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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
I've Hit A Bottom; Mental Health Questions; A-Rod Walks Out
Aired November 21, 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)
REP. TREY RADEL, (R) FLORIDA: I grew up with a mom who struggled with alcoholism. It is not an easy thing to deal with. I don't want my son to go through that.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Wow. The U.S. congressman busted with cocaine. Overnight, his new plans for the future.
ZORAIDA SAMBOLIN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): And new details this morning after Virginia State senator is stabbed by his own son who goes on to commit suicide. Could this tragedy have been prevented?
ALEX RODRIGUEZ, NEW YORK YANKEES: 100 percent is personal, and I think this is about his legacy and is about my legacy and he's trying to destroy me. By the way, he's retiring in 2014 and to put me in his big mansion on the way out, that's a hell of a trophy.
BERMAN: Alex Rodriguez at war with Major League Baseball, storming out of a hearing that will determine his future in the game, but, a lot of people are wondering is this all just a big act?
SAMBOLIN: He is going out kicking and screaming.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SAMBOLIN (on-camera): All right. Welcome back to EARLY START. Glad you're with us this morning. I'm Zoraida Sambolin.
BERMAN (on-camera): And I'm John Berman. It is 31 minutes after the hour right now.
SAMBOLIN: So, we're hearing this morning from a freshman congressman who has admitted breaking the law and he says that he needs help. Trey Radel from Florida pleaded guilty on Wednesday to cocaine possession. He told reporters in an emotional news conference that he has hit bottom and will take a leave of absence to seek treatment.
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RADEL: I have let down our country. I've let down our constituents. I've let down my family, including my wife. And even though he doesn't know it, I've let down my two-year-old son. I have been getting the help that I need and I will continue to get the help that I need and the support system that I need for years to come.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SAMBOLIN: But Radel is not stepping down to the disappointment of some who say that he should. Radel was sentenced to a year of probation and fined $250. His record will be wiped clean so long as he stays out of trouble. It is not clear how long he will be absent from Congress, but Radel plans to donate his salary to charity and he told the judge he will come out of this a stronger man.
BERMAN: We're finding out more this morning about the stabbing of a prominent politician in Virginia. State senator, Creigh Deeds, continues to recover this morning after a fight that left him seriously injured and his son dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. And we now know the police went to Deeds house just a day before he was attacked. Here's Chris Lawrence.
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CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Sources close to the investigation tell CNN Gus Deeds stabbed his father more than ten times just outside Creigh Deeds home. As the senator stumbled down the drive bleeding, his son went back into the house and shot himself. The incident happened a day after the son was brought to a local hospital under an emergency custody order.
Police confirm Gus was brought by the sheriff and mental health professionals evaluated him there. A state mental health official told the "The Washington Post" they called multiple hospitals in an effort to find an available bed to give him more extensive care, but failing to find an open spot within the mandatory four hours, they had to let him go. But three hospitals, including this one, all tell CNN they did have beds available and no one called.
All are within an hour or two of the Deeds. A further sign of a system many say is failing the mentally ill. Virginia has struggled to expand mental health care since a disturbed student killed 32 people at Virginia Tech in 2007.
MICHAEL FITZGERALD, NATIONAL ALLIANCE ON MENTAL ILLNESS: The legislature funded in the next year $42 million of new services. By 2010, all that money was gone and been eliminated in the recession.
LAWRENCE: Others say bench shortages are only an issue in rural areas like Bath County.
RICHARD BONNIE, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA LAW SCHOOL: Eighty-seven percent of the case is, you know, you have to make more calls than two.
LAWRENCE: Law professor, Richard Bonnie helped reform the state's mental health system.
(on-camera) And you think there should be alternatives to force hospitalization?
BONNIE: You don't need to wait until people meet the commitment criteria. You have something to offer that they will accept and that family members, you know, will, you know, feels satisfies their needs that you can prevent crises from getting worse and things unraveling.
LAWRENCE: And he's including services people might even be able to get in their home where they could at least be stabilized. Now, with the case of Gus Deeds, we don't know if officials simply failed to call enough hospitals, or, in that very limited four-hour window, simply ran out of time.
Chris Lawrence, CNN, Charlottesville, Virginia.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BERMAN: Such a sad situation. All right.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BERMAN (voice-over): From that to a bizarre situation in Kansas where a massive cargo jet landed overnight at the wrong airport. The 747 Dreamlifter, one of the world's largest cargo aircraft. This is big, folks. It was bound from McConnell Air Force Base in Wichita, but it landed instead at a tiny commercial airport about ten miles away. That airport not designed to handle a plane this big. And folks, this is huge.
SAMBOLIN (voice-over): Wow!
BERMAN: Air traffic control and the pilots seemed confused at first about where they were and it took about 15 minutes to sort this whole thing out.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We saw the plane on the radar and (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Say the name again?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Jubaro.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Jubaro?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SAMBOLIN: That is hysterical. The name of the airport again?
(LAUGHTER)
BERMAN: They're clearly stunned. You can, you know, hear it in their voices. Crews plan to try to move this plane. It's not even clear if the runway is long enough for the jet to try and take off again. It may be a permanent exhibit at this small little airport.
SAMBOLIN: So, I guess it doesn't have to be that long to land, but it has to be longer in order to take off. I don't know much about aviation, but wow! I do know that is a big, big, big plane at a very small airport.
All right. It was an emergency landing for a JetBlue plane in Orlando. This is really strange. An evacuation slide deployed inside the main cabin. Look at that. It was midflight. The plane had taken off from Ft. Myers heading for Boston and had been in the air about 20 minutes when the unexpected happened.
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HELEN MURDOCH, PASSENGER: We heard a loud bang and we looked -- I saw people looking up towards the front.
PHIL MURDOCH, PASSENGER: You hear this -- this noise. It sounded like something -- it sounded like almost the baggage top carrier came down.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SAMBOLIN: What is going on with all these airplane stories? So, passengers said the inflated chute filled the entire front part compartment. The plane had 74 passengers, four crew members on board. It landed safely. No reported injuries there. A JetBlue spokesman says at no point did a door open. Very important.
The plane has been taken out of service and the airline says it's still too early t determine what went wrong there.
BERMAN: Crazy.
All right. All charges have been dropped against two Florida teens accused of bullying a 12-year-old who later killed herself. The girls now ages 13 and 14 were charged last month with aggravated stalking. Jose Baez, the attorney for one of the girls, is demanding an apology. But the sheriff who made the arrest says he has no regrets. Both teens are getting counseling to prevent future bullying.
SAMBOLIN: A crude online video game that allows players to re-enact the Sandy Hook school massacre is triggering outrage in Connecticut, actually across the country. It is called the slaying of Sandy Hook Elementary. In this online game, players collect a loaded gun, shoot their mother, then go on a killing spree at a school.
Connecticut senator, Richard Blumenthal, wants it banned from the web altogether. He says it must common decency (ph) calling it vile and shameful. You know, I actually went online because I had to see this. I couldn't believe it. And the guy who created this, the warped mind as I called it, he says that what he's trying to do is to actually highlight the lack of gun laws in the United States. That's why he says he created that video game.
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BERMAN (on-camera): -- of the families and the people --
SAMBOLIN (on-camera): Oh my goodness. It's so graphic. It's awful.
BERMAN: Thirty-eight minutes after the hour.
Illinois has made it official. Governor Pat Quinn signing legislation to make Illinois the 16th state to legalize same-sex marriage. It was approved by the legislature two weeks ago. The new law changes the definition of marriage from an act between a man and woman to one between two people. The bill takes effect June 1st when the ceremonies, the very first one, in Illinois are expected to take place.
SAMBOLIN: Seat belts will soon be mandatory on large buses. Government rules to take effect in November of 2016 will require buses that go between cities and any new tour buses to have three-point lap shoulder belts. About 21 people every year die in large bus crashes. I wanted to know when they're going to do that for school bus.
BERMAN: Soon.
SAMBOLIN: I hope so.
BERMAN: All right. Indra Petersons is here with a look at the weather. What do you got, Indra?
INDRA PETERSONS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Pretty mild today. We're talking about dry conditions, pretty much average temperatures but it all changes as we go towards the weekend. Of course it does, right? We're looking at a couple of systems out there. Let's start in the west where the systems are coming from. Notice this guy. We're going to be watching for is both rain and snow out of it as it continues to drop farther down to the south.
Let's talk about what we're expecting here. Snowfall wise, heavy amounts of snow, and yesterday, we saw some in Montana, but today, the heaviest will fall in through Colorado, still a little bit left into the Sierras and even in through Wyoming, still a couple of inches left with this guy. As far as rain, this is going to be really heavy.
A lot of rain expected and flooding concerns into the southwest from the system. There is another one out there, and this system, this cold front today is in the Midwest -- producing, unfortunately, showers in through Washington, Illinois. This system is going to be sliding across bringing light rain for the first half of the weekend for the mid-Atlantic and northeast.
So, Friday and Saturday, look for the rain but behind it come the cold air. Look at these 20s up here. Now, I'm going to take you all the way through Sunday. You can see that that cold air quickly fills in to the northeast. You're plugging your ears? I do not want to hear this?
(CROSSTALK)
(LAUGHTER)
PETERSONS: I don't either. I don't blame you at all --
(LAUGHTER) SAMBOLIN: Thank you, Indra.
BERMAN: All right. Forty minutes after the hour.
Alex Rodriguez on the war path, folks. The hearing to determine his future in baseball, they take a dramatic turn.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RODRIGUEZ: I lost my mind. I banged the table and kicked a briefcase and slammed it out of the room. I knew it wasn't fair of what we saw today is just -- it was disgusting.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: He lost his mind. What about his dignity? What caused A- Rod's temper to explode? And the big question right now, was this all just a put-on from A-Rod? That's coming up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BERMAN: All right. Welcome back to EARLY START, everyone. Yankee third baseman, Alex Rodriguez, says that he's done with the arbitration hearing that he asked for to fight his 211-game suspension for the alleged use of performance-enhancing drugs. Rodriguez stormed out after learning that baseball commissioner, Bud Selig, would not be required to testify.
A-Rod then vented his frustration on New York's WFAN radio flatly denying all the charges. He called the hearing a farce and he said that Selig was out to get him.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RODRIGUEZ: My only message to the commissioner is, I know you don't like New York, but come to New York and face the music.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What about you? Does he like you?
RODRIGUEZ: He hates my guts. There's no question about it. 100 percent is personal and I think it's about his legacy and is about my legacy. And he's trying to destroy me. And, by the way, he's retiring in 2014 and to put me in his big mantle on the way out, that's a hell of a trophy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: Pretty grand sweeping claims there. As for the 211-game ban, A-Rod says he should not even serve one inning of a suspension.
SAMBOLIN: All right. So, let's take a look at what's coming up on "NEW DAY." Chris Cuomo and Kate Bolduan are joining us this morning. Good morning.
KATE BOLDUAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, guys.
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's some good insight for you this morning.
We have Cardinal Dolan is joining us on the show today to talk about the new pope, Pope Francis. He keeps making a big splash that goes way beyond the Catholic Church. What's the message? What does it mean in house for the Catholics during the holiday season? What do you think the big effect is that's going on around it?
BOLDUAN: Yes. We got that. And we're also going to be speaking with the U.N. ambassador to the United Nations, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power. She has got a lot on her plate right now. We have nuclear negotiations going on in Geneva over the Iran nuclear program and also this agreement, this long-term security agreement with Afghanistan.
A lot of questions surround apology, not apology. Is it just a distinction without a difference? Many questions for her. And also, we're going to be talking to her about something that might not be on a lot of people's radar. The U.N. disabilities treaty, what that means here at home and abroad and why it's so important to her. Why she cares so much about it? We're going to talk about that --
BERMAN: Can't wait. Also, Samantha Power, a big Red Sox fan. Little own (ph) fact.
BOLDUAN: That is correct.
BERMAN: Looking forward to seeing that.
SAMBOLIN: Very important. Thank you.
Forty-six minutes past the hour.
Massachusetts high school football team will remain off the field for the rest of the season. The school board in Lunenburg is backing the superintendent who forfeited the remaining games after a racial slur was found on the foundation of a 13-year-old's home. Isaac Phillips is a member of that football team.
His mother is White, father is Black. Now, his family says Isaac doesn't want to go back to school and they are convinced it was a member of the team who wrote that slur.
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ANTONY J. PHILIPPS, FATHER OF ISAAC PHILLIPS: I feel horrible for, you know, the kids that are not involved, but we are a small town. I mean, things like this shouldn't happen in a small community like ours. So, when it does, I think it's time for drastic measures, you know, canceling the football season. I think that will flush whoever that it is that's responsible for this to step forward.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SAMBOLIN: Yes, it will. I love that. The superintendent plans today to release more information about this investigation into who may have been responsible. That's the way to handle a situation like that, right?
BERMAN: Forty-seven minutes after the hour right now. A little bit of a turn here. It's time for our "Morning Rhyme." These are the best tweets of the day, and today comes from Jay Bart Henthorn (ph) on the news. He says, "A dream liner lands at the wrong stinking runway, get me a Sawzal and I'll remove it the fun way!"
(LAUGHTER)
BERMAN: That astounding.
SAMBOLIN: Well done. Well done.
BERMAN: You can come up with your own morning rhyme. Tweet us with the hash tags, morning rhyme and EARLY START. We look forward to see it.
SAMBOLIN: I love it when it has to do with the news.
All right. Coming up, good news and bad news if you're shopping for a home or if you want to sell yours. The details in "Money Time."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BERMAN: Oh, man, we have a lot to talk about this morning
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Oh, yes.
BERMAN: Welcome back to EARLY START. It is "Money Time." Christine Romans is here.
ROMANS: Good morning. And it was not another day for the record books for stocks yesterday. Instead, it was a case of the fed flew and the stock market. The Dow lost 66 points. The NASDAQ and the S&P 500 fell, too. Here's what spooks the market. Minutes from Bernanke's October fed meeting suggests the fed may taper even before the job market improves, meaning the fed would stop -- would slow down, would slow down all of this stimulus.
And don't forget about the debt ceiling. The Congressional Budget Office says March is when the treasury runs out of accounting tricks to pay the bills without raising the debt ceiling. So, we still have that kind of out there on the calendar. After a year like this, could anyone, I don't know. Could you be -- I guess you're forgiven for being a little concerned about stocks.
The Dow is up 21 percent. The NASDAQ up 30 percent. The S&P 500 up 25 percent. So, that's your 401(k). What's happening with your house?
BERMAN: Getting messy.
ROMANS: Interest rates are creeping higher. The rate on the ten-year hit a two-month high yesterday. That's closely tied to mortgage rates. I'll get a new mortgage rate number about 10 o'clock this morning to give you but really good news in here for the housing market in another number. Fewer people are under water on their loans, meaning, that they owe more than the house is worth.
Fewer of them are today. Zillow says the number of people under water is shrinking faster than ever before. It's so good, Zoraida. Almost five million homeowners got their heads back above water since the beginning of last year. Five million people. The most improvement is in these markets, San Jose, Denver, and San Francisco. That's great news there.
And it's a great, great jobs market for one person. Jennifer Lawrence, her job market is so good, she had a raise like this. She was paid $500,000 for the first "Hunger Games" movie. She made $10 million for the sequel.
(LAUGHTER)
BERMAN: Wow.
SAMBOLIN: Atta girl.
ROMANS: "Catching Fire" could break the record for November movie opening. At least, that's the hope of the "Catching Fire" producers. The latest installment opened today in a number of overseas markets. Variety reports it could break the 160 million mark in the U.S. That would be that record. If you throw in overseas ticket sales, it could end up with 300 million plus weekend. So, I would like to report the jobs market is great for Jennifer Lawrence.
BERMAN: 2,000 percent raise. That's not bad.
(CROSSTALK)
ROMANS: But she was paid for performance. And that's --
SAMBOLIN: Well, the publicity photo is all her. it is just her.
ROMANS: Yes.
SAMBOLIN: Fantastic. Good for her. Thank you.
ROMANS: You're welcome.
BERMAN: All right. Coming up for us next, you can find almost anything on a calendar these days, pets, cars, athletes, even cancer survivors. This calendar we're going to show you is really turning some heads. We'll show you some of the best pictures when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SAMBOLIN: Welcome back to EARLY START. We have a different kind of cancer fundraiser to show you this morning. It is a calendar being sold to raise money for cancer research. And it features cancer survivors and their families in various states (ph). The organizer says it was designed to have a little fun and, at the same time, raise money for a very good cause.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MERANDA BATISTA, ORGANIZER: Most calendars that you see that deal with cancer survivors, there is kind of a somber effect to them.
MELODY SABERON YBARRA, MODEL AND CANCER SURVIVOR: When you have so many wires and pokes and needles over the years, you've pretty much let yourself open to everybody already.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SAMBOLIN: All right. So, the proceeds from the sale are going to the American Cancer Society and to a Childhood Cancer Foundation. Great causes.
BERMAN: It was a great cause.
SAMBOLIN: Beautiful. Yes.
BERMAN: All right. We're going to leave you today with a picture that will absolutely blow your mind. I know it's cold outside, but right now, we've got water slides on the mind. Take a look at this. This is one that's being built at a wild park in Kansas City.
(CROSSTALK)
BERMAN: The name of it is the Verruckt. That's German for insane.
(CROSSTALK)
BERMAN: It is. The park operator says it will be the world's tallest and fastest when it opens next year.
SAMBOLIN: OK. You're wearing a seat belt on this, right?
BERMAN: I don't know what you're wearing.
SAMBOLIN: You have to be.
BERMAN: You're wearing your crazy goggles. It's more than 17 stories high. That's taller than Niagara Falls. Riders will go more than 65 miles an hour down the slide.
SAMBOLIN: We better be strapped it.
(LAUGHTER)
BERMAN: The exact time of the slide is being kept under wraps because it will blow your mind. Now, we do know you'll have to climb. This is the tough part, 264 steps to get to the top. So, you'll be out of breath and have your mind blown at the same time.
SAMBOLIN: And you better be harnessed into that, baby. That is scary! I would never do that in a million years!
BERMAN: That's all for EARLY START today.
(LAUGHTER)
BERMAN: Take that with you.
(LAUGHTER)
BERMAN: "NEW DAY" starts right now.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Giant 4241 heavy, do you know which airport you're at?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, we think we have a pretty good pulse.
CUOMO: Breaking overnight, plane crazy. A giant cargo plane lands at the wrong airport. Now, it's stuck. We'll tell you why.
And then, on JetBlue, emergency slide opens inside the plane in flight. What's going on?
BOLDUAN: Leave of absence. The Florida congressman busted with cocaine is now talking saying he needs time away from his job to get better. We have his emotional press conference ahead.
MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Outburst. Alex Rodriguez storms out of an arbitration hearing with Major League Baseball then tears into the league and his commissioner. Why he thinks the league hates him?
CUOMO: Your "NEW DAY" starts right now.
ANNOUNCER: This is "NEW DAY" with Chris Cuomo, Kate Bolduan, and Michaela Pereira.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CUOMO: Good morning. Good morning. Welcome to "NEW DAY." It's Thursday, November 21st, six o'clock in the east. And we have breaking news overnight out of Kansas. A massive cargo plane stranded at a Wichita Airport after landing there by mistake. The FAA says the Boeing 747 was supposed to land at McConnell Air Force Base but ended up at this smaller airport many miles away.
Now, they say the runway there, too short for the big plane to take off. CNN's aviation correspondent, Rene Marsh, is live in Washington. Rene, what to do, what to do?
RENE MARSH, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: That is the big question here, Chris. What to do, what to do? Big is the word of this story here because we're talking about a massive, massive cargo plane. You can see a photo of what we're talking about there, some video of this Dreamlifter. It is the 747. It is used to ship cargo.
Just to give you an idea as to how huge this thing is, it is capable of hold something 19 million golf balls, the wings itself on this plane, it would essentially cover the total floor space of four three- bedroom homes with two bathrooms. That's how big this thing is here.
