Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
D.A.: Teen Planned School Massacre; No One Injured In Cruise Ship Fire; Kentucky Policeman Killed In Ambush; Floods, Snow Dampen Holiday; Crews Work To Fix Collapsed Bridge; Obama To Honor War Dead Today; Obama Hopes To Reset Agenda; U.S., Russia Eye Syrian Peace Talks; Jolie's Aunt Dies Of Breast Cancer; Teen Defaces Egyptian Pyramid; Britain Targets Extremist Groups; Cell Phone Thefts On The Rise; Amanda Bynes Attacks Rihanna Online; Back After Superstorm Sandy
Aired May 27, 2013 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now in the NEWSROOM -- ambush: a Kentucky police officer killed in the middle of the night.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It wasn't a traffic stop that went bad. It wasn't an arrest that went bad.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Shot and killed from a hilltop as he was removing debris from the road.
Also -- snow, flooding.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We received nearly 200 calls for a high water rescue.
COSTELLO: Memorial day, it's the unofficial start of summer, so where's the sun?
And fans injured at the Charlotte Motor Speedway as an overhead television camera cable plunges to the grandstands.
Plus, Amanda Bynes.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AMANDA BYNES, ACTRESS: The cop scene and drug scene doesn't appeal to me. I have never even been offered drugs. Birds of a feather flock together and I definitely don't fly with that crowd.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: So what happened? A random Rihanna smackdown -- wigs, bong, court -- can anyone stop Bynes' meltdown?
You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM. (MUSIC)
COSTELLO: Good morning. Thank you so much for being with me. I'm Carol Costello. An Oregon teenager accused of a plot against his school due in court tomorrow. Police say Grant Accord was planning a Columbine-style attack at West Albany High School. A search of his bedroom turned up multiple explosives hidden in a secret floor board compartment that's according to police. The local district attorney says the suspect's plot was designed to be deadly.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN HAROLDSON, BENTON COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY: That includes preparation, that includes a written plan, that includes a diagram of the school, that includes all sorts of checklists including a list of items that are needed to be able to execute this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Albany superintendent released a statement saying the school has been searched and nothing suspicious was found. Students will be able to return to classes tomorrow after the Memorial Day holiday.
Another cruise ship mishap to tell you about, Royal Caribbean says a fire broke out on one of its ships this morning. It's since been put out. The grandeur of the seas ran into problems en route to the Bahamas. CNN's Erin McPike is in Washington. So what happened?
ERIN MCPIKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Royal Caribbean did announce on its Twitter feed what happened just a little bit this morning, Carol, I'll read you some of those tweets. It says the grandeur of the seas experienced a fire on the aft mooring deck this morning, which was quickly extinguished. All guests and crew on Grandeur of the Seas are fully accounted for and Grandeur of the Seas is in calm seas, has full power and is making its way to Freeport, Bahamas for evaluation.
Now, Carol, why this fire happened, we don't exactly know, but we did get from one of the passengers on board, Danielle Miller sent in some information and video to CNN. She says at about 12 -- she when to the bed about midnight and was woken up at 2:30. There had been a big storm on board. People were coming through the ship and knocking on doors, getting on the intercom very loudly and asking people to go to master stations.
They were taken from this ship just out of an abundance of caution. Everything seems to be OK and it's going -- the ship is now going to dock in the Bahamas for evaluation. But at this point, everything looks to be fine, of course the fire is out -- Carol.
COSTELLO: That's the best news. Erin McPike, reporting live for us, thanks so much.
Now, let's turn to Kentucky where investigators are tracking a cop killer and a small town police chief is mincing no words.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHIEF RICK MCCUBBIN, BARDSTOWN POLICE: I can assure you we won't give up this person either until we have him in custody or the front side of one of our weapons. I personally hope the latter is the choice.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: The ambush is cunning as it was cruel. A gunman opens fire when a Bardstown police officer gets out of his cruiser to remove debris from a roadway. CNN's Alina Machado is here with the latest. Good morning.
ALINA MACHADO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Jason Ellis was an officer with the Bardstown Police Department. Authorities say he was driving home from work early Saturday morning when he stopped to remove debris from the road. That's when someone shot Ellis several times with a shotgun killing him.
The Bardstown police chief says this was an obvious ambush. Ellis didn't even have a chance to pull his gun. It was still in its holster. Here's what the chief had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MCCUBBIN: It wasn't a traffic stop that went bad. It wasn't an arrest that went bad. That someone actually took the time to plan it and set it up makes it that much more, obviously, hurtful, but it makes you mad.
PASTOR BRENT SNOOK, FAMILY'S MINISTER: When you know a guy like Jason who is just a great man and a wonderful guy, you just don't expect this to happen.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MACHADO: Now, Ellis leaves behind a wife and two children. He had been a police officer for seven years. His death has left those who knew him in shock. They want to know who was behind the brazen attack and why it happened -- Carol.
COSTELLO: But we don't know for sure if Ellis was the target, right?
MACHADO: Right. That's exactly what police are still trying to figure out. They say that they're trying to figure out if this person was targeting Ellis or if he was going to shoot whoever stopped the debris from the road.
COSTELLO: Interesting. And police aren't telling us what the debris was in the road. But the debris was big enough to impede traffic forcing someone to get of the out of the car.
MACHADO: Right. And this is something that officers all over the country usually do. It's a pretty routine thing in the sense if they see debris on the road. They will still pull over and try to clear it before it causes an accident. So it's a very tragic situation.
COSTELLO: Alina Machado, thanks so much.
At 4 minutes past the hour, it's time to check our top stories. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie plans to talk to Rutgers University officials about their hiring of Athletic Director Julie Hermann. The "Newark Star Ledger" published a 1996 letter from the University of Tennessee's women's volleyball team, accusing Hermann of abusing them. Hermann was hired as Rutger's AD two weeks ago in the wake of abuses by fired men's basketball coach, Mike Rice.
Memorial Day weekend usually ushers in summer, but this year the weather in parts of the country is making for a miserable holiday. In Texas, flooding is blamed for at least three deaths in the San Antonio area. The body of a teenager who drowned was recovered last night. And how about this, heavy snow on the left, weekend in May, parts of Vermont got more than a foot. In the Adirondack Mountains in New York, one area got nearly 3-feet of snow.
In Washington State, crews have now recovered a semi tractor-trailer that may have triggered the collapse of that bridge. Witnesses say the truck's oversize load slammed into the structure just moments before it plunged into the water. In the meantime, crews are scrambling on a temporary fix that could allow the busy span to reopen within the next two to three weeks.
As the nation pauses to honor fallen heroes on this Memorial Day, President Obama promises to do the same. This is what it looks like at Arlington National Cemetery, where in the next hour, the president will lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns.
It begins a week in Washington where Congress is out of town on recess and the president hopes to turn the corner after a slew of scandals. White House correspondent Dan Lothian has more on the fallout.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAN LOTHIAN, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): After weeks of dealing with scandals, the president is struggling to reset his agenda and with Congress off this week, he has a chance to do so. But even as he tries to limit damage from the IRS uproar, Republicans are demanding a broader investigation.
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: There's clearly an organized effort within the IRS to target political opponents of the president. That's undeniable. How does such a culture come about? How vast was it? Who was involved? This really does call for a special council.
LOTHIAN: The president wants his attorney general to review whether his own Justice Department has gone too far pursuing those leak investigations targeting reporters.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And I've raised these issues with the attorney general who shares my concerns.
LOTHIAN: But Republicans are pressing for a special council for that, as well. Noting Eric Holder was involved in seeking a search warrant against Fox reporter James Rosen. SEN. TOM COBURN (R), OKLAHOMA: You cannot investigate yourself and I think it's a total conflict of interest.
OBAMA: We have to be determined to stop these problems.
LOTHIAN: Mr. Obama is also dealing with a sexual assault scandal in the military, giving Republicans a new line of attack.
SEN. RAND PAUL (R), KENTUCKY: I think the constellation of these three scandals ongoing really takes away from the president's moral authority to lead the nation. Nobody questions his legal authority, but I think he's really losing the moral authority to lead this nation.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It passes.
LOTHIAN: Immigration reform, a top priority for the president, is headed to the Senate floor after winning committee approval, but it's not clear there are 60 votes to stop a Republican filibuster. And his new push to close the Guantanamo facility is facing stiff opposition on Capitol Hill.
PRESIDENT OBAMA: I once again call on Congress to lift the restrictions on detainee transfers from Gitmo.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: Dan Lothian is at the White House this morning. So how does the president plan to change the conversation?
LOTHIAN: Well, I think, you know, you have seen that happening now several weeks where the president goes out on the road and do these job events where he is focusing lifting up the middle class. That will continue as the president tries to turn the economy around. But also in past day, you have seen the president take on this role, step up to the role as consoler in chief.
He was in Oklahoma over the weekend. Tomorrow he heads to New Jersey where they are marking seven months after Hurricane Sandy devastated that area. The president will get a chance to walk through and check the recovery efforts there.
So you are seeing the president refocus on his sort of day job, sort of the agenda the strategy that he's put forward for his second term in forward escape some of these problems we have seen in recent weeks.
COSTELLO: All right, Dan Lothian reporting live for us from the White House.
Still ahead of the NEWSROOM, an amazing comeback from a natural disaster just seven months after Superstorm Sandy tore up the Jersey Shore, one town throws out the welcome mat on its boardwalk. We'll take you there next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) COSTELLO: Checking our top stories at 12 minutes past the hour. The civil war in Syria takes centre stage today as Secretary of State John Kerry meets privately with his Russian counterpart. The Paris meeting of the two diplomats will focus on a peace conference that could be held in Geneva a few weeks from now.
Angelina Jolie's aunt has died of breast cancer. That's according to "E" news. It's just two weeks after the actress brought about her own decision to undergo a double mastectomy. Like Angelina, her aunt, Debbie Martin, carried the same faulty gene that's linked to breast and ovarian cancer. Martin was the sister of Jolie's mother, Marchalene Bertrand who died of ovarian cancer in 2007. Martin was 61-years-old.
Parents of a 15-year-old Chinese tourist are apologizing after their son effaced an Egyptian temple. The young vandal carved Ding Jinhao was here into wall at the 3,500-year-old Luxor Temple. Chinese media reported that local Egyptian staff have tried to remove the graffiti, but they haven't been successful, not yet.
Anger is boiling over in Britain just days after the gruesome killing of a British soldier in London. Protesters are gathering right now in the British capital. The soldier, as you know, was killed in broad daylight by suspects linked to radical Islamic groups. Ever since, there have been calls for all Muslims to leave Britain. Authorities are investigating a fire at a mosque. Now the British government has set up a task force that will focus on extremist groups.
Our international correspondent Matthew Chance is in London. Good morning, Matthew.
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Carol, good morning to you. That's right. As we speak, just outside the gates of No. 10 Downing Street, the office of the British prime minister, there are rival protests underway between on the one hand the English Defense League, which is a far right extremist group, which is calling for stronger action to tackle what they say is a spread of Islamic fundamentalism in Britain.
And on the other hand anti-fascist groups who are protesting against the fact that the English Defense League on the streets at all. There are hundreds of people on both sides. It's an indication of the level of anger that has been boiling over since the killing of Drummer Lee Rigby on Wednesday in London, the British capital, a lot of anger in fact.
According to various charities that look at extremism, there are has been a huge and very worrying upsurge in attacks against Muslims since last Wednesday when the killing took place. They've said there has been a 10-fold increase, attacks ranging from verbal assaults against the Muslim citizens of Britain.
But also fire bombings of Islamic institutions, the most recent one coming on Sunday in the north eastern town of Grimsby, in England, where Petro bombs were apparently thrown at a mosque in that town as well. Police there say two people have been arrested on suspicion of arson and so a lot of anger as a result of that killing last week.
COSTELLO: All right, Matthew Chance reporting live for us from London. Thieves targeting your cell phone, it's a problem becoming so rampant, what can you do to stop it?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Apple picking is all the rage. It has nothing to do with apple pie but Apple products. A few weeks back, I experienced that myself. I was walking down the street talking on my iPhone and a teenager ran up behind me and snatched my phone. I am certainly not the first, and police say not the last, thanks, in part, to the phone companies, themselves. Dan Simon has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This under surveillance video shows a woman getting robbed of her cell phone while in the middle of a conversation. A crime so common that type in cell phone theft on YouTube and you will find tons of under surveillance video of people having their phones ripped off. San Francisco's police chief says in many cases users are asking for trouble.
CHIEF GREG SUHR, SAN FRANCISCO POLICE: Think if you took $300 out of the ATM machine, you would not walk down the block for several blocks counting the 20s.
SIMON: The problem is becoming so rampant that it's estimated that stolen devices cost consumers $30 billion a year. So pressure is mounting for cell phone carriers and the device-makers to figure out a way to deter theft. San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon wants to see a so-called kill switch on phones.
GEORGE GASCON, DISTRICT ATTORNEY SAN FRANCISCO: So that when they get reported stolen, they could be rendered inoperable.
SIMON: He accuses the industry of dragging its feet to what he calls a technological solution.
GASCON: Every time that a phone gets stolen, we go back and replace it for them. So the carrier gets to make another sale. The manufacture gets to make another sale and their profit margins continue to be.
SIMON: The nation's largest carriers, though, are getting more aggressive, participating in a new nationwide database for stolen phones to prevent them from being activated. But critics say it's yet to have a meaningful impact because stolen phones often wind up overseas and fetch more dollars.
GASCON: A late model iPhone brings here just down the street from here. It can bring about $300. If it gets exported to Latin America or Asia or Africa, it can bring in as much as $700 to $1,000.
SIMON: But is a kill switch even possible? We went to the arguably the leading mobile security company in the world, "Lookout," which makes a popular app for smartphones.
(on camera): The notion of just being able to render a phone useless, can that happen?
MARC ROGERS, LOOKOUT, INC: It's technically plausible as far as the computer, if you destroy the operating system the phone relies on. The phone company (inaudible).
SIMON: So if it's technically possible. Why isn't it happening?
ROGERS: Because it's not an easy thing to do.
SIMON: Now, Apple's iPhone does have a feature that will track stolen phones and erase the data, sometimes more valuable than the phone itself. Lookout has a similar feature for phones using Google's Android. But the point, according to critic is the entire industry needs bolder thinking.
(voice-over): For now, police say the best advice is to be aware of your surroundings and use that software that allows you lock and wipe your phone clean if you happen to find yourself in a situation like this. Dan Simon, CNN, San Francisco.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: OK, I must share one more story with you about Apple picking. I was talking to a police officer here in Atlanta. He said the most brazen case of Apple picking that he took a report for was a man who was sitting in his car talking on his iPhone with his window down, someone ran by the car and stole his phone. So you even have to be aware when you are sitting in your car. Be careful out there.
Still ahead in the NEWSROOM, the boardwalk back opened just in time for Memorial Day, but there is still work to be done to restore the Jersey Shore. We will join Poppy Harlow on the boardwalk after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Stories we're watching right now in the NEWSROOM at 25 minutes past the hour, the police chief of Bardstown, Kentucky is promising to avenge the shooting death of one of his officers. Authorities believed Officer Jason Ellis was ambushed on his way home from work early Saturday morning. Ellis was shot multiple times after getting out of his cruiser to remove debris on the road.
In Belton County, Oregon, police say a teenage had plotted a Columbine-style attack on his high school and his goal was a much higher death toll. Police say the 17-year-old had amassed six different types of explosives in his bedroom, many using common household materials and they say he even had a checklist and diagrams to insure the most bloodshed possible.
Former teen star, Amanda Bynes, exhibiting more bizarre behavior days after she was allegedly accused of tossing a bong out from her window, she went on a vicious Twitter rampage against Rihanna tweeting, quote, "Chris Brown beat you because you're not pretty enough. No one wants to be your lover so you call everyone in their mother." Bynes later deleted those tweets, but not before Rihanna heard about her messages. Rihanna tweeted back, "You see what happens when they cancel intervention."
About 30 minutes from now, President Obama will pay a visit to Arlington National Cemetery, where he will lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns. CNN will have live coverage of that event once it starts.
They are celebrating a comeback on the Jersey Shore and it's just in time for the summer. Just seven months after Superstorm Sandy demolished the coast, crews have built a boardwalk in Seaside Heights and most of the attractions are opened for business on this Memorial Day.
Poppy Harlow is in Seaside Heights. That's pretty good news. I can't believe the progress they've made already.
POPPY HARLOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is amazing. Good morning to you, Carol. The grit, the perseverance, you know, they call it Jersey strong here. This marks the centennial, 100 years for Seaside Heights right on the Jersey Shore, boy, have they had their work cut out for them.
You know, this Memorial Day weekend seven months after Superstorm Sandy may be the most critical Memorial Day weekend ever for the Jersey Shore. It is going to be the first indication to them really of whether a tourist will come back or not after all of the damage that it sustained and whether businesses are going to get the money they need from those critical tourists.
I want to show you some video of what this shoreline looked like just seven months ago after Superstorm Sandy hit and now let's look at how things look today.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One, two, three --
HARLOW (voice-over): The games are back on in Seaside Heights.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's back. It's back. We're back!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's back.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMAEL: A 100 percent, but we're back.
HARLOW: And the people who came back liked what they saw.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's great. It's really good to see everything back to where it used to be, almost close to where it used to be.
HARLOW: Almost because the rebuilding continues. Nearly seven months after Sandy tore up much of the Jersey Shore. Vincent's family owns Casino Pier, before Sandy, it held 38 rides. Now this --
(on camera): How much progress have you guys made?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We made tremendous progress. In three months, we've done what should take three years.
HARLOW (voice-over): It hasn't come cheap.
(on camera): Millions?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's millions.
HARLOW: Tens of millions?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I would say tens of millions.
HARLOW (voice-over): The new boardwalk alone cost nearly $8 million.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We did what we had to do to get doors opened, to let people know Seaside Heights is open, but there are so many more things we got to do.
HARLOW: Like more benches and lights, but Mayor Bill Acres is satisfied.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can walk the boardwalk north to south. It seems like we got a few people up here today enjoying it.
HARLOW: A few people less than a typical Memorial Day weekend.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I would say we are doing half than last year.
HARLOW: But that hasn't dampened spirits.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I mean, look around, you couldn't ask for better weather. You couldn't ask for more people. This is great.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the golden goose, Lucky Leos.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We knew it was going to be slow, but just the idea that we are here. That truly is a remarkable thing.
HARLOW (on camera): What a way to ring in 100 years.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, I guess we're doing the same thing that they did back 100 years ago they needed to build a boardwalk. We are building it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARLOW: And, Carol, I can tell you on a typical Memorial Day weekend, they can have upwards of about 65,000 people visit the Jersey Shore, this year, half of that, understandably so. This is how important it is, $19 billion in revenue from tourists comes into the Jersey Shore every year. That is more than half the total state takes in from tourism and 7.5 million people were here back in 2012. The mayor here in Seaside Heights told us that about 85 percent of the businesses have managed to reopen by this Memorial Day weekend. COSTELLO: OK, at least they have a beautiful day, right?
HARLOW: Yes.
COSTELLO: Something to be thankful for. Poppy Harlow, thanks so much.
