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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Food, Medicine, Scarce in Philippines; Cougar Attack; Extreme Bullying; Dow and S&P 500 Both Close At New Record; Janet Yellen Confirmation Hearing Today
Aired November 14, 2013 - 05:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ZORAIDA SAMBOLIN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): A Texas road. Seriously? Yesterday was alligators, today is kangaroos.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Kangaroos on the lam.
(LAUGHTER)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SAMBOLIN (on-camera): Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Zoraida Sambolin.
BERMAN (on-camera): And I'm John Berman. Thirty minutes past the hour right now.
SAMBOLIN: Nice to have you with us this morning.
In the Philippines this morning, tragedy is turning to frustration and desperate pleas for help. Aid is arriving in the nation devastated by one of the most powerful typhoons on record. Haiyan decimated huge parts of the Philippines, leaving tens of thousands homeless and more than 2,300 people dead.
But the relief efforts are said to be moving slowly. Hospitals are overwhelmed and residents simply are not getting the help they need. Nick Paton Walsh is live in Tacloban this morning. Nick, what is the latest there?
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Which for dusk fell (ph) which you can see behind me has turned the city really into a ghost town in many ways. No real sources of light even for people remaining there -- they make themselves. We drove through and I did see, for the first time, actual palpable signs of the government intervening.
A truck giving out food to people. Long queues behind that filling the street, blocking traffic, a sign I think of, perhaps, how desperately that contribution was needed. I think many observing the streets there for the last few days have been waiting to see as well signs the government are finally going about the task of collecting the corpses littering the sides of the streets.
Now, they say they've been doing it for days and people keep putting (INAUDIBLE) weeping seeing the same ones there again and again. But a sign the government is slowly moving into action here but really just driving through. You see the monumental task ahead, collecting dead all over the streets, let alone trying to rebuild lives for people here, the few that remain -- Zoraida.
SAMBOLIN: Nick, what about evacuations? Because as we look at all of this devastation, you know, we think that people just need to get out of that area in order to get the help that they need. How is that moving along?
WALSH: Well, it's interesting to note we've seen a number of trucks, buses seemingly there to take people away. The airport where we've been for the last few days always there's a cue of people trying to get out, trembling -- with their suitcases and getting one of the planes would take them away from here.
Because frankly, there's not much left in that city to support life. You can see, there's nothing you can see this on a day or night -- lightning far away illuminates eerily what's behind me. But the question, of course, is how badly devastates. It is the rest of the area. We drove south a little bit yesterday. So, the neighboring town of Palo (ph) who'd been quite badly hit, but then it started to soften out.
This seems to be in the epicenter of the worst hit area and people really struggling to find anything to begin their life again within here.
SAMBOLIN: So, as you've been traveling through and I know that, you know, it's taking you some time to get through all of the debris also, we keep on hearing about this number of people that have died. Do we think that number is going to continue to increase, that they still haven't reached some of the harder hit areas?
WALSH: I think now people are getting a broader sense of exactly how badly whatever areas were hit. We seem to feel, as you drove away from here, that the damage is getting less. Of course, there will be pockets around the area which people will get to and maybe cause the death toll to rise. There are suggestions (ph) that could be thousands of people not quite accounted for at this point, but that not so say this is a scientific act.
I mean, looking at simply Tacloban itself, they're struggling to even get trucks in the government here to really get their aid effort mounting. The only thing they would have an accurate measure on -- people are missing. It's complicated. It's come down from 10,000, just over 2,000 as you said and may go up a little again fractionally but the real emphasis here is just trying to get people enough to get to their daily lives, Zoraida.
SAMBOLIN: All right. Nick Paton Walsh live for us. Thank you so much.
And of course, if you would like to help, go to CNN.com/impact. We have a list of groups working in the Philippines helping people that are hurt by the typhoon. BERMAN: So many good resources. So many good ways to reach out and help.
SAMBOLIN: No. Absolutely.
All right. Back here in the U.S., a very, very rough first month for the president's health care overhaul. The numbers beyond disappointing. The administration says only about a hundred thousand people signed up for coverage under the insurance exchanges in October. That was the first month they were offered. Less than a quarter of those sign-ups were through the much maligned healthcare.gov site.
The White House is promising to fix the problems with the site and the enrollment process, but Democrats in Congress are now threatening something of a -- want to pass some bills to allow Americans to keep some of their plans that have been dropped over the last month. Of course, the president promised that everyone with a plan could keep it.
Meanwhile, Republicans are asking if we've already spent millions on a website that does not work, should we spend even more to fix it?
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SEN. MARY LANDRIEU, (D) LOUISIANA: If this were easy, it would have been done before. So, not only is this part of the bill something that needs to be changed, we've already changed a couple of other smaller things that needed to be fixed and we'll continue to work on it.
REP. JOHN DUNCAN, (R) TENNESSEE: Does anybody have how much all of this is going to cost us in the end? Nobody knows?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: Again, some of the biggest heat and friction right now is between the White House and Congressional Democrats and key White House officials are expected to go to Capitol Hill today with some of their Democratic allies about revisions in the law. Again, many Democrats in Congress now want to pass something that would allow Americans to keep their health care plans.
SAMBOLIN: I find it remarkable that it's really kind of borderline threats at this stage of the game saying, fix this or else we are going to side with the Republicans.
BERMAN: By Friday. There's a Republican plane (ph) in the House that will come up for both, and Democrats say to the White House, if you don't give us something to vote for before that, we will vote for the Republican plan.
SAMBOLIN: All right. Thirty-six minutes past the hour.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) SAMBOLIN (voice-over): A frightening seen at a Pittsburgh high school when minutes after the final bell, shots rang out. Four teenage boys were ambushed right outside the school. Three of them were shot. They staggered back inside and the school was put on lockdown. S.W.A.T. and police swarmed the scene and a 16-year-old was arrested and charged as an adult with four counts of attempted homicide.
Police say he targeted the victims in retaliation for a drug-related assault last month. The victims are expected to be OK.
BERMAN (voice-over): We have an outrageous story to tell you about in South Florida, really extremely bullying where two teenage girls were accused of robbing, ransacking and then setting fire to the home of a classmate. The teens are charged as adults and are being held in Palm Beach County Jail. A family friend of the victim says the girls went way too far.
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STELLA PENROD, FAMILY FRIEND: Not only did they steal their belongings and their electronics and then had the audacity to burn down the house to where it's not even livable? That's really mean.
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BERMAN: Police say one of the suspects was seen wearing jewelry that belonged to the victim and she allegedly told friends she set the fire and sold some of the stolen items. When confronted at school, investigators say, she just said, she thought it was funny.
SAMBOLIN: Oh, my goodness. Thirty-seven minutes past the hour.
It is sentencing day for convicted mobster, James Whitey Bulger. The 84-year-old is facing a mandatory life term after being convicted of dozens of counts, including a role in nearly a dozen murders. Relatives of Bulger's victims gave their side at a hearing in Boston yesterday, calling him names like coward and Satan. They spoke from behind Bulger and he spent the entire hearing with his back to them.
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WILLIAM O'BRIEN, JR., SON OF WILLIAM O'BRIEN: I think he was scared. I think he was afraid to turn around and see the massive people and all of those families he affected. I think he was scared. I think he was scared to face up.
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SAMBOLIN: Prosecutors want Bulger sentenced to two life terms guaranteeing he will die in prison.
BERMAN: He's not getting out.
Gay marriage now the law in Hawaii. The governor signing a bill -- excuse me, Peter Brady here.
(LAUGHTER)
BERMAN: The governor signed a bill making the Aloha State the 15th state plus the District of Columbia to allow same-sex marriage. You remember, it was Hawaii that really began the national debate over gay marriage some two decades ago when the state Supreme Court there ruled that gay Americans should have the right to marry.
That led to a national backlash in the passage of the Federal Defensive Marriage Act which was struck down earlier this year.
SAMBOLIN: All right. A very strange site in the western part of Texas. It is a kangaroo on the loose near midland. Even police did not believe their eyes.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They were questioning the call, you know, kangaroo in Midland, Texas? There are no kangaroos out here. it must be something different. Then they thought the dispatcher was crazy so they went out there and, sure enough, they found him.
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SAMBOLIN: Sure enough it's the kangaroo. It winds up that joey had escaped from its owner and was -- look at him -- hopping down the highway. Deputies eventually cornered the animal while the owner used treats to distract the kangaroo and snatched him up. Officials are looking whether the owner violated an exotic animal ordinance.
BERMAN: Kangaroo on the lam!
SAMBOLIN: That is such --
BERMAN: That's an amazing picture.
SAMBOLIN: It really is. Can you imagine the phone call, too? There's a kangaroo.
BERMAN: They took care -- those law enforcement in Midland, Texas, they took care of the whole thing and offering treats to the kangaroo. They have a stash of kangaroo treats just in case.
SAMBOLIN: What do you give them?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SAMBOLIN (on-camera): All right. It's another cold morning for much of the nation, but some help and heat on the horizon, we understand. Miss Indra Petersons --
INDRA PETERSONS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: You know it's a little chilly when we're actually colder in the Minneapolis this morning. We're talking about --
SAMBOLIN: That's nasty. PETERSONS: Boston freezing. We're talking about Chicago just barely above freezing. Minneapolis not much better but either way they're warmer at 36 degrees. Look at the 20s out there. Pittsburgh 28 and Charleston this morning at 23 degrees. Now, here's the real strange thing this time of year. We're talking about this cold air having gone all the way down to the south.
So, they're dealing with it as well. Jackson 27 and Atlanta currently below freezing at 31. So, with that, yes, freeze warnings this morning into the south. Really all up and down around the gulf extending all the way in through Georgia this morning. It should be the last day they see this. That's the good piece of news here.
We're going to be warming up, thanks to the moisture coming out of the gulf. And let's talk about the temperature change today. Here's the good stuff. New York City, you're warming 12 degrees, Pittsburgh 12 degrees, and even Raleigh warming 12 degrees. So, we're all warming up and that's going to feel so much better where yesterday highs were just in the 30s, for many of us maybe some low 40s.
Today, you can see a lot more 50s up are going to be on the map, even Charlotte trying to get near that 60-degree mark. So, hopefully, it'll be just a distant memory by the time we go to the weekend more importantly.
BERMAN: Clawing its way to warmth here.
PETERSONS: Yes.
SAMBOLIN: Indra, thank you.
PETERSONS: Thanks so much.
BERMAN: We got some really disturbing to show you after the break. A terrifying 911 call for help when a cougar attacks.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, my God, Renee! Oh, my God!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SAMBOLIN: Oh gosh.
BERMAN: We'll have this for you when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BERMAN: Welcome back to EARLY START, everyone. We are hearing this morning the harrowing 911 call after a wildcat keeper was attacked and killed by a cougar in Oregon. Thirty-six-year-old Renee Radziwon- Chapman apparently entered enclosure alone against the policy of the WildCat Haven Sanctuary and the owner of the sanctuary, Michael Tuller, called police begging for help.
At one point he went into the enclosure himself, shooing the cats away so he could get to her body. You can hear it all right here in this chilling.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, my God, Renee. Oh, my God, Renee! Oh, my god. Get! Oh, my God.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sir, are you in a safe position to be able to go in by yourself?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm here.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK. We don't want you to get injured. We don't want you to get hurt.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I hear what you're saying. Get out of here! Get! Go! Go! Go!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: Like I said chilling. Tuller was able to retrieve Radziwon- Chapman's body, but she was already dead. She leaves behind a husband and a five-month-old daughter.
SAMBOLIN: All right. Let's take a look what's coming up on "New Day." Chris Cuomo, Kate Bolduan joining us this morning. Good morning to you.
KATE BOLDUAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, you guys.
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We're going to be talking about Obamacare this morning. The numbers are in. They're not good. Why is everybody so surprised? We were told that the rollout wasn't good. We were told the numbers are going to be low. Well, whatever reason, the politics are working of this shock value of the numbers.
Not just among Republicans but Democrats, language kind of sounding like revolt, new plans, worries about 2014. We're going to you through what it seems these numbers will do in terms of impact on Obamacare and the upcoming elections.
CUOMO: And we're going to talk about probably the most talk about mayor right now. Shocking new report about Toronto's mayor, Rob Ford, alleging patterns of drug use and erratic behavior. More details than we've heard before. It was released the same day as this. We're seeing some video of it.
A fiery, contentious, really bizarre meeting between Ford and the Toronto city council over whether he should step down and take a leave of absence. We're going to bring you all the fireworks and all the new allegations coming up.
BERMAN: What a circus there. All right. Thanks, guys. Look forward to it.
It is time now for our "Morning Rhyme," these are the best tweets of the day. Today is from Julie Benoit (ph) and it really is all about the mayor of Toronto. It's stunning here. This is what -- you know, you heard him say F'd up yesterday. This is the rhyme. "Ford f'd up, smoke some crack, Toronto wants its city back." Kudos for Julie Benoit (ph) for all those rhymes and being on the news.
SAMBOLIN: And incorporating, yes, the news into it. We appreciate it.
BERMAN: We come up with your own morning rhyme. Tweet us with the hash tags morning rhyme and EARLY START.
SAMBOLIN: The president's pick to lead the federal Reserve facing confirmation this morning and what Janet Yellen says could have a big impact on the economic recovery.
BERMAN: Huge.
SAMBOLIN: Christine Romans is going to break it all down in "Money Time."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BERMAN: Welcome back to EARLY START, everyone. It is a big day for your money and a big day for "Money Time." Christine Romans is here with all of that.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: I know. Let me start with some records to tell you about this morning. Some from the stock markets and one from the hot gym stone market, but maybe you're more in the market for stocks and we're going to start there. Futures higher this morning. The Dow and the S&P matching up records. The NASDQ closing with the hefty game yesterday, too,
For the year, the Dow up 21 percent. I love to read these numbers. The NASDAQ 31 percent, the S&P up 25 percent. Now, futures began to rise after Janet Yellen's advance testimony was released last night. She's going to have probably her most important job interview today before the Senate Banking Committee for her confirmation hearing to become the first woman to run the Federal Reserve.
The market read her testimony -- Yellen is comfortable with delaying the taper, the scaling back up stimulus until next year. That's something that is good for stocks. We won't know what else she might say in the question and answer portion of that testimony today so watch this -- it's a job interview that matters to her, a job interview that matters to all of our money so much.
So, Janet Yellen, the big, big story today in Washington. And here is proof that the market rally is making its way into your 401(k). Fidelity says 401(k) balances reached $84,300, a new record during the third quarter up more than 11 percent from last year. Workers who consistently added to their 401(k)s over the past 10 years saw their average balance -- with 10-year balance if you've been in market for 10 years, $223,100 as a near 20 percent gain.
I want to show you 20 something social media entrepreneur. This is a guy named Evan Spiegel (ph). He and his partner, Bobby Murphy (ph), apparently turned down $3 billion from Facebook to buy Snapchat. That's the step (ph) the company they run, a rapidly growing photo message service that Facebook wanted to buy.
They apparently think that if they sold now, they'd be leaving maybe billions of dollars on the table. Snapchat is the super-hot social app for -- teenagers love this. Facebook is hungry for teens especially because there've been signs that teens are cooling on Facebook. What's so interesting about snapchat is there's a lot of sexting that goes on apparently on Snapchat.
BERMAN: You hear.
ROMANS: I hear. Because you use it via video, very short video, and you conversing via photos but then they disappear. There's no footprint.
BERMAN: Right. That's the magic there --
ROMANS: The magic there is that it disappears. There's no footprint for future employers and for parents. It's very, very hot. And you know, an (INAUDIBLE) says the number on this deal in the billions.
BERMAN: Could be even higher than the $3 billion.
ROMANS: Could be even higher than the $3 billion. So, really interesting story there. Watch the space on Snapchat. Does it mean there's a bubble in social media? I mean, Instagram was a billion, right? And the Tumbler was picked up, for how many, a couple of billion? And then Snapchat, they're making money!
BERMAN: I think it's the Instagram thing that people are realizing that could have been a lot more money there, so Snapchat is waiting. Christine Romans, thank you so much.
SAMBOLIN: Thank you.
BERMAN: Coming up for us next, his principal is now his pal for life. A high school student saved by the man who heads his school. These guys are friends for sure. We'll tell you all that coming up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BERMAN: We all know teaching high school can be rough, but it can also be truly, truly rewarding like the principal, Rene Robbie Rosa (ph). He leads the __ near Miami, and he just learned CPR in late October and, man, is it lucky he did, because he had to use it just six days later on Halloween when a 15-year-old wrestler's heart failed during practice. It winds up that Devin Octavie (ph) had a never before detected heart condition and he was clinically dead for seven minutes.
SAMBOLIN: Wow.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. ANTHONY ROSSI, MIAMI CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL: Don't you leave now. I remember saying that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was like a miracle.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's here today. He has a second chance.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: God must have a greater purpose for him, because there's no reason why he should be here today, so I'm expecting some very, very important things from this young man.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: It's a miracle. It's also proven an outstanding educator. And now, after nearly two weeks in the hospital Octavie is heading home. He should be back in school next week, and he will have a defibrillator to prevent his heart from stopping again. His family says they now have a friend for life, oh my goodness, in that high school principal who is such a hero this morning
SAMBOLIN: That's a great story. It's a great way to end EARLY START. It is time for NEW DAY.
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JAY CARNEY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: No one will be satisfied with the numbers.
CUOMO: The numbers are in. We now know exactly how many people signed up for Obamacare in the first month and the numbers are not good and neither is the reaction of some Democrats. What are the whispers about a big change in the plan?
BOLDUAN: Drug use, drunk driving, erratic behavior. New allegations revealed in court documents about Toronto's mayor, Rob Ford, this, on heels of one of the most public interventions ever.
MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Imagine being offered $3 billion for your technology and turning it down. That's what a 23-year-old CEO did when Facebook tried to buy his company. So, is he crazy or crazy smart? We'll discuss.
CUOMO: Your "New Day" starts right now.
ANNOUNCER: This is "New Day" with Chris Cuomo, Kate Bolduan, and Michaela Pereira.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CUOMO: Welcome to "New Day." It's Thursday, November 14th, six o'clock in the east. Senate Democrats are marching to the White House, looking for answers, both to their political fears and for a way to address the millions of Americans who've been dropped by their insurance carriers.
Let's get to Jim Acosta live at the White House where they're still reeling from those low enrollment numbers from this past October. Good morning, Jim. JIM ACOSTA, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Chris. That's right. And we may well hear from the president on these discouraging numbers for Obamacare later today in an event he is holding in Cleveland. Meanwhile, the White House after this first rough month for Obamacare appears to be saying they have nowhere to go but up.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ACOSTA (voice-over): It's not just the numbers that are in. For the first month of signups in Obamacare, so are the reviews.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just another day in a series of mess-ups in Obamacare.
ACOSTA: And it's not just Republicans who are giving the October enrollment period a thumbs down.
LANDRIEU: I don't think anyone is satisfied. But you know, the promise of The Affordable Care Act is worth fighting for.
ACOSTA: Of the roughly 100,000 consumers who signed up for Obamacare during October, less than 27,000, about one quarter did so on the federal marketplace on the troubled healthcare.gov website.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We have every reason to expect more people will enroll.
ACOSTA: A website embattled Health and Human Services secretary, Kathleen Sebelius claims is now improving daily.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'd say, first of all, it is running right now. Every day, people are coming through. Every day, people are getting enrolled.
ACOSTA: But mark your calendars for November 30th. The White House says it will be working for, quote, "the vast majority of users by the end of the month."
