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Voyager 1 Nearing the Edge of the Solar System; Talking about Banking; NBA Draftee with Anxiety Disorder Speaks Out; Conviction in Rabbi's Murder Vacated

Aired March 21, 2013 - 15:30   ET

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


DON LEMON, CNN: In September 1977, NASA launched the Voyager 1 into space. Now, let's put that into perspective. During its liftoff, Jimmy Carter was a fledgling president, Elvis Presley had just died, and the U.S. was still reeling from the Vietnam War; 35 years later, Voyager is still up there and it's now about 11 billion miles away from Earth exploring a new region in our solar system known as the Magnetic Highway.

The Voyager is now further away than any manmade project has ever been.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: And still going.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: And still going.

MYERS: But now -- I'm going to grab your iPhone.

LEMON: This is Chad Myers, by the way. I'm sure you recognize him.

(LAUGHTER)

MYERS: See this, your iPhone?

LEMON: Yes. Yes.

MYERS: This iPhone has 250,000 times more storage capacity than that satellite from 1977.

LEMON: So, I should launch my iPhone into space. Is that what you're saying?

I have a specific question for you about yesterday's -- the solar system. NASA is refusing that it ever left the solar system.

MYERS: Right. It's on the edge. It's still going in the same direction.

LEMON: But aren't we all?

MYERS: NASA -- yeah, downhill.

NASA is waiting for the magnetic field to change. It knows that the solar wind that comes out of the sun has now stopped.

It knows it's almost to interstellar space, but it's just not quite there yet. For NASA, they think maybe a couple more months before it gets to what they consider out of the solar system.

LEMON: So, what's it doing?

MYERS: It's sending back stuff. It's still ...

LEMON: Really, even with that little storage capacity?

MYERS: It's so far away now, it takes 17 hours. Once it sends the signal, it takes 17 hours to get to the Earth.

LEMON: It's like dialing up -- hey, Mom, I'm on the Internet. Get off the phone.

What kind of condition is it in?

MYERS: It's doing fine. It's got good. The power is going to last until 2020, so that's a good seven more years.

We're just hoping something out there goes and says, hey, what's that doing out there from some other solar system. We'll see.

LEMON: You remember this?

MYERS: Yeah, I do.

LEMON: I do, too. Elvis, Jimmy Carter, yeah, yeah. The advent of cable, I remember cable was just starting up then.

MYERS: Yeah, sure.

LEMON: We'd just gotten Showcase. It was so exciting.

I digress. Thank you, Chad Myers. Appreciate it.

Tech jobs are turning up in unexpected places. Yes, New York, Silicon Valley, Washington, D.C., are still the top places for I.T. jobs, but the biggest growth area for a tech job is St. Louis.

Tech openings are up 25 percent in the past year and the pay is rising, too. Also on the list, Charlotte, Austin and Phoenix. So, now you know.

He was a first-round draft pick of the Houston Rockets, but Royce White was different than any other player drafted that year, not for anything he did on the basketball court.

White admitted he had an anxiety disorder and was scared to fly. Now, he says the NBA and the Rockets are turning their backs on people with mental disorders.

Here's here life and we're going to talk to him, coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ALI VELSHI, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: I've got a little banking lesson for you today and it may change the way you think about your financial institution.

From the CNNMoney Newsroom in New York, I'm Ali Velshi. This is "Your Money."

Banks make loans. It's what they do. It's what we want them to do. But some of the loans they make may seem unfair to people.

But banking, at its best, works like this. I can describe it with three numbers, 3, 6, 3.

The bank brings it in at 3 percent, lends it out at 6 percent, and the banker is on the golf course by 3:00 p.m.

But a new report says banks are trapping customers in high-interest loans, sometimes called payday loans. Now, banks respond by saying these loans are supposed to be used for short-term emergencies.

But the Center for Responsible Lending says customers are getting trapped in a cycle of repeat loans, and that's leading to hundreds of dollars in debt. The average payday borrower took out more than 13 payday loans in one year and spent six months with some form of payday loan debt.

And these are not shady, little banks. These are coming from major banks, banks like Wells Fargo, US Bank, Regents Bank, Bank of Oklahoma, Guaranty Bank.

The loans are marketed with names like "Direct Deposit Advance" or "Early Access," and along with those names come a fancy price, the average APR between 225 percent and 300 percent. The average loan term, though, is about 12 days.

So, you're getting this money until your next paycheck or your next benefit check comes in, but it means that borrowers are paying $7.50 to $10 for every $100 that they borrow.

Here's how it works. Customers take out a loan from the bank. They get that money from the bank, and the bank puts the money into the customer's account.

Then, when the customer gets a paycheck or a government benefit check, the bank pays itself back from the account, regardless of whether the customer actually has enough money in the account. That can often lead to overdrawn accounts and more fees.

Regulators say they are worried about these kinds of loans, but so far, they haven't taken action to put a stop to them.

Regents Bank responded to our request for information. They tell us they offer these loans because customers were getting them elsewhere anyway and preferred to get them from Regents, which offers the loans at a substantially lower rate than its competitors do. Now, here's my take. Banking, like any business that involves customer transactions, is a buyer-beware business.

If you need a loan in advance of your paycheck, take a good look at the fine print of those terms. The reason these banks do it is because people benefit from them, even if it costs them a lot of money.

So, we'll keep an eye out for whether the rules on that change.

I want to tell you another story we're following, as well. Lululemon, you may never have heard of this company, or you may have heard about this week.

The company had a bit of a transparency problem, shall we say? Several styles of popular women's yoga pants -- they make yoga clothing -- are being taken off the shelves because they are too sheer, too see-through.

But now there's buzz this may not be that big of a problem, might have even been marketing genius, fewer pants, higher demand.

I don't think that's true. It's a pretty good company. But either way, the company says it expects a drop in sales next quarter because people really like these products and, if they can't keep them on the shelves, people aren't buying them.

That's going to hurt their profits. The company released its quarterly earnings report this morning. It beat estimates with a whopping 48 percent jump in profits compared to the same time last year.

Lululemon also gave some updates on the big product recall, but let me just tell you about this stock. This stock has done very, very well over the last year.

It's had some problems, you can see here, and it's been a little unsteady, but let me show you what's gone on in the past three years with this stock.

It's a Canadian company. A lot of people call it Lulu. The stock ticker is LULU. The stock's up 220 percent in the past three years.

Stores are packed with the kinds of customers every retailer wants, loyal shoppers with money to spend on clothes that make them look and feel great. I'm not just saying this because I own a couple pieces of their clothing, or because they are headquarters in my home country of Canada.

I'm giving you some insight on a company that achieved something very rare these days. It matters to moms and dads, younger and older generations, as well as investors, obviously, and the casual business observer, as well.

The latest product recall may have hurt the company's stock in the short-term, but it does have a lot of people talking about Lululemon. That's how you say it, by the way, Lululemon, and it's definitely going to drive up attendance at your local yoga class.

Namaste from the CNNMoney Newsroom in New York. Same time tomorrow.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: This is a breaking news. We have just learned the judge threw out the case against David Ranta.

He was convicted of killing Rabbi Chaskel Werzberger. He was 58- years-old, a reported survivor of Auschwitz, and a champion for Hassidic Jews in Brooklyn.

The rabbi was gunned down by a robber. Here's the judge's ruling, minutes ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's clear that the effects of this case have been devastating, not only to Mr. Ranta and his family, but to Rabbi Werzberger, and his family, and his community. I don't want to lose sight of the impact this has had on all parties.

Mr. Ranta, to say I'm sorry for what you have endured would be an understatement and grossly inadequate, but I say it to you anyway.

Based on the papers before this court and the record made here today -- it's OK -- the defendant's motion to vacate the judgment of conviction is granted.

DAVID RANTA, WRONGLY CONVICTED MAN: I'm overwhelmed. I'd just like to say thank you to everyone here in supporting me on this.

As I said from the beginning, I had nothing to do with this case. There will be as much paperwork as you'd like to read on this case and make your own decisions.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How do you feel about what's happened to you? Are you angry today, or not?

RANTA: Right now, I feel like I'm on the water swimming, so I can't really just be honest with an answer because this is overwhelming.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you have any one thing you want to do?

RANTA: Yeah. Get the hell out of here maybe.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: That was a good answer.

Mary Snow was in the courtroom and is live now in Brooklyn.

Mary, probably the best answer that he could have given, he said, I'm going to get the hell out of here right now.

How did all this come about? MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Don, it was so emotional in that courtroom. Even the judge was crying.

And this came about two years ago. A witness who had identified David Ranta in a lineup contacted his attorney to say he was 13-years-old at the time of that lineup, and this has been weighing on him.

And he told the attorney that he had been told by a police detective, in his words, to pick the guy with the big nose, that he had been told who to pick in that lineup.

And then a unit of the Brooklyn D.A.'s office, the attorney, had to relay that information to the unit of the D.A.'s office. They began investigating, and two years later, this conviction was overturned.

And the first attorney for David Ranta said that he thought that he might spend the rest of his life and he may die in prison. He said he felt he always believed in his innocence, but they had tried to overturn this conviction in the past. There was an attempt in 1996, and that failed.

And, today, David Ranta's family showed up. He has three children. He is a grandfather, two of his sisters were here in court. They were just overwhelmed after seeing him walk out after 23 years in prison.

And, Don, he walked out with a small bag of his belongings, a mesh bag with things that were put in there, and he got into a car with his attorney and drove off a short while ago.

LEMON: And, Mary, when you think about it, he's been in prison since 1991. Many of the people we work with weren't even alive back in 1991.

And you think about what you were doing, that is a long time to spend lock-up for something you didn't do.

SNOW: Yeah, and his attorney pointed out after he came out of court, he said, you know, the Berlin Wall had just fallen. It was a very different world and so much has changed.

And all that time, you know, David Ranta was locked up and now -- and his parents also died in that time.

LEMON: Yeah. Any of the rabbi's family, anyone in court or talking about this?

SNOW: A representative, and I just spoke with him, and he actually stopped David Ranta when he walked out of the courtroom. And I said, what did you say to him? And he said he wanted to know was he an accomplice. And Ranta said, no, he was not.

And he said that that -- you know, he was going to go back and tell the family that, you know, he's very confused, and this was a very painful thing because the question remains, who did kill the rabbi, and after 23 years, he says he's, you know, just as confused as when it happened. LEMON: Mary Snow, thank you very much. We'll be following this story on CNN. Make sure you stay tuned.

Again, our thanks to Mary Snow.

Next, an NBA player who was drafted by the Houston Rockets. He told them he had an anxiety disorder and was scared to fly, but now says the Rockets are turning their backs on people with mental disorders.

He is live and we're going to talk to him, coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Royce White is a professional basketball player who may end up doing more for the game than any Hall of Famer.

Here's why. Not for his jump shot or rebounds, but for his maneuvers off the court in getting his team to deal with his mental illness.

White has an anxiety disorder which includes a debilitating fear of flying.

Houston Rockets knew that when they picked him in the first round of the NBA draft. They knew it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID STERN, NBA COMMISSIONER: With the 16th pick in the 2012 NBA Draft, the Houston Rockets select Royce White of Iowa State University.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: The Rockets provided a bus for him, but he needed more, which led to White butting heads with management.

He was suspended, then reinstated to play for Houston's D League affiliate, the Rio Grande Valley Vipers.

And then today, White tweeted this. He says, "Have been advised by our team physician it is most logical I be in Houston the remainder of the season. Thank you, RGV Vipers, for having me."

Royce White joins me now from Houston and also with me is psychologist Erik Fisher.

We're going to talk to both men, but first to Royce. Thanks for being here, Royce.

You say you're not going to be on the roster for Houston. Why are you leaving the Vipers then?

ROYCE WHITE, PROFESSIONAL BASKETBALL PLAYER: Well, you know, one of the things always needed with anxiety or people who deal with anxiety or OCD is routine and normalcy and a sense of comfortability and belonging. And, you know, the setup in McAllen surely doesn't promote that just from an aspect of having to live out of a hotel for an elongated period of time.

And there are also other things that have been talked about or that were talked about at the time that our latest deal was done in terms of mental health, that, you know, there's some issues on the table that need to be addressed and, you know, we're calling this as a time to address them.

LEMON: OK.

The Rockets have yet to respond to your leaving the Vipers, but the team said this. This was back in January.

They said, "This has truly been a learning process for all parties. We remain fully committed to providing Royce with the appropriate support he needs to ensure his success on and off the basketball court."

What did you need from the Rockets that you did not receive?

WHITE: Well, you know, it's a very dynamic situation, I think, when you talk about a corporation and dealing with mental health and it's a very advanced human relations type of thing.

You know, really what's most need with any mental health situation is recognition, A, and then a level of understanding and a willingness to learn.

And I think at times we all, you know, have trouble with those things because, you know, something like mental health is very new for the NBA and dealing with it out front as we try to.

So, you know, the things that I need were really tough things that I asked for and I admit that.

But at the same time they're things that need to be done and sometimes what needs to be done is really tough.

LEMON: What were those things?

WHITE: You know, we asked that it be recognized, that mental health be respected under the same umbrella as other health conditions, and also that doctors be the ones that take the lead in deciding how to proceed if ever there is an issue that involves mental health, so that we take the control away from the people whose interest is obviously basketball and money.

LEMON: OK. I want to get to Dr. Fisher quickly, but hang on. I'm going to get to you, Doctor.

But I want to know what weren't you receiving from them? Because if you look at that statement they said they went -- it's what they're -- it appears they're saying they went above and beyond to accommodate you. What weren't you getting?

WHITE: Well, again, I think it's just recognition and respect of mental health and how dynamic it is in the workplace and what kind of things are needed to support that.

LEMON: Why is it important, Doctor, that he get those things, he receives the help, the management, to manage his anxiety disorder and the recognition?

DR. ERIK FISHER, PSYCHOLOGIST: Well, he made some great points in terms of saying that. You know, having consistency, having structure, having support are huge issues to deal with.

Anxiety, what I say is at the core of an anxiety disorder is a feeling of helplessness.

Whether the onset is genetic in nature, which sometimes they are, or whether there are life experiences that may feed that, we have to do what we can do to help that person feel more ...

LEMON: Is there a bias against people who may have anxiety or mental illness, do you think?

FISHER: I think that that's decreasing, but in some ways, there are and, I think, depending on the culture and the culture of the NBA or professional sports where you're supposed to be strong in mind, body, and spirit, they don't understand that sharing those weaknesses is really strength.

LEMON: Hey, I've got to run. Just -- I'm running out of time. Do you think that they would have been more accommodating or may have recognized -- some people say if you were a better player, you would have gotten what you wanted. What do you say to them?

WHITE: Well, I think it's obvious professional sports are a player- commodity league and I think the help and service that they provide have a lot to do with money and a lot to do, you know, players with their monetary value, and I think it's only obvious that that would be the case.

And, you know, that's not a bad or a good thing. It just represents a different dynamic in trying to go forward with support.

LEMON: Royce White, best of luck to you. Thank you for joining us. Dr. Fisher, thank you. We appreciate you coming in, as well.

Up next, Tina Fey making headlines by portraying one of her most popular characters. Why she's bringing back her Sarah Palin impersonation next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Sarah Palin took center stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference. Palin may not be the media staple she once was, but her doppelganger sure is. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TINA FEY, ACTRESS/COMEDIENNE: You know, Jimmy ...

JAMES LIPTON, "INSIDE THE ACTOR'S STUDIO": What?

FEY: ... I believe that if everybody had guns then there would be fewer guns in the stores.

LIPTON: Same-sex marriage, what is your view on that?

FEY: Well, the Bible says it's gross.

LIPTON: No same-sex marriage?

FEY: Marriage is meant for people who wear different kinds of swimsuits.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Tina Fey on "Inside the Actor's Studio."

I'm Don Lemon. Thanks for watching us.

"THE LEAD WITH JAKE TAPPER" starts right now.