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Watered-Down Beer Lawsuit; Travel to Mars?; Velvet Revolver Controversy; Super Bug Examined; Reconstructing the Titanic

Aired February 27, 2013 - 15:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Bottom of the hour. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

Technology, sports, business, health, science, showbiz news, we're hitting all of it for you right now, beginning with this.

Safe to say, a lot of us getting a little too casual with our smartphones. Twenty-five percent keep intimate photographs on their phones. This is according to an AVG Security survey.

Another poll finds more than a third of us actually don't use smartphone passwords altogether, which you should.

Also, get this, 55 percent of people who do use passwords, they share them.

Couple of tips to protect those intimate moments. Never click "remember me" in an app or Web browser, always log out when you're done and don't choose an easy password like one-two-three-four; it's a no-no.

So much for that Instagram user revolt. Your fuzzy cat pictures or me trying to pack a suitcase for a week, they're going gangbusters. This is my Instagram page.

Instagram announcing today it has hit 100 million active users, including me. The milestone comes just a couple of months after Instagram announced a new rule that could have let it sell users' photos without actually paying for them.

So many users threatened to leave -- they wanted to ditch their Instagram accounts -- so Instagram, they backed off. Instagram launched 28 months ago.

And now this.

Man, I love her. Adele, Adele helps push the music industry's fortunes in the right direction amid fears it was dying.

Sales of recorded music actually grew last year, up three-tenths of a percent, topping $16 billion.

And I know, I know. That's a bit of a teeny tiny increase, but it's actually the first since 1999. Fewer people are pirating music and more are actually paying to download it. A third of music sales are digital.

The number one album from last year, hence the Adele song, Adele's "21."

So, you've got your music. You've got your beer. You're ready for a quiet evening at home. But are you getting all the Bud Light -- can't believe I'm saying this. Are you getting all the Bud Light you paid for?

A class action lawsuit accuses Anheuser-Busch InBev of watering down its beer to boost profits. Take a look at this. There's all kinds of brands associated here. You have Budweiser, Michelob, King Cobra, Bud Ice, 10 in all.

The lawsuit says all of these beers contain less alcohol than it says on the label.

Come here, friend. Nathan Berrong, you have a pretty sweet gig, writing a couple of things. You wear many hats here at CNN, but you write the beer column for Eatocracy.com. So go to Eatocracy.com to read about your beer selections.

I don't know if you would say these are a no-no. We're just going to move on past that.

Let's begin with, Nathan, how did the whole lawsuit start in the first place?

NATHAN BERRONG, EATOCRACY BEER COLUMNIST: Yeah, well, it's interesting because this lawsuit wasn't just your average drinker kind of picking up this beer and saying this tastes more watered down that it normally does.

BALDWIN: Who was it?

BERRONG: This was former employees, technicians that worked for Anheuser-Busch contacting customers and those are the plaintiffs that are in this suit.

So, it's kind of -- it's not about the taste. It's about a label issue with the ABV, the alcohol volume percentage, not being what it claims to be on the label.

BALDWIN: But these are the people who are working there saying, yes, we were watering it down.

And I guess my question would be then how common would it be for breweries to water down their beer? Why would you do that?

BERRONG: Yeah, I mean, just hearing that would sound off-putting to any sort of beer drinker whether you're drinking Budweiser or some sort of craft selection.

BALDWIN: Cheaper for the company, perhaps? BERRONG: Yeah, cheaper for the company. And this is something that's had a reputation for these kinds of beers for a long time, of them watering it down.

It's something that I tried to reach out to Anheuser-Busch -- I haven't heard back from them -- just to see if, do they water down their beer and even ...

BALDWIN: So, this could be watered down, Nathan. We don't even know. I'm not drinking it live on TV. There you go. There's your Bud Light.

BERRONG: Yeah, you look at it. It looks a little bit more like water than it does, you know, some sort of, like, what I would say a legit beer is, but ...

BALDWIN: Listen, you're a legit beer guy. If you're drinking Bud Light, which is pretty watery in and of itself, do you think the customers care?

BERRONG: You know, I think they do, yeah. Just like I was saying that kind of watered down is just off -putting.

I think they do care. Two of the most popular beer-rating websites rate these beers, and it's based on user reviews, extremely low.

I'm going to be writing a piece for Eatocracy about why I drink good beer and I know Brian Todd's doing more on this later.

BALDWIN: Right. On "The Situation Room."

BERRONG: So, yeah. So, I do think they care. But, you know, it's going to be interesting to see what this comes ...

BALDWIN: Where it goes.

Nathan Berrong, thanks for talking beer with me.

BERRONG: Thanks.

BALDWIN: The go-to beer guy here at CNN.

And now this, the Indiana Pacers, the Golden States Warriors and a fight in the fourth quarter. Need I say more? Roll the tape.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's a foul called. And now Lee and Hibbert get into it. (INAUDIBLE) and now we got something going on here.

It's into the court. It's (INAUDIBLE) into the stands. David West is in there.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He piled on.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BALDWIN: Indiana center, Roy Hibbert, he was ejected. Four other players received technical fouls. Pacers won, 108-to-97.

STP, anyone? Stone Temple Pilots and their Grammy-winning "Plush." The group fired singer Scott Weiland today.

A.J. Hammer is in New York. And, A.J., we got this extremely short news release today, saying, quote, "Stone Temple Pilots have announced they have officially terminated Scott Weiland."

I mean, it doesn't really get any more unceremonious than that. What's the deal?

A.J. HAMMER, HOST, HLN'S "SHOWBIZ TONIGHT: Shortest press release ever, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Totally.

HAMMER: Here's the thing. Rumors have been flying around for about a month since Scott Weiland's former Velvet Revolver band mate, Slash, told "Rolling Stone Magazine" that Weiland had been fired from Stone Temple Pilots. That's the group that Scott Weiland helped form back in 1986.

And either it was news to Weiland today or maybe he wasn't being totally honest with "Rolling Stone Magazine" when he told them late yesterday that Stone Temple Pilots had not broken up, that he hadn't quit or hadn't been fired, and the band was actually in the process of talking about their next tour.

But, as to why Weiland was fired, still a mystery at this point. He did acknowledge this to "Rolling Stone" yesterday. The band's been going through a rough patch saying, "We're like a family. It's also a partnership. We've always kept things going. We've taken time off before. They've done their own projects and I fully support that. No one has been fired and I haven't quit. That's all hearsay."

Well, now, it's reality, Brooke, because we got a statement from Weiland in response to his firing. Here's what he's saying about that. "Not sure how I can be terminated from a band that I founded, fronted and co-wrote many of its biggest hits, but that's something for the lawyers to figure out.

"In the meantime, I'm looking forward to seeing all of my fans on my solo tour, which starts this Friday."

So, it is reality, Brook, and we do expect to get more information on the split before too long, but pretty mysterious.

So, from a firing to someone firing off, Kanye West, talk to me. What's he upset about here?

HAMMER: Oh, any number of things, Brooke.

BALDWIN: This time, I should say. HAMMER: He was giving a concert in London over the weekend. Among other things he said at this particular show, "I don't give an expletive what the president's got say."

Now, I'm not sure exactly why he said that on Saturday, but you might remember President Obama referring to Kanye as a jackass after West's infamous interruption of Taylor Swift back at the 2009 MTV video music awards.

That might have had something to do with it and he also seemed disgruntled with the music industry, saying, among other things, "I hate business people. Since when was making art about getting rich."

Sadly, for quite some time, Kanye.

Hopefully, Brooke, he's just now working through his anger before his baby with Kim Kardashian is born in July.

BALDWIN: Right. The baby.

A.J. Hammer, thank you very much.

And now Iran here, secretive talks on Iran's nuclear program were held today, Iran, the U.S., France, Britain, Germany, China, and Russia all represented.

Negotiators keeping pretty tight lipped here, but they do acknowledge making some concessions and Iran's chief nuclear negotiator is letting a couple of items slip.

For example, take a listen to what he said when CNN asked whether negotiators want Iran to shut down its uranium enrichment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SAEED JALILI, IRANIAN NUCLEAR NEGOTIATOR: Our facilities -- nuclear facilities are working under the supervision of the IAEA, such as Fordo.

There is no logic from our point of view to be shut down. We saw that they have paid attention to this point. Therefore, it is considered from our point of view a positive step.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Iran says it is enriching uranium for, quote/unquote, "peaceful needs."

Want to go to Mars? Or, at least, be in the neighborhood of Mars? It could actually happen, maybe in 2018.

That is when a non-profit group headed by this millionaire, and he's also the first space tourist. Dennis Tito hopes to launch a spacecraft carrying two people -- he wants them to be married -- to fly by the Red Planet.

Tito announced the proposed mission just this afternoon.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DENNIS TITO, SPACE TOURIST: Again, it is uses low-Earth orbit architecture. And we're just adapting it to a -- in effect, a very large Earth orbit that leaves Earth and comes back. It just happens to go out pretty far.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Chad Myers, so, what did we say, 2018?

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Right.

BALDWIN: This is not a "let's land on Mars." This is a, boom, fly past it and come home.

MYERS: A lot like Apollo VIII, go out there, take a look at it, come back home safely. That's the big key.

But why 2018? Why does it have to be that soon? Because that's when Mars and Earth are closest together, 35 million miles, plus or minus a few million.

BALDWIN: A very special timing thing.

MYERS: Yeah, because if it was out here and we were here that could be 300 million miles. We'd never get there. They'd be dead 100 years before they ever got to Mars, so we have to go the shortest distance.

But it's still 35 million. You understand the moon shot was a quarter of a million. This is 140 times farther than the moon on the round trip. So, it's -- this is a big deal, long.

BALDWIN: And this millionaire space tourist is not the one who would actually go.

MYERS: No.

BALDWIN: It's -- specifically, he wants a married couple to go on this -- what is it? A 501-day mission.

MYERS: Five-hundred-and-one days.

BALDWIN: Because it takes like eight months just to get to Mars.

MYERS: Yeah. Right.

Could you imagine being in a car with a spouse for five days?

BALDWIN: Hi, honey.

MYERS: Could you imagine 501 days? I'm not sure I could.

But that's what they -- they also wanted to be past childbirth age, no more child rearing, because there's going to be a lot of radiation. You know what else is out there? That, the sun.

BALDWIN: Right.

MYERS: Solar flares, CMEs, lots of radiation. They don't have it so that these astronauts are going to be protected well enough yet. That still may be five years down the road.

But this is a long shot. This is a long trip.

BALDWIN: OK, thank you. And what some ...

MYERS: And NASA not paying. This is private.

BALDWIN: Right. Private. But, hey, you get to go to Mars or sort of. See it for a half second.

Thank you very much.

Speaking about a far, long shot, a lot of people have been waiting to see that Dow hit the mark that we saw five years ago. We're getting closer.

We're going to watch those numbers on the other side of the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Have you heard about this super bug, potentially deadly, hard to detect, and while rare, doctors are seeing more cases.

I want to bring in senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen. Super bug, what is this?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. Super bug means that a lot of antibiotics just don't work.

This super bug is called CRE and the CDC says they've been keeping track and, since July, they've seen about 15 cases of these.

Now, usually in that period of time, they would see more like two or three cases. So, 15 cases in about seven months, that's quite a few.

BALDWIN: So, who exactly are these patients? Are they OK?

COHEN: These are patients in the hospital, and I want to emphasize that. These are patients in the hospital.

What's happening is they come in, and they don't have this infection. They get it in the hospital ...

BALDWIN: In the hospital?

COHEN: ... from the hands of doctors and nurses and other health care workers.

BALDWIN: Wash those hands. COHEN: Right, wash those hands. Right, wash those hands is so important.

BALDWIN: So, this is happening to people who are already in the hospital. Are there other people at risk here?

COHEN: Not so far. Not that we know.

But if you go into the hospital, even if you're perfectly healthy and let's say you have a broken leg or whatever, you need to think about this and all hospital acquired infections.

When they touch you, when a doctor or nurse or anyone touches you, say to them, I want to see you wash your hands. Doesn't matter if they did it out in the hallway and you didn't see it. Say, please, wash your hands.

It is so important. I know it's embarrassing and sometimes not easy to say ...

BALDWIN: But you have to do it.

COHEN: ... but you got to do it.

BALDWIN: Elizabeth Cohen, thank you.

COHEN: Thanks.

Coming up, have you always wanted to sail on the Titanic? Now, you might actually be able to do that, or perhaps the next best thing anyway.

We'll tell you about that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: I just really wanted to get this song stuck in your head today, that or I wanted to talk to you about the Titanic because it turns out you may be able to sale on the Titanic.

This is the brain child of this Australian billionaire. He is recreating the ill-fated ship, down to every last detail. The only difference? More lifeboats. And, hopefully, fewer icebergs.

CNN's Amy La Porte is here. You have been doing your Titanic homework today. It's fascinating, all of the details here.

AMY LA PORTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: What could possibly go wrong, right?

BALDWIN: We know.

LA PORTE: So, trust an Australian to come up with something crazy like replicating the most ill-fated ship in history.

But basically, it's targeted at rich people and history buffs. There's no word on the price of the ticket yet, but estimates, a million dollars.

BALDWIN: No way.

LA PORTE: A million dollars. And here's the catch. You will be divided into three class categories. Just like in 1912, those three classes would not be able to mingle each other, so could you imagine paying a million dollars and being down in the lower decks with the peasants sleeping with 10 other people? That's the plan.

BALDWIN: That's what people are planning to do?

LA PORTE: That's what people are planning to do.

BALDWIN: And they will dress you like the ship, presumably for a million dollars ...

LA PORTE: Yes.

BALDWIN: Provide you the traditional garb?

LA PORTE: So, you board the ship and inside your cupboards in the ship there is the period dress, so it's like completely as it was in 1912.

BALDWIN: It's the exact same trip?

LA PORTE: Yes.

BALDWIN: Right?

LA PORTE: It's crossing the North Atlantic. Now, there's some safe issues, of course, that Clive Palmer did address. He had this -- he's a bit eccentric, this guy.

BALDWIN: You think?

LA PORTE: Yeah, just a little.

And he had a press conference today where he announced this. He gave the blueprints away and I want to tell you a full screen quote here.

"One of the benefits of global warming, there hasn't been as many icebergs in the North Atlantic these days."

So, that's what he's kind of -- he said basically that I don't want to say it's unsinkable because, of course, that's what they said before, the Titanic, but for the superstitious, I guess he had to say, well, a hole will sink a ship, so ...

BALDWIN: So, if you have a cool million and love a little history, then there you go.

LA PORTE: There you go.

BALDWIN: Amy La Porte, thank you very much. Coming up, we've been watching the Big Board here as we are maybe creeping toward that five-year historic high that was set back in October of '07. Here we are at 14,081. That was 14,164.

We're going to a trader. He's been at this at the New York Stock Exchange for more than four decades. He says he is stumped today.

We'll ask him why, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Five minutes away from that closing bell. Come look. We're watching the Dow here at 14,084. It is flirting -- wishful thinking. hopefully -- flirting with hitting that record of 14,164. That was hit on October 9th of 2007.

Joining me now on the phone, long-time trader, 45-some years at the New York Stock Exchange, Teddy Weisberg.

Teddy, it's been a while since we've talked. I'm happy to be talking to you about this kind of number.

But I hear you're stumped by this today and I want to know why.

TED WEISBERG, NYSE TRADER (via telephone): Well, I go back a week or so ago and I was actually looking for support levels for the Dow, not resistance levels on the upside.

I really thought, I think, and I wasn't alone, you know, that the market just looked like it was sort of running out of the steam.

We were just coming out of the fourth quarter earnings and then the focus, of course, turns to the economy and we actually did get a couple of sort of anemic number.

And then we had that scare out of the eurozone, primarily Italy, and we had that one bad day and I thought, well, all right, we're going to go the other way for a while.

I didn't think it was the end of the world, but I just thought it was time to give a little back. I mean, the markets in January was terrific and, most of the February, the markets had a positive tone.

And, you know, nothing goes straight up, so history would have dictated that perhaps you're just going to pause here and maybe give a little back until we regroup, hopefully, to move higher.

Obviously, I'm wrong.

BALDWIN: Hey, sometimes we call it right. Sometimes we call it wrong.

We're waiting for the record number, 1,164. Closing bell, three minutes away. We'll take a look, Teddy Weisberg, here on the other side of this break.

Stay with me.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: "The Situation Room" with Wolf Blitzer starts now.

Wolf?