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NEW DAY
Spanish Train Crash; Sexting Scandal; Wildfires In Wyoming; Nicklaus Grandson In Motorcycle Wreck; A Royal By Any Other Name; Cruise Ship Hide And Seek; "Rocky" Gets A Spinoff; Live Skycraper Climb?; Walken Into "Jersey Boys"; Sudeikis Leaving "SNL"
Aired July 25, 2013 - 07:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back, everybody, to NEW DAY. It's Thursday, July 25th. I'm Chris Cuomo.
KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, everyone. I'm Kate Bolduan. Great to see you all. Great to see you, Michaela Pereira. We're all back. Coming up in the show, CNN exposes a cruise ship secret. Crew members accused of hiding food meant for passengers, but hiding the food in their own cabins so health inspectors wouldn't see it.
CUOMO: Plus a former first daughter tapped by President Obama to be the next ambassador to, wait for it, Japan. Why? We'll tell you about it, but first let's get to Michaela for the top news right now.
MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: I want to give you an update on the breaking news that we've been following this morning. Dramatic new surveillance video of the moment of impact when a train derailed in Spain going around the bend at high speeds, 77 people were killed, more than 130 injured in the wreck near Santiago De Compostela. Rescue crews have been working for hours pulling survivors from the twisted train cars. That train jumped the track to what's described as a difficult curve. One report suggests the conductor may have been going twice the posted speed limit.
CNN has learned that Huma Abedin considered leaving husband Anthony Weiner when he told her about his latest round of online sexting last fall. But she decided to work through their problems because he is a loving father to their son. Weiner is being urged by many to end his run for mayor of New York City. He faced protesters while campaigning Wednesday, even a heckler who claimed he was the real Carlos Danger, Weiner's online alias.
Firefighters making some encouraging progress against a wildfire burning near dozens of homes in Central Wyoming. The Fairfield fires as its being known is now 40 percent contained. However, a fire spokesman says even though they have made gains homes and other structures remain threatened. They're also dealing with two other fires burning in that state.
We want to show you some horrific motorcycle accident video involving the grandson of golfing legend, Jack Nicklaus. It happened on a Tallahassee street back in May. That's Nick O'Leary, starting tight end for Florida State's football team. He's thrown from his motorcycle after a car cut him off. He literally almost got launched into an oncoming bus, but incredibly he walked away with minor injuries. I know it's almost unbelievable.
CUOMO: Wow, look what happens to the bike.
PEREIRA: It's decimated. We love to show you crazy animal videos. Hello, gentlemen and ladies, Jiff the Pomeranian. Is it perhaps the most talented dog ever? You'd be the judge. I don't want to decide this for you. His tricks have made him quite a star on YouTube and on Facebook. He is listed on his Facebook page as being a movie actor and model. The low walk, it's kind of like the commando walk backwards.
CUOMO: That's the moonwalk right there for a dog.
PEREIRA: Apparently Jiff's Facebook page has half a million likes, going forward on the scooter, yes.
CUOMO: Skateboard here in the U.S., my friend.
PEREIRA: Look at him, that's Jiff people.
BOLDUAN: And he poses for the final shot.
PEREIRA: He looks good doing it.
BOLDUAN: A Pomeranian.
CUOMO: That was number three on the royals list.
BOLDUAN: Jiff, good name. What is in a name I ask you? When you're the future king? Quite a lot. Prince George Alexander Louis of Cambridge each name carries the weight of British tradition, but taken together it creates something entirely new. CNN's Erin McLaughlin is in London with more on this. Hi, Erin.
ERIN MCLAUGHLIN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Kate. Well, they named him pretty quickly by royal standards. It took Charles and Diana a week to announce William's name. Anticipation has ended as the great name debate is over.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MCLAUGHLIN (voice-over): Introducing his royal highness, Prince George Alexander Louis of Cambridge. The name is already a hit on the streets of London.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. Good old-fashioned British name.
MCLAUGHLIN: And a tribute to Queen Elizabeth who met her great grandson for the first time Wednesday at Kensington Palace. George was the name of the queen's father, King George VI who famously had a stammer as portrayed by Colin Firth in the movie "The King's Speech."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I not care to discuss personal matters. MCLAUGHLIN: Alexander for Queen Victoria whose name was Alexanderina, and Louis is his third name, a nod to the queen' husband, Prince Philip, whose much beloved uncle was Lord Louis Mountbatten. And unlike other royals, this little man only has three names.
KATE WILLIAMS, ROYAL HISTORIAN: Most royals have four names, some have five and some have seven. They're trying to do here is make their son a bit more like all the other little boys when he goes to school. The only problem is he's going to be a king.
MCLAUGHLIN: After spending his first night of hospital in Kensington Palace, Kate and William whisked Prince George away to more humble surroundings, her family's home in Bucklebury. They released a statement saying "this is now a private and quiet time for them to get to know their son." The future king now living the quiet life in a commoner's accommodation.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MCLAUGHLIN: Now the name George is splashed across today's headlines. Take a look at "The Sun" with a rather sweet cover, the baby formerly known as Prince George Alexander Louis of Cambridge. There's "The Times" cover, Kate and William stick to tradition, by George." And then there is "The Mirror" with the headline "Boy George," not sure what to think about that -- Kate.
BOLDUAN: You knew it was going to happen. I love those headlines. We have a lot of fun with the headlines this week. All right, Erin, thank you so much. Thanks for your help on the story.
I want to talk more about this with Victoria Arbiter, CNN royal commentator and also daughter of Queen Elizabeth's former press secretary. Great to see you again, Victoria. So we have it. We've waited a long time. We were wondering what would it be and we now have the name Prince George Alexander Louis. So what do you make of the name?
VICTORIA ARBITER, CNN ROYAL COMMENTATOR: I think where they've been really smart is they've given this child its own identity while three names that are laden in British family reference and history. But you have to -- George is an obvious one, patriot saint of England, but Alexander, thinking of the queen's middle name being Alexandra, three former kings of Scotland were named Alexander.
But the really poignant name in all of this is Louis. It is William's middle name, but Louis was Mountbatten. It was Charles' grand uncle. The man he called his honorary grandfather. He adored him. He was assassinated by the IRA in 1979, which left a gaping hole in Charles' life. So I like that they've paid homage to him in tribute to Charles.
BOLDUAN: We talked about kind of timing of announcing the name. Often while for us we normally get named in the hospital before we leave. This is considered a pretty quick announcement of the naming. What do you make of that? ARBITER: Really I think William is very keen for everyone to go back to normal, even at the hospital, if you read between the lines in his brief comments to the press he said "I'm hoping all of you can go back to their real lives so we can take care of our baby." He knew that the furor was not going to die down until the name was out there. It was the last remaining piece in the puzzle. So I think his thinking now is you got everything you need, pictures, interview, name, now go away.
BOLDUAN: Now give us a little bit of space and that's why maybe not surprising at all, you thought it was going to happen anyway that they went to Bucklebury to spend time with Kate's family.
ARBITER: They did. I'm surprised they went so quickly, but actually Kensington Palace aside from their own apartment being under construction, vast portions of the palace are under construction. It's a building site, imagine the noise, the dust, the dirt and the builders coming and going. Bucklebury is serene. It's almost like a movie English village. It's very beautiful and peaceful so a nice place for the new baby.
BOLDUAN: And on his name there was a lot of talk and speculation leading up to the announcement that maybe William would do something as a tribute to his mother. Does it surprise you that Spencer or some kind of tribute to Diana was not included in the name?
ARBITER: Well, I was surprised. I had a really good look at the Spencer family tree. The second Earl Spencer was named George. I don't know that William and Kate paid attention to that because that was a very long time ago, but perhaps it's a distant nod to Diana. But I think there will be room on the second or third child where the pressure and the focus won't be so intense.
BOLDUAN: Yes, but not surprising though that they stuck with traditional names.
ARBITER: Absolutely right. William and Kate by nature are very traditional and yet George also, they don't get a baby naming book. They look at the family tree, but George is really cool and trendy again in the U.K. so it's not so old-fashioned that he'll be teased mercilessly in school. It's a great, fun name. So I they've managed to check all the boxes here.
BOLDUAN: Yes. A modern royal couple, but a little nod to tradition.
ARBITER: Exactly right.
BOLDUAN: Thank you so much, Victoria, great to see you -- Chris.
CUOMO: All right, coming up on NEW DAY, a CNN investigation, a disgusting game of hide and seek aboard a cruise ship. Why are crew members trying to pull a fast one on federal health inspectors?
Plus new "Rocky" movie in the works, but Sylvester Stallone is not the star. What? We'll explain in today's pop four.
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CUOMO: All right, everybody, about 45 minutes past the hour. New disturbing pictures for you this morning of a cruise ship crew accused of dodging health inspectors by hiding trays of food where, inside their cabins. To make matters worse it allegedly happened on one of the most luxurious ships afloat. CNN's investigative correspondent Drew Griffin reports.
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DREW GRIFFIN, CNN INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Silver Sea Cruise Line builds itself as ultra exclusive, small ships, personalized service and an intimate luxurious setting, a high-end experience that comes with a very high-end price. On average the company says a little more than $5,000 per week per passenger.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Every Silver Sea voyage is a feast for the senses.
GRIFFIN: But passengers didn't know that feast might include this. Look at these, pictures taken by crew members showing meat stored in crew cabin sinks, pots and pans in crew hallways, wrapped food stashed everywhere, except in the galleys, where it belonged. Why? It's all spelled out in this denting report from U.S. Health inspectors from the Centers for Disease Control.
It writes an organized effort was made to physically remove over 15 full trolleys of food, including milk, raw meats, pasteurized eggs, cheeses of all types, all hidden in individual cabins shared by two or three galley crew members in order to avoid inspection. The surprise inspection took place after the CDC was tipped off.
Adriano Colonna, an Italian pastry chef says he had a 40-day contract on board the Silver Shadow and says night after night, he and others were ordered to hide food in his cabin in case of an inspection.
ADRIANO COLONNA, FORMER CREW MEMBER: Absolutely, sir. That's why I didn't even eat. I used to make a pizza for myself on a daily basis and that's all. Because if you think about it, you know, the eggs that you got to eat with the omelette with a temperature of almost 70 degrees that would make everybody sick.
GRIFFIN: The CDC finally figured out what was happening when a crew member sent these photos to federal health inspectors and Maritime Attorney Jim Walker. Walker whose law firm represents cruise ship employees in wrongful termination and injury cases says he's been told what we're seeing here is a common game.
JAMES WALKER, MARITIME ATTORNEY: That's right. There is typically a scramble that takes place. This is what we learned from the crew members.
GRIFFIN: What is different this time is the CDC was tipped off and on June 17th staged a surprise inspection as the Silver Shadow docked in Alaska. The federal health inspection shows a dismal grade of 82. GRIFFIN (on camera): Silver Seas, the cruise company based here in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, wouldn't give CNN any interview on this topic, but did send a statement saying it's deeply disappointed by this specific and only unsatisfactory score. The company cited its long track record with the CDC of good scores, some above 90 percent, some as high as 100 percent and said in this case, it's taking action to fix the problem. They called it an anomaly, basically. The ship scores 97 to 100.
WALKER: Do we really think this was the one time, one time they played hide and seek and ran everything out in trolleys from the galley and we just happened to catch them one time?
GRIFFIN (voice-over): Drew Griffin, CNN, Fort Lauderdale.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CUOMO: All right, our thanks to Drew Griffin for that. We're going to take a break here on NEW DAY. Coming up next --
BOLDUAN: The latest on Anthony Weiner's new sexting scandal, what we know about the woman he was messages and why his wife decided to stick with him.
CUOMO: And after Felix Baumgartner's space dive, National Geographic readies it's next special, this time a new dare devil isn't falling, he's going up, that's the clue.
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BOLDUAN: Welcome back to NEW DAY, everyone. It is time for the "Pop Four" with our Nischelle Turner.
NISCHELLE TURNER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: I love that music. Doesn't it get you pumped? It's a new day, everybody. Let's go.
Let's to the "Pop Four," our number four story this morning, "Rocky" getting a spin-off called "Creed" focusing on the grandson of Apollo Creed. He will be played by Michael B. Jordan who is currently starring in "Fruitvale Station."
BOLDUAN: I love it.
TURNER: I absolutely love it. I know you're wondering, Chris Cuomo, where does he fit into all of this?
CUOMO: Where is Stallone? Where does he fit in?
TURNER: He is going to play Rocky. He will not be in the ring. He's got to serve as Apollo Creed's grandson's trainer for the film. So Stallone will be there. I think it will be good. And Ryan Kugler who is directing Michael B. Jordan's "Fruitvale Station" is going to direct this film, too.
CUOMO: This is genius.
TURNER: I love when Chris Cuomo gets pumped. Let's keep it moving.
What do you do after a jump from the edge of space and wire walk across the Grand Canyon? Well, how about a skyscraper climb. This is our third story this morning. Natgeo will air a special with extreme climber Alex -- in the fall. By the way, if you don't know who he is, he's the guy from the Citibank commercial.
BOLDUAN: Also amazing how the song from the commercial will stick in your head.
CUOMO: I thought it was just me.
TURNER: Let's go to number two story this morning, Christopher Walken set to star in "Jersey Boys." You guys are on it.
CUOMO: I like "Jersey Boys."
TURNER: Yes. The film adaptation of the hit stage musical will be directed by Clint Eastwood and Walken will play the role of Angelo "Gyp" DeCarlo, a Jersey mobster.
And our number one story this morning, Jason Sudeikis is confirming that he is leaving "Saturday Night Live." I know, say it isn't so. Sudeikis has been in the show for 10 seasons. He's been there for two seasons as a writer and he's one funny fellow. He has a movie out with Jennifer Aniston, so he's well on his way.
COUMO: So happy, but then you made me sad.
TURNER: Go back to the "Rocky" music.
CUOMO: Cue the rocky music for the tee.
BOLDUAN: Coming up next on NEW DAY, we're learning more about the objects of Anthony Weiner's online affection. So who is Sydney Leather? We're going to have more on that ahead.
CUOMO: And shocking new video of that horrific train derailment in Spain. We are going to give you the very latest on the investigation. We have a live report for that.
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BOLDUAN: Welcome back, everybody. That music means it's time for a rock block, a quick round of the stories you're going to be talking about today. First up, Michaela.
PEREIRA: All right, let's take a look, Kate. First open the papers from "USA Today," a federal judge has thrown out some legal obstacles to Detroit's historic bankruptcy filing. Judge Steven Rhodes says the filing must continue without delay despite challenges in state court.
From the "New York Times," an eviction notice for Madison Square Garden, home of the Knicks and the Rangers. The arena's owners have 10 years to move so the city can make plans to expand Penn Station. And finally from "The Denver Post," a bear walks into a bar, no joke here, folks. It actually happened at a saloon earlier this month. No one noticed he was there, but apparently security cameras snapped that photo. Why are you getting a photo of my rear end?
Time now for "Your Business" with Christine Romans.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: All right, student borrowers need to get ready for higher student loan rates with or without a deal in Congress. The latest proposal capped rates for undergrads in coming years at 8.25 percent. That's way higher than the 3.4 percent they are used to right now.
Sneaky charges hidden in your monthly credit card bill could cost you up to $215 a year, so-called gray charges included automatically renewed membership, expired free trials, and charges on credit reports.
There's an all-out war right now going on for talent, engineering talent in the booming shale gas industry, salaries can reach $250,000 and those are not executive-level jobs.
Let's go to our Indra Petersons for the weather?
INDRA PETERSONS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: A little chill in the air. That's what we're all saying a week after we had morning lows in the 60s a week after we have morning lows in the 80s, so much better, even better than that we're talking about afternoon highs today in the 70s, Boston today, only a high of 67 degrees. The unfortunate side is there is a low that will be bringing some showers to the coastal section of the northeast this weekend. Heavier rain will be in the plains and the Midwest. And of course, we have Dorian to talk about. We'll give you an update on that coming up in a few minutes.
BOLDUAN: All right, we'll get that update in just a second. Thank you so much, Indra.
We are now at the top of the hour, which means it's time for the top news.
CUOMO: Breaking overnight, a horrific train crash in Spain. The death toll rises to more than 70, survivors barely escaping the flames. We're live on the scene.
BOLDUAN: Defiant, Anthony Weiner battling back against new calls for him to drop out as CNN learns more about the woman he was talking to online. Who is the Sydney Leathers?
