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Deadliest Balloon Crash In 20 Years; Market Rebounds After Sell-Off; Back-To-Back Blizzards Hit Midwest; Accused Cannibal Cop On Trial; Avoiding An Asteroid Armageddon

Aired February 26, 2013 - 13:59   ET

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

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: It is the real-life Armageddon movie. Scientists hope to crash a spaceship into an asteroid, all to prove we can be saved.

I'm Brooke Baldwin. The news is now.

Tragedy on vacation. A hot air balloon, full of tourists, crashes to earth. But why?

Plus, the bickering begins.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JOHN BOEHNER, (R-OH), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: We should not have to move a third bill before the Senate gets off their ass and begins to do something.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Accusations fly just three days before automatic cuts hit the nation.

And --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (singing): Who let the dogs out? Who? Mine's missing.

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BALDWIN: Investigators looking into this kid's parents. A 10- year-old rapper whose video is raising a few eyebrows. So is the criticism fair? We're on it.

Hi, everyone. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Good to see you. Want to begin with disaster in the skies above Egypt. Take a look at some photos with me. Because you will see, this is the aftermath. These are the pictures that were taken after the world's deadliest hot air balloon crash in more than two decades. Nineteen people were killed today. And this is what is left of that balloon.

Moments earlier, it was filled with tourists from all over Europe and Asia. They were taking in the sites of a beautiful ancient city of Luxor a thousand feet below when suddenly the gas canister exploded, sending this balloon plummeting to the earth. Ian Lee is live for us now in Cairo.

And, Ian, what happened? What caused this?

IAN LEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brooke, what we're hearing now is when the balloon was starting to come down, descend and to land, is when this tragedy struck. One of the valves, we're hearing, opened up, sending a flame, catching the balloon on fire. Two people bailed out when it was just about 10 feet off the ground, including the pilot, sending the balloon straight up into the air to about a thousand feet. And to give you some perspective, the Empire State Building is at roughly 1,200 feet. So quite a long drop. Then it came plummeting down. Nineteen people killed.

Now, the head of the Civil Aviation Authority is in Luxor to investigate this crash. He said the balloon operator was operating legally. But the minister -- sorry, the Department of Tourism says that this company has had some violations. So they will be investigating what actually happened.

Brooke.

BALDWIN: Ian, when we see this number, 19, as far as how many people were killed, did anyone survive?

LEE: Well, the two -- there are two people who survived. A British man and the pilot of the hot air balloon. And the only real reason they survived is they were able to bail out when the balloon was just about 10 feet off the ground. But when it went straight up in the air, there was really not much anyone can do when the balloon started plummeting. There -- 19 people from Asia, from Europe, who were on that died in the crash.

BALDWIN: So sad, as we said, most deadly in 20 years, more than 20 years. Ian Lee, thank you, for me in Cairo.

To the markets now. Let's take a look at the numbers here. The Dow up 100 points right now. Two hours away from that closing bell. Yesterday, not so great here on Wall Street. I want to go to business correspondent Zain Asher, who is live in New York.

And so, a little bit more optimism when it comes to the stock market today. And at least this is -- let's combine that with some good news from the housing market. Hallelujah. I'm sure that is perhaps fueling a bit of the rebound.

ZAIN ASHER, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Brooke, you're certainly right, stocks actually getting some help today from a trio of positive readings on the economy. And you did mention the housing market. We had new home sales jump 15 percent in January from December. Obviously good news. And since new home are built from the ground up, they add construction jobs and give businesses -- business to furniture and appliance stores. In the meantime, home prices posted their biggest annual rise since the height of the housing boom in the fourth quarter. Also want to mention consumer confidence improved more than expected in February. All of this helping stocks recover from the Dow's biggest sell-off of the year yesterday. Also today, Fed chief Ben Bernanke appeared before the Senate Banking Committee this morning, encouraged lawmakers to get their act together ahead of this Friday's deadline on those forced budget cuts.

Brooke.

BALDWIN: Want to talk to you about this business story. It was something we tackled with our panel just yesterday, the news from -- that the Yahoo! CEO, Marissa Mayer basically telling her employees they need to come to the office, right, no more telecommuting. So she's now facing backlash. And not just coming from employees, but another huge mega name in big business, Richard Branson. What's he saying today?

ASHER: Yes, Brooke, that's right, Richard Branson coming out this morning saying that Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer is essentially making a huge mistake. Get this, he actually called her decision backwards. He's saying, quote, "we like to give people the freedom to work where they want, safe in the knowledge that they have the drive and expertise to perform excellently, whether they're at their desk or in their kitchen. He also adds, and this is pretty funny, "yours truly has never worked out of an office, and never will."

But, you know, a lot of people are arguing that this might really compromise Yahoo!'s ability to attract and retain talent. Some people saying that, you know, people who work from home actually end up being more productive because they don't have the added distraction of drive buy meetings and they're more likely to be able to focus on a single task through the end without getting sidetracked on other small -- smaller work related tasks. We spoke to Jennifer Owens, who's the editorial director of "Working Mother Media." She says that she was very disappointed with Yahoo!'s decision.

BALDWIN: But then, at the same time, we were talking to panelists yesterday -- oh, forgive me.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JENNIFER OWENS, EDITORIAL DIRECTOR, "WORKING MOTHER MEDIA": I think you should be judging the employees on their work. I think that just a blanket statement like this is very backwards thinking. And I think that they -- if they have problem employees, it's not the working from home that's causing the problem. It's the -- you know, it's whatever managing that employee, it's that employee is a problem, whatever, you have to look at these things as an individual case and as true management.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ASHER: Also, Brooke, some people arguing that given that Marissa Mayer had a baby herself recently, she of all people should understand the importance of that work-life balance.

Brooke.

BALDWIN: With her two week maternity leave that I know she caught a bit of flack on.

ASHER: Right.

BALDWIN: I was going to say that a lot of our panelists, though, at the same time said, look, I think, you know, working face to face with people is great. They're able to get, you know, a catalyst of ideas, even if it's just, you know, walking into people grabbing lunch. But you can sort of see it from both ways. I'm curious, Zain, when you look at just the hard numbers, how common is working from home these days?

ASHER: OK. Well, statistic wise, only 10 percent of employees work from home on a regular basis, right? So not that many. But 98 percent of companies today offer employees at least one type of flexible work option, and 40 percent say flex policies are embedded in company culture. So it really just depends. Some companies allow telecommuting because it saves the company money. The more people you have working in-house, the greater the cost, especially for smaller start-ups. I mean things like phone lines, admin costs, cubicle space, utilities, that kind of thing, obviously costs companies money.

Brooke.

BALDWIN: Zain Asher. Thank you, Zain.

And let's talk weather, shall we. Yet another snowy blow to the nation's midsection here. Take a look. A late February blizzard. Feel bad for that guy. Something's going on with the tire. That thing's not moving. This is Kansas City, Missouri. Going nowhere fast for the second time in less than a week. And look closely, if you would. That snow drift, that snow drift in Texas is close to three feet deep. Brrr.

Chad Myers, I'm cold looking at this.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes.

BALDWIN: Chad's in the weather center. Chad, do me a favor, stand by. I want to go first to Erin McPike (ph), who I was e-mailing earlier, saying, please stay warm.

You say you have been so far. By the looks of your surroundings, it's a bit chilly. You're in Kansas City. What are we talking about there?

ERIN MCPIKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, Brooke, actually, the worst of the storm right now is over. It looks to be sleeting a little bit right now, but the storm itself is over. That does not mean the pain of this storm is over. And I'll tell you why. We've got about 38,000 power outages still in Kansas City. About 10,000 more in Texas. And more in Oklahoma.

And let me show you why, Brooke. Look at this. The snow here is really, really heavy. If you get hit with something like this, it's really going to hurt. And so it's snapping branches and bringing down power lines. That's why we've got those outages.

Now, also, 20 miles south of here, in Belton, Missouri, there was a whole building that collapsed because of this heavy snow. And, you know, last week, we were in Wichita and we saw people pushing their snow off of their rooftops because you want to get that heavy snow off so you don't have leakage in these building collapses like we had earlier today.

Brooke.

BALDWIN: Erin McPike. I guess to all the people there in Kansas City, put the snowballs down. Let me -- I want you to move further away from those cars. They're zipping too close behind you.

MYERS: They are.

MCPIKE: They are.

BALDWIN: They are, right, Chad.

MYERS: Yes.

BALDWIN: That's the first thing I thought. I'm like, move away. Maybe the biggest difference between, you know, this storm and the last one, the winds.

MYERS: Oh, yes.

BALDWIN: Pretty blowy out there.

MYERS: Just tremendous winds. Especially parts of Texas, Kansas, and even into Nebraska and Iowa. Things are calming down, though, Brooke, right now. We don't have any blizzard warnings. The heaviest snow from Kansas City back toward Wichita and north of there, back into western Oklahoma and into Amarillo. But now the snow is here. Almost to Omaha and Des Moines. Across I-80 instead of down here and to the south where it was a couple of days ago.

A lot of the moisture, though, is being hogged by the rain. This is great news. When we see this, we know that the snow amounts that the local weather guys, and even we put out, are not going to make it. We're not going to get up to that 18, 20, 20 inches, because the rain is running out. It's taking the moisture out of the storm and kind of taking the punch out of what could be the snow part of the storm and it's raining out rather than snowing out. We'll take the rain any time.

Now, there's still going to be snow. And Chicago is still going to be in it. We just saw Ted there. The rain that he had all day has now changed over to snow and they are going to get a good six to 10, especially Aurora and parts to the north. And we have the snow totals here to prove it. That this storm had, at one point, a lot of punch. Now it's got six to 10 inches. No longer the punch of 21. That's good.

BALDWIN: Yes, I'm sure. We'll take than rain instead of that snow.

MYERS: Yes.

BALDWIN: Chad Myers, thank you very much.

MYERS: You're welcome.

BALDWIN: Coming up next, she says her husband wanted to kill people and eat them. But is an insane desire the same thing as committing a crime. We're talking fantasy versus actual crime. Stick around. The trial of the co-called cannibal cop just got even weirder. We're on the case, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Have to warn you, right out of gate here, the details in this next story are disturbing. A New York police officer on trial right now accused of planning to kidnap, cook, and eat women, including his own wife. She is the one who told the FBI and she was the first witness to testify against him. This is Gilberto Valle. He is charged with conspiracy to kidnap a woman. And take a look at his apartment. This is where prosecutors say he logged onto these fetish websites, made these deadly plans with people actually from all over the world. Now, his neighbors couldn't believe what was happening, apparently, right next door.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RIKI QUINN, NEIGHBOR: It sounds like a movie, not anything real.

SHLOMO WINKLER, NEIGHBOR: It's the kind of thing you only see on TV, really. And the fact that it's in the building makes it extra.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And he's a police officer?

WINKLER: That's even worse.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So now it is up to a jury to determine if this man is guilty of conspiracy to kidnap. CNN's national correspondent Deborah Feyerick was in court yesterday. She joins me now from New York. And also CNN legal analyst Sunny Hostin.

So, Deb, can you hear me?

OK, Sunny, let me go to you.

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I can hear you. I'm actually listening to you from a television just behind me.

BALDWIN: OK.

FEYERICK: And I'm expecting the -- any minute. Here it is. OK, go ahead, Brooke.

BALDWIN: We'll roll with it then. Deb Feyerick, my first question to you is, what has the feeling been inside the courtroom today?

FEYERICK: You know, it's really fascinating. What prosecutors right now are trying to do is they have put several women on the stand who actually knew Gilberto Valle. What they're trying to do is establish that some of his alleged targets were women who he knew either from high school or from college, and they're going over text messages and e-mails about the kind of relationship they had. So far there's been nothing really explosive. Nothing showing that he was in any way stalking them. It's almost a casual conversation that you would have with any friend. And -- but they are trying to establish that, in fact, he did know them. And so that when he's talking to other people online, that, in fact, they're about specific people.

However, the defense is saying, no, wait a minute, look, yes, did he mention this woman's name Maureen? Yes, he did. But, he changed details like the last name, like the college, like her age, how he knew her, where she lives. So what the defense is trying to say is, well, of course he was fantasizing about certain women he knew, but it doesn't mean that he was actually setting them up to actually be victimized. And that's what they're trying to show.

BALDWIN: And if there's no evidence -- Sunny Hostin this is for you, because this is a fascinating legal angle, right -- if there's no evidence that any of these women were ever physically harmed, at what point does one cross the line from having these delusions, these fantasies of committing a crime, to actually committing a crime?

SUNNY HOSTIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Are you sure you're not a lawyer, Brooke, because that really is the legal question here.

BALDWIN: I've been talking to you for a long time.

HOSTIN: I mean that's really the crux of the issue here, when does it turn -- when does this sort of dark, sick, twisted fantasy become criminal? When does it become a crime. And I say it becomes criminal, Brooke, when you take that step in furtherance of the fantasy. So, yes, perhaps you know the person, and perhaps you are on this fetish website, but you're changing the terms and you haven't approached the woman, you haven't grabbed the woman, you haven't kidnapped the woman, you haven't done anything in furtherance of that sick, twisted fantasy. Without that, I just can't quite see how the prosecution gets over that very difficult hurdle. Remember, this is beyond a reasonable doubt, in a federal criminal prosecution. I'm kind of -- I'm a little worried about the prosecution in this case.

BALDWIN: Deb, does he testify in his own defense? Will we know?

FEYERICK: It's not clear whether he's going to testify. And, Brooke, I have to tell you, this is a courtroom. This is a very sort of august courtroom. I spent months covering the trial of Martha Stewart. I spent months covering the U.S. embassy bombing trial. And listening to this particular trial, it's really, really interesting.

The fact that they brought on the wife, the one who initially basically discovered or uncovered this behavior, saying that, you know, he never really wanted the baby that they had together, that he became withdrawn, he became remote. A young couple. There was just something very almost strange about her particular testimony, even when the defense lawyer said, look, why didn't you come -- why didn't you come and talk to us about what it was you experienced? She said, why would I want to do that? He's trying to kill me.

However, and this is a point that Sunny makes, that is, you've got to look at the charges. He is facing a conspiracy of kidnapping. He's also facing accessing a database. So two counts, that's all. When I heard prosecutors give their opening --

HOSTIN: And that second count I think is clearly the stronger account.

BALDWIN: Go ahead, Sunny.

HOSTIN: I think the second count is sort of the slam dunk count.

FEYERICK: Yes.

HOSTIN: Because if he, in fact, as a law enforcement dabbled into a database and broke into a database for other than law enforcement purposes, hey, as a federal prosecutor, that's the easy charge. You got that person. That's the hook. The other piece of it, while it may be strange in the courtroom and it may be salacious, that's not --

BALDWIN: It's not a slam dunk.

HOSTIN: Enough to prove a case beyond a reasonable doubt.

BALDWIN: OK. We'll be watching. Entirely bizarre. Sunny Hostin and Deborah Feyerick, ladies, thank you very much.

HOSTIN: Sure.

BALDWIN: Coming up here, when you are a 6'6" baller (ph), you're covered in tattoos, known for sporting hair colors not found in nature, yes, you're going to stand out in a crowd, especially when that crowd is in North Korea. Look at him. Dennis Rodman takes a trip to one of the most secretive states in the world, right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Just a short time ago, the president warned again of defense industry cuts should Congress fail to reverse one of its messier, last minute budget deals. As you may have now heard by now, the across the board spending cuts will hit the Pentagon and other federal agencies starting March 1st. That is Friday. The president's new warning came at a shipyard in Virginia that builds submarines for the Pentagon.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Because of these automatic cuts, about 90,000 Virginians who work for the Department of Defense would be forced to take unpaid leave from their jobs. So that's money out of their pockets. Money out of their paychecks. And then that means there's going to be a ripple effect on thousands of other jobs and businesses and services throughout the commonwealth. Because if they don't have money in their pockets, or less money in their pockets, that means they're less able to afford to buy goods and services from other businesses.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: House Speaker John Boehner countered today that the president's not focused on a solution, but wants to travel the country and merely score political points. The president wants to replace those across the board spending cuts with a mix of cuts and higher taxes on the wealthy. Republicans say they're finished raising taxes.

Now to some of the hottest stories in a flash. We call it "Rapid Fire." Roll it.

First up here, "blade runner" Oscar Pistorius holding his own private memorial service tonight to honor this woman he shot and killed on Valentine's Day, 29-year-old Reeva Steenkamp. The double amputee Olympian stands accused of her murder. He insists he shot her by accident, thinking she was an intruder.

And at a time of heightened tension with North Korea, the U.S. display have found an unlikely diplomat. Aka NBA bad boy Dennis Rodman. The Basketball Hall of Famer, along with a couple of the Harlem Globetrotters, hanging out in North Korea, filming an HBO documentary. He is hoping to meet with President Kim Jong-un, but Rodman insists he is not there as some kind of policymaker. Take a look at his tweet. "I'm not a politician. Kim Jong-un and North Korean people are basketball fans. Period. End of story." What do you call a retired pope? With two full days left on the job, Benedict XVI is the first pope to resign in almost 600 years. A Vatican spokesman says he will keep the name Benedict XVI, still can be addressed as his holiness and, take notes, you can call him pope emeritus, emeritus pope or Roman pontific emeritus. Got it? Moving on.

It's been one year today since George Zimmerman shot and killed Trayvon Martin. Here is what he told police about what happened that day.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE ZIMMERMAN: My jacket moved up and he saw -- I feel like he saw it. He looked at it and he said, you're going to die tonight (EXPLETIVE DELETED).

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Now, he maintains it was self-defense, but Martin's parents say he was racially profiling their son. Zimmerman is charged with second degree murder. His trial is set to start June 10th. There's also a stand your ground hearing. That comes up sooner, April 22nd. That could last two weeks. If the judge finds Zimmerman is entitled to immunity, there will be no criminal or civil trial.

For the first time in three months, a rocket fired from Gaza has landed in southern Israel. No one was hurt, but that attack fueled more fears of another spiral of violence, like the one that led to a week-long war back in November. The rocket attack today follows the death of a Palestinian militant in an Israeli prison.

Also making news today, former Senator Chuck Hagel, he survived a filibuster. Now, President Obama's pick for defense secretary could see a vote in the full Senate as soon as this afternoon. Keep in mind, all of this happening on the same day that Obama's nomination for Treasury secretary, Jack Lew, clears the Senate Finance Committee and heads to the floor. That vote is expected tomorrow.

Coming up, slamming a spaceship into an asteroid on purpose. Yep. That is the game plan for keeping the earth out of harm's way when another space rock comes hurdling towards us. Will this work? Some answers straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: May day, may day. (INAUDIBLE), we are going down. We are going down.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a God damn (ph) Greek tragedy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We overshot our landing field. We overshot our landing field.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, no.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Houston, this is Freedom (ph). We have landed safely.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Ah, yes, killer asteroids in the mission to destroy them before they destroy us. Sound familiar? It should if you saw "Armageddon" back in the 1990s.