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Stockton Police Arrest Serial Killer Suspect In Northern California; Severe Drought Pushing Mississippi River To Dangerously Low Levels; Kanye West To Acquire Conservative Social Media Platform Parler; Hearing Aids Can Now Be Bought Over The Counter, No Prescription Required. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired October 17, 2022 - 13:30   ET

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

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[13:31:12]

ANA CABRERA, CNN HOST: A suspected serial killer is now behind bars. Police say he was armed and on a mission to kill, out hunting for his next victim when they arrested him over the weekend in northern California.

Investigators had been searching for a man seen on surveillance video. Wesley Brownlee is their suspect. He will be arraigned in court tomorrow.

Now, police believe he killed six men and injured a woman in a string of late-night shootings.

CNN's Camila Bernal is in Stockton, California, for us.

Tell us how police found this guy, Camila, and what we know about him.

CAMILA BERNAL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Ana. So we know he's a 43-year-old man who lives here in Stockton and, according to police, has a criminal record. We're waiting to hear more on that.

But authorities did express how they believe they got their guy essentially. They say this arrest was made to two things. The first was the public's help, the tips from the community.

The second thing being what the police chief call good old-fashioned police work. They say, after they reviewed the hundreds of tips that came in, they were able to zero in on one possible suspect.

They started studying this guy. They were following him and they were trying to figure out if he had any patterns.

Indeed, they found the patterns. He was out in the early morning, late at night, going around dark places or to parks. He would driver around, stop, look and continue driving.

That's why the chief of police specifically said he was out on a mission to kill. He was hunting. Those are the words used by the chief of police. When they arrested him, he was wearing all black, wearing a mask

around his neck, and he did have a gun.

So now local authorities thanking the public for they did here.

Here is the mayor of Stockton, Kevin Lincoln, and what he said about the next step.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR KEVIN J. LINCOLN (R-STOCKTON): We made it very clear to the public that the senseless acts of violence would not be tolerated. Even though there's no words we could say that could bring back the lost loved ones, the least we could do is do our part of help bring justice.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERNAL: And we will know more of the charges tomorrow when he has his first court appearance.

In that in terms of motive, police saying they just don't know -- Ana?

CABRERA: What about the victims? Were they connected? What more are we learning about them?

BERNAL: Well, authorities don't believe they are connected. But we do know there were at least seven victims. These shootings began in April 2021, with the latest being just at the end of last month.

We know that at least six of them were men. Those that were killed were all men. Most of them Hispanic. All of them were killed when they were out late at night, when they were alone.

There's one survivor. It's a 46-year-old black woman. And she has talked to police. She said she was out at her campsite, and she heard something, so she went outside and looked around and that's when she was shot.

It's unclear what she remembers. But she will be, of course, key in the investigation and in the prosecution if this does go to court -- Ana?

CABRERA: Camila Bernal, thank you for that.

Severe drought is punishing the Mississippi River. In fact, that river is now at record lows. This is in St. Paul, where barges are getting stuck in the mud and sand, which is slowing down the delivery of agricultural products there.

And take a look at this in Missouri. Tower Rock is a massive island in the middle of the Mississippi River. Typically, you can only get there by boat. Now people are just walking to it.

And in Louisiana, the low water levels exposed the wreckage of a 19th century ship, according to our affiliate, WBRZ. I want to bring in our meteorologist, Britley Ritz.

Britley, these images are pretty remarkable, disturbing.

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[13:35:01]

BRITLEY RITZ, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes.

CABRERA: How much lower can the river go?

RITZ: I mean, we're expecting lower levels, all-time records, Ana.

This is what we're looking at now with the Mississippi River. It almost looked like a braided stream.

We widen things out there, you can see the low levels of what's left in the water in parts of the central and lower Mississippi valleys. All of the dots indicating where we have record low levels.

We want to zoom into parts of Memphis into areas of New Madrid. These areas are at about five feet below where we should be for the Mississippi River basin. Unbelievable. Three new records just in that vicinity.

We showed you that levels. Now I want to show you the island. Some of these people were walking to the island. Like Ana, said typically you need a boat. Now that water level completely down.

Most of the state of Arkansas still under some sort of drought. And 70 percent and 99 percent of Oklahoma under a severe drought.

We need rain. It's just not happening. And our rain chances for the upcoming week, very little.

Even up into the Ohio Valley, not seeing much. You have to get into the Great Lakes to get a better chance.

That below level rainfall is expected, not just this week, but all the way through the month of October.

Folks, we need rain, and it's just not happening.

And on the contrary, let's head up to Alaska where water levels are actually rising due to the melting ice caps. Climate change? Possibly.

That's actually affecting the king crab and snow crab population. I mean, we had billions from 2018 to 2022. We've dropped from eight billion to one billion.

It would be typically like two degrees Celsius water. Lately, the water temperature has been rising, which is part of reason we noticed the decline in the crabs -- Ana?

CABRERA: Wow. It's all a huge, huge example of the climate crisis and what we can expect more of, unfortunately.

Thank you very much, Britley Ritz. Good to have you with us.

What do you do when you're blocked from Twitter and Instagram? I guess buy your own platform. Days after Kanye West faced a crackdown for anti-Semitic posts, the rapper is buying far-right app Parler.

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[13:42:20]

CABRERA: Trump and Truth Social, Musk and Twitter, and now Kanye West and Parler? We're learning the rapper is looking acquire the far-right media platform.

The news of the deal comes left than a week after West, who now goes legally by Ye, was temporarily blocked by Twitter and Instagram over an anti-Semitic post.

Ye posting on Parler, "In a world where conservative opinions are considered to be controversial, we have to make sure we have the right to freely express ourselves."

So where could all of this lead?

Let's discuss with CNN national security analyst, Juliette Kayyem.

First, Juliette, talk to us about Parler. Why is it so controversial?

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: As I say, let me say, it advertising itself as a conservative platform, Ana, that is a nice way of putting it.

It's a bit of a cesspool and incitement with a lot of activities that we know include the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers and others.

It was a platform that was taken off of Google store and the Alphabet store after January 6th.

It claims it has better moderation procedures on this platform. But no one goes there for a dialogue on conservative ideas. They go there to find equally minded hate, essentially.

And that's what -- that's what Kanye, that's why he's buying it. It's no joke. He knows exactly what he's saying. His hate rants just need to find a platform.

CABRERA: Yes, we now know Parler was the key platform that the insurrectionists were communicating on prior to January 6th and making their plans and riling everyone up.

I'm wondering if someone like Kanye takes over, do you think his fame, his notoriety could help Parler become more mainstream and could he then elevate this to be a more dangerous tool for extremist?

KAYYEM: Absolutely. That would be a concern. I want to make it clear that we don't know the details and if it's actually going to happen.

This has an Elon Musk/Twitter feel to it, that he wakes up and he's going to buy it.

It's true, he's talking about Parler more than he ever has. There may be people attracted by his statements, by his notoriety and his fame to move over there.

But they're going to bump up against -- it's not pretty noxious behavior and platform. It's not just talking about art and music and culture. It is there to thrive in what they call a world that can't be cancelled. I call that a world that is afraid to be criticized.

[13:45:09]

And that's essentially was Parler is. But it's not that it is -- it's not that they're hiding from cancel culture. They don't like the fact that their criticized. And this is exactly where Kanye is.

CABRERA: We're seeing more and more of this. Money equals power when it comes to social media and being able to control a message.

I take it there's a message at the top, these people with money buying or creating new social media avenues. They say their freedom of speech has been violated, that they're being silenced.

What do you say to that?

KAYYEM: So, obviously, they're just abusing the First Amendment. They're not being silenced. The market has decided they don't want some of this misbehavior, incitement on their platforms.

When Twitter takes Donald Trump off, there's no First Amendment allegation. But they want words around because of the salaciousness that they like to claim that they're racism or they're anti-Semitism, as we've seen.

What can we do? There are two things that are going to curb this. One is there's just going to be a group of people who want to converse in the most hate-filled arena. That, in some ways, we sort of move on and moderate for violence but not focus on it, right?

The second is the market is going to be attacked. So I was looking at the market value of Parler. We don't know quite what it is. They've only been able to raise less than $100 million.

That seems like a lot to people. It is not a lot if you're talking about a global social media platform. So there's going to be market controls.

And the third is, of course, lawsuits. These social media platforms are looking at vulnerability they have for allowing the organization by letting people get together and hate as much they want but organizing of violence.

And we're probably one lawsuit away from being already filed against the social media platform. So, they're going to be more cautious about what they allow on them.

And I should say, for the record, Google and Apple Store should look at what apps they're allowing on the platform. I mean, they have free agency. They're not the government.

CABRERA: Yes.

KAYYEM: And if those are -- if those are apps that make them vulnerable on the business perspective, if I were on their board, I wouldn't insist some content violation.

As I said, these are not places for conservative thought. They're places that are stewing a mix of violence and other things. And that's why Kanye wants to buy it.

CABRERA: It's an important discussion for that very reason. And it will be interesting to see how this shakes out.

Juliette Kayyem, thank you very much for joining us.

KAYYEM: Thanks.

CABRERA: A life changer and cost saver for millions of Americans who suffer from some level of hearing loss. We'll fill you in, next.

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[13:52:36]

CABRERA: It is a game-changing, perhaps life-changing day for millions of adult Americans who suffer with hearing loss. For the first time hearing aids can be bought over the counter, no prescription required.

Before this, you had to visit a hearing health professional and get a custom fitting. Today's change means you're saving time and you'll be saving money.

CNN health reporter, Jacqueline Howard, joins us now.

This is great news, Jacqueline. Who specifically will benefit from this?

JACQUELINE HOWARD, CNN HEALTH REPORTER: This is a big game changer for adults with mild to moderate hearing loss. That's the group that will benefit from this.

When you look at the statistics, about 28.8 million adults in this country could benefit from hearing aids. But not all of them have had access. Not all of them have had the means to afford hearing aids.

So when you look at older adults, 70 and older who could benefit from hearing aids, only 30 percent have ever worn them. When you look at adults 20 to 69 who could benefit, 16 percent have ever used them.

So the goal with making these medical devices available over the counter is to make them more accessible, more affordable. We can expect to devices that that cost in the hundreds of dollars

compared with the thousands of dollars they would cost when prescribed -- Ana?

CABRERA: Hearing aids can come in a variety of forms. What type of device would be available over the counter?

HOWARD: We expect to see several different types of hearing aids for, again, mild to moderate hearing loss.

For people who need hearing aids for severe hearing loss, those won't be available. And these are only for adults. We will not see devices for children.

But the stores who have said they plan to have these on the shelves for people include Walmart, Walgreens, CVS, Best Buy, Hy Vee. So we can expect to see devices rolling out at these locations starting today, starting this week.

CABRERA: Hundreds of dollars instead of thousands of dollars to be able to hear better. That can change lives.

Jacqueline Howard, thank you so much.

And before we go, we have some other good news, bright news, $247 million bright for one lucky person from an area devastated by Hurricane Ian. We've learned a Mega Millions winning lottery ticket was sold at a 7-Eleven in Fort Myers, Florida.

Residents in Fort Myers are still sorting through the damage after that city took a catastrophic hit from Ian earlier this month.

[13:55:03]

The Florida winner has 180 days to come forward and collect his or her winnings and the other winning ticket was sold in California. Yea for that person in Florida.

That does it for me today. Thanks for joining us. You can find me here, same time, same place, tomorrow. You can follow me on Twitter, @AnaCabrera.

The news continues after a quick break.

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