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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

President Spends Monday on Ferguson; FBI Warns Military of ISIS Threat; Stocks Up Around the Globe; NATO Foreign Ministers Talk Russia; UVA's Sullivan Offers Sketch of Action Plan

Aired December 02, 2014 - 05:30   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: President Obama taking steps to help communities mend relationships with law enforcement after Ferguson. This as protesters interrupt Attorney General Eric Holder's meeting on the issue.

The University of Virginia preparing to take action after shocking allegations of sexual assault on campus. What the school is doing to keep students safe next.

And Jeb Bush making a surprising statement about his plans for 2016. Could he announce a run for the White House soon?

Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans. John Berman has the morning off. It is just about 30 minutes past the hour.

It has been one week since the streets of Ferguson, Missouri erupted in rage and violence. And the nation still coming to grips with issues of race and injustice. Attorney General Eric Holder began a planned series of public conversation on the subject, began that with a speech at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta.

Holder said he plans to announce rigorous new standards for federal law enforcement to, quote, "help end racial profiling once and for all." Holder's speech interrupted by protesters chanting no justice no peace."

All across the country on Monday, students and workers responded to activists call for a walkout at noon Central Time from New York to Los Angeles. Thousands of people took to the streets with the message of social justice.

Meanwhile, the hands up don't shoot gesture by some St. Louis Rams players before Sunday's games, a gesture that offended the local police officers association sparks further controversy overnight. St. Louis County Police officials characterized a call from the Rams chief operating officer as an apology.

The teams said no, it was not. In a statement late Monday night, the Rams said we expressed our respect for their concerns surrounding yesterday's game adding together we are beginning a healing process that will require time, energy, and honest dialogue. President Obama focused intently on Ferguson and its aftermath all day Monday. The president putting off a decision on whether to visit Ferguson instead holding a series of meetings on the relationship between police and the communities they serve.

Our White House correspondent, Michelle Kosinski has more.

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Christine. You know, it's interesting because on the one hand, you have deep involvement by this administration in Ferguson, the multiple investigations and statements.

Thousands of phone calls and meetings since this started, but then at the same time, the president still doesn't have plans to go there. It is obvious the White House sees this all as a delicate balance. But they want to keep the focus on the issue.

So what they did was a series of meetings that lasted all day yesterday. The president met with his cabinet members, with young civil rights leaders, community and faith leaders as well as law enforcement. They put out a plan of action. Here is some of what the president said.

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BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There have been commissions before. There have been task forces and conversations and nothing happens. What I try to describe to people is why this time will be different.

Part of the reason this time will be different is because the president of the United States is deeply invested in making sure that this time is different.

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KOSINSKI: So what the president wants to do now is, yes, a task force looking at policing in America, what is working and what isn't, funding for police departments, for training as well as some 50,000 body cameras for police officers.

Also the White House commissioned a broad study. The federal government providing departments with money and military equipment and we are talking some big numbers.

More than 5,000 Humvees over the last five years, tens of thousands of small arms, ammunition, and other types of military vehicles and aircraft that some think contributes to the militarization of local police departments.

What the White House found in its initial study was that there was also a glaring lack of consistency in these federal programs and also training that police have to use this equipment as well as community input.

So the White House says it wants to really tackle what it feels is at the heart of many of these issues. Distrust which mean local police and their local communities and the White House is calling for a sustained effort to break that down -- Christine.

ROMANS: All right, Michelle Kosinski at the White House. Thank you for that, Michelle.

Breaking overnight, there are reports that one of the wives and a son of ISIS leader, Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi have been detained by the Lebanese army and are in custody.

Reuters says they were detained at the border trying to cross from Syria into Lebanon. It is not clear what their names or nationalities are. We will bring you more details as they become available.

The FBI is alerting American service members this morning that they may be individually targeted in the U.S. by ISIS. The FBI is urging military personnel to review their social media activity to avoid attracting extremist attention.

The big concern is that ISIS members overseas may be tracking personal information about specific U.S. soldiers, information like their addresses based on their social media posts.

The concern is that ISIS operatives are gathering this information overseas and identifying homegrown lone wolf extremist here in the U.S., who could help carry out attacks.

The FBI issuing another warning, this one to U.S. businesses, it says they should be -- beware of hackers using malicious software that can wipe out entire computer systems.

This is the same software used in a devastating breach at Sony pictures last week. Because of that breach, some movies have become available online before their release. Investigators believe North Korea could be involved.

All right, will he or won't he? Jeb Bush is talking about his plans for 2016.

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JEB BUSH, FORMER FLORIDA GOVERNOR: I'm thinking about running for president and I'll make up my mind in short order. Not that far out into the future. I don't know the exact timeline.

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ROMANS: The former Florida governor making those comments on Monday. In preview of a possible campaign theme, Bush is calling for a more active foreign policy. Bush says his decision will hinge on whether he can, quote, "Lift people's spirits and not get sucked into the vortex" and even more important whether the sacrifice for his family is, quote, "tolerable."

Let's get an early start on your money. Stocks are looking good around the world this morning. Asian stocks ended the day higher. The benchmark Shanghai composite is 3.1 percent higher. Hopes there are more government stimulus in China.

European stocks are also higher on expectations the European Central Bank will take more action. U.S. futures following Europe's lead, looks like a good start to trade this morning.

One stock I'm watching this morning, Apple stock fell 3.3 percent yesterday. When you are talking about a company worth $700 billion, that one day blip is $22 billion lost in value. The stock has been on fire this year is up about 50 percent, cooling off a bit yesterday. We will see what happens today.

All right, that's an early start on your money. Indra Petersons has an EARLY START on your weather. Hello.

INDRA PETERSONS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning. It's going to feel like winter today. Yesterday, it was like 70 degrees out towards D.C. yesterday. Today, a whopping 40, a 30-degree cool down guys in just one day and of course, we are going to throw the mix in rain and even some snow out there.

Look at this, in fact, right now, currently we are looking at temperatures in the 40s out towards D.C. New York City's high right now are currently 37 degrees.

You go to the afternoon and look at the temperatures. It only gets colder. D.C. is going to drop down about 40. You can tell you are supposed to warm up throughout the day and that is not going to be the case as that cold air continues to fill on in.

All thanks to a system that's making its way into a cold front pushing through. Today, a hairy mix with sleet and rain and snow, back and forth as we see that kind of temperature move around. We are going to be watching the farther north with more snow.

So out towards New England, it's only about an inch or 2 inches. We are not talking about a lot here, a wintry mix at the airports and rain farther down to the south. The good news is cooler today, but lasts one day. Tomorrow, the temperatures go back up.

ROMANS: All right, I'll keep that good news. Thanks, Indra. NATO leaders gathering this morning to tackle the Ukraine crisis, but are relationships weakening between Moscow and the west, what can get done?

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ROMANS: Breaking overnight, Al-Shabaab militants suspected of killing at least 36 people. The victims' bodies were found in the quarry in the village of Kormey bordering Somalia.

A CNN affiliate tells us at least 20 gunmen targeted a group of workers at that site. We're told now the Red Cross is working to secure the area and help any victims it finds.

Russian aggression in Ukraine and maybe elsewhere expected to top the agenda at the NATO Foreign Ministers Meeting in Brussels. That meeting starts this morning. Secretary of State John Kerry will be there as the NATO alliance plots response to a far more combative Vladimir Putin.

Senior international correspondent, Nic Robertson, is live in London with more on the NATO meeting. Good morning, Nic. They will talk about Afghanistan and ISIS, but Vladimir Putin and Russia is what this is about, isn't it?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Front and center, absolutely. What they will do is check how much progress has been made since the NATO leaders meeting in Wales three months ago. They agreed a readiness action plan. That plan was to have a better and faster ability to respond to what NATO perceives as Russia's aggression on its borders.

So what they are expected to announce today is they will have a permanent presence in the areas of their eastern most members closest to Russia. They will have a spearhead action force that will be hopefully ready to be deployed by 2016. They will have an interim force before then.

The idea of this forces it will have permanent equipment basis in those eastern most NATO members and the troops will rotate through there. There will also be a statement -- included in the statement, a mention of support for political support and other support for the government in Ukraine.

There will be financial support to help their cyber defenses and military command and control. What we will hear from the NATO leaders is how they stepped up NATO's activities in the east of the NATO region closest to Russia.

Five times the number of air patrols, operations planning, and military exercises every two days so this is what we're going to hear, a very strong message we're expecting from NATO today from Russia.

ROMANS: Nic Robertson, thank you.

It's 43 minutes past the hour. Today President Obama will be highlighting researchers' progress on a promising new Ebola vaccine. At the National Institute of Health in Maryland, Obama is also expected to call on Congress to pass an emergency funding bill.

He requested $6.2 billion last month in the battle against the disease. More than 17,000 cases of Ebola reported globally, nearly all of them in West Africa.

A U.S. couple trying to leave Qatar is accusing the U.S. State Department of dishonesty. Grace and Matthew Huang are trying to get back to the U.S. after a court overturned a murder charge against them in the death of their daughter.

But the State Department says additional paperwork needs to be filled out before the Huangs can leave. But their attorney says that's already been done and insists the State Department's claims are not truthful. Bottom line this couple still stuck in Qatar, but wants to come home to their families.

Let's take a look at what is coming up on "NEW DAY" this Tuesday morning. Alisyn Camerota joins us now. Hi, Alisyn.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR, "NEW DAY": Hi, Christine. Great to see you. So what should police departments do about racial profiling? Attorney General Eric Holder says he is planning new action to end it. Well, this morning, we have a full slate of guests including prominent pastors, lawmakers and police chiefs and pundits on how to tackle this very thorny issue.

Plus the accusations against Bill Cosby keep growing. We will talk with three of Cosby's accusers that have never met before today. So you will witness the moment that they get to speak to each other for the very first time.

So make sure you stay tuned when Chris, Michaela, and I join you at the top of the hour on "NEW DAY."

ROMANS: I will be watching. Thank you so much, Alisyn.

All right, 45 minutes past the hour. The University of Virginia is taking action after shocking allegations of rape on the UVA campus. What the school will do now to keep students safe next.

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ROMANS: University of Virginia President Teresa Sullivan on Monday admitting her campus has a problem with sexual assaults and outlining steps to confront that problem. UVA has been in an uproar since "Rolling Stone" reported two weeks ago that seven men raped a woman at a fraternity in 2012.

Our Joe Johns has more this morning from Washington.

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Christine, though, the president of the University of Virginia had been scheduled to speak to the National Press Club, she offered instead to give an address to the university community about the situation on campus.

She posed a series of questions that she and UVA are attempting to address. More than anything, it's a summary of the discussions that have been going on since the story broke.

Questions like does the university do everything possible to protect every student and whether they've done enough to support survivors and encourage reporting. And what's the role of alcohol in fraternity and sorority organizations?

Sullivan also announced what sounds like the outline of an action plan and the first mostly modest steps she is taking to try to address the issue including finding ways to reduce underage drinking and rooting out date rape drugs on campus.

Forcing fraternities to provide greater safety for guests as part of their agreement to operate on campus and hiring additional trauma counselors for the women's center and putting a local police substation on campus.

Also going forward with a previously planned bystander training program for sexual assaults, and an anonymous survey in the spring to determine how often students experience sexual abuse on campus.

The university's only explanation for cancelling Sullivan's appearance at the National Press Club was that her energies were best spent focusing on the UVA community.

Though it was pretty clear that with the police investigation into the alleged gang rape still going on, freewheeling exchange with the national media could come back to haunt the university and its lawyers -- Christine.

ROMANS: Certainly a lot of work ahead at UVA. All right, thanks, Joe Johns for that. Nearly 200 nations in Peru this morning trying to hammer out a global agreement on climate change.

The goal is to get each country to agree to new limits on greenhouse gas emissions. The U.S., E.U. and China already have committed to reductions. India, Russia, Japan, and Australia are still not on board. The overall mission of the U.N. talks is to have a deal in place one year from now when climate change talks reconvene in Paris.

The car seat maker Graco is under federal investigation. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is trying to determine whether Graco broke the law by failing to announce a defect involving their child car seats.

A problem with the harness buckles ultimately triggered the largest recall in U.S. history. NHTSA officials say they had to apply continued pressure before Graco finally agreed to recall 6 million car seats earlier this year.

Another recall, Japanese auto supplier, Takata, under orders from federal regulators to declare the air bags defective by today that would initiate a nationwide recall instead of the regional recall now in place.

Dozens of air bags made by Takata have split open and exploded during deployment spraying drivers with shrapnel. The air bags are being linked to five deaths, four in the U.S. More than 14 million vehicles equipped with Takata airbags have already been recalled worldwide.

Federal safety investigators say failures by the FAA, Boeing and its Japanese manufacturer of lithium ion batteries all contributed to a fire that led to the grounding of the 787 Dreamliner fleet.

The NTSB report doesn't identify a definitive cause of that short circuit, but that short circuit triggered a battery fire on board a Japan Airlines 787 at Boston's Logan Airport last year. The report says design, manufacturing, and regulatory deficiencies were all factors.

It's 53 minutes past the hour. Oil prices have been plunging. Gas prices are down. It sounds great for consumers. What's the catch? We will have an EARLY START on your money next.

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ROMANS: All right, time for an EARLY START on your money this morning. A good day for stocks so far, Asian stocks ended their day higher. The Shanghai composite rose 3.1 percent on hopes to have more government stimulus in China.

European stocks higher on expected Central Bank action there. The U.S. stock futures are following Europe's lead. Looks like a good start to Tuesday trading after stocks closed lower yesterday.

The biggest story of business right now, oil prices still falling. Crude oil is down a bit this morning to $68 a barrel right now that is up a bit from the lows yesterday.

Oil prices basically in a free fall since OPEC decided not to scale back production. Last week, crude oil is down 35 percent from the summer peak. Look at that. Of course, you are seeing that at the pump. The national average is $2.76 this morning.

That is down a dollar from summer peak. Look, it is good news for consumers, low oil prices creating a lot of uncertainty, though, for the oil producing countries. A really interesting dichotomy there.

Apparently even these little cute dancing penguins cannot save Dreamworks Animation. Look at this, the stock fell 6 percent yesterday following the terrible weekend at the Box Office for "Penguins of Madagascar."

The film made $36 million over the holiday weekend. That's about half of what it was thought it would make. The studio is having trouble recreating the blockbuster success of its "Shrek" franchise.

A lot to cover this morning, including President Obama's new plan to help build relationship between communities and law enforcement in the wake of Ferguson. "NEW DAY" has that and a whole lot more starting right now.