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Suspect Arrested In Killings Of Muslim Men In Albuquerque; Tennessee Outlaws Public Camping, Targets The Homeless; U.S. Gas Prices Drop To $4.01 Per Gallon National Average Overnight. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired August 10, 2022 - 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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[05:31:46]

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: All right. A Mississippi grand jury declining to indict the white woman whose accusations led to the lynching of Emmett Till nearly 70 years ago.

Carolyn Bryant Donham, now 88 years old, initially accused the Black teen of making unwanted advances toward her at her family's grocery store. That led to the brutal torture and lynching of the 14-year-old Till. The prosecutor says the grand jury found insufficient evidence to charge her.

Police in Albuquerque, New Mexico say they have arrested a suspect in the killings of four Muslim men. CNN's Ed Lavandera has more from Albuquerque.

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ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Investigators here in Albuquerque, New Mexico say a tip from the public led them to 51-year-old Muhammad Syed. He is now accused of at least two of the four murders of Muslim men here in the area in the last two months.

Investigators say they have shell casing evidence that links Muhammad Syed in one of the weapons that he owns to several of these murders. They say they will continue working to find and dig up evidence that links Syed to the other two murders as well.

All of this transpiring very quickly after authorities had released pictures of a gray Volkswagen Jetta that they believed Syed was driving to -- at various of these murder scenes, possibly. He was discovered driving toward Texas. Investigators say he was arrested in the city of Santa Rosa. And this happened just as investigators were -- began searching -- executing a search warrant at their home.

In a surreal scene just hours before police made this announcement, we were inside Muhammad Syed's home speaking with their family. His daughter tells us that about an hour before police arrived, he said he was going to drive to Texas. That he had plans of moving his family there.

They told us that despite all of this and what police are saying, they do not believe that their father is responsible for these murders. But despite that, investigators here insist that Muhammad Syed is the prime suspect and that they can link him to, right now, at least, two of these four murders.

Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: All right, thank you for that, Ed.

No major U.S. city, it seems, is immune to homelessness, which spiked during the pandemic. Several states are now considering new tactics to clean up tent cities. But Tennessee is taking the draconian step of making homelessness itself a crime.

CNN's Nick Watt has more from Nashville.

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NICK WATT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Tennessee just became the first state in the nation to brand this a felony -- pitching a tent on public land that's not actually a campsite.

MOMMA V, UNHOUSED NASHVILLE RESIDENT: We're out here homeless. We're trying to struggle to make it and they're just trying to make it worse on all of us by criminalizing it.

LINDSEY KRINKS, OPEN TABLE NASHVILLE: It's a huge deal because a felony offense carries up to six years in jail, a $30,000 fine --

WATT (on camera): Yes.

KRINKS: -- and the loss of voting rights.

WATT (voice-over): And makes finding a job or a home even harder.

PAUL BAILEY, TN STATE SENATOR (R) SPARTA: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

WATT (voice-over): The bill's sponsor declined our offer of an interview but said this.

BAILEY: This bill requires law enforcement give a documented warning for the first incident, and any punishment thereafter is up to the prosecutorial discretion of the district attorney.

TANEESHA GREEN, UNHOUSED NASHVILLE RESIDENT: It's a felony to survive.

WATT (voice-over): Tanisha Green says police have already told her she must now obey that sign.

GREEN: They said that it'll be an action that we'll go to jail.

[05:35:03]

WATT (on camera): And do you have anywhere -- any place else to go?

GREEN: I don't. I've been here a year.

WATT (voice-over): Next door, in Missouri, a similar law takes effect this month -- a misdemeanor; not a felony -- but local governments that don't enforce the camping ban can be punished. And money earmarked to build permanent housing must instead be used to fund treatment programs and build state-sanctioned temporary homeless camps.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a push to the most vulnerable people into internment camps.

WATT (voice-over): Similar bills are now being considered in Arizona and Georgia.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're sitting right on the tipping point right now.

WATT (voice-over): In Oklahoma and Wisconsin, similar bills were introduced but failed. And those similarities are no coincidence. They're all based on a model bill produced by The Cicero Institute, a think tank in Austin funded by a tech billionaire.

Texas passed a version of Cicero's bill last year.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have no influence except the power of persuasion. We're merely saying here seems to be a better idea. We know what's not working.

WATT (voice-over): Something called Housing First has become the primary approach to tackling homelessness. Get someone an actual home (not a shelter bed), offer but don't mandate addiction treatment, and the rest should follow. Many studies support the approach. Cicero does not.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We don't have decades to wait to build up brand- new houses for every one of those people. We need to have a solution that's acting right now.

WATT (voice-over): He's addressed lawmakers in Tennessee --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Homeless encampments are bad for the homeless themselves.

WATT (voice-over): -- and in Georgia.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We can offer you alternatives but you have to move. You need that -- both the stick and the carrot -- and this bill provides those.

WATT (voice-over): In a leafy Nashville suburb --

WATT (on camera): I can see your issue. REBECCA LOWE, FOUNDER, RECLAIM BROOKMEADE PARK: Yes. You haven't seen anything yet.

WATT (voice-over): -- this is what Becky Lowe's local park now looks like.

LOWE: Nothing has been working. We're -- nothing has worked.

WATT (voice-over): She now supports the stick approach -- the threat of a felony conviction for just camping.

WATT (on camera): Where do you think these people should go?

LOWE: Well, we have dozens of shelters throughout Nashville.

HOWARD ALLEN, CO-FOUNDER, NASHVILLE HOMELESS UNDERGROUND: I was in a temporary shelter and I didn't like it because you're not treated as a human being.

WATT (voice-over): A sentiment shared by many. Howard Allen now has a permanent home.

ALLEN: When I moved in my house and they put that key in my hand, I cried. And then I cried again because my brothers and sisters deserve the same thing that I have -- housing -- and we can do it.

WATT (on camera): Maybe we can, but there seems to be increasing disagreement over how -- how much carrot, how much stick -- even here in liberal-leaning Los Angeles after -- let's call it a lively public comment section. The L.A. City Council has voted to ban camping within 500 feet of any daycare center and any school.

Nick Watt, CNN, Los Angeles.

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ROMANS: Nick, thank you for that. Such important reporting and it's something being felt across the country. Thank you.

All right. The monkeypox vaccine is in such high demand the FDA has issued an emergency use authorization that allows health care providers to change how it is administered. The idea is to stretch out the supply.

The vaccine can now be given to high-risk adults intradermally -- injected between the layers of the skin rather than subcutaneously or under the skin. This will allow providers to get five doses out of a standard 1-dose vial.

The move could increase the number of vaccine doses in the national stockpile from 441,000 to more than 2.2 million, which some officials say will still not be enough to meet the demand.

All right, a key inflation report coming out this morning that could affect the Fed's decision on interest rates. And top Republicans tried to convince Donald Trump to speed up his timetable for announcing a White House run.

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[05:43:10]

ROMANS: Let's get a check on CNN Business this Wednesday morning.

Looking at markets around the world, Asian shares closed lower. Europe has opened very narrowly mixed. I would call that flat. And on Wall Street, stock index futures this morning are leaning up just a little bit.

Tuesday was a down day for stocks -- three down days in a row. All the major averages down but not that much really. Investors awaiting critical inflation news later this morning.

Elon Musk is back in the news -- this time for selling nearly eight million shares of Tesla stock in recent days. The stock sale worth almost $7 billion. The world's richest man raising cash in case he loses his fight to back out of buying Twitter, telling his followers on Twitter "...it's important to avoid an emergency sale of Tesla stock."

Shares of Tesla have fallen, as you can see from that chart, almost 20 percent this year alone. They're up about 14 percent from the low after the July earnings report came in below analysts' expectations. Tesla shares will split three for one on August 25.

Key inflation figures due this morning -- critical evidence on whether red-hot inflation is peaking and whether the Fed will have to keep aggressively raising interest rates. That next meeting is in September for the Fed.

July's CPI reading is forecast to cool slightly to 8.7 percent from June's reading of 9.1 percent. It's still uncomfortably high and meaning higher prices for goods, from groceries to purchasing a vehicle. The Fed has been raising interest rates to try to cool inflation. And that CPI data will be due out at 8:30.

Gas prices fell another two cents overnight. The national average just above four bucks a gallon this morning. AAA now the lowest since early March for that national average. Gasbuddy.com says Americans are now spending almost $400 million less on gas per day than they were just over a month ago.

Joining me now, Dan Dicker, founder of The Energy Word news site and author of "Turning Oil Green: A Market-Based Path to Renewables." Dan, so nice to have you on bright and early this morning.

[05:45:01]

Almost there at that $4.00 a gallon mark. It has been such a swift decline since those highs above five bucks in March. Do you expect gas prices to continue to fall?

DAN DICKER, FOUNDER, THE ENERGY WORD, AUTHOR, "TURNING OIL GREEN: A MARKET-BASED PATH TO RENEWABLES": Good morning, Christine.

Yes, I do. I mean, look, nine percent inflation -- these are Zimbabwe numbers. I mean, this is unsustainable. The supply chain is catching up in many ways, not just in oil and gas but everywhere. And we've seen, like you said, drivers just drive a little bit less. And that always, when you chop demand even a little bit at the crazy prices we've seen for gas, you're going to see prices going down.

So, yes, I tend to see them moderate a bit more over the rest of the summer but I wouldn't get comfortable. I wouldn't say that drivers are going to see $3.00 gas again anytime soon. We still have a tremendous crisis -- energy crisis going on in Europe --

ROMANS: Yes, and --

DICKER: -- and that's really affecting the global supply chain now.

ROMANS: And it's hard to get too comfortable when you're heading into a hurricane season, too. As we both know, that can tend to -- that can tend to cause uncertainty as well.

So, moderating gas prices -- you talked about the demand side where consumers are looking at the two cars in their driveway and they're choosing the more energy-efficient one to drive, right? Leave the SUV and take the small car to the grocery store.

But there's also supply side here, as well, a little bit. You saw -- around the world, you saw governments starting to tap into their petroleum reserves. And we've seen the OPEC Plus nations slowing raising production. Is that part of the story?

DICKER: It's slightly the story. I think it's much more about the supply chain catching up.

In many ways, what OPEC Plus did when Joe Biden asked for more barrels was not give him a very, very positive response. One hundred thousand barrels for the month -- is what they decided on about a week ago -- is not a big increase. They've been doing increases of about 400,000 barrels to meet the demand that's been coming in.

Now, they say that they're trying to hold off and keep sort of their powder dry for the wintertime when the real crisis is going to hit. But I really don't think that that's what's going on here. In many ways, the Saudis, OPEC, and U.S. oil companies really like the heavy profits they've got in the last quarter, which were the best ever.

ROMANS: Yes. Those profit numbers pretty stunning and causing a lot of I think political pain.

DICKER: A lot of -- yes, a lot of crying on both sides of the aisle -- yes.

ROMANS: Yes, yes.

So, let's talk about inflation overall. I mean, you've seen these gas prices come down but still, people are feeling the pinch of inflation in their family budget -- you know, up and down, including rent. So, gas prices are coming down but rent, and food, and all kinds of other things have not really been coming down.

What are your inflation expectations here?

DICKER: Again, I really -- I really believe that some of the numbers in inflation -- you know, this was a tremendous one-off in terms of the pandemic and the supply chain difficulties. And the numbers that we've seen on inflation were just insane. You know, they're end-of- days-type of inflation numbers. Like I said, Zimbabwe-type numbers -- nine percent. Never seen anything like this. That's not really sustainable.

Should see some balance of a supply chain getting back into the swing of things -- again, with consumers spending a little bit less because prices are so high. I do expect that to moderate through the rest of the summer. But again, these are very, very systemic problems inside the economy right now and we are headed into -- probably into a recession because of it.

ROMANS: Yes. Well, what the economy has been through over the past 2 1/2 years, it's almost -- it's just almost unbelievable. I mean, you talk about the reset coming --

DICKER: Yes, it was apocalyptic, really.

ROMANS: Yes, absolutely.

But I have been watching some commodity prices coming down, oil prices coming down a little bit. So maybe the boil is off at least?

DICKER: I think that we're going to take a break here. In many ways, I think that there is an unfortunate super-cycle happening in oil where we're going to see fossil fuels go up over the course of the next two or three years.

But they did get well ahead of their skis. You know, $120 prices for oil this early in the cycle I think was well past where they should have been at this point. So they're moderating to a level at which I think they should be at this point in the cycle. But again, I don't want consumers to get too excited about that. I think that over the long haul we're still headed for higher prices, both with oil, gas, and gasoline that you put into your tanks.

ROMANS: All right, Dan Dicker. So nice to see you this morning. Thanks for dropping by and giving us your perspective.

DICKER: You bet, thanks.

ROMANS: Founder of The Energy Word.

DICKER: OK.

ROMANS: All right, we'll have more on gas prices and also the frustrating flight cancellations all over the U.S. Transportation Sec. Pete Buttigieg joins "NEW DAY" live. And new revelations about the FBI's search of Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago compound.

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[05:54:07]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Four, three, two, one, ignition, and liftoff of Starlink. Go Falcon, go Starlink.

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ROMANS: All right. SpaceX has launched another Falcon 9 rocket, this time with 52 more Starlink internet satellites to put into orbit. Starlink is SpaceX's internet mega constellation beaming broadband service to hundreds of thousands of people around the world. Elon Musk's company has launched more than 3,000 Starlink satellites with more to come.

Songwriter Lamont Dozier, who helped define the Motown sound, has died.

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THE SUPREMES, SINGING GROUP: Singing "Where Did Our Love Go."

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ROMANS: Dozier was part of the legendary songwriting team behind dozens of Motown classics by The Supremes, the Four Tops, Marvin Gaye, and many others. The Detroit native was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Lamont Dozier was 81.

[05:55:06]

The cost of mailing a letter or sending a package in the U.S. just keeps going up. The U.S. Postal Service is looking to raise prices yet again this January just five months after its most recent rate hike. The Postal Service says it's lost more than $90 billion since 2007 as the volume of mail has declined in recent years.

All right, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell sounds off on why the league is seeking a season-long suspension of Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson.

Coy Wire has this morning's Bleacher Report. Hey, Coy.

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Christine.

Watson was initially suspended six games by an independent judge, Sue L. Robinson, for violating the league's personal conduct policy after being accused of sexual misconduct by two dozen women. Not charged with any crime, Watson settled 23 of the civil lawsuits, denying any wrongdoing.

But yesterday, Commissioner Roger Goodell made his case for a yearlong suspension for Watson.

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ROGER GOODELL, NFL COMMISSIONER: We have seen the evidence. She was very clear about the evidence. She reinforced the evidence that there was multiple violations here and they were egregious, and it was predatory behavior. That's -- those are things that we felt -- we always felt were really important for us to address in a way that's responsible.

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WIRE: Goodell appointed former New Jersey attorney general Peter C. Harvey to hear the league's appeal. Harvey was on a panel that advised Goodell on the domestic violence case involving Cowboy's star Ezekiel Elliott five years ago. No timetable has been set for this hearing to begin.

Serena Williams will be back on the court tonight in Toronto for a second-round match against Olympic gold medalist Belinda Bencic. The 23-time Grand Slam champ, Serena, announced she will evolve away from tennis after the U.S. Open this month to focus on being a mom, and her spiritual goals.

Serena's impact will be remembered forever, especially by the young girls she inspired to believe in themselves, showing that they can succeed at whatever they put their minds and hearts into. That includes 18-year-old tennis sensation Coco Gauff.

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COCO GAUFF, RANKED WORLD NO. 11: For me -- I mean, I grew up watching her. I mean, I -- that's the reason why I play tennis. And, you know, tennis being a predominantly white sport, it definitely helped a lot because I saw somebody who looked like me dominating the game and it made me believe that I could dominate too. But the legacy that she's left through her tennis career is something that I don't think any other player can probably touch.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WIRE: Coco and Serena have never played each other and Coco says she hopes that can happen before Serena does hang up the racket.

Now, some levity. NFL training camps getting hot and heavy but every team has a team prankster to lighten the mood, like the Bills' Case Keenum.

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CASE KEENUM, BUFFALO BILLS QUARTERBACK, DRESSED UP AS A FAN AND ASKED FOR AUTOGRAPHS: Let's go, Bills.

Will you do that one? Will you do it one more time for me, man? It's kind of hard to read.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is this Case?

KEENUM: Look out there, man. I'm about to get kicked out of here. OK, this 2019 one still works?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, that doesn't work.

KEENUM: It doesn't work?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What are you doing here?

KEENUM: I'm trying to get autographs, sir.

Hi, Josh! Josh! Josh! Hey, Josh -- man, you're my favorite player, man. You're my favorite player, man. I love you, Josh.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WIRE: All right. Finally, a lesson in sportsmanship from the Little League World Series Regionals. A scary moment in Texas when pitcher Kaiden Shelton lost grip of the ball, hitting Isaiah Jarvis in the head. Well, after a few moments on the ground, Isaiah made his way to first base. But when he saw that Kaiden was visibly upset, Isaiah walks over to Kaiden on the mound and hugs him.

Isaiah said afterwards he had just a headache. But when he saw Kaiden crying on the mound he said he probably would have been doing the same thing. You can hear Isaiah say to Kaiden "Hey, you're doing just great."

The crowd moved by this moment. There were tears in the stands as well after this. And Isaiah's coach, Christine, said it was the most remarkable thing --

ROMANS: That's amazing.

WIRE: -- he's ever witnessed.

ROMANS: There is some crying in baseball -- good crying -- helping each other. And those two are going to be on "NEW DAY" later, so we'll get to hear more about that story.

Coy, nice to see you.

WIRE: You, too.

ROMANS: Thanks for joining me this morning, everybody. I'm Christine Romans. "NEW DAY" starts right now.

[05:59:30]