Return to Transcripts main page
New Day Sunday
Massive Storm Hits Tacloban; Texas Party Shooting; FAA Drone Rules; Bleacher Report
Aired November 10, 2013 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: This morning, an unprecedented crisis. From the air, look at this. The destruction from Typhoon Haiyan is haunting, and so are the numbers. Filipino officials now tell CNN it's possible the death toll could be at 10,000.
CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: But, on the ground, there are incredible stories of survival. We're going to take you to the front lines and hear from the Filipino president about what his country and others around the world, including the U.S., are doing to get relief to those people so desperate right now.
BLACKWELL: Also, a CNN exclusive. A day after Dr. Martin MacNeill was found guilty of murdering his wife so he could be with his mistress, his daughter opens up about testifying against him and what's the one thing she would ask him if she had the chance.
Your NEW DAY starts right now.
Good morning, everyone. Good to be with you this Sunday morning. I'm Victor Blackwell.
PAUL: And I'm Christi Paul. 6:00 on this Sunday, November 10th. You're up early for Sunday, but we're so glad to have you with us here on NEW DAY.
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.
PAUL: All right, we want to get started with something we've just been following in the last few hours, a mass shooting in a Houston suburb.
BLACKWELL: Yes, investigators say two people were killed and 22 others wounded when gunfire erupted at a house party. This is in the suburb of Cyprus.
PAUL: Witnesses say this house was filled with more than a hundred people, mainly young adults. These are the latest pictures we're getting from the scene. One resident said the neighborhood's usually a quiet place.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNO FIGUEROA, WITNESS: This is a very rare thing. This neighborhood is very quiet. As a matter of fact, before the party got started, two females were walking down the street knocking on all the resident's doors asking for permission to park their vehicles outside on the curb. Highly unusual for this area. Like I said, this is a pretty quiet, residential area. There's a lot of children here. This is the first time -- I've been here for seven years, this is the first time I've ever seen a party that big.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PAUL: Probably shook them up, too. The house was so packed, do actually - do you see the dent in that garage door? Apparently it got there from people trying to push their way out of that chaos. Investigators say they're trying to track down two suspects right now. We're going to get an update for you from the Harris County, Texas, sheriff's office in just a bit.
Now to our other developing story this morning, that typhoon tragedy in the Philippines. Entire villages are just wiped out. We told you yesterday how the death toll would likely rise. Well, today, we are waking up to some grim numbers. The mayor of the coastal city of Tacloban tells CNN at least 10,000 people are feared dead after Super Typhoon Haiyan tore through the Philippine Islands Friday. Right now, 151 people are confirmed dead.
Now, Tacloban is the area that was hit the hardest by this monstrous storm. We know at this point food is scare, water is running out, and the damage is so bad, rescue crews and aid groups can't even move in to get supplies there quickly enough. The police and military have sent reinforcements to Tacloban to prevent looting and people - they're just desperate for anything to eat. And apparently that was why they were looting because of that desperation. CNN's Andrew Stevens and his crew rode out that ferocious storm in a darkened hotel in Tacloban there.
BLACKWELL: And it was -- it was terrifying inside that hotel as the water rose and the wind blew. But what Andrew and his crew saw when they stepped outside, well, that was even worse.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANDREW STEVENS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It struck with terrifying and deadly force. The aftermath of Tacloban City's shattered landscape. This was home to thousands.
It was not the wind that did it, it was the storm surge. Reports of a five meter wall of water that engulfed the coastal strip and spread through the city. Even where the CNN crew was sheltering, about a kilometer from the shoreline, the surge was waist-deep and powerful.
STEVENS (on camera): All around us you hear the sounds of windows breaking, you hear the sounds of large objects falling and crashing to the floor. And underfoot, it is now just a deluge. And if you look behind me, I don't know if you can see it, the staircase behind me is now basically a waterfall.
STEVENS (voice-over): But that didn't compare with what happened here.
STEVENS (on camera): The storm surge was the most destructive part of this typhoon. We're about a hundred meters or so from the water here and you can see the damage caused. These houses, these were all rough- built houses, completely flattened along the foreshore. Thousands of people live along a stretch of several kilometers. And you can see behind me just how bad it must have been.
STEVENS (voice-over): Authorities had pleaded with people to leave. Many did, but many stayed. This man was searching for his father, his brothers, and his uncles, somewhere, he thinks, under this rubble. "We all tried to leave, but it was too late. I got separated when the water started rising. I don't know what happened to them," he tells me.
The devastation across the entire city of 200,000 people is widespread, winds upward of 250 kilometers an hour, leaving a trail of destruction. This is now a city on edge. No power, food and water running out, and medical supplies almost gone. St. Paul's (ph) Hospital, we're told, is the only functioning medical facility in the city. They can't admit any more patients. There's no room. Just first aid, in the most difficult of conditions.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Help! Help!
STEVENS: "We hardly have anything left to help people with," the doctor tells me. "We have to get supplies in immediately."
Just a block away from the hospital, the increasingly desperate search for food and water leads to looting.
STEVENS (on camera): This is one of the few stores which is left open. And as you can see, the crowds have been forming around these stores, taking anything they can. Food is a priority at the moment, but air- conditioning units, plastic toys, everything is coming out of these stores.
STEVENS (voice-over): And another street away, people are climbing up a lamppost to get to the second floor of a department store to grab anything they can. It took a full day before help arrived. And even though the storm was predicted days in advance, the response so far has not been nearly enough.
This was nature at its most frightening. A display of force that has smashed the lives of so many people. And this is just one city. There are countless towns up and down the coast where authorities are still waiting to hear word from.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLACKWELL: CNN's Andrew Stevens joins us now from Tacloban.
Andrew, we saw that people there are breaking into the stores to get some food, to get some medical supplies. The Philippine Red Cross says that it's going to take them maybe a day and a half by boat to get there because the airport is shut down, roads are demolished. Is there enough that's salvageable for people to eat, for people to access until the Red Cross gets there?
STEVENS: That's a really good question, Victor. At this stage -- I've asked that question a couple of times and the answer has been, we will be able to forage, we will be able to survive for one or two days. But that's maximum. They have to get help and they've got to get it now.
It's interesting, what you said, they're running out of food, they're running out of water. Medical supplies are critical as well. And the power is still down.
Take a look at this. I mean we've lit the scene behind me with headlights of the car we're using. Now this is just another typical street, quite a way from the storm surge. But all the way down, about a half mile down to the central business district, it's impossible to get through, so you've got to get those rescue crews, those relief crews getting in, getting to distribution points, and helping people.
We've been seeing choppers coming in. They don't carry enough. What we have heard, though, in the last few hours, is that the road to the airport is now open. That's critical because the airport is still the only way -- air supplies is the only way of getting relief into this place. The rest of the city is totally cut off by downed trees, broken bridges, et cetera. So if they get it into the airport, they can get it out. The U.S. are speaking to the Philippines president today and he confirmed that the U.S. is going to be sending in choppers. He needs as much lift as he can possibly get. There's a huge, huge job ahead of them.
BLACKWELL: We see the aftermath, obviously, of this storm, but you rode out the storm there at a hotel. Tell us more about that. I mean put this into perspective. Some of us have been through hurricanes or tornadoes, but this, a super typhoon, no one, I'm sure, has ever lived through something like this.
STEVENS: Well, I'll give you a comparison. We met a storm chaser in the hotel we were staying at. He's spent 21 years chasing Atlantic storms. This was the first time he's been across the Pacific in Asia chasing a storm and he said he had never seen anything like the ferocity of this storm.
In fact, they made a really interesting point. I said, the wind speeds at the eye wall, which is the most powerful part of the storm, which passed probably about 10 miles south of where I'm standing now, the wind speeds there were sustained at 195 miles an hour. That's an extraordinary number. That, if there was a number, would make it a category six hurricane. That gives you an idea.
Where we were, we were in a big, solid, substantial, old hotel. We'd been doing live shots on the roof on the fourth floor. We got out pretty much just in time. That roof was pretty much demolished. Lost the -- the building lost the roof, the ceiling, all the windows popped out. That was an addition to the top of the building, so it didn't affect the floors down below. That's where we were.
And it just went -- it went for about five hours. It wasn't - I never felt that this was, you know, we weren't going to get through this, but just the sheer intensity of that wind, just howling through. And it's like a white haze is the only way to describe it. When you could peek out of a window, and you had to be obviously very, very careful about getting anywhere near a window, you'd see, it's just a white haze and these flashes of black would come past, which is like flying debris.
And then a storm surge hit us. We were a long way back, as I said in my report, and that storm surge came up. It came up to pretty much the first floor. That was getting frightening. We were thinking (ph), well, how high is this going to go. It came up very quickly and it went back very quickly. So we were incredibly lucky, obviously.
We were, just to let you know, we were at a hotel right on the beach. And we had seen the storm chasers, by chance, there. And they said, listen, we've been looking at the satellite pictures. We cannot believe the intensity of this. We're pulling back. So our (INAUDIBLE) to pull back too. So the CNN crew pulled back as well, joined them at their hotel. That hotel did survive. But I was speaking to people who stayed there. They were literally hanging off their ceiling as the water rose. Sounds absolutely terrifying.
BLACKWELL: Wow! We're glad you made it through. Andrew Stevens, thanks so much for joining us this morning and hopefully help gets into folks there in Tacloban and all across the provinces soon. Thank you.
PAUL: Glad everybody's OK.
Coming up on NEW DAY, a rare interview with Tiger Woods as he pushes through the final rounds of the Turkish Airlines Open.
But first, thousands of unmanned drones flying in U.S. airspace. And the fear of midair collisions with passenger planes. Find out what the FAA is doing to make sure that doesn't happen.
You're watching CNN's NEW DAY.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.
PAUL: All right, here's what's happened overnight. A mass shooting in the Houston suburb of Cyprus. Investigators say two people were killed, 22 were hurt. This happened when a birthday party erupted in chaos. Witnesses say about a hundred people were at this thing, mostly teens and young adults between the ages of 15 and 20. We want to bring in Christina Garza. She's from the Harris County Sheriff's Department, the spokesperson for them.
Miss Garza, thank you for being with us.
First of all, you are still currently looking for two suspects. Do you have any leads?
CHRISTINA GARZA, HARRIS CO. SHERIFF'S DEPT. SPOKESPERSON (via telephone): Well, that is correct. This is still a very active scene. We are currently looking for one or two individuals. We've not been able to talk to a lot of the witnesses, again, because of the nature of their injuries. But we don't have any shooters in custody. However, we are actively looking for them and for any information that could lead us to those individuals.
PAUL: All right, so what do you know about the 22 people that were injured in terms of their conditions and their injuries?
GARZA: Well, their -- they were all transported to area hospitals. We have two people that did die. One died at the scene, another woman died at an area hospital. As you can imagine, this was chaos in a residential neighborhood. This was a private home where they were hosting a house party. And we have feasibly over a dozen, over 15 people who were transported to various hospitals. We still don't know all of their conditions. You can only imagine what that's going to be like. But we can only confirm that two have been dead and we still - we are still trying to work more information as we get it.
PAUL: Do you know how many were actually shot?
GARZA: We believe that all of our - all of our victims that are in the hospital - and, again, it's very hard to give you a number right now as information continues the to trickle through -- but we had easily over 15 who were taken to area hospitals. We believe that they all were shot by the gunfire that erupted at that house party.
PAUL: OK. All right. I just wanted to clarify that, because we knew 22 hurt. We didn't - we didn't know how many were actually shot.
Was anybody -- you said this was between ages of 15 to 20. Was there a parent at the house or somebody, you know, who owns the house? Were they home at the time?
GARZA: There was at least one - one adult, one parent, at the house when this happened. You know, again, the age range varied. There were just so many people in this house, it's really hard to tell, but we do believe their age range it varies from teenagers to people in their early 20s.
PAUL: OK.
GARZA: Again, we're still trying to gather information to see exactly who was there. I can tell you that there were easily over 50 individuals attending (ph) that party. Again, numbers are very hard to pinpoint at the time -
PAUL: Sure.
GARZA: But it was a massive house party. Unfortunately, this erupted shortly after 11:30 Houston time and we're after 5:00 in the morning here.
PAUL: OK.
GARZA: So we're still processing the scene. It's just so information that needs to come, and we're still actively looking for that information.
PAUL: (INAUDIBLE).
GARZA: So if anyone could provide that to us, that would be very appreciated.
PAUL: OK. So you just heard from Christina Garza there. Christina, thank you so much. We appreciate all the information.
Anybody who's watching, anybody who was there who has any information to give them, please do so.
And we kept running that video that you saw of the -- it was so chaotic. There is a dent in the garage door where people allegedly were trying to get out amidst all that chaos. It was the weight of those people that was able to actually do that, Victor. So, two suspects that they're still looking for this morning. We'll keep you posted.
BLACKWELL: All right, Christi, thank you.
Switching gears now. Unmanned drones, they've been widely used to target terrorists, particularly in Pakistan and Yemen. And you may not realize it, but the government also flies drones here at home. And that's raising some safety concerns in crowded skies. CNN's Rene Marsh tells us that's now prompted new rules from the FAA.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RENE MARSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): April, 2006, an unmanned aircraft patrolling the Mexican border loses contact with its ground- based pilot. It goes on an uncommanded joy ride, flying 30 miles until it crashes close to an Arizona home. It's that kind of scenario, or even worse a mid-air collision, that the Federal Aviation Administration is trying to avoid as it looks to open air space to thousands of drones.
MICHAEL HUERTA, FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION: We must ensure that safety and efficiency of the entire air space, including all aircraft, all people and property.
MARSH: In the next five years, drone use by businesses and governments is expected to soar. The FAA estimates as many as 7,500 drones could be flying in the U.S. airspace at any given time. Thursday, the agency released a blueprint of steps necessary to make it happen, requiring drones have sensors enabling it to avoid crashing into another aircraft, standardized training for operators, and identifying safe distances drones should keep from other planes.
MARSH (on camera): The FAA is working on rules for small drones, like this one, to even larger ones, with a wingspan of a 737, capable of flying up to 60,000 feet. But some commercial pilots fear sharing the skies could mean disaster.
JOHN BARTON, CAPTAIN FOR MAJOR AIRLINE: I think that most pilots, commercial aviators across the country, are deeply troubled with the accident rate of drones at this time. I think the number -- the last report that I saw was 9.31 accidents per hundred thousand hours flight. That's three times the amount of any aircraft category.
(END VIDEOTAPE) MARSH: Well, right now, the FAA approves unmanned aircraft on a case- by-case basis, usually for reasons like law enforcement, border security, or scientific research. Next, the agency will pick six sites throughout the country to test the ability of manned and unmanned systems to fly safely in the sky.
Christie. Victor.
PAUL: All right. Thank you so much.
Still to come on NEW DAY, it wasn't exactly the prettiest thing in the world, but Tiger Woods was able to remain in the hunt at the Turkish Airlines Open. Plus, CNN goes one on one with him, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLACKWELL: As some would call them, the kings of college football. Not everybody, of course. Alabama cemented its status as the team to beat this season.
PAUL: Yes, the Crimson Tide keeps rolling. Jeff Fischel here with this morning's "Bleacher Report."
Good morning.
JEFF FISCHEL, BLEACHER REPORT: I think they've earned that title. Back-to-back national titles, that's for sure. Nick Saban, the Tide's overlord (ph), I mean coach, allows for zero margin of error. Alabama wore down a tough LSU team Saturday night. The Tigers looked like they just might pull off the upset. They scored just before the half to make it a three point game. And this guy in the crowd, Internet sensation for doing like a dinosaur dance of some sort. A t-rex thing, I don't know.
AJ McCarron, of course, has Katherine Webb watching in the crowd, threw three touchdowns and the Tide keeps on rolling. They're still undefeated. Right behind Alabama, Florida State and college football's freshman phenom famous Jameis Winston. The Seminoles walloped Wake Forest 49-3 to clinch their division, qualify for the ACC title game. Winston still in the Heisman hunt, set a new conference record for freshman touchdown pass. If Bama and Florida State keep rolling and winning, looks like they'll play for the national title.
And Tiger Woods right now is playing through the pain of hitting a tree to stay in contention at the Turkish Airlines Open. He started the day's final round in third place, six strokes behind the leader. Through 12 holes, he's still six back. Earlier this week, Tiger sat down with CNN's Rachel Nichols for an exclusive interview.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RACHEL NICHOLS, CNN: I get to ask you about your girlfriend, Lindsey Vonn. I believe when someone asks to describe you, they asked her, they said -- she said, he's funny and a little bit dorky. Is that fair?
TIGER WOODS, PRO GOLFER: I guess so. You know I'm -- my teammates used to call me Urkel.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FISCHEL: That's quite a confession to admit that in college - we knew that. Back in college at Stanford, he was teased as Urkel. So, he admitted it. I don't know if he can do the Urkel dance. That's the question.
PAUL: That's the question.
FISCHEL: Yes, that's the question. That's what I want to know.
BLACKWELL: Yes. Jeff Fischel, thank you.
FISCHEL: All right.
PAUL: Thanks, Jeff.
BLACKWELL: We'll be back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PAUL: Mortgage rates ticked up this past week. Take a look.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PAUL: It's early. Half past the hour right now, 6:30, but we are glad to have your company. I know this, it's an early morning.
BLACKWELL: Yes.
PAUL: Try to get out of bed after a Saturday. You know maybe -
BLACKWELL: Depending on what you did Saturday night.
PAUL: That's right.
BLACKWELL: Yes. I mean you might be just finishing up Saturday night before you start Sunday morning.
PAUL: You might still be up for all we know.
BLACKWELL: Yes.
PAUL: I'm Christi Paul.
BLACKWELL: I'm Victor Blackwell. Here are five things you need to know for your new day. Number one. They survived the massive typhoon that ravaged much of the Philippines, flattening entire villages, but now thousands of people are desperate for the basics. Food, water, shelter, communication. The mayor of one city that's been almost completely destroyed says it's possible. As many as 10,000 people died in Super-Typhoon Haiyan and the ferocious storm that surged, that followed.
PAUL: Number two, police in the Houston area looking right now for two suspects after a gunfire erupted at a house party, a sheriff's department spokeswoman told me a short time ago. Two people were killed. At least 15 shot and taken to hospitals, but there were about 100 people who jammed into that house.
BLACKWELL: Up next, Oregon officials say an employee was killed at an animal sanctuary after she was attacked by a wildcat. It happened just outside of Portland. The rescuers had a hard time getting to the worker, because there are several cats loose within the park. The facility's website describes it as a no-kill, last-hope sanctuary for wildcats in need. It's not open to the public.
PAUL: Number four. After three intense days of negotiations, diplomats failed to reach a deal that could prevent Iran from making a nuclear weapon. And Secretary of State John Kerry and officials from the European Union were in Geneva negotiating with Iranian leaders. The agreement would have eased the economic sanctions on Iran, but Israel's prime minister was never on board, calling it a, quote, bad deal.
BLACKWELL: And number five, good news, people of Earth, the sky is not falling.
(LAUGHTER)
BLACKWELL: Well, yet. In less than 48 hours, a two-ton European space satellite is expected to plunge toward Earth. We're serious, here. It ran out of juice last month. And get this, nobody knows exactly when or where this thing will fall. OK, back to some good news. It's being tracked online and there's a good chance it will just fall into an ocean.
PAUL: Well, our own Alexandra Steele is joining us now with the latest on this falling satellite. What have you been able to dig up, Alexandra?
ALEXANDRA STEELE, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I know where it is. Would you like to see it?
PAUL: Yes!
STEELE: All right, come to my office.
(LAUGHTER)
STEELE: There it is. Site, there it is. All right. It's a satellite the size of a Chevy suburban and you can see it right there, over Africa. And, you know, since 2009, it's been orbiting the Earth every eight minutes. This is just a great site. We'll put it online, so you could find - it's like tracking Santa. Remember, tracking Santa? Similar scenario. You can watch it and it really moves quite quickly. So, it's kind of cool. Like, you know, what really is happening, it's kind of coasting like a hang glider down to Earth. That's what's happening. So, it's not whizzing. So, it's slowly - and we're trying to find like a four to five-hour window in the next day or two, and that window is when we'll precisely be able to kind of monitor where it is. You know, we know where it is, but where it will fall will be key. So it's falling from space, as we told you. The time period of it landing is today into tomorrow. And it's dropping about three quarters of a mile an hour. And it is the most likely to hit the ocean, 70 percent of our world is ocean, right? And of that 30 percent left, not a lot of it is inhabited. So it's not just the only one, though. There are about a thousand satellites in space, but there's actually about 20,000 objects, kind of the size of your hand, that are just kind of up there floating, maybe items that have collided and gotten pushed into bits.
So, but the good news is, space debris has never been reported to hit anybody. So there it is. It's called Gauche, and again, it's about the size of a Chevy Suburban. And so pieces -- it most likely will break into about 30 to 40 pieces, maybe about 200 pounds, that's about as big as the pieces would be. So we'll monitor it and we'll watch it and it's coming down today or tomorrow.
PAUL: All righty. What about weather? I mean anything - anything in the weather we should keep an eye on?
STEELE: Well, you know, you may be able to see it anywhere, because look at all these sunny skies. High pressure over the entire country for the most part, beautiful conditions. It was kind of cold on the East Coast yesterday. Temperatures warming up today. So, 60 degrees to 70 degrees in Atlanta and Charlotte and Nashville. So milder than it's been. So we've got a nice Sunday in store for really most all of us.
PAUL: Nice! Alexandra Steele, thank you for that delivery. We appreciate it.
STEELE: You're welcome.
PAUL: All right, coming up, a CNN exclusive.
BLACKWELL: The daughter of Dr. Martin MacNeill opening up the day after her father was convicted of murdering her mother. Hear what she had to say to the jury.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLACKWELL: Good morning, Atlanta. She's so pretty in the morning. Live look at downtown as the sun comes up. You see the Ferris wheel there just below the Westin, the lights, the sunlight coming up at the horizon. Going to be a nice day in Atlanta.
And the daughter of now convicted murderer, Dr. Martin MacNeill, she had some really critical things to say about her father.
PAUL: Yes, she's not mincing words about it. Remember, MacNeill was found guilty yesterday of murdering his wife by drugging her and drowning her in a bathtub. Now, the trial moved to the sentencing stage in January, but CNN's Jean Casarez sat down for this exclusive interview with MacNeill's daughter, Alexis Summers, in Provo, Utah. Jean?
JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Christi and Victor, Michel MacNeill's daughter Alexis refused to believe that her mother's death was natural. Even when investigators turned away, she went to them and said, I know my father killed my mother. I've got the evidence. One of the bases, though, for the defense was that Alexis was lying. That she was so angry at her father for cheating on her mother that she would say or do anything to get back at him. The jury has now spoken, but I sat down with Alexis to set the record straight.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: As to count one, murder, guilty. As to count two, obstruction of justice, guilty.
CASAREZ: What was going through you before that verdict was read?
ALEXIS SOMERS, DAUGHTER: I was just shaking, I was trembling. I was so scared and nervous. We knew the verdict was going to be coming at any moment and the culmination of so many years, fighting for this.
CASAREZ: Your father's reaction when the verdict was read, he was non-emotional. Just stood there. There seemed to be an acknowledgment at the end. You know him better than all of us, what does that say to you?
SOMERS: I thought I knew him. Now we've really come to understand who he really is and he's a calculated, cold murderer.
CASAREZ: It's so ironic, in a sense, that this trial begins and you bring new life into this world. You've just had twins. What will you tell them about their grandma?
SOMERS: Just tell them the stories, the stories that my mom loved us. She loved all of her children.
CASAREZ: What will you tell your children about their grandfather?
SOMERS: I don't know. I don't want -- I don't know if I want to tell them about him. He doesn't deserve to be a person in their lives.
CASAREZ: Do you have any regrets at all?
SOMERS: I definitely have regrets. I wish -- I wish I hadn't left to go back to school. I wish I had been there to protect my mom.
CASAREZ: Did you get to meet the jurors?
SOMERS: We did. It was actually very, a very amazing experience to be able to hug each of the jurors and thank them.
CASAREZ: If you could ask him one question right now, that you could get an answer on, what would that be?
SOMERS: I would just ask him, I don't know, maybe why? Why would you take her away from us? But I know why. He didn't care. He had a plan. He didn't care about my mom.
(END VIDEOTAPE) CASAREZ: Alexis knows this is not over yet. Another emotional experience in January. It will be the sentencing hearing for her father. According to Utah law, victims can stand and make victim impact statements before the court. Dr. Martin MacNeill will also be allowed to speak. Christi and Victor, back to you.
PAUL: Well, it will be interesting to see - thank you, Jean, if he does say anything there.
Still to come on "NEW DAY," before you even think about making a friendly wager on one of today's football games, you need to see this.
BLACKWELL: Yeah.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you videoing?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You got to --
EV)
BLACKWELL: How one couple's high-risk bet ended with an arrest and a really angry wife?
PAUL: And, you know, Veterans Day coming up, and that's one of the times that we say thank you to all of you who have served our country, and service members aren't the only ones who work really hard on the battle field.
For a lot of people in the military, service dogs are a key part of daily operations. And as this week's "Veterans in Focus" show us, returning home is a whole lot sweeter when you're with your best friend.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LOGAN BLACK, IRAQ WAR VETERAN: Yeah, that's the spy. On her belly.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Eight-year-old Diego doesn't say much. In fact, he never barks.
BLACK: That's a good boy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This yellow lab spent the better part of his life talking with his nose and helping his country in the process. Now retired, this former military bomb-sniffing dog has a new home. But it's with an old friend.
BLACK: Oh, it feels fantastic. You know, I've been waiting for this for a really long time.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 34-year-old Logan Black worked as a bomb specialist and trained Diego. The two served together on more than 40 missions in Iraq, sniffing out everything from hidden weapons to large homemade bombs. Logan says Diego saved his life and many others more times than he can count.
BLACK: He comes up and starts sniffing a lot right next to where I'm standing, and then gives me a full indication that, hey, dad, something's here. And it turned out that there were two roadside bombs that had been buried, too deep for metal detectors to find.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And Logan wanted to return the favor. And for years, he'd been searching for his old partner, even on Facebook, wanting to adopt him after his service was over.
BLACK: No doubt Diego would have found a happy home somewhere. But a home with me is totally different than a home with a new stranger.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tuesday, the Air Force officially retired the dog and allowed Black to adopt him.
BLACK: He was my best friend, my partner in Iraq. No matter how bad things got in Iraq, I always had something that loved me unconditionally.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The rest of Diego's life, Logan will be returning that love.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLACKWELL: We want to get you more now about the effect of Typhoon Haiyan on the Philippines, where this storm has really ripped parts of this country apart. There are growing fears this morning that the death toll is much higher than those initial estimates.
PAUL: The mayor of Tacloban City says 10,000 people are feared dead, and officials have already confirmed 151 people died in that storm. Paula Hancocks is in Tacloban City right now. And Paula, I understand you just spoke with the Philippines' president, President Aquino. What did he tell you?
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, yes, Christi and Victor. Basically, there was the fair bit of anger from some of the people who were coming here to the airstrip, to the devastated airport, trying to get food and water, because they were complaining that the food and water is not getting to the areas where it is needed. The ?enter of the city is just about ten miles away, but it is very difficult to access. Only today have the roads actually been made accessible. So, people are trying to come here to get the food. Now, I spoke to one Filipino-American woman, she said that the storm surge and the typhoon were like a living hell. In fact, she said it was worse than hell. And when the president came to have a look around the area, she went straight up to him and she showed him her anger, saying the Philippines cannot do this on their own, they need help. And as we know, the U.S. is now starting to try and help as well.
So when I spoke to President Aquino, I asked him why there was such a slow response.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRES. BENIGNO AQUINO, PHILIPPINES: There's also a breakdown, especially in the local government ever, there are necessary first responders. And too many of them were also affected and did not report for work. That also attributed to the slow delivery. So we will be in coordination with the local government unit that the national government will be taking over on a temporary basis. And we will be putting in more people to fill up the positions that were vacated suddenly with the people who were depending upon to give us a data and to actually implement all of the processes and programs.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANCOCKS: So those first responders that they would be relying on did turn out to be the victims here. Christi and Victor, back to you.
PAUL: Paula Hancocks, thank you so much for bringing us the latest. Stay safe here. And we'll just obviously keep you informed as to what happens, because it's just an almost hour-by-hour process ...
BLACKWELL: Yeah, and unfortunately.
PAUL: ... of learning new information.
BLACKWELL: Those numbers are going up and we'll continue to follow the search for the people who survived and this fight to get resources to all those who need it.
PAUL: Absolutely. Now, if you're looking ahead at your week and you think you've got a rough one, try being the president.
BLACKWELL: Yeah, President Obama may need to brace himself. CNN's Erin McPike is in Washington. Erin?
ERIN MCPIKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Christi and Victor, President Obama's approval rating hit a new all-time low this week, 39 percent in Gallup's polling. But as tough as the going's been for the president in recent weeks because of Obamacare, it's about to get even rockier.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MCPIKE: President Obama taking a break on the golf course in Florida, before what promises to be the most embarrassing week since the botched rollout of his signature law. Due out in the next few days are the initial enrollment numbers, Americans who've actually been able to sign up for Obamacare, despite all the problems with the healthcare.gov website.
KATHLEEN SEBELIUS, HUMAN HEALTH SERVICES SECRETARY: I can tell you our early enrollment numbers are going to be very low.
MCPIKE: And since this ...
OBAMA: If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan.
MCPIKE: hasn't exactly turned out to be the case. On Wednesday, House Republicans will vote to ensure that Americans with health care plans they like really won't have to switch. House Speaker John Boehner taunted him on Twitter. President Obama says he's sorry, but he owes Americans more than that. He ought to keep the promise. Mr. Obama has promised his team will find a solution, telling NBC News ...
OBAMA: But obviously, we didn't do a good enough job in terms of how we crafted the law and that's something that I regret. That's something that we're going to do everything we can to get fixed.
MCPIKE: But no fix announced yet. And as of Saturday afternoon, even the White House website was still saying, if you like your plan, you can keep it, and you don't have to change a thing due to the health care law.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MCPIKE: And Democratic senators who are up for re-election next fall are getting nervous about all of this, so they met with President Obama this past week to express their concerns, but Republicans are keeping up the pressure. One of the president's thorniest critics, Darrell Issa, has subpoenaed the White House's Chief Technology Officer, Todd Park, to testify about the problems with the Obamacare website at a hearing this week. Now, so far, the White House says he's too busy fixing the website issues to make it. Christi and Victor?
BLACKWELL: All right, Erin, thank you. Also ahead on CNN's "State of the Union," host Candy Crowley talks with South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham. It does the air by "60 Minutes," changed his mind about the attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya. Also, Republican Party elder statesman Bob Dole about the GOP transition. "State of the Union," 9:00 Eastern, only on CNN.
And, guys, rule number one about being a good husband, do not tase your wife.
PAUL: Bad idea.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you videoing?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You've got it.
(LAUGHTER)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PAUL: She sounds like she's laughing, but stick around for more on one couple who took their bets over Monday night's Bears/Packers game all the way to jail. You're watching "NEW DAY."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLACKWELL: Hey, so it's Sunday. Everybody's watching football. That's great. But before you go out to a sports bar today, you need to see this first.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you videoing?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You got it.
(LAUGHTER)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PAUL: OK, that's a husband tazing his wife.
BLACKWELL: Bad idea!
PAUL: Mm-hmm. After she lost a bet over Monday night's Bears/Packers game. Seriously, he was doing that -- now, she was laughing, I know, at the time, but by the third time, apparently it ticked her off and she got revenge.
BLACKWELL: Ticked off.
PAUL: She called the cops and she sent him to jail. I know you want to know more about this. Here's WISN Terry Sater.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TERRY SATER, WISN CORRESPONDENT: This is the small town Wisconsin tavern where bartender Chris Neu Bears/Packer romance between a husband and wife got flagged after Monday night football.
CHRIS NEU, BARTENDER: They had a bet between the two of them. That the loser was supposed to get tased by the winner.
SATER: And the Bear, John Grant, won, so his wife lost.
SATER: The criminal complaint says at some point, the couple stepped outside the bar here to smoke cigarettes. They ended up in the alley and the wife told police, that's when the husband used the taser to shock her twice on her backside and once on the thigh.
NEU: She, you know, they kind of laughed it off, she breathed the whole thing, they videotaped it and everything else.
SATER: But then he says the wife got tased one more time and got mad. The couple left the bar and she called police. NEU: I had no inkling whatsoever that they would end up in an altercation at the end of the night.
CHRISTOPHER MACNEIL, MAYVILLE, WISCONSIN POLICE: It's one of those things where you just can't make this stuff up.
NEU: Christopher MacNeil is Mayville's police chief.
MACNEIL: The taser that he had was a skin contact type of taser, which actually, if you use it enough times or in a certain spot, it can actually leave burn marks.
SATER: The husband went to jail on a charge of possessing an electric weapon.
ANNOUNCER: Now the Bears fan is behind bars.
NEU: Which is always a good thing, you know.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PAUL: Good to know it's a good thing.
BLACKWELL: Yeah, Terry Sater from WISN, thanks for that. Bet dinner ...
PAUL: Yeah, that would work.
BLACKWELL: ... or taking out the trash or a week of dishes.
(LAUGHTER)
BLACKWELL: That's enough.
PAUL: Ouch! I think they know that now.
BLACKWELL: Yeah, they do now.
PAUL: Hey, we are so glad that you've been with us this morning.
BLACKWELL: We've got a lot more ahead on the next hour of your "NEW DAY." It starts right now.
Good morning, good morning. The weekend is half over, but we're going to start fresh this Sunday morning. I'm Victor Blackwell.
PAUL: And I'm Christi Paul. 7:00 on the East Coast, 4:00 on the West. They haven't even been to bed, I'm quite certain of it. This is "NEW DAY," Sunday.
BLACKWELL: And we want to bring you the latest on that, this devastation in the Philippines, from that monster typhoon. It's destroyed almost everything in its path. CNN has team coverage on this disaster. Our Andrew Stevens is in hard-hit Tacloban City. Ivan Watson is in Manila, just after taking an aerial tour of the typhoon devastation. We're going to go to them in just a moment. But first, there are fears that the death toll could soar to 10,000.
