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Looters Prey on Tornado Victims; Walgreens Fined $80 Million in Drug Probe; Boehner Defends Intel Contractors; Spurs Put Beatdown on Heat; New Stunts to Sell Food

Aired June 12, 2013 - 10:30   ET

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

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CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me. Checking our "Top Stories" at 31 minutes past the hour.

The NSA leaker Edward Snowden remains in hiding. The director of the NSA, by the way, takes center stage in just a couple of hours. He'll appear in a Senate hearing. Lawmakers are sure to ask about Snowden's claims that a secret government program monitors phone calls and online activity and may invade the privacy of millions of Americans.

In Colorado 3,600 people are not in their homes this morning they were forced to leave due to mandatory wildfire evacuations. More than 150 fire fighters and the National Guard are trying to get five different fires under control. The worst, the black forest fire northeast of Colorado Springs, has already burned 7,500 acres.

We hear a lot of stories about sink holes lately, but nothing like this. This is a sinkhole that actually opened up behind the pitcher's mound at the ballpark at Arlington, just before last night's game with the Cleveland Indians. The hole opened after an underground pipe burst. Crews repaired the sod and the only thing lost was batting practice. I would have been afraid to stand there though.

Oh do you think summer interns work for free? Not at Google. According to GlassDoor.com, Google pays its average intern $5,800 a month. Some earn almost a thousand dollars more. The salaries are competitive in Silicon Valley. But Google is in the spotlight because it's the backdrop for the new movie "The Internship".

Imagine, you just lost your home in a tornado. And if that wasn't bad enough, you've now got to worry about looters. Police in Moore, Oklahoma say as many as 15 people have been arrested for looting homes destroyed by the May 20th tornado. Some coming to Oklahoma from as far away as Virginia and New York and they're stealing everything from copper wires to refrigerators.

Joining me now, Jeremy Lewis, spokesman for the Moore Police Department. Good morning, Jeremy.

JEREMY LEWIS, SPOKESMAN, MOORE, POLICE DEPARTMENT: Good morning.

COSTELLO: So they're actually coming in from out of state to steal from these damaged homes?

LEWIS: Yes. We did have one specific incident where we had three individuals, two from Virginia and one from New York that were all together. They actually brought reflective vests to kind of blend in with the workers that were actually contracted by the city. Those workers actually are the ones that contacted us and they didn't think they belonged. And once we questioned them and looked in their trailer, we found a lot of utility wire that they are actually taking for their personal gain.

COSTELLO: So they brought their own van or truck with them and they were stealing what, copper wire, refrigerators and stuff like that too?

LEWIS: They were stealing copper wire. It was a lot of utility wire from utility poles that have fallen near houses, they had their own truck and trailer that they had brought from Virginia and New York and were trying to equip themselves to look like the workers that were contracted to do the work. So they blended in for a little while but eventually were caught and they were arrested.

COSTELLO: Ok so you've got to be thinking that's pretty despicable.

LEWIS: We talked about it. And you know, these people have lost everything. For someone to come and prey on someone who virtually lost their entire lives in these storms, you know, their entire homes, everything they worked for is blown away, the little things that they are able to salvage, people are coming and taking, I just don't see it getting much lower than that.

COSTELLO: That's pretty low, that's like pond scum, right?

LEWIS: Right.

COSTELLO: And so -- so what -- what steps are you taking to protect these homes?

LEWIS: We have officers assigned -- additional to our regular patrols, we have officers assigned to each side of the city. Our city was basically split in half by Interstate I-35. In Oklahoma, we have officers on each side of the city that are just assigned to the disaster areas, responding to the calls. The best way for us to get these is for neighbors to call, let us know that these people don't belong. And that's how a lot of them are being contacted.

If it's obvious they don't belong, officers are contacted and asking for ID and seeing why they're in the area.

COSTELLO: Thank you for being with us this morning. And thank you for your efforts out there in Moore, Oklahoma. Jeremy Lewis of the Moore, Oklahoma Police Department.

LEWIS: Thank you.

COSTELLO: Turning now to your money. We told you earlier Walgreen's is paying a record fine of $80 million to settle claims that knowingly, knowingly allowed drugs like the painkiller oxycodone to hit the black market.

Alison Kosik is at the New York Stock Exchange to tell us more about this.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes this is interesting, Carol. Because the government wound up focusing right on a big distribution center located in Jupiter, Florida because it was receiving bigger than usual orders of prescription painkillers from half a dozen pharmacies located in Florida.

Now DEA rules they say that Walgreen's is supposed to report the activity, but here's the thing, it didn't, and the government said as a result triple the average number of painkillers were delivered to the pharmacies. The DEA says these locations knew the drugs were not for legitimate medical use and that there were tens of thousands of violations and that Walgreen's negligently allowed painkillers to make their way right onto the black market.

So now Walgreen's is going to be paying that $80 million fine happens to be the biggest in DEA history. And here is the thing it's not just the fines. Because the Walgreen center, that distribution center is going to be banned from distributing similar drugs until next year -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Well the Walgreen's is going to lose even more money. So what's Walgreen's saying about this?

KOSIK: Ok what Walgreen's says is they worked up months to actually reach this agreement and agreed to this fine. And they expect by paying it, it's going to take a bit of a hit, it's going to take about four to six cents off its share price, not a huge deal there though. In a statement, the company said in part "We are fully committed to doing our part to prevent prescription drug abuse. We will also continue to advocate for solutions," going on to say "to combat the abuse of controlled substances and ensure patient access to critical medications."

The company also says what it's done is it enhanced it's compliance systems so this doesn't happen again. Now the goal for DEA though is to you know try to cut back on the number of deaths from prescription drug overdoses because the numbers actually exceed those from let's say car accidents or those related to other street drugs like cocaine and heroin -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Alison Kosik, thanks so much.

Just ahead in the NEWSROOM, a State Department memo raising serious questions about prostitution, drug deals and sexual abuse near U.S. embassies. The worst part, there may have been a cover-up.

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COSTELLO: All right there's bit of developing news to tell you about.

We want to take you to Washington where moments ago the Republican House Speaker, John Boehner spoke about Edward Snowden the NSA leaker. Dana Bash was listening to his comments. What did he say Dana?

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well you know one of the many issues that member of Congress are talking about with regard to this, is why was an independent contractor, 29 years old, given such access to America's secrets?

So part of what is being discussed is whether or not new legislation needs to be passed to prevent that from happening in the future. That's what the Speaker was asked. Here was his answer.

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REP. JOHN BOEHNER (R), HOUSE SPEAKER: I think the committees of the congress provide oversight of the executive branch. And I -- I frankly think you can look at any agency of the federal government, they've got a number of federal employees, but there are also federal contractors that are used for certain programs, I think that's fair and appropriate.

But I think it's up to committees of the Congress to provide that oversight and I think we will.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you think though that -- just train govern and make a smaller -- work out that this has led --

BOEHNER: I'm not sure that that is the cause of this but we're going to continue to look at it.

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BASH: So if you couldn't hear the follow-up question, it was about whether or not the efforts mostly by Republicans to shrink the government has led to the situation of the government, namely the NSA, having to hire outside contractors. He sort of punted on that.

But I will tell you, Carol on talking to members of Congress, those who are on the intelligence committees, this does seem to be an issue. In fact, I was told that the Democratic chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee Dianne Feinstein is going to pursue some kind of legislation to try to crackdown on this idea of outside contractors getting this kind of access to -- to -- to this information.

Obviously these are the people who wants -- wanted to do this who think that this program all of these programs, are good for national security. The flip side are members of Congress on both sides of the aisle who think that this is not such a good idea. So that again --

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COSTELLO: Well I get -- I get the part about -- I get the part about the outside contractors, I do.

BASH: Yes.

COSTELLO: I don't get the part about the 29-year-old because if you're brilliant and you're 29 and know your way around a computer and I'm sorry, most 50-year-olds don't.

BASH: That's a good point.

COSTELLO: I think it's silly, that's a silly argument. I mean if you're qualified to do the job, do the job.

BASH: You should see my two-year-old on his iPad, it's kind of amazing.

COSTELLO: Yes more to come. Dana Bash, thanks so much.

Still ahead in the NEWSROOM, what a week for Yasiel Puig the Dodgers rookie he's been on team for a week and I'm telling you merchandise involving Puig is flying off the shelves. We'll tell you more about Puig next.

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COSTELLO: Checking our top stories at 46 minutes past the hour.

Opening arguments under way in the trial of notorious Boston gangster, James "Whitey" Bulger; after spending 16 years on the lam, the 83- year-old is finally standing trial. He faces 19 murder charges, as well as federal racketeering charges. The trial is expected to last into September.

For the first time since 2005, Americans' opinions of former President George W. Bush are more positive than negative. A new poll by Gallup finds 49 percent of people view Bush favorably compared to 46 percent who have an unfavorable opinion.

Day three of jury selection in the murder trial of George Zimmerman -- this is a live picture from inside the courtroom. Zimmerman is accused of killing 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in a case that's grabbed headlines for more than a year. Potential jurors are pressed on how much they learned about the case from the media.

A suspected burglar is under arrest and quite frankly lucky to be alive after he was shot by a 72-year-old grandma. This All went down Monday night in Anaheim. The grandma, Jan Cooper, says she saw the suspect jump over the fence in her yard and try to break into her home so she pulled out her .357 magnum and fired a shot. She missed but she certainly scared the robber off. Police managed to catch him a short time later. Cooper has a warning.

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JAN COOPER: Well, Mr. Perez, you have no idea how lucky you were to be able to walk away from my house.

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COSTELLO: The suspect, Brandon Perez, was on parole for another burglary conviction.

San Antonio Spurs put a beat down on the Miami Heat in game three of the NBA finals last night -- the Spurs 113-77, converting 16 three- pointers, a record for the finals. Lebron James shot 33 percent from the field. He didn't even get to the free-throw line. Spurs lead the series two games to one.

Baseball fans who follow Fernando mania in southern California -- well, just put that memory back into mothballs. There's a new Dodgers phenom that's re-writing the books when it comes to play on the field and sales in the store. CNN's Casey Wian charts the Cuban Missile.

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CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Tuesday night began with more smiles from Dodgers rookie sensation, Yasiel Puig, who entered the game against the Arizona Diamondbacks batting .500 and as the reigning national league player of the week, his first week in the majors. A Cuban defector who last year signed a $42 million seven-year contract already has become a favorite of teammates and Dodger fans.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am so excited to see Puig play, man.

WIAN: In the sixth inning, Puig was hit in the face by a 92 mile an hour fast ball. He was down for several minutes, shook it off, and scored when the next batter homered to tie the game; an inning later, his first major league bench-clearing brawl, and first ejection from a game. That's not likely to change the opinion of baseball experts who give Puig the ultimate compliment. A five-tool player who hits for average and power, runs fast, and can field and throw.

VIN SCULLY, DODGERS BROADCASTER: We have seen all five tools in the first three games in which he played. It's just been truly remarkable to see such talent and to see it immediately.

WIAN: Legendary Dodgers scout Mike Brito helped sign Puig.

MIKE BRITO, DODGERS SCOUT: We need a player like him in the organization. We (inaudible) team so I am very happy -- very happy.

WIAN: Puig is not just helping out the Dodgers on the field; he is also helping their bottom line. His merchandise like this t-shirt -- the hottest seller ever for a first year dodger player. He is scheduled to appear at a southern California autograph show later this month, depending on the item he signs, Puig's signature will cost $149 to $299.

Puig is no saint. There's this April reckless driving arrest while in the Minors and vague references to on the field maturity issues by coaches. But sports talk radio loves him.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yasiel Puig, what a reckless, crazy young guy. He is so much fun to watch, and he's energized the city. I mean I'm bonkers over watching the kid play baseball.

WIAN: It's too soon to tell how far the player some are calling the Cuban Missile will fly. But Puig's meteoric rise so far has been nothing short of spectacular.

Casey Wian, CNN, Los Angeles.

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COSTELLO: That's awesome. Good for him.

Coming up in the NEWSROOM, sushi delivered on a flying tray? Yes, that's actually happening. We will tell you where after a break.

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COSTELLO: Who needs a waitress when your food can fly to the table? But just one thing -- be prepared to duck. CNN's Jeanne Moos reports on the flying tray and what happens when it runs into turbulence.

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JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Think of it as a magic carpet ride for your dinner. Maybe the teriyaki burger better fasten its seat belt. Here at Yo Sushi in London, this waitress has four propellers, and tends to drop food upon liftoff. The flying tray is equipped with cameras so the controller can steer it using an iPad. Don't be surprised if dinner lands in your lap.

ROBIN ROWLAND, CEO, YOU SUSHI: Well, it's in test phase as we say. So we are working on something which is pushing boundaries. There's a conveyer belt that sort of brings food (inaudible)

MOOS: The conveyer belt borrowed from the Japanese as Yo Sushi's original claim to fame. The flying trays seemed to test reporters' skills in snatching food off hovering plates. The CEO says that the flying trade service It may be in place by late summer. We're not holding our breath.

What's next? Delivering room service via drone? Wait, Dominoes Pizza is already experimenting - delivering pizza by drone for a publicity stunt. What is it with all these the food stories. See what Oscar Meyer is doing with bacon? It's billed as the perfect Father's Day present.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When words just aren't enough, say it with bacon.

MOOS: Oscar Meyer, selling bacon collections, the commander, the matador, the woodsman which includes boxed bacon and a utility tool, added to our featured bacon cuff links, and the set sells for 28 bucks. Select a card with a meaty message, "You're the second best reason to wake up in the morning."

Give a gift from Oscar Meyer original collection.

MOOS: From frying to flying, maybe it is okay for R. Kelly to think he can fly but a rice bun and teriyake chicken burger.

Now that's a crash diet. Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEO CLIP) COSTELLO: You have to be good with the chop sticks, too, right?

Finally this hour, come September, an Iowa actress will be taking her message about overcoming disabilities all the way to the Miss America pageant. Nicole Kelly was born without her left forearm, has been crowned Miss Iowa. Kelly says her passion is the stage because that's where audiences have, quote, "permission to stare". Good luck to her.

Thank you for joining me today, I am Carol Costello. CNN NEWSROOM continues after a break.

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JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Hey, everyone. I'm John Berman, in for Ashleigh Banfield. Coming your way this hour. What will the man who knows all the NSA secrets say when he is grilled on Capitol Hill. The NSA director in the hot seat as the debate over privacy versus security intensifies.

What happened to three women inside this Cleveland home sent shock waves across the nation. Ariel Castro enters his plea on 329 counts