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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Tail Section Of Airasia 8501 Found; Baltimore Police Warn Officers Nationwide; Two Officers Shot In Bronx Robbery; 114th Congress In Session

Aired January 07, 2015 - 05:30   ET

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

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: We're breaking down the new threat to police officers and how they may be responding.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Dangerous cold weather across the country. Millions facing this arctic chill that has already closed schools and cancelled flights. We're tracking what you need to know for this cold day. Welcome back to EARLY START, everyone. I'm John Berman.

ROMANS: I'm Christine Romans. It's nice to see you this morning. It's 30 minutes past the hour. Let's begin with this breaking news this morning. Eleven days into the search for Airasia Flight 8501. Part of the plane's tail section has now been found.

Divers fighting stormy seas and near zero visibility, they have reached what is potentially a crucial turning point here. Why is it so important? The black boxes in an airbus A320-200 are housed in the tail section and if they are now discovered, they could reveal why this plane went down.

For the latest, let's get more from CNN's Anna Coren in Surabaya, Indonesia. Anna, these still photos of the divers had brought up are really tantalizing for investigators. They want to know if they can get in there. They can find out if those black boxes are there.

But even if it's in not this particular part of the tail, really important that finally a piece of this wreckage has been found on the seafloor.

ANNA COREN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. And such a significant piece of the wreckage as well, look, it is very promising, there's no doubt about it. And according to officials, they are deploying a sub- salvage vehicle to retrieve the tail.

It was going to be used for the rest of the plane body to be lifted up from the bottom of the Java Sea. They're now dispatching it for this tail. They do believe that the black boxes are inside. There are divers that have been in the water all this afternoon.

It's just on 5:30 in the afternoon local time here in Indonesia. But certainly, those divers have identified and been inspecting the tail and now decision has been made to pull it out of the mud. It was found upside down deep in the mud.

It's now being pulled out of the mud. That is the plan so that they can then pull it apart and hopefully find those black boxes. We've also learned today that another body has been found taking it to 40, the number of people that have been recovered.

But there are still another 122 passengers and crew who are missing that were on board this Airasia Flight 8501. But, Christine, we're also learning that once the black boxes are retrieved that the data will be analyzed in Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia.

So it will not be sent anywhere else. It's all going to be handled here. And it's obviously, once the information is downloaded, we will then know what exactly happened to this plane, and what went so terribly wrong.

ROMANS: Anna, we're looking at new photos. I wanted to tell our viewers we're looking at new still photographs right now from TV-1 from the divers who have located the tail of the Airasia Flight 8501.

Some of the photos you can see divers in their rubber suits, in rubber boats on top of the surface, giving the thumbs up sign, clearly indicating to each other that they have found something.

Other photos are the divers actually under water. A major, major find here, any sense from investigators, Anna, of how optimistic they are that they're going to be able to find that black box?

COREN: Look, I think the facts that this large chunk of the tail was found upside down, deep in the mud, and, from the pictures that we have seen, it does look relatively intact. There's then this hope that those black boxes are there.

We heard from the CEO from Airasia, Tony Fernandes, a little earlier. He put out a tweet saying that if the right part of the tail is located, the black boxes will definitely be in there. But certainly, all assets have deployed to this area.

It was a second priority area. It wasn't even the first priority area. It was by sonar that they discovered this wreckage. It wasn't actually by the pings emitted from those black boxes. So, definitely, a major breakthrough, and a great deal of hope in this find.

ROMANS: All right, Anna Coren for in Surabaya. Keep us posted if anything is found. Thank you, Anna.

BERMAN: That's a promising development. All right, a new warning from the Baltimore Police Department has officers around the country on alert this morning. Baltimore officials say a man carrying a loaded .22-caliber handgun walked into a police station Tuesday morning allegedly on orders from one of the city's street gangs to test the station security.

Officials say officers found the gun when they searched 29-year-old Jason Armstrong after they say they notice him acting strangely and smelling of marijuana. Baltimore's police commissioner says it is lucky that officers did not end up in a terrible situation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ANTHONY W. BATTS, BALTIMORE POLICE COMMISSIONER: Let me say again an organized gang in the city of Baltimore sent an armed suspect into our building to see our security, to test our security. That is alarming for us. That is alarming to me.

And I'm going to send a message along those lines to understand that we're not going to cower. We're not going to back down. Clearly this was not a rumor. Clearly, this was not something that was hyperbole. This happened.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Armstrong told police that the street gang forced him to enter the police station. He now faces a variety of weapons and drug charges.

ROMANS: In New York, police officers may already be taking these extra precautions recommended by Baltimore. New figures show a drastic plunge in the number of arrests and summonses by NYPD officers, a plunge, especially in some categories of minor offenses.

This since two officers was murdered in a patrol car last month. The police union denies officers are fearful. It denies there is any organized work slowdown due to a rift between the rank and file, and the mayor, Bill De Blasio.

Union officials pointing to two off-duty officers, who raced to a robbery scene in the Bronx Monday and were shot by suspects. The father of one of those officers told CNN's Don Lemon about the moment he was told his son had been hit.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOSEPH DOOSI, OFFICER ANDREW DOOSI'S FATHER: The first thing comes to your head is like this really can't be happening. And then, of course, when he's telling you that he's critical and he's been shot twice, I think the worst things possible can go through your mind.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Both injured Officers Andrew Doosi and Aliro Pellerano, they're expected to recover, thankfully. Miguel Marquez has the latest on the police shoot-out and the hunt for the suspects.

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John, Christine, we are learning a lot more about this situation that New York City police officers found themselves in. Five officers total say NYPD responded. They were all getting off shift when they heard about this robbery in progress.

They all responded, some of them perhaps did not even have their safety vests on or their protective gear when they responded to this robbery. When they called into the dispatcher, you can literally hear the adrenaline in their voices.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shots fired. Shots fired. Shots fired, 187 Tiebout, 187 Tiebout. White Chevy Camaro.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUEZ: When those officers got to the area, they didn't go directly to the robbery location. They cased the entire area assuming that whoever has done the robbery was now outside of that area. They were in fact right.

They saw them at another store down the way, that's when that individual who we believe is Jason Polanco at the window of a deli turned around, fired a 44-revolver at the officers. He got off three shots, they say, before getting away.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He fires three guns -- three rounds, a .44 caliber magnum handgun and we believe he drive by us after that because he has no more rounds in the gun.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUEZ: Police say this all unraveled very quickly. One of the police officers got off three shots. He's the only officer who fired said NYPD. He hit one of the suspects in the leg. That person later checked into a New York hospital.

Police said he fed them a line, but it was quickly apparent to their detectives that this was somebody connected to this robbery attempt. He then led them to the person who brought him to the hospital, who then led them to Jason Polanco.

All three individuals are in custody, two under arrest and the third in custody. Police saying, look, this is absolute proof that there is no slowdown out there. That these police officers were off duty and they responded to a very dangerous situation -- John, Christine.

BERMAN: All right, our thanks to Miguel.

New this morning, a deadly shooting at a VA clinic in El Paso, Texas will be investigated by the FBI. Sources tell CNN that a gunman shot and killed a doctor Tuesday afternoon and later died himself from a self-inflicted wound.

There's no known motive for this shooting. The facility will be closed today as investigators question staffers and patients who witnessed this tragedy.

ROMANS: All right, Republicans in control of both houses of Congress now as lawmakers get back to work this morning. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky taking over as Senate majority leader with John Boehner returning as House speaker, but not without a scare that played out live on national television.

The Ohio congressman managed to overcome significant opposition, but ultimately, he got the votes he needed to avoid an embarrassing second ballot and get sworn in for his third term. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPRESENTATIVE JOHN BOEHNER (R), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: I do.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you very much. I pronounce you speaker of the House.

BOEHNER: Thank you, thank you.

SENATOR MITCH MCCONNELL (R), KENTUCKY: I think the goal is to do important things for the country and my colleagues have given me an opportunity to be their leader. And the people of Kentucky have given me their confidence for another six years.

And so I think it's probably not a great time to be measuring the drapes, but, rather, looking to the question of whether or not we can make a difference for the country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Republicans who opposed Boehner are already paying a price moving quickly to remove the two from influential House rules committee, two of them.

BERMAN: The speaker says you're not going to be part of this committee if you're not going to vote for me.

The president said he's looking forward to an exchange of ideas when he meets with the new Republican leaders next week at the White House. He has already vowed to veto one of the first new bills expected to land on his desk. That would be to approve construction of the Keystone pipeline.

The project is still being reviewed by the State Department. There's a Nebraska court that has to weigh in on this and then the State Department would actually have to review it again if that happens. The White House insists it's not up to Congress to circumvent that procedure.

ROMANS: All right, time for an EARLY START on "Your Money." The question of the day, will the selling stop, it looks like, yes, for now. U.S. stock futures are up a bit this morning. It's 130-point slide yesterday on top of a 330-point rout on Monday. The Dow is up about 2.5 percent in just three days.

Perspective, though, stocks are just 4 percent below record highs, a correction of 10 percent in stocks is long overdue and healthy for the market. There has not been a correction in stocks since 2011. That's really remarkable.

So what's rattling the markets here? This is driven by crude oil. It's $47 a barrel right now. That chart right there, unbelievably bearish, cut in half since the summer.

It's great for consumers. You have lower gas prices. It's scary for energy companies because, look, they're expecting to make $70, $80, $90 a barrel, 47 is rough.

BERMAN: And dropping.

ROMANS: I should say a lot of the people in the industry, they're hedged, right? They've got hedges so that for a long time maybe they can withstand lower energy prices, but at some point, if they don't turn around --

BERMAN: How long, the Saudis can last longer.

Happening now, millions across the country are facing these temperatures that get lower and lower and lower. Schools are closed in major cities, a 1,000 flights cancelled yesterday. We're breaking down how bad this will get -- next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: Breaking news this morning, divers in the Java Sea have located at least part of the tail section of Airasia Flight 8501. This is a breakthrough in the search because in this model of aircraft, the A3-2200, the black boxes are mounted in the tail section of the plane.

So is it part of the tail section they found? Divers are at the bottom of the sea right now going over this piece by piece. This is such a big moment for them because of setback after setback. But they hope that they can get their hands on those black boxes soon. We'll bring you the latest developments.

ROMANS: The still photos are just dramatic. We're getting new ones in every minute. They are just really interesting what they are seeing under that water.

BERMAN: All right, back here in the U.S., it is the weather people are talking about, the cold weather. Forecasters say the mix of wind and cold across the Midwest could push windchills under 40 below, temperatures that are potentially deadly.

ROMANS: All these dangerous conditions are closing schools throughout the Midwest. Parents are scrambling to change their plans today because it is so cold outside. We're talking public schools in major cities like Kansas City, Minneapolis, Chicago, Des Moines, Indianapolis and Omaha.

Many parents worry that keeping schools open will lead to wrecks like these. This is in Baltimore. One hundred forty two collisions were reported there Tuesday morning. At least three students were injured.

ROMANS: Chicago officials are expecting a tricky commute this morning. They're warning drivers to be extra cautious on the road in a lookout for black ice. And other dangers, ponds and lakes have been icing over. A little boy in Northeastern Illinois was rescued Tuesday after falling in a frozen pond. He is expected to recover.

ROMANS: Roads in Pennsylvania, a sheer mess. Plows were out in force but it proved too little to deter major accidents on slick roads. In Wexford, a car slid under this tractor trailer hauling rock salt, starting a fire. Meantime, this driver plowed right into a building in Center City after hitting a patch of black ice.

BERMAN: Icy roads causing major problems in Indiana. Six trucks slammed into each other on I-65. That highway was shut down for more 5 hours, look at that. Two people were injured.

ROMANS: The deep freeze disrupting air travel as well. Nearly 1,000 flights cancelled nationwide on Tuesday and you know what, folks, it could be more of the same today. So check your phone. How much longer will this deep freeze go on? Let's get to meteorologist, Pedram Javaheri for an early look at your forecast.

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, guys. Let's show you what's happening across the country. Your high temperatures as remarkable as they come, not often you see this sort of a setup, minus 1, high temperature in Chicago, Minus 4 in Minneapolis. Windchills easily 20 to 30 below zero.

Some areas could be closing in 40 below zero for the windchills. That's why schools across this region, public schools, closed. Atlanta is dropping off into the 30s after the 60s a couple days ago. Atlanta went from 56 down to 34 on Tuesday.

New York City dropped off in the lower 20s on Tuesday and that trend seems to stay put for the next couple of days. Lunchtime forecast today, Minneapolis minus 10 feels like minus 30. Across New York, it will feel like 10.

Of course, you have those tall buildings, anywhere around Manhattan, you're going to run into significant windchills in those buildings really funneling the wind across that region.

Again, it looks like it will continue over the next couple of day for a very gradual warming trend returns to your forecast.

BERMAN: All right, thanks so much, Pedram. Let's take a look at what's coming up on NEW DAY. Alisyn Camerota joins us now.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, guys. We'll have the latest on the big find overnight, the tail of the Airasia Flight 8501. Are the critical black boxes still inside there? And we'll also tell you the latest thinking what sent that plane into the Java Sea.

Also, the Baltimore Police Department warning law enforcement across the country after a suspect tried to sneak into the station armed with a gun. We'll speak with the White House press secretary about what the president is doing to calm tensions with police across the country.

We will also have more developments on the 7-year-old Sailor Gutzler. She, of course, was the sole survivor of that plane crash that killed her family. We'll speak to another young woman who was also the sole survivor of a plane crash and what happened in her life after that tragedy.

We'll have all that and much more when Chris, Michaela and I see you at the top of the hour.

BERMAN: Excellent. Thanks so much, Alisyn. It's 48 minutes after the hour. The contents of a 220-year-old time capsule buried by the nation's founding fathers, those contents reveal what Paul Revere and Samuel Adams left behind. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: It's 220 years after Paul Revere and Samuel Adams first placed it in the corner of the Massachusetts statehouse, a small time capsule is now open, and its contents have been so carefully removed. What treasures did the box hold? CNN's Alexandra Field was there at the museum of fine arts for unveiling.

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Christine, John, physically, we're talking about something very small, 5 1/2 by 7 1/2 inch, but really, it's enough to take us all the way back through history to this nation's very beginning. These relics were first combed together back in 1795. It's been 220 years.

And now the whole world finally gets to see what's inside. Five newspapers, 23 coins, one of them, stretches as far back as 1652. A model imprinted with George Washington, a paper seal of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. And perhaps most significantly, a silver plate with the names etched on it Paul Revere and Samuel Adams.

They're the two men who put these relics together in the first place back in 1795. On the 4th day of July, they buried them together under a cornerstone at the Massachusetts statehouse, and that's where they stayed.

It wasn't until 1855 that all of those things were found. They were removed, they were cleaned and they were conserved again. This time put in a brass box that was made just for the occasion. Actually, when you look inside the box, you can see the name of the maker etched inside.

The items were then placed back in the box back at the cornerstone at the statehouse. Just last month, they were found again. It took a conservator from the museum of fine arts seven hours to carefully dig that box out. You can actually see some of the white plaster marks still on the brass.

It took about five hours to carefully unscrew the eight screws that held it together for all of these years and took another hour to unpack the contents. Those contents will soon go on display. They'll take certain steps to try and conserve them.

But soon the world will be able to come here and see those contents, those relics that were left behind. Eventually, the time capsule will be reconstructed and returned to the statehouse.

But until then, people will have an opportunity to see part of the story of this nation's history in the way that the great patriot and founding father really wanted us to -- Christine, John.

ROMANS: Alexandra Field, thanks for that.

BERMAN: They got a lot done. They were very, very busy men. I love the newspapers and money basically information and currency. What's changed?

ROMANS: We'll see that.

BERMAN: Falling oil prices, falling gas prices. Good news for drivers. But could this all lead to layoffs? And what's it doing to the world economy? Jittery right now. An EARLY START on "Your Money" next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: All right. Let's get an EARLY START on "Your Money" today. Europe sinks back into deflation. That means consumer prices are falling. That's a very bad sign. It's the first time price have fallen since the great recession in 2009, a big concern in the European economy.

The European bank will have to start a bond buying program to pump up prices. Asian stock prices up. Yesterday, the Dow slid another 130 points on top of the business losses on Monday. Tough start to the New Year, folks, but you could see that turn around a bit today.

The big story, crude oil is trading at $47 a barrel. Cut in half since last summer, sinking prices, great news for consumers. And quite frankly for the stock, ExxonMobil's stock has dropped by $50 billion. Other big players like Chevron and Conico Phillips hit hard.

And one of the reasons we're in this mess, we are starting to see job cuts in that sector. Job cuts in Houston. Some of these are high- paying jobs.

BERMAN: It's also cutting back on things like risk, and expiration. You're not going to take risks if the money's not there.

ROMANS: Some of these producers are really hedged. There are hedges against some of these laws for some producers.

BERMAN: It's 58 minutes after the hour. The breaking news this morning, the breakthrough in the search for Airasia Flight 8501. "NEW DAY" takes that up right now.