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White House Lockdown After Fence-Jumper; Missing Baby Found in Wisconsin; Sochi Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony; Amazon's 100 Books Everyone Should Read; Justin Bieber Night on the Town in Atlanta; Cannabis College in Tampa
Aired February 07, 2014 - 15:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): What we do know, though, is there's still a lot of controversy swirling around and certainly not a person to shy away from controversy.
Again, we have no idea if the alleged threat to him and his family has to do with the incident over the flag today.
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Not a dull time in Toronto, that is for sure.
Paul Newton on the phone with me, Paula, thank you very much.
We want to take you back to Washington, D.C. as we were reporting on the breaking news that the White House is on lockdown, that Secret Service have taken everyone from outside the White House and made sure everywhere is inside because of the man who tried to hop a fence with two bags.
He has been apprehended, and our justice correspondent Evan Perez joins me now with more.
Evan, what do you know?
EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Brooke, we now have been told by the Secret Service that there was a man who tried to jump the fence at the White House.
And he was intercepted by Secret Service officers, we're told. U.S. Park Police was also there. They managed to stop him before he was able to get anywhere.
They are examining a couple of bags at the scene to make sure that there was nothing that is of concern there.
It appears inside the White House things are relatively normal. The president is not there. He's in East Lansing, Michigan. He was signing the farm bill just a short while ago, apparently, so he's not at the White House at the moment.
There is a full operation there and people are still working and I'm told that the situation is getting back to normal. They are just trying to make sure that there is nothing to worry about in those bags. BALDWIN: OK, Evan Perez, thank you very much, from Washington with the update on the White House there.
Now to this, he has been alive for less than one week and already this new baby boy has been at the heart of a parent's one of the nightmare and an investigator's best outcome.
Baby Kayden Powell, kidnapped in Wisconsin just yesterday, found alive in Iowa early this morning.
Someone took Kayden, who is 6-days-old, straight out of a bassinet in the same room in which his parents were sleeping.
Several agencies, of course, have been searching for him.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
G. B. JONES, FBI SPECIAL AGENT IN CHARGE, MILWAUKEE REGION: We never stopped worrying and we never stopped giving up hope.
It's cases like this, it's days like today that most of us do what we do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: CNN's Ted Rowlands is live at the Beloit police station, the town where Kayden vanished. And, Ted, how is the little guy? Is he OK?
TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: He's great apparently. And it's hard to believe, Brooke. It is freezing here and it was cold in Iowa overnight where he was found overnight, below zero.
But, apparently, he may have been outside all night in this tote bag, but he was covered apparently in blankets, according to investigators.
We believe -- or investigators believe -- that the aunt is responsible for this. She was picked up in Iowa yesterday. They knew that she was in the house when Kayden disappeared. They found her in Iowa.
At the time they arrested her on a warrants charge. They found baby clothing, but they couldn't find Kayden.
A search turned him up this morning, and as you can imagine, everybody is happy about it. And he appears to be, according to the police chief, in good health.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHIEF STEVE KOPP, BELOIT, WISCONSIN, POLICE: Despite frigid temperatures, Kayden was found alive and appears to be doing very well.
In the words of EMS officials, he is in excellent health.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROWLANDS: Which is obviously great news.
Kristin Smith is that aunt. She remains in custody and could be facing, likely facing, kidnapping charges.
But it's so great to cover a good news story.
BALDWIN: So nice to have.
ROWLANDS: As you can imagine, people here in Beloit just -- yeah, the mood here is just awesome, to know that this little boy is safe.
BALDWIN: OK, and just quickly, do we know if mom and dad and baby have all been reunited?
ROWLANDS: Happening, we believe, as we speak. We are not sure where. We are trying to find that out, obviously, along with a lot of other people.
BALDWIN: Awesome. Ted Rowlands, thank you very much.
And we told you at the top of the hour about a possible terror plot for the Olympics, this hijacker trying to force this commercial airliner to land in Sochi.
All of this was happening amidst this backdrop of the opening ceremonies today, lights and floats and a flying girl.
Rachel Nichols is there. We'll talk to her, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: Ready or not, the Olympic Games are under way, but not without a new terror threat here today.
This Turkish industry believes this man -- wait for it and you will see -- he's in a hockey jersey -- is the hijacker here who tried to take over a plane and -- here it is -- fly to Sochi, Russia.
CNN has not independently confirmed that, in fact, the man here in the hockey jersey is the hijacking suspect, but passengers say this is the man who was yelling that there was a bomb in the cargo hold of this Ukrainian plane, all of this happening, keep in mind, mid-air.
The Turkish government scrambling F-16 fighter jets to intercept the plane which landed safely in Istanbul.
And the backdrop of all of this news today, the Olympic Games itself. The opening ceremony, I can tell you, going off without a hitch, that is if you don't count the failed lighting of the fifth Olympic ring there, but you know, potatoes, potatoes.
One of the acts to perform at the ceremony is t.A.T.u. Just a reminder to folks at home who these young ladies are.
That's right, amid all of Russia's anti-gay law controversy, this duo made famous for their perceived homosexuality, all part of an opening act there.
Joining me now, Rachel Nichols, host of unguarded. Nice to see you, my friend. Before we get into the ceremony itself, were there rumblings that you heard about the plane among the crowd there.
RACHEL NICHOLS, CNN HOST, "UNGUARDED": I saw a mention of it on my phone on Twitter. I'm sure many other people around the stadium saw the same thing. There was not any kind of large conversation about it.
I have been at sporting events where major news events have happened. You can see the crowd in this age of cell phones, a wave of information passes over them and it becomes a big buzz.
That didn't happen here. The focus was on the athletes and the ceremony.
People were treated to quite an interesting spectrum of events. Russia celebrated the history, the literature and artistic contributions and even a nod to the Soviet era.
People were not sure what to expect. The graceful moments came not in the pageantry and the fireworks, and there were plenty of fireworks, but really in the athletes marching in together.
We saw a delegation from Israel march in a few feet ahead of a delegation from Iran, really symbolizing what these Olympics are about in the shadow of so much war and terrorism, as the report you were just referring to.
And, also, we saw the spirit of Olympic toughness. An American skier, Heidi Kloser, was practicing yesterday when she tore her ACL, can you imagine, ripping up her knee the day before the games started. She is now out of the Olympics.
And in the ambulance on the way to the hospital, her father says that she looked at him and said, Dad, am I still an Olympian? Just heartbreaking.
He said, Of course you are, and so did Team USA. You can see in this picture, if you guys put that up, it's her with ice on her knee on the bus on the way to the Olympic stadium.
And she did, on crutches, march in with her teammates. It was really a nice moment of and really what the Olympics are all about.
BALDWIN: We wish her well. I tore my ACL skiing, once upon a time. It is not fun.
But from the athletes and the performers, too, what about the crowds, Rachel Nichols? I know with all the fears and security, were the seats filled?
NICHOLS: Not every seat was filled. We did see some empty spots here and there, but it was much more full than we have seen at the venues where there have been big patches of empty seats. So the real test is going to come in the coming days to find out how popular these Olympic, whether tourists come, whether the locals have embraced them.
But the opening ceremony is always a hot ticket, a relatively full stadium tonight, not completely full, and they didn't feature the delegations from visiting countries, including the U.S.
Brian Boitano, who said just by stepping off the plane with the U.S. delegation as an openly gay athlete, he was making a statement.
A new controversy, though, I have to tell you, you discussed the anti- discrimination issues here.
New controversy, one of the people who lit the Olympic flame, a former figure skater, has been accused of racism and racism towards President Obama in the past.
So we'll have to see if that picks up any legs over the next few days and becomes an issue as well.
The IOC did praise diversity as an Olympic ideal in his speech, which was considered a little bit of a shot at what's going on here in Russia.
So, it's interesting to see politics come into the opening ceremonies, just a little bit.
BALDWIN: OK, Rachel Nichols, enjoy your time there. We'll be in close touch, Rachel Nichols, host of "UNGUARDED."
Coming up next, two words for you, Justin Bieber, and new photos. Hanging out with pals P. Diddy and Rick Ross and Jermaine Dupri in Atlanta a couple nights ago as prosecutors are trying to figure out whether Justin Bieber should face felony charges.
But, first, if you are a bookworm, take a look at this. The folks at Amazon actually compiled a list of a hundred books that say everyone should read them sometime in their lifetime.
We'll show you 10 of them -- "Angela's Ashes," a memoir by Frank McCourt; "All the President's Men," by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein; "Alice in Wonderland," by Lewis Carroll; Alice Munro, "Selected Stories" by Alice Munro -- I remember this one -- and "A Wrinkle in Time" by Madeleine L'Engle.
I can hear some of you saying if you've read some of these books, we will see how well you do when I show you some the others. That's after this quick break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: A quick update on the situation at the White House, it was on lockdown because of this man who tried to hop the fence in front of the White House carrying two bags.
We can you now this man is in custody and Secret Service and other law enforcement decided they have given the all-clear at the White House.
They checked the briefcase and everything is A-OK. Back to business as usual in Washington there.
Back now to books, to that list I was telling you about, the Amazon list of the hundred books you should read before you die.
So here are five more books on this list -- "A Series of Unfortunate Events, Number One" by Lemony Snicket; the next is called "A Long Way Gone -- Memoirs of a Boy Soldier"; next one is "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius" by Dave Eggers; "A Brief History of Time" by Stephen Hawking; and, finally, "1984" by George Orwell.
If you would like to see the whole list, you can. Just go to CNN.com.
Justin Bieber's bad boy image just keeps getting worse. CNN has learned that the L.A. County district attorney is almost ready to decide if he should face vandalism for allegedly egging a neighbor's mansion.
Sheriff's investigators want Bieber charged specifically here with felony vandalism.
And then there was the jet, we talked about this a couple of days ago, which carried the 19-year-old and his entourage, including reportedly his father, from Canada to Teterboro, New Jersey, for the game, the Super Bowl, on Sunday.
And that plane reportedly reeked of marijuana. The pilots said that the flight attendant was harassed, and it was so bad, sources say she went into the cockpit. Pilots resorted to oxygen masks just to block out the smell of pot.
But Justin Bieber doesn't seem to let his mounting troubles slow him down. Look at what he did a couple of nights ago. There he is, Justin Bieber drinking in the club with the big boys at the trendy Atlanta spot, Vanquish.
We don't know what he was drinking. Looks like he's got some sort of water bottle there, but he is with some serious heavy weights. In some of these pictures, you see P. Diddy, Jermaine Dupri, Rick Ross.
They are all over the age of 21, of course. Justin Bieber, 19-years- old. Bieber is dogged by three potential criminal cases here, but is he worried?
Let's talk to Rich Eldredge, "Atlanta Magazine" editor and columnist. And you, I wanted to bring you on because you have been in Atlanta for a long, long time, covering Justin Bieber back from when he was the Emery -- what do you call him?
RICH ELDREDGE, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR AND COLUMNIST, "ATLANTA MAGAZINE": Emery alum, yeah.
BALDWIN: You found him.
ELDREDGE: Found him on YouTube.
BALDWIN: Started introducing him to Usher.
ELDREDGE: Drove him in from the airport in a purple Mercedes and drove him straight to Jermaine Dupri's house.
BALDWIN: That was him in 2009. Throw the pictures back up. You see a much different Justin Bieber with the chains and the tattoos. Some of these shirtless. How would you describe that vast difference in this young man?
ELDREDGE: In a lot of ways at Fox Communications here in Atlanta. I'm very familiar with what 19 looks like.
In a lot of ways, we have to remember that the shrink wrap is still on it. We don't necessarily think about the consequences of our actions, and then when you get a guy who is one of the most famous teenagers on the planet, there's a lot that can go wrong there.
BALDWIN: What about his parents? I just have to ask. He was pretty much brought up by his mother.
ELDREDGE: In Canada, right. And then they moved here to Atlanta to start Justin's music career. But mom has to hand you off to the music industry to a large extent at that point. Mom was there but scooter and a lot of usher, they really took over and so did YouTube and twitter and here we are. He's a very famous young man.
BALDWIN: What about the men with whom he surrounds himself, the men specifically at that club in Atlanta the other night? They're twice his age.
But you made the point, we were talking about some of them. You see Jermaine Dupri in one of these, very widely known and respected, of course, in the scene and also in Atlanta.
You say seeing him with Jermaine Dupri is a good thing. Why?
ELDREDGE: Yes. So the last image Justin shared on Instagram was a very late-night recording session here in Atlanta with Jermaine Dupri and Diddy.
And what that tells me, Jermaine is one of his mentors. He -- like I said, he played video games with him on the ride in from the airport in '08, '09 when he was first introduced to Atlanta.
He looks up to Jermaine. And I think as long as he continues to surround himself with people he looks up to and admires -
BALDWIN: Who are steering him on the right path.
ELDREDGE: Who're steering him on the right path.
BALDWIN: That's a big --
ELDREDGE: Yeah. Yeah. Not necessarily going to Vanquish. BALDWIN: Which is -- right, don't you have to be 21 to get in there? Not if you're Justin Bieber?
ELDREDGE: Not if you're Justin Bieber, perhaps.
BALDWIN: OK. Rich Eldredge, "Atlanta Magazine," thank you so much.
ELDREDGE: Thank you.
BALDWIN: And now a private funeral today for Academy Award-winning actor Philip Seymour Hoffman. It took place at a Catholic church on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.
Yesterday, Hoffman's family held a private wake. A much larger memorial is scheduled for later this month.
The exact cause and manner of the 46-year-old's death is still pending.
Meantime, two people are arrested in connection with the drugs found at Hoffman's apartment. They have been released until their next court date.
Still ahead, Marijuana U, as in "university," everything you need to know about pot, from its history to hydroponics, we'll talk to the founder of this College of Cannabis, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: Want to talk about higher education? Cannibals College, I'm not joking. Classes start Tuesday. I think they started Tuesday, the school formerly known as Medical Marijuana Tampa, Tampa, Florida.
The school's founder, you are about to see him. He is Jeremy Bufford. Jeremy, welcome.
JEREMY BUFFORD, FOUNDER, MEDICAL MARIJUANA TAMPA: Thank you for having me.
BALDWIN: So Cannabis College, what classes might one take there?
BUFFORD: Sure. So our class is called classification and activation. It's a deep dive into cannabis.
BALDWIN: Are you cooking the stuff? I guess you can't really smoke the stuff since it's not legal in Florida. How is this working?
BUFFORD: Sure. So there's no marijuana. Just to let you know. We do teach about the advanced techniques necessary to produce medical grade marijuana but that's the extent of the class.
BALDWIN: How many students are enrolled? What kind of jobs are you readying them for?
BUFFORD: Sure. We are limiting students to ten per class. In 2015 and beyond, our plans include operating 15 treatment centers throughout Tampa bay, one laboratory testing facility and, of course, a couple of additional classrooms. So we'll have many different career paths to choose from.
BALDWIN: So this is preparing people for medicinal locations in the state of Florida. Might these people go off to Colorado and Washington state as well?
BUFFORD: Certainly. The skills that we teach are absolutely transferable. And we need a lot of growers. There's no doubt about that.
But we also need people that understand I.T. from the perspective of this industry, that understand security from the perspective of this industry.
There's so many ancillary businesses and just different paths you can go down. That's what we really want to introduce the student to.
BALDWIN: Jeremy, I just have to ask. Has anyone heard this notion of Cannabis College and just looked at you and said, are you nuts?
BUFFORD: You know, I've had a lot of really positive response. There have been a few people that just don't understand it.
But if you give me five minutes, an open mind, and a Web browser, I'm going to make you a believer.
BALDWIN: I know that Florida, specifically, is voting soon on medical marijuana. It's not legal in the Sunshine State. But I want your prediction.
We mentioned Washington state and Colorado. Prediction time, when do you think this is going to be legal all across America?
BUFFORD: Well, you know, honestly, I don't know. But that's really not our business model.
For us, legalization or a national initiative is not what we're focused on. We want to create an organization that provides value to the patients here in Tampa Bay and that's our primary mission.
BALDWIN: OK. Jeremy Bufford --
BUFFORD: We believe that will happen in 2015.
BALDWIN: OK. Good luck to you. Thank you.
BUFFORD: Thank you very much.
BALDWIN: Just in here, "The Tonight Show" had its highest rating since Barack Obama became the first sitting American president to appear on a late-night talk show. That was almost five years ago.
Last night's sendoff was full of stars. You had Billy Crystal and Jack Black and Carol Burnett, Kim Kardashian, Jay Leno ending 22 years as the host of "The Tonight Show." And 50 years ago today, a British boy band, just a little band, it took America by storm when it landed at JFK airport on its first U.S. tour and ignited the musical invasion we now call Beatlemania.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ED SULLIVAN, TV HOST: Ladies and gentlemen, The Beatles!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Beatlemania changed music, changed fashion, everything else that really counted in the '60s and beyond.
Multiple tributes are scheduled, of course, to mark the occasion, so make sure you watch our CNN Special. This is so fantastic. We're calling it "THE '60S -- THE BRITISH INVASION." That is tomorrow night at 10:00 Eastern.
I'm Brooke Baldwin. Have a wonderful weekend. We'll see you back here on Monday.
"THE LEAD" with Jake Tapper starts right now.