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American Ashley Wagner Suggests Russian Skaters' Scores Were Inflated Unfairly; Al Qaeda Linked To Shoe Bomb Threat; 20-Car Pileup Shuts Down Illinois Highway; Severe Storm Threat For Northeast; Colorado To Make $184M From Pot Tax; Critics: Is the Water Safe?; Arizona Bill Could Allow Businesses To Legally Deny Service To Gay Customers

Aired February 21, 2014 - 10:00   ET

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

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Surprising results from yesterday's long program. A Russian skater won gold on her home ice beating the reigning Olympic gold medalist from South Korea. Yu-na Kim had to settle for silver. That's her on the left and Italy's Carolina Kostner won bronze. She is on the right. American skater, Ashley Wagner is not happy about coming in seventh. She tells Yahoo! Sports, she feels, quote, "gypped."

Our senior international correspondent, Ivan Watson, is in Sochi following the story. Tell us more.

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's right. The loudest complaints are coming from Ashley Wagner who finished in seventh, who has not hidden her displeasure. As you mentioned saying that she felt gypped, calling for more transparency and an end to the anonymous judging of figure skating and also suggesting that perhaps the scores for the two Russian figure skaters in this event were higher because of the formation of the judges and the nationality of the judges.

Is there any truth to it or is she just sounding out sour grapes? Perhaps some of the questions out there are, why was the fifth place finisher, who was a Russian at the age of 15 years old, how come she did so well when she actually fell on her rear end in the middle of her routine or the first place finisher who came in first place though she kind of did a funny hop and almost fell in the middle of her routine?

I am not an expert in figure skating. I'll be the first to say that. Some of the experts are divided on this. They are saying that if you had a more technically difficult routine. That involved more jumps, that perhaps you could have more of a margin for error, Carol.

There is a question though about some of the judges here. You've got a Russian judge who is married to the president of the Russian Figure Skating Association. You've also got a Ukrainian judge who was suspended for a year in the Olympics for allegations of basically rigging the judging and perhaps that's where some of this controversy is coming from.

It's attracted some attention. The web site change.org has had a petition up and in just 24 hours, 1.6 million people have voted in favor of investigating the results of last night's figure skating event and calling for a re-judging of that. Perhaps the final arbiter is going to be the International Olympic Committee and they say they have not yet had any formal complaint about the results of last night's event.

COSTELLO: We're looking at the site you mentioned and as you can see it's crashed so many people are visiting it right now. And so hopefully it will be back up later today if you want to weigh in. Ivan Watson reporting live from Sochi.

Also this morning, there is a major development in the rioting that has killed dozens of people in Ukraine. The former soviet republic, on a day of relative calm between police and anti-government protesters, come words that a new agreement has just been signed.

Ukraine's embattled president has reportedly come to terms with opposition leaders. They were enraged by his recent decisions to more closely align with Russia. Well, the president has now given into the protesters' top demands, including new presidential elections and a return to a more Democratic constitution.

We also have new details on the terror warning that is ratcheting up security for U.S.-bound flights. Sources tell CNN that the threat of a shoe bomb strong enough to bring down an airliner in mid-flight is linked to al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and a master bomb-maker.

Intelligence officials say Ibrahim Al-Asiri is a genius at making bombs and he's behind several failed plots against U.S. airlines. One attempt was the 2009 underwear bomb that failed to detonate.

Huge swath of the country recovering after getting slammed again by wet, weird winter weather. At least eight tornadoes were spotted in Central Illinois as high winds knocked out power. Several people were hurt when fog caused a 20-car pileup on Interstate 57. That's about an hour outside of Chicago. The twin cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul declared snow emergencies after a winter storm dumped 10 inches of snow across the region.

Indra Petersons is here to take a look at what's happening today in the weather. Good morning.

INDRA PETERSONS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning. It's been a very tough 24 hours, Carol. I just want to take you quickly and show you the map, how many reports we've already had out. I mean, 13 reports already of tornadoes that were in Illinois and another one added in through Georgia just this morning.

Of course, we're still looking at that line with a lot of activity out there this morning. Notice we have a tornado watch until 4:00 p.m. Now as we see the activity ramp up in the southeast. That, of course, includes it looks like Raleigh. And then farther to the south we're also continuing to see a tornado watch or severe thunderstorm watch.

It's very easy to see why. Look at all of this activity really ramping up in the southeast. It almost looks like these thunder thunderstorms are exploding. Unfortunately, that's exactly what we are seeing. A lot of conduction out there. If you're anywhere from D.C. down through Florida today, we're talking about the slight risk for severe thunderstorms even tornadoes.

We've seen them across the entire eastern seaboard looking for the threat for thunderstorm today so definitely a tough story and also in the Upper Midwest still talking about even winter weather including blizzards -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Indra Petersons, many thanks.

The state of Colorado is not only high on products like skunk number one, green crack and purple lady, those products are making the state rich. We're talking about nearly $190 million in projected tax revenue. Remember, Colorado has an aggressive tax on weed. Subject to the state's 2.9 percent sales tax and an additional 10 percent sales tax and 15 percent excise tax for marijuana retailers.

This week the first revenue projections are in and other states are taking notice. CNN's Ana Cabrera is live in Denver to tell us more. Good morning.

ANA CABRERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Marijuana sales are beating expectations on every level. This is meaning huge money for the state of Colorado. We're talking about tens and millions of dollars just in taxes and business has not slowed down in the past six weeks since legal sale of recreational marijuana began here in Colorado.

In fact, one of the dispensary owners we talked to says that she can only afford to be opened a third of the time because she doesn't have enough product to meet the demand. Another dispensaries owner said since he converted to being medical marijuana and recreational marijuana, his business has more than quadrupled.

So clearly that sales and excise tax of 25 percent is not keeping people away from buying it. The governor's office just gave its own projections on tax revenue this week saying, it should make about $184 million in tax review in the first 18 months of this new law. And here's how Colorado is now planning to spend that money.

We're learning 40 million will go to public school construction. That was mandated by voters, but the governor wants to spend another $85 million on youth prevention and substance abuse treatment, $3 million on law enforcement and public safety and then $2 million on industry oversight. Carol, that is just the beginning.

COSTELLO: I'm sure it is. Ana Cabrera, many thanks. Take a look at some of the other states considering legalizing recreational marijuana. At least eight states from Alaska to Maine are looking at it either through ballot initiatives or in the state legislatures. One big advocate pushing for legalization is the marijuana policy project.

Joining me now is Mason Tvert. He is the communications director from the marijuana policy project. Welcome, sir. MASON TVERT, COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR, THE MARIJUANA POLICY PROJECT: Thank you for having me.

COSTELLO: So I guess, my first question, are you surprised at all of the tax revenue that marijuana has generated in Colorado?

TVERT: Well, I think people have known for quite a long time that taking marijuana out of the underground market and putting it into legitimate businesses and taxing sales was going to generate a whole lot of money. It looks like it might be even generating more money than a lot of people thought it would. So, you know, it's really a huge benefit for Colorado. Rather than flushing that money down the toilet and into the underground market, it's now going to be reinvested in our community.

COSTELLO: And I just want to step back and think about the war on drugs for a minute because all of these people who are buying recreational pot, this isn't their first time.

TVERT: Yes. You know, people have been using marijuana in Colorado and around the country and around the world for a very long time. The only difference is, now in Colorado, they are able to buy it safely in a legitimate, tightly regulated store where they have to pay taxes and they are getting a product that they know is safe.

COSTELLO: What states do you think are most likely to legalize pot next?

TVERT: Well, the most likely next state is going to be Alaska. There's now a measure on the ballot for August that would essentially regulate and tax marijuana like alcohol, which is similar to what we've done here in Colorado and what they've done in Washington State.

We also expect to see measures passing either this year or within the next couple of years in Rhode Island, Oregon, California, Arizona, Nevada, Maine, I mean, it's really taking off. So we expect to see a lot of gains in the next couple years.

COSTELLO: What's most interesting, even some conservative southern states like Georgia, some lawmakers want to legalize medical marijuana. Does that surprise you?

TVERT: You know, this is a no-brainer. Three out of four Americans think that medical marijuana has legitimate benefits for people and, you know, a strong majority of people think marijuana should just be legal for all adults who are of age to use it. So I think that people are coming to recognize, marijuana is not as dangerous as our government led them to believe. It's actually less harmful than alcohol and it's time we start treating it that way.

COSTELLO: Mason Tvert, the communications director from the Marijuana Policy Project, thanks so much.

TVERT: Thank you.

COSTELLO: Still to come in the NEWSROOM, the Arizona legislature has passed a bill that critics call state sanctions discrimination. One lawmaker opposed to the bill will talk about that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Arizona lawmakers have passed a bill that critics say amounts to state sanctioned discrimination against gays and lesbians. Today, despite protest, that bill not heads to Republican Governor Jan Brewer's desk for the final say.

Now supporters for the bill claimed it's all about religious civil liberty because it protects, quote, "The ability to act or refusal to act in a manner substantially motivated by a religious belief whether or not the exercise is a compulsory or central to a larger system of religious belief," end quote.

The bill supporters hoped to protect businesses from discrimination lawsuits. If they refuse service based on religious beliefs, like a photographer in New Mexico who was sued after he refused to take wedding photos of a gay couple. But Democrats and gay rights supporters are absolutely outrage. Here's more from Rebecca Thomas at KPHO.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHAD CAMPBELL (D), ARIZONA STATE HOUSE: I'm not sure if Russia is actually much different than Arizona now around gay rights to be quite honest with you.

REBECCA THOMAS, KPHO REPORTER (voice-over): Representative Chad Campbell is one of 27 House members who voted against SB 1062. He says 33 others voted for a state sanction discrimination bill. The bill would protect businesses and individuals and other entities from discrimination lawsuits if they refuse service based on their religious beliefs. But supporters deny it targets the LGBT community.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In America, people should be free to live and work according to their faith.

ADAM KWASMAN (R), ARIZONA STATE HOUSE: I don't see this as an attack insofar as those who believe in when you're protecting your right to, a, practice a religion and not engage in a contract.

THOMAS: Some business owners worry SB 1062 would give Arizona another black eye and result in an economic backlash akin to what happened after SB 1070 or state's controversial immigration enforcement law was signed.

GLENN HAMMOND, PHOENIX BUSINESS OWNER: It's sending a message to progressive global based companies that this is not a friendly environment to work within or to have a business within.

IRA BOHM-SANCHEZ, OPPOSES BILL: To me what this says is Phoenix and Tucson and Flagstaff have non-discrimination ordinances to protect LGBT people and we in the House of Representatives and Senate do not like that.

THOMAS: Governor Jan Brewer will have the final say on SB 1062, opponents urged her to make a wise decision.

MONICA JONES, OPPOSES BILL: Think about what this says to the rest of the country. We are not Russia. We are a first nation and as an American we have the rights. We have civil rights. So think about that.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: CNN has reached out to the governor's office for comment. We're waiting to hear back. But the L.A. Times does report Governor Brewer's office says she will not take a position until she has reviewed the legislation.

Joining me how to talk more about this is Arizona State House Democrat, Chad Campbell, whose interview you saw at the beginning of the piece and constitutional attorney, Page Pate. Welcome to both of you.

Chad, I want to start with you. Explain your biggest fear about this law or this bill if it passes.

CAMPBELL: Well, let there be no doubt about what this bill does. It's going to allow people to discriminate against the gay community in Arizona. It goes after unprotected classes of people and we all know that the biggest unprotected class of people in this state is the LGBT community. The supporters of this bill, the Republicans on the floor yesterday admitted as much.

If we were having this conversation in regard to African-Americans or women, there would be outrage across the country about this, but right now this is targeted towards the gay community and the far right views that as OK and it's simply not acceptable.

COSTELLO: So is it your fear if a gay person was to go into a restaurant, for example. The restaurant owner could say, you know, your way of life violate my religious beliefs so please leave?

CAMPBELL: Yes. That is my fear and I think it's going to happen. We've seen the photographer in the tape. I asked if they would support a photographer who refused to take a picture of an interracial couple, for instance, and of course, they said, no, I would never support that.

But it's OK for them to support a photographer who discriminates against a gay couple and again, this is just a horrible message for Arizona to say to the nation, to the world. It's a very bad day for Arizona. I can tell you most Arizonans do not agree with this. I truly believe that.

COSTELLO: I want to put the law up again. We had a graphic that has part of the law written out, and it's very convoluted. The ability to act or refusal to act in a manner substantially motivated by a religious belief whether or not the exercise is compulsory or central to a larger system of religious belief. Now most people would say what? So Page Pate, I will pose that to you. Will this law accomplish what Chad is afraid of? PAGE PATE, CONSTITUTIONAL ATTORNEY: I don't think so. First of all, we have to recognize that in Arizona you don't have the same problem or the same issue that they did in New Mexico. New Mexico has a state statute that prohibits public businesses, photographers, what have you, from specifically discriminating against people because of their sexual orientation. That law is not present in Arizona. So this bill is really a solution in search of a problem.

COSTELLO: So --

CAMPBELL: And if I may really quickly, though, we have cities that have protected statuses for the LGTB community. That's the problem. That's what people outside of Arizona don't realize. This bill will supersede the phoenix ordinance. We have the same problem they had in New Mexico at the city level. It's a direct attack on the cities trying to protect their citizens.

PATE: I don't think it's a first amendment issue as far as exercise of religion. Normally when the first amendment prohibits governance or legislatures from forcing someone to engage in some sort of religious activity that they don't believe in, any law that we're talking about now that would allow public accommodation and refuse discrimination does not compel religious activity.

What it is, is that neutral. It's neutral. It doesn't require anyone to do something that they don't believe in. It is likely to be unconstitutional if this state legislature steps up and says, look, even though we're not going to put it in the bill, the intent of this bill and the effect of this bill will be to discriminate based on sexual orientation.

COSTELLO: And Chad, last question about Governor Brewer. She has vetoed similar legislation. Do you think she'll do the same this time?

CAMPBELL: I would hope so. On moral grounds I hope she's opposed to this. On economic grounds I hope she's opposed to this. We're basically putting up a big sign at the front door of Arizona telling businesses, we don't want you to come to Arizona, telling certain people, we don't like your kind. We don't want you in the state if this bill goes into law.

So I'm hopeful the governor will veto this bill. She vetoed it last year. I hope she does the same thing this year and we are a state that loves everybody and really wants to protect all people regardless of their orientation, gender, whatever it may be.

COSTELLO: Arizona House Member Chad Campbell and constitutional attorney, Page Pate, thanks to both of you.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, is the water in West Virginia really safe to drink after that massive chemical spill? We've just learned that the state is bringing in new manpower to find out. A live report from Charleston ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) COSTELLO: Talk about frustration, can't even get an answer to a simply question, is the water safe to drink? We were expecting a big press conference to take place in Charleston, West Virginia. Actually, that press conference took place and a group of experts put together by this state were supposed to tell the people of West Virginia whether the water was safe to drink. This all stems from the January 9th chemical spill.

This has been going on for a very long time. At the same time, the company responsible for that leak is appearing in bankruptcy court. We're covering the story from all angles. CNN's Elizabeth Cohen live in Charleston and CNN's Jean Casarez in New York. Elizabeth, let's start with you. What are these officials saying?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: These are not public officials. These are toxicologists and environmentalists who are getting together to try to answer a really crucial question, Carol. When the CDC said, the water has a level of the chemical below which we think basically people will be OK, you're at this level and we think that you're going to be OK, was that level the right level?

It's really a very simple question and these scientists are saying, did CDC set that level right? Because if they didn't set it right, then what does that say about the quality of the water that people are drinking here? The scientists are telling us, we're taking a look to see if that level that the CDC set was the right level. And they expect to have some results of some home water testing soon within the next couple of weeks.

COSTELLO: So this group of experts was put together by the state of West Virginia? Is that right?

COHEN: It was. Well, the money is coming from the state of West Virginia, but they have gone out of their way to say that they are independent, that the state of West Virginia is not telling them what to say, they are not directing the research, and it's not just a few experts. It's experts from California, Utah, Alabama, from all over the place, who were trying to put their heads together in this really unprecedented situation. We've never seen this chemical in water before. We don't really know what it does to people. These experts are saying we need to put our heads together and figure this out.

COSTELLO: OK, so in the meantime, Freedom Industries, the company responsible for this, officials from that company in bankruptcy court today. Jean Casarez is following that side of the story. What can you tell us?

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN LEGAL CORRESPONDENT: They are in federal court this morning right there in West Virginia. While you have the issue of safety of the water, you have the legal issue. This is bankruptcy court. They filed for bankruptcy shortly after this crisis began and today is just really a preliminary matter. There will be argument on whether Freedom Industries' counsel can obtain their own consultants just on their own.

There is a lot to a bankruptcy case and so this will drag on should we say for a long time, but I want to reiterate what Elizabeth Cohen was saying. When this story was breaking, I was told by scientists and medical doctors that the one part per million standard set by the CDC saying that anything below that should not cause a health concern was just sort of thrown out there.

They had to have a number and they had to have it fast. The fact is, when we did our independent testing there, the chemical was found in the water. Yes, it was below that number but the chemical was there. And that is the heart and soul of the issue.

I think it's amazing that toxicologist, independent laboratories across the country are now going to try to find out the truth of what the composition of this chemical is, does it stay in your body, does it leave when it breaks up in the water? Just some facts that scientists don't even have.

COSTELLO: Really what disturbs me is, let's say you own this company, right, and you handle dangerous chemicals and you have employees who handle dangerous chemicals and you realize at one point you can have a leak that would contaminate groundwater. Wouldn't you make it your business to find out how that chemical affects people if it's ingested?

CASAREZ: You're talking about independent studies there and the CDC had never done a study --

COSTELLO: I'm talking about the company. If you're a company, it's your responsibility to handle these dangerous chemicals. Shouldn't you be required by law to know what these chemicals are capable of doing?

CASAREZ: And let's put another aspect to this. Freedom Industries actually filed paperwork with the state of West Virginia and the Department of Environmental Protection saying, this is the chemical we are storing. So they had full disclosure of that. But no one in the state government seemed to care about the testing of this chemical either.

COSTELLO: OK. So the story goes on. Elizabeth Cohen, you'll continue to follow this for us, as will Jean Casarez. Thanks to both of you.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, a CNN exclusive, Juror number eight in the loud music murder trial speaks out about the shooter, Michael Dunn.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I really think he's guilty of the murder, but not guilty as charged.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: First degree?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think he's guilty of second degree.

(END VIDEO CLIP) COSTELLO: She says he's a good guy. You'll hear more, next.

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