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Celebs Cook, Serve Meals On Skid Row; Pizza Hut Manager Offered Job Back After Refusing To Open On Thanksgiving; Thanksgiving Shopping Backlash; Bryan Cranston To Hit Broadway As Lyndon B. Johnson In "All the Way"; Half-Court Shot Winner May Not Get $20K Prize; Police Chief Tasered For Charity; Officer Pulls Man From Burning Truck
Aired November 28, 2013 - 14:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Bottom of the hour, I'm Brooke Baldwin. Thank you so much for being with me here on this holiday. Happy Thanksgiving to you.
You know, Hollywood celebrities are cooking and they are serving food today for the homeless on Skid Row. Volunteer slots filled up actually months ago for this long-standing Los Angeles tradition.
Three shelters in downtown L.A., they stagger the meal times just so people can eat for free several times during this holiday week.
Actor Louis Gossett Jr. talked with Stephanie Elam just a short time ago.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LOUIS GOSSETT JR., ACTOR: We were all poor when I was raised, you know, so it's natural for us to help one another. Not just on Thanksgiving, but Thanksgiving you celebrate, and Christmas, you know, but it's got to be every day.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Let's go to Stephanie Elam. Here she is.
Huge crowd around your, Stephanie Elam. Tell me -- tell me what you're seeing there.
STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Brooke, the clouds have parted. It's a beautiful day out here in downtown Los Angeles and there are a lot of volunteers who have gathered together so that they could help feed the people who could really use a good warm Thanksgiving meal. I know that they cook all of their turkeys here. They're prepared to serve close to 4,000 people here today.
So people are rolling in as they want to, sitting down, and getting a table and they're getting a tray of food brought out to them. Take a look at the food preparation here and all of the volunteers getting it together. And they're busy getting their plates and setting it out, but all of this planned for months in advance. All of this to give people who could really use this a little bit of warmth. Some of that cozy American feeling on Thanksgiving and getting some of that today. Dick Van Dyke has been out here as well. I've seen Ed Bagley Jr. I've seen him as well, but these are people who have been coming out to this mission to help and give back for years and years.
And they have been doing this, and Lou Gossett told me three generations of his family are here. So they come and do this and help out, and a little music behind them as well. All in all, just a heartwarming day as you see people out here helping each other -- Brooke.
BALDWIN: That's so wonderful, feeding 4,000 mouths. That is huge. My fingers are crossed, Stephanie. Maybe we can hear and see Dick Van Dyke or maybe Neil Patrick Harris next hour. That's my challenge to you, my friend. What a wonderful thing that they're doing there in L.A. Thank you.
A Pizza Hut manager says he was fired for refusing to open today. Now he's being offered his job back. Tony Rohr has worked at his store in Indiana for a decade. He says the store asked him to sign a resignation letter, but instead, he wrote a letter saying he wouldn't quit, telling his bosses it's the people at the bottom of the total pole that, quote, "make your life possible."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TONY ROHR, FORMER PIZZA HUT MANAGER: I said why can't we be the company that stands up and says we care about our employees and you can have the holiday off? Thanksgiving and Christmas are the two days they're closed all year, the only two days people are guaranteed to have off to spend with their families.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was a little shocked. I was thinking something would happen, but I'm proud that he stood up for what he believed in.
ROHR: They're still going to sell pizza. I just didn't think it was right.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Well, the guy's bosses insist he wasn't fired, that he quit, and in a statement to CNN, this is what Pizza Hut is saying. Let me quote them, "We fully respect an employee's right to not work on a holiday, which is why the vast majority of Pizza Huts in America are closed on Thanksgiving. We strongly recommend the local franchisee reinstate the store manager and they have agreed." No word on whether the manager will take his job back.
Some of us are making a mad dash to grab those holiday bargains while the turkey is still in the oven. Take a look at these folks at a Kmart in Burbank, California, early, early this morning. Some of you are saying heck no. No, thank you. It's a holiday. I'm going to stay in my pajamas and enjoy my family. Here is George Howell on the Thanksgiving shopping backlash -- George.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GEORGE HOWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): There's more to Thanksgiving now than just turkey, Wal-Mart, Kmart, and Target. All open for early bird shoppers this holiday, just like last year joining them this year, J.C. Penney, Kohl's and Macy's. But not everyone is buying into this new holiday tradition.
More than 370,000 people petitioned Target to save Thanksgiving for its employees and their families and customers. And Kmart was blasted on its Facebook page for its decision to stay open 41 hours straight, starting at 6:00 a.m. Thursday.
KATHY GRANNIS, NATIONAL RETAIL FEDERATION: We know last year, 35 million shoppers were out in stores and shopping online on Thanksgiving Day and we're fully expecting to see just as many people this year.
HOWELL: But for those steadfast employees who have to work their Thanksgiving Day, shoppers on Chicago's busy Michigan Avenue have some sympathy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sometimes we have to work when we don't want to work. It's just the reality of it. In the same note, I feel like people do need to be with their families. It's more of a choice than, you know, it's to each his own.
HOWELL: In fact, several stores are choosing to give their workers the day off, closed on Thursday, from Nordstrom to REI, Costco to Sur La Table.
JACK SCHWEFEL, CEO, SUR LA TABLE: It's important to us that our employees who worked hard have a day off with their friends and family and recharge before we go into the Black Friday weekend.
HOWELL: Sur La Table CEO, Jack Schwefel spoke to me via Skype.
(on camera): Do you feel like your store is missing out by closing?
SCHWEFEL: Not at all. I think there are plenty of other days to shop. Plus, we're open 24/7 on our web site, on surlatable.com.
HOWELL (voice-over): It's a move that shoppers don't seem to mind.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: On Thursday, I think -- I think I would close just because I personally want to be home with my family and I wouldn't want to keep other people away from their families.
HOWELL: But for those who feel they'll somehow be missing out, Carly puts it bluntly.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Get a life.
HOWELL: George Howell, CNN, Chicago.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BALDWIN: It was a contest and a shot of a lifetime, and he made it. He nailed it from half court.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For it to go in was as surprising to me as it was to anyone else.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: You do it for the prize money, right? It turns out this guy may not get the $20,000 he was promised. We'll explain. We're on the case.
Also, taking one for the team, find out why this police chief -- is getting tasered by his own officers.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JULIA ROBERTS, ACTRESS: My two oldest kids, it's their birthday, so that's my gratitude going to be deeply focused on them on Thursday.
CORBIN BLEU, ACTOR: Eating, so much eating and so much sleeping.
MARY J. BLIGE, SINGER-SONGWRITER: Thanksgiving is all about food and family and fun and music and reminiscing and conversations.
VALERIE HARPER, ACTRESS: We were going to have a big kind of family dinner at a restaurant in Pasadena, but I think Tony has pulled the plug on that and wants to watch football. I think.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Now that actor, Bryan Cranston has finished "Breaking Bad," he's heading to Broadway. He'll be starring as President Lyndon B. Johnson in "All the Way." It's a play which covers the tumultuous first years of LBJ's presidency. It's set to open in March of next year. Take a look for yourself. This is a side by side for you. What do you think? I think we kind of decided it's a pretty good fit. The play ran earlier this year in Massachusetts to rave reviews.
This Thanksgiving Day, a Florida mom sentenced to 20 years in prison is at home with her family. Marissa Alexander is out on $150,000 bond as she awaits a new trial. Her case drew more attention after George Zimmerman was acquitted because unlike Zimmerman, she was sent to prison after claiming she was standing her ground, defending herself when she fired at her allegedly abusive husband. This was back in 2010.
A jury convicted her of aggravated assault, but an appeals court ruled the judge gave the jurors the wrong instructions. Alexander's new trial is set for March.
I want you to listen to this one because this Kansas college student is proving how good a guy he is after he made this awesome shot.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You never know when those half-court shots. They have to be almost perfect.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Swish, so this is Cameron Rodriguez. He won $20,000 when he hit the half-court shot. This is at an Oklahoma City Thunder game earlier this month. By the way, talk about odds. I don't know what's going on in Oklahoma City, but he's the fifth fan to make this half- court shot in the last 22 games.
He's the only one, though, with a bit of a problem, because Rodriguez plays basketball for Southwestern College in Kansas. And he realized that $20,000 goes against the rules of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics which says players can't get paid to play.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CAMERON RODRIGUEZ, HALF-COURT SHOT WINNER: As soon as it started hitting home with the $20,000, I started kind of thinking about the implications that might come up and stuff like that with my eligibility, and especially when I started talking to my coach and the Thunder organization and stuff like that. That's when it started getting more and more real.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: So after owning up to his half-court winnings, he may not get the money after all, but he said there is still a chance.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RODRIGUEZ: Yes, we're currently appealing it with the NAIA to not just accept the money outright, but instead, for it to be donated straight to my college, towards my tuition instead.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: CNN legal analyst, Danny Cevallos is on the case for us. Happy Thanksgiving, by the way, Danny Cevallos.
DANNY CEVALLOS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Happy Thanksgiving to you, too.
BALDWIN: Thank you. So when I saw this, I mean, I thought, man, bummer for this guy. I mean, it sounds like he wouldn't take legal action, but let me begin with, if he were to, would he have grounds to sue if he's denied the $20,000?
CEVALLOS: No, no. The NCAAA -- not the NCAA, this is the NAIA, which is similar to the NCAA. Yes, different conference. He doesn't really have a legal action. He's a student athlete. What's more amazing about this is that this NAIA policy, the idea that student athletes maintain this amateur status, student athletes are the only amateurs left in collegiate sports. This individual represents the 99 percent of college athletes, the people who don't -- who we don't see in the spotlight every day and who play for the love of the game and a meager scholarship. Consider that the NCAA and CBS recently signed a $14 billion agreement over the next 14 years, and the NCAA is a non-profit. It seems --
BALDWIN: But it's a half-court shot. What are the odds? Do you think he would have a shot at getting the money if he says, OK, this going to go towards my scholarship?
CEVALLOS: Well, that's certainly a good argument. And because the NAIA like the NCAA makes its own rules, they can probably do just about whatever they want. This is not a public affair at all. The NAIA makes its own policy and can choose to grant or deny him this money for whatever purpose they may see fit. Because of the notoriety of this case, they may make an exception and allow him to use it towards his actual scholarship and his tuition, which would probably be an equitable result.
BALDWIN: My takeaway from the story is two-fold. One, I have to get to Oklahoma City to sink a shot because something is in the water there, and two, I guess if you're a college basketball player, you shouldn't be taking these half-court shots, right?
CEVALLOS: Well, I mean, the reality is, who actually thinks they're going to make a half-court shot?
BALDWIN: Five people recently.
CEVALLOS: Probability renders it very unlikely. You know, casino people would argue that's going to make it less likely to happen this time around. So I mean, participating was probably OK, he never thought in a million years he would make it. He was having fun, and the reality now, the idea that his scholarship and his eligibility could be jeopardized really requires us to take another look at the policy behind paying or not paying student athletes.
BALDWIN: I mean, donate the money. There are a lot of people who could use the $20,000 if he couldn't keep it. Who knows? We'll see what happens. Danny Cevallos, thank you so much, and once again happy holidays to you.
So I love this story. You're a coach in the NBA and it's late in the game. You're out of time-outs. What do you do? How about the old, spill some soda on the court play? Watch this. We've circled this. Nets Head Coach Jason Kidd, I'm talking to you here, check this out.
It appears Kidd says -- watch this, hit me, to one of his players and there it goes. Hit me. Did you read his lips? He spills his drink everywhere causing a stop in play. That gave him time to draw up this last-second play. It didn't actually work, if you watched the game, the Nets lost 99-94.
Kidd said during the presser he simply dropped the cup. Just a reminder, Kidd was an all-star point guard when he played in the NBA. Coming up next, a police chief agrees to be tasered by his own officers. We have the video for you, and we'll tell you why the heck he said yes in the first place.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: An Indiana police chief taken down by a taser, but for a good cause. Yes, suffering the pain is part of the fundraiser to pay for a new police cruiser. Drew Smith with our affiliate, WRTV, has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHIEF DANNY BAKER, KNIGHTSTOWN POLICE: I love my job. I'm not responsible for anything that comes out of my mouth or any other orifice of my body.
DREW SMITH, WRTV REPORTER (voice-over): So much so that he's willing to get tased for it. Police Chief Danny Baker has done it before.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If you get hurt, I'm going to kill you.
SMITH: Twice.
BAKER: If I get killed you're never going to speak to me again are you.
SMITH: And he would do anything for Knightstown.
BAKER: I grew up in this town. It's my hometown. My dad died when I was 9 years old. He was a businessman here in town. After he died, I didn't have one parent, I had 2,000. OK? This is my way of repaying the town.
SMITH: So Chief Baker worked out a deal with a friend in town that he would get tased if together they could raise $5,000.
BAKER: There's a check for $50. I got another envelope here with another $50 in it.
SMITH: They need the money for police cruisers. This is the only squad car they have that runs. The others have nearly 200,000 miles on them. But the money is now flowing in, including a $25,000 gift confirmed today. Things are looking up now for Knightstown PD. This is what they plan to buy as their next vehicle.
BAKER: Are you ready for this, guys? Are you ready for this?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don't do that.
BAKER: Ready as I'm going to get.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hi, buddy. How are you doing?
SMITH: The jovial 63-year-old chief went through with it. It's why they came tonight. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Taser.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hold still.
BAKER: I got a cramp in my leg.
SMITH: And the crowd loved it. It's obvious they love their chief. People contributing what they could as they passed the donation buckets.
BAKER: Give thanks to all the donations. We really appreciate it. I think that's just an example of how small-town communities, people stick together.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BALDWIN: Thanks again, WRTV for sharing that story with us.
Coming up next here on CNN, dramatic dashcam video of this police officer saving a man from a burning truck. We'll hear from this hero and how he pulled this off.
Also ahead, a CNN special report, a woman says she briefly crossed over to heaven. This is during her battle with cancer. Hear her compelling story coming up. But first, this --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LT. COLONEL MIKE MCGREGOR: I'm Lieutenant Colonel Mike McGregor here in Kandahar, Afghanistan. I wanted to send a shout out to my two sons, Caleb and Spencer. Happy Thanksgiving, buddies. I miss you, love you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: Talk about nerves of steel, a New Jersey police officer risked his own life to pull a man from this burning truck. You see this dramatic scene caught on the officer's dashcam. This is Monday. The 61-year-old driver was hospitalized in critical, but stable condition. Earlier today, Officer Scott Krissinger recounted this scene.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
OFFICER SCOTT KRISSINGER, PULLED MAN FROM BURNING VEHICLE: A million things going through my head. I wasn't sure if anyone was in the vehicle. If someone was, I just wanted to get them out.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Any fear, any hesitation at all?
KRISSINGER: Definitely in the back of my mind, I wanted to get away from the truck as soon as I could. When I opened the door, I didn't know what to expect. I reached my hand in and felt him and pulled him out. JOHN BERMAN, ANCHOR, "EARLY START": Was he hard to move?
KRISSINGER: To be honest, I don't remember.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Was he trapped in the vehicle? What was the scenario with that?
KRISSINGER: He was just unconscious.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BALDWIN: Wow. Krissinger also dismissed the hero label, giving -- some people are giving him. He said it seemed like a lot of people in this position, nope, just doing my job.
Have you heard of those folks who survived a brush with death and they talk about seeing something they can't quite explain, maybe it's heaven. This Sunday, Anderson Cooper brings us the tantalizing stories of three such people, including this cancer survivor who spoke with CNN's Randi Kaye.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RANDI KAYE, CNN INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: You could still see your husband. How was he reacting to the fact that you were in this coma and he thought he was losing you?
ANITA MOORJANI: He was very distraught. He was there by my bedside. He was holding my hand, and I could feel he was going toing me to come back.
KAYE: And you had a choice to make.
MOORJANI: I had a choice as to whether to come back or not. At first, I absolutely did not want to come back because why would I want to come back into this sick and dying body? But then it was as though in the next moment I understood why I had the cancer. All the years of beating myself up, feeling flawed, had turned my own energy against me and manifested as cancer.
KAYE: Fear in a way poisoned your body.
MOORJANI: Yes, it did. And I understood that now that I knew this, my body would heal.
KAYE: You had this huge revelation. And Sony and your father both affirmed what needed to be done.
MOORJANI: Both of them said to me, go back and live your life fearlessly. And it was around that time that I started to come back.
KAYE: So how long were you in the coma?
MOORJANI: About 30 hours. I was in the intensive care unit, but within four days, they were able to take off the oxygen. They were able to take out the food tube and the tumor shrunk by 70 percent. KAYE: And the doctors, they kept testing you, right? They kept looking for cancer. They kept treating you.
MOORJANI: They were saying, there's no way that cancer disappears like that.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BALDWIN: Watch Anderson Cooper's special report, "To Heaven and Back." That airs Sunday at 7:00 Eastern and Pacific only here on CNN.
And we continue on hour two. Thank you for tuning in to CNN on this holiday. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family. Let's talk turkey, because if your turkey is still in the oven as I speak, that is good news because you still have time to go shopping before you're totally full and sitting there on the sofa as I plan to be in just about an hour and a half from now.
You already had your big Thanksgiving meal? You can walk off those calories at Macy's, Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Kmart, Toys "R" us. We're going live to the cart cam as it wheeled up to Kyung Lah. She's at Kmart in Burbank, California, been open since the break of dawn. Cart cam. Nice. Kyung Lah, where are you? There you are.
KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right here.
BALDWIN: Set the scene for me.
LAH: This has been open since 6:00 a.m. You can see people are still rolling around, buying items. The Black Friday frenzy that used to be just on Friday has now extended.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LAH (voice-over): The shoving. The screaming. The swearing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Push one of my kids and I'm going to stab you.
LAH: Let the fists fly, retailers call it the Super Bowl of shopping, or Black Friday.
