Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Sterlings Settled Discrimination Lawsuit; Will Shelly Sterling Try to Buy Clippers?; Supreme Court Rules on Public Prayer; Tension and Violence Rising in Ukraine; Study on Young Blood

Aired May 05, 2014 - 10:30   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. Thank you so much for joining me.

While much of America only learned about Donald Sterling from those racist comments, he's been a notorious figure in Los Angeles for quite some time and not just for his mishandling of the Clippers franchise.

CNN's Kyung Lah looks at a decade-old discrimination case that actually involves his wife.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROCHELLE STERLING, DONALD STERLING'S WIFE: Did you take a picture of those two?

KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The video is a bit dark and grainy, but you hear her voice loud and clear.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You said you're Miss Shelly from the Health Department?

STERLING: Yes, sir.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.

LAH: The man recording this video from 2003 is tenant Darryl Williams.

DARRYL WILLIAMS, FORMER TENANT OF DONALD STERLING: I thought that it was awful strange that somebody from the Health Department would have an entourage.

LAH: It is because Shelly is Shelly Sterling, according to a judge, the wife of the building's owner, billionaire Donald Sterling, and she is certainly not from the Los Angeles Health Department.

On the video, Mrs. Sterling goes door to door. The Housing Rights Center claims to harass and scare black and Latino tenants.

CHANCELA AL-MANSOUR, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, HOUSING RIGHTS CENTER: I think it was a measure of last resort to try to claim that they were government agents in order to intimidate them.

LAH: Why? Multiple plaintiffs in the 2003 civil rights lawsuit against the Sterlings claimed they wanted to change the complexion of the buildings.

AL-MANSOUR: He preferred Asians over African-Americans and Latinos. He told his management staff that African-Americans smelled and they smelled like vermin whereas -- and he stated that Hispanics, all they did was drink and smoke all day long.

LAH: This sham inspection part of the campaign to get rid of the unwanted tenants. Tenant says the Sterlings turned off heat, shut down elevators to the disabled and stopped trash service, even refused rent and then forced evictions. This latest controversy with the Clippers may reveal who Sterling is to the rest of the country. Lawyers in Los Angeles consider his past actions worse than his words.

AL-MANSOUR: What he did to his African-American and Latino residents in the buildings that he owned was life-changing for them. It took away a fundamental right that people have and the security they have, and that's the safe haven of their homes.

LAH: Al-Mansour regards this case as one of the largest cases and most widespread cases of discrimination as any fair housing agency had ever seen in the country. The lawsuit eventually settled out of court. While the terms are confidential, the settlement is estimated to have cost the Sterlings millions.

WILLIAMS: This was my apartment.

LAH: Ten years later, Williams remains mystified why a billionaire's wife would bother to do this and why they would want to evict him so badly.

WILLIAMS: We rent his buildings. We support his basketball teams. We play on his teams, but he is oblivious to that. As far as he is concerned, he is like a plantation owner.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: That was Kyung Lah reporting.

With me now, CNN legal analysts Danny Cevallos and Sunny Hostin.

Welcome to both of you.

SUNNY HOSTIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Thanks, Carol.

COSTELLO: Glad you're here. So, Danny, Shelly Sterling, she was at game seven over the weekend. She was shaking hands with people. She's releasing statements. It sounds like the Sterlings have a plan to keep the team. What does it sound like to you?

DANNY CEVALLOS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: It sounds like you're absolutely right. I mean, people have talked about the fact that the Sterlings, at least Donald Sterling, faces some massive capital gains taxes if he sells the team even though it will be for a substantial profit but certainly the Sterlings have a complicated ownership in place and look to them to circle their wagon the next few days and weeks and I'm certain, although we may not know what Shelly Sterling's plan is at this stage, we have already seen that she can indeed be a wily one.

COSTELLO: OK. I want to back up two steps because the NBA installed a new CEO for the Clippers and Shelly Sterling had nothing to do with it yet she released this statement.

And Sunny, I'll read it in part to you. She said she welcomed the commissioner's search for a CEO who promotes equality and inclusiveness.

It's clear the NBA does not want her input but her input is there -- Sunny.

HOSTIN: It really is.

COSTELLO: Well, let's go back to the statement. It's like seriously? After Kyung Lah's story?

HOSTIN: Yes. It's unbelievable. But you remember, Carol, live been saying this since this story broke. She is really the real player here. She first really distanced herself from Donald Sterling. And said no, no, no. These remarks that he had made, I have nothing to do with them. They're completely racist. And then she sort of backtracked and said of course he isn't a racist after they had a dinner meeting.

And so I suspect that Shelly is really going to try to keep the team. I think Adam Silver, while his response was terrific, the one mistake he made is when he was asked, does this apply to anyone else in the Sterling family? He made it crystal clear that it only applied to Donald Sterling and I think that really was the opening of the door for Shelly to be much more involved in the team.

And let's face it, if she's involved, she's just a straw person. That means Donald Sterling is still very much owning this team.

COSTELLO: Well, I was curious, Danny. And I don't know if you'll know the answer to this question. But how involved has she been in the team? At all?

CEVALLOS: Well, legally I mean she has certain ownership rights as does members of the Sterling family. What those exactly are I think we're going to find out. But I mean, there's no question that she's involved in the family business. Why else would she appear as a punitive member of the Department of Health in a video that's now surfacing unless she's more than just a silent observer of her husband's business.

I think if nothing else, that video demonstrates that Miss Sterling is very involved in her husband's affairs. She's very involved in what's going on and has her eye on the business. She's not just a silent idle partner in this case.

COSTELLO: But, Sunny, didn't the NBA commissioner also make it clear that Donald Sterling was being punished for these comments that took place in the privacy of his own home.

HOSTIN: Sure.

COSTELLO: Not for all of his other transgressions so wouldn't that apply to her as well?

HOSTIN: Yes, you know, I think he made it clear that these comments that he made -- his decision to suspend him indefinitely and to fine him were only based on the comments. However, I think when it goes to a vote for the NBA owners, that sort of -- NBA owners, that I think opens up the dialogue. I think you get the opportunity to look at everything the Sterlings have done, both of the Sterlings. And so I think everything is on the table right now.

COSTELLO: So, Danny Cevallos, I know you're a betting man.

(LAUGHTER)

How long do you think this will drag on?

CEVALLOS: Well, I think it will drag on. The NBA procedure is clearly defined. It's a matter of days and weeks but the legal part, look for Donald Sterling to file suit. Look for injunctions, look for lawsuits. Donald Sterling has a history of being litigious person, and he may not want to go gently into that good night. And as we all know if the institute's litigation, it can drag on, not for days, not for weeks, but for years.

COSTELLO: We'll see. Danny Cevallos, Sunny Hostin: Thanks for your insight. I appreciate it.

The U.S. Supreme Court says yes to some prayer at town council meetings. So what about separation of church and state? We'll talk about the Supreme Court's ruling next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: This news just in from the U.S. Supreme Court. I told you a little bit about it before. It involves public prayers at town council meetings. And I'm just going to read you off my e-mail here. This story. This is what the Supreme Court ruled.

It gave limited approval on Monday to public prayers at a New York town's board meeting citing the county's history of religious acknowledgement in the legislation. This was a 5-4 ruling and of course it presents another contentious case over the intersection of faith and the civic arena.

Apparently two women from Greece, New York, objected to this board meeting that took place in their town because it started off with prayer and it said that not all people were Christian and that this was unconstitutional and a violation of the separation of church and state. The U.S. Supreme Court disagreed with that by a vote of 5-4.

So let's bring in Gloria Browne-Marshall, she's a constitutional law professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

Welcome. GLORIA BROWNE-MARSHALL, JOHN JAY COLLEGE OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE: Hello. Thank you for having me.

COSTELLO: Thanks for being here, Gloria. First off, give me your general impression of this ruling.

BROWNE-MARSHALL: Well, I had the opportunity to be in the courtroom during the oral argument. And I saw the Justice Kagan was questioning, as well as Justice Ginsburg the -- showing that -- and questioning whether or not any type of legislative entity would figure out a way to have a prayer that would not be offensive to someone.

And I think this 5-4 ruling shows that there's still this decisiveness between the liberal ring and the conservatives.

COSTELLO: When they say that, you know, non-adherence don't have to participate, what do they mean by that? I mean, if you're Jewish you -- if you don't participate in the prayer, that makes it constitutional? Is that what the U.S. Supreme Court has said?

BROWNE-MARSHALL: Well, here's the problem. We have a challenge that is based on history. The legal history and the history of this country is that prayer was the first session of Congress and we have an official leader, religious leader, in the Senate, in the House and there are prayers in all of these different legislative bodies from the smallest jurisdiction to the highest.

And so this idea of balancing someone who does not have any belief at all with someone who has a foundational belief that, you know, we are making these decisions that affect the jurisdiction and therefore we need the guidance of a holier spirit means that the person who doesn't believe is supposed to either leave the room or not participate. Don't bow your head in silence. Don't follow whatever the leader - the religious leader is doing and that that is what the compromise is that the court finds constitutional.

COSTELLO: Interesting. So I was talking to our CNN producer, Bill Mears, he covers the Supreme Court. He says this isn't like a hard and fast ruling. In fact it might confuse some government bodies. Do you agree?

BROWNE-MARSHALL: I do agree. It is quite confusing. I mean, when you are in the Supreme Court and you watch the swearing in of new attorneys before the Supreme Court bar, they are asked to swear to uphold the Constitution so help me God. So there's no footnote given in there that says those people who want to swear or affirm. In the Constitution, the framers decided what way to have this division between church and state is to say that one may swear or affirm. The affirming has no religious connotation to it.

And the Supreme Court is basically trying to do the same thing. You either can be a part of this religious practice or you cannot be a part of it and in not being a participant, that way you are affirming but you're not having a religious connection to any type of ceremony taking place.

COSTELLO: Gloria Browne-Marshall, thanks for your insight. I appreciate it.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, heavy clashes and casualties in eastern Ukraine today as the prime minister pushes for national unity.

CNN's Nick Paton Walsh is in the middle of things.

Good morning.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. We are here in Slavyansk. We've seen the casualties from Ukrainian military operation to try to reclaim that center of unrest here in dangerous eastern Ukraine.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: It's been a day of heavy fighting in eastern Ukraine where pro-Russian militants are clashing with security forces.

CNN's Nick Paton Walsh is right in the center of the unrest. He and his team just entered the town today that's seeing the most violence.

Tell us more about -- Nick.

WALSH: Well, Carol, we've since emerged from the town of Slavyansk because we went in this morning. It was clear the Ukrainian security forces were making a move further down the main highway into that town. We saw their reconnaissance unit moving down the road and then around the corner waiting for them were those pro-Russian militants clearly clashes ensued.

Sounds of gunfire and explosions heard in that town and then at the hospital we were at the slow procession of ambulances. It turned out about six or seven in total. We saw one woman whose husband said she had been shot in the head while standing on the balcony presumably from a stray bullet in that violence. She later died I was told by a nurse there.

One pro-Russian militant brought in, he looked in a very bad condition. Another one was in a stretcher and two other walking wounded. Clearly violent clashes from which we saw some of these pro- Russian militants who have the armor they have taken from the Ukrainian army units who surrendered it to them. They were driving them from the front lines and concerns certainly of a potential for a second wave.

It's clear the Ukrainian military are trying to move closer to the city, sensing they're facing stiff resistance. They said they got significant numbers of casualties potentially four in that particular encounter and have just announced news that one of their helicopters was taken out, shot out of the sky. The pilot survived because they landed in fact in a river. But these intense clashes now clearly catching civilians in between. Those pro-Russian militants moving swiftly to show us a car that had been shot, a civilian car that had been shot up during these clashes.

They're angry saying that much of the civilian casualties are caused by the Ukrainian forces and being blamed upon them. As we see now, the violence are so regular many wondering quite when this openly becomes a civil war in eastern Ukraine -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Nick Paton Walsh reporting live.

We're back in a minute.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Imagine if you could turn back the clock 5, 10, even 15 years and reverse the effects of ageing. That's the idea behind a new series of study. According to researchers at Harvard and Stanford Universities, when older mice were exposed to blood from younger mice, their brain performance improved. In addition to better memory their muscle tissue was revitalized.

And when faced against their peers on a treadmill, they were able to outrun those without young blood.

It's creepy, right? Let's bring in Saul Villeda, he's a faculty fellow and chief investigator at the University of California San Francisco.

Welcome.

SAUL VILLEDA, FACULTY MEMBER, UCSF: Hi. Thank you for having me.

COSTELLO: This is amazing. No wonder vampires live forever. So tell us -- so tell us how this works.

VILLEDA: Yes. These studies are initiated at Stanford in the lab of Dr. Tony Wyss-Coray and then continued in my own lab at UCSF and what we saw is that by just giving plasma, so basically the part of the blood without the cells, repeated over a month, you can actually get improvement in old mice. And these normally have impairments.

Now to put into like a human context, it's similar -- it's called spacial learning and memory. Let's say I park my car in a structure everybody sets up every day and when I take my car and I park it I see the Golden Gate Bridge, usually an elevator, an electric car charger and I come back many hours later and have to find my car.

So my brain is going to use those visual cues, the bridge, the elevator, and it's going to take me right to my car. As we get older, this starts getting harder and harder. You know, eventually a sea of people with their car alarms trying to find, you know, their car using that way. So we can actually test something similar using a water maze, a pool. And what we saw is just giving it young blood actually made them commit less errors and they're able to find this sort of hidden platform in this pool which young mice can do really well, old mice can't and these rejuvenated mice can do much better.

COSTELLO: So how did you even come up with this idea that this might work?

VILLEDA: Yes. It's really built on this amazing body of work that's happened over the last decade from groups such as (INAUDIBLE) that have shown that it can rejuvenate stem cells throughout the body. We showed it in the Wyss-Coray lab in the brain as well. Now in the brain, you know, stem cells have been shown to be involved in learning and memory. And we thought, well, what other aspects can be rejuvenated and can cognition be rejuvenated? And that's really sort of where the study started from.

COSTELLO: OK. So it works in mice. At some point might have you tested --

VILLEDA: What about human?

COSTELLO: Exactly.

VILLEDA: Yes. So the senior out there actually just started a company (INAUDIBLE) Tony Wyss-Coray, and they are really interested in translating this into humans but I think it's really important to keep in mind under controlled conditions and in a clinical trial setting I think this is definitely warranted. It's definitely worth pursuing in humans. I just think it should be in an appropriate context.

COSTELLO: Well, absolutely because, you know, not only could it make you feel younger, right, it could help with diseases like Alzheimer's, right?

VILLEDA: You know, the potential is definitely there. I think we really need to start exploring this. It's just bursting in this new field of research. This is a great time to be doing this sort of research.

COSTELLO: I'm just -- I just can't get over it that you just inject blood into - young mice blood into older mice.

VILLEDA: Old mice, right. Yes.

COSTELLO: And it makes such a difference.

VILLEDA: It's amazing. It really, truly is.

COSTELLO: It really is. Thank you so much.

VILLEDA: Thank you.

COSTELLO: Saul Villeda, a faculty fellow and chief investigator at the University of California San Francisco. I really appreciate you being here.

Checking some top stories at 58 minutes past, investigators are trying to figure out why a pilot with more than 60 years of flight experience crashed at a California air show. It happened Sunday at Travis Air Force Base. The pilot was killed. Witnesses say the plane was in the middle of an acrobatic maneuver when it slammed into the ground upside down. Officials have asked anyone with photographs or videos of the accident to contact authorities.

The CEO of Target out of a job. This morning the retail giant announced that Greg Steinhafel has left the company. The announcement comes on a heel of a massive data breach last year that compromised the personal information of up to 110 million customers. In a letter to the board, Steinhafel says he believes now is the right time for new leadership.

The Los Angeles Clippers face off against the Oklahoma City Thunder tonight for the next round of the NBA playoffs. The team inched past the Golden State Warriors on Saturday by just five points. The win comes less than a week after the team's owner, Donald Sterling, was banned from the NBA after making racist comments.

Thank you so much for joining me today. I'm Carol Costello. "@ THIS HOUR" with Berman and Michaela starts now.