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California Water Restrictions; Arkansas Governor Won't Sign Religious Freedom Law; Democrat Camille Bennett Voted Against Arkansas' Religious Freedom Law; Multiple Keypad PINS Could Stop Germanwings Type Crashes; Bikram Yoga Movement Founder Accused of Sexual Assault. Aired 2:30-3p ET
Aired April 01, 2015 - 14:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[14:32:33] BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Just past the bottom of the hour. I'm Brooke Baldwin.
News just in to CNN. The governor of California has now announced the state's first-ever mandatory water reductions as the state suffers through severe drought. He made the announcement at the annual snowpack survey where he was actually standing on dry grass instead of snow.
Sara Sidner is on the phone following the story from California.
Sara, what are the restrictions?
SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Look, it's about how many times people turn on the tap, watering their lawns, pulling back on what people do in their daily lives. I want to give you an idea. We went down to central California, the bread basket, fruit basket, of the country. It's where a huge portion of -- for example, almonds are grown and pistachios and things people know from California are grown there in the fertile soils. They also take a lot of water. A lot of farmers are having to say we can't plant here anymore. We have to let this field die, that field die.
What's more telling about how bad this drought is, is there's a community in east Porterville that has no water in their homes. About 5,000 people have no water running in their homes, in America, in California. There's a lot of concern going on.
This isn't the worst drought in 100 years. A study from Minnesota said this is the worst drought in 1,200 years. They looked at sample from tree rings and found this is the worst drought in more than 1,000 years. You can see it in the reservoir, for example. That's what these look like. It is really disturbing. There's a major problem here. But people are going to have to change the way they do business and the way they live their lives most literally.
[14:34:43] BALDWIN: First water reductions in the state's history. This is a huge, huge deal. Sara Sidner will follow this with our other crews in California.
I appreciate it very much.
Let me turn now to the Atlanta cheating scandal. Remember this from a couple of years ago? These teachers and principals were accused of fudging grades and changing scores so that schools are seen in a different light. We learned from 11 of 12 defendants involved in the cheating scandal. They have been found guilty of racketeering and processed into jail. We're talking about teachers and principals who are apparently charged with changing student's wrong answers on work sheets, changing them to be correct, in an environment for cheating where better test scores were encouraged. Let me just quote the judge here in this case is quoted by saying, "These are convicted felons, as far as I'm concerned." All these convicted felons are taken into custody in Atlanta, Georgia.
Moving on, just one day after the governor of Indiana vowed to fix the state's controversial religious freedom law, the Republican governor of Arkansas is saying he will not sign the bill in his state in the current form. Asa Hutchinson said changes must be made first.
Let's go to my colleague, Victor Blackwell, who is following the story from Little Rock.
Victor, what are the changes he wants made?
VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm going to let the governor explain that himself in a moment. You see people walking around here. A rally ended on the steps of the capitol. It started with the human rights campaign saying they are hearing you, they are listening. The governor was expected to announce why he was signing this. The office this morning said he was going to sign this bill. Instead, he explained he wanted changes made.
Here's the governor this morning explaining what he wants to change in this bill.
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GOV. ASA HUTCHINSON (R), ARKANSAS: The bill that is on my desk at the present time does not precisely mirror the federal law. It doesn't mirror it in a couple of ways, particularly allowing the First Amendment to be assertive in the private litigation between parties or the reliance on the state law and those claims. Therefore, I ask that changes be made in the legislation. I've asked the leaders of general assembly to recall the bill so that it can be amended to reflect the terms of Federal Religious Freedom and Restoration Act.
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BLACKWELL: I just spoke with the Senate sponsor of this bill, Senator Bart Hester. He said it is now on the governor to get that done. If he wants these changes, he's got to make sure they happen. He said it's going to be a difficult climb. This passed both chambers with large majorities. It's important to say there's no pocket veto in the state of Arkansas. If the governor does not sign or veto this in five days excluding Sunday, it will become law any way. So the governor here has a huge job ahead of him. BALDWIN: All right. We're going to push through on points you made.
Victor Blackwell, thank you very much.
Governor Asa Hutchinson said legislation in Arkansas should boil down to protecting those with truly held religious convictions and truly minimize the chances of discrimination. Here's more from the governor.
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HUTCHINSON: This bill simply defines the standard to determine the right balance, but how do we, as a state, communicate to the world that we are respectful of diverse work place, that we want to be known as a state that does not discriminate but understands tolerance. That is the challenge that we face. Making this law like the federal law will aid us in that effort in communication.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Democrat Camille Bennett, here she is on live TV -- we've got you ma'am -- is a member of the Arkansas state house, voted against this bill.
Representative, welcome.
STATE REP. CAMILLE BENNETT, (D), ARKANSAS: Thank you. I appreciate you having me.
BALDWIN: Let me begin with a point my colleague, Victor, just made. The fact as recent as this morning it was understood Governor Hutchinson was going to sign this into law. Do you think everything that if what happened in Indiana had not happened, he would have?
BENNETT: You know, I think we'll never know that. I argued on the floor yesterday and made the motion to pull this bill down. I think it came very quickly through. I think there's a lot of unintended consequences in this bill. Whether the governor would have been aware as quickly he was without the influence I don't know. I'm glad it has come to his attention at this point.
[14:40:03] BALDWIN: Is this the fact he wanted to mirror federal law, is this the specific change you wanted?
BENNETT: It's exactly the specific change I asked for. I asked -- we have attorneys that prepare laws for us. I'm also an attorney. I asked them to prepare an amendment to this law that exactly mirrors federal law. I ask that that bill be pulled to committee so that that amendment could be added. As you could tell by the vote, it was resoundingly defeated. I think that's the process we're looking at now if both sides are willing to recall it to chambers to work on this.
BALDWIN: I asked you at the top whether how much of Indiana affected him. I'm wondering down the road in Arkansas, there's Walmart and everything, pressure from Walmart. I'm wondering if you think that pressure swayed the governor.
BENNETT: You know, I think what happened on a lot of this law is, as I mentioned earlier, unintended consequences. Private corporations can be sued under this law. It opens this up to a lot of lawsuits both against governments and private corporations. I think a lot of this came in at the last minute into the law. As I said, kind of have some change intent of this law. Had problems to begin with. It has a lot more problems after the Senate amended it. I think once Walmart, Tyson, our state chamber, once everyone realized the ramifications of this law, that's when it came to this point. Also to give the governor credit, it was not his decision to make until it hit his desk. You know, there was every reason to hope we might have defeated this on the House floor, which is what I've been trying to do the whole time this bill has been before us in session.
BALDWIN: Well, the nation is watching your state of Arkansas, representative. We'll be watching in the next couple of days to watch for the changes.
Camille Bennett, thank you very much from Little Rock.
BENNETT: I appreciate your asking me to be here.
BALDWIN: You got it.
Coming up next, as officials and media outlets argue where the video from inside the Germanwings plane in the final moments before it crashed into the French Alps, one expert says the majority of crew should be able to over ride when a cockpit door is locked from the inside. We'll challenge him on that theory.
Also ahead, a yoga icon now under fire amid allegations of rape and sexual assault. You'll about to hear CNN's exclusive interview with yoga guru, Bikram Choudhury, and how he's responding. Stay here.
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ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.
[14:47:12] BALDWIN: All right. We've been following these Iran U.S. nuclear talks, negotiations underway in Switzerland. The latest I have for you, that deadline, self-imposed deadline was supposed to be 6:00 p.m. eastern yesterday, then moved to today. Now I have news from the State Department it will be moved through at least tomorrow. This is what Maria Harf says from State: "We continue to make progress but have not reached a political understanding. Therefore, Secretary Kerry will remain in Lausanne until at least thursday morning to continue negotiations."
We're going to talk with David Sanger who wrote this phenomenal piece in "The New York Times" this morning talking about the difference of precise numbers and negotiations, versus symbolism, years of distrust. Iran still says the U.S. is the Great Satan. We'll walk through the points next hour.
Meantime, this. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
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BALDWIN: As investigators are sorting through the final desperate minutes on board 9525, there's a lot of "what ifs." What if the crew outside could have been able to get in? Could this mass killing have been prevented? Led me read you this from today. "The need for a sort of cockpit lock is obvious. Perhaps the officer banging on door has gone mad, or is being held hostage at knife point. But the need for an override is obvious. Perhaps the man in the cockpit is the bad guy."
I've got the man that wrote this standing by.
First, a reminder of how the laws work on this otherwise indestructible cockpit door.
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ROSS AIMER, RETIRED AIRLINE PILOT: This is basically a dead bolt. That's the final thing you could turn on. Once you have this dead bolt on, there's no way anything can open this from outside.
STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT; There's also this key pad here I want to show. That key pad was good to letting a pilot in. There are other parts to it, right?
AIMER: Yes. There are obviously codes that are issued periodically. It's changed. The pilot puts the code in. There's a 30-second delay, he could get in. After that again, it's locked.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: That was Stephanie Elam.
Let me go to the man who pinned this op-ed, Akhil Amar, sterling professor of law and political science at Yale University, and the author of "The Law and the Land."
Professor, welcome.
AKHIL REED AMAR, PROFESSOR OF LAW AND POLITICAL SCIENCE, YALE UNIVERSITY & AUTHOR: Thank you.
[14:39:44] BALDWIN: Reading your piece, you liken this to a U.S. president, vice president situation. Can you walk me through your theory?
AMAR: Sure. Suppose the president is arguably disabled, maybe mentally disabled. Our Constitution permits the vice president to take over. If the president contests the vice president, if they are wrestling, as it were, over the key to the situation room or the Oval Office, the 25th Amendment to our Constitution actually says, well, when the vice president says the president is the mad man and the president says it's the vice president, the cabinet comes in and makes the majority of vote. We pull the crew, bring in more independent human beings into the process in order to get to the right answer.
BALDWIN: Your point, translating this to a plane example, would be you have let's say the co-pilot in this instance in the Germanwings plane locked out and overriding the key padlock for the pilot banging on the door to get in. Your idea is have multiple members of the crew have different codes to then override that from the inside. Am I right?
AMAR: Right. Everyone has a PIN number. If there are seven crew members punch in the code together that opens the door. If you believe in democracy, there's safety in numbers, getting more independent decisions into a process. It won't solve all problems. It could create its own scenarios. It doesn't require a huge retro fit. Put laboratories inside the cockpit. Redesign planes in all sorts of ways. This seems like a fix we could do easily.
BALDWIN: There are all ideas. Hearing your idea, hearing ideas of ground control overriding a pilot, hearing from pilots that don't like the idea.
AMAR: Yeah.
BALDWIN: There's no human system that is foolproof. I immediately think what if there is a terrorist on board the plane and takes away one of the flight attendants rendering her unable to type in the key pad, and you need all five, therefore you can't get this the cockpit.
AMAR: That's right. It would not be all five, a majority rule actually --
BALDWIN: Got it. Got it.
AMAR: -- the most stable system.
BALDWIN: Akhil Reed Amar.
If you'd like to read his piece and theory, go to CNN.com.
Professor, thank you.
AMAR: Thank you.
BALDWIN: Coming up next, are you a yogi? Enjoy a good sweat? You heard this story? Now under fire for allegations of rape and sexual assault. Up, next CNN's exclusive interview. Alisyn Camerota sat down with yoga guru, Bikram Choudhury. Alisyn joins me next.
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[14:55:54] BALDWIN: He has created an empire with his signature of sweaty yoga. We're talking 105 degrees hot in a room, yoga. But now the founder of the Bikram yoga movement is facing rape allegations. Multiple women, all former students of Bikram Choudhury have come forward accusing the 69-year-old of sexual assault.
CNN's Alisyn Camerota spoke to one alleged victim and got the reaction from Bikram Choudhury himself.
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SARAH BAUGHN, ALLEGED SEXUAL ASSAULT VICTIM: I was asked by him to come into his office. He sat down behind his desk and immediately went into what should we do about this? I asked him what? He said what should we do about us? We need to make this a relationship. I've known you from a past life. It was instantly shocking.
BIKRAM CHOUDHURY, FOUNDER, BIKRAM YOGA MOVEMENT: I feel sorry for them. I have nothing against them. I don't think they're bad people. It's not them saying that. They're influenced by somebody --
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A lawyer?
CHOUDHURY: -- which is lawyers.
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BALDWIN: All right. We've got a lot to unpack here. Alisyn Camerota here on set.
I did Bikram yoga for quite a while.
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: As I have.
BALDWIN: I enjoyed a good sweat --
(LAUGHTER)
-- until I felt my organs were baking and decided I don't need to do this anymore.
CAMEROTA: It's intense.
BALDWIN: For people that aren't familiar, can you explain it?
CAMEROTA: 90 minutes of intense yoga, his signature poses. It's 105 degrees. It's a very, very intense practice. Some people swear by it. He does have legions around the world that say it has changed their lives.
BALDWIN: Very famous clients swear by this practice.
I read about Bikram when I was doing this and had read about allegations, sexual misconduct. These women are banning together.
CAMEROTA: Not only that but they're launching civil suits in the la superior court. Five of them are charging him with rape. One with sexual assault. They've gotten lawyers.
BALDWIN: This is serious.
CAMEROTA: It's serious. They've gone to the extent of filing affidavits and starting the civil legal process.
BALDWIN: You sat with him, where, where were you?
CAMEROTA: In his home.
BALDWIN: You think of yoga, you think of pure, non materialistic. You walk in his home. What's it like?
CAMEROTA: He has a different spin on that. He's all about conspicuous consumption. He's made millions of dollars from his yoga practices. He has a whole collection of classic cars, Rolls Royces, Mercedes. He's not ashamed of that.
BALDWIN: What did he say when you asked about stories of sex with students?
CAMEROTA: I thought he was going to use the excuse somehow this was consensual. He says he never touched these women. He says he never had consensual sex with them. I said have you had consensual sex with any of your students? He gave the most perplexing answer we've ever heard. He said yes and no.
And you'll have to tune in tonight at 10:00 p.m. to understand his explanation for what yes and no means. You can also watch "New Day" tomorrow. He has what he believes is a great explanation for his complicated past with his students.
BALDWIN: OK. You got me there.
Alisyn Camerota, thank you very much.
Watch the full interview, tomorrow morning, "New Day," 6:00 to 9:00 on CNN.
Appreciate it.
CAMEROTA: Thanks very much.
[14:59:51] BALDWIN: All right. Moving along. Top of the hour. You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.
We have more new information on the downing of Germanwings flight 9525. Never-before-seen video here. This is really up close now, a different vantage point of remains and wreckage as these recovery crews are pulling these pieces out.
