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Half of U.S. Faces Weather Threat; Jailed Mother Back in Mexican Court; Heading Home from Vacation Hell?; Stocks Poised to Open Lower; Bieber Accused of Reckless Driving; Housing Recovery Gains Steam; Questioning Benghazi Talking Points; Jodi Arias Jurors Speak Out

Aired May 29, 2013 - 09:00   ET

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


(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now in the NEWSROOM -- wild weather.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're watching a tornado just to our northwest. It is rain wrapped.

COSTELLO: Oklahoma in the bull's eye again. And in the northeast, heat wave. Good-bye chilly, hello, 100 degrees.

Also, trapped in a Mexican prison. An American mom in Florida accused of drug smuggling.

GARY MALDONADO, HUSBAND: Through the bars of the, pattern metal bars, and just say we love each other.

COSTELLO: Innocent or framed by Mexican police?

Plus, oh, no, Beyonce. A fan dares to slap her there.

BEYONCE, SINGER: Now I will have you escorted out right now, all right?

COSTELLO: Don't mess with Queen B.

You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Good morning. Thank you so much for being with me. I'm Carol Costello.

This morning's top story may be lurking in the skies above you. Severe weather bearing down on nearly half the country today. It's always cause for concern, but especially in the nation's midsection. The tornado season there is going from quiet to catastrophic just since last week. Here's a tornado ripping across central Kansas last night. One of seven recorded across the state.

CNN meteorologist Indra Petersons is in the weather center.

So tornadoes in the midsection of the country? Maybe 100 degrees in Washington, D.C.? What's going on?

INDRA PETERSONS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: I mean, absolutely unbelievable. I mean, this wild weather isn't just in the middle of the country. It's literally coast to coast out there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This thing is monstrous.

PETERSONS (voice-over): Late Tuesday, a new round of tornadoes ripped through the heartland.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But it don't look (INAUDIBLE). It's moving.

PETERSONS: This massive twister tearing through Kansas, leaving downed trees and power lines in its wake. In the middle of it all storm chaser Sean Casey reported live on CNN there.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Sean, I understand you're chasing a tornado right now. What's going on?

SEAN CASEY, STORM CHASER: See, this is my first interview while looking at a tornado. So we were hoping it's going to come up onto our road and we will drive right up to the southern half.

PETERSONS: Just one day before Casey's team captured this rare and frightening video inside a tornado in Smith County, Kansas.

The potential for super cell thunderstorms, damaging winds, and hail threaten a number of states from Texas to New England today.

In the plains, strong, damaging tornadoes are possible. In areas like Oklahoma, already littered with damage, meteorologists warn of high wind gusts kicking up and carrying dangerous debris across the area. Meanwhile further north, severe storms blew into Michigan and Pennsylvania overnight. Damage was recorded outside Detroit and near Erie, Pennsylvania.

And on the West Coast, a different kind of weather danger. Dry conditions fueling wildfires in Santa Barbara, California. Scorching over 1800 acres in Los Padres National Forest. Farther south in Valencia, helicopters attacked a blaze from above as brushfires near the popular Magic Mountain Theme Park burned 25 acres in less than an hour.

And look at this. Just to the east of the fires, this massive dust storm bringing traffic to a standstill. Finally, in the northeast, weather whiplash. From snow just four days ago to what could be a record-breaking heat wave. Temperatures rising double-digits across most of the region.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PETERSONS: Sure is a lot of whacky weather out there. But today, the severe threat remains. In fact, it's actually in the (INAUDIBLE) just yesterday. Once again that low has ejected out of the Rockies, we had that dry air banking up against that warm, moist air out of the Gulf. And with that, the severe threat again enhanced. Unfortunately, exactly where it was just last week.

We're talking about Oklahoma and Kansas, seeing that moderate risk that involves about 300 million of you, 60 million of you, including New England, under a slight risk today but of course the better chance for tornado right here in this area and taken to the quick check outside, you can tell.

Generally calm, a couple of storms starting to build but by the afternoon, as the sunlight gets in, that's going to build these thunderstorms and we're going to start to see these building as we go into the evening hours -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. We'll be ready. Indra Petersons, thank you.

Michele Bachmann, one-time Tea Party presidential candidate, is calling it quits. The Minnesota congresswoman announcing overnight she will not run for a fifth term in Congress. Kind of surprising since Bachmann was once the face of big government rage. In fact, "Newsweek" tagged her the queen of rage in 2008. No worries, though, Bachmann insists she will not fade away.

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REP. MICHELE BACHMANN (R), MINNESOTA: Looking forward, after the completion of my term, my future is full, it is limitless, and my passion for America will remain. And I want you to be assured that there is no future option or opportunities, be it directly in the political arena or otherwise, that I won't be giving serious consideration. If it can help save and protect our great nation for future generations.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Bachmann says her tough re-election battle last November played absolutely no role in her decision not to run again, nor did an investigation into her presidential campaign.

A drone strike has killed the number two leader of the Pakistani Taliban. That's according to a local tribal leader and intelligence officer. It happened today in the tribal region of Pakistan. The Taliban leader was one of four people killed. This is the first drone strike to hit Pakistan since elections there were held two weeks ago.

An Arizona mother of seven returns to a Mexican courtroom today hoping to get her freedom. Yanira Maldonado has been sitting in a jail for a week. The Mexican Military says she was smuggling 12 pounds of pot under a bus seat while heading back to the United States. Her family insists she was framed. And this morning her daughter told CNN's "STARTING POINT" that Maldonado is holding on.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANNA SOTO, YANIRA MALDONADO'S DAUGHTER: I think -- I don't know. I know she's scared. I know she really wants to be let free. I know she -- she's scared.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: I bet. Casey Wian is at the family's hometown of Goodyear, Arizona. He has more for us.

Good morning.

CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. It really is heart-wrenching talking to those family members of Yanira Maldonado. They adamantly say she is wrongly jailed in Mexico.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WIAN (voice-over): Yanira Maldonado's family hoped she would be released on a court hearing in Nogales, Mexico Tuesday. But the Mormon mother of seven accused of smuggling marijuana will remain in a Mexican jail for at least another day. The family insists she has no involvement in drugs and is being framed.

SOTO: Whoever was the cause of this, that's who I am angry at. The people that put my mom in prison without having evidence.

WIAN: Maldonado was arrested last week after Mexican authorities said they found 12 pounds of marijuana under the seat of a commercial bus she was riding home in from a funeral with her husband Gary. Gary Maldonado said he was asked to pay a $5,000 bribe for his wife's freedom. But as he tried to raise the money, she was shipped off to jail. The family says it is encouraged by the evidence presented in court so far.

This case is not unusual in Mexico where there has been a struggle to modernize its notoriously corrupt judicial system, says Mexico expert George Grayson.

GEORGE GRAYSON, COLLEGE OF WILLIAM & MARY: The judicial system there is even more corrupt than the police. And when you're brought into a judicial proceeding, you don't get to face your accuser, you don't have an automatic right to a lawyer. You may be held before you're brought to trial for some weeks and it's a closed proceeding.

WIAN: In this case the judge has the power to hold Maldonado in prison up to four months before trial. That would likely only bring more pressure from U.S. authorities. The office of Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona says, "Senator Flake has been in contact with the family as well as officials in Mexico and the U.S. regarding the case. He will continue to monitor the situation."

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WIAN: That situation resumes in a Mexican courtroom this morning. It will be a very key day for Yanira Maldonado and her family. Her attorneys are expected to be able to cross-examine some of the Mexican military officers who apprehended her last week -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Casey Wian reporting live from Arizona this morning. We're also hearing from passengers aboard that fiery Royal Caribbean cruise ship, and needless to say, they are not happy.

Investigators still trying to find out what sparked the fire on the Grandeur of the Seas, forcing more than 2200 people to cut short their vacation. And as Erin McPike reports, many of them are really happy to be back on dry land.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ERIN MCPIKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Three days before their vacation was scheduled to end, the first of 2200 Royal Caribbean cruise ship passengers returned safely to the Port of Baltimore Tuesday. The Grandeur of the Seas journey was cut short by a fire aboard at 3:00 a.m. Monday morning.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's pretty terrifying at first.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In the water you could see the glow of the fire, but we didn't -- we had no idea how big the fire really was.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think people were just in shock. And it was early, and just wondering what was going on.

MCPIKE: Some passengers said when they saw lifeboats lowered, they thought the Grandeur of the Seas was sinking.

It was the latest scare in what has been a string of debacles for the cruise industry. Last year, 32 people died when the Costa Concordia capsized off the coast Italy. Carnival's Triumph stranded passengers in the Gulf of Mexico in February, and Carnival's Dream left others without power in March.

Executive director of the Global Maritime Center, Richard Burke, says the incidents don't spell out a pattern for the industry.

RICHARD BURKE, GLOBAL MARITIME CENTER: They are among the safest ships afloat.

MCPIKE: The latest black-eye for the industry intensifies a public relations problem they face, but attorney John Hickey says passengers have little recourse in nightmarish vacations.

JOHN HICKEY, HICKEY LAW FIRM: If passengers don't have physical injuries or the threat of physical injury, they're, you know, basically under the terms of the ticket and the federal statute not allowed to sue.

MCPIKE: Royal Caribbean is giving full refund and vouchers for future cruises to the Grandeur of the Seas passengers. And some say they will cruise again.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Erin McPike now joins us from Washington.

So I'm still wondering what caused the fire.

MCPIKE: Well, you know, Carol, Royal Caribbean doesn't yet know what caused the fire. I have heard that people say that it happened in a strange area of the ship. Usually these things happen in the engine room or in the kitchen, but the ship right now is being dry docked in the Bahamas and will undergo some repairs while both Royal Caribbean investigates what happens, as well as the National Transportation Safety Board and the Coast Guard.

But, Carol, I will say that in talking to some of these passengers yesterday as CNN did they were all very happy with Royal Caribbean's prompt response.

COSTELLO: All right. Well, I guess that's good. But I still wonder what caused that fire and I'm sure you'll continue investigating.

Erin McPike, thank you so much.

A huge fire at the site of a train derailment near Baltimore now under control. We now know the derailment was caused by a garbage truck slamming into a CSX freight train and then the crash set off a huge explosion.

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ERIC BEVERLY, WITNESSED EXPLOSION IN BALTIMORE: Back up. Oh, my gosh.

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COSTELLO: Oh, yes, seven cars skidding off the track. This man was working nearby.

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KEVIN LINDEMANN, WITNESSED EXPLOSION IN BALTIMORE: Honestly, we were almost in a state of shock. As you hear these trains go by every day and you just kind of get used to the sound of the train going by and after awhile, it got a little closer and you realize it's a whole lot louder than it usually is. At first you see two or three trail cars or train cars that are on their sides just sliding off the track and you're -- like I said, you're almost in just disbelief.

And we kind of walked out to the front of the -- out the front door and as soon as you -- as soon as you cracked the door, you could feel the heat, it just hit you in the face.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Officials don't think there's any danger from toxins, but public shelters are open for people and about 70 homes nearby. Amazingly, only the truck's driver hurt. He's in the hospital in serious but stable condition.

Strong reports on housing and consumer confidence drove big games in the market yesterday, including another record close for the Dow. So will the market continue with the joyride?

Alison Kosik knows. She's at the New York Stock Exchange.

Good morning.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. You know, you talked about that record high closing for the Dow. Make that 23 for the year, although as far as the day goes, it may be tough getting to 24. It looks like stocks are going to open lower when the Opening Bell rings in about 20 minutes.

Funny thing, though, about that rally yesterday for the Dow. It happened after Central Bankers around the world said that they continue with their stimulus to prop up global economic growth. But you also saw that rally because economic indicators here in the U.S. were positive. Those housing numbers, those housing price numbers, and consumer confidence numbers were higher, so now you're going to see Wall Street get back to that huge line of thinking, that good news is bad news, because the worry now is that, is that the Fed is going to pull back its stimulus.

Something that's been really creating the wealth effect here on Wall Street. So it just shows you the kind of balancing act that the Fed is facing right now. Everybody wants the U.S. economy to stand on its own. They don't want the Fed pulling the rug right out under from the U.S. economy too fast and that continues to be the worry -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Alison Kosik, reporting live from the New York Stock Exchange.

It's hard to believe, but Justin Bieber's need for speed is getting him into a whole lot of trouble. The Biebs is accused of burning rubber through his celebrity neighbor in Los Angeles. And some of his neighbors who are former NFL football players are coming after him.

Hall of Famer Eric Dickerson tweeting, quote, "I live in Calabasas, too. And Justin Bieber needs to slow his ass down," end quote.

CNN's Pamela Brown is in New York.

So --

(LAUGHTER)

What's going on, Pamela?

PAMELA BROWN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, apparently Justin Bieber is not being a very good neighbor according to these reports. Once again it seems he's angering his neighbors in his gated community and he's now even drawing the ire of a former NFL player, actually two former NFL players now as we saw in that tweet. And now Bieber is apparently refusing to talk with sheriff's deputies about the second speeding incident in just over two months.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) BROWN (voice-over): Justin Bieber is known for dazzling fans all over the world but it's his off-stage antics that have the pop sensation's California neighbors upset.

For the second time in two months, they accuse the singer of speeding through their Calabasas neighborhood at breakneck speed. The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department is investigating the latest incident.

STEVE WHITMORE, L.A. COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT: We got a couple of calls from two witnesses that said that they saw Justin Bieber driving recklessly in his white Ferrari inside the gated community known as the Oaks. This kind of behavior, if it did happen, cannot be done by anybody, at anytime, anywhere.

BROWN: The Sheriff's Department says Bieber refused to speak with deputies sent to investigate, prompting this plea.

WHITMORE: Please talk to us. Tell us what you believe occurred.

BROWN: TMZ reports Bieber shut the door on someone else who wanted to ring his bell, former NFL star, Keyshawn Johnson. The ex-New York Jets player was sitting in his car with his child in Calabasas when Bieber sped by. He later reportedly confronted the young pop star outside his house.

But Bieber fled inside, possibly showing better judgment than he did while driving his Ferrari.

In Calabasas, neighbors are mostly concerned about the damage he could do behind the wheel.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: And the D.A.'s office in Los Angeles is still investigating an incident in March, where he was accused of spitting on a neighbor who confronted him for speeding. And now, it looks like this latest incident will be turned over to the D.A.'s office as well.

So far, no comment from Bieber's camp. And I checked out the Twitter feed before I came on. No mentioned of the latest incident. So, it would happen.

COSTELLO: I just have a picture in my mind of Keyshawn Johnson chasing the Biebs into his house.

BROWN: And, by the way, I believe, according to reports, Keyshawn Johnson was driving a Prius chasing after Bieber and his Ferrari.

(LAUGHTER)

BROWN: Quite a scene.

COSTELLO: Pamela Brown, thanks so much.

Just ahead in THE NEWSROOM: bidding wars. Unbelievable prices on unbelievable homes. And so many willing to buy, there are not enough houses to go around. Is it 2007 all over again?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Twenty minutes past the hour. Time to check our top stories.

For the happiest place on earth became a ghost town for just a few hours on Tuesday. A plastic bottle with dry ice exploded inside a trash can at Mickey's Toontown at Disneyland in California. No one was hurt. There was no damage, and the area is back open and happy again today.

A former standout college quarterback has been found dead in northern Michigan. That's according to officials at Grand Valley State University. Cullen Finnerty hadn't been heard from since he went fishing on Sunday, prompting his former teammates and police to launch an intensive search.

Foul play not suspected right now. After college, Finnerty spent time with the Baltimore Ravens. He was 30 years old and no sign of apparent injury on his body when it was found in the Michigan woods. We'll keep you posted.

In money news, Kellogg's has reached a proposed $4 million settlement over its advertising for frosted Mini Wheats. In a lawsuit, consumers alleged Kellogg's falsely claimed the cereal helped with kids' attentiveness. Kellogg's denies it did anything wrong but will make changes to its marketing and labeling.

Bidding wars, unbelievable prices on not so unbelievable homes. And so many willing to buy, there are not enough houses to go around. But people are still trying. It sounds like 2007 all over again? Scary, right?

So we must know, are all these sold signs, a sign real estate is rebounding? Or is it another sign the housing bubble is about to burst?

CNN business guru Christine Romans is in New York. I don't know. It sounds kind of scary to me.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: It is a rebound, Carol. This is what a rebound looks like, and it looks pretty hot and bubbly in some certain zip codes, and that's why you are getting all that talk about, oh, here we are again in 2007.

Let me show you some of the zip codes that truly look like bubble time once again. Look at San Francisco. Trulia says San Francisco is actually overvalued right now, so is L.A., San Antonio, Austin, Houston, Orange County, San Jose, Portland -- all of those look a little bit overvalued.

And let me tell you what's happening in some places, even some tony neighborhoods like Greenwich, Connecticut, they're doing something again called pocket listings. Carol, that means they're not even sort of advertising publicly what homes are for sale. They're just privately letting people know so they can try to outbid each other.

And there's something else called flash sales, where there's suddenly almost having an auction for a property to see how high they could get the price to go. And that's what happened right here. This is one example of that. I want you to watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TONY NUNCIO, REALTOR: We literally are in line to go in the house and there's a line waiting for us to get out of house. This market is by far the craziest that I've seen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: But, Carol, let me be very clear, most of the experts say it's not a bubble again. In a few of these places, you have such low inventory, you have cash buyers, you've got international investors coming in buying five, six, seven, eight, nine properties, that's where are you seeing some of that action.

For the average Joe or Jane like you or I, it isn't a bubble. We're still having a little trouble getting a mortgage, still having trouble getting out from under our other house that's still underwater. And so, that's just a slow healing we're seeing.

COSTELLO: So, have most Americans, average Joes as you say, have they gotten away from the idea that your house is your major investment? Has that totally disappeared?

ROMANS: I wouldn't say totally disappeared. Home ownership rates have fallen.

And a lot of people say, you know what? I'm going to rent. Because I might have to move for my job or I might not need to get a better job and I want to be able to move to California or Texas or someplace else where jobs are growing. And so, they don't want to be saddled with a mortgage.

And a lot of people -- millions of people who are still underwater on their loans. They can't sell their house and buy a new one right now, because they're still underwater.

Look, mortgage rates declining for several years. They ticked up a little bit, but still very low as you know. People are really -- the number one easiest way for people to play the real estate market, is to make sure you refinance the mortgage have you now to put money in your pocket.

But no question, a recovering housing market is putting money into the economy. It's adding to consumer confidence and the housing market recovery is real. In a few places, it might be a bubble. But I wouldn't call it a bubble overall.

COSTELLO: OK. Whew! Because I don't want to go through that again! Christine Romans, thanks so much.

ROMANS: You're welcome.

COSTELLO: Still ahead in THE NEWSROOM, some of the jurors in the Jodi Arias case are breaking their silence. Here why they say they won't be disappointed if Arias does not get the death penalty.

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COSTELLO: The House Oversight Committee pushing forward into the Benghazi talking points. Lawmakers subpoenaed the State Department to get unreleased e-mails and paper works from 10 officials, including communications from then-State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland.

The White House has already released 100 e-mails about those talking points. But, Republicans say, they still have more questions. They accused the administration of trying to mislead the public for political gain, a claim Democrats denied.

The attack killed the Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans.

Another Republican-controlled House Committee now investigating Attorney General Eric Holder to see if he lied under oath.

Holder signed off on a search warrant in 2010 to obtain e-mails from a FOX News reporter who got classified information about North Korea. We found out about that last week. But earlier this month, Holder denied ever trying to prosecute the press for obtaining leak information.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. HANK JOHNSON (D), GEORGIA: We need to protect the ability of the press to engage in its First Amendment responsibility.

ERIC HOLDER, ATTORNEY GENERAL: I would say, with regard to the potential prosecution of the press for the disclosure material, that is not something that I have ever been involved in or heard of or think would be a wise policy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: The Department of Justice did label the FOX reporter James Rosen as the possible conspirator in the North Korea leak, but never filed charges.

After sitting through five months of gory testimony on the Jodi Arias trial, some jurors were spilling the beans on the inner workings of the jury. Juror Diane Schwartz voted for Arias to get the death penalty. An alternate juror Tara Kelley says she would have voted that way, too. The jury deadlocked 8-4.

But Schwartz and Kelley told HLN they won't be disappointed if Arias does not get the death penalty.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DIANE SCHWARTZ, JUROR: We have to make sure she is treated within our criminal justice system fairly. And inside my own personal, a little bit of disappointment, but I know that we've done our job as jurors.

DR. DREW PINSKY, HLN: Tara?

TARA KELLEY, ALTERNATE JUROR: Yes, again, what Diane said, I would be disappointed. But I'm not going to be upset. And I feel that if it comes to the judge having to decide, I'm not worried about what she would decide either.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Arias could still get the death penalty by lethal injection. A new penalty phase with a new jury is set for July.

Up next in the NEWSROOM, an eye for an eye. That's what the police chief in Bardstown, Kentucky, is calling for following the death, the murder, of ambushed officer Jason Ellis. We'll talk to the chief as the community comes together to begin paying their final respects.

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