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Dangerous Heatwave Continues Out West, Down South; Mayor Regina Romero (D-Tucson, AZ) Discusses The Dangerous Heatwave Expected To Break All-Time Heat Records; U.S. Govt To Pay Nearly $1M To Settle Civil Sexual Assault Case Against Former Senior General; Autopsy: Lisa Marie Presley Died Of Complications From Prior Weight-Loss Surgery; Disney's Florida Theme Parks See Significant Drop In Attendance. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired July 14, 2023 - 14:30   ET

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

[14:30:00]

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: By the time we work our way through the end of the weekend, there will be 100 more record highs. See them mainly in the south and in the west as well. California is going to heat up.

If it gets to 118 in Vegas, my kind of adopted hometown, kind of, that will be the hottest temperature ever on record for Vegas for any day, any month, any year.

It's going to be 118. The old record for any day in the year is 117. So that's what we're talking about, all-time record highs -- Brianna?

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Wow. Those numbers, Chad. All right, you're keeping an eye on things for us. We do appreciate it.

Thank you.

Rahel?

RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN HOST: Well, people across Arizona really feeling the effects of the heatwave. Phoenix hasn't dropped below 110 degrees in two weeks, and the nights offer little relief.

Cooling centers are a form of refuge but burn centers say they're seeing more patients who have been injured by the sizzling concrete.

With me now is Regina Romero. She's the mayor of Tucson.

Mayor, thanks for being with us.

We know the city opened cooling centers in early June. At the time, the plan was to open them for four hours a day seven days a week. But then this week, Tucson set a record for the city's longest excessive heat warning.

So my question is, what is the city doing in addition to protect residents?

MAYOR REGINA ROMERO (D-TUCSON, AZ): Well, thank you for having me, Rahel.

Tucson and Phoenix are two of the fastest warming cities in this country. And extreme heat is one of the deadliest weather-related hazards in the nation. So a lot of people think flooding or tornadoes, but heat is the silent killer.

So I ran -- this is my first term as mayor. When I ran, part of my platform, it was to act fast and boldly on climate change and climate adaptation in the city of Tucson.

We passed a climate action and implementation plan in record time, focused on the most vulnerable communities in our city.

Because the effects of climate change, the front line to those effects of climate change are seniors on limited incomes, children, low-income communities and those people that work outside.

So here in the city of Tucson, we're already implementing climate resiliency strategies.

One of the most important pieces of investments that we can do, besides the cooling centers, which is immediate action, but in order to be able to act on climate change, 30 percent of greenhouse gas emissions come from transportation.

So the city of Tucson, thanks to the Biden administration in the Inflation Reduction Act, we've invested $48.9 million, almost $50 million to completely change our diesel buses from our transit system to either electric buses or CNG low-emission buses. So we're doing that.

We're creating cooling centers, and basically providing this service. And -- connecting with nonprofit organizations to help our unsheltered residents as well.

We're doing --

(CROSSTALK)

SOLOMON: Yes. And I want to ask about that, Mayor, because one thing you often hear is, you know, seek shade where you can. Stay in an air- conditioned home if you can. Don't go outside if you can.

But for people who don't have an air conditioner, for people who may work outside, I mean, are you especially concerned about perhaps the most vulnerable folks in Tucson?

ROMERO: Absolutely. The most vulnerable folks in Tucson are the ones that are the front line.

So the cooling centers, we partnered with our transit system to pick up our seniors, if they call us, and take them to the cooling centers, to senior centers where there's activities they can do all day long.

With children, we have a summer program where children can be taken from 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. to stay in a cool place in partnerships with our schools.

But also, long term, we are planting -- my goal is to plant one million trees by 2030. And that is a nature-based solution to the heat-island effect that we feel in urban centers like Tucson and Phoenix.

SOLOMON: Well, Mayor, we appreciate you being with us. Certainly, we are sending lots of good thoughts, cool thoughts to everyone in Tucson and Arizona.

Thank you.

Brianna?

[14:34:45]

KEILAR: Coming up, an autopsy revealing the cause of death of Lisa Marie Presley. How a common weight-loss surgery that she had years ago played a role.

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KEILAR: The U.S. government is paying out nearly $1 million to a retired U.S. Army colonel who accused the former vice chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff, General John Hyten, of sexually assaulting her multiple times.

The retired Air Force general has denied these allegations. And an Air Force investigation was unable to corroborate or refute the allegations of wrongdoing against him.

He was nominated then by President Trump to be the second most senior U.S. officer in the nation. He was actually confirmed for that position and he retired from it in 2021.

Hyten argued the -- Hyten, the general, argued that the accuser couldn't sue him because of the nature of the allegations being incident to military service.

[14:40:03]

This is a key element of the Feres Doctrine, which prohibits servicemembers from suing the government for injures that are experienced in the performance of their duties.

But after a years'-long civil lawsuit filed by Colonel Kathryn Spletstoser, who publicly alleged sexual assault and battery against Hyten in 2019, the military is now going to pay her $975,000.

We have retired Air Force Colonel Don Christensen with us now. He's a former chief prosecutor for the Air Force. He also served as a counsel for the Solomon Law Firm, which represented the accuser in this civil suit.

Don, this is big. And I want to talk to you about what this means both for the colonel, but also what it means for other cases. Because this is saying that someone in the military can sue for damages against someone else in the military who they are accusing of sexual assault and who a court finds that they believe there is some guilt there, that there is some, you know -- there's finding in what they are alleging here.

What is this going to mean for a precedent?

COL. DON CHRISTENSEN, RETIRED AIR FORCE PROSECUTOR: Well, thanks, Brianna, for having me on.

For Colonel Spletstoser, particularly, because she was vilified by many people in the military, people in Congress who accused her of falsely alleging that General Hyten had done this. So for her, it's really important we got the settlement.

But for the big picture, what's really important is the Ninth Circuit made it clear, at least in the Ninth Circuit, this idea that sexual assault is somehow an incident in the service just won't stand.

So that one, it's been there for a possible lawsuit against a sexual offender in the military, at least eroded. As I said, there's been a crack in the door.

So hopefully, what we're going to see is more accountability for those who violate the norms we have in the military when they sexually assault other military members.

KEILAR: This comes down, if the military is paying this out, it's taxpayers who are on the hook for paying these damages for sexual assault cases, much in the way, say, a company or a municipality would be on the hook.

Do you think this will affect how the military approaches tackling sexual assault?

CHRISTENSEN: Well, I hope so. That's a great point. A lot of the reform and progress we've seen in the civilian world is because people can bring actions either through Title VII or direct lawsuits against employers.

The military has been immune to that pressure that comes from civil litigation. Civil litigation is a driver of change. And that's what we really hope to see.

KEILAR: The most recent DOD data we've seen is pretty discouraging, because it shows sexual assault is a growing problem in the military. The numbers aren't going up just because victims may feel comfortable reporting it either.

That's not a silver lining here. It's actually that fewer people are opting to report as incidents are going up.

Why do you think this is happening? Why is this so hard for the military to figure out? CHRISTENSEN: That's an excellent point. And 36,000 men and women are

sexually assaulted by the military's estimates last year. That's a record high. That's despite billions of dollars being spent, years of promises.

And one of the reasons is there's been a culture of denial and a culture of disbelief in the military that this is a problem.

So even though their data shows there is a systemic rot within the military when it comes to sexual assault, the leadership really hasn't committed to tackling the issue.

And so while we see sexual assault numbers go up, we're seeing prosecutions going down, we're seeing convictions going down.

So while we have a record high of sexual assaults, we see sexual assault prosecutions drop by over half.

KEILAR: Don, we spoke a lot around the decision in 2020 by the Supreme Court that ended up saying the military was overruled, right? That it said rape cases that happened before 2006 could be prosecuted.

Are we seeing here a trend, do you think, increasingly where civilian courts are intervening in the military justice system, or are these just one-off cases when it comes to sexual assault?

CHRISTENSEN: Well, unfortunately, they're one-offs. What we have seen in some courts is a willingness to step in. The Supreme Court stepped in, in that case, as you discussed. The Ninth Circuit very well addressed this issue.

[14:45:01]

But there's been a deference to military leadership in the way the military handles things by civilian courts. And that's something that really also needs to be dealt with.

The courts need to understand there's nothing unique about military sexual assault versus an assault at IBM or anyplace else. Sexual assault is sexual assault.

And they have to make sure justice is being done. They should not give deference to the military on this issue.

KEILAR: Don, thank you so much for joining us. This is a big day. Almost $1 million, almost $1 million taxpayer dollars being awarded to this colonel.

Thanks for being with us.

CHRISTENSEN: Thank you, Brianna.

KEILAR: Rahel?

SOLOMON: Thank you, Brianna.

Now to some of the other headlines that we are watching this hour.

Let's start in Georgia. A Henry County police officer got quite a surprise when he pulled over a speeding vehicle. While on patrol, he caught the Dodge Charger going over 96 miles per hour in a 35-mile- per-hour zone.

When the officer approached the Charger, he quickly recognized the person behind the wheel as Henry County Sheriff's Chief Deputy Michael Yarborough.

A spokesperson for the sheriff's office confirmed to CNN that, yes, Yarborough was on duty at the time of the incident but was not driving with his lights or sirens on.

Also, the four indigenous children that were found in the Amazon after 40 days, they have now been released from the hospital.

The children, ages between 1 and 13, were found last month in the Amazon Rain Forest following an aircraft that killed their mother and the pilot.

They have been receiving treatment at a Colombian military hospital since they were found on June 9th.

And finally, a 79-year-old man was hospitalized early Thursday morning after being attacked by a nearly seven-foot alligator. This happened at a golf course community in Naples, Florida.

Take a look at this thing. The man told deputies he was on a walk in a golf course community where he lives when an alligator came up and bit him in the leg.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm bleeding. I don't know how bad it is. It's profuse and there's a lot of skin ripped off I can see. Probably some muscle. Got to figure out if I can walk to stay healthy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bitten by an alligator.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLOMON: Incredible. He has a sense of humor after that.

According to the sheriff's office, responding deputies rendered aid and the man flown to the hospital on a medical helicopter for treatment.

Brianna, I don't know if I would have the same kind of sense of humor after being bit by an alligator. But incredible that he does.

KEILAR: No, incredible.

So we have some new details about the death of Lisa Marie Presley, how she died. A newly released medical examiner's report reveals the late daughter of Elvis Presley passed away from a complication of a common weight-loss surgery.

I want to bring in CNN health reporter, Jacqueline Howard, on this story.

She'd had, Jacqueline, bariatric surgery years earlier. Tell us how exactly this contributed to her death.

JACQUELINE HOWARD, CNN HEALTH REPORTER: That's right, Brianna. But we are now learning from this medical examiner's report that, after that previous surgery, Presley experienced a lot of scar tissue buildup, a lot of adhesions, ultimately, leading to what has been determined to be her cause of death, a small bowel obstruction.

So specifically, what we're talking about here, the medical examiner's report says cause of death was a strangulated small bowel obstruction, meaning that buildup, that scar tissue in the area was able to block off some blood flow causing this cause of death.

Now, often we do hear of scar tissue occurring after surgeries for some patients that might need additional surgeries to have the scar tissue removed. That's to reduce their risk of a more serious complication happening, like an obstruction like this one -- Brianna?

KEILAR: Such sad news.

(CROSSTALK)

KEILAR: And also something that I think a lot of people who had that surgery will want to pay attention to.

Jacqueline Howard, thank you so much.

Rahel?

SOLOMON: All right, Brianna, thank you.

And as actors at the picket lines, Disney is seeing a summer slump. This, at its theme parks. What's causing a dip in attendance at Florida's theme parks?

[14:49:17]

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SOLOMON: Welcome back. It is called the most magical place on earth, but Disneyworld may be dealing with a disappearing act. The long lines that typically greet visitors at Orlando's major theme parks, well, they have thinned out, and they've thinning out dramatically.

It's an odd occurrence, given the travel season is usually one of the busiest times of the year.

CNN business reporter, Nathaniel Meyersohn, is looking into why this is happening. Nathaniel, I do want to talk about why this is happening. But first,

explain the "what." I mean, what are we seeing in terms of attendance there?

NATHANIEL MEYERSOHN, CNN BUSINESS REPORTER: Right, Rahel. This is not something we would expect to see, especially during the peak travel summer. But Disneyworld attendance is down. You look at Disney parks, attendance has dropped 23 percent this quarter from a year ago.

That means shorter wait times for folks. Wait times have dropped from about 41 minutes for the average ride last year on July 4th, down to 33 minutes.

So, look, that's great news for riders who want to get into the animal kingdom, but it's not great for Disney, which is trying to fill up these parks.

SOLOMON: Yes. I think some people might hear this story and think, could this have anybody to do with the very public feud between DeSantis, the governor, and Disney? What are you seeing? What do you think? Why is this happening?

[14:55:03]

MEYERSOHN: So, Rahel, it really has to do more with higher prices at Disneyworld. Prices have jumped from about $159 for a one-day ticket up to $189. That's deterring some customers from going. Extreme weather and extreme heat is also making a difference.

And folks have so many more options right now. For example, Disney said that its cruise business was doing really well. So maybe some folks are hopping on cruises instead of going to theme parks.

SOLOMON: I think there's more air conditioning on cruises. Understandably, people want to escape the heat.

Nathaniel Meyersohn for us. Thank you, Nathaniel.

Brianna?

KEILAR: With that kind of money, might as well go on a cruise.

Hollywood on strike. As actors join writers on the picket line, the trickle-down effect of this could cost states billions of dollars. And also, have a big impact of what you are watching on TV and at the movies.

This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

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