thanks for watching. tonight-l christine o'donnell answer the tough questions about her financial history? she didn't this weerkd, and tonight our gary tuchman tries again. we'll show you what happened and what new details he's uncovered about her spending history. also tonight, president obama facing disillusioned democrats and challenging the tea party. we'll show you what he said today and talk with our panel, eliot spitzer, dana lash and joe johns. later what if you got sick or your child got sick and no doctor knew why? what would you do? "360" m.d. sanjay gupta introduces us tonight to the disease detectives, trying to solve medicine's toughest mysteries. that's part one of a week-long series. we begin tonight, though, keeping them honest with christine o'donnell and how she spent money from her last campaign. last week after searching federal campaign filings we learned that the surprise republican nominee for u.s. senator from delaware had checks and expense records that didn't seem to add up. apparently, spending campaign

money on personal expenses after the campaign was over, which would be a violation of federal election law. for instance, take a look. this check for $475. ms. o'donnell labeled it as "mileage reimbursement." but it was written three months after her last campaign ended. or this, $600 for her utility bill, paid to delmarva power. again, the campaign was over. tonight, more checks have surfaced, including campaign dollars to pay rent on ms. o'donnell's home, rent going to her campaign lawyer and former boyfriend, who bought the home from her when she could not afford mortgage payments. now, ms. o'donnell says she's done nothing unethical, and we'd like to talk to her about these checks, but she's not talking. ahead you'll see what happened when our gary tuchman tried to talk to her just a few moments ago. this weekend she cancelled appearances on cbs's "face the nation" as well as "fox news sunday." her campaign said there were scheduling conflicts, although they also told fox news originally she was exhausted. she cancelled soon after this video surfaced friday night on bill maher's hbo show. >> i dabbled into witchcraft.

i never joined a coven. >> wait, you were a witch? >> yeah. i he never joined a coven. let's get this straight. >> wait, i love this. you were a witch. you're going halloween's you bad, i used to be a witch. how were you a witch? >> because i dabbled into witchcra witchcraft, i hung around people who were doing these things. i'm not making this stuff up. i know what they told me they do. on one of my dates -- >> whoa, whoa, i want to hear about this. >> one of my first dates with a witch was on a satanic altar and i didn't know it. there was a little blood there and stuff like that. >> that was a date? >> your first date was a satanic altar? >> yeah, we went to a movie and had a little picnic on a saltnic altar. >> bill maher says he has more clips of o'donnell on the show and promises to play one after the other until she comes back on his program. given her new stranlt of not talking to national media outlets that seems highly doubtful although yesterday she tried to explain away the whole witchcraft satanic altar thing. >> the witchcraft comment on

bill maher, i was in high school. how many of you didn't hang out with questionable folks in high school? but no, there's been no witchcraft since. if there was, karl rove would be a supporter now. >> well, karl rove, who was actually on "fox news sunday"'s show without o'donnell, he filled in for her, said though she was smart to cancel at some point she's got to talk. >> well, you know, in southern delaware where there are a lot of churchgoing people they're probably going to want to know what was that all about. my view is she can't simply ignore it she's got to deal with it and explain it and put it in its most sympathetic light and move on. but she can't say this is factually not true and just ignore them, go to my website and ignore them. i don't think the people of delaware have or are accepting that as a reasonable explanation. >> well, we're not, again, focusing tonight on the witchcraft. we're focusing on the -- on her finances. rove there advocating she talk to people in delaware, not inside the beltway. sarah palin no, surprise,

agreed. shortly after the sunday morning programs aired, palin tweeted this -- c. o'donnell strategy, time's limited, use it to connect with local voters whom you'll be serving versus appeasing national media seeking your destruction. this is no longer fresh advice. other candidates are doing likewise this election season. remember of course arizona's governor jan brewer. after tough questioning from reporters she simply walked away. >> please answer the question. about the headless bodies. why won't you recant that? >> you still believe that? >> come on, governor. >> okay, thank you all. >> governor. >> oh. >> she's also vowed not to debate her opponents anymore. nevada's sharron angle, who's running in nevada against senator harry reid also has a history of walking, sometimes even running away from unwanted questions. well, gary tuchman has been digging on christine o'donnell's financial problems, tried to see if he could get a few questions answered by the candidate just a few moments ago. tonight he joins us from middletown, delaware. gary, did she talk? >> reporter: well, anderson, she talked a little bit. tell you about that in a second.

first of all, to set up the scene, the candidates forum in middletown, six candidates here for different races, she was one of them. after it ended we wanted to ask her one very specific question, not about witchcraft, anything like that, but about these financial allegations. now, it's important to ask her that because today a washington watchdog group which investigates politicians just finished investigating charlie rangel said that christine o'donnell is "clearly a criminal and she should be prosecuted because of her spending." so i asked her, can i ask you just one specific question? she said if you're polite and let me shake hands i'll answer the question. but then she wouldn't take my question, she just made a general statement. >> we have been ethical. we have not -- i personally have not misused the campaign funds. we have our f.e.c. lawyer, a great attorney, answering those charges if it ever goes anywhere. >> reporter: well, we felt we had an obligation to still ask her a very specific question and not get a general statement or ask a general question. because she hasn't given any

specific answers yet. so when she walked out of here just a few moments ago, i tried one more time. >> ms. o'donnell, i ask the one question you promised you'd answer. >> i did answer it. >> no. about the rentals last year. why were you paying rent money with campaign money? >> sorry tonight. not happening. >> that was the one question i had. >> i answered it. >> no, you didn't answer it. >> gary, the question -- by the way, you were not rude. you were very respectful. the question, as always, you were trying to ask her about the apartment. what exactly is the allegation? what's the question? >> okay. we have a lot more records today, f.e.c., federal election commission, records. and some of these records show this. we have one check that she wrote in march of 2009 for $750 to a guy by the name of brent vasher for rental of a house. the reason why this is very relevant is because in 2009 she was running for nothing. she had just finished her election of 2008 where she lost to joe biden, she had a huge debt, she hadn't yet declared in 2010. yet she was writing this check for $750 to a landlord for the rental of her home from campaign money. the reason it's even murkier is brent vasher is her former

boyfriend and is the person she sold her house to when it was about to be foreclosed on. he bought the house and she was paying him rent. currently she also pays campaign money for her apartment but it doubles as a campaign headquarters. but you can't give that argument in 2009, there was no campaign going on. also on these forms you're supposed to say what they're for, so you should say rental. instead she said fund-raising expense, expense reimbursement. that's what she said on that particular check. a month later, on april 13th, another $750 check to the same guy, and this time the check didn't say expense reimbursement, it said reimbursement for services. so she was changing the things that the check was written for. this watchdog group said this is in an effort to confuse people who may look at these files someday. also some more records we have for small amounts, but don't be fooled about this. what we're being told by some republicans who don't want to go on camera and also this watchdog group is this more clearly shows that she's using money for personal purposes when it's for small amounts because it couldn't be for a campaign. once again it was in 2009 when she was running for nothing. a $22 check she wrote to lone

star steakhouse. that's obviously for one meal. it's not for a party. it's not for a fund-raiser or anything like that. $30 on march 2nd, also when she's not running for anything, to cumberland farms. that's called a travel expense. and what people are saying, what this watchdog group is saying, is this was her personal piggy bank, she was using her campaign funding like you use your credit card when you go to the store or you go to a restaurant. and then december 2009, four months before she declared her candidacy in this race, a $360 charge written -- a check written to herself, reimbursement, houston trip. now, what does that mean? when you use campaign money, you're supposed to have receipts, declare what it means. no such receipts that we see exist. but what this watchdog group is saying is that a very close friend of hers who works on her campaign now is from houston. they are theorizing she just took a trip to houston and reimbursed herself for $360. and finally, this check. this is a little different. july of 2010. she was running at this point. this is a $3,000 check to her mother, carol o'donnell. now, you are allowed under f.e.c. rules to hire family members to do things. she was apparently hired as a financial consultant.

but the reason this is notable is because many people have quit her campaign over the years saying they weren't paid. she ended up paying $3,000 to her mother for financial consulting. and by many accounts this financial consulting wasn't so good. so soond, what we do want to point out, what these watchdog groups are saying, what republicans are saying to us-s that if you gave money to ms. o'donnell there's a very good chance they feel that you're helping subsidize the lifestyle of a woman who hasn't had a regular job for at least five years. anderson. >> good stuff. gary, we'll see how long she can go without basically answering directly any of these questions, but it's important we keep asking. gary, appreciate it. want to bring in melanie sloan now for citizens for responsibility and ethics in washington. her group doing much of the legwork on this story and as gary mentioned today filed complaints with the f.e.c. and the u.s. attorney's office in delaware. melanie, you say in this report that she is a criminal. how can you say that? shouldn't she be innocent until proven guilty? >> well, of course, everyone is innocent until proven guilty. but if you look at the facts in this case, and it's literally just the facts, you can look at

the campaign finance reports, christine o'donnell filed, you can look at what her former campaign staffers have said and two former staffers, david keegan and kristen murray have both said she basically treated the campaign coffers like her own personal piggy bank and she routinely was spending out of campaign money for her personal lifestyle, this is the stuff that crimes are made of. this is embezzlement. this is no different than any other employee who steals from their job. >> christine o'donnell says we in the media shouldn't be listening to your organization. she says basically you're a liberal group, and the implication is that you have partisan reasons for getting after her. plenty of her supporters are going to say, look -- i don't want to use the term "witch hunt" because now it would be a pun but that basically you have an agenda, going after her. >> crew's track record is clear. we're a non-partisan organization and we take folks on all sides of the aisle, democrat, republican, conservative, liberal. it doesn't matter. we've come down just as hard on

knightn diel of georgia now running for governor, as greg meeks, a congressman in new york, democrat. charlie rangel, maxine waters two, other democrats we've targeted recently. john ensign, another republican. so c.r.e.w. is just looking for politicians to be honest and have integrity, and christine o'donnell sadly just does not exemplify those values. >> isn't it possible, though, that she -- okay, if she wasn't having an active campaign at the time she wrote some of these checks allegedly but maybe in her home she was doing work, you know, cleaning up stuff from the last campaign or work that was related to stuff that had happened during the last campaign? would it then be appropriate for her to make these charges? >> sure. if those were the charges she was making, some of those would be legitimate. but that's not what she did. some of the expenses that we know, for example, the two checks that she wrote to brent vasher were for rent, and we know this because brent vasher's uncle, david keegan, her former campaign staffer, told us what the checks were for and we know that christine o'donnell lied on the f.e.c. reports. it's also interesting here that christine o'donnell has gone

through many campaign treasurers. they've quit repeatedly. so she was the only one responsible for signing and submitting those f.e.c. reports. basically, she had no oversight over her spending, which is sometimes what keeps people in check. >> this -- the timeline -- you're saying there should be an investigation. none of this would occur, even if the u.s. attorney took this up, there would be no end result of this until well -- until years from now, correct? >> not necessarily years from now. but extremely unlikely anything could happen before the election. certainly we're not going to know the extent of her wrongdoing before then. it's going to take a while for investigators to unravel all her spending. they're going to have to audit her accounts and demand receipts and ask questions. but luckily, now that she's brought in over a million dollars this week, she now has the money to actually pay those criminal defense and campaign finance lawyers she's going to need. >> but if you -- i mean, to the point that this is, you know, some sort of vendetta against her, that you're targeting her, i mean, if she was not -- if she hadn't won, would you guys still be investigating her like this?

>> i think that's part of what christine o'donnell was counting on. she never expected to be here. so no, groups like mine wouldn't have had the time or inclination to start combing through her campaign finance reports. but it was really the facts that her former campaign aides started talking about the problems. it wasn't c.r.e.w. that immediately began investigating her. it was kristen murray, who used to be a campaign manager, who started a robo call saying that christine o'donnell had been spending campaign money on personal items while leaving campaign staffers unpaid. so it was really that that instigated us to begin looking into the matter. >> all right. melanie sloan, appreciate you being on. thanks, melanie. let us know what you think. the live chat up and running at ac360.com. up next, eliot spitzer joins us along with joe johns and dana lash. they are going to weigh in on this. and also on president obama's town hall meeting today. people hurting from the recession throwing some very sharp questions at him. one democratic woman saying she's tired of defending him. also, his challenge for the tea party. and later, the disease detectives. sanjay gupta on the doctors you call when your child is ill and no other doctors know what is

wrong. >> i was told that. i was being -- i was looking for things that weren't there. it's just really hard. it's -- i don't know. >> we actually spent a lot of time videotaping her when we saw the little things that started happening because no one believed us. ♪

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we've been focusing on the spending history of christine o'donnell who has a lot of tea party support in delaware and throughout the nation. president obama today in a town hall meeting leveled a challenge at the tea party. listen. >> the challenge, i think, for the tea party movement is to identify specifically what would you do. it's not enough just to say get control of spending. i think it's important for you to say, you know, i'm willing to cut veterans' benefits or i'm

willing to cut medicare or social security benefits. or i'm willing to see these taxes go up. >> joining us now, eliot spitzer, co-host of cnn's "parker spitzer," premiering two weeks from tonight. also joe johns and dana lash, a st. louis talk radio host and national tea party organizer. eliot, what do you make of that? is it smart for the president to directly address the tea party? >> absolutely. right now the dynamic is the tea party has been governing the course the debate. he needs to push back somehow, saying what he's done is not working is purely a political matter. he needs to say to the public it is one thing to lob attacks at us, it is something very different to have a strategy for governing. and i think he needs to chait debate and put the burden back on the tea party to say what would you do and then give two options, one, what he's doing and what the tea party would do to the public to choose between. >> dana-s that i affair criticism of the tea party, which you are a member of, that it's about criticism but not actually concrete things about what they would do? >> i would actually disagree with that. i think the movement has been incredibly clear as to not only what they would do but what they would like to see from congress,

everything from the economy to health care to foreign policy. they've been really, really clear that they would like to see more fiscal accountability, especially when it came to the health care debate. it was written on the signs. so people could understand it. they've been really clear. >> well, you know, you're right, the signs say repeal health care. but that is not a health care agenda. that is not either a solution to 30 million, 40 million uninsured or escalating health care costs or the reality that the quality of health care in this nation has been declining. so repealing is -- you're right. it's a policy. but i don't think it's a policy that most americans would say that is where we want to go. so i think what the president is saying is what is the affirmative agenda? >> one thing i can add -- one thing i'd like to add is, number one, this isn't exactly new because colin powell said it over the weekend. number two, i'm being told here in washington that people in the tea party and associated individuals are not interested in being pinned down to specifics because they know once they get pinned down they're no

longer a moving target, it makes it easier for democrats and their opponents to shoot at them. so they want to remain as general as possible as long as possible because they can bring more people into their tent. >> dana? >> i think that means for the amount of issues perhaps when you get into social issues. but for things like health care, the movement has been incredibly clear. some of the things that they've put out are let's be able to buy insurance across state lines, let's have health insurance companies compete. we've taken on everything from health care to education to foreign policy and not just general. i mean, we've isolated specific issues within the realm of each of these topics, and we've gone at it. when you talk about people being general, where we've seen people be general is from the congress currently in washington, d.c. we've seen broad generalizations on a number of different policies. we would actually like to see congressional democrats be a little bit more -- just be a little bit more precise with things. >> you know, because i'm always looking for points of agreement, i agree with you about the ability to purchase across state lines, competition across state lines. those have been perspectives

taken primarily by the liberal wing of the democratic party and opposed by the republican party. so if you wanted to ask why -- >> they came out in the patient's choice act. >> -- why that has not been per mutted -- >> no. >> you can say no. facts are facts. the reality -- >> republicans came ought with the patient's choice act. >> you can't change the facts. the reality is the opposition to interstate competition has come from the republican party and that remains to be the case. >> no. that is -- >> sorry, facts are facts. >> factual error. patient's choice act. it came out. eric cantor, a number of congressional republicans came out. that was one of the main talking points, patient's bill of rights. >> talking points always. >> i want to play a clip, joe, also of president obama and one of the questions he got at this town hall meeting today. >> i'm exhausted of defending you, defending your administration, defending the mantel of change that i voted for, and deeply disappointed where we are right now. >> right. >> i have been told that i voted for a man who said he was going to change things in a meaningful

way for the middle class. i'm one of those people, and i'm waiting, sir. i'm waiting. i don't feel it yet. >> joe, certainly a lot of democrats probably would agree with that woman. >> yeah, that's a very powerful interaction there too because you have an african-american woman who clearly seems to have been a real obama supporter. and what a lot of america out the there, the democrats i think are talking about that are dissatisfied, they're talking about employment. they're talking about jobs. they thought we were going to be much further along by the time we got to the midterm elections than we actually are. and they look at the president of the united states and say you promised change, where's the change, where's the jobs. so this is something that this administration just can't get around, and they're not going to be able to get around by talking about other things, including their own successes, until that unemployment rate goes down. >> we only have a few minutes left, but i want to get to christine o'donnell because i'm really interested, dana, to hear

your perspective on this. a, do you think it is unfair that there is this focus on, you know, her past spending, that these questions have been raised? and do you think it's fair for the media to be focusing on it? and do you think it's right for her not to be talking to the national media but simply kind of avoiding questions and only kind of staying locally? >> do i think it's fair? absolutely. you are a candidate. you agreed to enter public life. you have to be prepared for what the media throws at you. do i think that she should speak to the media? absolutely. she's a candidate. she ought to be speaking to the media. she has an advantage of having an unreal amount of media attention on her. she needs to be using that to her advantage. do i think that there's a little bit of agenda behind some of the criticisms? i do. i spent the better part of the afternoon researching every single person involved with c.r.e.w. and while they claim to be a non-partisan group, they're not. i've yet to find a titled officer within this group that actually has republican conservative connections. one of them, in fact, used to in some capacity work with joe

biden, which i think this we're going to talk about disclosing stuff in the context of this debate needs to be brought to the forefront. so of course, i think she should be answering these questions and she should be talking about it. i also think c.r.e.w. needs to pay attention to eleanor holmes norton, the woman who was caught on tape leaving messages for lobbyists hitting them up for cash which is also a violation of -- >> but if you look at c.r.e.w.'s list of -- they have this list of the ten most -- i'm not sure of the term they use for ethically challenged i guess individuals in congress, i think it's pretty balanced between democrats and republicans. and we've had that melanie sloan on before when we've been focusing on this woman bernice johnson, you know, in the scholarship scandal down in texas. i think we were kind of -- you us and the dass morning news seemed to be the only people kind of interested in this. but c.r.e.w. is certainly interested. she's a democrat. you don't think they target as many republicans as they do democrats? or are you just concerned with the personnel? >> well, i think that on the list, because i was looking at it, it was like the 10 or 11 most corrupt politicians that -- or candidates rather they had on their list. they had two missouri candidates

right now from my state, missouri, they had roy blount and ed martin. and i think it was sort of interesting that while they had ed martin on they didn't have his o'poentd, whose brother received $90 million in stimulus cash, stimulus that russ karn ahan voted for and his brother received $90 million of that for his wind farm which isn't even in russ carnahan's district, not even in the state of missouri, they didn't make the list. >> you say the questions being raised about o'donnell are fair game. >> yeah, sure, they are fair game. and her campaign director matt moran said he's confident these will be dismissed as frivolous and if so let's answer some questions. i have no problem with it. i think all candidates need to be held to the exact same standards and no candidate should be running away when a reporter asks a question unless it's something like boxers or briefs, as we saw in the '90s. that's frivolous. but everything else is fair game. >> is it frivolous? >> i don't think it's frivolous. i think her candidacy right now is about to implode unless she answers the question in a very forthright manner. if she does so and frankly i'm not here to give her advice, stand up and saying if you made michkz on this order of magnitude say to the public i

wasn't schooled in this stuff, here's what i did, the magnitude is x number of thousands of dollars, i'm going to pay it out of my pocket but the reason i'm running for senate is because i'm different from the folks who learn to play by the rules, the craze will i little intricacies. she can resuscitate her campaign -- >> she's also very personable, does well on television, she seems like a nice person -- >> her strategy has been completely backwards on this, and i think her candidacy disappears and becomes -- is mocked if she does not answer the questions quite quickly. zwlel yot spitzer, joe johns, dana loesch, always good to have you on. up ahead the advertising war between christine o'donnell and her opponent chris koons. a fact test to see if either of them is telling the truth. and later sanjay gupta a really fascinating series, introducing us to fellow doctors, disease detectives essentially. they're the last hope for people with medical mysteries. >> you have to tell a lot of people no. >> you do. yes. >> it seems like that would be hard. >> it is hard. it's very hard. and i have to take some solace

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christine o'donnell might not be talking to the national media right now, but on stage in front of conservative audiences she insists she is being smeared. >> will they attack us? yes. will they smear our backgrounds and distort our records? undoubtedly.

>> well, that was o'donnell on friday night at the value voter summit even before the whole witchcraft story from 11 years blew up. a lot of money is now pouring in the delaware race and new campaign commercials are being put out. as always, we're "keeping them honest" checking the commercials against the facts. that's our job. tom foreman joins us in tonight's installment of "political theater." tom? >> anderson, from the moment christine o'donnell won the republican senate nomination, delaware has become the front line for those who say the tea party train can be stopped and those who say it can't. so look at this latest attack ad from the democratic senatorial campaign committee. >> o'donnell spends money she doesn't have. hired employees she didn't pay. stiffed businesses. didn't pay her taxes. one of christine o'donnell's former employees summed it up. "we were constantly trying to hold her back from spending. she was financially completely irresponsible." >> so we checked it out and as

cnn's gary tuchman reported earlier, according to her former campaign finance consultant, david keegan, o'donnell did use campaign funds from earlier races for things like meals, gas, and to pay for bowling one time. so used campaign funds, check. the watchdog group we mentioned earlier, anderson, c.r.e.w., said she did some things, she didn't behave properly as a candidate. she did this while she was no longer candidate, therefore, it was illegal. beyond that, we could find no independent verification that she stiffed businesses or did not pay employees. there are some disputes over wages, but we couldn't find independent proof that she did this in some way that would excite attention here. her current campaign staff, while not flatly denying all those charges, says they are frivolous. but o'donnell was audited in 2008 and owed almost $12,000 to the irs. she appealed, thought there was some kind of error.

there wasn't, and she ended up paying just this past spring. so the bottom line as we move forward from all these different charges that we have here is that when we put it on our scale, this commercial is pretty close as it vacillates between our scale of big fat lie, tall tale, it's a stretch, to right on, to falling somewhere between it's a stretch and right on, anderson. >> kind of interesting that commercial, which is by democrats, doesn't really mention who the democratic candidate is or focus on him. it's all about just christine o'donnell. that's clearly where their focus is right now. how are republicans responding in terms of commercials? >> well, the tea party express spent about $250,000 to help o'donnell win the primary and now they say they have all kinds of tv ads and radio spots in the works. in the meantime, though, senator jim demint of south carolina, who backed o'donnell from the get-go, released this ad today going after her democratic opponent. take a look. >> what do we need in washington? harry reid calls chris coons his pet.

delaware doesn't need a washington career politician's pet. >> reid didn't really call chris c co-ons his pet, did he? yes, he did and i bet he regrets its. on september 11th, senate majority leader harry reid told "the hill newspaper," "i'll be honest with you, chris coons, everybody knows him in the democratic caucus, he's my pet. he's my favorite candidate." so this ad is also, when we throw it on our big scale, pretty much right on. and i think the rumble in delaware can just continue to roll on and we'll see a lot more of it based on your panels tonight. >> it was also interesting, christine o'donnell tonight referencing that pet remark. obviously, that's going to be playing. we're going to be hearing a lot from her in the days and weeks ahead. tom, thanks. following several other stories right now. randi kaye joins us with the "360" news and business bulletin. randi, what's going on? >> hi there, anderson. koc

confirmation today from the group that tracks recessions that the latest one ended last summer. spanning 18 months. it was the worst economic downturn since the great depression. stocks rallied on the news. all three indexes reached four-month highs. the dow surged 146. the nasdaq climbed 40. and the s&p added 17 points. france's first lady, carla bruni, denies that her u.s. counterpart, michelle obama, ever told her life in the white house was "hell." the claim was made in an unauthorized biography of bruni that was published just last week. and in portland, maine lady gaga takes the stage not to sing, instead to rally for an appeal of the u.s. military's don't ask don't tell policy. the singer called on maine's two republican u.s. senators to break a gop filibuster on legislation that would repeal the ban on openly gay and lesbian service members. lady gaga drew cheers when she proposed a new law titled "if you don't like it, go home." anderson? >> interesting. randi, appreciate it. this vote tomorrow. we'll check that out.

up next, a little girl with a mysterious illness. doctors completely stumped. tonight dr. sanjay gupta introduces us to the disease detectives. the last line of hope for parents like this little girl's mom. >> at this point i don't know if we're supposed to -- i didn't know if i should plan for her to go to kindergarten or if we should plan a funeral. >> ahead, how these doctors try to solve the medical mysteries no one else has been able to solve. plus in the wake of the deadly san bruno explosion, pg&e releasing a list of its 100 riskiest natural gas pipelines. so is the section that blew up on that list? you might be surprised. ahead.

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imagine if you're seriously sick and getting sicker and no one in your life can figure out what is wrong with you. you've seen dozens of doctors but all of them are stumped. your life is literally on the line. so what do you do? well, tonight we begin a remarkable series of reports about i an entirely new approach to diagnosing unknown diseases. dr. sanjay gupta has been working on the story for months. he joins us now. this is really fascinating stuff. >> we've been visiting a place very few have heard about. a place where the best doctors and medical researchers in the world do work in teams to solve cases no one else has been able to crack. these are true medical mysteries. it's happening just outside the nation's capital at the national institutes of health. that's the nih for short. over the next few nights we'll introduce you to some amazing patients who've been through the ringer and have turned to these

doctor detectives as a last resort. the question nobody asks, are they going to get the diagnoses they've been waiting so long for? bethesda, maryland. deep inside the sprawling nih complex, dr. william gahl leads an elite team of doctors, specialists and researchers. they are the best in the world. together, they focus their vast expertise to try to save patients' lives. they are detectives in search of clues to solve mysteries no other doctors could solve. >> you're talking about patients who have been seen by some of the best in the country here. there are very good clinicians and diagnostic doctors everywhere. so you're taking the hardest of the most challenging cases of all? >> we expect a failure. we expect a high failure rate. we expect a success rate of perhaps 10% or 15% or so.

>> reporter: but 10% or 15% is a bright ray of hope for some patients. >> how much more you can do physically really speaks volumes. >> yeah. >> sally had all but given up. look at her back. it was as if muscle mass was consuming her body. sally was transforming into the incredible hulk. >> so this is sally's mri of the brain. >> that's pretty incredible. >> even the muscles that govern the movements of the eye, which are really small muscles, are huge. the neuroradiologist saw this and sort of went wild over this. look at the size of those. they're three to four times bigger. >> they probably really truly had never seen anything quite like this 37. >> right. because there's no way to make those muscles big by like moving your eyes a lot. it's not like lifting weights. so why would they be that big? >> reporter: it was a mystery. no doctors, no specialists, no one could diagnose what was happening to sally. which is why she was selected to come here. it's called the udp, the undiagnosed diseases program.

it's a medical mystery ward. kiley mcpeak is 6. she was also selected to come to the udp. >> she knows she's different, but it doesn't seem to faze her. it's -- she kind of seems like she's just like a normal kid. >> how serious is kylee? >> well, she's i would say real serious. i think that she has a disorder that will threaten her life. is essentially the issue here. we're sort of racing against time. >> reporter: the undiagnosed diseases program was launched only two years ago at nih. it accepts only the rarest of medical cases. and it's not only about saving lives. here they are also hoping to discover new diseases and create new science. >> it's really sort of the inspiration that we all have as clinical researchers. >> in two years, the udp has had more than 3,000 inquiries. >> see what we've got. >> reporter: more than 1,000

applications actually made it to dr. gahl's desk. >> this is an acceptance letter. >> reporter: but udp has accepted only a little over 300 patients. >> you have to tell a lot of people "no?" >> we do, yes. >> it seems like that would be hard? >> well, it is hard. it's very hard. and i have to take some solace in the fact that even though we're turning down a lot of people we're still helping a chosen few. >> reporter: the few, with mysterious conditions no one can diagnose. kylee dawn mcpeak was born in may of 2004. the picture of a perfect baby girl. she developed like a precocious, healthy toddler. >> she was above average on everything. i mean, she could say her abcs when she was like 18 months old. >> reporter: then at 3 1/2 kylie was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes.

shortly after that, her mom and dad, gina and steven, noticed something wasn't right. it began with a voice tremor. >> i have to eat. i have to do shots. >> reporter: then kylie had a seizure. and by the time she turned 4 her face started to twitch. >> the first day you sort of realize that there was something that was not right with her, because she was this precocious child just zooming past all the milestones, everything, because you're a parent now and you're trying to figure out is this just me being overly sensitive or -- >> i was told that. i was being -- i was looking for things that weren't there. it's just really hard. it's -- i don't know. >> we actually spent a lot of time videotaping her when we saw the little things that started happening because no one believed us. >> do you know when your birthday is? good girl.

>> reporter: the twitching soon spread down the entire right side of her body. her head began to tilt right. eating became a struggle. by then all the doctors agreed something was wrong. but what was it? the little girl was deteriorating. >> at this point i didn't know if i should plan for her to go to kindergarten or if we should plan a funeral. >> reporter: sally massagee's mystery did not begin until later in life. she was in her late 40s when her muscles began growing out of control. >> do you remember looking at her chart for the first time? >> yeah, i do. this was referred by an endocrinologist at duke. and the endocrinologist said "in my 38 years i've never seen a case like this." something like that. >> whoa. >> that's sort of impressive. what does that mean? well, when you see a picture then, that's pretty impressive. >> reporter: like all the patients selected for the undiagnosed diseases program, sally and her husband and kylie and her mom and dad would come to nih for a week of complex and

exhaustive tests. >> she's had a spinal tap before? >> yes. >> reporter: where a medical strike force was setting out to solve a mystery and to save their lives. >> i went in there in hopes of them finding an answer. >> this is our last hope. but at the same time it's -- we finally made it to the people that are going to find out what's wrong. >> i mean, unbelievable, sanjay, to hear the mom saying she didn't know if she should plan, you know, a birthday or her funeral. i mean, to not know what has gone wrong with your child or with your body is just incredible. >> it really is. and you keep in mind that these patients, anderson, they've been everywhere. and as you said, they've heard the same thing over and over again, we don't know what this is, we really can't help you. so this becomes a place of last resort. and what i found, anderson, obviously, the doctors here are good, they're very smart, but they do a couple things differently. first of all, instead of looking for the obvious things, which is how i think medicine -- that's what we're trained to do.

they're really truly looking on the fringes. they're looking on the edges to see what's not obvious, what's aberrant, what's an anomaly, and trying to make sense of that. and also as you heard dr. gahl mention, anderson, they can accept failure. doctors aren't usually good at accepting failure, but they know that sometimes they're not going to find the answer and in those cases they've still got to move on and try to see if they can advance science still. it's a totally different way of looking at things. >> this is the first of four parts that are going to be airing this week. what about tomorrow? >> sally and kylie are part of the chosen few, as was mentioned there, just one a few hundred patients. now they've been accepted to the program. what we're going to do is give you a look at the process, really take a peek behind the curtain and get a sense of what happens at a place like this. here's a little glimpse. >> can you swing, kylie? okay. >> kylie will undergo a week-long series of tests and evaluations by top medical specialists at nih. it's physically draining for

everyone. and for kylie's mom and dad emotionally wrenching. >> you have feelings but -- >> reporter: the week is intense. >> i don't think anybody's seen anything quite like kylie. this is a very complex case and is -- could be difficult to solve. >> wow. we'll be learning along with the doctors, or try to learn at least what is going on. sanjay, look forward to it. thanks. >> thank you, anderson. >> man. such tough cases. still ahead, a new twist in that acid attack hoax. the woman police say threw acid on her own face is now facing criminal charges, but not for what you may think. plus, why lindsay lohan could be head back to jail. coming up.

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randi kaye again joins with us a "360" bulletin. randi, what have you got? >> anderson, let's start on the west coast tonight. the section of natural gas pipeline that exploded south of san francisco in san bruno is not on the list of pg&e's 100 riskiest pipeline segments. the gas company released the list today under pressure from state regulators. the san bruno blast killed four people and destroyed dozens of homes. there is word tonight that the imam behind the proposed islamic center and mosque near ground zero is avoiding new york city because of security concerns. the reverend james parks morton, a friend of imam feisal abdul rauf said the imam is receiving protection from the new york police department. no comment from the nypd.

meantime, former president bill clinton weighed in on the controversy. >> a lot of the objections that have been raised against it would just wipe away if they just said we are dedicating this muslim -- this islamic center to the memory of the people who were killed on 9/11 who share our faith. and they can give you the names and tell you how many there were and i think it would surprise most americans. i think most americans may still not know that there was a substantial number of muslims killed on 9/11. a vancouver woman who lied about being attacked with acid has been charged with three counts of second-degree theft. the charges are related to donations bethany storro accepted from the public after claiming last month that an african-american woman threw acid on her face. she later admitted her injuries were self-inflicted. a warrant has been issued for her arrest. and a judge today revoked lindsay lohan's probation and ordered her to appear in court on friday.

she admitted she failed a drug test last night through twitter postings. her probation for a 2007 drunken driving conviction requires frequent drug tests. really sorry to see her back in trouble with that, anderson. >> just so sad and ridiculous and just really feel bad for her family. randi, thanks very much. hey, that's it for "360." thanks for watching. larry king coming up. see you tomorrow.

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