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Dallas Temperature Drop; Lawson Back on Stand; Defibrillator Warning; Stolen Radioactive Material Found; Decision Day on Star Quarterback; GDP Heads Higher

Aired December 05, 2013 - 09:30   ET

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

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thanks so much for joining me.

Checking our top stories at 31 minutes past the hour.

Vice President Joe Biden met this morning in Beijing with China's president. Biden said he has deep concerns about China's new air defense zone. The two men talked privately for two hours and Biden reportedly reiterated the U.S. opposition to that zone. During his trip, Biden also openly criticized China's crackdown on journalists.

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford tried to buy a damaging video from suspected criminals with an offer of $5,000 and a car. That's according to reported phone conversations between the suspects, all part of a police investigation. Ford is calling the claim on sports radio this morning an outright lie.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR ROB FORD, TORONTO (voice-over): That's an outright lie. And, number two, you can talk to my lawyers about it, but I'm here to talk football, guys. So if you want to talk football, I'll talk football. If you want to talk about other things, then unfortunately I'm going to have to let you go.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. I got - I have a -

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: As of this moment, Ford has not been charged in any crime.

Today at 2:00 p.m. Eastern we're expecting to find out if Florida State's star quarterback, Jameis Winston will face prosecution. The 19-year-old is accused of sexual assault. The prosecutor says he's finished an investigation and will make an announcement later this afternoon. Winston is considered a favorite to win the Heisman trophy.

A massive arctic front that already has jumped several feet of snow is moving southeast and it could cause a dangerous ice storm. We're talking about this area from Texas to Ohio. Millions of people could see snow and ice, plus dangerous roads and even major power outages. Dallas it's expecting temperatures to drop below freezing along with a nasty, wintry mix. CNN's Ed Lavandera is in Dallas this morning.

Good morning, Ed.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

Well, just a few hours ago, late yesterday afternoon, we were out here in this park, Clyde Warren Park, in downtown Dallas, it was 80 degrees, people were walking around in shorts, playing in the splash park. Oh, my, how things have changed.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LAVANDERA (voice-over): Late Wednesday, city parks in downtown Dallas looked more like a California coast boardwalk.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I mean we're Texans. It's 80 degrees today and the next day it's going to be 30. So you never -- people panic.

LAVANDERA: A mass of arctic air and rain is threatening to turn these scenes of paradise into this. It seems like the Dallas-Ft. Worth area experiences epic battles with sheets of ice and sleet crippling the region every few years, causing power outages, shutting down schools, not even leaving children with snow to play in. City officials say street crews will be available to work around the clock using about 70 trucks to spread a mixture of sand and salt on the icy streets if need.

But this potential ice storm is threatening two major events, a downtown Dallas holiday parade on Saturday and the Dallas Marathon on Sunday. Slippery ice doesn't go well with marchers and runners.

The last wicked winter storm was in 2011 in the days leading up to the Super Bowl hosted in the Dallas Cowboys Stadium. Football fans struggled to navigate the treacherous roadways and street crews struggled to keep many roadways drivable.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LAVANDERA: And, of course, Carol, the real danger will be on those overpasses, on the high-rise overpasses across the Dallas-Ft. Worth area. Those will freeze up quickly and be very treacherous to drive. And from what we can tell, it appears that the weather conditions will begin to deteriorate with that rain moving in later on this afternoon and making rush hour possibly a very dangerous situation - or the beginning of a dangerous situation, and into the overnight. So a lot of businesses and schools will be monitoring this situation closely tonight and figuring out exactly what to do tomorrow. But it would not be surprising if businesses and many schools decide to close on Friday. So we'll see how that plays out throughout the day, Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Ed Lavandera reporting live from Dallas this morning.

A second passenger in Sunday's deadly train derailment in New York has filed a claim against operator Metro North. Edward Russell (ph) was seriously hurt when all seven train cars flew off the tracks. According to his claim notice, Russell asked for $10 million in punitive damages citing negligence on the part of Metro North, the MTA and the city and state of New York.

A day after she came clean about using cocaine, celebrity chef Nigella Lawson is back on the stand today in the trial of two former assistants. The Grillo sisters are accused of charging more than $1 million in luxury items for themselves on company credit cards that belonged to Lawson and her ex-husband. CNN's Erin McLaughlin live in front of the courthouse in London.

Good morning.

ERIN MCLAUGHLIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

When Nigella Lawson arrived at court today, she said she felt a bit tired, perhaps not surprising given that she has chosen to stand, not sit, through hours of testimony. Today the defense grilling her about her admitted cocaine use. She said, quite simply, she'd rather be honest about drug use than bullied by lies.

She also talked about now infamous incident that took place outside a very famous London cafe in June. An incident that resulted in photos being splashed across the British tabloids showing her now former husband, Charles Saatchi, his hands around her neck. She said that following that incident, Saatchi made up stories that he was examining her for cocaine at the time the photographs were taken.

She also went on to testify about one of the defendants, Francesca Grillo, her former assistant. She described Grillo as a, quote, "fantasist," saying that she was responsible for cleaning their house, as well as arranging Saatchi's Frappuchino's and eggs. She had to go through lists of household expenses amounting to thousands of dollars funding the former couple's luxurious lifestyle.

A lot of personal details coming out in all of this. We even now know that Charles Saatchi's preferred breakfast is burnt toast and weak tea.

Carol.

COSTELLO: Somehow that's fitting. Erin McLaughlin, thanks so much.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, thousands of Americans depend on defibrillators in the event of a heart emergency. Well, now the FDA says those defibrillators might not work.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Some 2 million user names and passwords stolen in a massive hack that includes FaceBook, Gmail and Twitter accounts. The cyber security firm says hackers got the information by installing key logging software on computers around the world. Among the most popular passwords that were stolen, 123456, 123456789, the word "password" and the word "admin." Oh, come on, we can do better than this people. FaceBook and Twitter say they have reset those passwords for compromised users. Google, Yahoo!, ADP (ph) and Linkedin did not respond immediately to our request for comment.

An FDA warning to tell you about this morning. The agency says certain defibrillators made by Philips HealthCare may not work in an emergency. Senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen joins me now.

So this is disturbing.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: It is disturbing because we rely on these. You know, hundreds of thousands of people go into sudden cardiac arrest and you see these things hanging in malls and in airports and whatnot and sporting arenas and they're supposed to work when someone collapses because they've gone into cardiac arrest. But what the FDA is saying is that that electric shock that it's supposed to deliver, these particular brands might not actually happen. So I want to show you the three brands that have been recalled. Now, the recall is last year. The news today is that the FDA is saying, look, tens of thousands of these might still be out there even though they were recalled, so you need to pay attention.

COSTELLO: So do we know if any deaths were caused by these malfunctions defibrillators?

COHEN: No, we asked that question and we were told that they know of no deaths. So -- but then again, how would you know, right, because if you -- if someone was in cardiac arrest, you try to give them a shock, they die, you don't know, did - would they have died anyhow? Was it the defibrillator? So it's probably a pretty hard thing to parse out.

But the important thing here is that people need to take action. If you own one of these, because some people have them in their home, or if you own a mall and has one of these, you've got to get in touch with Philips HealthCare. And so we're going to give you the 800 number and we're going to give you the e-mail for who you need to call and get in touch with.

COSTELLO: Where are those numbers?

COHEN: Where are they? They should be up right now. OK, it's 1-800 --

COSTELLO: There they are.

COHEN: There they are. I speak and it happens.

COSTELLO: Fantastic.

COHEN: So take a look. If you have one of those Philips brands, get in touch with these folks.

COSTELLO: All right, we'll do. Elizabeth Cohen, many thanks.

COHEN: Thanks. Thanks.

COSTELLO: Here's what's all new in the next hour of NEWSROOM.

Shoppers, brace yourselves. The country faces a new deadline. Your lawmakers have until the end of the year to reach a deal that impacts farmers and ranchers. And if they don't?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're going to see our milk prices double and that means that that price is going to have to be passed down to the consumer.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: We're talking things like milk as much as $7 or $8 a gallon.

Also ahead, the old Mustang is getting a new look. But Ford says it's more than just a facelift. Find out what's changing under the hood.

That's all new in the next hour of NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Checking our "Top Stories" at 48 minutes past the hour, an epic ice storm is heading for parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Alabama and Tennessee. Millions of people could lose power. Driving conditions could get very dangerous. This is the result of the giant Arctic storm that's causing temperatures to plummet out West and dumping several feet of snow across the Rockies and Midwest.

New details about the reach of the NSA spying program: according to documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden the agency gathers nearly five billion phone records every day that show the whereabouts of cell phones around the world. That means the NSA can track movements of individuals and keep track of anyone they called.

A mystery man leaving huge tips at restaurants across the country has struck again and it's a good thing. This time in Washington State, when the bartender read the receipt and saw the $5,000 tip, he double checked with the tipper to make sure it was not a mistake. Well the man had been signing each tip with the Instagram user name "Tips for Jesus" so at least that bartender saw the mystery man in person.

Mexican authorities say they have found a stolen truck packed with radioactive material. They say the thieves thought they were just stealing an ordinary truck but that truck was actually carrying material that could have been used to make a dirty bomb, it was found not far from where it was taken on Monday. Authorities believe they recovered most of the cobalt 60 that was headed for a radioactive waste storage center but those thieves may have cracked open that device and may have been exposed to radioactivity.

CNN's Nick Parker is in Mexico City to tell us more. Good morning.

NICK PARKER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Yes, the truck found or reported found late yesterday afternoon in the town of Zampango about a one-hour drive north of Mexico City. And as you say only 40 kilometers from where it was originally stolen at a gas station. Authorities say about one kilometer away from the vehicle they found this container of cobalt-60. This radioactive material that the truck was carrying and the container had been open. The seals had been broken, presumably by these thieves. And they did find the isotope in the container. And at this stage we're still trying to finally confirm that none of it is missing.

But it seems like most of it was, indeed, there. You know, radiation was detected in the area and today we're looking at a number of questions stemming from this discovery. I guess the first is the fallout from -- from this discovery of cobalt-60. Authorities say that members of the public are not actually at risk unless they came within about 20 meters of the discovery of this isotope.

And at this stage we spoke to the ministry of health this morning and they said they've had no reports at this stage of any kind of radiation sickness or burns.

One thing authorities have told us, though, is that they do expect that the thieves who originally stole this lorry and presumably open this container may well have been extremely exposed to this radiation. So they are watching for clinics for anyone with any signs of radiation. At this stage the two robbers are at large.

And one other question also raised by nuclear officials, nuclear safety officials, that is, who we spoke to just a short time ago, is the safety record of the transport company that was transporting, you know, this highly radioactive material. What they told us was that the company had violated a few laws with this truck. Some of the major things that it was lacking was firstly sufficient security to protect the truck from this kind of hijacking.

Secondly, they said that the drivers who were transporting the material had very little or no knowledge of the radioactive material that they were transporting, which is obviously an important thing to have and something that's in the law.

And thirdly, they were lacking some of the important equipment that should be -- that should always be transported when you are moving this kind of material around the country, such as a GPS. So a number of threats to this story still outstanding Carol. And we'll be certainly keeping an eye on it today.

COSTELLO: Thanks so much. Nick Parker reporting live from Mexico this morning.

Still to come in the Newsroom game called on account of fire. Smoke filled an arena, postponing a basketball game.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Well Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston has to face a judge and jury for an alleged sexual assault. Prosecutors will announce whether charges will be brought against him at 2:00 Eastern this afternoon.

Andy Scholes is here with the "Bleacher Report" and more on this story.

ANDY SCHOLES, BLEACHER REPORT: Yes Carol you know everyone in Florida State and really all around college football is going to be on the edge of their seat this afternoon because Jameis Winston is not only the leader of the top rank team in the country. He's the overwhelming favorite to win the Heisman Trophy this year. Now Heisman voters have until Monday to turn in their ballots. And many of them of course, were waiting to see if the allegations against Winston would play out before sending those ballots in.

Now Winston's lawyer claims his client did have sex with the accuser but it was consensual. Many believe the fact that the Florida prosecutor's office had scheduled a press conference as opposed to getting a warrant for Winston's arrest is a big sign that they will actually not be pressing charges this is afternoon. And we'll have to of course wait and see.

All right Steeler's head coach Mike Tomlin's wallet is $100,000 lighter today, the NFL fine Tomlin $100,000 for getting into Kobe Jones' way on the field during a kickoff a week ago. That fine is the second largest ever given to a coach. The Steelers also might have a draft pick taken away. NFL is going to decide that after the season.

All right this was rather bizarre last night an NBA game was canceled when the power went out and the arena filled with smoke. The generator --

COSTELLO: That will do it.

SCHOLES: Yes right? A generator malfunctioning caught fire and this is really unfortunate because the game was in Mexico City. The NBA schedule this so international fans could experience best basketball in the world firsthand. Now they're going to make up the game but not in Mexico. San Antonio will play at Minnesota.

All right turning on BleacherReport.com, right now Super Bowl may still be two months away, but Fox has announced that they already sold out of all available commercial slots and hey, they weren't cheap, Carol. Some of the last available 30 seconds slots sold for a cool $4.5 million, man that breaks last year's record of $4 million, 30 seconds, $4.5 million. It's incredible.

COSTELLO: That's crazy. I like that one, though.

SCHOLES: All right Carol what do you when your star NFL linebacker and your name is Ron Mayo?

COSTELLO: I don't know. I don't know.

SCHOLES: You came out with your own line of gourmet mayonnaise, right? Mayo's new mayonnaise will come in three flavors Kicking Buffalo, Bruising Bacon and Crushing Chipotle, and they're going to be available in Boston area stores and online. So you can sign me up for a bottle of each of these. I love mayonnaise and I bet I would love all three of these new flavors.

COSTELLO: I bet I would, too. I like to pile it on any kind of sandwich I eat.

SCHOLES: Bruising bacon flavored mayonnaise.

COSTELLO: It's really clever I love that.

SCHOLES: I love it.

COSTELLO: Andy Scholes, thanks so much. Next hour of CNN NEWSROOM starts now.

Happening now in the NEWSROOM: a new striking snapshot of the U.S. economy. At first glance it looks like we're on a tear. But is it a tale of two nations?

Just try to pry it out of his hands. President Obama fought to keep his Blackberry when he got to the White House. Now another reason he won't be switching to the iPhone.

Plus this --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're going to see our milk prices double. And that means that that price is going to have to be passed on to the consumer.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Shoppers be warned, keeping milk in your fridge may soon cost you double. If Congress doesn't get its act together. The second hour of NEWSROOM starts now.

Good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

We got a good look at the America economy this morning the GDP for the third quarter came in at 3.6 percent, now that was much higher than expected but it may not be as strong as some had hoped. Christine Romans is in New York to explain. Good morning.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Two good economic reports, 3.6 percent growth in the third quarter driven in large part because companies were stocking their shelves, getting ready for holiday sales. 3.6 percent is the best we've seen in a year and a half and stronger than people expected.

Then you saw layoffs, a number about layoffs -- jobless claims report it slowed dramatically. Fewer than 300,000 new jobless claims might have been distorted a little bit by Thanksgiving, economists are telling me this morning but still two upbeat economic reports. So why aren't stocks happy that the economy is strong?

Well, they're not happy because likely this means that the Federal Reserve can start pulling back on all that stimulus some time next year. It's more ammunition for this idea that the fed is going to have to take the training wheels off the economy.

One other piece of news I just got 43 seconds ago, Carol, was mortgage rates. We get those every Thursday morning. Mortgage rates ticked higher, 4.46 percent for a 30-year fixed rate mortgage.