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Arrest Made In Ricin Case; Search Under Way For Suspect's Laptop; Official: Tsarnaev Sitting Up And Writing; Tsarnaev Not Giving As Many Clues; Biden Talks About Terror Investigation; New Interest In Triple Murder Case; Concern Grows Over Bombing Intel; Bush Center Dedication; Tonight, The Joke's On The President; Online Magazine Teaches Terrorism; New Home Sales Are Up

Aired April 27, 2013 - 13:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Carol Costello live in Boston. We begin with breaking news. A major break in the ricin letters investigation. Federal agents have arrested a man you're going to see. His name is James Everette Dutschke.

Letters containing the deadly powder was sent to President Obama, a Mississippi senator and a Mississippi judge. One other man was briefly under suspicion earlier in the investigation, but was soon cleared. CNN's Alina Machado is in Tupelo, Mississippi. She has the latest. Alina, bring us up to date.

ALINA MACHADO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, this, as you mentioned, is the latest twist and turn in this investigation. James Everett Dutschke was taken into custody by FBI agents. That arrest happened early this morning before 1:00 in the morning here at his home in Tupelo, Mississippi.

Now Dutschke has been turned over to the U.S. Marshals Office, but we have been told by the FBI that his arrest is in reference to the ricin investigation. Now we first learned about Dutschke at a hearing on Monday that was for the initial suspect in this case. His name is Paul Kevin Curtis.

Curtis had said in that hearing that he had been framed and he mentioned that Dutschke as a possible suspect. Then on Tuesday another twist, Curtis was released. All the charges against him were dropped and the attention at that point seemed to turn to Dutschke.

Now we have turn throughout the course of the week federal agents investigating this case. We have seen agents here at Dutschke's house. We have also seen them searching at a former martial arts studio that Dutschke was associated with. We don't know what they found at this point or if that's relevant to this investigation.

But we know that they were searching on location. Now during the week, we have been in contact with Dutschke's attorney. Her name is Lori Basham. She has told in the past that her client has nothing to do with the ricin letters. However, today in the morning when we reached out to her again to get reaction, to get information, she told us a very brief statement. She said that it was her understanding that authorities have confirmed that Dutschke has been arrested and they have no comment at this time -- Carol.

COSTELLO: It's just hard to believe because aren't authorities alleging that he did this because of a grudge against an acquaintance, a neighbor?

MACHADO: There has been some talk about the relationship between Curtis and Dutschke. But at this point, it's tough to tell exactly what led authorities to make this arrest in this case. We're hoping, of course, to learn more details as the day progresses.

COSTELLO: All right, Alina Machado, we're going to let you get back to reporting and check back with you in just about 20 minutes.

Let's turn our attention to the Boston bombings investigation. Right now, investigators are in New Bedford, Massachusetts, scouring a dump in the hopes of finding a critical piece of evidence, the surviving suspect's laptop.

A law enforcement official says investigators went to that dump after getting leads from Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and others who may have played a part in throwing that computer in the dump. Tsarnaev is now being treated at a prison medical center in Devens, Massachusetts. That federal facility is just about 40 miles west of Boston.

A law enforcement official says Tsarnaev's condition is improving. He's able to sit up. He is able to write, but he's become a lot less talkative since authorities read him his Miranda Rights.

His father's trip to the United States, by the way, has been put on hold indefinitely for health reasons we hear. His mother will not be coming to the United States at all because she's wanted here on felony charges of shoplifting and also destruction of property.

CNN's Pamela Brown is live at the Federal Medical Center in Devens, Massachusetts where Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is being held. Pamela, let's first talk about the search that's going on in a dump. Is it still going on or have they ended their search?

PAMELA BROWN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, as far as we know, it is still going on. Investigators have been combing through that landfill for three days now. There are dozens of investigators out there searching for what they believe will be Tsarnaev's laptop that essentially authorities say he helped lead them to this landfill through an interrogation with him.

He didn't exactly come out and say it was there, but there were certain tips that led them there and also they were interviewing some other people in this investigation that also led authorities to this landfill.

We know that they had some potential involvement with disposing this laptop at the landfill. At this point though, nothing has been found, but authorities do not want to give up on this, Carol. They believe that they will be able to find clues to help them in this investigation.

COSTELLO: We also want to talk a little bit about Tsarnaev's condition. He's sitting up. He is writing, but he's not talking, is that right?

BROWN: Well, it does appear that his condition is improving significantly. Last weekend, he was in serious condition and now we're hearing that he is in fair condition. At this point, we are told that he is not telling anything substantive to authorities ever since his Miranda Rights were administered to him this past Monday.

At this point, we know that, as I mentioned earlier, he's sitting up. That he is writing. We don't know the exact details of that. We know the facility here behind me where he is staying does provide long-term medical treatment, but they don't do any type of invasive surgeries. They only do small procedures. That is also an indication of Tsarnaev's condition -- Carol.

COSTELLO: And when might he appear in court?

BROWN: Well, he was officially charged this past Sunday. We have 30 days until an indictment with the grand jury is presented. After that, there will be an arrangement where Tsarnaev will be expected to appear in court and enter a plea. So it could be a few weeks from now. It could be longer. We simply don't know the answer to that question. But it's not far away from us -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Pamela Brown reporting live from Devens, Massachusetts. You heard Pamela say that apparently Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has not been nearly as generous with the clues like the trashed laptop ever since he has been read his Miranda Rights. He's chosen to remain silent and not incriminate himself.

CNN's Athena Jones is live at the White House to get into that angle of the story. What can you tell us, Athena?

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, good afternoon, Carol. I can tell you that this is something that's been controversial here in Washington. It's getting a lot of attention from members of Congress including House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers. He wants to know a lot more about how this decision was made to read the suspect his Miranda rights when they were read.

He sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder with a whole series of questions about, for instance, who made the decision to schedule this initial appearance at the specific time and place that it was scheduled on Monday at the hospital while the questioning was still going on.

He also wants to know whether anyone from the Department of Justice or the FBI raised concerns about the fact that this suspect was going to be told of his right to remain silent and his right to a lawyer. So we haven't heard a direct response from the Department of Justice to the long list of questions in Congressman Roger's letter, but we have heard them say that FBI agents and prosecutors were notified that this initial appearance had been scheduled.

They were notified ahead of time. This is something that had to be coordinated with multiple authorities. We also know at least one law enforcement source told Susan Candiotti that they felt the initial bedside interviews with the suspect were very thorough.

So they didn't feel hindered by the timing of the reading of these Miranda Rights to the suspect. But of course, Carol, this is something that's going to continue to be looked at and questioned here in Washington.

COSTELLO: Absolutely. Any word from the White House on this at all?

JONES: Well, you know, we did hear from Vice President Biden last night about this whole case. He was speaking at an event with Senator John McCain in Sedona, Arizona. He did a little explaining about his comments earlier this week when he called these suspects cowardly knockoff Jihadists.

He explained that he'd seen show that they weren't professionals. Let's listen to a little bit more about what he had to say about this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: The most difficult person to deal with is the self-radicalized or the one that is marginally assisted who is not directed specifically to anybody. Because all of the intelligence apparatus and all of the means by which we have to infiltrate or pickup the kind of signals we're able to pick up with our significant technological capability is rendered almost useless.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JONES: It's interesting here, Carol, that he talks about technological capabilities because one of the other big criticisms here is that a signal that wasn't technological signals. A warning from Russia about the older Tsarnaev, the one who is now deceased, Tamerlan Tsarnaev's possible radicalization.

There's discussion that maybe those clues were ignored or not enough was done with them. So that's something that's going to continue as well, lots of questions of the intelligence committee. So we don't expect that to end any time soon -- Carol.

COSTELLO: I bet not. Athena Jones reporting live from Washington.

Investigators are also taking a closer look at an unsolved triple murder here in Massachusetts. The reason is compelling, one of the victims, a close friend with one of the bombing suspects. We'll be right back.

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COSTELLO: A cold case, a cold triple murder case in Waltham, Massachusetts may be heating up. The reason, one of the victims was a close friend of Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the older brother, the Boston bombing suspect who died in a shootout with police. Deborah Feyerick has more for you.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It happened on this quiet street in Waltham, Massachusetts, three men nearly beheaded, their throats slit ear to ear.

GEOFFREY LANGSTON, NEIGHBOR: There was a girl running out of the house saying there's blood everywhere.

FEYERICK: The brutality of the murders didn't add up certainly not in a town like Waltham.

(on camera): Something else didn't make sense. The victims who were each killed in different rooms in this house were covered in marijuana. Investigators describe it as a symbolic gesture. Robbery wasn't a motive because police found thousands of dollars in cash. The theory is that the victims knew their killers.

GERRY LEONE, FORMER MIDDLESEX D.A.: We have no evidence of a break in the apartment and we have other indicia that the decedents and the assailants were known to each other. We know there were at least two people who are not in that apartment now that were here earlier.

FEYERICK (voice-over): That was 19 months ago, but the trail went cold. No arrests, no named suspects. But the attack on the Boston marathon revived interest in the case because one of the victims, 25-year-old Brendan Mess, was close friends with bomb suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev.

(on camera): Tsarnaev was a golden gloves boxer. His buddy, Mess, was trained in mixed martial arts. Together they would spend hours sparring here at this gym.

(voice-over): Tsarnaev was a golden gloves boxer. His buddy trained in mixed martial arts. The two friends spent hours sparring together here at this gym. Coaches describe Tamerlan as confident, full of bravado, a man who hugged his coaches and competitors and who bragged about his young wife and newborn daughter after competing in the 2010 boxing nationals.

A source says Tsarnaev was one of the last people known to have seen Mess alive and that he was never interviewed by police in connection with the murders. More curious, says the source, Tsarnaev did not go to his friend's funeral or memorial service.

Based on text messages, police believe Brendan Mess, Rafael Teken and Eric Weismann were killed on or around September 11th, exactly ten years after the attacks on the World Trade Center. Four months after the murders, Tamerlan left for Russia, staying there six months.

Investigators searched the gym last week, removing boxes. The owner of the gym refused to speak to CNN. Brendan's friends and family have continued to push for answers as have those of the other victims. Brendan and Eric spent time at this diner and were friendly with the owner, who says his son competed in mixed martial arts with Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

MUSHHOOR ABU RUBIEH, BRENDAN MESS' FRIEND: I knew Tamerlan was involved in boxing and martial arts, and so was Brendan. He didn't speak too much about it when I was with him, but he did speak to my father a lot, and we did try to get my younger brother involved in martial arts. So I mean, it's kind of like a strange link between them.

FEYERICK: Deborah Feyerick, CNN, Boston, Massachusetts.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: All right, I want to bring in Tom Fuentes. He is a former FBI assistant director and a CNN analyst. He is in Washington. Welcome, Tom. I want to start first with the cold case that Deborah Feyerick was telling us about. I mean, hindsight is 20/20, but should police have approached those killings in a different way?

TOM FUENTES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, it would seem so, but I think the police need to explain how they conducted their investigation. They have three victims brutally murdered and normal procedure would be to immediately be contacting every person that was close to the victims, friends, classmates, neighbors, all the usual people.

And if, in fact, Tamerlan was best friends with one of the victims then you would think he would be one of the first people that would be located and contacted. Why he never was, I don't know.

Again, this is a local triple homicide so Waltham police would handle this on their own. And unless there's evidence of organized crime or evidence of terrorism, it's going to stay at the local police level and not rise to a federal investigation. COSTELLO: So local police wouldn't have connected the dots when Tamerlan Tsarnaev?

FUENTES: Yes, like I said, I don't know, you know, basically what were they thinking or what was the evidence or material that they were receiving pursuant to their investigation. That's just something that the police would have to explain why Tamerlan never came up. If he's so close to one of the victims, why he wasn't contacted and interviewed.

COSTELLO: And I want to talk a little bit about this laptop that authorities are now looking for in this dump that supposedly the young Tsarnaev told them that he threw his laptop in this dump. It seems kind of incredulous to me that he would tell him that because these were not -- you know, if they are guilty of these crimes left behind plenty of clues, but they made sure to throw their laptop in a dump. Does that make sense to you?

FUENTES: Well, not necessarily, but we don't know specifically how much they intended to leave behind or whether as things unfolded last Thursday and Friday they got panicky or in a hurry and didn't think to dispose of all the bombs except for throwing them at the police.

But as far as the laptop, that's one of the most critical pieces of information and evidence in any of these types of investigations. Who were they e-mailing, who was in contact, who were they exchanging messages with by computer.

Which websites they had visited, had they downloaded instructions on making bombs or any other material. The computer of anybody in any major investigation is one of the very first things the authorities want to have and get a chance to analyze.

So in this case, you know, the question is he tells the investigators that he threw it away and then now they have to track the course of how trash is disposed of whether it was at dorm or on the campus or a street corner. They have to try to go back through when was that can emptied into a bigger dumpster.

When was that dumpster picked up by a larger trash truck? What landfill would it have been taken to? What day was it dumped there? So really they are doing a hunt for the computer just trying to track all that.

COSTELLO: Wow, it's like finding a needle in a haystack, but I hope they find something. Tom Fuentes, thanks so much for joining us today.

FUENTES: You're welcome.

COSTELLO: A big break in the investigation to that poisonous letter sent to President Obama and several others. Federal agents have a suspect in custody, yes, a new suspect. We'll have a live report for you straight ahead.

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COSTELLO: A suspect now in custody in the ricin letter investigation. Federal agents arrested this man. His name is James Everett Dutschke. Letters containing the deadly powder was sent to President Obama, a Mississippi senator, and a Mississippi judge.

One other man was briefly under suspicion earlier in the investigation. He was soon cleared, but implicated Dutschke as possible suspect. CNN's Alina Machado is in Tupelo, Mississippi with the latest. What have you been able to find out, Alina?

MACHADO: Well, Carol, this is really the kind of story that keeps changing every day. As you mentioned, there was an initial suspect and now that man has been cleared. Authorities say they have another man in custody. As you mentioned, that man's name is James Everett Dutschke.

We're told that he was taken into custody here. This is his house. He was taken into custody early this morning before 1:00 in the morning. The FBI is saying that the arrest is in reference to the ricin investigation. Now Dutschke has been turned over to the U.S. Marshal's Office.

Now we first learned about Dutschke earlier this week at a hearing on Monday. That hearing was for that initial suspect Paul Kevin Curtis. Curtis said he had been framed and mentioned Dutschke as a possible suspect. On Tuesday, this case took another turn and Curtis was released.

All the charges that had been filed against him in connection to this case were dropped. The attention seemed to turn to Dutschke. That focus included several searches at places related to Dutschke. He was associated with a martial arts studio, a former martial arts studio.

That location was searched by FBI agents and agents also were searching here at his home earlier this week. Now we have been in contact with Dutschke's attorney all week. Her name is Lori Basham. She has told us in the past that her client had nothing to do with the ricin letters that were sent to President Obama as well as two government officials here in Mississippi.

Today, she released a statement just a little while ago saying that it is her understanding that authorities have confirmed Dutschke's arrest. However, she has no comment at this time -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Alina Machado reporting live from Tupelo this afternoon. For more on the ricin investigation, let's turn to CNN law enforcement analyst and former FBI Assistant Director Tom Fuentes. Welcome back, Tom.

Hopefully you can hear me. What do we make of this investigation? Initially, authorities arrest one guy. He says, no, no, I think it's this other guy that has a long-time grudge against me that did it. What do you make of this investigation?

FUENTES: Well, I think, Carol, what happens in this case is that normally you would be much more methodical or take much more time to have a higher degree of proof that somebody has committed a crime before you would make an arrest.

In this situation, though, they are weighing that versus that some individual out there could be and looks like is mailing material that the amount of ricin that fits on the head of a pin could be fatal to an adult if inhaled. So this isn't something that let's take our time and really make sure.

It was when all the indications are from somebody who has mailed letters earlier, who has come up in similar situations without the ricin, but now with ricin and they had enough information to convince the U.S. magistrate that he needs to get picked up while they look at this. Again, it's because of the degree of lethality of ricin that led to that.

COSTELLO: So do they have the right guy this time or are they, again, rushing to judgment, so to speak?

FUENTES: I guess we'll have the facts come out shortly, but they have been investigating it since Dutschke's name has come up and they've been doing searches and analyzing things in his possession whether or not he had ricin in one of his locations of his home or business or anything.

We won't know that yet, but I think similar process that the U.S. attorney and the magistrate has looked at him now and said he's somebody that should be taken into custody and charged and Curtis released and charges dropped.

It's an interesting case, but again, it's being driven -- the speed of this is being driven by how dangerous ricin is. If it was cranky letters or things along those lines, that would be one thing.

But something to fatal even to the postal workers handling it, it's never going to get to the White House or Senate, but people at the post office where these letters are cleared are in danger. In fact, during the anthrax case in 2001, two postal workers in Washington were killed. So that's the main concern.

COSTELLO: Absolutely. I totally get that, but it just seems so unlikely. I mean, the first suspect under arrest was an Elvis impersonator and this latest guy is a martial arts instructor. Would these people know about ricin?

FUENTES: Well, that's a good question. The investigation will help determine whether they did it. Did they have help or why did the material when it went through the field tests at the mail facility test positive to even start this thing in the first place. That will be determined. We'll see what they know. You're right. It's a colorful cast of characters in this case.

COSTELLO: That's one way to put it. Tom Fuentes, thanks so much. I appreciate it.

FUENTES: Thank you, Carol.

COSTELLO: How will history remember President George W. Bush? We'll talk to an analyst who has advised four presidents. We'll get his take. We'll be right back.

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COSTELLO: Welcome back. I'm Carol Costello live in Boston. Let's talk right now about the 43rd president of the United States because he is back in the spotlight. George W. Bush was front and center at the dedication this week of the George W. Bush Presidential Center.

He was joined by all surviving U.S. presidents including his father George H.W. Bush. The question now is, how will Americans remember the 43rd president? Let's bring in our CNN senior political analyst David Gergen. Welcome, David.

DAVID GERGEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Hello, Carol. How are you?

COSTELLO: I'm good. Thanks for being with me today. A new CNN poll says 55 percent of Americans think George W. Bush was a failure, but that's compared to 68 percent back in 2009. So does time heal all wounds?

GERGEN: Well, maybe distance makes the heart grow founder. Peggy Newton had a good column today in the "Wall Street Journal" saying essentially that Barack Obama was elected in part because he wasn't George Bush. And now George Bush is benefitting because he's not Barack Obama.

You know, the divisions in the country, I think, have helped to heal some of the wounds in regards to the Bush presidency. Usually in the haze of after a president is gone, people think a little more kindly of him. That probably is not going to change historian's perspective, but public perspective has changed.

COSTELLO: I mean, George Bush has not come out and harshly criticized President Obama at all. He's remained classy, so to speak, and also these paintings done that were accidentally released and were on the internet and it made me think of George Bush in a whole new way.

GERGEN: I think that's right. I think he's been particularly wise to stay out of the counterassault back and forth, out of the line of fire on the Obama presidency. He's shown a certain dignity in that and I think people have appreciated it.

It would have been easy to lash out as former presidents have. I think he frankly is glad to be out of the crossfire, George W. And there's a part of him, I think, wants to clear the way for his brother, Jeb.

In the event that Jeb wants to run. And of course, the mother, Mother Barbara, resolute and strong, was wonderful to see her back on the stage. You know, she's maintained all along maybe the country is Bushed out. But George W. thinks maybe his brother ought to run.

COSTELLO: Maybe so. George W. Bush himself said history has yet to judge his presidency. So I'll ask you as a man, I think, with a little bit of experience with presidents past. How do you think history will remember George W. Bush?

GERGEN: Well, you know, Carol, there's an old thought here that it all depends on who writes it. You know, Winston Churchill once said that he expected to be well remembered by history because he intended to write it.

In this case, George W. is facing a profession of historians, which tends to be much more Democratic than Republican. And in the early surveys, there have been a couple surveys since he left office asking historians to rate the presidents. In those surveys, George W. Bush regularly comes out in the bottom half. In fact, well down the bottom half. Maybe that will change. Eisenhower's reputation certainly improved. Truman's reputation improved, but a lot depends on Iraq.

Right now that is a heavy anchor on his presidency as well as the financial collapse we had in 2007 and of course, torture and other issues.

COSTELLO: And of course, Iraq still has its ramifications today at this moment. David Gergen, thank you so much. You're going to joins us in the next plot because we're going to be talking about the White House Correspondents' Dinner. That's tonight.

It's a place where the president usually jokes around with the media. But maybe this year will be different in light of what's happened here in Boston, maybe it should be different. We'll talk about that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Ask anyone it's one of the toughest responsibilities, being funny. But tonight at the Annual White House Correspondents' Dinner the pressure is on Barack Obama. Here are some memorable moments from past correspondents' dinners.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Members of the White House, correspondents association, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Here I am. Here I am at another one of these dang press dinners.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm absolutely delighted to be here as is Laura.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She's hot.

CEDRIC THE ENTERTAINER, COMEDIAN: For the men and women in the armed services. That's a great thing over there fighting. That's just one job I couldn't do. I mean, if they recruited me, of course, I'd go, but I don't want to be in the military. If I did, it's one job that I could do would be the guy that greets the president when he gets off the helicopter. That's it. I mean, you get some TV time. Mr. President, that's it for me. I'm going to have some lunch.

WANDA SYKES, COMEDIAN: It's funny to me that they have never caught you smoking, but they somehow always catch you with your shirt off. I know you're into this transparency thing, but I don't need to see your nipples. Is there a beach at Camp David? There was never a nipple portrait of Lincoln.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: The Jonas brothers are here. They are out there somewhere. Sasha and Malia are huge fans, but boys, don't get any ideas. I have two words for you, predator drones. You will never see it coming.

SETH MEYERS, COMEDIAN: Congress, there are a lot of things you want us to be impressed by that we are not impressed by. We are not impressed that you sat next to each other at the state of the union. The rest of Americans call it politely sitting next to someone with wildly different political views, Thanksgiving.

PRESIDENT OBAMA: The White House Correspondents' Dinner is known as the prom of Washington, D.C., a term coined by political reporters who clearly had never had the chance to go to an actual prom. I really do enjoy attending these dinners. In fact, I had a lot more material prepared, but I have to get the Secret Service home in time for their new curfew. Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Presidents can be really funny. You can watch tonight's White House Correspondent's Dinner at 9:00 p.m. Eastern. We'll carry it live right here on CNN.

I want to bring in our senior political analyst David Gergen. Hi, David.

GERGEN: Hi, Carol.

COSTELLO: I guess my question being in Boston, the president is supposed to go to this correspondents' dinner and supposed to be funny and poke fun. Do you think he will be as funny in light of what's happened here in Boston?

GERGEN: I think the first question you have to ask himself is whether he wants to be funny at all. It's interesting. Last time Conan O'Brien was the comedian who was invited to speak it was 1995. That was just after the Oklahoma City bombings.

And President Clinton threw out his jokes and went completely serious in light of the mood of the nation. The "Washington Post" reported one of his jokes he was going to use that night was Apollo 11 had gone up with four men and came back with five. So there was good humor that got thrown out.

They are going to have to figure that out. Do they want to go serious? My sense is if this was a week ago, they would have thrown out the humor at the White House. But enough time has passed. You have the sense of Boston on the streets there.

I live there and my sense now given the way Boston has pulled together, the solidarity, the brightness, that he will combine -- he will go funny in the beginning and then at the end he will go very serious.

This is an opportunity to talk, by the way, about the press coverage of the Boston bombing and from my perspective, there were some notable exceptions. Much of the press coverage, I think, was very responsible and restrained with regard to the Muslim angle. The president may want to say something about that and the l importance of respecting people's religion.

COSTELLO: We'll see. I don't know. Maybe the best thing to do would be funny at first and then be serious. Boston really wants to get back to normal. Boylston Street, it's almost back to normal. Stores are open, restaurants are open, it's full of people. There is this very touching memorial behind me.

People are milling about, but other than that, the mayor of Boston has asked people to shop and spend money and come down here. Parking is free for everyone. You can park however long you want as long as you spend $25 because people lost business while they were closed.

GERGEN: Don't you think there's been a little inspiration about the way Boston has pulled together? I just felt people had a sense of renewed pride in their city and sense of community.

COSTELLO: Absolutely. Even, you know, there's a lot of thank you signs to emergency responders on buildings, but they are very small and restrained. There are no huge signs. It feels good being here. I got to say that.

GERGEN: I agree.

COSTELLO: Thank you for being here.

Learning how to make a bomb online, one terror group explains the how-to, giving step by step details. Why authorities believe it may have inspired those bombing suspects. We'll tell you about it, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Welcome back to our live coverage in Boston. It is no secret, you can find just about anything online. That includes instructions on how to make bombs, lethal bombs. It's what authorities are investigating when it comes to the Boston bombing suspects.

One of the explosives found at last week's gunfight between the suspects and police may have an online connection to al Qaeda. Nick Valencia is following this story in Atlanta. Tell us about this bomb and maybe its inspiration.

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, as authorities look to narrow down the motive behind the Boston marathon bombings. They may find some answers in this magazine. It's called "Inspire." It's an online publication and it is affiliated with al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

Now this is their English-language effort on trying to get English language radical wan-to-bees on board with their Jihad. It's essentially catered toward Western Muslims that are on the fence about carrying out an attack and perhaps the scariest thing about this, Carol, is just how easy it is to find online.

My producer and I found this with a very quick Google search. It's on, of course, Jihadi forum as well as third-party sites, but the PDF forms for this magazine are everywhere on the internet. You're looking at pictures of the co-founders.

This right here is Samir Kahn. He is a foreign-born U.S. citizen with ties to North Carolina. He's pictured alongside radical cleric Anwar Al-Awlaki. You may ask yourself why does that name sound so familiar. Well, back very recently during the Fort Hood shootings.

This is the radical cleric that allegedly communicated with Major Nadal Hasan before this was carried out. This was Samir and they were killed in a drone strike in 2011 by the United States in Yemen. A lot of people thought that was the end of the road for the publication which started in 2010.

Not so fast, Carol. They still continue publishing online and they call it open source Jihad, a resource manual for those who loathe tyrants and includes bomb making materials, which is why investigators in Boston and beyond are so interested in learning more about this magazine.

It is a step by step guide of how to make chemical explosions, mechanical explosions, and as you begin to unfold the layers of these pages, this is from the first issue where they dedicated ten pages of how to make a bomb in the kitchen of your mom.

It says the ingredients are readily available and it is also important to put a quantity of small nails in the bomb. Of course, if you remember used in the Boston marathon bombings was a pressure cooker, pressurized cooker and goes onto say it is the most effective method. Very alarming for authorities investigating the motives behind the Boston marathon attacks -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Wow. Nick Valencia, many thanks to you. Talk about something normal for a second, shall we? New home sales are up. Is it a good time to buy a house? We'll ask the real estate experts after the break.

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COSTELLO: Welcome back. I am Carol Costello. We want to talk about something, you know, normal right now. Let's talk about home sales. Good news in the home sale department. Home sales are actually up. So is it a good time to sell? Is it a good time to buy?

Let's bring in a man who knows, Michael Corbett. He is the author of "Find It, Fix It and Flip It." He is a real estate expert. He joins us live. Welcome, Michael.

MICHAEL CORBETT, REAL ESTATE EXPERT AND AUTHOR: Hi. How are you?

COSTELLO: I am good. First of all, why are home sales up? What's the reason? I have heard investors are the people buying up the homes, not individual homeowners.

CORBETT: Well, what's going on is actually this new sales report that just has come in is actually for new home sales are actually up 18 percent. The reason for that is because existing home sales inventories are actually shrinking.

There is a lot of foreclosures and short sales in many markets harder to find and also we have historically low interest rates, and a lot of buyers who have been sitting in on the market are kind of pretty much on the sidelines are now jumping back in.

What does that really mean for home buyers right now? Really, what it is going to tell you is that competition is heating up. You need to become the best buyer you can be. How do you do that? One, you have to get your credit check.

Two, you have to be able to go ahead and get preapproved for a mortgage. You need to have that extra edge. Three, you want to have 20 percent down. More importantly, with all of these new home sales, you want to have a little imagination. You may end up buying a house that's in preconstruction. You may buy one you haven't even seen finished yet.

COSTELLO: OK, I have heard from real estate agents that there are actual bidding wars once again, which kind of scares me because we all know what happened when the bubble burst, right? So how much should you be willing to spend?

CORBETT: You know what? You really have to be educated, and you have to do your due diligence meaning you have to know what actual houses are going for in your neighborhood. Wherever are you looking, you need to have gone online and done a little research and see what things are really selling for.

That's what's important. Then that gives you the edge of saying, well, maybe I could spend an extra five or 10,000 and bid a little higher if I need to. That's why you need to be the best buyer you can be and be prepared.

COSTELLO: All right, Michael Corbett. Thank you so much for filling us in. We appreciate it. We'll be back with more live coverage from Boston right after this.

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COSTELLO: It is a beautiful day here in Boston as you can see by all the people around me. Boylston Street seems to be back to normal. The investigation does continue. I want to thank you for joining me in the CNN NEWSROOM this hour. I will be back with more on the investigation and what life is like in Boston today in just an hour, 3 p.m. Eastern. "YOUR MONEY" starts now.