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Report: 2 Americans Missing on Cruise Ship; Civil Rights Icon's Birthday; Russian Space Probe Crashes in Pacific Ocean; S&P Downgrades More Countries; Golden Globe Awards is Place for Fashion; Fracing Linked to Earthquakes; NFL Playoffs Living Up to Hype
Aired January 15, 2012 - 18:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Hello. I'm Don Lemon. Thank you for joining us. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM, of course.
This is just in to CNN. There's two major developments in the cruise ship disaster on the Italian coast that we need to tell you about now. Italian media are reporting two Americans, two Americans, are among the missing.
Our Dan Rivers has spoken to the rescue crew looking for them. More on that in a moment. Dan is going to join us live.
Also, we want to tell you, the company that owns the ship pointing the finger squarely at the ship's captain for allowing the ship to run aground on an Italian island. CNN received a statement from Costa Cruises just a short time ago which reads in part, it says, "While the investigation is ongoing, preliminary indications are that there may have been significant human error on the part of the ship's master, Captain Francesco Schettino, which resulted in these grave consequences."
The captain is under arrest now. He could face charges of manslaughter and abandoning ship. But he is defending himself today and you'll hear that in just a moment as well.
Sadly though, crews today found two elderly people dead near the ship's restaurant, life vests still strapped around their bodies. That brings the death toll inside the Costa Concordia to five.
Rescuers did pull out a South Korean couple who were trapped for more than 24 hours. They're newlyweds on perhaps the worst honeymoon of all time, 17 people are still unaccounted for according to the island's mayor.
The Costa Concordia is tipped on its side almost halfway submerged with a gash in the hull that's longer than half a football field.
CNN's Dan Rivers took a boat from the island, out to the ship, and gives us some of the closest images yet of the destruction.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAN RIVERS, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: With an open gash running the length of her portside, the Costa Concordia looks like it's being gutted by a giant fisherman's blade. The cruise liner is lying forlornly on the shore of Isla del Giglio, dwarfing the town behind it.
We were taken on a tour of the wreck by a local diver Aldo Batigi (ph) and shown a reef he thinks the Costa hit, one he swears is on every chart.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's not one rock over here which is not on the chart.
RIVERS (on camera): Every rock here is on the chart.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Every one. Every one. That's why I think it should be, all the possibility should be only that one.
RIVERS (voice-over): He's planning to dive to see if there are traces of paint on the reef from the ship's hull. But the ship's captain, who could face criminal charges h insists he wasn't too close. FRANCESCO SCHETTINO, SHIP'S CAPTAIN (through translator): The nautical chart, it was marked just as water at some 100 to 150 meters from the rocks and we were about 300 meters from the shore more or less. We shouldn't have had this contact.
RIVERS: But officials running the rescue operation disagree, suggesting the ship came too close as the crew wanted to wave to friends ashore.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We know that the ship was close to the island.
RIVERS (on camera): Too close to the island?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
RIVERS: As the frantic search for survivors goes on behind me, a picture is emerging of the chaos on board the Costa Concordia as panic spread through the passengers who were desperately trying to scramble ashore.
(voice-over): The ship's U.S. owner, Carnival Corporation, says it's still trying to figure out what led to the accident.
This was what it was like in the dark, cold chaos as passengers fled the Costa Concordia in life jackets, battling against gravity to get out.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): The life boats weren't upside down. They were actually slanted and that made it hard to get on them because of that.
RIVERS: These photos were taken by American passengers Amanda and Brandon Warrick as they tried to escape.
BRANDON WARRICK, PASSENGER: We were one of the last ones. Pretty much the chaos happened for everybody to get on the life boats first, and we -- I mean, more or less we just didn't get there early enough or whatever. It was just so crowded and there was no room for us, and, yes, we just ended up waiting the last maybe few people. We were just holding onto the railing trying not to fall.
RIVERS: Korean honeymooners Han and June Ki-dong (ph) were rescued after more than 24 hours trapped aboard.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): At first, we were very scared. And as time went by, our fear grew and grew. We lived with the hope of being able to survive this ugly thing and above all, with the strength of being near the one you loved. We did not get hurt.
RIVERS: Even though the search and rescue operation isn't over, already it's clear this accident will result in litigation and criminal prosecutions. The death toll remains uncertain with passengers still missing. Now, everyone is wondering how on earth this massive ship came so close to this treacherous shore and how many more bodies will be recovered from the wreck of the Costa Concordia.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: And as promised, CNN's Dan Rivers live from the scene.
Dan, tell us more about these two Americans who are reportedly missing on the Concordia right now.
RIVERS: Well, this is one of the reports from the Italian media quoting the U.S. embassy here that 120 Americans were on board the Costa Concordia, 118 of those have been accounted for, which would mean two are still missing. Now, that doesn't necessarily mean that they're still aboard. There were, you know, obviously very chaotic scenes in the hours after this accident, and people coming ashore here on the island and on the mainland. Some people may well have just decided to, you know, to go home or go on their way without consulting with the authorities or notifying them.
So, you know, clearly they're trying to work out if these two Americans are, you know, staying somewhere around here in a hotel, if they have gone back to Rome, or worst case scenario, if they are still on board that boat, which is lying on its side behind me.
LEMON: And, Dan, as I was introducing you at the beginning of this newscast, I read part of a statement from Costa Cruises blaming the ship's captain. It was only a small part of it. What else are they saying?
RIVERS: Yes, I mean, they're not really mincing their words. They're saying that the route of the vessel appears to have been too close to the shore, and the captain's judgment in handling the emergency appears not to have followed standard Costa procedures.
And that sort of tied in with everything we've been finding out on shore here that locals saying it appears, they think, that it hit some rocks off a point off to my left, but it came very close to the shore, way too close to the shore. That all of the rocks, as you heard in that report, are on the chart. There's no, according to the local divers we spoke to, there's no uncharted area of this part of the sea bed, and they think they simply just got too close, ripped a hole in the hull, and then decided to basically come along here and do a U- turn thinking that was the best thing to do to get the ship as close as they could to the shore to give those on board the best chance of getting out alive.
LEMON: Dan Rivers, thank you for your report.
More than 4,000 people were on board the Concordia when it ran aground, and that's like having the entire population of a small town floating at sea. So how could something with so many lives on board end up hitting the rocks?
Susan Candiotti is covering this story for us here in the United States. She joins us live now.
Susan, you have been talking with people in the know about this. What are they saying?
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, Don, I think when anything happens like this, we all wonder, what would I do in a situation like this? And is it safe to get on a cruise ship these days?
Well, clearly members of the cruise ship industry say, yes, it is safe. They have a good safety record. And they say about 300,000 people at any given time worldwide are on a cruise to somewhere.
We can tell you that cruise ships are under strict maritime law. They must follow certain regulations, and, for example, in the United States, the U.S. coast guard forces ships to take strict fire safety drills as well as lifeboat drills. When you're on a cruise that lasts for more than a week, you have to have a lifeboat safety drill, a muster, before you even leave port.
And with an accident like this, authorities say that it's easy to picture with a ship listing to one side, and especially because it happened at night, that there's going to be panic. It was understandable. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAEL CRYE, CRUISE LINES INTL. ASSN.: That probably made for a lot of confusion. That plus the fact that the power went out probably also added to the confusion and made for a lot of adjustments in the evacuation procedures immediately.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CANDIOTTI: Now, passengers should also be expecting the very best from their captain. As we know, the captain of this ship is under arrest charged with among other things abandoning ship before the passengers safely got off the ship. But the question is, when should a captain be allowed to leave? Sometimes it's hard to get an exact answer.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CRYE: While there are different opinions about when and where the captain should be departing the vessel, it is generally a good practice for the captain to ensure that all people that are on board that ship are safely taken care of.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CANDIOTTI: And, you know, Don, there's also a question about why the ship did not put out a mayday call. All of this part of the investigation. And naturally the cruise line industry says that they're taking a look at what comes of this investigation and if there's anything that requires changes in safety rules, they say they plan to adopt them. Don, we'll see.
LEMON: Time to look at everything. Thank you, Susan Candiotti. We appreciate that.
Make sure you check out CNN.com for more stories from passengers aboard the Costa Concordia.
Plus, more incredible pictures of the ship that once sailed the seas but is now on its side partially underwater.
Up next here on CNN, America remembers Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday.
A live report from the nation's capital is next.
And later, celebrating Hollywood's biggest stars. We'll take you live to the red carpet at the Golden Globe Awards. That's ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Admirers of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. are celebrating today for more reasons than one reason. First, the civil rights icon was born 83 years ago today. And, second, a paraphrased quote on his memorial that appalled many will soon be corrected.
CNN's Athena Jones joins us live from Kings' memorial on the National Mall.
Athena, tell us about the plan to change that quote.
ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's right. So, as of Friday the Interior Secretary Ken Salazar told the park service they have 30 days to work together with the King family and the King foundation that was behind building this memorial to come up with a way to put a more accurate version of one of the quotes up here on the side of this statue here behind me. The quote is actually inscribed on the other side of the statue and it's a much shortened version of a line from a 1968 sermon he gave, Dr. King gave, at Ebenezer Baptist there in Atlanta.
The shortened version says, "I was a drum major for justice, peace, and righteousness." The longer version says, "If you want to say I was a drum major, say I was a drum major for justice, say I was a drum major for peace, I was a drum major for righteousness, and all the other shallow things won't matter." And so, there's been some criticism since this past summer. One of the notable people who brought it up was the author and poet Maya Angelou who said the shortened version of the quote gives off the wrong idea and makes Dr. King seem arrogant. And so, a lot of people seem to agree with her. And so, ultimately, on Friday, they decided that they are going to now have to change and correct that quote, put a more authentic version.
The real question though, Don, is, what are they going to do? I mean, there's only so much space on the side of that statue, and it's easier said than done. This is etched into granite.
And so, the memorial foundation president told us today it's going to take some time to determine how to change that quote, whether it can be changed. And so, that correction when it gets put up there, it could be a few months, Don.
LEMON: Yes. And what about the family? What are they saying? How do they feel about this?
JONES: Well, the family wants Dr. King's words to be portrayed accurately. His sister -- I'm sorry, her daughter Bernice King has told us that on the air on CNN.
Today, Martin Luther King's son was here at the wreath laying. He spoke, gave a few words in honor of his father's birthday. And then after that, he spoke with reporters. And he said that this was the right thing to do.
Let's listen to a little bit more of what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARTIN LUTHER KING III, SON OF MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.: Understanding and knowing who my father was, it could be confusing. For us today, no. But for generations yet unborn, they may not understand. But I'm sure that when this is done, that everyone who comes will understand who and what Martin Luther King, Jr. meant in terms of what he said about himself.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JONES: And so, the whole idea here is that they want there to be the correct portrayal of Dr. King's quote for history, for 100 years from now, for 200 years from now, Don.
LEMON: Athena Jones, thank you very much. And beautiful live shot, by the way, at the memorial in Washington, D.C. We appreciate your reporting.
JONES: Thanks. It's very nice.
LEMON: Yes, very nice.
Tuesday is the birthday for a boxing legend who played his own part in the civil rights movement. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CROWD (singing): Happy birthday, dear Muhammad, happy birthday to you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: You see him there, it's Muhammad Ali celebrating his 70th birthday early on Saturday in his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky. He was flanked by his wife and sister at that party. The former heavy weight champion of the world appeared to enjoy the festivities, although the effects of his Parkinson's disease, his battle, were still clear. The party doubled as a fundraiser for Ali's nonprofit center.
Happy 70th birthday to him.
Tough talk on the political airwaves and it's Republicans going after each other. The story on those infamous super PACs and the damage they are doing to the GOP candidates, coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Well, we expect Democrats to go after Republicans, of course. But watch what happens when Republicans go after each other.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NARRATOR: Mitt Romney became CEO of Bain Capital the day the company was formed. His mission: to reap massive rewards for himself and his investors.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mitt Romney, them guys, they don't care who I am.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's for small businesses. No, he isn't. He's not.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: All right. So, that is one of those super PAC TV ads targeting Mitt Romney's career as a venture capitalist.
Let's talk about it with Will Cain. He's a CNN contributor. L.Z. Granderson is a contributor to CNN.com and a senior writer to ESPN.
So, L.Z., I'm going to ask. We've been hearing, what is it, calling him a vulture capitalist, all this.
Could the Obama campaign hit Mitt Romney any harder than the ad we just saw, which was paid for by people who support Newt Gingrich?
L.Z. GRANDERSON, CNN.COM CONTRIBUTOR: You know, this is a great dress rehearsal for the Obama administration for the general election, because you get an opportunity to see what type of attacks will stick with the general public, which ones are most effective. This is really playing into the White House's hands as far as I can tell because he doesn't have to go out and introduce this type of conversation.
Newt is ticked off. He's been ticked since Iowa. So, he's doing all the work for them. So I don't know how effective it's going to be in the primary, but it's going to be great for President Obama in the general.
LEMON: Will, you have a problem with super PACs, I understand. What about the whole idea of free speech, free markets. What about that?
CAIN: Well, I have no problem with super PACs. You got some faulty information there, Don.
Absolutely. I mean, super PACs are an extension of free speech.
Let me say this to L.Z. -- shockingly, I disagree. It's going to seem like wear carrying water for our supposed sides of the aisle, but what I think Newt and Rick Perry have done is deliver a massive gift to Mitt Romney with a ribbon tied around it. I mean, it's just the sweetest thing they ever could have done.
It gave Mitt Romney his voice. He positioned himself in that New Hampshire speech as the defender of free markets, the defender of capitalism. People like me who could muster simply marginal enthusiasm for Mitt Romney, we can muster enthusiasm for the defense of free markets.
And I think one other thing it does is threatens to exhaust that line of attack before it gets to Obama. L.Z. sees it has a dress rehearsal. I see by summertime, this argument is going to be played out.
LEMON: OK. So, listen, and not that there hasn't been a whole lot of fun that's been made of these campaigns and some of it on their own volition. Time for some comic relief and leave it to Stephen Colbert to take the ads to the extreme. Here is one the Colbert PAC has released.
Look at it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NARRATOR: As head of Bain Capital, you bought companies, carved them up, and got rid of what he couldn't use. If Mitt Romney really believes --
MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Corporations are people, my friend.
NARRATOR: Then Mitt Romney is a serial killer. He's Mitt the ripper.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Listen, is he showing the absurdity of some of this with satire, L.Z.? Or what do you think? Is he making a mockery of the system?
GRANDERSON: He's doing what he's always done, making a mockery of the entire system. I mean, this is absolutely ridiculous, the level of drama that these super PACs are trying to build up on both sides. You know, there's no way in which you can control how the message is delivered or even make sure the information being shared is even accurate before these things hit the air.
And so, I love the fact that he's poking fun, not at any particular party, but just at this particular process in which the election is happening. I thought the ad was hilarious.
LEMON: OK. Hang on, guys. I want you to listen to David Axelrod. He's a senior campaign adviser to President Obama, of course. He told Candy Crowley, our Candy Crowley, this morning that he is worried that the super PACs will go after Obama in the fall.
Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVID AXELROD, SR. OBAMA CAMPAIGN ADVISER: The other thing that worries me are these big super PACs that we see Governor Romney and others benefitting from. I think there's going to be a ton of money aimed --
CANDY CROWLEY, HOST, CNN'S "STATE OF THE UNION": Democratic ones, too, though.
AXELROD: Well, but not nearly of the scale that we're seeing on the Republican side. They're talking upwards of half a billion dollars in negative ads aimed at the president from interest groups who don't disclose and who can raise unlimited amounts of money. That is a very, very concerning thing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Legit worry, Will Cain?
CAIN: That is complete and utter spin. Let's just be honest about that.
President Obama is the Warren Buffett of fund-raising. He attracts money, it accumulates. He was going to be first billion dollar candidate in '08. He ended up with only $750 million. Now, he's throwing dinner at $45,000 a plate. He's going to raise plenty of his own number. He's going to have super PACs there for him. There's going to be money all over this process.
That being said, I'm not going to complain about it. You hinted at it earlier, Don. This super PAC problems are being overplayed.
Stephen Colbert is actually attempting to mock the existence of super PACs, not the tenor of their ads.
And I would say this, you know, money is speech. I mean, we want to mock that concept but just ask yourself this, when you and your friends get together and you decide to speak in unison and then you decide to put out a pamphlet and you add money to the process, at what point is your freedom of speech supposed to be sacrificed?
People that are for free speech and campaign finance reform think they know the answer to that better than we do. They are our saviors. They know exactly how much speech is right.
LEMON: And, L.Z., Will has a point. We all know that there are plenty of people with deep pockets who will fund super PACs to support Obama, right?
GRANDERSON: Absolutely. But it really goes beyond that. You know, this conversation isn't about super PACs or about lobbying. It's about the effects money has on our presidential system. And that's the real ill in all of this, is that whichever candidate is able to drum up the most money, that's the one we're going to hear the most of and that's the one who's going to dictate the conversation.
Tim Pawlenty, you know, he had to fall out because he ran out of money. Not because of his ideas, or because of his politics, but because he didn't have enough money. And we quite possibly lost someone who had viable ideas because he didn't have enough money.
So the super PACs to me embody this problem, whoever is able to drum up $1 billion can get their message across. And if you don't have enough money, whether you're a good politician or whether you have good ideas, you're not going to be heard. That's the real problem.
LEMON: You know what's surprising to me in this whole conversation? Is that we got through it without L.Z. mentioning Jon Huntsman at all. That is quite a feat.
(LAUGHTER)
GRANDERSON: Jon Huntsman.
CAIN: The only person that mentions Jon Huntsman more than me, a Democrat over here, L.Z.
LEMON: Thank you, guys. Appreciate it.
GRANDERSON: In the your fables.
LEMON: Thank you.
CAIN: You bet.
LEMON: Up next, new reports of a search for two missing Americans aboard the cruise ship that ran aground in Italy. That and more of your top stories are next.
But first here on CNN, each week, CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta profiles innovators from all walks of life and all fields of endeavor. The program is called "THE NEXT LIST." And next Sunday, he's going to talk with Bjarke Ingels who is pushing his bold ideas and design around the world.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BJARKE INGELS, DESIGNER: The more wild ideas you want to realize, the more dry and rational and professional and rigorous you have to be in your approach, because if you're just going to do the standard solution, you can actually be quite lazy. Whereas, if you want to go just even a little bit beyond sort of the convention path, you really have to try hard to convince a whole series of authorities and also clients and investors and neighbors that this is actually feasible.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Let's catch you up on the headlines right now.
Italian media reporting two Americans are among the missing in the Concordia cruise ship disaster along the Italian coast. And the owner of the ship, Costa Cruises, blaming the captain, saying that significant human error on the part -- on his part led to the ship running aground. The captain is under arrest now. He could face charges of manslaughter and abandoning ship. Death toll now stands at five.
New Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant is promising there will be no mansion trustee pardons from him. Former Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour pardoned more than 200 criminals as he left office, prompting a huge outcry. Among them were four convicted murderers who had worked at the governor's mansion. "The Jackson Clarion Ledger" reports Bryant is ending the mansion work program as it existed previously.
An oil freighter exploded in the Yellow Sea off the western coast of South Korea today killing three crew members. It happened off the port of Incheon. The South Korean coast, well, the guard there says five crew members were rescued. Eight are still missing. No word yet on the cause of the explosion.
The Russian fuel tanker bound for the snowed-in town of Nome, Alaska, has finally arrived. A U.S. Coast Guard ship led the way, breaking through 300 miles of ice. Once crews ensure the ice is safe to walk on, they will begin to pump the fuel through pipes and into town. The voyage is the first-ever attempt to bring fuel to an Arctic Alaska settlement through sea ice.
Speaking of snow and ice, they know how to make the best of it in Niles, Michigan. Look at that. Pretty cool. The annual Hunter Ice Festival showcases the chilly art of ice sculpture. More than 150 sculptures were carved and placed all over downtown Niles over the weekend. Pretty cool.
Some parts of the U.S. are expecting snow, much-need snow. It's not as artful as that, but they do need it.
(LAUGHTER) JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Jacqui Jeras?
So pretty, Don. I love those sculptures.
LEMON: I know. And it all melts away when the temperatures rise.
JERAS: I know. We have had a lot of that.
The week ahead, too, it will be a big flip-flop, a big blast of cold, big warm-up, big blast of cold -- the kind of weather that always seems to make you sick. You know?
(WEATHER REPORT)
LEMON: Move those 70s east, on over to the Atlanta, Georgia, area.
(LAUGHTER)
JERAS: Wouldn't that be nice?
LEMON: Yes.
JERAS: We should be pushing 60. It's not bad here in Atlanta.
LEMON: I want to talk to you about a serious story I know you have been watching. A Russian space probe crashed on its way to Mars.
JERAS: That's right. We talked about this, I think, last weekend on "Saturday Night Mysteries."
LEMON: Yes.
JERAS: This was the Phobus Grunt (ph). It was a space probe they lost connection with. So one of the booster rockets failed, so it was never able to get where it was supposed to go. And, of course, eventually it falls back down towards the earth. And people were concerned, where is this thing going to land. Well, we know now it did fall in the Pacific Ocean. If you want to take a look at Google Earth, right here real quick, about 700 miles away from Chile. It was over the open water here in the Pacific. Way away from everybody else. And that happened about 1:00 eastern time today. So everybody is safe.
LEMON: Everybody is safe.
JERAS: Whoo.
LEMON: Yes. The sky is falling but not on your head.
(LAUGHTER)
LEMON: Thank you, Jacqui Jeras.
JERAS: Sure.
LEMON: Really appreciate it. Financial markets will be closed Monday because of the holiday, of course, meaning they will have time to digest the latest credit rating move by Standard & Poor's.
Lex Harris is the managing editor of CNNmoney.com and he has our look at the week ahead's business.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LEX HARRIS, MANAGING EDITOR, CNNMONEY.COM: S&P finally did it. It downgraded France. We're not going to know until Tuesday what the fallout is going to be. We can probably get past the downgrade, but we shouldn't ignore what S&P had to say. It said the European debt crisis is alive and well, and the political leaders there don't have the will to do what it takes to fix the problem once and for all.
Now, the second big thing happening next week, that I can tell you everyone in this newsroom is going to be watching, is the earning results from all the big banks. You have Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Citigroup. Now, you can hate these guys, but there's no question they're an important part of the economy. And we have to watch what happens with their finances.
And what we're probably going it find out is that business is weak across the board, but you might hear some encouraging signs about loan demand. The other thing we're going to watch for is compensation. We're probably going to get some pay cuts. But guess what? We're still going to be making a lot of money.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: Lex Harris, thank you very much, sir.
Next up, it's all about the fashions, and mostly the women's fashions. Live pictures now. Look at that, the Golden Globes and the red carpet. They are beautiful, aren't they? We'll go there live with a preview. Hopefully, the camera won't be that shaky on our live report, coming up in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: A lot of eyes will be watching Hollywood tonight and the 69th Annual Golden Globe Awards. Always a talker and always a place you want to look at for fashion. Red carpet fashions, of course.
And CNN's Michelle Turner, live, on the red carpet for us. Looking spectacular.
Look at you in the animal print. Who --
(CROSSTALK)
MICHELLE TURNER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: Well, now, thank you very much.
(LAUGHTER) LEMON: Who has walked the red carpet already?
TURNER: Don -- oh, you know what? You came to us at just the perfect time because I have a little present for you today. Just because I'm joining you, I want to give you a present. And we are talking fashion here on the Golden Globes red carpet. I have one of the cutting edge fashionistas in Hollywood.
ADAM LEVINE ACTOR: Wow. That's quite a declaration.
TURNER: Adam Levine came to join us.
I asked you who you have on because this tux is impeccable and you said Tom Ford.
LEVINE: I'm wearing Tom Ford. I'm not wearing Tom Ford. I'm wearing Tom Ford's clothing. I'm not even doing that. You know what I mean though.
TURNER: Here is what I want to ask you. I think you guys get the short end of the stick so many times so many times. For so long it was bow tie, long tie. You are classic, classic tonight.
LEVINE: Thank you very much. I like to kind of -- I feel like there's T-shirts and jeans and there's slick tuxedos and there's no in between for me. I like wearing a tux.
TURNER: But you're edgy, too. Why did you decide to do completely classic?
LEVINE: What does edgy mean? I don't know.
(CROSSTALK)
TURNER: You're a rock star. That's what edgy means.
LEVINE: It's the Golden (EXPLETIVE DELETED) Globes. You have to wear a tux. That's how I feel about it.
TURNER: I have seen some pretty good fashion on the red carpet. What have you seen that you like? I saw Claire Danes and thought she was impeccable.
LEVINE: I haven't seen much because they kind of take you like cattle. Herd you all over the place. I have been running around a little bit. But everyone looks beautiful. It's such an amazing, elegant thing. We're in the heart of Beverly Hills. I grew up in L.A. So I know L.A. very well. And I know where we are. I know what's happening. And because of all those elements, I'm very, very happy and excited.
TURNER: You're presenting best song, best score tonight. Are you nervous?
LEVINE: I'm not really. I'm not up for an award. I have to say like two things. And Jimmy Fallon will just kind of carry me. (LAUGHER)
No big heavy lifting for me. I'm just, hey, whatever you say, Jimmy.
TURNER: So the big buzz is what is Ricky Gervais going to do. Are you ready for him to go full on, all out, or --
LEVINE: I'm excited. I think he's cool. He shakes it up. He says pretty much anything he wants. People kind of take themselves not so seriously here, so that's cool. Everybody drinks here, which I think it's funny. It's like the night where Hollywood gets hammered.
(LAUGHTER)
It's going to be very funny to watch and I'm very excited.
TURNER: All right. Adam, thank you so much for joining us. Good luck tonight, and on the second season of "The Voice."
LEVINE: Thank you.
TURNER: Now, Don, Adam said he hasn't had one drink tonight. And he's right. The Globes are considered the fun awards party in Hollywood because it's TV and movies and they give you alcohol. So this could be a very interesting night here in Hollywood.
LEMON: Are you sure about that, because he almost let an "F" bomb go right on the air. I don't know. Maybe he's had a couple glasses.
(LAUGHER)
TURNER: He edited himself nice because he's known to let a couple of them slip, so I'm proud of Mr. Levine tonight.
LEMON: I'm wearing Tom Ford, too, the scent, not clothing.
(LAUGHER)
Thank you very much. Appreciate it, Michelle Turner, live from the red carpet of the Golden Globe.
Next hour, we're going to return live to the red carpet. Who is expected to go home with the Golden Globe statuette? A.J. Hammer will join us live.
Could humans cause earthquakes? Some in Ohio say, in a quest to find oil and gas deposits, we already have. CNN went to Youngstown, Ohio, to investigate and that report is straight ahead.
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LEMON: Fracing -- fracing is a process in which a pressurized mixture of water, sand, and chemicals fracture rocks so oil and gas can be extracted from the ground.
Poppy Harlow tells us, fracing works well enough, but it may come at a high cost.
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POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM CORRESPONDENT: Hi, there, Don. As you well know, there's been a huge increase in fracing for oil and natural gas, especially in places like Ohio and Pennsylvania. While it's bringing much-needed jobs, the disposal of the waste water from fracing has also been linked to earthquakes, believe it or not.
We went to Youngstown, Ohio, this week to find out what exactly is going on.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We want to know what's causing the earthquakes.
HARLOW (voice-over): Youngstown's residents are demanding answers on why their house shook on New Year's Eve.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I never had an earthquake in my whole life.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was frightening.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I thought a jet airliner crashed on the side of my house.
HARLOW: It was the biggest of 11 earthquakes here since mid March. Scientists tell us they think they're manmade.
JOHN ARMBRUSTER, SEISMOLOGIST: This is the New Year's Eve earthquake.
HARLOW: Seismologist John Armbruster says the 4.0 quake was likely triggered by this disposal well, which injects waste water from fracing and oil and gas drilling and intense pressures nearly 9200 feet underground.
ARMBRUSTER: Injecting this much waste is disrupting Mother Nature, and Mother Nature, in this one case, is biting back.
HARLOW: The company, DNL Energy, says proximity alone does not prove causation.
ARMBRUSTER: Channels one two and three --
HARLOW: Ohio called on Armbruster to figure out what's causing all the earthquakes.
ARMBRUSTER: You only need one disk --
HARLOW: And closed five nearby disposal wells indefinitely.
ARMBRUSTER: It's possible there's induced seismic activity, so that's one possibility.
HARLOW (on camera): Manmade earthquakes?
ARMBRUSTER: Correct. But we don't have conclusive proof yet.
HARLOW (voice-over): There are more than 170 of these wells across Ohio.
(on camera): We wanted to understand how this process works. We're getting a rare look at these waste tanks and how it's injected deep in the earth.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Trucks unload in the two tanks, and then it's gone through a filter, and then injected down hole. We're putting it exactly where the federal government says to put it.
HARLOW: "It" is mostly saltwater, but also a small amount of chemicals from the frac fluid used to break apart the shale.
(on camera): How much drilling waste water is being pumped deep into the earth here?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 2,000 barrels a day approximately.
CHUCK SAMMARONE, MAYOR OF YOUNGSTOWN: I have lived there for 42 years. We've never had an earthquake like that.
HARLOW (voice-over): A proponent of fracing, for the jobs it brings to this depressed economy, Youngstown's mayor is now worried.
SAMMARONE: When you feel unsafe in your own house, then it's a serious situation.
HARLOW: The fracing boom is causing huge demand for more disposal well permits.
(on camera): Do companies have to do any seismic tests before they drill a well?
ARMBRUSTER: No. Nowhere in the country are seismic tests used for injection wells.
STATE REP. BOB HAGUEN, (R), OHIO: All officials are rushing to find out what we can do to provide jobs in this area. We have to do it in a safe environmental way. And I don't think that they're doing it.
HARLOW (voice-over): State Rep Bob Haguen is calling for a moratorium on all injection wells in Ohio.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It would stop the development of the best economic opportunity that's presented itself over the past two decades for the state of Ohio.
SAMMARONE: We need the jobs but, at the same time, at the cost of people losing their homes, losing what they've worked for their entire lives?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARLOW: Ohio regulators tell us they are considering stricter rules for the industry overall, and the industry argues these earthquakes are really an anomaly.
One thing to keep in mind though, this could be America's next boomtown. One study predicts the oil and gas industry could bring some 200,000 jobs to Ohio by 2015 -- Don?
LEMON: Poppy Harlow, thank you very much for that.
Former Penn State Coach Joe Paterno is speaking out. It is the first we've heard from him in the weeks since the scandal involving his former assistant coach. You may be surprised at what he has to say. My conversation with "Sports Illustrated's" Jon Wertheim is next.
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LEMON: All right. Time for me to eat some crow.
(LAUGHTER)
The NFL playoffs are living up to the hype, but not the game that drew much of the attention. Not the one you think.
Jon Wertheim is here. He's the senior investigative reporter for "Sports Illustrated." He's also the author of the best-seller, "Scorecasting," just released in paperback.
Congratulations on that.
So, Jon, great to see you. We'll talk about Tim Tebow in a moment, but let's give the 49ers some credit. They took on my New Orleans Saints and came away with a last-second victory. It was -- that game was amazing. Even despite the heroic efforts by Drew Brees and his teammates, Jon, where did these 49ers come from? They were great yesterday.
JON WERTHEIM, SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER, SPORTS ILLUSTRATIVE: That's a good question. We talk about the east coast bias in the NFL. We have the Tim Tebow mania that diverted attention. Out in San Francisco, there's a good football team. This has not been a strong franchise for the past decade or so, but this has been a 13-win team. That game yesterday, I was watching with my son. I said you better take this in because it's going to be a long time before you see a game like this. Alex Smith, quarterback, former number-one pick, this guy used to be held up as what happens when teams don't use that top pick wisely. They could have had Aaron Rodgers. Now he's finally a great quarterback. Green Bay looks vulnerable. This San Francisco team could win the Super Bowl.
LEMON: Yes. Was that one of the best fourth quarters that you have ever seen, ever witnessed when it comes to the National Football League?
WERTHEIM: Absolutely. Especially, given the stakes. We knew this was going to be a shootout-type game. But the last five minutes were unbelievable. I feel bad for New Orleans. Graham makes that great catch. Thinks he's going to be a hero. 70 seconds later, his team is losing. LEMON: My executive producer, Tom Faust (ph), is also a New Orleans Saints fan. When Drew Brees made that touchdown, we were excited! Then they took it away from us. But it was a great game. Very proud of the Saints. They did well.
Let's move on and talk about New England's blowout of the Broncos. What happened to Tim Tebow?
WERTHEIM: I saw someone last night tweeted, he didn't need divine intervention. He needed a U.N. peacekeeping force.
(LAUGHTER)
He was exposed. Tom Brady is this standout quarterback. When you're defense -- when your team is giving up 45 points, you can't blame the quarterback. This was not a great Tim Tebow game. No magic last night. We saw Tom Brady at his best. What is interesting about Tebow, we still don't really have resolution. The haters can still hate. Supporters can still say he took this team to the last eight. We'll take this into next season. See where the plaque goes next year.
LEMON: No magic. No divine intervention. At least not last night. It's happened in games before.
Let's close the book now on the college football season. It's time to do that. Alabama beat my LSU Tigers. Not a good week for Louisiana football fans.
(LAUGHTER)
There's the "Sports Illustrated" cover. Let's put it up for them.
Penn State, let's move on and talk about Penn State since we're talking about football. Still making news. The former Penn State head coach, Joe Paterno, is finally talking for the first time since his firing.
I want to read to you what he said in an interview with "The Washington Post." Here's what he said when he was asked about his response to Mike McQueary's claims that he saw Jerry Sandusky in the showers with a young boy. He said "I called superiors and said we have a problem. Would you guys look into it? Because I didn't know, you know, I had never had to deal with something like that. And I didn't feel adequate."
What does that comment say to you, Jon? You went down when this all unfolded.
WERTHEIM: Yes, sure. It says a number of things. One of them is, someone who probably should not have been the CEO of the football team at this age. He's really the captain of the ship here. People are not accusing him of doing bad. The complaint here is that he didn't do enough. That only reinforced it.
You mentioned the cancer, the broken hip. This guy was coaching a football team 75 days ago and now he's conducting interviews from a wheelchair. Obviously, he's really deteriorating. You can't not feel sorry for him at some level. But I read that interview. It reinforced what his critics have been saying. He didn't do enough.
LEMON: All the stress and pressure has a lot to do with his health. It all adds up.
What about the university? They seem to still be struggling to come to grips with the scandal. My question is, what is the alumni saying about this?
WERTHEIM: Well, you have this rift along the alumni. The president has been barnstorming. He's having these town hall meetings. One of the things seems to distance himself from Jerry Sandusky. This isn't a Penn State scandal. It's a Jerry Sandusky scandal. That's pretty disingenuous. These acts took place at the football facility. He used the football program. He was holding camps on campus. Two administrators have been charged. It's pretty naive to save this only about Jerry Sandusky. The school has clearly -- we're two months after this, and there's still a lot of damage control. The school is trying to figure out how to spin this and how to talk to alumni about this. You read some e-mails, and fundraising is an issue here.
LEMON: Jon Wertheim, always great information. Appreciate you joining us. Thank you, sir.
WERTHEIM: Thanks, Don.
LEMON: The U.N. secretary-general delivers some of the strongest remarks on Syria's crackdown on dissonants.
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BAN KI-MOON, SECRETARY-GENERAL, UNITED NATIONS: Stop the violence. Stop killing your own people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Ban Ki-moon sent this message directly to the Syrian President Bashar al Assad. That is next.
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