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Sinkhole Threatens Disney-Area Resort; Kidnapped Teen Reunited with Father; Jason Dufner Wins PGA Championship; Judge: Baby Can't Be Named "Messiah"; Beyonce Hair Debate

Aired August 12, 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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CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Windows shatter, buildings pop, and startled tourists discover a giant sinkhole swallowing their resort and their vacations. We'll take you live to Florida.

A spectacular sight expected in the night sky today. Meteor streaks will light up the sky sometime after midnight, but catch it if you can. You'll only have a short time to see the meteor shower.

And he became known on the Internet for Dufnering. Now he's known on the course for winning.

NEWSROOM starts now.

Good morning. Thank you so much for being with me. I'm Carol Costello. Checking our top stories at 33 minutes past the hour.

A federal judge says a controversial New York Police Department's frisking policy is indeed unconstitutional. The policy allows officers to stop and frisk anyone they deem suspicious. It was a highly criticized program. An outside monitor will now be appointed to oversee changes to stop that stop and frisk policy.

The surviving passengers on Asiatic Flight 214 which crashed upon landing in San Francisco last month will each get $10,000. According to the airline the money is separate from any medical compensation the passengers will receive and those passengers who take the money can still sue the airline.

Just days before peace talks resume, Israel gets set to free some two dozen Palestinian prisoners. The names of 26 to be released were published this morning. Some of those prisoners have spent more than two decades behind bars.

Disney World is just down the street, but a cruel reality is underfoot. Some Florida tourists discovered a giant sinkhole had opened right in the middle of the resort in which they were staying. It swallowed one building and is now chewing away at another.

A short time ago we talked with reporter Steve Barrett of CNN affiliate WFTV. He's in Claremont, Florida.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) STEVE BARRETT, WFTV: This building is collapsing right into the ground, a regular Florida sinkhole. We have them here all time. But it's not often that a three-story building falls into one of those sinkholes.

This all started at about 11:00 o'clock last night but it wasn't until this morning that we really got some good aerial images of exactly what this looks like and what the people inside must have been going through. We heard stories of them sort of hearing creaking and cracking inside of this building. It's one of those vacation rental condos that you might get if you have a time share. It's right outside of Walt Disney World.

These folks then started seeing and hearing windows popping. A security guard was quickly able to determine that there was a big problem here. And about 15 to 20 minutes later, he had the whole building evacuated. Just a couple hours later we were talking to some of those eyewitnesses about how they scrambled to get out of that building. Take a listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: One person had to break out of a window because the door frame collapsed and it was him and his wife and an infant. He had to break the window just so that they could escape. And there were windows breaking everywhere.

One of the security guards ran up and was evacuating people, barging into their rooms. It was the most surreal experience. I never could imagine in my wildest dreams that this would be my 2013 vacation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BARRETT: And that security guard she was talking about, the managers here are crediting him with saving some lives because as you look at the video, you can just imagine what would happen if some of those folks would have been inside that building as it went down into that hole.

Right now they're still evaluating that area to see whether or not surrounding buildings might be in danger. Several of them right now have already been evacuated, but there is one security guard here today that's getting a lot of credit for what he did.

COSTELLO: So -- so Steve, is the sinkhole deepening, widening still? Do we know?

BARRETT: Well, I talked to the fire chief a little while ago. And he's putting it at around 60 feet around and 15 to 20 feet deep.

But it's really hard to tell and this can kind of go on over the course of a day or days. They'll bring the engineers in here to try and figure out just what the risk is to everything around it. They know that that one building is a complete loss. That three-story building, that's not going to be rebuilt any time soon. But now they want to know whether any of the surroundings buildings might have some problems or if there are be some subsequent areas on the property that still might have some trouble.

And of course, you have a lot of vacationers that came out of that building. They essentially escaped with their children in their arms and their clothes on their back. They're left here in Florida with nothing else at this point.

COSTELLO: Oh it's just awful, isn't it? That's Steve Barrett of CNN affiliate WFTV.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, in the saddle and on alert -- we'll tell you how some eagle-eyed horseback riders helped rescue an abducted teen teenager. Their story in their own words next.

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COSTELLO: This morning a kidnapped teenager is back with her dad; 16- year-old Hannah Anderson does not appear to have any physical injuries, but it'll -- it'll take her quite some time to recover emotionally. Police say her captor, a man described as a lone-time family friend, killed Hannah's mother and her younger brother before whisking the teenager into the Idaho wilderness.

And new this morning, images of just how determined James DiMaggio was in hiding his getaway car. If you look closely you'll see the brush and timber that made the car virtually invisible from the ground and the air. But not far away the big break came when alert horseback riders had a chance encounter with the two and became suspicious.

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MARK JOHN, SPOTTED ANDERSON IN IDAHO: We came upon these -- this young girl and this older man, and they just really didn't fit very well. The expressions on their face, their demeanor, just didn't fit that country. They -- they was out of place completely and they weren't dressed for the country or the area.

And then as we rode further on, we encountered the tent that they had set up which was totally out of place. It was way on top of a mountain. Looked like it was -- would make a real good lightning rod, so we was discussing the fact that they didn't fit there, that something was wrong.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR, "NEW DAY": So it's interesting, you're talking about the particulars of how they set themselves up as campers, but also one of the ladies felt there was something about Hannah. Ladies, will you speak to that? Who was it who felt that they wanted to reach out and speak to Hannah. They were sensing something. What was it?

CHRISTA JOHN, SPOTTED ANDERSON IN IDAHO: That was me. They followed us from the top of the ridge. We rode down into the lake, and they -- they followed us on foot and she was sitting there and I just felt like I should go over there and kind of just see if she needed help.

And Mark says, you know, maybe he had a feeling being in law enforcement for all those years and in the military, he had a feeling I shouldn't maybe do that. I did talk to him about why he was there in this far out place and he said she got to pick where we went last year. She wanted to go to Los Angeles and Hollywood. So this year was my turn and that was a good explanation for me.

So -- but I -- I did want to make kind of a contact with her and in retrospect I'm glad I didn't, because that could have turned out terribly wrong for all of us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: The couples say they saw Hannah's picture on television once they got home and they immediately alerted police. The authorities tracked the teenager and her abductor, and then shot and killed DiMaggio when he stepped a safe distance away from Hannah.

Just ahead in the NEWSROOM, what to name your baby? It's a tough decision, but now -- now it's really tough for one mother in Tennessee. She says a judge has actually forced her to change her son's name.

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COSTELLO: Checking out top stories at 47 minutes past.

At least one person is dead and two others missing after deadly flash flooding in Colorado. Floodwaters up to ten feet deep swept away cars, turned roads into rivers, and destroyed homes just west of Colorado Springs. Firefighters say the water reached speeds of up to 30 miles per hour.

Keep your eyes open tonight. A celestial fireworks show known as the Perseid meteor shower is expected to hit its peak. This is video from 2011. The meteor shower takes place every August when the earth passes through the dust of a comet's tail. NASA says, the best viewing time is between midnight and just before sunrise. If you miss it tonight, you will have another chance tomorrow.

In sports, Jason Dufner is more than just an Internet sensation right now. Yes, Mr. Dufnering is a PGA championship winner. He won his first major title yesterday two years after leaving the same tournament on the final day and then losing. This time Dufner held onto the win by two strokes.

CNN's Patrick Snell is in Oak Hill in Rochester, New York, to tell us more. Good morning.

PATRICK SNELL, CNN SPORTS: Good morning to you, Carol. Yes, Jason Dufner can finally be remembered at last for someone who has won a first major championship rather than that old Dufnering -- very happy for him. A popular winner. He held off the challenge of his fellow American Jim Furyk by two shots on Sunday playing flawless golf.

He really does have a wonderful swing, and he was never really in any trouble. He showed his class, showed his nerve, and duly sealed what he came here to do. I have to say though, while there were no problems for him on Sunday, that wasn't the case earlier this year when he struck a rather unfortunate and unscripted pose. He was caught on camera in a Dallas, Texas, classroom. That's the phenomenon that became as Dufnering. His PGA tour buddies, and I use that term loosely, taking full advantage by tweeting and retweeting pictures of the unfortunate post. I'm wondering, are we now going to be seeing a whole lot more of this Dufnering?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JASON DUFNER, 2013 PGA CHAMPION: Maybe. I don't know. I have only done it -- that's the only time I have done it. Actually I did it once with Lindsey Vonn because she asked me, but, you know, they caught me in a moment of relaxation I guess and then the guys all out here tried to give me a good ribbing on it and get me in trouble and all this stuff.

But I kind of ran with it and it turned out to be a good thing and a lot of people have taken to it so maybe I will give them a little special treat later this week when I get home with the trophy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SNELL: Come on, Jason, give us some more Dufnering. We love it. Well, I have to say this is a player, Carol, that rarely smiles, but at 36 years of age, he really needs to. Most players have majors in the bag by this point if they're going to go on and actually win a major. He's been a pro for 13 years now. So I really think it's fair to say he's a popular winner, and this triumph, Carol, is richly deserved.

COSTELLO: Indeed. But I do enjoy the Dufnering. Thank you so much. We appreciate it.

OK. So this is a strange story out of Tennessee this morning. This couple went to court because they were fighting over what their baby's last name should be. So they went to the court so a judge would decide.

Little did they know the judge would be a whole lot more concerned about the baby's first name; Jaleesa Martin is now appealing that judge's decision after the judge ordered her to change her son's name from "Messiah" to "Martin".

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LU ANN BALLEW, CHILD SUPPORT MAGISTRATE: The word "Messiah" is a title, and it's a title that has only been earned by one person, and that one person is Jesus Christ.

JALEESA MARTIN, MESSIAH'S MOTHER": Everybody believes what they want, so I think I should be able to name my child what I want to name him. And I didn't think a judge could make me change my baby's name because of her religious beliefs.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: So according to the Social Security's list of most common baby names -- I don't know if you realize this -- but "Messiah" was one of the top five names chosen between 2011 and 2012. We'll keep you posted on if that baby's name remains "Martin".

A certain celebrity stunned fans when she unveiled a new do on Instagram -- a hit or a miss? We'll be back.

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COSTELLO: Beyonce stunned her fans with her chic and very short new hairstyle. I'm sure you've heard.

CNN's Jeanne Moos has more on Hairgate.

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JEANNE MOOS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Not since Michelle Obama sprouted bangs has a hair style caused so many to flip out. Beyonce before and Beyonce after.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What did she do?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh my God.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. She looks horrible on that one. She looks like a boy.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She's always gorgeous.

MOOS: Put out an all points bulletin, issue an amber alert.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Where has Beyonce's long voluminous locks gone?

MOOS: Some folks didn't even recognize her.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Rihanna.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Shakira?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Rihanna?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Miley Cyrus?

MOOS: Now, Beyonce will find out what it's like to walk a mile in Miley Cyrus' hairdo.

The news raised existential hair questions: did Beyonce actually have hair to cut? After all, she's known for wearing wigs and weaves, so her short haircut was dubbed "weavepocalypse". A poster on Jezebel declared it's unbelievable.

But despite all the weaves, Beyonce's long-time stylist told "People" magazine she had great, thick, long hair. Everyone wondered if Beyonce's hair getting tangled in a fan during a concert last month pushed her over the edge. But she managed to sing right through that and she managed to sing in short hair when she played Etta James in "Cadillac Record".

MOOS: Men, in particular, seem blindsided by the short hair.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It doesn't have that same-sexy appeal.

UNIDENTIFIED KID: Get out of here. Too short. Women should have long hair.

MOOS: A colorist who said she colored Beyonce's hair after it was cut told "USA Today" the deed was done at a salon in Brooklyn after Beyonce had a moment. In a tribute to her former hair, Mashable assembled 25 hair raising gifts which she flipped her mane and tossed it, lifted it, whipped it around, and let it flow.

Beyonce's hair has split the nation, 49 percent said love it, 51 percent said leave it. These kids change their minds. Beyonce with long hair or short hair?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Long hair.

MOOS: Two minutes later, thumbs up or thumbs down on the new hair?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I like it.

MOOS: No more Beyonce on hands and knees flinging her hair. We are a nation parted by Beyonce's hair.

Jeanne MOOS, CNN.

You know her?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Her? She's married to Jay-Z.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's Beyonce? Wow.

MOOS: New York.

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COSTELLO: What is it with men and long hair? They love it from birth. Thanks for joining me today. I'm Carol Costello.

"LEGAL VIEW" with Ashleigh Banfield after a quick break.

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