Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Saturday Morning News

Mega Millions Madness; Sanford Braces for Protests; New Calls for Syrian Ceasefire

Aired March 31, 2012 - 07:00   ET

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

ANNOUNCER: From CNN's world headquarters, bringing you news and analysis from across the nation and around the globe. Live from Studio 7, this is CNN SATURDAY MORNING.

RANDI KAYE, CNN ANCHOR: At least one Mega Million ticket is out there this morning, that was sold in Maryland. If you missed the drawing last night, here it is again.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our first number tonight is 46. That's followed by 23. Up next, we have 38. That's followed by four. And final wipe-off for this Friday evening is two.

Now, for the megaball, tonight's megaball number is 23.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: Again, those winning numbers are 2, 4, 23, 38 and 46, AND THE mega ball is 23.

Let's go live now to Athena Jones. She's in Baltimore, Maryland.

Athena, the millionaire dollar question is: are there more tickets out there? What do we know?

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, according to state officials here, we are outside the Maryland lottery headquarters, we've been talking to officials this morning and they say that this ticket sold here in Baltimore county was one of several sold in counties nationwide. But we're still waiting to hear where exactly the other tickets were sold. We know the Mega Millions is played in 42 states and two other jurisdictions, D.C. and the Virgin Islands. So, it really could be anywhere.

We do know that in the state of California, at least 29 people were able to match five of the six numbers so they won't get nearly as big a payout, of course, but we're told by California lottery officials they'll get between $125,000 and $130,000. But that's a far cry from the $640 million, which by the way, Randi, is the biggest -- a new record jackpot. It far surpasses the one back in 2007, when it was $390 million as the jackpot record.

KAYE: Well, I don't know about but if I had just won $640 million, I don't know if I would come forward and tell everybody that. So, it is possible, right, that we will never know who actually has the winning ticket.

JONES: Absolutely. You know, it depends on the state. And we're told that in the state of Maryland, the winner doesn't have to take part in any sort of media events, it's not at all required. We do expect to be possibly some sort of press conference once we know exactly where this ticket was sold. We know the store that sold the ticket is going to get $100,000 bonus. But yes, it's possible that we won't see -- won't find out the name of the person who won this big jackpot here in Maryland.

And I don't know about you, Randi, but if I wanted -- I'd keep it a secret because there's a lot of money that you would suddenly have people maybe asking you for, I don't know, what do you think?

KAYE: I'd be asking you for a loan maybe, you never know. But listen, is there a press conference planned or anything like that, I mean, to announce anything today?

JONES: Well, we're told that it's likely that they'll be some sort of press conference at the store that sold the ticket, but still waiting to hear more, still quite early. Of course, you can bet that that person who got those winning numbers last night is probably still trying to sort of take it all in and believe that they are now a multi-millionaire.

KAYE: Well, hopefully, they learn the news right here on CNN SATURDAY MORNING with those winning numbers.

Athena Jones, thank you very much.

A security breach hit some of the biggest names in the credit and debit card industry. And I all started at a company that you probably never heard off. It's a third party processor called Global Payments. And every time you swipe your card, they get your info and then send it off to the major credit companies. The breach was discovered earlier this month.

Global Payments did not say how many accounts or which companies were affected. But in a statement, Visa says, quote, "All major card brands are impacted." Industry sources say the hackers are already using some of that stolen data.

Let's go now to Sanford, Florida, where in an hour, thousands seeking the arrest of George Zimmerman for the killing of Trayvon Martin are expected to march to the city's police department. In an open letter to the special prosecutor, the NAACP, which will participate in today's march slams the police, saying in part that their work on the case shows, quote, "evidence of racial bias and investigative mishaps."

Let's bring our George Howell, who is on the ground there for us in Sanford.

George, good morning to you. What is the mood like there right now, what are you seeing?

GEORGE HOWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Randi, right now, people getting ready for this March and rally, as you mentioned, the march starts in less than an hour. At Crooms Academy here in Sanford, and it ends in a rally, a really that start at 11:00 a.m. Eastern, right here at the Sanford Police Department.

The message from the NAACP is very simple, to arrest George Zimmerman now.

Keep in mind from the National Action Network, the Reverend Al Sharpton has different rhetoric, basically saying that the time may come a time to take it to the next level, in case George Zimmerman is not arrested, saying that economic sanctions may be result again if he's not arrested -- Randi.

KAYE: And, George, we've heard from Trayvon Martin's parents, they've been very vocal about this. And now, we're hearing from his brother for the first time.

HOWELL: We are hearing from Jahvaris Fulton. Jahvaris is the older brother. He is in college.

And keep in mind, we heard from Robert Zimmerman, George Zimmerman's brother, speaking on behalf of his brother. Now, we are hearing from Jahvaris, talking about his brother and also talking about this controversial "Stand Your Ground" law here in Florida.

Listen to what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAHVARIS FULTON, TRAYVON MARTIN'S BROTHER: I think it sends the wrong message. It tells people that, you know, you can murder one, no one sees it and you say self defense.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOWELL: So, we have been seeing many voices, new voices coming into the story today. Thousands of people joining the chorus to arrest George Zimmerman. At this point, we're waiting to see what happens with that investigation, whether Zimmerman is indeed charged, Randi.

KAYE: George Howell, thank you very much.

A dangerous scene for some Michigan firefighters. What happen next? We'll tell you and show you right after the break.

Plus -- Reynolds?

REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Absolutely. We are taking a look at a whole bunch of things -- looking at possible fire weather out west. Of course, we get the fires still burning in parts of Colorado, let you know what you can expect weather-wise out there.

Some heavy rain possible, snow for the West Coast, and a mix of rain, sleet, and snow in portions of the Northeast. Get all that coming up, straight ahead.

But, first, take a look at winning numbers from the Mega Millions. Unbelievable.

If you are the lucky winner? Congratulations. I'm your new best friend. If you're not? Read these numbers and weep.

See you in a few.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: Some dramatic video now showing firefighters escaping disaster in Michigan. They were responding to a fire at a dry cleaner while trying to ventilate a building, the roof gave way. No injuries were reported. The cause of the fire still under investigation.

Look at them working hard there. Amazing.

And firefighters are also battling some pretty dangerous conditions in Colorado.

Reynolds, you're tracking some of that for us this morning.

WOLF: Yes. We certainly are. Kind of rough stuff there. It's going to be interesting to see how the day really pans out, whether or not to favorable for the time-being. We do expect some wind.

We're going to lighten things up here. And as we do so, we're going to shed some light on what you can expect weather-wise. Of course, Randi, the big story out west is that we do expect the wind to continue, very dry conditions for parts of the Rockies.

However, in portions of the Northeast, it's just the opposite. We've got the combination of the rain, the sleet, even some snow fall, in parts of Massachusetts, if anyone happens to be taking the drive in the turnpike back in the Berkshires, you're going to see the transformation from rain drops to little bit of sleet, then some heavier snow. Same deal in parts of Connecticut, evenings to Rhode Island and into Upstate New York.

Let's head back out to the Southeast. As we do, you see this rotation, that area of low pressure is going to pull its way along the Gulf Coast. Back side of that brings some scattered showers to places like New Orleans, back in Alabama, before the day is over. We expect the rain to continue in parts of Atlanta, too.

Now, in terms of the national perspective, we do have a chance of some strong storms today, Randi, especially across parts of the mid-Mississippi Valley. The fire threat we're talking about, out towards the West, is going to be just a mess. They needed a lot of moisture out there. I think they could certainly use some rain.

That's not going to mean the situation for them in places like Denver, where 83 degrees is going to be the expected high. As we zoom in on that key location, you'll see the areas that we have shaded in pink. That's where we have the dry conditions and the strong storms. Some winds can be 10 miles to 20 miles per hour, some gusts approaching 30, which actually pan the flames quite a bit.

We've expect the highs back into mountains, not Denver, but back on the mountains to be in the 60s for the day. Big issue we have the wind is not going to be in parts of the four corners. It actually will spread in the Central Rockies where gusts there could be even stronger.

To wrap things up, 45 to 60 mile per hour gusts can be anticipated there.

What about your travel and how fast you can travel there in some places. Well, in New York and Philadelphia, we're going to have some backups. Major delays also expected in San Francisco and Los Angeles -- or rather, Atlanta, and Charlotte. There you have Los Angeles. You can expect a few delays in Salt Lake City due to wind delays just under an hour.

That's the latest, Randi. Let's send it right back to you.

KAYE: Hey, Reynolds, are you a dog owner?

WOLF: I am not a dog owner, but I grew up with them, big dog fan.

KAYE: So, you're a dog lover.

WOLF: Absolutely.

KAYE: Well, then, you know that nothing says welcome home like a sloppy lick in the face, right? Check this out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Daddy's home.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: How excited is that little puppy? That is a heart- warming welcome home for a soldier after being eight months away in Afghanistan. His dog just cannot get enough of him.

The soldier tries to (INAUDIBLE) but Chuck just couldn't contain himself. Obviously, look at him, just leaping on to his lap.

The video has actually become a viral sensation with more than 2.5 million people, tuning in for glimpse in case you didn't see it. We wanted to bring it to you this morning.

WOLF: It is cool.

KAYE: How wonderful is that. I love it. I could just watch it over and over again.

A realistic plan for peace, or fools errand. Coming up, we'll look at a new call for ceasefire in Syria, and I'll ask one expert why it may be destined to fail.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: Welcome back.

There's a new peace plan for Syria, it may be a long shot to end the violence there. The plan comes from former United Nations General Secretary Kofi Annan, ands seemingly accepted by Syrian President Assad. It starts with a ceasefire.

Joining me now is David Schenker, from the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

Good morning to you, David.

In a special piece for CNN.com, you said that the plan probably won't work and that President Assad had little to lose by signing on to Kofi Annan's plan. Why do you think that is?

DAVID SCHENKER, WASHINGTON INSTITUTE FOR NEAR EAST POLICY: Well, I think, fundamentally, the base of the plan says that there will be a transition plan that Assad himself oversees. And that in of itself is a problem. It moves away from what the international community had been pushing for, which was for Assad to step down.

But moving beyond that, this guy just has no interest in going away. He's not going to negotiate his own surrender. He's the head of the Alawite minority community, and he himself is not going to oversee the end of minoritarian (ph) rule in Syria, he's just not going to do it.

KAYE: Yes. We've seen that already, even as he said he accepted the plan, the killing there does continue.

You also say that Assad's acceptance of the ceasefire plan could actually derail or maybe even slow down any help that maybe promised to the opposition forces, the activist there, how so?

SCHENKER: Well, first of all, we've already seen that nobody is talking any longer about Assad leaving, the peace plan, Annan's plan itself didn't mention that Assad had to go. He said this is up to the Syrian people, as if the Syrian people had any say on it. And with this plan in place, nobody is going to be talking more about arming the Free Syria Army, about the military opposition to the regime, which was essentially the only people out there that are protecting the protesters against the regime.

So, this is a big problem. There was momentum I think building in Washington pushing for the funding of this opposition military force.

KAYE: So what -- I mean, what can we expect really? I mean, can we expect that Assad would stay in power but maybe just change the system below him?

SCHENKER: I don't think we're going to see that. I mean, if he wanted to fulfill any of this peace plan, he would talk about transition or he would talk about providing the opposition with more representation in a meaningless parliament. I think that's sort of the extent of what he would do willingly.

My guess is that he's going to say, hey, I accept this. It's the opposition who is not abiding by the plan. They're not disarming. And he will lay this at their feet and he will continue to kill those who oppose him regrettably.

KAYE: Let's talk about this Friends of Syria meeting in Turkey. Should we expect anything to come out of that? It's happening this weekend. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is there.

What do you expect?

SCHENKER: Well, listen, we saw earlier that in a meeting between Secretary Clinton and the Turks, that the Turks had wanted to push for actually establishing safe zones within Syrian territory, and were dissuaded by the secretary of state.

I don't think there's going to be a lot of movement here at the free Syria -- or Friends of Syria conference. I think that you're going to have some very angry Saudis and Qataris who had been the forefront, wanting Assad to step down. And I think you're going to have an international community that continues to wring its hands over what the future of Syria is, and about impending instability there and chaos that spills over the borders.

KAYE: David Schenker, thank you very much for your thoughts on that today.

SCHENKER: My pleasure.

KAYE: All right. We have something really cool in studio to show you this morning. Check out what we have here.

Yes, those are new 3D printers. You can get them for your home. Have you heard of them?

They can print practically any object that they are told to, and I hear they even printed -- well, me. Yes. They'll show us what their work looks like right after the break. I can't wait to take a look and see what the mini me looks like. So, stick around.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: I don't know about you, but I can't even look at my March Madness bracket anymore. It's so bad.

But we're finally down to four. Fans of college hoops know that I can only be talking about one thing, of course. It's the March Madness.

And tonight, Titanic battle between in-state rival Kentucky and Louisville, while Kansas is set to take on Ohio State.

Carlos Diaz is in New Orleans, site of this year's Final Four.

Hey, Carlos.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CARLOS DIAZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Thanks, Randi. And let's get one thing straight right off the bat. The Louisville Cardinals and Kentucky Wildcats do not like each other. Their head coaches, Rick Pitino and John Calipari, do not like each other. There are no professional sports teams in Kentucky to unify the state, so the fans do not like each other.

But if you like great basketball, you're going to love watching this rivalry play out in front of a Final Four record crowd of 75,000 fans in the Superdome tonight.

Now, after that bluegrass battle, Ohio State and Kansas go at each other, and Ohio State's Aaron Craft has a very special fan in Afghanistan. Aaron's older brother Brandon shipped out with his Army infantry team while Aaron and his team, the Buckeyes were beating Syracuse in the Elite Eight last weekend.

Aaron says Brandon is in his prayers and Aaron admits that he was worried about Brandon going over to Afghanistan, but Brandon assured Aaron that he's well-trained and reminded him this is the path he chose. And Aaron says he would never have made to it Ohio state without his older brother pushing him while they were growing up.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AARON CRAFT, OHIO STATE BASKETBALL PLAYER: I played two years in high school in football and basketball. So that was awesome to see him in his element, his leadership and just his work ethic. So, it's definitely helped, just prepared me to where I am now.

JARED SULLINGER, OHIO STATE BASKETBALL PLAYER: I think his brother is tough enough. He's a Craft. You see Craft's done on the basketball court, you know how his brother can get. So, by any means, I know he's coming back home.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DIAZ: Aaron's parents did speak to Brandon on Thursday night before coming down to New Orleans. That was the first time they had spoken to Brandon since he deployed.

Randi, Aaron Craft is trying to concentrate on Kansas and the big game tonight, but he was stopped by autograph seekers here in New Orleans this week. And one of them asked, "Hey, how is your brother Brandon doing?" It seems that everyone is rooting for Brandon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAYE: Great story behind the scenes. Thank you very much, Carlos.

And whether your brackets are intact or you just want to watch some great basketball, the action tips off tonight at 6:09 with Kentucky and Louisville. That game is immediately followed by Kansas and Ohio State.

All right. I want to show you those little creative products that we have here in studio again. Check them out. These are 3D printers. They're for your home, maybe you heard of them, maybe not. It's actually a scaled down version of those multi-million dollar machines that have been used by automobile and aerospace companies. These sell for $1,000.

You can print practically any object that you tell it to, hobbies, printing your own action figures, doctors have used them to print models of human organs. Kind of sounds little strange, maybe like something out of "Star Trek."

But it turns out that these guys who are in studio, you'll meet them shortly, they printed my face and they are making a little mini me, because -- a 3D mini me, it sounds pretty cool.

So, stick around next hour for a whole more printed objects and we'll show you the final product as soon as we get it.

Also, a march for justice in Florida. Supporters of Trayvon Martin are heading for police headquarters. More details on that, just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: Welcome back. Checking our top stories this morning.

Have you checked your Mega Millions ticket? If you got these numbers, you hit the record $640 million jackpot.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our first number tonight is 46. That's followed by 23. Up next, we have 38. That's followed by four. And final wipe-off for this Friday evening is two.

Now, for the megaball, tonight's megaball number is 23.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: We know there is at least one winning ticket. It was sold in Baltimore County, Maryland. And there could be other winners in other states. Check your tickets.

Thousands of people plan to demonstrate in Sanford, Florida, where Trayvon Martin was shot and killed by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman. Trayvon's older brother says he's baffled by allegations Trayvon attacked Zimmerman.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FULTON: I was listening to Zimmerman's father speak yesterday and he said something like my brother was on top of his son and said, "You're going to die tonight." That doesn't sound like my brother at all.

Yes, because I think it sends the wrong message. It tells people that, you know, you can murder someone and no one sees it, and you say self defense.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: The protesters plan to march to the headquarters of the Sanford Police Department. They are outraged that Zimmerman has not been arrested. The march is expected to start in Sanford just about 30 minutes from now.

Health care reform in focus, you asked lots of questions this week as the Supreme Court heard the arguments. Well, our Dr. Sanjay Gupta has all the answers.

"Sanjay Gupta, M.D." starts right now.