seven time cy young award winner and 11-time all-star. right now roger clemens is also a criminal defendant standing trial in federal court for allegedly lying to congress when he denied taking steroids and human growth hormone. jury selection under way this hour. the legal analyst for "sports illustrated" joins me live to talk about the challenge for feds and the cotton swabs in a beer can. wasteful spending to the tune of 800,000 taxpayer dollars on a vegas junket by the gsa two years ago. ♪ tell you about global project management ♪ >> the scandal is now in the cross hairs of a congressal hearing today. video spoofs even bragged about the lavish spending and poked fun at president obama. the scandal already has claimed gsa administrator martha johnson who stepped down two weeks ago. republican chair of the house oversight committee darrell issa says one goal of the hearing is to, quote, make sure this doesn't happen again. the death toll from this

weekend's massive tornadoes is rising. at least six people have died. all of the known fatalities right now in woodward, oklahoma. the woodward storm was just part of a massive system that spun off dozens of tornadoes across ten states in the midwest and plains. the national weather service received more than 130 reports of tornadoes. a major insurgent attack on kabul and three other areas in eastern afghanistan is over. but gunfire and rpg explosions rocked the capital until early this morning. afghan officials say a total of 35 insurgents were killed in the 18-hour battle. four civilians, eight members of the afghan security forces also dead. the taliban claimed responsibility. afghan president hamid karzai condemns the attacks and blames an intelligence failure on afghan and nato forces. norway mass murder suspect admits to the killings but claimsms it was self-defense.

anders behring breivik is accused of killing 77 people in a bomb and gun rampage last summer. at his trial today he fought back tears as his video manifesto was shown. breivik pled not guilty. if convicted, his punishment will be based on the determination of his sanity. in syria, a cease-fire appears to be on the verge of collapse. opposition groups say at least 19 people have been killed in government attacks in homs and other cities across the country. both sides blame the other for cease-fire violations. and members of a u.n. observer team are expected to begin monitoring that cease-fire today. we haven't heard the last of those secret service agents who supposedly hired prostitutes in colombia. president obama is promising a thorough and rigorous investigation and congress may call hearings into the purported misdeeds of 11 secret service agents and officers and 5 u.s. troops working with them. they supposedly brought the

prostitutes to this hotel in the lead-up to the summit of americas which the president attended. president obama's re-election campaign announces its raised $53 million in march. that's up about 8 million bucks from the month before. the campaign made the announcement in a web video. emphasizing how they picked up nearly 200,000 first-time donors. the campaign has raised well over $300 million since officially forming last april. at&t says it's having trouble finding enough skilled workers, so it's investing $350 million in its future workforce. the program is called aspire. provides grants to schools, nonprofit organizations and researchers. the goal is to increase the country's high school graduation rate. runners facing punishing heat at today's boston marathon. temps there expected to hit 87. it's about 30 degrees higher than normal. the slowest wave of runners just started the 26.2 mile course and

runners were asked to sit it out if they weren't feeling up to the challenge. about 27,000 people are expected to run. today could wind up being the hottest in the race's 116-year history. pippa, fwogood friends and gun. why the sister-in-law of prince william could face criminal charges. you'll see the pictures, next. first, this story has us all believing in cinderella and prince charming. courtney alvis has been fighting leukemia, enduring round after round of chemo. it's been so grueling she thought about skipping her senior prom. her weight gain from cancer treatments bothered her. on top of that she didn't even have a prom date. enter prince charming. former alabama football star trent richardson. trent heard about courtney's story after her uncle reached out to his friends. well, cinderella got her happy ending. >> he took time out of his day to come to prom with me.

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conversable. shocking pictures to say the least. now pippa could face criminal charges. the british newspaper "the sun" actually posted the pics and broke the story. let's get straight to matthew chance in london. matthew, show us the pictures. >> yeah. they're right here. they're pretty stunning. here they are on one of the center pages of "the sun" newspaper. three or four photographs showing pippa middleton in this convertible car next to the driver who's wielding this pistol. it's not clear from the photographs whether it's a real gun or whether it's a fake gun. but it looks pretty real, i have to say. she's not actually touching the gun. but you can see that she's smirking. the headline is "smirking gun." other people in the car as well also think it's very funny to wield this gun and flash it at the paparazzi photographer who is undoubtedly following them as she made her way back to a train station where she was expected to get back on the train to england. obviously a very serious thing to wield a gun in the french capital. the country is pretty sensitive

to gun crime at the moment. just last month, of course, seven people including four children were killed in gun attacks in the south wewest of country. and it's something that obviously is going to look very bad for pippa middleton herself. >> we're talking about the insensitivity. not only the shock of these pictures, but as you pointed, the insensitivity with all these high-profile shootings that have taken place in just a few weeks. you pointed out that they're not sure if the gun is real or a fake. so how exactly is that investigation going to go forward? and we talked about the fact that pippa -- let's talk about what could happen to the guy that had the gun. then she could face criminal charges as well. >> it's possible. although i suspect, i've spoken to a few lawyers in paris about this over the course of the past few hours. i suspect that possibility's been overplayed. she didn't actually, you can see from these photographs here, she didn't actually touch the gun. it's not believed to be her gun. she would have to be proven to have been an accomplice, been

encouraging the driver of that vehicle, the wielder of the gun, if you will, to be doing that for her to be facing any kind of criminal prosecution herself. >> do we know -- >> as for the individual -- >> do we know who he is, matthew? >> i was saying he hasn't been named. these are friends of pippa middleton. one of them is a relatively prominent fashion designer. aristocratic french fashion designer in the backseat here wearing a blue baseball cap. t the driver with the gun in his hand, he hasn't been named. according to the lawyers i've spoken to he does potentially face some very serious criminal charges. threat wng a firearm is obviously a very serious offense. whether it's a real firearm or not. at the moment he's the guy who's really in trouble. >> okay. is pippa still in france? is she being questioned? >> not at the moment. in fact, she was in this car on her way back to the train station that takes people back through the channel tunnel into britain. i believe she's back in britain. i've spoken to buckingham

palace. of course, they've said they won't comment on this because they say the pippa middleton, unlike her sister, kate, is not a member of the royal family. therefore it's not their responsibility. she's just a private citizen. at the moment it will be up to the french authorities to decide whether they want to bring pippa in for questioning. whether they're going to press any charges at all at this point. >> all right. matthew chance, thanks so much. they're the people responsible for making sure your tax dollars aren't wasted. and today they have to answer for some wasteful actions. the man leading the investigation talks with cnn, next. ♪ [ slap! ] [ slap! slap! slap! ] [ male announcer ] your favorite foods fighting you? fight back fast with tums. calcium rich tums goes to work in seconds. nothing works faster. ♪ tum tum tum tum tums

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800,000 taxpayer dollars spent by a government agency on

an outlan dish junket in las vegas. it's the scandal that rocked the general services administration. some involved even bragged about it in a rap video. but the vegas boondoggle two years ago apparently was just the tip of the iceberg of wasteful spending by the gsa. it's all part of a house oversight hearing today. dana bash now with a one on one with the committee's republican chair, darrell issa. >> dana, when we gavel the hearing, this will be a filled room instead of an empty room. >> reporter: a sneak peek at the first congressional hearing on excessive spending at the gsa. the agency that's supposed to look out for taxpayer dollars, yet held a lavish 2010 conference awarding videos like this ♪ because i buy everything robbers can't afford ♪ >> reporter: what is your primary goal? >> our primary goal is to make sure this doesn't happen again. what often happens, an ig does their job. perhaps some people are held accountable, but the culture

doesn't change. >> reporter: the gsa inspector general briefed now former gsa administrate martha johnson 11 months ago about overthe top spending. darrell issa wants to know why the administration sat on the information. >> let's remember when you're a political appointee, you're there for two reasons. one is you have the confidence of the president to execute. the second is you're the eyes and ears of the president through the process. we want to know where that process failed. >> reporter: issa invited us from the public hearing room -- >> you ought to see some people that don't get overtime. >> reporter: -- to the committee's private offices for an exclusive look at weekend prep. >> these are just some of the men and women that are working on a sunday. >> reporter: issa's aides praised the gsa inspector general. >> this is a very efficient investigation by comparison to the ones in which the administration is fighting us. >> reporter: but why not question past administrations? excess gsa spending in the bush years? issa insisted he'll get to that. but for now -- >> remember, this president ran

saying he was going to make changes. the question is was he well served by his political appointees when they were ordered to go in and make these culture changes. if they didn't make it, is it because they didn't listen to the president or because he didn't really mean it? >> reporter: yet for all his criticism of the obama administration, why did issa who took over the powerful oversight committee vowing to expose government waste, rely on the inspector general to find it? were you asleep at the switch here? >> we're never feeling like we're doing enough. we have 120 people between the majority and minority on this committee. the ig is 12,000 people. >> reporter: and they found more gsa excess. issa showed us a commemorative coin from that las vegas conference. >> 6,300 on about 300 of these in velvet boxes. >> taxpayer dollars. >> taxpayer dollars. >> reporter: and a souvenir book. >> just to have something to remember it by. >> reporter: 8,000 bucks? >> $8,000. >> reporter: now the man largely in charge of creating all of those excess things like the

coin, kyra, and the book, he is expected to come here. his name is jeff neely. i believe we have a video of him, people who have been paying attention to this remember he was the guy on the red carpet joking about wearing armani at this lavish conference. he is going to come here because he was subpoenaed by this committee. but we're told that he is going to invoke his right to take the fifth amendment so he doesn't incriminate himself. the justice department, apparently, has a criminal investigation looking into some of the things that he may have done to break the law. not just mismanagement. one little bit of old man washington, kyra. he is being brought here by this committee to testify on a hearing about excess spending, flown in from california. even though they know he's probably not going to testify. >> okay. wait, so could we consider that wasteful spending, dana? and isn't that ironic? >> reporter: i'm just saying. >> exactly. you are so well connected there

on the hill. you have just an incredible slew of sources. when this finally came out in this video where you started to see more and more of this video, what kind of response did you get from all the people that you deal with on a regular basis there? were they not surprised? were they shocked? did they think, wow, the gall to put something like this together? >> it's the gall. people do things that blur the lines, maybe go over the line in terms of spending all the time across the federal government. not just here in washington. but to put it on tape and to brag about it and boast about it, and it being the so much money that was spent is just extraordinary. i believe what we're going to see here this afternoon in this he hearing, kyra, is more reporting from the inspector general of the gsa who did really pretty much all of this work about the kinds of things that jeff neely and others who ran this lavish conference in 2010 spent money on and how they did it in many cases with no big contracts,

which, of course, you're not supposed to do. the kinds of no big contracts they were doing were, like, hiring a bike company for a bike contest. again, $75,000 of your money and my money. i think across the government, people are scratching their heads saying, are you kidding me? >> yeah. i think we're all saying that for sure. dana bash, great, great exclusive look inside of where this is all going to happen. this is one of those stories where, you know, you've got the video. but you really don't have very fascinating elements. you got us right there inside where it's going to happen. only you could do that. dana, thanks so much. >> reporter: thanks, kyra. speaking of money, the clock is ticking for last minute tax filers. and if you're rushing to beat the deadline, all right. we've got a few tips that might help you out. that's coming up next. so creamy, right dad. ah, but my carrots have that crunch. it's my milk in the rich sauce coating the chicken and the pasta. boys! don't you think stouffer's steam perfect bag should get some credit? my carrots. my milk.

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in less than 4 hours it'll be tax day. if you haven't already filed, you better get your alison ki kosik with a few last minute tips to get you filed on time. >> i blame electronic filing. it makes us procrastinate even more, you know? just keep in mind, though, you've got until midnight tomorrow to file your taxes. yeah, yeah, get moving already. so far almost 80 million taxpayers have received a refund of $2,794. that's down just a few bucks from last year. according to turbotax, more than 57% of adults say that the tax -- the day that their tax refund arrives, it's as exciting as a holiday or their birthday. probably because a third of taxpayers say they plan to spend all or part of their refund this year. according to capital one's

annual taxes and savings survey. yay, the tax money's here. >> yeah, right. what can people do to help lower the tax bill before tomorrow? >> here's a last minute trick to lowering your bill. contribute to an i.r.a. you have up until tomorrow's deadline to have it count toward your 2011 taxes. if you're under 50 years old you can contribute up to $5,000 to an i.r.a. $6,000 if you're 50 or older. here's an example for you. line if you're rushing to do your taxes, cox says try not to take the standard deduction. if you have the time, itemize your deductions. it can save you hundreds or thousands on your tax bill. kyra? >> what if you still can't pay the full amount that you owe? >> okay. if you can't pay the full amount, the i.r.a. says still file your return by april 17th. pay as much as you can to avoid any penalties and interest.

if you've been unemployed for any 30-day period or more beginning on january 1st, 2011 or if you're self-employed and your income dropped 25% or more in 2011 because of the economy, the irs has their fresh start initiative relief program. that's what it's called. that's where you can sign up for an installment payment plan with the irs and avoid penalties. there are income limits to this program. so go to irs.gov to see if you can qualify. i'm going to have more tax tips tomorrow for that last minute tax help, kyra, when your taxes are due tomorrow. you have until midnight. i'll give you some extra help tomorrow. >> you're encouraging even more people to procrastinate even more. because you're going to be there to save the day. >> why not. yes, i will. red cape. >> alison kosik, thanks. he's a shoo-in for the hall of fame or was. until his old trainer claimed that roger clemens juiced his pitches with steroids.

clemens back in federal court for his second trial on perjury charges. so, ah, your seat good?

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well, one of the greatest names in baseball is back in federal court today trying to save his reputation and stay out of prison. we're talking about former superstar pitcher roger clemens. he's on trial a second time for allegedly lying to congress when he said this to the house committee in 2008. >> let me be clear. i have never taken steroids or hgh. >> clear enough. but clemens' former trainer said this to that same congressional panel. >> during the time that i worked with roger clemens, i injected him on numerous occasions with steroids and human growth hormone. >> hmm. there's also clemens friend and former teammate andy pettitte.

cleme the feds and team clemens start picking jurors. i want to bring in michael mccann. you know him well as the legal analyst for "sports illustrated" and nba tv. of course, sports columnist for si.com. great to see you. >> great to see you, too, kyra. >> let's give people context here about the fact that this is the second time he's on trial. let's give a little context about the first time he was in the courtroom. >> yeah. so last july prosecutors made a really bad mistake. they showed jurors information that went to the credibility of andy pettitte and his wife. it was information that the judge had said they couldn't show the jurors. so once that happened, the judge said, look, this is over. this is a mistrial. prosecutors are really worried at that point they wouldn't have a second chance to prosecute clemens. but the judge allowed them to do so because the mistake didn't prejudice clemens' case. >> what was the deal with andy pettitte's wife? >> andy pettitte's wife is a potential witness in the case. and her comments about clemens and also about pettitte go to

whether or not pettitte, in fact, correctly remembered what happened. and specifically the conversation that pettitte had with roger clemens, the alleged conversation, in which clemens supposedly told pettitte that he was using hgh. if that comes out in a trial, it's very damning to roger clemens. while clemens' chief accuser brian mcnamee has credibility issues, andy does not. >> second trial, same judge. aren't they kind of hosed from the minute go? >> well, certainly i'm sure the prosecutors are worried about the fact that they've already had one big mistake with this judge. but judges are supposed to treat each trial separately. and judge wallton's reputation is certainly one of high esteem. i suspect he'll be able to block out what happened the first time this time around. >> so prosecutors could be a little gun shy here. >> they could. although, on the other hand, prosecutors can't lose this, kyra. if prosecutors lose this case, and they've already expanded

their legal team from two lawyers of record to five, there'll be a tremendous amount of questioning if not a ridicule as to the amount of tax dollars that were spent investigating and prosecuting roger clemens. >> we know about the he said, he said, he said, she said, all of that. what's fascinating here, this could all come down to cotton swabs and a beer can? >> that's right. so mcnamee, if his story is true, kept the incriminating evidence in a beer can in a fedex box in his basement. of course, clemens' lawyers are going to say, wait a second, you can't rely on this. this is not reputable evidence. it could have been tampered with. the prosecution is going to argue that even though it wasn't kept in a laboratory, tampering still would not have happened. >> it's sort of interesting this former trainer would keep the syringes, bloody cotton balls in a beer can. it's sprantrange, intriguing.

>> it's very strange. it gives clemens some potential to argue this guy was setting me up. this guy struck a deal with prosecutors to avoid profession cushion by incriminating me because i'm a bigger fish in the pond. clemens will argue that. clemens' lawyers will also argue this is an orchestrated effort to implicate one of the biggest names in sports. that jurors shouldn't go along with what the prosecutors are arguing. they should, in fact, nullify the argument. they should find clemens not guilty regardless of the scientific evidence. >> what do you know about this judge in i mean, from what i've been reading, he does not go easy on these guys. if you get this judge, it's -- the attitude's pretty much, god help you. >> yeah. this is bad news. you don't want to get judge walton if you're found guilty. this is a judge who has a reputation as a tough sentencer. this is somebody who when scooter libby, the former chief of staff to vice president cheney, was convicted on perjury and other charges, he didn't send scooter libby to the recommended sentence of 15 to 21 months. he gave him 30 month ps p a

tougher penalty than was expected because he said the crime was so bad. i'm sure roger clemens is hoping he's not in those shoes. >> what could he face? it's maximum 30 years in prison, right? give me a reality check of knowing this judge, how he's acted in the past. what this baseball player could face. >> well, part of it depends on how many counts he's convicted on. if he's only convicted on one count, for instance, obstruction of justice, he may get okay treatment. this is what happened to barry bonds when he was convicted on obstruction of justice last year. he got house arrest. it's possible clemens could get something like that. but if clemens is convicted across the board on all six counts, he is looking at prison time. it wouldn't surprise me if judge walton imposes a prison sentence in that recommended range of 15 to 21 months. >> got it. michael mccann, appreciate your perspective. >> thanks for having me on, kyra. >> you bet. a thief drives off with a 3-year-old boy. the car is gone. but the boy is returned on the doorstep. we'll have more in street level next. thrown by curveballs.

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time for stories making news at street level. tulsa, oklahoma. a judge today entered not guilty pleas for the two men charged in a racially motivated shooting spree ten days ago. jake england and alvin watts are accused of killing three people and wounding two others in a mostly black neighborhood. both of these men are being held without bond. let's take you near san francisco, california, now. four sailors feared dead after their yacht ran aground. coast guard spent two days searching for them but have now suspended the search. the yacht was hit by several large waves and rolled over while competing in a race near the fairline islands over the

weekend. at least one person died. three others were rescued. a somber day in blacksburg, virginia. five years ago today, one of the deadliest mass shootings in u.s. history happened right there on the campus of virginia tech. a vigil will be held tonight as students and faculty members remember that moment that a gunman opened fire in a dorm and then two hours later in a classroom across campus. 32 people died that day before the gunman killed himself. the rampage prompted universities around this country to enhance alert systems. a terrifying moment for a dad in colorado springs after his car was stolen with his 3-year-old son inside. now, the dad tells affiliate kmgh that he stepped just a few feet away from his running car to talk to a friend at this 7-eleven. and someone just jumped in and took off with his kid inside the car. police say the thief, though, later dropped the boy off at a

doorstep just a few blocks from the store. a woman flagged down the patrol car and the boy was later returned to his parents. he's fine. the thief, still on the run. the legacy of baseball great jackie robinson is remembered right here in atlanta. from turner field to fenway park, there were ceremonies in honor of the 65th anniversary of robinson breaking major league baseball's color barrier. players wore number 42 jerseys yesterday to remember the day that he took the field with the brooklyn dodgers. in california, talk about a show stopper at the coachella music festival. tupac joined dr. dre on stage at the festival. you got it right. tupac has been dead for over 15 years but made a cameo as a hologram to perform two of his hits. according to the hollywood reporter, tupac's appearance set

twitter on fire and the crowd was in awe. washington's airport testing new technology to make check-ins more efficient. transportation security administration says that the system at dulles checks id and boarding passes by machine instead of visual checks by officers. the tsa hopes it will weed out fraudulent documents and get passengers to the planes quicker. houston and san juan, puerto rico's, airports will also test those machines. party isn't the first word you think of when you hear general services administration. that's probably how it should be. straight ahead, more fallout from a gsa junket in vegas that you paid for. first, our political junky question of the day. who's the richest person to ever run for president? tweet me@kyracnn if you know the answer. i'll give you a shout out right after the break.

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and back to front. ♪ giving you exceptional control from left to right... and right to left. ♪ the cadillac cts. ♪ we don't just make luxury cars. we make cadillacs. just before the break, i asked who was the richest person to ever run for president. the answer? ross perot. he ran in '92 and '96.

he was worth around $3.5 billion at the time. congrats to ceezv new jersey for tweet megathe right answer. what happens in vegas stays in vegas. that lavish spending by members of the gsa is now a full blown scandal and the topic of a congressional hearing today. it's fair game. let's talk about it. the veteran democratic strategist christine pe lowsy and gentry collins, former national political director for the rnc. guys, we've seen it. a lot of people have seen it. just for old time's sake, let's remind folks about this fabulous vegas bob dondoggle for a few seconds. ♪ tell you about local project management ♪ >> that's pretty good! >> all right. gentry, not only did they waste

$800,000 of taxpayer money, but as you can see, put a lot of effort into this. a lot of producing skills. even poking fun at the president. >> well, they sure did. of course, not only is this a huge scandal, but it is a scandal that the gsa administrators were briefed on almost a year ago. look, i think the bigger problem for president obama is that this plays into a narrative that he has not managed the federal government well. this government borrows $3 billion every day to fund the excess spending of the obama administration. >> so, christine, how much is this within the president's realm and how much is his fault? >> oh, i don't think this is his fault. i don't think he's paying people to make fun of him. i think this is an outrage. just as outrageous as the banks that get taxpayer bailouts and turn around and give themselves big bonuses. why everyone should be concerned about this is not only the waste, fraud and abuse that is clear but also the fact that we have over 600,000 government

jobs that have been cut. teachers, firefighters, cops and nurses. and when we see hard working teachers laid off but a boondoggle like this, it just reinforces a stereotype about government that shouldn't be used as an excuse to lay off hard working public service employees or charge retirees an extra $6,000 more a year in health care costs. so i think that's the bigger concern, is that every government employee is an ambassador for the american people and should act that way. >> we should point out, gentry, the gsa has had a long history and culture of wasteful spending. >> well, it has. of course, president obama ran in part on getting rid of some of those kinds of things. on right sizing government. he hasn't done it. this president now has $4.9 trillion he's added to the national debt in his first 3 1/2 years. that's as much as president bush accrued in eight years as president. of course, president bush was dealing with the aftermath of 9/11 and the war on terror. so this president has clearly

failed. i think it's part of what's driving his numbers, his approval numbers, into that dangerous territory below which most presidents haven't been re-elected. >> let's switch gears a little bit. the subject of mitt romney. because of the position that he holds right now. his religion, being a mormon, it's coming up again. there's more talk about it. christine, what do you think? is it time to talk about this more as a number of people are asking for? because he is getting so close to possibly being the president of the united states? >> absolutely. i wrote about this a couple of weeks ago on the politico blog. which is that i believe mitt romney ought to do what we ask everybody to do. show us -- show us who you are. show us what you believe in. what you'll take to the barricades. in my book "campaign boot camp 2.0" i talk about how every message has to appeal to your heart and your head. and also i would note from a practical standpoint for mitt

romney, when people don't know exactly where he stands on various issues, flip-flopping on guns, on whether stay at home moms should be honored or not, all these other issues he's flip-flopped on, for him to say consistent in my life has been my faith, this is what i believe, i think he'll attract people. i would also note that there are mormon democrats who look at mitt romney as a first. the way catholics looked at president kennedy and the way some african-americans looked at barack obama. he could actually gain votes within his own party and within his own faith, i think, if he stepped forward and talked about what he believes in. >> gentry, why is he sidestepping this issue and not doing what christine suggests he should do? >> i don't think he is sidestepping this issue. i don't think he will in the future. first of all, mitt romney has lili -- lived his faith. you see it in the fidelity in his marriage. in the way he's raised his kids. in the way he's given his money

and his time. i think most americans will respect and admire that regardless of which denomination we're talking about. you also remember, of course, he made a major speech on religion the last time he ran for president, back in 2008. he has clearly not sidestepped his faith. it's integral to who he is. look, the big issues of this election will be around the facts. the facts are that this president has lost three-quarters of a million jo jobs in the first three years of his first term. added more to the debt than president bush did or as much to the debt as president bush did over eight years. those are going to be the big issues, driving issues of this campaign. not religion. >> also when it comes to jobs, those are government jobs. most of those jobs that were lost, 600,000 of those jobs that were lost were government jobs. a majority of those government workers were women. so let's talk about that. let's also talk about when you talk about spending, it's also the iraq war. the afghanistan war. and bush tax cuts still in effect. so i think there is shared responsibility there and on the cost of war let's quickly put in

that with 6500 veterans a year committing suicide, we ought to consider mental health to be a cost of war, and i think that that should be one aspect of government spending that we could all agree has to increase if we're going to help our veterans who have helped us. >> i don't mean to backtrack, but two things sort of stood out to me. one more question about religion and mormonism because, gentry, as you pointed out in 2008 you were working with him on that campaign, and then kits teechri you say he talked about it, and you bring up a good point. the bible talks about your best witness is living the lifestyle, and he's -- he does appear to have this incredible marriage and these great kids and he's been faithful to his wife, and he's ethical in all areas of his life. he's talked a little bit about his mission trip, but why not talk more about the mormon

religion, why he believes what he believes and go more in depth? yes, we see him lead his life, but there really has not been a mitt romney that stood up and really gone in depth on his religion and his beliefs and the mormon faith. >> well, look, this election is not about electing a pastor for the country. it's about electing a president for the country. and the big issue that is this country faces are not around which denomination we want to choose and that's not what the presidential debate ought to be about. the big issues are about the rate at which we're subpoenaedisubpoenaepending. this president has doubled the right at which we're indebting the future generations. this president has lost three-quarters of a million jobs in the first 3 1/2 years of his first and hopefully only term. those are the issues we ought to be talking about and not issues about which religion would you like your pastor to be from.

>> well, i would say i'm happy to know that you are concerned about that number because 700,000 jobs were lost in the last month of the bush presidency alone. we've had 25 straight months of private growth, and i really hope that everybody listened to what gentry said and stops attacking president obama on his faith. it would be a great idea just to have a cease-fire right here and right now and say someone's private faith should not be fair game when it comes to public service. >> we'll leave it there. gentry, christine, guys, thanks so much. >> thank you. it's a hot day for the boston marathon but despite the weather, about 27,000 runners are expected to be there, including this man. his personal race to the finish line next. first, 15 minutes can seem pretty short or it can drag on for months as in the republican presidential race. here is 1:17 that just says it all. >> that was certainly a primary season to remember, huh? >> sure was.

there was even a time when people were saying i was the front-runner. got to thank you for that, mitt. you're the only candidate who could ever make me look exciting. >> and you're the only candidate who could make me look gay-friendly. >> i hope you aren't reminiscing without me. >> hey, it's rick perry. >> you guys remember that weird game show we were all on and we were standing at podiums and answering questions? >> rick, that wasn't a game show. those were debates. >> well, well, well. >> it's michele bachmann. >> all right. >> there was even a moment when i was the front-runner, and then it all fell apart when "newsweek" ran a very creepy cover photo of my face. >> oh, that's right. hey, come on, michele, show us the "newsweek" face. >> i couldn't. >> come on, newsweek face. >> okay, fine. >> i am starving. >> we can always order a pizza! >> oh, no, guys, gingrich is

here. >> oh-oh, hang on. >> i can't believe he's still in the race. i heard his campaign is completely out ever money. >> uh-huh. >> oh, man, look, he's stealing nuts. >> and we've said it before, but santorum, perry, barkman, cain, and yes, even gingrich, isn't it time you rallied behind one? your 15 minutes are up. [ male announcer ] if you want a luxury car with a standard power moon roof, standard keyless access, and standard leather-trimmed seats, then your choice is obvious. the lexus es. it's complete luxury in a class full of compromises. see your lexus dealer.

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the boston marathon taking place right now. we've been talking about those record temperatures. well, there's one person running in that heat and he's not complaining. talking about army first lieutenant cameron care. he lost his leg 14 months ago in afghanistan, but once he received a prosthetic, he quickly set his sights on new challenges, including running this mare than. here is a look at his journey. >> at walter reed we have a thing called our alive day which we celebrate just as anyone would our birthday. it's the day we didn't die and we cheated death and we got to see the sunrise the next day. for most of us it's a day we checked on an ied or we got shot or what have you. i'm cameron care, i served as a

platoon leader in kandahar, afghanistan. my alive day is february 16th, 2011. i didn't sleep that first day. i started think being what life as an amp tutee would be like. i started thinking about little things, how i wouldn't have to fold socks and i'm going to get to go to all these hospitals and meet a bunch of cute nurses. when i was 13 or 14 is when i started first getting involved through my parents with the sudanese lost boys and getting an appreciation for everything that was given to me. as a high schooler i started thinking seriously about the army which worried by mother obviously. running the boston marathon is something i had never entertained as a thought. when i lost my legs, some folks showed me the opportunities they presented for veterans. that's when i started thinking

about doing these events. when i ditched my canes and crutches. starting off small, just walking five miles in central park last june. i moved on to marine corps marathon tenk 10k? disney. in january the half marathon. my running partner and i decided if we can do that, why not boston. after that i feel completely ready for anything that challenges me in the future. if i can run a marathon with one l leg, really i can do anything i put my mind to. >> i can tell you right now, we will be rooting for cameron kerr and following up on how well he does. that does it for us. thanks so much for watching. you can continue the conversation with me on twitter at kyracnn or on facebook. cnn "newsroom" continues now with suzanne malveaux.

live from cnn headquarters in atlanta, it is 12:00 noon, 9:00 a.m. on the west coast. i'm suzanne malveaux. want to get you up to speed for this monday, april 16th. afghanistan reeling from a fierce assault that lasted 18 hours. these explosions happened in kabul's heavily guarded diplomatic neighborhood. afghan authorities say they have killed all but one of the attackers and he has been captured. the taliban are claiming responsible for the attacks but the captured insurgent says he worked for the haqqani network. nato is praising afghan forces for beating back the insurgents without the assistance of allied forces. first members of a u.n. observer team plan to begin their work in syria today. they are setting up operations to monitor a tenuous cease-fire. it's already showing some signs of collapse.

at least 19 people have been killed today alone. the u.n. estimates that at least 9,000 people have died since the protests began more than a year ago. well, they spent $800,000 of your money on skits, clowns, mock award ceremonies. next hour we'll hear their answers about the spending scandal. the house oversight committee begins hearings on the actions of the general services administration employees. the agency that's supposed to make sure that taxpayer dollars are spent wisely threw this lavish conference in vegas at taxpayer expense. tornadoes ripped through the midwest. six people in one hard-hit oklahoma community are now dead. ten states in the midwest and plains got slammed by this storm system. now, people, they're cleaning up trying to get back to normal today. those who made it through the storms say they're not taking anything for granted.

>> you don't know when the last time you're going to tell somebody you love them or see somebody and one of those things. >> it's like that, everybody was gone, everybody. i mean everybody. don't matter about what we had. we're here. >> national weather service says it was an ef-3 tornado that hit woodward, oklahoma. it means the winds were at least 136 miles an hour. former baseball great roger clemens back in federal court as jury selection begins. he is accused of lying to congress about steroids. his trial was declared to be a mistrial last summer. we're following a scandal at the secret service. 11 agents and officers have been put on leave. they are part of president obama's advanced security detail for the summit of the americas in colombia. they're accused of meeting with

prostitutes. the president says he's going to be angry if the allegations are proven true. >> what happened here in colombia is being investigated by the director of the secret service. i expect that investigation to be thorough and i expect it to be rigorous. >> brianna keilar is at the white house. to, brianna, first of all, is there any reason at all to believe, despite how the secret service may or may not have behaved, whether or not the president's safety was compromised? >> reporter: you know, suzanne, it appears not, but i guess i should preface that by saying, of course, there's an investigation going on. the secret service is looking into it. congressional committees will be looking at this. this happened before the president arrived in colombia.

this was not at the hotel that the president was to stay at. this was at a hotel that a lot of media stayed at. it wasn't the president's personal detail, the people you see directly around the president. it was an advance team. as you know, there are some critics who are saying you can't dismiss security concerns though because it sort of opens up -- if this is sort of a problem among the secret service, then it opens up sort of risk factors for them to either be blackmailed or for some people with nefarious purposes to try to get closer to the president. >> and, brianna, two questions. first of all, bottom line, what are they accused of doing that is believed to be misconduct, and, secondly, do we think this thing is going to get bigger? do we think more people are involved than we know now? >> reporter: they're accused essentially of, and this is what people who have been bried on the incident say happened, that prostitutes were brought back to the hotel and that this was actually discovered the next morning because when guests of hotel guests come back, they basically have to be signed in,

suzanne, and they have to be gone by 7:00 a.m. and one woman wasn't. hotel management got involved, police got involved. she said she hadn't been paid. ultimately according to peter king, the chairman of the house homeland security office, she was paid. anyway, the report went to the u.s. embassy and that's how the secret service got in. they say eventually the woman was paid. no allegations of criminal wrongdoing but this was a breach of conduct. the person who seems to be raising questions about this being kind of the tip of the iceberg is daryl isa, the chairman of the house oversight committee. he's struggling to believe, to hear him say it, that this happens with the involvement of 11 secret service members and it doesn't go further than that. i know you have been around the secret service a lot, suzanne, i have been covering this beat for under a yesh, obviously not close to as as long as you covered it, but we're always accounted by secret service and i personally haven't witnessed anything unprofessional or

untoward with the secret service that's companied me and my fellow reports on trips. june>> you know they work hard play hard about when they're on duty they expect to stay close to the president. i can't forget a time when i was traveling with the first lady laura bush in may of 2005 in the middle east, met with some very tense protests that were going on in jerusalem and outside the dome of the rock there. you can see some of the pushing and shoving that took place there. folks really getting dangerously close to her, and the secret service agent just picked me up. i was right behind the first lady, picked me up off the ground, literally threw me into that mosque with mrs. bush and you can see that there. those guys and women as well, they don't make any distinction. when you're in that circle, they will protect you like you're a member of the white house and a member of the family. so they do a great job, and it seems like it's one of those incidents where it's the

anomaly. it's just a couple of bad eggs that are misbehaving. >> reporter: well, certainly, that is going to be the hope of the secret service, and we're going to be seeing as this investigation plays out really what the answer is because the secret service at least as they're doing their internal investigation, should it be, you know, as wide sweeping as it is supposed to be, they are apparently going to be looking at past trips, some of which involved some of these individuals so they'll see if there is a pattern, but you bring up an interesting point, suzanne, and that is as we travel with the president, the secret service, sometimes you may run into even i don't want to say minders or representatives from another government, sometimes there's a language barrier, they think the press shouldn't be allowed in, and it's often the secret service who has to step in and make sure that we can do our jobs, and there are many occasions that people here at the white house who cover the white house can say that's really helped them. >> sure, absolutely. brianna, we're going to get back to you. we're learning there may be more than five members of the u.s.

military involved. this is coming in to cnn. this is according to pentagon press secretary george little. he's not going to say any more yet about how many more service members, but the investigation has widened now we understand beyond the five members originally who were identified. so this is a story that is developing and growing. we'll see whether or not there's more information as it goes on. dust is still settling in afghanistan. this is after an 18-hour assault by insurgents. gunfire lasted well into the night. happened in a district that houses the government offices, the foreign embassies, including the u.s. embassy. afghan security forces, they say they have killed all but one of the 36 attackers. they say 4 civilians and 8 government forces died in this assault. retired army general james marx is joining us from washington. very good to see you here.

this was clearly a well-planned, well-executed assault. what does this say now about the security situation in afghanistan? >> what it really speaks to is the vulnerability of the government as it continues to try to get its legs underneath it. and when you look at where these attacks took place, there was really four separate attacks coordinated somewhat in time, but the tactics and techniques and procedures used in all of them were very similar. what that tells you is there is some form of centralized training. objectives have been established and they are contiguous to the border with pakistan. that's right along the area of the federally administered tribal area. so the haqqani network most likely conducted these attacks and they did it from the safe havens of pakistan. that's the largest challenge right now. >> and, general, what is the haqqani network? tell us a little bit about what they are. >> really, it's a network that's

been in place in afghanistan for the past, oh, well over 20 years. in fact, they really cut their teeth against -- with the mujahadin against the soviets during their occupation. it's been in a place a long while. it's got a lot of great experience. it's grown and developed leaders within their ranks and most of their safe havens now are in pakistan, and we know that, we would acknowledge that. pakistanis do not, yet that's the biggest concern and that is what is our relationship with pakistan and afghanistan's relationship as they try to get their legs underneath themselves. >> i couldn't help but notice a lot of similarities between this attack and the one that happened a couple days after the seft -- september 11th anniversary when i was there in that neighborhood. they attacked using the burqas covering them, and also a construction site. i want to play a little bit about what we saw that developed

and played out back in september. >> six guys in a vehicle pulled up, five of them were wearing burqas to try to disguise themselves as women to bypass security. they took the burqas off, brandished their weapons, and then they all entered this building. six police officers guarded this building. you can see this is where they stayed, the television, the remote control. you see the bedding here. this is where the terrorists on the second floor first confronted the police. they shot one officer and then they threw him over the ledge. here on the 12th floor is where the final showdown was. there's evidence of it everywhere. you have got these spent shell casings. you have pieces from explosives grenades. if you take a look around, there are hundreds and hundreds of holes on the wall here. clearly is fierce fire fight that went on here for hours, well into the morning, to get the terrorists. i'm told this is where the last terrorist was killed. you can see the old scarf that's left behind, holes in it, an

empty water bottle, and old shoe with blue stains and on the wall evidence of being shot here, even splattered brain matter in the gravel. i want to give you some perspective. we are in the building on the 12th floor on the east side. here is what the terrorists saw. if you take a look and you go beyond about a half mile, you see that orange building. that is the u.s. embassy. if you go over to the left, the white building, that's the nato compound. this essentially gave them a clear shot to continue firing throughout the evening. so, general, how is it that the afghans allowed this to happen again? shouldn't they have learned from that attack that you've got these construction sites where you have a clear view of the nato headquarters, the u.s. embassy, a clear shot at actually taking aim? >> well, suzanne, what you're seeing there is urban warfare at its most -- its incredible definition and the very close quarters. you walked through a building where folks were putting their lives at risk and lost their

lives. i mean, this is extremely difficult type of combat. it's very hard to secure all the high ground or key terrain around a certain location. that takes an incredible expenditure of manpower as well as other forms of intelligence collection that might go into technical means. so it's very, very draining in terms of the personnel. could the afghans take -- could they have taken that building over subsequent to the attack that you participated in or at least experienced afterwards a few months ago? absolutely. could they have levelled that building and eliminated it from anybody's use? th yes, they could have. but it's very hard to do that. it's a large drain on personnel. the challenge really becomes and president karzai said that, it's an intelligence failure both for the afghan forces and the nato forces. we've been in this country for ten years, but it's very, very difficult now that we're fighting an enemy that is

willing brazenly willing to show its face and to get into close combat. this isn't an ied that went off when nobody was watching. these are extremely brave guys that have been objective. >> general "spider" marks, thank you very much. appreciate your perspective. here is a rundown of some of the stories we're covering. first, more on the political battle over the stay -at-home mo moms. hear a comment mitt romney made long before his wife tweeted in h her defense. and the boston marathon. they are baking in the heat. and he is not back from the grave, but he did perform at a music festival in california thanks to some interesting technology. [ male announcer ] there's a crushing national debt

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right now in boston a bunch of hot, tired runners are on their way to the finish line. the boston marathon is on, but this year runners dealing with temperatures could hit in the mid-80s. the heat slowing down some folks. we're going to check in with todd with our affiliate wcvb. he's at a medical stop. todd, being a marathon runner myself, i know those folks must be sweating and suffering it out. how are they doing? >> reporter: well, suzanne, i'll tell you, we're already at 75 degrees. we're going to be well into the 80s by midafternoon. you look behind me, you can see a lot of these runners are struggling. what you're seeing behind me is what is called a misting tent. the fire department set this up. normally that's used for hazmat situations. they modified it so runners can cool themselves off. heat is the major enemy.

both the runners and spectators that line the routes. >> has anybody succumbed to the heat so far? are people doing fairly well? >> reporter: already some runners have suck cupped to kuk the race. there are medical staff along the route to treat people. >> is there any concern that perhaps they need to cancel this thing, to stop it before there is a real serious problem here? i know for some races just a couple weeks ago in atlanta here, they said if it hit a certain point they were going to call it off altogether. >> reporter: at this point we haven't heard that but over the weekend the boston athletic association which governs the boston hamarathon did give peop the option of deferring to next

year. 4,000 people didn't even start this race. many more have dropped out along the lected to run out and they did have to run out. a lot of people are taking it seriously and this is going to be a very unusual race because of that heat. >> all right. todd, try to get cool out there. those runners as well. we wish them all the best. thank you. first it was the $800,000 in taxpayer money spent on this lavish vegas conference then came the videos mocking the spending. coming next hour, the first hearings on the scandal. we'll give you the behind the scenes preview.

$800,000 in taxpayer money

spent by the agency that's supposed to look out for taxpayers. next hour government officials involved in that lavish las vegas conference are going to be called on to testify about all this spending. a house committee begins its first hearings on excess spending by the general services administration. our dana bash got an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the press. >> when we gavel the hearing, this will be a filled room instead of an empty room. >> reporter: a sneak peek at the first congressional hearing on excessive spending at the gsa, the agency that's supposed to look out for taxpayer dollars yet held a lavish tw2010 conference. what is your primary goal? >> our primary goal is to make sure this doesn't happen again. what often happens is an ig does their job, perhaps some people are held accountable, but the culture doesn't change. >> reporter: the gsa inspector general briefed the former

general leader about overthe top spending. daryl isa wants to know why the administration sat on the information. >> when you're a political appointee, you are there for two reasons, you have the confidence of the president to execute and you are the eyes and ears of the president through the process. >> reporter: he invited us from the public hearing room. juf to see some people who don't get overtime. >> reporter: to the committee's private offices for an exclusive look at weekend prep. >> these are just some of the men and women working on a sunday. >> ithis is a very efficient investigation. >> reporter: but why not question past administrations? excess gsa spending in the bush years? issa insisted he will get to that. >> this president ran saying he was going to make changes. the question was was he well-served by his political appointees when they were ordered to go in and make these

cull kurl changes and if they didn't make it is it because they didn't listen to the president or because he didn't really mean it. >> reporter: for all his criticism of the obama administration, why did issa, who took over the powerful oversight committee vowing to expose government waste, rely on the inspector general to find it? were you asleep at the switch here? >> we have 120 people between the majority and minority on this committee. the ig is 12,000 people. >> reporter: and they found more gsa excess. issa showed us a commemorative coin from that conference. >> 6300 on about 300 of these in velvet boxes. >> taxpayer dollars. >> reporter: and a souvenir book. >> to have something to remember it by. >> reporter: $8,000. >> dana bash is joining us live from the hill. who do we expect to testify before the committee today? >> we're inside the hearing room again. they actually just put up the name tags for the witnesses.

and you see here let's start over here. inspector general brian miller. he is going to be a really key witness, suzanne, because he really did the work here, the investigating in terms of all of this excess, even beyond what we're talking about. martha johnson, quit two weeks ago. this is going to be the key person we're going to be looking at jeff nee ly. he organized the conference and he's been the person everybody has been looking at really responsible for much, much of this excess spending. we expect he's going to take the fifth amendment. he's going to invoke his right not to testify because he's worried, we're told, according to his lawyer, told the committee that he's worried about a criminal investigation the justice department has started, a probe. >> real quick if you can, remind our viewers some of the things the gsa spent money on. we were talking about this conference. >> reporter: $59,000 for an

audio visual firm to, you know, get some av equipment into this conference. $75,000 for a bike building exercise. this is a team building exercise to build bicycles. $75,000. and $9,000 for colored themed name tags. colored themed name tags. jeff neely if you look at the transcript of the questions and answers that the inspector general and his investigators did with jeff neely, he apparently was largely responsible for picking all of these and did a lot of it without a bidding process, which is going to be another subplot in this hearing today. >> absolutely. and i understand they had a lot of sushi, the mind readers, it goes on and on. >> reporter: don't forget the clown. >> the mad clown. it was like an angry clown. thank you, dana. we will be paying close attention. mitt romney talks about women and the dignity of work. how does his comment fit into the fight over the female vote? we'll ask our political panel.

the fight over the fema femalevote in november, political hot topic that shows no signs of cooling down. a cnn contributor later apologized for saying ann romney had never worked a day in her life. now, a comment from mitt romney about women and work adds another twist. you will hear what he said in a minute. first, i want to bring in democratic strategist kiki mclean and chris metzler. i hope you had a great weekend. >> we did, great. >> one of the things that happened, we heard some sound from mitt romney from back in january explaining his position on welfare.

i want to play it for you. >> and i wanted to increase the work requirement. i said, for instance, if you had a child 2 years of age, you need to go to work. and people said, well, that's heartless. i said, no, no, i'm willing to spend more giving daycare to allow those parents to go back to work. it will cost the state more providing that daycare, but i want the individuals to have the dignity of work. >> so, chris, can you kind of help us understand this. he's saying that there is no dignity of work necessarily for somebody who needs welfare, a poor woman who needs to stay home and raise a child and yet not so for his wife? >> well, i'm going to try to explain this the best that i can. and i think there are a couple things here. i think, oh, i don't know, for once mitt was actually agreeing with the democrats because it was the democrats who passed welfare reform, and so i think he was giving kind of a nod to that. but on the other side of this is

this whole issue of class warfare playing out in this election, and i think what he's going to have to be able to do is just to come out and say, listen, i stand for all women. i think this is going to be a bit of a problem. it's really not that explainable. >> okay. so chris says it's a problem for mitt romney, kiki. i would imagine you would agree with that. how do the democrats actually exploit that or is it best to exploit this at this point? >> i'm not a fan of exploiting driving division between women. i think that's what the romney campaign did wrong last week because of an error in the way someone spoke, and i think that's a problem for the romney campaign. we moms around the world understand that the real issue is not monolithic for everyone. that's why we frequently have conversations about what our role in society and in our families are about our responsibilities as well as our opportunities. and the heart of this discussion is really about the opportunity to work for those women who need

to, must do, and want to. and right now what we don't have is a plan from mitt romney about what he's going to do to make that opportunity expand and grow for women. president obama, on the other hand, has laid out a very specific jobs agenda, has been working through it, doing what he can legislatively, doing what he can on executive order and trying to move the economy forward because that's the heart of this, is the opportunity to work. >> chris, how does romney change the focus of this conversation here because kiki has a good point here. people want to know how to get jobs and how to, you know, make better of their own lives. >> well, and i think that's what he's got to be able to do. he's got to be able to say, listen, if we look at work and if we look at the whole issue of the economy, i am going to create an economy in which everyone is going to have that opportunity to work. so rather than get involved into the distractions about whether it's anti-woman, it's for-woman, i think this entire thing was started by this so-called war on women. there is a war for the women's

vote. there is not a war on women. and so i think what he has to be able to do is to say, i support all women in the choices they make, whether it's to be a stay-at-home mom or whether it's to be working. >> let's shift gears for a minute because i want to talk about what seems to be trending here, and that is almost a dozen secret service agents, perhaps more, dealing with this scandal in colombia here, these agents allegedly -- the advance team using prostitutes. there's one investigation that is being called here. do we think -- congressman darrell issa is saying it should examine whether this was just an isolated incident or something more. i want to play that for you real quick. >> the investigation will not be about the 11 to 20 or more involved. it will be about how did this happen and how often has this happened before? things like this don't happen once if they didn't happen

before. >> kiki, do we think this is something that's going to turn into a political issue during the campaign that it's going to reflect badly on the white house? how do you think this is going to play out politically? >> no, this is not a political issue at all. this is an issue that has a question of has there been inappropriate behavior in an organization regardless of what organization heightened by the fact that this is actually a government organization paid for by taxpayer dollars. it's not political. it has nothing to do, as we all know, the department of treasury assigns presidential details which have nothing to do with this particular group of agents as i understand it. separately, they're not political appointments or assignments. they're simply assignments of law enforcement officers to particular venues. so this will be an investigation about a law enforcement organization. >> chris, do you agree? >> yeah, i agree. the unfortunate thing for me is i don't know what actually came out of this summit. what i do know is about prostitutes, and i'm not sure that that's exactly what we want

to have come out of it. so it is not going to be a political issue. the unfortunate thing is we don't know what policy decisions came out of this. it's been a distraction. i agree, it's not going to be a political issue at all. >> good. chris, kiki, great to see you both. >> thanks. you might be panicking by now because taxes are due home. we'll help you avoid the last-minute meltdown. about your dog's nutrition. like the dual-defense antioxidants in our food that work around the clock... supporting your dog's immune system on the inside... while helping to keep his skin and coat healthy on the outside. with this kind of thinking going into our food... imagine all the goodness that can come out of it. just one way we're making the world a better place... one pet at a time. purina one smartblend.

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tax deadline just hours away. it is tomorrow. so if you haven't already done, it time to get your financials in order. alison kosik is at the new york stock exchange for some last minute tips to help avoid the meltdown that happens sometimes. i always do it last minute. i just file for the extension and just try to keep on going because i never make this deadline. i mean, how do people do it? >> they plan well in advance. they gather all their receipts way in advance. they're organized, suzanne. i'm getting the feeling you're

not so organized. >> only in some ways. >> so then listen to this. this could be for you. since you haven't filed yet. here is a last minute trick to lower your tax bill. contribute to an ira. you have up until tomorrow's deadline to have it count towards your 2011 taxes. so take a look at how this works. that means if you're under 50 years old, you can contribute up to $5,000 to an ira and you can contribute up to $6,000 if you're 50 years or older. here is an example. lynette says if you're in the 25% tax bracket and you put $5,000 into an ira you can save $1,250 in taxes. if you're rushing to do your taxes, try not to take the standard deduction. itemize your deductions because that can save you hundreds or even thousands on your tax bill. >> what if you can't pay? if you have been out of work, what can folks do? >> okay. if you can't pay the full amount

you owe, the irs says fill your return by april 17th and pay as much as you can to avoid any penalties and interest, but if you've been unemployed for any 30-day period or more beginning on january 1st, 2011, or if you're self-employed and your income dropped 25% or more in 2011 because of the bad economy, the irs has this program called fresh start initiative relief. that's where you can set up a an installment payment plan with the irs and avoid any penalties. there are some limits so you want to go to irs gol .gov to s you qualify. get your taxes filed. >> i am organized, i'm just a procrass tin ator. >> it's okay. i am, too. just the thought of having to choose a major gives a lot of college kids the hives. >> dead set on history. didn't want to major in anything else. >> this student, he didn't end up majoring in history. why some people say it's a good

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>> reporter: a bioscience major, she is in the fast growing and high-paying stem category, science, technology, engineering, and math. >> a fairly neutral term. >> reporter: her classmate, michael kelly, a history buff, doesn't share her love for science. >> i was just dead set on history. didn't want to major in anything else. >> reporter: he loves history but will minor in it instead. his degree will be in technology studies so he can pursue a job in information technology. >> i didn't want to finish school with no debt and then immediately jump into a situation where i have a lot of debt for paying off the master's degree which i totally would have to take out loan for. >> reporter: kelly knows starting salaries for general studies lag stem. the difference between engineering and psychology is huge. >> if you're studying to be a petroleum engineer and you get a bachelor's degree, you will make $80,000 in year. if you're studying psychology

and you're going to become a counselor in a social work agency, you will make $30,000 a year. so what you make depends very much on what you take. >> reporter: but dollar signs aren't everything. find the intersection of what you're good at, like to do, and what someone will pay you to do. nancy is chancellor of the state university of new york. >> what we know is that businesses and industry are saying repeatedly we want creative people, we want problem solvers, we want people who can work in teams. the trick i think is sort of a dual degree or a major/minor where you cover your bases. >> reporter: students laura and mike kelly think they have done that and that their degree will help them land a secure job in a less than secure job market. christine romans, cnn, new york. all right. not easy to upstage your big sister, especially if she's the duchess of cambridge. pippa middleton is now getting all the attention today. she's probably not too happy about it though. we'll tell you why and show you the picture everybody is talking

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pippa middleton is used to her big sister getting all the attention. after all, her sister, kate middleton, is the duchess of cambridge. here is the image of pippa that you probably might have in mind. this is her on kate's wedding day last april. there's a new picture now that's causing a pretty big uproar. i want to bring in matthew chance following the story from london. tell us what we're seeing, matthew. >> reporter: yes, suzanne. it's an example of a pretty insensitive -- i am holding up "the sun" newspaper in britain which has carried these photographs. you can see pippa middleton sitting in this open top car surrounded by a few of her

friends. she was being driven back after an all-night party in paris. the driver of the car, i don't know if you can make him out here, he's wielding what looks like a semiautomatic pistol pointing it straight at the paparazzi photographer who was undoubtedly following them trying to sneak a shot. and you can see here the headline, smirking gun, a reference to the fact that all the passengers in the car, pippa and this individual in the back who hasn't been named, appear to be smiling and think it's all such a lot of jolly good fun that they're wielding this gun in the center of the french capital, paris, but it is, of course, an extremely serious offense and potentially all of them could face prosecution. >> do we know if it was a raem gun or not or if it was a joke light moment with a toy gun or do we know anything more about what actually happened? >> reporter: no, we don't really because both the authorities and the photographer who snapped these images has been pretty tight-lipped. if you look closely at the

photographs, you can see whether or not it's fake isn't clear. it's certainly not obviously a toy gun. it could very well be real. if it is real, the offense would be serious. it's also a serious offense if it's a fake gun. if you threaten somebody in france with a firearm, whether it's fake or real, it's still potentially carries a custodial sentence. >> it might sound like a strange question, but would pippa possibly be charged in this? is there anything they're accusing her of doing that's wrong? >> there's the british press have been playing up that aspect understandably quite a lot, but i spoke to some french lawyers and you can see she's sitting here in the car, she's next to the individual that's wielding the gun. it's possible, of course, that she could face some kind of charges, but it would have to be demonstrated she was an accomplice in some way, that she was encouraged this individual to wield the gun. otherwise it's going to be pretty difficult. >> has she commented herself or the royal family? >> no, she's been very

tight-lipped and i called buckingham palace earlier today and they said they wouldn't because strictly speaking pippa middleton, unlike her sister, kate, is not a member of the royal family. therefore, they say it's not their responsibility. she's just a private citizen. so far everyone though being very tight-lipped. >> matthew chance. thank you, matthew. he was killed 16 years ago, but this weekend tupac shakur appeared to be back on stage rapping in front of thousands. we're going to explain. it was soccer, and ballet, and cheerleading, and baseball. those years were crazy. so, as we go into this next phase, you know, a big part of it for us is that there isn't anything on the schedule.

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all right. remember this in it was the hollywood technology cnn used live on the air during the last presidential election. love it or hate it, holograms again making headlines. last night rap legend tupac shakur who died 16 years ago appeared on stage to perform some of his greatest hits. look at this. ♪ >> fans went wild over it. joining us, someone who has actually been a hologram yer herself, jessica yellin. i remember this in chicago. you were the first one to do this live. how did that work? how did that happen? >> for better or for worse. yes, it was in a round room they built at grant park in chicago on election night 2008.

>> that's her on the right. that's her on the right. >> i was ringed by cameras that sent a full picture of my body back into the new york studio and i'll tell you, suzanne, after the fact i got a ton of e-mail from techies saying that wasn't technically a hologram because you didn't use wave defraction to create an actual 3-d image. didn't know then, but now i do. >> what was that like? clearly you had a lot of cameras around you then and they had to capture your image and it was fascinating it actually appeared somewhere else. >> it was sort of stressful because i knew that they'd spent all this time and effort on it. remember, you aened i were on the campaign trail and we were exhausted, two hours of sleep for months. so they told me to wear all black to, to keep my hands on my legs. otherwise my arms might appear amputa amputated. they also told me don't lean or move otherwise i might look like i'm levitating.

unlike tupac who is bouncing all over the stage, i am stiff as could be. i wanted to say, wolf, you're our only hope which is a riff on the line from "star wars" but i was told to treat it seriously. i think it probably could have used a little more irony. >> and you got poked fun at a little bit, but we loved it, yeah, jess? >> i got a lot of ribbing and still do, especially from jon stewart, and, you know, he's right to point out that for all of us in the competition to get viewers, news organizations can be guilty of dedicating too much bandwidth to sensational things at times. but, you know, personally i'm for judging us on news gathering and how we deliver on substance, not on the technology and the gizmos, so my personal view with tv news wanting to have fun at wacky attempts at new video techniques, let the force with be us. swra somebody who

>> somebody who is with us, chad myers. tell us what the difference is with tupac shakur? >> if depends what camp you are in. if you are in the camp that tupac is still alive, it wouldn't be very hard. and there are some that think tupac faked his death and this would have been easy to do. >> tell us about this trick you're doing now. i think you're doing something here. >> we took a picture behind and now i'm standing in the same place and the camera is in the same place to appears i'm only a 50% person. but my wife will tell you i'm only half there all the time. this is not how they did it. tupac was not three-dimensional either. this was a prejojection onto a mylar screen at 45%. if you ever watch the president make a speech, you see the teleprompt terstel

teleprompters. you can't see the words because you're on the other side. what this company did and i will try to recreate it -- this is elementary at best. they took this mylar, made it sideways, and as they made it sideways, i'm making cnn project from down below. i'm only making a one dimensional. they were making a person sing and dance and here is my led. it's just an l.e.d. light and i made the box dark. if you notice tupac in the video, he is actually in front of a very dark screen because then nothing can show up behind him. and i'm still this -- >> i love it. the technology, correct me if i'm wrong, is not new per se, but because things are so defined well, it really looks really, really real now. >> and that's because of the 1080pnoncompressed definition technology. if you were doing this with an old projector, it wouldn't look like that. but they have such