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Hooters Says Filner Not Welcome; Report: 95 People Killed in Egypt Violence; NTSB Update on UPS Plane Crash

Aired August 14, 2013 - 10:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now in the NEWSROOM, Filner's fight. The embattled San Diego Mayor still wants to keep his job despite growing calls for his resignation. We are holding him accountable this morning as the Mayor loses more support from his own city.

Plus this --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're a happy bunch of group. We're very happy, happy, happy as some of my friends would say.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Yes they've got $86 million reasons to be happy. New Jersey co-workers celebrate a Powerball bonanza.

And talk about feathered friends one time Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss is still free as a bird after police found almost 400 marijuana plants at her home.

You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

Good morning. Thank you so much for being with us. I'm Carol Costello. Checking our "Top Stories" at 33 minutes past the hour.

NTSB investigators heading to Birmingham, Alabama after a UPS cargo plane crashes near that city's main airport. The pilot and co-pilot were killed, that's according to the Mayor of Birmingham. No buildings hit, no one on the ground hurt. The plane was landing. It was en route from Louisville, Kentucky.

This hour, Egypt has declared a state of emergency that will stay in effect for a month. The move comes as Egypt's security forces clashed with supporters of the ousted President Mohamed Morsy. The death toll continues to rise. So far at least 95 people killed. That's according to the government and more than 500 have been wounded. We'll keep you updated on the protest throughout the morning.

To central Louisiana now where two hostages are in critical condition after police stormed the bank where they had been held hostage for 12 hours. The captor was killed in the police raid but only after he had shot -- only after the kidnapper had shot the hostages, a man and a woman, in the torso. Police say the suspect was a paranoid schizophrenic.

Once again the city of San Diego has an absentee mayor, Bob Filner remains on personal leave while he fights sexual harassment accusations against him. And we're holding his feet to the fire. It's been 24 days since the first woman came out against the mayor. A dozen more have followed. Still, Mayor Filner refuses to resign even as a recall push against him continues.

Now the local Hooter's restaurant is coming out against the mayor. A restaurant widely known for its cleavage-bearing waitresses has a sign in the front window that says "Filner is not welcome".

Jerry Sanders is a former mayor of San Diego. He's now head of the Chamber of Commerce in San Diego. Good morning, sir.

JERRY SANDERS, FORMER SAN DIEGO MAYOR: Good morning, Carol.

COSTELLO: When Hooter's puts a sign like that in its window, what goes through your mind?

SANDERS: Well you know it's just another nail in our reputation is the problem because it's another talk show joke around the country and in fact around the world.

So San Diego's reputation has taken a huge hit because of one man, a mayor who refuses to resign even though his conduct has been so inappropriate that nobody supports him anymore.

COSTELLO: So how are you handling -- handling it at the Chamber of Commerce?

SANDERS: Well, you know, it affects business. And we really thrive when you have stability and when you have a mayor that will work with the business community to create jobs for every community in San Diego.

So we're still trying to carry on day-to-day business. We have a COO in the mayor's office who can do day-to-day things but getting any policy issues done has become impossible and the city is pretty paralyzed.

COSTELLO: So -- so you're a former mayor and not likening you to Mayor Filner at all, but -- but why do you think he won't resign? What's in his head?

SANDERS: You know, Bob Filner's been the same way for the last 30, 35 years. He's been in Congress for 20 years. The scrutiny there is not very great. But he's always felt he was the underdog. He always fights. He's -- he's crude. You know, he's just somebody who likes to fight and I don't know what's going through his mind right now but he's certainly not governing the city of San Diego.

COSTELLO: I know a recall effort is under way but does there need, you know, in the future need to be an easier way to oust a mayor like this from office?

COSTELLO: You know, we just haven't encountered this before. We've only had strong mayor, I was the first strong mayor and Filner's been the second and I don't think any of this was envisioned when they did the ballot initiative to change this. And I think there have to be some checks and balances in place so that when you have a mayor who simply refuses to come to work or gets so mired down in inappropriate behavior, that you have to be able to get rid of him for the good of the city.

COSTELLO: So Mayor Jerry Sanders, if you could speak to Mayor Filner right what would you say to him?

SANDERS: I would say, you need to think about the community in San Diego and all of the people you represent and you need to resign so the city can get back on track.

COSTELLO: Jerry Sanders, thank you so much for being with us this morning. We appreciate it.

SANDERS: Thank you, Carol.

COSTELLO: You're welcome.

In four weeks, voters in New York City will narrow the field for a new mayor. But first the Democratic candidates are duking it out in their first televised debate with Anthony Weiner and Christine Quinn exchanging blows.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Joining me --

ANTHONY WEINER (D), NEW YORK CITY MAYORAL CANDIDATE: If you want to talk about my personal failings, they have been all over the newspaper.

As for overturning the will of the people, for the slush fund scandal and for things in her personal record.

I got some for the second term because you chose not to take that fight and I took it up.

I have apologized for my personal behavior. The speaker refuses to apologize for overturning the will of the people, for the slush fund scandal and for the things in her professional record. That's the difference. I've owned up to my personal failings but I have a record that I am proud of and I'm going to be honest with the citizens of the city and that's not something the speaker can claim.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ok.

CHRISTINE QUINN (D), NEW YORK CITY MAYORAL CANDIDATE: Phil let me just say. I think it's clear to all New Yorkers that neither me nor anybody else on this stage or any New Yorker quite frankly should be lectured by Anthony Weiner about what we need to apologize for tonight or ever.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Ok. So neither of those candidates are actually leading in the polls. The latest Quinnipiac University poll has public advocate and progressive Bill De Blasio leading the PAC with the support of 30 percent of Democratic primary voters. We'll keep you posted of course.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM fighting back against predators, the red brigade patrols the streets and hopes to change the culture.

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COSTELLO: All right.

Let's go back to Cairo, Egypt for just a second because it's been a bloody and violent day there now. The military in Egyptian is now pushing these protesters that have been staging a sit-in for days and days out of the city. Of course, these protesters are part of the Muslim Brotherhood. They are staging a sit-in to protest the ouster of Mohammed Morsy, Egypt's elected president.

And as you can see things turned ugly very, very quickly; we understand that many, many fires have been set. In fact protesters have been setting fire to anything they can, like cars or -- and churches, buildings, anything. There's also flash bombs being lobbed by the military to try to disperse the crowds and in a sense it's working but there have been a lot of casualties. CNN can confirm at least 95 people have been killed and at least 500 -- 500 more have been injured.

The Muslim Brotherhood puts those numbers much, much higher, though. They say more than 200 people have been killed and more than 8,000 people injured. This does not look like it's going to calm down any time soon.

Our reporters are on the scene. They've been experiencing some difficulties. Do we have Ian Lee? Even -- Ian Lee is ready.

So let's go to Cairo, Egypt right now to check in with Ian Lee to find out what's the latest. Ian, fill us in.

IAN LEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, things are really escalating here. Not just in Cairo but around Egypt. Like you said, we have -- right now we're hearing 95 people have been killed in the clashes that are going on in Rabal Aldewia (ph) between the supporters of the ousted president Mohammed Morsy and security forces.

Both sides saying that they aren't using live fire but what we're hearing is a different story and what we're seeing from the bodies also telling a different story.

But while that clash is happening, we're also hearing reports from around the country that there are clashes between pro-Morsy supporters and Security Forces. Things are really escalating here as the Security Forces try to clamp down on these protests. They seem to be springing up everywhere else.

We do have a state of emergency here in Egypt. It just started this hour, which is extended from -- that is going to be extended for a month. Security Forces are going to be joined by the military to try to hold security of this country. We're also hearing reports of Christian churches being attacked as well as a Christian school just south of Cairo by pro-Morsy supporters.

So definitely a very volatile scene here in Egypt.

COSTELLO: All right Ian Lee thanks so much. Ian Lee reporting live from Cairo today.

We'll be right back.

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COSTELLO: All right. Let's head to New York to Ashleigh Banfield. Her show "LEGAL VIEW" is coming up at the top of the hour. And I know you're going to talk about this crazy baby monitor story.

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN HOST: Yes.

COSTELLO: People are hacking into people's baby monitors?

BANFIELD: Yes. It's a weird story but it goes beyond being a weird story. It is a frightening story for the parents who had to deal with hearing a strange man's voice in their two-year-old girl's room, only to walk in and find out that he was speaking to her through the baby monitor and saying really hideous things.

We're going to talk about how illegal this is, whether it's a federal crime and what could happen to that person if they catch him. By the way, how hard is it to catch someone doing that?

Also, the disappearance of Alexis Murphy; police may be on to someone. It might be a guy who's had a connection to the disappearance of another missing teenager. We're going to talk to you about that.

And Carol, are you doing the math? Count along with me. What day are we in, in the Michael Jackson trial?

COSTELLO: 842?

BANFIELD: 843. Actually we're at day 69. But this is a big day because his ex-wife Debbie Rowe, the mother of two of his kids, she's going to take the stand. And remember Carol, She may have a lot of insight into Michael Jackson's days and drug use, Propofol. She's a nurse. I think we're going to get a lot of insight out of this today Carol.

COSTELLO: Yes. And she doesn't want to be on the stand, either so it should be a pretty emotional testimony.

BANFIELD: Yes. I don't think she ever wanted to be on the TV to start with. But when you get involved with Michael Jackson, you're going to be on the TV.

COSTELLO: Look forward to it, Ashleigh Banfield, thank you.

BANFIELD: Ok. Thanks Carol.

COSTELLO: You're welcome.

Checking our top stories at 49 minutes past: Cory Booker, one step closer to serving in the U.S. Senate. The mayor of Newark won the Democratic primary for the open seat. He'll face Republican Steve Lonegan on October 16th. Polls show Booker is considered a favorite. If Booker wins, he would be the first African-American elected to the Senate since Barack Obama.

The long-time principal of Columbine High School is retiring. Frank Deangeles told CNN affiliate, KUSA, he plans to leave next spring. Deangeles had promised he would stay until the students who were in kindergarten at the time of the mass shooting at Columbine graduated high school. That happened two years ago.

The woman once known as the Hollywood Madam is still free as a bird after police in Nevada found 392 marijuana plants at her home. Heidi Fleiss doesn't have a license to grow pot but the local sheriff says she was not arrested because she was caring for exotic birds worth $200,000 and authorities simply had no place to take the birds. So the case has been sent on to prosecutors -- weird.

Still to come, days of rain have made quite a mess in the northeast. When will it stop? Chad has your forecast after a break.

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COSTELLO: NTSB investigators on the way to Birmingham, Alabama. There was a terrible plane crash there earlier this morning and it involved a cargo plane for UPS, an airbus A-300. As you can see, the crash was terrible. No one could survive that; the co-pilot and the pilot dead. The plane actually was landing, trying to land at the airport. It missed it. It was heading from Louisville, Kentucky and it just slammed into the ground and exploded.

On the phone with me now, Deborah Hersman, she's chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board. Welcome.

DEBORAH HERSMAN, CHAIRMAN, NTSB (via telephone): Good morning.

COSTELLO: Good morning. So when you look at this crash site, what does it tell you?

HERSMAN: Well, I think for sure our investigators want to get on scene. They want to see if they can identify the recorders, the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder and get those back to our labs here in Washington as soon as possible. We do have an investigator on the ground and our go team is en route right now.

COSTELLO: And it's such a wide wreckage area. There's debris scattered everywhere. Will this be difficult for you? HERSMAN: Well, of course many accident scenes are difficult or in difficult terrain but our investigators are very good at what they do. They will identify the four corners of the airplane, the critical control surfaces and, again, those recorders can tell us a lot even though the aircraft is severely fragmented and burned.

COSTELLO: So the things that you'll be investigating, number one, the cargo on board the plane as well, right?

HERSMAN: Sure. And this is a cargo accident so it's a different issue. When we look at passenger aircraft, we're looking at survival factors and other things. And this one we're certainly going to be looking at the type of cargo that they were carrying as part of our investigation.

But early in the investigation at this point, everything is on the table. We'll be looking at operations, human factors, we'll be looking at weather. We'll be looking at the aircraft itself -- systems, structures and power plants. We're sending a full team. We have a lot of work ahead of us. But we do have a full day of daylight in this summer day to be able to get to work.

COOPER: Well, something else that, you know, you might look into and I just wanted to ask you about this. In 2011 the FAA changed the work and rest hour requirements for commercial pilots but those requirements were not changed for pilots who fly cargo planes. Will you be looking into that as well?

HERSMAN: Absolutely. As a part of all of our investigations we do look at work/rest schedules. We do a 72-hour look-back. And in fact, we were quite critical of that cargo carve out that did not include the cargo pilots that are flying on the backside of the flock (ph) and whether you're turning passengers or pilots, a fatigued pilot is a fatigued pilot so we will certainly be looking at that as part of this investigation but it's really too early to say whether or not it's a factor.

COSTELLO: Well, you've got to believe they were flying cargo for UPS so they had time requirements. So who knows?

HERSMAN: Well, sure. We'll be looking to see if they were in compliance with regulations and we'll also be looking to see at other factors, not just whether or not the regulations were complied with but what their work/rest schedule was outside of their work schedule. And so there are many things that can affect us all as human beings -- health, medication, you know, personal issues that might be going on. We want to make sure that we understand that.

But at this point, again, it's not clear whether fatigue is a factor. We have to take a look at it but that's what we do in all of our investigations.

COSTELLO: Right.

HERSMAN: It will be reviewed.

COSTELLO: Deborah Hersman from the NTSB, thank you so much for being with us this morning.

HERSMAN: Good to talk to you.

COSTELLO: Nice talking to you. We'll be back.

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COSTELLO: Homes and vehicles damaged in Delaware. It happened after a heavy rain in the city of Newark left streets flooded and pushed a creek over its banks. Chad Myers is here to tell us more but we're all being tortured by massive rainfall this year.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: You know, Newark, Wilmington all the way over toward Camden, New Jersey -- just inches of rain in minutes. So really you can't even hope to recover from that kind of rain that came down so fast.

The red zone through, here's Newark, here's Wilmington right over turned toward Camden and Philadelphia, that's four to six inches of rainfall everywhere. Coatesville, Pennsylvania -- 6.5 inches. Some of this numbers happened in six hours.

Could you imagine four inches of rain in just six hours? Heavy rain across Philadelphia, through Atlantic City and now finally offshore, it now done at least for this round of storms.

It may come back later in the week and even into the weekend. But for now, the cold front has pushed way to the south and that heavy rain is into Florida, into Georgia, into Louisiana and the Carolinas. In fact, it's beautiful in the northeast. Morning low temperatures were in the 60s today Carol.

It was just unbelievable in New York City today; and this afternoon a high of only around 75 and sunshine. When they sent me there, the heat index was 102. And now it's beautiful.

COSTELLO: It's just the way it goes, Chad. Yeah. You've got to do what you've got to do. Thank you, Chad Myers.

Thank you, carol.

MYERS: You're welcome Carol.

COSTELLO: Thank you for joining us today. I'm Carol Costello.

"LEGAL VIEW" with Ashleigh Banfield starts now.

BANFIELD: Hello, everyone and welcome. I'm Ashleigh Banfield. This is "THE LEGAL VIEW." It is Wednesday, August 14th. And welcome to the program where we dig into the day's top legal stories and of course, cover the day with top stories as well.

Right off the bat, a little of both -- a very big day in the Michael Jackson trial. Today on the stand, the pop star's former wife Debbie Rowe is set to appear. She's also the mother of his two oldest children and knows a lot about their family life. There they are pictured together in better days.