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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Sources: Ferguson Police Chief to Resign; NASA Rocket Explodes After Liftoff; Security Increased at Federal Buildings; World Series Going the Distance
Aired October 29, 2014 - 04:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news overnight: sources telling CNN Ferguson's Missouri's police chief could soon be forced to resign, following the controversial police shooting of unarmed teen Michael Brown. Now, the town preparing for what could happen if Officer Darren Wilson is not indicted. The latest developments this morning, ahead.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: A crucial rocket for NASA explodes in the sky just seconds after liftoff. Investigators are trying to figure out this morning just what went wrong.
ROMANS: Terror watch. Thousands of federal buildings across the country that government beefing security after threats of lone wolf terror attacks in the federal buildings. What we're learning this morning, ahead.
Welcome to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.
BERMAN: I'm John Berman. Great to see you this morning. Thirty-one minutes past the hour.
And we do have breaking news from Ferguson Missouri, this morning. There is word that the police chief there could soon step down. Government officials familiar with ongoing discussions tell CNN that Chief Thomas Jackson's departure would be part of efforts to reform the Ferguson Police Department following shooting of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown by Officer Darren Wilson.
Now, Chief Jackson and the mayor of Ferguson flatly deny these reports.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPORTER: Is there a plan in place to have Chief Jackson stepped down?
JAMES KNOWLES, MAYOR OF FERGUSON, MISSOURI: No.
REPORTER: Are you getting any pressure from any other federal --
KNOWLES: People have been saying that for months, I mean, for him to step down. But we've stood by him this entire time. So --
REPORTER: There's nothing --
KNOWLES: There's no change on that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: And there is growing concern this morning in Ferguson about what might happen if Officer Wilson is not indicted in the Michael Brown shooting. School officials in St. Louis County have written to prosecutor Bob McCullough asking him whether or not Wilson will be indicted on night or a weekend, so as to avoid putting students in the middle of any possible protests.
Residents tell CNN's Sara Sidner that if there is no indictment, the reaction could be violent.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TONY DAVIS, PROTESTER: That's what some people say. I've heard a lot of people saying it. Some people say it will be a part of blowing it up, you know, if he doesn't get indicted. I just hope it doesn't get bad. I hope they don't like -- you know, I hope nobody gets hurt.
GABRIELLE HANSON, PROTESTER: I know they're going to be really upset with the government building. I've heard about curfews that are going to happen. People are still thinking that they're going to be able to protest and some people are scared.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: Officer Darren Wilson has not been seen in public since shooting Michael Brown. At least six felony drug cases have been dismissed because Wilson failed to show up to testify in court.
ROMANS: The countdown went smoothly but then came the launch. The unmanned NASA rocket exploded at the spaceport in Wallops Island, Virginia. The debris crashing down on the launch pad, spewing fiery wreckage everywhere.
Now, there were no injuries, but it caused significant damage to property and vehicles. The Orbital Science's Antares rocket was carrying thousands of pounds of supplies and experiments to the International Space Station. This morning, NASA and its partners trying to determine exactly what went wrong.
Let's get more this morning from CNN's Tom Foreman.
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TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, John. Hey, Christine.
This was really a cataclysmic launch that happened just moments after this Antares rocket took off. People who are watching over from across away, you could hear people just gasp out loud as they felt the explosion. That's about three quarters of a million pounds of thrust being released all at once as this thing blows up in an unexpected way.
The company that was contracted to do this, Orbital Science, has a $1.2 billion contract to get supplies up to ISS over a number of trips. This was the third of those trips. It has vowed that it will look into this to figure out what went wrong, saying, of course, right now, it's far too early to know what happened.
They do know that nobody was hurt. The safety protocols are in place to keep everyone far away from any sort of rocket launch like that, which is unmanned.
But there is a real cost of this. There was about 5,000 pounds of gear going up, some of it food for the ISS crew. A lot of the rest of it space gear that they needed and experiments, experiments that are obviously important to all the researchers who are sending them up toward the ISS.
The plan was for this to fly on the first stage of this rocket for about four minutes, and then that stage would release the second stage, which was a new design, was going to kick in and it would release the payload called Cygnus which would then be grabbed by the robotic arm from the ISS and pulled in. That payload is not going to come back until December.
But, now, of course, it was all lost. So the space community has to regroup and figure out how to make up for that loss. There are other launches coming up fairly soon from Russia that will take some supplies up and make a difference.
And no sooner than December, there could be another private launcher, contract launch by SpaceX. That would be out of Cape Canaveral, Florida. But for the time being, not only that they have to figure out what went wrong with this rocket, but whether or not it did damage to this launch facility, which is very important here and whether or not that will have a future impact on supplying for the ISS, and the privatization of the space program.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: All right. Tom Foreman, thanks for that.
You can imagine if you're one of the scientists working for how long on an experiment that blows up.
BERMAN: Got to be the worst feeling.
ROMANS: It must be a terrible feeling.
Russia, on the other hand this morning successfully launched a reply mission to the International Space Station. It's the unmanned Progress 57 spacecraft took off a top a Soyuz rocket just a couple of hours ago from the Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, carrying three tons of supplies..
BERMAN: Who would build a Cosmodrome? It's a great name.
ROMANS: Let's call this the Cosmodrome.
BERMAN: This is -- we're broadcasting live from the Cosmodrome in the Time Warner Center in New York.
All right. Thirty-six minutes after the hour.
The Department of Homeland Security is ordering security tightened at nearly 10,000 federal buildings across the country. A department official tells CNN there's no new intelligence or specific additional threat to the government buildings secured by the Federal Protective Service. Officials described the move, though, as a precautionary measure following two attacks last week on the Canadian military personnel. Specifics on the new security measures are not being disclosed.
ROMANS: The tide of active Ebola cases in the U.S. appears to be turning. Nurse Amber Vinson released Tuesday from the hospital. She contracted Ebola while caring for Thomas Eric Duncan at Texas Presbyterian in Dallas. At a news conference, she thanked those who helped save her life. She stressed that the fight against Ebola not over.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AMBER VINSON, FORMER EBOLA PATIENT: As a nurse and now as someone who has experienced what it's like to be cared for through a life- threatening illness, I'm so appreciative and grateful for your exceptional skills, warmth and care. While this is a day for celebration and gratitude, I ask that we not lose focus on the thousands of families who continue to labor under the burden of this disease in West Africa.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Vinson's release from isolation leaves just one person hospitalized with Ebola in the United States. Dr. Craig Spencer who contracted the disease working with Ebola patients in Guinea for Doctors Without Borders.
Our national correspondent Miguel Marquez is at Spencer's hospital in New York. He's got more for us this morning.
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MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Christine, John, Dr. Craig Spencer remains in serious but stable condition here at Bellevue Hospital. His case sparked a national firestorm about health care workers on the frontlines in Ebola stricken areas and coming back to the U.S.
The president now weighing in.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: But we don't want to do things that aren't based on sciences and best practices, because if we do, then we're just putting another barrier on somebody who is already doing really important work on our behalf. MARQUEZ: The president taking a not so veiled shot at state governors
like New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and New York's Andrew Cuomo, who imposed a mandatory quarantine for workers returning from Ebola stricken areas. That issue now a growing national debate.
Meanwhile, the 5-year-old boy who was her at Bellevue who they thought might have Ebola, it turns out he had a respiration infection. He will be taken out of isolation to remain at Bellevue to be taken care of -- John, Christine.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BERMAN: Our thanks to Miguel Marquez for that.
Now, we're learning this morning that the nurse released after spending a weekend quarantine in a New Jersey tent said she will not agree to mandatory isolation in her home state of Maine.
Casey Hickox treated Ebola patients in West Africa. She was isolated really against her will after she flew into New Jersey even though she has no symptoms. She had a fever briefly at the airport but no fever when taken with an oral thermometer. She tested negative twice for Ebola. Her lawyers say she will not comply with Maine health officials demand that she remain under quarantine.
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie remains unapologetic about confining Hickox to a tent with no shower. And he dismisses her threat to sue.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPORTER: Looks like you're going to have to defend this in court?
GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE (R), NEW JERSEY: Well, whatever. Get in line. I've been sued lots of times before. Get in line. I'll be happy to take it on.
REPORTER: Governor, did you have any pause about the tent and those conditions?
CHRISTIE: No, Kelly, the tent was inside the hospital. It's called an isolation tent because she needed to be isolated because she was suspected to have Ebola. So, no, I had concerns -- and, by the way, neither the CDC who is on the ground in University Hospital monitoring the condition she was in. She had access to the Internet and we brought her take-out food.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: Health officials in New York are apparently softening their quarantine plan even further. New guidelines issued Tuesday called for travelers arriving from West Africa to be allowed to choose where they want to be held in isolation, those are travelers who treated Ebola patients or had direct contact with Ebola patients on those three West African nations. This policy somewhat different from Andrew Cuomo's warning last week that these travelers, health care workers, might be held at a government-regulated facilities.
At the same time, President Obama is calling for monitoring instead of quarantine. The U.S. Army has decided that troops returning from Ebola-stricken West African nations into mandatory isolation. They will not be able to have physical contact with their families or anybody else for about 21 days. The administration explains the difference between soldiers and civilian medical volunteers as a matter of efficiency.
ROMANS: An Ebola treatment could be the next billion dollar drug. Pharmaceutical companies scrambling to produce vaccines and treatment to fight the outbreak. It's unclear if any company can release a drug quickly on a mass scale. The U.S. government alone is expected to award contracts worth more than a billion dollars to fund mass production. It's based on the government's stockpile of drugs for other potential disease outbreaks like the anthrax vaccine.
Forty-one minutes past the hour. An early start on your money now.
Asian shares higher. European shares high her as well. U.S. stock futures, nothing much yet but it was a great day for stock yesterday. The Dow climbed 187 points, closing above 17,000 for the first time since early October.
BERMAN: Remember that awful week we had.
ROMANS: What did I say?
BERMAN: Don't panic.
ROMANS: I said don't freak out. Don't freak out. Stocks go up, stocks go down. Don't freak out.
BERMAN: On the subject of freaking out. They're freaking out in a good way in Kansas City. The Royals forced a deciding game seven in the World Series by demolishing the Giants last night 10-zip.
The game was essentially over in the second inning when the Royals sent 11 men to the plate. It could have been 111. They got eight hits, they scored 7 runs. Might as well been 700.
This was the biggest shutout margin in a World Series game since 1985 when the Royals last won a World Series. They beat the Cardinals 11-0 in game 7 on that series.
But this sets up the most exciting thing in sports. And I submit, therefore, most exciting thing on earth. A game seven in the World Series tonight in Kansas City.
ROMANS: Another sleepless night for John Berman.
BERMAN: Yes, this is going to be a tough one. This is going to be tough. Game sevens are so cool in baseball. You play 162 games and it all comes down to this tonight. >
ROMANS: That's so cool. All right. Forty-three minutes past the hour.
New hope coming to the fight against ISIS in Syria. We're live with who will soon be on the battlefield.
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BERMAN: All right. Developing overnight, Kurdish Peshmerga troops from Iraq have reached a key place in their journey to reinforce Syrian Kurds fighting ISIS in Kobani. The first contingent landing in an air strip in Turkey overnight. The second group traveling by land with help weapons due to arrive in the coming hours. This Peshmerga reinforcement expected to cross the border in Kobani later today.
I want to turn now to senior international correspondent Ivan Watson who is Iraq, in Irbil, where many of those troops are coming from.
Good morning, Ivan.
IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John.
That's right, they left from the city last night, and they were, you know, met along the way by cheering Iraqi Kurds who were actually blocking the movement of the convoy waving flags. And this was covered extensively in the local media, kind of every step of the way. It's a pretty unusual deployment, where you have Iraqi Kurds traveling through Turkey, carrying weapons. Their convoy is carrying things like machine guns and artillery as well. And they're going to this border town to try to reinforce the Syrian forces who've been fighting ISIS for more than a month there backed up by U.S. air strikes.
There are only 161 Iraqi Kurdish fighters. It's not exactly an army that's coming there. But this is say big symbolic gesture, a sign of brotherhood between Iraqi and Syrian Kurds. And an effort by the Turks to show that they want to help the people of Kobani, after they've come under an awful lot of criticism for being accused of standing by as ISIS has nearly captured that town during a month-long siege, John.
BERMAN: I think inside Kobani will be most excited, Ivan, about the reinforcements. But as you say, it is jus bizarre, the diplomatic and political back flips Turkey is doing to allow this to happen, you know, when they can practically throw rocks at the ISIS fighters from their border if they wanted to.
WATSON: Absolutely. Or fired from any of the tanks that are quite literally just a couple dozen yards from the border fence and from Kobani as well.
So, the Turks have come under a lot of criticism. And part of why they haven't stepped in is because they view the Syrian Kurdish faction fighting ISIS as basically terrorists. They've said it again and again. They think it's part of the same Kurdish movement that they've been battling a guerilla war, for some 30 years, within Turkey. So, this has complicated regional stuff, ethnic tensions, political
factions. The Iraqi Kurds are hoping that this will show that Iraqi Kurds, Syrian Kurds, Turkey and the U.S. are presenting a united front against ISIS which they all concede is a sophisticated enemy.
BERMAN: Sophisticated indeed. Ivan Watson for us in Irbil, thanks so much, Ivan. Great to see you this morning.
ROMANS: All right. President Obama on the campaign trail trying to turn out the vote in a pretty hotly contested gubernatorial race. The Republicans hoping to take control of the Senate. They get a new helping hand, next.
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ROMANS: In a major shift in recent years, business groups are backing more Republican candidates than Democrats in seven of the most competitive Senate races, in some cases, they're even betting against incumbent senators. That's according to "The Wall Street Journal". An expert tells the paper the change of heart for businesses, political action committees, it's part of a signal of the group's policy preferences and partly a sign of who they think is most likely to win.
BERMAN: President Obama is on the campaign trail, as we're just less than a week away now to the midterm elections. He spent yesterday in Milwaukee, trying to give a boost to Mary Burke. She is in a race to unseat the incumbent Republican Scott Walker. This is a race that is within margin. It could go down to the wire.
The president may be less of a liability for Democrats in Wisconsin. A recent poll there showed his favorability rating about 10 points higher than in a nationwide poll.
ROMANS: Hillary Clinton will be in Iowa today trying to rally Democrats and put Senate candidate Bruce Braley over the top.
BERMAN: You said it right.
ROMANS: Braley is in a tough battle with the Republican --
BERMAN: You said it right again.
ROMANS: I did.
State Senator Joni Ernst -- we're joking because, you know, the first lady and a couple of other people have said this name incorrectly. It is Braley. They're vying to replace Democrat Tom Harkin who is retiring after 30 years.
Democrats are trying to hang on to that seat. But Joni Ernst has a slight lead in recent polls. Bill Clinton will be in the state this weekend to campaign for Braley. And Jodi Ernst is in a very tight race. Joni Ernst, in a very rare move, did not go sit down with "Des Moines Register" editorial board.
BERMAN: Powerful, powerful paper in that state.
ROMANS: Yes. All right. Facebook stock sinking. We're going to tell you what investors are so mad about. An early start on your money, next.
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ROMANS: Good morning. Let's get an early start on your money today.
Stocks are up ahead of news from the Federal Reserve. Asian and European stocks both higher. U.S. futures not moving much yet, but stocks had a great day yesterday. The Dow up 187 points. That's closing about 17,000 since the first time since early October. That's right, almost taking back all those losses from last month.
Today, it's all eyes on the Fed. The Central Bank is going to make it policy statement later today. The Fed expected to end its bond buying stimulus program that has propped up the market for years now. We'll also be looking for any hints of a time line when the Fed expects to raise interest rates.
Watching Facebook today. Shares down 8 percent before the bell. The social network reported huge success in the coveted mobile advertising space. Great, right? But the executives warned that Facebook's expenses will rise deeply next year. The cost will come from new hires, improvement to service, and more investment in Oculus and WhatsApp. Investors are saying, all right, we're going to take them off the table, down 8 percent right now.
BERMAN: EARLY START continues right now.
