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Rage Against Replacement Refs; Banning Replacement Refs; Israel Watching Ahmadinejad Speech; Obama at Kent State; Crooner Andy Williams Dead; Cell Phone Radiation Concerns; Laughing About Replacement Refs; NFL Backs Refs' Call

Aired September 26, 2012 - 09:00   ET

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

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: "CNN NEWSROOM" with Carol Costello begins right now.

Hey, Carol.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, John. Thanks, Christine.

Happening now in the NEWSROOM, fail Mary, hall of shame, ref rage, call it what you will but this morning there's a new push to get those replacement refs banned in one state. One of the refs from Monday night's game, a banker, with no professional experience.

Tornado terror. At least three twisters tear through the Midwest this morning. Storms stretch from Pennsylvania to Oklahoma.

Poll position. President Obama pulling ahead in several key battleground states. Florida, Pennsylvania and Ohio, where Mr. Romney is now trailing by 10 points.

Plus this.

SARA SIDNER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Israel frustrated that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will be addressing the UNGA on the holiest of Jewish holidays. Will his comments ratchet up tensions up even further? We're live from Jerusalem.

NEWSROOM starts now.

COSTELLO: And good morning. Thank you so much for joining me. I'm Carol Costello.

Ref rage. It is growing this morning. But the NFL is not backing down despite the fact a lot of people say the whole debacle is ruining the game. As one sports writer put it, it's no longer about saving face, it's about saving Sunday.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO (voice-over): The NFL says no controversy here. The winning touchdown call of the now infamous disputed play was by the book. Still, nearly everyone is talking trash, from the ladies on "The Talk." UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It feels unfair, it looks unfair. It is unfair.

COSTELLO: To Republican vice president candidate Paul Ryan.

REP. PAUL RYAN (R), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Did you guys watch that Packer game last night?

COSTELLO: To the president of the United States, who said, I've been saying for months, we've got to get our refs back.

Oh, Mr. President, that is a bipartisan plea.

Roger Goodell, the NFL's commissioner is trying. He's now personally involved in negotiating a contract with the once reviled now beloved men in stripes. The players yearn for their return, too, although not many appear to be willing to put their money where their mouths are.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What would you give of your own salary to get the real refs back at this point?

M.D. JENNINGS, GREEN BAY PACKERS SAFETY: You know, I'm not going to get into that. You know, let the league take care of that. So you know, I try not to worry about that, just, you know, worry about the things I can control.

COSTELLO: So what's a fan to do? ESPN.com is now pushing 10 ways to make your outrage known. Among them, swear off watching games four days a week. Use negative hashtags about the NFL and Roger Goodell on Twitter, and boo the refs at games you do attend.

Fans we talked to are receptive.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I would say, do something else on Sunday. You know? Why watch it if people aren't getting their favorite product.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm not watching Thursday night's game. I can tell you that.

COSTELLO: The sad part about all of this is that just about everyone agrees this whole replacement ref controversy is getting in the way of our love for the game -- except for maybe a few Seattle fans.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We got a W. That's all that matters.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. Let's keep these replacement officials going, man. I'm a big fan.

COSTELLO: Yes. Just wait.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Uh-huh. National Football League Players Association is piling on. A statement from the executive director, DeMaurice Smith, says, in part, "It is the NFL's duty to provide a workplace that is as safe as possible while the focus today is about a blown call and the outcome of one football game, our focus as a family of players is and will remain squarely on workplace safety."

New Jersey Senate president, Steve Sweeney, is so concerned about players' safety he's now pushing a bill to ban replacement refs from Giants and Jets home games. He joins us now.

Welcome, Senator.

STEVE SWEENEY (D), NEW JERSEY SENATE PRESIDENT: Thanks for having me.

COSTELLO: First question, why as a politician are you getting involved in this?

SWEENEY: Because honestly the NFL is committing consumer fraud on the public. You know they can put anybody in a uniform and say they're referees and they're not. People spend a lot of money to go to NFL games and there's a lot of money invested in NFL games and they're committing fraud right now on the public and it's not right.

You know, we license boxing officials to make sure that the boxers are safe. These players' health is at risk, and it's just wrong what the NFL is doing. You know, during the summer, they said they would never allow these refs to go into the league. They're in the league. It's week three. I was on the radio with the commissioner of the Lingerie Football League yesterday, and he told me that some of the people that were actually officiating these game were fired from his league.

So that's what we have in a game that we really truly enjoy. It's not fair to the consumer. That's why.

COSTELLO: I'd like to ask you this. I mean, in the end, when all is said and done, it's just a football game. Right?

SWEENEY: Sure it is, and look, there's a whole lot of important things to do right now focused on trying to raise the minimum wage in the state of New Jersey. But again, this is about consumers, and this is fraud being committed in this entire country, and it's not fair to the people that actually support this league.

We got sued by the NFL when we pass add a law to allows sports betting in New Jersey, because their issue was the integrity of the game. Well, you can't have it both ways. You can't have fake officials and, again, the mayor could put a uniform on and do a better as an official and do a better job than what these guys are doing.

They're high school Lingerie league football officials that were fired. It's not what we're paying for. You know -- you know, fraud is when you pay for something and you get a lesser product than what you paid for. This is wrong.

COSTELLO: OK. So bottom line, Mike, what chances does this -- this bill that you've introduced -- have you introduced it yet? I'm not sure. But what are the chances that it will pass the New Jersey State Legislature and that Chris Christie will sign it into law?

SWEENEY: Listen, I can't get a promise from the governor. I haven't spoken to him yet but I can tell you I'm the Senate president, I can pass it in the Senate, and I will work with the assembly to get it passed.

Look, this is just a fairness issue. This is wrong. Players' safety is at risk, and let's get beyond this. Do the right thing by the American public. These guys are billionaire owners. How about thinking about their fans for once?

COSTELLO: Senator Steve Sweeney, New Jersey state Senate president. Thank you so much for joining us this morning.

SWEENEY: Thank you.

COSTELLO: On to national politics now. You're looking at live pictures out of Westerville, Ohio. Mitt Romney is about to hold a rally there. He's hitting the buckeye state hard with three stops in Ohio throughout the day.

And Governor Romney needs to rev up the crowd in Ohio because there is a stunning new poll out today and it's not looking good for Mr. Romney. A Quinnipiac/CBS News/"New York Times" poll shows Romney is trailing President Obama in Ohio by 10 points among registered voters. Among women in Ohio, the divide is even more stark. Obama leads by 25 points. And among young voters, Obama leads by a staggering 35 points.

Romney's political director, though, says he's not worried.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICH BEESON, POLITICAL DIRECTOR, ROMNEY CAMPAIGN: They're sort of spiking the ball at the 30-yard line right now. Look, Ohio, there's still 42 days to go. We are in it a -- by any stretch, inside the margin of error in Ohio and the Obama campaign is going to have some problems there.

The public polls are what the public polls are. We've got to hope the Obama campaign is basing their campaign decision off of the public polls. We don't. We base it off of our data and our message.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: CNN's national political correspondent Jim Acosta is in Westerville, Ohio, where of course Romney is about to speak.

So, Jim, seriously, the answer from the Romney camp is that the polls aren't trustworthy?

JIM ACOSTA, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think one thing that we heard from Mitt Romney yesterday, we had a chance to talk to him, Carol, and he basically said, well, polls come up and polls go down. That was basically the message that came from his political director, Rich Beeson. You played that sound from the campaign plane yesterday. I was on the plane with him.

We were pressing him on these polling numbers and the Romney campaign insisted there is still plenty of time to pill this out and pointed that out during the primaries, Carol, that they were behind in some of those critical states when they're battling Rick Santorum and they were able to come from behind and win some of those states.

But let me tell you about what's happening right now. Mitt Romney is about to come out on this stage. He is joined by the governor of the state, John Kasich, and golf legend Jack Nicklaus, who is sort of the pride of Ohio and he's on the stage behind me right now.

And as you mentioned, because of those poll numbers here in Ohio, Romney is in sort of a major sand trap, a major sand trap right now, you could use a good pitching wedge to get out of the fix that he's in right now. But I had a chance to ask Mitt Romney yesterday during our interview about some of his campaign tactics.

You know, Carol, in the last couple of weeks he spent just as much time at fundraisers as he has out on the road campaigning in swing states. And when I asked him about whether or not that was a strategic error, here's what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: You said recently that you've spent just as much time at fundraisers as you have in swing states since the convention. Looking back, was that a tactical error, do you think?

MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: You know, part of the campaign is to go out, meet people across the country, also to raise money so you can have ads on TV. We keep very busy. There's no time off. It's around the clock kind of work and -- we're taking our message to the people of Ohio and across the country and polls go up and down but frankly you're going to see the support that I need to become president on Election Day.

People recognize that we don't want a government getting larger and larger and more intrusive in our lives and we have a question about what course America's going to take.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: And, Carol, it's not just how the polling looks in Ohio that CBS/"New York Times"/Quinnipiac polling that came out this morning show that Mitt Romney has some work to do in Florida, where he is down by nine points, and in Pennsylvania, that's a state that they were keeping their eye on. He's down by 12 points in Pennsylvania, according to that latest poll.

So a lot of catching up to do and not an awful lot of time to do it, when you look at the calendar. Yes, there are plenty of days to go, but those first presidential debates start on -- next Wednesday, and once we get into that stretch, there's going to be debate after debate after debate. There's not going to be as much time to get out on the campaign trail and that does present a problem for this campaign.

COSTELLO: All right, Jim Acosta. I know you're going to listen to Romney's speech and you'll bring us new --

ACOSTA: That's right.

COSTELLO: -- sound bites from Mr. Romney as s he begins speaking.

That was Jack Nicklaus there speaking before the podium and introducing the governor.

Jim Acosta, thanks. We'll see you later.

The Romney campaign has some company in Ohio today. President Obama is making a couple of stops there, too, with rallies at two universities, Bowling Green and Kent State University.

Coming up, we'll take you like to Kent State University in northeast Ohio. Students there are really excited. You see them here lining up for tickets to see the president. We'll talk to a student reporter at the bottom of the hour.

The outspoken and controversy leader of Iran will address the United Nations General Assembly later today. This is a live look for the United Nations. The leader of the Ivory Coast speaking right now. The Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is scheduled to speak, though, in just about two hours. Western leaders have a history of walking out on his speeches. In a sign of protest. Demonstrators are expected outside the U.N. during his address.

In fact some gestures of disapproval, shall we say, have already been blogged in the direction of Mr. Ahmadinejad. Monday, Israel's ambassador to the United Nations walked out on the session when Iran's president began to speak. The two countries, as you know, are at odds over Iran's nuclear program.

Sara Sidner joins us live from Jerusalem. What's the reaction there? We were curious, Sara.

SIDNER: Well, Carol, what's interesting is, today is a very, very important, perhaps the most sacred of Jewish holiday, Yom Kippur. And so what's happened today is that there are no newspapers that are printed. No newspapers delivered and we're hearing absolutely nothing from Israeli leaders at this point in time. They've kept quiet. Probably awaiting to hear what Ahmadinejad has to say when he speaks to the UNGA.

But I can tell you that, you know, over the years, there's been a lot of frustration with the remarks that he has made in front of all of the U.N. member states. We were able to speak with, for example, deputy prime minister Dare Maradohr on Monday who talked about some of those comments, that incendiary comments that Ahmadinejad makes, the leadership makes, some of the military commanders have made.

For instance, this month, we heard one of the military commander saying from Iran that if Israel were to strike that Iran would strike back and there would be nothing left of Israel. Those kind of comments, lots of complaints about those. People saying, you cannot say that about a U.N. member state.

You cannot say you're going to, you know, wipe a country off the face of the earth, but those comments also kind of tamped down a bit, because as you know, Ahmadinejad spoke with CNN's Piers Morgan this week as well. And when he was asked specifically about that, wipe Israel off the map comment that , we've seen quoted so much, he said what was meant by that was they wanted to wipe the occupation away from the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.

So you'll be hearing from Mr. Ahmadinejad and you'll certainly get reaction, but you're not hearing anything here in the lead-up to his speech.

COSTELLO: Sara Sidner reporting live from Jerusalem. Thank you.

Tornadoes touched down in Illinois last night. We'll take a look at the damage now that it's daylight.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Governor Mitt Romney speaking at a huge rally actually. Very excited crowd in Westerville, Ohio, that's near the city of Columbus and Franklin County, and -- according to the most recent polls, Mr. Romney has some catching up to do with President Obama. Latest CBS/Quinnipiac/"New York Times" poll shows Romney trailing by 10 points in Ohio. But he was introduced by Jack Nicklaus, a superstar in the state of Ohio and, of course, Mr. Romney is hoping that helped.

Checking other top stories at 16 past the hour:

Soldier at Fort Hood in Texas charged with manslaughter after shooting a fellow serviceman. Police say the soldier use add gun to scare away his friend's hiccups but the gun accidentally discharged and hit the 22-year-old man in the face. The two had been drinking.

Despite calls from fellow Republicans to step down, Missouri Representative Todd Akin is staying in the race. Yesterday was the last possible day to remove his name from the November ballot, but the candidate who caused a firestorm after his comments about "legitimate rape" says he has one purpose, and that is replacing Democrat Claire McCaskill.

We want to show you remarkable pictures out of Greece. This morning, thousands of workers pouring into the streets as part of a general strike. They are protesting the austerity plan at the nearly bankrupt government. You can see it's pretty nasty there.

Fourteen billion dollars in cuts to wages, pensions and benefits and those people don't like that one bit.

At least one tornado touched down in rural southwestern Illinois. Take a look at this twister. Storm chasers caught this. It was moving across farmland east of St. Louis. There were also reports of hail as large at 2 1/2 inches.

Would that be golf ball-sized hail, Rob Marciano?

ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: That and maybe even tennis ball-size hail. Not just wind damage, we had significant stuff happened. There was one injury, where a person taken to the hospital. That was minor stuff.

Here's the funnel itself. We'll fast forward now to the damage that was done. A number of homes, mostly farmhouses east of St. Louis were damaged with this thing and also a tractor trailer was flipped on its side. That's where the injury came along the interstate.

Remarkable stuff. This is the one tornado that touched down yesterday. There were multiple reports from that particular cell.

Also quite a bit of rainfall from this. Look at the stretch of observed rainfall. The white, that indicates anywhere from six to eight, in some cases, maybe 10 inches of estimated rainfall. For the most part, that's a good thing.

Here's the drought. Still involved with the drought especially around the nation's heartland and the Corn Belt. That's where they needed it the most. So, they're getting a little bit of that with this rainfall. So, we're trying to point out the good in that.

But we're getting more of that. This is kind of a stalled frontal boundary will be the focal point for more severe thunderstorms today. South of St. Louis and to the east, that's where that thunderstorm dropped that tornado yesterday. You're again under the gun.

Also, this will stretch all the way to Baltimore, the Potomac River, back through the Ohio River and another slice of potentially severe weather here across parts of Oklahoma. Main threats that it will be damaging wind and some hail. Again, isolated threat of a tornado, but yesterday's was certainly remarkable.

COSTELLO: You're not kidding. We'll take cover. Thank you, Rob.

It seems more people are buying up newly built homes. That could be great news if you're looking to sell.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Twenty-two minutes past the hour. Here is a headline we could all enjoy. There are new signs the housing market is recovering, and in about 30 minutes, the U.S. Commerce Department will release new numbers for August home sales.

Analysts are expecting sales to increase by 380,000 homes. That's up from July when sales increased by 372,000 homes.

So should we all be dancing in the streets?

Our business guru Christine Romans is here to tell us.

Hi, Christine.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. So nice to put one or two or three months of good housing news back to back and report it to you. At 10:00, we're going to get those new home sales, and you just give the forecasts, Carol. Why new home sales are so important because a new house means construction workers, it means people pouring concrete, it means truck drivers. It means people making the windows and the material to go into it, and then it means couches and carpeting and all of the things that come with buying the furnishings for a new home. So every new home is a little economic driver incredibly important.

Existing homes, the used homes we buy and sell. That's the bulk of all home sales, those have been showing signs of life, too, Carol. For three months in a row, the prices of existing homes has been going up. And I haven't been able to say that in years. Sales are increasing for existing homes.

Look in the Midwest, 20 percent sales increased from a year ago. The Northeast, Carol, 15 percent. The South, you know, the Southeast, almost 13 percent. And the West, it's been lagging. Only about 4 percent increase in home sales, and some experts are saying it could take years and decades for the West to recover -- completely recover from the bubble, but you're seeing some signs of progress.

I want to you listen here to a realtor in Washington, D.C. told us.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAMERON SHOSH, REALTOR, CENTURY 21 REDWOOD REALTY: It's becoming more and more of a seller's market and less and less of a buyer's market. As of right now, things are outstanding. Open houses are very busy. There's buyers out there getting a lot of Internet response to listings, getting a lot of calls on listings, and things are moving fast.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Now, the D.C. area, of course, has been doing pretty good the past couple of years because there's so much money, Carol, flooding into Washington, D.C. It's not exactly the whole country, but that is at least one good spot, and mortgage rates are very have low, Carol. The Fed says mortgage rates are going to continue to be quite low.

Have you ever financed, my dear?

COSTELLO: Yes, I have. I listen to your advice, Christine. Because you told me that advice every day, Carol, did you refinance, Carol?

ROMANS: I'm glad. Glad. You can send me some chocolates.

COSTELLO: I will. And flowers. Thanks, Christine.

ROMANS: You're welcome.

COSTELLO: Republicans are trying to woo young voters.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're just not the person I thought you were. It's not me. It's you. I think we should just be friends. ANNOUNCER: Tell us why you're breaking up with President Obama at breakupwithObama.com.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: If these lines at Kent State University are any indication, there is still plenty of love for the President.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Good morning. Thank you so much for joining us. I'm Carol Costello.

We're coming up on 30 minutes past the hour.

Stories we're watching right now in THE NEWSROOM:

We're a couple minutes away from the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange. Wall Street expected to hope flat today. This as investors keep a close eye on the European debt crisis. Yesterday stocks finished down, reaching two-week lows. Ringing the bell today (SPEAKING SPANISH) Mexico. I tried.

More world leaders are visiting the United Nations today to address the delegates, the prime ministers of the U.K. and Japan will speak later this morning, along with the presidents of Egypt and Yemen.

Biggest speech could come from the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. He'll start to speak in a couple of hours. Protests are expected before and during his address.

Two senators demanding more information is on the deadly attack that killed U.S. ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens. Republican Johnny Isakson of Georgia and Bob Corker of Tennessee have sent a letter to the secretary of state. They want to know about the threats and security concerns in Benghazi before the attack. Stevens was one of four Americans killed in that September 11th attack.

OK. So I must ask you to indulge me. President Obama will hold a rally at Kent State University in northeast Ohio later today. And as you may know, I graduated from Kent State University and I can tell you the students there are not only excited about the president's visit but they are eager to hear what the president has to say.

These pictures were shot by Kent State opportunities, many lined up at the 2:30 in the morning to get a ticket. Some 2,000 students showed up. At one point, the line wound around five buildings.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We have been here since 3:30 in the morning.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Half an hour's sleep.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, my gosh.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Kent State University has an excellent journalism program. I know because I got my degree there and kind of owe my career to Kent.

With me now, Rich Pierce, former student director of TV 2, the student television station on campus. He is anchoring Kent State's coverage today.

Rich, welcome.

RICH PIERCE, TV 2: Hi. How are you? Thanks for having me.

COSTELLO: I'm good. We're glad you're here. First of all, set the scene for me.

Is it a mad house on campus?

PIERCE: Well, yes. I mean, that's all anyone's talking about this week since we found out the president was coming today. Now, it seems like no matter what the political view is, whether they're Republican, Democrat or other, they're excited just to have the first sitting president to visit Kent State in 100 years, since William Howard Taft did it in 1912.

People are so excited, in fact, they started lining up last night to get good seats at about 10:00. Students aren't going to be allowed in until 3:30 this afternoon. So, they still got six more hours and it stormed last night.

So, these people are dedicated out here. They were braving the elements. Some have tents, umbrellas. Like a rock concert.

COSTELLO: So what issues resonate for students today?

PIERCE: Well, number one issue that we've heard from students is, how is the president going to make college more affordable? Whether it's grants. Whether it's student loans. People want to know about the sticker price of education, plain and simple.

But we also have a lot of international students on campus, and they want to hear what the president has to say about the Middle East. What's been going on especially lately. We also have a very high population of LGBT students, and they want to know about social issues, especially the president's stance on gay marriage.

So, really, people are looking for a lot of different things out of the president today. I'm not sure if they're going to get it, though. We still don't know what he'll talk about.

COSTELLO: Yes, we'll see. I'm just curious.

If Mitt Romney had visited the camp its what do you suppose the reaction would have been?

PIERCE: Well, I still think excitement in the air, just because there would have been possibly the next president of the United States visiting campus, but there probably would be more protests, more people against coming out early, still expect there to be some protesting today, but not as much, because it is the president of the United States and people are mostly excited.

But, yes. If Mitt Romney came I don't think he'd receive quite the reception but still a lot of excitement in the air, just because, you know, this man could be the most powerful man in the world in just a couple of months.

COSTELLO: All right. Rich Pierce, thank you so much, TV 2, the Kent State University campus -- thank you -- television station.

I was anchor there one day myself. Back in the day.

A federal judge -- moving on now -- a federal judge will soon deciding the O.J. Simpson of his day will get a new trial. Did Jeffrey MacDonald slaughter his family? Or is he an innocent man?

The famous Errol Morris is here.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Jeffrey MacDonald has been in prison more than three decades and now a federal judge will decide if he deserves another trial. His court hearing officially ended on Tuesday.

A quick recap of the case for you. MacDonald, an Army doctor, accused of killing his wife and two daughters in 1970 at Fort Bragg. He claimed a group of drugged out hippies attacked him and his family. The jury didn't buy it. It convicted him in 1979.

Now, through the years a drug addict confessed she was in the house during the murders which she actually denied on the stand during MacDonald's trial.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HELENA STOECKLEY, TESTIFIED IN MACDONALD TRIAL: In 1979, I was afraid I was going to go to prison. Jeffrey MacDonald is an innocent man.

JOE MCGINNIS, AUTHOR, "FATAL VISION": Stoeckley has been confused and pathetic figure from the very beginning. Go talk to her. I'm sure she'll talk to you and she'll say anything to anybody.

You'll find Justice Moynihan of the fourth circuit court of appeals describing Stoeckley as being light a defective light bulb. Her memory blinking on and off.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: The man you just heard from, Joe McGinniss. He's the author of the bestseller "Fatal Vision," a book which became later a TV movie.

MacDonald says McGinnis was befriended and then betrayed him portraying him as guilty.

Joining us now is Errol Morris, author of the book "A Wilderness of Error," there it is, which argues MacDonald ever got a fair trial. Thank you so much for being with us.

ERROL MORRIS, AUTHOR, "A WILDERNESS OF ERROR": Glad to be here. Thank you for having me.

COSTELLO: The hearing is now over, but the judge hasn't made his decision. What in your mind was the most important factor to come out of that hearing?

MORRIS: New evidence. New evidence about Helena Stoeckley, the woman who has repeatedly confessed. I don't know how many people, literally dozens of people that she was in the house that night. Essentially she is confirming MacDonald's version of what happened.

COSTELLO: And, of course, she's now dead. So does that make things more difficult, do you think?

MORRIS: Yes. But still she left a trail of evidence behind her, including an extensive hour-long interview with "60 Minutes," never aired, in which she repeatedly confessed to having been involved with the murders.

COSTELLO: And now supposedly --

MORRIS: How many -- how many years do we have to go before we get to hear the evidence?

COSTELLO: There were other things found in that house that have just now come to light. Evidently hairs found underneath the fingernails of the 2-year-old killed in that house. Prosecutors say it could have come from anywhere. There's a lot of stuff in people's homes and those hairs might mean nothing at all.

MORRIS: I have argued in my book. A lot of people watch "CSI" shows. Well, this is a real opportunity to look at evidence and to decide for yourself what that evidence really shows. There's a lot of new evidence in my book "A Wilderness of Error," I would urge people to have a look at it.

Jeffrey MacDonald never received a fair trial. He shouldn't be in prison, and it's my hope that the judge will overturn the 1979 conviction.

COSTELLO: Joe McGinniss, the author of "Fatal Vision", he testified against MacDonald and maintains to this day MacDonald is guilty.

Why do you think he's not credible?

MORRIS: Many, many, many reasons it's been shown that a lot of the material in "Fatal Vision" he made up out of whole cloth. I -- he came up way motivation for MacDonald, which makes, to me, little or no sense. He said bed-wetting plus diet pills plus psychopathy led this man to kill his family. No evidence of any kind of mental disorder. He's been interviewed by dozens of psychiatrists. Millions of people took these diet pills. There's no evidence he took them to excess.

And bed-wetting? This is a Green Beret emergency room doctor. Are we saying that he had never seen bodily fluids before? That the fact that his daughter wet the bed caused him to slaughter his family in cold blood?

No. I don't buy it. It doesn't make any sense.

COSTELLO: OK. Well, we'll see what the judge decides, and thank you so much for being with us. We really appreciate it. The book is, like, awesome. Thank you so much.

MORRIS: Thank you very much.

COSTELLO: It's the one gadget many of us cannot do without, but could cell phones -- could they cause brain tumors? There's new research out there. Dr. Sanjay Gupta takes a look.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

COSTELLO: And some sad news to pass along to you. The singer Andy Williams has died. He was suffering from bladder cancer. In fact, he announced he had bladder cancer onstage in 2011. He said he was going to fight it, but he just couldn't do it.

Andy Williams, dead today. Famous singer. I remember him from the wonderful Christmas special he used to put on and his famous song "Moon River".

Andy Williams, dead at the age of 84.

Did you it's been more than 15 years since the FTC set the radiation exposure limit for using cell phones. A lot of research surfaced since then -- so much in fact the U.S. Government Accountability Office is urging the FTC to update their safety regulations.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta is here now, and he's looked into this. I don't know. You always worry if you can get, you know, a tumor from talking on the phone.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right, right.

Yes, I mean and I have two phones. We use our phones all the time.

COSTELLO: One for each ear.

GUPTA: Right exactly. You know it's an interesting thing. Because what we're talking about is something that we're not 100 percent sure about yet. Cell phones have really only been widely use in this country since '96. It kind of surprises people, it hasn't been that long. COSTELLO: Wow, yes.

GUPTA: And what we're talking about is something that is non-ionizing radiation. Terms here are important. Because ionizing radiation people know can be problematic. That's X-rays and things like that. Too much of that can cause cancer.

Non-ionizing has been more of a question mark. But there have been recent studies that have came out that said, look, this non-ionizing radiation can change your brain. It increases the amount of glucose for example your brain is using in that area.

It can also cause heat when you feel the phone heat up, they can heat up tissue, so what is that doing over the long term? There was one study that came out called "The Inner Phone Study" that said the heaviest cell phone users, people who use their cell phones the most, over ten years, were at increased risk of a certain type of brain tumor.

And there's been other studies that have came out and said basically looking at the overall effect of that non-ionizing radiation on the brain. So I think that the World Health Organization cause this a possible carcinogen which is kind of a vague term.

COSTELLO: Like, what?

GUPTA: But that's -- like exhaust fume is a possible carcinogen. It takes a long time to develop a cause and effect relationship. But they're saying hey there's enough here to be at least concerned.

COSTELLO: So is that how the rules have changed? Is that why the FCC must update its -- its information?

GUPTA: Yes I think, I mean, the radiation level in the phones have gone down. I mean over the years you know what we use now versus you know 15 years ago is much different. So they -- they still have come down in terms of the overall radiation levels.

But I think you know there was -- there's seemed to be this answer you know a few years ago, that no connection whatsoever. Don't worry about this. And now people are saying, well, look I mean, maybe it's -- maybe there's something here and it's just taking longer to develop.

COSTELLO: Ok. So something you just said intrigued me. So if you have an iPhone, that's supposedly safer than if you have the good old- fashioned cell phone?

GUPTA: Some of them -- some of them have more, less radiation that's being given out, but if you read any of the package inserts with these the phones? Do you do that?

COSTELLO: Come on. You know me.

GUPTA: But you know if you read this thing. It says to actually hold the phone a certain distance away from your head. Who does that? Nobody does that. And they actually give you ear pieces with the phones for that reason. So even in the -- even in the manufacturing's advice to consumers, they say don't put this thing directly next to your body. It's say, you know about an inch or so they say you should hold it away.

COSTELLO: So Doctor, what should we do?

GUPTA: You know, what -- I'll tell you what I do and I think about is a lot. Now that I have kids as well, kids could be more vulnerable. Because they're going to use phones their whole lives. I use -- I use the earpiece. I mean, I use, I carry it with me all the time. I just use an earpiece that forces you to have sort of keep the phone further away from your body.

Also if you're having a really bad signal, that's when the phone's actually giving out the most of this radiation. It's really trying hard to -- to get a signal.

COSTELLO: So hang up.

GUPTA: Hang up the phone. Stop saying hello, hello? Can you hear me?

COSTELLO: Ok. Advice taken.

GUPTA: Yes.

COSTELLO: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thank you.

GUPTA: You got it.

COSTELLO: To get more advice from Dr. Gupta go to CNN.com/ourmobilesociety. You can also find other stories about how mobile technology is changing our world. Thanks, Sanjay.

Packers fans might call it Monday night fiasco. It's been more than 24 hours since they say they were robbed. And they're still suffering and so are the rest of us. We'll talk about it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID EAGLEMAN, NEUROSCIENTIST: I'm interested in neuro law because it's really where the rubber hit the road in neuroscience. I'm David Eagleman and I'm a neuroscientist.

What we do currently is we incarcerate everybody. We treat jail as a one size fits all solution. For some people incarceration is just right. For some people they're addicted to drugs and there are ways that we can help them break that addiction.

That's one of the things we're doing in my lab right now. We're using something called real time feedback in FMRI to help people take control of their addictions and break them. If this works, it's going to be a game changer, because it gives us a way of saying, look, instead of just jailing somebody because they're addicted to cocaine, what if we gave them a way to break that? (END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Even though Packer fans feel they were robbed by the ref in Monday night football, they can still laugh about it. Check out the replacement weather guy at Green Bay TV station WGBA.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: About 200 degrees below today. We're looking at -- and it's really going to heat up. It's going to be like 346 degrees.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get out of here. What is going on? What have you got here, a thunder hurricane?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Oh, man. Those funny people at Green Bay. Viewers are probably glad the regular weather guy is back on the job. The 346 degrees looked pretty brutal.

Also Wisconsin businesses has this offer for Monday night's replacement refs free Lasik surgery. The eye doctors are hoping it'll help refs make the right calls in future games. Green Bay's mayor also wants the correct calls on the field. So he's writing to the NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell hoping to get the regular refs back.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

MAYOR JAMES SCHMITT, GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN: I hope he really understands how important this is to the people of Green Bay and to the economy here in Wisconsin.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Mayor James Schmidt tells Goodell the league's integrity is at risk because of the gaffes in referee performance. Jay Sorgi covers the Packers for 620 WTMJ Radio in Milwaukee. Welcome.

JAY SORGI, SPORTS REPORTER WTMJ RADIO: Thank you very much.

COSTELLO: Can you believe how big this think has become? I mean even the President of the United States has commented.

SORGI: Not just the President of the United States but Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker who are usually on opposite sides of the political spectrum, they're on the same side of this argument. They're with Green Bay Mayor's Schmitt all saying to the National Football League let's bring the regular referees back after this debacle in Seattle where as you see right -- right in front of your screen, a Packers player intercepted this pass and the referee didn't call it that way.

And as you mentioned, it has become huge over social media. I believe that T.J. Lang, a Packers guard, his tweet after the game was reportedly the second biggest tweet in the history of Twitter.

And as we've just found out this morning, at least reports from NFL.com, the Packers are not going to be fined for their, shall we say, regularly tweeted comments that came out after that game that were sent all over the world over social media. This is about the power of social media.

(CROSSTALK)

COSTELLO: Now see, I found that really interesting because I thought some of the tweets were over the top. And usually the NFL would come down hard on players, but they're not in this case. Why do you think that is?

SORGI: The league is claiming according to this report that they don't fine players for critical comments when it's outside of a certain time period on game day. However, it's being perceived by a lot of people as they're covering their rear end after making this mistake.

COSTELLO: Ok. So there are a lot of people out there, too, saying that the replacement refs are like interfering with the integrity of the game. The integrity of the very game? I mean isn't that a little overblown?

SORGI: It can certainly be overblown in terms of some, shall we say, regular much more important issues in the world, but at the same time, so much is based on making sure these calls are right. Teams being able to get into the playoffs and the economic impact that that can have for a community, for example, one of the reasons Jim Schmidt is discussing this. If the Packers lose out on a playoff berth (ph) or potentially a playoff home game, that means tens of millions of dollars if not more that the Green Bay community can lose out because of one blown referee's call at the end of this game.

Well, there are an awful lot of NFL owners in the state of Wisconsin so get busy.

SORGI: 366,000 of them.

COSTELLO: That's right. Jay Doherty, thank you so much. We appreciate your being with us today.

SORGI: Any time. Thank you.

COSTELLO: Cool.

Of course, the Packers aren't the only ones who have had their issues with the replacement refs. ESPN is reporting the NFL has now fined Washington Redskins' offensive coordinator, Kyle Shanahan $25,000 for unsportsmanlike conduct. They say he verbally abused those replacement refs. ESPN also reporting New England coach Bill Belichick and Baltimore's coach John Harbaugh will not be suspended for their actions in Sunday night's game. Of course, Belichick could still face quite a hefty fine.

We'll keep you posted.

Next hour of NEWSROOM starts after a quick break.

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