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Migrant Border Crossings Increasingly Becoming Deadly; L.A. to Vote on Requiring Hotels to House Homeless; Jury Awards $31 Million in Lawsuit Over Kobe Bryant Crash Photos. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired August 25, 2022 - 04:30   ET

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

[04:30:00]

MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Max Foster. If you're just joining us, let me bring you up-to-date with our top stories this hour.

Time running out for the U.S. Justice Department to finalize their redactions to the affidavit that led to the search of Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort. A judge has given prosecutors until 12:00 p.m. today to submit them. More on that in "EARLY START" in about 30 minutes from now.

And the teacher strike in Columbus, Ohio has ended after a conceptual agreement was reached between the teachers union and the board of education. Students will now resume in-person classes on Monday.

The search for better life in the U.S. becoming increasingly deadly for migrants illegally crossing the border with Mexico. Officials say at least 218 migrants have died trying to come to the U.S. so far this year and one of the deadliest in recent memory. Rosa Flores has the story, but we warn you her report contains graphic images.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This 22-year-old Mexican construction worker crossed into Texas with his brother last week, authorities say.

DR. CORINNE STERN, WEBB COUNTY MEDICAL EXAMINER: They'd been walking for three days without any food.

FLORES (voice-over): The patches on his body --

FLORES: Now, did he get medical attention?

STERN: He did.

FLORES (voice-over): Signs paramedics tried to save his life.

Migrants have tried entering the U.S. southern border a record- breaking nearly 2 million times since October. And this man's tragic story is far from unique. Webb County medical examiner, Dr. Corinne Stern, says this year is on pace to be the deadliest year for migrants crossing into this region of Texas in recent memory.

STERN: I'm seeing an extreme increase in the number of border crossing deaths compared to other years.

FLORES (voice-over): So much so, Stern recently did something she says she has never done in her 20-year career. She told officials in the 11 border counties she serves that her office is at capacity.

STERN: And so, we're asking them to store them at their funeral homes until we have a space available.

FLORES (voice-over): And in Maverick County, one of the deadliest counties, says Stern, a funeral home there tells CNN they're at capacity too. And with the medical examiner not taking the deceased, they are now burying unidentified migrants.

FLORES: In the back of the county cemetery, there are 16 fresh graves. There were no funerals, no family, no flowers. All the graves are marked with partial crosses made out of PVC piping. All of these are migrant Jane and John Does, except for one. There's a baby John Doe.

FLORES (voice-over): Stern says she has 260 deceased migrants in her custody. The majority died this year from drowning or hyperthermia and are pending identification.

Despite the dangers, Maverick County Sheriff Tom Schmerber says the arrival of migrants is not stopping, and neither are the deaths. He shows us postmortem photos, some too graphic not to completely blur, including of a child, of just some of the migrant deaths in the past seven months.

TOM SCHMERBER, MAVERICK COUNTY SHERIFF: This is a crossing area.

FLORES: And it's every day that you're finding bodies?

SCHMERBER: Every day.

FLORES (voice-over): And then shows us --

FLORES: A 3-year-old in this area?

SCHMERBER: In this area.

FLORES (voice-over): Where a 3-year-old drowned Monday.

SCHMERBER: I was informed he was taken out, given CPR, but then he died.

FLORES (voice-over): Tuesday, our cameras were there as another body was recovered from the Rio Grande, this time a man. Yards away, dozens of migrants who had just crossed the river waited for Border Patrol, including two Cuban women in their 20s who did not want to be identified for fear it could impact their immigration cases. FLORES: How deep was the water for your daughter?

FLORES (voice-over): She shows us it was about waist-deep and then got emotional. When asked about children dying on the very river she had just crossed. She says it was a tough decision for her daughter's future.

Most likely, the same hopes and dreams this man had. His cut short. But Stern says he was fortunate not to die alone.

STERN: His brother stayed behind and was with him at the time Border Patrol found him.

FLORES (voice-over): Which means unlike the hundreds of other unidentified migrants in her custody, he will reunite with his family soon, says Stern, and has this message for anyone thinking about crossing the border.

[04:35:00]

STERN: Politics aside, all these deaths are ruled an accident. An accident, by definition, is preventable 100 percent. Stay home.

FLORES: Rosa Flores, CNN, along the U.S./Mexico border.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Meanwhile the White House is moving to protect so-called "Dreamers," thousands of migrants who have been in the country for years. On Wednesday, the Department of Homeland Security issued what's known as the final rule on the DACA program. That protects migrants from deportation who were brought to the U.S. as children and still live there. The finalize rule replace an Obama era memo and takes effect at the end of October

A U.S. federal judge has temporarily barred the state of Idaho from banning abortions in situations where a woman's health is endangered by the pregnancy. Idaho's near total ban on abortion was set to kick in today but the judge agreed with the Justice Department saying this part of that ban conflicts with federal standards for emergency care. On Tuesday a Trump appointed judge in Texas made the opposite decision and blocked had same federal requirement for hospitals to provide emergency abortion related services. The rulings come just two months after the U.S. Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. The landmark case that guaranteed federal abortion rights.

Just ahead on CNN NEWSROOM, voters in Los Angeles are being asked to weigh in on a proposal to fight homelessness. But hotel owners are raising the alarm.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Would you check into a hotel knowing that the chance of your neighbor to the left or right is a homeless individual?

(END VIDEO CLIP) (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GAVIN NEWSOM (D) CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR: I just want to see folks off the streets, I want it done compassionately, thoughtfully and I'm just sick and tired. This is permanent supportive housing but the idea as the Congresswoman Bass said is to move people along, to address the underlying issues and allow people the opportunity to live in dignity and to get back on their feet.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[04:40:04]

FOSTER: California Governor Gavin Newsom announcing the latest round of awards for homeless housing projects across the state. They're meant to address the growing homeless crisis in that state. Nearly 2,500 units will be created to help local governments expand permanent long-term housing for people experiencing or at risk of homelessness.

But another measure to deal with L.A.'s escalating homeless crisis is on the ballot in 2024 and hotel owners are concerned. If voters approve it, every hotel in Los Angeles would have to offer vacant rooms to homeless people who would stay alongside paying guests. But as CNN's Nick Watt reports, many people say that this is not the answer.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK WATT, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In Los Angeles County, more than 60,000 people are homeless on the average night and more than 20,000 hotel rooms lie empty on the average night. See where this might be going.

STUART WALDMAN, PRESIDENT, VALLEY INDUSTRY AND COMMERCE ASSOCIATION: It's just -- it's insane. It isn't going to solve the problem.

JURT PETERSON, CO-PRESIDENT, UNITE HERE LOCAL 11: We think this is one part of the solution by no means that we think this solves a homelessness crisis. But do hotels have a role to play? Of course, they do.

WATT (voice-over): So, the union he leads which reps hotel workers gathered enough signatures and Angelenos will vote on a bill that would force every hotel in town to report vacancies at 2:00 p.m. every day, then welcome homeless people into those vacant rooms.

MANOJ PATEL, MANAGER, MOTEL 6: Honestly, would you check into a hotel knowing that the chance of your neighbor to the left or right is a homeless individual.

WATT (voice-over): Manoj Patel voluntarily rent some rooms to homeless people who are vetted and paid for by a local church. But he's against this bill that would make that mandatory. PATEL: We barely are surviving, number one. Number two, we have to think of the safety of our staff. And number three, we're not professionally or any other ways equipped with any of the supporting mechanism that the homeless guest would require.

WATT (voice-over): What services would be provided remains unclear, also unclear the funding and hotels would be paid fair market rate.

PETERSON: It's up to the city. I mean, they did it during Project Roomkey.

WATT (voice-over): The pandemic era program now winding down that inspired this bill by placing more than 10,000 people in hotels that volunteered. Shawn Bigdeli among them.

SHAWN BIGDELI, RECIPIENT PROJECT ROOMKEY: Well, first of all, it's a blessing. It's a great room, the technology is not up to par. But, you know, what technologies do you have in a tent.

WATT (voice-over): This bill would also force developers to replace housing demolished to make way for new hotels, and hotel permits would be introduced, as well as making every hotel from a Super Eight to the Biltmore except homeless people as guests.

BIGDELI: I don't think that's a good idea.

WATT: Why not?

BIGDELI: Maybe for some, but you know, there's a lot of people with untreated mental health and some people do some damage these poor buildings, man.

WATT (voice-over): This happened in Manoj Patel's motel.

PATEL: And she marked all walls. Curtains she burned, thank God there was no fire, even mark the ceiling.

WATT (voice-over): Opponents of housing the homeless in hotels fear this and fear tourists could be put off from even coming to L.A.

WALDMAN: I wouldn't want my kids around people that I'm not sure about. I wouldn't want to be in an elevator with somebody who's clearly having a mental break. The idea that you can intermingle homeless folks with paying normal guests just doesn't work out.

PETERSON: We don't want to head backwards into the segregated south. But that's kind of the language that they're talking about. There's a certain class of people less than humans, animals, they almost describe us to be honest with you. They don't tend to understand who the unhoused are. We talking about seniors, students, working people, that's who the voucher program would benefit the most.

WATT: So, it's about 18 months before this will be on the ballot here in Los Angeles. And expect plenty of mudslinging between now and then. Some opponents of this bill, well they claim that the union is only pushing as a negotiating tactic, as leverage. The union tells us that is false, that they just want to hold the hotels accountable and make sure that they are playing their part in trying to solve this problem here in Los Angeles which appears to only be getting worse.

Nick Watt, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: And California is set to ban the sale of all new gasoline cars by 2035 with regulators expect to approve new rules which create increasing quotas for the number of zero emission vehicles sold in that state reaching 100 percent in just 13 years. The proposed ban would be one of the first in the world that could have a far reaching impact on the entire U.S. auto industry.

[04:45:00]

Now with most COVID restrictions in the rearview mirror. Party City predicting Halloween celebrations will be back with a bang this year. The costume and party themed superstore is looking to hire at least 20,000 workers in the coming weeks, far more than the years gone by and is opening more Halloween City pop-up stores as well. They say customers are already lining up for both costumes and decorations.

And the widow of Kobe Bryant is speaking out after winning a verdict over crash scene photos of the accident that killed her husband and daughter. We'll find out what she has to say when we return.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FOSTER: This just into CNN. The military rulers in Myanmar have detained Britain's former ambassador to that country. Local reports say Vicky Bowman was detained along with her husband who is a Myanmar national. And they suggest bowman to be charged under the country's immigration act. Bowman was the U.K.'s top diplomat in Myanmar from 2002 to 2006 and has since founded an NGO there. Her arrest comes a day after the U.K. announced new sanctions on Myanmar's leadership.

Now a heatwave is sweeping across China with drought conditions threatening local livestock and crops.

[04:50:00]

Some cities are calling in planes with cloud seeding to induce rain. Officials in some cities are warning residents to stay indoors to avoid the heat, but videos posted to social media show people forced to wait outside in long lines for mandatory COVID testing as a brush fire burns in the hills behind them.

This is a scene in Pakistan where floodwaters have risen nearly halfway up buildings in some cities. China is sending emergency humanitarian aid there to help with the damages from deadly rains and floods. Officials say at least 900 people have died, more than a third of them children. China is sending cash and other supplies like tents for those displaced by the monsoons. Pakistan's climate change minister says it's a, quote, humanitarian disaster. And is calling on more countries to help and send some more aid. New York's highest court is granting disgraced media mogul Harvey

Weinstein an appeal over his 2020 conviction on rape and sexual assault charges. He was sentenced to 23 years in prison. A letter sent to Weinstein's lawyers gave no details on what grounds may have led to the court's decision and it has no bearing on further rape charges against him in California. Weinstein is in jail there is awaiting trial on 11 charges of misconduct towards five women between 2004 and 2013.

Now the widow of Kobe Bryant is responding after a jury found in her favor that the graphic pictures of the crash scene where the basketball great was killed. Vanessa Bryant had sued L.A. County Sheriff and Fire Departments over photos of bodies at the scene that were later shared with others.

Following the decision, Bryant posted on Instagram: All for you, I love you, justice for Kobe and Gigi.

Nine people including Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna were killed in a helicopter crash in 2020. CNN's Natasha Chen has more on the verdict.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NATASHA CHEN, CNN U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The jury awarded $16 million to Vanessa Bryant and $15 million to co-plaintiff Chris Chester who also lost a spouse and a daughter in that horrific crash in January 2020. It was such an emotional ending to two weeks of a very intense trial.

As the verdict was being read out loud, Vanessa Bryant cried. She hugged her lead counsel Luis Li and then proceeded to hug her oldest daughter Natalia Bryant in the room.

They all came out of the courthouse here, did not make any statements to us as she got in the car and left.

Chris Chester's attorney gave us a statement saying they're very grateful for a judge and jury who gave them a very fair trial. The lead counsel for L.A. County, the defense, said that they're very grateful for the jury's hard work and while they respectfully disagree with the outcome, they point out that the total award amount of $31 million shows that the jurors did not believe the evidence supported the maximum possible $75 million that plaintiffs initially asked for.

The jurors did have a lot to consider here including the question of whether the L.A. Sheriff's Department and L.A. County Fire Department lacked the proper training and policies that caused the violation of the plaintiff's rights and whether these agency had a long standing widespread custom or practice of taking illicit unauthorized photos of victims' bodies.

Now the jury found in the plaintiffs' favor all except for one of those question. They found in favor of the defense saying that the L.A. County Fire Department did not have such a long standing practice of taking such photos. But again, for every other question, they found in favor of Vanessa Bryant and Chris Chester.

Natasha Chen, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Some of the world's top tennis stars hit the court in New York to raise more than $1 million for Ukraine relief. It was all part of the U.S. Open's Tennis Players for Peace. That's an event ahead of the start of the year's final Grand Slam tournament among those participating, Rafael Nadal, and John McEnroe, Coco Gauff as well. And they spoke about the importance of the moment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COCO GAUFF, TENNIS PLAYER: For me to speak out is something that I always said, you can change the world with your actions. So being here today on Armstrong and plan for such an amazing cause is something that I won't take for granted. And I'm grateful to do it amongst legends of the court.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: The U.S. Tennis Association Says ticket revenue went to Global Giving's Ukraine Crisis Relief Fund which supports humanitarian assistance.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have a new family member, a seven-year- old mother beagle who had been mistreated. Harry and Meghan adopted Momma Mia after she was rescued from the Envigo breeding and animal testing facility in Virginia. Momma Mis is one of thousands of beagles that have been saved or are in the process of being removed from the plant. She wound up at the L.A. based Beagle Freedom Project. Its founder says when Harry and Meghan visited Momma Mia made a beeline for them and they instantly fell in love.

[04:55:00]

Now someone out there is a person who looks a lot like you. And a new study suggests your unrelated look alike known as a doppelganger probably shares very similar DNA as well. Researchers in Spain found that 32 people with look-alikes and they asked them to find out -- to fill out rather, questionnaires about their lives then had them do a DNA test and put their images through facial recognition software. One of the authors told CNN's Don Lemon what they found.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. MANEL ESTELLER, CO-AUTHOR OF STUDY ON DOPPELGANGERS: In this DNA, we are able to see that these lookalike humans, in fact, they are sharing several genetic variants, and these are very common among them.

So, they share these genetic variants that are related in a way that they have the shape of the nose, the eyes, the mouth, the lips, and even the bone structure.

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: So similar codes, right.

ESTELLER: Similar codes just by random chance. In the world right now, there are so many people that eventually, the system is producing humans with similar DNA sequences.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: I haven't seen the script until now. But here's apparently who my producer thinks is my doppelganger -- Actor Paul Bettany. I disagree.

Thank you for joining us on CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Max Foster in London. "EARLY START" with Christine Romans, Omar Jimenez as well next.

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