exploding blaze this morning. two states under the gun. could be the $100 million tax dodged. did facebook's co-founder give up u.s. citizenship to escape paying his taxes? he's now in singapore driving a bentley and living it up appearing in high society magazines. why did he unfriend america? block the press. reporters at a mitt romney event blockeded from asking the candidate question. cnn the only network getting the moment on tape. "newsroom" begins right now. good morning to you. i'm carol costello. this morning police are escorting some school buses in metro atlanta after a terrifying scene unfolded for several students on their way to school. a gunman took aim at the children while they boarded a school bus. it happened in clayton county south of atlanta's airport where police have now found the rifle, ammunition and a note with school bus numbers and pickup and arrival times. here's what one witness told tom jones of our affiliate wsb. >> he is shooting at that school bus at them kids. >> reporter: this 20 year old told me that's what his uncle yelled when he saw a man aiming a rifle with a scope on it at children getting on a school bus. the sniper was in his neighbor's backyard. that's when brewer said the sniper dropped the rifle and jumped the fence and took off. he ran after him. >> i was running trying to catch him. stop. stop. he just kept going. >> reporter: brewer says all of a sudden -- >> boom. all i heard was the gunshot. he says the gunman fired a shot at him. >> it was loud. >> reporter: luckily it missed. he showed me where police marked where the bullet hit. the gunman got away and the search is on to find him. brewer wants to be a police officer but he says police gave him a valuable piece of advice. >> the police officer told me that i need to wait and not chase him down like that. >> that was wsb's tom jones reporting. local police are searching for that gunman. so far more than 60 officers have gone door to door asking residents for help in the neighborhood where that incident took place. let's turn to the latest tragic chapter of camelot and the kennedy family that fascinated generations of americans today an autopsy is scheduled for the 52-year-old estranged wife of robert kennedy, jr. mary kennedy was found dead in her suburban new york home. her life, like that of her in-laws, was filled with achievement and darkness. alina cho is in new york to tell us more. >> you mentioned that autopsy. westchester county medical examiner will begin the autopsy on mary kennedy's body in the next half hour beginning at 9:30 eastern time. the autopsy will take an hour to complete. we could hear about a cause of death as early as later today. for now, however, police are keeping a tight lid on what might have happened. they will not say how mary kennedy died and they're not providing many details about what they found at her home in bedford, new york, other than her body, which was discovered in what they described as an out building on the property. one thing we do know, carol, the last few years were not kind at all to mary kennedy. >> she did battle a lot of demons, didn't she? >> she did. she did. the real problems began in may of 2010. that's when we publicly heard about them at least. that's when her husband, robert kennedy, jr., the nephew of president john f. kennedy, filed for divorce. the couple has four children. all under the age of 18. that is what is so heartbreaking about this. the divorce was never finalized. at the time of death, they were still officially married. now, not long after robert kennedy, jr., announced plans to leave her, mary kennedy was arrested for driving under the influence twice in 2010. once for alcohol and once for prescription drugs. won charge was reduced. the other was thrown out. nonetheless, it did happen. there was also a domestic incident the night after robert kennedy filed for divorce during which he told authorities that his wife was intoxicated. kennedy biographer spoke to erin burnett last night and the demons that they battled. >> her husband or soon to be ex-husband was a heroin addict. he came out of that and became one of america's great environmental leaders. she said it used to be a bunch of drunks at thanksgiving dinner and now an aa meeting. >> you hear so much about the kennedy curse and i have to say when i heard about this last night, i thought here we go again. how heartbreaking and terrible for the kennedy family. >> how is the kennedy family reacting? >> well, you know, there are two statements that were put out last night. mary kennedy's family put out a statement through their attorney saying our heart goes out to her children and robert kennedy, jr., released a statement saying mary inspired our family with kindless, love, gentle soul and generous spirit. >> alina cho reporting from new york for us this morning. remember that deadly string of anthrax filled envelopes that terrified the nation after the 9/11 aattacks, someone is trying to rekindle that fear. one person sent 20 powder filled envelopes to schools and businesses in the dallas area last week and that person may be to blame for some 380 such letters sent since 2008. the powder is harmless but authorities say this hoax needs to be taken seriously. >> although the sender has focused on government agencies, he or she has began to target our nation's schools and this necessa requires a serious response from authorities over concern for our children, our teachers and first responders. >> officials say the hoax is extremely expensive to taxpayers and the intended targets. a reward of $150,000 is being offered for information that leads to an arrest. in alabama, protesters are challenging lawmakers latest measure against illegal immigration. police arrested seven demonstrators at the state house. the governor is launching a full review of the bill. supporters say it improves current law which is considered the toughest in the country. opponents and protesters say it makes the law even more abusive and illegal. closing arguments under way in the corruption trial of former presidential candidate john edwards. his defense team rested their case after just two days and after deciding not to have edwards or his former mistress testify. edwards faces 30 years in prison that he funneled campaign money to rielle hunter. joe johns is at the courthouse in greensboro, north carolina. >> reporter: closing arguments today in the john edwards' campaign finance trial in greensbo greensboro, north carolina. each side gets two hours to make their final points before the jury. the prosecution will go first. then the defense and then the prosecution will get the last word because it has the burden of proving each and every element of the six-count indictment against john edwards. the wrap-up of this trial was a bit of a surprise for how fast it came. the defense had suggested it might throw in the kitchen sink at the end. john edwards, rielle hunter, his former mistress. but in the end they didn't even call edwards' daughter, cate, to the stand. the defense might have decided they're better off leaving well enough alone after giving the jury a simple and clear position on the legal issues at play in the case. for example, that the hush money in the edwards case wasn't intended to be a campaign contribution and that somebody else got the money, not john edwards. the jury is expected to start its deliberations in the edwards case on friday morning. in greensboro, i'm joe johns. in central texas, the military is looking into why a training missile accidentally fell from a military chopper and landed smack in the middle of a neighborhood. about 100 homes were evacuated. the object six feet long doesn't contain any explosives. a disposal team arrived and took the missile away. no one was hurt. police are seeking the car jackers who robbed gospel music legend marvin winans. a man approached him at a gas station chatting about music on his radio and then a few more men walked up and things got ugly. >> i was on the ground and then they went to kicking me and trying to get the money out of my pocket and tore my pants up and then when i stood up, i called on jesus. they started running. i got up and my car was gone. >> detroit police don't think the attackers knew winans was a recording artist and well known pastor. the latest of wildfires in arizona had as tripled in size. four homes have been destroyed near crown queen. firefighters are not getting a break from the wind and dealing with poisonous snakes and unmarked abandoned mines and winds are fuelling a wildfire in northern colorado. 1,000 acres have already burned. someone likely started that fire. attention verizon wireless customers. your unlimited data plan is about to get the boot. alison kosik is at the new york stock exchange. customers will not be happy. >> adios unlimited plan. verizon slowly has been chipping away at this unlimited plan. verizon dropped unlimited for new customers coming in. now it's planning to ditch the unlimited for all customers that come in. verizon cfo announced this at a wireless conference yesterday. verizon is in the process of updating from its 3g network to 4g network that is faster and for the company it costs the company more so we'll consume more data so carriers are upgrading to these faster wireless networks and they're trying to cover the cost of these upgraded wireless networks by generating more revenue from us. >> so i guess the idea is to provide a limited bucket of data that can be shared in a plan of some sort? >> right. exactly. it's not just a family share but also for individuals and it can be shared meaning data plan can be shared among different devices. let's say you have a smartphone and you also have a tablet. you can put both of these things on the same data plan or if everyone in your family has a smartphone, everyone can share in this kind of bucket of data but keep in mind this is going to be a limited bucket of data. >> coming up, aides for mitt romney physically blocked reporters from asking questions at a campaign event. we have the exclusive video for you. 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[ female announcer ] neosporin® plus pain relief starts relieving pain faster and kills more types of infectious bacteria. neosporin® plus pain relief. for a two dollar coupon, visit neosporin.com. 15 minutes past the hour. police in an atlanta suburb are escorting school buses after a gunman aimed a rifle at children getting onboard a bus. wsb tv reports police are using a note dropped at the scene to search for the suspect. more than 60 officers have gone door to door asking residents in the neighborhood for help. closing arguments begin this morning in the john edwards corruption trial. the defense rested without calling edwards, his former mistress or his daughter. if found guilty of all charges, the former presidential candidate faces up to 30 years in prison. a fan makes an extra effort at last night's red sox/rays game in st. pete. you see it there. he falls over the short wall. does a face plant. he did get that foul ball. even though he went on the field, security let him slide and he got to keep the ball. ouch. could we be on the way of a repeat of last year's debt ceiling cliff-hanger? washington is in gridlock already. the president hosted congressional leaders in a meeting described as cardiordiat no breakthroughs. >> are we headed again to one of these debackacldebacles? >> you have to ask the speaker of the house on whether he believes it's right to play chicken. >> at only way to enforce it now is to take away one thing that every member of congress really wants and that's their paycheck at the beginning of the month. let's take it away until they get their job done and then you will see all of a sudden bipartisan work and we'll all get something done. >> the atmosphere was good. no kumbaya but it was a good meeting. it was productive. we had candor. we had friendship. we had an understanding of where we need to go for our country and as always with meetings like that, on all sides, great love for our country. >> the president favors a deficit reduction deal that has a mix of spending cuts and tax increases. in the meantime on the campaign trail, the dustups aren't over the budget but who gets access to the candidates. at mitt romney's stump in st. petersburg's, members of his staff physically prevented reporters from asking questions. one of those reporters was our jim acosta. >> thank you. >> reporter: standing in front of a mini national debt clock, mitt romney left no doubt about his message of the day. >> we'll get on track to get a balanced budget. >> reporter: after the event was over as romney was shaking hands with supporters along the rope line, aides to the gop contender made sure the candidate stayed on topic. this press aide physically stood in the path of reporters trying to make their way to romney to ask questions. the campaign even brought in a lone secret service agent to keep the press away from romney contrary to the agency's policy. a secret service spokesman says they don't restrict movement of press within general public areas or their movement within these areas. hours later the romney campaign admitted its mistake saying this was an error on part of campaign staff and volunteers. we allowed them press is allowed on the rope line to record interaction with voters. the altercation came just hours before joe biden blasted the gop contender for his time at the private investment firm bain capital. >> he thinks that experience is going to help our economy? let's take a look. >> the obama re-election team tried to focus on the firm. >> like a vampire. came in and sucked the life out of us. >> reporter: the romney campaign released its own web video showing a camp prospering after bain's help. but romney has said little about the company. he didn't answer a shouted question from cnn on the subject. last week at a speech in michigan, romney did not mention bain by name but he did say he wanted to translate his private sector experience there to the oval office. >> finding solutions and opportunities in an environment of change and turbulence is what i learned during my career. it's something i want desperately to bring to the presidency. >> the romney campaign says the president is just playing politics of envy. a line that biden said in ohio he took personally. >> my mother and father dreamed as much as any rich guy dreams. they don't get us. they don't get who we are. >> reporter: the romney campaign later admitted its mistake and even romney came back on a press charter to tell reporters the rope line incident was not his idea. >> we were getting kicked off the rope line today. that wasn't your doing, right? >> reporter: romney has one public event in florida but mostly he'll be at private fundraisers where press access to the gop contender will be limited. jim acosta, cnn, st. petersburg a florida. watch and listen as a huge landslide roars down the side of this mountain. all of that is heading right for a village. ♪ [ engine turns over ] [ male announcer ] we began with the rx. [ tires squeal ] then we turned the page, creating the rx hybrid. ♪ now we've turned the page again with the all-new rx f sport. ♪ this is the next chapter for the rx and the next chapter for lexus. see your lexus dealer. you're about to see part of a mountain crumble to bits. take a look. this huge rock slide was headed for a village in switzerland. this went on for hours. some rocks did make their way to the valley floor but the roar. listen to it. i wouldn't want to hear that coming at me. luckily none of the buildings were damaged on the valley floor but the roads around the village were closed. officials say the area as you might expect is very dangerous right now. today david beckham will help take the olympic torch from greece to the u.k. people are getting ready for the london olympics. the opening ceremony is a little more than two months away. zain verjee is in london. you're so lucky. >> i am. it's really exciting here. the big flame hand over ceremony is going to happen at a stadium in athens. there will be a big choreography as they hand over the flame to princess ann who will be there for the ceremony of the united kingdom and then david beckham and then they will bring it by plane to the u.k. how are they going to bring a torch, you wonder, a lit torch by plane. they transfer it to a lamp. it will travel, one flame, 8,000 miles to different cities across this country. the interesting thing here is that there are a few backup flames. it looks like there's just one. actually, there are two or three in different locations just in case they need that actual flame. i don't know. we may want to call it a bailout flame from greece. i don't know. just in case. it's also going to be in a secret location every night that it is in a different city and there's a torch security team that has been created. they also have a bunch of runners. when you see everyone running with the torch, you have kind of these outliarsoutliers. >> it happened in beijing. >> zain verjee live in london for us this morning. now is your chance to talk back on one of the big stories of the day. the question for you this morning. can racial politics be effective in 2012? you heard some of this during the republican primary. herman cain saying african-americans were brainwashed into voting for democrats. newt gingrich calling president obama a food stamp president. get ready for racial politics on steroids. according to "the new york times," a republican super pac has a $10 million campaign against the president. the goal is to portray mr. obama as having misled the nation by presenting himself as a metro sexual black abe lincoln. the plan which is not yet approved include attacks ads linking the president to his former pastor, the reverend jeremiah wright, jr., known for blasting america. >> not god bless america. damn america. it's in the bible. killing innocent people. >> in 2008, mr. obama denounced wright's statements and john mccain said the subject was off-limits during the campaign. why is this coming back now? one reason perhaps, republicans can't seem to beat the obama likability factor. despite concerns over his handling of the economy, most americans say they like the president. a recent cnn/orc poll shows 56% find mr. obama more likable than mitt romney. the talk back question for you this morning, can racial politics be effective in 2012? facebook.com/carolcnn. i'll read your comments later this hour. don't forget if you are heading out the door, you can take us with you. watch us any time on your mobile or computer. head to cnn.com/tv. 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