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Lamar Odom in Hospital, Fighting for His Life; Wal-Mart Employee Pay Raise; Two Teens Beaten in Church, Parents Arrested; Saving the Prairie Dog. Aired 9:30-10a ET
Aired October 15, 2015 - 09:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[09:31:25] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.
New details are emerging about how former NBA star Lamar Odom ended up on life support. A source telling CNN that Odom's estranged wife, Khloe Kardashian, is at his hospital bedside and making medical decisions. The former Los Angeles Laker and reality TV star was rushed to the hospital after workers at a Nevada brothel found him unconscious in his room.
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CALLER: They need to hurry please because he's got blood coming out his nose, white stuff coming out of his mouth. They can't get him to wake up. He's like not -- almost not breathing.
911 OPERATOR: OK. Is he conscious?
CALLER: Excuse me?
911 OPERATOR: Is he conscious?
CALLER: No.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: CNN's Paul Vercammen is outside the hospital in Las Vegas to tell us more.
Good morning, Paul.
PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.
The hospital saying very little but people who have visited Lamar Odom saying that he is still on the ventilator, as you pointed out, life support. He is not talking.
Obviously, Lamar Odom fighting for his life. Interesting to hear that Dennis Hof, a reality start in his own right from the television series on HBO "Cat House," revealed that Lamar Odom had been taking these sexual performance enhancing pills and taking quite a lot of them. Let's listen.
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DENNIS HOF, OWNER, "THE LOVE RANCH": The girls said that he had -- he had taken eight or ten of them. I don't know whether that means in a short period of time or since Saturday when he got there. You know, one of the speculations is he had been doing coke before he got there. He knew he couldn't do it at my place, so he started taking these to give him the energy to carry on. It could be that he was just having a good time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VERCAMMEN: You heard Hof allude to coke. The Nye (ph) County sheriff also revealing that witnesses suggested that Lamar Odom was doing cocaine. They were able to obtain a blood sample from Lamar Odom. Tests and the results of that not expected to be out for another three weeks or so, Carol.
COSTELLO: All right, Paul Vercammen reporting live from Las Vegas. Thank you.
Checking some other top stories for you at 33 minutes past.
A U.S. customs and border protection spokesman says there is no indication yesterday's technology glitch was malicious in nature. The temporary outage lasted about 90 minutes, making for lengthy, lengthy, lengthy lines at airports. Officers had to process international travelers using alternative procedures until systems were back on line.
Only five more days of prison for convicted killer Oscar Pistorius. The South African parole board confirms Pistorius will be released to house arrest on October 20th. The Paralympic gold medalist has been behind bars for one year after he was convicted in the shooting death of his girlfriend in 2013. Pistorius claimed he thought she was an intruder.
And this just into CNN. President Obama will indeed announce his decision to keep troop levels the same in Afghanistan for 2016. That will happen at 11:00 a.m. Eastern, in just about an hour and a half. Of course, we'll have it for you live right here on CNN.
[09:34:35] Still to come in the NEWSROOM, Wal-Mart predicts profits will go down as wages go up. Now will one of Sanders' top issues take a hit too?
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COSTELLO: Disappointing earnings from Wal-Mart are rattling investors. The company's stock plummeting 10 percent yesterday. The retailer says raising employee pay means profits will take a hit. Wal-Mart's woes are troubling, though, because they call into question whether paying your employees more is really good for business. The company says a plan to invest $1.5 billion in company training and pay raises will hurt future income. But Wal-Mart remains seemingly optimistic. Yesterday the CEO, Doug McMillon, argued the company may be hurting for now, but the customer is getting a better experience with a better paid employee.
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DOUG MCMILLON, CEO, WALMART: We're seeing traffic go up. Customer service scores are going up. We've taken our clean, fast and friendly score at the beginning of the year from 17 percent favorable with customers to 67 percent now. And it's because our associates are buying in, they're doing a better job of running our stores and supporting our customers, and that's a good investment.
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[09:40:03] COSTELLO: With me now is financial expert Monica Mehta and CNN chief business correspondent Christine Romans.
Welcome both of you.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol.
COSTELLO: OK. So what exactly is that CEO saying?
ROMANS: He's saying they're making an investment now so that shoppers will come, keep spending money and spend more money. I mean when you look at the -- you know, they're getting brisk competition from Amazon, for example. Amazon, you don't even to have a customer experience really, right? You just go online, you get what you want. Target really gearing toward millennials and it has like a very different and gets good ratings on the experience you get when you go to a Target store. So what you're seeing is this company, Wal-Mart, spending a lot of money to pay its workers more but also to focus on workers at the front end of the store that the customer is going to be close to and interact with so that you'll want to keep going back to Wal-Mart.
You know, what there's --
COSTELLO: OK, so let's -- let's just simplify for a moment. So are higher wages for employees affecting Wal-Mart's bottom line horribly?
MONICA MEHTA, FINANCIAL EXPERT: Yes, but that's not the key part of the story here. The key part of the story for Wal-Mart is they're having an identity crisis. They don't know who they are any more. The brand is a little bit stale. I think of Britney Spears in a parking lot in a not so good moment when I think of Wal-Mart. And, again, they're not as convenient as Amazon. They're facing competition from Target. And they're short of ideas.
I mean you've got a company that's saying that we're paying our employees too much, it's hurting our bottom line, but at the same time they're doing a $20 billion stock buyback. When you have enough money to do that, you're short of ideas as to how to really rejuvenate your business.
COSTELLO: OK, so when -- when politicians like Bernie Sanders, for example --
ROMANS: Right.
COSTELLO: Say that the minimum wage should be raised to -- the federal minimum wage should be raised to $15 an hour, is he right or is he wrong because --
ROMANS: Well, this is what business owners --
COSTELLO: People will look at Wal-Mart despite what both of you have said and say this is hurting business.
ROMANS: People look and you hear all the time from people, even who are supporters of Bernie Sanders, to say I'm a small business owner, I support Bernie Sanders. But if he wants to raise the minimum wage, I'm going to have to fire a couple of workers, you know. So they like Bernie Sanders on so many issues, but maybe not the minimum wage thing if you're a small business owner.
Look, when you raise wages, you know, the Congressional Budget and others have studied this and argued about it. You raise wages, you lift some people out of poverty, but you might put other people out of work. It's a trade-off that's a complicated tradeoff. But I think the political winds are blowing in this country, Carol, that the rate -- these wages are going to rise and companies are getting out ahead of it also because they want to retain their good workers. Gap did this a year ago and you started to see some people working at other retailers jumping to Gap because Gap paid more, you know?
COSTELLO: Uh-huh.
ROMANS: So, you're going to see, if you want to retain your good employees, you're going to have to pay up for it.
COSTELLO: Well -- well, maybe you're right, maybe the winds are changing because the Republican candidate for president, Marco Rubio, came out and said this about higher wages in America.
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SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Even the jobs that are being created now don't pay enough. You can't live on $10 an hour. You can't live on $11 an hour. We need jobs that pay much more than that, but we have to have an economy and economic policies that make America the best place in the world to create jobs that pay more.
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COSTELLO: So, Monica, he seems to be saying, leave it to the private companies to decide whether to raise wages.
MEHTA: Well, I'm going agree with Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump in the same breadth.
COSTELLO: Wow! MEHTA: I'm going to say that, you know, we do need to raise wages. It's a very natural tension that needs to happen to counterbalance this influence from Wall Street, these quarterly earnings. There's so much pressure to companies to just guide their business for the earnings, you know, be efficient, cost-cut -- do cost-cutting, layoffs. But at the same token, I think raising wages is just a band aid.
ROMANS: Yes.
MEHTA: The real solution in the long run is, we need to make stuff here again because as Donald Trump is saying, free trade's not free and nor is it fair when the counterparty is manipulating currency and they're subsidizing exporters in their own country.
ROMANS: I think what Senator Rubio is saying there too, he's not saying necessarily automatically raise the wages of all jobs. He's saying create jobs that pay better.
MEHTA: Yes.
ROMANS: And you have heard this a lot from the right. OK, we need stem jobs, science, technology, engineering, math. Do we need to be focusing so much on raising the wages for low skill jobs? We need to be creating jobs that are in demand jobs that the market demands that they be paid more, having a more diverse field of jobs. And I think you're starting to see that a little bit more. There are -- there are hiring wars for people in stems, science, technology, engineering, math, and there's still a lot of demand and a lot of grow for the low wage jobs though too.
COSTELLO: That's right. Thanks so much. Interesting conversation.
MEHTA: Thank you.
COSTELLO: Monica, Christine, I appreciate it.
Still to come in the NEWSROOM, a spiritual counseling session turns deadly at a New York church. What happened inside those walls?
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[09:48:45] COSTELLO: Two teenage brothers are beaten during a church counseling session, forced to confess their sins. Now one them is dead and the other is fighting for his life. The so called spiritual beating happened during a Sunday night service at Word of Life Christian Church in Hartford, New York. Police say the people responsible for the boy's death are the boys' own parents. Four other members of the church, including the boys' half-sister, also face charges in the attack.
CNN national correspondent Jason Carroll is live with me now to tell us more.
JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, certainly a number of people in this community feel as though that church was in fact a cult. But police are not calling it a cult. But they do say what took place inside that church was horrific.
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CARROLL (voice-over): It happened in what was supposed to be a house of worship. This former school building in new Hartford, New York, now home to a church with a small following called the Word of Life Church.
(on camera): Police say after those Sunday services, two young members were brought to the sanctuary for a counseling session to discuss their spiritual state. 19-year-old Lucas Leonard and his 17- year-old brother Christopher.
[09:50:03] CHIEF MICHAEL INSERRA, NEW HARTFORD, NEW YORK POLICE: The session turned physical. Both brothers were continually subjected to physical punishment over the course of several hours in hopes that each would confess the prior's sins and ask for forgiveness.
CARROLL (voice-over): No word on what their alleged sins were, but the 19-year-old was beaten so badly, police say members of the church brought him to a hospital where he later died. His 17-year-old brother remains in serious condition.
Their parents, Bruce and Deborah Leonard, were arrested and charged with first degree manslaughter. Both pleaded not guilty. Four other church members were also arrested including the brother's sister, Sarah Ferguson. They also pleaded not guilty.
The beatings have prompted questions about the church and its members.
LYNN LAVENTURE, LIVES NEAR WORD OF LIFE CHURCH: We would have never in a million years guessed anything was going on or wrong or there was -- before the troopers or anything were here.
CARROLL: A former Word of Life church member, who asked not to be identified, tells CNN it was founded in 1984. It's made up of about five families and has approximately 35 members. Their teachings are accurate to the Bible. That former member also says it is not a cult. But some long-time neighbors aren't so sure.
FATHER ABRAHAM ESPER, PASTOR OF NEIGHBORING CHURCH: They were very loud and very disruptive.
CARROLL: Father Abraham Esper is a pastor of St. Patrick's St. Anthony's Church located next door. He says he would often complain about sounds of drums being beaten by Word of Life members at night.
(on camera): At any point were there any theological discussions with anyone about what their beliefs are?
ESPER: None at all. I really believe this is not a mainline Christian church. A mainline Christian church would offer hospitality to everyone, and everybody would feel welcome, and they would point to the reality of Jesus Christ, which means to serve, to be open, to be present to others. This is just --
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CAROLL: And, Carol, I also spoke to police this morning about their investigation. They say they will continue to interview former church members; they will interview family members as well. They also want to speak to Christopher Leonard again, that's the 17-year-old. He is in serious condition this morning. But, Carol, he is talking. Carol?
COSTELLO: All right, Jason Carroll reporting live for us this morning.
Still to come in the NEWSROOM, a sit-in gets protesters kicked out. The message they had for Baltimore leaders when they stormed city hall.
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[09:56:45] COSTELLO: Checking some top stories at 56 minutes past.
The Department of Justice and the FBI are now investigating daily fantasy sports sites. "The Wall Street Journal" is reporting agents have been contacting Draft King's customers. The increased scrutiny was ignited after the discovery that a Draft King employer had access to inside information. He ended up winning $350,000 in a contest with FanDuel.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No justice!
CROWD: No peace!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The racist!
CROWD: Police!
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COSTELLO: At least 12 people in Baltimore are in jail this morning after protesting a city hall meeting that made the interim police chief permanent. The protest wrapped up just a few hours ago. Police charged the group with trespassing after they ignored orders to leave city hall. The group of mostly student activists say they were not given a chance to voice their opinions during the city council meeting.
The family of one of the crew members aboard the doomed cargo ship, the El Faro, is suing the boat's owner and missing captain for $100 million. The family's lawyer argues the El Faro wasn't sea-worthy, adding that the company was too concerned with profits. The ship is presumed to have sunk during Hurricane Joaquin, killing all 33 crew members on board.
Toyota plans to eliminate nearly all of its cars that run on gasoline by he year 2050. The company says it plans to stick with hybrids and fuel cells in an effort to dramatically reduce emissions. The move comes during a time when the auto industry is under scrutiny after Volkswagen admitted to cheating on diesel emissions tests covering millions of cars.
Guess what? Mike Rowe returns to CNN on Sunday night with another episode of "SOMEBODY'S GOT TO DO IT". This week he has his hands full, hoping to save the embattled prairie dog. Here's a clip.
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MIKE ROWE, CNN HOST: That's a baby prairie dog.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is one of our orphans.
ROWE: May I?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You certainly may.
ROWE: I'm going to go ahead and admit it, he's cute.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
ROWE: How long have you been working with Linda?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: About four years now. Three, four years now.
ROWE: What brought you to this particular facility?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I've been fighting for most of my adult life to get prairie adult dogs to state protected land, state and federal lands.
ROWE: Why?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Because they're running out of habitat and they're very important creatures. They're just such a keystone species in the ecosystem.
ROWE: What does that mean?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Without prairie dogs, you really cannot have a healthy prairie.
ROWE: That's an important point. A keystone species is one that's critical to the one well-being of other animals in the ecosystem. A healthy prairie dog habitat benefits the survival of about 150 other species.
Can you tell what will happen to you today?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, what we're doing is locating habitat where they'll be safe hopefully forever, and that's this park.
ROWE: you have prairie dogs in the back of the truck?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We have prairie dogs in the back of the truck. First thing we have to do is we have to go build a prairie dog town. You can't just take the prairie dogs and throw them in the wilderness.
Let's go build a prairie dog town.
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COSTELLO: Watch the entire episode of "SOMEBODY'S GOTTA DO IT" this Sunday, 10:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN.
The next hour of CNN NEWSROOM starts right now.
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ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.
COSTELLO: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.
[10:00:00] We begin this hour with breaking news and a sobering reality check on America's longest war. At the top of the hour, President Obama will announce that his long-promised withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan is on hold.
