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CNN NEWSROOM

Dr. Martin Salia Has Died from Ebola; 180 from Chuck Hagel?; ISIS Beheads American Aid Worker; Bill Cosby Remains Silent; DEA Questions NFL Doctors And Trainers; Immigration Fight Greets Obama's Return; Global Stocks, U.S. Futures Lower

Aired November 17, 2014 - 09:00   ET

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


CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now in the NEWSROOM, American beheaded. A new ISIS video and new questions. Why investigators say this video shows hints desperation from the terror group.

Plus, silence from Cosby. A new interview, the question about his past. From the comedian, nothing, just shaking his head no.

And NFL raided. Random surprise visits to teams from the DEA hunting for pill and painkillers. Were trainers giving out drugs without a license? Let's talk live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(MUSIC)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

COSTELLO: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me. We begin with breaking news this hour on the second Ebola death in the United States. A Nebraska medical center spokesman says Dr. Martin Salia died this morning. Salia was a legal permanent resident of the U.S. working in West Africa when he contracted the virus.

CNN senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen is on the phone to tell us more. Good morning, Elizabeth.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Oh Carol, so the sad news reached us just this morning that Dr. Salie passed away. Dr. Salia was a surgeon. He was a native of Sierra Leone and had permanent legal residency in the United States. He just didn't get treatment soon enough. And so by the time he got to Nebraska, he already was having problems with the functioning of his major organs. And, with Ebola, as with many infectious diseases, it is all about when you treat. Timing is everything.

COSTELLO: Elizabeth Cohen reporting live this morning. Thanks so much.

In other news this morning, it would be a 180 but Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is now acknowledging he may have to consider ground troops in the fight against ISIS. Speaking to CNN this weekend, Hagel said if the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Martin Dempsey makes the recommendation to put combat troops in Iraq or Syria, Hagel would consider it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN HOST, "STATE OF THE UNION": He has said that several times now that he's not there, that he is open to the possibility that he might have to recommend it.

CHUCK HAGEL, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: Well, if we get to any other variation of recommendations from General Dempsey, then we'll deal with it. But we're not there yet.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: So far, General Dempsey has not said ground troops are necessary, but has made it clear that option needs to remain on the table.

Later today, we're expecting to hear from the heartbroken parents of Peter Kassig, now the third American beheaded by ISIS in Syria. The former Army Ranger worked there as a medical aid worker driven to help after witnessing so much civilian suffering in Iraq where he served as an Army Ranger.

President Obama grimly condemned Kassig's murder as, quote, "an act of pure evil".

CNN's Susan Candiotti is here in New York with more for you this morning. Good morning.

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. The beheading of another American is being called an act of savagery by Senator Dick Durbin. Peter Kassig, who changed his name to Abdul Rahman Kassig when he converted to Islam during his captivity, he'd been a medic, a humanitarian aid worker, when he was taken hostage a year ago.

In the chilling video, Kassig's head appears at the feet of his executioner. But unlike previous murders, Kassig is not seen making a statement. The executioner threatens to, quote, "slaughter your soldiers."

President Obama condemning the murder in a statement that reads, "Abdul Rahman was taken from us in an act of pure evil. Like Jim Foley and Steven Sotloff before him, his life and deeds stands in stark contrast to everything he represents. "

Kassig himself in a 2012 CNN interview said he hoped to make a difference helping Syria's people.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETER KASSIG, AMERICAN AID WORKER KILLED BY ISIS: There's this impression, this belief, that there is no hope, you know. That's when it's more important than ever that we come in against all odds and try to do something.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CANDIOTTI: His parents issued a statement Sunday that reads, "We are incredibly proud of our son for living his life according to his humanitarian calling. We will work every day to keep his legacy alive as best we can."

And, Carol, as you said earlier, we expect to hear from his parents in person during a news conference in Indiana later today.

COSTELLO: All right, Susan Candiotti, thanks so much.

It's not technically winter yet but frigid air is blasting much of the U.S. again this week and creating dangerous conditions. 30 million of us are in the path of a new cold snap. Extreme weather is blamed for six deaths, with snow hitting as far south as Texas. Four people died in Lubbock. Icy roads and reports of black ice causing havoc on the highway -- on this highway you're seeing right here in Oklahoma City. Colorado residents digging out from their second is snowstorm this week.

CNN's Indra Petersons is here hopefully to warm things up.

INDRA PETERSONS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Definitely not a good day to travel, I'll tell you that. No, it's not warming up, to answer that as well.

I mean, look at delays we're already talking about where we're seeing some ground stops, about an hour and a half delays. Anywhere really, you're talking about New York City, Philadelphia, D.C., definitely a lot of trouble is on the way. And really it's actually only the beginning here. We really have this huge storm that brings about a winter threat for about 30 million of us. And it's only one side of the equation.

I want to isolate this first though, because what you look at is this low is actually going to make its way offshore. So, yes, we'll see a dusting of snow, several inches into the Ohio Valley and northeast today, but actually when it kicks off, sure, we have a bigger problem. We have that cold, very cold arctic air go over the lakes. That cold air is way cooler than the lake water, right? So what do you have? We know what we're talking about; it's lake-effect snow.

This is what we're talking about, a severe event, several inches per hour could be seen out there. By the time we're all said and done, we're going to be talking about feet of snow. This is a huge concern over the next several days.

But keep in mind, it's just one side. Down to the southeast right now, we have a severe weather threat. In fact, tornado watches are currently out there. Tornado warnings were already seen this morning. Several tornadoes already reported even in the last several hours. So another 20 million people have that threat for severe weather, including tornadoes out there today.

And then there's the temperature story. What everyone's been talking about. It may feel better in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast today. Look at places like New York City, maybe even and as far south as Atlanta, 59 degrees. Not too bad. It takes only one day, by tomorrow, here comes that rush of cold arctic air that's going to be enhancing that lake effect snowfall. Watch those temperatures drop. These are your highs. 36 degrees in the south for the fall? That's not what they're looking forward to. In New York City, the high will actually be below freezing, and this trend continues as wave after wave of this cold arctic air right now is here to stay.

And I was getting ready for fall. I think we jumped right over it.

COSTELLO: I think we did. Well, we have one -- we have a brief respite today and then everything will turn to ice tomorrow.

PETERSONS: So we have one day, yes.

COSTELLO: Indra Petersons, thanks so much.

Other top stories for your Monday morning. The CDC says 172 people on a Crown Princess cruise ship have norovirus. In April, 129 people on the very same ship contracted norovirus during a 7-day cruise off the California coast.

Pope Francis will make his first trip to the United States as the head of the Catholic Church in September of next year. Among the possible stops -- Washington, New York City and Philadelphia.

Bono injured his arm in a Central Park cycling accident and now needs surgery. The band is calling off its scheduled appearances this week on NBC's "The Tonight Show."

An upstate New York shopping mall is threatening to fine retailers about $200 an hour if they fail to open at 6:00 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day. Walden Galleria in Buffalo told store managers in meeting last week that they must open their doors when the shopping center opens on the holiday. Waiting until midnight to open may cost stores $1,200 or more.

Gas prices continuing to fall. The national average price for a gallon of unleaded $2.88. One year ago, it was $3.20.

And the world's biggest chocolate maker says we're running out of chocolate. They point to two reasons: supply shortages and China's growing love of this stuff. Prices for cocoa are up 60 percent since 2012.

That's a look at your headlines for a Monday. NEWSROOM is back after a break.

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COSTELLO: Bill Cosby back on the stage in Erie, Pennsylvania, last night even as fresh controversy swirls over rape allegations against the legendary comedian. Latest wave of criticism comes from Cosby's silence, dead silence that is, when NPR's Scott Simon asked the famed comedian this weekend about decades-old accusations of rape that resurfaced on Twitter. (BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

SCOTT SIMON, NPR: This -- this question gives me no pleasure, Mr. Cosby, but there have been serious allegation raised about you in recent days. You're shaking your head no. I'm in the news business. I have to ask the question. Do you have any response to those charges?

Shaking your head no. There are people who love you who might like to hear from you about this. I want to give you the chance. All right.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

COSTELLO: That NPR anchor Scott Simon talked with us about Cosby's demeanor. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SIMON: As I begin to say, "This question gives me no pleasure," he began to shake his head and go like that. So I think he certainly understood which question was coming. He was -- he gave what I would refer to as that delightful, impish kind of little Cosby smile at first. And then was silent, didn't answer the question.

I think we can probably fairly safely say that they had a strategy in place for when the question was asked, which maybe they thought that we couldn't use silence on the radio.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: In a statement, Cosby's lawyer said the rape allegations are "decades old and discredited" and the comedian would not dignify them with a comment. We're going to talk more about that in the next hour of NEWSROOM.

Quite the surprise on the sidelines. The DEA dropped in on the NFL and it wasn't to watch the games. The feds are investigating allegations the NFL handed out pills without prescriptions. Federal agents questioned the San Francisco 49ers medical and training staff at MetLife Staidum after yesterday's game with the Giants.

The DEA also checked in with Tampa Bay Buccaneers at airport following their game with Washington. The Bucs tweeted that the team got onto the plane without incident. The investigation is linked to a lawsuit filed by 1,300 former players claiming the NFL illegally provided powerful painkillers to them to keep them on the field.

Back in July, I talked with one former player who's part of that lawsuit, J.D. Hill.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

J.D. HILL, FORMER NFL PLAYER: I had painkillers at night before the game. I had painkillers the day of the game. I had painkillers at halftime. I had painkillers after the game. Here's the thing. They didn't tell us about the side effects or even taking one drug with another drug. Some drugs you can't even take together. We didn't even know that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Chris Draft played with six NFL teams before retiring in 2010. He is not part of the former player's lawsuit, but he does join me now from Atlanta. Good morning, Chris.

CHRIS DRAFT, FORMER NFL PLAYER: How are you doing?

COSTELLO: I'm pretty good. This was just seems like such a random thing. Why now?

DRAFT: It definitely seems random. It sends a clear message that if you want to have full compliance of something you believe is an issue then random is the way to keep people in line. I think it's a message if somebody is not making the changes, changes that are necessary for the NFL to move forward.

If somebody wasn't making the changes, if they weren't on three teams that the DEA went to, they better be taking a hard look at where they're at and really making those changes.

COSTELLO: I wanted to ask you about three teams. I know you might not know much about it because no one else does either. But according to "The Washington Post," the DEA had reason to look at 49ers, Seahawks and Tampa Bay. The teams did cooperate with DEA agents. Do you have any guesses why these particular teams were targeted by the DEA?

DRAFT: I don't know if there's anything particular with those specific teams. It definitely sends a message. When you see in New York City, where the NFL office is, in Washington, D.C., Tampa Bay Bucs, where NFL Players Association Office is.

Then the Seattle Seahawks are Super Bowl champs. If you want to send a very clear message that we're watching you, I think those three areas really send that message loud and clear.

COSTELLO: So this investigation has sprung from a lawsuit involving players long retired. Is it possible teams could still be dispensing painkillers irresponsibly?

DRAFT: I think for the most part, a lot of these changes in terms of medical community they understand they have to do it. There might be some that are not as on board. I think across the board they've made a lot of changes in making sure there's compliance with that. Making sure the team doctors and trainers are on the same page.

But I think it's clear that when somebody is looking, it's beneficial to the players. It's beneficial to management because that doctor, that team doc position, I don't think there's been enough awareness of how important that position is.

The doctor has to be able to make decisions that protect the players. So players aren't trying to make it back out there and willing to do anything. Management and coaches aren't trying to force somebody to do something based on what they believe is the status of that player.

So I think with real -- with having the open, putting more pressure on, helps the doctors out, and makes it a better situation for players.

COSTELLO: I hope so. Chris Draft, thank you so much for your insight. I appreciate it.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, the battle over immigration, Republicans gain power and President Obama gains more powerful enemies. CNN's Joe Johns has more for you on this escalating fight.

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Carol, the president threatening to go on his own on immigration creating heart burn on Capitol Hill for Democrats and a lot of hostility from Republicans. I'll have that coming up.

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COSTELLO: President Obama returns to Washington and lands in a political mine field. During his week-long trip to Asia, he taunted Republicans vowing to bypass their takeover of Congress and ram through his own set of immigration reforms.

Hanging in the balance are millions of undocumented immigrants in a toxic cloud that could poison his last two years in office. Joe Johns, our CNN senior Washington correspondent, he joins us live from the White House with the fun that's going to happen this week. Good morning.

JOHNS: Hi, Carol. That's the question whether it could happen this week. We do know the administration has said it will do something, some type of executive action by the end of the year.

There have been some ideas floated that it might be by the end of the week. The question of course, what could he do, a range of options including deferring enforcement on deportations, protecting immigrants who came into the United States.

While also making it clear that criminals still ought to be deported. But here's the problem, Republicans have said any action by the president on this issue is likely to create a backlash because they would view that as essentially legislating from the oval office here at the White House.

So what would Republicans do? The idea has been floated that they might shut down the government. There's a possibility for that because by the end of the year, the Congress and White House have to come up with a continuing resolution to fund the government.

Some Republicans have said not a particularly good idea. The speaker of the House has said that in his view, the president is playing with fire on this issue and generally the incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says he doesn't want to see another shutdown.

So the question is what will happen if the president does move forward on his executive action on immigration, and what form will that action take? We're all just going to have to wait right here at the White House and see -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Thank you. Joe Johns reporting live from the White House this morning. Still to come in the NEWSROOM, the first images of Officer Darren Wilson taken just hours after the shooting of Michael Brown.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Happening now in the NEWSROOM, the first images of Officer Darren Wilson taken hours after the shooting of Michael Brown. Plus new audio from the Ferguson police dispatcher.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

POLICE DISPATCHER: We're taking a stealing this progress from 9101 West Florissant. Suspect may be in the business at this time. Stand by for further.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Now the entire ordeal lasted less than 90 seconds. New video taken moments after the crash of MH17 in Ukraine. We'll show you. NEWSROOM continues now.

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COSTELLO: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me. Foreign stocks and U.S. futures down this morning. Gas and oil prices are also falling. Japan's cabinet office says the country slipped into recession the third quarter. I'm getting really sad, chief business correspondent, Christine --

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Japanese recession was a big concern this morning. After four straight weeks of U.S. stocks rising, you're going to see pull back most likely today. Remember Carol, the S&P 500 is up more 10 percent so far this year.

Three years in a row of double digit returns for stock investors. Right here at record highs last week. I wouldn't be concerned about one day here. The concern is Japan falling into recession. Slowing global growth is something we have to contend with.

COSTELLO: You know, what else we have to contend with, maybe no chocolate Santa's this year.

ROMANS: This is a story everyone cares about, a global shortage of chocolate. The world is eating way more chocolate than it's producing.

COSTELLO: That's a because you're depressing us.

ROMANS: By year 20 you'll have more eating of chocolate than producing of chocolate. That could produce a shortage. Here are a couple things happening. There's a frosty pod, a fungus attacking plants in Africa. Those farmers are switching to corn so they don't have to contend with it.

Also, Chinese demand for chocolate is very, very strong. I mean it seems as middle classes grow, they want to eat chocolate. So you can see we've already seen cocoa prices up 25 percent over the past couple of years. They're down a little bit more recently, but still it shows you that there are these concerns that we're though making enough of it for as much as we're eating.

COSTELLO: Chinese are eating more chocolate?

ROMANS: I know.

COSTELLO: Oh, something else to be angry with the Chinese about.

Christine Romans, thanks so much.

ROMANS: You're welcome.