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More Troubles for Chris Christie; Plane Lands at Wrong Airport

Aired January 13, 2014 - 15:00   ET

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

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Top of the hour. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

And to a story we have been following so closely for you, this cursing toddler, this little boy, back in the headlines here. You have seen this video. It has gone viral. This little guy is cursing and swearing, at the urging of a couple. You hear these voices off-camera manipulating this little boy.

He has been in protective custody, and we should note, so has his mother, because she's only 17. A little while ago, a Nebraska juvenile court judge ruled that the boy and his mom should stay together, but both of them will have to be placed with the same foster family, possibly as soon as tomorrow.

Jane Velez-Mitchell from HLN joins me, and Stacy Kaiser, a psychotherapist, joins me as well.

Jane, first, just did this call on behalf of this judge, did it surprise you that this person would want to keep these two together? She's the biological mother after all. Do you think she made the right decision?

JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL, HEADLINE NEWS ANCHOR: I'm smiling because I think it's absolutely the right decision. This is a child as well. She's 17 at most.

And it's easy to talk about gang activity, and it's a real problem, but the big problem here, the one that's the elephant in the room that nobody talks about is children having children. This child is at most 17. Her toddler son is 2. That means that she was barely a teenager when she got pregnant. That is the problem, the underlying problem. Children cannot raise children properly.

BALDWIN: But they're going to be kept together, as per the decision from this judge in a foster home.

And, Jane, that then begets my question to you, because she is a child under the eyes of the law, 16 when the video was shot, 17 now, but she has been, presumably, as the biological mother the head of the household. So what is this like for her to then move in with a foster family?

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, I think that she also needs a certain amount of parenting. And I think it's great to get this mother and child away from what is, I think, a cycle of violence and thuggery. The problem was that the police union posted this video of this child and used this innocent 2-year-old as a poster child for the cycle of violence and thuggery. And I have two problems with that. One is that I think it's very unfair to predict that this child is destined to become a criminal. I think that's horrific.

There are plenty of people, some who will become head of the United States, who have grown up in abusive households and have risen above it. That's problem number one. The second problem is to generalize. There was a sort of read-between-the-lines message with the posting, these people are the problem.

A lot of people took offense to that and said there were racial overtones. The fact is that child abuse, child neglect knows no racial, ethnic, or socioeconomic boundaries, that there are plenty of rich parents who are drug addicts and alcoholics who neglect their children. They do it slightly different ways.

But I think that it's always a danger to generalize and stereotype. Let's look at this particular family, and that's what the police union is doing now. They're doubling down on their claim that this family is dysfunctional, putting on their Web site all sorts of problems. The father is dead of apparent gun violence and gang violence at age 17. There are grandparents who have got criminal records.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Here's this mother.

And, Stacy, this is to you. Again, I go back to this mother who is a child under the eyes of the law, but she's probably predominantly been the head of this household. What is it like for her? How can she be successful? What is this transition process like for her, as a 17- year-old mom?

STACY KAISER, PSYCHOTHERAPIST: I really think this is going to a mixed bag for her, because on one hand, she's really had to grow up too fast.

She's going to have a sense of relief that she can relax and not be in charge and just really focus on growing herself up and raising that child. But I also think it's going to be challenging for her because she has been in charge and she's going have to defer, and so it's going to be one of those things that's going to be a transition.

It's going to take that family who's brought them both in some time. And I'm really hoping that they get good foster parents who can handle both a young child and a 16-year-old and guide them through this, so that they can be successful. Being a teen mom is very, very hard.

BALDWIN: We heard from the mom. She spoke with affiliate KETV, and she was saying that she wasn't in the room when this cursing back and forth happened. It was an uncle, apparently. But she was saying, listen, all kids cuss, defending this little boy's actions. That's inexcusable, in my opinion.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Absolutely inexcusable.

KAISER: I agree with you. Yes.

BALDWIN: Stacy, go ahead.

KAISER: Yes, I agree.

I was just going say that I completely agree with you and it just shows her naivete. Maybe all small children around her cuss. That little boy is very young. And the only way he knows those words is because he's been surrounded by them, encouraged to use them. So, she really needs a good education, which most teenaged mothers do, on what appropriate developmental stages are for children.

BALDWIN: Off to the foster family. Hoping things turn around.

Jane Velez-Mitchell, Stacy Kaiser, thank you both very, very much.

A bomb squad is still on the scene at this high school just outside of Houston. A suspicious package has been found at Seven Lakes High School. This is Katy, Texas. The bomb squad still trying to figure out exactly what this suspicious device is. We're told by our affiliate KPRC that it's -- quote -- "potentially explosive."

But you're looking at all these pictures. These are students, these are high school staff who are now scattered across this football field because they had been evacuated some time ago. Parents have now been allowed to enter school grounds, so that has changed. They're allowed to come.

Parents, you can head to this school to pick up your children. We're making phone calls, continuing to stay on this story. As soon as we have an update for you, we will pass it along.

A sigh of relief for folks today in West Virginia for people, at least for some of you who have not been able to bathe, to cook, to drink the tap water because of this chemical spill. There has been a partial lift on the state's water ban in the area dubbed the first zone.

Officials say that includes downtown Charleston and neighborhoods in the east end of town. This is the area -- if you can follow me on the map, this is the area highlighted in blue. But, in the red, which is clearly predominantly on your screen, that's still the area where you can't use the water. Nine counties, 300,000 people have been affected.

CNN's Alexandra Field is live in Charleston with an update for us.

So this is at least some good news for some people in the so-called zone one, so they're in the clear, am I correct?

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

And they have been waiting days for it. By the end of the day, the goal is for 75,000 people to be able to turn on their faucets, flush out their systems and finally have some usable water. The flip side of that, however, is that that leaves about 225,000 people who are still getting by on bottled water, something they have been doing since Thursday.

But as the water is restored, and there's no exact timeline for when everyone will have it, but they're working as quickly as they can on it. As the water is restored, the question now goes to, how did this happen in the first place? And that's what we're learning more about.

The Department of Environmental Protection said they had not had inspectors out at the plant where the leak started since 1991. That's basically the company was under different ownership back then. It did something completely different.

What we know now is this plant was a chemical storage facility, and that's different from a kind of facility that would have manufactured chemicals. In this case, the plant didn't require -- the plant wasn't required to have air or water pollution permits, so inspectors didn't have to go out there.

Right now, the DEP is saying that in the wake of this leak, they are looking at ways that they could improve oversight in the future or add additional guidelines for these companies to operate under. Here's what the DEP is saying today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RANDY HUFFMAN, WEST VIRGINIA DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION: We're also at the governor's request developing some proposals for how we might more properly regulate these facilities in order to minimize the risk of a spill.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FIELD: So the primary focus right now of course is on getting people usable water. But at the same time, the DEP says it's already inventorying what kind of similar chemical storage sites that it may have around the state in order to start to think again for the future, Brooke.

BALDWIN: OK. Alexandra Field, thank you.

Want to pull away from West Virginia and take you down to Florida. We have got the sheriff on the phone, Pasco County sheriff. he's Chris Nocco.

Sheriff, can you hear me?

CHRIS NOCCO, PASCO COUNTY, FLORIDA, SHERIFF: Yes, I can.

BALDWIN: OK. Let's begin with what we know. We have been reporting according to you that there was a movie theater shooting some time ago, two people shot, suspect in custody. Tell me what you know at this hour.

NOCCO: Yes. What we know at approximately 1:30 the Pasco Sheriff's Office received a call about a shooting in one of our movie theaters. Our Pasco deputies did an outstanding job arriving here on scene.

What I can tell you happened was this was an isolated incident between two people. This is not an active shooter as our citizens may imagine, what unfortunately we have seen in America a few times. What happened was there was -- the victim was sitting in a row. Behind him was the suspect. There was an altercation because the victim was using his cell phone.

He was texting, he was making a lot of noise. This led to a verbal altercation. The verbal altercation escalated to where the suspect pulled out his .380 and he shot the suspect. I can confirm that the victim died of the injuries. There was another person injured. But I can tell you this is an ongoing investigation right now.

BALDWIN: You are telling me that there was someone texting in the movie theater, and the individual sitting behind him, frustrated over the texting pulled out a gun and shot him and killed him? This is what you're telling me, Sheriff?

NOCCO: Hello? Can you hear me?

BALDWIN: I can hear you. I'm just -- I'm sorry. I'm just incredulous at the moment. You're telling me there was somebody sitting in the movie theater who pulled out his cell phone and started texting. The person behind was so frustrated, he pulled out a gun and shot him and that victim died?

NOCCO: I'm sorry. I'm getting some technical phone difficulties here.

BALDWIN: OK. Let's try to work it out. Sheriff, can you hear me? We're just talking on live TV. But I want to make sure you can hear me crystal clear.

NOCCO: Yes, I can hear you now.

BALDWIN: OK.

Did these two people know each other, the texter sitting in the row a and the suspect?

NOCCO: No, there was absolutely no indication they knew each other.

These are two people that fate just brought them together at this movie theater at this time. And it was just an altercation over the cell phone that we know led to the shooting.

BALDWIN: Was this during a movie, Sheriff?

NOCCO: I'm sorry.

(CROSSTALK)

NOCCO: I think I heard the question. It was before the movie. It was actually during the previews.

BALDWIN: And so we're talking two victims. So was there an individual sitting next to the person who was texting and that person was shot as well?

NOCCO: There was a person sitting next to the victim. We're not sure if that was an intended shot or if it was a ricochet or how that person was injured, but I can tell you that person was also take to the hospital and I'm not sure of their condition right now.

BALDWIN: Where was the intended victim hit?

NOCCO: Yes, there was two victims.

BALDWIN: Where on the body was the intended victim hit?

NOCCO: I can't -- not -- at this time, I'm not sure. That's still part of the investigation.

BALDWIN: OK.

Sheriff Chris Nocco, Pasco County, Florida, reporting on a shooting involving someone who pulled out his or her phone to text which then led to an individual sitting behind him in the movie theater to pull out a gun and shoot him and it sounds like kill him. That's what happened today in Wesley Chapel, Florida.

Happening now, we are waiting for this Southwest Airlines plane to take off. It may sound normal. This is far from it. The plane landed a at the wrong airport, and now it has to take off at a runway that is just about half of the runway it should be taking off from. We're learning exactly what will happen to the pilots also who made that mistake. Stay here.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: All right, let's come back. And let me show you some live pictures as we're watching and waiting for this Southwest Airlines jet that landed at the wrong airport. Here it is. It's set to take off any moment now.

We're learning that the pilots of this plane have been removed from flying pending an investigation. A spokeswoman from Southwest adds that both pilots had been flying with Southwest for more than 13 years. But let me back up and just explain to how this plane managed to land at the wrong airport.

Passengers on a flight they were headed from Chicago's Midway Airport headed to Branson, Missouri, specifically Branson Airport. They had an incredibly bumpy landing, and then once they landed, they realized they were in the wrong place.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTT SCHIEFFER, PASSENGER: We landed and, as I said, it was a hard landing, there was burnt rubber. At that point, the pilot came on and said welcome to Branson, but didn't say anything else. Then he comes on about five minutes later and says we have landed at the wrong airport, we have landed at Clark Field, which is near Branson Airport.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: It was near, about seven miles, but still the intended airport was not this one. The county airport doesn't usually handle big jets like the one you're looking at because its runway is only half as long.

Richard Quest joins me from New York.

And as so we wait for this thing to take off, and you say it should be A-OK no problem, just walk me through, Richard, the challenge of this sized jet from the teeny-tiny runway.

RICHARD QUEST, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's a very simple challenge. Is the runway long enough for the plane to get up enough speed so that the wings create lift?

It's the same thing that happens every single flight that anybody ever takes. Of course, normally the runway is 7,000, 8,000, 9,000, 10,000 feet long if you're going to put a 737 in the air, certainly with passengers and fuel.

Here you have only got 3,700 feet of runway and change at the Graham Clark Airport. There you see the two of them. Now, Branson, you may use half the runway, three-quarters of the runway. Graham Clark, I'm pretty much guessing the plane will be at the operator empty weight. It will have the barest, minimum fuel necessary.

They want to keep that 737 as light as possible. But they do know that with the weather temperature, and the speed, and the length of the runway, it's a matter of physics. The plane will get to 160, 170 miles an hour, at the right place and it will lift off.

BALDWIN: So last night, when this plane landed on the wrong runway, they had to hit the brakes because there is ultimately a bit of a cliff at the edge of the tarmac, and then beyond that, there's a highway, right?

QUEST: Yes, and the warnings in the airport logs and the airport log of this runway makes quite clear that there's a very steep drop at the end, there is no runoff area, and that it warns airmen.

For the pilots involved, thinking they were landing at Branson with 7,000 feet...

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: They didn't realize until after they landed.

QUEST: Well, they would have done. Believe me, when they came over the threshold and they suddenly realized that a lot of runway was moving under them and the red lights at the end of the runway were coming faster towards them, they will have realized. And they will -- using the toes on the top of the rudders, they will have pushed very hard. You would have had maximum reverse thrust. You would have had the spoilers up, you would have had the brakes on full. That's why one of the people say they smelled rubber. They will have been doing everything possible to stop that, because, frankly, maximum landing weight and the landing weight for this aircraft, they may well have been getting close to the minimums for this particular plane on this particular runway.

BALDWIN: Well, we watch and we wait. Richard Quest, this thing was supposed to take off an hour and 18 minutes ago. We will chat again once we see some action on that tarmac there in Branson, Missouri.

Thank you, sir.

Coming up next, would you be willing to leave everything behind for an opportunity to get a one-way ticket to Mars? This is not a movie. This is a real deal. There's a group out there organizing this trip. They have just revealed its list of finalists and we are talking to one of them live. Hear what happened when she was 8 years old that led to her fascination with the red planet.

Plus, a new study says an MTV show actually lowered the teen pregnancy rate in this country. You have seen it, "16 and Pregnant?" But we're asking, really? Can one TV show have such a direct impact on pregnancy levels in this country? We will talk live to the man who authored the study next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Ever since the debut of MTV's "16 and Pregnant," there has been a debate about whether this reality show is actually a good thing for teenagers or simply glamorizes teen pregnancy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But our relationship turned rocky pretty quickly. One day he would be sweet and nice, and then the next day he would break it off.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When did you first start having sex with Josh?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When we were dating for like six months.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So that's a clip of the show. This is fascinating today because a new study makes a scientific case for supporters and it has some serious weight behind it.

Two economics processors, one from Wellesley, the other from the University of Maryland, and their work is published today in "The National Bureau of Economic Research."

Here's a quote from the paper. This is part of what they found -- quote -- "We find that '16 and Pregnant' led to more searches and tweets regarding birth control and abortion and ultimately led to a 5.7 percent reduction in teen births in the 18 months following its introduction."

The show began, if you have not been watching, began back in 2009.

Joining me now, one of the study's authors, economics professor Phillip Levine from Wellesley and Brian Stelter, our senior media correspondent.

Gentlemen, welcome to both of you.

BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Thank you.

PHILLIP LEVINE, WELLESLEY COLLEGE: Thank you.

BALDWIN: Professor, first to you. I mean, this had our whole team talking today. You looked at trends, you looked at tweets. How can you conclude that a TV show caused a reduction in teen births?

LEVINE: Well, we do a couple of things in our analysis.

As you mentioned, we look at searches and tweets to see what people are looking for online, you know, exactly the days that the show was on. And you see these spikes in activity that look like people are searching for things like how do I get birth control, tweeting about birth control being -- "16 and Pregnant" being the best form of contraception.

That's part of our analysis, but then we go on to look at the actual birth dates. We have a universe of all the births that occurred in the United States over the past several years, and we looked to see whether the places in which "16 and Pregnant" was more popular on the basis of Nielsen ratings are the exact same places in which we see large declines in teen childbearing and that's exactly what we see.

BALDWIN: Wow. You are looking as all this data, geographic data, as you're pointing out. Did you get it down to how many pregnancies were prevented? Do you have an estimation there?

LEVINE: I think the relevant estimate there is approximately 20,000 teen births per year are not occurring because of the existence of "16 and Pregnant."

BALDWIN: Professor, I'm coming back to you.

But, Brian Stelter, this show is still on the air, "16 and Pregnant." Is it still -- how well does it do ratings wise?

STELTER: It can be among the most popular shows on MTV when new episodes are on. And I find the study so fascinating because MTV has surmised this and suggested this was has been case for years, but now there's scientific data to actually back it up using things like Nielsen ratings and tweets to try to prove it.

This is a show that MTV puts out there and says this is evidence we're doing good for teens. But I saw a conservative blog Hot Air today point out that if there's science behind positive things MTV does, I'm sure there's ways to do science to show negative influences of television programming as well. This is a nice example where there's a positive outcome from television though.

BALDWIN: On the positive outcome, Professor, and this is really just my final question to you, you have gone through all of this, you have come out with this study. What is the takeaway? Should there be more programming like this on television?

LEVINE: I certainly think that one of the messages you get from this study is that media can matter.

It can certainly be context-specific. And in this particular context, it seems like it mattered in a positive direction. We're not saying that it's only positive. But certainly in this particular application, it seems like it was. In terms of the particular instance of teen child bearing, do I think it should be promoted as a way to reduce teen childbearing? Yes, I do think that.

BALDWIN: Phillip Levine from Wellesley and Brian Stelter, thank you.

Let's continue this conversation with some other guests here because we wanted to just delve further into the why.

With me now, practicing physician HLN host Dr. Drew Pinsky and also back with us, Stacy Kaiser, Psychotherapist at Cliffside Malibu treatment center.

And, Dr. Drew, you have been saying all long you predicted this.

DR. DREW PINSKY, HLN HOST: Not only did I predict it. I got involved with this product, this project specifically because I knew for sure it would have this effect, the reason being, anyone working with teenagers knows you can give them lots of information, the three of us in a box, they will learn the information we give them.

But it will not change the behavior. The way you change a teen and young adult's behavior is with a relatable source, a teen counseling model, where they can see the struggles of someone they can relate to and that changes their behavior. There was never any doubt in my mind that it would have that effect. And anything to suggest otherwise is empty anecdote.

And I would just add to this to suggest that teenagers don't learn from these things or that somehow they would make unhealthy choices is to suggest that teens are unsophisticated, maybe not so smart and sick when in fact they are very smart and they take this information and they apply it appropriately.

BALDWIN: Dr. Drew, you talk about relatable people, like these teenagers in this TV show. But for people who have never seen the show, I mean, what exactly, how far does it go? It's pretty graphic, isn't it?

PINSKY: It just shows -- yes, well, listen, a teenager's life can be destroyed by a pregnancy. The outcome data is horrific on what happens to their lives. One the things that seems to strike home very deeply with the young viewers is how destroyed the relationships are, how the relationships never seem to work out.

(CROSSTALK)

PINSKY: The guys never stick around. There's secondary pregnancies, there's addictions, there's domestic violence, there's inability to finish school and get work.

And all these things and the poverty levels of course are borne out by teen pregnancy. And now, finally, they're getting those messages. The National Campaign to End Teen and Unwanted Pregnancy has been behind this from the beginning because they, like I, have been struggling with this for years and knew it would have a positive effect.

BALDWIN: Stacy, what do you think? Do you agree with Dr. Drew?

KAISER: I second everything he said and I want to add this.

When teenagers are teenagers, they're not so interested in the influence of their parents.

BALDWIN: They're not?

KAISER: We can tell them over and over again what -- no.

We can tell them over and over again what the right thing to do is, but when they see it in action, when they see the struggles that these kids are going through on TV, they really learn. When the show launched, I had two teenaged daughters -- I still do -- and I watched it with them and a lot of people said you're nuts.

But you know what? It's been educational for my kids. I have seen it firsthand. They have said to themselves, I don't want to go through what these kids are going through. They learn from that and they make decisions accordingly.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Dr. Drew, just to take it a step further. Then you have other shows like "Celebrity Rehab," other shows about social problems, addiction, et cetera. Did you think they would have the same effect?

PINSKY: That's the reason I do these shows. It started back with sort of a naive model I had 30 years ago with the show "Loveline," which is that if you have a caller calling in with a difficult problem, they will be -- the other young people will be drawn into that person's story and then still listen to the explication and advice that we give them.

But these are how media can have a positive effect. And make no mistake, media can have a very negative effect too. I realized that years and years ago. And I have been trying to wrestle this thing in a positive direction ever since. And there are always unwanted effects.

But I think at the very minimum, we have learned that these sorts of stories and models of relatable sources have the sort of effects we like to see.

BALDWIN: It's just absolutely fascinating when you think of this MTV show and the effect it's having on young people in this country.

Dr. Drew Pinsky and Stacy Kaiser, thank you both very much.

Calls for impeachment, a state of the state address, more possible subpoenas for his staff because of the whole bridge scandal, of course, talking Chris Christie. Did I mention controversy about a recent tourism ad featuring his family?