involving the colorado theater massacre. a law enforcement official briefed on the investigation tells cnn police and the fbi have discovered a package in the university of colorado mail room that appears to have been mailed by the suspected shooter, james holmes. cnn's ed lavandera is in aurora for us. ed, what do we know about this package? >> reporter: well, we're still trying to gather information on what exactly is inside that package, wolf. but as you mentioned that law enforcement official telling cnn that on monday police and fbi discovered a package that was apparent apparently sent by james holmes, the 24-year-old suspected gunman. now it's unclear obviously if this package was indeed sent by him, it was clearly sent before he was taken into custody. it arrived at some point on monday at the university mail room. we've also been told by hospital officials over the last couple of days this is something we've been monitoring for some time that there were two packages that were suspicious and were being looked into, one found in the mail room and also one that was actually delivered to a university professor. so we've been trying to nail down more information on this. and we'll continue to do so, wolf. >> what's the university of colorado saying about all of this, ed? >> reporter: well, now that the details have come out that this package was probably sent by james holmes, the university says they can no longer comment or make any kind of comments in regard to this investigation. the judge in this case has issued a wide-ranging gag order. many officials starting to clamp down and not speak publicly about what's going on in this case now. >> ed lavandera on the scene for us as he's been right from the beginning. thank you. elsewhere, in maryland, police say the fbi are now investigating an abduction with ties to the baseball legend cal rib ken jr. his mother was found safe this morning almost 24 hours after being taken from her home at gunpoint. cnn's lisa sylvester's working the story for us. what happened here, lisa? >> hi there, wolf. what we know is this all started about 7:00, 8:00 yesterday morning when a man apparently approached and went to violet ripken's house and abducted her at gunpoint. he then according to authorities spent most of the day driving around in her car throughout central maryland. and it was only until around 8:30 last night when there was a citizen in the neighboring county, in baltimore county, who saw a suspicious vehicle. he called it in to county authorities. and at that point it was that tip that eventually led to violet ripken being found this morning unharmed back near her house in aberdeen. she was however bound. authorities at this point are not clear what the motive is in all of this. they do say though that her credit cards have been used, but there was no apparent ransom that was discussed. a ransom never came up at all. we have more information now from the police chief here at aberdeen. >> he was driving her vehicle, which was a silver lincoln continental. i believe it was a 1998. he was driving her vehicle. she was taken from her residence in her vehicle and she was located back at her residence in her vehicle. >> now, about the suspect. here's the description that we have been given, a white male, late 30s to early 40s, tall thin build. at the time he was wearing a light colored shirt, camo pants and eyeglasses. authorities are also looking for the 1998 silver lincoln towncar, wolf. >> what is the ripken family saying about all this, lisa? >> i'm sure you can imagine that this has been fairly traumatic for all of them. they did release -- the ripken family released a statement saying "as you now know our mother was abducted at gunpoint from her home yesterday morning. this has been a trying time for our family but grateful and relieved mom is back with us safe and healthy. we want to thank everyone for tremendous support especially all of the law enforcement agencies that worked so hard and quickly." again, this individual is still at large. they still do not know who this person is, but they do believe he is still armed and dangerous, wolf. >> lisa sylvester, thanks very much. let's go overseas right now. the presumptive republican presidential nominee, mitt romney, he's in london tonight. his first stop on an overseas tour suppose today bring a temporary cease battle from the white house. but the verbal warfare has not let up at all. jim acosta is in london traveling with the republican presidential account. he's joining us now with details on some controversial remarks that sparked an uproar today. jim, tell our viewers what's going on. >> reporter: that's right, wolf. mitt romney's overseas trip has only begun and already both campaigns are fighting like napoleon and the british over a relationship said to be between the u.s. and britain. a campaign called a trip to listen and learn. all of a sudden it's a trip over who said what as obama campaign is seizing on a quote a british newspaper claimed came from an unnamed romney advisor. which cannot be confirmed and the romney campaign denies. the advisor is quoted in london's daily telegraph saying were part of an anglo saxon heritage and feels the relationship is special. the white house didn't fully appreciate the shared history we have. in a statement vice president joe biden didn't hold back calling the comments just another feeble attempt by the romney campaign to score political points. this assertion is beneath the presidential campaign. romney campaign officials say the quote didn't come from them. adding in a statement if anyone said that they weren't reflecting the views of governor romney or anyone inside the campaign. the romney campaign insists the gop contender will not criticize the president overseas in keeping with political tradition. that explains romney's tough talk just before he left the u.s. >> in dealings with other nations he has given trust where it is not earned, insult where it was not deserved, and apology where it is not due. >> reporter: but the trip does come with purpose. in london where romney will watch the opening ceremonies of the summer olympics, he'll be remembered for turning around the scandaled plagues in salt lake city ten years ago. >> he certainly did rescue those games. my opinion of him as a future president is not as high. >> reporter: oh, okay. >> i don't believe he is -- >> reporter: a pro-obama super pac couldn't resist portraying romney going for the gold in his foreign investments. romney's next stop in israel is also no accident. republicans have hammered president obama for his tense relationship with israeli prime minister netanyahu, something a jewish gop group plays up in a new ad. >> he's going to place israel in a position where they're in danger. >> reporter: the president's campaign argues senator obama covered more ground during his foreign trip exactly four years ago. his stop in germany drew over 200,000 people. romney likely won't run across the same crowds, but he can find one of his signs by heading over to london's romney street where one of his bumper stickers is now on full display. besides meeting with foreign leaders and going to the olympics, mitt romney is also scheduled to attend some fundraisers seeking some of that campaign gold he'll need for the long marathon to november. wolf. >> and he's going to be delivering a few major speeches on this trip. i assume something islondon, is? >> reporter: we're expecting him to meet with various british officials tomorrow. he'll meet with british prime minister david cameron. it's in israel, wolf, where we're expecting him to give a pretty major speech and then perhaps another one in poland where he'll be emphasizing his belief putting out a strong image of american freedom to the rest of the world, wolf. >> thanks very much, jim acosta traveling with the republican presidential candidate in london right now. attack after attack, is the negative tone in the presidential campaign impacting voters' views of the candidates? also gun control, profiling, the threat of a lone wolf, hot button issues in the wake of the theater massacre. we're going to talk about those in our strategy session. desperately needed tax revenues stashed in offshore tax havens. we're on the hunt for hidden fortunes. 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[music] transitions® lenses automatically filter just the right amount of light. so you see everything the way it's meant to be seen. experience life well lit, ask for transitions adaptive lenses. so what i'm saying is, people like options. when you take geico, you can call them anytime you feel like saving money. it don't matter, day or night. use your computer, your smartphone, your tablet, whatever. the point is, you have options. oh, how convenient. hey. crab cakes, what are you looking at? geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. jack cafferty's here with the cafferty file. jack. >> wolf, turns out a million dollars still is not enough money to make some people feel rich. a new survey of millionaires finds more than one quarter of them say they don't feel wealthy. but they would if they had an extra $5 million. the fidelity investments millionaire outlook report finds the average millionaire is about 60 years old and has at least $3 million in assets. the survey shows only 14% of today's millionaires say they grew up wealthy. a whopping 86% describe themselves as self-made. and according to this report, millionaires' outlook on the financial future is the highest it's been in the survey's history. let's hope they're right. meanwhile, there are a million different definitions of what being wealthy means. it's probably safe to say that mitt romney's idea of wealthy is a far cry from yours or mine. wealth is relative in many ways if you're free fr financial worry, have enough set aside to secure a retirement and can afford a few luxuries like vacations, maybe a second home, fancy car, you may well consider yourself wealthy. but for the donald trumps of the world, too much money is never enough. they're continually driven to amass more wealth. buy another company, make another deal, sometimes not ever stopping to appreciate what they have. and the acmulation and managing of that kind of money involves tremendous stress and energy. the saying that money can't buy happiness is true. but it can buy peace of mind. so here's the question, how much money would it take for you to feel wealthy? go to cnn.com/caffertyfile, post a comment on my blog. or go to our post on the "the situation room" facebook page. if i had your money, wolf, i'd feel wealthy. >> yeah. wealthy indeed. all right, jack, thank you. a negative turn in the race for the white house with both the obama and romney campaigns unleashing a slew of accusations and attack ads. let's talk about this and more with our cnn chief political analyst, gloria borger. gloria, is the negative tone of these ads, the attacks, are they impacting voters' views of these two candidates? >> you bet, wolf. and it's not pretty. in fact, it's impacting them really negatively. take a look at this new result from the nbc "the wall street journal" poll. you look at the favorable and unfavorable ratings. i mean, mitt romney's unfavorables, wolf, are now five points higher than his favorables. he's completely under water there. and president obama is still more favorable than nonfavorable, but his rating has gone down. and these negatives for these candidates are as high as they have ever been. and that's of course because as you point out, we've had two straight months of each campaign through their super pacs or their campaigns speing over $25 million in advertising about each other, most of which is negative. the public has clearly been watching it. and they've decided, you know what, we don't really think more of you folks for doing this, we actually think a lot less of you two as candidates. >> so when you dig deeper, what are you seeing, gloria, about each candidate's as a result r vulnerabilities? >> each candidate has a very different set of vulnerabilities. look at president obama first. it's the economy, of course, as you might suspect. and voters are clearly getting locked into kind of a pessimistic view of the economy. in this "the wall street journal" poll the question was asked, what do you think will happen to the economy in the next 12 months? and if you see it's down eight points from just a month ago, wolf. and only 27% now believe that the economy is going to get better, which is why the president wants to turn this into an election about mitt romney he does not want this to be an election about the economy. but let's talk about mitt romney for a moment because he has his own vulnerability. it's not about the economy, but it really is about his persona. his vulnerability is that voters don't like him as much as they like president obama. that's a problem that's dogged him throughout this entire campaign. this is a gallup poll, which candidate is more likable? look at the differences in that. 60% for president obama, 30% for romney. that's not a gap, that's a chasm, wolf. and that's very difficult to overcome, but he's still the candidate people believe has the better ideas to manage the economy which is why you hear him continue to talk about that. he wants to make this election about president obama's stew ardship and the economy and the fact he believes he would do a better job. two different men, two different sets of vulnerability. >> good point, gloria. gloria borger assessing for us, thank you. >> sure. there's some troubling new signs about the u.s. economy as well. it looks like record low mortgage rates aren't, aren't helping boost home sales. kate bolduan is standing by. she'll have details in a minute. and, later, what olympic organizers didn't want you to know about friday's opening ceremonies. ♪ ( whirring and crackling sounds ) man: assembly lines that fix themselves. the most innovative companies are doing things they never could before, by building on the cisco intelligent network. one is for a clean, wedomestic energy future that puts us in control. our abundant natural gas is already saving us money, producing cleaner electricity, putting us to work here in america and supporting wind and solar. though all energy development comes with some risk, we're committed to safely and responsibly producing natural gas. it's not a dream. america's natural gas... putting us in control of our energy future, now. 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. somebody didn't book with travelocity, with 24/7 customer support to help move them to the pool daddy promised! look at me, i'm swimming! somebody, get her a pony! [ female announcer ] the travelocity guarantee. from the price to the room to the trip you'll never roam alone. the new president's just been sworn in over in india. kate bolduan is monitoring that story, some of the other top stories in "the situation room" right now. kate, what's going on? >> hey, wolf. india's 13th president. it's mostly a ceremonial job in india. the prime minister actually holds the real power. however, india's presidents also take on the role of supreme commander of the country's armed forces. he's 76 years old and also served as the finance minister for india. june saw the biggest drop in new home sales in more than a year. new homes are selling at a rate of 350,000 a year down 75% from the boom year of 2005. despite record low mortgage rates, loan applications actually fell last week. and a new addition to the pentagon's website will make it easy to check political candidates or really anyone else's claims that they have received military honors. the database is valor.defense.gov. contains all since september 11, 2001. in addition to catching liars, the database is also meant to honor those who deserved their rewards and a response to last month's supreme court ruling that made it a crime to lie about military honors. and check out this amazing video of a volcanic eruption in southern japan. they were taking these videos from different angles yesterday. and the closer view is in slow motion. it's one of japan's most active volcanos. ash explosions like this are apparently common. we were looking at it, wolf, over 600 minor explosions from this volcano already reported this year. the people in that neighboring town are pretty used to it. still pretty amazing. >> it is amazing. and very impressive pronunciation as well. thank you, kate. >> little bit of practice. thank you. >> good work. excellent work. so here's a question, what if a man with an arab name ordered thousands of rounds of ammunition on the internet? the colorado theater massacre's raising new questions about whom authorities should be watching. and also one expert calls it a black hole in the world economy. we're investigating trillions, yes, trillions of dollars allegedly hidden in offshore tax havens. building pass, corporate card, verizon 4g lte phone. the global ready one ? yeah, but you won't need... ♪ hajimemashite. hajimemashite. hajimemashite. you guys like football ? thank you so much. i'm stoked. you stoked ? totally. ... and he says, "under the mattress." souse le matelas. 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