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Sinkhole Swallows Man in Bed; More On Sinkholes; Government Agencies to Shrink; CNN Hero Laura Stachel

Aired March 01, 2013 - 14:00   ET

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


BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Congress is gone, and yet the spending cuts are coming. Find out what happened inside the White House when these guys met.

Plus --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEREMY BUSH, BROTHER: I jumped in the hole and was trying to dig him out, but I couldn't find him. And I heard -- I thought I could hear him hollering for me to help him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: A man describes the moment his brother was swallowed by a sinkhole.

And, shock on the screen. Just before death row inmates were executed, a TV station airs their final hours live.

The news is now.

Hi there. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Good to be with you here on this Friday.

Right now, an operation is underway to find a man who has been swallowed by a sinkhole in his bed. As Jeffrey Bush screaming for help as his entire bedroom basically collapsed into this hole and his frantic brother tried desperately to save him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEREMY BUSH, BROTHER: I heard a loud crash, like a car coming through the house. And I heard my brother screaming. So I ran back there and tried going inside his room, but when I turned the light on, all I seen was this big hole. A real big hole. And all I seen was his mattress. And basically, like, that was it. That's all I seen.

So I jumped in the hole and was trying to dig him out, but I couldn't find him. I heard -- I thought I could hear him hollering for me to help him.

I didn't see any part of him when I went in there. All I seen was his bed. And I told my father-in-law to grab a shovel so I could start digging. And I just started digging and started digging and started digging. And the cops showed up and pulled me out of the hole and told me the floor was still falling in.

Just to get closure, I guess. To make sure he's not dead. Make -- see if he's alive. I know in my heart he's dead. But I just want to be here for him, because I love him. He was my brother, man.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: What a feeling of helplessness. A sheriff deputy pulled Jeremy Bush from this growing hole. Crews lowered cameras, listening devices into this hole, but there was no signs of life. John Zarrella joins me live from Seffner, Florida.

And so, John, from what I understand here, rescue crews can't actually go into the hole because clearly it's too dangerous, presumably that this entire home could collapse.

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, there's no question about it, Brooke, that's exactly what they fear. And they are still now assessing the situation. In fact, they have been out here all morning with ground penetrating radar into the afternoon. They've been marking off places where presumably they feel the sinkhole exists, how far out it has spread. They've been using electronic probes that they have placed to measure the depth of the hole. They think it's at least 20, maybe 30 feet deep, if not more than that, and at least 50 feet wide.

And what they did within the last hour, right here, where you can see the open cover to the sewer system there, they actually dropped a camera down in there, on wheels, and they are running that camera -- they may have already done it -- all the way to the back side of the house to try and get an idea if they can see where that sinkhole actually starts. How far out it starts, where it is, underneath the house. And their concern, of course, is that it could completely collapse around them.

They've brought out fencing all around. Apparently about to put up some fencing. But, you know, throughout this entire ordeal, people within the family are still holding out hope, even if it is feint hope, that perhaps Jeff is still alive under there. And we had an opportunity to talk to his grandfather just a little while ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BUDDY WICKER, GRANDFATHER: And I've been living there ever since October of '74. And that's my home. What can you say? You just -- but I don't know -- I've listened to other places where they've had sinkholes and everything. I know they're going to just come in there and push it down, be done with it. Fill the hole up and be done with it. But there's too many memories -- there's lots of stuff in that house, memories. If walls could talk.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZARRELLA: Fire officials say that later today, Brooke, they're intending to bring some heavy equipment in here. Again, that's probably why the fencing is around here, being placed with those -- the poles. Put the fence around. And then they'll go to work probably trying to take parts of the house down, if they can. Once they determine that the ground beneath them is stable enough, because bottom line is, they do not want to jeopardize anyone else's life in this operation. It's tragic enough that one man is down there, presumed to be dead, but, again, the family holding out at least feint hope that somehow he's survived.

BALDWIN: So tragic. John Zarrella, thank you.

And this whole story just begs the question, how do sinkholes form in the first place? Apparently they can strike in a flash.

Look at this. This was Florida. This was last summer. The back of a woman's house collapsed into this sinkhole. Fortunately, she wasn't home. Everyone was OK.

Flash forward to this. Minnesota, last summer. A car in the middle of this sinkhole. The driver escaped without getting hurt.

And another one. Fire engine. A fire engine stuck in a sinkhole in Los Angeles. This was from a couple of years ago.

Sinkholes can vary apparently from a couple of feet to several hundred acres. Karen McGinnis over here.

Karen, how do they form in the first place and where?

KAREN MCGINNIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, they can happen anywhere, Brooke. All around the world -- Russia, Venezuela. I mentioned those two because they've been fairly spectacular. But in Florida, they have a particular problem. They receive lots of rainfall. And the sub rock is generally fairly porous. So you can imagine that that water that seeps into the ground, it just kind of erodes that sub base. And, believe it or not, there is insurance coverage for sinkholes in Florida.

BALDWIN: There is?

MCGINNIS: Where do they -- where do they occur? Well, Brooke, right around Tampa, St. Pete, also in Gainesville, along the St. Johns River, the Indian River, and up through Tallahassee and Gainesville. Those are some of the common areas.

But not just in Florida. All across the United States -- Florida, Texas, Pennsylvania, Missouri, Tennessee, and Alabama. Pennsylvania, from what I understand, it is a fairly common experience for sinkholes to take place there.

Different reasons for it. Environmental reasons. Some weathering. Meaning, it's degrading the mass underneath it, just can't hold up. They can just be a bowl or they can be these massive events that can occur. One of the largest ones is in Egypt and it's thousands and thousands of feet long.

BALDWIN: Thousands. Karen McGinnis, unreal, thank you so much.

I want to talk about something here. And I have a letter. This is the letter. It arrived at the Pentagon. Let me read the header for you. It came from executive office of the president, from the OMB, Office of Management and Budget. So this letter essentially tells the generals, guys, give us back your 13 percent of your budget. That's right, 13 percent of our military budget about to go poof! Thirteen percent because our elected leaders struck out. They failed to find a smarter way to reduce the budget deficit. Cuts across the board will hurt the economy as well. That 11th hour meeting at the White House today, no surprise, no deal. Ali Velshi, chief business correspondent standing by for me in New York. Jessica Yellin, chief White House correspondent.

Jess, I want to begin with you here. You had the president hosting top four leaders of Congress. Final stab at this thing. Tell me what happened at the White House.

JESSICA YELLIN, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: There was a meeting here this morning, Brooke, between congressional leaders and the White House. All sides knew nothing was going to get accomplished in that meeting. And that's exactly what happened. It happened less than an hour. They came and went. And Congress is now out of town.

After that meeting, President Obama came to the Briefing Room and gave us his side of the story. He asked what the press -- what else we think he should have done. So I asked him this question. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

YELLIN: So, first of all, couldn't you just have them down here and refuse to let them leave the room until you have a deal?

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You know, the -- I mean, Jessica, I -- I am not a dictator. I'm the president. So, ultimately, if Mitch McConnell or John Boehner say, we need to go to catch a plane, I can't have Secret Service block the doorway.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YELLIN: So part of the reason I asked the question, Brooke, is because the president has argued that it's just all but impossible to reach a deal with Republicans. That it's not a failure of his leadership, that it's just the reality of politics in Washington. And the point I was getting at is, isn't there -- he was arguing, there's nothing more he could do. The point I was getting to is, is leadership part of just forcing everybody to sit down and get past the uncomfortable parts.

BALDWIN: Ali Velshi, let me bring you in, because it's your job, you talk to business leaders all the time.

ALI VELSHI, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

BALDWIN: We know these cuts effect the functioning of federal government. What are folks in business -- are business leaders saying about all of this?

VELSHI: Well, I'll going to preface this with something that my friends in the business world aren't going to really like, but I didn't hear from all of them when, you know, when things were going bad for people and people's mortgages were suffering and houses were being taken away and unemployment wasn't good. So I kind of feel like everybody in the business world has piped up very recently about how terrified and petrified and horrified they are that Congress can't come together and get a deal on this. So, you know, part of me says, thanks, guys, for showing up.

But generally speaking, the word from the business community is pretty standard. And that is, we have -- we are at a time in our economy where it is -- it would be useful to be building, to be expanding. We've got, you know, unemployment edging down, jobs being created, very low interest rates, an energy boom. We could be really moving to the top of the global pile in terms of economic productivity. And this sort of thing is like the government sticking its foot out as you're gaining speed, as you're running. You know, you're getting into a race or a marathon, and tripping you.

So, you know, the business community is not in favor of this. But I have to tell you, the business community, to some degree, has fed this. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce really contributed to a lot of the partisanship in the election of people who are, you know, on opposite sides of things in Washington and this is the result. You want partisanship, you want people to come to Washington and stand your ground and not compromise? Welcome to the new reality, nobody compromises anymore.

BALDWIN: Well, perhaps the proverbial foot used to trip everyone will be removed once, you know, the next deadline, what is that, March 27th, that's the funding of the government and maybe some of this will be solved by then.

VELSHI: Yes, and that's the good news. But that's -- there's the good news. If there's one piece of good news that came out of today, is both John Boehner and Barack Obama said that they would like to move ahead with what's called a continuing resolution -- because we don't actually have budgets anymore in this country. We haven't had one since 2009. We have a thing that says the last budget just gets extended. Everybody gets exactly the same amount of money. That's what we've been doing since 2009. That's what expires on March 27th. There was no chance of there being a new budget. So we were going to wait until that deadline. If we didn't get that, the government would shut down. Now they're saying, let's actually do that maybe next week.

BALDWIN: OK. OK.

VELSHI: So maybe we won't be sitting here in a month talking about, you know, how we're not going to get our Easter dinners because the government is going to shut down.

BALDWIN: Maybe, maybe. Ali Velshi, thank you, my friend.

VELSHI: Yes.

BALDWIN: Jessica Yellin, thank you as well here.

And as we talk about this, $85 billion in cuts, I know it sounds huge, but you will be feeling these forced cutbacks actually fairly gradually. Take a look at the calendar. I want to begin with really now mostly paperwork. The month we're in, hello, it's March 1st here. So the official notices are actually going out to federal workers who are scheduled for the furloughs and the contractors, the grant recipients here, whose arraignments should be shortened a bit. For example, this Monday, the FAA will announce the closure of 168 air traffic control towers. That is effective April 1st.

Slicing on over to spring and summer. March 26th, federal furloughs take effect. Then you also have in April, Defense Department workers, they begin their days without pay. May, it's housing and urban development's turn to begin. IRS workers won't start their furloughs until summer.

And then you spring into summer and more of the public may actually begin to feel the impact of the cuts. Smaller unemployment, right? Smaller unemployment checks. Fewer national park hours. Visas take longer to process. That kind of thing here.

Then you have August and September. What happens then? School. School goes back. And that's when teachers and other education staffers could be laid off. But remember here, there are multiple opportunities, as Ali and I were just alluding to with the next deadline here, for budget negotiation throughout the next months to see change and what could happen.

Coming up, a Chicago man wins a $1 million lottery jackpot and suddenly dies. We are now just learning the real reason behind his mysterious death.

Plus this. Oh, boy. The Harlem Shake. It's the video that launched an FAA investigation. Take a look at where they're shaking it. On a plane. We'll explain, next.

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BALDWIN: All right, want to begin here with these pictures we've just gotten from KABC. This is our affiliate out of Los Angeles. You see these two -- they're not surfers. They're trying to rescue a couple of dolphins. Just to give you some perspective, these are two dolphins. They're stuck in the wetlands. If you know the area, this is near PCH. Live pictures now. Near Pacific Coast Highway. This is Huntington Beach. And so these rescue crews, we've seen this before, when these dolphins come a little too close, they need them out in the big water. When they come a little too close, they get these rescue teams, like these guys, looks like they're on paddle boards, trying to get them to move into the bigger water.

We've been watching this feed from L.A. In the last couple of minutes, we did see one of the dolphins get a little bit closer out to the bigger water, to the ocean, but so far it's an ongoing process. Perhaps they're confused. I know sometimes we cover these live and then people start surrounding, the helicopters start coming around, and the dolphins don't know what's going on.

So we're going to keep an eye on this live picture and we will make sure -- hopefully we can pass along the good news eventually that the two dolphins are a-OK.

But let's move on, shall we? Some of the hottest stories in a flash. "Rapid Fire." Roll it.

Autopsy results are in for a Chicago lottery winner who was poisoned after he won. A medical examiner confirms Urooj Khan died from cyanide poisoning. His death ruled a homicide.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. STEPHEN CINA, COOK COUNTY MEDICAL EXAMINER: This 46-year-old male, Urooj Khan, died of cyanide toxicity. A lethal level of cyanide was detected in the peripheral blood sample during the July 21, 2012, inspection of the body.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Examiners can't determine how Khan ingested this poison. Authorities initially ruled Khan had died from natural causes. It was his brother's suspicions actually that led to a full toxicology screening here.

And Mississippi authorities are not saying how or even why it happened, but they have charged a man with killing a candidate for mayor in the city of Clarksdale. Marco McMillian was gay, but his family says only they and his close friends knew that. They don't believe that factored into his killing. Investigators have charged Lawrence Reed with McMillian's murder. Reed was found injured in McMillian's damaged car one day before his body was found near a levee outside of town.

And the Harlem Shake now has the attention of the FAA. Bananas and all. This Colorado group here, this is a college group from Colorado, they shot this video, this is a dance video, during a Frontier flight. So they're high up in the air. This is actually from a couple of weeks ago. Even the flight crew got in on the fun. But the FAA not laughing at this one. They're now looking into the incident. They say some safety rules might have been violated from the Harlem Shake.

City of Detroit in such bad shape financially, the state could soon take over. Plus, we told you about Joan Rivers getting heat for a joke she made. You're about to hear straight from the star now about why she is refusing to apologize.

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BALDWIN: Joan Rivers is all fired up about not backing down. The comedienne refuses to say sorry for her joke involving the Holocaust that's raised the ire of the Anti-Defamation League. So she said this joke while commenting on a dress that Heidi Klum, who was originally from Germany, wore on Oscar night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOAN RIVERS, CO-HOST, "FASHION POLICE" The last time a German looked this hot was when they were pushing Jews into the ovens. That is just --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So, Rivers explained to "Showbiz Tonight's" A.J. Hammer why she won't apologize.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOAN RIVERS, COMEDIAN: It's a joke, number one. Number two, is that the Holocaust -- (INAUDIBLE) reminding people about the Holocaust. I do it through humor. My husband lost his entire family in the Holocaust. So, let's just start with that. So, people, your generation doesn't even know what I'm talking about. By my doing a joke, gets them talking and thinking and it didn't bother Heidi. It doesn't bother me.

A.J. HAMMER, HOST, "SHOWBIZ TONIGHT": And there are people who say you should apologize.

RIVERS: For what?

HAMMER: What do you say to them?

RIVERS: Why aren't you worried about Mel Gibson. Why aren't you worried about the anti-semites (ph) out there and not pick someone who doesn't have a single living relative?

HAMMER: Any subject that's too serious that you wouldn't take on in humor?

RIVERS: I think that's how we get through life. That's how I get -- you make people laugh. You laugh, you can deal with it. Done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Joan Rivers.

Giving birth should be a joyful occasion, but because of poor conditions, and a lack of electricity, too many mothers and babies are dying in poor nations all around the world. This week's CNN Hero found a way to help.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. LAURA STACHEL: There's a traditional African saying, when you become pregnant, that you have one foot in the grave. There are so many women dying in childbirth in many communities, pregnancy is feared.

In the last month recorded, four women actually died from pregnancy complications.

When I went to Africa and I saw these women, one after another, coming in with complications and we didn't even have adequate light to treat them.

Welcome to the world, little one. And the lights just went out.

A lot of the clinics don't have any electricity. Midwives use kerosene lanterns, they may use candles, they use their cell phones to deliver babies. Once I witnessed the things that I saw, I had to do something about it.

My name is Dr. Laura Stachel. I'm helping to provide a simple and reliable solar lighting and power source so that mothers and babies can be saved during childbirth.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Very, very nice.

STACHEL: Hospitals and clinics receive the solar suitcase for free.

So the charge controller is very important. Solar suitcase provides medical quality lighting, it charges cell phones, it has a small battery charger for head lamps and for the fetal doppler that we include. Perfect. That's it.

Mothers are now eager to come to the clinics. This shifted the morale of the health care worker.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This light is going to bring good changes. It keeps me going.

STACHEL: Turn this on. There you go.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you so much.

STACHEL: You're so welcome.

I really want a world where women and their families get to celebrate birth, and I would love to be part of making that happen.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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