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Pistorius Bail Set at $114,000; Storm Dumps Record Snow in Some Areas; Has College Degree, Can't Find Work; FAA & Boeing Meet Over 787 Batteries; Gunman on the Loose After Fiery Crash; Crews Probe Bay Bridge Crane Collapse; Paratroopers Stuck in Trees, Freed

Aired February 22, 2013 - 10:00   ET

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

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. I'm Carol Costello. Continuing our breaking news coverage now, Oscar Pistorius gets bail. A South African magistrate announced his decision last hour after painstakingly reviewing arguments in court and citing case law.

Headline here, the magistrate does not believe Pistorius is a flight risk. The judge set bail at $114,000. That's in U.S. Dollars. Pistorius cannot return to his home. He must give up his passport, surrender his guns and he cannot drink alcohol.

Now just before announcing his decision, the magistrate said he would not be swayed by public reaction.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DESMOND NAIR, CHIEF MAGISTRATE: In this case, this particular matter, evoked public outrage in any way, my view is that the state in opposing bail ought to have placed before me exactly where this outrage lay. I have some difficulty also with the fact that even though there may have been individuals in the court and outside the court who took umbrance at the violent nature of the deceased death.

Before I can find it established as a ground that there will be a shock and outrage in this particular matter if I release the accused on bail, I cannot certainly do so on my own and in isolation. I would need to be -- I would need to have evidence before me in that regard.

And if that is the ground on which -- or the ground that the state wishes to show has been established, which prevent the accused release on bail then there are factors that will convince me to do that. Whether the shock or outrage of the community might lead to public disorder if the accused is released is one of them.

Whether the sense of prison security among members of the public will be undermined or jeopardized by the release of the accused. Now, I must highlight that whilst bail, the standard in bail is not that in terms of the law, the applicability of the law of evidence.

That notwithstanding I cannot flagrantly disregard the fact that there needs to be a proper basis laid before the establishment of grounds in the criminal proceeding act. I do also wish to indicate that it is indeed an area of concern that where the state is in possession of information albeit in a magazine that the accused for instance has property in Italy.

That the state machinery sound and solid as it is did not contact for instance Interpol or any other international police agency to help determine whether the accused indeed has property registered in his name in Italy and whether or not he's allowed to use it.

And whether that was done the accused did not mention it in his affidavit and that would have certainly countered against it. Having regard to the fact that the accused is not a flight risk, neither because -- is not a flight risk and the accused does not show a propensity to commit violence.

The accused, there is no evidence before me, will interfere with state witnesses and there isn't proper evidence before me relating to the public perception of the matter. Having regard to the totality of the evidence before me against the factors that need to be established before the accused would be denied bail, I find that the very non- establishment of those factors set out in section 64 A to E.

Together with the fact that the accused has in this instance offered a version under oath at a very early stage and I do not attach any weight to the investigator's -- investigating officer's concessions with regard to that defense version, but ordinary one gives an affidavit merely saying I deny the allegations.

But in this instance the accused reach out to try to meet the state case of course against the background of those improbabilities that I have seen and mentioned. That reaching out in the affidavit in the way that he did, placing it before the court, together with the fact that none of the factors that need to be established have been established I come to the conclusion that the accused has made a case to be released on bail.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Wow, and then a cheer went up in the courtroom. Robyn Curnow has been covering this trial. She joins us from Pretoria. I must say this was some kind of bail hearing because this does not often happen in the United States when the judge or the magistrate in this case lays out the entire case and every single scenario and takes about, what, two hours to finally come to the conclusion that he can grant bail. Is this unusual even in South Africa?

ROBYN CURNOW, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It is. I was speaking to a legal expert earlier. He said it is unusual, but just remember this case is unusual. This is an extraordinarily high profile murder case. And I think this judge really is acutely aware that his every word, his every minute detail of his judgment is going to be scrutinized.

Not just by the public around here, but also of course, in that trial. So I put it out on Twitter, was this just theatre or was he being thorough? And I got a mixed reaction in terms of what people thought.

But in terms of legal experts, they felt that it was fair. Fair because if you spent as we did, two hours glued to this judge's statement, he kind of in a way ripped apart both the state and the defense's argument.

I mean, I think he was fair in saying they were both weak. So I think that's what is key and obviously a lot of work on both sides to push their case forward in the next few months. We get a sense that there's only going to be a trial by the end of the year.

COSTELLO: I was going to say a couple of things that struck me going through this. The judge would interrupt his line of thought to ask Oscar Pistorius if he was OK. So take us back inside that courtroom. I know you weren't there but one of our producers were and I'm sure you've talked to Diane by now. But what was Oscar Pistorius's demeanor as all this was going down?

CURNOW: You know, I think we've talked over the past few days how he was always so physically broken, he was crying. He was sobbing and in the last two days, we've seen him become more insulated. He is cocooning himself physically and emotionally. He seems shut down.

There have been questions has he been sedated, is he just exhausted or is he just totally overwhelmed by what is happening to him. In a way I think got a sense that he didn't really react to this announcement. His family behind him you heard whooped in joy, but Oscar himself seemed to just kept his head bowed from what I got in court.

So this is a man according to his family have spoken to them in court. They were very reluctant to sort of be drawn on his emotional state, but they did say, and I got this in, they are going to be watching him extremely closely now. He's certainly I don't think going to be left alone.

I think many people here in South Africa say, you know, he looks like he's broken and you know, people need to watch him. So I think from a family point of view, there's going to be a lot of people protecting him. Also then, of course, we are looking to hear if there's been any reaction from Reeva Steenkamp's family. We're waiting for a statement, but we haven't heard anything on that one.

COSTELLO: All right, Robyn Curnow reporting live from South Africa this morning.

A massive snowstorm is crossing the United States. It's now heading east and leave chaos in its path from Texas to Chicago. We'll show you the damage.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Talk back just about 20 minutes away. We're discussing three hot stories making headlines this morning. The first of which the Oscars are this weekend and the movie "Lincoln" is up for several awards including Best Picture.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Congress must never declare equal from God.

(END VIDEO CLIP) COSTELLO: An article in salon.com is quite interesting. It says the reason for "Lincoln's" success is that a white protagonist sweeps in to rescue black people.

So the "Talk Back" question today: "Is the key to winning on Oscar a white savior?" Join the conversation, Facebook.com/CarolCNN or tweet me @CarolCNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Now to the massive winter storm that's been slamming 20 states. Sixty million people affected this morning. Record snowfall, slick icy roads, dozens of car crash and that storm is now headed east.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO (voice-over): From space, it looked like a massive white blob. The top half has more than a foot of snow in some states and the bottom half powerful thunderstorms that could cause floods and tornadoes.

Look at some of the chaos its caused. This bus in Kansas City, Missouri, lost control and slammed into a light pole. Conditions like this are why Missouri's governor issued a state of emergency. Now the storm heads northeast dropping freezing rain in Indiana.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's just really slippery out here and really hard trying to maneuver and drive and stay focused and safe out here. If you don't have to be out here, I recommend don't come out here.

COSTELLO: That's advice people in Chicago need. Look at all the mangled cars that spun out on the side of a highway. More than a dozen crashes were reported overnight. Another problem, trying to fly in this snowy mess, one pilot in Wichita, Kansas took a wrong turn on a taxi way and got trapped in deep snow for two hours.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: By far the most entertaining delay I have ever had in lie life. It's just laughable to me.

COSTELLO: Kansas seems to have taken the brunt of the storm, 14 inches of snow in Wichita, nearly setting a new record. Places like Hayes had a monster 17 inches of snow. Some people were overjoyed to see that much white stuff.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It snows so infrequently here now. We've been in a bad drought for several years, really, really hot temperatures in the summer and just no moisture. So we're thrilled to see snow or ice or whatever moisture we can get.

COSTELLO: In Texas, people are dealing with the harsh realities of the storm. The powerful winds knocked down trees and ripped roof off some homes and we now know at least one person has died. A 74-year- old woman was killed after a tree fell on her home.

(END VIDEOTAPE) COSTELLO: Straight ahead in the NEWSROOM, collapsed in California, a crane at the new Bay Bridge topples over. We'll tell you about it next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Every day on the busy streets of New York, Kellock Irvin is hunting. He received his college degree last year. He moved here from the west coast and thought finding a job in marketing was the next logical step.

KELLOCK IRVIN, UNEMPLOYED GRADUATE: Not necessarily it would be an easy task, but it wouldn't be something that almost eight months since graduating, I am still struggling with.

FOREMAN: He's not alone.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Our economy is adding jobs, but too many people still can't find full time employment.

FOREMAN: When President Obama took office, 134 million Americans were working in non-farm jobs. Today after massive losses and a slow recovery, we're only 1.2 million jobs better off and many pay less than those who were lost.

A recent study by the Center for College Affordability found almost half of college graduates are in jobs that do not require four year degree, things like janitorial services, taxi driving and retail sales. Professor Richard Vedder at Ohio University helped author that study.

RICHARD VEDDER, OHIO UNIVERSITY: Let's say each one of them were making $20,000 a year more in income, which is quite plausible. We're talking about $400 billion a year in lost wages.

FOREMAN: Numbers like that have made some economic analysts argue that underemployment may be every bit as damaging to the economy as unemployment. And Kellock Irvin is caught in the middle of it all. For now he's taking freelance jobs as a photographer and part time work with moving companies but --

IRVN: I can only support myself so long before I may need to move back home.

FOREMAN: He may be the next one needing to move back home. Tom Foreman, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: It's 20 minutes past the hour. Checking our top stories now, you know those batteries blamed for causing a fire in one of Boeings expensive new Dreamliner jets. Well, today, FAA officials are meeting with Boeing in Washington to talk about the problem. The 787s have been grounded for five weeks. If Boeing can find a solution, the Dreamliners might fly again starting in a few months.

A gunman still on the loose after that shooting and fiery crash in Las Vegas. This incredible video taken moments after the crash, one of the victims was an aspiring rapper from Oakland known as Kenny Clutch. Las Vegas cab driver Michael Boldon was also killed. Family members say Boldon moved to Las Vegas from Detroit to start a better life.

Crews are looking at why a construction crane collapsed at a new Bay Bridge between San Francisco and Oakland. The crane was on a barge that was under the bridge. No one was hurt. A witness said it sounded like a plane crash. The new bridge scheduled to open Labor Day weekend.

Look closely through the trees and you'll see three army paratroopers tangled in branches. This happened in Washington State. Strong winds blew them into the trees during an army training exercise. Firefighters had to be called in to rescue them. That's pretty embarrassing. The army says no one was hurt though and that's a good thing.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Welcome to our new half-hour talk show, "Talk Back." Three hot topics, great guests and of course, your comments. On tap today: "Do we need the National Guard to stop gun violence?" "Is the key to winning the Oscar a white savior?"

And we're handing out our own version of Oscar. We're calling it "The Copies," "Talk Back's" political spin on the Academy Awards.

Playing with us today, Robert Zimmerman, a Democratic strategist; Jason Johnson, professor of political science at Hiram College and chief political correspondent for "Politic365"; and Ana Navarro, CNN contributor and Republican strategist.

Welcome to all of you. It's nice to have you here. First "Talk Back" question: "Is the National Guard the answer to gun violence?" When all else fails, call in the troops complete with a military general, battle trained soldiers and armored vehicles.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LT. GEN. RUSSEL HONORE, U.S. ARMY (RET.): Got to reinforce the liberties of the people to be able to walk the street and so little girls don't get shot in a school yard. That's a shame. That shouldn't be happening in America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: That is retired General Russell Honore, hero of New Orleans, talking about violence in Chicago. More than 500 murders there in 2012, and the aforementioned Hadiya Pendleton, who was killed in the cross fire a mile away from President Obama's Chicago home. Now, General Honore knows a thing or two about restoring order. After Katrina, the city's government was in shambles, looting and violence ruled until the tough talking Honore and his troops took over. Yes, take that drug dealers and gang leaders. Of course, the people and especially local Chicago police might have a problem with federal intervention, but still, is the National Guard the answer to gun violence?

Facebook.com/CarolCNN or tweet me @CarolCNN.

I will pose that question first to, Jason Johnson.

JASON JOHNSON, CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, "POLITIC365": Yes. So it makes perfect sense for us to respond to gun violence by highly militarized responses. No, this is not how you solve gun violence in America and it's not even how you clean up bad neighborhoods.

What you do is you hire more police. You hire police from those particular communities and you have the police walk the streets. You have things like what Rudy Giuliani did in New York, which is take care of quality of life crime, take graffiti off the walls and taking care of garbage.

These are the ways that you clean up neighborhoods. These are the ways that you stop gun violence. It's not by bringing in troops and scaring the heck out everybody in the street.

COSTELLO: But, Ana, just the sight of General Honore saying to some stupid gang member who is prone to violence like put that gun down, son, or I'm going to get you, that sounds good to me, actually.

ANA NAVARRO, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, it sounds good to me, too. I got to tell you I love General Honore. I think he would do a great favor to Chicago if he would move there. You know, he started with the youth in Chicago, but I agree with Jason. I don't think militarizing Chicago or any of the other urban areas that are facing huge amounts of gun violence is the way to do it.

Carol, I was born in Nicaragua. I lived through a civil war. I know what it's like to have armed men all over your cities and all over your parks and all over your schools. This is not what America is.

We have got to find ways to solve this in logical, rational ways where we involve everybody, where we involve the parents, the schools, the police, the local authorities, the federal authorities. Militarizing it is not the answer.

COSTELLO: This is what General Honore is suggesting, Robert. He's saying if we go in and try to control the violence somewhat, then police can actually do their jobs, they can investigate crimes, grow closer to the community and take care of some of the things that Ana and Jason were talking about.

ROBERT ZIMMERMAN, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: That's a very valid point, but we're not going to do it with General Honore coming across like a Grade B Clint Eastwood in a bad movie. The reality is we know what had to be done and we also know how to do it.

Bill Bratton did it as a New York City police commissioner and he did it also in Los Angeles as the L.A. police chief. It's about, as Ana pointed out, involving and engaging the parents. It's about getting guns off the streets. It's about education programs for our young people, and programs after school for them,. There's a whole approach that has to be taken and it's not done by undermining our law enforcement officials or militarizing our streets. It's got to be out in a collective, holistic approach.

COSTELLO: So why don't Chicago doing that, Jason, because it doesn't appear to be doing that?

JOHNSON: Well, because it cost a lot of money and because unfortunately I think it's very important we make this clear. I'm not making a cultural poverty argument. OK, most of the people in these neighborhoods are poor. They're not doing anything wrong. They're being held hostage by a small criminal element.

If you had more police, people just want to get up, go to work and go to school. So you hire more police for that neighborhood. You have a local police officer where he or she can walk down the street on a regular basis.

That is how you end gun violence, because the criminals don't want to get into a shootout with cops. It's a pretty simple solution. It just costs money.

COSTELLO: OK, let's center on that money issue. I want to address this to Ana because cities across America are strapped. They can't just go out and hire new police officers. Is that really the answer? Don't they need help from the federal government of some kind?

NAVARRO: I think they need to prioritize. All budgets, whether it's local, state and federal need to put some priority on putting police on the streets in places like Chicago. The problem is not as big in other places as it is in Chicago and everybody needs to take ownership of it.

It's not the federal government. It's not just the state government. It's not the local government. Everybody needs to act together and take ownership. I'll tell you, Carol, one of my very good friends is Isaiah Thomas, the former NBA player. He has been going back to Chicago time and again and cooperating everywhere which way he can.

To tell kids that kids like him who grew up in extreme poverty, who grew up in the midst of violence, who grew up with siblings with drug habits can make it out, that there is a way out and I think more people need to do that.