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163,000 Jobs Added In July; Meeting With The Middle Class; Romney Versus Reid; Phelps Goes For 21st Medal Tonight; Wenlock Is Mascot Of London Games; U.N. To Vote On Syria Resolution Today; Boxing Champ Released From Jail; Tax Free Back-To-School Shopping; Rare Baseball Cards Sell For $566K; NYC Neighborhood's Second Sinkhole; Cal Ripken Talks Mother's Kidnapping; Tax Battle: Whose Plan Is Better?; Ripken's Mom Recovering; Drought Hurts Mighty Mississippi River; Judge Rules on Jackson Guardianship; Texter Drives Off Cliff; Syria Opposition: "Massacre" by Regime; Gabby Douglas' Mom Tells Her Story
Aired August 03, 2012 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Better news on the job front, 163,000 new jobs added in July. That's more than what was expected, but the unemployment rate jumped slightly up. So what does it all mean? We'll break down the numbers.
Eliminating terrorists or massacre. In Syria, heavy shelling and gunfire and dozens reportedly killed by regime forces. This as the United Nations votes next hour about what to do about Syria.
Birds mess up travel plans for passengers flying from Houston to Boston. Their United Jet apparently hit a bird during takeoff and the plane was forced to return to Houston.
You don't mess with the U.S. when it comes to women's gymnastics. Gabby Douglas brings home the gold. She is the third straight American and first African-American woman to win that sport's prize. We'll talk with her mom about Gabby's amazing win. NEWSROOM starts right now.
Good morning to you. Happy Friday. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you for joining us. We begin with the nation's job market. It's getting, well, a solid boost last month.
It got a solid boost, I should say, for the month of July, with the new jobs report out. The Labor Department shows 163,000 jobs were created in July and that beat forecasts for a gain of 95,000 jobs.
Still, the unemployment rate edged higher to 8.3 percent and the economy's not exactly roaring yet. Christine Romans is in New York to tell us what it all means.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: And Austin Goolsbee, of course, who used to advice the White House said don't bring out the party hats just yet, but it is going in the right direction, reversing what looked like a summer swoon. The 163,000 jobs is enough, Carol, to absorb all the new entrants into the labor market and that is something we always want to see. Let's take a look at some of the other parts of this.
The 25,000 manufacturing jobs created. That's pretty important because we were really closely watching what's happening to American factories because of weakness from Europe.
The 49,000 jobs created in professional and business services and 29,000 jobs in food services. Carol, that's a sign that people -- consumers at least are maybe spending a little bit of money this summer.
I want to look into the race break down too, the major worker groups. This is how the Labor Department describes it and you saw an improvement for Hispanics from 11 percent unemployment to 10.3 percent. For the rest of the major groups were basically steady.
Here's where the politics comes in, Carol, because the White House is pointing out that it's 29 straight months of private sector job creation, more than 4 million jobs created over that period from the private sector and that is true.
The GOP is pointing out that it's a record amount of time with the unemployment rate above 8 percent. That is true. We have three more of these jobs reports until the election, and the final one squeaks in just days before the election overall, Carol.
So we'll have another big report just before people head to the voting booth. Another number in here that gets a lot of attention in the aftermath, the days after a jobs report, Carol, is something called the underemployment rate.
It's U-6 is the technical term on the table. That shows how many people are unemployed. They're underemployed. They're discouraged. Basically, some call it the real unemployment rate. That number ticked up to 15 percent, Carol. Wow.
COSTELLO: Christine Romans reporting live for us from New York.
The latest jobs data comes as a new "USA Today"/Gallup poll shows half of Americans, 50 percent, think Mitt Romney would be better at creating jobs than President Obama. The president is expected to weigh in on the July report later this morning.
He's going to meet with middle class families and workers at the White House. On his agenda, pressing Congress to reach a compromise on extending the bush-era tax cuts.
The White House says if there is no extension, taxes will go up on 98 percent of Americans on January, but there may not be too many lawmakers in Washington to hear the president's remarks.
That's because Congress began its five-week August recess. Yes, they went on vacation starting yesterday. Mitt Romney fighting mad over Senator Harry Reid's tax bomb as to why Romney hasn't released his tax returns. As you know by now, Senator Reid claims an unnamed source at Bain Capital told him Romney hadn't paid taxes for 10 years. Romney is not happy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE (via telephone): It's time for Harry to put up or shut up. Harry is going to have to describe who it is he spoke with because, of course, that's totally and completely wrong.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Others, of course, are weighing in, too. So let's head to Washington and check in with Mark Preston. Good morning, Mark.
MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Good morning, Carol. What a bloodbath of words now we're hearing between Mitt Romney and Harry Reid over this whole tax fight.
You know, it's not even him, Carol, who is weighing in. You're seeing Senator John McCain, a long time colleague of Senator Harry Reid weighing in last night on "AC 360," and he had some very sharp words for Senator Reid. Let's hear what he had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: I've known Senator Reid for many, many years, and occasionally he displays some rather erratic behavior. To accuse someone of doing something without a shred of proof that the allegation has any substance is really something I frankly don't understand. I think politics are tough and I enjoy the give-and-take, but I think Harry might have gone over the line here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PRESTON: There you have it. Senator John McCain just last night saying that Senator Reid has gone over the line in making this accusation that Mitt Romney hasn't paid taxes in 10 years.
And Harry Reid is citing an unnamed source, an unnamed Bain investor who says that, in fact, he knows Mitt Romney hasn't paid those taxes. But Harry Reid, Carol, is standing by his claim that that is, in fact, true.
Let's look at the statement last night given to Dana Bash regarding this. Senator Harry Reid staying by and saying, in fact, that he still believes that Mitt Romney hasn't paid those 10 years of taxes.
And the fact of the matter is what we're seeing here, Carol, is he's being accused now, Mitt Romney is being accused of something and in many ways the only way that he can absolve himself of this accusation is to release the taxes. So it is a win-win for Harry Reid -- Carol.
COSTELLO: You think so, because it's an unnamed source. He can't prove the allegations a bit. Why would an investor at Bain know, you know, about Mitt Romney's tax returns?
PRESTON: You know, that's a great question, and in fact there was a column on cnnmoney.com just a couple days ago that said that a Bain investor would not know.
What Harry Reid is doing, though, is really playing hardball politics. Now Harry Reid comes from the streets of Nevada. He did not come up with a lot of money. He's considered a street fighter.
He himself is a boxer. And if fact of the matter is what he has done is he has put Mitt Romney on the defensive and he has put this tax issue back on the table -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Mark Preston live in Washington for us this morning.
The clock is ticking down on Michael Phelps' legendary career. He's got two more events to add to his record medal haul starting with tonight's 100-meter butterfly.
Phelps, as you know, added to his gold collection last night beating teammate Ryan Lochte in the 200-meter individual medley. With that, Phelps became the first man to win the same individual event in three straight Olympics.
Zain Verjee is in London. I think you can call Michael Phelps a superman now.
ZAIN VERJEE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You can call him phenomenal Phelps, superman, unbelievable, brilliant. I mean, how many more adjectives are we going to be able to come up with for him, right, Carol?
I mean, he is amazing. Everyone here in London and around the world is just gripped by his performance. So we're going to see if he can do it again. Can he get another gold today in the 100-meter butterfly final?
Even if he gets another medal, he's going to make history. So we're just all eyes are going to be on Phelps today just to see if he can do it. Now, Carol, just a short while ago, I was at the souvenir store and there were so many people from the U.S. just buying some really great stuff that's out there.
And I came across something really interesting. Apparently this little tablet, Carol, if I pour it into a bowl of water like this, something is supposed to happen, but I'm not sure what.
So I'm just going to dunk it in there and see what happens. I'll tell you in a minute because apparently it's supposed to be something very cool.
But in the meantime, I want to introduce you to this guy, his name is Wenlock. And Wenlock is basically the mascot for the Olympics here. See this guy?
COSTELLO: What is he?
VERJEE: There he goes, Carol. All right, he is the mascot. It comes from a town called Wenlock here in the U.K. That's who it's named after. He's got five Olympic rings around his hands.
He also has one eye, and the one eye is because there are structures like this all around London and they're filming everyone, the tourists and everyone in London and just going to make a great piece of tape.
And then here is the podium, Carol, the podium for gold, silver, and bronze. This is our guy, Wenlock. I got you another version of it here. It's just a one-eyed bandit kind of thing.
But, you know, everyone seems into this. So what happened to the result of that little tablet here, well, Carol, let's see. Wow. Take a look at this. It's magic. It's magic here live on CNN.
COSTELLO: Geez.
VERJEE: Here we go. And guess who's on the towel.
COSTELLO: Wow.
VERJEE: It's Wenlock.
COSTELLO: That was brilliant, Zain. We loved it. Thank you, Zain.
VERJEE: I thought it was going to be like the underwater treasure box and would be empty.
COSTELLO: I thought the tablet would turn into gold and you could quit your job and live in luxury somewhere. Thank you, Zain.
VERJEE: No. Just a little towel.
COSTELLO: Zain. I think Zain needs some sleep.
When it comes to the middle class, which presidential candidate is the best man for the job? One group says it's not Mitt Romney. Why that's sparking a war of words over taxes.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: It's 13 minutes past the hour. Checking our top stories now, the U.N. General Assembly votes today on a resolution condemning Syria's government. An opposition group reports at least 90 people were killed across Syria just today. Most of the victims were in the besieged city of Hama where the opposition says regime forces committed a massacre. Boxing champ Floyd Mayweather Jr. is free following his release from a Las Vegas jail. He served two months for punching the mother of his children. By the way, that's his friend you saw there, rapper 50 Cent in the car picking him up.
In money news, get ready for tax-free back-to-school shopping. So far 17 states announce sales tax breaks before September. Some experts say the tax break doesn't save you much money. That it's more of a gimmick, but it only applies to some items and of course, it takes place on different dates in every state.
Tropical Storm Ernesto is expected to enter the Caribbean in the a few hours. The National Hurricane Center says Ernesto could become a hurricane by Monday and pass near or just south of Jamaica.
In sports, a huge payday for an Ohio family. Carl Kissner was cleaning out an attic when he came across some vintage baseball cards in mint condition that once belonged to his grandfather. The cards sold at auction yesterday for more than $500,000. The money will be split among 20 cousins.
A close call for a New York mom and her daughter. They left their car for 5 minutes and came back to find it hanging on the edge of a sinkhole. Firefighters worked for an hour to get the car back on the solid ground. It is the second sinkhole in two months in this same neighborhood.
It's been a week since the mother of baseball hall of famer Cal Ripken Jr. was kidnapped from her home. She was found safe several hours later in Baltimore.
Now, this morning, Ripken is talking about what happened for the first time. He's speaking right now at the Old Baltimore Orioles Stadium, actually at the Baltimore Orioles Stadium, Camden Yards.
We're going to monitor this press conference. In fact, Carlos Diaz is doing this for us. He will bring you the highlights later this hour.
Remember this woman and her shocking tan? Well, she's back. She's lost her tan. Wait until you see what she looks like now.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: We asked you to talk back on one of the big stories of the day. The question for you this morning, should Harry Reid put up or shut up?
It's war. Mitt Romney is fighting mad over Senator Harry Reid's tax bomb about why Romney hasn't released more tax returns.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SENATOR HARRY REID (D), MAJORITY LEADER: The word's out that he hasn't paid any taxes for 10 years. Let him prove that he has paid taxes because he hasn't.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Reid says he was told this by a former Bain Capital investor, an unnamed investor. So basically, Reid lobbed an unsubstantiated bomb, and it's blowing up big time.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROMNEY: It's time for Harry to put up or shut up. Harry is going to have to describe who it is he spoke with because, of course, that's totally and completely wrong.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: In fact, Romney suggested that Reid's super secret source wasn't from Bain at all, but from the White House. A Romney adviser accused Reid of McCarthy-like accusations.
As for Harry Reid, well, you put up, he says. In a statement Thursday night, Reid called his source at Bain extremely credible. But he still did not name him.
He also said Romney could resolve the whole matter by being more transparent. But to John McCain, Harry, it's really all about you.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MCCAIN: To accuse someone of doing something without a shred of proof, that the allegation has any substance, is really something I frankly don't understand. I think politics are tough, and I enjoy the give-and-take, but I think harry might have gone over the line here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Did Harry Reid cross the line? And if so, brings us to our talkback question. Should Harry Reid put up or shut up? Facebook.com/carolcnn. Your comments later this hour.
When it comes to the middle class, which presidential candidate is the best man for the job? One group says it's not Mitt Romney. Why that's now sparking a war of words over taxes.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: It's become yet another epic battle between President Obama and Governor Romney. At issue, Mr. Romney's tax cut proposal, whether it's good or bad for the middle class.
The nonpartisan tax policy center says it would raise taxes for middle class Americans and cut taxes for the wealthiest Americans. President Obama pounced on that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: We know better. They have tried to sell us this trickle-down tax cut fairy dust before. And guess what?
It didn't work then. It will not work now. It's not a plan to create jobs. It is not a plan to reduce the deficit. It is not a plan to build our middle class. It is not a plan to move our economy forward. It takes us backwards to a place we don't need to be.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: But Romney's camp says that tax study is a partisan joke. So what's true? Felicia Taylor is here to tell us. First off, Felicia who did the study?
FELICIA TAYLOR, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: OK, Carol, the study was done by the tax policy center. It is a nonpartisan operation combing the urban institute and the Brookings institution. Mitt Romney has criticized the report, though, saying the center is a liberal entity and the report was co-authored by a former Obama adviser.
He's referring to Sam Brown, who is Obama's former finance chief of staff. But president Obama pointed out the director of the center, Don Marin, worked under President Bush on his Council of Economic Advisers and that Governor Romney has praised his work in the past.
So president Obama mentions, as you just said, the trickle-down tax cut fairy dust. He's talking about the report's findings that Romney's tax plan would result in a tax increase for lower and middle- income taxpayers in order to cut taxes for the highest earners.
For his part, Romney says the findings are a dishonest characterization of his plan -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Well, give us some specifics. What exactly did this report find?
TAYLOR: Yes. It gets a little confusing, but basically here's the gist -- Governor Romney's plan is calling for a 20 percent cut to current tax rates.
The tax policy center said that would actually decrease federal tax revenues by $360 billion by 2015. So because of those cuts, high earners will have more available cash.
People making over a million dollars will see their after-tax income rise by more than 8 percent. For those with incomes between $75,000 and $100,000, their average tax income will increase, as well, but by a less amount, only 2.4 percent.
And those Americans who is make less than $30,000 a year would see their earnings actually decrease by about 1 percent. President Obama has said this is essentially, you know, shifting the tax burden from rich to poor.
And Mitt Romney's campaign is says the study was missing a key piece of the puzzle. It didn't account for the economic growth that his tax reduction would prompt. As I said, people and businesses would have more extra cash to spend because of this -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Right. Because the job creators would have more capital on hand to create jobs and the Romney people are saying, hey, you're not taking into account all these jobs that we're going to create after, you know, President Romney is in the White House.
TAYLOR: Well, and they'd have more cash to put back into the economy. I mean, if you reduce taxes, obviously there's more cash in your pocket.
So you can put that back effectively into the economy and that makes things better. Nevertheless, it's not very satisfying to people that make less than $30,000 that their take-home pay is going to decrease. That's not good news.
COSTELLO: Felicia Taylor, thanks so much.
For almost 24 hours, she was abducted, she was kidnapped. Vi Ripken was found in her car, her hands and feet tied up. That was one week ago.
Now her son, the baseball hall of famer, Cal Ripken Jr., makes his first public comment since this whole ordeal began.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CAL RIPKEN, JUNIOR, FORMER MAJOR LEAGUE SHORTSTOP: For what we know right now, from what I know, we don't know why. And so that's -- it's bizarre on many levels, and it's unsettling on many levels, but it's strange to say the least.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Poor Cal. HLN's Carlos Diaz joins me now. What else did he say?
CARLOS DIAZ, HLN SPORTS: You know, it was -- first off, Cal Ripken is one of the classiest guys, not just in baseball but in sports. So you know a lot of people are coming to Cal saying how is your mom doing, how is your mom doing?
So the first thing he said was I just want everyone to know she's doing as well as she can, she's OK. You can tell there's some mental trauma there, some mental trauma.
She's not actually gone back to the house that she was abducted from on July 24th. Her day began like any other day. She went to the garage to do some chores and a man confronted her in the garage at gunpoint and then basically drove her around for 23 hours.
Cal Ripken said that they've asked her several times what happened during those 23 hours and she hasn't been able to articulate what happened at the time.
You know, it was very interesting to watch Cal Ripken, who like I said one of the most, you know, charming guys you ever want to meet, to use that word, as far as with the press, just being very -- not stand offish, but you could see he has a little bit of anger in his voice right now.
And what I was looking for was, you know, the emotions with Cal Ripken. He got emotional on the final question. When he was asked what was it like when he learned that his mom was OK, and he basically -- he choked up.
He took a moment and he said when you're dealing with a situation like this, your thoughts always go to the worst, and he said we began to accept the worst and when we found out she was OK, you know, all those emotions kind of hit you right -- like cold water, you know.
COSTELLO: I think we have that part of his presser so let's listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RIPKEN: I want to be able to report that mom is doing pretty good. You know, it's a traumatic situation that she was involved in, traumatic for all of us in the family.
And we're trying really hard to come together and support each other in this. But mom by and large is a tough, strong woman, was able to endure this, but she's doing pretty good.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DIAZ: And that was a question from earlier in the press conference. Like I said the last question in the press conference is when he really got choked up and you saw the real emotions on Cal Ripken's face.
And basically, this man is still at large. He's a man in his late 30s, early 40s. We've been showing the sketch. There's also some video as you see right here of a thin man. And that video was taken at the time of, you know, the abduction.
And the crazy thing here as we're learning more facts about this from Cal Ripken, he didn't even know his mom was missing until somebody reported the car in a strange place near a private home and they reported the license plate and then that's how they figured out that she was missing.
So it was a -- it was a very traumatic time for Cal Ripken and the Ripken family. And I think now what Cal Ripken is doing, he understands that he's a very famous person and that his fame can help bring this guy to justice.
COSTELLO: And that's what he's doing. I hope somebody recognizes that guy, because you're right. I mean part of the mother's trauma might be because this guy is still out there.
DIAZ: And she won't go back to the home because he's still out there but also the fact that it's there's -- so far we don't know why. They keep saying the word "bizarre". It's a very bizarre situation because all indications are that he had no idea that he was kidnapping Cal Ripken's mom.
COSTELLO: And then he just let her go. I just --
DIAZ: It is a bizarre situation.
COSTELLO: Carlos Diaz, thanks so much.
COSTELLO: 10:30 Eastern Time -- the bottom of the hour. Let's check our "Top Stories".
Violence intensifies in Syria as the U.N. General Assembly votes today on a resolution condemning their own Security Council's failing role in the crisis. Activists say 90 people have been killed across the country today alone. And the U.S. says more than 17,000 have been killed in the last 16 months.
Labor Department says 163,000 jobs were created last month. That's -- that's actually better than what was expected. But the unemployment rate edged higher to 8.3 percent, about 12.8 million Americans remain unemployed, 40 percent of them for six months or longer.
Hours before a planned kiss-in national protest at Chick-Fil-A come reports in a restaurant vandalized in Torrance, California. These are pictures just in to us. The words "Tastes like hate" are on the side of that Chick-Fil-A restaurant. Supporters of same-sex marriage are planning a kiss-in at restaurants nationwide tonight. They're protesting Chick-Fil-A's president who recently expressed his support of traditional marriage.
And Beyonce wants to direct a documentary. She wants to produce it and star in it and, guess what, it's all about her, her life. But will movie studios buy it?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: The drought hurting many farmers' fields and now the nation's waterways. Take the Mississippi River; in some places its 50 feet lower than last year's peak flood levels. In fact, the river had to be closed in two different spots because barges ran aground. The river bone-dry in some spots. Shoreline up and down the Mississippi looking more like a beach.
Meteorologist Rob Marciano joins me now. So, wow, this could be a problem for the shipping industry.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes. We've been talking so much about, you know, the farms and cattle and our food. But so much goes up and down that river; $180 billion worth of goods every year; 566 million tons of stuff goes up and down this river. And when you consider the barges that are -- that are -- are doing most of the pushing and pulling, they'll run into some trouble. I mean an average tug pushes 15 barges, ok? And they -- they're having to lift these barges up because they're dredging some of these -- some of the waters. All the way from La Crosse, Wisconsin, right throughout down through parts of Mississippi. This is what's going on. That stops the traffic, and it's just been a bad situation.
They had to lift a lot of these barges about 12 inches. In order to do that, they've got to unload 240 tons of goods. So you can imagine what kind of backlog that has put down on the -- on the Mississippi itself.
I want to show you one thing that's kind of interesting. We mentioned that last year we were at record levels, the river has dropped in many cases more than 50 feet below where it was last year. Lush areas last year, this is a satellite picture from last -- last spring. You see the swollen Mississippi and you compare that to what's going on right now, this picture is taken July and boy, not nearly as lush and that river certainly has shrunk.
So we're talking about a huge backlog of traffic, Carol with this situation there. And really we need a tremendous amount of rain in order to remedy the situation. That's not going to happen through this summer.
COSTELLO: I was just going to ask you that. How much rain is it going to take?
MARCIANO: Well, you know, let's look at one thing. As far as what -- what we forecast over the next several months, as far as the -- the drought and the improvements that we expect to see across the area. Come on. Get out of here.
COSTELLO: Oh figures, technology.
MARCIANO: Yes there come on. Get off there. There you go. All right, so anywhere you see green on this map is where we see some sort of improvement. So nowhere in the drought zone.
All right so in order to -- we really need a tropical system to come up and help remedy the situation. But we don't expect that to happen in the next week. After that, all bets are off.
But Missouri, 98 percent of that crop right now considered to be poor or in very poor conditions. Illinois, 95 percent.
So you're talking about a swath of the country that really is in dire straits. Missouri, this is updated yesterday, 92 percent of it considered in extreme drought. Other states similar numbers including parts of Kansas, 88 percent in extreme drought.
This is not recoverable in just the next several months. It's going to take well over a year so we're in this for the long haul -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Rob Marciano, thanks. MARCIANO: Ok.
COSTELLO: The mom who made headlines for her jaw-dropping tan is tan no more. This is what Patricia Krentcil dubbed "Tanning Mom" looked like before she was arrested accused of taking her fair-skinned 6-year-old daughter tanning, something she has denied.
Well, here he is now in the latest issue of "In Touch Weekly." She has not been tanning for a month. She told the magazine everyone says she looks better now, but she feels, quote, "weird and pale".
Michael Jackson's mother, Katherine, is once again the permanent guardian of his three children. A judge made that decision yesterday. But T.J. Jackson, Michael Jackson's nephew, was named co-guardian.
"SHOWBIZ TONIGHT's" host, A.J. Hammer, joins us with more on this story. Good morning.
A.J. HAMMER, HLN HOST, "SHOWBIZ TONIGHT": Good morning, Carol. Here's the deal. A Los Angeles judge reinstated Katherine Jackson as permanent guardian to Michael Jackson's children Thursday after saying that a court investigation found that she was doing a wonderful job.
The judge said that the children's cousin, T.J. Jackson, who he had tapped as a temporary guardian last week, would stay on and eventually share joint custody of Prince, Paris, and Blanket with 82- year-old Katherine.
Now this is all based on a request made by the family. And what's interesting is we're getting a bit more detail from Michael's mom in court documents related to Thursday's hearing. She explained those ten days that she was incommunicado in a sworn court declaration.
Katherine suggests that she was actually tricked into getting on a plane to Tucson, Arizona and when she arrived there, her cell phone and her iPad were taken away and she was kept from communicating with her grandchildren. She also had no idea that she was even reported missing.
And now Oprah Winfrey has decided that at least a portion of the Jackson family drama is going to play out in prime time. Michael's sister La Toya Jackson tells us in a statement that she's going to be working with Oprah on a new reality series around her life.
Oprah's OWN Network announced La Toya's show on Thursday describing it as "A candid look inside the life of the outspoken Jackson sibling". It's being called "Life with LaToya" and Carol it makes its debut in 2013. It should be interesting.
COSTELLO: All I can say is those poor kids.
Let's switch gears now and talk about Beyonce. Because she wants to direct, produce, and star in a documentary about Beyonce. HAMMER: Well, why not? We're going to see a whole lot more of her from her. "The Los Angeles Times" is reporting that Beyonce has been shopping around this documentary to Hollywood studios about her life and career.
Now the report say she's pitching a concert-style movie, which she will produce, direct and appear in and we're going to get to see her in concert but we'll also get a behind-the-scenes look into her life as a business mogul and as a mother.
And you know, up until very recently she was notoriously private about her private life. She never even officially confirmed her marriage to Jay-Z, but look at her now. I mean, she's debuted a new Web site in the past year, she launched her presence in social media. And now with this intimate look at her life, it seems she is, well, rather quickly lifting the curtain on her life in a very big, albeit very controlled way, Carol.
COSTELLO: Well, Katy Perry did it. Why not Beyonce?
HAMMER: Why not.
COSTELLO: Thanks, A.J.
Join A.J. Hammer on "SHOWBIZ TONIGHT" 11:00 Eastern on HLN.
Getting serious now. The Syrian opposition reports a massacre today. Dozens are dead. Now the United Nations nears a vote condemning the Assad regime.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Just about 45 minutes past the hour. Checking our "Top Stories".
Facebook says it wants to get rid of 83 million accounts that are either fake or duplicate accounts. That's 8.7 percent of all Facebook accounts. Some are used for spamming, others are accounts for people's pets which is not allowed. Facebook rules also say people can have only one account.
1045
Just about 45 minutes past the hour. Checking our top stories, Facebook wants to get rid of 83 million accounts that are either fake or duplicate accounts. That's 8.7 percent of all Facebook accounts. Some are used for spamming, others are accounts for people's pets which is not allowed. Facebook rules also say people can have only one account.
Now to China, where two tropical storms have slammed into the country, one after another. One hit the eastern part of that country, the other hit farther south. That same storm killed at least 40 people in the Philippines and Taiwan.
In sports, Michael Phelps will swim for his last individual event in the London games later today. He's seeking his third gold medal of the 2012 games. So far the U.S. has more medals than any other country, 37 total, 18 gold. China is close behind though with a total of 35 medals.
Look at these cars. A man in Vermont is accused of using a tractor to crush seven sheriff's cruisers. Some people say it was revenge because he had been in trouble with police before. More than half the sheriff's department fleet now destroyed and as you might expect, that man now under arrest.
We all know texting and driving is dangerous. This next story in Texas drives home that point. The man was driving. When he tried texting he actually drove off a cliff. His truck suffered major damage and the man himself almost died.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHANCE BOTH, DROVE OFF A CLIFF: You need to understand, don't do it. Don't do it. Your life -- it's not worth losing your life.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Doctors in Texas say they're seeing more injuries from driving while texting. So do not text while you drive.
We may be near a tipping point in the ongoing Syrian civil war. The opposition reports at least 90 people killed across the country today. Most of them are what's being called a massacre in the besieged city of Hama. An all-out battle is expected soon in Aleppo, and the U.N. has a vote today condemning the regime.
CNN's Elise Labott is covering that side of the story from the State Department. Good morning, Elise.
ELISE LABOTT, CNN FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Basically, the U.N. General Assembly is set to vote on a resolution. As you know, the U.N. Security Council failed three times to pass a resolution. Russia and China always vetoed the resolution, trying to impose sanctions against the Assad regime.
This resolution does take to task the Assad regime for its use of heavy weaponry against the population and also its threat to use biological and chemical weapons. But it also deplores the paralysis of the U.N. Security council for failing to address the crisis and also kind of points the finger, you know.
You had former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who was the U.N. envoy, resigning yesterday in frustration, saying he basically can't do his job because of this Security Council intransigence, Carol.
COSTELLO: Elise Labott reporting live for us this morning.
Behind every Olympic athlete there's a mother cheering her on, a mom who also sacrificed. We're going to hear from the mother of America's latest gymnastics star and gold medal-winner Gabby Douglas. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: You know, Gabby Douglas has arrived. Kellogg's is now putting her picture on a box of Corn Flakes. America's latest sweetheart of the gym took a gold medal in the all-around event at the London Games last night. It was the second gold for the 16-year-old with the megawatt smile
But like every other Olympian, success comes after sacrifice. And Natalie Hawkins, Gabby's mom, has put in a lot of sacrifice for her daughter.
She spoke to CNN on the eve of the games.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NATALIE HAWKINS, MOTHER OF GABBY DOUGLAS: The competition started a long time ago. Who could run the fastest? Who could jump the farthest, who could jump higher on the couch? When she started really expressing an interest in gymnastics, her sister Ariel, said she's really good mom. You have to put her in. She wants to try it. You have to put her in.
After years of persuading me, I finally gave in and took her to a trial class. She just never wanted to come out of the gym. She loved it. She would just practice all the time.
I saw the hard work. I realized when I got into this sport how expensive it was. Just the commitment over the years. Sometimes it felt crushing. I didn't think I'd be able to keep her in the sport.
But then I would think about it and I would say, you got to fight. If I had to sell, I sold almost all my jewelry and if I had to pick up extra shifts at work, whatever it takes.
When she began competing, it's hard. You go through this whole range of motions. You're nervous, you're excited. Even when she was like 4. We'd be on the edge of our seats. Probably in about 2008, we were watching the Olympics at a friend's house and she said, "I think I could do that. I can do what they're doing. I'm working on that on the bars. She said, "I'm going to the Olympics. I can do this."
You know, if we maybe pursued a coach who had gotten someone to the Olympics and kind of knew the ins and outs of what it took to get someone there, she might have a valid shot. She started saying, "I need that coach. I need Coach Chao."
I said, I can't move the family to Iowa. I'm a single parent. I didn't have the resources to be able do something like that. My two oldest daughters got together and wrote a list and said, ok, here's all the reasons we're going to help you out here. And here's the reason why she shouldn't go. The only thing on that side was that we would miss her.
I love that picture. It's very painful. It was scary. How would I still be mom back in Virginia when she's living in Iowa. How does that work? I think it was tough on everybody because Skyping is not the same as being able to reach out and touch her.
From day one she began to improve. She said it was like learning again for the first time when she first started gymnastics. She just began to grow just leaps and bounds. I almost can't wrap my mind around it, you know. Because we talked about it for so long and now it's here.
It hasn't quite sunk in with Gabrielle, either. Because when I talk to her, she says, "Mom, I'm an Olympian. I'm an Olympian."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Of her win, Gabby Douglas said "I came out on top and I'm just so excited." Her nickname is the "flying squirrel". And if you watched her performance last night, it is amazing. She just flies so high in the air.
So, congratulations, Gabby. You're soon to be even a bigger star. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Quick check of headlines now.
The Labor Department says is 163,000 jobs were created last month. That's better than what was expected but the unemployment rate edged higher to 8.3 percent. About 12.8 million Americans remain unemployed, 40 percent of them for six months or longer.
Mitt Romney is firing back at Harry Reid, the senator, saying put up or shut up. The senate majority leader accused Romney of not paying his taxes for a period of ten years. Reid says an unnamed Bain Capital investor told him that. Romney is calling on Reid to reveal his source saying the accusation is totally false.
And hours before a planned kiss-in national protests at Chick- Fil-A come reports of a restaurant vandalized in Torrance, California. We just got these pictures in a short time ago. The words "tastes like hate" on the side of the building. Supporters of same-sex marriage are planning a kiss-in at restaurants nationwide. They're protesting Chick-Fil-A's president who recently expressed his support for traditional marriage.
We asked you to talk back on one of the big stories of the day. The question for you this morning, should Harry Reid put up or shut up?
This from Norm, "Give him hell, Harry. Someone has got to smoke Romney out and force him to make public his tax returns. I think Harry's right about him not paying any taxes. Mitt can prove me and Harry wrong by releasing his returns."
This from Chris, "What's Romney hiding? The Republicans made a stink about Obama's birth certificate but he released ten years of his tax returns. Even if you hate Obama, how can you trust Romney when he seems to have hidden so much? Remember Romney did release a year's tax return and he's going to release another soon.
This from Tim, "Reid is way over the line on this. Throwing out accusations like this with no evidence shows just how desperate he and the Dems are. Put up or shut up, Reid."
And this from Eric, "The ball is in Romney's court. If these accusations are false, Romney should shut up Senator Reid by putting up his tax returns -- seems reasonable to me."
Keep the conversation going. Facebook.com/CarolCNN. Thanks as always for your comments.
"NEWSROOM" continues now with Kyra Phillips.
