mishaps on cruise ships. "cruise nightmare." tonight at 8:00 on cnn. i'm christine romans. >> i'm john berman. "cnn newsroom" with carol costello begins right now. happening now in the "newsroom," an american marine kidnapped in mexico. >> you doan know if he's dead. you still have the hope that he's alive many. >> the reservist vanished. the fbi with an urgent plea for your help this morning. also, breaking overnight. fire threat spreads. >> it's nerve-wracking not knowing if your land is okay or not. >> three states now blackened by blazes. a family of firefighters seeing their house reduced to rubble. >> i just couldn't believe it. how the fire spread. >> plus, historical find. a rare, almost complete skeleton of a dinosaur found in wyoming.

we'll talk to the guy responsible for the find. and our own cnn hero. zoraida sambolin, recovering after a double mastectomy. posting progress on facebook. we'll talk to her in minutes. live in the cnn newsroom. good morning. thank you for joining me. i'm carol costello. an american marine kidnapped at gunpoint in mexico today, the fbi is asking for your help. 2 1/2 weeks since corporal armono torres iii last seen or heard from. armed gunman stormed his father's mexican ranch just south of the border. this is perhaps a fight with mexican drug cartels. rafael roma joins us, and the fbi is asking for help. how can we help? >> somebody must have seen something, either in mexico or

maybe somebody with information in the united states and so the fbi is saying if you have any piece of information whatsoever, give it to us so we can continue with the investigation. armando torres is a marine. it has been exactly three weeks today since he crossed the border in la varanca. the name of the town where his father visited. his father owns a ranch there, and he was going to be there to be with him and his uncle. all three of them kidnapped by armed men, nobody knows where they are. the family says they received a phone call during the first week, after they disappeared, but they haven't heard of the kidnappers since. now, affiliate kgbt in texas got an interview. >> bring it to the attention of

mexico. this is a marine. this is a war hero. i don't want to lose the hope that he's alive, but at the same time, it is a big reality. >> reporter: and just to put it in perspective, carol. looking at a map of the mexican state of tamalipas, taking a look at statistics and out of 20 cities in mexico with the largest number of kidnappings, five towns are in this the state of tamaulipas. right here in the middle a turf war between two of the most powerful mexican cartels. something else, armando torres iii, he was a veteran, he's a veteran of the marines, served in iraq, and that was part of the reserves. and a lot of people worried about it. >> it would strike me his relative didn't want her identity to be shown. the family, even in the united states, afraid. >> this area is essentially

no-man's land. has been for the last six years or so. a very dangerous area in mexico. not too far from there, more than 70 central american migrants disappeared. gives you an idea of how dangerous it is there. >> rafael romo, thank you so much. dry lands making this early fire season a tough one for firefighters, wildfires ranging in new mexico, colorado and california. the largest one in southern california has threatened 1,000 homes. cnn stephanie elam covering that fire from lake hughes. good morning, stephanie. >> good morning, carol. good thing i can tell you this fire is now 60% contained, and fire officials are optimistic that they will continue to make progress as long as weather stays like this. a lot of humidity and that will help firefighters today. into the night, firefighters in colorado battling a wildfire

that erupted in the foothills west of denver, forcing thousands to evacuate and now being allowed to return home. although small in acreage, the blue bell fire burned dangerously close to homes. the blaze, the latest outbreak of flames raging out west, from colorado to the tres lagunas fire, to the powerhouse fire in california. this consuming much in their path. >> this hill, that pill, and this hill right close to the house. >> devastating and i feel bad for my neighbors. feel really lucky for the firefighters to have saved our house. >> reporter: the wildfire in new mexico, spread over 8,000 acres, forcing residents in 100 homes to evacuate. >> nerve-wracking not knowing if your land is okay or not. >> reporter: true to its name, the powerhouse fire packed a punch, scorching more than 30,000 acres of lan, threatening

1,000 homes and destroyed at least six. homes like the one where the stilson family used to live, reduced to rubble. the family is used to wildfires, because they are a family of firefighters. retired fire captain patrick stilson, now picking up the pieces of his parents' home. like so many residents, he spent his life saving. >> i just couldn't believe it, how the fire spread, but -- you know, daw know, some of the wheelbarrows i pushed when i was a teenager over there all melted. >> reporter: sifting through what's left of the home where he and his wife tied the knot. he happy discovers one of his mother's most beloved keepsake still stands. >> st. francis over there, my mom's patron saint. >> reporter: patrick sent me a picture, that showed me a wedding picture with st. francis in the corner.

st. francis is safe. the road closed because powerlines are down and falling rocks from the fire. but allowing residents to get back into community, thousand or so people who were evacuated, who can come back in now and check on their homes and for most of them, returning to homes unlike the stilson family, carol. >> stephanie elam, live from california this morning. midwest weather nightmare rages on. take a look at this a levee breached nearly st. louis. the mississippi gushing out. emergency workers scramble to reinforce barricades and temporary dikes. residents in st. charles county near st. louis had to be evacuated last night after the levy breached. flood warnings and advisories in effect from northern illinois to louisiana. meteorologist indra petersons joins me now for more. so any rain in the forecast for the fine people of missouri? >> unfortunately, yeah, looks like there will be more showers

in the forecast. keep in mind, we've been talking about storm system after storm system, inundating the area and slow training, keep in mind, at the beginning of the year, january 1st. negative 4.5 feet. now we're talking about 40.1 feet. 45 feet of water since the beginning of the year. unbelievable the amount of water in the area, and we're talking about the forecast, more showers on the wray. it doesn't matter where we see the rain in the region, it will come through the tributaries and affect the area. >> there could be more tornadoes. three veteran storm chasers died in oklahoma, tornado alley could again be full of storm chasers, chad myers says it's become a real problem. >> you put yourself 100 away from the line, you put yourself in grave danger.

>> reporter: pfaff the research team that the movie "twister" was based on. >> no longer pictures of tornado people want. video of debris, buildings blowing up, trees being blown around. people are taking big, big chances. >> reporter: not just scientists and individuvideographers, torns are big business in these parts. >> people go to see the whales and everything else, they want to see tornadoes. they want to see the big winds. that's what we do. take them out. >> reporter: meteorologists and researchers on the ground, measurements are vital. so much still needs to be learned when it comes to violent weather. >> we don't know anything about tornadoes, and it's important to measure. you can't measure with radar, can see thing as loft. cat measure what's on the ground. dedicated people that have risked their life to do that value created by that. >> so indra, chad on the way home, but i want you to issue a

warning to storm chasers. >> the bull's-eye over oklahoma, portions of missouri and texas. a lot of people forget when you see the signature on the radar, only approximate 0% 30% become . what they are doing is very valuable, you don't want amateurs out there congesting roads and that's the problem. >> why do thrill seekers risk their lives storm chasing? i'll talk to a storm spotter and the owner of a popular storm chasing adventure tour company. boston's fire chief, your honor under fire for his handling of the boston marathon has resigned. the d13 deputy chiefs were to

testify, as they had no confidence in the chief. we're learning more about a lone phone call, marathon bombing suspect dzhokhar tsavraev made to his family from inside a federal prison hospital. phil black, live from moscow. what did he say in the phone call? >> well, carol, tsavraev heard speaking russian and his mother, sunita, very emotional as she listens to this recording of the conversation be playeded around, about a week or so after it actually happened. at the time, they were not allowed to discuss details of the boston marathon bombing case itself. so the conversation is relatively brief and really just confined to questions about dzhokhar's welfare, how is he doing that sort of thing? words of comfort, so forth. at one point, his mother asked him are you in pain? he said, no, of course not.

i'm already eating and have been for a long time. giving me rice and chicken now. everything is fun. everything is good. please don't say anything. his mother said to him, he has to be strong. but she says she was really surprised at how strong he was being. he was the calm one when she expected him to be far more emotional and demanding of answers as to what is going on with him. instead, he was telling her that everything would be all right. >> she asked hif he money for a defense team. how deanswer? >> he said he didn't need money. apparently his parents were raising money, people sending him money, people who, like them, believe he's innocent of the crime in which he's accused. he doesn't need the money, because he's already receiving some himself, and he said he received around $1,000, but

swaent specific in just who has provided those funds, but he's parent remained adamant, carol, he is innocent. they say both he and his brother, are the victims of some sort of setup. carol. >> phil black, reporting live for us this morning. another day, another congressional hearing on the irs and targeting of tea party groups. we expect to hear from witness who's say their groups were among those singled out by the irs, briana keilar joins us live from the white house with more. >> yesterday we heard from the irs and inspector general who investigated this controversy. today, we'll hear from the alleged victims in this case and we caught up with some of them before they testified today. becky garretson today that her tea party group was unnecessarily scrutinized by the irs. tea party candidates gave

control of by republicans to the house of status. they applied for tax exempt status and were sent a 90-question form. >> they wanted to know about every speech we had ever given. i felt like it was oppression over me as a citizen. i live in america, and i should be able to express my views. i felt like it was very unfair. a little scary. >> after nearly two years, garrettson's group got irs approval. susan martinek, president of a small anti abortion group in cedar rapids iowa. a worker at the cincinnati irs office asked the group to agree not to picket planned paurnthood offices. >> she required that our entire board would sun a letter under perjury of oath, that we would not protest or picket at planned parenthood. >> after the group's attorney sent a letter asking the basis for the demand, mart inek said

it was dropped. by the end of the week, congress will have held half a dozen hearings on the irs controversy. monday, the new acting commissioner of the irs, pledged to clean up the agency. daniel werfel and the inspector general who first investigated the allegations, denied of knowing any direct white house involvement. >> is there any evidence that the white house directed, requested, recommended, or in any way supported such a review? >> no. >> i'm not aware of any evidence of that. >> now, this next irs hearing will begin on capitol hill in 45 minutes at 10:00 a.m. eastern and we'll be monitoring that at cnn. >> of course. >> briana keilar, thank you so much. before we take a break, we want to check in with our friends and anchor of "early start," zoraida sambolin. she has had a double mastectomy. she went public after angelina

jolie share her story publicly. zoraida posted this picture on facebook. her fiance, kenny williams, executive vice president of the chicago white sox helping her. what a great guy. zoraida on the phone right now. how are you feeling? >> you know, i'm feeling well. you know, it starts out as a good day or a mediocre day. today is probably a mediocre day. >> oh, my. still in the hospital obviously, right? >> no. no. i'm back home. >> you're kidding. >> no, no, no. two days in the hospital and went back home. there is some women who only spend one day in the hospital and back home. i was surprised too when we talked about how soon i was going home. it was pretty quick. >> so i would take it, you are really sore and probably can't lift arms or do much for yourself at all. >> you are right, carol. that i have to say is the hardest part. we're constantly going, going, going, to slow down and have

limited mobileity has been a bit of a challenge and to allow people to do for you is also a bit of a challenge, but i'm very fortunate, as you show kenny's picture, he single handedly handled my care at home. a superstar in my book. >> and loving support is really key, because you kind of have to give it up. and i know you are a person who likes to take control and do things for yourself, but now is the time to depend on those who love you. >> you know, i think for most women, that is probably the hardest part. i have been sharing my journey on facebook, and these amazing women have told me how they handled their journey and i have to tell you, more often than not, they say relinquish control, let people help you. i know it's the hardest part, and it really is. i've been blessed that i'm surrounded by people who love me and want to take care of me and are doing fantastic job at it. including the folks w who relea

me from the hospital. >> i'm loving kenny right now. what's the next step? >> today is actually my first visit back to see both doctors. i'll see the doctor who actually did the breast cancer surgeon and give me the final results, the pathology results on both breasts, we know it's not invasive cancer, i'll find out if there was cancer in my right breast. i don't know that answer to that yet. so today i find out. i'll meet after with the reconstructive plastic surgeon, and he'll tell me what's next. these drains have you been seeing, the picture i posted yesterday, are really complicated and probably one of the hardest parts of this. it can be very uncomfortable, payment, and you've got to constantly see how you are draining, and once you drain less than 30 ccs for three days in a row, they finally take the drains out. i'm really looking for to that.

can't wait to talk to him and see when they finally come out. >> hard not to try to convince that doctor to take them out sooner -- >> i'm not capable of doing that. i doubt that he'll take my word for it and say, hey, it's a good time to take the drains out. that is the tough part. >> oh, look. all of your colleagues back here are wearing their superz shirts. including john berman, your co-anchor, rooting for you here, zoraida. thank you for sharing your story. >> i love you guys. you guys have been amazing, i appreciate all the support. and thank you, carol, for always checking in. >> any time. talk to you, soon, sfwlor azora thank you. an unprecedented scientific discovery. one of the most complete skeletons of triceratops. i knew i would get that wrong. you know, the triceratops, the plastic figure in grade school.

anyway, a family of them found. details from the dig, next. i think farmers care more about the land than probably anyone else. we've had this farm for 30 years. we raise black and red angus cattle. we also produce natural gas. that's how we make our living and that's how we can pass the land and water back to future generations. people should make up their own mind what's best for them. all i can say is it has worked well for us. have hail damage to both their cars. ted ted is trying to get a hold of his insurance agent. maxwell is not. he's on geico.com setting up an appointment with an adjuster. ted is now on hold with his insurance company. maxwell is not and just confirmed a 5:30 time for tuesday. ted, is still waiting. yes! maxwell is out and about... with ted's now ex-girlfriend. wheeeee!

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22 minutes past the hour. time to check stop stories. oscar pistorius' trial is being delayed. the date of the trial could be announced on august 19th, which would have been steenkamp's 30th birthday. pistorius charged with premeditated murder and could be sentenced to life in prison if convicted. one of the women involved in a scandal of david petraeus. jill kelley says personal e-m l e-mails wrongly searched. kelley is asking for an apology and unspecified damages. united airlines offering yearly subscriptions for checked baggage, starting at $399. a traveler and eight companions can check up to two bags per flight for free. a new subscription for

passengers wanting extra leg room. justin verlander, arguably the best pitcher in baseball. but he wants to take a hit at a home run derby. i teased him about the fact that he never had a home run, during spring training. >> you want to develop a new pitch or get a hit. >> ha, ha, ha. thanks for that. you know, i've been saying for the last seven years, this is my year, so i'm going to go the other direction and say i'm not going to gelt a hit. who cares, i doan care if i get a hit. i'm doing to do everything i possibly can to jinx it the other way. >> a good idea. you just admit that -- >> i suck. >> you suck. >> you might be the first person to ever hear me say that. >> he tweeted a link to the

mlb.com page where fans can vote for him to be in the home run derby. who knows? maybe he can fill in for prince fielder. i don't think so. another cool discovery. 67 million years in the making. scientists unearthed three triceratops skeletons. triceratops skeletons. something never done before. you remember these guys from high school, right? the three-horned dinosaur, 30 feet long, 10 feet tall. weighing in 4 to 6 tons. it is a vegetarian that spent the day munching on low-lying plants. the big head was likely to charge predators and in mating rituals. one of the last dinosaurs.

peter larsen helped lead the discovery. >> good morning. >> you said this find could rewrite the book on this kind of dinosaur. why? >> several different reasons. one, despite the fact that triceratops is one of the most widely, publicly known dinosaurs, very few skeletons more than 50% complete. only three found so far. and in this find is three skeletons together, which will tell us a whole lot about anatomy, we also have something very unprecedented where we have got something -- as you mentioned, the family group. so we can look at how these animals change as they grew up. which is a very, very cool thing to look at. there has been more done on skulls, but not on skeletons, so this also shows us about

behavior and in addition to that, we've got evidence right now that points to the -- point to the interaction with the main predator at that time. >> is that how they died, do you think? >> i doan know how they died, and we may be able to find that out. it looks like they were fed upon, whether they were killed by a t-rex or not, we don't know yet at this point. and something that's really hard to pinarticulated, might have a better chance, but since these are just articulated remains, we probably won't be able to learn why they died. >> one of the adults was particularly well preserved. why do you think that was? >> we haven't dug the whole site yet so maybe we have more than just the one adult that will be quite a bit there. i think because there was so

much to eat, that t-rex in this particular case had more than he could handle, and was not able to really finish all the carcasses. the little one is the least complete so far, and i think it was because it was probably the most tender and most easily consumed. t-rex, by the way, didn't just eat tine y dinosaur flesh. it ate most of the car cuss. which is why we don't have many triceratops over 50% complete. >> this is fascinating. hopefully we get to see them some day. peter larsen, thank you very mu much. >> my pleasure. enter. i'm an accountant. a mechanical engineer. and i shop at walmart. truth is, over sixty percent of america shops at walmart every month. i find what i need, at a great price. and the money i save goes to important things. braces for my daughter. a little something for my son's college fund.

when people look at me, i hope they see someone building a better life. vo: living better: that's the real walmart.

good morning. thank you so much for being with me. i'm carol costello. 31 minutes past the hour. stories we're watching right now in the "newsroom." opening bell ringing about now on wall street. doing the honors today, portugal

secretary of finance. and alison kosik is at the new york stock exchange. hi, allison. >> hi, carol. the dow, closing higher by triple digits yesterday. momentum could slow down a bit today. still, even if the dow manages just a small little gain, it will add on to what's really become a nice run for stocks. and did you check the calendar? today is tuesday, and that's of interest, because the dow has closed higher for the past 20 tuesdays in a row. gaining 1,500 points in the process. a lot of theories on why this is happening. it could be that mutual funds don't fill weekend orders until tuesday. others say it's computer al go rhythms, recognize the trend and keep buying on tuesday, some say people don't like monday, so when stocks fall on a monday, tuesday is a natural reversal, while others say, carol, it's a fluke. no rhyme or reason at all to the trading, and some could say that's every day on wall street, carol. >> exactly. interesting, though, thank you,

allison. general motors makes a return to the s & p 500 after close of trading this thursday. it will replace a.j. heinz, set to go private. automaker kicked off the index after 2009 bankruptcy filing and $50 million government bailout. the government hopes to sell off the remainder of its gm shares soon. major nidal hassan, the man accused of killing 14 people at ft. hood in 2009 asks for a delay to prepare his defense. hassan can indeed represent himself at the court martial, with the assistance of military lawyers. jury selection set to begin tomorrow. hasan couldace the death penalty if convicted. and protesters in turkey keep up against scandals and dissident. one of the protesters in turkey

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hundreds of thousands of union members have joined the already massive protests in turkey. imperative to fight "fascism" in the government. turkey's prime minister has left the country, telling supporters everything will be fine when he returns. he claims this whole thing is being fueled by social media. and he blamed the riots not on his policies, but on vandals, extremists and dissidents. joining me on the phone, a psychologist and university of loyala grad in turkey, using social media to get the story out. >> thank you for joining us. we appreciate it facebook page, lots of postings, at the very

top, you say this is not about a park everybody thought that the government demolishing a park for a shopping center is what started it? >> it starts as a park, and the government has become more and more aggressive. just decided to build a third bridge, cut a number of trees, and a nuclear power plant. the protests are concerned about these government's actual interventions in people's daily lives, like abortion rights or medical practice in child delivery, or couples kissing, hugging in the street. one after the other. so i think it's a buildup of

frustration. >> government cracking down on every day life in turkey and is the government becoming more religious, that it? >> well, recent, we heard from assad that he is trying to build a religious youth. but it doesn't represent the entire turkish people at the moment. doesn't even represent his base. it is mostly -- of course, there is a religious group, but we're trying to leave side by side independently, trying to voice everybody's belief for everybody's rights at the moment, so it's not -- not about religion, it's about as i'm trying to just talk to his base, for all people. >> the prime minister says he's been democratically elected and

protesters are being fueled by people like you on social media. he calls you dissidents and vandals, how do you respond to that? >> most of our posts on social media are directed to provide legal help, medical help, logistical help for people on the streets protesting. for example, last night, the night before. violent attacks from the police and undercover cops. the turkish -- the police has just confirmed, there are underundercover police on the streets, attacking people with sticks, so what we're trying to do on social media is reach out to the people there, tell them which apartment buildings they can hide in, tell them where the police is coming now, if they are going to be arrested what rights do they have. we are trying to coordinate, you know what to do and the

consequences of the police brutality. it's not ideological, and not slogans, nothing anti governmental, trying to coordinate help. >> thank you so much for sharing your story. thank you so much. he may have made billions and billions off facebook, but shawn parker just slapped with a multimillion dollar fine over his enormous wedding. this was a $10 million wedding, it was insane. we'll tell you more after this.

talk about a wedding. media mogul sean parker, you best known him for his role in facebook. he was played in "social network" by justin timber lake. he spent $10 million on his wedding, built a movie set in the woods, complete with cottages and waterfalls, one thing the wedding lacked is proper permits and now he's in trouble. a.j. hammer, in new york for more. >> details, details. carol this comes from the go big or go home category this morning. when you are as rich as sean

packer is, throw yourself any kind of wedding you want. and he did. spending a reported $10 million on the ceremony with alexandra lenas, and it doesn't include the 2$2.5 million fine to the california coastal commission, which according to the commission is going to be used to protect california's redwoods and promote coastal conservation. the couple who have a been girl together, tied the knot saturday night. 300 family and friends there for a romantic, magical setting in big sur, california. that magical setting got him into all kinds of trouble, being in the natural beauty of one of america's scenic locations, not enough for the billionaire. he built a hollywood style set, with water falls, bridges, fake ruins. he didn't have permission to build any of those structures at all. >> he built fake ruins? >> yeah, you have to have fake ruins if you have that kin of

wedding on. >> what could you possibly spend $10 million on all at once? i can't wrap my head around. >> i can fill you in in you would like details. by the time the authorities realized there was a problem, the set was already built. so instead of making him remove everything before the wedding, they agreed on this payment instead. the ceremony went on. what's an extra $2.5 million after all. let me give you details from the wedding. guests provided outfits to wear by the same person who designed the coss assumes for "lord of the rings," and designed parker's wardrobe. he tweeted in april, the outfits inspiring and wouldn't look like game of thrones characters at the wedding. bride had more say in her particular outfit. more traditional. but who was the staff photographer? the wedding photographer? the famed fashion photographer mark seliger, one of their perform perform performers?

l lorena mckinnick, and 2$2.5 million to protect coastal con s servation. >> and all those hobbits that stood up for them. still ahead on the "newsroom" student on a class trip got a little too rowdy so airtran kicked them off. the school response, next. with our "name your price" tool, people pick a price and we help them find a policy that works for them. huh? also... we've been working on something very special.

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50 minutes past the hour. more than 100 students and their chaperones kicked off an airtran flight. they would not stay seated and continued to use cell phones. one says that the chaperchapero completely out of pro proportion. life behind bars for accused cleveland kidnapper, ariel castrol he spends most of his days lying on his mat, pacing the floor, or staring out the small window in his cell. is he being held on 8 million bond. and accused of holding three women captive for nearly a decade. a levy breeched in west alton, missouri and residents

asked to leave. and in grafton, illinois, the mississippi expected to crest. top five floods in the river's history. what's being called an unprecedented hearing under way on capitol hill. live pictures as the top leaders of the army, naefvy, air force d marines, set to testify before a senate panel investigating sexual assaults in the military. under consideration, a bill that would give uniform prosecutors instead of commanders the authority to investigate these cases. military's brass is against the proposal, but advocacy groups and lawmakers say the change is needed because commanders have failed to address this pervasive problem. we'll keep you posted. >> if you would like to see more of today's hearing, streaming it live on cnn.com. go there and you will see it all. still ahead on the "newsroom," miami heat celebrate the return to the nba finals. highlights of the conference clincher in bleacher report.

sparkly water and pure white sand might not get you off your couch, but there's not a creature on earth that can resist this.

the miami heat took care of business last night against the indiana pacers winning a sudden death game seven. jared greenberg has more on 0 this morning's bleacher report. >> it's deja vu in miami.

can we get a funny joan rivers fashion line here? got one, carol? ladies, you can open your eyes, david beckham in miami, he's wearing white for the whiteout and watching lebron james getting angrity rim. he had 18 first haflt points, finished the game with 32. he was clicking on all cylinders. dwayne wade snapped out of his slump, scored 21 points. miami will face san antonio game one on thursday. >> i've had multiple dreams about it and, you know, to see a dream become a reality, i'm just very blessed. our team is blessed. and we're just happy we're able to represent the eastern conference in the finals. a football legend has died. deacon jones was the cause of dozens of quarterbacks having

sleepless nights. the first ballot hall of famer introduced football fans to the term we use on the regular now, the sack. the nfl was often forced to change some of the rules because of how dominant jones was during the '60s and 'sfis. he played for three franchises, most notably the rams. he died of natural causes at the age of 74. bruins a step closer to the stanley cup finals and the guys from boston got fancy. what a pass from lucic. all over pittsburgh 3-0 in the first. boston leaves no doubt about it, routing the penguins 6-1. boston leads the series 2-1. it is time for tuesday tricks, carol, your favorite time of the week. southern cal incoming freshman coming to school with some

skills. it is pretty impressive. indoors, outdoors, steady or moving targets, it doesn't matter. >> he hit the cameraman. >> he did. usc just hoping he can get it to the punter like this in the fall. usc known for producing some great linebackers, running backs, quarterbacks, i take that back, not so good on the quarterback front. now maybe usc will be known as long snapper u. zach smith on the gridiron this year. >> oh, i needed that. thanks so much. the next hour of "cnn news ro room" after a break. mine was earned in djibouti, africa. 2004.

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lennox mobile app. ♪ lennox. innovation never felt so good. happening now in the "newsroom," cheating death. most of us run and hide from tornadoes. now it's cool. >> we get on the road for 60 to 80 days a year, and we're putting our lives at risk every time we're out there. >> would you pay 3,000 bucks to cheat death? it's the thing in tornado alley. also, oil spill. exxon says it's safe, but neighbors in arkansas suffer headaches and nausea. >> what are the long-term ramifications to all of this? you know, health concerns. what are these additives going to do to my health? >> who's helping the people of may flower, arkansas. plus, justin verlander, one much

the best pitchers in baseball wants to join the home run derby? hey, justin, you've never had a hit. so you just admit that -- >> i suck. >> you suck. yes! you're live in the "cnn newsroom ." good morning, thank you so much for being with me. i'm carol costello. oklahoma is bracing again for dangerous weather and again tornado alley will be full of storm chasers, despite reports of yet another storm chaser death. according to the oklahoman richard henderson took this cell phone photo of a tornado and sent it out to his friends, and moments later that same tornado killed him. other storm chasers were very lucky to escape with only minor injuries. austin anderson was with a weather channel crew and meteorologist mike bettes when

friday's tornado near el reno, oklahoma, threw his car 200 yards. >> it just picked up the car and right at that moment i just tucked in gripping the steering wheel and sunk down and held on for dear life. as we came to a stop, the tornado hunt vehicle was on its feet, but we were still inside the tornado. bettes yelled at us to stay down, stay down! because the wind now was whipping through the car at 150 miles an hour, and we were thinking we were going to get picked up and thrown again. so we all just hunkered down as low inside the cockpit of the car as we could. i knew my chest had been hurt because i could barely breathe. >> storm chasing is a dangerous business, yet more and more companies are offering storm chaser packages and people are buying them ready for the thrill of mother nature. ryan barnes runs a company called storm chasers.

for $2,400 he'll give you, quote, the thrill of the planet's most intense thunderstorms, the adventure of a lifetime. he jiens us along with al by bachmann who has bought and experienced storm tour packages like the one brian offers. welcome to both of you. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> brian, i want to start with you, you charge, what, $2,400 for a tornado tour. i went on your web site and i see that many of these tours are already sold out. so it's no wonder we keep hearing stories of storm chasers actually causing traffic jams in tornado alley. i mean, science is one thing, but doing it for the thrill is something different. is the business getting out of hand? >> no. first of all, as a tour company, we're putting people into passenger vans instead it of, you know, having six or 18 or 24 different vehicles on the road. it's sort of like a carpooling deal, i guess you could look at it that way. and we're also -- we're not out

there for the same reason as my friends tim and his colleagues were out there. they were scientists. they had a purpose of getting in front of a storm and placing probes in front of it. in order to do that, it required them to be closer than most other storm chasers. so for our purposes, we're teaching people more about severe weather and from the teaching aspect of things, we don't -- we're not thrill seeking by any mean means. we're always at a reasonably safe distance and we always go in, even at a safe distance, we have a backup plan to get out of there, and safety is always number one. >> but the fact remains, brian, that tornadoes you can't really predict their every move 100%. there's still a danger, right? do you stay far enough away to keep your customer s safe? and if there are carpools on the highways, that still means problems for those who are doing

it for science. >> we definitely stay far enough away that there's always a huge safety margin involved. so we're never -- we're not close by any means, so to speak. you can see the supercell thunderstorm from several miles away, and a tornado from several miles away so there's no reason for us to ever get that close. so, yeah, safety is always our number one priority. i think we're more -- from the dangers of just another driver or even a drunk driver or even just the same ricsks you would e taking your children to school in the morning from basic traffic accidents than we are from the storm itself. >> alby, let me ask you this, your wife bought you a storm tour for your birthday. i see why it would be fascinating, but do so many people need to be out there tempting fate? >> i don't disagree with you, carol. there is a thrill to it. i can't deny that.

however, i view it a lot differently. i see these storm chasers out there as our local heroes. we're out there looking out for the benefit of our community trying to get a hold of how these storms are formed, what we can do to be better prepared when they do come into our area. and with the storms approaching the northeast quadrant of the country more often now, that's where my interest came in. i'm involved with public safety, and i just want to learn a lot more. and being with brian i've gained a lot of knowledge on how these storms manifest themselves, and i'd like to just bring that to the general public in the future. >> but how many people need to be out there studying tornadoes? how many are too many? >> i don't think too many is far-fetched. the more people who gain the knowledge of these storms become better prepared. it's those that are not educationally involved in these

type of supercells that find themselves in danger. >> brian, i wanted to ask you about this because this guy in oklahoma, he wasn't part of any tour, he was out on his own chasing a tornado. he took a picture and he was killed. so people are seeing you guys doing this, you know, a lot of you guys doing this, they see the pictures on television, and they think, wow, i can go out there and do it myself. >> i haven't actually heard about this latest story, to be honest, so i don't know the details surrounding that gentleman's fatality. >> i'm sure you've seen amateurs out there, though, right? >> we see amateurs out there quite a bit, but we've seen that for quite some time. i think that with the popularity of some television shows and stuff, i think some of that has

increased. but i don't know how to -- how we would actually have played into any of that because we haven't done any of the television shows or anything like that. so what we're doing is taking people out, obviously for a price, but it's a very expensive thing to be dealing with. there's just an extreme amount of expense, and most of my customers come from some kind of an emergency management background or volunteer fire department background or law enforcement. a lot of -- >> thank you so much for joining us, giving us another perspective, albee bochman and brian barnes, thank you. firefighters in southern california have made significant progress on fires because of higher humidity and lower temperatures. the fire north of los angeles has burned more than 32,000 acres and destroyed six homes. residents have returned to two communities and the fire is now

about 60% contained. wildfires are also burning in new mexico and colorado, both fires leading to evacuations. no reports of injuries or destroyed buildings. and a weather nightmare continues in the midwest. take a look at this. a levee breached near st. louis, the water gushing out of the mississippi river, now threatening small towns all along the river as emergency workers scramble to reinforce barricades and temporary dikes. residents in st. charles county near st. louis had to be evacuated last night after the levee was breached. flood warnings and advisories are in effect from northern illinois to louisiana. so more rain? >> oh, unfortunately definitely still rain in the forecast. we keep seeing this, that time of year in the middle of the country. we have the threat for rain and severe weather over the plains. oklahoma city again under the gun today as well as portions of

missouri and also down through texas. now, let's talk about this flooding. unbelievable amount of rain. hard to believe. think about this. the beginning of january, we were in the top ten for the driest. we were worried about the mississippi river being too low. since then we're in a major flood stage now with 40 feet, we went from negative 4.5 to 40 feet of water. that's how much rain has passed through the area and gone through the tributaries and accumulated here in the mississippi river. more rain in the forecast. it isn't just that area, any of the rivers in missouri or the mississippi river, we're talking about the threat for more flooding in that area. unl fortunately it looks like back in the forecast especially by wednesday. >> indra peterson, thanks so much. live pictures now of that congressional hearing on the irs targeting conservative groups. actually, that's not the hearing we're looking at. that was the sexual assault military hearings on capitol hill. a couple of hearings going on on

capitol hill today and one involves the irs. in fact, groups that say they were targeted by the irs now testifying before congressional panels. we're going to update you on that story in just a bit. of course, if you'd like to see more of these hearings, both hearings are streaming live on cnn.com. also this morning, another sign that the housing market is recovering. those huge homes known as mcmansions, they're making a comeback. alison kosik joins me now. oh, this is sad. >> is it? some people don't think so. home builders are getting back to the old idea that bigger is better. a census bureau report shows that over the past three years the average size of new homes has grown by 8%. that's up to a record 2300 square feet last year. some speculated that after the housing boom that was the end of those mcmansions with younger buyers moving into smaller places, baby boomer downsizing

after their kids moving out. but they're saying that now it's not people wanted less space, they just couldn't afford it. now that the economy is improving they can. so the national association of home builders survey found that buyers prefer a median home size of just over 2200 feet in line with the census average. that jibes with what builders are seeing. gl holmes says their four-bedroom home consistently outsells their three-bedroom model. but you have to remember in all of this, the people who get approved for these big loans attend to be more affluent, carol. so once lending returns to normal and lower income buyers start buying homes again, the average size of what people want for homes will likely get a little smaller. carol? >> alison kosik reporting live from the new york stock exchange. coming up next in the "newsroom," he served the united states in operation iraqi freedom. now an american marine is missing in mexico, believed to be kidnapped perhaps by a drug

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16 minutes past the hour. oscar pistorius' trial is being delayed for two months for more research. the date of the trial could be announced on august 19th, which would have been steen camp's 30th birthday. pistorius is sentenced to premeditated murder. he could be sentenced to life in prison. one of the women involved in the center of the scandal involving david petraeus is suing the federal government. jill kelly said her personal e-mail was wrongly searched and information given out to the media. she is asking for an apology and unspecified damages. in money news, united airlines is offering yearly subscriptions on checked bags starting at $349. under the plan, a traveler and up to eight companions on the same reservation can each check up to two bags per flight for free. united also has a subscription offer for passengers wanting extra leg room. an american marine kidnapped at gun point in mexico, and

today the fbi is asking for your help. corporal armando torres iii was last heard of 2 1/2 weeks ago when armed gunmen stormed his father's mexican ranch just south of the u.s. border. torres, his father and uncle were all kidnapped perhaps in a fight with drug cartels. chris moore is at the pentagon. tell us more. >> right now the state department's consulate is working with the mexican authorities, the fbi has launched an international liq d kidnapping investigation and friends and family of armando torres have taken to social media trying to drum up interest and get the word out about what has happened to this marine. there's been a facebook page established, threads on red it, all trying to call attention to what's happened to this young marine. he went down to visit his father on the ranch in mexico, and they were all abducted by armed gunmen.

recently a family member of torres spoke out, although she did not want to be identified for security concerns. she, too, is calling attention to this kidnapping. >> bring it to mexico's attention. you know, this is a marine here on this side. that's a war hero. i don't want to lose hope that he's alive, but at the same time it is like a big reality. >> it's a very tough thing for the family right now. there has been no contact with torres since the abduction it several weeks ago, although the family has said right now they still have reason to believe that he's still alive. this is a marine who did a tour in djibouti on the horn of africa, also deployed to iraq back in 2009. carol, a lot of folks out there are wanting to get him back to the u.s. >> i want to say this is an unusual occurrence, but it's not. >> no, no, not at all. especially in that area of

mexico which has a very high rate of kidnappings. you know, the fbi reports, in fact, that over the last ten years there have been more than 430 u.s. citizens who have been kidnapped in mexico, and that's just counting those americans who crossed over from the south texas part of the u.s. so this is a problem, a much bigger problem, for mexicans there in hmexico because kidnappings are rampant there. this is why you're seeing such the push on social media to put pressure on government officials not only here in the u.s. but in mexico as well to call attention to this case. >> chris lawrence reporting live from the pentagon. thank you. it's been two months since that big oil spill in mayflower, arkansas. now some residents say, well, they're getting sick from the fumes. we'll talk about that next.

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a number of people in the town of may flower, arkansas, have filed suit against exxonmobil after one of their

pipelines ruptured and spilled thousands of barrels of oil into their neighborhood. residents in the suit complain about health problems including nausea and serious headaches. the accident happened back in march, however, the arkansas department of health says in part, quote, all chemicals of concern detected in the homes were below levels expected to be a health hazard. the department gives a web site where residents can keep up to date on air quality levels, but as you can see one might need an advanced degree in chemistry to actually understand what's on that web site. joining me now on the phone is environmental scientist wilma s subra. welcome, wilma. >> thank you. >> so the health department in arkansas says everything's fine, but residents say they're suffering these headaches. i mean, why are the two entities contradicting one another? >> well, from the very beginning we've had community members out collecting samples. they actually collected the first sample the day after the

pipeline rupture occurred, and just hours after the crude had stopped flowing from the pipeline. and we detected 31 chemicals in the air at that time. and comparing the health symptoms associated with those chemicals actually match the health symptoms that the community was reporting at that early stage, such as headaches, dizziness dizziness, nosebleeds, burning eyes, nose and sore throat, nausea and vomiting. those health impacts as well as others have persisted until today. and when you look at the data that the health department in arkansas is evaluating, most of it is coming from the exxon contractors as well as the epa, and they're being performed with a handheld monitor, which analyzes for total volatile

organics, benzine and hydrogen sulfide. and the issue is that these handheld instruments are not sensitive enough. so, for the most part, they're coming up with nondetect. this is the day the health department is evaluating. >> tell me how this stuff is still getting into the air because exxon came in and had cleaned up the oil from the oil spill. we don't see it on the surface anymore. we're showing you file pictures of mayflower right now. so is it that the oil soaked into the ground and wasn't taken out of the ground and there's still -- like, how does that happen? >> well, the chemical was actually absorbed into the ground in the subdivision, and it also ran off under the railroad track under the interstate into the water bodies which is known as the cove, which is part of lake conway. so it is still print in that area, in the cove area, if you looked at the recent monitoring

as late as friday of last week. you will see that they're detecting a lot of benzine, which is a known human cancer causing agent on a periodic basis, and they're detecting the chemical tal u wean on a very consistent basis. they detected that from the very first day of the spill as well as polynuclear hydro carbons. when you look at the health impacts associated with those classes of chemicals, they're known and suspected to cause cancer and they cause the headache, dizziness, nausea, involveme vomiting. also it causes impacts to the nervous system. sto it looks like a lot of the health impacts are associated with the benzine, the taluine and -- >> so the neighbors, wilma, have filed suit against exxon. >> i'm sorry, i can barely hear you. >> i'll try to talk louder. the residents have filed suit against exxon, but exxon has a

lot more money than these people do, and the department of health in arkansas is seemingly on exxon's side in this. so do the neighbors have a chance? >> well, if you also look at the samples epa has been collecting inside the homes in the evacuated area, they are detecting the benzine tal you wean ethyl benzine and when they compare td to comparable samples collected by exxon contractors, for the most part contractors are getting nondetect. so it gets back to the sensitivity of the testing and clearly the chemicals that are continuing to be detected and continuing to cause the health impacts and -- >> wilma, i'm sorry, i have to interrupt you, but thank you for joining us this morning. president obama is at the white house, and he's going to announce his nominations for federal judges. left's listen. >> important responsibilities of a president is to nominate qualified men and women to serve

as judges on the federal bench. and congress has a responsibility as well. the senate is tasked with providing advice and consent. they can approve a president's nominee, or they can reject a president's nominee. but they have a constitutional duty to promptly consider judicial nominees for confirmation. now, throughout my first term as president, the senate too often failed to do that. time and again, congressional republicans cynically used senate rules and procedures to delay and even block qualified nominees from coming to a full vote. as a result, my judicial nominees have waited three times longer to receive confirmation votes than those of my republican predecessor. let me repeat that. my nominees have taken three

times longer to receive confirmation votes than those of my republican predecessor. these individuals that i nominate are qualified. when they were given an up or down vote in the senate, when they were finally given an up or down vote in the senate, every one of them was confirmed. so this is not about principled opposition. this is about political obstruction. i recognize that neither party has a perfect track record here. democrats weren't completely blameless when i was in the senate. what's happening now is unprecedented. for the good of the american people, it has to stop. too much of the people's business is at stake. our legal framework depends on timely confirmations of judicial nominees. and nowhere is this more apparent than with the d.c. circuit court of appeals.

the d.c. circuit is known as the second highest court in the country, and there's a good reason for that. the judges on the dik d.c. circuit routinely have the final say on a broad range of cases involving everything from national security to environmental policy, from questions of campaign finance to workers' rights. in other words, the court's decisions impact almost every aspect of our lives. there are 11 seats on the d.c. circuit court. when i first took office, there were two vacancies. since then, two more judges have retired. that means there are four vacancies that needed to be filled by february of this year more than one-third of the seats on the nation's second highest court were empty. imagine if a third of the seats on the highest court, the supreme court, were empty.

we would rightly consider that a judicial crisis. if we want to ensure a fair and functioning judiciary, our courts cannot be short-staffed. in 2010 i put forward a highly qualified nominee for the d.c. circuit, caitlin halligan. caitlin's credentials were beyond question. she had bipartisan support from the legal and law enforcement community. she had the support of a majority of senators. nobody suggested she was not qualified to serve on the court. if caitlin had gotten a simple up or down vote before the full senate, i am confident she would have been easily confirmed. but instead for 2 1/2 years senate republicans blocked her nominations. had nothing to do with kate lip's qualifications. it was all about politics. and after 2 1/2 years of

languishing in limbo, this principled and qualified lawyer asked me to withdraw her nomination. now, the good news is last year i put forward another highly qualified nominee, shree nivasan. he was unanimously confirmed eye few weeks ago becoming the first south asian-american to serve on a circuit court in our nation's history. so i'm pleased that the snapt a senate acted. i'm glad republicans decided not to play politics and block his nomination the way they did with caitlin. i'm hopeful we can now build on that progress because shree's nomination was the first to the d.c. circuit in seven years. so out of the four vacancies that it existed, one has now

been filled. there are three seats -- >> we're going to break away. the president not exactly striking a bipartisan tone as he prepares to announce his nominees for the d.c. court of appeals. you can see the two behind him, an african-american judge will be nominated. we'll find out more about the nominees from brianna keilar after this. with premium service like one of the best on-time delivery records and a low claims ratio, we do whatever it takes to make your business our business. od. helping the world keep promises. i honestly loved smoking, and i honestly didn't think i would ever quit. [ male announcer ] along with support, chantix (varenicline) is proven to help people quit smoking.

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good morning. thanks so much for joining us. i'm carol costello, 37 minutes pastd the hour. time to check our top stories. firefighters gaining ground against a southern california wildfire that scorched more than 32,000 acres and destroyed at least 6 homes. wildfires also burning in new mexico and colorado. jailhouse logs are giving us a look at life behind bars for the accused cleveland kidnapper ariel castro. the report shows he spends most of his days either lying on his mat in his cell, pacing the floor or staring out the window.

he's also been cleaning and reading his inmate manual. castro is being held on $8 million bond, accused of holding three women captive for nearly a decade. trade unions are backing trucky by starting a two-day strike. the turkish medical association says about 3200 people have been injured in clashes over the last two days and there are reports of two deaths. the prime minister has actually left the country on an official visit to morocco saying things will be just fine when he comes back. justin verlander arguably the best pitcher in all of baseba baseball, but the detroit tigers ace wants to take a shot at the home run derby. verlander has not had a hit at 24 major league at-bats, something i teased him about during spring training. what's your biggest goal of this season? >> win a world series. >> of course. i guess i was more thinking like develop a new pitch or get a hit. >> thanks for that.

you know, i've been saying for the last seven years that this is my year. so i'm going to go the other direction this year and say, i'm not going to get a hit. who care s? i'm going to do everything i possibly can to jinx it the other way. >> i think that's a good idea. so you just admit that -- >> i suck. >> -- you suck. yes! >> you may be the first person to ever hear me say that. >> oh, but he's changed his mind. verlander has tweeted a link to the mlb.com page where fans can vote for home run derby hitters. who knows, maybe he can replace prince fielder this year. i don't think so. we've been telling you about congress and the hearings going on today on the irs and its targeting of conservative nonprofit groups. those groups testifying before congress today. dana bash has been listening in. she joins us now live on capitol hill to bring us up to date. >> reporter: that's right, carol. right now what is going on is the members of the tea party

groups from across the country who were brought in by congress to testify and tell their stories are doing just that, they're going down the line giving their opening statements. i want to play the very first one we heard from. it was powerful and really il us stra tiff of the kind of frustration they've had. this particular group applied for tax exempt status a long time ago and still to this day doesn't have it. >> as of today, i've been waiting for 29 months without status. in the interim, i lost a $30,000 launch grant from a reputable nonprofit whose executive director advised me that he had never seen such treatment of a 501c-3 applicant in his 25 years of making grants. i also lost and continue to lose multiple thousands of my own money, and i had to cease any further official activity for fear the irs would target me for further harassment. for 2 1/2 years the irs has

unlawfully delayed and obstructed my application for determination of tax exempt status by using unconstitutional criteria. >> reporter: so you heard there that story, and before he described the purpose of his particular group, which is called linchpins of liberty, didn't hear anything about politics at all, at least the way he described it here, talking about the fact this they try to promote the constitution and mentor kids about various philosophies with regard to the government, good government, government with the hand of the federal government out of it. he also said that part of the questionnaires that he's gotten have been really, from his perspective, over the top, and i think democrats and republicans on this committee would agree. he was asked by the irs to identify political affiliations of his -- the mentors and also what he plans to teach his students. he declared here he thought that was unconstitutional. whether or not that's true remains to be seen, but there's

no question that even the democrats on this committee say that what these groups have gone through is just absolutely wrong. >> wow, interesting stuff. i know you'll keep on it. thank you. dana bash reporting live from capitol hill. we'll be right back. ♪ [ female announcer ] the sun powers life. ♪ and now it powers our latest innovation. ♪ introducing the world's only

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all right, let's go back to the white house now and check in with correspondent brianna keilar. president obama just nominated three appeals court judges whoxt are they? >> reporter: these judges are individually pretty noncontroversial, patricia millet, cornelia hill ard and judge robert wilkins. as i said, if you look at sort of these judge picks individually, not very controversial. but it's the fact that president obama is picking the three of them together for a very

important court, the u.s. court of appeals, for the district of columbia circuit. this is a court that hears a lot of government-related cases, a lot of cases that ultimately go to the supreme court. you could also look at it as a bit of a farm team for the supreme court. you see a lot of justices who come from serving on this court of apiles. and what we heard from president obama, carol, was a very political speech that he gave flanked by his three picks, and this is a political fight that certainly the white house welcomes, and you could argue that they are picking. it is obviously within president obama's rights to choose his judicial nominees, but we're hearing in response to this congressional republicans like senator chuck grassley accusing president obama of court packing. why is he saying that? well, if you kind of break down the numbers on this circuit of d.c. court of appeals, at this point right now, you have eight serving, and there are 11 total

spots. so there are these three vacancies. right now it's split 4-4 democrat and republican appointees. the white house will argue, yeah, but five of the six seniors are republican appointed. they do have a bit of a lighter work load, i will say, so you could definitely argue that with these three picks this would tip in the favor of democrats, the court would. sort of a fight here as certainly president obama and the white house trying to get away from these controversies just sucking up so much of the oxygen here in washington. they would much rather be talking about this and how republicans are obstructionists. that's what the president is tryitry ing to say here, carol, something that resonates with many americans. that's how he's trying to shift things from the controversies. coming up in the "newsroom" 0, science fiction comes to l e life. experts think they could actually bring a woolly mammoth back to life one day. seriously, the real question is, should they?

i'll break down the de-extinction debate next. hey. they're coming. yeah. british. later. sorry. ok...four words... scarecrow in the wind... a baboon... monkey? hot stew saturday!? ronny: hey jimmy, how happy are folks who save hundreds of dollars switching to geico? jimmy: happier than paul revere with a cell phone. ronny: why not? anncr: get happy. get geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more. to prove to you that aleve is the better choice for him, he's agreed to give it up. that's today? [ male announcer ] we'll be with him all day as he goes back to taking tylenol.

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park," right? ah, the popular film where scientists cloned dinosaurs and, well, chaos ensues. the thing is, that could soon become reality. sort of. a well-preserved woolly mammoth was recently foundz containing liquid blood. now, one south korean company hopes that blood could help it clone the extinct species. here's a question we could soon be left with -- not can we bring the symbol of the earth age back to life, but should we? should we do this? beth shapiro is aan associates professor at the university of california santa cruz. welcome. >> hello. >> i can't wait to have this conversation. it's so fascinating. you are working to bring back another extinct species, the passenger pigeon. a lot of people are probably horrified at that because you're messing with nature. so why do you want to do this? >> i wouldn't go so far to say i

am working to bring back the passenger pigeon. i think there are a huge number of technical hurdles that we'll need to overcome before we can really bring something back to life. what we're doing in my lab and with the long now foundation and a lot of other different colleagues and individuals is to try to take care of some of those first steps. how can we sequence the genome of an extinct species and assemble that genome and learn how to use that to learn what made that species different from a closely related species still alive today. >> still, i think a lot of people would object to this kind of work at all because, again, you're messing with nature and you should leave the world as nature intended because some species were meant to become extinct. >> well, what does that mean? how can you say that a species was meant to become extinct? if, for example, our species is responsible for having drice iit to extinction? >> what about the woolly mammoth? i don't think humankind had

anything to do with the woolly mammoth's extinction from the earth. >> that's a difficult argument to make. i mean, surely the mammoth and others that were alive during the last ice age 20,000 years ago were affected by climate change going on. but mammoth survived for a very long time prior to the last ice age and through other interglacial periods when it was just as warm as it is today. they managed to survive many of these transitional periods, going from a hot period to a cold period or cold to hot. it's only this most recent transition in which it went xingts. and i would argue and i think many others would that one of the major differences between these different transition periods and the most recent one was the presence of our species. while we may have not initiated the decline of the mammoth, i would be pressed to say that we didn't have anything to do with their extinction. >> here's the thing. there are many, many animals who have gone extinct. who makes the decision about

which animals to bring back and how do we do that and justify it? >> that's an excellent question. i think that's why it's important to have this discussion today. as a scientist i'm conflicted about whether we should or should not bring an extinct species back to life. but it's hard to stop science and to start progress -- stop progress in particular when there's something this it cool and captivating of people's imagination as the opportunity to bring something p baback to . so if this is going to happen -- and i wouldn't say it's just around the corner -- we need to know, we need to talk about who is responsible for making these decisions. where should they go? who gets to come back? what sorts of laws and statutes do we need to develop in order to deal with this? >> i could go on talking -- big, big questions. i wish we could go on, but i'm running out of time in my show. beth, thank you so much for a fascinating conversation. beth shapiro with the university of california santa cruz. we'll be right back. maxwell is not.

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before we go, let's check our top stories. major nadal hassan, the man accused of killing 13 at ft. hood in 2009 has asked for a three-month delay to prepare a new defense. yesterday the judge ruled he can represent himself at the court-martial with the assistance of military lawyers. jury selection for the trial set to begin tomorrow. geologists now investigating this sinkhole that opened up last night near winter park, florida. you can see the hole behind the pool. two homes have been affected, the hole measures 40 by 50 feet and is 30 feet deep. the act visit group anonymous is launching its own news site.

anonymous says they'll aggregate news from external news sources including twitter. that will do it for me today. i'm carol costello. thank you so much for joining me. "cnn newsroom" continues after a break. to eat. then rest. to fuel the metabolic cycle they were born to have, purina one created new healthy metabolism wet and dry. with purina one and the right activity, we're turning feeding into a true nature experience. join us at purinaone.com a regular guy with an irregular heartbeat. the usual, bob? not today. [ male announcer ] bob has afib: atrial fibrillation not caused by a heart valve problem, a condition that puts him at greater risk for a stroke.

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