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Storm Death Toll At Least 131, 126 In Florida; Biden Pardons All Federal Offenses Of Simple Marijuana Possession; Voting Underway For Fat Bear Week In Alaska. Aired 2:30-3p ET
Aired October 07, 2022 - 14:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[14:32:14]
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: New York City Mayor Eric Adams declared a state of emergency today in response to the influx of asylum-seekers.
The mayor says the city now has more than 61,000 people in its shelter system, many of them bussed to New York from other parts of the country. He says the crisis will cost the city $1 billion this year.
VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: He's asking the federal and state assistance. And this state of emergency will last 30 days and may be extended.
The restoration and recovery efforts in Florida are slow going for the hundreds of thousands who were impacted but Hurricane Ian.
CAMEROTA: Teams are using drones in places like Pine Island to search isolated areas that boats cannot reach.
As of today, the state's death toll is at least 126 people.
CNN's chief climate correspondent, Bill Weir, is in Vanderbilt Beach north of Naples.
Bill, what's the situation there?
BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: Alisyn, it's heartbreaking everywhere you look. For miles, you see pile of human lives on the curb waiting to go into a landfill.
This is a somewhat upscale neighborhood here at Vanderbilt Beach. And you assume these folks have other homes or the means to rebuild, and this is a headache, it's an inconvenience. While others, you can imagine, are much more frustrated.
One of the most gut-wrenching things I read today is the coroner's reports on the death toll reported. Of the 126, at least two men saw what was left of their homes after the storm and then took their own lives by gunshot.
And so the mental health of this is the underreported story. And -- and my great colleague, Leyla Santiago -- we covered Maria together down in Puerto Rico. She spoke to some women in Fort Myers Beach, who kind of convey the frustration that we've reached now a week well past the storm.
Take a look.
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MARY FERNANDES, FORT MYERS BEACH RESIDENT: We just have to wait and see and hope that they can give us something that we can go stay somewhere. We have no home.
SUSAN TADEY, FORT MYERS BEACH RESIDENT: The roof is gone. The shed is gone. The island (ph) is gone. And my car got flooded.
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WEIR: There's frustration bubbling about insurance. Anecdotally, I've seen a couple of adjusters here and there. But the need is so massive.
You have to consider this will be a $50 billion storm, at least. And the amount of claims before the storm, six insurance companies in Florida had already gone out of business.
Before, in the last three years, before any hurricanes, right, and Citizens is -- look out for the truck there -- Citizens is the public insurer, the backstop of last resort here in Florida.
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But rates to live down here are just going to go up incrementally right here. The people can afford it, the folks who can afford to, like for example, keep building new construction here in Vanderbilt Beach, they can weather out this new age of uncertainty.
But the people who cook their food and probably take care of their kid, who knows what happens for them. It is a cascading crisis financially now.
And, again, the mental health piece of this I don't think we can overstate. The folks down here are frustrated. They have been without power. At least 400,000 now for over a week. There's no ice and no sense of information in some of these pockets.
So, Alisyn and Victor, Ian continues its wrath even though the sun is out and the sky is blue.
BLACKWELL: Yes. The scope and scale of the impact of this storm we are just beginning to learn.
Bill Weir, for us in Vanderbilt Beach, thank you.
Flags are at half-staff, and the people of Thailand are wearing black to mourn those lost in the country's horrific massacre this week.
CAMEROTA: More than 20 children aged 2 to 5 years old were killed during their naptime inside a classroom.
BLACKWELL: Heartbroken families gathered today to remember the victims, including the parents of twins who were yet to celebrate their fourth birthday.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translation): They were so talkative at that age where they talked a lot, she explained. They had different characters. They were so lovely.
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CAMEROTA: Several teachers were also killed in the rampage.
Thailand's prime minister and the country's king and queen traveled to the region to meet with the victims' families.
BLACKWELL: President Biden fulfills a campaign promise and will pardon thousands of Americans convicted of simple possession of marijuana. Details on the impact of this step towards decriminalization next.
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BLACKWELL: In a significant step towards decriminalizing marijuana, President Biden fulfilled a campaign pledge and pardoned all prior federal offenses of simple marijuana possession. According to the White House, the move could affect more than 6,500 Americans.
Cynthia Roseberry is the acting director of the ACLU Justice Division. And Ricardo Baca is the former marijuana editor of "The Denver Post" and the founder of Grasslands, a P.R. and marketing agency, and promotes cannabis.
Thank you so much for being with me.
Ricardo, let's start with you.
So you wrote that it's time now to see some legit action on cannabis. First, your assessment of this decision and what's this legit action that you want to see?
RICARDO BACA, FOUNDER, GRASSLANDS & FORMER MARIJUANA EDITOR, "THE DENVER POST": You know, Victor, thanks for having me.
And this is meaningful moves coming from the Biden administration. But we've had a lot of lip service coming from the federal administration and ones past.
And what we need now is legitimate action, not only to make sure that nobody is serving time but anything cannabis related, because these pardons exclusively help those with possession, but we need to free all cannabis prisoners. But we also need to grant this emerging industry, this fast-growing really big industry the right opportunities to grow within these state markets and within a federal infrastructure that allows these businesses to flourish. Because that does not exist right now.
CAMEROTA: Let me come back to some of that.
Cynthia, let me come to you.
I mentioned in the intro, more than 6,500 people impacted by this decision. Let's talk about them specifically. What does this mean for their lives now that they have been pardoned?
CYNTHIA ROSEBERRY, ACTING DIRECTOR, ACLU JUSTICE DIVISION: Well, it's a good first step to addressing some of the harm from the war on drugs.
A pardon means that you can answer, for example, in a job application, that you've been given a pardon and, therefore, you don't have a conviction for simple possession of marijuana.
What it doesn't do is allow folks to recapture all of the impediments that kept them from moving forward and the harm that was done to families, particularly in black and brown communities.
CAMEROTA: So how does this -- let's get to the broader question now. How does this -- because the president mentioned this in his recorded message about the disparities between black and brown communities and white communities as well that used cannabis at the same rates.
But black and brown communities see arrests and convictions at a much higher rates. How does this get closer to equal justice in this -- in this genre?
ROSEBERRY: We know the ACLU did a report showing that there was a disproportionately greater impact on black and brown communities for arrests for marijuana despite the same use.
So what this does is for the movement at least allows people to no longer labor under the -- the conviction for marijuana to be able to move on with their lives.
What needs to happen though is policing must change, right? President Biden has said that Attorney General Garland should look to de- schedule marijuana. That would allow folks to no longer be arrested for it.
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We've pardoned folks that are convicted for it now but there's no mechanism to keep people from being arrested for it unless we decriminalize marijuana.
BLACKWELL: Ricardo, Senator Schumer introduced the Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act in July. Essentially, would decriminalize, federally, marijuana. No flood of co-sponsors, although this is not an issue that falls neatly along party lines.
How close do you think the U.S. is to decriminalization?
BACA: You know, the data around the partisanship around this issue has been encouraging as more and more Republicans have come across the aisle recognizing that this is widely popular among all Americans.
So while I think we should be a lot closer, we're not very close to that federal legality that we're waiting for.
I think the biggest news coming out of this initiative right now -- because, right now, this only impacts those, you know, 6,000, 7,000 individuals.
But with President Biden asking the Department of Health and Human Services, plus the Justice Department and A.G. Merrick Garland to quickly review cannabis' scheduling, that's where the news is here.
Because when we can reschedule or even ideally de-schedule cannabis, that's truly what we need.
Cannabis is a non-toxic plant and we need a de-scheduled so it's very similar to the alcohol and tobacco of the world open, even though this plant kills significantly fewer Americans every year than those substances itself.
BLACKWELL: Yes, the president also asked governors to follow his lead and pardon those convicted of simple possession. We'll see if that happens.
Ricardo Baca, Cynthia Roseberry, thank you both.
CAMEROTA: Guys, stick around for this. It may be the biggest election of the year. Voting is under way to decide Alaska's status there and the competition is a brewing. We can barely stand the excitement.
And, yes, Victor finds these puns unbearable.
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BLACKWELL: Wait a sec. What was that, the Betty Rubble laugh?
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[14:51:17]
BLACKWELL: Bear lovers everywhere -- and I count myself in the number, I do like a good bear -- are all paying close attention to the chunkiest bears in Alaska.
Voting is happening now to crown the fattest bear of the Katmai National Park and Preserve in Alaska.
CAMEROTA: It's some heavyweight competition between the 2020 champion named 747 and Chunk the Hunk, estimated to weigh roughly 1,200 pounds.
Or you could vote for the 2019 champion, 435 Holly, and 164, described as a quirky and curious bear, who uses the crafty tactic of catching the missed fish from other bigger bears.
BLACKWELL: That's good eating there.
Joining us now, park ranger, Lian Law.
So good to have you.
Listen, this is everywhere. This is the first year I'm hearing about it.
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BLACKWELL: But it's been going on for a while.
Tell us what's happening here, what's being judged?
LIAN LAW, PARK RANGER, KATMAI NATIONAL PARK & PRESERVE: Yes. So this competition, people can vote on whatever fat factor they decide. So it could be the largest bear in general, the most weight gains, their back story.
But the message we want to get out is a fat bear is a healthy bear.
CAMEROTA: Lian, I do want to get to their back story. I'm interested in all of their back stories.
Can we just zero in on number 901? This is my favorite. I like 901 because she's ginormous. Look at how she started before she pigged out. This is her now on the right.
Lian, are you sure she's just eating salmon? Because it looks like she may have eaten some rangers.
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LAW: I mean, salmon is an incredibly rich and fatty diet. And she has done so well for herself. This is her first time in this competition, and she's a younger female bear. But she is doing well.
BLACKWELL: Well, my favorite is Otis. In part, because he just -- you never vote against a brother named Otis.
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BLACKWELL: I think he's been the champion, what, three or four years now? Tell us about him.
LAW: Four times. Yes. He is one of our older male bears to use the river. And he is an exceptional fisher. He practices a sit-and-wait technique of more so letting the fish come to him. It is working in his favor.
BLACKWELL: That's how you do it. Otis!
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BLACKWELL: Sit and let the fish come to you.
CAMEROTA: It's brilliant.
Lian, what do the bears win? What does the bear win?
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LAW: They just have the satisfaction of going into the den all full and ready for hibernation.
BLACKWELL: So what should we be watching here? I mean, what can we learn, probably a better question, from these bears because they gain a lot of weight over the season, but as you say, they're not unhealthy.
LAW: That's right. And so when you think about a bear, they essentially need to eat an entire year's worth of food in six months or less. When they go into the den to hibernate, they aren't going to eat or drink anything but rely solely on their fat reserves.
And so Fat Bear Week is an opportunity for us to highlight their success, celebrate the healthy runs of salmon we have here and the Katmai ecosystem overall.
CAMEROTA: It do you have a favorite?
LAW: Oh -- yes, absolutely. And this year, I will have to say I'm probably going to back 128 Grazer because she has really done well for herself. And she has cubs, as well, so an extra challenge.
CAMEROTA: That's awesome. She's a good-looking bear.
Lian Law, thank you very much for explaining this really fun contest to us. That's a live shot I believe.
BLACKWELL: Yes. This is a live shot of a bear waiting for the salmon --
CAMEROTA: To come to him.
BLACKWELL: That's the strategy.
[14:54:58]
Thank you, Lian.
All right, a fiery debate in a battleground, Arizona. Senator Mark Kelly tries to fight off his Republican opponent, and as the GOP fights to take control of Congress. We'll have the highlights ahead.
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BLACKWELL: Top of the hour on CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Victor Blackwell.
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CAMEROTA: And I'm Alisyn Camerota.
More stunning developments four months after the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.
First, the school district suspending its police force today. And now, news about the school superintendent.
