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Adults Texting And Driving; Blackberry Still Alive; Obama Renews Push for Gun Control; Blackberry Reports Profit; Newtown Connecticut Families Asking for Stricter Gun Laws; Russell Simmons Gets Political; Diver's Camera Found Six Years Later

Aired March 28, 2013 - 13:00   ET

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

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: Attention. Attention, texting while driving is dangerous, yet adults still are doing it. A new study showing more adults text while driving than teenagers. What you can do to stop yourself from sending an e-mail or a text while on the road. And Blackberry still breathing, the company just announcing a surprise profit f profit for the fourth quarter but will this help the company revive the brand?

Then, President Obama working to keep his campaign for stricter gun laws just alive. His renewed push, as polls show, his plan is losing support.

This is CNN NEWSROOM, and I'm Suzanne Malveaux.

Today, marking the end of the best first quarter for the Dow since 1998. It has been a great three months for the S&P 500 as well, hitting an all new time high. We are joined by Alison Kosik from the New York Stock Exchange. So, Alison, what does it mean?

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: That is the money question, what does this mean? You know what? I don't have a crystal ball here but this market really seems to be riding this nice wave to the up side. And, you know, this is also a market that's reacting more and more to those news headlines that come out. So, bad news could set the market back, even though lately when we've gotten bad news the market has shrugged it off. So, for now, the path of least resistance really seems to be upward. Now, keep in mind that the fed does continue to pump stimulus money into the economy, that's pushing down interest rates and sending investors to stocks, because it seems to be the best game in town, and that's really what's created this stellar first quarter.

Look at the returns just in the first three months of the year, the Dow is up 11 percent, the Nasdaq is higher, and the S&P 500, that's climbed almost 10 percent. In fact, today, the S&P 500 is making history of its own. It just broke through its all-time high that was set in October, 2007. So, we have the Dow breaking records earlier, a few weeks ago, now the S&P 500 is breaking its own record. So, all of that, Suzanne, is really helping this upward momentum that we've already seen this year.

MALVEAUX: And, Alison, tell us about Blackberry. I understand there was a lot of anticipation and even some excitement over what they were announcing earlier.

KOSIK: Yes, what's interesting about this is earnings reports really don't get people all jazzed up but this one is really the biggy especially when you think of all the hype that really led up to the release of Blackberry's new phone called the Z10. We learned this morning that Blackberry posted a surprise $94 million in profit last quarter. It sold almost 1 million Z10 phones in Canada, U.K. and UAE because that's where it went on sale just a few weeks before the end of the quarter. We are watching shares at Blackberry jump about two percent right now following what has been a pretty choppy year for the stock.

You look at shares, they've been rising and falling since the beginning of the year. Still, its revenue numbers, those were a big disappointment. You look at its subscriber base, it shrank by 3 million. Now, we're going to get the best picture of how the company did in the next report, because that's going to include the Z10 numbers from the U.S. debut when the phones went on sale here in the U.S. Early reports, though, they called it under whelming so sales here in the U.S. apparently not doing too well -- Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: All right. Alison, thank you. I appreciate it.

KOSIK: Sure.

MALVEAUX: Now to Hoboken, New Jersey. This is where two water main breaks have flooded most of the city. This is in one instance that a contractor at a construction site hit a 30-inch water main. Now, the pipe burst, most of the city is now without water. People who do have water and are being now told they got to boil it before actually using it. Remember, Hoboken was actually one of the cities that was hit hard by Hurricane Sandy.

And, of course, you might not think you need another lecture about texting while driving. It is deadly. We all know that, we're adults. But guess what? A new survey finding adults do it the most. Almost half of a thousand adults who took an online survey admitted to texting while driving compared with 43 percent of teenagers.

So, Zain Asher and Jeff Gardere, both of us are here to talk about this problem. We were -- it was hard to believe, actually, when we heard these stats, but then, you know, in our morning meeting, there were folks who fessed (ph) up too and said, yes, do it too. So, Zain, tell us about the study. What did they find?

ZAIN ASHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: OK, Suzanne. Well, what's interesting here is that 49 percent of adults admit to texting while driving compared to 43 percent of teenagers, as you mentioned . But what's interesting is that the numbers are actually misleading because they sound like it's roughly the same but in actual fact, there are a lot more adult drivers in the U.S. than teenagers. So, what we're talking about is 10 million teenagers compared to 180 million adults.

Also want to mention some other stats the survey coughed up, 98 percent of people know it is distracting, they know that it's dangerous versus 2 percent of people who said they don't. Sixty percent say that they weren't doing this three years ago so it does seem as though the problem is getting worse -- Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: And, Zain, also, I mean, you've got 39 states that actually ban texting while driving but this continues to be a big problem. I mean, there are people who essentially are in these accidents and they are losing their lives and causing other people as well.

ASHER: Yes, Suzanne, it is really sad. The CDC says that roughly nine people a day are killed from distracted driving plus over a thousand people a day are injured. Also, it seem as though the numbers of deaths are actually getting worse. We've got 3,200 people in 2010 versus 3,300 in 2011. But what's interesting here is that we only have studies that show distracted driving. It is very difficult to prove whether texting while driving specifically is what caused an accident. So, if somebody gets into a car crash, you know, at 1:05 p.m., for example, yes, you can prove they received a text message a minute before-hand but you can't prove they read the text message. You can't prove that text message actually is what caused the crash -- Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: And you know what's amazing, Zain, in this study, I mean, it doesn't take long at all. Just when you're texting, you take your eyes off the road and just like that is when you get into an accident. It happens very, very quickly.

I want to bring in Jeff Gardere. Jeff, you know, adults know it's dangerous. We've been told time and time again not to do it here and yet we do it more than teenagers. How do you change the behavior?

JEFF GARDERE, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, TOURO GRADUATE SCHOOL OF PSYCHOLOGY, NEW YORK CITY: It's very difficult to change the behavior. But one of the things that needs to happen, cops need to give more tickets for texting or talking on the cell phone while driving. And we've seen that when you do get a ticket, you tend not to do it. It's the adults who don't get tickets, who don't get the punishment, who just don't get the idea that this is something that can be deadly.

MALVEAUX: Is there any sense of this that there is an addiction here? You know, people always talk about being addicted to Blackberries or to their cell phones or to their e-mail. Is that really real that you would have to do it in your car?

GARDERE: I think one of the things that we're learning, Suzanne, is that addictions go beyond drugs and sex and alcohol, that there are so many things now that are part of our daily lives that we do become addicted to. We do have the dopamine, the neurotransmitter that fires and says, yes, that's great, let's do that again. And so, getting the satisfaction of texting, getting to your business right away, having that instant gratification, all of those things can become addicting. And it's the fact that we don't address it as being addictive that's one of the major issues.

MALVEAUX: And, Jeff, finally here, I mean, you talk about addiction but isn't there a part of this which is really your boss's, your business's, all these people who are demanding our time constantly and you've got it all in caps, respond now, that people feel like they've got to take care of it immediately even if they're in their car driving?

GARDERE: I think a lot of it is self-imposed. Yes, we do have pressures from our bosses and from the corporations, but it just takes a few more seconds to just pull off to the side of the road and respond to what it is that you're getting on your cell phone. This just takes common sense. As adults, we just can't say, well, we're more experienced. We know more, do as I say not as I do. It's just not working. We have to be not just role models to our kids, but we have to be truthful to ourselves or our kids won't listen to us and certainly we're getting in too many accidents right now because of texting and driving.

MALVEAUX: All right. Jeff, and amen to that. We all have got to just put it down for a minute here.

GARDERE: Sure.

MALVEAUX: Jeff, Zain, thank you very much. We appreciate it.

Now, for what could be a first for Congress, you've got a Hollywood movie that is inspiring some lawmakers to actually do something. We're talking about the Oscar winning film "Argo." The movie now, of course, chronicling the secret operation to rescue the six Americans taken hostage in Iran back in 1980. Well, today, there is a bipartisan group of senators that are proposing legislation to pay those former hostages $10,000 a day for each day they were held. Current law bans such legislation and compensation, rather.

And here is what is coming up for the hour. Some of the family was the Newtown, Connecticut shooting victims, they are now asking Congress for stricter gun laws.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Our daughter, Grace, was seven years old. She couldn't wait to go to school. She would skip down the driveway.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My sister loved --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Plus, new information about the Sandy Hook Elementary school shooting. How investigators found a gun safe in Adam Lanza's bedroom.

Then, Russell Simmons getting political is getting political. What he is saying about same sex marriage and how that relates to the cases that are looked at by the Supreme Court.

And then, a woman is diving in Hawaii when she loses her camera. Six years later the pictures turn up online. Amazing story. You're going to have to see it to believe it.

This is CNN NEWSROOM happening now.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) MALVEAUX: The president is working hard to keep alive his campaign for stricter gun laws. Just in the last hour, gun control advocates joined him in the East Room of the White House for what they are calling the national day to demand action. Well, the president said, the time is now to protect children from gun violence.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: All victims of gun violence have come here today from across the country, united not only in grief and loss but also in resolve and in courage and in a deep determination to do whatever they can as parents and as citizens to protect other kids and spare other families from the awful pain that they've endured.

As any of the families and friends who are here today can tell you, the grief doesn't ever go away. That loss, that pain sticks with you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: I want to bring in our Chief Political Correspondent Candy Crowley. Candy, good to see you as always. It seems as if the president here, he says, please don't get squishy on this issue. But it seems like it's an uphill battle, at this point, to get anything pushed through Congress. Why does he continue? Why does he continue to make the effort?

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, first of all, because he promised. And, second of all, so has the Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid saying I'll put something on the floor here. And I think if you look at the totality of the things that are on the floor, certainly they will get some things passed. Right now, most everyone agrees that an assault weapons' ban of some sort is not going to pass the Senate much less the House.

Right now, the hang-up seems to be not on background checks, that is having background checks for all guns sold except for, you know, family to family member or a present. But all guns sold, whether it be at gun shows which is now is the gun show -- the gun show loophole and at regular licensed gun dealers. And the question, it seems, for Republicans has been, we don't want those records, that background check kept.

MALVEAUX: Yes.

CROWLEY: And that's where they seem -- that seems to be the sticking point. The president is just trying to keep the heat on to try to get something. And right now what the White House has said, according to the vice president, is, you know, a background check, a universal background check would be major and that's what they're pushing for. You know the best way to push Congress is to push the American people to push Congress.

MALVEAUX: Absolutely. One of the things, you look at the latest polls and it shows that there is less of an emphasis now. You have those who are older Americans and those who live in rural areas not pushing forward now for gun control legislation the way they did shortly after the Newtown shooting. So what kind of momentum does the president have here?

CROWLEY: Well, not enough. That's why he was out there today doing this. He clearly doesn't have enough momentum because right now more people, over 50 percent in that poll, 53 percent, 54 percent, favor no restrictions at all or few restrictions. So, you know, the fact is that the sentiment has changed in this so far and that is that -- with some distance people it seems have gone back to sort of their positions prior to Newtown, which was so horrific. And so they are losing some of that. Yet I think they have it on Capitol Hill. I think there is momentum on Capitol Hill. It's about what? What's going to get done. So he definitely does not have enough momentum to get what he wants and that's why he's out there doing this.

CROWLEY: All right. Candy, good to see you as always. You can catch Candy's "STATE OF THE UNION" every Sunday 9:00 a.m. eastern right here on CNN.

Some of the families of the Newtown shooting victims are asking Congress for stricter gun laws. Plus, new information now about the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.

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(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hello. 911. There was a shooting at Safeway (ph).

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Okay. What do you mean?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ina and Oracle (ph). Where Gabrielle Giffords was. And I do believe Gabby Giffords was hit.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: That was a 911 call from the day Congresswoman Gabby Giffords was shot at a rally in Tucson, Arizona. Well, now more than two years later authorities have released new information about that day. They released thousands of documents that offer vivid details about the gunman, Jared Lee Loughner. And our Brian Todd has actually been poring over these documents. Here's what he found.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Early morning, January 8th, 2011, Jared Lee Loughner is stopped for running a red light in Tucson, Arizona. State fish and game officer Alan Forney lectures Loughner on his driving. Loughner seems to break down. I said I won't write you a citation for this Forney says later in a statement to investigators and when I said that to him his face got kind of screwed up and he started to cry. Forney asks if Loughner is okay. Loughner replies, yes. I'm okay. I've just had a rough time, and I really thought I was going to get a ticket. Loughner is sent on his way. Just a couple hours later --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He went in, he just started firing, and then he ran.

TODD: Jared Lee Loughner kills six people, wounds Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and 12 others at a Safeway in Tucson.

We're getting new details of the incident in thousands of pages of documents just released by the Pima County sheriff's department. A judge had kept them under seal until now, concerned they would prevent Jared Loughner from getting a fair trial.

Just after the shootings, a witness described how he and others subdued Loughner.

JOE ZAMUDIO, WITNESS: I put my legs behind his knees and my arm on the back of his small of his back and another guy was stepping on his neck.

TODD: But in the new documents Zamudio says one good Samaritan did more than that, threatening to kill Loughner with Loughner's own gun. "The other gentleman was holding the pistol. He said, I'll kill you, you m-fer to the guy on the ground saying I'll kill you. I said just put it down. If I wasn't a controlled person I might finish him off right there." Daniel Hernandez an intern for Giffords described caring for her just seconds after she was shot.

DANIEL HERNANDEZ, INTERN FOR GABRIELLE GIFFORDS: She was alert and conscious but she wasn't able to speak so the way she was communicating was by grabbing my hand and just squeezing.

TODD: In the new documents more detail from Hernandez. "Her breathing started getting shallower. There was one visible gunshot wound. It was to the head." And the reports depict how Loughner's anguished parents had sensed he'd become violent and tried to stop him. His mother Amy Loughner interviewing with police says once at the suggestion of officials at Jared's school he had a shotgun that we took away from him. In another account, Loughner's father said he even tried to disable Jared Loughner's car to prevent him from going out. Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: Now to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. Family members of the 20 children and six adults killed during that massacre in Newtown, Connecticut are now speaking out in a new ad.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Jessie off in the morning, December 14th and he gave me a hug and case kiss and said I love you, dad. And I love mom, too.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Our daughter grace was 7 years old. She couldn't wait to go to school. She would skip down the driveway.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My sister loved teaching at Sandy Hook. Every student would say, I hope I get Miss Soto next year.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Loren loved children and always wanted to be a teacher.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I got a 911 call that there was a shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We need to remember the 26 victims who lost their lives.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Their message part of a campaign by Mayors Against Illegal Guns. That is the gun control group led by New York mayor Michael Bloomberg. Also today the Connecticut state prosecutor's office is now releasing new information on the shootings. Susan Candiotti is in New York. What kind of details are we learning now?

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, first of all we want to tell you and all of the viewers that all of the Newtown parents, the victims' families, have been notified of all of the information we're about to tell you.

New details as far as we are concerned. But first let's recap. They're telling us for the first time specifically that 154 bullets were fired at Sandy Hook Elementary School when 20 children were killed along with six school teachers. We know that two hand guns were found on his body as well as that bush master assault style weapon. And they are again stating that those had three, 30-round magazines with them and in addition near Adam Lanza's body, the shooter, they found six additional magazines that had 30 rounds each. Half of them we now learned were emptied out and the rest had ten, 11, and 13 rounds left.

Now we turn to his house, which we can only describe as a virtual arsenal in terms of how much weaponry was found there and ammunition. We know that a gun safe was found in the house. We've been reporting that. It's now documented. We learned that there were at least were counting more than 1600 un-spent rounds of ammunition inside that house. In addition, we know that a rifle was found next to Adam Lanza's mother that he shot with a single gunshot to the forehead. We also learned that there was an additional -- at least one more rifle, a BB gun, .22 caliber revolver with additional ammunition and samurai swords as well.

Also I previously reported they had found material that indicated Adam Lanza was virtually obsessed with serial murders. And we learned part, a bit more information about that. For example, they talked about finding an article about a university -- a college shooting in Illinois back in 2008. So he had saved materials and journals and this kind of thing. the New York daily news reported they found a spread sheet seven feet long and four feet wide filled with details of other shootings. But this part is new as well. They found a holiday card. Remember this shooting happened December 14th.

MALVEAUX: Yes.

CANDIOTTI: Inside the holiday card was a check written out to Adam by his mother and it was to purchase it said a specific model of firearm. We know the model but we're not clear from these documents whether that was a handgun or a rifle. We learned one more thing that's new. From a witness cooperating with police they are not revealing his name they said for his own safety, and liked a game in particular, a video game called "Call of Duty." Also, he said that this is a young man who rarely left his home. He was a loner, a shut-in. This witness knew about the safe in the house that he believe had four rifles in it and also he added this. He said, Adam, for Adam Lanza, Sandy Hook Elementary was his life. Well, if that's the case, why did he then target it? Perhaps some authorities have suspected because those children were an easy target, Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: He was clearly armed to the teeth. Susan Candiotti, thank you very much for those details, disturbing details. I can only imagine what the family, what they are thinking about all of that information particularly just how many rounds he shot. Thank you very much.

Olympian Oscar Pistorius is charged with murdering his girlfriend but now a judge has just lifted a lot of the restrictions that came with his bail.

Another arrest in the case of a baby shot dead in Georgia. We'll have the latest on that case.

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