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Florida May Lose $218 Million As Judge Orders Shutdown Of Detention Center; 95 People Sickened In Salmonella Outbreak Tied To Recalled Eggs; Two Injured After Houston-bound Flight Hits Severe Turbulence; Millions Expected To Travel For Labor Day Weekend; Air Force Offers Military Funeral Honors For Rioter Killed On January 6; Remembering Hurricane Katrina's Devastation 20 Years Later. Aired 1:30-2p ET
Aired August 29, 2025 - 13:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[13:31:33]
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Now to some of the other headlines that we are watching this hour. State official says Florida taxpayers could be on the hook for this. The $218 million spent to build that so-called Alligator Alcatraz Immigration Center -- Immigrant Detention Center, the facility may soon be completely empty as a judge upheld her decision this week, ordering operations to wind down indefinitely. The remote detention center built on an abandoned airstrip in the Everglades has been plagued by reports of unsanitary conditions and detainees being cut off from the legal system.
Also, a salmonella outbreak tied to recalled eggs has sickened at least 95 people in 14 states. The illnesses were reported between January and July. A company called Country Eggs, LLC has been identified as the common supplier in this. The affected products include large brown, cage-free eggs that may be labeled sunshine yolks, or Omega-3 golden yolks. Anyone with the recalled products is urged to throw them away or return them to stores.
And two passengers had to be taken to the hospital Thursday after a Houston-bound flight hit severe turbulence. The United Express flight operated by SkyWest was on its way from Colorado when passengers say the aircraft just suddenly dropped.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: SkyWest 5971, the medical people we're calling would like to know if the injuries were from the turbulence and if they are on oxygen?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The injuries were from the turbulence. We are checking on the oxygen. The passenger is not on oxygen. We will need a stretcher, and I know that there is bleeding as well. SkyWest 5971.
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KEILAR: At least one person on board reportedly hit the ceiling multiple times. The flight was diverted to Austin, Texas where SkyWest says the flight landed safely and medical staff were standing by. Boris, certainly it is time to pack your patience (ph).
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BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": That's the kind of story that just makes you want to fly, makes you want to travel, right?
KEILAR: Yeah, for sure.
SANCHEZ: Especially on Labor Day. It's going to be a busy one on the road and in the skies. Millions of Americans get ready to enjoy the last bits of summer. Despite traffic, there is some good news for drivers. Gas prices haven't been this low on Labor Day since 2020. Plus, hotels, flights, rental cars cheaper now compared to last year's holiday weekend. Let's take you right to DCA with CNN's Pete Muntean, our aviation correspondent / part-time mayor at DCA. Pete, how are lines looking right now?
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PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Not so bad, Boris. They let me out of the building. I feel like a cage-free egg today.
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MUNTEAN: Things are actually pretty smooth, at least here at the Terminal II north checkpoint. The wait at this line has been pretty low all day. We're in a bit of a lull right now, actually. It was long early this morning. Around 8 a.m., 9 a.m., the line was all the way to where I'm standing, about maybe a hundred feet away from the start of the TSA checkpoint. And today, according to the TSA, will be the biggest day for air travel nationwide, 2.91 million people in total expected at airports. This is not a record. Labor Day rarely breaks records, although it's pretty big. The number to beat is about 3.1, million.
[13:35:00]
We saw 2.8 million people yesterday. Of course, Monday will also be huge. So many people coming back after the long weekend. Yesterday was the biggest in terms of the number of flights according to the Federal Aviation Administration. That number goes down a little bit today, really drops off over the weekend. The good news is the snags have been minimal. Yesterday, there was a radio frequency outage at the air traffic control facility responsible for flights going in and out of Newark. It's called Newark Approach. That's the place that's had problems since the spring. The FAA says it's still investigating the cause there.
The big thing here is that a lot of people are just trying to sneak in this last little getaway of summer. There are big pushes for going to domestic destinations. We're talking Orlando, one last trip to Disney, New York. Easy to do a three-day weekend there. Also, Seattle, Chicago, places that get cold later on in the year. And then international destinations, which I find really interesting, Vancouver which is easy to get to from the west coast, but also Western Europe, easy to get to from the east coast. Rome, Dublin are big destinations according to AAA. And AAA's Aixa Diaz told me this is just so much about folks trying to squeeze in one last little getaway. Listen.
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AIXA DIAZ, AAA SPOKESPERSON: It's the last probably guaranteed long holiday weekend for most people until Thanksgiving. Labor Day really is that last hurrah for many travelers. Now, again, it depends, A, if you have children, and B, are they back in school or not.
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MUNTEAN: OK. Worst times to travel by car. We're kind of in it right now. Wait until 6:00 p.m. local time, if you can. AAA says interestingly, tomorrow will be probably one of the worst on the roads. A lot of people putting off that three-day weekend trip until tomorrow afternoon, so between about 12 and eight, if you can avoid it tomorrow. We're not totally out of the woods yet when it comes to flight cancellations and delays. Although the numbers remain pretty low, the delays have been climbing all day. The FAA says delays now in Dallas, Newark. I'm just updating the list. Houston Hobby, Seattle. So, could be bad. We'll see as it goes. Thunderstorms have been the big thing. Luckily though on the East Coast, the weather remains pretty good, Boris.
SANCHEZ: Yeah, Pete, I know when you're set up out there, you got a pretty sweet set up. You're able to get some water, some soda, pretzels maybe. I hope you did pack some patience and maybe some cocktail weenies, Pete?
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MUNTEAN: You know what, my guy, I got the dog in me.
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SANCHEZ: Pete Muntean at Washington Reagan Airport. Thank you so much. Still ahead, the Air Force is now offering military funeral honors to a veteran who was killed while trying to break into the Capitol on January 6th. We have more on that decision when we come back.
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KEILAR: The Air Force will now give military funeral honors to Ashli Babbitt, the Air Force veteran and Capitol rioter, who was shot and killed while trying to climb through a broken window on January 6th near the floor of the House of Representatives where members of Congress were holed up. She was shot after breaching a sensitive area where they were evacuating from. The Capitol Police Officer who shot her was cleared of any criminal wrongdoing. CNN's Zach Cohen is here with more on this. Zach, Babbitt initially was denied military funeral honors because of some of the specifics of the situation under which she died, as I laid out there. Why this reversal?
ZACHARY COHEN, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: Yeah. Brianna, obviously, Ashli Babbitt remains a very polarizing figure given what happened on January 6th when she was shot and killed by a police officer after she breached the U.S. Capitol. At the same time, a Air Force veteran who did serve time in Iraq and Afghanistan and had previously asked under the Biden administration for -- her family had asked for military honors, military funeral honors, and was denied. That request and that decision is being overturned, reversed now by the Air Force under President Donald Trump.
The Undersecretary for the Air Force writing in a letter to Ashli Babbitt's family that was posted to social media that while the initial request for military honors was denied, I am "persuaded the previous determination was incorrect." And they say -- he says that that determination was incorrect after reviewing the circumstances surrounding Ashli's death. He doesn't really elaborate on what ultimately led to that decision to reverse the previous determination to deny those military honors, which typically include the playing of taps, a uniform detail at the funeral, as well as the folding and presentation of the American flag. So this is really a sort of a physical representation of just how polarizing and controversial Ashli Babbitt, as a figure, remains to this day, even years after the U.S. Capitol riot, and how polarizing her death really was in the moment and in the years since.
KEILAR: And the Trump Administration has made other concessions to the Babbitt family. Tell us about that, Zach.
COHEN: Yeah, that's right. In addition to this reversing the decision about military honors, the Trump Administration in May did agree to pay the Babbitt family $5 million as part of a settlement and a wrong death lawsuit. And look, this is again, reflects sort of how Ashli Babbitt, the myth of Ashli Babbitt has sort of become MAGA-lore in a lot of ways despite the fact, as you mentioned, that the officer who carried out the shooting was cleared of any wrongdoing and despite the fact that Ashli Babbitt on the day of her death was breaching the U.S. Capitol as part of the violent riots on January 6th, 2021.
KEILAR: Yeah, she was very, very close to the House floor and we saw what happened there from the inside. Zach Cohen, thank you so much for this reporting. Coming up, 20 years ago Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast. And while so much of New Orleans was destroyed, the culture and the soul of the city was not.
[13:45:00]
Up next, Grammy award-winning singer and the Soul Queen of New Orleans, Irma Thomas is going to join us next.
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KEILAR: 20 years ago today, the costliest natural disaster in American history struck the Gulf Coast. Hurricane Katrina, of course, which killed nearly 1,400 people, caused about $125 billion in damage and displaced more than a million people, most of whom were in New Orleans. The city's multiple levees failed and flood waters wiped out miles of neighborhoods.
SANCHEZ: That included the home and club of Grammy Award-winning singer, Irma Thomas. Thomas grew up in the Big Easy and is known as the Soul Queen of New Orleans.
[13:50:00]
In the months after Katrina, she recorded her album "After The Rain", which earned her a Grammy. It's described by some locals as "channeling the emotions of New Orleans during its most fragile hour." Irma Thomas joins us now. And Irma, we're so grateful that you're sharing part of your afternoon with us. If you could, walk us through what you experienced during Katrina. I know you weren't home when the hurricane hit, but talk to us about when you learned things were as bad, conditions were as bad as they got.
IRMA THOMAS, NEW ORLEANS NATIVE & GRAMMY AWARD-WINNING SINGER: Ironically, I learned by watching TV at the hotel while we were in Austin, Texas, where I had performed the night before Katrina. And I'm looking at the TV and the person who was viewing the city did not know the geography of the area. And they were call where I lived Chalamet (ph), but where I am is not considered Chalamet (ph). It's the lower -- it's the Upper Ninth Ward of New Orleans. And I'm looking at the water and I'm saying that can't be New Orleans, and it says that New Orleans is flooded.
Well, less than a half of, I would say, maybe 10 blocks away from where I live, the Interstate 10 is there and there's a sign that says Louisa and Almonaster Exit. The water was up to where that sign says Exit. And I had to call my husband. I said, honey, we don't have a home to go to. He said, what you mean? I said, New Orleans is flooded. And it was not an easy thing to accept, but what you're going to do.
KEILAR: And that was the experience for so many people. And luckily you were safe. So many people were not. And they were traumatized. People who were in the city, people who were outside the city. Folks there say that you really became a voice for them, for the recovery after the storm, contributing really anything you could to projects. Is your city still in recovery from Katrina today? How do you see it?
THOMAS: Yes. To some degree, yes. We are still recovering from what happened back 20 years ago. In fact, the -- of course, the phone would ring now. But anyway, when we -- when I saw what was going on, I was -- so, I was being interviewed and I was at one of my relative's house in Gonzales, Louisiana. By the time we got back to Louisiana, and they were asking me, what was I going to do? I said, well, when the water goes down, I'm going back home. And they said, what you mean home? I said, well, New Orleans is home to me and that's where I'm going when it's over with. I said, I don't see any reason why I wouldn't want to go back home. I mean, it's stuff, we can get more stuff. And if I can put my house back together, we -- my husband and I, we are going to go back to New Orleans. I never thought about going anywhere else. It wasn't an option as far as I'm concerned.
SANCHEZ: Yeah. I think so many felt that way that were from New Orleans. I wonder how everything that happened during the disaster and what came after inspired you, as you were working on "After The Rain" in the months after Katrina.
THOMAS: Well, of course, it did because the musicians who played on that particular album, all of us were affected by the storm. Not so much the storm, but what happened after the storm, because the flooding came after the storm and we were all affected by and ironically, the songs were chosen long before the storm came. And they just happened to be right on point when it come to how people were feeling at that time.
KEILAR: Irma, would you mind -- could you give us a little bit of your voice and just show us some of what your voice has done for New Orleans in helping it heal?
THOMAS: Well, one of the songs that was chosen to record prior to the storm, and I felt that it was perfect for the situations that were going on at that time. And it's called "Pallet On Your Floor," which was recorded 30 years or maybe even longer than that before. But it was perfect for the situation. It's called "Lay me down, a pallet on the floor. Lay me down a pallet, a pallet on the floor, because now I have nowhere to go." And that's, to me, there were so many people who were living in places where they were sharing the houses with their relatives and they were making pallets on the floor. So the song was just perfect for the situation at hand.
KEILAR: Yeah. And only someone who knew could speak to that. And that is really you, Irma Thomas, thank you so much for spending some time with us on this anniversary. We really, really appreciate it.
[13:55:00]
THOMAS: Well, it was my honor to be able to be a spokesperson for the city of New Orleans and how we are here, still trying to get back and we are going to be back. A lot of us are still loving what we do. And until I'm gone, I'm going to still do what I love to do and that's sing.
SANCHEZ: Love that.
KEILAR: We love it. Irma, thank you again.
SANCHEZ: Thank you so much.
KEILAR: Really appreciate it. And next, at least 25 countries are suspending shipments to the U.S. after President Trump ends a century- old tariff loophole for small packages. How it will impact you right after this.
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