to and we talked to seven said absolutely not. i would not do this. they all said kind of what you're saying it's a slippery slope but they weren't against it which is the question i have as a parent. >> what a story. tweet me. i'd love to know if you would do this or not. thank you very much. watch sanjay on the weekend here here on cnn. thank you. now our two. top of the hour. all eyes on syria. we are talking about potential cracks in the regime of syria's bashar assad. we've talked a lot about the city in aleppo. it's the largest city. it's like the new york city. now the rebels claim to have captured this army installation. they released this video via youtube. they claim to have captured yet another police station. what your about to see next is tough to look at. fair warning. this is the aftermath of government shelling. you see blood everywhere. unconfirmed reports say the attack killed 15 people and wounded more than 20. government forces continue sporadic shelling and we await this full scale. just a short time ago i talked to a spanish journalist inside aleppo. he told me that right now the city is in the hands of the rebels. >> reporter: they are just running the city. they are running the police and the hospitals. they are running everything and for the moment the shelling has diminished a bit. it's not like the days before. they are kpmting a major offensive tomorrow. there are a lot of rumors that the army would launch a huge offensive tomorrow. they have seen 80 tanks arriving nearby by the city. they are expecting this attack tomorrow. >> you say tomorrow. i'm just curious because yesterday we had been reporting today, i know the anticipation really has been building for this offensive, if this attack. do we know why it's taking so long for these government troops to get to the city? >> reporter: those troops are coming from italy in a long convoy that left that area some days ago. it was there in italy before coming here. i saw the tanks moving. there were ambush in the way. they went slow. they didn't arrive until last night. they arrived last night and is also special forces. in the meantime, what is happening is there's still a lot of helicopters shooting against the buildings. they are shooting against all the buildings without any purpose. maybe two make afraid the people and make them to leave. >> that was javier espinosa talking with me. it's so important to talk about syria. i want to pose the same question and that being we were on yesterday talking that this offensive would happen today. he said tomorrow. is there trouble brewing? why is it taking syrian troops so long? >> it's hard to predict. the big question is going to be when. the other big and more important question is as far as civilians are concerned is how long is this going to take. for three months they continuously shelled. even that didn't end up completely eradicating the city of rebel held areas. in damascus the rebel held districts were shelled for a week then there were ground attacks and the regime re-took control. >> tell me what you've been learning. i know you're talking to people. what is happening now on the ground? >> those neighborhoods that are not held by the rebels are emptied. the streets are empty. the people are scared and at home hoping and praying the fighting will not reach them. as for the rebel held neighborhoods, you aired some difficult video and footage. that's a district of aleppo. we saw the aftermath of that. typical aftermath of shelling images. very disturbing pictures of people with missing limbs and who have received sharpal wounds that killed them. >> when we go back into aleppo. you've been to syria many times, i want to hone in on this, this is what they call the castle? >> this is the citadel. it's a u.n. world heritage site. everything around it is probably some of the most important he heritage for all of humanity. it's the oldest city on earth. this is something that in other circumstances i would recommend truly visiting because everything around her is something of historic importance. the people who are living here just a few days ago had some free syrian army visitors in their street. they held a street and held it for a few hours and went straight back out. once the fighting truly reaches the center of aleppo, that means the battle for aleppo is truly under way. you're talking the syrian army regime here with tanks and helicopter gun ships and fighter jets. the rebels have ak-47, a few empty tanks and that's it. it's a completely disproportionate battle. >> did you hear the sound bite? did you hear the word she used, massacre? >> it's interesting you should ask that question because with my executive producer just minutes ago we were trying to decide in what instance do you use the word massacre. it's sad that you have to have that conversation with that country. when do you describe it as a massacre? the brutal killing of defenseless people. it becomes the question of whether or not we decide in the news room to use it. we hope it won't come to that but the fear is that it will. >> one more question. i want to show this. you have turkey to the north. aleppo is here. one of the concerns just hearing from the turkish prime minister is that you have turkish militants coming in. >> turkey, two days ago, said we're happy to help you and we're against the assad regem but we reserve the right to strike at bases. >> this tells me turkey could get involved. >> absolutely. it's politically involved. >> i mean more than that. >> militarily it is allowing the rebels to establish bases on its territory in facilitating the transfer of arms. one last point. you look at this map, lebanon, . there's more than 120,000 syrian refugees. they are lacking in funding and resources to welcome them all. this number will swell. will swell. not might, will. >> hala, thank you so much. syria today. there's a lot more happening on this friday. take a look at this. one of hollywood's biggest producers says in the wake of the colorado massacre it may be time to look in the mirror. i'm brooke baldwin. the news is now. several people are behind bars accused of terrorizing a camp full of jewish kids. plus, the countdown is on. olympic fever beginning tonight. i'll tell you which moments to keep an eye on. as facebook stocks drop, i'll speak with someone who says mark zukerburg needs the boot. kbln i'm serious, we compare our direct rates side by side to find you a great deal, even if it's not with us. 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[ all ] i'm with scottrade. ...we inspected his brakes for free. free is good. free is very good. my money. my choice. my meineke. it's exciting. forget republican versus democrat, yankee versus red sox, coke versus pepsi. this is the time we get to root for one team. the olympics begin today. the olymc torch on its final leg and the bells are sounding. 40 chimes from big ben. all is building up to the opening ceremony from london. it's less than an hour away. this will be a quick london 101 for you. i was there for the diamond jubilee. i'm not there for the olympics. we're going to live through everyone who is. i want to begin with buckingham palace. the flag flies high when the queen is in residence. big ben was renamed elizabeth tower in honor of her diamond jubilee year. big ben. this is the part we have to talk about. six miles this way. the olympic park. this is where the action will be happening. you have the olympic stadium. i'll be on my sofa watching the opening ceremonies. i saw this picture and thought what is this. this is the sculpture that's been put up and will remain in london. this building here, this is a aquatic center. we'll be watching a lot of swimming events. this is the olympic village. some 10,500 athletes are housed here. who esn't love watching a good gymnastics event. the o2 arena. this is where we'll be watching the gymnastics. this city has been preparing for years. this is the time lapse for this summer and the fun has already begun. i'm not just talking sports. i'm talking singing. fair warning. plug your ears if you don't want this song stuck in your head. take a look at how some olympians are easing stress in this viral video. ♪ where you think you going, baby ♪ ♪ i just met you ♪ this is crazy ♪ here's my number ♪ call me maybe ♪ it's hard to look at you ♪ call me maybe >> sorry. had to do it. we have to talk mitt romney and london. he will be there tonight at the opening ceremonies. if political gaffes were an olympic sport, the brits would be handing him a gold medal now. his trip has been one false start after another. he tried to walk back his criticism of london's olympic preparations on cnn's piers morgan tonight. here he is. >> it's fabulous. great weather. enthusiasm on the part of the people here in london. i think you're going to see terrific games that will be long time in our memories. >> i want to bring in chief political analyst gloria borger. >> oops. >> during his visit romney was hoping to tout his own experience, salt lake city. running the winter games back in 2002 but not working out well for him. >> it's not working out the way the message mie sters would want it to work out. he would remind people that he really helped the olympics in 2002. it was plagued by scandal. it was $400 million in the red. it was post- 9/11 and he salv e salvaged the olympics. instead he steps in it. it's not great to be critical in london. you get in a tiff with the prime minister which turns public and by the way, he also admitted that he met with the head of british intelligence which you're never supposed to do. it didn't exactly work out the way they have intended. once the games start you forget all of this and that's what they are hoping. >> team obama has to be loving this. they will be airing an aid during the opening ceremony tonight. here is part of it. >> i believe that the way you grow the economy is from the middle out. i believe in fighting for the middle class because if they're prospering, all of us will prosper. >> is there a senses that the obama campaign is capitalizing on romney's problems in the uk? >> you think so? they've almost been kind of gleeful about it. jay carney made a point of saying that the president had been briefed on the olympics. david axelrod said he was almost speechless about what romney said and michelle obama is there. she hasn't had any problems. it's clear from this ad they're going to throw a positive ad out t there. the rnc is going to throw a negative anti-obama ad out there. mitt romney has made some missteps. >> after london, romney is heading to israel and poland. how important is that second leg of the trip? >> they had to put something on in addition. you remember back in july of 2008 then candidate obama took a trip to europe. he also went to iraq and afghanistan. he was in berlin, if you recall, with hundreds of thousands of people listening to him. i don't think mitt romney is going to have that. you go to israel and you remind people that president obama, not candidate obama, president obama has not been in israel since he took the oath of office. i was noticing today it's no surprise that today president obama signed a pro-iael defense pledge, which had been passed by the congress last week. somehow he decided to sign it today. >> coincidence, maybe not. >> i don't think so. >> thank you so much. >> sure. got some news just in for you on the case against james holmes. the suspected gunman in that horrendous colorado massacre. we are hearing new details about the package he sent before that shooting. stacy right here. ♪ i'm consolidating my assets. i'm not paying hidden fees or high commissions. i'm making the most of my money. and seven-dollar trades are just the start. i'm with scottrade. i'm with scottrade. i'm with scottrade. and i'm loving every minute of it. 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[ ding ] oh, that's helpful! well, our company does that, too. actually, we invented that. it's like a sauna in here. helping you save, even if it's not with us -- now, that's progressive! call or click today. no mas pantalones! consider the journey of today's athletes. their training depends on technology. and when it takes a battery, there are athletes everywhere who trust duracell. they rely on copper to go for the gold. duracell. trusted everywhere. and soon...even more reason to trust duracell. duralock power preserve. it locks in power for up to 10 years in storage. guaranteed. duralock. coming soon to every duracell battery. new information on the case against james holmes, the suspected gunman in the colorado massacre. drew griffin has been digging on this. wow. tell me what you know. >> we've been chasing this lead for a couple of days. now it's been confirmed by james holmes' own attorney, doug wilson, who filed court papers today admitting that james holmes was a psychiatric patient. she's the medical director at the university of colorado's campus. she is the person who was sent that package that we talked about on monday. it was sent from james holmes. now according to his attorney sent to his own psychiatrist who was treating him prior to the shooting. >> i have a lot of questions for you. one being do we know how often he sought treatment? what kind of treatment? >> these the only details we are getting. when we asked directly these questions of university officials on monday the answer was vague. they said we didn't give you the complete answer but because of the gag orders we're not going to give you much more answers. this is a court filing by holmes own attorney seeking the disclosure of what was in the package and stating this guy was a patient of a psychiatrist. >> do we know based upon the sessions, did she ever sound an alarm bell? >> we don't. we don't have any idea what kind of communications took place between the dr. fenton, mr. holmes, school officials. was school officials alerted anything was taking place. we don't know that yet. what we do know and this development just took place is that james holmes, the alleged shooter, was seeking help prior to the shooting. >> this is the first public acknowledgement of that. this is new. when did this package arrive? >> it arrived on monday according to the school and was turned over to the authorities. because this was a communication between a patient and a psychiatrist that it is privileged. that is what this court document is about. >> james holmes a psychiatric patient prior to the shooting. another major story unfolding. several teens drove through firing paint balls and shouting slurs, they are under arrest. we're on the case. well, there is. 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[romney singing]: oh beautiful, for spacious skies, i'm barack obama and i approve this message. for amber waves of grain, for purple mountains majesty, above the fruited plain, america, america, god shed his grace on thee, and crowned thy good, with brotherhood... group of jewish boys and teenagers say they were terr terroriz terrorized. police have made arrests. on three separate occasions they drove a truck through this camp taunting the campers. the suspects yelled slurs and threatened to kill them and shot at them with paint ball guns here. the suspects now face a slew of charges including ethnic intimidation. welcome to you seema. this is hate crime versus reckless crimes. how difficult is it to prove a hate crime? >> hate crimes are difficult because they are very touchy feely for lack of a better term. you have to prove the intent of the victim. the intent of the defendant. that the defendant intended for the victim to feel as if they were a target. hate crime is all about intent and perception. where as a reckless crime, today we could go to the crime scene and see how that truck plowed through the camp and everything is destroyed. reckless is right in front of you. the depravity of the driver. there's the difference. it's between perception and action. >> with everything you see, might federal charges be filed? >> several charges will be filed. as well as, federal crime there's a new federal statute as of 2009 and this targets what you're talking about, federal hate crimes. as a prosecutor, the d.a. is going to say let's talk to the feds because i want this group of people to face more series incarceration. that is one benefit to pursuing a federal case. these people could now be facing both state and federal charges for the same act. >> what about these young people also involved? we mentioned the five individuals. two of them juveniles. you have a 17-year-old and 16-year-old. do you think they should be prosecuted as adults? >> 16 and 17 is really tough because you're closer to being an adult as to whether it's a 13 or 14-year-old. the court will look at age and conduct. the three main perpetrators were involved in the conduct part of this crime. the other two, if they are looked at as more of accomplices, that they weren't as involved, that they are young, there's more of an opportunity to rehabilitate, they're doing well in school, the court will look at these factors. the d.a. will want to try these young people as adults whereas the defense attorney will say let's keep this in family court. they're just kids. >> thank you. >> thank you. now to something that has captivated the country online. 30 years, five friends, one example of how you can't stop father time. from at&t, with its built in beats audio, every note sounds amazingly clear. ...making it easy to get lost in the music... and, well... rio vista?!! 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what was happening in '82? >> pleasure to meet you. this lake, one of the guys in the photo, the guy on the left owns cabin in northern california. he invites his friends up every year. in 1982 he decided to invite all his friends up. we hung out. it's a free vacation and have a good time. a group of guys enjoying themselves at lake in a cabin. we had a good time. before the end of the trip we took a group photo. that's all we did early in '82. we didn't do anything more than that. we had a good time. >> just a photo. fast forward to '87. i'm going to ask about that jar. how did this become a tradition? every five years you would do this. why? >> well, what happened is we would go every year. we would go. we were there in '83, '84, '85. we were all there in '87. the guy on the left said let's recreate that photo that we took back in '82. we retook, posed exactly. we tried to get into the position we had. john had a jar. mark rumor had a hat. we just recreated the photo. >> in the jar a cockroach. >> we captured add cockroach in a car. we do pranks. we're just weird having a good time. we capture add cockroach in the jar. then we gave it some food. we threw a butter scotch candy in there. we thought maybe the cockroach could be lonely so we cut out a picture from a magazine and tossed that in there. when we took that original photo for whatever reason john picked up the jar and held it up just when we took the photo. our mascot at the lake. we've been holding a jar up ever since. it's really john's idea to duplicate this in 1987. we've been doing it every five years. we thought it could be fun fp we're going to keep going. >> some you have have begun to gray. some weddings ring are on, off. what have you learned? >> i now have a wedding ring myself. i met my wife sharon during the 2007 photo. i married her right around the time of the 2012 photo. >> congratulations to you. >> you're welcome. this shirt just to prove it's me. this is a shirt. >> i believe it's you, john dixon. thank you so much. i think this story might inspire a bunch of other people to do the same thing. >> it's fun. it's a fun thing to do. great thing. i suggest everyone do that. >> thank you. millions of dollars at stake. a huge bath salt bust by the feds in more than a hundred cities. we'll talk to father who lost his son to the deadly drug. what he's trying to do to prevent other families from going through this. ? as a police chief, i have an opportunity to affect what happens in a major city. if you want to make a difference, you have to have the right education. university of phoenix opened the door. my name is james craig, i am committed to making a difference, and i am a phoenix. visit phoenix.edu to find the program that's right for you. enroll now. this is new york state. we built the first railway and the first trade route to the west. we built the tallest skyscrapers, the greatest empires. we pushed the country forward. then, some said, we lost our edge. we couldn't match the pace of the new business world. well today, there's a new new york state. one that's working to attract businesses and create jobs. build energy highways and high-tech centers. nurture start-ups and small businesses. reduce tax burdens and provide the lowest middle class tax rate in 58 years. once again, new york state is a place where innovation meets determination and where businesses lead the world. the new new york works for business. find out how it can work for yours at thenewny.com. they come with catchy names, bliss, vanilla sky, scooby snacks. i'm talking about synthetic drugs. we heard so much about it after the face eating zombie attack back in may. poison control centers call 13,000 calls for synthetic drugs last year. this week the feds cracked down. look at these boxes and bags. in those boxes and bags, drugs. they seized five million packets of fake marijuana and 167,000 packages of bath salts in raids across 36 different states. they arrested 90 people. the raids are welcome news to lance. he lost his 14-year-old son to the so called designer drugs back in march. sir, welcome. i'm sorry for your loss. i asked you about the 88 around your neck and you said that was his football number. >> yes, ma'am. >> the reason you're here with me today is because of your son and what you're doing to honor and stop this from happening to other parents. i just have to begin with dakota. take me back to march. what was he taking? what happened? >> march 8, dakota was contacted by two of his friends on social media facebook. they had mentioned synthetic marijuana, what they were called legal weed. he declined four times. finally, he said something about maybe. they said we'll hook you up with our man. on friday the 9th sometime between 6:00 and 7:30 that afternoon, he jumped on his bike and run up to walgreens. it's a local store we have to get a drink. i don't remember what he went for but it was not uncommon. he comes back. he was in the the house with me and his mother all night long. we watched normal tv programs. at 12:30 me and him were sitting on our kitchen counter drinking a glass of milk and eating cookies discussing the next day we were going to get his body armor for spring ractice. the movie battleship was out. he and his buddies wanted to go to it on sunday. everything was fine. we, me and my wife got up the next morning. we left and had errands to run. we returned back home at 12:10. we know that his last text message was at 11:46. sometime between the time we left home or prior to that, dakota made a 14-year-old decision when he accepted it, he made a worse decision of when he smoked it. within a matter of hours he went through a psychosis other psychotic episode. he took a handgun and took his own life. he was alive when he found him at 12:10. >> he was? >> yes, ma'am. as unnewsworthy as this is to the nation, it is to me. >> it's incredibly newsworthy. >> sergeant dobbs, first and foremost, he was the first officer on the scene, rms, our first responders were all there. they dropped in the floor beside me with my son. you couldn't ask any better when it comes to public service than what our small town has. he was put in one the ambulances. the staff and nurses of higgins hospital, we live across the street from the hospital came out of the hospital, went into the back of the ambulance, worked on my son and transferred him to lifeflite. he passed at 5:10. >> you have amazing people that helped you in that moment. in in moment you are here because you lost your son to synthetic marijuana. you remember every detail because i can tell you love your son very, very much. quickly, for the people watching, a lot of parents, tell me what you're doing with these mailboxes. how are you trying to help? >> we wanted to give back something to those men and women that were in that floor with me that day. we thought what could we do to help them to bring not only sin themmic marijuana and bath salts off the street but prescription and nonprescription medications and narcotics as well. we run across just on the internet where they sell these prescription drug drop boxes for $1900 up to $4900 a box. there's away to do this without costing taxpayers. >> we have these pictures. these are the boxes. there are eight of them now? >> yaes, ma'am. people are dropping off drugs to get them off the street. >> we delivered to all the jurisdictions there. we delivered one to douglas county. it kind of hit the local news. we had 12 requests at the time. now as i came into the studio, the police department called me and said they wanted another one. that put us at 398. >> i feel a feeling after being on cnn you might get a couple more calls. i truly appreciate it. thank you. i'm so sorry. hopefully we can help. >> thank you. i hope you can too. big plans. so when i found out medicare doesn't pay all my medical expenses, i got a medicare supplement insurance plan. 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what is their college debt going to be like? and how are we going to pay it down? >> it's a question i hear over and over. >> yeah. these are scary times. today someone who attends a public school pays $30,000 a year. a private school $60,000 a year. those are very daunting numbers. the department of education says that if the numbers continue on the same rate within -- by 2016 the payment for college education, the tab is doubled in the past 15 years. but, you know, that is the sticker price. you apply for financial aid, you won't have to pay that whole tab. the key is this woman has a lot of time. put the money in a 529 plan where you get tax breaks. choose the college wisely. we talked about this earlier. you don't have to pay for the most expensive school. state schools often give in-state students tax breaks. as far as need-based aid grants, those things, those can cut your tab. >> what do you think? >> i remember being a junior in high school and reading money magazine's guide to the best values in education. i still think there's great research out there that you can do to pick a college that will be the best value out there. so your child is nott iwith deb >> what they want to do. >> certainly. >> there's a great rule of thumb that you should base the amount of debt you take onto what you would expect to earn in the first year after graduating. so a teacher's probably going to be able to take on less than a pharmacist or engineer. >> 100%. >> all right. thank you. appreciate it. if you have a question you want our experts to tackle, upload a 30-second video with your help desk questions to ireport.com. poppy, thank you. groceries, clothes cars this past spring, today economists reporting the economy slowed. the gdb grew 1.15%. still apparently slightly hiezer than analysts expected. it's fueling hopes for more stimulus from the fed. and i want to bring in erin burnett. she's the anchor of "erin burnett out front." great to see you. you have the higher food prices because of the drought and the budget cuts killing the government jobs, there's all kinds of headwind. have we hit a wall? >> sort of seems like we have, brooke. when you have a crisis caused by excess debt, it always takes an incredibly long time to get out of it because every extra bit that you get ends up going to paying down that debt. so that's what we're sort of still seeing. it was obviously a debt crisis for our entire country. so it's going to be a long hard slog. the question is even if the fed did a little more, would it help? they've done things three or four times and every time it's been a little bit less effective. so there is the expectation they'll try to do a bit more, the question is how helpful will it be? and with the gdp slower than expected and we were at 1.5, that means you're not creating enough jobs to keep up with population growth. you're not going to be working away at the whole of jobs we have with these kinds of numbers. >> i want to turn the corner. i want to talk facebook. we are and i'm cheating looking at the clock. the facebook stock has been getting hammered all day long. down more than 10%. investors are not happy. the very first earnings report out even though it did make money the stock has been on a rough ride really ever since the debut. can they recover? >> well, that's the big question. i mean it keeps falling and falling. no doubt the ipo the way it was handled was poorly done. just to be generous there in how i say that. the question is though, brooke, can they make money as a company? they have to start selling more ads and selling more ads on smartphones which is where now about half of people access facebook. they haven't been able to do that. there's a question on viability on that front. but also a question as to what facebook provides. is it a utility that will become a fad. will people use facebook now and something else down the line? or has it established itself so much that it's here to stay and they'll eventually figure out how to make money? in which case as the stock plunges some say it's a buy. it's a real question as to whether this has the staying power so many people thought it did at the ipo. >> speaking of staying power, when you think of facebook, who do you think of? mark zuckerberg. there was a piece today by john able that said he should keep the hoodie, ditch the title, bring in a new ceo, go back to what he's good at, strategy. any chance in the world that would happen? >> well, he's a micromanager in the good sense of the word and bad sense of the word is my understanding talking to people in the company. there is a role -- there's a precedent for this. the founde of google left and brought in a professional manager. they did that for years. now they're coming back in their late 30s ready to run the company. there's a precedent for him to do it. but it certainly doesn't seem like it's anything he'll do in the near term. but he'll say i'll be the chief genius and have somebody else run the operations and financials. but it doesn't look like he's there yet. >> 30 seconds. what do you have coming up tonight? sgler sgl we're going to talk more about bali. the most heavily funded al qaeda offshoot is now the boss of north molly. the u.n. came out saying they only have half the need for the humanitarian crisis. it's what we saw firsthand. it's a who arable situation. more on that and how people can try to make a bit of a difference with that crisis. >> erin burnett, we appreciated your reporting then. look forward to it tonight. 7:00 eastern only here on cnn. and now be right back. i've got a nice long life ahead. big plans. so when i found out medicare doesn't pay all my medical expenses, i looked at my options. then i got a medicare supplement insurance plan. 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