[Whitfield:] The Pentagon is warning today of drastic civilian cutbacks under the automatic budget cuts set for March 1st. Our Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr is standing by with more on that story. So, Barbara, what are they saying?
[Barbara Starr, Cnn Pentagon Correspondent:] Well, you know, Fredricka, we've been hearing for weeks about this fancy word around Washington called sequester. What are we really talking about? Layoffs at the Pentagon, cutbacks in military spending, but it is the layoffs that are going to start if this budget cut problem is not solved, if Congress cannot avert mandatory spending cuts. What the Pentagon did today is notify Congress some 800,000 civilian workers are facing one day of furlough for the next 22 weeks. It is going to start hitting an awful lot of people right in the pocketbook. I want you to have a quick listen to one of the Pentagon officials that explained some of the impact today.
[Jessica Wright, Acting Undersecretary Of Defense:] The effects of sequestration and the continuing resolution on our military personnel will be devastating, but on our civilians, it will be catastrophic. These critical members of our workforce, they work in our depots. They maintain and repair our tanks, our aircraft, our ships. They teach our kids. They care for our children. They provide medical treatment to all of our beneficiaries. They take care of our wounded warriors. They provide...
[Starr:] So, there you have it. That's some of the impact, losing one day of pay every week for the next 22 weeks. And just think of this. There are 84,000 military children enrolled in DOD schools around the world. If their teachers are furloughed one day a week with no resolution, these kids may not be able to complete a full accredited school year, so the impact just keeps growing, Fred. It's a very tough situation. But before I go, I want to say, welcome back. And we want to see baby pictures.
[Whitfield:] Thank you. I've got lots. I'll share. Maybe not everyone wants to see them, but I'll send them to you.
[Starr:] OK. I'm looking forward to it.
[Whitfield:] Thank you so much. Great to be back. Appreciate it, Barbara.
[Starr:] Thank you.
[Whitfield:] All right, surveillance video of a Canadian woman adds to the mystery around her death. This take a look is 21-year-old Elisa Lam riding an elevator at the Cecil Hotel in Los Angeles. So, she peers out the doors, runs back in and then presses several buttons. Strange behavior, but what happened afterwards is even more bizarre. Several weeks after she was last seen, Los Angeles fire crews pulled Lam's body from the hotel's water tank on the roof. So, let's turn now to CNN's Kyung Lah in front of the Cecil Hotel right now. A very gruesome find, very perplexing mystery here, what more do we know about this case?
[Kyung Lah, Cnn Correspondent:] Well, let's start with the actual murder the actual case itself. I can't call it murder because what the LAPD is saying is they're treating this as a suspicious death. They are not calling it a homicide. What they will tell us is that Lam, a resident of Vancouver, Canada, came down here as a tourist. She arrived in Los Angeles on January 26th. On January 31st, she went missing. She was last seen here at the Cecil Hotel. You've seen that surveillance video. We've seen pictures that the LAPD has sent out of her. Then, yesterday, the maintenance worker responding to some concerns about some water problems at the hotel went and checked the rooftop's water tanks. There are four of them. When he looked in one of them, that's when he made the gruesome discovery. The fire department investigators have been here. They did identify her through body markings. At this point, the autopsy is still being conducted, Fredricka, still waiting for that.
[Whitfield:] And so what kind of role did the hotel guests play in all of this? Apparently, they were very concerned about the water pressure and, you know, then, once they learned why, did the hotel guests know about this? How were they enlightened, so to speak?
[Lah:] Well, some of them learned by watching the local news. You may notice that the front doors of this hotel are open. The hotel has not closed. It has stayed open. It is on a flush order, meaning that all the people who are here, they can only use it to flush the toilets, no showering, no washing your hands, no definitely no drinking of the water. So, we've spoken to some residents here who say that the hotel has not been honest with them, not been forthcoming, and here is what one couple from the U.K. told us.
[Sabina Baugh, Hotel Guest:] The water did have a funny taste.
[Michael Baugh, Hotel Guest:] It wasn't right.
[S. Baugh:] There was something wrong. The pressure in the water was terrible. The shower was awful. The water and when you turned the tap be on, the water was coming black first for two seconds and then it was going back to normal. In the U.K., we drink water from tap and it has completely proper, nice taste.
[M. Baugh:] Clean.
[S. Baugh:] But the water here we never thought anything of it.
[M. Baugh:] We thought it was pollution.
[S. Baugh:] We thought it was just the way it is here.
[Lah:] So, when they found out they said they felt absolutely sick to their stomachs. They feel psychologically twisted. They really feel quite disturbed about this. The hotel is having them sign waivers saying, yeah, you can stay here at the hotel, but it's not our fault if anything happens to you. We do want to add, Fred, that we did call the Department of Public Health. The Public Health Department is thoroughly testing the water now.
[Whitfield:] Oh, my goodness. All right. Kyung Lah, thanks so much. A mysterious story. All right, a new report says the Chinese government is responsible for hacking into scores of U.S. Web sites and stealing information. Our reporter in Shanghai went to the building pinpointed in this hacking scandal and was literally chased down, as you see right there, by Chinese authorities. We'll tell you what happened next.