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Markets Try to Rebound; Romney to Announce Candidacy; Massachusetts Hit by Tornadoes; 1,600 Sick in E. Coli Outbreak in UK; Hundreds of Gmail Accounts Hacked
Aired June 02, 2011 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. It's 9:00 a.m. on the East Coast, 6:00 a.m. out West. I'm Carol Costello in for Kyra Phillips. Good morning to you.
A cloud of destruction, a tornado -- yes, another one -- sends debris flying through the air. It's not Tornado Alley. It's in Massachusetts. And this is what it sounded like on the ground.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Holy (EXPLETIVE DELETED). Damn, I'm so happy I'm filming this right now. (EXPLETIVE DELETED).
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (EXPLETIVE DELETED) Seriously.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Dan, the ceiling, look.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, my god. (EXPLETIVE DELETED).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, my god.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Now these guys made it out alive but four people were killed. We'll show you just how bad the damage was.
Shelling heard from a roof top. Street fighting breaks out in the airport in Yemen's capital. Flights canceled and there are new concerns of a coming civil war.
And Google says hundreds of personal Gmail accounts have been hacked. The company blames a giant phishing operation based in China.
We begin this morning with a story, though, that affects all of us. It's the sputtering U.S. economy and the creeping fear that things are only going to get worse.
That grim outlook sent Wall Street sliding yesterday. The Dow plunged nearly 280 points. That is the biggest one-day drop since last summer. Nasdaq also saw its value evaporate by more than 2 percent. Its 66-point slide was its worst one-day loss in four months.
Ali Velshi is here to break it down for us.
And, Ali, this is kind of a snowball effect of bad economic news, right?
ALI VELSHI, CNN SENIOR BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes. We ought to be careful not to get too far into it because that's what used to happen, right? Where you start to think it's going to get bad and it gets bad.
Let me tell you where we are right now. First of all, half an hour from when markets open and futures are looking up. So hopefully we don't see a continuation. But here's what happened this week. Tough week on the markets from three different areas.
First of all, housing. On Tuesday we discussed this. The S&P Case- Shiller housing index showed home prices hitting another new low in the first three months of this year. The prices were down more than 5 percent compared to the same period last year.
But take a look at this chart. You see the big drop. The bottom of that drop is when the recession was. The foreclosure crisis, the mortgage crisis. And since then there's been a slow increase in the value of houses.
Now, you see, we started going down again. It's got some people worried about a potential double-dip in housing prices.
Number two, what you've just been talking about. The stock market, investments. This is the S&P 500 over the last five years. Take a look at the big dip at the bottom. That is March of 2009, two years ago. That is the worst of the markets. And since then, look at that, a general acceleration in markets but for a little period early last summer. But generally all the way up.
Now look at the end. That's the downturn we're worried about. May was the worst month for the S&P 500 since August of last year. Why do you care? Because your 401(k), your IRA are invested in things that look like the -- the S&P 500.
Now stock market aside, housing aside, the thing that matters to everybody is jobs. Job growth has been quite strong actually this year. I've gone back a year. Red are jobs lost, blue are jobs gained.
Take a look at this. Since October of last year, we've been gaining jobs. We've actually gained an average of 100,000 jobs every month for the past six months. And when you look at the last three, we've gained more than 220,000 jobs a month. That's pretty healthy. Most of that in the private sector.
Here's the problem, Carol. Tomorrow morning, we get the unemployment numbers and the job growth numbers for the month of May. And some are worried that maybe we're not going to keep pace like we did before.
So when you take -- you take it all together, markets that are weakening, a job market that might be weakening, and home prices which are definitely weakening, it definitely has some people thinking, are we in for another dip in our economy?
I spoke to an expert earlier, Carol, who said the numbers do not indicate anything close to another recession. It might just be a pullback or a slowdown -- Carol.
COSTELLO: I know President Obama is going to travel to Ohio. He's going to be at a Chrysler plant to celebrate the success of the auto bailout.
VELSHI: Yes.
COSTELLO: So he's trying to put a positive spin on this. We'll be talking a lot more about this in the days to come.
Ali Velshi, thank you.
Let's turn now to presidential politics on the Republican side. In just a few hours, Mitt Romney will formally announce his bid for the Republican nomination. He's an early frontrunner but far from a shoe- in.
Deputy political director Paul Steinhauser joins us from Washington.
So, Paul, we're already hearing some of what Romney will say today. Tell us what you know.
PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN DEPUTY POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Yes, here's what I know. About three hours from now, he's going to make it official up in New Hampshire. He's going to say those words, I'm running for president.
So the all-but-declared candidate, Carol, will become the declared candidate. And he is going to call the president, President Barack Obama, a failure and he's going to attack the president for what he says are the president's policies that are making this government too big.
In fact, here's one of the excerpts that his campaign released in advance. He's going to say, "We are only inches away from seizing to be a free market economy. I will cap federal spending at 20 percent or less of the GDP. And finally, finally balance the budget."
He goes on to say -- and you were just talking about this with Ali -- jobs. He will say, "From my first day in office, my number one job will be to see that America, once again, is number one in job creation."
And of course, his speech comes one day before we see the May jobs report, Carol. So for Mitt Romney, it is all about the economy.
COSTELLO: Well, it's all about the economy but he has other problems. The same problems, by the way, that he had in 2008. So how is he going to deal with those problems differently?
STEINHAUSER: Yes. We're seeing a very different strategy this time around than when the former Massachusetts governor made his first bid for the White House, as you said, four years ago.
And a couple of the things last time around, he had a big campaign, maybe some would say a bloated campaign. He spent a lot of money. This time around probably a much leaner machine. The last time around he focused on all of the early states -- Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina. He didn't win any of them.
This time around he's focusing mostly on New Hampshire. That's where he seems to be concentrating his fire power. And I guess from a personal standpoint, last time around, he was the formal suit-and-tie kind of guy, the businessman, the CEO type.
This time, we're seeing a much more casual Mitt Romney, Carol. A Mitt Romney who's wearing a lot less ties even.
(LAUGHTER)
COSTELLO: Well, we still got the problems, though, with his health care plan in Massachusetts when he was governor there. And some say he still has the problem. He's a Mormon and Christian conservatives might not vote for him just because of that still.
STEINHAUSER: Exactly. And he has been getting a lot of heat about the health care plan. It wasn't as big a deal last time around because at that time there was no new health care law from President Barack Obama who is running for the White House.
This could be an Achilles heel -- could be an Achilles heel, but he is trying to explain it saying it worked for what we were doing in Massachusetts. It does not work for the nation. And he's been very much against the president's health care plan.
And one of the things, Carol. This is interesting. Today when he makes his announcement in New Hampshire, the state that votes has the first primary, he's going to have to share that spotlight with who else? First of all, Sarah Palin. Her bus tour, we've following it nonstop, right? It is in New Hampshire today. She has an event up there.
And Rudy Giuliani, the former New York City mayor who ran for the White House in the Republican side the last time around, guess where he is today? New Hampshire as well, Carol.
COSTELLO: And it's interesting because Rudy Giuliani, actually the better in a CNN poll, not by much than Mitt Romney, so it'll be an interesting day for all in New Hampshire.
Paul Steinhauser, many thanks.
At the bottom of the hour, we'll talk to syndicated radio host Hugh Hewitt. He supported Romney in '08 and he will support him again this time. And he says a lot of doubter will be jumping on board. That's at 9:30 Eastern.
This afternoon at the White House the president meets with some top congressional leaders of his own party. He'll host the Democratic Caucus from the House to discuss government spending and the nation's growing debt.
The president held a similar meeting yesterday with House Republicans. It came just a day after the GOP controlled House crushed the president's request to raise debt limits on government spending. The White House says the talks were frank and productive but not confrontational.
But sources tell us Congressman Paul Ryan, the architect of controversial reforms to Medicare, called on the president to stop playing politics and to take the lead on the issue.
And now the story that just won't go away. Congressman Anthony Weiner's Twitter problem. The story won't go away because Weiner can't or won't say if the naughty pictures sent from his Twitter account is of him.
Listen to him dance around Wolf Blitzer's question.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WOLF BLITZER, CNN'S SITUATION ROOM: You didn't send that photo to that woman in Washington state?
REP. ANTHONY WEINER (D), NEW YORK: I did not send it to that woman in Washington state.
BLITZER: But you're not 100 percent sure whether the photo is actually you?
WEINER: What I'm -- I am going to say is that we're doing everything we can to try to answer that question. But we're doing an investigation. But that -- I just want to caution you that, you know, photographs can be doctored, photographs can be manipulated, can be taken from one place and put in another.
And so, you know, that a -- and I want to make it clear, this is in my view not a federal case. In my view, this is not an international conspiracy. This is a hoax. And I think that people should treat it that way.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Of course, Weiner claims he was the victim of a hacker. So how long will it take to find out who's responsible? We'll ask an expert. That's coming your way in 35 minutes.
The familiar scenes across Tornado Alley. Homes demolished, trees toppled, lives taken. But this devastation happened in a totally different part of the country.
CNN's Jason Carroll joins us from western Massachusetts.
Jason, some incredible damage across a pretty wide area in an area not used to tornadoes.
JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I mean you hit the nail right on the head. I mean it's hard to think of Tornado Alley when you think of Springfield, Massachusetts. But when you take a look behind me, down the street, it in fact it does look like Tornado Alley.
Because this is where last night the tornado just swept through here taking with it and destroying homes along its path of destruction. You know now we're hearing it wasn't just one tornado that was hit through western Massachusetts but it was in fact four, four tornadoes that touched down in western Mass. Jumping across a 40-mile stretch, again, causing destruction in the path of those tornadoes.
At least four people killed. That is confirmed at this point. More than a dozen communities are reporting severe damage. Search and rescue teams, we've seen some of them out here so far this morning, Carol. We've seen them working overnight. They have been working overtime trying to go into some of these buildings that have been damaged to see if there is anyone inside who is in need of any help.
And as you say, many of the people who live in this area, many of them are unfamiliar with tornadoes and they're still at this point, at this hour, trying to assess the damage and trying to come to terms with what happened.
Why don't you listen to one woman in particular who we spoke to who lives right here on this block. Listen to what she had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILDA, TORNADO SURVIVOR: I just started seeing like debris. So I told my son, I grabbed my son and the animals and I headed right downstairs. As soon as we with hit the stairs, it hit.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
CARROLL: And that is Hilda's house that you see right there. We were told just about 20 minutes ago that her house will, in fact, have to be demolished. It's basically destroyed. There was so much structural damage to her home because of the earthquake that basically shifted it -- excuse me, because of tornado. Basically shifted it on its foundation.
And so her house along with many others here on this street alone will have to be demolished if they weren't already destroyed -- Carol.
COSTELLO: That's sad. Jason Carroll reporting live from Springfield, Massachusetts.
Overseas an E. coli outbreak is sweeping across Europe infecting more than 1,000 people and killing at least 16. The source of the outbreak, it's a mystery.
CNN's Zain Verjee is following that story from London.
So, Zain, at first, it looked like the source might be Spanish cucumbers. Has that been completely ruled out? ZAIN VERJEE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes -- well, yes. Well, basically they thought, according to first reports, that Spanish cucumbers were to blame and then 24 hours later, the authorities said, well, oops, we made a mistake. It wasn't Spanish cucumbers.
So the Spanish are really mad because it affects their economy. There have been a real hit on the farmers there who aren't able to sell or export any of those cucumbers. But if you're traveling to Europe, you may want to be aware of raw veggies anyway. Part of the panic is that nobody really knows where the source is and nobody really knows if it is active.
Take a look at the newspaper headlines. Look at the "Irish Times." It says, "Madrid and Berlin at odds as almost 200 new cases of E. coli reported." The Germany E. coli epidemic, it says, continues to gather pace amid a bad tempered spat between Berlin and Madrid over Spanish cucumbers.
Germany, Carol, was the first to say we don't want any cucumbers from Spain.
Take a look at the "Daily Mail." Here in the UK, some advice. "Wash your salads, families are told." It says, "Although experts say the main source has been contaminated food, they don't know what food is causing the outbreak. A leading EU scientist warned yesterday that the outbreak is on a scale never seen before in Europe," Carol.
And that's what's freaking a lot of people out. And scientists are saying, too, that the strain of this E. coli is much more lethal than previously seen.
COSTELLO: And none of those vegetables are exported to the United States?
VERJEE: The -- no. Those vegetables are not exported to the United States. But the worry for the U.S. right now is that a couple of people that were traveling in Germany and Hamburg have been hospitalized when they went back to the U.S. But it's something to be aware of and be careful.
COSTELLO: Absolutely. Zain Verjee, live from London. Thank you.
So Mitt Romney is about to declare that he is running for president. No big surprise there. He's got all that name recognition, a war chest full of money, and he's at the top of early polls. But something seems to be missing. Why isn't Mitt Romney a bigger hit among the GOP? We'll talk about that next.
And the man at the center of the missing balloon boy hoax is selling the UFO-like craft to help tsunami victims. Really? We'll have that story ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: In just about three hours, Mitt Romney will make the obvious official and he will enter the race for president. He is the front-runner right now among those who are actually in the race. But the CNN poll also found most Republicans have a positive reaction to him.
But despite his numbers and his name recognition, his campaign money and his business background, Romney seems to have an enthusiasm problem.
Donald Trump talked to CNN's Piers Morgan about that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, BUSINESSMAN (via telephone): Well, I don't know him at all. He seems not to resonate. When I got out, I was beating everybody, including him, in the polls.
And it was sort of an interesting thing. He doesn't seem to resonate. I mean, he's been running for four years. He's been running really for six years, and longer. And you would think that he'd be doing a lot better in the polls than he is doing right now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Hugh Hewitt is a radio host and a Romney supporter. He wrote a book called "A Mormon in the White House."
Welcome.
HUGH HEWITT, RADIO HOST: Hi, Carol. Good morning.
COSTELLO: It's good to have you with us. I'm glad you're here, because this is really interesting.
Do you think Donald Trump is right?
HEWITT: No, I think Donald Trump talks to people. Every day, I talk to millions of people. And there's quite a lot of enthusiasm for Romney. There's quite a lot of enthusiasm for each of the GOP candidates.
Small correction, Carol. I haven't endorsed anyone although I greatly admire Romney and Pawlenty and a number of others. And I don't think I will until the California primary.
But I think that this assessment from the Donald is simply projection of his own ambition on to the race. Right now, Romney's got a very significant fundraising base, raised $10 million in one day, got a great network across the country. And most importantly, the worst country's problems become, and they're pretty enormous right now, the better he looks because of his record of turnaround is what he's going to be running on as a job creator, and as someone who can solve very complicated problems.
COSTELLO: One of the problems that he has now that he had in 2008 is his religion. Some Christian conservatives maybe won't vote for Romney because he is Mormon.
I mean, is that still a problem or has he overcome that?
HEWITT: You know, Carol, that's another one of those issues that exists within the sort of Manhattan beltway media elite. It's generally thrown out by reporters and pundits. Yes, it's not one of those issues I ran into when I wrote the book in 2007 when I covered the last five years.
And I think the presence of Governor Huntsman, a former governor of Utah and former ambassador to China, also a Mormon, is going to really make it difficult for people to use that canard again.
Here's Romney's problem. He got these problems: Palin, Pawlenty, and Perry, as well as Jon Huntsman -- other governors who have the same skill set that can make the same arguments about their capacity to lead.
I think Romney will have to do is he's going to have to go back and illustrate all the companies he turned around, the 2002 Olympics, which he took over in 1999, what a disaster they were when he arrived. And now, he turned it around. How he balanced the budget in Massachusetts. How he fixed a great number of problems there.
But he's going to be making the same argument about the ability to solve the problems that President Obama is creating and is magnifying.
COSTELLO: Well --
HEWITT: How to get rid of Obamacare.
COSTELLO: Well, let me ask you about how to get rid of Obamacare. But the president even thanks Mitt Romney for creating the model for the so-called Obamacare.
So, how does Mitt Romney get over the fact that he instituted a similar plan in the state of Massachusetts when he was governor?
HEWITT: Facts are stubborn things, Carol. I think that's what he's going to have to argue. I debated this with Ryan Lizza of "The New Yorker" in my program Tuesday for an hour -- the transcript over at HughHewitt.com.
The president likes to say that because the president is trying to shift blame from Obamacare to somebody else. But Mitt Romney didn't raise taxes. Mitt Romney didn't cut services to seniors like Obamacare did.
COSTELLO: But a lot of Republicans don't like that plan in Massachusetts. They don't like it.
HEWITT: Well, again, a lot of Republicans do. Some Republicans refer not to have individual mandates on the libertarian side of the wing.
But I'll tell you this -- four years ago, Carol, when the plan was in place, in all of those debates the Republicans had, not one Republican criticized the individual mandate or Romneycare because at the state level, where states have the police power, as opposed to at the federal level where they don't, mandates are common. You might not like a particular one, but there's a mandate that kids have to go to school, public, private or at home. There's a mandate that you get vaccines. There's a mandate that you get a business license.
Mandates at the state level are not the problem that Obamacare is, which is an onerous job-destroying blob that is crushing the economy in the United States.
So, I think it's going to be a very interesting to watch how this opinion set among the Manhattan beltway media is really not the issues that are going to drive Iowa, New Hampshire and Florida. And when Romney won last time around in Michigan, in Colorado and Nevada, they weren't talking about the mandates. They were talking about who can create jobs. It will be a good interesting debate for all the Republican candidates.
COSTELLO: It will, indeed. Thank you, Hugh Hewitt, for being with us this morning. We appreciate it.
CNN will carry Mitt Romney's announcement from New Hampshire. You can see it live right here at noon Eastern.
Checking stories cross-country now.
A candle light vigil was held in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, last night to remember those killed in a series of tornadoes on April 27th. Forty- three people died in the storms. The ceremony also honored first responders.
Los Angeles pitcher Rich Thompson is tweeting praises for the pilot of a team charter jet. The Delta Airlines plane made an emergency landing at the Los Angeles International Airport after developing hydraulic problems.
Lakeesha Harris and Janeane Ann Watkins are the first couple to get a civil union license in Illinois. They waited overnight to be first in line. The state began issuing licenses for same-sex couples yesterday.
And, finally, the hot air balloon at the center of a missing child hoax is up for sale. You remember Richard Heene. He says proceeds will benefit victims of the Japanese tsunami. In 2009, the nation watched as the flying saucer-shaped balloon floated over Colorado. Heene claimed his son was inside, he was not.
Will and Kate allegedly chatting it up on Twitter, tweeting about being newlyweds. Twitter followers hanging on every word. But is it really the duke and duchess of Cambridge? The scoop on the fake Twitter account after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Hundreds of Google e-mail accounts have been hacked, including those of U.S. government officials. Google says the attack originated in China.
Let's check back with Zain Verjee for the latest on this cybercrime.
So, Zain, what happened?
ZAIN VERJEE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Oh, my goodness. Well, basically, Google is saying that they managed to track down the hackers to central China that hacked the accounts of hundreds of users, including senior U.S. government officials, Chinese activists, South Korean government officials and journalists as well.
Now, the Chinese are saying absolutely not. They didn't hack anything. It's just not true.
The White House is saying that they are looking into these reports and they have no reason to believe that any U.S. government e-mail accounts were accessed.
Just to be careful, if anyone has a Gmail account here, and they use it -- basically, what happened here is that there were trusted sources that kind of just popped up as if they were Google or someone that would be credible or legitimate, and you click on the link and it takes you to another page where it asks you to please put in your user name, please put in your password. It looks real, Carol, but it's actually a way of hacking. So, just watch out.
COSTELLO: Yes, definitely. I mean, there's big Twitter accounts, there's everything. And I guess Kate and Will are having problems, too.
(LAUGHTER)
VERJEE: Yes. If you want to follow William, Kate, and Kate's sister, Pippa, on Twitter, you can. They got 21,000 followers. The only problem is, it's not really them.
But, you know, so many people, Carol, thought it was, because there were these tweets that just seemed really believable. They were so boring, they were believable is what people are saying. You know, they were talking about things like, you know, Kate's upcoming pregnancy and they were going to be traveling to Canada and Los Angeles soon. They were talking about tea and what it was like having a weekend in the country. But it's not them.
COSTELLO: People thought it was real because it was boring?
VERJEE: Well, it seems like -- I'll give you an example. You know, thanks for the sweet welcome. Thank you, Catherine. Guys, welcome to my real account. This is the real Pippa here.
And it's just so mundane that you think, OK, it must be them. I know.
COSTELLO: Whoever made up that false account was not very creative.
Zain Verjee, thanks so much.
Coming up: we see a lot of tornadoes already this year. But these latest are a little different. At least four people killed in Massachusetts.
And most New Yorkers already knew who Congressman Anthony Weiner is. But other Americans are just getting to know him, not because of his politics, but, you know, because of his Twitter account. Coming up, we'll take a closer look at a politician who once thought about being a weatherman.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: When they came barreling through, most people couldn't believe their eyes. Tornadoes tearing across western and central Massachusetts. Some amazing video coming out of Springfield. The man who shot this escaped but at least four people were killed in the storms. One of the twisters spun right through the heart of the city and across the Connecticut River. You can see it is sucking the water right up into a vortex.
Tornadoes aren't unprecedented in New England but they certainly are unusual.
Rob Marciano's got some details on this.
Rob, how often do tornadoes hit in Massachusetts?
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Every few years. But, they're typically not this strong. The last one that hit in Massachusetts was in '08 and that was an EF-0. Judging from the looks of this and the damage, let's show some of the aerial footage that's just coming in now. This was easily an EF-2, if not an EF-3 tornado. So winds well over 100 miles an hour. Not only trees being taken out, but brick buildings in some cases being ripped apart, as well.
All right. Here's what it looked like on the radar scope. We had a couple of cells that rolled through Springfield. One at 4:30. That's where this one came through. And then what makes this even more unusual, at 6:00, another one went through Springfield. So two tornadoes going through Springfield within two hours of each other. That certainly is unusual. And to get -- the strongest ones they have had by the way, EF-4 back in, I think, '95 and then another one, EF-4 in the 50s. So, unusual, yes. But not completely unheard of.
This is the track. It pretty much went down the turnpike into Worcester County, Stern Bridge, included. So we had several reports of tornadoes. Thank goodness it dissipated before it got to Boston. Widening this out, you know, western Mass wasn't the only spot that saw unusual weather. California getting into the act, as well. There was a tornado reported there in Marysville.
But this is the area, of course, in tornado alley, especially this time of year that we expect tornadoes. In California and in Massachusetts, we don't usually see that, but we saw it yesterday.
COSTELLO: Gosh. It's been a scary, weird spring, that's for sure.
Rob Marciano, thank you.
MARCIANO: You bet.
COSTELLO: Checking our top stories now in just a couple of hours. Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney will announce his bid for the GOP presidential nomination. He's the early frontrunner in polls and fundraising.
New York Congressman Anthony Wiener still not saying whether that naughty picture sent from his Twitter account is of him. He will only say his Twitter account was hacked.
A sign today of continuing weakness in the economy. Unemployment claims topped 400,000 for the eighth straight week. The number of people filing for first-time jobless benefits is at 422,000, down 6,000 from the week before.
It is the best to watch a great fielding play in baseball. But when that gem also saves the game, it is special. Jeff Fischel is here with the tape.
JEFF FISCHEL, HLN SPORTS ANCHOR: That's right, Carol. OK, so let's set the stage, right? The Philadelphia Phillies they're leading the division. Bases loaded, they have two outs with the bases loaded. Bottom of the sixth. Washington holding on to a one-run lead. The Phills Dominic Brown hits the sinking fly ball to left. Left fielder lands. You don't even see him. There he is, he dives and makes the catch. That saves at least a couple of runs. Nicks (ph) said he knew he caught it when he heard the fans cheer. Nicks, also, how about a game, made a homer. It was a difference. The Nats would win the game 2-1.
The umpires go to the replay in Kansas City and a double becomes a walk off home run. That's coming up in 20 minutes.
COSTELLO: You got a lot of awesome stuff today. Thank you, Jeff.
A teacher in New Jersey learns her lesson. Don't try to fool the kids with a Lady Gaga imposter. How the students figured out the fake out. That's next in the NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: OK, the economy and your investments. They're a big focus today, especially after yesterday's selloff. Stocks tumbled Wednesday, following a weak reports on jobs, manufacturing and auto sales. You can see they're still down a bit, down just about well, 12 and a half points. Not as bad as yesterday. We're going to have a check on the market and why the stock market's doing a little better at least this morning, in a few minutes.
Checking stories Cross Country now.
One of the world's best poker players is upping the ante in his battle against the organizers of the World Series of Poker. Phil Ivy filed a lawsuit in Las Vegas. He alleges Full Tilt Poker owes players more than $150 million in back winnings. The company calls his lawsuit frivolous. Ivy is boycotting this week's event. California's medical board says it will revoke Dr. Michael Kamrava's license to practice medicine next month. He is the fertility specialist that helped the so-called "Octomom" give birth to eight babies back in January of 2009.
And a New Jersey elementary school is admitting one of its employees was misguided for trying to fake out students by enlisting a Lady Gaga impersonator instead of a real pop star for a promised video chat. The kids caught on to the rouse when the fake Gaga texted instead of speaking. And the autographed picture of Gaga was found to be phony, too.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
Generally, though, kids are pretty smart so an impersonator might not do the trick for them. I think we should be honest with kids.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: And they know their Lady Gaga. School officials won't say how or if the employee will be disciplined.
The Twitter scandal isn't the kind of national exposure Congressman Anthony Wiener wanted but he's in the national spotlight now and not for his politics. Next, we'll tell you how the guy from Brooklyn and a friend of Jon Stewart became a liberal firebrand in Washington.
And Weiner says a hacker got into his Twitter account and sent that lewd picture. Coming up, we'll talk about an expert about how easy it is to do that and what chances digital detectives have to catch the guilty party. We'll be back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Well, you see those closed doors there? Those closed doors are in the Raeburn office building in Washington, D.C. That would be Congressman Anthony Wiener's office. Reporters are camped outside of his office just out of range of the cameras because they're pointing towards his door. They're expecting the Congressman -- that's not him. They're expecting the Congressman to come out and say a few words. If he does, of course, we'll bring those to you. We will keep you posted.
On the subject of Congressman Anthony Wiener, he can't or won't say if that lewd picture sent from his twitter account is actually of him. He says he's got a legal team looking into it.
Listen to what he told CNN's Wolf Blitzer.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. ANTHONY WEINER (D), NEW YORK: Sometimes a prank is a prank and that's why I'm trying to treat it that way. Hopefully, my marriage survives my first anniversary.
(END VIDEO CLIP) COSTELLO: This whole scandal is the first many Americans outside of New York are learning about Congressman Wiener.
So let's take a look at his career outside of Twitter gate.
CNN's Suzanne Malveaux explains how the guy from Brooklyn became a liberal firebrand in Washington.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Anthony Wiener is New York to the core. Born in Brooklyn to a lawyer and a schoolteacher. He went to a state university aiming to be a TV weatherman. When that didn't work, he turned to politics working for then Congressman Charles Schumer and hanging out with good friend, comedian, Jon Stewart.
Six years after college, he mounted a long shot bit for New York City council. He turned his scrappy nature into votes and at age 27, became, at the time, the youngest person elected to the council. Quickly becoming a thorn in the side of fellow councilman and New York Mayor David Dinkins. When his old boss Schumer ran for Senate in 1998, Weiner jumped in and ran to replace him in the House.
On Capitol Hill, Weiner cemented his reputation as a liberal's liberal famously fighting for women's rights and gun control. He is known for his determination, feistiness and above all, his firebrand rhetoric. Like the time he took on Republican Peter King over a bill to provide medical care for 9/11 first responders.
REP. ANTHONY WEINER (D), NEW YORK: You vote in favor of something if you believe it's the right thing. If you believe it is the wrong thing, you vote no. We are following a procedure. I will not yield to the gentlemen and the gentlemen will observe regular order. The gentlemen will observe regular order.
But he does have a soft side. Last July, Wiener married long-time aide to Hillary Clinton Huma Abedin and became the only Jewish member of Congress to be married to a devout Muslim. Officiating at the ceremony, former President Bill Clinton.
WEINER: She's a remarkable, remarkable woman. She married a Congressman, OK? She knows a little bit about living in public life. She knows with that goes a certain amount of, you know, aggravation. I don't think she imagined that it would be this.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That is perhaps an understatement.
Susan Malveaux, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: So let's talk more about this scandal. Noah Schachtman is a contributor at "Wired" magazine. Welcome.
NOAH SCHACHTMAN, CONTRIBUTOR, "WIRED" MAGAZINE: Hi. COSTELLO: Hi. Congressman Weiner says hackers got into his Twitter account and sent that lewd photo out, that picture. We hear a lot about Facebook and Twitter accounts getting hacked. We always hear it's a cinch to do. Is it?
SCHACHTMAN: Yes, it is a cinch to do. Look, these social networks in general and Twitter in particular, are built to be hacked. They are built to be open. They are built to share. They are built to play well with other programs. All of those things make them very easy to hack. There is any number of ways.
Half a dozen, a dozen different ways that Congressman Weiner's account could have been hacked.
COSTELLO: So Weiner has hired a law firm to find out who did this. He is refusing to involve police. Listen to what he said to Wolf Blitzer.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WEINER: Stuff like this happens. It's regrettable but it's true. Every day. Every day, it doesn't become a federal case. Just because it happened to Congressman Weiner on his personal account doesn't mean that the taxpayer should pay for some big investigation on this that winds up going on and on for years to find out who, (INAUDIBLE) -- who sent the picture of someone in shorts on the Internet on the account of a guy named Weiner.
I just don't think it rises to that level. I don't think it's a federal case but I'm going to turn it over to some people who are going to give me advice on what to do next.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: So Noah, we were curious. Would it really take years and years of investigating to find out who the hacker is.
SCHACHTMAN: It could be complicated to figure out depending on what method the hacker used. And I think the Congressman's right in that, you know, people's accounts are hacked all the time. People send crazy pictures under other people's names all the time.
The other day, I got a picture from what purported to be a friend of what was supposed to be my kid. And I just double-checked, because something didn't seem quite right about the e-mail. I checked with her and it turned out it wasn't her sending it at all. And the picture was some kind of attempt to hack me. So, you know, this kind of stuff happens all the time --
COSTELLO: So it would take years and years --
(CROSSTALK)
SCHACHTMAN: No, I don't think --
COSTELLO: for them to find out who sent this picture? SCHACHTMAN: I don't think we know whether it would take -- ok, I don't know if it would take years and years. But it might be never, actually. Because these things are actually kind of hard to figure out.
COSTELLO: Thank you very much; we'll keep following this story. Noah Schachtman from "Wired" magazine. Thanks for joining us this morning.
Again, you are looking at this live picture of Congressman Weiner's office. He is expected to speak soon. And when he does, we'll bring that to you live. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Let's look ahead at some headlines that are making news later today. The government is replacing its food pyramid. First lady Michelle Obama will actually unveil the new icon this morning so we all can see it. That will happen at 10:30 Eastern. The exact look is being kept under wraps. But speculation is the pyramid will be replaced with a plate.
At noon Eastern Mitt Romney jumps into the Republican presidential ring. The former Massachusetts governor makes it official during an appearance in New Hampshire. It is his second GOP run for the White House.
Tonight at 8:30 Eastern, the final round of the Scripps National Spelling Bee begins. The best young speller in the entire country will be crowned.
We're following a lot of developments the next hour of the CNN NEWSROOM. Let's check in first with Jason Carroll, live in tornado- stricken Springfield, Massachusetts.
JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And Carol, Springfield, Massachusetts is looking more like tornado alley as the folks here in Western Massachusetts deal with the aftermath of two deadly tornadoes. I'm going to have the video coming up at the top of the hour.
ZAIN VERJEE, ANCHOR, CNN INTERNATIONAL: Hi, I'm Zain Verjee in London, and past world leaders are telling the United States make drugs legal. Why are they saying that? I'll tell you next.
POPPY HARLOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And I'm Poppy Harlow in New York. We're following the market pretty closely. Pretty much the biggest selloff we've seen in a year for the Dow and the S&P 500. Why are investors fleeing? It's all about the broader economy, jobs and manufacturing. We're going to have the details for you coming up at the top of the hour.
COSTELLO: Thanks to all of you.
Also ahead, cheap. That's no way to describe Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo and his new bride, but the description fits their wedding registry. 50-cent tea lights, a $6 gravy boat? It's raised a few eyebrows and we're taking a closer look in the next hour. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Anthony Weiner has come out. Let's listen.
WEINER: Let me make this very clear. I did not send the picture that my Twitter account had been hacked. And this prank has apparently been successful. After hours almost 11 hours of answering questions, any that anyone wanted to put today. I'm going to have to get back to work doing the job that I'm paid to do.
So I appreciate your patience and understanding. If I can do anything to make you more comfortable while you're sitting out here in the hallway, please let me know. Thank you.
KATE BOLDUAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Congressman, even though you say you're answering direct questions finally, there are many more questions now.
COSTELLO: That was Kate Bolduan trying to shout a question at Congressman Weiner, but he's only offering soft drinks and coffee, not answers to questions today. But we'll keep an eye on this. We will.
Two baseball teams battle to avoid being eliminated from the playoff race last night. It's the first week in June. So say what, Jeff Fischel?
JEFF FISCHEL, HLN SPORT: Right. It sounds wrong, but it's right. The great baseball writer Tom Verducci went digging through the record books and said, at this point in the season if you're five games under .500 and five games out of first, you're finished. You're done. Almost no chance of making the playoffs. Last night the Dodgers and Rockies battle. The loser would be five games below .500 and 5 1/2 games out of first. That means uh-oh for L.A. because Colorado all- star, Ubaldo Jimenez finally got his first win of the year. In fact he was great.
Complete game shut-out. Seven strikeouts. The Rockies win 3-0. Sorry, Dodgers. I guess it's time to start thinking about 2012.
Stanley Cup finals opening game, Bruins-Canucks. Watch Vancouver's Alex Burrows takes a bite of Patrice Bergeron's finger. Sweaty glove (INAUDIBLE) I guess that appeals. Don't be surprised if Burrows gets a suspension for that.
Meanwhile Boston goalie Tim Thomas was outstanding, but he lets one in. The Canucks Torres with 19 seconds left. That was the only goal. Vancouver wins game one 1-0, Carol.
COSTELLO: Thanks Jeff.
FISCHEL: Ok.
COSTELLO: Sorry about that. Congressman Weiner came out with that really important statement. We had to cut you short.
FISCHEL: Baseballs and hot dogs. COSTELLO: Thank you Jeff.
Sarah Palin's 10-year-old daughter Piper is keeping busy on her mom's nationwide bus tour. As Jeanne Moos reports, Piper's job involves security.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: If a teacher asked Piper Palin what she did for her summer vacation, she can leap right into the "We the People" bus trip saga. Very few people have their very own bus. How many ten-year-olds can say they have been hounded by the press?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don't step on the kids, please.
MOOS: Or had pizza with Donald Trump.
SARAH PALIN, FORMER GOVERNOR OF ALASKA: We had great pizza. Wasn't that good? It was real New York pizza.
MOOS: Or went motorcycle riding with mom on the back of dad's bike.
Oh, sure, she had to entertain herself, cramming gum into her mouth while she listened to mom give interview after interview. Sometimes she had to physically drag her mom away and occasionally, it took not just one tap on the shoulder, not just two.
S. PALIN: Hold on one second, honey.
MOOS: Three taps and she is out finally. But even a kid --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Piper, what did you think of statue of liberty?
MOOS: -- isn't immune to the lure of the limelight. In a role reversal, Mom watched while Piper described her favorite part.
PIPER PALIN, DAUGHTER OF SARAH PALIN: Seeing the torch.
MOOS: We haven't seen this much of Piper Palin since she first made her mark at the Republican convention. Made her mark on her brother, Trig, by licking her hand to slick down his hair.
A CNN producer was so smitten by her sassy behavior at the convention that she named her dog, Piper. Here Piper, the one in the Snoopy T- shirt.
The trip hasn't been all excitement.
Supporting the troops.
Piper looked momentarily bored and hot on a scorching day touring Fort McHenry. Some say Piper is acting like her mother's miniature bodyguard. She has been seen leading her mom with outstretched arm.
Fox 29 in Philadelphia captured what looked like a body block. Piper wedged herself between a reporter with a mike and her mother. The move provoked tweets that Piper was head of Palin's secretary and a bouncer press secretary in the making.
Watch how she handles the media onslaught.
Get that microphone off of me. When the media roll up, there is only one thing to do.
P. PALIN: Roll up the window.
Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
