let's get right to our poppy harleararlo harlow, though. partment, at that apartment complex for us this morning. poppy, what is the activity taking place there this hour? >> reporter: good morning, randi. it's really picking up. what you see behind me, if you can make out those busted windows on the third floor of that complex, that is james holmes' apartment on the third floor. i want to play you some video now that we just shot. what i can tell you is that the denver bomb squad has arrived in the past half hour. the arapahoe county bomb squad, as well as the adams county bomb squad, all local here around denver, just arrived, as well as atf. i just spoke with one of the atf members. we're going to the try to get someone on camera right after this. they have just arrived as well, so they're preparing to assess the situation in the apartment, randi, assess how bad it is, possibly go inside, but just getting on scene in the last half an hour, randi. >> and poppy, i was actually at the apartment last night for

poppy harlow joins us now from new york. ack to a couple things, poppy, because you've been breaking these numbers down that mitt romney talked about. he said if you look at the people who have stopped looking for work. >> yes. >> he says the actual unemployment number is about 15% for americans, and he also said 41 months above 8%. >> yeah. >> that unemployment has been. break that down for us. tell us about that. is he correct with that 15% number? >> he is correct with that 15% number. just looking at the report from the labor department, it's actually 14.9%, and he said nearly 15%. the reason is there are two and a half million americans, don, that can work, they are able to work, but those two and a half million americans are not looking for work. either they are discouraged or they have given up for some reason, and i think this is almost the most important number in this report because this shows us that the true unemployment rate is not 8.2%. it is closer -- it is higher than that, and -- and when you count in those p

i know i truly understand how blessed i am for each second i am given." >> that's cnn's poppy harlow.ch more ahead on cnn saturday morning about the shooting in colorado right after this. well today, there's a new new york state. one that's working to attract businesses and create jobs. a place where innovation meets determination... and businesses lead the world. the new new york works for business. find out how it can work for yours at thenewny.com. [ feedback ] attention, well, everyone. you can now try snapshot from progressive free for 30 days. just plug this into your car, and your good driving can save you up to 30%. you could even try it without switching your insurance. why not give it a shot? carry on. now you can test-drive snapshot before you switch. visit progressive.com today. i bought the car because of its efficiency. i bought the car because i could eliminate gas from my budget. i don't spend money on gasoline. it's been 4,000 miles since my last trip to the gas station. it's pretty great. i get a bunch of kids waving at me... giving me the thumbs up. it's always a gr

and so far they have just been able to get a peek inside, but our poppy harlow has been bringing us somew details this morning. she's been speaking with law enforcement. poppy, how sophisticated do they say this setup is? >> reporter: very sophisticateed, relatively speaking, for someone who is not believed to be an expert this at this. they told me, a law enforcement official just told me this morning, randi, this is a unique situation. not something that they typically see. that he showed some expertise in setting this up. this was certainly not, quote, crude. what they also told me that was very disturbing is that the explosive devices found in holmes' apartment are victim-initiated devices, ie, booby traps, that they would be set off by people going into the apartment, so likely first responders. they do not believe that these, basically, ieds, pbombs, are tid to any timers. that is good news for people in this area. but they also say a big concern would be an ensuing fire from any detonation. and here's why. those robots they sent in yesterday captured video of jars with black powde

thank you very much, poppy harlow.back, we're going to take you back to that memorial service. you're going to hear from the president of the united states. >> i confessed to them that words are always inadequate in these kinds of situations, but that my main task was to serve as a representative of the entire country and let them know that we are thinking about them at this moment and will continue to think about them each and every day. [ kimi ] atti and i had always called oregon home. until i got a job in the big apple. adjusting to city life was hard for me. and becoming a fulltime indoor cat wasn't easy for atti. but we had each other and he had purina cat chow indoor. he absolutely loved it. and i knew he was getting everything he needed to stay healthy indoors. and after a couple of weeks, i knew we were finally home! [ female announcer ] purina cat chow indoor. always there for you. >>> president obama today paid a personal visit to the stunned community of aurora, colorado. he met the governor and the mayor,

thank you very much, poppy harlow.e going to take you back to that memorial service. you're going to hear from the president of the united states. >> i confessed to them that words are always inadequate in these kinds of situations, but that my main task was to serve as a representative of the entire country and let them know that we are thinking about them at this moment and will continue to think about them each and every day. i'm one of six children that my mother raised by herself, and so college was a dream when i was a kid. i didn't know how i was gonna to do it, but i knew i was gonna get that opportunity one day, and that's what happened with university of phoenix. nothing can stop me now. i feel like the sky's the limit with what i can do and what i can accomplish. my name is naphtali bryant and i am a phoenix. visit phoenix.edu to find the program that's right for you. enroll now. [ slap! ] [ slap! slap! slap! ] [ male announcer ] your favorite foods fighting you? fight back fast with tums. calcium rich tums

i want to bring in poppy harlow, because poppy, i know you have information on two fronts, informationthe apartment of james holmes, and there was a lot of information coming out about how it was booby trapped and then also you have been talking to a lot of thos family members who are going through this experience now just trying to figure out whether their loved ones is injured or whether or not they have been killed? where do they go next? how do they pick up the pieces? tell us who you have been speaking , absolutely, suzanne,e are here at the site where the tragedy unfolded. i have spoken to a number of family members of the victims, and they are in a state of shock and disbelief. but i do want to get to that apartment, because i think that this is so important as we talk about and look at the images from the courtroom today and we talk about the 12 people that were murdered in those early hours on friday morning and the 58 that were injured, we still have 17 in the hospital right now. eight of them in critical condition at this hour, and we don't know what is going to happen to th

poppy harlow is at the suspect's apartment. poppy, tell us what's happening there right now. >> reporter: well, randi, as you took live the police presser here that just happened less than an hour ago, what they are doing now is they're getting ready for what they're calling controlled detonation of what sources tell me are at least a dozen ieds, so homemade bombs inside this apartment. they're going to send another robot inside to try to disarm what is a trip wire, a booby trap meant to set off these devices. they'll disarm that, then they'll possibly, according to our susan candiotti and her sourcing, possibly put a bomb expert in full gear, send them inside. the sergeant who held that police presser had no timeline. they hope to get in somehow within the next hour, but no idea of how long this will take. obviously, we, the media, are still right across the street from the apartment. they believe that the evacuations they've done thus far are enough to do this safely. they'll let us know if that changes, but we had a chance t

i'm poppy harlow.iled to get the personhood issue onto ballots in november. this measure to find a human life beginning at fertilization, which would ban abortions in that state. >>> a warning for the u.s. from the international monetary fund. it says boost the economy now and worry about budget deficits later or we're in danger of another recession. the imf says our government needs to spend more on infrastructure, train workers, extend unemployment benefits, and fix the housing market. brooke, back to you. >> thank you. >>> it is time for today's "tough call." this is something we have been talking about all through the commercial break. a urinal cake, like the little hockey puck thing that apparently is in urinals, talking to potential drunk drivers. and, boy, does it have a potty mouth. take a listen to her. >> don't drive drunk. if you do, and you get arrested, the next urinal you pea in will be in jail with a hairy guy named bubba standing behind asking you to pick up the soap and be his [ bleep

our poppy harlow is at james holmes' apartment building for us this morning. poke just a short time ago with law enforcement, that are back on the scene there. what have they told you now about what they have found inside that apartment? >> reporter: randi, a lot of new details. and this comes from a law enforcement official here on site, right at holmes' apartment, as you see behind me, here in aurora. what the official told me is that the devices in the apartment are what he calls victim-initiated devices. this means that booby traps would set them off. he described them as being, quote, nooenunique, that you noy don't see this. he didn't think any timers were attached to any of the explosive devices. that is very good news. investigators believe from the robots that they have sent inside, randi, and the video that those robots have taken that there are at least a dozen explosive devices. robots may go in again today to gather more video, possibly some sampling of the devices. but what really stood out to me, i am told by this law enforcement official that th

i'm poppy harlow in for don lemon. let's get you up to speed on the news today. not good for the president of syria. one of his most senior officials had defected and now he is talking to cnn. he was until

here's cnn's poppy harlow. >> if you could talk to jesse now, what would you say?> he wanted to wait until saturday to watch the movie. i shouldn't have asked him to come to the thursday night midnight premiere. >> it's not your fault, okay? it's not your fault. >> your last text to him was -- >> please let me know you're okay. >> never heard back? >> never heard back. >> two friends who served with him in the air force grieving the death of 29-year-old staff sergeant jesse childress. >> i think of someone, a big nerd, someone always humorous, always made the office brighter. >> fun loving, caring, going out of his way to help anybody inside the unit and outside the unit. >> childress was a cyber systems activator on duty just a few miles from the movie theater where he was gunned down. alex sanchez and kevin tou served with him. they were in theater eight, childress was in theater nine. >> we walked around for two hours looking for childress and other people who had seen ch childress. >> you never found him. >> john larimer, 27 years old in the navy only a year. >

poppy harlow joins us from aurora. what can you tell us, poppy?e that list of names of the 12 people murdered early in the friday morning hours, i started looking at the names and realized that three of them, a quarter of those who were killed were members of the military. all these men, not even 30 years old, giving their life to serve this country and losing to their life in this horrible way. take a look. if you could talk to jesse now, what would you say? >> i would try and we wanted to wait until saturday to watch the movie. >> asked him to let him come into the thursday night, midnight premiere. >> it's not your fault, okay. not your fault. >> your last text to him was -- >> please let me know you're okay. >> never heard back. >> never heard back. >> two friends that served with him in the air force, grieving the death of 29-year-old jesse chi childress. >> someone that was always humorous and someone who always made the office brighter. >> fun loving, caring and going out of his way just to help anybody inside and outside the unit. >> a cyb

poppy harlow toured driving from wisconsin to indiana to michigan and ohio. what a road trip. take the pulse of voters in the key auto towns. all four states went for obama in 2008. however, indiana is leaning towards mitt romney. poppy visited cocoa moe, a town that relies heavy on auto industry for jobs. it didn't seem as though the love is continuing. have a look. >> reporter: when we rolled into kokomo, indiana it was 93 degrees, a few clouds in the sky. >> our three largest employers are automotive companies. >> reporter: we came to meet cliff pitcher and wayne beats at their neighborhood bar. two friends whose blue collar career follow similar paths. >> do you agree over the next president? >> no. i'm all obama. >> i'm leaning toward mitt romney. >> why obama? >> because i have a job today. >> reporter: he credits the auto bailout which romney opposed. folks here call kokomo little detroit. >> if it wasn't for obama, i would not have a pension. i would not have insurance. >> reporter: despite that, dwayne doesn't think he deserves another four years. >> we're not much be

i'm poppy harlow. here are internet's headlines.ped in egypt apparently had no idea he was traveling in a very dangerous area. he was abducted along with a parishioner and tour guide. hits son talks about their ordeal and how it is taking a toll on all of them, especially the pastor's wife. >> it's bizarre. she even right now seems like a dream to her. a nightmare. >> another chapter in the global rate fixing scandal. according to the "new york times," the justice department says it is now looking into possible criminal activity. authorities around the world are trying to find out if banks manipulated interest rates that impacted consumers right bachelbefore the bank crisis hit. several are being looked at. >>> and now having access to a law enforcement database to challenge the eligibility of voters. they sued last month in an attempt to purge non-citizen from voting roles and a host of citizens are following the legal fight in hopes of pursuing purging their own voter roles. >>> plolice arrested nba star jason kidd and said he was

cnn's poppy harlow spoke to people who live there and here is her story. >> it's frightening. we don't know when we can go home. they say it could be tonight or another couple of days. >> reporter: forced to evacuate following friday's horrific mass theater shooting, paul mcqueen is shaken. his children terrified. their apartment building right next to the suspected shooters. for those who live here, forced to leave their home, it has been a day bull of angst and questions. first and foremost is we need to render the area safe. the most immediate threat is the trip wire. >> reporter: two hours later, progress. >> we have been successful in defeating the first threat, which includes defeating the trip wire and the first insinary device. >> reporter: but also this. >> this trip wire was set up to clearly detonate when someone entered that apartment and it was set up to kill that person. >> reporter: kaitlin fonzy says she lives in the apartment below the suspected shooter. she heard loud techno music in his apartment on friday. went upstairs and found the door unlocked but decid

cnn's poppy harlow spoke to people who live there and here is her story. >> it's frightening. we don't know when we can go home. they say it could be tonight or another couple of days. >> reporter: forced to evacuate following friday's horrific mass theater shooting, paul mcqueen is shaken. his children terrified. their apartment building right next to the suspected shooters. for those who live here, forced to leave their home, it has been a day bull of angst and questions. first and foremost is we need to render the area safe. the most immediate threat is the trip wire. >> reporter: two hours later, progress. >> we have been successful in defeating the first threat, which includes defeating the trip wire and the first insinary device. >> reporter: but also this. >> this trip wire was set up to clearly detonate when someone entered that apartment and it was set up to kill that person. >> reporter: kaitlin fonzy says she lives in the apartment below the suspected shooter. she heard loud techno music in his apartment on friday. went upstairs and found the door unlocked but decid

i'm poppy harlow in for don lemon. let's get you up to speed on the news today. not good for the president of syria. one of his most senior officials had defected and now he is talking to cnn. he was until a few days ago the syrian ambassador to iraq. he lef his post, fled to another country and is now supporting the rebels trying to throw out president bashar al assad. >> the regime in syria is a totalitarian regime and dictatorship. there's only one person who gives the orders. one person who is the president. >> he talked exclusively to cnn from his secure location in qatar. much more including what he says about syria protecting al qaeda. that's straight ahead in a few minutes. >>> the syrian capital witnessed the most intense fighting yet today. according to activists. the opposition says 57 people were killed today alone in damascus. activists have a message for president obama. they say the time for action from the international community is now. regardless of how it might impact the election in november. >> with regard to america specifically, we would li

poppy harlow joins us live.th to find out are we getting any better? are we looking to get any better? there are predictions. >> marginally so, a little bit but not where we need to be. we'll get the numbers at 8:30 a.m. eastern time. cnn money talked to a number of analysts and they are predicting it added $95,000 in the month of june but that's not nearly enough, only about a quarter of the jobs we need every month for a few consecutive months to get this unemployment rate down. 8.2% unemployment, that's the consensus estimate from cnn money and the fact is that we have not been below 8% unemployment since right after president obama was inaugurated. the issue is the aneemic jobs growth that we've seen this summer. in may only saw 69,000 created. let me take you back to last summer. you remember we were talking so much about the possibility of a double dip recession. that was last summer and we saw the same trend. then we saw the acceleration, 200,000 jobs created in january. the issue is if we don't see a big

poppy harlow is there as well. poppy, give us an idea. you've been -- you and other reporters -- are at a perimeter point there while they continue to look into this apartment and painstakingly try to figure out how to get in there because it is so heavily booby trapped. >> reporter: they are. here's what i can tell you. according to a law enforcement source i spoke with indepth today, they think there are at least a dozen explosive devices, frankly, ieds within this apartment that have been booby trapped, rigged so that basically they would be set off by someone entering the apartment. they sent a robot in yesterday to take video to survey. they're doing the same thing again today. i want to go step-by-step through what we know. there was a police presser here an hour and a half ago. the first step for them is going to be to try to dismid atlantic what will they're calling a trip wire. basically, the booby trap part of this. and that may be done with a robot. that may also, they said, the first step include a controlled detonation that c

cnn's poppy harlow walked the neighborhood and found people shaken by their close brush with disaster >> reporter: we don't know when we can go home. they said it could be tonight. it could be another couple of days. forced to evacuate following friday's shooting paul mcqueen is shaken, his children terrified. their apartment building right next to the suspected shooters. for those who live here forced to leave their home it has been a day of angst and questions. >> we need to render the area safe. the most immediate threat is the trip hour. we have been successful in defeating the first threat including the trip wire and the first insynurae device. this was set up to detonate when somebody entered that apartment and set up to kill that person. >> reporter: katlyn says she lives in the apartment below the shooter. she heard loud tech no music friday and went upstairs to confront him. >> hearing the latest news that that device was designed to kill whoever entered the apartment is a lot to swallow. >> reporter: fire men shout fire in the hole. >> we have been successful in detonating t

cnn's source says the complexity of the wiring looked like spaghetti. >> cnn's poppy harlow has been her sources to bring so many of these new exclusive details to light. last hour poppy told us about the reason for the ten gallons of gas in the apartment. >> reporter: what my source says is that this person rigged the apartment to, quote, enhance the thermal effect of the explosion. i'm told imagine the fireball you would have in an explosion that would knock down walls of nearby apartments. that flame would have consumed the entire third floor of the apartment complex, and by the time the fire truck would have arrived, i am told they would have arrived to a building that would have been, quote, completely consumed in flames. though what you're looking at on your screen is what detonated those gas containers far away east of denver, but imagine if that would have exploded, carol, inside the apartment building. one other thing that my source tells me that really stood out to me was that they believe that this apartment was rigged in the, quote, right way. that it would have successful

poppy harlow, cnn, aurora, colorado. >> kaylan seems amazing. says she either wants to be an actress or doctor. she said she didn't know what kind of doctor she'd want to be before this tragedy but now she wants to help people in the icu. alex sullivan died in theater nine. it was his 27th birthday. he'd gone to the film to celebrate. he was just two days shy of his first wedding anniversary. another young life cut far too short. his family began a frantic search. after hearing about the shooting, they rushed to the staging area for information. his father, tom sullivan, on friday, carried a photograph of his son. >> this is him. his name is alex sullivan. today is his birthday! >> alex with an "x"? >> yes. >> how old is alex? >> he's 27. we're looking for him. they don't have him on any list yet. >> he was at the movie? >> at the movie. >> at the movie to celebrate, as i said, his 27th birthday. earlier that night, here's what alex tweeted. oh, man, one hour till the movie and it's going to be the best birthday ever. alex did not survive theate

our poppy harlow is at the complex. poppy, good morning to you.ow long will it be until police can get into the apartment? do we know? >> we now have an answer to that. this just coming into nick valencia. frank is with the aurora police department, gary. he tells us that the fire department here, along with atf, will be returning to the residence of james holmes, right behind my right shoulder here, at around 7:00 a.m. local time. that's two hours from now, in colorado. it's not clear whether they're going to be allowed or plan to go into the apartment but they will come back here on scene. we will certainly be trying to talk to them. the reason with he don't know whether they will go in or not is because of how vexing, perplexing a situation this is. as i look at the apartment of james holmes, it is lit up with sort of an orange glo. there are many questions about what is in there, how intense these booby-traps are, whether there are indeed explosives as james holmes, the suspected shooter told police yesterday when he was arrested. take a liste

poppy harlow, cnn, aurora, colorado. >> alex sullivan died in theater nine on his birthday two dies shy of his first wedding anniversary. his family began a frantic search after hearing about the shooting. they rushed the staging area for information. his father, tom sullivan, on friday, carried a photograph of his son. >> this is him. his name's alex sullivan. today's his birthday. >> alex with an "x"? >> yes. >> how old is alex? >> 27. we're looking for him. they don't have him on any list yet. >> he was at the movie? >> at the movie to celebrate his 27th birthday. earlier that night, here's what alex tweeted. "oh, man, one hour till the movie and it's going to be the best birthday ever." i spoke to his father, tom sullivan, earlier. first of all, i'm just so sorry for your loss. i cannot imagine what you and your family are going through right now. i've read so many words describing alex. people saying he was full of love, always laughing, a big heart. how do you describe him? what do you want people to know about him? >> well, i mean, that's it. from when he was a baby, that's what

poppy harlow, cnn, aurora, colorado. >> all right, poppy. we are learning about amazing stories of survival. corbin was in the theater when the gunman opened fire and saw the whole thing happen along with his friend jennifer i spoke to last night. jennifer said last night she was doing okay. how are you holding up? >> a lot better today than when it happened. i am glad to talk to people who have gone through the same thing. >> we heard over and over about their experience in the theater. i have to ask you as someone who was in there, i didn't ask anybody last night in and yesterday, what is it like being here with the building so close? >> when i look at the building, i get a really blank feeling inside. it's hard to look at it. i try not to think of the event that took place. i am still seeing flash backs of what i first saw. >> you don't even want to look over at it. >> i will look over, but it will give me an uncomfortable feeling. >> jennifer said that the gunman got really close to her and pointed the gun at her and didn't shoot her, bu

i'm poppy harlow. here are tonight's headlines. bad news for the president of syria.his most senior officials has defected and now he is talking. he was, until a few days ago, the syrian ambassador to iraq. not anymore. he left his post, fled to another country and now supporting the rebels trying to throw out president bashir al assad. >> translator: the regime in syria is a totalitarian regime and a dictatorship. there is only one person who gives the orders, one person who is the president. >> he talked exclusively with cnn from his secure location in qatar. syria's opposition is calling on president barack obama to intervene in their fight, whether it hurts his re-election prospects or not. activists say he cannot wait for election day to prevent the violence. this plea comes on a day when the capital, damascus, saw its heaviest fighting yet. 50 people were killed in syria today according to activists. >>> hillary clinton's trip to egypt did not end well. the secretary of state's motorcade was pelted with tomatoes and shoes. the mob also chanted "monica" at the se