summer olympics. that's not what you want to see just before the games start. >> a bizarre one i never heard about either. the name. plus, a day of reckonning for facebook. we look ahead to the first earnings report as a public company later today with our christine romans. >> interesting. up first, the latest on the aftermath and investigation in aurora, colorado. law enforcement sources say the shooting suspect james holmes mailed a package to the university of colorado campus in aurora which was received on monday and forced the evacuation of a building. it was holmes himself who told police where to find it. cbs news says the package was addressed to a psychologist and contained a letter talking about shooting people along with scribbling showing the gunman shooting victims. we're going to have a full report from aurora in a few minutes. six days after the mssacre in aurora, colorado, gun control is a very hot topic on the campaign trail. he waited five days to enter the fray. president obama is now front and center on the debate. telling the national urban league in new orleans yesterday some weapons sales need to be restricted. >> i, like mostamericans, believe the second amendment guarantees an individual the right to bare arms. but i also believe a lot of gun owners would believe that ak-47s belong in the hands of soldiers not criminals. >> mitt romney does not see it the same way. he believes tighter gun control laws would do little to stop a massacre like the one in aurora. >> i don't happen to believe that america needs new gun laws. a lot of what this young man did was clearly against the law. but the fact it was against the law did not prevent it from happening. >> remember, mitt romney did sign an assault weapons ban when governor of massachusetts. right now romney is in london fund-raising and meeting with british leaders. there are bumps early on because of this quote in a british newspaper from an unnamed campaign adviser. "we're part of an anglo-saxon heritage and he, romney, feels that the special relationship is special. the white house didn't fully appreciate the shared history we have." some see that comment as having some racial overtones. it is getting strong reactions from both campaigns. jim acosta is live on the ground in london right now. probably not the quote that mitt romney wanted to see when he got on the ground in london. >> reporter: that's right, john. i mean he just touched down in long do london yesterday when the controversy greeted him. an unnamed romney adviser quoted it. the rest of the news media could not confirm. that it was interesting to see the aeb obama campaign seize on comments. a statement coming from vice president bide ben this. vice president biden putting out a statement through the obama campaign yesterday saying "not surprisingly this is just another feeble attempt by the romney campaign to score political points at the expense of this critical partnership. this assertion is beneath a presidential campaign." the romney campaign did put out a statement sharply rebuking the vice president basically. but then mitt romney sat down in an interview nbc's brian william. he was asked about it. the former massachusetts governor was a bit more guarded, did not go after vice president biden, only said he disagreed with the comments. here's what he had to say. >> i'm not sure who this person is. i can tell that you we have a very special relationship between the united states and great britain. it goes back to our very beginnings. cultural and historical. but i also believe the president understands that. so i don't agree with whoever that adviser might be. >> reporter: now to get to some of the day's other events, we should note that mitt romney just wrapped up a meeting with former prime minister tony blair. they had a brief discussion, we're told, about the olympics. mitt romney said to tony blair that he wants to take in a swimming event. they talked about mrs. romney's horse that is taking part in an olympic game here. he won't be watching that event. i should mention where we are right now, we're out in front of ten downing street, the residencest pri of the prime mi david cameron. we understand the olympic torch, that's right, the olympics are going on in the midst of all this the olympic torch will be coming down ten downing street today. >> take a picture. you were talking about the horse which has been in the horse and swimming. these are not topics of great world importance. what will mitt romney try to discuss and not discuss as he meets with the british leaders today? >> reporter: well, you know sh it, it's going to be interesting to hear what he has to say. he asked a question this morning when talking to tony blair and didn't respond to the question, what message do you want to send to the united states in the trip is about how mitt romney deals with the foreign leaders. he's trying to project an image of what a future president romney would look like. obviously, he talks on the campaign trail quite a bit about the partnership between the united states and england and what he says repeatedly out on the campaign trail is that a strong and secure america is the best defense, the best keeper of peace aren't world. that is something i expect he'll be talking about with the prime minister and other british leaders as he continues this trip, john. >> all right, jim accost yashgs let -- acosta, let us know whether that torch comes through. you can see the entire interview tonight at 9:00 eastern right here on cnn. so let's stay in london. nine athletes including a former olympic bronze medalist are banned from competition after testing positive for doping offenses. the international association of athletics federation confirmed six of the athletes were caught using a sophisticated new methed off domethod of doping called t biological passport method. they're from morocco, turkey, greece, bulgaria and russia and ukraine. seven admitted their offenses and the four year bans were immediately cut in half. its no the clear if any of the athletes were competing in the 2012 olympics, however. and right now the olympic torch is scheduled to arrive at millennium bridge as it works its way to the site of tomorrow's opening ceremonies. excited about this. >> absolutely. >> later today the olympic flame will get a royal welcome at buckingham palace. princes william and harry and the duchess of cambridge plab ton ahead. >> along can jim accoosta. the mother of baseball legend cal ripken jr. resting comfortably this morning after being kidnapped -- yes, kidnapped. >> bizarre story. >> absolutely. an armed gunman showed up at her maryland home tuesday morning and forced her into a car and took off. she was found yesterday morning in the backseat of her car with her hands tied. luckily, she was not harmed. her abductor appears to have used her credit cards but they have no evidence as of now of any attempted ransom demands. >> it's really bizarre is that area was completely covered by police, right? she ended up back in that neighborhood in the back of her car. people are wondering how did that happen with so much police presence? >> i'm just glad she's okay. >> really bizarre. michael jackson's mother is speaking out for the first time about reports that she had been kidnapped. catherine jackson telling abc's "nightline" she is just fine. she is devastated she lost custody of michael's three children. a missing person's report was filed last week after michael's children said that they had not heard from her. so komg coming up later, we'll catherine jackson in her own words and we'll speak with joey jackson, no relation to the jackson family. this latest round of jackson family drama and why the judge made that decision to give temporary custody of their children to their uncle. >> it is really confusing. i wonder what is going to happen to the kids? how can they be there filming the things with the confrontations with janet? >> we're going to focus on the law and why the judge made this decision and what's going to happen next as well. >> good, i can't wait. here in the northeast, we're bracing for severe weather later today. everyone is talking about it here this morning. what can we expect? >> you know, considering it's late july this is a strong piece of energy that is rolling across the northern tier states. all the heat and humidity that is built up is going to be nudged north and east. you have a couple things happening. a lot of action will be popping on the radar later on this afternoon. we're already seeing a little of that along the frontal boundary, a lot of severe weather in michigan and buffalo. but right now the big show going to be i think later on this afternoon and this evening. here's your danger zone from columbus, ohio through cincinnati back through state college, new york city, up the hudson to albany. mostly large hail and damaging wind there. could be a few isolated tornadoes with. this before that happens, again, the heat and humidity continues to build up. heat advisory south of that front. that will add more fuel to the fire. just keep an eye on the sky and certainly keep it tuned here to cnn. we'll keep you posted. >> hail an winds coming our way. thanks very much. all right. still ahead, no one saw the movie theater massacre coming. but maybe someone could have. a package sent by suspect james holmes to a former college professor before the colorado shooting. we're live in aurora next. ni wrestling team. ♪ can febreze air effects defeat the smelly air in their gym for good? 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[ male announcer ] glucerna hunger smart. you see us, at the start of the day. on the company phone list that's a few names longer. you see us bank on busier highways. on once empty fields. everyday you see all the ways all of us at us bank are helping grow our economy. lending more so companies and communities can expand, grow stronger and get back to work. everyday you see all of us serving you, around the country, around the corner. us bank. who are these guys? oh, that's just my buds. bacon, donuts. -my taste buds. -[ taste buds ] waffles. how about we try this new kind of fiber one cereal? you think you're going to slip some fiber by us? rookie. okay. ♪ nutty clusters and almonds, ♪ ♪ almonds. ♪ fiber one is gonna make you smile. ♪ [ male announcer ] introducing new fiber one nutty clusters and almonds. with 43% daily value of fiber for you. crunchy nutty clusters and real almond slices for your taste buds. . welcome back. it is 14 minutes past the hour. >> happy you're with us this morning. there is a major new development in the colorado shootings this morning. a package from the alleged shooter found in the mail room of the university of colorado. it arrived days after the shooting and hinted at the massacre. ed, we're saying it arrived after but had to be sent before the shootings. what can you tell us about the package? >> reporter: we learned yesterday that package was found on monday. we knew about it. authorities here on the ground had been rather cryptic about what is going on with the situation at the hospital. we know when they zofrdiscoveree package, it forced evacuation of some of the buildings on campus temporarily. after discovered it didn't have an hazardous materials in it, officials wouldn't speak about it. we learned yesterday that the package, indeed, was sent by james hole holmes in days befor shooting on friday and addressed to a psychology professor on campus. inside the box there were messages. james holmes writing about wanting to kill people. it had cryptic drawings of a gunman shooting his victims. that is some of the odd contents of that package according to cbs news. >> we still don't have all the complete details of it as i understand it. you know, i want to focus on the victims, ed. we hear that a lot of them are uninsured and facing hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical costs. we hear that some of the bills are actually being wiped out. can you tell us what is happening? >> reporter: we were working on a story that many of the victims families and friends were actually going online making public pleas to essentially ask for donation to help. there's been a great deal of effort in many groups popping up. there's a state group sponsored through the governor's office that raised $2 million. and various other organizations doing similar things. a lot of these people don't have insurance and the bills are mounting after days and days of mer emergency room care. yesterday they took three patients and much of the medical bills costs will be waived. i'm not sure how long that will go for, how much of the time and how much of the expense will be taken. so we're trying to clarify that. three of the hospitals saying that much of the expense in the initial medical care costs will be waived about it hospital and paid for through donations and various charity programs that hospitals have in place. >> isn't that spectacular? the generosity of complete strangers and people banning together when people really need it. thank you for that report. we appreciate it live from aurora this morning. it is now 17 minutes past the hour. there's a lot going on this morning. let's get you up to date. here is christine romans. good morning. a lot going on. president obama weighing in on the gun control debate making perhaps some of the strongest comments yet as president on this issue. five days after the massacre in aurora, colorado, the president telling the national urban league in new orleans he backs the second amendment but not when it comes to assault weapons. >> we recognize the traditions of gun ownership that passed on from generation to generation. but hunting and shooting are part of a cherished national heritage. but i also believe that a lot of gun owners agree that ak-47s belong in the hands of soldiers, not criminals. the president emphasizing the need for more background checks to stop mentally imbalanced people from obtaining guns. he is blaming congress for the lack of progress made in reducing gun violence. new video emerged believed to show two young girls two weeks after they went missing. the sheriff believes the 10-year-old lyric cook and her 8-year-old cousin elizabeth collins are seen on this grainy surveillance tape riding their bikes. that's the last time they were seen. the bikes were later found near a lake. investigators drained that lake. they explored it and they think the girls are still alive. >> oh, my goodness. wouldn't that be great? federal investigators are looking for a pair of police shooting last weekend that sparked four days of violent protests in anaheim, california. the fbi agreed to investigate the fatal shootings of two suspected gang members by anaheim police officers. anaheim mayor tom tates asked the u.s. attorney's office in los angeles to investigate the shootings as well. drama still continues in anaheim over that police involved shooting. >> looking to reduce the tension in anaheim for sure. we're getting a look at your early reads this morning, what's going on in your local papers. in chicago and boston, they're talking about chicken chick-fil-a. the family has come out for years against gay marriage. they donated to anti-gay marriage causes. now the city of chicago and more specifically an alderman there says he's going to do whatever he can to keep chick-fil-a out of chicago. it is looking to open a second store there and he says "because of this man's ignorance i will now be denying chick-fil-a's permit to open a restaurant in the first ward. there are people in chicago who say they should come here and get any business we can. the mayor of boston also saying he doesn't want chick-fil-a in boston. he says he doesn't want that restaurant near the freedom trail. >> yeah, so consequences to those action there's. yesterday was also front page news in the "sun times" later in the day. a lot of folks talking about that one. so baltimore is rolling out the welcome wagon for immigrants. this is a really interesting story. i was talking about immigration and how it happens in arizona. this is the complete opposite of that. mayor stephanie rollings blake told latinos in particular she is counting on them to help baltimore gain 10,000 families within a decade. apparently they're having problems. they lost a large number of their population. the census is showing that. she is saying, you know this is the largest concentration we can grow here. she signed an order in march prohibiting police and social agencies from asking anyone their immigration status. she says that is just the first step. >> that's the opposite. it's like don't show me your papers. >> absolutely. the objective here is to make everyone feel welcome. we want them to come. we want them to tell their families they're welcome here. there was a town in illinois that really cracked down on immigrationmei immigration and they lost so many businesses. this is happening across the country. they have yet to track actually the growth. but that's coming. >> an expanding look at all our top stories, head to our blog, c cnn.com slk easter dot ko cnn.com/earlystart. >> facebook reports are out. curious? 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