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Severe Weather in Kansas, Missouri; Dean's Lavish Spending; Mortgage Closing Costs Jump; Verdict Watch in Bulger Trial; Book Claims Marilyn Called Jackie

Aired August 06, 2013 - 10:30   ET

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

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BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now in the NEWSROOM, University officials spend millions of dollars on lavish travel while students see their tuition skyrocket. Why is UCLA defending the $800 limo rides and the $12,000 plane tickets?

And in Boston, a jury is set to deliberate in the trail -- trial I should say of notorious crime boss, James "Whitey" Bulger. We will take you live to the courthouse in just a few minutes.

Plus --

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MARILYN MONROE, ACTRESS: I want to be loved by you, just you, nobody else but you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Brand-new details on JFK's relationship with Marilyn Monroe, including the astounding phone call that the Hollywood star made to Jackie in the White House. NEWSROOM continues now.

Good morning and welcome back to NEWSROOM. I'm Brianna Keilar in today for Carol Costello.

And topping this half hour: a controversy at one of the nation's largest university systems. While UCLA students are in their dorms, cooking cheap ramen on contraband hot plates, a new report from the Center for Investigative Reporting, which is a nonprofit news organization based in California, it shows the school's deans are living it up, spending millions of dollars on luxury hotel rooms and first-class flights all because of a loophole in the school's travel policy.

According to the report, one of the biggest offenders is Judy Olian. She is the dean of UCLA's Business School and from 2008 to 2012 the report says that Olian spent $647,000 on first class flights and posh hotel rooms among other travel expenses. More than $12,000 on just one flight from L.A., headed to Washington and then on to Asia.

And the report says that like many of the school's deans, she has a doctor's note that says she cannot fly coach, due to a medical condition. Despite the fact that she did do a strenuous 56-mile biking leg of a triathlon and has described herself as a cardio junkie.

So to discuss this, I am joined now by John Joanino, he is the president of the Undergraduate Students Association at UCLA. And John I will tell you that we reached out to several UCLA officials who did not respond and we did not get any interviews. They declined our request for interviews with any of the folks involved in this. What did you think of the findings of this report?

JOHN JOANINO, PRESIDENT, UCLA UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS ASSOCIATION COUNCIL: Brianna I want to first thank you for having me.

KEILAR: Yes.

JOANINO: I'm really here to give the student perspective. And first, I really want to say that I think a lot of students were really shocked and disappointed. We were especially confused, however, when it comes to the lack of accountability. Especially at a time to be quite frank when the cost of attending UCLA is so high.

KEILAR: So talk about that a little bit because you ran for student body president and college affordability was actually part of your platform. Just explain to our viewers. I mean I am a graduate of the UC system, so I know and I'm from California, I know what's been going on there in recent years with college tuition, but a lot of our viewers may not be familiar with the tuition situation there. Why is this such a big issue in recent years?

JOANINO: Right so you know over the past decade, this investment from higher education and the UC especially has really put a burden on students. And we've seen continuous fee increases. So you know to hear that we might be having administrators not being fiscally responsible at a time when tuition has high skyrocketed, when student services have been cut, when student loan debt has exceeded $1 trillion across the nation is really disappointing.

You know, fiscal responsibility is so important at this time. And I don't believe any administrator should be exempt from being fiscally responsible.

KEILAR: So certainly, just to look at the numbers in terms of the tuition jump. From 2008, which is when this report looks at expenses, tuition has jumped 70 percent. Obviously, there have been some economic woes in California. You certainly had a bad economy and all of that trickled down to students.

How are students handling this, the tuition hikes? What do they need to do to get by, when you're looking at for undergrads, all the costs associated with tuition and living expenses topping out at over $30,000 a year?

JOANINO: Right, right. So many students are having to take on multiple jobs, taking on multiple loans, just to afford the cost of tuition. And you know, on top of that, we have the cost of living in Los Angeles, which is very high as well. You know and we don't want to devalue the work that these deans and administrators have done. I think fund-raising and development is so important to UCLA. And the chancellor at the university has done a great job at fund-raising. However, we don't believe that that's provides an excuse to take advantage of loopholes or to have excessive spending habits.

KEILAR: And I think also one of the interesting things is when you compare -- not to just pinpoint this one woman, although she kind of stands out, the Dean of the Business School, she sort of stands out because of her exorbitant costs. When you compare her to, say, UC Berkeley's person who is in the same position, her costs are seven times that of his.

And we reached out to the university. This is what the communications department told us. They said, "Travel by UCLA leadership was consistent with that of deans at most of our peer institutions, though UCLA has seen a more significant return on its investment than many of those other universities. In fact, UCLA's stature in respected global university rankings rose even as state support declined dramatically."

They went on to add that the school raised $3 billion during that time. And you talked about that, John. Dean Olian in particular raised $118 million. UCLA here, justifying the expenses. Certainly not apologizing for some of these things that have upset you and I'm assuming others students. How do you want things to change?

JOANINO: Right. So I definitely think that we need to re-evaluate the policy and we need to implement some kind of mechanism to be able to hold administrators accountable; to make sure that they're not wastefully spending, especially when it comes to tuition costs. You know, we, as students, don't want to hear that our tuition is rising, so that we can, you know, support excessive spending, especially as it relates to travel and entertainment.

KEILAR: And I suspect, John, perhaps your agenda for the school year is now upon you, even before you start school there at UCLA.

John Joanino, thanks so much for being with us. We really appreciate you joining us.

JOANINO: Thank you so much for having me.

KEILAR: Now just ahead in the NEWSROOM, buying a home, perhaps. You've got the down payment, but don't forget about those closing costs. They are on the rise and home buyers are really feeling the pinch.

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KEILAR: Turning to "Your Money", the cost of buying a home is going up again, but not because home prices are rebounding or that mortgage interest rates are heading higher. It is closing costs -- those extra fees that you pay to get a mortgage. They are on the rise and home buyers are feeling the pinch.

Alison Kosik is in New York following this story. What's going on here?

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, Brianna, when you go to buy a house, you want to seal the deal. And to seal the deal, you've got to pay those closing costs and what's been happening lately is it's costing more. In fact it's costing six percent more to close on your house than last year. That includes an eight percent rise in what's known as origination fees. And those are the fees that the bank charges to start the home loan process in the first place. It's usually a percentage of the total loan.

And then, you can't forget about the third party fees, the appraisal, the inspection. Those are up just one percent, but you see how these -- sort of this pile-on effect of these fees is happening, and it's happening because of simple supply and demand. There's a high demand for mortgages at these record-low interest rates. And what it means is that banks are able to raise fees without the fear of losing customers, because more people want to take out these mortgages.

Important to note, though, that if you're a borrower looking to take out a mortgage, to get a loan, these fees -- they are always negotiable because as mortgage rates rise, which they are doing currently, the borrower's power to negotiate is actually going to go up, and the banks are going to have to start discounting these fees when they start to have to compete with each other for more business.

So you're going to see this sort of changeover happen, as mortgage rates slowly go a little bit higher -- Brianna.

KEILAR: That's fascinating. Because so often, when we do that, we don't necessarily think about, oh, you know, we don't just have to take it, we can negotiate.

KOSIK: Right.

KEILAR: So, good reminder there.

KOSIK: And it can be kind of sneaky. You know, you really have to look at the contract because they can be kind of hidden. You have to really know what you're looking for.

KEILAR: OK. So what's going on with the markets today?

KOSIK: We are seeing the Cow down over 100 points, you know. There is low volume, not a lot of trading going on. It's kind of a slow summer day. This also was after we're seeing the Dow hit 30 record highs so far this year. So it's not such a huge surprise to see investors start to take some profits off the table.

One stock that is catching our eye though today, shares of IBM are falling. Its stock was downgraded. The analysts say there are challenges ahead for IBM. And IBM is a big player in the market. That is pulling down the Dow as well.

KEILAR: OK. Alison Kosik watching that in New York. Thank you.

And he's described as one of the most vicious, violent, calculating criminals to ever walk the streets of Boston. And now James "Whitey" Bulger could soon find out his fate.

Up next, we will take you live outside the courthouse where a jury gets ready to deliberate.

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KEILAR: So Whitey Bulger could soon find out his fate. We're now on verdict watch. His jurors are set to begin deliberating any minute after almost a month of very colorful testimony against the alleged crime boss. The defense and prosecution wrapped up closing arguments yesterday.

And CNN's Deb Feyerick is joining me live now from Boston. She's outside the courthouse. She's been following this whole trial. And Deb, we're to the point where the judge just read the jury its instructions. What will they have to consider here?

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, they'll have to consider a lot of things. They'll have to consider racketeering, murder, conspiracy, extortion, money laundering. These are 32 counts and each of the counts, Brianna, has a name associated with it. There are names with each of these counts.

Now, think about this. After two months of listening to all this evidence and after two months of making small talk with one another, the jurors now get to talk about what brought them here in the first place. That is, James Whitey Bulger and all the crimes he's accused of.

They get to talk about the torture, the brutal murders, the shakedowns, all the interaction. And they get to consider all the testimony from convicted felons, from killers -- all of that now is fair game. They're going to weigh that.

The judge spent an hour and a half this morning going over the charges, detailing what it is they're going to have to consider in making their decision. And the jury was paying very close attention. They weren't taking notes. It's a lot of information to absorb, but they've been paying attention throughout the course of this trial. Whitey Bulger, meantime, he sat at the table, he was focused. He doesn't really look around, he always sort of looks down, whether he's writing or he's reading something. But, again, he now knows that those men and women, they get to decide where he goes next -- Brianna.

KEILER: In their hands. And so two months of testimony -- as you said, they haven't taken notes. When we're thinking of timing here, do we have any sense of whether the jury could come to a quick decision on the verdict?

FEYERICK: You know it's a good question. It's very difficult to get inside the minds of jurors. You just, you don't know. They take this job very, very seriously. And even though they weren't taking notes today during the instructions, they did throughout the course of the trial take notes on a lot of things, on a lot of the key testimony, especially that of Bulger's former gang members. So some of the evidence seems, not to go so far, but it seems almost a slam dunk. But, again, prosecutors put on 60 witnesses, defense put on just ten witnesses. So they're going to have things to talk about. Just how much they have to talk about and whether there's something that stands out and becomes a sticking point -- that is the wild card -- Brianna.

So many charges and certainly, yes, observers do think that the prosecution has done a pretty good job here of making their case.

Deb Feyerick for us there in Boston -- thank you so much.

Well, still ahead, bombshell claims in a new book that claims Jackie Kennedy once told Marilyn Monroe, "You want him, you can have him." the story next in the CNN NEWSROOM.

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KEILAR: A new book puts a twist on Camelot's dirty little secret -- this is a very juicy one. The book claims that Marilyn Monroe called Jackie Kennedy in the White House.

CNN's Zoraida Sambolin is following the story in New York -- Zoraida.

ZORAIDA SAMBOLIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Brianna, they certainly are juicy details, but are they true? These explosive new allegations claim that Jackie Kennedy told Marilyn Monroe, "If you want him, you can have him."

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SAMBOLIN: Never before have such details been heard about the relationship between President John F. Kennedy, Marilyn Monroe, and the first lady. In a new book, "These Few Precious Days: the final year of Jack with Jackie", author Christopher Anderson claims that the Hollywood starlet actually called Jacqueline Kennedy on the White House phone, confessing to an affair she was rumored to be having with the President. The first lady allegedly responded by saying, "That's great. You'll move into the White House and you'll assume the responsibilities of first lady and I'll move out and you'll have all the problems."

NICK RAGONE, PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: The claim that Marilyn Monroe actually called Jackie at the White House, it does seem far fetched, but then again with Marilyn Monroe, seemingly anything was possible.

SAMBOLIN: The book also claims the breathy sex symbol singing here in "Some Like It Hot" confided her most intimate details of the alleged affair to a friend, convinced the President would leave Jackie for her, even fantasizing, quote, "Can't you just see me as first lady?"

RAGONE: The idea that President Kennedy would leave his beloved wife, who the nation adored, for a sort of aging movie star, probably was a fantasy only in Marilyn Monroe's mind.

SAMBOLIN: The book also tells of Jackie reportedly telling her doctor that of all her husband's alleged affairs, the one with Marilyn was the most troubling.

RAGONE: Jackie Kennedy, she was a smart political life, and she feared Marilyn Monroe not as somebody who would be emotionally intimate with President Kennedy, but rather, somebody who could take down the administration in scandal and she viewed her as a loose cannon and unpredictable.

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KEILAR: Zoraida Sambolin, thanks for that.

And thank you for joining us today. "CNN NEWSROOM" continues right now -- or right after a quick break, I should say.

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