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CNN This Morning

Three U.S. Marines Dead, Others Injured In Helicopter Crash; Russia's Investigative Committee Confirms Prigozhin's Death; Three People Killed In "Racially Motivated" Shooting; Hearings Scheduled This Week In Several Trump Election Cases; FIFA Suspends Football Chief Luis Rubiales; Louisiana Officials Issue Mandatory Evacuation Orders; Monitoring Two Storms In The Atlantic; Heat Summit To Discuss Preparedness; Boston Shooting; Thousands Gather to Mark 60th Anniversary of King's March. Aired 8-9a ET

Aired August 27, 2023 - 08:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:01:11]

AMARA WALKER, CNN HOST: Good morning, everyone, and welcome to CNN THIS MORNING. It is Sunday, August 27th, 8:00 in the morning. I'm Amara Walker.

RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN HOST: And I'm Rahel Solomon, in this morning for Victor Blackwell. Thank you for spending part of your morning with us.

We are following several developing stories and at this hour, we begin overseas where three U.S. marines are dead and 20 others are injured after their aircraft crashed during military exercises in northern Australia.

WALKER: Australian police say the marines were flying in a U.S. osprey helicopter when it crashed on an island 50 miles north of the city of Darwin.

CNN's Angus Watson joining now from Sydney with more.

Angus, what do we know about the circumstances of the crash and, obviously, the osprey helicopter does have a controversial history?

ANGUS WATSON, CNN PRODUCER: It does. And this happened some 12 hours ago now. But information has been slow to come out. We still don't know why this osprey crashed. What we do know is that three marines have lost their lives, 20 injured, five of those have been hospitalized. One person needed surgery.

This all happened as the United States and Australia are doing these drills. This was a routine drill that involved two osprey aircraft, one of them crashing into Melville Island as you said off the north coast of Australia.

Now Australians have been watching this closely. Politicians have been watching closely. Here is what the prime minister of Australia had to say earlier today. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER OF AUSTRALIA: Our focus as a government and as the department of defense is very much on incident response and on making sure that every support and assistance is given at this difficult time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATSON: Now, you mentioned there that the ospreys have had a history of accidents, some 50 U.S. service personnel have lost their lives in accidents related to the osprey. Just last year, crashes in California and during NATO drills in Norway claimed the lives of U.S. personnel.

And just here in Australia, as the U.S. and Australia, the close allies have been doing drills together. Just last month an Australian helicopter went down off the coast here for Australian service personnel dying. So a sad time for Australia and for the U.S. and thoughts with the families, of course, of the U.S. service personnel who have been killed in this terrible accident.

WALKER: Yeah, that is tragic.

Angus Watson, appreciate it. Thank you.

We're also following a developing story out of Russia. Russia's investigative committee has confirmed that Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin was killed in that plane crash last week.

SOLOMON: Yeah, let's bring in CNN correspondent Melissa Bell.

So, Melissa, what does this mean for the Wagner Group going forward?

MELISSA BELL, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, a lot of questions about what it means specifically in terms of their operations in Africa, across the Middle East. They had this vast network of operations, some of them to do with security and others much more financial interest.

And what we've seen over the course of the last few days is already the Russian authorities trying to step in to take over this operation. One delegation headed to Libya this week on the part of the Russian ministry of foreign affairs. So already steps are being taken to try to assure that the hand over of the operations to more official Russian foreign office channels could happen smoothly.

What today's news means is something that we suspected already. The manifest of the people believed to have been on that plane that crashed on Wednesday have been published very quickly on Wednesday.

[08:05:06]

It included not just Yevgeny Prigozhin, but several of his closest lieutenants, Dmitry Utkin for instance, who ran the Wagner's military operations. All that we have today as a result of the investigative committee announcement, its statement this afternoon, is that when they collected the black boxes, the DNA evidence of the corpses of the crash that they've now confirmed that the ten people on that initial list of passengers, the flights manifest was indeed correct.

What we know is that essentially that Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the man who's just not its founder but its funder, very hands on in the running of the operations of Wagner, we know on the ground and out in the field and this is a significant blow to the group but also so many of those who helped him run it. And the question now, how Wagner could continue to run efficiently without the people who had been at its helm.

SOLOMON: There's a lot of questions about the group's implications in Africa and also what this means for the war in Ukraine moving forward.

Melissa Bell, thanks for being with us this morning. Thank you.

Let's turn now to Jacksonville, Florida, where three people are dead in what police are calling a racially motivated shooting. The suspect who is White went to a Dollar General in a historically Black neighborhood and opened fire. He was armed with two guns. One was painted with swastikas. All the victims, two men and one woman, were Black.

Residents at the neighborhood say that they are devastated. Some saying they go to that very Dollar General nearly every day.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VIRGINIA BRADFORD, LIVES IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD: That's my store, and I know everybody in the store. I feel sad. I feel bad. I feel so bad. That this still goes on, hate and crime.

TARSHU BURTON, LIVES IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD: We were going in for eggs for something quick and going in and out and it could be your last time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALKER: Florida Governor Ron DeSantis released a statement condemning the shooting, saying this in part, the shooting based in the manifesto that they discovered from the scumbag that did this, was racially motivated. He was targeting people based on their race. That is totally unacceptable.

Jacksonville sheriff said investigators found three manifestos indicating that the suspect, quote, hated Black people.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WALKER (voice-over): Multiple people gunned down at a Dollar General store in Jacksonville, Florida, on Saturday. The victims all Black. The shooter identified by police as a White male in his 20s killed himself. Authorities saying the shooting was a racially motivated attack.

SHERIFF T.K. WATERS, JACKSONVILLE SHERIFF'S OFFICE: He wanted to kill (AUDIO DELETED). That is one and only time I'm going to use that word. I want to be very clear that there's absolutely no evidence that the shooter is part of any large group. We know that he acted completely alone. If you take a look at the image on screen, you'll be able to see what he utilized. The weapons that the shooter used today are a Glock and an AR-15 style rival.

WALKER: Waters said the shooter left behind three manifestos outlining his ideology of hate against Black people.

JU'COBY PITTMAN, JACKSONVILLE CITY COUNCIL: I am very, very angry right now. I'm emotional. You know, we got kids in this community seeing all of this.

And this is unnecessary. You know, it's unjust that we can't -- we can't even walk on the sidewalks. We're not safe in any stores.

WALKER: The shooter had earlier been turned away from the campus of Edward Waters University, a historically Black institution just blocks away from the Dollar General store.

On Saturday afternoon, Florida State Senator Tracie Davis, whose district includes Jacksonville, had this to say on X, a platform formerly known as Twitter. Quote: A tragic day in Jacksonville. I'm offering prayers to the families of the victims. This type of violence is unacceptable in our communities.

The FBI announced that although the shooter took his own life, they're launching an investigation into the shooting as a federal hate crime.

WATERS: The individuals that take these firearms and decide to do evil things with them are the issue. So it's up to us to continue to work, our mental health community to continue to work to identify people that should not be in possession of firearms.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SOLOMON: Now earlier this morning, we spoke to CNN senior law enforcement analyst and former Philadelphia police commissioner, Charles Ramsey, and he laid out what he thinks is the top priority for investigators in Jacksonville this morning.

Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHIEF CHARLES RAMSEY, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: The reason they haven't released the name yet is probably because there is still a lot of investigative work taking place. He did leave behind quite a bit of information with these manifestos. Right now, they're going through his social media seeing if he belonged to another group of individuals, a hate-based group, not that that particular -- or at least any individuals within that group were part of what took place yesterday. But they have to investigate that and find out, are there others that are willing to commit similar acts.

(END VIDEO CLIP) [08:10:04]

SOLOMON: And in other news this morning, this will be a busy week for former President Donald Trump and his co-defendants. Trump is facing trials in Florida, Georgia, Washington, D.C. and New York.

Tomorrow in Atlanta, former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows will argue that his trial should be transferred from state to federal court. Other defendants have also made similar requests before the court.

WALKER: And the judge overseeing the federal election subversion case in Washington will hear arguments regarding when to schedule that trial. All of Trump's legal woes have proven to be a huge money-maker for the president -- the former president. The Trump campaign says it has raised about $7 million since the former president was arrested at the Fulton County jail, and a total of $20 million in the past three weeks.

Following the release of his mug shot, his campaign started selling branded merchandise. But he'll need that money for all of the legal challenges he's facing.

CNN's Jeremy Herb reports on Trump's complicated legal calendar.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEREMY HERB, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Now that the 19 defendants in the Fulton County cases have surrendered, we're getting into the complicated questions about how this trial will proceed and we're seeing that even there some cases the defendants are at odds with each other. For instance, two of the defendants Kenneth Chesebro and Sidney Powell have requested a speedy trial in the case. But that's something that former President Trump is opposed to doing. A judge set a case date for Chesebro in October and that remains to be seen for the rest of the defendants.

Now, another issue is whether this case is kept in state court or moved into federal court. We've seen five of the 19 defendants have made a request to move their case into federal court. This is significant because it would change the jury pool. In state court, it would be in Fulton County, which is a very blue county, but the federal court would expand the jury pool including more pro-Trump jurors.

Now, we're going to see this play out on Monday when we get the first hearing about the venue of the case for Mark Meadows, the former White House chief of staff. The district attorney is planning to subpoena witnesses that could testify at Monday's hearing, giving us a preview of what this case against Mark Meadows, former President Donald Trump and the other defendants will look like.

Jeremy Herb, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALKER: All right. Joining me now to talk all things legal is CNN legal analyst and former U.S. attorney, Michael Moore.

MICHAEL MOORE, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Good morning. It's good to be here.

WALKER: OK. So what do you expect to happen during this hearing tomorrow as the former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows is trying to get his case moved from the state system here in Georgia to the federal courts?

MOORE: Well, I mean, the hearing really is just about this change of forum motion. And he wants to do that primarily because he waned to move to have his case dismissed and that said that a federal official shouldn't find themselves at the hands of the state. They don't have a right to come in and charge them for doing their federal job and that is the basis of the transfer motion.

WALKER: It's a low bar.

MOORE: It's a low bar. Does he have a plausible claim?

So 154 of the 157 overt acts that are alleged in the indictment occurred while Trump was actually president of the United States.

WALKER: Right.

MOORE: And all of the conduct alleged against Meadows occurred during that time. And so, he's going to come in and say, you know, the president directed me to do this, and I was setting up meeting and I was setting up phone calls, I was doing those things that I'm required to do, you know, as part of my job as a federal official. And so the judge will have to consider that.

The argument that's been made about, well, he's not -- part of his job is not to commit fraud. That's the case -- that's the issue for the trial. So, just because the state wants to say that, you know, he's committing fraud, that doesn't make it so at this point. This is just a question of does he have a claim that what they're alleging could have been --

WALKER: So it sounds like a simple question. So, you'll expect that the federal judge will say, hey, you can have this removal request and you could go to federal court.

MOORE: I think there's a good chance. It's not a simple question because we really haven't found ourselves in this situation. I mean, I've heard of people want to argue about the Hatch Act. That is a political people can't do -- or they can't do campaign things while in office. That doesn't fit either.

WALKER: Right, but I thought that the complicated of whether -- you know, what he was allegedly involved in was done, you know, in his role as government official and like you've heard those arguments. It's not official government work to be on a phone call to pressure a Georgia secretary of state to find more votes or to talk about, you know, possibly sending the military to seize voting machines.

MOORE: Well, the federal government has more involvement in state elections than most people want to think about. So, for instance, the federal government oversees the Federal Election Commission and oversees the Justice Department and enforcing the Voting Rights Act. They oversee things with the services and the Help America Vote Act. There are all of the agencies that the president is over.

And so to make a claim, to say, look, I was doing -- I had a right to call to find out whether there was fraud in Georgia, had a right to find out where people voted and that civil rights of other people in the state of Georgia had been violated, you know, because of irregularities, that's going to be the claim he makes.

[08:15:12]

And remember that right after the election, so in 2021, the Republican legislature and the Republican governor passed election laws to change the way we did election because of alleged election problems. So that's sort of playing into their argument that maybe something was going on. We were checking into it into our role as federal officials. It's something that the court will have to decide and so it is not a slam dunk move either way.

And again, we're in a different place and a different -- you know, this is -- this is not a normal case.

WALKER: Right.

MOORE: So we have a situation where a president has been charged by a local district attorney --

WALKER: Right.

MOORE: -- for conduct while he was president of the United States.

WALKER: So let's say Meadows is successful and he moves to federal court. He goes to trial. How quickly could that be wrapped up? I asked this because I wonder if Trump will follow suit and if he'll watch to see if his -- if his charges will be dropped and what the timeline for that would be?

MOORE: I think Trump will likely follow suit. I don't think there is any chance in the world that no matter what the court does, there won't be an appeal of that decision. It doesn't mean that the case cannot potentially move forward in some fashion while the appeal is going on, the statute talks about that in a criminal setting, but I think whether the judge decides for or against Meadows, somebody is going to appeal that to try to have an appellate court look at that whether it'd be the government, or whether it'd be Meadows.

So, I think, you know, this idea that somehow this is going to resolve quickly, that even if we get on a trial calendar, we know some of the defendants have moved for a speedy trial that happens on October, the state doesn't have a choice about that under the law. But, you know, the idea that somehow this is going to put us into a trial in March or April of next year, that's just not going to happen.

So, I think we have to step back and think, okay, this is now a motion. There's going to be a litany of pretrial motions and arguments and appeals that go on as this case moves forward, because of the magnitude of it and because of the real constitutional questions. What is executive power? What's executive privilege? Does the president have immunity?

All of these decisions ultimately are going to have to weave their way through the appellate court system, all the way to the Supreme Court.

WALKER: Look, with all due respect, Michael, I'm sure people at home, they just don't care about all of the different legal things and minutia that's going to happen over the next several months, let's say. So, just big picture here, at what point will we actually see a trial begin, one of the many trials, and, you know, I guess what is the realistic timeline? I mean, could it -- could any of this conclude before November of 2024?

MOORE: I don't think you'll see a trial and a verdict before the election. You may see a judge schedule a trial and they may start at some point, but I don't think you'll see the conclusion and you certainly wouldn't see through the appeal. I think the American people are going to have to make their decision based on what they know and what the allegations are, whether or not they accept the allegations or not, or whether or not they think there's something else. But I don't think they should be waiting on a trial to come out to decide how they're going to vote in the election because I just think it's unlikely that we have the finality in that process before the November '24 election.

WALKER: And we've got to go but you were just telling me, which I found fascinating, you think that it should have been better coordinated amongst the different charging agencies.

MOORE: I would have liked to have seen one good case and I think the federal prosecutor is a, you know, good place to do that. Had the case been charged earlier, I think that when they started to bring indictments right before an election and certainly now asking for a trial on the eve of the president's primary elections, I think that plays into the argument that this is about election interference, trying to keep Trump off the ballot, and I don't think you ought to give up -- you ought to give the defense anything to argue about.

So I think this is the kind of case that I wish they could have moved quicker. Now, that's an arm chair quarterbacking and they know about their cases and they know the evidence in it, and so I defer to them. But I just don't think if the goal is to try to get this tried before the election, I have a hard time seeing how we complete one.

WALKER: Yeah, and the other argument is that is too risky in one case. But, yeah, it does make sense to try to coordinate it all at once.

Michael Moore, appreciate you joining us. Thank you so much for coming in.

MOORE: So much a pleasure to be with you. Thank you.

WALKER: And be sure to tune in for election 2024, the campaign and the courtroom tonight at 8:00 p.m. right here on CNN.

SOLOMON: Meantime, still to come for us here, mandatory evacuations are underway in Louisiana where wildfires are still burning. We have a look at the destruction they are leaving behind.

Plus, there is more fallout after a Spanish soccer coach forcibly kissed a feel player after the world cup. Several women team coaches now resigning. We'll discuss more with an expert on the other side of this break.

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[08:23:52]

SOLOMON: Welcome back.

FIFA has suspended Spain's football chief Luis Rubiales from, quote, all football related activities for three months. It comes after he kissed a player on Spain's team moments after they won the women's World Cup last weekend. And just hours after his suspension on Saturday, nearly a dozen members of Spanish national women's football program also resigned in protest of Rubiales' actions.

I want to bring in CNN sports analyst Christine Brennan. She joins us now.

Christine, this historic and really celebratory moment for the team has been overshadowed by all of this. People are really upset. People, players, coachers have all spoken out against Rubiales. Do you think that this suspension from FIFA will be seen as strong enough?

CHRISTINE BRENNAN, CNN SPORTS ANALYST: Well, I think this is a good start by FIFA. And I think FIFA had to do this. FIFA, of course, the worldwide governing body for soccer. And this unbelievable chaos, controversy, scandal that's been going on literally for a week, that kiss occurred a week ago about right now, give or take a half hour, that has just so dominated the news throughout the world and sports and cultural news and overshadowed the Spanish victory, first women's World Cup for Spain.

[08:25:05]

And so, FIFA had to do something. I do think that Rubiales will not come back. I think he is -- the stain on the program, on Spanish football, on the women's program and just the awful, awful behavior that he showed in our me-too world. I just can't imagine the Spanish government wanting him back, the Spanish football federation, this is just toxic.

And so, I think FIFA did this, three months, get out of here, and get out of the way so they could start to work on this but I could not imagine he'll be back as president of the that federation.

SOLOMON: Christine, you wrote in your "USA Today" article, quote, one man's ugly behavior interrupted Spain's World Cup joy. Sadly, it's not surprising. Say more about that. Why isn't it surprising?

BRENNAN: Because this sport, while we call it the beautiful game, I think there is another name for it, the misogynistic game. If you look around the world, the way nations have ignored women soccer players, they have not cared about their women's teams, they have not funded their women's teams and, of course, the allegations and in some cases the actual proof of sexual assault, sexual misconduct is there.

The United States just last year had the reckoning with the Sally Yates investigation, a report about the women's pro league, the WSL, and the behavior of coaches and officials. And some people lost their jobs over that.

So, the United States last year. Obviously, Spain, there it was, everyone could see it on the world stage, that forced kiss, otherwise maybe known as sexual assault by Luis Rubiales, one of the -- as a subordinate, one of the great stars of the Spanish team, Jenny Hermoso, but also a subordinate to him.

And one wonders if that' what you see obviously in public, well, that's what we're seeing worldwide television, what on earth is going on behind the scenes. So my sense is that FIFA should take on a project to have a hotline or call in anonymously where women's football players around the world could call in and say this is happening in my federation. If it is happening in the U.S., happening in Spain, it's happening many, many other places. We just know that under -- in our gut that these are not the only two countries having this issue.

SOLOMON: And you bring up misogyny here. Megan Rapinoe also talking about misogyny at least in this instance with Rubiales, in an article with "The Atlantic".

Christine, how much do you think that the broader culture in women's soccer contributed to what we witnesses after the forcible kiss which is Rubiales doubling down and then tripling down?

BRENNAN: Yeah, because he's always had his way, right. He is the boss. He obviously thought he could do that, what he did to Jenny Hermoso, and that would be fine. Otherwise he would have never done it in public like that.

So, again, one wonders what he's been doing all of these years, maybe nothing else. But that is hard to believe. Also grabbing his crotch right after the victory. That was shown, of course, lovely, all over television.

So I think what we're seeing here is a reckoning for these men who have run these sports federations, these soccer federations in countries that couldn't careless about women's football, couldn't careless about their women's teams. The countries that have cared forever about the men's team and finally now a little bit, other countries still don't, that underperform, and why is that? Because the funding and the respect isn't there as Hermoso has talked about, the respect, respecting women and listen to women. Don't invade their space, don't obviously sexual assault them.

So, and I think the most shocked person on the planet right now is Rubiales who is like, what, I can't do this any more? Well, yeah, pal, you can't do this any more. And I think that's the reckoning that we're seeing and I'll bet there's a lot of federation presidents around the world who are looking at this and saying, oh my goodness, things have changed and yes, they have and that's a really good part of this very bad situation.

SOLOMON: Well, I mean, as I say, it's a start. This 90-day suspension from FIFA, we'll see what else happens next.

Christine Brennan, great to have your insight this morning, thank you.

WALKER: Still to come, tropical storm Franklin has strengthened into a category 1 hurricane in the Atlantic. A look at where it is headed next.

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[08:33:40]

SOLOMON: Welcome back.

In southwestern Louisiana mandatory evacuations are underway as wildfires there continue to burn out of control. In the town of Merryville, officials say that extreme heat and strong winds are expected to fuel the flames again today. Around 20 structures have already been destroyed.

The National Weather Service says that these are some of the worst fire conditions that Louisiana has experienced in decades. Officials say that no one has been hurt in the fires.

And we are also tracking two storms in the Atlantic. Both of which will impact the U.S.

WALKER: CNN meteorologist Allison Chinchar, of course, is tracking it all from the Weather Center.

Oh, boy, here we go. What do we need to know, Allison? 0

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: That is right. So the key takeaway here is two storms, two entirely different impacts for the U.S.

We begin with tropical depression 10. This is likely to become tropical storm Idalia at some point later today. Sustained winds right now 35 miles per hour. It is not really moving all that much in terms of forward speed and that's really not going to change in the next 24 hours.

In fact if you look by tomorrow morning, it really doesn't move all that much. But by late Monday morning and especially into Monday afternoon, then it really begins to take off and head into the Gulf of Mexico. And because of the extremely warm waters there, it is expected to intensify into a Category 1 hurricane before finally crossing into Florida and then over across the Carolinas.

[08:34:59]

CHINCHAR: Rainfall is going to be the biggest concern out of this storm in the short-term. You're talking widespread rainfall totals from Tallahassee up to the Outer Banks of four to six inches but there will be some spots that could pick up eight, ten, or a foot of rain over the next few days.

Winds are also going to be a concern especially along the coastline there. You're looking at Wednesday morning here when we really start to see a lot of those impacts there.

But then it will move inland. So you're also going to be looking at power outages possible in states like Georgia, South Carolina, and potentially even North Carolina.

The other system we're watching, this is Hurricane Franklin, strengthening up to 90 miles per hour and expected to become a Category 3 hurricane in the next 24 hours, may incur some rip currents and some very high surf along the U.S. East Coast.

WALKER: All right. Allison Chinchar, thank you.

And still to come, the federal government will be holding a virtual summit on extreme heat preparedness this week. And look at how heat is threatening the lives of people everywhere.

[08:35:53]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:40:16]

WALKER: With roughly 70 million Americans across more than ten states under heat alerts right now, the Department of Homeland Security and FEMA are convening a heat summit this week to help leaders prepare for more extreme heat events.

The DHS and FEMA are releasing new resources to help communities manage extreme heat which is growing in its intensity due to the climate crisis.

Heat remains the number one weather-related cause of death in the United States, killing twice as many people per year as tornadoes and hurricanes combined.

Marginalized communities are the hardest hit by rising temperatures due to poor infrastructure. Finding solutions to that is one of the goals of this heat summit.

Joining us now is Ladd Keith, who co-authored the report on planning for urban heat resilience. Ladd, great to see you this morning. Look, I mean -- I don't have to

tell you, right. It is been a really hot summer of record-breaking heat.

First off, what is your top priority that you hope to be addressed at the heat summit?

LADD KEITH, CO-AUTHOR, REPORT ON PLANNING FOR URBAN HEAT RESILIENCE: Yes, like you said, this summer we've seen record-breaking temperatures which are right in line with climate change projections so certainly not surprising but very concerning. And I think the summit occurring tomorrow is a part of the federal government's efforts to address extreme heat and make sure that communities across the nation have access to best practices and resources to address the extreme heat they're experiencing in their own backyards.

WALKER: So what are these best practices because, you know, you co- authored this report as we said off the top, on planning for urban heat resilience.

How can we make urban areas more heat resilient, when you know, by definition these urban areas have a ton of concrete and as you know, and we all know, heat -- concrete absorbs a lot of heat and also releases it.

So what are the best ways to address this in areas where's there are less trees?

KEITH: Yes, absolutely. Like you mentioned, heat is highly equitable so marginalized, lower-income, and minority neighborhoods are often hotter than their other counterparts.

And so in the book that we co-authored -- I co-authored with Sara Meerow, you know, was funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and so that means that this is a free resource available to any to download on the (INAUDIBLE) American Planning Association Web site.

And what you do is three main things. We talk about how communities can better coordinate their efforts between urban planners, public health officials, emergency managers and their local National Weather Service offices and then we talk about how they could mitigate heat.

So strategies like urban forestry, cool pavements and reducing waste heat from the energy that's used by automobiles, coals and buildings and how they can manage heat.

And that really goes into things like early warning systems, spreading public awareness about the risks of heat and opening cooling centers for those that may not have access to heat environments in their own homes.

WALKER: Do you think that the government has been or is now prioritizing this heat crisis and addressing it?

KEITH: Yes, that is a great question. So historically when you look at how our government has managed all hazards, we've historically managed wildfires, floodings, hurricanes for a quite a while longer than heat. But these very reasons and the list of climate hazards that we have been addressing which means that there has at first we find a governance gap with how we address heat.

And it is fair to say that the Biden administration is the most heat- focused in history due to the attention and rising awareness of the impacts of heat in recent years.

And so we're seeing kind of a whole of government approach which is a really positive thing.

So new heat safety labor laws have been proposed and additional measures by Congress being proposed too so there is multiple bills out there.

One of those actually include heat on the list of major disasters that FEMA can respond to. So continuing these efforts are really important and we're still in the very early days of addressing heat.

WALKER: Yes. And how important is it to invest in infrastructure? You know, when it gets really hot here and it is been, for me, unbearably hot here in Atlanta, I see our power bill which is sky high, you know, we try to adjust our temperatures in the house so that certain rooms, you know, are at 80 degrees while our main living area is at 75.

But I get concerned because I wonder -- is there going to be a power outage at some point?

I mean how long could our power grids hold up especially when this seems to be and I hate to use cliches, that the new normal. you know, when -- they're not just heat waves, it's like the heat is here to stay.

KEITH: Yes, absolutely. That is what we've been experiencing in Arizona as well as the summer long record-breaking temperatures and the heat wave that is essentially the whole summer at this point in some places.

[08:45:01]

KEITH So I think it is incredibly important that we consider how we plan to design cities with heat in mind. And if you compare how we (INAUDIBLE) cities' flood risk, we have FEMA floodplain maps, we have acquired new developments to go through approval processes to be built in a way that mitigates the flood risk.

We should really be doing the same with heat. And every new development that comes on board we should requiring certain measures to make sure it doesn't contribute to the heat island that we see in many urban areas and in the (INAUDIBLE) federal dollars are so important for the railway projects and investments in urban greening so we could cool off the hot areas of our cities.

If we could do that in an equitable way and focus less attention to the lower income areas, I think that is where we do things as well. WALKER: Absolutely, doing it in an equitable way is key. I call all

those trees our nature's air-conditioning because there is a marked difference when you are in the shade near trees than when you're in the shade next to a building.

Ladd Keith, appreciate your time. Thank you.

And still to come for us, multiple suspects have been arrested after that shooting at a Boston parade. We'll have the latest on the incident after a quick break.

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WALKER: Several suspects have been arrested after a shooting brought a Boston parade to a halt. Seven people were injured.

SOLOMON: Yes, now police are asking for any videos that people at the parade may have of the shooting to try to help them piece together what happened.

CNN's Polo Sandoval has the latest.

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Amara, Rahel -- what was described by Boston's mayor as a vibrant and treasured event for the community was violently interrupted yesterday morning by the sound of gunfire.

This happened in the neighborhood of Dorchester, just south of downtown Boston, where folks are coming together, celebrating Boston's Caribbean Carnival for the 50th (ph) year in a row, when at one point, the sound of gunfire sent people scrambling.

Investigators said that seven people sustained nonlife-threatening injuries, several weapons were seized. And we're told at least two people have been detained as part of this investigation.

Although the motive, they're still working to try to determine that. What they have said is that at one point, one of the parades that make up that festival was getting started when those shots rang out.

I want you to hear directly from the police commissioner as he describes what they believe may have happened.

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MICHAEL COX, BOSTON POLICE COMMISSIONER: This morning's shotting is not related to the parade that occurred, you know, since it happened on the outskirts of it.

It's very early in the investigations, but it seems to potentially be maybe two groups having some type of altercation.

(END VIDEO CLIP) SANDOVAL: And this morning, Boston police are asking anybody in the public that may have seen this, captured it with their phones to actually reach out to them, especially with any witness accounts.

This would not be the first violent incident that happened at or near this festival. Back in 2015, a series of shootings left several people injured and at least one person dead.

And then in 2021, there was a young man that was actually watching the parade when according to the district attorney in Suffolk County, Massachusetts he was approached by a stranger and then stabbed to death.

So what we really have seen is Boston PD really increase their presence at this event to make sure that people feel safe attending it -- Amara, Rahel?

WALKER: All right. Polo Sandoval, thank you.

60 years after Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. led 250,000 people in the march on Washington for jobs and freedom and equality, thousands of people gathered again at the Lincoln Memorial on Saturday to commemorate the anniversary.

SOLOMON: Yes, civil rights activists from all over the country spoke about king's famous speech and how his dream has been threatened once again.

CNN's Jason Carroll caught up with marchers and activists in D.C.

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JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we spoke to people all over the country, who came out here today to hear from speakers across the spectrum of the civil rights movement.

One of the ongoing themes that was addressed here over and over again, voting rights. It was an issue 60 years ago back in 1963. Civil rights leaders say it continues to be an issue today.

One of those driving home that point, Andrew Young, former mayor of Atlanta, noted civil rights activist. He was here today, 91 years old.

He was here 60 years ago, back in 1963. He worked alongside Martin Luther King Jr. and he gave his assessment of the condition of the country today.

ANDREW YOUNG, VOTING RIGHTS ACTIVIST: The vote is the passport to freedom and opportunity. That is hard work, but it's good work.

Don't get mad. Get smart. Don't look at all of the things that are wrong, look back on where we were 66 years ago, when we had the first march on Washington. And Martin Luther King said then, give us the ballot. And then he moved up and said, but I have a dream. But he gave his life for that dream. CARROLL: Some of the other issues also being brought up today --

educational equality, economic equality, as well. Some of the same issues that were addressed 60 years ago back in 1963. Organizers say that they are issues that still need to be addressed today.

Jason Carroll, CNN -- Washington.

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SOLOMON: Jason, thank you.

And before we go, here are a couple of other stories we're following for you.

Investigators believe that a deadly shooting in Jacksonville, Florida was racially-motivated. The suspect is described as a white man in his 20s. He went into a Dollar General and opened fire.

[08:54:52]

SOLOMON: Officials say that he targeted black, killing two men and one woman before killing himself. They say that one of his guns was painted with swastikas.

The FBI has launched a civil rights investigation and says it will pursue the shooting as a hate crime.

WALKER: Former longtime host of "The Price Is Right", Bob Barker, has died. He hosted the popular game show for 35 years, winning 19 Emmy Awards and a Lifetime Achievement Award.

Barker was also known for being an advocate for animal welfare issues reminding people at the end of every show to have their pets spayed or neutered. Bob Barker was 99.

And that is our time, everyone.

Rahel, it's been great to be with you this weekend. Thank you so much for joining us this morning.

SOLOMON: Amara, it's been great to be with you as well, even virtually.

And "STATE OF THE UNION" is coming up next.

Great to be with you at home. Have a great day.

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