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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Quarantine Complete; Hannah Graham's Body Found?; Riot at Pumpkin Festival; Manning Sets NFL TD Record

Aired October 20, 2014 - 05:00   ET

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

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: EARLY START continues right now.

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BERMAN: Breaking overnight: quarantine over. Family and friends of the first Ebola patient in the United States declared disease free. Now, though, a critical time for some hospital workers as the search continues for people who may have been exposed.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: A gruesome discovery in the case of the missing UVA student. What police are saying over the human remains over the weekend.

BERMAN: Yes, a pumpkin festival turns ugly as riot police clashed with college students. The thing was just dumb, folks. Tear gas and bottles thrown, dozens of injuries and arrests. We will tell you the story.

ROMANS: All right. Good morning. Welcome to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.

BERMAN: I'm John Berman. Great to see you today. It is Monday, October 20th. It is 5:00 a.m. in the East.

And breaking news overnight: 48 people who were quarantined in Dallas because they had contact with Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan, they have been declared infection free, among them Duncan's fiancee. All of them cleared to end their seclusion, different levels of it, after 21 days of quarantine. We'll have more on that in just a moment.

On Saturday, Duncan's loved ones remembered him in a service in North Carolina. At the same time, cruise ship passengers who endured an overblown Ebola scare. They disembarked in Galveston. A passenger who was a lab supervisor at the Dallas hospital where Duncan was treated and later died voluntarily isolated herself onboard that vessel. Her Ebola test came back negative.

There is relief today, though, for the dozens of people in Dallas who had direct contact with Duncan.

CNN's Alina Machado is there with more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) ALINA MACHADO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Christine and John, there are 48 people here in Dallas County who are breathing a sigh of relief this morning after reaching the end of their 21-day monitoring period without showing any symptoms. These are people who had contact with Thomas Eric Duncan before he died on October 8th. They include Duncan's fiancee, Louise Troh.

Listen to what a pastor at her church told us.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They feel like this is a tremendous miracle that's happened, that they have not come down to be symptomatic, given the close exposure they had early on. And this is a long awaited day for celebration.

MACHADO: There are still 75 people whose monitoring period started the day Duncan died. So, they still have a few days left. And there's another group of people who will be monitored even longer after they had contact with one of the two nurses who became sick after treating Duncan -- Christine and John.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: All right. Alina Machado, thank you for that.

European foreign ministers meet today with an eye of ramping up the European response to Ebola, as well as to ISIS. British Prime Minister David Cameron is calling for the E.U. to put $1.3 billion into the disease.

In Spain, nurse's aide Teresa Romero Ramos was cleared of Ebola on Sunday. CNN was able to follow her samples through Spain's testing lab.

Our Nic Robertson is live in Madrid with more on that.

She is virus free, disease free. A huge relief for the entire country, Nic.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It is something that Spanish officials here have been waiting for. The health care professionals in the hospital where Teresa Romero is still inside the ward there have been believing this is exactly the way the tests would go on Sunday. We were there in the lab. It's the equivalent of -- Spain's equivalent to the CDC.

The samples were brought in. We watched at the lab technicians suited up and then begun those tests. A couple of hours later, they were able to say definitely that she is clear virus-free of Ebola. Now, officials at the clinic there say that means she is now immune from contracting this Ebola virus in the future, something that she has wanted to do. She has said and go back and work with the Ebola patients again.

So, in some ways, once she gets out of hospital here, she may be free to do that. But she is not able to leave the hospital yet. She will have another Ebola test in just a couple of days. Of course, she had a chest infection and difficulty breathing. That is improving. But we understand it is likely the hospital wants to keep her under observation longer.

There are another 86 people in Spain under observation. They will end that 21-day period for many of them after coming in contact with Teresa Romero. So, in about a week's time, most of the people should be able to without symptoms, should be cleared as well.

For Spain, a big, big day. Ebola free as far as they know at the moment, Christine.

ROMANS: Wish her well in her continued recovery from that chest infection. Nic, thank you.

BERMAN: Yes, big milestone.

Back here in the United States, Congressional Republicans are blasting the president's response to Ebola. On the morning talk shows, Senator Roy Blount and Congressman Tim Murphy called for travel bans and suspending visas from West Africa. Those are the measures the administration has rejected.

On CNN's "STATE OF THE UNION", Senator Ted Cruz assailed the president's selection of Ron Klain as his new Ebola czar, noting that Klain does not have experience in public health.

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SEN. TED CRUZ (R), TEXAS: We don't need another White House political operative, which is what Mr. Klain has been. What we need is presidential leadership. Two weeks ago, the president should have stood up and suspended flights from these countries.

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BERMAN: We are learning that the Pentagon is joining the federal government's Ebola response in a pretty big way. Defense officials tell CNN's Barbara Starr that the military is forming a 30-person quick strike team to provide direct treatment within 72 hours to Ebola patient inside the United States.

Now, in Arkansas, former President Bill Clinton defended the administration's response at a get out the vote event. He slammed critics who he says don't know a lick about it and they are playing the blame game.

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BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT: So, we all need to do what we all do best every time a tornado strikes -- we need to settle down, figure out what the challenges are and solve them together. I don't think this is time to blame. We need to save every life we can and keep this thing from coming to America. That's what we need to do.

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ROMANS: All right. Six minutes past the hour.

Time for an EARLY START to your money.

Speaking of settling down, Asian stocks ending the day higher led by Nikkei that climbed 4 percent. European stocks are not following that lead. Right now, they're down slightly. U.S. stock futures pointing up after a crazy week last week.

On Friday, the Dow was up 263 points. That was the second best day of the year. For the week, it was down 1 percent in that really big week of wild swings.

So, is the turmoil over? Friday's rally was driven by strong corporate data which could keep stocks climbing. Today, we hear from Apple, IBM and Chipotle. We're also watching important housing data. Last week, mortgage rates last week slipped below 4 percent for the first time this year.

Positive identification could come as early as today on human remains found over the weekend that police suspect is 18-year-old Hannah Graham. The University of Virginia student vanished five weeks ago. After the remains were located, the search for Hannah became a death investigation.

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CHIEF TIM LONGO, CHARLOTTESVILLE POLICE DEPARTMENT: Detective Sergeant James Mooney and the Charlottesville Police Department made a difficult phone call and reached out to John and Susan Graham to share with them this preliminary discovery.

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BERMAN: What a nightmare. The remains were found on abandoned property near Charlottesville. The authorities hope it gives Hannah's family at least the beginning of closure.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We stayed positive, stayed upbeat. You know, we were here for a mission, and that mission was to bring closure. We are hoping that that's what we have done.

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ROMANS: Thirty-two-year-old Jesse Matthew Jr. is in custody. He is charged in connection with Hannah Graham's disappearance. He's also been linked to the murder of Virginia Tech student back in 2009.

BERMAN: The Ferguson police officer who shot and killed Michael Brown has told investigators he was trapped in his cruiser and feared for his life as he and the teenager struggled for his gun. And forensic test reportedly found Michael Brown's blood on the gun, in the car and uniform of Officer Darren Wilson, that is according to "The New York Times". The results of the grand jury investigation into the deadly shooting of the unarmed teen are expected around mid-November. ROMANS: All right. The president of New Hampshire's Keene College says any student involved in turning the city's annual pumpkin festival into chaos will be held responsible for their actions. Officials say rowdy crowds threw bottles and rocks. They set fires and overturned cars. Police in riot gear responded with tear gas and pepper spray.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I got hit. It was a Jack Daniels bottle across the face. Yes, I was in the health center for a little bit, but I left.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These guys just came in with shields, started, I don't know, tear gassing me. It's crazy. Crazy stuff, real, real crazy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's ridiculous. It's not pumpkin fest. I'm Rhode Island. This is supposed to be a fun weekend but it's stupid.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: I bet there was no alcohol involved.

BERMAN: Yes.

ROMANS: I'm joking.

BERMAN: Look, it's on video. It's on video. And officials can go through the video, not to mention Facebook and Twitter. You will be found out, I imagine, if you were involved in the violence.

ROMANS: And they will. They promise that they will -- the university has promised they will certainly, if any students were involved, they will be held responsible. At least 30 people were injured. Police reportedly made dozens of arrests. Some of the Keene College students are blaming the unrest on out-of-towners.

BERMAN: Right.

Some better news. NFL history made in Denver. Bronco's Peyton Manning broke a report with that pass right there, surpassing Brett Favre, to become the NFL's all time leader in touchdown passes. That was his 8-yarder. That was the 509th touchdown pass for Peyton Manning in his career, 509th.

ROMANS: Turns out he can throw the ball.

BERMAN: He is good at passing. They should get off the run game. They should start throwing the ball more. He did throw for four touchdown passes. And Denver just beat the heck out of 49ers, 42-17.

ROMANS: All right. Indra Petersons is here with an EARLY START on your forecast.

Indra, it is chilly. It is fall. It is officially fall. INDRA PETERSONS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It is a little bit of a rude awakening this morning. I'm like, what is this, right? Coming from the west coast, back to the east look.

Look at these current temperatures this morning. Yes, New York City, a lovely 43 degrees. Definitely the cool air kind of settling into the northeast this morning. You can actually see the same pattern obviously, as you go through the afternoon. So, highs in Boston looking for the 50s.

Meanwhile, beautiful down in the south. That's where they're still talking about a lot of those 80s. So, nor'easter, this is the story for the next several days. What do you had? A big pressure difference from the cold air settling in as the low develops off the coastline. What do you get? You get the persistent north easterly winds. But it doesn't stop there.

What happens with the winds off the ocean? All the moisture makes its way right to the coastline. So, this is going to be the story Tuesday, Wednesday and even Thursday for the northeast. It's all this moisture is headed in.

So, heavy rain really by Tuesday with light scattered showers and Tuesday night and Wednesday and Thursday with the heavy amounts with 3 to 5 inches. That is one side of it. Winds not too bad right now, but they are gusting to 40 or 50-mile-an-hour gusts settling over the next several days.

The pattern is changing. Even more, it's not just cold. Some cold, windy and wet.

ROMANS: I will pretend I did not hear any of that.

PETERSONS: And I am, too. Don't worry about it.

BERMAN: Sounds like an awesome week. Thanks, Indra.

PETERSONS: Totally.

ROMANS: Thanks, Indra.

BERMAN: All right. The U.S. drops new round of aid and unleashes huge airstrikes against ISIS in the fight for Kobani. We are live from the region, next.

ROMANS: And a possible breakthrough in the search for more than 200 Nigerian school girls kidnapped by Boko Haram. Now, Nigeria says it plans on getting those girls back.

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BERMAN: Relentless U.S. airstrikes are keeping ISIS from overrunning Kobani. Dozens of ISIS troops reportedly were killed over the weekend reportedly. The American air support is helping the Kurdish on the ground push the enemy back. Meanwhile, in a really interesting development, U.S. cargo planes delivering desperately needed weapons and medical supplies to resupply the Kurdish soldiers inside Kobani in an attempt to get them the weaponry they need to keep this battle going. It's really a first of its kind inside Syria since the beginning in a way of the civil war.

A very interesting development. I want to bring Nick Paton Walsh who is on a hill right now overlooking Kobani.

Good morning, Nick.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: John, behind me, presumably somewhere in that direction, we think would have been where these three C-130s last night would have dropped separately 27 bundles of aid, that is both medicine, ammunition and food to the Syrian Kurds who are defending Kobani over here.

We don't precisely know the location of that drop and we can't see the pallets from here. Perhaps they have been removed. We see the Kurds have been building what looks like defenses down that line as well. Clearly those pallets answering what the Kurds have been asking for for the last days. They need urgent resupplies to be able to continue their defense of Kobani.

We have been here seeing what the airstrikes have done, which is to push ISIS back to the eastern and southern edges of the city. They have been continuing harassing mortar fire around the center.

But clearly, a key move by the United States, President Obama calling his Kurdish counterpart just before the drops seemed to happen, apparently expressing their intention to do it. We are sure Turkey would have been hostile to the idea. They see the Syrian Kurds inside there to be allies to Turkish Kurds who they regard as terrorists. So, a complex move by Washington, but clearly they are going all out to assist the Kurds in defending Kobani -- John.

BERMAN: And, Nick, not to be facetious here, but if the Turks allowed it, there could be a more quickly route to resupply the people fighting ISIS inside Kobani, wouldn't there be?

WALSH: Absolutely. I think that is the key thing for them. They urgently need anti-tank weapons and ammunition. The fight has been intense. They have been complaining themselves the Turkish military is not allowing people back in to defend in the assist of Kobani.

So, a key decision by Washington to -- regardless of the objections of this NATO Turkey to persist ahead in helping the Syrian Kurds in Kobani -- John.

BERMAN: All right. Nick Paton Walsh for us right on the border there with that area where the air drop occurred. Again, a very interesting development. Thanks so much, Nick.

ROMANS: The government of Nigeria claims it has a cease-fire deal with the Islamic terror group Boko Haram. A deal that includes an agreement to release more than 200 kidnapped school girls. Nigerian officials expect the girls to be freed after a meeting in Chad this week. Now, no confirmation of any agreement from Boko Haram. In fact, the group launched attacks on two Nigerian villages after the cease-fire was allegedly signed.

BERMAN: The trial of a London man accused in a terror plot resumes today. Erol Incedal is on trial for planning an attack on a prominent person or an assault similar to the 2008 Mumbai attack which left 174 people dead. We are told the 26-year-old had the address of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and had material support from the Islamic state.

Now, Incedal, the man charged, denies these allegations.

ROMANS: We may learn as early as tomorrow what Oscar Pistorius fate may be. Arguments happen, closing arguments happen Friday. Prosecutors are pushing for the athlete to be locked up for ten years for shooting his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp to death last Valentine's Day. The defense argues he shouldn't do time behind bars and should be sentenced instead to community service.

BERMAN: All right. Get ready for the Jodi Arias trial take two. Her sentencing retrial in Arizona gets under way today. Up first is an evidentiary hearing. Opening statements are set for Tuesday. A jury convicted Arias last year of murdering her lover Travis Alexander back in 2008, but was deadlocked on whether Arias should receive the death penalty.

Nineteen minutes after the hour.

The Broncos Peyton Manning made NFL history with that eight-yard pass against the San Francis 49ers. Rashan Ali has all the details in "The Bleacher Report", next.

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BERMAN: Peyton Manning, good at football. The record falling to the Denver Broncos quarterback.

ROMANS: Rashan Ali has more in this morning's "Bleacher Report". Good morning.

RASHAN ALI, THE BLEACHER REPORT: Good morning, guys.

Yes, the future Hall of Famer becomes the greatest touchdown passer in NFL history, setting a new all-time mark with his 509th regular season touchdown pass, surpassing the great Brett Favre. Manning needed three touchdown passes to break the record, and he got two out of the way after one quarter. Peyton gets number 509 with this drive to Demaryius Thomas. He passes Favre on the all-time list and now Manning is all by himself as the NFL touchdown king.

After the score, Peyton's teammates play a little keep away with the ball. Broncos went on to beat the 49ers easily.

After the game, Manning was humble as always.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PEYTON MANNING, DENVER BRONCOS: I certainly think about how grateful I am for all of the teammates and coaches that I played with or played for throughout my career not only here in Denver and Indianapolis and all of the people that helped me along the way. But I have always been a fan of quarterbacks, you know, whether it's Brett Favre or Dan Marino or John Elway. So, I'm very honored and humbled to join, you know, a pretty unique club.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALI: The St. Louis Rams used trickery in their big upset of the Seahawks yesterday. Check out the Ram's punt return. Seahawks think one player has the ball, but, no, Bailey has it on the other side of the field and takes it to the house. More special teams shenanigans. Seattle will get one more chance. Rams pass it instead for the first down. And that seals the deal. Rams win, 28-26.

The Cowboys are the hottest team in the NFL right now. They proved that beating the Giants yesterday and move the win streak to six in a row. Tony Romo's surgically back is just fine. Dallas wins, 31-21.

No royals in San Francisco, at least not on two radio stations in the Bay Area. During the World Series, two San Francisco stations say they are banning Lorde's "Royals" song while the Giants play, you guessed it, play the Kansas City Royals.

One of the stations explains why on their Twitter page saying, I hope Lorde understands. We're talking World Series-bound San Francisco Giants.

That's not fair.

BERMAN: Totally reasonable. Totally reasonable.

ROMANS: You got to do what you have to do.

ALI: Yes, a hit record. Come on.

ROMANS: Rashan, nice to see you. Thank you.

BERMAN: Welcome to EARLY START.

ALI: Thank you.

BERMAN: All right. Twenty-five minutes after the hour. A cruise ship with a quarantined passenger has made it home after a little bit of overblown controversy as some of the people in Dallas that could have been exposed Ebola reach the 21-day milestone for observation. So, what's next? We'll tell you on EARLY START.

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