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Toronto Council To Debate Mayor Ford; Top Obama Tech Officials On Capitol Hill For Latest Hearing On Healthcare.Gov; Freeze Warnings From Texas To Georgia; Typhoon Survivors Struggle To Get Aid; Philippines Residents Hunt For Loved Ones; Wal-Mart Workers Prepare To Strike On Black Friday Due To Conditions; What Merger Of American Airlines And U.S. Airways May Mean For Your Fares; More Police Using Body Cameras

Aired November 13, 2013 - 10:00   ET

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

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN HOST: A live report from Capitol Hill coming up for you.

All right now, the Toronto City Council meeting is under way. Toronto Mayor Rob Ford could face what his brother terms a public flogging. The council demands that he take a leave of absence after his crack smoking admission. The mayor expected to speak and take questions. CNN live in Toronto in just a minute.

And getting under way right now, also in Washington, experts will testify in front of Congress on nuclear negotiations with Iran. This is just days after diplomats failed to reach a deal in Geneva. Also Secretary of State John Kerry making the rounds on Capitol Hill to discuss next steps on Iran's nuclear program.

And there's more, a sentencing hearing for Boston mob boss, James "Whitey Bulger". This is a live picture of the courthouse. Prosecutors want to put the 84-year-old away for the rest of his life. Jurors convicted Bulger in August of racketeering, extortion and money laundering. Victims' relatives will be speaking at this hearing. The actual sentencing scheduled for tomorrow.

All right, good morning, everyone. I'm Carol Costello. Thanks so much for joining me. Let's first take a look at what we're expecting from the city council meet in Toronto. CNN's Paula Newtown is in city hall right outside the mayor's office. Good morning, Paula.

PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And good morning, Carol. What a headline from the mayor himself. You know, he said it would be a rumble in the jungle. It certainly hasn't turned to be that as of yet. Right now, they've started with regular business on the order paper, but certainly Doug Ford, the mayor's brother, even saying that in fact he does believe that this will not go well for his brother. He thinks this is a waste of taxpayer money.

The mayor himself, we saw him go in, go into council chambers. He says he's feeling good, and he says -- as to whether or not the mayor should stay in his job, he's saying there's no way he's going. Council is trying to get him to do two things, apologize to them, and to step down, for at least a little bit, to sort out what even the mayor says is a very chaotic percentage life.

COSTELLO: We know that the council members are taking care of preliminary business. The mayor is expected to speak at the bottom of the hour. Am I getting that right, Paula?

NEWTON: Absolutely. But I spoke to the mayor's chief of staff. I mean, no one knows where this is going. All everyone knows is that this will go on and on and on, even into tomorrow, if it has to, Carol. But the mayor's issues will come up very shortly and the mayor is expected to basically stand there and take it. Whatever questions, whatever is thrown at him from the other council members, he will sit there and have to answer questions. It is very much like an inquisition. He and his brother, all their supporters say they are ready for it.

COSTELLO: All right, Paula Newton, we'll get back to you. Thanks so much.

He's been put in charge of fixing the Obamacare website, but today Todd Park is sitting in front of Congress as angry lawmakers demand answers on what went wrong and when the web site will actually be fix. These are live pictures on the House Oversight Committee hearing, that's the chairman, Darrell Issa.

Joining me now from Capitol Hill is CNN chief congressional correspondent, Dana Bash. Good morning, Dana. What should we expect?

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning. You know, this hearing has been going on for half an hour and they just swore in the witnesses. The reason is because both the Republican Chair, Darrell Issa and the Democratic Ranking Member Elijah Cummings took a lot of time basically blaming the other for the partisanship that has been part of the roll-out and the investigation into this roll-out.

When it comes to the Republican chair, he minced no words in explaining how he feels about this role out. Listen to what he says.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPRESENTATIVE DARRELL ISSA (R), CALIFORNIA: On October 1st, President Obama said using it would be as easy as buying an airline ticket on kayak.com or buying a television on Amazon. This is an insult to Amazon and Kayak. On the day of the launch, president Obama should have known the harsh lesson we have all learned since that time, and that was they weren't ready. They weren't close to ready. This wasn't a small mistake. This wasn't a scaling mistake. This was a monumental mistake to go live and effectively explode on the launch pad.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: And what the Democrat Elijah Cummings just wrapped up his lengthy opening statement was that the Republicans are crying crocodile tears because as he said no one in this room or believed that Republicans ever wanted Obamacare to be successful in the first place. Of course, they spent so much time trying to repeal it and closed the government down, as far as House Republicans go, for 16 days, in an effort to at least dismantle in some way, shape or form.

That is the back drop through which this hearing is happening and the hearing being an attempt to get at what did go wrong with regard to the web site with some of the chief I.T. people for lack of a better way to say it, who are involved in getting this web site up and running. And more importantly for consumers out there wondering about when the website will be really functional.

These are the people who might be able to answer that question when they feel that the glitches will be worked out and it will be a much smoother place to go if and when somebody wants to get on and sign up for health care through this website.

COSTELLO: All right, you'll continue to monitor this for us. Dana Bash, thanks so much.

Big chill fell over the eastern half of the country overnight with gusty winds, record fall temperatures and freeze warnings from Texas to Georgia. These are live pictures of New York City, that city getting another early dose of winter after yesterday's snow. Down south in Atlanta, it's even colder this morning. The wind chill made it feel like it was in the teens.

Meteorologist Indra Petersons in New York to tell us when are the warm up. Good morning.

INDRA PETERSONS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: So you don't like that, Carol? Neither do I. Everyone is making fun of me here in New York City. But at least in the south, you feel my pain for Southern California. We are talking about a cold front yesterday that brought the snow showers. Here is the good news. That guy is way offshore.

We're not talking about snow anymore, but behind it, yes, we are left with this chill. I mean, look at the temperatures right now, Carol. You are still in the 30s, 37 degrees in Atlanta. New York City at the freezing mark, but you know what? I forgot to leave out the wind chill. So it actually feels even colder. We are talking about 20s in New York City, Atlanta, 33, Chicago, try this, 15 degrees, that's what it feels like with winds gusting to almost 40 miles per hour. We are talking about temperatures well below normal even for this time of year.

Even all the way down to the south, temperatures almost 20 degrees below normal. The chill is here, but it's n/not going to last. It's all about the position of high pressure. It's bringing in cold air from Canada right now. But once you get on the back side, as early as tomorrow, you start to see the warm air coming off the gulf and with that, we're talking about the temperatures rebounding by tomorrow to exactly where they should be, pretty much 50s for all of us, Carol, and then maybe people will like me just a tad better.

COSTELLO: We still like you, but man, we like you a lot more now. Indra Petersons, thanks so much. Let's talk about the Philippines now, aid still struggling to reach those in need. Nearly a week after Typhoon Haiyan slammed into the Philippines. This morning four more aircraft left Japan to help the Marines in the Philippines. You can see more help landing in Cebu. Thousands of pounds of supplies have arrived so far.

But more than 2 million people are still in need of food. And with power outages and blocked roads, things are only getting worse. Some of the same people fighting to survive are desperately searching to find their relatives and friends. Things are so bad, just finding the body of a child can mean a lot to a mother. Anderson Cooper is in the Philippines with that side of the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON COOPER, HOST, CNN'S "AC 360" (voice-over): In Tacloban, the misery is beyond meaning.

(on camera): This is your home?

(voice-over): The first, the first she says, our house was one of the first to come down. Jovelyn Tanega sought shelter from the storm surge in this bus with her husband and six children. She survived, they were swept away.

(on camera): Has anyone come to help you?

(voice-over): I really want to see them, she says, even if it's just their bodies. She has found the body of her husband and shows us the bodies of three of her children. Now, she searches for her three other children. She doesn't believe they survived the storm.

(on camera): Where will you sleep tonight?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Here in the street, anywhere. I don't know where I go.

COOPER (voice-over): In Tacloban, there isn't any place to go. Juanito Martinez is living in a make-shift shelter. His wife, Gina and daughter, are covered with sacks nearby.

I really want someone to collect their bodies, he says. I want to know whether where they're taken so then I can light a candle for them. Juanito cooked some rice and noodles for his neighbors. One of the men tells us he wants to call his mother in Manila.

He's desperate to tell her that he and his daughter survived though his wife and two other children are dead. We dialed her number on our satellite phone. They're gone, they'll all gone, he says. I don't know why this happened to me.

You won't find answers here in Tacloban, you'll only find loss and misery. With so little help, that is just not going away. Anderson Cooper, CNN, Tacloban, Philippines.

(END VIDEOTAPE) COSTELLO: If you want to help the survivors of this disaster in the Philippines, please visit cnn.com/impact. I'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: As shoppers rush to get holiday deals at Wal-Mart this Black Friday, they may have to get past one group of people. That would be angry employees. Employees set to protest the retailers working conditions. And in Chicago, some of the demonstrations are starting today. Joining me now from that city is one of those employees. Her name is Charmaine Thomas. Good morning, Charmaine.

CHARMAINE GIVENS-THOMAS, WAL-MART EMPLOYEE: Good morning, Carol. How are you?

COSTELLO: I'm good. Thank you so much for joining me. Wal-Mart is trying to make --

THOMAS: Thank you for having me.

COSTELLO: Thank you for being here. Wal-Mart is trying to make things a little better for employees working over the holiday season. They're going to offer Thanksgiving dinner, for example. They are going to give employees a first shot of discounts in the stores. Does that make it a little better?

THOMAS: Of course, Carol, that makes it a little better, but Wal-Mart made $17 billion last year and it's the nation's largest employer. It employs 1.4 million associates across this country. And they can well afford to give us a livable wage.

COSTELLO: A livable wage, but as far as I'm going back to why you're specifically you are going to be protesting the stores opening up earlier this holiday season. Wal-Mart has a lot of competition because other stores are opening early too. And you know, they are predicting weak retail stores so Wal-Mart is probably saying to itself. We've got to do this because it's a good business decision.

THOMAS: Yes. Carol, Wal-Mart took the lead with that last year as being the first retail business to open up for Thanksgiving and now all of the other retail businesses are scrambling to be -- to open even earlier this year. And while that is a scheduling problem, is important for us at our Wal-Mart. And it's more important that we have a livable wage, which we are asking for 25,000 a year from Wal- Mart. And also for them to stop the retaliation of their workers, stop their unfair labor practices in their stores.

COSTELLO: Question for you. Are they giving -- giving any employees time and a half for working on Thanksgiving Day?

THOMAS: They're giving them -- they say they're giving them a day's pay for Thanksgiving Day, that's correct.

COSTELLO: So at least they're trying -- you know, I just wonder how many Wal-Mart employees are actually taking part in these protests across the country? THOMAS: We have hundreds of our Wal-Mart workers current and former, our Wal-Mart associates, that have been protesting for the last couple of weeks and today we start our protest in Chicago. And we have -- we're planning many more protests going forward until Black Friday.

COSTELLO: Charmaine Givens-Thomas, thanks so much for joining me this morning. I appreciate it.

THOMAS: Thank you. And you can find more information about us at changewalmart.org. Thank you.

COSTELLO: Thanks, Charmaine. With the settlement of an anti-trust suit, the way is now clear for U.S. Airways and American Airlines to merge into the world's biggest airline. While investors may be salivating, will travelers be stuck with higher fares?

CNN's Rene Marsh is in Washington to ferret this out for us. Good morning.

RENE MARSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. You know, the merger may be good for investors, but is it good for us, the consumer. We talked to one airline expert and a consumer advocate, and here is their take.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARSH (voice-over): Less than a decade ago, nine major airlines criss-crossed the skies. But the industry has gone through merger after merger after merger. And with this new deal, only four major airlines would remain.

SETH KAPLAN, "AIRLINE WEEKLY": Let's be honest, airlines or companies in any industry don't merge for consumer benefit. They merge to help themselves, but that doesn't mean it has to be bad for consumers.

MARSH: Kaplan he says, prices could go up on routes like Dallas to Charlotte where American and U.S. Airways went head to head since that competition would disappear. But he says fears could drop at seven major airports where under the Justice Department agreement, the two airlines will have to sell their takeoff and landing slots to low-cost carriers.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The biggest increase as we saw --

MARSH: Consumer advocate, Charlie Leocha, who opposed the merger says he can live with this deal.

CHARLIE LEOCHA, CONSUMER TRAVEL ALLIANCE: I think it's a win for the low-cost carriers. All of a sudden they now have access to the major markets that they couldn't get before.

MARSH: Leocha says transition is always bumpy.

LEOCHA: For example, you make reservations on the U.S. air flight and you're flying on an American Airlines flight and you're connecting. Sometimes the computers don't talk to each other very well. MARSH: Both experts say your frequent flier miles are safe. But with one less major airline, loyalty programs could require more miles for a flight.

KAPLAN: These mergers are very much a trade off. Consumers are paying more to fly, but on the other happened, they're getting a safer industry and a more reliable, flights that are on time and not canceled as much.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MARSH: All right, well, ultimately a judge will make the final decision. That said, the deal is likely to be approved. The airlines expect to complete the merger by the end of the year -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Rene Marsh reporting live from Washington. When we come back, we're going to go back to Toronto to dip into the city council meeting. The mayor, rob ford is expected to fight to keep his job as city councilors grill him, expected to be quite heated. We'll have more after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: All right, let's head first to Toronto to dip into the city council meeting that's now ongoing. You see a Councilor Jaye Robinson, she is reading off the names of council members who want Mayor Rob Ford to step aside. The mayor is in this room listening to this. We expect at any time the mayor will be fighting for his job.

Also in the United States on Capitol Hill, another House Oversight Committee meeting is ongoing and Republicans are trying to find out what went wrong with Obamacare. Right now the witnesses are I can imagine their opening statements. When they get into the testimony, we'll take some of that live.

All right, let's move on, now, shall we?

More police departments are wearing small video cameras on their lapels recording everything that happens like in this hostage situation in Daytona in September when police shot at a man who was holding his girlfriend at knife point. This kind of video can be used in court. But some people are worried about when the camera should be turned on and off.

And what happens to the recorded video after the incident joining us is Sergeant Rob Drager. He'll be seated in just a moment and also in New York, CNN legal analyst, Danny Cevallos. Welcome to you both. Danny, I'll start with you.

These are little tiny cameras that police officers wear on their lapels. And they're recording exactly what happens in an arrest -- my goodness, technical gremlins have set in. We're going to take a black and get it together. We'll be back with more in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) COSTELLO: We've got it together. We got all of our guests are joining us to talk about the new lapel camera that police are wearing across the country as Sergeant Rob Drager from the Albuquerque Police Department and in New York, our CNN legal analyst, Danny Cevallos will help us legal issues surrounding this. Good morning to you both.

So Sergeant, I want to start with you because your department has been using these tiny cameras for a while. Are you wearing one this morning?

ROB DRAGER, SERGEANT, ALBUQUERQUE POLICE DEPARTMENT: Yes. There's one on my right collar that should be looking right back at you.

COSTELLO: So you're recording me at the moment.

DRAGER: Not yet.

COSTELLO: It's a very tiny thing. So people don't really know it's there?

DRAGER: That's the idea. It shouldn't be intrusive. It's a small, about lipstick size, device that we mount on our collar, but the idea is for it to be there, but stay out of the way and just capture an incident.

COSTELLO: Do citizens know that all police officers in Albuquerque wear these cameras?

DRAGER: It's been in the local media regularly, so I don't think it should be a surprise. But I suppose you never know. There's probably people out there who don't realize that we have cameras and we are recording.