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Senate to Vote on Government Shutdown; Do Automatic Brakes Really Work?; U.N. Blame Humans for Climate Change; BlackBerry Lost Almost $1 Billion Last Quarter; New Trial for Woman Sentenced for 20 Years; A-Rod Fights Doping Suspension
Aired September 27, 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: "NEWSROOM" starts now.
Happening now in the "NEWSROOM,"
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: On the brink, three days from a government shutdown and neither side is budging. With the debt ceiling fight on the horizon is our economy and your bottom line in trouble?
Plus crash test. CNN tests the auto braking systems in new cars. Do they really work?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DOMINICK INFANTE, SUBARU OF AMERICA: Keep your foot off the brake. Keep your foot off the brake. Did it stop you?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, it did.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Also, "Stand Your Ground" back in the spotlight.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You were thinking you might have to shoot her?
MARISSA ALEXANDER, SERVING 20 YEARS IN PRISON: yes, I did, if it came to that.
COSTELLO: New trial for Marissa Alexander sentenced to 20 years for firing a gun into the air during a domestic dispute.
Plus Bond. James Bond. Sean Connery, Pierce Brosnan, Roger Moore, Daniel Craig, Daniel Day-Lewis? The latest Bond book hits shelves this week.
Can Lincoln --
DANIEL DAY-LEWIS, ACTOR: This is self-evident.
COSTELLO: -- become the new Bond?
You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: Good morning, I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.
The clock ticks down, the rhetoric heats up. With the threat of a government shutdown now just three days away, both sides are accusing the other of holding negotiations hostage. Listen to this fake ransom call put out by the Democratic National Committee.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: American people, this is the GOP. We have your economy.
REP. JOHN BOEHNER (R), HOUSE SPEAKER: Now the president says, I'm not going to negotiate. Well, I'm sorry, but it just doesn't work that way.
DAN PFEIFFER, SENIOR ADVISER TO PRESIDENT OBAMA: We are for cutting spending, we're for reforming our tax, we're for reforming our entitlements. What we're not for is negotiating with people with a bomb strapped to their chest.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Ugly, right?
CNN senior White House correspondent Jim Acosta is at the White House this morning.
Good morning, Jim.
JIM ACOSTA, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. We should point out that Senate Democrats are confident that they will get a bill out of the Senate today that will keep the government running and avoid a government shutdown, but don't get too optimistic because over in the House, Republican leaders say they don't know what happens after that. That is what the state of play is over at Capitol Hill this weekend.
Meanwhile, here at the White House, the rhetoric is becoming white hot as administration officials are becoming very frustrated with what is playing out over in the Congress as both sides appear headed towards a shutdown.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ACOSTA (voice-over): Three days and counting and there was no compromise in sight that could avert a government shutdown and right behind that September 30th shutdown deadline the nation could go into default roughly two weeks later unless Congress raises the debt ceiling. Despite warnings from economists of a disaster, Republicans say they'll approve an increase in the debt limit only if the president agrees to their demands, like delaying Obamacare by a year and more budget cuts. But President Obama says he won't negotiate over the debt ceiling.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: To suggest America not pay its bills just to try to blackmail a president into giving them some concessions on issues that have nothing to do with the budget.
I mean, this is the United States of America. We're not a deadbeat nation.
ACOSTA: The White House is ratcheting up the rhetoric, accusing some Republicans of acting like terrorists.
PFEIFFER: We are for cutting spending, we're for reforming our tax, we're for reforming our entitlements. What we're not for is negotiating with people with a bomb strapped to their chest.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: American people, this is the GOP. We have your economy.
ACOSTA: The Democratic Party is echoing that message, releasing this fake debt ceiling ransom call from the GOP.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Clock's ticking. We hope you don't make us do this.
ACOSTA: Republicans say that kind of talk is an outrage.
REP. CATHY MCMORRIS RODGERS (R), WASHINGTON: It's completely unrealistic for the president to say that we're not going to -- going to negotiate over the debt ceiling, that he thinks somehow that we should d be just giving him another blank check to continue these record deficits?
ACOSTA: GOP leaders point to new polls showing Americans want the president to negotiate, trading budget cuts for an increase to the debt ceiling.
BOEHNER: The president says I'm not going to negotiate. Well, I'm sorry, but it just doesn't work that way.
REP. ERIC CANTOR (R), MAJORITY LEADER: We call on the president now to sit down with us. Harry Reid, to sit down with us and let's solve the problem.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ACOSTA: Now the White House is moving forward with its rollout of Obamacare. It put out a white board video this morning, explaining in their minds what Obamacare means to average Americans who were thinking about signing up on those new insurance exchanges that start on October 1st. But, Carol, getting back to this talk of a shutdown up on Capitol Hill, a House Republican leadership aide tells CNN they still don't know what will happen inside the Republican caucus, Republican lawmakers, when that bill gets out of the Senate later today because the Senate bill strips out that provision that would have defunded Obamacare.
This House Republican leadership aide is saying that no, there are plenty of Republican lawmakers who want to keep that in there. So no word as to what they might attach to that legislation to send back to the Senate so this could ping-pong back and forth throughout the weekend, as this one aide put it to CNN things are still, quote, "very, very fluid" -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Jim Acosta reporting live from the White House this morning, thank you.
What you are about to see is frankly frightening. We often show you high-speed chases and this is one of the worst and another reason why police should reconsider chasing down the bad guys. This all went down in Orange County, Florida. Here are pictures.
Police say James Maddox was fleeing a DUI stop at speeds of more than 100 miles per hour. He ran a red light, you saw that, he slammed into another car. Maddox was thrown from his car and critically injured. Police had to put out the burning wreckage before rescuing its trapped passengers.
Two people in the other car that Maddox hit were also hurt. Police say Maddox was driving on a suspended license and faces multiple felony charges.
There may be no way to avoid a high-speed crash in some cases but at lower speeds drivers can get help through new technology. In fact, some vehicles will do the braking for you.
CNN's Rene Marsh is in Washington with that story.
Good morning.
RENE MARSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. You know for that distracted driver it could help them avoid rear-ending someone, and let's say you're cut off on the highway, manufacturers say it could help the driver avoid collision in that situation, too.
Now one group put the in-car technology to the test and here are the results.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARSH (voice-over): They cause thousands in damage. Serious injuries and even death. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety says high tech systems in new cars aimed at preventing or mitigating front-end crashes are in fact keeping drivers safer.
INFANTE: Keep your foot off the brake. Keep your foot off the brake. Did it stop you?
MARSH (on camera): Yes, it did.
INFANTE: Yes.
MARSH (voice-over): It's called collision avoidance technology. The institute tested several to determine if they're effective and worth your money.
DAVID ZUBY, CHIEF RESEARCH OFFICER, INSURANCE INSTITUTE FOR HIGHWAY SAFETY: We find that they help reduce crashes with other vehicles by about 7 percent.
MARSH: That's just the work of the warning system, which alerts drivers a collision is coming. With an automatic braking system, the institute says the effectiveness doubles. The top performers, the Subaru Legacy, Outback, Cadillac ATS and SRX, Mercedes Benz C-Class and Volvo S 60 and XC60.
Without auto brakes damage exceeds $28,000 but with auto brakes less than $6,000 in damage. Now compare the two.
ZUBY: And we think it's worth the money.
INFANTE: We've got two cameras mounted up here.
MARSH: Inside the top rated Subaru Legacy, Dominic Infante calls the two cameras a second pair of eyes.
(On camera): I was able to take my foot off of both pedals, the brake and the gas, and the car stopped on its own. That's how it was meant to work.
INFANTE: Exactly. You know, so what you've got, you've got two cameras, those cameras are seeing there is a vehicle in front of you and slowing down. It starts to -- as you get closer to it, it starts to bring on the brakes and it has the power to bring the car to complete stop and it keeps you stopped.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
INFANTE: All right. Well, cost varies. It could cost hundreds, it could cost thousands of dollars depending on how advanced the system is. Now at this point they're mostly optional and about 5 percent to 10 percent of the new cars are being sold with these systems -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Fascinating. Rene Marsh reporting live from Washington, thank you.
It is a nightmare scenario for every passenger and it played out overnight in the skies over Idaho. A United Airlines flight had to make an emergency landing when the pilot suffered a heart attack. The flight was heading from Houston to Seattle and that's when the co- pilot diverted the aircraft to Boise, Idaho.
Once the plane landed, paramedics rushed the pilot to the hospital. Right now we don't know what his condition is. United is now working to get those 161 passengers to where they needed to go.
The world is getting hotter, and a new United Nations report says that humans are largely to blame. Scientists who looked at the jump in global temperatures over the last 60 years said human activity is responsible for at least half of that increase.
The report also says that even if greenhouse gases are stopped today, climate change would continue for centuries.
So let's bring in our expert Chad Myers, who is in Miami this morning.
Good morning, Chad.
CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Carol. I've seen it firsthand here. I've seen dry days not a rain shower, nothing, and flooded streets. I ask, where is this water coming from, a broken water main? No, that's high tide, sir, and high tide now gets into our street sometimes. And I'm dumbfounded at what's still to come, Carol.
Here's what the IPCC said today. The earth is warming, 95 percent chance that the Americans, and that the world, the population of the world is doing it. Obviously now better than 50/50 chance that humans have something to do with this.
And that's kind of the breakpoint. We already knew that. The carbon dioxide in the air is above 400 parts per million. For the first time this year in Mauna Loa in Hawaii back in May. Now the ocean is rising, the ocean is warming.
I'm here in Miami. Why is the ocean warming? Not so much because the glaciers are melting, sure they are, a little bit, but if you think about a thermometer and you warm up the bulb at the bottom, what 's going to happen to the liquid? It's going to go up. If you warm up the ocean, what's going to happen? It's going to go up. If you warm up a three-mile long thermometer which is as deep as some of the oceans are, some of the oceans are seven miles deep.
Think about a seven-mile tall thermometer. Warm it up a degree. It's going to go up pretty significantly and that's what we're finding now is climate change, it is the carbon dioxide, it could be the methane, if we thaw the permafrost. There's a lot to this. We have to address this now.
We've been talking about it. This is not a political statement that came out today. This is an independent panel saying yes, you and me, Carol, all of us.
COSTELLO: Well, you know what some people are going to say. They're 95 percent sure. Tell us why this is a definitive study.
MYERS: Well, you know, there are so many theories out there, what else could be happening, and they're all out there and the IPCC looked at all these other theories. They're not just looking just one way down the road, looking at all of the rejectionist theories as well but here is the deal. Now that we are at this precipice, we're almost past where we can get back from this, this is what we're going to deal with for the rest of our lives and my child's lives, probably his kids' lives as well.
This is what we have to deal with now for the rest of the -- there's no turning back on this CO2. We have to either stop putting it in the atmosphere or take some of it out, those are our two options. We are -- we're at a crucial point in the history of the world, I'm afraid, and you and I are talking about it live on CNN. We'll look back 10, 12, 15 years from now and go wow, wasn't that quite the amazing report.
COSTELLO: And why didn't we do more about it. I know we're going to talk much more about this in the next hour of NEWSROOM.
Chad Myers live in Miami this morning.
BlackBerry coming out with its earnings just last hour and it ain't pretty. The company lost almost $1 billion last quarter. The report comes just days after BlackBerry announced it would go private.
Alison Kosik is following that story in New York this morning.
Good morning, Alison.
ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol. The hits just keep on coming for BlackBerry. The company reported a loss this morning of $965 million. That loss happening over just three months.
Now BlackBerry did put up the red flag a week ago warning that the loss was coming when it reported earnings today and the company had also announced it's going to lay off 4500 employees by the end of the year.
It's also going to reduce its smartphone line-up to just four devices. The stock has been getting crushed this year, down more than 30 percent. Shares aren't moving much before today's open but we are going to keep a close eye on it throughout the day.
Now on Monday, Canadian insurance company Fairfax Financial said it was considering buying BlackBerry for $4.7 billion, but there are some cynics out there who think Fairfax is simply trying to draw in other offers and cash out its 10 percent stake.
At this point BlackBerry's most valuable asset is its patents because of that offer on Monday. BlackBerry canceled its conference call with analysts scheduled for today and it is kind of unusual, Carol, for companies to do that.
COSTELLO: All right. Alison Kosik from New York this morning.
Still to come in the NEWSROOM, Marissa Alexander says she fired a warning shot in her husband in self-defense. Now she's getting a new trial after being sentenced to 20 years but she still will not be allowed to use Florida's controversial "Stand Your Ground" law in her defense.
We'll talk about that next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Florida's "Stand Your Ground" law is in the news. Is it being applied fairly?
Take the case of Marissa Alexander. She was sentenced to 20 years in prison for firing off a gun to scare off her allegedly abusive husband. She got 20 years.
Well, this morning, we've learned she will get a new trial. An appeals court ruling saying the jury was given improper instructions.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO (voice-over): For Marissa Alexander, it's another chance at freedom. Alexander's lawyer told her about the new trial by phone.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She's ecstatic, can't wait to get back with her family and to be vindicated.
COSTELLO: The Jacksonville mother of three was convicted of aggravated assault in March after just 12 minutes of deliberations. During the trial, Alexander claimed self-defense, saying she was attempted to flee her husband, Rico Gray, when she picked up a handgun.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What did you think you were going to do with it?
MARISSA ALEXANDER, DEFENDANT: I thought that I was going to have to protect himself. I've --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Were you thinking you might have to shoot him?
ALEXANDER: Yes, I did, if it came to that.
COSTELLO: She fired the gun into a wall. Nobody was hurt. Her initial defense against her allegedly abusive husband, Florida's "Stand Your Ground" law, but that defense was turned down by a judge.
The issue? Alexander could have left through the front door after the altercation. Instead, she went to the garage to get her car and leave, but she says she forgot her keys and went back inside the house with her weapon. She says she was terrified, became trapped.
ALEXANDER: He saw my weapon at my side, and when he saw it, he was even more upset and that's when he threatened to kill me.
COSTELLO: In Thursday's decision, the appeals court reversed her conviction saying she can use the self-defense claim but still won't be able to use stand your ground.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The reaction is the same as it usually is, OK. There's a need to send the case back, it comes back.
COSTELLO: But for Marissa Alexander, it's not just another trial. ALEXANDER: This is my life I'm fighting for. This is my life. And it's my life, it is not entertainment. It is my life.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: With me now is criminal defense attorney and CNN legal analyst Mark O'Mara, who successfully defended George Zimmerman in a self-defense case you well know.
Welcome, Mark.
MARK O'MARA, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Good morning. Good morning.
COSTELLO: Good morning.
So, an appeals court judge ruled the jury was not instructed properly what is need to prove self-defense. But it seems kind of simple. Alexander said she was afraid of her husband. She had a gun. She said she used it to defend herself, seems simple enough.
O'MARA: Well, it should be. The problem with it is that the instruction the way it was presented to the jury suggested that Ms. Alexander had to prove that an aggravated battery was about to be committed by the eventual victim, the ex-husband.
And obviously that burden shift takes it away from the state who carries the burden to prove everything beyond a reasonable doubt, and put it on Ms. Alexander, and that was inappropriate. So, thank God for the appellate court looking at the jury instruction.
COSTELLO: Does Florida "Stand Your Ground" law apply in Alexandra's case?
O'MARA: Well, jury, the judge made a decision that in the pretrial hearing, that she did not carry the burden so that decision has been addressed in the pretrial hearing but she can still argue self-defense and in effect she stood her ground to the jury. So that hasn't been taken away from her but the initial hearing suggested that she should still go to trial. So it still does apply, particularly the way she reacted to the perceived threat of force from Mr. Paul (ph).
COSTELLO: So, will her attorneys enter that into the equation? Or should they in your opinion?
(CROSSTALK)
O'MARA: I think they should. Again, "Stand Your Ground" is one small part of overall self-defense. This is a definite self-defense case. Ms. Alexander suggested properly that she was protecting herself from a perceived threat from him and that he was coming at her and that is traditional self-defense.
And had the jury been instructed properly that it was the state's burden to disprove self-defense, she may very well have been acquitted. My greatest concern is the suggestion by the state that this was some technicality. This is not a technicality. This is due process and due process has never been a technicality in the state to realize there was a bad jury instruction and not do it again.
COSTELLO: Civil rights leaders also say race played a role in this. They say, if Alexandra had been white, she would have never gotten a 20-year sentence. Do they have a point?
O'MARA: Well, the problem is the way the state charged the case, the judge didn't have much discretion upon conviction because we have this 10, 20-life minimum mandatory sentencing. That really needs to be readdressed by the legislature. A case like this is the poster child for how this case should not have a 20-year minimum mandatory.
The real question about a racial intone to this case is whether or not she was charged with a case or charged for which she could have gotten 20 years rather than a more appropriate charge, because the state could have charged her in which she wasn't facing 20 years.
COSTELLO: Criminal defense attorney, CNN analyst, Mark O'Mara -- thanks so much for joining me this morning.
O'MARA: Sure. Great to be here.
COSTELLO: Nice to have you here.
Still to come this morning, A-Rod is not going to the playoffs, we know that. But he is heading to the commissioner's office. We'll tell you about the witness who will be waiting for him, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: The New York Yankees are not going to the playoffs this year but their star third baseman has his own post-season battle.
Alex Rodriguez is fighting a 211-game doping suspension and his arbitration hearing begins on Monday.
Jason Carroll is in Miami with more for us this morning.
Good morning, Jason.
JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Carol.
You know, the star witness in all this may not be the man people are thinking of. It's a man from South Florida who ran an anti-aging clinic and his credibility in all this will be key.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CARROLL (voice-over): Alex Rodriguez says he has something to prove and not just on the field. His 211-game suspension, baseball's longest doping punishment, still very much in play, still a sore spot with fans. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Suspend him, I say fire him.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I believe he should not be suspended.
ALEX RODRIGUEZ, YANKEES THIRD BASEMAN: The last seven months has been a nightmare.
CARROLL: Arbitrator Fredric Horowitz will hear both sides.
Rodriguez claims Major League Baseball used unethical practices to target him because he was overpaid and underperformed.
And Major League Baseball's claim, Rodriguez took PEDs, performance enhancing drugs, including testosterone and human growth hormone. MLB's case centers on this man, Anthony Bosch, founder of the now defunct anti-aging clinic Biogenesis.
Is Bosch prepared to testify Monday that he gave Rodriguez PEDs? If so, it would be a different account of what he told ESPN last April.
ANTHONY BOSCH, BIOGENESIS FOUNDER: I'm a nutritionist. I don't know anything about performance-enhancing drugs.
CARROLL: That was then. One of Bosch's former friends, Bobby Miller, suspects why Bosch may have now changed his story.
BOBBY MILLER, BOSCH'S FORMER FRIEND: He told me that they paid him $5 million. They paid him. I mean --
CARROLL (on camera): Who's they?
MILLER: Major League Baseball.
CARROLL (voice-over): Bosch's spokeswoman says he is cooperating with Major League Baseball but is not being compensated by the organization. MLB would not comment.
Bosch has not spoken to the press since that interview last April.
We tried tracking Bosch down at a hotel in Coconut Grove, Miami.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have to ask you guys to leave the apartment.
CARROLL: No luck approaching a car connected to Bosch either.
(on camera): Can we have any sort of comment at all from Mr. Bosch?
Yes, from CNN.
(INAUDIBLE)
CARROLL (voice-over): Bosch's spokeswoman says he looks forward to testifying at arbitration.
Rodriguez in a fight to save his legacy. STEVE EDER, NEW YORK TIMES SPORTS REPORTER: It's a big moment for baseball. It's a big moment for Alex Rodriguez, for Yankees fans, and, you know, there will be a lot of anticipation what the arbitrator ultimately decides.
CARROLL: A high stakes game, a reputation of one of baseball's greatest hanging in the balance.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CARROLL: And, Carol, as you know, with that 211 game ban, if it is allowed to stand, that will effectively end A-Rod's career. And if it's overturned, a lot of people would see that as being a huge blow for baseball. Ultimately, this whole arbitration process is expected to take about several weeks before it's all played out and we have a decision -- Carol.
COSTELLO: And I know you'll be watching. Jason Carroll reporting live from Miami this morning.
Still to come in the NEWSROOM: a government shutdown may be days away, but an even bigger threat is looming on the horizon and that would be the debt ceiling debate. We'll talk about the impact on you, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
