after a standoff lasting nearly 24 hours, reuters is reporting french police have begun an assault on the apartment where a self-described al qaeda militant accused of killing seven people is holed up. just moments ago three loud blasts were heard at the site of the stand-off. the suspect apparently confessing to the killings of three french paratroopers, a jewish rabbi and three jewish children over the past ten days. dan rivers is live. dan, i guess you could hear the shots. what's the very latest you're able to figure out is happening? >> reporter: yeah, i mean we heard these three loud explosions about 20 minutes ago. there were definite kind of flashes in the sky giving us the impression it was flash bangs that they were throwing in. but there's been nothing since then, so we're slightly kind of perplexed as to what is actually going on now. reuters are reporting that the deputy mayor of toulouse has said the operation to go in has begun but there's very little in activity here on the ground but there is a huge perimeter around this apartment block where he is holed up. it's possible there's something going on on the other side we can't see at the moment. this is the view we can see down here. we believe at the end of this road toward the left as you look at the screen is where this apartment block is and that's where we heard these explosions coming from. but nothing in the way of increased police activity on the ground and it's been getting on for 20 hours, 21 hours since this began. one would assume that they would want to get this over with tonight. one would guess they would want to go in when he is the most exhausted and the least alert and try to finish this off. they have made it very clear that they want to take him alive and bring him to justice, and he is completely surrounded by hundreds of armed specialists, french police officers. i don't think there's any chance of him getting out. it's just a question of whether he vendosurrenders or there is shootout. there's already within one gun battle with the police, injuring two officers. now they're hoping they can take him out alive. >> dan, i'm curious, whether your sense of they want him dead or alive or what your sense is. we do have some amateur video that has just come in. this is video that is supposedly of the alleged suspect who, as you can see here, obviously this is before now, but this is a video of the man that is suspected, mohammed mehra, of killing the seven people. we're seeing him drag racing a car it looks like with friends, doing some car racing in a dirt area. you can see him obviously, a young man as we now know of algerian origin. dan, what's your sense of this dead or alive question and how hard french police want to take him alive? >> reporter: they absolutely want to take him alive. i think that is essential. the last thing they want to do is to enable his followers or those that subscribe to his brand of extremism to say that he has been martyred in the process of this sort of terrorist spree. i think they're desperate to put him on trial to find out what motivated him, who he was working with, if there are others out there. there's a whole treasure trove of intelligence that they could get from him that i'm sure they are desperate to get. the last thing they want to do is to have him be killed, and that's why they have waited for so long until it appears now that they look like they're going to try to go in and take him out alive. >> all right. dan rivers, thank you very much. dan rivers reporting from toulouse. i want everyone to know dan will come back as we get more. it's a rapidly developing situation. it's possible there could be resolution. as you heard dan say, three shots heard about 20 minutes ago, so it's unclear exactly what the situation is. i do want to let you know that mohammed mehra, the suspect, made a phone call today from that apartment where he's been holed up. he called one person. that person's name is ebb ebba colondo. she's going to be our guest later on this hour to talk about what he said to her, what his tone was, whether he was sorry, whether he admitted to this. she will be our guest coming up in just a few moments and dan will be back if we get more information on the situation, right now the stand-off at the apartment complex. our other top story is stopping awe threat to the homeland. given what happened in france, this is of rising importance to the united states. today five counterterrorism experts from the fbi, the nypd, the dea and the treasury department testified before the house homeland security committee today. france's horrific attack on soldiers and jewish children is a big part of the reason for the focus here, but also there was the recent targeting of israeli diplomats in india, georgia and thailand. all that is top of mind. preventing a terror attack like a lone attack is a priority for officials as well. they testified about surveillance on new york city since 2003 and gave a couple more examples about a particular threat. one in september, 2008, during the u.n. general assembly. members of the iranian delegation were seen photographing grand central railroad tracks. he also cited september, 2010, again during the u.n. general assembly, four employees of the iran broadcasting company interviewed after photographing and videotaping the water line and structure area of the wall street heliport landing pad. this could have been completely innocent. but the obama administration has been vigilant, charging two men, a naturalized u.s. citizen holding iranian and u.s. passports and a member of iran's revolutionary guard with planning to assassinate the saudi ambassador to the u.s. in a busy restaurant last fall. officials say the plot was blocked by officials and it was the first time in more than 30 years that a foreign power has been accused of plotting a political assassination in the united states capital. the incidents raise important questions and so does this chilling warning from mitchell silver, the nypd's director of intelligence analysis. >> as the pressure on iran continues to mount, or if war breaks out, iran may choose to strike the united states for the reasons already mentioned, new york city may present the ideal target. >> matthew levitt also testified at the hearing today, a former deputy assistant secretary at the treasury department and former fbi counterterrorism analyst. i spoke to him just a few moments ago and i asked him about the likelihood after tax in the u.s. >> it could be. there certainly already is a shadow war going on between iran and the west, israel, the united states. some of the attacks abroad we understand were targeting u.s. interests as well in one of the thailand attacks. in the event that there's a strike in iran and possibly even if just iran believes that that's imminent, there could be attacks in the homeland. it's not agiven but it's definitely possible. >> i want to ask you about those. you just mentioned the word shadow war. in your testimony you said clearly america and its allies are already involved in a shadow war with iran. it is no longer clear that iran seize carrying out an attack in the united states as crossing some sort of red line. how so? >> well, not only has there been tit for tat attacks, whether it's viruses targeting iran's centrifuges, but now we had the plot at the end of last year where iranian agents tried to target the saudi ambassador here in washington at lunchtime at a prominent restaurant where we know from the intercepts that they were aware that this would kill innocents, including u.s. senators who frequent that restaurant, and that didn't bother them at all. so it appears some iranian leaders now see an attack in the u.s. in the homeland as no longer crossing a red line and that's obviously of concern to law enforcement here. >> certainly we're talking about president obama's administration has filed charges in that case against the naturalized american citizen, iranian born, who they say with the iranian government's support and backing was coordinating that attack. is that case in particular relevant to iran's thinking right now? >> i think it demonstrates where iranian leaders are in terms of their willingness to carry out these types of attacks. by our indicting one of the individuals or even treasuries designating several more for their roles, i don't think that pushes iran to want to do this anymore. it clearly is interested in carrying out these attacks. the question is whether iran itself or hezbollah might carry out an attack in the homeland especially in the event of an attack on iran's nuclear program. >> i want to talk about hezbollah, obviously a big topic today in the hearing. today the dea -- a dea official talking about 70 used car dealerships that they think may be involved with hezbollah and financing of terrorists. how big of a threat is hezbollah in the united states? >> well, hezbollah has a significant presence here, both in terms of people who are sympathetic and supporters and even trained operatives, some who have military experience, training in iran. so they have people here who could carry out attacks if they wanted to but primarily they see the u.s. as a cash cow where they raise money. there are other ways to carry out attacks. sometimes they send in operatives from abroad that could leverage their relationships with criminal elements which are extensive here in north america, so there's lots of ways this could play out. >> how many cells, how many hezbollah operatives? you referred to george tenet back in 2002, the former cia director, saying hezbollah was a direct threat to the u.s. homeland, so has it grown? is it bigger? and if so, how much? >> several congressmen asked me that question this morning. we don't know the exact number, but we know it's enough. we know there are enough people here that have military training and many more who are supporters and could be called upon or in some cases could be forced by extortion to do things they don't want to do. a lot of people here have families back in lebanon. if hezbollah approached them and said do this or else your family could suffer, that could leverage a whole other layer of hezbollah support. >> matt, thank you for your time. phil mudd joins us now and thomas sanderson. let me start with you, phil. is this threat any greater than it was when george tenet talked about it ten years ago or is it just now everyone is talking about iran and hezbollah, so it's just more rhetoric than anything else? >> first i think you have to differentiate between iran and hezbollah, two very different organizations. not the same partnership we might have seen in the early '80s when hezbollah was bombing embassies and killing marines. we focus on hezbollah as a terrorist organization. they own lebanese politics now in a way they didn't 30 years ago. in that sense, hezbollah is a different adversary than they were when george tenet spoke. the second and final thing is irans different as well. what we've seen in the past year is that attempt on the saudi ambassador in washington and also attempts across the world in places like thailand, so they're showing capability is one thing. the real difference is they're showing the intent to go after people in ways they weren't five, ten years ago. >> thomas, would you agree with that, that they are showing the intent? and if so, what would be the potential risks or types of attacks that they might try in the united states? >> well, i agree with phil. certainly the intent is there and the capability is up for the iranians. i agree they view hezbollah in a way differently than they have in the past so that forces the iranians to increase their capabilities and their ability to reach into the united states or to hit u.s. interests in other parts of the world. so i think it is something we need to pay closer attention to, but to make a distinction between these two groups. >> i'm curious, though. of course iran denies all of this and it does seem -- there's so much rhetoric out there right now that, you know, is it possible, phil, that they're really not involved with any of these things? that people are saying they're involved with, whether in georgia or india or thailand or the saudi ambassador? >> i'm a skeptical analyst, but i wouldn't buy that in a heartbeat. first of all, iran has a history of assassination operations going back to the '80s. they were assassinating people in europe. this was pretty brazen. in european countries that they were trying to build partnerships with. now we have operations against the iranians, for example, against their nuclear facilities. you have assassinations of iranian scientists in tehran and then the same techniques sort of magnetized bombs used to try to kill israeli diplomats in places like india and you want to tell me that's not iran? i don't buy it. >> all right, gentlemen, thank you very much. we appreciate your perspective tonight. drawing conclusions about the blunder by mitt romney's adviser. will he be able to shake it off? our own miguel marquez interviews a city counselor that murdered his wife. an amazing story of war and redemption. and the latest developments in the trayvom martin killing. was the death inevitable under florida law? 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[ male announcer ] it's a network of possibilities -- helping you do what you do... even better. ♪ all right, a day after winning the illinois primary, mitt romney picked up a big endorsement from florida governor jeb bush but he's also facing some impairment for a remark his top adviser made here on cnn. eric fehrnstrom was looking forward to the fall but he used an unfortunate choice of words to describe the campaign strategy. >> well, i think you hit a reset button for the fall campaign. everything changes. it's almost like an etch-a-sketch. you can kind of shake it up and we start all over again. >> well, his opponents, of course, seized on that moment saying it proves mitt romney has no core convictions. you think this and then shake it and you go over here and you get the point. john avalon is here. we have pictures today of newt gingrich carrying around an etch-a-sketch, rick santorum in a car looking at an etch-a-sketch. so they were quick to seize upon this. why is this getting so much pickup? >> this gets a lot of pickup because it goes to the heart of political communications. this resonates because it deepens an existing deepening narrative about mitt romney. that's the line his competitors have been trying to make over and over again. it was compounded by the sib of vivid language and a visual metaphor. immediately etch-a-sketch, that gives something to literally hold on to. and that gaffe stemmed on what was objectively a good day for the romney campaign. big win in illinois, big endorsement from jeb bush. >> right. though i wonder how much of it is us, our world. we love talking about it. i don't know. there's something else you've been really looking at which is fund-raising and john has been covering this second by second but also passionate about it. romney had a big month but you talked about how he spent everything he earned. what does that mean? that says more than the etch-a-sketch. >> in politics, you follow the money. if you look at the money raised last month, mitt romney is spending more money than he's taking in. romney, the management consultant, would not be too happy with romney the presidential campaign. but he's spending more than all of his opponents. it has served his campaign very, very well. so he's spending what he takes in but in a very strong position. >> what about santorum and gingrich's latest numbers? >> newt has a real problem. right now his debt exceeds cash on hand. santorum, on the other hand, is raising more than he's taking in -- than he's spending. that's a good sign. exempt you see how far he's lagging mitt romney. one of the fund-raising measures, he's selling those snazzy sweater vefrts. $100 a pop. we did a little sweater vest math for folks at home. right now he trails mitt romney $4.7 million. he's going to have to sell 47,000 sweater vests to close that gap. that's a real problem. >> that's more than someone wants to store in his wyoming retreat. thanks so much to john avalon. now a story that shocked the town of pacific, washington. many in this small community have known 64-year-old gary hulsey for decades. he's a father, a grandfather, a member of the city council. what most people don't know is that he is also a convicted murderer. when this story first broke a few weeks ago, local media pounced. >> i killed without a second thought. >> a stunning revelation rocking a small town. >> i was shocked to hear about it. >> his dark past uncovered only after being elected twice. >> so we decided to dig a little deeper, and our miguel marquez sat down with gary and quickly discovered there is a lot more to this man than his personal story. >> reporter: gary hulsey, a vietnam vet, has been to hell and back. >> you had about as intense an experience a young man, a teenager, can have. >> true. >> you had to kill a man with your bare hands? >> at one point, yes. >> reporter: hulsey was 17 years old when he joined the marines. a kid. three tours and more than three years later he came home battered, bruised but determined to leave the past behind. he finished college, started his own contracting business, but vietnam wasn't done with him. >> how much did you drink? >> i'd go through a fifth of whiskey a day. >> and why did you drink so much? >> so i could pass out at night without having to have nightmares. >> reporter: eight years after hulsey returned from vietnam, just three weeks after getting married, he was drinking heavily on the night of october 24th, 1978. he did the unthinkable. >> i passed out around, the last i remember, about 10:00. when i woke up, she was in bed next to me and the knife i kept under my pillow. the knife never jams. i kept a combat knife under my pillow and it was stuck in her chest so i called the authorities. >> what did you tell them? >> i think i killed her, i don't know. >> his experience is extreme but familiar. more than a million veterans have returned from iraq and afghanistan, nearly 20% of returning service members may suffer posttraumatic stress disorder, ptsd. as much as 25% depression. one study indicated 27% of returning iraq vets have used alcohol. another showed prescription and illegal drug addiction as high as 35% among some soldiers. when gary hulsey killed his wife in 1978, ptsd wasn't an official clinical diagnosis. in fact he didn't even seek treatment for ptsd until 1994. one of the most difficult problems, diagnosing ptsd. the vets themselves have to recognize the symptoms and be willing to ask for help. one way the military is trying to reach vets, video games that present real-life dilemmas where doctors can identify problems based on their score. another way is with programs developed for your mobile phone, the t-2 center at ft. lewis mccord has developed mood trackers that service members can punch in, a range of emotions and feelings in realtime. everything from depression to feelings of tiredness or hopelessness. over time it helps define the possibility of stress-related problems. tools that didn't exist in gary hulsey's day. >> war is hell. hell is defined as being separated from god. god doesn't walk around a war zone. >> despite the hell, hulsey has turned his life around. in 2007 he became an elected official, a city councilman in pacific, washington. when the local press heard -- >> a killer on the city council. >> hulsey was forced to confront his past again, as his murder conviction became widely known. married 25 years now, he credits his wife, lois, for helping him understand something he never thought he would. >> i came home from vietnam, i knew fear, i knew anger. i didn't know how to deal with love or joy or happiness. i knew guilt. and guilt and fear would turn into anger. i was familiar. now i know joy, i know love. >> it gives me goosebumps just to hear your report, miguel. he talks about being married to his wife, lois, for 25 years. what does she think about his past? >> reporter: well, they have a very -- they have two rules, very hard and fast rules in their household. one, no alcohol in the house at all. she completely trusts him. but he does say that if he starts thrashing about at night in bed, she has to go to another room to sleep. >> wow, and what's his advice for people returning from ptsd, for young men now coming back? >> reporter: it almost sounds too simple. his point is seek help. talk to other people. the biggest thing that he didn't do before that when he did do it made a world of difference wto him was to go to vfw, the veterans of foreign wars, and also the va. there is tons of help available. he works with vets now, a lot of those returning vets, and he loves talking to them. he says go seek help, that's the simplest thing that you can do. >> an amazing story. thanks very much to miguel marquez. the man responsible for a french killing spree made a phone call today. the woman he called is next "outfront." and president obama tries to sell america on his new energy plan, but just how bright is his idea? 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>> reporter: we're being told by the interior ministry that the operation has not begun. they said that those three explosions that we heard about an hour ago now were merely to pressure merah to engage with the negotiators, to re-engage with them after he had made it clear that he wasn't going to come out, that he wasn't interested in ending this in a peaceable way. they lit up the sky here, giving us the impression they were flash bangs that they had thrown towards the building where he had holed up. the building was down at the end of the street here. there's been a bit of activity the last five or ten minutes or so, a lot more police coming and going. we're not sure if that is a shift change or is a sign that things are beginning to develop here. anyway the message from the interior ministry is that the operation has not yet begun, it was merely to put pressure on merah to try and engage in negotiators. >> all right, well, dan rivers thank you very much monitoring that for us as the night continues. just two hours before police even arrived at his home, the suspect made a phone call to a french newsroom and asked for the editor by name. that editor, ebba kalondo, joins us now. ebba, thanks very much for taking the time. i know it's a very late night for you as well. what was the first thing he said to you? >> he said he wanted to claim responsibility for all the attacks. those were the first things he said, and that he was part of a group that was allied to al qaeda operating in france. those were the first things he said. >> and then i know he told you he wanted to avenge the deaths of palestinian children, protest the french military's involvement in afghanistan. did you believe him, that he really was the shooter? >> no. no, not at all. i thought it was a 16-year-old who stole his father's telephone at 1:00 in the morning. he had the most -- he had a very juvenile voice and extremely impeccable french. i thought it was a prank call really. we have so many of them at our network. there's so many people from all parts of the world who get upset with current affairs stories, that i thought it was just another one of such calls. but then there was the extreme focus and the structure of his arguments, and he was -- he told me, listen, i want to tell you something that only the perpetrator of these attacks would know or the police. and if you don't believe me, ask the police. and then he enumerated certain facts about the bullet casings at each attack, how many shots were fired, how many bullet casings he took from the scenes and what he left behind. so very, very specific information. he reiterated that it was only the beginning and that more was to come. that's when we then started this very weird conversation. i asked him, well, why did you choose now to act? and he said quite almost sincerely, he said, well, before we didn't have enough money nor did we have the weapons that we needed. so the material and the financial sources were only made available or came together two weeks ago and then apparently the plan went into overdrive until it came into fruition. he seemed to be very aware that a massive manhunt was under way for him. he said he wasn't scared and that neither capture nor death scared him at all. he said if i was caught, i would go to prison with my head held high. and should i die, i will die with a smile on my face. that's what he said. and he sounded like a 16-year-old boy. but it's just the chilling quality of his words. >> that is. i know obviously no remorse and obviously proud. i know that he didn't seem to want to get off the phone. i was told you talked to him about 11 minutes 19 seconds. how did the conversation end? did he ever say why he picked you? why you personally? >> i don't know. i don't know. i don't know. in fact i'd rather not think about it, if i can. it's been -- it's been a very weird 24 hours and moved from a sense of i don't know whether this person is credible, although he was saying very rational-sounding things. only when he was being interrogated by the anti-terror squad did i slowly start to realize, oh, gee, i think it might be the same guy. and so it's been a day of sort of dawning realization that not only was the suspect that's now holed up in this building, the young chap that i spoke to last night, but that he was absolutely serious. absolutely serious. >> ebba, thank you very much for sharing your tale. it's pretty amazing, just by hearing her, you can imagine the shock that she went through talking to him. well, a woman has been held by somali pirates for about six months and we have a development to report for you tonight. and the latest in the trayvon martin case. a country mesmerized and a florida law may have contributed to his death. we're lifelock, and we believe you have the right to live free from the fear of identity theft. our pledge to you? 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this is big news. we do this at the same time every night. our outer circle where we reach out to our sources around the world. tonight we go to kenya where british hostage judith tebet was released by somali pirates after months in captivity. she was abducted last september while vacationing with her husband. her husband was shot and killed in that raid. our david mckenzie is in nairobi tonight and i asked him a moment ago about the details of her release. >> reporter: erin, she was kept in captivity for harrowing seven months in somalia. she said that her captors moved her from place to place to avoid being captured by any military force. one tragic detail, she didn't even know at first that her husband, david, had been killed in the initial attack last september. she said that it was her son, olly, who secured her release and details are emerging that there might have been a ransom paid to make sure she got to her freedom. now, policy experts say that the continued payment of random, though helping people like judith go free, are in fact just fueling this issue of kidnapping and piracy off the coast and in the inland of somalia. they say that ultimately the solution is to help govern those ungoverned spaces to stop the scourge of pry racy. thousands of people rallying right now in new york city for the florida teen killed by a neighborhood watchman. trayvon martin was allegedly shot dead by george zimmerman as he was walking home unarmed from a convenience store nearly a month ago. no charged were ever filed. zimmerman said he acted in self defense and had a right to pull the trigger under florida's stand your ground law. but others say the watch volunteer was racial profiling. tonight there is growing debate over whether zimmerman used a racial slur in his call to 911. trayvon's parents are calling for zimmerman's arrest. they spoke just moments ago at the rally in union square. >> trayvon was your typical teenager. trayvon being the typical teenager, trayvon was not, and i repeat, was not a bad person. george zimmerman took trayvon's life for nothing. >> nothing! >> george zimmerman took trayvon's life, profiling him. my son did not deserve to die. >> ben is head of the naacp. he's out front tonight along with paul callen, attorney. thanks to both of you. ben, i wanted to start with you. i know there was a town hall today. there was a lot of acrimony at that town hall. video showed some very heated moments. what are community members telling you right now? >> folks are saying, look, we want to see this man locked up and brought to justice. we want to make sure that this department is actually looked into from the bottom to the top, both in this case and this general pattern that we see here. and we want to see this chief gone, because he has simply lost the faith of his community. just moments ago we received a report that the county commission had voted 3-2 -- excuse me, the city commission, no faith in this chief and that just reflects what i heard all last night and all today as we talked to people here in sanford. >> and, ben, i'm curious because the department of justice agreed to take on this case to investigate if it was racially motivated. i'm just wondering from your point of view, is it possible that evidence could come out that could change your mind and make you think this was not an explicitly racist act? >> no one has any idea if george zimmerman is a racist. i'm not here to say that. our concern, the pattern that we see is in this community going back to at least as far as 2005, some people say longer than they have been on this earth, there is a pattern of this department not treating cases involving young black men as victims as seriously as they should. simply young black men's lives are just not valued as much. when people have some connection to this department, whether they're a volunteer on the weekend as a reserve officer or have a family member on the force or they're a neighborhood watchman, that they get sort of wide latitude and special dispensation even when they have killed a young black man. >> paul, this stand your ground law, you're allowed to use deadly force if you're in a place that you feel reasonably threatened with serious harm. so if you're a racist and you perceive threat where there is not threat from a teenage black boy in this instance, that's not legally justified, right, under this law? >> no, it's not. you don't get the benefit of self defense if you perceive -- if because of racism that's why you are in fear. the law says you have to act as a reasonable person would act. and the reasonable person under law is not a racist. so this is an objective standard. was he in fear of serious bodily harm when he fired the deadly weapons? that's the self defense test. >> ben, do you think, though, that the stand your ground law has allowed people that are racist to act with deadly force because they wrongly perceive people as threats who are not threats? >> you know, what this law has clearly done has empowered cops to really make their own judgments about who's a killer and who's not a killer in ways that are simply not acceptable and hard to really wrap your mind around. when you read the law, what the law says is that if somebody stalks you, if somebody attacks you, if somebody puts a gun at you, that you have the right to use equal and opposite force. that would seem to suggest that this law is saying that trayvon martin could have used deadly force against george zimmerman. this law does not give you permission to go hunting for little boys. and that's what mr. zimmerman did. >> all right. final word quickly, paul. >> florida's self defense law is the same as the law in every other state. if you reasonably perceive that you're going to be killed, you can use deadly physical force. the stand your ground thing is outside of the house instead of inside the house. inside the house you don't even have to be in fear of death, you can shoot somebody that comes into your house. this really is a self defense case. is self against there or not there, and that's what it's going to come down to. was zimmerman in reasonable fear and only the facts will tell in the end what the truth is there. >> it does seem amazing that there was no custody and no investigation. >> no custody, no investigation. in other places he would have been arrested. >> a lot more of this to come and the big rally going on in new york. thanks very much to both of you, paul and ben. anderson, what do you have on tap? >> we're also following the trayvon martin story. officials in sanford, florida, have just passed a vote of no confidence in the police chief there as protests spread, including one in new york city. more people are asking did the police do enough to investigate the death. we'll look into that tonight. is justice really being served. we'll lay out the facts as we know them right now and you'll also hear from trayvon martin's parents. i interviewed them both today. and we'll look closely at the law that is keeping the shooter out of jail. we'll talk to one of the bill's co-sponsors who says if the shooter pursueded trayvon martin, the law does not protect him. also, was a racial slur by the shooter said on that 911 tape? we took the calls into our most sophisticated audio booth. we'll let you listen uncensored to what the shooter said and you can decide if it was in fact a racial slur. if it was a racial slur, legally that makes a huge difference in terms of the federal government's involvement and what they could possibly charge that shooter police standoff w suspected serial killer in france. >> thanks very much, anderson. the energy debate continues to heat up. but do the president's numbers add up? and twitter hitting a milestone today. we'll be back. jojohnhn, , jijil. whwhatat's's i it t lilikeke d e fufusisionon h hybybri? yoyou u cacan n rereadad e evet isis o opeperaratitingng b by ya bubuttttonon.. itit's's l likike e drdrivivin. whwhatat w wououldld b be e thtg fofor r yoyou u toto g gi? ththe e mimileles s peper r gag. whwhenen y youou'r're e ususeder cacar r upup o oncnce e a, ththenen s sududdedenlnly y one weweekeks,s, bebelilieveve e meme i it'tg didiffffererenencece g go. hey, heard any updates on the game? i think it's final seconds, ohh, down by two, shoots a three, game over. so two seconds ago... hey mr. and mrs. harris, where's kevin? say hi kevin. hi. mom, put me down. put...the phone...down. hey guys. did you hear... the choys had their baby? so 29 seconds ago. well we should get them a gift. [ choys ] thanks for the gift! [ amy and rob ] you're welcome! you're welcome! [ male announcer ] get it fast with at&t. the nation's largest 4g network. at&t. ♪ at&t. fore! no matter what small business you are in, managing expenses seems to... get in the way. not anymore. ink, the small business card from chase introduces jot an on-the-go expense app made exclusively for ink customers. custom categorize your expenses anywhere. save time and get back to what you love. the latest innovation. only for ink customers. learn more at chase.com/ink so president obama was in nevada today touting his energy plan and touring the country's largest solar energy generator, the copper mountain solar one facility has nearly a million solar panels that generate power for 17,000 homes. it was financed in part with $40 million worth of flal tax credits. the president says it's part of his plan to diversify the country's energy portfolio and promote alternative energy sources like solar. according to an analyst at pacific crest securities, that's how many years a customer has to commit to solar energy to break even. electricity prices are tied to coal and natural gas, not oil. even though oil prices are high, natural gas is still incredibly low. you have to sweat it out for almost a couple decades before you see returns. but even if you're willing to put in the time solar energy will not work everywhere. a state has to have the perfect combination of good sun and high electricity prices for solar to be feasible. right now pacific crest says there are only three states, california, florida, and hawaii with the right mix. yeah, you know, they're pretty sunny. then hawaii has hydro. we would need electricity prices to go up, up, up for solar to be a true alternative. it could happen though. is it worth it? find out how close your state is to solar pair ti on our website. next, twitter with another milestone. and who doesn't want 50% more cash? ugh, the baby. huh! and then the baby bear said, "i want 50% more cash in my bed!" phhht! 50% more cash is good ri... what's that. ♪ you can spell. 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[ male announcer ] help your family stay afloat at aflac.com. plegh! that is better than today. since 1894, ameriprise financial has been working hard for their clients' futures. never taking a bailout. helping generations achieve dreams. buy homes. put their kids through college. retire how they want to. ameriprise. the strength of america's largest financial planning company. the heart of 10,000 advisors working with you, one-to-one. together, for your future. ♪ so it's twitter's sixth birthday today and growth is amazing. during the relatively short life, the social media site attracted more than 140 million active users every single day 300 million tweets are posted. most of them mundane, some very important. it took the site more than three years to reach a billion tweets and now they hit that mark every three days. but it's not just about the tweets. it's about the tweeters. seems like a lot of people are on twitter. lady gaga is number one with 21 million followers, bieber second, katie perry, rihanna and shakira and politicians are on there, too. president obama is eighth with 13 million followers. the republicans have significantly less. newt gingrich, 1.5