Return to Transcripts main page

New Day

J.C. Penney Will Cut 2,000 Jobs; Oscar Nominations; Man-Eating Tiger In India; Super Early, "Super Bowl" Ads

Aired January 16, 2014 - 06:30   ET

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


JUSTIN GREEN, FAMILY ATTORNEY: It's unthinkable. It's unimaginable, because the first thing that -- the first priority of the firefighters or any rescue personnel is saving lives. The person that needed their help the most was Mengyuan, and that's the person they didn't help.

RENE MARSH, CNN AVIATION AND GOVERNMENT REGULATION CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Her family has filed a wrongful death claim against the city of San Francisco saying, "Rescuers breached their duty of care to Ye Mengyuan, and were grossly negligent."

GREEN: Initially, what was being said was that she was covered in foam, no one saw her and she was run over. But that's not what the videos show.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MARSH: Well, last July, after it was determined, rescue vehicles killed Ye, the San Francisco firefighters apologized profusely. But with the release of this video, the city of San Francisco and its fire department have declined to comment citing pending litigation.

Back to you, Chris and Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Rene, thanks so much for the update.

Let's get back over to John for some more of today's top stories.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks so much, Kate.

We do have breaking news overnight. Three people dead inside an Indiana supermarket. Police in Elkhart, Indiana, say two females, a shopper and an employee, were shot to death by a gunman. Officers then arrived and killed the suspect while he held a gun to another person's head. There's no known motive for the shooting at this point. Police say it does not appear the suspect knew the victims.

A major cheating scandal involving nuclear weapons officers shaking up the Air Force this morning. The Pentagon says a total of 34 officers in Montana were involved or knew that this was going on, and 16 of them are accused of actually cheating on the proficiency exam by text. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel says he is deeply troubled by this.

A massive turnout is expected for Robert Gates' book signing at the Pentagon today. This might be a little bit awkward, given that the former defense secretary's criticism of President Obama in his new memoir. Gates questioned the president's handling of the war in Afghanistan and blasted Vice President Biden for being, quote, "wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades."

New developments in West Virginia. Testing commissioned by CNN shows the water in West Virginia is safe to drink after a chemical spill. The areas we sampled had traces of the chemical, but far below any level considered to be dangerous. Despite concerns from some residence, tap water has been restored for more than half of the 300,000 people who lost it following the spill. That happened a week ago.

BERMAN: And check your marijuana at the door. Passengers traveling through the Colorado Spring's airport are advised to leave their now legal pot at home. But, but if you forget, the airport has installed an amnesty box at the screening check point. A second will be placed at the front entrance.

Now, I know what you're all thinking. I know what you're all thinking.

BOLDUAN: Yes, you do.

BERMAN: The amnesty boxes, they will be destroyed. Until they are destroyed, they will be kept under 24 hour surveillance.

BOLDUAN: That seems -- come on everyone. Like a little bag of waste.

BERMAN: I don't want to fill the rest of it.

BOLDUAN: Feels like a waste.

BERMAN: Feels like a move being taken by the people at the Denver Airport.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Why do have to -- you have to leave it why? Because you're under federal law in the airport?

BERMAN: They don't want it in the airports. This is one of the gray areas left behind by the new Colorado law. First, Denver International Airport said they don't want pot on their facility. Now, Colorado Springs is saying the same thing.

It's not clear -- but these airports are taking these steps. And then, again, you are right, TSA, in theory, being a federal agency wouldn't want pot around.

BOLDUAN: It is interesting. And there's fine line you have to walk in to be really. When I was skiing in Colorado, there was a sign on the ski lift that said you are in a national park which is -- a federal national park, you cannot have marijuana on these grounds.

CUOMO: Which you told me at the time, you thought big fuzzy bears are chasing me and I don't know why.

BOLDUAN: Well, I immediately left the ski result obviously. I'm just kidding.

INDRA PETERSONS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: I want to know how they're going to destroy the box, are they going to burn? That's all I'm saying, right?

CUOMO: You will know because they'll be a small fire going on 50 guys standing around.

(CROSSTALK)

PETERSONS: All right. Talk about weather guys, temperatures very normal today, which is the good news. Temperatures kind of just a hint above normal going towards normal as we go towards the weekend for the eastern half of the country.

So, that's a good news. Yes, we have a little bit of rain out there. It's not a big story. You can get just a hit, I mean, barely making its way to the East Coast today, light showers, kind of cloudy conditions.

But notice there's another system behind it. This is the one we're watching. The trick question here, who knows what is ground blizzard is? Anyone? Anyone?

BOLDUAN: No.

PETERSONS: Excellent. You should know from this morning. I know you did, John.

What we are talking about is, we're not talking about heavy snow, but you have very strong winds out there that brings the visibility below a quarter of a mile. So, that's the reason in the Dakotas, and Minnesota today, they do have a blizzard, but it is a ground blizzard. See? Now, you know.

Snow amounts, I'll tell you again later, a little bit slower.

BOLDUAN: It's still sticking with me.

PETERSONS: Yes, don't worry.

Four to six inches of snow otherwise for the Ohio Valley tonight, in through tomorrow. By the time we get to the weekend, the sky kind of dries out. We won't be looking for that, maybe just about an inch of rain because it also warms up at the same time. Do we need a pop quiz on the ground blizzard again?

CUOMO: I feel it's misnamed.

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: I don't know. I have to think about it. But I don't think a ground element --

BERMAN: A blizette (ph).

(CROSSTALK)

BOLDUAN: All right. We're going to ponder that in the commercial break.

Coming up next, Oscar nominations about to be announced. So, who's in line for best actor, best actress, best picture? Get your pick ready, we're going to head out to L.A.

BERMAN: You know, if you have to watch commercials, you got to love the Super Bowl commercials, you know? Yes, the games coming out next month, but the commercials are starting to come out now. Why? We're going to get a sneak peek and discuss this early timing.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: Money time. Chief business correspondent Christine Romans is in our money center.

Christine, let me ask you something. What is that jumping bar set that's behind you right now? What is it that's flying? I mean, do we know or it's just money moving in general?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: It's the visualization of prosperity, Chris Cuomo. That's what it is.

CUOMO: Strong answer.

Christine Romans, everybody.

ROMANS: Listen, I shall educate you. Look, we've got Dow futures lower this morning. But it might just be a breather. You know, the Dow gained 108 points Wednesday to force the highest close ever. The NASDAQ also gained, the S&P 500. Actually, barely managed a record high.

JCPenney stock lower. The pre-market guys, ailing retailer is going to cut 2,000 jobs. It's going to close 33 of what it calls underperforming stores.

This has been a brutal year for JCPenney. The stock is down more than 60 percent over the past year. This company has been losing hundreds of millions of dollars every single quarter in a restructuring that went very, very bad.

And Yahoo's number two is out. Henrique de Castro is going to leave with a severance package that could be worth $42 mil. And that's for a little more than a year on the job. De Castro was Marissa Mayer's first big higher when she became the CEO of Yahoo. But "The Wall Street Journal" says Mayer decided that Castro needed to go because he didn't deliver the ad growth she needs -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: Christine, thank you so much.

Talking about -- let's talk about gold. From money time to Oscar gold. The road to Oscar gold starts this morning, pardon me. In just two hours, the nominations for the 86th Academy Awards will be announced, which films are poised to surprise and what stars are about to disappointed.

CNN's Nischelle Turner is up, dark and early in Los Angeles with the preview.

I love -- I know you love this time of year. You call it the Super Bowl, but, man, you pull some tough hours, Nischelle.

NISCHELLE TURNER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: You know, it does get kind of bad (ph) sometimes, but this is the big morning, Kate. So, I can't complain. So, you look good standing in front of those gold statutes.

BOLDUAN: Thank you very much. It's my dream for the future. Let's talk about the Oscars though. What do you -- the best picture is I would say one of my favorite categories. And I would argue this year, it is very tough to whittle down to the nominees, because there are a lot of great pictures.

What do you expect?

TURNER: Yes, it's definitely been a good year for movies. You are exactly correct. It's a tough year to pick. But he good thing about the academy is they get to pick now anywhere between five and 10 movies. So, they can say you know, interest were ten -- there were ten really great movies.

I do think there's a couple we can see almost locks, almost shoo-ins this morning. I don't want to be the jinx, but I really think these movies will be nominated.

I'm talking "12 Years A Slave," I'm talking "American Hustle," and I'm talking "Gravity." Pretty much safe bet you will see them this morning. Now, there are a couple that could be in the running this morning. That is Lee Daniel's "The Butler" and also "Blue Jasmine." They're kind of outside chances for those movies to be nominated this morning.

I say Lee Daniel's "The Butler" is kind of a wild card because it was shut out of the Golden Globes. It was nominated for several screen actors guild awards. It's been a critical darling, but it kind of the buzz for it fell off the radar a little bit. So, we'll see what happens this morning.

BOLDUAN: Let's take through the acting categories. What about best actress? Who do you think will be the safe best for nominees?

TURNER: Well, you know, this category for me, I think, is pretty straightforward. There could be a couple wild cards, but I do think there's some women definitely nominated this morning. Those women are Cate Blanchett, Emma Thompson.

I also think that Amy Adams for "American Hustle", Meryl Streep and Sandra Bullock will all be nominated. A wild card in this category, Kate, could be Julia Louis-Dreyfus for "Enough Said". People really started to really talk about her character in this film. She got a lot of buzz. She got a Golden Globe nomination. So we may see her sneak in and knock somebody out this morning.

BOLDUAN: Yes, she was great. She came on the show and talked about the film. It was tough, the challenge of that character, because it was very conflicted, kind of complex character to play in that movie. What about best actor do you think?

TURNER: Well, this is the category that I think is just who knows what's going to happen because there were so many strong performances by the men this year. I know we don't have a lot of time.

But here's what I want to say, I think there are a couple of locks for this one this morning. Matthew McConaughey will get a nomination for "Dallas Buyers Club," Chiwetel Ejiofor will get a nomination, Leonardo DiCaprio will get a nomination and Bruce Dern will get a nomination. I believe that to my core.

There's a lot of wild cards here. There's a couple -- Robert Redford on the bubble. People either thought that movie was brilliant, or they just didn't get. Forrest Whitaker had a lot of buzz early, kind of slipped off the radar, could come back this morning.

We also could see Tom Hanks, we could see Christian Bale and we could see Joaquin Phoenix nominated this morning.

I'm so excited. I hope I wasn't talking too fast.

BOLDUAN: You were not talking too fast. We talk it all in. And I'm excited with you. It's going to be fun. I think supporting actor and actress will be an interesting category as well. But we're going to talk about it later in the show. Michelle is here to walk us through and help us take it all in at 8:30 Eastern. We're going to have live coverage from Los Angeles of the Oscar nominations. Michelle will be inside the room as the nominees are being called.

Chris?

CUOMO: Coming up on NEW DAY, the real reason everybody watches the Super Bowl, the ads. These days, you don't even have to wait for the game. Companies are releasing them early to create a buzz. Is this a new strategy to get those expensive ads to actually work?

And boy you're going to love this. Passengers on a New York City bus got a treat. A live performance from a macadocious music-making duo. We'll show you who in our must-see moment, coming up. Here's a hint, change the game, don't let the game change you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BOLDUAN: Let's go around the world now starting in Russia where a security sweep in advance of next month's winter games erupted in a deadly shoot-out. CNN's Phil Black reports.

PHIL BLACK, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Russian security forces say they were sweeping a region looking for militants when they found a group of them in a house they say under darkness where these militants tried to escape and breakthrough their lines. And in the shoot-out that follow, three members of the security forces and four militants were killed.

It all took place in Dagestan, not far from Sochi where Russia will host the winter Olympics in less than a month. And it's another reminder of the huge security threat facing those games because Islamist militants in the region have promised to do all they can to disrupt them. Back to you, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Phil, thank you much.

A horrific story out of Northern India where officials are hunting a tiger believe to have killed seven people in the past two weeks while prowling for food. CNN's Anna Coren.

ANNA COREN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Kate, the hunt is on for a man-eating tiger in Northern India following the latest attack in the past two weeks. The female tiger has claimed her 7th victim after the remains of a woman's body was found in a forest. The tigress is thought to have strayed more than 17 miles from Jim Corbett National Park (INAUDIBLE).

Last week, authorities ordered to shoot and kill it. The animal rights activists have condemned the move calling on rangers to instead tranquilize the tiger, an endangered species, and return it to the park. Back to you, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Anna, thank you for that.

CUOMO: Just horrible.

All right. Super Bowl is coming up. Why am I talking about it so far in advance? Here's why, because we love the commercials, right? It turns out that these commercials are getting released early this year. It's little odd, isn't it? Let's figure it out. It seems like a business story, so CNN chief business correspondent, "Early Start" co- anchor, Christine Romans is here. What's going on with this?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Social media buzz. It's getting us to talk about. You're going to pay four million bucks for 30 seconds, you want people to be talking about it a lot longer than 30 seconds. You want people talking about it ahead of time. So now, you've got these companies that are, you know, these ads that are previews, really, for their real ad and some of them are very expensive and very, very interesting.

Axe is one of them that I think -- just listen to this Axe ad, and it's a little bit of a departure for what these ads are usually like in this company.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(MUSIC PLAYING)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Make love, not war with new Axe peace.

(END VIDEO CLIP) ROMANS: It was sort of this buildup, this military buildup. It sounds like it's going to be super masculine and violent (ph), and then it switches into this love story. A little bit different there. They're unveiling a new body line called Axe peace. See, and now I'm talking about it.

CUOMO: Axe quality product.

(LAUGHTER)

BOLDUAN: I'm biased over here. I love the ad, I love the message, but if this is going to air in the Super Bowl, why are we seeing it now?

ROMANS: -- we'll start talking about it ahead of time.

CUOMO: They want to get their --

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: It's so expensive and a lot of times there's not real follow through, right?

ROMANS: No, you're right. And this is a 60-second version they released of a 30-second ad that will actually appear. So, some of the things that you're seeing now are not what you're going to see in the Super Bowl. So, it's giving you a little bit of tease and then the Super Bowl you're going to be primed up for it.

Another one they watching here is this Butter Finger ad. This edible couples' counseling, peanut butter and chocolate, need to see a counselor. I mean, big stuff here, and this is the Butter Finger one.

(LAUGHTER)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Don't you think it would be nice to try something new and crunchy?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Crunchy or smooth?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. and Mrs. Buttercup, the therapist will see you now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: It's a little voyeuristic for your --

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: I can't envision either of those foods looking that way.

(LAUGHTER)

BOLDUAN: No?

CUOMO: No. BOLDUAN: I wouldn't take issue with that. And there's fish and chips, they're also at couples' counseling.

ROMANS: I know. I know. And then, there's this Doritos. Now, we talk a little bit about the Doritos. They're doing contest, really. In online, you can vote for which ones that you want. I mean, the ostrich, the break room ostrich is a good one. Let's listen to this one.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Someone has eaten all the Doritos in the break room.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, obviously it was the ostrich, right?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(LAUGHTER)

ROMANS: And then, there's this like any parents love this and the cowboy one -- so, I love the cowboy one. Let's listen to a little bit of the cowboy one and then we'll do the finger cleaner.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Boys, can I get some help?

UNIDENTIFIED KID: I don't know, can you?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Guess you don't want Doritos.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: That was good clean fun. And then the next one is just good, clean weird. We have to cut this one. I'm not going to show you the very ending of it, but the one that people are voting for online, two million hits online. It's called finger cleaner, and it's really weird.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Billy, use the cleaner.

Touchdown.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. It only works with Doritos.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why only Doritos?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You ask too many questions, Billy.

(END VIDEO CLIP) ROMANS: That's the one that -- online. I mean, that will not appear on the Super Bowl, but I'm pretty sure it can't appear on Super Bowl the way it ends. But anyway, it's very --

BOLDUAN: It's not very graphic --

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: I just want to hear you say finger cleaner more.

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: Christine Romans is disgusted by that commercial, by the way. It's a true professional in her to even show it.

(LAUGHTER)

CUOMO: I love the kid on the dog.

BOLDUAN: Yes, me too. And the ostrich is funny.

(CROSSTALK)

BOLDUAN: I know they might not get the bang for their buck if they pay all this money for the Super Bowl, but I love them.

(CROSSTALK)

BERMAN: We're showing it weeks before the game. They get a big bang.

BOLDUAN: Who was Doritos now? Show off hands. I do.

ROMANS: Can we do the jaguar one? We're dead aren't we?

BOLDUAN: oh, this thing --

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: -- that finger thing so much, Christine.

ROMANS: I know. Just less time on Doritos and more on jaguar. The jaguar one is really cool.

BERMAN: All right. From those "Must-See Moments" to today's "Must- See Moment." Most people who ride mass transit are somewhat used to impromptu music performances. Not like this one, though. This lucky group of commuters got a really special treat. Take a look at this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right. How you guys doing today? All right. OK. All right OK. All right. OK. All right. OK.

BERMAN (voice-over): The breakout rap group, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis performing their number one hit, "Can't Hold Us" for a group of unsuspecting New York City bus riders. What you are not seeing is NEW DAY anchors, Chris Cuomo and Kate Bolduan who've been dancing the whole time to the studio.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: We are very big --

(CROSSTALK)

BERMAN (on-camera): -- promotional video for an upcoming Grammy performance. They're going to be at the Grammy's. They were nominated a whole lot. The Grammy's on January 26th.

BOLDUAN: That's a great idea.

CUOMO: Welcome celebration of the true artistry of rap. The guy's lyrics mean something.

BOLDUAN: He can surprise on NEW DAY any day.

(CROSSTALK)

BOLDUAN: -- who is this young man? Here, have some change --

(CROSSTALK)

BOLDUAN: Exactly.

(LAUGHTER)

CUOMO: All the best things about rap these guys have gone (ph) for. Wish them well. Wish them well.

BOLDUAN: We're going to take a break. Coming up next on NEW DAY, the scary sounds inside a school where shots are being fired. We have the 911 calls from New Mexico when a 12-year-old opened fire.

CUOMO: And what kid doesn't want to celebrate a big win? What are you supposed to do? Little leaguer, you win, he throws his helmet up in the air. Now, he's getting sued by his coach. Why? We'll tell you. And you're not going to believe how much the guy's asking for either.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a huge crime scene. There were several rounds fired in there.

CUOMO: Breaking overnight, super market shoot-out. Three dead after a gunman opens fire. The police response was quick and effective. See how tragedy was averted. Live with the latest.