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Two Arrests in Biker Swarm Case; House Dems Kill GOP Piecemeal Funding; Jobs Report in Jeopardy; "Gravity" Premieres in New York; "Gravity" Premieres in New York; Pittsburgh Wins First Playoff Game in 21 Years; Buckeyes Give Support and Hugs
Aired October 02, 2013 - 09:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's still on the ventilator.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Reporter Tim Fleischer from affiliate WABC has more for you.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAYANA MIESES, WIFE OF INJURED BIKER: This man in road rage and road rage and nobody mentions my husband in a coma, paralyzed.
TIM FLEISCHER, WABC REPORTER (voice-over): Fighting for his life, this is 32-year-old Edwin Mieses, critically injured after what appears in this YouTube video to be a dangerous and escalating series of events between a large group of motorcyclists and the driver of an SUV heading up the Henry Hudson Parkway Sunday. Police have now charged 28-year-old Christopher Cruz with causing this initial accident, seen here when he stopped short. Others, including Edwin Mieses, stopped and got off their bikes.
MIESES: And the (INAUDIBLE), you're going to be scared. You see all these people. The SUV driver suddenly lurches forward, as seen in the video taken by another biker, apparently hitting Mieses and driving over a motorcycle after later telling police he feared for the safety of his wife and small child with him.
MIESES: Point blank is that he ran over a human being and he left them there for dead and he left.
COMMISSIONER RAY KELLY, NEW YORK POLICE: The individual in the SUV, he did call. We responded to that call.
MIESES: But the SUV is again moving and up to 30 bikers are giving chase. Then they surround the SUV near the entrance to the Cross (ph) Bronx Expressway. One biker tries to open the driver's door.
KELLY: They take their helmets and they start to dent his car and apparently his tires are slashed there with a - with a knife.
MIESES: The SUV and the bikers take off again, this time ending up here at 178th Street and St. Nicholas Avenue. Bikers are then seen smashing the SUV windows with their helmets. The driver is slashed and assaulted after the video stops. Police want to question these two biker, one with a flags sticker of Guyana on his motorcycle. Both are later seen in the video smashing the driver's window. One biker has since surrendered.
KELLY: I think we are trying to pull this all together.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: People are going on social media to vent their outrage about the biker swarm story. Lori G. tweeted, "this dad had his family with him, got beaten and slashed, but he's the bad guy?" And this tweet from Kaitlin. "He hit a biker, broke his leg and drove off? I'd (EXPLETIVE) break his windows too if I saw that." So the debate rages on. And we'll keep you posted. And we'll have more in the next hour of NEWSROOM as well.
Still to come in the NEWSROOM, Sandra Bullock safe at home after getting lost in space. We'll hear from the stars of "Gravity" as they hit the red carpet for the New York premiere.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Beautiful, don't you think?
SANDRA BULLOCK, ACTRESS, "GRAVITY": What?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The sun rise. Terrific.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Americans around the country fed up with our government are showing their distaste for Washington politics in many different ways. This is just one example. A Vietnam veteran at Stevens Point, Wisconsin, says he will continue flying his American flag upside down in protest of the government shutdown. Walter Blanchard (ph) says his upside down flag is sending a message to lawmakers any way we can help.
Lawmakers return to session next hour on Capitol Hill under the shadow of that shutdown and the thunder of growing public anger. Republicans were hoping to blunt some of that public outrage by restoring funding to some of the more popular government programs. Things like national parks, Washington city services, and the nation's Veteran Affairs. That effort did not even survive the House, which is Republican controlled, much less make it to the Democratically controlled Senate. CNN's Athena Jones is on Capitol Hill.
But I guess they're going to try again today, Athena.
ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Carol.
This is a situation where both sides are dug into their positions. The House Republicans and Senate Democrats are sticking firm to where they're standing right now and the problem is that they're not really talking to each other, they're talking past each other, so there's no real head-to-head negotiations going on. I spoke with a House Republican leadership aide who said that as of right now there are no plans for House Republicans to meet with or speak with Senate Democrats or with the White House, but they are going to try again in the House today to pass those bills.
What happened yesterday is that they tried to pass them under a rule that required Democratic support. Today they're going to try to pass those bills funding Veterans Affairs, Washington, D.C., city services and national parks with the simple Republican majority. They may also tack on a bill that would fund the National Institutes of Health. That's after seeing headlines of children with cancer being turned away from clinical trials.
But we already know that those bills, even if they do pass the House this time, are going to be dead on arrival in the Senate. The White House has also said this is not a serious approach. If House Republicans want to fund the government, they should pass the spending bill, the overall spending bill, with no strings attached.
I can tell you, as you mentioned, that thundering anger, let's take a listen to what happened at a Republican press conference held by House Republicans and Senate Republicans yesterday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You remember the we the people? So 90 (ph) percent (ph) of the American people -
REP. STEVE SCALISE (R), LOUISIANA: Another colleague who's been fighting for fairness is Mic Baney (ph) from South Carolina.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don't want this shutdown and about 70 percent of the people --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you guys (INAUDIBLE)?
SCALISE: You might want to tell Harry Reid to end the shutdown.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are tired of a Congress that can't govern this country. You guys are worthless!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JONES: So you heard that from an angry protester. You couldn't see him, but he was yelling, "you guys are worthless, worthless, all of you. You can't run the government" And so that's just a sampling of the anger.
Both sides here are trying to win the messaging war and it doesn't look like either side is winning. People want the government to be running again.
Carol.
COSTELLO: Didn't - didn't they realize that these things would shut down if they didn't fund the government?
JONES: That's the question that Senate Democrats are asking House Republicans.
COSTELLO: Are the people like, oh, surprise.
JONES: So this is the battle, this is the messaging battle that will continue today. And who knows how long this is going to last. The problem is that this doesn't bode well for the next big fight, which is the fight over the debt ceiling, which has even bigger consequences for the economy, Carol.
COSTELLO: I know. Let's just take one thing at a time this morning, there, shall we? Athena Jones, thank you so much.
JONES: Thanks.
COSTELLO: This Friday is supposed to be jobs day, but a new message on the website for the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which puts out the unemployment report, says the agency is not collecting any data or issuing any reports. Christine Romans is in New York with that part of the story.
Good morning.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS ANCHOR: And it says, due to the suspension of government services, Carol, when you look at that posting on the BLS, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, website, it just reminds you that the work of this government has stopped in many cases and your government is not working for you because your Congress shut it down. That's what it looks like.
I mean you know, Carol, every month, on that first Friday of the month, we report to you the jobs numbers. The Federal Reserve looks at that. The government looks at that. Employers look at that. Everyone wants to get kind of a gut check of what's happening in private sector hiring and there's a pretty good chance we won't get that on Friday.
There is still a chance, Carol, that the White House, the Office of Personnel Management, could say, look, let's release four or five statisticians and economists, the data maybe has already been collected, we can just put that report together. But we're getting no guidance whatsoever because those economic reports are not essential work and so no one can even talk to us about it. So it's very, very murky here.
We do know the Department of Labor, on its website, has a posting saying that it will release the jobless claims on Thursday, so we'll see that. Here's the expectations. Economists still are, you know, they're still doing their work. Their expectations are 180,000 jobs created. And today we had a private sector report, Carol, that showed 166,000 non-farm payrolls created in September. I guess we'll have to go with that in the absence of any official news from the government. What it shows us, Carol, there's nothing really spectacular happening in private sector hiring. Just another reason why a government shutdown is really bad timing. Carol.
COSTELLO: Gotcha. Christine Romans, many thanks.
Still to come in the NEWSROOM, workers building a new rail line outside of London make a fascinating -- take a look. They found more ancient skulls. Question is, who are they? We'll talk about that next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: NASA TV may be shuddered by the shutdown, so we have to turn our attention to Hollywood. And it's a good thing -- could be a good thing because the Sandra Bullock movie "Gravity" hits the big screen and many people are excited about that. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SANDRA BULLOCK, ACTRESS, "GRAVITY": No!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) over.
Houston, Dr. Stone -- you need to focus. Losing visual.
BULLOCK: I'm saying (ph) I can't breathe!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Grab a hold. Grab anything (ph).
BULLOCK: What do I do? What do I do?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: I cannot wait to see this film. The film "Gravity" had its premiere last night in New York. Entertainment correspondent Nischelle Turner has the scoop for us.
Good morning.
NISCHELLE TURNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, if you thought you were getting away from shutdown talk by coming to me, I hate to break it to you, you're not, because even on the red carpets last night, the talk was about the government shutdown. Yes, definitely was.
Now, you probably would expect nothing less from a guy like George Clooney. He co-stars in this movie and he's really politically aware. He comes from a political family. He and his co-star, Sandra Bullock, both weighed in, though, on Washington. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE CLOONEY, ACTOR, "GRAVITY": And I do think that cooler heads, as you see them starting to move around, will prevail. You see, you know, Representative Peter King and people like that on the right who want the 30 or so sort of Tea Party group that are just come to shut down government, they don't want to do it and they're going to - I think that cooler heads will prevail. BULLOCK: So if the government shuts down does that mean I get to stop paying taxes for right now because they are not working? That is awesome. Ok. For the amount that they're closed I'm not paying my taxes and watch, I get arrested tonight. She said she's not paying her taxes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TURNER: Now of course she was being sarcastic but let me just put it out there for anybody who thought she may have been, you know, serious. The IRS is not conducting audits right now but you do still have to pay those taxes. And Carol guess what, I have seen this movie. I know you said you were really excited to see it.
COSTELLO: I can't wait. Don't give anything away.
TURNER: Well you were in it weren't you? I mean didn't you play her stunt double? You look alike.
COSTELLO: So many people tell me that and I'm so I mean -- I'm so flattered by that because she's so nice and she's so pretty.
TURNER: And she is and I wish I had a split screen so people could see but yes this movie first of all is an hour and a half long but it feels like about three hours and not in a bad way because it's so intense. It really is. I mean I literally started having palpitations like oh, goodness.
It's one of those gripping movies so you're really like gripping it on both -- both edges of your seat there and you think about this, you look at her there and it is every astronaut's worst nightmare, what happens if you get lost in space? And that's basically the crux of this movie.
COSTELLO: Well there's -- there's a deeper meaning explored, too like what is it really like to be alone, alone.
TURNER: And you know what? And that -- it makes you think about that and it makes you think about how do you react when you're just in the still of the moment, because she's in the still of it a lot in this movie.
COSTELLO: And how do you handle abject fear? I mean I can't wait to see the movie. Nischelle Turner thank you so much.
TURNER: Sure.
COSTELLO: Here's what's all new in the next hour of NEWSROOM. Messages to Washington.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's unfair to the public. It's unfair to the citizens of this great nation.
(END VIDEO CLIP) COSTELLO: We hit the streets of middle America to see what you have to say to your lawmakers.
Plus a double whammy for thousands of kids and their teachers, first the sequestration, now Head Start hit hard by the government shutdown. They're taking their fight for funds straight to the capital.
And this --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don't. Don't.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: One of the characters you've grown to love on "The Simpsons" will be killed off this season and we're getting just one vague hint about who. That's all new in the next hour of CNN NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Checking our "Top Stories" at 51 past the hour. We've got some jarring video from Washington State of a chain reaction crash involving two school buses. There you see one of the drivers -- you can see him being thrown forward.
CNN affiliate KATU reports the female driver was cited for negligent driving. No children were on either bus at the time.
Workers in central London have discovered about 20 Roman skulls while excavating a train tunnel. A train tunnel that is, the skulls were found about 20 feet underground. And they're thought to date to the third or fourth century. They're among more than 10,000 archeological items found rail workers since 2009.
Chrysler group is recalling more than 140,000 Jeep Grand Cherokees and Dodge Ram pick-ups worldwide. That's according to the Detroit News. According to the report Chrysler upgrades software in its 2014 models to fix problems with warning lights and instrument displays.
(MUSIC)
COSTELLO: Oh take that banner down so we can see that. That's a snippet from a video that could earn a spurned web production company a bit of vindication. It shows employees dancing in their office with subtitles and highlight their favorite job perks. They are former colleagues of Marina Shifrin you remember her. She recently quit her job by making a video of herself dancing to Kanye West's "One". That video went viral. Now the company Common Chick recruitment video is wracking up views, too.
Still to come in the NEWSROOM, Ohio State Buckeyes player share hugs with a local sports anchor it's not because of their win but because of his loss.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: For the first time in 21 years baseball's post season returned to Pittsburgh. The Pirates and Reds squaring off in the National League wildcard game and what a game it was. Hi, Andy.
ANDY SCHOLES, BLEACHER REPORT: Hey Carol you know Pirates fans have been waiting a long, long time for an important game to be played in Pittsburgh. And you know the Buckos they didn't disappoint them last night. It was a blackout at T&T; fans going nuts the entire game. Russell Martin coming through for the Pirates, he hit two homeruns last night.
The Pirates they never trailed in this one. They beat the Reds 6-2. Pittsburgh now moves on to play the Saint Louis Cardinals in the divisional series.
Tonight Carol the AL Wildcard game. Rays and Indians first pitch set for 8:07 Eastern. And you can watch that game on TBS.
COSTELLO: I love them.
SCHOLES: On the line up section on BleacherReport.com today you will see that the hockey season is under way. Last night's Chicago Blackhawks raised their championship banner and showed off their new fancy rings. And their title defense got off to a good start. They scored three goals in the third period to put away the Washington Capitals. Chicago they win -- they win their opener 6-4 was the final there.
And this one, the last story on the "Bleacher Report" today is such a touching story. The entire Ohio State football team showed their support for local TV sports caster Dom Tiberi after their game on Saturday. Tiberi's 21-year-old daughter Maria tragically passed away after a car accident a couple of weeks ago. It was an amazing outpouring of support. There you see all of the players coming by after their win over Wisconsin hugging Tiberi as he was ready to go live on television. The team also wore a special decal with the initials MT on their helmets honoring Maria.
COSTELLO: Well I can see why they love Dom Tiberi. I worked with him many, many years ago -- 1983 to be exact. He's a fabulous man.
SCHOLES: Yes you get teary-eyed just watching that.
COSTELLO: I know, I know I'm so sorry for his loss. So here's to you Dom Tiberi.
Next hour of CNN NEWSROOM after a break.
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