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150K-Plus Without Safe Drinking Water in Mississippi's Capital City; 26 Alleged Atlanta Gang Members Indicted for Celeb Break-Ins; 20 Million-Plus U.S. Homes Behind on Utility Bills; New Report Shows U.S. Home Prices Slowed in June; Oregon Police: Suspect Detailed Shooting Plans in Online Blog; Soon: Biden to Push for Assault Weapons Ban. Aired 1:30-2p ET
Aired August 30, 2022 - 13:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[13:30:00]
ISABEL ROSALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They have a price tag on that that would be in $1 billion. They say they do not have the money for that.
All of this resulting in a real emergency for the residents here in Jackson. You mentioned that officials have been warning them not to drink the water, saying that whatever comes out of their faucet likely is untreated water coming out of this reservoir right behind me.
They also have low water pressure. Many people can't flush their toilets and they can't shower.
And the impacts continue to snowball from there. Businesses have had to shut down. They just cannot operate that way. Schools have had to switch over to remote learning for the immediate future.
And, you know, for the residents here, this is just such a frustrating situation. This is not new. They've been dealing with this for years now.
And the latest is a water-boil notice that they've been dealing with for about a month now.
Listen to what some of these residents are facing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's very frustrating. It's very frustrating to have to fight for some water, you know what I'm saying? Got to buy five cases of water just to stay hydrated and be safe.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We have been here before and we are a little frustrated about it. That's for sure.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Coming from somewhere where, you know, things got done quickly if there was a problem. It seems like that is not the case in Jackson. Especially with the water.
(END VIDEO CLIP) ROSALES: And probably more -- the most frustrating part about all of this is that there's no timeline for when this will be fixed, when that facility will go back up to 100 percent running water.
We do know there's been a state of emergency declared by the mayor and the governor for this water issue.
And 4,500 National Guard members have been activated, some of them that know how to do this in the midst of hurricanes, how to distribute that water. They're helping out with the situation.
We're standing at one of the locations on Ramp Road in Richland where that distribution of water will happen here in the next couple of hours.
We're also hearing that tankers will come in offering that sanitation water, that fire safety water, and that life safety water as well -- Ana?
ANA CABRERA, CNN HOST: Again, the residents there have been having to deal with this ongoing water crisis of sorts for months and months. And this is just a new tipping point in this crisis.
Isabel Rosales, you'll stay on it for us. Thank you.
A string of celebrities, including Mariah Carey and Atlanta Falcons wide receiver, Calvin Ridley, were recently targeted by a burglary ring in the metro Atlanta area.
And now Fulton County district attorney, Fani Willis, has announced a massive indictment against more than two dozen alleged gang members that she says were behind the high-profile home invasions. Central to her case? Rap lyrics.
Let's go to CNN's Martin Savidge in Atlanta.
OK, Martin, Mariah Carey, rap lyrics, how does all of this fit together?
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, the moral of this particular story, law enforcement would say, if you're going to go the crime, don't rap about it.
Let's take a look at this indictment. It's a big one. And show you some of the information. So 220 counts involving 26 alleged gang members. Criminal charges, include home invasion of celebrities, 16 different incidents.
This burglary crew allegedly had been operating for years. And they are part of a gang known as the Drug Rich Gang.
So the way it would work, according to authorities, the M.O. was they would often stalk their potential victims on social media.
Look for celebrities who were flashing their wealth, maybe jewelry, or talk about their lifestyle. Then they would actually strike at those particular celebrities.
The undoing of this gang, according to law enforcement, was the fact that they bragged about it on social media. Posted the money they made, showed some of the jewels and rapped about it.
Here's the D.A. talking about that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FANI WILLIS, FULTON COUNTY, GEORGIA, DISTRICT ATTORNEY: I think if you decide to admit your crimes over a beat, I'm going to use it.
One of the lyrics used in this indictment, just one of the lyrics is, "Me and my crew striking out, striking in all black. Send me the drop. We'll kick in the house. If we steal a car, we're going to take off the tag."
I have some legal advice. Don't confess to crimes on rap lyrics if you do not want them used.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SAVIDGE: And among those who became victims to this gang, according to law enforcement, Calvin Ridley. He's a wide receiver for the Atlanta Falcons. And you had Mariah Carey. There was a also a goalie from Atlanta United, the soccer team.
Some very big names became victims to what now appears to be a pretty big gang of crooks.
And not everyone has been taken into custody, allegedly, according to authorities. It's ongoing -- Ana?
CABRERA: Pretty brazen to rap about it after targeting especially such high-profile people.
SAVIDGE: Sure is.
CABRERA: Martin Savidge, what a story. Thank you.
Asking for more prayers. I want you to see this new video with injured little legal world series player, Easton Oliverson.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
EASTON OLIVERSON, INJURED LITTLE LEAGUER: Hi, everyone, this is Easton. Thank you for all of your prayers. Please keep praying for me as I continue to get better. I know that prayers, blessings have worked and that Heavenly Father is blessing me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[13:35:09]
CABRERA: What a sweet, sweet boy. Easton had to be airlifted from the tournament earlier this month
after he fell from a bunk bed in his team's dorm. The 12-year-old suffered a skull fracture and doctors told his family he was minutes from death. The family says Easton's recovery has been remarkable. But they
caution he still has a long road ahead of him.
Easton, you asked for prayers, we are praying for you.
We talk a lot about the cost of fuel to drive our cars, but what about the fuel we need to keep your homes up and running? Millions of Americans are behind on their power bills and that's a big concern, especially as we get closer and closer to those cooler months.
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[13:40:42]
CABRERA: Now to your money, your finances. More than 20 million households across the U.S. are behind on their utility bills and now risk having their power shut off.
The big issue is a big spike in natural gas prices, which means much higher power bills.
CNN business and politics correspondent, Vanessa Yurkevich, has much more on this.
First of all, why, Vanessa, is the cost of natural gas up so high and how does that translate into our electric bills?
VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS & POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: You see the spike here over the last three years. You see this top point right here where we are. That's because of the war in Ukraine partly. We are not buying as much energy from Russia. So that eliminates one of the big producers of natural gas.
And also it's been so hot this summer. So much of the country has been experiencing this extreme heat.
This is how it translates. Look at these summer bills. In 2021, just on cooling costs, the average household was spending $450. Let's jump to this year, 2022, $540. So that is a difference for American households of about $90 just on the cooling costs.
And then how is that affecting people? That means 20 million Americans are behind on their bills because of this increase. All U.S. households, according to a census survey, are saying, 20 percent of them are saying we can't pay our bills right now, we're behind.
When you start to drop in income level, the percentage of households that can't make their bills goes up. Moderate income households, 27 percent, say they can't pay their bills. And low income, about 37.8 percent of Americans, say they can't pay their bills right now.
CABRERA: Wow. That's almost 40 percent. YURKEVICH: Huge, huge number.
CABRERA: That's huge. And, of course, that has to do with the increase in prices to cool our homes.
We're on the brink of changing seasons. It's going to start to cool down but we're all going to need heat. That's vital. And where are we headed, do you think?
YURKEVICH: Because of these high natural gas prices, unfortunately, it's not going to get better in the winter. So in 2021, the average for all fuel types to heat homes was $1,025 dollars. Let's jump over. The projection for this winter into 2023 as well, $1,152 dollars.
CABRERA: That's for the whole season?
YURKEVICH: That's for the whole winter season, $127 on average more per household for the American family to heat their homes.
However, there are some interesting programs that are available through states where, if people are behind on their bills, they can go to the state and potentially apply for grants for their utility bills.
Also, the recent Inflation Reduction Act, there's $9 billion in there for rebates and tax incentives if Americans want to go ahead and weatherproof their homes. Hopefully, that helps bring down these utility bills.
But all of this just goes to show we're still in a moment of very high inflation right now. And it is impacting Americans financially in numbers that really make a difference for households.
CABRERA: I can help but to think, Mother Nature, please, have mercy.
Vanessa Yurkevich, thanks so much.
YURKEVICH: Thank you.
CABRERA: Thanks for bringing us that.
Now turning to home prices. A new report shows they cooled off in June. Year-over-year home prices are still going up, just at a slower pace.
And CNN's Matt Egan joins us with these details.
Matt, where do things stand? And what is the prediction for home prices in the year ahead?
MATT EGAN, CNN BUSINESS REPORTER: Well, Ana, the housing market is clearly slowing down. And there's a sense that this might just be the beginning.
We learned today that home prices in the United States road by 18 percent year over year in June. That is a big number. But it's actually the slowest pace in 13 months. Down from nearly 20 percent in May.
Why is this happening? Mostly, it's become home prices got unsustainably high and then mortgage rates spiked. And the higher borrowing costs go, the less home that people can afford.
If you zoom in and you look month to month, we can see that some housing markets remain high. Miami, Chicago, Tampa, all seeing year over year - month-over-month price gains.
But we're actually seeing prices fall in some markets now, including San Diego, San Francisco, and Seattle. Again, that's all between May and June.
And this is a big shift and it may spread. Goldman Sachs warned today that home price growth is likely to slow sharply in the coming quarters mostly because of lower demand.
[13:45:04]
They wrote, quote, "We expect home price growth to stall completely, averaging zero percent in 2023. While out-right declines in national home prices are possible and appears quite likely for some regions, large declines seem unlikely."
Ana, I think all of this shows how at least one part of the economy that got overheated is cooling off. And for first-time homebuyers, this is a glimmer of hope.
CABRERA: OK. I'll take it.
Thank you, Matt Egan.
Molotov cocktails, sawed off shotgun, a disturbing plan posted online. We have new details next about the gunman in an Oregon grocery store and they're eerily similar to shootings we've seen before. What's clear? This could have been a lot worse.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[13:50:13]
CABRERA: An A.R.-15-style rifle, a gunman under the age of 21, online posts apparently detailing plans to carry out a shooting, complaints about family and love life.
Sunday's shooting at the Safeway grocery store in Bend, Oregon, had several hallmarks of massacres we've seen so many times before in this country. This time, the shooter killed two people and wounded a third.
But we are learning an even worse tragedy was narrowly avoided.
CNN's Josh Campbell is tracking this.
Josh, we learned one of the victims killed tried to disarm the shooter. Tell us about this.
JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Ana. A story of tragedy, but also a story of heroism.
Police in Bend, Oregon, say a 20-year-old suspect opened fire inside a Safeway grocery store on Sunday with this A.R.-15-style rifle. Police later found three Molotov cocktails in the shooter's car, along with a sawed-off shotgun.
The attack began in the parking lot, police say, with the shooter opening fire, eventually making his way inside. Two people were killed, and police say the gunman died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Now, authorities have identified the two victims who were killed, 84- year-old Glenn Bennett. He was a customer at the store.
A second victim, 66-year-old store employee, Don Surrett Jr, is being described by police as a hero for confronting and attempting to disarm the shooter, likely saving countless other lives, while, sadly, Ana, losing his own in the process of protecting others.
CABRERA: What a hero.
What more do we know about the gunman?
CAMPBELL: CNN has identified several online blog postings appearing to belong to this shooter, in which he wrote about his desire to commit acts of violence.
One post indicating he was partially inspired by the 1999 school shooting in Columbine. In other posts, he describes himself as, quote, "a ticking time bomb."
This, Ana, is yet another deadly shooting where so many people were wondering if there were warning signs that might have been missed.
The city's mayor is speaking out, saying this wave of gun violence we're seeing can't become the new normal.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR PRO-TEM ANTHONY BROADMAN (D-BEND, OREGON): Send our condolences to the families of the two people murdered in this heinous attack.
We need to guard against the cynicism of thinking of these attacks on order and our peace as regular, unavoidable things. I won't accept that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAMPBELL: Although he is deceased, Ana, authorities continue to investigate the shooter as they work to try to identify a motive in this tragedy.
CABRERA: A lot more questions still.
Thank you, Josh Campbell.
CAMPBELL: You bet.
CABRERA: President Biden is preparing to speak about gun violence just over an hour from now in Pennsylvania. We are learning he will spend a significant portion of this speech pushing for an assault weapons ban.
Our Arlette Saenz is live in Wilkes-Barre, where the president will speak shortly.
Arlette, we're 10 weeks from midterms. Why this speech? Why today? Why Pennsylvania?
ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ana, President Biden is traveling here to Wilkes-Barre to talk about efforts to try to reduce gun crime in this country as Democrats are preparing to make that midterm campaign push.
This is all part of the president's Safer America plan, which also calls for hiring and training 100,000 police officers over the next five years, as well as investing billions of dollars-worth of funding into programs to try to prevent violent crime.
The president is also trying to seize on that momentum of that historic bipartisan gun reform legislation that was passed earlier this summer. And he is set to renew that call for an assault weapons ban.
But this speech, officials say, is also giving the president an opportunity to try to prevent -- present a contrast with Republicans and what he has recently termed an extreme MAGA agenda. That is something you heard President Biden really lean into last week.
And one of the arguments, officials say, he's prepared to make today, is that Republicans can't say that they support law enforcement while also calling for defunding the FBI or supporting those rioters at the capitol on January 6th.
Now, this speech here in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, is over a month in the making. The president was actually supposed to speak here in July but then contracted COVID and they had to cancel that speech.
And where he is giving it is incredibly important, heading into those midterm elections. This is a key battleground state with very hotly contested contests in both the Senate and the governors races.
And President Biden is preparing to make an all-out push here over the course of the next week.
In addition to this speech here, on Thursday, he will be speaking in Philadelphia, where he is set to reprise those campaign themes of battle for the soul of the nation.
On Monday, he will be participating in a Pittsburgh Labor Day event as well. Pittsburgh, also very important to President Biden as a candidate.
So it's very clear he's fully getting into campaign swing very soon. [13:55:02]
CABRERA: OK, Arlette Saenz there in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.
We'll listen for the president's message coming up shortly. I understand former President Trump will also be heading to Pennsylvania this weekend. So, all eyes on Pennsylvania in the next few days.
That's going to do it for us today. We'll see you back here tomorrow, same time, same place. As always, I appreciate your company. You can also join me on Twitter, @AnaCabrera, any time.
The news continues next with Victor and Alisyn right after this.
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