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Resort Guard Praised for Evacuation; Man Killed in Turner Field Fall; Big Legal Win for Paula Deen; Facebook Partners with Opentable; Oprah Speaks about Switzerland Incident; Lawsuits Filed Against Restrictive New North Carolina Voting I.D. Laws; Interview with Dale Ho
Aired August 13, 2013 - 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: I'm ready to take it away. Have a great day. NEWSROOM starts now.
Happening now in the NEWSROOM: breaking overnight, dramatic new details of Hannah Anderson's rescue.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEVE JURMAN, U.S. MARSHAL: And all of a sudden there was a glimmer of blue that we saw in the trees.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: The U.S. Marshal who spotted her from above speaking out this morning.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JURMAN: So at that point we knew we had something extremely valuable.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Ahead, the crucial moment-by-moment decisions that saved the 16-year-old's life.
Also, Deen cleared.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PAULA DEEN, CELEBRITY CHEF: Four pounds of butter. We're going to poach our lobster tails.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: The sassy southern TV cook and a big legal ruling. The racial discrimination lawsuit against her dropped. Should Deen's empire still be cooked?
Plus, the queen of talk telling CNN she's sorry.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OPRAH WINFREY, ACTRESS/TV HOST: I'm really sorry that it got blown up. I'm sorry that I said it was Switzerland.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: The fallout from Oprah's run-in at a Swiss store.
And the sequel to "Finding Nemo," "Finding Dory." Film maker giant Pixar rewriting the ending after the controversy over the SeaWorld documentary.
You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.
Oh, still laughing over Dory talking whale.
Good morning to you, thank you so much for joining me, I'm Carol Costello. This morning, amazing new images of the Florida sinkhole swallowing a resort villa and new appreciation for the security guard who evacuated tourists with no time to spare.
Watch this.
Isn't that amazing? Earlier this morning we heard from that security guard. He's brushing off praise that he's a hero, but not denying that he probably saved some lives.
CNN's Martin Savidge is in Clermont with more.
Good morning, Martin.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Yes, you know, you really ought to be here because it's only when you're right up close against the building here that you begin to realize how remarkable, I mean, even miraculous that this wasn't a tragedy. I mean, it's certainly a disaster, don't get me wrong, but not a tragedy because everybody inside of that condominium complex were able to get out in time.
And when you look at the devastation behind us, you know, that's building 104, and it was 10:30, 11:00 on Sunday night when they began to hear this popping and cracking noise and then the windows began literally blowing out in sequence. One after the other, then you mentioned that security guard, Richard Shanley.
What an amazing story he is, because he'd been two months on the job, only five minutes working that night, when he has someone running up to him saying, there's a problem inside. And when he went inside that building, he didn't know really what was going on, but he went door- to-door to get everybody out. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RICHARD SHANLEY, SECURITY OFFICER, SUMMER BAY RESORT: One lady had a child they couldn't get out of the room. They actually had to bust the window to get him out because the door had twisted when the building started to cave in on itself. They busted a window, got everybody out. They ended up coming down the stairwells.
SAVIDGE: These are people panicked, they're emotionally upset.
SHANLEY: Yes, sir. They are on vacation, they didn't actually expect this at all. Neither did I. So when they -- you know, distraught takes over and you're like, we got to get all our stuff and get out. I said, don't worry about your stuff, we'll take care of it later, just get out. I'm more worried about your safety than your property.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SAVIDGE: It's estimated that the window of opportunity, Carol, for people to get out alive was 10 to 15 minutes, and they did it.
Now take a look at this whole story from the viewpoint of somebody watching it through a lens.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SAVIDGE (voice-over): Dramatic moment caught on tape. As a condominium at the Summer Bay Resort collapsed into a sink hole. Not long before it had been packed with vacationers.
Ben Warrick of Des Moines, Iowa, started rolling at just the right time.
BEN WARRICK, WITNESS: I turned to film the guys talking to the fire department, then all of a sudden I heard a crack and I quickly switched over and the roof came down.
SAVIDGE: From the more than 100 guests to see the land of the magic kingdom suddenly they were gripped in terror in the middle of the night. Those watching nearby couldn't believe their eyes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When I saw it, it's crazy. Like, how is that happening?
SAVIDGE: Miraculously, no one was killed, not even injured. Some crediting a security guard who rushed to spread the alarm.
In Florida, most sinkholes occur when the state's acidic water table eats away at the limestone rock. The resort has hired a private engineering firm to look for more possible holes. Meanwhile, Warrick is looking for a little less excitement. All this happened just hours after he arrived for a one-week getaway.
WARRICK: We're going to be fine, the power's back, got air conditioning. And hopefully still going to have a great vacation.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SAVIDGE: We should point out, Carol, that this is really just a small section of a very large property. They could handle 4,000 guests here. Most of which have not been impacted at all. They want to stress Summer Bay is open for business and still inviting people to come on down -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Good luck with that. Martin Savidge reporting live from Clermont, Florida, this morning.
A baseball game turns tragic in Atlanta. A man falls 65 feet to his death at Turner Field. It happened while the Braves and the Philadelphia Phillies were in a rain delay during last night's game. Police say the 29-year-old man fell from an upper level into a parking lot. One woman said her friend heard it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She was walking her kids to the bathroom and heard him smack the pavement. It was -- it's terrible.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just seeing how far the drop was --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I didn't think he was going to make it when I saw the drop.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: CNN's Alina Machado was outside Turner Field. Are the Atlanta Braves commenting at all?
ALINA MACHADO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Not yet, Carol. We know from the medical examiner's office that the 29-year-old man who died here is Ronald Homer. He was from Conyers, Georgia, about 25 miles east of Atlanta.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MACHADO (voice-over): A baseball fan dies not long after a fall at Atlanta's Turner Field.
OFFICER JOHN CHAFER, ATLANTA POLICE: He fell from an upper level platform to a secured lot below. The fall was approximately 65 feet.
MACHADO: Police believe the man fell from a balcony such as this one behind the field where the Atlanta Braves and the Philadelphia Phillies were in a nearly two-hour rain delay. Police say it is too early to tell if alcohol played a factor in what they say appears to have been an accident.
CHAFER: I'm not sure who he was here with. There were several witnesses, but I'm not sure they were the people that he was with.
MACHADO: Atlanta police say the man landed in a secured parking area. He was taken to a local hospital where he later died.
A similar death happened during a college football game last year at the Georgia Dome, home to the Atlanta Falcons. On August 31st, a 20- year-old Tennessee Volunteers fan fell about 45 feet and later died. Monday's death also isn't the first for Major League Baseball. In 2011, a Texas Rangers fan fell about 20 feet to his death, going over the balcony trying to catch a ball tossed to him by outfielder Josh Hamilton.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MACHADO: Now this is believed to be the second time a fan falls to his death here at Turner Field. The incident that happened before this one happened in may of 2008 -- Carol.
COSTELLO: All right. Alina Machado reporting live from Turner Field in Atlanta. Thanks so much.
A big win for Paula Deen, but certainly not for her empire. A federal judge as a former employee has no standing to sue the embattled chef for race discrimination because she's white.
You probably remember how Deen's career went into a tail spin after her deposition in the lawsuit was released and she admitted, Deen admitted, to using a racial slur in the past and then posted a couple of awkward apologies online.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DEEN: I want to apologize to everybody for the wrong that I've done. I want to learn and grow from this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: On the heels of it all, Deen lost her food network cooking show and a number of lucrative endorsements, from Wal-Mart, to Sears, to Target.
CNN entertainment correspondent Nischelle Turner live in New York with more for us,.
Good morning, Nischelle.
NISCHELLE TURNER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, Carol. You know, the first thing we should point out is that this case hasn't been dismissed entirely, it's just the racial discrimination part of it.
Now she's still being sued for sexual harassment and abusive treatment and the judge didn't determine one way or another if Paula Deen actually engaged in racist behavior, he just said this particular person that suing didn't have the standing to sue, but her family is always denied that Paula Deen is a Racist.
You might remember the Deen family really closed ranks when these allegations surfaced. Her sons appeared together on CNN's "NEW DAY." Let's take a listen to what they said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our mother is one of the most compassionate, good hearted, empathetic people that you'd ever meet.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's completely absurd to think that there's an environment of racism in our business.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TURNER: You know, one of the things that the judge also said was that if anything, the plaintiff was an accidental victim of this alleged racial discrimination. And also we have heard from Paula Deen's side on this, her representatives released a statement to CNN saying we are pleased with the court's ruling today that Lisa Jackson's claims of race discrimination have been dismissed.
As Miss Deen has stated before, she's confident those know she believes in equal opportunity, kindness, and know that she believes in equal opportunity, fairness and kindness for everyone. But while you're right, Carol, this is a win for Paula Deen, the battle's not over, because she's got a couple other things to battle in this lawsuit still.
COSTELLO: She sure does. Nischelle Turner reporting live from New York this morning.
Here's some other top stories we're following this morning at 10 minutes past the hour.
We begin with the massive pipeline explosion in western Illinois. Flames reportedly shot hundreds of feet into the sky, after a large gas line ruptured late last night, forcing the evacuation of at least 80 homes. Fire crews have been able to show off the lines but flames are expected to burn for the next 24 to 48 hours. The cost of the sire still under investigation.
A producer supplier in Mexico voluntarily halts production and shipment of the bagged salads to the large gas has linked to an outbreak of summit bug life illness in two states, nationwide more than 500 people have been infected. The company says it will not resume production until it gets FDA approval.
It's going to get a little easier to book those Saturday night dinner reservations. You can now make reservations directly through a restaurant's Facebook page.
Alison Kosik joins us live from the New York Stock Exchange.
Good-bye, OpenTable?
ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: I couldn't hear you, Carol, sorry.
COSTELLO: Just take it away. How can you make reservations through Facebook?
KOSIK: OK. Well, first of all, you have to look at what Facebook is doing and why it's doing this. You know, when you hear the word mobile, it's like the magic word for Facebook because it means revenue. So what Facebook is doing, Carol, is going deeper in that direction because Facebook's got 800 million mobile users, so, yes, what it's doing at this point is it's teaming up with OpenTable, that's that the reservation Web site.
So we'll essentially be able to do is book a reservation through the restaurant's Facebook page, meaning you don't have to go to another site or app, you can just stay right on Facebook's page and keep clicking through it.
So this is really key for mobile users only and it puts Facebook more in competition with Yelp. Yelp is OpenTable and OpenTable are already integrated but the was investigators see this is pretty optimistically because Facebook's partnership is, you know, has the potential for many more revenue dollars because it has so many users. So we did see how investors reacted because shares of open table jumped almost 8 percent, hitting a 52-week high when news broke about this -- Carol.
COSTELLO: All right. Alison Kosik, reporting live from New York. Thanks so much.
Just ahead in the NEWSROOM, Oprah Winfrey now apologizing for that Switzerland purse mess.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WINFREY: Here, just had on Donna Karan skirt and top and some sandals, you know? Which we should be able to go in a store, looking like whatever you look like. And say I'd like to see this. That didn't happen.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Why Oprah now says the whole thing was overblown.
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COSTELLO: I'm Carol Costello. Checking our top stories at 15 minutes past the hour, we're expecting a court hearing later today for the two friends of the Boston bombing suspect, the surviving one anyway. The men are seen here in a photo with the suspect in New York City's Time Square. They're accused of conspiracy to obstruct justice in the bombing investigation. Authorities say the friends removed a backpack and laptop from Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's college dorm room after the attack. They are also accused of making false statements to authorities.
Vandalism at the Iowa state -- can you believe someone did this to the butter cow? Someone doused the fair's iconic butter cow with red paint over the weekend. Turned out to be a group called Iowans for Animal Liberation. Yes, that group claims responsibility. It was hoping to draw attention to the slaughter of animals. The paint was removed, the butter cow was cleaned up and of course put back on display. The butter cow has been a tradition at the Iowa state fair since 1911. I guess the group's against dairy, too, right?
Take a look at this. These are the faces of the lucky New Jersey workers who hit it big during last week's Powerball drawing. The 16 employees won a portion of the $448 million jackpot. We'll hear from them in just a few hours at a news conference. The "Ocean's 16," as they are called, pooled their money and bought what turned out to be one of three winning tickets. Each worker will get nearly $4 million after taxes.
She said she was the victim of a racist incident, but now Oprah Winfrey herself is apologizing. Last month Oprah was not allowed to see an expensive purse in a luxury shop in Switzerland. The sales clerk told Oprah she couldn't afford it. The store owner already apologized for the mix-up, but now Oprah on the red carpet for her new movie is apologizing, too.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OPRAH WINFREY, ACTOR: I think that incident in Switzerland was just an incident in Switzerland. I'm really sorry that it got blown up. I purposely did not name the store. I'm sorry I said it was Switzerland. I was just referencing it as an example of being in a place where people don't expect that you would be able to be there.
It's not an indictment against the country or even that store. It just was, you know, one person who didn't want to offer me the opportunity to see the bag, so no apologies necessary from the country of Switzerland. If somebody makes a mistake in the United States, are we apologizing for the whole country? No!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CONSTELLO: Of course, not. Of course, the Oprah purse fiasco continues to provide fantastic fodder for comedians like Conan O'Brien.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CONAN O'BRIEN, COMEDIAN: Oprah was shopping in Switzerland recently, a Swiss clerk refused to show her a $38,000 purse because she didn't think Oprah could afford it. To prove a point, Oprah bought Switzerland. One swipe. Yes. She bought it. She bought it with her gas card.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Maybe I'm cheap, but I can't imagine buying a purse that cost $38,000. Oh, my.
Still to come in the NEWSROOM, we saw long voting lines like this in Florida last year, well now concerns North Carolina voters could see the same thing because of the state's new sweeping voter I.D. law. Coming up, you'll hear from someone who calls that law a disaster.
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COSTELLO: Two lawsuits have already been filed and another one is expected today over North Carolina's new voter I.D. law. The law, signed by Republican Governor Pat McCrory, is one of the most restrictive in the nation. In addition to requiring a valid photo I.D. at the polls, it also cuts the early voting period from 17 to 10 days, abolishes same-day voter registration, ends straight-party voting, and eliminates a program that allows 16 and 17-year-olds to pre-register to vote if they would be 18 years old on election day. Governor McCrory says the new law, which takes effect in 2016, is a safeguard against voter fraud.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. PAT MCCRORY, (R), NORTH CAROLINA: You need a photo I.D. to board an airplane, to cash a check, or even apply for most government benefits. In fact, just recently both Democrats and Republicans joined together to require a valid government-issued photo I.D. to buy Sudafed at your local corner drugstore. Our right to vote deserves the similar protection.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Joining me now, Dale Ho with the ACLU's Voting Rights Project. Welcome.
DALE HO, DIRECTOR, ACLU'S VOTING RIGHTS PROJECT: Hi, thanks for having me on.
COSTELLO: Thanks for being with us. You heard what the mayor said, it sounds reasonable, but you call this law disaster, why?
HO: Well, with respect to the voter I.D. component, there were over 100,000 voters in North Carolina in 2012, registered voters, who voted in previous elections who don't have a government-issued photo I.D. A lot of these people are older people, a lot of them are young people who don't drive, but it goes well beyond voter I.D.
The governor and the North Carolina legislature have hacked off a week of the early voting period in North Carolina. It's an absolute disaster. There are 2.5 million voters in North Carolina who use the early voting period in 2012. That's more than half of the electorate. For a lot of people who don't have flexible schedules to wait in line on election day, the choice is either early voting or not voting at all. And for the rest of us, we know what happens when a state eliminates a week of early voting. Florida did exactly that before the 2012 election --
(CROSSTALK)
COSTELLO: We have some pictures of that actually. It was a nightmare, right? The North Carolina governor says we're going to extend hours at polling places so people shouldn't have the same problem. Here's Florida's. That was really bad. People waited in line for hours and hours and hours to vote. And the same thing happened, I think, in Ohio, at some polling places at least. Again, the governor of North Carolina says, hey, we're extending the hours at these polling places so there shouldn't be this polling problem.
HO: Florida actually had the same option; counties in Florida had the same option of extending their polling place hours during the early voting period and it still resulted in massive congestion at the polls. The problem is when you eliminate a whole week of the early voting period, it doesn't matter if you tack on a few extra hours here and there on the remaining days, when you lose an entire week of early voting, that's going to affect a lot of people. That's what we had in Florida, people casting their ballots after the president had given his acceptance speech. That's not how our democracy is supposed to work. We should be making it easier for people to vote, not harder.
COSTELLO: And a final question because I think this is the most important point of all, does North Carolina have a voter fraud problem?
HO: Absolutely not. There is no evidence of a problem of voter fraud in North Carolina, certainly not a problem of in-person voter impersonation, which a voter I.D. law is supposed to prevent, and voter fraud has nothing to do with the early voting period, or the same-day registration option that North Carolina voters are now going to lose. It's an absolute mess and going to effect African American voters the worst; 70 percent of African American voters in 2012 used the early voting period.
COSTELLO: I just want to add on because there are many people who are skeptical of the American Civil Liberties Union, so according to North Carolina State's Board of Elections, it's referred only two cases of alleged voter impersonation fraud since 2004 to prosecutors. Only two cases out of 4.5 million votes cast. So take that, digest it, figure it out, Dale Ho with the ACLU, thanks for joining us this morning.
HO: Thanks so much for having me on.
COSTELLO: Coming up next in the NEWSROOM, searching for why. Why did a family friend kidnap a California teenager and take her to Idaho? And what do we look for to keep this from happening again?
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COSTELLO: Happening now in the NEWSROOM, dramatic new video from the scene of that Florida sinkhole. The moment of the collapse into that 100-foot-wide chasm.
Plus this -
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ANTHONY WEINER, NEW YORK MAYORAL CANDIDATE: The first thing I was going to do as mayor was hold a press conference tearing out your -- this is the internet right -- tearing out your [EXPLETIVE DELETED] bike lanes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
