah feyerick who is in new york. jim, let's start with you. what do we know about the suspicious letter sent to the president? >> well, we know that this letter was intercepted within the last 24 hours, suzanne. it was intercepted at an offsite mail sorting facility where letters that go to the white house are typically screened for this sort of thing. and i can tell you from talking to a law enforcement official in the last hour that because of this heightened sense of awareness that is related to the bloomberg letter that was received, i guess in the last several days, in addition to that letter that was also sent to the mayors against illegal

guns group, that because of that heightened sense of awareness, officials were able to spot this additional letter that was mailed to president obama. and at this point it is too early to say according to these officials whether or not ricin was found in the letters sent to the president. that letter is going to be screened for analysis by the joint terrorism task force, as is always the case. and keep in mind a lot of times these letters can test positive at the screening facility, but they have to be sent through, i guess the laboratory that is used by law enforcement officials with the fbi, to make absolutely sure that there was ricin in that letter. from what we understand at this point, the president is still making his way back from chicago. he wasn't even here when this letter was intercepted. and there was never any threat to the president, suzanne. >> real quick here, jim. is there any connection, do we know, from the letter that was previously sent to the president that was believed to be laced with ricin? >> no. at this point law enforcement officials are fairly confident

that this case is not related to that mississippi case last month where a man was charged with sending threatening letters that were tainted with ricin, not only to the president but mississippi senator roger wicker. they do believe that this letter that was sent to the white house just in the last 24 hours is connected to the letter that was sent to mayor bloomberg. and, again, as i said a few moments ago, mayors against illegal guns, all three of those letters were postmarked shreveport, louisiana. so that is one red flag at this point that they're looking at. but as i've talked to one law enforcement official about this, they're starting to believe -- investigators are starting to believe that there are copycats at work. in the words of this one law enforcement official, people are just getting some bad ideas. >> jim, thanks. i want to bring in deb from new york. deb, you are learning more about the letters sent o e to mayor bloomberg as well as the president, specifically that the threatening language inside the letters. what do we know? >> well, what we do know is the

letters appear to have been written by the same reason. and the reason, the motive behind it, apparently anger against efforts to create gun control. a source who was told in the content of two of the letters, one sent to michael bloomberg and his organization, say that the letter lashes out at those he perceives is going to confiscate his guns. that's a big fear among certain gun owners. the person writes "you will have to kill me and my family before you get my guns. anyone wants to come to my house will get shot in the face. the right to bear arms is my constitutional god given right and i will exercise that right 'til the day i die." all letters were postmarked shreveport, louisiana. they were sent to three individuals at the forefront of the gun control debate, president obama, new york city mayor michael bloomberg and the head of the group he founded mayors against illegal guns. the third found today at the offsite white house mail processing facility, only the one letter sent to the gun

control group was actually opened by the intendsed target. president obama and new york city's mayor never in any immediate danger. suzanne. >> and, deb, real quick here. do we have a sense of whether those responsible for these letters, are they in custody? do we know anything about the individuals or the organization? >> no, we don't. we know the jttf, the joint terrorism task force, is investigatoring. we're told they are on their way to shreveport, louisiana, where the postmarks are. otherwise i don't know. i've been inquiring to try to find out whether any one of interest has been questioned, not just sort of random people but somebody maybe at the center of all this. but right not not getting any information on that, suzanne. >> deb, we'll get back to you as soon as you have more information on that. obviously a developing breaking news story out of washington. deb, jim, thanks very much. we're also keeping a close eye on the stock market. it really has been on a roll. the housing market hot, the economy grew just a little more slowly during the first quarter than actually a lot of folks thought. i want to bring in alison kosik at the new york stock exchange

with what is the story behind the numbers here? you look at the gdp, gives us the big picture. are we doing any better? >> we're not doing any better, we're pretty much holding steady. we're taking growth in the first three months of the year january through march. what the government says is the economy grew at a 2.4% clip. that came in a bit weaker, a bit worse than the first estimate of 2.5%. keep in mind this figure comes out three times. this is the second time the figure's come out for the first quarter. i want to show you what made this number worse. government spending cuts, remember those? they're still the biggest drag on the u.s. growth for the economy in the first three months of this year. those automatic spending cuts that took effect at the beginning of the year. interestingly enough consumer spending was actually revised higher, but part of the reason for that was that we had to spend more money on our household utilities, heating our homes. not such a huge surprise since we look at the month of marnl, it was actually the coldest march since 2002 which drives up

heating cost, suzanne. >> we see there's a poll, a new poll shows a lot of folks a lot more concerned about the economy than the political controversies folks have been talking about in washington. this is a quinnipiac university poll. 73% say dealing with the economy is the higher priority than all those other controversies out there. specifically, what should we be focusing on? what are americans focusing on when they look at that number? >> so when you look at these numbers, you see wlast important. so these scandals that we talk about that president obama's in whether it's the irs scandal or benghazi, they tend to gain more attention, this survey basically says, these scandals tend to gain more attention when there's less concern about the economy. but right now with the economy kind of muddling along and high unemployment sitting on us at 7.5%, people say to heck with the scandals, to heck with the controversies, no matter who's in the white house, no matter which party is there, we care more about the economy than the scandals. it's all about, you know, what matters in americans lives. for many of us average people

the scandals don't touch us as much as difficulty getting a job or paying the bills. bottom line with this is that the economy is still issue number one, especially when it's not doing well. although we are seeing improvement in the u.s. economy, it's not going gang busters. there are still a lot of people out of work and a lot of people having trouble paying the bills. suzanne. >> alison, well-put. to heck with all the other stuff. a lot of people really focusing on how they're doing in their own lives. >> right. >> alison, thank you. appreciate itd. investigators in new york, they are looking into a tragic accident that left seven people dead including four young children. this happened near syracuse. police say a minivan that was carrying eight people on a rural highway when a tractor-trailer heading in the opposite direction had a major malfunction. listen. >> the trailer became unhitched from the tractor. it struck the minivan. we have multiple fatalities. in the 13 years i've worked with the sheriff's office, i'm on the

accident investigation team, i've never seen an accident this awful. >> that is so sad. there was one survivor in the minivan. he's hospitalized. two people in the tractor-trailer, they were actually not hurt. arizona mother jailed in mexico on drug charges. she is now making an emotional plea. yanira maldanado spoke to cnn from a jail cell in nogales, mexico. authorities are accusing her of smuggling marijuana. listen to what she told our own rafael romo about what happened. >> they mentioned that it was drug on the bus under the seat, but then they never accused me like that. they told me that my husband was in trouble. that he needed to stay. and i said, okay, i'm not going to leave him. i'm going to stay. and then the soldiers said, okay, you both are going to stay. and the bus driver. >> and in the meantime you're thinking to yourself -- >> yeah, this is just a process.

they're going to let us go, you know. maybe they're going to do a report or something. i never knew that i'm going to be here a week later behind bars. >> what do you want people to know about you? >> that i'm innocent. that i'm innocent. and i'm a good mom. i'm very -- i love the gospel. i'm lds. and we work hard to have what we have. we're not rich, but we're very honest. and we also do our best to help other people. i'm not a criminal. i'm scared because people are not doing -- this is not right. >> casey wian is following this case. and he's joining us from goodyear, arizona. casey, you can see her emotional plea there. i imagine her family also is seeing that. have they had any kind of reaction to her being in her cell crying and just pleading

for mercy? >> they certainly have, suzanne. i spoke with several members of her family this morning. and all of them expressed a lot of emotion over seeing that interview, but also a lot of them said they were encouraged because it appears she's in good health and treated well while in custody in mexico. they were also very concerned yesterday when they learned that she spoke to cnn. they were very afraid she might say something that could jeopardize what they believe will be her ultimate release from a mexican jail. but after seeing the interview, they don't think she said anything that could do that. obviously they're on pins and needles. it's a very sensitive, delicate situation at this point. but all of the family members we've been able to speak with say they're very encouraged by what they've seen and heard from yanira so far, suzanne. >> casey, is there any sense that perhaps her attorneys or her legal team believes that that was a good idea, for her to go forward on the cameras, to tell her story, to be emotional about this, that this will sway

anybody, any mexican authorities in this case? >> well, i'm not sure about that. they did express some reservation about her doing on-camera interviews. but now that it's happened, they don't think it has done any harm. what is more critical from their attorney's perspective is the evidence that they are going to introduce in court today. and this information is just coming to me from my colleague rafael romo who spoke with yanira's attorney a short time ago. he is going to introduce evidence in court today that first shows video surveillance of yamenira and her husband gary boarding that bus in mexico. they were carrying nothing according to the attorney but her purse. her purse was too small to carry the marijuana that was allegedly found underneath her seat. so they do believe that that is a very important piece of evidence that they are going to be able to bring before the judge today. the attorney also telling rafael romo that the judge will have to

make a decision tomorrow. tomorrow is the deadline for him to decide whether she will be held for a formal charge of drug trafficking, or if there's not enough evidence and her family is adamant that there's not enough evidence, they must release her tomorrow. suzanne. >> and, casey, if she is held, could she be held for weeks or months before a formal trial? >> that's the worst case scenario here, is if in fact that judge does find that there's enough evidence to charge her with drug trafficking, she could be held under mexican law for between three and four months before there's a formal trial. family's hoping it doesn't come to that obviously. >> all right. we're going to be paying close attention. obviously developments going to be happening tomorrow to see whether or not that happens. thank you, casey. appreciate it. here's also what we're working on for this hour. we're looking at hail, wind, possible tornadoes. that is a severe weather threat again today. we are chasing the storms, that's in the midwest. plus, they are locked in

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a muslim rights group wants an independent investigaon into the shooting death of a man who was friends with the boston bombing suspects. an fbi agent shot and killed ibrag ibragim todashev, that happened last week. he was a muslim and from the same part of russia as the bombing suspects. sources now tell several news organizations including a cnn affiliate that todashev was not armed at the time. the fbi is not commenting rather than to say they are investigating. we now know the name of the man charged with setting off a small explosive inside disneyland this week. he is a disney employee. police arrested 22-year-old christian barnes, a couple hours after something blew up inside a trash can. this was in part of the park

called "mickey's toontown." nobody was hurt but plenty of people were scared of course. and that part of the park was evacuated for a bit. barnes was a vendor inside disneyland. and police say the explosion was caused by dry ice inside a plastic bottle. barnes is being held on a million dollars bond. in oklahoma, back where it does not want to be. we are talking about the target area for a round of severe, potentially dangerous, weather. chad myers has been chasing the storms all day in oklahoma and joins us by phone. chad, first of all, this is not good news for folks there, second straight day of bad weather. what have you seen so far? >> well, we've seen it warmer today than it was yesterday. and that warmth, the sun, seems like a good thing. but in fact when you're talking severe weather, it's a bad thing. the skies are brighter, the sun's coming through and the area where i'm standing is seven degrees warmer than it was yesterday. which means that the storms are going to be stronger than they were yesterday. it also means because we know where the jet stream's going to

be that tomorrow is also going to be another day where oklahoma is in it to get storms. now, today, we're not only talking oklahoma, kansas, missouri, arkansas, all the way up into the great lake states. but the biggest potential for tornadoes will be here across the plains from about the ohio valley right down into north texas. that's where we're expecting it the most. >> and, chad -- >> the sunshine, the severe weather will pop up in about an hour or two and we will bring it to you live. >> chad, i understand you're also seeing hail as well in some areas, some counties? >> oh, we've had some hail yesterday, but we were actually being chased by this storm rather than us chasing the storm. as we looked our way from wichita back towards dodge city and into amarillo, eventually the storms did fire in amarillo and started moving to the east. we had to stay away from the hail core. at some point in time all the roads in oklahoma and texas go pretty straight. well, the storms don't go in those straight lines, they go diagonal. the storms were taking a high

pot noose. i'm surprised all the vehicles stayed in the window because we were getting hit so hard by this hail. it was at least ping-pong ball size. all in all, we were actually pretty lucky. we got out ofl hail pretty quickly. >> all right. stay safe, chad. take good care of yourself. thanks again. there is more aid on the way to the victims of last week's deadly tornado out of moore, oklahoma. some big-name stars performed a relief benefit concert, that was last night in oklahoma city. it was organized by singer blake shelton, who's from oklahoma. and he performed along with usher, reb a ama mcintire. miranda could not hold her face.

♪ [ cheers and applause ] >> that is so nice. the audience cheering her on as she really struggled to sing her hit "the house that built me." all that money raised from the telethon concert's going to benefit the united way's oklahoma tornado relief fund. good for them. from cleveland hero to media star, we are talking about charles ramsey. he's got a new gig, watch. >> i leave from mcdonald's, i come outside, i see this girl going nuts. >> all right. so from now on if you want to hear him speak, charles ramsey, it's going to cost you. we're going to tell you how ramsey is fighting to control his image.

we have new pictures of the cleveland backyard, this is where ariel castro allegedly held those three women captive for nearly a decade. as you can see, the yard in total disarray. windows, doors, boarded up. and children's toys scattered everywhere. now, castro remains in jail on an $8 million bond. his attorney says he plans to

plead not guilty. well, you might recall charles ramsey, he's the man who became the hero during the rescue of the three cleveland kidnap victims. well, now, he's about to make some serious money. he has been invited to be a part of this elite speakers group, but the downside of all of this newfound fame is many have already used his name and likeness without his permission. >> when did you realize something was wrong? >> charles ramsey, you know, the former cleveland dishwasher who saved amanda berry and launched a thousand unintentional one-liners. >> i was barbecuing with this dude. we eat ribs and whatnot and listen to salsa music. i knew something was wrong when a little pretty white girl ran into a black man's arms. my father would have whooped me if he found out i coward out. you have to have some cojones.

>> he will now share for $10,000 a pop. he just signed with a company in las vegas. >> i adore him. his charisma shines through. i think he has a very touching and emotional message. he had the courage and motivation to go and help somebody out when they were in a disastrous situation. and i really admire and respect that. >> ramsey told us through his attorney and a friend, he wants to take ownership of his own name. ever since he rescued berry, ramsey has become a cash cow for everyone but himself. youtube has dozens of ramsey videos online complete with advertisements. there are ramsey action figures for sale online at $19.95 a piece. a taiwanese company depicts

throwing hamburgers at an alleged kidnapper. ramsey says i never told these people they could use my name for this. but as motivational speaker, ramsey will use his own name. yes, to make money, but to inspire too. and perhaps raise money for amanda, gina and michelle as well. carol costello, cnn, atlanta. president obama plans to nominate james as the next fbi director. we have details into his past. steakhouse, where tonight we've switched their steaks with walmart's choice premium steak. it's a steakover. it's tender. good flavor. it just melts in your mouth. mine's perfect -- man! we're actually eating walmart steaks. are you serious? fantastic! that was a good cut of meat. [ earl ] these are perfectly aged for flavor and tenderness. i would definitely go to walmart to buy steaks. walmart choice premium steak in the black package.

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this is some pretty scary video. new video to show you. it is a freight strain smashing into a commercial truck. this happened this week near baltimore. just take a look at this. this truck tried to make it over the tracks in time. there was no way that the train could slow down.

so the driver of the truck seriously injured. the impact causing about a dozen train cars to derail. at least one of those cars was carrying hazardous materials. so then it caught fire, explodes. firefighters stop the fire and said that nothing dangerous was leaking from that wreckage. a 17-year-old student being hailed now as a hero after he alerted police to his classmate, grant acord's alleged plan to blow up west albany high school in oregon. that's right. in his first interview he spoke with our affiliate about the moment he knew he had to make a call. >> a tipping point for me was when i was, you know, just worried about being in school. and i thought at that point, okay, this school is supposed to be a safe secure environment. >> templeton says a court had taken other students to his bedroom to see his homemade bombs. and also to show off his copy of

the anarchist cookbook. grant acord appeared in court on tuesday, but he has not yet entered a plea. and the family of jo paterno, they want to save his football legacy. they are now suing the ncaa in order to do very that. paterno coached penn state's nittany lions for 46 seasons, you might recall. well, back in 2011 allegations surfaced that paterno played a role in concealing a child abuse scandal involving his former defensive coordinator jerry sandusky. well, he was fired that year. and a few months later died after a battle with cancer. the ncaa took away 111 of pater paterno's wins and fined penn state $60 million. well, with today's lawsuit, the paterno family hopes to overturn the sanctions and restore his winning record. and president obama planning to nominate a former bush administration official for fbi director james comey, served

back in 2003. he says he considered resigning that position during a disagreement over a government wiretapping program. our story from brianna keilar. >> suzanne, james comey is currently a law pros professor at columbia university. nine years ago he was number two at the justice department when george w. bush was here in the white house. and during that time he was a major player in one of the most dramatic episodes of the bush administration. like a scene out of a hollywood thriller, a critically ill attorney general is in urgent care at a washington hospital, two of the president's top aides rush to his bedside hoping to pressure him to sign off on a secret wiretapping program the night before it's set to expire. this was real though. and what happened that night march 10, 2004, put james comey, president obama's pick for his next fbi director, in the headlines. >> i was very upset.

i was angry. i thought i had just witnessed an effort to take advantage of a very sick man. >> comey was attorney general john ash kroft's deputy. and with ashcroft very sick, he was the acting attorney general. with then white house council gonzalez visited the hospital room, a last-ditch effort to get signature. comey caught wind of it and ordered his driver to speed through the streets of washington, sirens blaring, and beat them there. >> attorney john ashcroft then stunned me, he lifted his head off the pillow. and in very strong terms expressed his view of the matter. and then laid his head back down on the pillow, seemed spentd and said to them but that doesn't matter because i'm not the attorney general. >> cnn contributor fran townsend, was one of bush's top

national security advisors at the time. >> this is a man with a very strong internal sense of right and wrong and what is appropriate. and he's going to follow that sort of moral compass. >> as a federal prosecutor, comey handled the terrorist bombing case following the 1996 attack on a u.s. military facility in saudi arabia that killed 19 service members. he also took on the mafia, putting john gambino behind bars, as well as the diva of domestic si, martha stewart. he sits on the booshd of a financial services firm and he was general council for a hedge fund. this may come up as an issue during his confirmation process. senator chuck grassley has said if he is confirmed as fbi director, it could mean comey has to build cases against former colleagues. suzanne. >> thanks, brianna. could be the smoking gun in the michael jackson wrongful

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in the court battle over who should pay for michael jackson's tragic death, a possible smoking gun, an e-mail now has emerged. aeg, now, that's the promoter for jackson's last planned

concert tour has maintained all along it did not hire dr. conrad murray. you might recall murray's the one who administered the propofol the night of jackson's death. john berman explains an e-mail appears to show otherwise. >> a potential bombshell against aeg, the concert promoter managing michael jackson's "this is it" comeback tour. aeg has long contended that they did not hire dr. conrad murray, the physician convicted of administering the lethal dose of the anesthetic propofol to jackson. instead, aeg maintained it was the king of pop that hired murray. but in an e-mail the jackson family attorneys are calling the smoking gun, co-ceo of aeg live allegedly pressured murray into having jackson ready for rehearsals despite his ailing health. he writes "we want to remind

murray that it is aeg, not m.j., who is paying his salary. we want to remind him what is expected of him. he says he doesn't recall the message. >> i don't remember this e-mail. >> cnn has exclusively obtained his videotaped deposition that was shown to the jury. >> based on the assumptions that aeg is your company and m.j. is michael jackson, do you have an understanding of what that means? >> no. i don't understand it because we weren't paying his salary. >> so why would you write that? >> i have no idea. >> let's go on to the next sentence, when you say his salary, who are you talking about? >> i don't know. >> cnn digitj reporter has been the courtroom since the beginning of the trial. >> to watch him try to dance around it and explain this e-mail was very interesting in court. at times today there was laughter because of his -- the perception of his evasiveness. >> the jackson family is suing aeg stating they negligently hired and supervised murray, who

was serving time for involuntary manslaughter. if aeg is found liable, it could cost the company billions of dollars. and growing marijuana in your bedroom, legal. now in colorado, six plants per person. we're going to take you inside one woman's pot greenhouse. that's right. up ahead. [ female announcer ] yoplait greek 100. 100% greek. 100% mmm... wow, that is mmm... it's so mmm you might not believe it's a hundred calories. yoplait greek 100. it is so good.

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inject by pushing a button. no drawing from a vial. no refrigeration for up to 42 days. levemir® (insulin detemir [rdna origin] injection) is not recommended to treat diabetic ketoacidosis. do not use levemir® if you are allergic to any of its ingredients. the most common side effect is low blood sugar, which may cause symptoms such as sweating, shakiness, confusion, and headache. severe low blood sugar can be serious and life threatening. ask your health care provider about alcohol use, operating machinery, or driving. other possible side effects include injection site reactions. tell your health care provider about all medicines you take and all of your medical conditions. get medical help right away if you experience serious allergic reactions such as body rash, trouble with breathing, fast heartbeat, or sweating. flexpen® is insulin delivery my way. covered by most insurance plans, including medicare. ask your health care provider about levemir® flexpen today. imagine being allowed to grow pot in your bedroom.

that is right. it is legal in colorado, both for medical use and recreation. jim spellman actually looks at the businesses that are helping people grow this at home. >> a long-time marijuana advocate voted along with 55% of colorado voters to legalize pot in last year's election. who's this? >> ruddy. >> rudy has a pot leaf collar made of hemp. what do you like about smoking cannabis? >> i just like the way it makes me feel, as far as like pain. >> but colorado is in a sort of holding pattern. state law allows possession of small amounts of marijuana, and it's available in dispensaries for medical marijuana patients, but it won't be sold in retail stores until next year. it is, however, now legal to grow your own cannabis, and that is exactly what chloe's doing. let's see. >> okay. let's go. >> this is not a big apartment. you're still able to grow marijuana in here?

>> yes. you just have to make sure you can control the smell. >> even here in your bedroom in this apartment you can grow marijuana? >> yes. i mean, this huge tent is full of 12 plants. >> let's have a look. wow. you're growing these 12 marijuana plants right here in your one-bedroom apartment in denver. >> yes, sir. >> chloe works as a consultant for the medical marijuana industry and as a medical marijuana patient, chloe's allowed to grow up to 12 plants. nonpatients can grow six. >> definitely what i would call a cannabis connoisseur. so, you know, as a patient and as somebody who enjoys the plant, i definitely know good cannabis. and i grow some of the best cannabis. >> people like chloe are flocking to the grow store where they help people set up and maintain home marijuana grows. general manager ted smith says it's not just new growers but a different kind of grower. what are the new demographics?

who are the new people? >> we have a lot of married couples. we have a lot of 40 and up, 50 and up and 60 and up individuals coming in. >> some enjoy growing as a hobby, some grow for the sake of discretion. everything happening in the privacy of their own homes and others just want to grow the highest grade weed they can. >> today's culture, they want absolutely the finest quality product with the least of, you know, inconsistencies. >> so between $150 and $500 the grow store will set the grower up with the equipment to grow about a pound of marijuana every 12 weeks. it's illegal to grow cannabis outdoors in the view of others, so growers need a light source, ventilation, maybe an air filter to keep the smell away from the neighbors, soil and nutrients for the soil. some of the materials are the same used to grow more conventional plants, but some of these products have a distinctly stoner vibe. >> so this product is called

cushy-cush. >> growing marijuana in your basement or bedroom may be legal, but it's not exactly easy. >> i tell our customers that if you're just getting into the fray, if you will, that they will be maguiver in months. >> chloe says her marijuana grow is worth it. she hopes her cannabis consulting business will continue to grow. and even when retail stores open, chloe says she'll keep growing and smoking her home grown weed. so it is comforting to wake up every morning in your bed looking at your marijuana plant? >> awesome. we go to bed together, we wake up together. >> jim spellman, cnn, denver. >> wow. is marijuana bad for you? or can pot actually be good for you? well, dr. sanjay gupta, he is traveling the world for answers. what does marijuana actually do to you and what does it do to your children? details in a special weed that is coming out august on cnn. i want you to check this out, this is flooding in

illinois. so much water literally breaking down a door. we have details on that up next. but first, this is an accident that inspired a successful business. this is the focus of this week's next list. watch. >> this week on the next list, beauty innovator francesco clark. >> it wasn't a business idea. >> how he overcame a devastating accident. >> i was told, you will never get better. you will never move your arms. don't even think about your legs. >> to create one of fashion's favorite skin care lines. >> all of his new products that come out over the years have developed a bit of a cult following. and a lot of people in the fashion industry, models and fashion designers, really can't get enough of his stuff. >> that's saturday 2:30 on "the next list."

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parts of northern illinois recovering from major flash flooding. this is just how powerful those flood waters were. surveillanveillancveillance vid waters crashed through doors. torrential down pours triggered these floods. we're talking about four inches of rain in just an hour. dozens of campus computers were damaged. thankfully, nobody was hurt. and the chinese baby you might recall rescued from a toilet pipe have been released to his grandparents. they believe the baby's mother when she said the whole thing was an accident.

she says her stomach hurt, she sat on the toilet, and the baby was delivered. neighbors heard the cries, sawed off a section of the sewer pipe and carefully pulled away the plastic with pliers and got that baby to a hospital. an extreme daredevil takes the sport even higher than everybody else ever, leaping off the face of mt. everest. watch this. good lord. this is extreme base jumping. the guy in the wing suit says he now has the record for the highest jump in history, four miles up. took four days to climb up and about one minute to glide down and pull the parachute. his sponsor, red bull, says the jump was timed to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the first time mt. everest was conquered. pretty cool stuff. here's an extreme sport that's my speed. prepare yourself, national

spelling bee. watch this. >> then the voe cab came about, this is going to be harder than i thought. >> that might have overwhelmed me a little bit. it was definitely -- it made things a lot harder. >> i love these guys. they are the best of the best spellers in the entire united states and eight countries, and tonight a championship will be crowned. that champion, those kids we were talking with, there's a new rule that's giving competitors new headaches. spellers now have to define the word they are given. it is spelling, plus vocabulary. we're talking about 11 million kids starting the preliminary rounds. there are 42 left standing. finals tonight. got to watch that. won't miss that one. and collecting unemployment checks from behind bars? that's right. some prisoners in new jersey cashing in, receiving millions of benefits. we've got that after the break. : how old is the oldest person you've known? we gave people a sticker and had them show us. we learned a lot of us have known someone who's lived well into their 90s.

and that's a great thing. but even though we're living longer, one thing that hasn't changed much is the official retirement age. ♪ the question is how do you make sure you have the money you need to enjoy all of these years. ♪

to enjoy all of these years. ñó5wó

ceo of motorola says the company's new smartphone will be made in america, the moto-x will be the first smartphone manufactured in the united states. motorola plans to hire about 2,000 people in fort worth, texas. some of the components still will be made overseas. the state of new jersey a bit red faced after an audit revealed prisoners were mistakenly paid tens of millions in unemployment benefits. alison kosik is joining us from new york.

alison, how does something like that happen? >> makes you wonder, right? if you ask the state comptroller, they'll tell you the millions of dollars paid mistakenly, that was just a simple oversight because state agencies failed to check applicant names against county and state prison data. they realized that the new jersey state comptroller's office did a big mistake and found state agencies made $23 million in improper payments to prisoners over a 22-month period. look at what this includes. more than $10 million paid in unemployment benefits. mind you, this is the prisoners. more than $5 million in payments for welfare programs, including food stamps, and more than $7 million in improper medicaid payments. the laws are pretty darn clear in new jersey that you've got to be able to work and available to work to collect unemployment. last time i checked, inmates are not available, and state law specifically prohibits incarcerated people from taking part in food stamp or welfare

programs. the state simply forgot to verify. big oops, suzanne. >> big oops is right. are they going to be able to recover any of this money? >> they are. state agencies have been given a list of names to go after, but the payments are made to thousands of people two to four years ago. the comptroller's office is also investigating possible fraud charges in this, specifically for the improper medicaid payments and more oversight is coming to make sure this doesn't happen again. suzan suzanne? >> let's hope it doesn't. alison, real quick, check of the markets? >> stocks are holding their own, dow is up 85 points. gdp ticked down a bit from 2.5% to 2.4%, but investors are shrugging that off today, suzanne? >> thanks. that is it for me. have a wonderful afternoon. brooke baldwin takes it from brooke baldwin takes it from here live from boston.

-- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com tonight, more than a month after terrorists attacked boston, the city is coming together in this building to remember, to honor, and they are doing it all through rock and roll. i'm brooke baldwin, special cnn coverage starts right now. one of the voices boston hears tonight -- ♪ -- i'll talk with james taylor about the moment he heard about the bombings and what he'll say to the victims. love them very much. i'm innocent. >> the american mother behind bars in mexico opens up to cnn. and begs for her freedom. plus, the terrifying moment a train hits a truck. as the feds intercept letters possibly laced with ricin targeting michael bloomberg, new details about the threats