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You Have the Right to Be Forgotten; Kids Hurt as Bounce House Takes Flight; Man Claims Father was Zodiac Killer; Millions Watch Solange and Jay-Z Fight

Aired May 14, 2014 - 10:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Checking some "Top Stories" for you at 33 minutes past the hour.

Just minutes ago the World Health Organization reported yet another case of MERS -- that potentially deadly respiratory illness that's worrying scientist in 18 countries including our own. This latest case appearing in the Netherlands.

Here in the United States there are two confirmed cases, one in Indiana and one in Florida. And just minutes ago we learned that two healthcare workers that came into contact with the Orlando MERS patient has tested negative after falling ill with flu-like symptom. They're among a total of 20 hospital employees who are now quarantined at home and being monitored.

In western Turkey, crews are desperately searching for survivors after a coal mine explosion and fire deep underground. Overnight rescue workers managed to pull dozens of miners from that smoke filled shaft. More than 200 confirmed dead and hope is fading quickly for as many as 120 more who are still trapped underneath the earth.

A 29-year-old man now in custody after driving a truck through the lobby of a TV station near Baltimore. The man who police describe is mentally ill was not only watching the incident live on local television news. You know why he was holed on that station but he was tweeting about it. No one was seriously injured during the incident. The man's motive is unknown.

The Internet may be written in ink but should it last forever. In the fight over online privacy Europe's highest court just ruled you have a right to be forgotten that means search engines like Google must fix or remove links to any information about you if you ask them to.

Now this ruling was a big surprise and it could cost companies like Google a whole lot of money if they're forced to comply.

So let's talk about this. CNN's Christine Romans is here. She's our chief business correspondent and host of "YOUR MONEY" and Brett Larson is CNN's technology analyst. Welcome to both of you.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Hi Carol.

BRETT LARSON, CNN TECHNOLOGY ANALYST: Hi Carol.

COSTELLO: Hi so first of all Brett explain how this -- this would work.

LARSON: You know it's -- it's kind of a six of one and half dozen of the other idea. You know let's hypothetically say when you were in high school you toilet papered someone's house and were arrested by the local police it went in the local paper that was back in you know 1992. And you go to look for a job and now in 2014 someone Googles your name, and that's the only thing that comes up about you because you led a relatively quiet life.

In an instance like that, that's sort of where the European courts are pointing and saying you know something like that you should be able to take down. What they're not saying is if you were involved in something more serious, that you can't just randomly go back in time and say I want this article taken down. There has to be some merit to it.

There also has to be some level of, you know, this really doesn't apply to me anymore. Toilet papering someone's house in 1992 no longer applies to my life as an adult. But I -- and that shouldn't stick to me for the rest of my life. That's really where the line is in the sand.

COSTELLO: Well Christine I can see why some people might like this. Because that's a big problem nowadays with young people posting unfortunate things on Facebook and it gets on Google and then you go for a job interview and they look at you like really?

ROMANS: You know I mean and let's be honest I mean when you're talking about privacy, Carol, I mean privacy is almost dead. I mean your e-mails and your Web traffic is searched and analyzed, your texts and your e-mails are stored on vast computer servers. I mean you've got companies who are looking at our behavior online to try to sell us stuff and everything that we willingly say and do is tracked as well.

Now we talked to Mark Cuban of the Dallas Mavericks owner, tech billionaire, yesterday and he said to me Carol, "Privacy is dead." And here's a really terrifying scenario that he painted. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK CUBAN, ENTREPRENEUR: When all of a sudden -- and here's where the scary part comes in. Someone says to me, sorry, Mark, you can't join this organization because when we analyzed your tweets, your Pinterest postings, your Facebook postings, we decided you weren't our type of guy or you can't get into this college.

ROMANS: Did that happen?

CUBAN: Oh yes, you don't think it's going to happen? It's absolutely going to happen.

(END VIDEO CLIP) ROMANS: And we're not talking just about Googling you Carol. You're talking about algorithms and companies who are basically just stealing everything they know about you to find like your credit score for your life only it's your behavior online.

He has backed something called -- called Cyber Dust so 30 seconds app, like Snap Chat only say they learned from Snap Chat and Facebook your conversation disappears. He's talking about shrinking your digital footprint, having private conversation disappear, having web traffic disappear so that you can once again get control of your privacy.

COSTELLO: Yes but the thing is -- the thing is Brett and I'll put this question to you like we would like the Internet to be free. Freedom like no one should control the Internet. It should be open to everyone. And what's on it is on it. So --

LARSON: Right. And this is -- you know this is a debate we're having now with our friends at the FCC and the whole net neutrality debate.

COSTELLO: Yes.

LARSON: It's in here in our country it's a freedom of speech issue -- issue rather. It is -- I can go out and say whatever I want and then we kind of crossed that line into censorship when someone I'm talking about can go back and say you know that's not factual information about me.

Where I agree with this is exactly what Christine is saying. Our privacy is gone with every tweet, with every purchase we make at Amazon, with every click we make on the Web. All of this stuff is tracked. And at some point I think as a society in our country, we're going to need to stand up and start demanding the same things from our lawmakers in that I should be able to say -- I opt out of this. I want to be my own person with my own bank account and my own history and I don't want companies making decisions about me based on my past.

COSTELLO: We'll see. Christine Romans, Brett Larson, thanks for the insight. I appreciate it.

ROMANS: You're welcome Carol.

LARSON: Thanks Carol.

COSTELLO: Still to come in the NEWSROOM a backyard bouncy house takes off into the air with children inside. What went so terribly wrong? Next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: A horrifying scene in upstate New York as little kids playing in a bouncy house get swept up into the air. Police say a five-year-old and a six-year-old floated up 20 feet before they fell out of the bouncy house to the ground.

Rosa Flores is following the story for us. Tell us more Rosa. ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well Carol, imagine being the parent that's monitoring these kids when this happened just the feeling of helplessness. Once you see this bouncy house elevate into the air and there's nothing that you can do. That's what witnesses describe.

Here is what we know from police.

All of this happened at about 3:20 yesterday. The police tell us that this bouncy house was anchored to the ground with stakes and then there was this sudden wind gust that lifted the bouncy ball (SIC) up into the air. When it was 15 to 20 feet up into the air, that's when two boys fell out. A five-year-old fell out in the parking lot of the apartment complex. And another one, a six-year-old, fell out on the street. Police tell us that they were taken to the hospital with serious injuries.

Here's what witnesses told our affiliate WRGB.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TAYLOR SEYMOUR, WITNESS: He hit his head off the back of my car and then landed right where that little spot is and then the bouncy house kept going and cleared my apartment and the trees.

STEPHANIE HANSEN, NEIGHBOR: Anything that could have been done wrong wasn't. Everything was done properly. And that's the only thing that I can say positively that nothing was done wrong.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FLORES: Now we do have a statement from Little Tikes, the maker of that bouncy house and it reads quote, "Providing safe and wholesome play experiences is of utmost importance to Little Tikes. We are looking into what happened in South Glenn Falls yesterday. In the meantime, our thoughts and prayers are with the children and their families."

Now Carol we should also point out that we looked at the instruction book online for bouncy houses from Little Tikes and it does says under safety warnings and I'm going to quote here, "Do not set up in windy or rainy conditions. Sudden gusts of winds may lift the product off the ground." And we should mention that police do say it was not windy but there was a wind gust. So it's difficult to play for those things.

COSTELLO: I know. But why -- I mean I'm not blaming the parents because I'm sure they are incredibly upset. But man, why take the chance? I don't know. It's a scary thing.

Rosa Flores, many thanks.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, a man in Louisiana says he saw one of the great murder mysteries of the 20th century -- the Zodiac Killer's rampage through the San Francisco Bay Area.

Dan Simon is following the story from San Francisco. Good morning. DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Well, this is a murder case that has endured for more than four decades but are we any closer to figuring out the identity of the Zodiac Killer? We'll have a live report coming up.

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COSTELLO: It's been more than four and a half decades since the Zodiac Killer blasted his way through the San Francisco Bay Area shooting at least five people to death and taunting police and the media with cryptic messages.

The mystery spawned many false leads, Hollywood blockbusters and even several claims by people insisting they were the killer's children. And now a man from Louisiana claims the Zodiac Killer was his estranged father.

CNN's Dan Simon is in San Francisco. Do you believe him?

SIMON: Well, I tell you what, it would be one incredible story if this turns out to be true -- Carol. Here you have this guy. He's 51 years old. He lives in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He owns an industrial cleaning company and he says he was just trying to figure out the identity of his biological father and in doing so determined that he is the notorious Zodiac Killer.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SIMON: The Zodiac Case has fascinated both the public and Hollywood for years. But the killer has remained at large ever since the Bay Area killings began in December of 1968. Now in a new book called "The Most Dangerous Animal of All" author Gary Stewart, a businessman from Louisiana, says he has finally cracked the case.

A search for his biological father, he says, led him to San Francisco and to conclusively identify his father as the Zodiac Killer according to publisher Harper Collins. Stewart writes, "I felt it was my responsibility to learn the truths that I learned in a way that would leave no doubt as to the identity of this killer.

Take a look at this picture of his father identified as Earl Van Best, Jr., now deceased and an old sketch of the Zodiac. They do seem to bear a striking resemblance. So far police aren't saying much in part because over the years, others have come forward purporting to name the killer and no credible leads have emerged.

But in his book, Stewart points to this as one powerful piece of evidence. A cipher or cryptogram the Zodiac sent to a newspaper with the words "EV Best" and "Junior", the name of his biological father.

BRYAN HARTNELL, ZODIAC VICTIM: I feel the knife buried in my back.

SIMON: Bryan Hartnell was only one of two survivors who could give a description of the killer. He has rarely spoken publicly.

HARTNELL: He had some clip-on glasses that were either affixed to the hood or affixed to glasses underneath.

SIMON: On his chest he also wore what became known as his symbol -- crosshairs and a gun sight. At least five people were killed during the year-long spree. The killer claimed responsibility in a series of letters to newspapers. He called himself Zodiac. As the investigation continued, different persons of interest would emerge.

This 2007 film focused on the chase and the clues leading to one suspect named Arthur Lee Allen (ph), a school teacher. The evidence seemed promising including Allen's watch with the Zodiac symbol. But his fingerprints and handwriting didn't match the killers. Allen died in 1992. He always maintained his innocence.

ARTHUR LEE ALLEN, ACCUSED ZODIAC KILLER: I'm not the damned Zodiac.

SIMON: And while theories continue to proliferate in books like this one, authorities are still no closer in naming the actual killer than they were many decades ago.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIMON: Well, back to this author, Gary Stewart. He says there were also some fingerprint similarities between his biological father and a print that the Zodiac left at a crime scene. He also says that a handwriting person looked at the samples and that there were some similarities as well -- Carol.

I got to tell you something though. He did not take this information to police, which in a way sort of undermines his credibility. But it will be interesting to see what law enforcement agencies do now that this book has come out -- Carol.

COSTELLO: In your mind, does anything set this man's story apart from all the others?

SIMON: Well, I tell you what. When you look at that cipher that certainly is interesting; you know when the Zodiac sent that cipher or that cryptogram to the "San Francisco Examiner", he said that somewhere in that cipher he mentions his identity and then you see that name there. That is sort of an eerie circumstance. And then you look at that mug shot of the biological father that we saw there in that story and the sketch of the Zodiac, they do kind of look alike. But who knows? Carol.

COSTELLO: And police are looking into this, right?

SIMON: They tell us that they will look into it if these leads are deemed credible. They say that it's still an active and open investigation all these years later. But at this point it's unclear what they're going to do with the information -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Dan Simon, many thanks.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, millions have watched the video and now parities are pouring in. How this elevator fight is stirring up what's being called Jay-Z's 100th problem. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: It's the elevator rumble heard around the world. Ever since the video surfaced appearing to show Solange Knowles beating up her brother-in-law and hip-hop mogul Jay-Z, the parodies just keep popping up. Here's Jeanne Moos.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It started out as such a nice night, Beyonce and Jay-Z arriving at the Met Gala, Beyonce dropped her ring.

Her husband put it back on her finger, but on the way out after an after-party, fingers gave way to fists.

Round one: Beyonce's sister, Solange, started hitting Jay-Z. The bodyguard pulls her off. Beyonce mostly stays out of it.

Round two: Solange tries to kick Jay-Z; he grabs her leg in defense.

Round three: a somewhat half-hearted assault.

Round four: with the door open, Solange hauls off and whacks Jay-Z with her bag.

Online commentators had a field day captioning the after picture. "Did that just happen? Smile through it. Bring it, says Solange."

(on camera): Something Jay-Z says really pushed Solange's buttons.

(voice-over): But since the surveillance video has no audio, #whatJayZsaidtoSolange encouraged guessing. "This elevator music better than any song you ever made," a reference to Solange's singing career.

"Solange Knowles attacks Jay-Z, the first hit she's had in years."

Everyone had a theory.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Solange heard Jay-Z say something to her sister that she didn't like.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

MOOS: One online analyst even quoted Dickens.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is a melancholy truth that even great men have their poor relations.

MOOS: Years ago, Solange already seemed to be putting distance between herself and Jay-Z.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Solange, good morning. And thanks a lot for joining us. SOLANGE KNOWLES, SINGER: Good morning. I have to say that was not a very professional introduction before. Please don't tie me into family and my brother-in-law's establishment.

MOOS: Someone put the elevator fight to Jay-Z's own song.

(MUSIC)

MOOS: Jay-Z's 100th problem is what they're now calling Solange. Jokesters are dressing up and re-creating the fight, making fun of everything from the late grab, to the handbag turned weapon.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It looked like a sandwich bag with a hood and a string.

MOOS: One day, you're grabbing your sister-in-law's leg in self defense then you're caught on camera caressing your wife's leg -- just a week in a life of a rapper. Ground floor, lady's bags.

Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: The mystery endures though -- right.

Thank you for joining me today. I'm Carol Costello.

"@THIS HOUR WITH BERMAN AND MICHAELA starts now.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN HOST: Donald Sterling launched the attack now Magic responds saying the Clippers' owner's rant was beyond personal.