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Secret Service Prostitution Scandal; Eighteen Hours of Intense Battle in Kabul; $800,000 in Taxpayer Money; The Fight For Women's Votes; Last Minute Tax Filing Tips; How To Choose A College Major; Pippa Middleton Photo Causes Ruckus; Tupac Hologram at Coachella
Aired April 16, 2012 - 12:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: Live from CNN headquarters in Atlanta, it is 12:00 noon, 9:00 a.m. on the West Coast, I'm Suzanne Malveaux.
I want to get you up to speed for this Monday, April 16th.
Afghanistan reeling from a fierce assault that lasted 18 hours. These explosions happened in Kabul's heavily guarded diplomatic neighborhood. Afghan authorities say they have killed all but one of the attackers and he has been captured.
The Taliban are claiming responsibility for the attacks, but the captured insurgent says he worked for the notorious Haqqani Network.
NATO is praising Afghan forces for beating back the insurgents without the assistance of allied forces.
The first members of a U.N. observer team plan to begin their work in Syria today. They are setting up operations to monitor a tenuous cease-fire. It's already showing some signs of collapse. Syrian opposition activists say at least 19 people have been killed today alone. The U.N. estimates that at least 9,000 people have died since the protests began more than a year ago.
Well, they spent $800,000 of your money on skits, clowns, mock award ceremonies. Next hour, we're going to hear their answers about the spending scandal. The House Oversight Committee begins hearings on the actions of the General Services Administration employees.
Now, the agency that's supposed to make sure that taxpayer dollars are spent wisely threw this lavish conference in Vegas at taxpayer expense.
Tornadoes ripped through the Midwest. Six people in one hard- hit Oklahoma community are now dead. Ten states in the Midwest and Plains got slammed by this storm system.
Now, people, they're cleaning up trying to get back to normal today. Those who made it through the storms say they're not taking anything for granted.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFEID FEMALE: You don't know when the last time you're going to tell somebody you love them and stuff, or see somebody and one of those things.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's like that, everybody was gone, everybody. I mean everybody. Don't matter about what we had. It's just we're here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: National Weather Service says it was an EF-3 tornado that hit Woodward, Oklahoma. It means the winds were at least 136 miles an hour.
Former baseball great Roger Clemens back in federal court as jury selection begins for the second perjury trial. He is accused of lying to Congress about using steroids. A mistrial was declared last summer after evidence that have been ruled inadmissible were shown in court.
And we're continuing to follow the scandal that has erupted now at the Secret Service. Eleven agents and officers, they have been put on leave. They are under investigation.
They are part of President Obama's advanced security detail for the Summit of the Americas in Colombia. Well, they're accused of meeting with prostitutes at a hotel in Cartagena.
The president says he's going to be angry if the allegations are proven true.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: What happened here in Colombia is being investigated by the director of the Secret Service. I expect that investigation to be thorough and I expect it to be rigorous.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: Brianna Keilar, she's at the White House.
So, Brianna, first of all, is there any reason at all to believe, despite how the Secret Service may or may not have behaved, whether or not the president's safety was compromised?
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: You know, Suzanne, it appears not. But I guess I should preface that by saying, of course, there's an investigation going on. The Secret Service is looking into this. Congressional committees will be looking at this.
But this alleged incident happened before the president ever arrived in Colombia, Wednesday night into Thursday morning. This was not at the hotel that the president was to stay at. This was at a separate hotel, one that a lot of media stayed at, although a lot of them have not arrived yet.
MALVEAUX: Sure.
KEILAR: And also, it wasn't the president's personal detail, you know, the people you see directly around the president.
MALVEAUX: Right.
KEILAR: It was an advance team. Now, of course, as you know, there are some critics who are saying you can't dismiss security concerns though because it sort of opens up -- if this is sort of a problem among the Secret Service, then it opens up sort of risk factors for them to either be blackmailed or for some people with nefarious purposes to try to get closer to the president.
MALVEAUX: And, Brianna, two questions. First of all, bottom line, what are they accused of doing that is believed to be misconduct? And, secondly, do we think this thing is going to get bigger? Do we think more people are involved than we know now?
KEILAR: Well, they're accused essentially of, and this is what people who have been briefed on the incident say happened in this alleged incident, that prostitutes were brought back to the hotel and that this was actually discovered the next morning because when guests -- of hotel guests come back, they basically have to be signed in, Suzanne, and they have to be gone by 7:00 a.m. and one woman wasn't. Hotel management got involved, police got involved. She said she hadn't been paid.
Ultimately, according to Peter King, the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, she was paid.
But anyway, the report went to the U.S. embassy and that's how the Secret Service got in. There's really allegations. They say eventually the woman was paid. There's no allegations of criminal wrongdoing but this was a breach of conduct.
And, certainly, I think the person really who seems to be raising questions about this being kind of the tip of the iceberg is Darrell Issa, the chairman of the House Oversight Committee. He's struggling to believe, to hear him say it, that this happens with 11 -- the involvement of 11 Secret Service members and it doesn't go further than that.
But I know you have been around the Secret Service a lot, Suzanne, I have been covering this beat for under a year, so obviously not close to as long as you covered it, but we're always accompanied by Secret Service, as you know.
MALVEAUX: Right. Sure.
KEILAR: And I personally haven't witnessed anything unprofessional or untoward with the Secret Service that has companied me and my fellow reports on trips.
MALVEAUX: Well, I'll you one thing. I mean, you know the Secret Service -- I mean, these guys attract a lot of attention. They work hard, they play hard. But when they're on duty, they are certainly expected to stay close to the president.
KEILAR: Sure.
MALVEAUX: And I never -- I can't forget a time when I was traveling with the First Lady Laura Bush back in May of 2005 in the Middle East, met with some very tense protests that were going on in Jerusalem and outside the Dome of the Rock there. You can see some of the pushing and shoving that took place there. Folks really getting dangerously close to her.
And the Secret Service agent just picked me up. I was right behind the first lady, picked me up of the ground, literally threw me into that mosque with Mrs. Bush and you can see that there. Those guys and women as well, they don't make any distinction. When you're in that circle, they will protect you like you're a member of the White House and a member of the family.
So they do a great job, and it seems like it's one of those incidents where it's the anomaly. It's just a couple of bad eggs that are misbehaving.
KEILAR: Yes. Well, certainly, that is going to be the hope of the Secret Service, and we're going to be seeing as this investigation plays out really what the answer is because the Secret Service at least as they're doing their internal investigation, should it be, you know, as wide-sweeping as it is supposed to be. They are apparently going to be looking at past trips, some of which involved some of these individuals, so they'll see if there is a pattern.
But you bring up an interesting point, Suzanne, and that is as we travel with the president, the Secret Service, sometimes you may run into even I don't want to say minders or representatives from another government, sometimes there's a language barrier, they think the press shouldn't be allowed in, they're confused about who you are, and it's often the Secret Service who has to step in and make sure that we can do our jobs, and there are many occasions that people here at the White House who cover the White House can say that's really helped them.
MALVEAUX: Sure, absolutely.
Well, Brianna, we're going to get back to you. We're just learning there may be more than five members of the U.S. military involved. This is coming in to CNN. This is according to Pentagon Press Secretary George Little.
He's not going to say any more yet about how many more service members, but the investigation has widened now we understand, beyond the five members originally who were identified. So, this is a story that is developing and growing. So, we're going to see whether or not there's more information as it goes on.
Dust is still settling in Afghanistan. This is after an 18-hour assault by insurgents.
So, this is Kabul. This was just this morning, the explosions came after these periodic bursts of gunfire lasted well into the night. It happened in a district that houses the government offices, the foreign embassies, including the U.S. embassy.
Now, Afghan security forces, they say they have killed al but one of the 36 attackers. They say four civilians and eight government forces died in this assault.
Retired Army General James "Spider" Marks, he's joining us from Washington.
And, General, very good to see you here.
This was clearly a well-planned, well-executed assault. What does this say now about the security situation in Afghanistan?
GEN. JAMES "SPIDER" MARKS, U.S. ARMY (RET.): What it really speaks to is the vulnerability of the government as it continues to try to get its legs underneath it. And when you look at where these attacks took place, there was really four separate attacks coordinated somewhat in time, but the tactics and techniques and procedures that were used in all of them were very similar.
So, what that tells you is there is some form of centralized training. Objectives have been established and they are contiguous to the border with Pakistan, each of these provinces where these attacks took place, Suzanne. And that's right along the area of the Federally Administered Tribal Area, the FATA.
So the Haqqani Network most likely conducted these attacks and they did it from the safe havens of Pakistan. That's the largest challenge right now.
MALVEAUX: And, General, what is the Haqqani Network? Tell us a little bit about what they are.
MARKS: Well, really, it's been a network that's been placed in Afghanistan for the past, oh, well over 20 years. In fact, they really cut their teeth against -- with the mujahidin against the Soviets during their occupation.
So, it's been in a place a long while. It's got a lot of great experience. It's grown and developed leaders within their ranks and most of their safe havens now are in Pakistan -- and we know that, we would acknowledge that. Pakistanis do not.
Yet, that's the biggest concern. And that is --
MALVEAUX: Sure.
MARKS: -- what is our relationship with Pakistan and Afghanistan's relationship as they try to get their legs underneath themselves.
MALVEAUX: And, General, I couldn't help but notice a lot of similarities between this attack and the one that happened this was just a couple days after the September 11th anniversary when I was there in Afghanistan in that very neighborhood. And, again, they attacked using women's clothing, the burqas, covering them, their identities, and also a construction site.
I want to play a little bit about what we saw that developed and played out back in September.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: Six guys in a vehicle pulled up, five of them were wearing burqas to try to disguise themselves as women to bypass security. They took the burqas off, brandished their weapons, and then they all entered this building.
Six police officers guarded this building. You can see this is where they stayed, the television, the remote control. You also see the bedding here. This is where the terrorists on the second floor first confronted the police. They shot one officer and then they threw him over the ledge.
Here on the 12th floor is where the final showdown was. There's evidence of it everywhere. You have got these spent shell casings. You have pieces from explosives grenades.
And if you take a look around, there are hundreds and hundreds of holes on the wall here. Clearly is fierce fire fight that went on here for hours, well into the morning, to get the terrorists.
I'm told this is where the last terrorist was killed. You can see the old scarf that's left behind, holes in it, an empty water bottle, and old shoe with blue stains, and on the wall evidence of being shot here, even splattered brain matter in the gravel.
Now, I want to give you some perspective. We are in the building on the 12th floor on the east side. Here is what the terrorists saw. If you take a look and you go beyond about a half mile, you see that orange building. That is the U.S. embassy. If you go over to the left, the white building, that's the NATO compound.
This essentially gave them a clear shot to continue firing throughout the evening.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: So, General, how is it that the Afghans allowed this to happen again? Shouldn't they have learned from that attack that you've got these construction sites where you have a clear view of the NATO headquarters, the U.S. embassy, a clear shot at actually taking aim?
MARKS: Well, Suzanne, what you're seeing there is urban warfare at its most -- you know, its incredible definition and the very close quarters. You walked through a building where folks were putting their lives at risk and lost their lives. I mean, this is extremely difficult type of combat.
It's very hard to secure all the high ground or key terrain around a certain location. I mean, that takes an incredible expenditure of manpower as well as other forms of intelligence collection that might go into technical means.
So it's very, very draining in terms of the personnel. Could the Afghans take -- could they have taken that building over subsequent to the attack that you participated in or at least experienced afterwards a few months ago? Absolutely. Could they have leveled that building and eliminated it from anybody's use? Yes, they could have.
But it's very hard to do that. As I said, it's a large drain on personnel. And so, the challenge really becomes and President Karzai said this, and he emphasized that this is an intelligence failure both for the Afghan forces as well as the NATO forces.
Look, we've been in this country for ten years, but it's very, very difficult now that we're fighting an enemy that is willing -- brazenly willing to show its face and to get into close combat.
MALVEAUX: All right.
MARKS: This isn't -- this isn't an IED that went off when nobody was watching. These are extremely brave guys that have an objective.
MALVEAUX: General Spider Marks, thank you very much. Appreciate your perspective as well.
Here's is a rundown of some of the stories that we are covering.
First, more on the political battle over the stay-at-home mom moms. Hear a comment Mitt Romney made long before his wife tweeted in her defense.
And we're live at the Boston marathon, where runners -- they are baking -- yes, baking in the heat. Organizers now a little bit concern.
And now, 2Pac fans, he is not back from the grave, but he did perform at a music festival in California -- thanks to some interesting technology.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MALVEAUX: Right now in Boston, a bunch of hot, tired runners -- they are on their way to the finish line. The Boston marathon is on.
But this year, runners dealing with temperatures could hit in the mid-80s. Slow -- the heat slowing down some folks.
We're going to check in with Todd Kazakiewich with our affiliate WCVB. He's at a medical stop along the marathon route.
Todd, being a marathon runner myself, I know those folks must be sweating and suffering it out. How are they doing?
TODD KAZAKIEWICH, WCVB: Well, Suzanne, I'll tell you, we're already at 75 degrees. We're going to be well into the 80s by mid- afternoon.
You look behind me, you can see a lot of these runners are struggling. And what you're seeing behind me is what is called a misting tent. The Natick Fire Department set this up. Normally that's used for hazmat situations. They modified it so runners can cool themselves off because heat, of course, is the major enemy that everyone is going to have to face today. Both the runners and spectators that line the routes, Suzanne.
MALVEAUX: Yes, that's really tough. Has anybody succumbed to the heat so far? Are people doing fairly well?
KAZAKIEWICH: Already, some runners have succumbed to the heat. They dropped out of the race, with heat-related medical situations. We don't have an exact number on that yet. But we know this is a very serious situation.
And there's actually extra medical staff all along the 26.2 miles to treat the people who might be having to drop out because of medical issues.
MALVEAUX: Is there any concern that perhaps they need to cancel this thing, to stop it before there is a real serious problem here? I know for some races, just a couple weeks ago in Atlanta here, they said if it hit a certain point, they were going to call it off altogether.
KAZAKIEWICH: At this point, we haven't heard that. But over the weekend, the Boston Athletic Association, which governs the Boston marathon, they did give people the option, the non-elite runners of deferring to next year. So, we know, 4,000 people didn't even start this race.
Many more have dropped out along the way. They did elect to run out this morning and they did have to drop out. We don't have an exact number on that, but, clearly, a lot of people are heeding that warning. They are taking that seriously and this is definitely going to be a very unusual race because of that heat.
MALVEAUX: All right. Todd, try to get cool out there. I know it's not easy for you. But those runners as well. We wish them all the best. Thank you.
Well, first, it was the $800,000 in taxpayer money spent on this lavish Vegas conference, then came the videos mocking all of the spending. Well, in the next hour, the first hearings to begin on the scandal. We'll give you the behind the scenes preview.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MALVEAUX: Eight hundred thousand dollars in taxpayer money spent by the agency that's supposed to look out for taxpayers. Well, next hour, government officials involved in that lavish Las Vegas conference are going to be called on to testify about all this spending. A House committee begins its first hearings on excess spending by the General Services Administration.
Our Dana Bash got an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the press.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
REP. DARRELL ISSA (R-CA), OVERSIGHT & GOVT. REFORM CMTE. CHAIRMAN: Dana, when we gavel the hearing, this will be a filled room instead of an empty room.
DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A sneak peek at the first congressional hearing on excessive spending at the GSA, the agency that's supposed to look out for taxpayer dollars, yet held a lavish 2010 conference awarding videos like this.
(VIDEO CLIP PLAYS)
BASH (on camera): What is your primary goal?
ISSA: Our primary goal is make sure this doesn't happen again. What often happens is an I.G. does their job and perhaps some people are held accountable, but the culture doesn't change.
BASH (voice-over): The GSA inspector general briefed now former GSA administrator Martha Johnson 11 months ago about over-the-top spending.
House GOP Chairman Darrell Issa wants to know why the administration sat on the information.
ISSA: Let's remember that when you're a political appointee, you're there for two reasons. One is you have the confidence of the president to execute. The second is you're the eyes and ears of the president through the process. We want to know where that process failed.
BASH: Issa invited us from the public hearing room --
ISSA: You ought to see some people that don't get overtime.
BASH: To the committee's private offices for an exclusive look at the weekend prep.
ISSA: These are some of the men and women that are working on a Sunday.
BASH: Issa's aides praise the GSA inspector general.
ISSA: This is an efficient investigation by comparison to the ones in which the administration is fighting us.
BASH: But why not question past administrations? Excess GSA spending in the Bush years. Issa insists that he'll get to that, but for now --
ISSA: Remember, this president ran saying he was going to make changes. The question is: was he well-served by his political appointees when they were ordered to go in and make these cultural changes? If they didn't make it because they didn't listen to the president or because he didn't really mean it?
BASH: Yet for all its criticism of the Obama administration, why did Issa who took over the powerful oversight committee vowing to expose government waste rely on the inspector general to find it?
(on camera): Were you asleep at the switch here?
ISSA: Well, we never -- we are never feeling like we are doing enough. We have 120 people between the majority and minority on this committee. The I.G. is 12,000 people.
BASH (voice-over): And they found more GSA excess. Issa showed us a commemorative coin from that Las Vegas conference.
ISSA: Sixty-three hundred on about 300 of these in velvet boxes.
BASH (on camera): Taxpayer dollars?
ISSA: Taxpayer dollars.
BASH (voice-over): And a souvenir book.
ISSA: Just to have something to remember it by.
BASH (on camera): Eight thousand bucks.
ISSA: Eight thousand dollars.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MALVEAUX: Dana Bash, she's joining us live from the Hill.
Dana, so who do we expect to testify before the committee today?
BASH: Well, we're inside the hearing room again. They actually just put up the name tags for the witnesses. And you see here -- let's start over here. Inspector General Brian Miller, he is going to be a really key witness, Suzanne, because he really did the work here, the investigating in terms of all of this excess, even beyond the conference we're talking about.
Martha Johnson, she, of course, actually quit. She was the GSA administrator, quit two weeks ago.
And this is really going to be the key person we're going to be looking at, Jeff Neely. He is the man who organized this conference and really has been the kind of person everybody has been looking at really responsible for much, much of this excess spending. We expect he's going to take the Fifth Amendment. He's going to invoke his right not to testify because he's worried, we're told, at least according to his lawyer, told the committee that he's worried about a criminal investigation the Justice Department has started, a probe.
MALVEAUX: And, Dana, real here quick if you can -- remind our viewers some of the things that the GSA spent money on. We were talking about this conference that cost $800,000.
BASH: All right. Just a few here -- $59,000 for an audio visual firm to, you know, get some A.V. equipment into this conference; $75,000 for a bike building exercise. This is a team building exercise to build bicycle -- 75,000 bucks. And $9,000 for colored themed name tags, colored themed name tags. That's right.
And, by the way, Jeff Neely, if you look at the transcript of the questions and answers that the inspector general and his investigators did with Jeff Neely, he apparently was largely responsible for picking all of these and did a lot of it without a bidding process, which is going to be another subplot in this hearing today.
MALVEAUX: Absolutely. And I understand they had a lot of sushi as well, the mind readers, it goes on and on and on. So --
BASH: Don't forget the clown.
MALVEAUX: OK. The mad clown. It was like an angry clown or something. Thank you, Dana.
BASH: Thanks, Suzanne.
MALVEAUX: We're going to be paying close attention to those hearings.
Mitt Romney talks about women and the dignity of work. How does his comment fit into the fight over the female vote? We're going to ask our political panel.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MALVEAUX: The fight over the female vote in November, political hot topic shows no signs of cooling down. A comment last week by Democratic strategist pushed the conversation into overdrive. Well, a CNN contributor later apologized for saying Ann Romney had never worked a day in her life.
Well, now, a comment from Mitt Romney about women and work adds another twist. You're going to hear what he said in just a minute.
But, first, I want to bring in our political panel, Democratic strategist Kiki McLean, and Georgetown University Professor Chris Metzler.
Thanks for joining us both of you. I hope you had a great weekend.
CHRIS METZLER, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR: We did, great.
(LAUGHTER)
MALVEAUX: One of the things that happened. We heard some sound from Mitt Romney from back in January explaining his position on welfare. I want to play it for you.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And I wanted to increase the work requirement. I said, for instance, that even if you had a child 2 years of age, you need to go to work. And people said, well, that's heartless.
I said, no, no, I'm willing to spend more giving daycare to allow those parents to go back to work. It will cost the state more providing that daycare, but I want the individuals to have the dignity of work.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: So, Chris, can you kind of help us understand this, explain this a little bit. Because he's saying that there is no dignity of work necessarily for somebody who needs welfare, a poor woman who needs to stay home and raise a child and yet not so for his wife?
CHRIS METZLER, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR: Well, I'm going to try to explain this the best that I can and I think there are a couple things here. I think, I don't know, for once Mitt was actually agreeing with the Democrats because it was the Democrats who passed welfare reform.
And so I think he was giving kind of a nod to that, but on the other side of this is this whole issue of class warfare playing out in this election. And I think what he's going to have to be able to do is just to come out and say, listen, I stand for all women. I think this is going to be a bit of a problem. It's really not that explainable, Mitt.
MALVEAUX: Wow, OK. So Chris says it's a problem for Mitt Romney, Kiki. I would imagine you would agree with that. How do the Democrats actually exploit that or is it best to exploit this at this point?
KIKI MCLEAN, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Well, I'm not a fan of exploiting driving division between women. In fact, I think that's what the Romney campaign did wrong last week because of an error in the way someone spoke, and I think that's a problem for the Romney campaign.
We moms around the world understand that the real issue is not monolithic for everyone. That's why we frequently have conversations about what our role in society and in our families are about our responsibilities as well as our opportunities.
And the heart of this discussion is really about the opportunity to work for those women who need to, must do, and want to. And right now what we don't have is a plan from Mitt Romney about what he's going to do to make that opportunity expand and grow for women.
President Obama, on the other hand, has laid out a very specific jobs agenda, has been working through it, doing what he can legislatively, doing what he can on executive order and trying to move the economy forward because that's the heart of this, is the opportunity to work.
MALVEAUX: Chris, how does Romney change the focus of this conversation here because Kiki has a good point here. People want to know how to get jobs and how to, you know, make better of their own lives.
METZLER: Well, and I think that's what he's got to be able to do. He's got to be able to say, listen, if we look at work and if we look at the whole issue of the economy, I am going to create an economy in which everyone is going to have that opportunity to work.
So rather than get involved into the distractions about whether it's anti-woman, it's for-woman, I think this entire thing was started by this so-called war on women. There is a war for the women's vote.
There is not a war on women. And so I think what he has to be able to do is to say, I support all women in the choices they make, whether it's to be a stay-at-home mom or whether it's to be working.
MALVEAUX: OK, let's shift gears for a minute because I want to talk about what seems to be trending here, and that is almost a dozen Secret Service agents, perhaps more, dealing with this scandal in Colombia here.
These agents allegedly -- the advance team using prostitutes. There's one investigation that is being called here. Do we think -- Congressman Darrell Issa is saying it should examine whether this was just an isolated incident or something more. I want to play that for you real quick.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPRESENTATIVE DARRELL ISSA (R), HOUSE OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE: The investigation will not be about the 11 to 20 or more involved. It will be about how did this happen and how often has this happened before? Things like this don't happen once if they didn't happen before.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: Kiki, do we think this is something that's going to turn into a political issue during the campaign that it's going to reflect badly on the White House? How do you think this is going to play out politically?
MCLEAN: No, this is not a political issue at all. This is an issue that has a question of has there been inappropriate behavior in an organization regardless of what organization heightened by the fact that this is actually a government organization paid for by taxpayer dollars. It's not political. It has nothing to do, as we all know, the Department of Treasury assigns presidential details, which have nothing to do with this particular group of agents as I understand it.
Separately, they're not political appointments or assignments. They're simply assignments of law enforcement officers to particular venues. So this will be an investigation about a law enforcement organization.
MALVEAUX: Chris, do you agree?
METZLER: Yes, I agree. The unfortunate thing for me is I don't know what actually came out of this summit. What I do know is about prostitutes, and I'm not sure that that's exactly what we want to have come out of it.
So it is not going to be a political issue. The unfortunate thing is we don't know what policy decisions came out of this. It's been a distraction. I agree. It's not going to be a political issue at all.
MALVEAUX: All right, good. Chris, Kiki, great to see you both.
METZLER: Thanks.
MCLEAN: Thanks.
MALVEAUX: You might be panicking by now that is because taxes are due tomorrow. We're going to help you avoid the last-minute meltdown.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MALVEAUX: Tax deadline just hours away. It is tomorrow. So if you haven't already done in time to get your financials in order. Alison Kosik is at the New York Stock Exchange for some last minute tips to help avoid the meltdown that happens sometimes.
Alison, I always do it last minute. I just file for the extension and just try to keep on going because I never make this deadline. I mean, how do people do it?
ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: They plan well in advance. They gather all their receipts way in advance. They're organized, Suzanne. I'm getting the feeling you're not so organized.
MALVEAUX: Only in some ways.
KOSIK: All right, so then listen to this. This could be for you. Since you haven't filed yet, here is a last minute trick to lowering your tax bill.
Go ahead and contribute to an IRA. Now you have up until tomorrow's deadline to have it count towards your 2011 taxes. So take a look at how this works.
So that means if you're under 50 years old, you can contribute up to $5,000 to an IRA and you can contribute up to $6,000 if you're 50 years or older. Here is an example for you.
Lynette says if you're in the 25 percent tax bracket and you put $5,000 into an IRA, you can save about $1,250 in taxes. Also if you're rushing to do your taxes, try not to take the standard deduction.
So if you have time, go ahead and itemize your deductions because what that can do is save you hundreds or even thousands on that tax bill if you go ahead and itemize -- Suzanne.
MALVEAUX: What if you can't pay? If you have been out of work, what can folks do?
KOSIK: OK. If you can't pay the full amount that you owe, the IRS says still file your return by April 17th and pay as much as you can to avoid any penalties and interest.
But if you've been unemployed for any 30-day period or more beginning on January 1st, 2011, or if you're self-employed and your income dropped 25 percent or more in 2011 because of the bad economy, the IRS has this program called fresh start initiative relief.
That's where you can set up an installment payment plan with the IRS and avoid any penalties. Now there are some limits to this so you want to go to irs.gov to see if you qualify. Suzanne, get going, file those taxes.
MALVEAUX: I am organized, Alison. I'm just a procrastinator. That's kind of family trade of ours.
KOSIK: It's OK. I am, too.
MALVEAUX: All right, thanks, Alison. Just the thought of having to choose a major gives a lot of college kids the hives.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Dead set on history. I didn't want to major in anything else.
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MALVEAUX: This student, he didn't end up majoring in history. Why some people say it's a good thing.
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MALVEAUX: When I went to college I majored in sociology. Well, today college experts are advising kids choose something a bit more practical because it's a tough job market. But Christine Romans reports it's not all about the money.
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CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Laura Buffolino isn't worried about finding a job after graduation. LAURA BUFFOLINO, STUDENT, FARMINGDALE STATE COLLEGE, SUNY: I have always been into science, never knew exactly what, but now I'm pretty sure I want to work in genetics.
ROMANS: A Bioscience major at Farmingdale State College, Buffolino is in the fast growing and high-paying stem category, science, technology, engineering, and math.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A fairly neutral term.
ROMANS: Her classmate, Michael Kelly, a history buff, doesn't share her love for science.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was just dead set on history. I didn't want to major in anything else.
ROMANS: He loves history, but will minor in it instead. His degree will be in technology studies so he can pursue a job in information technology.
MICHAEL KELLY, STUDENT, FARMINGDALE STATE COLLEGE, SUNY: I didn't want to finish school with no debt and then immediately jump into a situation where I have a lot of debt for paying off the master's degree, which I totally would have to take out loan for.
ROMANS: Kelly well knows that starting salaries for general studies lag stem and by mid-career the difference between say, engineering and psychology is huge.
ANTHONY CARNEVALE, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY CENTER ON EDUCATION AND THE WORKFORCE: If you're studying to be a petroleum engineer and you get a bachelor's degree, you will make $80,000 in year. If you're studying psychology and you're going to become a counselor in a social work agency, you'll make $30,000 a year. So what you make depends very much on what you take.
ROMANS (voice-over): But dollar signs aren't everything. Find the intersection of what you're good at, like to do, and what someone will pay you to do. Nancy Zimpher is chancellor of the State University of New York.
NANCY ZIMPHER, CHANCELLOR, STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK: What we know is that businesses and industry are saying repeatedly, we want creative people, we want problem solvers, we want people who can work in teams. The trick, I think, is sort of a dual degree or a major/minor where you cover your bases.
ROMANS: Students Laura Bufalino (ph) and Mike Kelly (ph) think they've done just that and that their degree will help them land a secure job in a less than secure job market.
Christine Romans, CNN, New York.
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SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: All right, not easy to upstage your big sister, especially if she's the Duchess of Cambridge. Well, Pippa Middleton is the one who's now getting all the attention today. She's probably not too happy about it though. I'm going to tell you why and show you the picture everybody is talking about.
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MALVEAUX: Pippa Middleton, she is used to her big sister, right, getting all the attention. After all, her sister, Kate Middleton, she's the Duchess of Cambridge. Well, here's the image of Pippa that you probably might have in mind. This is her on Kate's wedding day last April. Well, there is a new picture now. It is causing a pretty big uproar. I want to bring in Matthew Chance, who's following this story from London.
Tell us what we're seeing, Matthew.
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Suzanne. It's an example of a pretty insensitive Pippa Middleton, or at least a friend. You can see I'm holding up the newspaper here, "The Sun" newspaper here in Britain, which has carried these photographs. You can see Pippa Middleton sitting in this open top car surrounded by a few of her friends. She was being driven back after an all-night party in Paris.
But the driver of the car, I don't know if you can make out here, he's wielding what looks like a semiautomatic pistol, pointing it straight at the paparazzi photographer who was undoubtedly following them, trying to sneak a shot. And you can see here, the headline, "smirking gun." A reference to the fact that all the passengers in the car, Pippa and this individual in the back, who hasn't been named, appear to be smiling and think it's all such a lot of jolly good fun that they're wielding this gun in the center of the French capital, Paris. But it is, of course, an extremely serious offense and potentially all of them could face prosecution, Suzanne.
MALVEAUX: Do we know if it was a real gun or not or if it was just kind of a joke -- light moment with a toy gun or do we know anything more about what actually happened?
CHANCE: No, we don't really because both the authorities and the photographer who snapped these images has been pretty tight-lipped. But if you look closely at these photographs, that you can see that, you know, whether or not it's fake isn't clear. It's certainly not obviously a toy gun. So it could very well be real. And certainly if it is real, the offense would be serious. But it's also a serious offense if it's a fake gun. If you threaten somebody in France with a firearm, whether it's fake or real, it still potentially carries a custodial sentence.
MALVEAUX: Now it might sound like a strange question, but would Pippa possibly be charged in this? Is there anything that they're accusing her of doing that's wrong?
CHANCE: Well, there's -- the British press have been playing up that aspect understandably quite a lot. But I've spoke to some French lawyers and, you can see, she's sitting here in the car. She's next to the individual that's wielding the gun. It's possible, of course, that she could face some kind of charges, but it would have to be demonstrated, according to these lawyers --
MALVEAUX: Right.
CHANCE: That she was an accomplice in some way.
MALVEAUX: Right.
CHANCE: That she was encouraged this individual to wield the gun. Otherwise, it's going to be pretty difficult.
MALVEAUX: Has she commented herself or the royal family?
CHANCE: No, she's been very tight-lipped. And I called Buckingham Palace earlier today and asked if they'd comment on it. They said they wouldn't because, strictly speaking, Pippa Middleton, unlike her sister, Kate, is not a member of the royal family. Therefore they say it's not their responsibility. She's just a private citizen. So far everyone though being very tight-lipped.
Suzanne.
MALVEAUX: All right, Matthew Chance. Thank you, Matthew.
He was killed 16 years ago, but this weekend Tupac Shakur appeared to be back on stage rapping in front of thousands. We're going to explain.
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MALVEAUX: All right, remember this. It was the hologram technology CNN used live on the air during the last presidential election. Well, love it or hate it, holograms again making headlines. Last night rap legend Tupac Shakur, who died 16 years ago, appeared on stage to perform some of his greatest hits. Look at this.
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MALVEAUX: Fans went wild over it. Joining us, someone who's actually been a hologram herself, Jessica Yellin.
Jessica, great to see you. First of all, I remember this in Chicago. It was very exciting. You were the first one to do this live. I mean how did that -- how did that work? How did that happen?
JESSICA YELLIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: For better or for worse. Yes, it was in a round room they built at Grant Park in Chicago on election night 2008.
MALVEAUX: Yes, that's her on the right there. That's her on the right.
YELLIN: I was ringed by cameras that sent a full picture of my body back into the New York studio. And I'll tell you, Suzanne, after the fact, I got a ton of e-mail from techies saying that wasn't technically a hologram because you didn't use wave diffraction to create an actual 3-D image. So didn't know then. Now I do. MALVEAUX: OK. But what was that like? I mean clearly you had a lot of cameras around you then and they had to like capture your image and then it was fascinating that it actually appeared somewhere else.
YELLIN: Yes, it was sort of stressful because I knew that they'd spent all this time and effort on it. And, remember, you and I were on the campaign trail all that time.
MALVEAUX: Yes.
YELLIN: We were exhausted. Two hours of sleep for months. So they told me to wear all black, to keep my hands on my legs. So you'll see in the vide, my hands are like glued to my legs. Otherwise, my arms might appear amputated they said. They also told me, don't lean or move, otherwise I might look like I'm levitating. So unlike Tupac, who's like bouncing all over the stage, I'm stiff as can be.
I wanted to say, Wolf, you're our only hope, which is a riff (ph) on a line from "Star Wars," but I was told no, to treat it seriously. I think it probably could have used a little more irony, but --
MALVEAUX: Yes, and you got poked fun at a little bit, but we loved it, yes, Jess?
YELLIN: Well, I got a lot of ribbing, and still do, especially from Jon Stewart. And, you know, he's right to point out that, for all of us in the competition to get viewers, news organizations can be guilty of dedicating too much bandwidth to, you know, sensational things at times. But, you know, personally I'm for judging us on news gathering and how we deliver on substance, not on the technology and the gizmos. So my personal view with TV news wanting to have fun with wacky attempts at new video techniques, let the force with be us.
MALVEAUX: Someone who's with us, Chad Myers.
Tell us a little bit about, first of all, what we were watching, Tupac Shakur, how that was different than back in 2008. Is that the same thing?
CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: If depends on what camp you're in. Because if you are in the camp that Tupac is still alive, then it wouldn't be very hard, see. And there are some that think that Tupac faked his death and that this would have been very easy to do.
MALVEAUX: Tell us about this little trick you're doing here now. I think you're doing something here. It's a little --
MYERS: Well, we took a picture behind and now I'm standing in the same place and the camera's in the same place, so it appears now I'm only about a 50 percent person. I'm only half there. But my wife will tell you, I'm only half there all the time anyway and now I'm --
MALVEAUX: Now you're like gone completely.
MYERS: But this is not --
MALVEAUX: What are you doing?
MYERS: This is not how they did it.
MALVEAUX: No.
MYERS: They did -- they did it different. And Tupac was not three- dimensional either. This was a projection onto a Mylar screen at a 45 degree angle. If you ever watch the president make a speech and you see little pieces of glass by his head up here and here --
MALVEAUX: That's right.
MYERS: Those are the prompters. Those are the teleprompters, that the president can see the worlds.
MALVEAUX: Right.
MYERS: You can't see them because you're on the other side. Well, what this company did, which was amazing technology and I will try to recreate in very -- this is elementary at best, because they were making a person. I'm only making letters. They took this Mylar, made it sideways. And as they made it sideways, I'm making CNN project from down below. Now I'm only making it one dimensional and just a couple of letters. They were actually making a person sing and dance. And here, there's my light. It's just an LED light shining on the Mylar and it made the box dark so that you couldn't see it. And if you notice Tupac in the video, he is actually in front of a very dark screen --
MALVEAUX: Yes.
MYERS: Because then nothing can show up behind him. And that's how -- and I'm still -- I'm still this --
MALVEAUX: I love it. I love it. And this is the technology, correct me if I'm wrong, but is not new per say, but because things are so defined well, it really looks really, really real now.
MYERS: And that's because of the 1080P non-compressed definition technology. If you were taking this and doing this with an old projector, you know, back to film strips that we went to school with, it wouldn't look like that.
MALVEAUX: Right. Exactly.
MYERS: I would -- but they have such high definition video now and the high definition projectors, it looked like Tupac was standing right there.
MALVEAUX: All right, Chad, this is great. I love this stuff. But I have to let you go. Maybe you'll disappear on me again, you know.
MYERS: I'm sure. When you need me most.
MALVEAUX: Thanks, Chad.
