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New York's Search for Serial Killer; More Budget Battles; Bahraini Officials Bar CNN Crew From Covering Uprising; Donald Trump Ahead in Possible Republican Presidential Nominees Polls; Winklevoss Twins Lose Appeal Against Mark Zuckerberg; Day of Drinking, Night of Murder; D.C. Mayor Released After Arrest; Romney 2012 Logo Versus Aquafresh Logo
Aired April 12, 2011 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: And now, top of the hour, take a look at this.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BALDWIN: The investigation of a possible murder spree playing out right before our eyes. More human remains found and now more signs this could be the work of a serial killer. I'm Brooke Baldwin. The news is now.
(voice-over): The pressure is on. President Obama set to reveal his plans to lower the nation's debt. But will he go far enough?
A CNN crew gets inside Bahrain as violence flares.
AMBER LYON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's hard to breathe.
BALDWIN: See what happens next.
Plus, we get an up-close look inside these hospitals where government thugs are taking on protesters. Amber Lyon joins me live.
A fight between lovers turns deadly. Police say he killed his girlfriend, a fellow University of Virginia lacrosse player. Now we're learning what he first told investigators hours after her brutal death.
And Mitt Romney taking the first few steps towards a 2012 presidential race, but did his campaign rip off a toothpaste logo?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BALDWIN: We find a little bit of everything for you, don't we? Hello once again. Welcome back. I'm Brooke Baldwin, hour two beginning in Washington. The next volley in the battle over spending in D.C. comes tomorrow. That's when President Obama will lay out his plan to reduce the federal deficit.
Ed Henry live for me at the White House. And, Ed, what are you hearing here ahead of the speech? Will the president take on, if I may, the elephant in the budget, entitlements, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security?
ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, he has to address them in some way because you're right. They are the obvious targets because that's where the money is, frankly.
But what is interesting is they are sort of playing this game here at the White House where they won't even say whether the president will have a specific plan or specific spending cuts. Instead, Jay Carney in his briefing today kept saying over and over, look, the president is going to lay out his vision.
Very vague. And that's got some liberals in his own party a little concerned. MoveOn.org just in the last few moments sent out an e-mail to its some 15,000 members saying, look, message to the White House in their words, stop caving, that they feel that the president not putting specifics on the table is allowing John Boehner to continue to push him for more and more spending cuts.
Bottom line, we will hear from the president tomorrow, 1:30 p.m. Eastern time at George Washington University. And just added to the schedule a few moments ago, at 10:40 a.m. Eastern time tomorrow, before that speech, the president is going to host the bipartisan congressional leadership from the House and the Senate, sort of preview the speech. And frankly, that meeting is probably more important than the speech, to get all these leaders in the room and figure out how are they going to actually come together on all these big issues.
BALDWIN: Yes. Quickly, though, with regard to when we hear from the president, a lot of people also wanting to hear specifics on revenue increases, AKA taxes, and also defense spending. How might that be impacted? Are you hearing anything?
(CROSSTALK)
HENRY: Yes. Well, this is one of the interesting things.
White House aides have been careful not to lay out specifics ahead of that, but if you look at what David Plouffe was saying, top adviser here, on some of the Sunday morning talk shows, he was basically saying tax increases need to be on the table. You can't do this with spending cuts alone.
And basically the president's approach is raise taxes on those people making over $250,000 a year. So we do expect that to be in there. And frankly the president has got an opportunity. Republicans won't like to hear tax increases. Liberals like MoveOn.org I mentioned won't want to hear about more spending cuts.
He has an opportunity to take the center here, not just in this budget debate, but sets him up pretty nicely for 2012 to say neither side wants some of these painful moves, but I'm the grownup here. We will see whether he takes that opportunity or not tomorrow. BALDWIN: Ed Henry, we will be listening right along with you 1:30 eastern time. Thank you so much.
And now if it's interesting, if it's happening right now, you're about to see it rapid fire. And I want to begin with Japan.
The damage in a leaking nuclear reactor there has been created an emergency on par with the Chernobyl disaster. That is according to Japanese officials, who elevated the crisis rating today to the highest on the scale, highest being number seven. Also today, Japan's prime minister encouraged those living there to channel the fortitude of those who rebuilt Japan post-World War II.
Now to Egypt, where we are getting reports that Former President Hosni Mubarak is in the hospital right now. Egyptian state television is reporting he had a heart attack while being questioned over possible corruption charges. But when we picked up the phone, when we reached out to the prosecutor's office, they denied that Mubarak had even been questioned by authorities. We will keep watching this one for you and get you an update as soon as we get more information.
Now to West Texas, where several wildfires continue there to rage out of control, scorching hundreds of thousands of acreage. This is Fort Davis. Dozens of homes in this area destroyed. The bad part, there's no rain in the forecast. Winds are reaching speeds of up to 35 miles an hour in some places, making it almost impossible for firefighters to make any progress.
Ivory Coast, a high-level death as that country transitions from civil war. A close aide to the now arrested former president is dead. This is Desire Tagro. He was Laurent Gbagbo's interior minister and his chief of staff. Officials confirm to CNN that Tagro was arrested yesterday, along with Gbagbo. Today, he is dead. We have no further details. We're watching that one as well.
Over to Hawaii now, where surveillance cameras were rolling inside. This is a diamond store. Over the weekend, you see the attempted robbery happening, cameras capturing. Look at all the smashed out cases. Video shows these two would-be robbers in masks, one carrying a hammer and a duffel bag, the other armed with a shotgun. But the bulletproof and shatter-resistant glass in the display cases wouldn't give away. Finally had to give up, take off.
Now this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LYON: (INAUDIBLE) my yes. And you can feel it in your throat right now. It's hard to breathe.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: That is Amber Lyon and her CNN crew getting a very dangerous look at the violence in Bahrain. Coming up, she will join me live here in the studio to talk about what it was like being in the middle of this uprising. And up next, it is a crime scene that seems to be baffling investigators. As more sets of human remains are found in New York, as recent as yesterday, police wonder if it's the work of a possible serial killer. Michelle Sigona has some new information. She's been working her sources, including a revelation about several of these bodies. She's going to join me next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: Young women are being killed, their bodies dumped in Long Island. Police think it could be the work of a serial killer, possibly killers. There are eight confirmed victims. The medical examiner is now out looking for bones, a skull. They found both of those just yesterday. So that could mean number nine, maybe number 10.
Investigative crime reporter Michelle Sigona following the story for me. She's joining me live from Washington.
And, Michelle, given your background, all your sources, what are you hearing as far as how all these different sets of remains were found? Because I know the first four women were found very differently than the last few.
MICHELLE SIGONA, INVESTIGATIVE CRIME REPORTER: You're exactly right. The first four women were found within 500 feet of each other in a cluster back in December. It took about a month for their identities to be confirmed. And that's when we learned a little bit more about who they were.
In January, I did speak with Melissa, she's one of the victims, her family. And on her death certificate, it says that she died from asphyxiation. And that instantly sparked in my brain, Brooke, because there is a case out of Atlantic City where four prostitutes were murdered in 2006. Their bodies were placed 60 yards away from the next in a ditch.
They were also prostitutes. They were street Walkers. I went on the streets of Atlantic City and spoke with a lot of prostitutes in the area to try to figure out that case. That is still cold. But I saw sort of an instant connection there. And then I reached out to authorities and they did confirm that they are speaking with one another.
BALDWIN: So they are speaking with one another?
SIGONA: That's correct.
BALDWIN: So the incident from what you said, 2006, to what we have being seeing over the course of the last couple of months could be connected?
SIGONA: Could be connected. Now, then you have the new set, the one body that was found in March, the other three that were found in April. The one that was found in March, Brooke, was about one mile east of where the other four bodies were found. And then the other ones were a little bit closer together. Yesterday, there were two more discoveries, as you have reported. And one is possibly a human skull. To the eye, what investigators tell me is, look, it looks like a human skull. We have it off at the Nassau County medical examiner's office right now to be able to say, yes, this is human remains or, no, it's not.
And also some extremities were found in a bag. They don't know if the bodies are connected or not. So, if they are, then that would be number nine. And if they are not, then that would be obviously if there are two human remains, nine and 10.
BALDWIN: Obviously, the families of some of the victims, I just spoke with one last hour, they are saddened, they are outraged. But so are some of the local officials in New York. Listen to this one sound bite.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
EDWARD MANGANO, NASSAU COUNTY EXECUTIVE: We want to bring to justice this animal that has obviously taken the lives of a number of people. We encourage anyone that has any information to call our hot line, 1-800-244-TIPS, 1-800-244-TIPS. Bring this animal to justice.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Bring this animal to justice. You hear that? We're also hearing reports, speculation that this individual may have a law background. I should say law enforcement background, maybe emergency services. What are you hearing at all, Michelle?
SIGONA: Well, sort of taking a lot of that into consideration and some of the information was coming out, well, it could be someone in law enforcement because the person was making phone calls to one of the victim's family members, to one of the victim's sisters. And they were making the calls under three minutes.
Well, that doesn't necessarily say it's someone connected to law enforcement. But all these cases, what it does look like is that obviously this person has thought about it. They have planned out their moves. They are detailed. They are meticulous.
I don't care how meticulous and detailed you are, though, you are going to mess up at some point if you have multiple crime scenes, multiple bodies, multiple pieces of evidence. A lot of times in serial cases, Brooke, that the killers will in fact keep mementos behind. So where are those things? Where is that going to be found?
The FBI says a serial killer does not always want to get caught. And each scene uncovered, they get more careless and more careless. They are not always white men. And also they are not always dysfunctional loners. They are people that could be living next door, people working for the government, anyone for that matter. BALDWIN: Yes, I have been working on a documentary about an alleged serial killer and all these profilers keep saying that these different killers seem to bring -- they like to have mementos, a piece of their victims with them. And so ultimately, hopefully they face justice.
Michelle Sigona, thank you so much.
SIGONA: Have a great day.
BALDWIN: Thank you.
Now this:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LYON: We venture into the dark side of Bahrain, a side the government tried to prevent us from seeing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: The frightening reality of living inside the uprising there. Wait until you see what happened to our CNN crew after those few chaotic moments there in Bahrain.
Plus, find out what is happening when protesters are showing up at hospitals only to see government thugs. Folks, the images, they are disturbing. But they have to tell part of the story. And that's why Amber Lyon is here. She's going to join me to explain what it was like getting tear-gassed and what it is like in Bahrain. Don't miss it.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: We brought you the incredible story of the CNN crew that got detained and then interrogated in Bahrain about this time yesterday. It happened on the second day of shooting this documentary of this country's uprising and capturing the government's brutal crackdown.
Today we will show you more of those images and the story that our crew uncovered just minutes before authorities tear gassed and detained them. Amber Lyon has the story, but I want to warn you, the images that you're about to see are pretty tough to watch.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
AMBER LYON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: On the glitz and glamour, we venture into the dark side of Bahrain, a side the government tried to prevent us from seeing. Tear gas is a regular occurrence here. We smelled it ourselves.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What is it?
LYON (on camera): My eyes are burning. It feels like I shot a lemon into my eyes. You can feel it in your throat right now. It's hard to breathe.
LYON: (voice-over)We're just a short drive from the United States fleet naval base.
NABEEL RAJAB, HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST: Three-pieces of tear gas comes from here.
LYON (on camera): Are these them?
RAJAB: That is either for a rubber bullet or a different type of tear gas.
LYON (voice-over): Human rights activists like Nabeel Rajab say every day security forces have also been shooting into neighborhoods with bird shot. He says they are striking unarmed civilians.
LYON (on camera): He says that they have been using this to shoot them. They are little pellets that look like something that small can do. You can see where he has them all over.
RAJAB: This one with one shot you can hit 20, 30 people at once.
LYON: Right here you can feel where some of the pellets are still in his body.
LYON (voice-over): Still in his body because he's too scared to return to the hospital after the military took it over last month. He would rather try to remove the pellets one by one with a needle than go back. Doctors accuse the security forces as using hospitals to identify, capture, and then torture protesters.
LYON (on camera): He said he took a razor blade on his own and cut the bullets out of his leg because he's too scared to go to the hospital. He says the riot police came in and beat him while he was in the hospital bed so he fled. He still has a bullet in his eye. He can't see?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He can't see.
LYON: What happened to him?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sound bomb.
LYON (voice-over): That is the literal translation in Arabic for what in English are called flash-bang grenades.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You don't know how to deal with them or take them. Doctors are getting beaten, tortured, inside the hospital. Nurses are getting arrested and beaten inside the hospitals. It's a humanitarian crisis that we are going through right now.
LYON: Even ambulance drivers say that they are becoming target. This man says police beat up and broke his leg. Bahrain's government gave us a packet of documents telling its side of the story, blaming Iran for instigating demonstrations and arrest. In one paragraph they accuse activists of doctoring photos, fabricating injuries, and Bahrain's foreign minister says security forces are not firing on unarmed civilians.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The police would not walk into a neighborhood and start shooting people.
LYON (on camera): So they are not shooting into neighborhoods right now?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, no.
LYON (voice-over): Bahraini officials also say that the overall situation in the country is calming down. But we saw people hiding in their homes. We heard gunshots in broad daylight. It seems security forces have contained the opposition forces making it invisible to the rest of the world.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BALDWIN: Amber Lyon back in Atlanta. We're going to talk on the other side of the break, because I want to know what it was like to be tear-gassed and if it's even possible for journalists, like yourself, to try to get into some of these villages and accurately tell the story. Hold the thought. Quick break. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: Back now with CNN's Amber Lyon. She and her CNN crew were arrested and detained by the Bahraini government as they tried to cover the uprising in the country. Amber, take me back to the moment where we see you, it sounded like gunshots, and you were tear-gassed, and then moments later your crew was detained. What happened?
LYON: We were in a village following boys that were protesting. I don't even know if you would call them protesters. They were standing in the street and yelling "god is great." That's when Bahraini security forces fired tear gas into the village and we happened to be there and breathe it in. It's a continual problem that is going on in the villages because when people walk out of their homes, they are breathing in tear gas and it's bad for their health.
BALDWIN: What did it smell like and feel like?
LYON: It felt like lemon was shot into my eye and burnt my lungs. I couldn't imagine constantly having to breathe in that type of air. About 20 minutes after we shot this video, we were at the home of a popular human rights activist. And as we were leaving the home that's when we were surrounded by Bahraini security forces, and they proceeded to point machine guns at us, forced us to the ground, showed them our CNN IDs.
BALDWIN: Did it matter?
LYON: No. They continued to point their guns at us for 30 minutes, never told us who they were with, and then we were taken to a police station and interrogated for six hours after that.
BALDWIN: Since that, you mentioned these boys you were with, this is their reality, right? But the government has said, look, the protests and whole situation here, it's calmed down since this really started in February. Is that true?
LYON: It's calmed down, that's true. But that's because the protesters have nowhere else to go but in their villages. Pearl Square has been destroyed and it's become a base camp for tankers and military troops. And now you're seeing the protests become like the one you saw in the video, just a small group of boys or maybe a candlelight vigil. But at the same time, the troops continue to hit these protesters with tear gas and birdshot.
BALDWIN: I know there is only so much you can say about how you and your crews got into these villages to tell the story in Bahrain. It has to be a challenge for journalists, not just CNN and anywhere around the world, to tell the story accurately.
LYON: And journalists are having a very difficult time doing that. We're one of the few crews in the world that is able to get into these villages because the government is assigning government minders to essentially baby sit journalists and only show them the view of Bahrain that the government wants the world to be shown.
Once we have our minders, we were given minders, they would bring us to the shopping mall or when we asked to see the villages, they wouldn't take us. They wouldn't let us shoot any video of the military. So it was through a very narrow lens and unfortunately that's the way the whole world is being shown Bahrain, and the unrest has not ended there -- controlling the message.
BALDWIN: Amber Lyon, thank you.
LYON: Thank you.
BALDWIN: Developing right now, an American detained in North Korea. We are not getting some more details about who this might be and what happened. We'll get a live report from the State Department. That is ahead.
Also, Gloria Borger is standing by with news ahead on the 2012 Republican race, and Donald Trump is very much alive. We're back in 70 seconds.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: Let's look at the Republicans' choice for presidential candidates. Huckabee is at 19 percent and Trump at 19 percent, followed by Palin at 12 percent, followed by Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney with 11 percent. Gloria Borger, what can you glean from these numbers?
GLORIA BORGER, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, first of all, it's about name regular cognition. People are hearing a lot about Donald Trump these days. They are paying a little bit of attention to him. The way I look at these polls is, Donald Trump has frozen the field. Republicans are saying, is he really going to get in? Is Sarah Palin going to get in? Is Mike Huckabee going to get in? We just don't know at this point.
What you're looking at are just what the people are hearing a lot about. And one of those is, of course, Donald Trump who, by the way, has given himself an instant base with those people who can't stand Barack Obama and believe in the birther issues. So he's got a little bit of a crowd going for him.
BALDWIN: He's got a crowd.
BORGER: He does.
BALDWIN: Also in Washington, big political hot potatoes, budget battle, we have Medicare. We know the Republicans ran against the Democrats last fall over Medicare cuts. But with the budget proposal, could they see the tables turn?
BORGER: Oh, yes. Oh, yes. The Democrats believe that Congressman Ryan, the chairman of the house budget committee who has proposed massive changes in Medicare, has given them a gift. Republicans ran against Democrats because Democrats proposed some cutbacks in Medicare as part of health care reform last time, and they ran ad after ad after ad against Democrats saying they want to cut Medicare.
Now you can be sure, and it's already started that the Democrats will do the same to those Republicans who vote for this budget. The Ryan budget is up for a vote at the end of this week. Republicans who vote for it do so, some say, at their own political peril.
Republicans I talk to say, look, the terrain has shifted. We have voters that understand there has to be changes in Medicare and Social Security. It's no longer the third rail of American politics. If you touch it, you don't necessarily perish. That remains to be seen. It really does.
BALDWIN: You mentioned younger voters, but there is this whole other contingency that perhaps keeps some politicians up at night, the independent voters. As we look into next year, you talked to Republican strategists. What do they tell you?
BORGER: Well, the biggest thing I think they are worried about right now is what I call mandate overreach, which is the Republicans were elected because they were not Democrats. It wasn't because the American public decided that we're in love with Republicans. It was because they wanted to get something done in Washington.
So some strategists I talked to are a little nervous about the emphasis on the social issues as we saw in the last budget debate and are nervous about Medicare. They don't want to alienate women voters or young voters or old voters. So take your pick.
BALDWIN: Who does that leave?
BORGER: No one. Independents, and they are nervous that for the first time in a while the Republicans could be taken a couple of political steps back. BALDWIN: All right. Gloria Borger, thank you very much.
It is one of America's most important allies against terror, but the relationship between the U.S. and Pakistan is in trouble. We're getting word that cooperation between the two has hit rock bottom. And now Pakistan is asking the United States to get rid of something that has been a huge part of President Obama's strategy over there. We're live in the Pentagon with that story.
Plus, gas prices topping $4 a gallon in some cities. Now, dare I say it, could go to $5 just as we begin the summer vacation season. How high could prices go and how will this affect our already crippled economy? That's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: An American man in custody in North Korea, Pakistan's relations with the U.S. are off at the moment. And brace yourself, you will be wishing for today's gas prices before summer is over. Let's play reporter roulette.
I want to begin with Chris Lawrence who is at the Pentagon with news about the U.S. cooperation with Pakistan. Chris, what is the story there today?
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Brooke, U.S. officials are admitting that it has hit a pretty rocky point in terms of U.S.-Pakistani relations. In fact there are talks ongoing about how many of the 300 special force military trainers that are there, how many of them will stay on.
And also Pakistan has been pressing the U.S. to get more visibility over the 40 or so covert agents operating within Pakistan. Pakistan wants to be kept in the loop, so to speak. So, again, some demands on both sides, but the relationship right now is not rock bottom but definitely at a lower point.
BALDWIN: So how is the Pentagon seeing this? Is it seeing it as a setback, possibly something more? You have U.S. and Pakistan couldn't possibly sever relations. They need each other too much.
LAWRENCE: Exactly. In fact, that's what Pakistani source says. He said basically, look, they want to get back to working together. They said, look, treat us as allies. We need to work together. We have a common problem.
But I spoke with one expert who said that all of this comes down to Pakistan trying to position itself in negotiations as the U.S. leaves Afghanistan. Pakistan wants to fill that vacuum and take more of a role in what comes next in terms of Afghanistan.
BALDWIN: OK, Chris Lawrence, the latest there from the Pentagon. Chris, thank you.
Next, in reporter roulette, a story that has been developing this afternoon. North Korea has detained an American. I want to go straight to the State Department and Jill Dougherty. Jill, do we even know who he is yet?
JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: We don't, Brooke. It's early, but we know that it's a man and according to a senior official that he came over the border, we believe, back in November. News just kind of came out apparently because the families said something.
And we don't know what he was doing. We do know that because the United States does not have diplomatic relations with North Korea, our interests are being represented by the Sweeds. So consular officials have been able to visit him. The United States is asking North Korea to release this person on humanitarian grounds. Remember, this has happened before so we'll just have to -- two other people, obviously, but we'll have to hope that this gentleman gets out.
BALDWIN: Jill, as soon as we get more reporting, we'll bring it back up. Jill, thank you so much.
Next, more and more of you, including myself, getting worried about the soaring price of gas. Alison Kosik is live in New York. First to the root of this, why is it specifically that gas prices are so high right now?
ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Sure. I mean, you drive up your car to the gas pump and it's $80 a pop and you want to blame somebody or something. For one, you can blame supply and demand. It's a really big part of why oil prices are up. Oil makes up a good part of gas. You know, the unrest in Libya is shutting off some of the global oil supply.
There is also more demand for oil these days, especially in China, because the economy is recovering. But I'll tell you what, it's really speculation. That's what is driving up oil prices and driving up the gas prices because a lot of traders see oil as a really good investment. They place bets on what could happen if demand rises, if violence in the Mideast heats up, if this, if that. So what they are doing is they are betting.
And the question we have is how high can these gas prices go? It's going to be anyone's guess at this point. Analysts are saying by the summer the average price of tank is going to cost you $4 a gallon and some areas could see $5. Of course, we're getting into the busy summer driving period. It should boost demands and, of course, support these higher prices. Brooke?
BALDWIN: I have one word for you -- bicycle.
KOSIK: There you go.
(LAUGHTER)
BALDWIN: Alison Kosik, thank you so much. And that is today's reporter roulette.
These twins are known as the "Winklevi," these two young men who say Mark Zuckerberg stole their idea for Facebook. and they just learned whether they will get a piece of that Facebook pie.
Plus, a University of Virginia student accused of killing his girlfriend is now in court. And we are hearing what George Hughley first told police hours after her death. Sunny Hostin is "On the Case." She's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: A big loss for twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss. Most of us didn't know who they were until we went to the movies and watched "The Social Network." Here's a quick clip.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've been working on this for a while and we think it's great. It's called the Harvard Connection. You create your own page, bios.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How is that different from MySpace or Friendster?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: This story is very real for these two young men. The twins claim Mark Zuckerberg stole their idea. They sued and settled and then went to court to get out of that settlement. But a new ruling may put an end to the adventures in court. Sunny Hostin is "On the Case."
And, Sunny, why did these twins want out of the settlement in the first place?
SUNNY HOSTIN, CNN LEGAL CONTRIBUTOR: Well, I think they want a little bit more money. I mean, let's face it, their argument is that Facebook really didn't divulge and disclose the valuation of the company prior to this settlement. We know now that Facebook is valued I think at $50 billion. So certainly they just want a bigger piece of the pie.
BALDWIN: So does the appeals judge's ruling effectively kill their lawsuit?
HOSTIN: Well, you would think it would, but they apparently tweeted today and they said that they are going to ask the ninth circuit court of appeals to hear it on bunk. And that means three federal judges heard their appeal, but they want the entire court to get together and hear the appeal. That is rarely granted.
So I think that this is the end of their legal venture, but you've got to like that they are trying and they are cute.
BALDWIN: They are cute. Has this been at all a good thing for them?
HOSTIN: Well, let's face it. It is. Right now, I think they've made about $170 billion, according to their settlement. They got $20 million in cash and then a piece of the company. So I would say $170 million is not a bad settlement and they are cute, cute and rich.
BALDWIN: I hope they are not watching. Case number two, gosh, I lived in Charleston, Virginia. We're getting a lot of details about this University of Virginia lacrosse player.
Yeardley Love's ex-boyfriend was charged with her murder and there was a very, very long - a very interesting preliminary hearing in the case jut yesterday. Sunny, what was the biggest shocker that was revealed in court?
HOSTIN: You know, I think the biggest shocker is that he didn't even realize that he killed her when he left the room. His defense really is, I did some things to her, I shook her, her head hit the wall, but I didn't do anything that would kill her.
And I think everyone was really very surprised at that because of the extent of her injuries, because her roommate has testified that when she got there, she was laying in a pool of blood on her bed. He didn't even know, Brooke, that she was dead.
BALDWIN: Wow. He didn't know. I have to imagine both families were in the courtroom until late last night, were they not?
HOSTIN: Yes, apparently it was a nine-hour hearing, over 20 witnesses testified and, yes, friends and family members from both sides were there, a very emotional night by all account at that preliminary hearing.
BALDWIN: What is next in the case?
HOSTIN: Well, apparently this is going to the grand jury. The judge found that indeed there is enough probable cause to go forward. The grand jury will convene on Monday, April 18th, and they will determine which, if any, charges will be lodged against this young man, 22 years old.
BALDWIN: Yes, it's been just about a year since Yeardley Love was killed. Does a murder like this take this long before it gets to a grand jury, much less a full pledge trial?
HOSTIN: I will say that I was surprised about the length of time that it has taken, but this is an emotional case, a complicated case. A young woman dead, a young boy, man in prison being held and so every case is different and I think that's probably why this case has taken so long to just get to the grand jury.
BALDWIN: She had so much ahead of her. Sunny Hostin, we'll follow the case with you. Sunny, thank you.
Coming up, Mitt Romney, closer to a run for the White House, but did his campaign rip off a toothpaste logo? What? Decide for yourself, political pop coming up.
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BALDWIN: We are 10 minutes away from "THE SITUATION ROOM." Let's get a quick check on what his got going on. Wolf Blitzer with the big tie for his big vital voices event tonight at the Kennedy Center, but before you do that. You got to do two hours of TV, Wolf. What do you have coming up?
WOLF BLITZER, HOST, "THE SITUATION ROOM": We got a lot of news coming up. What is going on in Japan, for example, a real expert on nuclear-related issues. The fact that they have gone as you know, Brooke, now to a level seven, that's highest category, the most severe nuclear crisis.
Obviously the same level as Chernobyl, worse than three-mile island. What is going on in Japan right now? Is there any end in sight? We're going to Tokyo and we'll examine what is going on that front.
Also, what is going on in the Middle East? Is it an Arab spring that is unfolding right now in North Africa or the Middle East or some pessimists are now suggesting perhaps an Arab winter that's unfolding right now in the Middle East. We're taking a closer look at all of that as well.
Tom Ricks who's an expert on this area, he's going to be joining us. So we're going in depth obviously or looking ahead to the president's budget speech tomorrow. He's going to lay out some of his plans responding to a certain degree to Paul Ryan, the Republican congressman who did so last week.
There's that gang of six, three Democrats and three Republicans in the Senate. They are going to come out with their plan as I tweeted earlier on Twitter earlier today, Brooke. If there's some goodwill, they take the best of Ryan, the rest of Obama, the best of gang of six, the best of everyone else and they come up with a plan to reduce the deficit and lower that national debt, if at all possible.
BALDWIN: OK. We'll be watching, Wolf Blitzer. Thank you.
Coming up, police slapping cuffs on the mayor of Washington, D.C. You will hear Vincent Gray explain why he was arrested. Here's a hint. He's really, really ticked off at Congress right now. That political pop is next.
Joe Johns is standing by and also explain what this is. We'll be right back.
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BALDWIN: So before we get to "Political Pop," if I may, so many of you have tweeted me over the past couple of days asking where have you been. Many of you have noticed this little Band-Aid, now it's little Band-Aid on my nose here.
Come closer. You see this?
This is a Band-Aid. Yes, it's on my nose and the gals in makeup can only do so much for me today. No, I have not been in a fight. No, this isn't a breathe right strip. So glad that all of you out there in Twitter. I had skin cancer, the lowest form.
It's called basal cell. In fact so many of you tweeted back and saying you've gone through the same thing with me, the most procedure. Not a big deal, I caught it early, too many days in the sun as a kid.
But I want to stand here and tell you this, as we're approaching summer and as I've now learned that may skin cancer awareness month, learn a thing or two for me. Two words for you, two words, wear sunscreen.
Moving on, a mayor behind bars for protesting. How often do you hear a story like this? D.C.'s mayor, Vincent Gray was released today after protesting outside the Capitol.
Joe Johns is here with the "Political Pop" and Joe, I mean, I know the answer, but let me just ask what was Mayor Gray protesting?
JOE JOHNS, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: Well, come on --
BALDWIN: Come on. We know.
JOHNS: Right, you know, most of the time when you hear about a Washington politician getting arrested, it's not exactly on purpose. The FBI is involved, but you know, this is one of the rare times when none of the above happened. Vince Gray and the members of the D.C. city council got arrested in an old-fashioned sit in protest on Capitol Hill over the big budget agreement.
You know, yesterday we talked about how D.C. was one of the big losers in the budget agreement because Congress and the president agreed to restrict funding for D.C. and abortion services.
Clearly the mayor was pretty mad about it because he says the district is not being allowed to use its own taxpayer money on this. Take a listen.
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MAYOR VINCENT GRAY, WASHINGTON D.C.: Frankly, what would I suggest is that Congress butt out of the business of the District of Columbia. I've heard no rational reason why the district shouldn't have the authority to approve how we spend our own money. (END VIDEO CLIP)
JOHNS: Not happy at all. Especially since the district is overwhelmingly Democratic and there is, by the way, a Democrat in the White House, in case you forgot.
BALDWIN: Yes, I didn't. Thank you very much, Mr. Johns. Let's talk about a potential or maybe, Mitt Romney may be running for president, president hopeful. He's got a new logo that looks a lot like toothpaste, really?
JOHNS: I know. This is so random. I mean, when you think about running for president, it seems like everything you do gets looked at under the microscope. It can be real random, very distracting, and this is a great example of it.
Romney rolls out this new logo with a big red, white, and blue "R" on it, first letter of his last name. By the afternoon there is a bunch of commentary, blogs, tweets, news organizations pointing out that the logo looks a lot like the logo for Aquafresh toothpaste.
BALDWIN: So just because it's red, white and blue with a swoosh people think toothpaste. OK, so being a good reporter, you called up Mitt Romney's camp. What are they saying, if anything?
JOHNS: I know, got to check this out.
BALDWIN: Of course.
JOHNS: We did ask Romney's people if they borrowed the logo. They said no, they flatly denied it. We got a one-sentence statement from them. We're getting positive feedback on the logo, but now what we mostly hear is from people concerned about the weak economy and lack of jobs.
BALDWIN: Of course.
JOHNS: You could have expected that.
BALDWIN: I've got to admit. I'm a little surprised they even released a statement, but maybe this is good press for Aquafresh. What are they saying?
JOHNS: Believe it or not, the Aquafresh logo actually has a name and don't laugh. It's called a nurdle. According to the makers of Aquafresh, now the parent company is Glaxo-Smith Klein, the director of communication told me on the phone today.
The logo is copyrighted. It is copyrighted. They take it very seriously, but they are not going to comment on whether they think their logo was, quote unquote, "borrowed." It sounds like they are feeling, you know, pretty good about the nurdle right now.
BALDWIN: Let's pull it up again. Let's pull the two logos up again. You know, when I --
JOHNS: One is horizontal and one is vertical.
BALDWIN: When I heard about this story though, wasn't it when Senator Obama at that time was running for president. Wasn't there some flap maybe over his logo and Pepsi that it looked a little too similar, remember that?
JOHNS: Yes, I do remember that. You know, this thing is just sort of one is vertical and one is horizontal. Maybe, maybe not, you know, I'm not going to judge, but it's red white and blue. What can we say?
Good message by the way, on the skin cancer. It's important to get on it early and important - do right thing.
BALDWIN: Sunscreen, my friends.
JOHNS: That's right.
BALDWIN: Thank you, Joe Johns. I appreciate it and that does it for us. For me here at Atlanta, I'm Brooke Baldwin. Now up to Washington and Wolf Blitzer -- Wolf.