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Bob Filner out of Rehab; Interview with Francine Busby; "Glee" Cast Tribute to Cory Monteith; Best Places to Live; Jason Dufner Wins PGA Championship

Aired August 12, 2013 - 09:30   ET

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

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CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, I'm Carol Costello, thank you for joining us. Happening now in the NEWSROOM, out of rehab and out of sight, embattled San Diego mayor Bob Filner accused of sexually harassing more than a dozen women. Is Filner getting ready to quit?

Plus this --

LEA MICHELE, ACTOR: We were lucky to witness his incredible talent, his handsome smile, and his beautiful, beautiful heart.

COSTELLO: "Glee" actress Lea Michele tearing up at the Teen Choice Awards. An emotional tribute to her former boyfriend and "Glee" costar, Cory Monteith.

And good schools, lots of jobs, beautiful waterfront community, can you guess "Money" magazine's best place to live? I bet you can't. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

Right now on Wall Street, opening bell. It's expected to be another down day for investors. As you can see, we're headed in the wrong direction early this morning. CNN's Allison Kosik joins us live from the New York stock exchange. Hopefully that's temporary.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Who knows, the stocks may be in the red but there's a lot of excitement here on Wall Street. It's all about the New York Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira ringing the opening bell today. You know, we do get a lot of celebrities here at the New York stock exchange, but it's interesting because traders are always most excited about local stars especially if they have anything to do with sports.

But we're looking at a lower open right now, the Dow down 55 points. This is begin to be kind of the norm. Last week we see saw the Dow snap six weeks of gains. It was actually the longest winning streak in a year. But the good thing is momentum is holding up. The Dow's up almost 20 percent this year, so it kind of is normal to see a slowdown in August despite the fact that the economic news hasn't been all that terrific. The unemployment rate still high. GDP growth is still low. Not seeing a huge conviction to buy. Not seeing those bulls charging out of the gate today.

COSTELLO: Allison Kosik, many thanks to you. San Diego mayor Bob Filner accused of serial sexual harassment is finished with his intensive behavior therapy. That intensive therapy lasted two weeks. At least we think so. The San Diego mayor had been undergoing therapy as he continues to face a growing tidal wave of sexual harassment accusations. More than a dozen women have come forward already with stories of inappropriate conduct. Two weeks of therapy apparently wrapped up this weekend, one week after it supposedly started. Filner's attorney has an explanation for that. He says Filner actually started his treatment one week earlier than publicly announced. Kyung Lah has more for you.

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KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: San Diego mayor Bob Filner is believed to be back in the city he governs, after checking out of rehab a week before he publicly said he would finish.

GARY SEHNERT, RESIDENT: It's kind of people shaking their heads saying it's ridiculous, why is it continuing?

LAH: Filner's residents overwhelmingly want him to stay away.

WILLIAM SAWAYA, SAN DIEGO RESIDENT: Really, mayor? You did what you did and now you want to stay as mayor? Bull (EXPLETIVE DELETED). You're not staying as mayor.

LAH: Voters aren't the only ones. U.S. senator and fellow Democrat Barbara Boxer writing an open letter to Filner said "you must resign." She adds the latest revelations regard women recoveirng from sexual assault have shaken me to me core.

The senator talking about CNN's exclusive interview with these two women, both former military and rape survivors who say they were then harassed by Bob Filner at a support meeting. Filner, the former chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, was invited into their women's veterans group seen as a champion of their cause.

MASTER SGT. ELDONNA LEWIS FERNANDEZ, U.S. AIR FORCE (RET.): We're all victims of military sexual assault and it appears to me that he was targeting this organization and hitting on the women in this organization because they were easy prey.

LAH: The city attorney's office, the sheriff's department, and the California attorney general's office all working on investigating the mayor. Filner's chief of staff reportedly changed the locks on the mayor's office to preserve what she calls potential evidence. The mayor remains on personal leave under the growing chorus for him to resign. Kyung Lah, CNN San Diego.

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COSTELLO: With me now is San Diego County Democratic party chairwoman Francine Busby. Welcome.

FRANCINE BUSBY, CHAIR, SAN DIEGO COUNTY DEMOCRATIC PARTY: Thank you.

COSTELLO: I'm assuming the city of San Diego is still paying the mayor for his services.

BUSBY: Well, I assume they are as well. He is still the mayor, and in the city, in San Diego, there are very few ways that a my your steps down. He either resigns, he's recalled through a very, very difficult process or, you know, he passes away or something. So I'm assuming he's still on the payroll.

COSTELLO: Can't the city council change the law?

BUSBY: Well, you know, there's talk about that, but right now, he just needs to resign. It's pretty clear that he's not able to perform the responsibilities and duties of the mayor. He's certainly been a total distraction for the city. And it's time for him to move on so the city can move forward.

COSTELLO: But obviously, he's not ready to do that. He's undergone the supposedly intensive two weeks of therapy and he's going to come back and say, gosh, I'm cured, now I can deal with women in a respectful manner.

BUSBY: I doubt that anyone believes that two weeks would cure anybody from anything like this, and apparently he even came back early. So, he needs to take responsibility. He needs to listen to the citizens of this city, including the party that helped to elected him, and he needs to step down so the city can move on. This is just becoming just such a huge distraction here and he needs to take personal responsibility because he's the only one that is responsible for this.

COSTELLO: How did this man become mayor and manage to cover up this behavior for so long?

BUSBY: You know, he was also a 30-year elected official with a record of legislative achievements and people did know him as a legislator and elected official. And while there were some people who heard stories about, you know, him inviting women out or being flirtatious, it was not like this was general knowledge and everybody knew everything.

San Diego is a changed city, it used to be a very conservative city, a very Republican city. Now it's very diverse in its population and Bob Filner brought a vision to this city that nobody had seen before. So in that sense, people elected him to do something very different and very positive for the city. But clearly, he is not in a position to do that now and, you know, this other side of him has come out that, certainly not everybody knew about and it's just destroyed his ability to govern.

COSTELLO: And I might say conservatives really don't appreciate his behavior either. A final question for you, can the Democratic party do anything to oust him? Is there any move by the Democratic party of California or San Diego to do something?

BUSBY: Well, the San Diego County Democratic party took a very strong stand asking him to step down several weeks ago and I think we sent a very powerful message that we are not going to be standing with him while he continues in the mayor's office because we don't think he can govern. We still believe in the vision, we still believe in the reason we elected him, but certainly we don't believe that he's the person to carry that forward.

So I think we were very quick to ask him to step down once those charges came out and due process was in place, he will get his day in court, the women will get their day in court, they'll all have their fair hearing, but as far as them being a able to function as mayor, we don't believe he can do that.

COSTELLO: Francine Busby, chairwoman of the San Diego County Democratic Party, thank you for joining us this morning.

BUSBY: You're welcome.

COSTELLO: Still to come in the NEWSROOM, The death of "Glee" star Cory Monteith shocked Hollywood and for the first time his girlfriend Lea Michele is speaking out. You'll hear from her next.

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COSTELLO: A tearful and emotional Lea Michele at last night's Teen Choice Awards.

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MICHELE: I wanted to dedicate this award to Cory. For all of you out there who loved and admired Cory as I did, I promise with your love we're going to get through this together. He was very special to me and also to the world. We were lucky to witness his incredible talent, his handsome smile, and his beautiful, beautiful heart. So whether you knew him personally or just as Finn Hudson, Cory reached out and he became a part of all of our hearts. And that's where he'll stay forever. So thank you guys so much. Thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Nischelle Turner has more from New York.

I can't imagine how hard that was for her.

NISCHELLE TURNER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: I know. It was beautiful and eloquent and heart wrenching all at the same time.

She had a necklace on that read Cory and this was Lea Michele's first TV appearance since Monteith's death. She was accepting the Choice TV Actress in a Comedy award for her role in "Glee," and she dedicated that honor to her late "Glee" costar and real-life boyfriend, Cory Monteith, who fatally overdosed on a mix of heroin and alcohol on July 13 in a Vancouver hotel.

Right before Lea Michele took the stage, you can see right there her "Glee" castmates also accepted the Choice TV comedy award. They turned that moment into a tribute to him as well. "Glee" actress Jenna Ushkowitz gave a nod to the fans saying that we knew Cory would want to dedicate this award to you guys. You know the question now going forward as people are asking is what's going to happen to the show. And although we don't have details on how they're going to address it, we do know that after a production delay, the "Glee" cast returned to the set to shoot season five of the series last week.

And the executives and Ryan Murphy who is the producer and director, the producer of the show said that they're going to address this in the third episode of the season. They haven't really said how but they did say that the episode would deal directly with the incident involving his death. And they also are going to have the cast make a public service announcement video as well to address the issue of addiction.

COSTELLO: All right Nischelle Turner thanks so much.

TURNER: Sure.

COSTELLO: Speaking of awards "Money" magazine just released a list of the 100 best places to live from beautiful waterfront communities to quaint historic towns. We'll tell you who made the list.

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COSTELLO: Think you live in the best town in America? Well you're right if you call Sharon, Massachusetts your home. Well that's according to "Money" magazine who's just released its list of best small town in the United States.

Donna Rosato is a senior writer at "Money" magazine. Welcome Donna.

DONNA ROSATA, SENIOR WRITER, MONEY: Hi good to be here.

COSTELLO: I'm glad you're here so let's start with the best. Sharon, Massachusetts, why is it the best?

ROSATA: Well, you'll see this throughout the towns that we have picked -- economic strength, it's centrally located between Providence, Boston and Route 128. So if that helped insulate it from the recession, its unemployment rate is less than five percent which is 2.5 percentage points below the national average right now.

It's also one of the most incredibly diverse towns that we see, both economically, racially and ethnically. It has one of the biggest mosques in the New England area. And it is also just a beautiful place, it is -- used to be a summer resort and about 40 percent of the place is open land.

COSTELLO: Ok. So to be fair for all the cities in your choices, you also listed the downside of each town. So what's the downside of Sharon?

ROSATO: Well like any place in the northeast, it's more expensive than the average town, but it's not quite as expensive as some of the areas around -- closer to Boston. That said, it does have high home prices and higher taxes, but you know, you sort of pay up, you get a lot more for that. It's got excellent quality schools.

COSTELLO: It's kind of cold in the winter, too, right?

ROSATO: That's another thing. That's right.

COSTELLO: Round up the top five small cities for us, will you?

ROSATO: Oh, sure. Well the next one on the list is Louisville, Colorado which has been on the number one several times on our list. And it's still going strong. It's got a very strong local economy and the Rocky Mountain outdoor life.

We have Vienna, Virginia which is a D.C. suburb; a lot of the suburbs could be a little bit cookie cutter but not Vienna. It's got -- it's a beautiful town with lots of a historic downtown center, a rail trail that goes right through it. It's got lots of parks and it also has a very low unemployment rate and top, top schools.

Then number four -- then we come down to number four on our list, which is Chanhassen, Minnesota. Now that's a place that's also very strong economically. They're investing in their school system. They spent more than $700,000 on tech projects for the public schools and talk about affordable home prices. The median home price there is about $200,000.

And number five for us is Sherwood, Oregon, which is a suburb of Portland. It's close to Mt. Hood and the Willamette Valley wine country. So it's a very pretty area. Nike and Intel are also big employers in the area and it's just a really pretty place to live.

COSTELLO: Well, thank you for sharing. We appreciate it. Donna Rosato, senior editor at "Money" magazine. Thanks so much.

ROSATO: Thank you.

COSTELLO: Here is what's all new in the next hour of NEWSROOM. Like father, like son? Hannah Anderson is now safe. Her captor James Dimaggio is dead. It turns out Dimaggio's father committed a similar crime.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I asked him not to kill us and he said "Don't worry, you won't feel a thing."

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COSTELLO: We hear from the woman taken captive by James Dimaggio, Sr.

Also --

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I didn't think a judge could make me change my baby's name because of her religious beliefs.

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COSTELLO: A judge says no way to the name "Messiah" ordering a name change because that name belongs to Jesus Christ. Is this even legal?

And -- move over Jetson family. If crossing the United States in a tube at 600 miles an hour sounds fun, this could be your lucky day.

That's all new in the next hour of NEWSROOM.

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COSTELLO: Before winning the PGA championship, golfer Jason Dufner was best known not for his golfing, but for starting an Internet craze. Andy Scholes is here with Bleacher Report. Good morning.

ANDY SCHOLES, BLEACHER REPORT: And good morning Carol.

Well Dufnering. It's the best name we've seen since Tebowing. In order for one to master Dufnering all you have to do sit up against something and basically look as bored as you possibly can. Now here is the famous pick of Dufner at an elementary school that started it all. That post took social media by storm earlier this year.

But now Dufner will be known for more than just that post. He finished at 10 under yesterday to win the PGA championship. It's the first major tournament victory of his career.

Well Baltimore Orioles outfielder Adam Jones says someone threw a banana at him during Sunday's game in San Francisco. Jones, who is African-American, was not pleased by the possibly racially and motivated action. He tweeted after the game "I want to thank whatever bleep threw that banana toward my direction in the centerfield in the last inning. Way to show your class you bleep." The Giants said they received no reports of anyone throwing an object onto the field but they are looking into the incident.

Well, in the line up section on BleacherReport.com today you can watch Usain Bolt win the 100 meter dash final at the World Athletics Championships in Moscow, Russia. Bolt cruising to the win after the slow start on the wet track and you got to check out this amazing picture from after the race. A lightning bolt strikes behind Bolt as he finishes.

COSTELLO: Is that real?

SCHOLES: It is a real picture that a photographer took Carol and what are the chances?

COSTELLO: That's why I asked. Is it real?

SCHOLES: Incredible. You know a lightning bolt behind Bolt as he finishes gives a whole new meaning to lightning fast.

COSTELLO: Well he is lightning fast indeed though. Andy thank you so much.

The next hour of CNN NEWSROOM after a break.

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