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CNN NEWSROOM

Home Prices Keep Soaring; Massive Explosion at Propane Plant; Fast Food Workers Strike for Higher Pay; Arrest in National Cathedral Vandalism; Filner Wants City to Pay His Legal Bills; Summer Songs: Steamy and Controversial

Aired July 30, 2013 - 10:00   ET

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


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CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now in the NEWSROOM good news for home owners, home prices keep soaring, buy? Sell? What? We'll take a look.

One resident said it sounded like bombs going off. Several explosions rock a central Florida town as a propane plant goes up in flames.

Furious fast-food workers walking off the job from coast to coast in towns across the country, the minimum wage is at the crosshairs, what it is and how it's not enough to live on.

Diane Lane as Hillary Clinton? A blockbuster new miniseries in production, the former first lady and her husband and an intern named Monica.

Good morning. Thank you so much for being with me. I'm Carol Costello. We begin this hour with a new sign of strength in the economy. Home prices are soaring. Now at the highest year to year rate since 2006. Alison Kosik is at the New York Stock Exchange. Tell us more.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: So yes, those home prices, Carol, gaining steam up 12.12 percent from May last year to May this year. The housing market really continues getting stronger despite the fact that we're seeing mortgage rates actually tick up a little more. That's -- so this is really a great sign that the recovery has staying power. Because even if you look back, you know, it's earning season here on Wall Street.

Companies like JPMorgan said in their earnings report that higher interest rates caused the number of new mortgage loans that they made between the first quarter and second to fall 7 percent so that sparks some worries, but clearly with this report today housing is holding its own with prices going higher.

So you are wondering what is fueling it. Well, there's a drop in the number of foreclosures on the market, which is tightening the supply of homes for sales and propping up these prices. I know what you're thinking, what about a bubble? Actually many believe we have a long way to go before prices return to pre-recession levels, but you really don't want to see prices climb too quickly. Because some experts are suggesting that there are some cities seeing an unhealthy increase in prices. Like in Phoenix and the southwest, they're seeing a 20 percent increase in prices, so there's a bit of worry there. Look at the index totally, though, prices are up in all 20 cities that are in the index. San Francisco has the biggest monthly increase of 4.3 percent.

Prices up 24.5 percent from last year, that's one of the more worrisome markets about a possible bubble. Prices are also up more than 20 percent year over year in cities like Las Vegas, Phoenix and Atlanta. Something to think about, Carol, when we talk about these home prices going higher, it doesn't just help that person in that house.

It really helps the broader economy because sellers may come out of the shadows and put their homes on the market and that increase the supply. You know what? When you own a home, it's a huge asset, right. So it makes us feel healthier and it could encourage consumers to spend more. That helps the economy as well -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Sounds good. Alison Kosik, thanks so much.

A sleepy Central Florida community sounds more like a war zone when ordinary propane tanks like the ones you used for backyard grilling, starts exploding. One resident said it sounded like bombs were going off at the plant that refills propane tanks, a massive fire send the cylinders high into the air like rockets, 53,000 tanks and more than a million pounds of propane housed at this Florida facility.

And this morning, thousands of those tanks are scattered around property and the surrounding area. Unbelievably only eight plant workers were taken to the hospital. Adriana Hauser joins us live from Tavares, Florida with more. Good morning, Adriana.

ADRIANA HAUSER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. We actually had the opportunity to tour the facility and we saw those thousands of cylinders that were inside the facility at that moment of the explosion. It's very impressive to see piles and piles of each one 20-pound cylinders scattered. Some of them had exploded, some were just scattered around. You can't definitely see that they had been flying around. As we approached the plant, we saw some of them, and the closer we got, the more piles of cylinders we saw.

The investigation is now the focus going on here, now that we know there were fortunately no fatalities. We do have eight people at hospitals injured. We don't know the extent of the injuries. We had the opportunity to listen to Richard Keith. He is the fire chief of the city of Tavaris. He confirmed that eight people were in the hospital. No word on the extent of the injuries.

We also know that they now have a better idea of what could have possibly caused this series of explosions. Richard Keith is saying that the cause they don't think was sabotage, but could have been either equipment failure, human error, or both. However, until this investigation concludes, we will not know for sure. They're calling the fact that there are no fatalities here a blessing, a miracle, given the dramatic scenes we saw last night. We also had the opportunity to talk to the mayor of the city of Tavares, Mayor Robert Wolfe, and he said he was very relieved given the circumstances. Let's take a listen.

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MAYOR ROBERT WOLFE, TAVARES, FLORIDA: It looked like the plant itself is still operational. It's good that the large tanks here weren't affected and so for right now, I don't know what will be the status if they want to reopen or how long before they could reopen.

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HAUSER: Carol, important to say that there were 24 employees at the facility when the explosion happened action and it's important to say that these employees are actually manipulating the cylinder, so they are actually in touch with the slender serious. That's one of the reasons why they think it's possibly human error or equipment failure. Actually in 2011 cited a safety violation for this plant, the Blue Rhino plant, and we had the opportunity to talk to Scott Brocolmeyer. He is the spokesman for Ferrell Gas, the parent company of Blue Rhino.

He said the violation was minor and had to do with a air nozzle missing an component. Even though Osha called it a serious violation and the plant was actually fined, the spokesman for the parent company saying it was minor and had nothing to do with what went on today, they don't think -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Adriana Hauser, thanks so much.

On a day that President Obama pushes for higher-paying jobs, fast food workers across the country staged a wildcat strike for higher pay. Workers at McDonalds, Wendy's, Dominos Pizza and more will walk off the job today. The Wildcat strike was organized by Fast-Food Forward, a national movement launched to tackle the increasing number of low- wage jobs in this country.

Employees in New York, Chicago, St. Louis, Detroit, Milwaukee, Kansas City and Flint, Michigan, all will take part, and here's what they're asking for, the right to unionize and increase in wages from $7.50 to $15 an hour. Further translation, from about $15,000 a year to $30,000.

Let's talk in depth about this. As you know, the wage gap in this country is growing, and so is the poverty rate. Thomas McGinnis is a fast food worker who will strike today and Christine Romans is our business guru. Welcome to you both.

THOMAS MCGINNIS, STRIKING FAST FOOD WORKER: Thank you.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol.

COSTELLO: Thomas, you've worked at Domino's for 24 years. How much do you make? MCGINNIS: I make $7.35 an hour.

COSTELLO: And you've worked there for 24 years?

MCGINNIS: Yes, I have.

COSTELLO: Plus tips. How have you managed to live on that?

MCGINNIS: Well, actually in the last three or four years I had to get a day job, and I also cut my Domino's hours down because it was killing my car, a thing that often happens to drivers.

COSTELLO: So, you know what most people would ask you, it's why don't you just get another job?

MCGINNIS: Actually I was at that point, but the organizers came along right at the right time and apparently $7.35 is not enough to survive on. I think anybody who works full time should be able to make a living wage. It's just not possible now.

COSTELLO: So some of these fast-food restaurants say these kinds of jobs really aren't meant to be full-time jobs. They're meant to part- time or temporary jobs. What would you say to them, Thomas?

MCGINNIS: Well, that's a common opinion, but a lot of people make their living off of it. And I don't think it's unreasonable to expect someone who works 40-plus hours a week, especially in probably the hottest and least comfortable conditions, to make a decent living. You know, I think they probably work harder than a lot of people in corporate offices.

COSTELLO: Christine, tell us why we should all pay attention to this wildcat strike?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Well, because Carol, I've got a third of Americans now who earn less than $24,000 a year. That number is growing. The kinds of jobs this economy is creating are low-wage jobs. When you look at these retail and fast food jobs, 18,400 a years on average, that's if you're working full time, but most people just like your guest there, are working one or two jobs. These are part-time jobs, not really full-time jobs in a lot of cases, so people are juggling between one or two jobs.

The disconnect is there's a lot of demand for high-skill highly educated jobs in engineering, science, sales, information technology, health care and there's a huge and growing sea of low-wage jobs also in health care, but in fast food and retail that aren't paying well. When you tell companies, we want you to raise your wages, they want we can't double wages right now, especially small independent owners of some of these franchises.

They say I can't. If I double my wages, I would have to lay people off or raise my prices. So it's a big debate. It matters, because we are creating so many jobs like that. Later today, you're going to hear the president speaking at an Amazon warehouse. Those jobs are going to pay better. They're going to pay 30 percent better. There are going to be some benefits in these jobs --

COSTELLO: Before we talk about that, because we're going to talk to an executive at Amazon next. So I want to go back to, you know, if we double their wages, it will hurt our bottom line. McDonald's made $5.5 billion in profits alone last year.

ROMANS: Yes. Those are the shareholders. You'll hear from these companies with franchisees, the independent stores are owned by the franchise owners. They'll say we're a big company with a lot of small business owners. So the winners are shareholders, for sure. Workers say they are not the winners, and small business owners and franchise owners say we're not the winner, either because we have higher costs. We're going to have new health care laws coming in. Everyone says they're losers but the shareholders, basically.

COSTELLO: So Thomas, when you hear stuff like that. I mean, what do you hope will happen today when workers go on strike?

MCGINNIS: Well, I think the lower you go down the ladder the more you're victimized. The franchisees feel like they're not getting their fair share. Maybe it should be off the top if there are these record profits. How can somebody be comfortable making the life that's not available to any of their employees, kind of while sucking the life out of the communities? The communities are doing horrible. There are a lot of people working, you know, low-wageworker jobs that are also on food stamps. There's a lot of finger pointing that goes with that, too.

COSTELLO: Absolutely. Many thanks to both for your insight this morning, we appreciate it.

ROMANS: You're welcome.

MCGINNIS: Thank you.

COSTELLO: We're switching gears now, 58-year-old woman under arrest for throwing green paint inside the National Cathedral. It was splattered. Police say the paint was still wet when the vandalism was discovered. This comes just day after green paint was found splashed on a Lincoln Memorial and a statue outside of the Smithsonian. CNN's Pamela Brown live in Washington. Good morning, Pamela.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Carol. That's right. This 58-year-old woman was taken into custody yesterday and so far thee only been arrested and charged on one of the crimes. Authorities have not yet link her to the other vandalism we've seen. You can see there's still green on the statue form it's still puzzling for authorities. They're looking into whether there could be copycat crimes here and really trying to understand why this is happening.

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BROWN (voice-over): Cleaning crews spent Monday night scrubbing green paint off an organ and a wall inside two National Cathedral chapels. Police arrested Tian Jiamel and charged her with defacing property. A law enforcement source says the 58-year-old woman was found carrying a green paint can when she was arrested.

RICHARD WEINBERG, NATIONAL CATHEDRAL: I can confirm late this afternoon an arrest was made, suspect who appears to have vandalized both Bethlehem Chapel and Children's Chapel here at Washington National Cathedral. The original vandalism was found in the Bethlehem chapel on the lower level and so we closed the lower level and then later in the afternoon, additional paint had been found in Children's Chapel.

BROWN: It's still unknown if the suspect is linked to the vandalism of three other D.C. landmarks in recent days. On Friday, authorities discovered green paint splattered on the Lincoln Memorial. As crews continue to clean up the historic landmark, authorities discovered what looks like green painted symbols on the statue of Joseph Henry, the first secretary of the Smithsonian.

Adding to the mystery, green paint was discovered on a statue of Martin Luther at a D.C. church a day before the National Cathedral incident. Officials are still investigating whether the vandalism is linked or if these are copy cat crimes.

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BROWN: According to the police report CNN obtained, we have learned that the woman had green paint hands on her when police made the arrest. In fact, she had three bags full of paint cans we're told, Carol. Also we know that her clothes that she had on had been sent to a forensic lab to see if the paint on her clothes matches up with the paint on the other D.C. landmarks that have been vandalized. She is going to appear in court later this afternoon we're told.

Meantime, authorities are looking at video from the Lincoln Memorial. They are not telling us what's in that video, but we do know that that video is helping them in their investigation. So it's still very active investigation and still a lot of unanswered questions here, Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Pamela Brown reporting live from Washington, D.C. this morning.

Just ahead in the NEWSROOM, a dangerous storm pounds a tropical paradise. Flossie lashes Hawaii. We'll have the latest on the storm when we come back.

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COSTELLO: Checking our top stories at 18 minutes past the hour, Bradley Manning will find out his fate today. A judge will announce the verdict in the Army private's court marshal just about three hours from now. Manning is accused of the largest leak of classified information in U.S. history handing over 750,000 pages of classified documents and videos to Wikileaks.

Real life is getting to be -- well, it's getting to be too much real life for the starts respect stars of the "Real Housewives of New Jersey." Teresa and Joe Junishay are in federal court on frog prosecutors say the couple lied on loan applications about how much money they had to get loans and mortgages approved. Teresa's attorney says his client looks forward to her vindication.

San Diego Mayor Bob Filner is facing a slew of sexual harassment accusations. Now he wants the city of San Diego to pick up his legal tab. That might be complicated. Seven of the nine members on the city council have urged the mayor to resign. The city council will hold a closed session today to figure out what members want to do.

A tropical paradise tangles with a dangerous storm. Flossie has pounded Hawaii with heavy rains and rough surf, but it all seems well now. Let's head to the Severe Weather Center and meteorologist, Indra Petersons. Good morning, Indra.

INDRA PETERSONS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning. We're definitely still dealing with some heavy rain and strong winds in the area, although Flossie is downgraded to a tropical depression, you can see the eye. It's a little tough to see as it starts to weaken. We're still looking for Kauai to see anywhere from 3 to 5 inches of rain, depending on the topography.

In about 36 hours it will be a remnant low speaking of heavy rain, unbelievable amounts of rain, huge lightning storms really pushing through Kansas yesterday and Missouri, the record-breaking rain almost about 7 inches there, that same storm very active. You can see it pushing into the Mississippi Valley, another 2 to 4 inches of rain anywhere through the Mississippi Valley today. There's another look at that low.

Other things going on, we have a break from all the rain, maybe in afternoon thunderstorms, but really through the entire last couple months. High pressure, this is actually the big story here right around the Great Lakes, look at this temperature contrast, there you're starting to see the 70s. Feeling so much better, all thanks to cold air from Canada.

COSTELLO: Thank you, Canada.

PETERSONS: Yes, right?

COSTELLO: Thanks, Indra.

Coming up next, one of the most popular songs of summer, but does "Blurred Lines" cross the line?

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COSTELLO: Chances are you cannot drive to the store without hearing this top tune on the radio. It's women wearing plastic. "Blurred Lines" is the song. It's been a scorcher hit this summer. Right now the hot hit tops the billboard, but not without a bit of controversy, actually a lot of controversy depending on who you are. Lyrics suggesting violent sex and date rape?

Plus the video has been banned in some places. This is what Robin Thicke said. We tried to do everything that was taboo. And everything that is completely derogatory toward women, because all three of us are happily married with children, we're like the perfect guy to make fun of this.

People say, do you think it's degrading? Of course, it is what a pleasure it is to degrade a woman. I've never gotten to do that before. I've always respected women, end quote." A lot of people love the song. You are live in Newark outside the courthouse where some reality stars are -- and I'm talking about Teresa and Joe Giudice.

NISCHELLE TURNER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: We're blurring the lines in a bit different way. I'm kind of pulling double duty out here. They're facing 39 counts of long application and bankruptcy -- that is what alleged against them. It's not arraignment. It's their initial court appearance. While we wait, we are talking about what people are calling the unofficial song of the summer. This song has been seen -- the video has been seen more than 140 million times already this summer.

There is a version of the video, like you were saying, has been banned some in places. It's the r-rated version. There's a lot of nudity and YouTube banned the video. But Robert Thicke says his wife, and T.I. says his wife was there when they shot the video. I know there was a writer from "The Daily Beast" that started this quote/unquote controversy and questioning some of the lyrics. I'll be honest. I haven't heard much else controversy behind that, behind that article written. So I think a lot of people are just listening to the beat or maybe they're just not offended by it.

COSTELLO: I was going to say who listens to the lyrics anyway. In the original video they were like totally naked. With lines like "I want to domesticate you" and "you know you really want it" maybe we should take it in the spirit of fun?

TURNER: Well, but the lyrics go on -- it did say I know you want it, but the line continues to say, but you're a good girl. So I mean, you can look at it two different ways. So I'm not sure, it depends on how you look at it, Thicke has said he was being completely sarcastic, of course we're degrading women. It was more like, of course, we're degrading women. He's been married to his high school sweetheart Paula Patten for a very long time. They fell in love and have been together through high school. So he's never been one to even be accused of being a player in Hollywood. So I think it's an interesting debate and conversation to have. We're having it this morning.

COSTELLO: We are. Nischelle Turner, thank you so much. We appreciate it.

TURNER: Absolutely.

COSTELLO: Before we have the real housewives or Kardashians, there were the Griswolds.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: First ones here. COSTELLO: But we're so far away, Clark.

COSTELLO: Right, right. And at the end of the day when the lot's all full and everyone's fighting to get out of here, we'll be the first ones out. Why, because we're the Griswolds.

Believe it or not it was 30 years ago that the classic film "Vacation" hit theatres. It followed the family's memorable attempt at a perfect vacation. Check this out. In honor of the 30th anniversary, a family who actually is named Griswold jumped in a custom-made replica, and they drove from Georgia to Disney World in Florida. Good for them, pretty cool.

Still ahead in the NEWSROOM, Amazon offers thousands of warehouse jobs topping traditional retail pay. They're paying way above.

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