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Helicopter Crash in Glasgow; Obamacare Website New Release December 1; Black Friday Madhouse; CNN All-Start Heroes Night Preview

Aired November 30, 2013 - 16:00   ET

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

ROSA FLORES, CNN ANCHOR: You are in the "CNN Newsroom," I'm Rosa Flores, in for my good friend, Don Lemon. We have a lot of news to cover. Thank you so much for being with us.

A helicopter crashed through the roof of a pub, killing at least eight people in Glasgow, Scotland. A band was playing for a crowd of about 150 people hanging out in the pub when suddenly a police chopper smashed through the roof. Three of the dead were the helicopter's crew. Five others were killed inside that bar. Fourteen people are hospitalized with serious injuries.

Investigators searched into the night for others who might be buried in the rubble. And emergency officials said earlier that people stuck in the debris were communicating with rescue crews.

CNN's Richard Quest is tracking the story live in Glasgow. Richard, what a horrible story. Do we know how many people might be trapped inside this pub?

RICHARD QUEST, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: No, we don't, and when the police were asked that at the news conference earlier this evening, they said basically that the helicopter had crashed through the roof of the building and was now dominating the room. And until they were able to remove the helicopter, which would be a sensitive, and complex task, they really wouldn't know what's underneath.

So, we're going to have to wait quite some time, because what we've seen over the last few hours, we've seen a long crane. In fact, you can see it now over my shoulder. A long crane with rescue workers very gingerly going over the pub's roof, going down to the helicopter. But being careful not to disturb it because obviously the entire structure is very fragile and extremely unstable, Rosa.

FLORES: And, you know, time is definitely of the essence in this situation. And I know that you've been out there. Any idea from investigators what the cause of this crash is in the first place?

QUEST: No. Absolutely not. The Air Accident Investigation Board which is the British equivalent of the NTSB, they are already here in Glasgow, and they will be the lead authority in to why this police helicopter came down. It's quite common for the police helicopter and most days I'm told it is flying over Glasgow, and it was on its approach pattern into the city heliport which is about two miles up the river. So, we don't know why, but the - but the eyewitness say it appears to have been the sound of a sputtering of engine. The rotors appeared to have stopped, and then the helicopter just fell out of the sky. There are other people who are suggesting that actually what was happening was that the pilot was trying to do a controlled emergency landing on the roof of the building and got the helicopter on down, and then, of course, it crashed through the ceiling.

It will be some time obviously before an investigation puts those details into perspective. For the moment, the way Scotland is looking at this, Rosa, the first minister of Scotland described it as a black day for Scotland and for Glasgow. Flags are at half-mast. We're expecting prayers to be said for those injured and killed in churches across the country tomorrow.

FLORES: Oh, definitely our thoughts and prayers go out to them. Richard Quest live in Glasgow, Scotland, thank you so much.

We move on to Alaska. The NTSB is investigating a plane crash last night that killed four people including the pilot and a baby. Police say 10 people were on board the single engine Cessna. So far there's no word on how the six survivors are doing. The charter plane crashed in a remote area in southwestern Alaska near St. Mary's Village.

Doctors in Las Vegas aren't quite sure what caused 40 adults and children at a youth football national tournament to get sick. Many of the patients were staying at the Rio Suites Hotel and Casino which used shuttles to take them to the hospital for treatment of flu-like symptoms. Several of the people affected were from Santa Monica, California. The Rio Hotel said it's working with officials to figure out the cause of the problem.

Tech experts might be pulling an all-nighter at the White House. President Obama has set today as a deadline to get the Obamacare Web site to work properly for most users. The president knows his legacy depends on getting this one right.

Our Tory Dunnan is keeping an eye on this for us, and Tory, will the Web site look radically different tomorrow? I know that's one of the questions that everybody's asking.

TORY DUNNAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Oh, Rosa, there are tons of questions that people are asking because all eyes are on this deadline to see what happens. But more importantly, the White House says that this Web site will behave differently. Now one measurement that's been brought up in a recent administration briefing is that pages that once took an average of eight seconds to load should now be up in just a fraction of a second.

There are lots of fixes like this happening, but bottom line, the president has made the promise that the site will be running for the vast majority of users, that's the term that's been used. The goal is to be able to have 50,000 users on at the same time, and we're told if the number exceeds that, then people will get in what's called a virtual line. Eventually they'll get an e-mail with a better time to log on. Actually, I just talked to one computer security expert who has been following all this so closely and I asked him if he thinks the site was already operating better and here's his answer -

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LUKE CHUNG, SOFTWARE DEVELOPER: Without having the internal metrics and status reports of what's going on the Web site, we on the outside will not be able to tell. But the people who are in charge of the system will certainly know what the load is and will be trying to balance that properly across their different servers. As an outsider, we're not going to be privy to that information.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DUNNAN: All right, so obviously that's sort of the big thing moving forward is when will we know if this on operating at that level. There's one other thing to point out, though, even if the site is determined to be functioning smoothly, some insurance company insiders are telling CNN that there are still problems with the back end of the site, saying some customers' personal data is getting messed up or even lost. So Rosa, we'll just see what happens in the next few hours, in the next few days for sure.

FLORES: Yes, no kidding. And one of the things is, is it's just been such a tough rollout for this Web site. And I know that the White House has been saying, you know, not everything's going to be perfect. Is this the White House trying to lower expectations you think?

DUNNAN: Oh, for sure, lower and manage expectations. They're saying that this is not like turning a switch on or off, that ultimately there could be more problems down the road. We know we know the White House has ways to measure the success or failure of this site but we actually don't expect them to release those numbers right away.

However, there's a conference call that's going to be happening with reporters first thing in the morning. So, Rosa, at that point we'll most definitely get a sense of how things are going.

FLORES: Definitely so, Tory Dunnan, thank you so much. We appreciate it.

A shooting, a stabbing, and mob brawls. This isn't your typical shopping weekend and we're not even talking about the deals. That's ahead.

But next, a woman sentenced to 20 years in prison. It's a case that put the stand your ground law in the spotlight. She's just been released. But for how long? That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FLORES: Just in time for the holidays, Marissa Alexander, the Florida mother who was sentenced to 20 years for firing what she calls a warning shot has been released on bond as she awaits a new trial. Now, the details are here by Nick Valencia. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Marissa Alexander is out on $150,000 bond after spending more than 1,000 days in jail. The good news for her family, she was able to spend the Thanksgiving holiday with them, and they expect her to be able to stick around for Christmas as well. She's on house arrest and is being monitored by a device. But the case for Marissa Alexander is not over just yet.

Her supporters from the beginning have tried to draw a parallel between the George Zimmerman case in 2012 and that case of Marissa Alexander, saying that she had a right to defend herself against her abusive husband. Now critics to that argue that there is no stand your ground defense. Lawyers and the defense attorneys argued that Marissa Alexander left the house to get the gun from her car and came back to shoot at her husband.

Prosecutors have maintained from the very beginning that Marissa Alexander meant ill will against her husband. Now, her new trial is set for March 31st, 2014. And legal experts say if she tries to use the stand your ground defense again, the court will deny it again.

Nick Valencia, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FLORES: Now, the campaign to free Marissa Alexander has been a long one. Supporters argue that this case goes far beyond Alexander, igniting the stand your ground debate and bringing much-needed awareness about domestic violence.

Now, I want to bring in Esther Armah, she is the political commentator and the creator of Emotional Justice Unplugged. You've been pivotal in this fight, and so your reaction to her release?

ESTHER ARMAH, EMOTIONAL JUSTICE UNPLUGGED CREATOR: Excited. Amazing that she gets to be home for Thanksgiving. She gets to kiss her babies. She gets to run about. She gets to play music and she's not going to bed to the sounds of keys rattling in doors or the sounds of injustice. And so I think it's really important to take a moment and to celebrate the fact that she is home with her family, with her children.

And I'm one of so many people who have been engaged in an effort to do this work. It's been a collective effort. It's been all across the country led by women, women of color with other folks involved and engaged. It's really important to acknowledge that this was one of the moments that activism did its work in a collective sense.

FLORES: There was a lot of traction, lot of traction all over the country. Now one of the things that really catches our attention, of course, is that there are restrictions to her release.

ARMAH: Yes.

FLORES: There are several restrictions. She was released on bond. I'm glad you mentioned her children, because she is a mother of three. How is she doing? I imagine that even just being with her family in the first place is a great plus for her.

ARMAH: Absolutely. And, you know, having spent days in jail for doing what is essentially an internationally recognized right, that is to defend your body under threat. It's an extraordinary thing to know that something that should be your right is considered a crime. But she is home. She does have restrictions. She has an ankle bracelet. She has to be home 24 hours a day. She only has court mandated visits, and any other kind she has to apply to the courts for commission for. But she's not in jail. She's at home. And that's an important step in the process towards full freedom and exoneration.

FLORES: Now, let's talk about her fight in court. Because it's coming.

ARMAH: It certainly is.

FLORES: We know that it's coming.

ARMAH: Yes.

FLORES: What do lawyers do you think have to do this time?

ARMAH: What's really crucial about this case is understanding that that is bigger than one woman, that we have an issue around domestic violence where all the statistics show that we are consistently going in the wrong direction. Women are being killed consistently at the hands of their intimate partners and their husbands.

And so this is a question about what does this country want to say about women and domestic violence and the right to defend your life against threat. And the way that the law looked at it was talking about immediate threat. But with domestic violence, you know, that the threat is one that is accumulated over a period of time, because that was not the first time, by his own admission, her husband said he violently abused every single one of the women he was involved with. And so for her to believe her life was in threat is a reasonable defense given his history.

And so part of the challenge for the law is to recognize the reality, the cancer and the toxicity of our relationship with violence and how it affects a woman who has been subject to the violence over a period of time. Remembering she had just had a baby. Her baby was eight days old when this incident happened. There's been conversation about her baby was premature. He had beat her when she was pregnant. This has history.

So to make it about a moment is to ignore the history and the cumulative impact of that history. And to ignore the fact that we have an economy around violence and it is sustained by emotionally terrorizing women and making them think that they don't have the right to defend themselves. The consequence is what we have now.

FLORES: So we should mention that we reached out to Marissa Alexander and her attorney said she's not ready, and understandably so, she's not ready to speak about this just yet. But I'm glad that you mentioned domestic violence, because that's one of the things I think the overlying issues that are important to talk about in this case because a lot of women face domestic violence. And I know that that's one of the things that you're bringing awareness about - through this case.

ARMAH: Yes. One of the things - you know, it's important to talk about domestic violence and intimate partner violence because the issue of violence affects all kinds of folks across community, color and creed. Discriminatory nature of the way the criminal justice system works when it comes to gender and race, when it comes to women of color means there are additional barriers to even having the right to find your way to justice in your own home.

FLORES: Yes. It's so difficult because it is within the home.

ARMAH: Yes, it is.

FLORES: Thank you so much for joining us. We really appreciate you taking the time to be here with us.

ARMAH: Marissa is at home, that's a good day. It's a good day.

FLORES: Thank you so much. We appreciate it.

ARMAH: Thank you.

FLORES: And so much for giving thanks for peace on earth. Shoppers get nasty, a shooting, stabbing, and more than a few left with black eyes on Black Friday. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FLORES: Welcome back. Americans love their contact sports, right? Well, but it can be dangerous when children are on the field. Dr. Sanjay Gupta is here to tell us what's coming up in the next half hour.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Rosa, we got a lot on "SG MD" this weekend to keep you healthy and also this medical mystery. A teenager who suffers a concussion, he was never musically inclined and now he can play 13 different instruments. What exactly happened in his brain? We'll explain at the bottom of the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FLORES: We are looking forward to that.

Now, Black Friday, it's more like black and blue Friday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Punch a video on my phone.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You know what? If you were watching a five fingered - keep your phone out of my face here. Keep your phone out of my face. (END VIDEO CLIP)

FLORES: Flaring tempers led to altercations across the country as millions of shoppers battled to snag deep discounts and even parking spaces.

Two shoppers got into it at a mall in Philadelphia, one of them used a stun gun before they were pulled apart.

Our Alexandra Field joins us from New York, and Alexandra, my goodness, a stun gun, really? Oh, my goodness, when did shopping become a bloody sport? Goodness.

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Rosa, just when you think you've seen the worst of the worst, shoppers show you they can still find a new low. Check out that video from Philadelphia. It starts like your average Black Friday brawl just a couple of shoppers battling each other. And then you see one woman pick up a stun gun. Nearby shoppers thought they had seen everything. They had a lot to say about this one.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL NAPOLITANO, WITNESS: I was definitely taken aback for it because, you know, everybody's out, you know, like, try to save money and shop for everybody and get stuff for themselves and you just don't think that people are going to do stuff like that, you know, I always wonder, like, what drives somebody to get in a fight like that, you know, and you don't just walk away. It's a holiday, everybody's got to, you know, get along.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FIELD: Hard to believe it doesn't stop with the stun gun. In Las Vegas police say there was a shooting after one shopper tried to steal another shopper's deal. In Texas a bunch of bargain hunters were pepper sprayed, and in Virginia police say a battle over a Walmart parking spot led to a stabbing.

While it's worth noting millions and millions of people wanted to get into the holiday spirit and get some of the savings on Black Friday, there are certainly a few who literally had their claws out.

FLORES: It's unbelievable. I know that our colleague Zain Asher was out there yesterday and she was interviewing some folks, and they were telling her that they were expecting a lot of these fights, it's really unbelievable.

Now let's get back to retailers. Have they released any figures? Is Black Friday truly Black Friday?

FIELD: Well, it certainly looked like it from the crowds that we saw in those videos. We'll get the official numbers on how the stores did sometime tomorrow, but right now the projections were pretty big. We're hearing about 140 million people were expected to shop over Thanksgiving weekend. November and December stores were expecting to rake in about $600 billion, $80 billion coming from online shopping and if you haven't had your fill yet, Rosa, you know that Cyber Monday is just one way away.

FLORES: That's right. We're going to have to do some shopping perhaps while we're working. Don't tell our boss about that.

Alexandra Field, thank you so much. We appreciate it.

And honoring true heroes next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FLORES: It's 27 minutes past the hour. As we enter the season of giving, we at CNN are preparing for our own holiday tradition. "CNN Heroes, An All-Star Tribute." A celebration of the top 10 heroes of the year and their extraordinary work helping others. It airs tomorrow night at 8:00 Eastern.

Entertainment correspondent Nischelle Turner gives us a preview of the star-studded gala.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NISCHELLE TURNER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT (voice-over): It's that time of the year again when giving back to others is in the air, hosted by CNN's Anderson Cooper, this year's annual heroes event is backed with emotion -

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you so much.

TURNER: And unforgettable moments. A night when Hollywood's brightest stars come together.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It shines a light on people that don't do it for the light.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: These are the people to get excited about that kind of makes your jaw drop.

TURNER: To shine the spotlight on 10 remarkable people who are changing the world.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is like the Academy Awards for good people.

TURNER: Like a great grandmother who used her life savings to turn a bus into a classroom.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Get on the bus, everybody. CNN hero Estelle Pyfrom.

TURNER: And a woman who started a drill team to keep kids off the streets. Turning the tables on a traditional awards show.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm not the only hero in this room. And none of us as heroes stand alone.

TURNER: CNN heroes puts these everyday people center stage. It's a star-studded event with a few surprises.

And a heroic ending that you don't want to miss.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: The 2013 CNN hero of the year -

TURNER: A night to gather together to celebrate the human spirit.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FLORES: And if you're like me, you are so inspired by this, and there's much more after the announcement of CNN's hero of the year, don't miss the incredible act of generosity that brought the audience to its feet. Watch tomorrow night at 8:00 Eastern only on CNN.

Thank you so much for joining me for this half hour. I'm Rosa Flores in New York. I'll see you right here in 30 minutes from now at the top of the hour when "CNN Newsroom" continues.

But right now, keep it right here for "Sanjay Gupta, M.D."