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CNN NEWSROOM

Police Say Suspect Planned Stabbing; Cuba Returns Fugitive Couple to U.S.; Keeping Guns Out of Kids' Hands; Sabotaging Your Night Out; Kim Jong-Un's Rise to Power.

Aired April 10, 2013 - 13:30   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: Police say a student accused in a stabbing rampage on a Texas college campus told them he fantasized about stabbing people since he was a kid. 20-year-old Dylan Quick is charged with three counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Police say Quick told them he had been planning the attack for some time. Fourteen people were wounded at Lone Star College. Two of them are hospitalized in critical condition. Police say the weapon was a razor utility knife.

Two fugitives accused of abducting their young sons and sailing to Cuba -- well, those are the parents. They're now sitting in a jail in Florida. Cuban officials put Josh and Sharon Hakken on a plane to the United States just after a CNN crew spotted their boat in Havana.

Victor Blackwell is following the story from Tampa.

So, Victor, first of all, tell us, these are the parents. They don't have custody of the kids. They took them to Cuba. They've now been brought back to the United States. What kind of charges do they face?

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, there's a list at least half dozen for each of these parents including child neglect to false imprisonment, kidnapping. And we should say that they could spend the rest of their lives in prison on just the kidnapping charges. And there has been a development in just the last 90 minutes or so. There was a federal charge involved here. We've learned that that federal charge will likely be dropped in the interest of streamlining this all, of course, connected to what police say was that kidnapping a week ago.

Now, when you talk about parents kidnapping their children, that begs the question, why didn't they have their children in the first place? That goes back to June of 2012 when police say that there was a disturbance at a hotel. They went to the hotel. The Hakken family with the two boys, Chase and Cole, were there. There were drugs, alcohol, guns there. Joshua Hakken was arrested because of the drugs and guns. And they say that he said they were on their journey to Armageddon, they feared for the children's lives. And those children were taken. They have not had them since. And one day before the alleged kidnapping that is when they lost their parental rights -- Suzanne?

MALVEAUX: And how are the kids doing today, Victor?

BLACKWELL: Well, we've heard from the sheriff that they're doing well. And he said that they're doing well physically. Medically, of course, when you go through this type of ordeal, the question is, are there psychological scars. Of course, that will take some time to determine. We hope to learn more because the grandparents have said they will make themselves available, likely, and the boys to talk about the last week, starting with that alleged kidnapping and the return home late last night.

MALVEAUX: All right. Be very curious to see what they have to say.

Thank you, Victor. Appreciate it.

Of course, all day we've been talking about guns and how lawmakers are finding out ways to basically increase gun control. All this after a school shooting that took the lives of 20 children. You remember that. Now, very recently, two separate incidents involving little children who get their hands on a gun and then they accidentally kill another child. So, of course, it begs the question, do parents need to do more? Where are the parents in all this? Coming up next, what parents can actually do to help avoid these kids getting into trouble with guns.

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MALVEAUX: So today we told you about two incidents that happened this week, both of them involving little boys just 4 years old with guns that were not locked up. A 6-year-old boy in New Jersey and a woman in Tennessee, they would be alive today right now if the guns that killed them were kept out of the hands away from children. So want to get into this further. Of course, we've been asking what about the parents, right? Do the moms, dads, do they have a responsibility? Should they know if their kids are around guns? And how do they even find that out?

Well, Christine Romans, she's in New York and she's a mom. And Kyra Phillips, from HLN's "Raising America," a mom too.

Good to see you, Mom.

(LAUGHTER)

KYRA PHILLIPS, HOST, RAISING AMERICA: Good to see you, too.

MALVEAUX: I know your twins. I've seen them. Adorable. What do you do, Kyra? What is the responsibility? I assume they go on play dates.

PHILLIPS: Oh, sure.

MALVEAUX: Do you ask if they have a gun in the house?

PHILLIPS: Absolutely. And I'm so opinionated about this and so outspoken about this. You know, they are my children. I worked hard to get those children. I'm worried about their safety every moment of their lives. And if they are going to be with another family, I have no problem saying, do you have a swimming pool? Do you have guns? If you do have guns, do you keep them in a safe? Do you have a trampoline? What kind of backyard do you have? I am -- do you have animals, do you have a dog? I have no problem because not every parent is the same way. And I may be -- I'm on my kids all the time. I know what they're doing. I'm big on safety. But I don't know that other parents are like that.

MALVEAUX: You have this long laundry list. Are there parents who meet those qualifications for your kids?

PHILLIPS: We're not going to let your kids come over to our house then because you are way too paranoid. Yes, absolutely. They respect me for being so straightforward with those types of questions.

And for parents, I know not every parent is comfortable asking those questions and are a little more timid, but there's a way to do it softly. You can kind of throw it into the conversation. So, I'm curious, how do you feel about gun violence in our country?

MALVEAUX: Absolutely.

I want to bring Christine into this conversation.

You have young children as well. Pediatricians, should they be asking the kinds of questions Kyra's talking about -- if there are guns in the home. They certainly ask about whether or not there's peanut butter and things kids are allergic too. I mean --

(CROSSTALK)

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: With any child you go to the doctor -- with an 18-month-old I think it's 18 months, where they give you the big safety speech and say, open your sink, your child will be killed by the Drano. A child is curious. They will pull over a chair. Anywhere they can pull open a chair and open a cabinet, they will get whatever is in there. You hear all this.

But it's interesting. In Florida, there was this big contentious case where it was outlawed for pediatricians to ask about gun behavior in the household. And that was eventually overturned. A big, big fight. Lawmakers say they are under pressure not to ask the questions and others who are adamant about it.

One thing I think is interesting -- I guess I'm going to have to have a contract when I go to Kyra's house.

(LAUGHTER)

But I will say we are paranoid about a lot of things. Modern parents are paranoid about a lot of things. But when you look at the statistics, a lot of these gun-on-gun violence with little children, especially happens in your own home and happens among relatives. There's also your own personal gun safety.

MALVEAUX: We hear about these extreme cases. They do seem extreme. We have a 4-year-old killing another child or even a parent in these situations.

PHILLIPS: Sure.

MALVEAUX: Do you think that the parents should be held responsible?

PHILLIPS: Oh, heck yes. It's their guns. I mean, the kids are in their home. Of course, they should be held responsible. And, you know, on the note of the doctor, our doctors ask us about our sexual habits. They talk to us about our weight. They lay into us about what we're eating.

MALVEAUX: Drug and alcohol.

PHILLIPS: Absolutely. For goodness sakes, they should tell us, you know -- they should talk to us about child safety. Not every parent thinks about guns in a home. If they're not familiar with guns, they're not going to think little Johnny goes over to Robert's house that guns may be in that house.

MALVEAUX: Yes, Christine, weigh in real quick here.

ROMANS: More families have guns than have dogs. That's a statistic we just found from the Nationwide Children's Hospital. More guns than dogs in America, pets in America. So you think about it that way, we don't ask these questions. I think Newtown has changed that. Look, a colleague today told me it would be offensive to ask someone if they had guns in the home. It would be like asking if they had a pedophile in the family. It's not really the same. Newtown has changed everything. We're asking more questions because we're worried and because we've changed the way we think about --

(CROSSTALK)

MALVEAUX: And we need to ask those questions.

Christine, thank you so much.

Kyra, I will baby sit. I've baby sat them before. And I will bring the checklist, OK.

(LAUGHTER)

PHILLIPS: I don't worry about you. I do not worry at all about you. I would let my kids live with you, if I needed to.

MALVEAUX: I'll borrow them, how's that?

PHILLIPS: That's a deal.

(LAUGHTER)

MALVEAUX: Of course, you can follow Kyra. She continues to tackle all these issues when she talks about "Raising America," her show airing weekdays on HLN.

It's not often, but on occasion, there is bad service we get at restaurants, cold food, slow service, even a long wait. Well, the first one we blame, sometimes it's the waiter. Turns out, it could be your fault. How you're sabotaging your own night out, up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Celebrity chef CNN show host, Anthony Bourdain, traveling to places he's never gone before to sample the cuisine. This Sunday, his premier on CNN's show, "Anthony Bourdain, Parts Unknown" he heads to Myanmar a place where few westerners have gone. Shares borders with Bangladesh, China and Thailand.

We had a chance to speak with Bourdain last hour about the experience.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTHONY BOURDAIN, HOST, ANTHONY BOURDAIN, PARTS UNKNOWN: Just two years ago, speaking to a western journalist would have put you in prison for an in indeterminate amount of time. I was stunned how eager people were to talk to the camera, how frank they were with us, how freely they spoke. That's something very unusual in a situation where freedom of speech is such a recent thing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Tune in to "Parts Unknown." That is this Sunday at 9:00 p.m. eastern. Join Anthony Bourdain and his crew as they travel to Myanmar, Colombia, Libya, Peru, as well as many other countries.

And for those of us, of course, who like to dine a little bit closer to home in the neighborhoods instead of Myanmar and Libya, there are five things that disgruntle servers actually would like us to know. Five things that the disgruntled waiters would like us to know, what they say we do to sabotage our own meals.

Kat Kinsman joins us from New York.

So there's a blogger who's out there who says, look, you're doing it to yourself if you have slow service, bad service, yes?

KAT KINSMAN, CNN EDITOR, EATOCRACY: Yes, indeed. You know, we cover service in restaurants a lot on Eatocracy, and it's amazing how many people are possessed of the notion that food just magically happen and it's the pesky server getting in between you and your food. So we reach out to smart bloggers and smart workers, like this man who calls him the Bitchy Waiter.

(LAUGHTER)

And he let us know that people have a role in how quickly food gets to them. First, they ask for water for the whole table when one or two people want it. Also gives away if you say you're ready to order and just sit there like, ho hum. I think we're all guilty of it at some point. Also, you have to know your child's limits. And don't press them to tell the server what they want if they're really too shy and not ready to, just order for them. Also not listening to your server. So frequently he comes across tables where everybody is texting, on the phone, and he has to repeat the specials three, four, five times. That gets really frustrating. Also it helps tremendously if you ask for your separate checks at the beginning of the meal rather than the end so that doesn't impede your leaving the restaurant.

MALVEAUX: He's right on so many points there. I went out to dinner last night and I wasn't really ready and I said, come to the table, and it took a long time, yes. I guess we're all guilty of some of these things.

You had a chance to actually ask Eatocracy reads about it, whether or not they thought it was their own fault or the waiter's fault. How did they see it?

KINSMAN: We did. But I think this is skewed by a fair amount of service people weighing in. The Bitchy Waiter has a big following online.

(LAUGHTER)

At least 43 percent of people were willing to cop to the fact that they might have had a role in it at some point or seen somebody else do that. 34 percent of people agreed that, you know, you have to work with the waiter to get your meal out. 20 percent were just not having it, saying that it's always the server's fault, the customer is always right.

MALVEAUX: Yes, I like talking to the waiters too. I mean, I guess that takes more time as well.

KINSMAN: Well, that's because you're a good human.

MALVEAUX: It's all part of the experience of going out to dinner.

Kat, thanks so much. Appreciate it.

MALVEAUX: Thank you.

MALVEAUX: If you'd like to see more on this, go to the web site Eatocracy.CNN.com.

And he's young and he's the youngest world's head of state. He has big shoes to fill. But what makes Kim Jong-Un kick, and who has the most influence on North Korea's leaders? We try to get into Kim Jong- Un's head with a look at the family drama, up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: North Korea expected to test fire missiles at anytime and there could be multiple launches. As the U.S. and other countries are preparing for all possible scenarios, many people have their eyes on the trigger man. We're talking about Kim Jong-Un. The North Korean leader's rise to power sounds like a made-for-tv movie, but knowing more about him could give us a better understanding of what he's capable of.

Brian Todd has a look at Kim Jong-Un and the family. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): How did we end up with such a young dictator, menacing the world? It is a twisted tale of a third son, born, analysts say, to Kim Jong-Il's mistress. Kim Jong-Un was reported to have been pampered as a young man, sent to boarding school in Switzerland, developed an affinity for James Bond and the NBA, hence, the recent Dennis Rodman visit. He'd spent virtually no time in North Korea's army when his father elevated him to a general's rank in 2010. That was one of the first signs that Kim had leapfrogged his two older brothers.

Why? On the eldest, Kim Jong-Nam, believed to be about 41.

MIKE GREEN, ANALYST & PROFESSOR, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY: Kim Jong-Nam made the mistake of taking his playboy lifestyle abroad and was arrested by the Japanese police in 2001, trying to go to Tokyo and Disney World. The Japanese police spent hours and hours with him, which means the CIA and other intelligence services learned a lot about him.

TODD: Analyst Mike Green says Kim Jong-Nam is a gamler, lives in Makow (ph), speaks to journalists too much for the family's liking.

GREEN: They can't kill him but can't let him run the country. He's not a reliable vehicle for the cult of personality for the Stalinist propaganda.

TODD: Then the mysterious middle brother, Kim Jong-Chol. Local media showed this photo, claiming it was him at an Eric Clapton concert about two years ago.

STEPHEN NOERPER, THE KOREA SOCIETY: Kim Jong-Il found in Kim Jong- Chol somebody who was reportedly effeminate, timid, did not have much political interest.

TODD: Just as enigmatic, the young woman reported recently to be Kim Jong-Un's 20-something wife, apparently a former singer. Could she have any influence over him?

(on camera): Is it possible she'll say what about the North Korean people what about the starving people?

GREEN: Maybe. But that's not the environment she grew up in.

TODD (voice-over): That background helps experts try to figure out what Kim Jong-Un is thinking now.

(on camera): What is your best take on his calculations now, what he's thinking?

GREEN: The aim is to rattle us and frighten us and also the Chinese and the South Koreans, and distract us from implementing Security Council sanctions and other pressure on the North.

TODD (voice-over): Green, who dealt with North Korea on the National Security Council, says Kim may also be trying to compensate for the fact he's so young, 29 or 30. Analysts say he's got to show strength with the military.

NOERPER: He's trying to look as a young man of 30 in a confusion society where age is respected as tough, and so that's his way of looking to the generals like he's in control.

TODD (on camera): But he may lose control if he can't produce a male heir. His wife will be counted on for that, to solidify a dynasty that some analysts say is on shaky ground. There were reports late last year and early this year that she had been pregnant, may have been given birth to a daughter, but nothing solid beyond that.

Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: Tonight at 6:00 eastern, Wolf Blitzer will devote an entire hour to the crisis in North Korea. Tune in for a special edition of "The Situation Room." That is 6:00 p.m. eastern.

Justin Timberlake, Queen Latifah, Cindy Lauper, a few who partied at the White House last night. It was part of a concert series. But last night was not just about entertainment. We'll explain up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Memphis soul sounds filling the East Room of the White House last night. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(SINGING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: The president and Mrs. Obama honoring '60s-era music and some artists including Booker T. Jones. The music was part of the president's in performance of the White House series. Featuring Justin Timberlake, Cindy Lauper and Queen Latifah. The concert will air on PBS next Tuesday.

Walking the tight rope, not easy. Even trained animals have a tough time doing this. But one wild animal figured it out.

Jeanne Moos has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Usually you see them in your garbage, but when Mavis Knight looked out her kitchen window and saw what this raccoon was doing, she thought --

MAVIS KNIGHT, RECORDED RACCOON: My eyes were playing funny with me. I rubbed my eyes like this.

MOOS: There outside her Toronto home, she saw a raccoon, upright, using utility wires as a tight rope.

KNIGHT: Very, very clever.

MOOS: She figured her husband might not believe her story, so she took out her phone to document it.

KNIGHT: He's going. He's going.

MOOS: From a tree in Mavis' yard to trees across the way.

Now sure, you can see plenty of trained animals walk a tight rope on YouTube, like Rodney the Rat. It took nine months of training for Ozzy Dog to do this. And a circus can teach a goat to walk a rope --

(MUSIC)

MOOS: -- with a monkey on his back. But a wild raccoon?

KNIGHT: It's so clever. He's got actually some brains.

MOOS (on camera): Raccoons are known for having hypersensitive front paws.

(voice-over): In honor of its daring high jinks, one YouTuber added the James Bond scene.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(MUSIC)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MOOS: But it was less 007, more flying Wallenda, you know, Nike Wallenda, the daredevil who crossed Niagara Falls last summer on a high wire. The trip took flying Wallenda 31 minutes. It took the Flying Raccoona one minute.

Flying Wallenda held a balancing pole. Flying Raccoona clutched a second wire.

KNIGHT: Oh dear.

MOOS: Flying Wallenda was required to wear a safety harness. No harness for Flying Raccoona.

KNIGHT: My word.

MOOS: When Flying Wallenda made it to the other side, he pumped a fist and blew a kiss. But we swoon for the no drama raccoon.

Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: That's it for me. But CNN NEWSROOM continues. BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, everyone. I'm Brooke Baldwin, live in New York today. Why? Because very soon I will be racing into the middle of our CNN --