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North Korea Unleashes New Threats; Teen Sells App for Millions; UNC Student Alleges Rape, Retaliation; Florida Gulf Coast University from Unknown to Sweet 16
Aired March 26, 2013 - 13:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: North Korea unleashing a new round of threats against the United States. The military's putting units on combat ready status. That means for possible strikes on U.S. bases on Guam and elsewhere.
Our Pentagon correspondent, Chris Lawrence, is joining us.
This isn't the first time, right, that the North Korean leader issuing threats. Do we think this is more than just heated rhetoric? Do we think this is serious?
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: That's one thing U.S. officials are trying to discern now, what are motivations behind rising levels of threats.
It started with the wild threats to attack the U.S. mainland, which North Korea simply does not have the capability to do. But then recently, we've heard them threaten to wipe out South Korean military units on some of the border islands in North Korea, going after some of the U.S. military bases there in the Pacific area. Those are within reach of North Korea.
And I think what officials are trying to do right now is to determine exactly if this is indicators of some sort of fundamental insecurity that the regime is feeling or if this is domestic politics designed to really pump up the new leader.
But the real concern here, Suzanne, is that all of these threats, at some point, the leader may feel compelled to act on them to prove sort of that these threats were real and should be taken seriously. That's a worry.
MALVEAUX: Is there any way that the Pentagon can figure that out? I mean, you have to try to get into the mind of the leader there, Kim Jong-Un. Is there any way there's a deadline that, this time, he might really pull the trigger?
LAWRENCE: Well, you know, last night, I was talking to the former command or of U.S. forces, Korea, and he said human intelligence is extremely hard to get in North Korea. One of the hardest places on earth. They do a lot of surveillance. They do a lot of listening in, constantly, 24/7, listening to intercept calls. Getting visuals is trickier. It depends on where the satellites are at a particular point of the day as to what they can see. So getting intelligence is hard.
They're not as concerned about what North Korea is saying but what they are concerned, and what we heard an hour ago during a short briefing with some officials here, is that they're concerned this may lead to provocation that, quote, "could take us to a place none of us wants to go," and that could be a small-scale conflict with the danger that it can escalate slowly but surely with each side going tit for tat.
MALVEAUX: All right, Chris, thank you. Appreciate it.
Coming up on "The Lead," an exclusive interview regarding Osama bin Laden's death. Who was the real shooter? A different account on how bin Laden died.
An economy recovering housing starting to come back. New numbers showing that home prices increased 8.1 percent in January, compared to a year earlier. That is the biggest year-over-year price jump since 2006. So, is now the time to buy, sell, hold?
Ali Velshi and Christine Romans are here to help out in this week's "How to Speak Money."
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CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Unless you live in a cave, like Ali here, you may know the housing market is hot again.
ALI VELSHI, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: It's a man cave. I'm refinancing it right now because rates are near-record lows. They've inched up but still around 3.5 percent.
ROMANS: Think about selling the cave. Your apartment. Sales of previously owned homes reached an annual rate of $5 million in February. That's the strongest pace we've seen in more than three years. The median sales price last month.
VELSHI: Median means half of all homes sold for more, half sold for less.
ROMANS: Median price for a sale, $173,000, up 12 percent from last year.
VELSHI: If I sell the man cave, I have to buy another one and prices are going up. Last year. Sales reported homes a big driver of the real estate mark. Last month, that number dropped to 25 percent. Very, very high, but a sign that we're clearing through all of those old foreclosed homes, all of that inventory. But real estate's not a financial transaction as much as it's about location. It's about where you want to live.
ROMANS: You want to check out the list of the best places to buy, sell. At CNNMoney, using data from realtor.com, CNN lists the best five markets to buy. Lots of inventory, buyer power, you have the upper hand. Southern South Carolina tops the list; Reading, Pennsylvania is number two; Santa Fe, New Mexico; Asheville, North Carolina is fourth; and Portland, Maine is number five.
VELSHI: Five best markets to sell a home where prices are rising, inventory moves fast, Oakland, California where homes for sale average 14 day on the market. Sacramento, California, next; followed by Stockton, California; San Jose; and Denver, Colorado. A lot of the California, first three, those were all really hard-hit places. People are snapping up houses. Not a surprise given the economic recovery in the Golden State.
ROMANS: If you want to see lists, go to CNNmoney.com.
And good luck with financing the man cave, Ali.
VELSHI: Thank you, Christine.
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MALVEAUX: You've got love this kid. He's the world's newest multi- millionaire. His name is Nick D'Aloisio. He just sold his Smartphone app to Yahoo! He's still in high school.
Zain Asher is joining us New York.
He built an app that makes it easier to study. He might not have to study again.
ZAIN ASHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I know. I know.
(LAUGHTER)
A lucky, lucky guy. A free iPhone app. It boils down to news stories into chunks of readable texts on your phone, reducing them into 400 characters making them easier to digest.
The teenager, Nick D'Aloisio, says he was inspired by, quote, "the frustrating experience of trolling through Google and separate web sites to find information." He's optimistic about his future with Yahoo! Take a listen.
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NICK D'ALOISIO, SOLD APP FOR MILLIONS: I was fortunate to have had a few conversations with Marissa. The thing that excites me and the reason I want to join Yahoo!, there's such scale and opportunity there. Yahoo! has hundreds of millions of people visiting content every month. For a technology like ours or any others, it's a big platform to leverage. With the focus on mobile and beautiful design, I think there's a ton of consumers who are going to love these products.
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ASHER: Very mature for his age. He's on a first-name basis with Marissa Mayer. I'm sure his life is about to change -- Suzanne?
MALVEAUX: Is it true they paid him $30 million for the app? Really?
ASHER: Reportedly, yes, a lot of money. You've got to look at it in context, right.
Yahoo! has been losing market share to Google. They want to increase their relevance in the mobile world. Mobile is the key to Yahoo!'s lagging fortunes up. One analyst in the "Wall Street Journal" says, it was $30 million, a huge amount, he doesn't think that Yahoo! paid too much and that this is clearly a strategic purchase for them. The app had been downloaded, by the way, one million times before Yahoo!'s deal with the teenage. Plus it has deals with over 250 online publishers. Let's hope it pays off -- Suzanne?
MALVEAUX: Zain, you and I have got to come up with an app.
ASHER: I know. I know. I have to think of something.
(LAUGHTER)
MALVEAUX: We have to think of something. All right. Work on that.
(LAUGHTER)
Thank you, Zain.
A New Jersey man he's lucky. He won $338 million. He's the winner of the Powerball jackpot. Of course, it's expected, the cameras mob him when he shows up to the liquor store. That's where they sold the ticket. His name's Pedro Kasada (ph). The New Jersey Lottery Commission made it official that official. His choice the cash payout, so he still gets, after taxes, a cool $150 million. Congratulations.
Former University of North Carolina student says the administration completely let her down after she was raped off campus.
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UNC STUDENT: She told me rape is like football. And if you look back on the game, what would you have done differently in that situation?
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MALVEAUX: An investigation is now under way into how the university handled that and other sexual assault cases. Our David Mattingly talked to the chancellor to get his side of the story.
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MALVEAUX: A student at the University of North Carolina is now leveling a new complaint against the school. She says it retaliated against her for reporting a sexual assault. She accused her ex- boyfriend of rape. It's a claim he denies. She says, after that, the school allowed a student-run court to charge her with intimidating him. She's not the first one to have a problem with UNC.
David Mattingly follows the story.
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DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): After the being sexually assaulted while enrolled at the University of North Carolina, Annie Clark and Andrea Pino say they approached administrators for help but the response only added to their pain.
ANNIE CLARK, ALLEGED SEXUAL ASSAULT VICTIM: She told me a rape is like football. And if you look back on the game, what would you have done differently in that situation?
MATTINGLY (on camera): Did you feel like you were being blamed?
CLARK: Absolutely.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): Clark was raped off campus in 2007. She did not go to the police thinking an investigation was pointless because her attacker was unknown to her.
Pino says it was a similar situation for her five years later, with another insensitive response from a university adviser.
ANDREA PINO, ALLEGED SEXUAL ASSAULT VICTIM: And when I said I had been through a trauma and I was having a difficulty adjusting, they said, everyone's having a difficult time adjusting, you're just being lazy, maybe you can't handle Carolina.
MATTINGLY: Clark and Pino along with two other students who say he they were rape victims and a former UNC administrator filed a civil rights complaint that led to a federal investigation by the Department of Education into how the university handles and reports rape cases.
(on camera): What do you think the investigation is going to find here?
CLARK: They're going to find that there is a pervasive culture of sexual assault where the university has acted with deliberate indifference.
MATTINGLY: If an administrator tells a student rape is like football, what does that tell you about the culture here?
HOLDEN THORP, CHANCELLOR, UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA: Well, I'm not going to comment on any specific case but I think that it absolutely needs to be the case that our administrator's respond in a way that's supportive and fair to all parties involve in the incidents.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): Holden Thorp is the chancellor of UNC. The federal probe comes amid new outrage on the Chapel Hill campus over a case before the student-run honor court. A young woman unsuccessfully sought punishment for an ex-boyfriend she claimed sexually abused her. Instead, she ended up facing honor court charges of intimidation.
(on camera): What do you say to these women who say the system failed them?
THORP: Well, we're supportive of our students and we need to be as supportive as we can possibly be and I say to them, thank you for sharing your concerns with us so that we can address them for you and also make sure that what we do better in the future.
MATTINGLY: The university recently defended how it handled sexual assault cases and is pledging full cooperation with federal investigators. There's also a recent wave of changes on campus.
(voice-over): The student-run honor court is no longer allowed to hear sexual assault complaints. A former prosecutor's hired to help formulate changes in university policies.
The women behind the federal complaint say the problem say the problem is national and not limited to UNC.
CLARK: So I think universities are failing when they're more concerned either not getting sued or reputation or compliance than actually helping students.
MATTINGLY: The Department of Education says its decision to investigate is not based on any determination that wrongdoing has, in fact, occurred. There is no word on when the inquiry might be complete.
David Mattingly, CNN, Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
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MALVEAUX: So what's the first thing that comes to mind when we say Florida Gulf Coast University? Bracket buster?
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CNN talks one on within with the head coach in the March Madness dream team, up next.
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MALVEAUX: All right, they call this March Madness for good reason. Here is one of them, Florida Gulf Coast University. You got that right. The Cinderella team from Ft. Myers, seeded 15th, going to the Sweet 16 after knocking off Georgetown and San Diego State. So you can call them a bracket buster. That's true for a lot of us here.
Our CNN sports anchor, Rachel Nichols, sat down with their coach and talked about being in the spotlight now.
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ANDY ENFIELD, COACH, FLORIDA GULF COAST UNIVERSITY: It has been overwhelming with the amount of interview requests and television. We're trying to take it all in stride and prepare for a game. My wife and three kids have been under scrutiny. So it's challenging for our family, but this isn't about our family, it is about our team and our university.
RACHEL NICHOLS, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: When you Google Amanda's name, modeling pictures come up. You've got a bunch of hormonal teenagers that you coach. How do you deal with that?
ENFIELD: She was so successful through all over the world, and did portfolios, so a lot of her portfolio books at home, I marvel at the beautiful pictures, but she did such a wide variety of modeling shoots with blouses and jeans and outfits and --
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ENFIELD: A lot of clothes. All you see on the Internet is the swimsuit and lingerie and they get sent around.
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MALVEAUX: All right. So based on all of the partying that is going on, on and off the court, you would think these guys have already won. But nobody knew who they were. Now they're all the talk of March Madness.
George Howell, you were on the campus. They must be beside themselves. This is crazy. They beat Georgetown. My team, Georgetown, they beat my team, Georgetown.
GEORGE HOWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is a crazy atmosphere here. You've got students being interviewed, the coaches being interviewed, the players being interviewed. They're getting used to all of the media attention, Suzanne. And the other thing is, when you try to go to the student store, you try to buy a T-shirt, you're going to be waiting 30, 40 minutes because the lines are long. A few minutes ago we went over there, it's hard to find a t-shirt. But they started to restock the shirts. Hundreds, thousands of people, I would even venture to say, are trying to get merchandise for this team.
This is a team that surprised a lot of people. Even people in this town did not know about this university, but, look, they know about it now.
MALVEAUX: Yes, absolutely. So this is going to be -- the next game is going to be huge, right? Got another Florida team. Tell us, do they think they could have another upset?
HOWELL: Well, look, going up against Florida it is a big team, but, you talk to the coach, Andy Enfield, says his team is competitive. We're talking about a run and gun offense. They're aggressive on the court. This is what they do and they have shown that when they played San Diego State. They showed that when they played Georgetown. It is a team that, you know, the coach says will do what needs to be done on the court. He also says Florida is a very impressive team as well.
MALVEAUX: Yes, you got to wonder, even if their own relatives -- you know, they filled out the brackets have them moving to the Sweet 16. It is pretty incredible, unbelievable.
George, thanks. Pick me up a T-shirt if you can.
HOWELL: I will try. But I don't know if I'll have luck, Suzanne.
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MALVEAUX: I know. 40 minutes in line, I don't know about that.
George, thanks. Keep us posted.
The comeback that Tiger Woods he has been waiting for, the win that has him back at number one. But what's next?
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MALVEAUX: Tiger Woods has now regained the title he lost almost three years ago. It is this that helped him become golf's top-ranked player. He won the Arnold Palmer Invitational by two strokes. Well, next up, the Masters in April.
He's on business overseas, but Secretary of State John Kerry took a time-out today to meet with the afghan women's national soccer team. Pretty cool. Here is something you don't see every day. There he is trying his hand and head juggling the soccer ball. Kerry met the team captain and the players during a stop in Kabul.
At the White House, the president honors the champions of hockey and soccer. President Obama welcoming the Los Angeles Kings and the Major League Soccer champion, L.A. Galaxy, to the White House, to officially recognize the 2012 championship season. For the Kings, the season brought them their first ever National Hockey League Stanley Cup.
And the Miami Heat, they have won again. Lebron James and company continue their winning streak, defeating Orlando Magic, 108-94. The Heat's streak now up to 27 games. That's the second best in NBA history. They need six more to tie the Lakers' record of 33 straight wins. We wish them the best.
That's it for me. CNN NEWSROOM continues.
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: One report indicates very soon a gay NFL player will come out. But the headline? He's not afraid of the locker room. He's afraid of the fans.
I'm Brooke Baldwin. The news is now.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I had to watch my baby die. And I want him to die.
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MALVEAUX: Raw, revealing. Why a mother wants a life for a life.
T-Mobile's Hail Mary. Why the fourth-place cell phone carrier is getting rid of contracts. Plus, acquitted of killing her roommate during a drug-fueled sex game, Italy wants Amanda Knox back.
And --
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, please, don't do that!
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BALDWIN: There must something about this judge's courtroom.
