Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Rough Weather In California, Adopted Russian Boy Dead Amidst Suspected Abuse, To Buy Or Not To Buy Google Stock; McConnell Runs Online Ad Challenging Ashley Judd; Dow Climbs

Aired February 19, 2013 - 15:29   ET

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

CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: OK, let me share with you some pictures that we're just getting of California getting smacked by heavy wind, rain and snow today. This actually just in from the Sacramento area.

Here is Mike TeSelle with more from our affiliate KCRA.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MIKE TESELLE, KCRA REPORTER: Since about mid-morning, it really started to snow here.

In fact, talk about different from 24 hours ago. Let's swing it around over this way. This big rig driver, he stopped here overnight for some maintenance, was asleep in his cab. He woke up to this. Now he's got to try to hit the rode with snow on it. In fact, take a look at some of the concern we have seen out there.

This is a pickup truck flipped over on I-80 going uphill near Blue Canyon. That's a sense of just how slick and slippery things are right now. Chain controls are in effect. But, as you heard, CHP, Caltrans, they are holding traffic right now I-80 westbound in some spots because of these spinouts and accidents again.

And the snow level, we have seen that right around 3,000 feet elevation accumulating on the cars, not much on the ground. Back here live, certainly not the same picture 24 hours ago when walking your dog meant walking in the sunshine, the warm and the dry pavement. This woman right now, she's out walking her dog in the snow.

That is just how different the picture is up here in the Sierra right now. What seemed like springtime and warm weather over the weekend, now we're right back to winter. And one last thing just to show you how much snow we're already talking about. This is at Nyack. And you can see there's the pavement. There is the snow.

It is starting to accumulate up here.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PAUL: You know who remembers those days? Chad Myers.

He's been out in the middle of all that, haven't you, Chad?

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, Oklahoma, Buffalo. I can go on and on.

PAUL: Yes, I'm from Ohio. I got you. I understand.

MYERS: Yes.

PAUL: How bad is it going to get?

MYERS: Well, you know what? That's up in the Sierra. That 5,280 feet, literally, Nyack, the mile-high town, rather than the mile-high city.

Between Sacramento and Reno, up I-80, and it's a pretty big hill there. He was talking about snow levels down to 3,000 feet, which means that for many, many miles these drivers on I-80 are feeling this snow.

Obviously when you leave Sacramento, you start going up the hill. You're going to get snow. You're going to see the signs that say, all commercial vehicles, chain them up because you're not going any farther without chains on, and it's going to continue to snow all night long.

There will be spots in the Sierra with 20 inches of snow. Let's just hope people are skiing.

PAUL: I was just saying, you know the skiers are celebrating just like the dogs are there, as we see them. They always are. Chad, thank you so much.

MYERS: You're welcome.

PAUL: You, too.

A Russian boy adopted by a Texas family is dead. His adoptive parents have not been arrested, but a Russian diplomat blames them, saying they abused 3-year-old Max.

This is Max here scene in a photo from his obituary. The human rights representative from the Russian foreign ministry described the abuse he says Max suffered.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KONSTANTIN DOLGOV, RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY (via translator): Upon examination of the body of the young boy, multiple injuries to his legs and his head were noted, and during the autopsy, serious injuries were noted to his abdomen and his internal organs, typical of injuries that are produced by strong blows.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: CNN's David Mattingly is covering this story. So, I'm sure a lot of people watch this and think, OK, why haven't the parents been charged? What do we know about the investigation?

DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, quite simply, the investigation hasn't gone that far yet. They're looking for results from the autopsy which could be weeks, maybe more than a month away in the state of Texas.

So, until they get that back, authorities aren't going to pursue charges. So, at this point, everybody here and in Russia are just waiting to see how this comes out.

PAUL: What do we know about the parents?

MATTINGLY: What we know is that they went through a private adoption agency. This wasn't a state-sanctioned adoption.

They got the three-year-old as well as his younger brother, and the younger brother is still in the house.

We've reached out to the parents for comment, and they had nothing to say, just a recording on their phone that says, no comment.

Right now, the next step is going to be the autopsy to see what sort of injuries this child may have had and what may have caused them.

PAUL: Were there any reports from anybody outside his family that there had been some abuse or suspect of it?

MATTINGLY: Only thing authorities in Texas are saying is that this was suspicious because the child did not die of natural causes. The child -- there was no known cause actually for his death, and a three-year-old, at that age, they're going to have to examine this. It's part of Texas law where they automatically look into cases like this.

So, we're waiting to see now while the Russian authorities are making their own decisions, their own conclusions about this case, saying this is a case of abuse. Here in the United States we don't have authorities ready to say that.

PAUL: All right, David Mattingly, thank you so much for walking through us what we know today on this. We appreciate it.

Well, a new job for Sarah Palin? The former vice presidential candidate is stepping back into the spotlight. We're going to tell you where you can see her, coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ALI VELSHI, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: From the CNNMoney Newsroom in New York, I'm Ali Velshi.

When people ask me things more than three times a day, I figure out I might want to talk about it on TV. Everybody is asking me about Google, should you buy? You know about Google. Everybody knows about Google. They make this browser. They make these tablets. They make the Android operating system which is on this phone, 500 million active devices worldwide. They dominate the smart phone market.

Google also sells custom versions of its product like Gmail, Google Docs, things like that, two businesses, and it has a social network, Google Plus.

Now, Google Plus has less than a quarter number of users that Facebook has, but it is growing, and Google has YouTube where they make money from my version of the Harlem Shake for instance. Just trying to give that a little more air time.

All right, like Apple, Google has a talent for figuring out what the next big thing is before we mere mortals know about it.

But the real money-maker are the ads that you see on Google. That's where they really get their money, $10.7 billion in profit in 2012 on $50 billion in sales. That's actually pretty good. It gets 87 percent of its total revenue from advertising in many forms.

Now, here's what you need to look at. This is why everybody's asking me about this.

Google crossed the $800 a share price for the first time in history today. It's about $806 right now.

In the last year, Google has increased, had a little of a setback here, but it's increased about 33 percent. Apple, by the way, which I thought I'd throw in as well -- that's the blue line -- is down about 9 percent.

Now, what got Google to $800 today? Rumors about Google opening up stores which would be a direct challenge to Apple.

Now, I don't know what these stores would sell, Google phones, the Nexus tablet. I don't know, books about Chrome, maybe other gadgets and gizmos. It's just a rumor.

One Google executive told the Web site, All Things D, back in December, that there were no plans for a retail store. But even without the retail store, analysts see a lot of room for growth in the stock.

Still that means on its other products, Gmail, Chrome, Google Maps, YouTube and, of course, the search that you keep on seeing.

Katy Stockton is the managing director of MKM Partners. Katie is a technical analyst. She looks at the stock to see how it's performing.

Katie, you and I talked about Apple in the past. Apple's underperforming right now, but Google is doing particularly well. So, for all these people that ask me, should you be buying Google stock, what do you have to say? KATIE STOCKTON, MANAGING DIRECTOR, MKM PARTNERS: I think you should be buying it. It has outperformed fairly significantly as you discussed.

And this is a breakout on the chart. So, Google above 800 also means it's at a new, all-time high above previous highs based on 2007 and, of course, last year. So, that breakout does support positive follow-through.

And the stock really just has positive momentum, and you want to stay on the same side of that momentum.

VELSHI: The stock went down after hitting a high of about $775 sometime in October, went down and now back up to about $806.

You're thinking that if it were to go back to that level it was in in October, $775 or below, that's not a good sign.

STOCKTON: That wouldn't be on a good sign. That level should become support, if you will, for this stock going forward.

So, I'd be a buyer of Google anywhere above that $775. I don't want to see it dip below that.

But if you can look at the rally into that previous high back in October, you can derive a price target based on that rally of about $855 for Google from a technical standpoint. So, it looks higher from a short- and also long-term perspective.

I do think that we'll see the broader market undergo a correction, but a little later in the March-to-April time horizon, at which time you might also see Google pullback.

So, some investors may prefer to wait for that correction in the broader market.

VELSHI: OK, just to be clear, you think the broader market, the S&P 500 or whatever, will pull back a little bit in March and April. Google may follow it that way for a while, but you think there's an $855 target from the $806 that it's at right now.

Katie, a pleasure to talk to you, Katie Stockton of MKM Partners.

So, that's where we're at. That's the answer. That's the best answer I can give you right now about whether or not you should be buying Google stock.

That's it for me. I'll be back, same time tomorrow. I'm Ali Velshi in the CNNMoney Newsroom in New York.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: Well, an actress may be running for Senate and Sarah Palin, back in the spotlight. Let's check on politics now with our political editor Paul Steinhauser in Washington.

Hey, Paul, good to see you. So ...

PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN POLITICAL EDITOR: Hey, Christi.

PAUL: I know we're hearing actress Ashley Judd may be throwing her hat into the ring for Senate, and Mitch McConnell is wasting no time, apparently, going after her in a new campaign ad.

Have you seen it?

STEINHAUSER: Yeah, I have seen it. You know, remember, he is the top Republican in the U.S. Senate, up for re-election next year, and he seems to be going after Ashley Judd.

He came out with an ad today. It's running online in Kentucky. And it really goes after Judd for, well, maybe not living in Kentucky nowadays. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ASHLEY JUDD, ACTRESS: Tennessee is home.

To me, San Francisco is my American city home.

I can never anticipate what is going to push me over the edge.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STEINHAUSER: Three little snippets there from that Web video from the McConnell campaign.

Remember, Ashley Judd comes from a family that has a long history from Kentucky. She lived there, grew up there, went to college at University of Kentucky. But she now lives in Tennessee. And, of course, we know her from her Hollywood fame.

Guess what, Christi? She was back in Kentucky, though, on Thursday night meeting with Democratic donors. She hasn't said if she'll run or not, but that may be a sign that she's seriously interested.

Here's what a top Kentucky Democrat says.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JOHN YARMUTH (D), KENTUCKY: She is talking to the people she would need to have support her, and she needs some time to do that.

But I think she's very, very excited about the possibility of making that race and she is getting widespread support from the people she meets.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STEINHAUSER: Well, if she does eventually decide to run, Christi, this is going to be one exciting race to keep your eyes on nationwide.

PAUL: Yeah, no kidding.

All right, talk to us about Sarah Palin's new gig. What do you know?

STEINHAUSER: Yeah, we haven't seen a lot of Sarah Palin, the former Alaska governor and the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee lately, but we will next month.

We learned that she will be speaking at C-PAC. What's that? Conservative Political Action Conference, it's the largest and oldest gathering, annual gathering, of conservatives from across the country.

She was a big speaker there last year. She'll be back again this year in March, right here in D.C. She's still beloved by a lot of people on the right.

Christi?

PAUL: All right, Paul, hey, thank you so much. Good to see you today.

STEINHAUSER: Thanks.

PAUL: All right, let's talk about Prince Michael Jackson, Michael Jackson's 16-year-old son. Have you heard about this?

He says that he can't sing, he can't dance like his dad, but he's determined to make his own fortune.

So, is he taking a part-time job like most teenagers? Not quite. We're going to tell you what Prince Michael's new gig is, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: First lady Michelle Obama says she is the boss of her bangs. She showed a little sense of humor to cooking show host Rachael Ray. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHELLE OBAMA, FIRST LADY: This is my mid-life crisis, the bangs. I couldn't get a sports car. They won't let me bungee jump. So, instead I cut my bangs.

RACHAEL RAY, COOKING SHOW HOST: So, you went for the bangs.

OBAMA: I went for the bangs.

RAY: You're still in charge. You're the boss of your hair.

OBAMA: I can do this. This is all mine.

(END VIDEO CLIP) PAUL: Mrs. Obama got the new hair style, of course, last month when she turned 49. She did get a seal of approval from the president who says she looks good. She always looks good.

Want to get your hands on some props and costumes from an Oscar- nominated film? Well, if you are a fan of the movie "Silver Linings Playbook," get your chance today by hitting Amazon.com.

Bradley Cooper's running gear is there, the copy of "A Farewell to Arms" that his character throws out a bedroom window, all of it up for grabs.

Premiere Props is the company behind the auction, and they're also offering goodies from other movies, including "Beautiful Creatures," "Scream 4," and "Resident Evil."

Morrissey once sang "meat is murder." It seems L.A.'s Staples Center agrees, at least for one night. The former Smith's front man has gotten the arena to make all the restaurants go vegetarian for his March 1st show.

Now, this is the first time the Staples Center said yes. Get this. Paul McCartney tried before and they turned him down.

The concert promoter is also donating part of Morrissey's ticket sales, by the way, to the activist group, PETA.

He probably doesn't need the work, but Michael Jackson's 16-year- old son, Prince Michael, has a part-time job. Talk about one heck of a part-time job, he's reporting for "Entertainment Tonight."

There's Brooke Anderson. The show is airing its first interview in chunks throughout this week, so the teenager was given an on-camera coaching session, obviously by her, and then he went to work.

His first assignment was the remake of "The Wizard of Oz."

Now, before their dad died, Prince Michael and his siblings stayed largely out of the public eye and, since then, they've made some public appearances, as they say, to honor their father.

It's the first sighting of the British royal "baby bump." The Duchess of Cambridge made her first official visit since announcing her pregnancy.

Catherine stopped by an addiction treatment clinic in London today. She is a patron of that charity. You hear the crowd there, hooting and hollering.

She told reporters it would be, quote, "unnatural," if she did not feel nervous about having a baby.

Actor Alec Baldwin and a photographer for "The New York Post" are trading accusations and harassment claims. The photographer says Baldwin used a racial slur during an encounter on Sunday.

"The Post" is also reporting Baldwin grabbed one of the paper's reporters and said, quote, "I want to choke you to death."

Now, Baldwin rep says those accusations are false.

Deborah Feyerick is in New York with the very latest on the case. So, Deb, what have you learned?

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, well, we do know that the NYPD hate crimes unit is actually investigating this incident, which was summed up in "The New York Post" headline that says, "Alec's race rant, black photog says that Baldwin used racist slurs."

And this happened outside Baldwin's East Village home, and according to the paper, which stands by its story, "The Post" reporters and photographer were trying to get a comment on a lawsuit which involves Baldwin's pregnant wife, Hilaria. She's a yoga instructor.

Well, when Baldwin saw the pair, according to the paper, Baldwin became very aggressive, and he grabbed the reporter by the arm, then he launched into the tirade against the veteran "Post" photographer, calling him a "crack dealer," a "crack head," a drug dealer. And then he also used several racial derogatory terms.

Well, the photographer is actually a former NYPD narcotics detective. Then he apparently tried to calm Baldwin down. He showed him a retired cop i.d. Baldwin called it a fake and then he took to his Twitter page, Baldwin, saying, quote, "Ralston claims he's ex- NYPD. That can't can be. Ex-NYPD don't become crack head, ex- jailhouse paparazzi." That was what he tweeted out.

Well, Baldwin's spokesman denies the accusations, calling them completely false. He also describes the alleged racial slur as, quote, "one of the most outrageous things I've heard in my life," unquote.

But on a radio program earlier today, Christi, the actor's "30 Rock" cast mate, Tracy Morgan said, you know, if it's true, then Baldwin really does need to apologize.

We reached out to an NYPD spokesman and he confirms that both Baldwin and the photographer, G. N. Miller, both filed harassment charges against one another.

There were no witnesses, no injuries, so not clear exactly where this will go from here.

But it's not the first time Baldwin has lashed out, even launching a tirade against a "Post" columnist who always seem to be baiting the actor.

But they were waiting for a comment and it just turned ugly.

Christi?

PAUL: All right, hey, Deb, thank you so much for keeping us informed. And I know we're going to be talking about this some more. It's not going to go away.

Thank you, Deb.

Up next, a couple traveling through Tennessee pulled over by the cops, all because of this sticker on their car. We're going to tell you what happened.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: Want to let you know, communication is completely restored between NASA's ground control and the International Space Station now.

This morning, all communications were lost during a software upgrade.

Here's NASA spokesman Josh Byerly, talking about the mood in ground control during the outage.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOSH BYERLY, NASA SPOKESMAN: You know, it's not a panicked mood that takes over mission control. Anybody who's been here has seen that.

I mean, these guys have procedures to do this, and the crew has procedures, so they just talk to each other when they get the chance and make sure that the crew is aware of what to do and then the work is to get it back up and running.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: Six crew members are on board the ISS, including two Americans. But everyone on board is safe and doing well, I'm happy to tell you.

You could soon be hearing some previously unreleased songs by 2Pac Shakur. That's because his mother is working with a company to manage the rapper's estate. She has a lot of incomplete work that she'd like to make available to listeners everywhere.

2Pac has had many number one singles, including "Dear Momma" and "Changes."

Well, a couple's school pride got them pulled over by the cops. This white sticker on Bonnie Jonas Boggioni's car is an Ohio State Buckeye. That's what that is, folks.

But Joanie (ph) and her husband were driving through Tennessee on their way to a funeral in Ohio. They got stopped, and she says the officer told her he thought it was a pot leaf and she had to remove it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BONNIE JONAS BOGGIONI, PULLED OVER FOR BUCKEYE LEAF STICKER (via telephone): Then he said, well, you into you need to take that off. What, in Tennessee?

He said, no, forever.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: They did not get a ticket, by the way. But Joanie (ph) says they pretty much laughed it all off.

CNN's Alison Kosik at the New York Stock Exchange right now, bring us up to speed on today's numbers.

So, I know we're just minutes away from the closing bell. Where do we stand?

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: OK. So, it looks like the Dow looks like it's going to close at its highest level in five years.

It seems like the Dow is reaching sort of these milestones of the highest close in five years because it's inching toward that record level of 14,164.

Close, but no cigar today. It looks the Dow will probably end about 136 points away from that, but we are seeing this momentum build with investors.

There's some optimism about Congress possibly cutting a deal on those forced spending cuts, even if it's temporary.

The way Wall Street sees it, it would be a sigh of relief if something keeps those spending cuts from going into effect because that means GDP wouldn't take a hit. That means economic growth in the U.S. wouldn't take a hit.

As far as what else is propelling stocks higher, some M&A activity, mergers and acquisitions going on, everything from airlines to media to ketchup, even in the office services area, Office Depot, Office Max, possibly talking about a tie-up themselves.

So, that is certainly giving some momentum to stocks and giving investors a little bit of oomph to buy into the stock, and who knows if it'll stick?

Christi?

PAUL: All right, hey, Alison, so good to see you today. Thank you.

KOSIK: Sure.

PAUL: And thank you for keeping me company here at CNN as I was in for Brooke Baldwin.

That does it for me. I want to hit you to "THE SITUATION ROOM" here with Wolf Blitzer because he starts right now. And let's take a look at the closing bell.

You heard Alison Kosik say we're not going to hit the 14,164 today, but, of course, we know that there's a lot going on in Washington with the sequester and we have to hope that we are going to be seeing these kinds of numbers, Wolf.

We certainly hoped it for a long time, but depending on what Washington does, we'll have to see if it sticks.

Wolf Blitzer?