Fire Rages on in California; Sterling Might Have Lawyered Up
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news, the battle raged all night long. Firefighters up against more than they can handle from unprecedented wildfires as tens of thousands are evacuated in Southern California. Now two teens have been arrested. Did they start these fires? And what you're looking at right now, why so many fire natives?</s>KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Fighting back. Donald Sterling's lawyers respond to the NBA saying he did nothing wrong and he's not paying the multimillion-dollar fine. Battle lines are being drawn as the Clippers get knocked out of the playoffs overnight.</s>MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Under fire. The head of veterans affairs says he's not stepping down in the face of evidence that veterans died waiting for help. Congress grilled him over what went wrong. Should he leave or is he the man to fix it?</s>CHRIS CUOMO, CNN HOST: Your NEW DAY starts right now. This is NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo, Kate Bolduan, and Michaela Pereira.</s>CUOMO: Good morning. Welcome to NEW DAY. it is Friday, May 16th. Just after 6:00 in the a.m. In the east at least. We're going to begin with the worst wildfires we've seen in a while. A battle that has turned deadly in southern California. Police believe this was all done intentionally. Two arson suspects are under arrest.</s>KATE BOLDUAN, CNN HOST: In Carlsbad, fire fighters made a grim discovery during a hot spot check, a badly burned body. Here's where they stand in terms of devastation this morning. At least eight fires are burning. 10,000 acres have been scorched and dozens of structures are destroyed or heavily damaged. Dan Simon is in Escondido, California, with the very latest.</s>DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Raging on overnight. At least eight fires in San Diego county consuming home after home. Smoke even visible from space as the blazes ravage over 10,000 acres. Evacuations now call for nearly 16,000 residences as the flames turn fatal. Fire crews discovering a badly burned body in a Carlsbad encampment. The unseasonably erratic winds with gusts up to 50 miles per hour, spreading the flames rapidly.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have never seen the Santa Ana winds, also called devil winds, in the month of may.</s>SIMON: Winds whipping in multiple directions causing terrifying fire tornadoes.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Another tornado right there on the other side.</s>SIMON: Watch this flaming vortex atop a hill spin wildly, nearly engulfing the house in front. Thousands of firefighters and military crews bombarding the blazes from all sides. Still, no match for the swift moving flames fueled by acres of dry brush.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It came down the hill. Once you start seeing black smoke, it was upon here within 15 minutes.</s>SIMON: With so many wildfires erupting one right after the other, speculation of arson on the rise. Two teens 30 miles north of San Diego now in custody being questioned for two smaller brush fires in Escondido.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have developed reasonable suspicion, probable cause to believe that they were involved in setting fires.</s>SIMON: Unrelated to San Diego's eight major brush fires, reducing almost 20 homes now to ashes.</s>UNIDENTIFIES FEMALE: It was absolutely gorgeous. And now it's all gone. All gone. What can I say?</s>SIMON: Fortunately not everything was destroyed. Sophie's family safe salvaging a few family photos. And their dog rocky, his fur singed from the flames, found alive after being trapped in the house.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: After all of this devastation, the house is completely on the ground. We were just praying at least we could find our little dog here.</s>SIMON: And it has been a very busy night of fire fighting in the San Diego area. In fact, it still is. We are in the town of Escondido. This is the latest area to get hit. You can see this home completely leveled. You really can't make out anything. Where you see those flames appears to be some kind of bedroom or perhaps a living room. Chris, with so many fires breaking out basically at once, there has been real concern that we're looking at arson and, as we know, two people were taken into custody, a 19-year-old and a juvenile. They're being questioned about whether or not they are responsible for some of these other wildfires. At this point they're saying they may have started a brush fire. But a really concern that arson may be a play. Chris.</s>CUOMO: Just when you think it couldn't get any worse, if this was intentional, takes it to an entirely new level. The Thunder beat the Clippers to end their season. That's not a huge shock. Neither is the latest news in the Donald Sterling scandal. CNN hasn't confirmed it yet but there are reports this morning that Sterling has lawyered up, hiring a prominent anti-trust lawyer, anti- trust is a key word there and we'll tell you why. The lawyer telling the NBA, of course, that his client has done nothing wrong and won't be paying the $2.5 million fine for his racist comments. Let's bring in Malik Rose, game analyst for Comcast sportsnet Philadelphia and Mr. Danny Cevallos, criminal defense attorney and CNN legal analyst. Danny, I start with you for the legality here. He hired a anti-trust lawyer. Seems odd unless you understand how this situation works. Why an antitrust lawyer, Danny?</s>DANNY CEVALLOS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, Donald Sterling's basic argument is going to be that the NBA and its owners s colluded to essentially fix the price -- or effect the price that he would otherwise get at market value for his team. That's what antitrust is all about. You may have heard it discussed in the context of gasoline, oil cartels. Getting together in a room and agreeing, hey, we're going to fix prices. If you raise your price I'll raise my price. That's the spirit of antitrust. What Donald Sterling is going to try to argue here is that even though he signed all of these agreements as part of the privilege of being in the NBA, the other NBA owners and commissioner Silver, what they did is they got together and agreed in some sort of conspiracy to edge him out and set a price for the Clippers that would be substantially below market value.</s>CUOMO: Malik let's get you in here because I need you to play professor. There's a more specific reason, also, that he picked antitrust. That's the only carve-outs as we understand it in the agreement he signed with the NBA that allows you to take a matter to ordinary courts. He waived all other types of litigation. Right? Except antitrust, so it's the only way he can go. Tell us what we know about these documents, Malik.</s>MALIK ROSE, GAME ANALYST, COMCAST SPORTSNET: Well, first of all, the league expected this. Ever since Adam Silver went up on the podium and said that Mr. Sterling was banned for life he knew this was coming. His lawyers around him knew it was coming. But to get into the NBA you have to sign a charter which has rules and regulations that all owners are governed by. And that's what Donald Sterling did. He's a lawyer so he knew what he was signing. And those -- I think we have it on the screen, we can put it up. Two or three key things in those charters of the franchise agreements say specifically that the one, the NBA commissioner is the final authority on all matters involving behavior. Series of legal documents that contain covenants directly related to unethical conduct and immoral positions and it expressly forbid owners from engaging in unethical conduct or taking positions that have an adverse effect on the NBA. That's what the league is going to go after him on. He's in violation of those agreements in that charter.</s>CUOMO: So, Danny, if the commissioner is the final authority on whether or not the provision is breached that you have done something or held a position that's unethical or hurtful to the league, is a lot of this more smoke than it is fire in terms of what Donald Sterling can achieve here?</s>CEVALLOS: That's a pretty good legal assessment. Basically because Donald Sterling agreed to all these terms, the NBA can internally do whatever it wants essentially. I mean, this may sound like a violation of due process but you don't have any due process rights when there's no government actor. And the NBA is not an arm of the government. The NBA is a private club that Donald Sterling agreed to be part of. So most experts are saying that this antitrust attack or this prong is going to be a long shot, but according to the NBA constitution, it may be one of his only shots.</s>CUOMO: Now, Malik, it will be interesting. Is it going to be perceived as he's just protecting his rights or do you believe this move really waters down the apology?</s>ROSE: Well, the apology was, let's just say, a great TV event in and of itself. I don't really know if we can classify that as an apology. But this is definitely designed -- I think Mr. Cevallos is right, this is definitely designed to slow down the process and kind of muddy the waters for the NBA. But commissioner Silver is a very, very intelligent individual and he's smart enough to hire even smarter lawyers around him to fight stuff like this. And it's -- it's almost just like, you know, an exercise in rhetoric. This is going to have to play through and it's going to take a long, long time, which is the scary part for the NBA because listen to the players in the union, the people I have spoken to, the players are serious about this. If this takes too long and runs into next season, I don't want to think about what could happen.</s>CUOMO: And, Danny, let's just look down the road a little bit. First of all, he has the interview where he said I made mistakes, I hurt the league, I hurt the league. That's not going to help him in his case if he ever gets one, which he probably wouldn't. If he doesn't pays the money and they wind up oust him, do you think the league comes after him for the money or do you think they just want him gone?</s>CEVALLOS: That's a good question. I think the league at this point would just love for this to go away and I think that's Donald Sterling's biggest leverage at this point. Irrespective of what a jury may actually do years down the road, the one thing Donald Sterling has with the threat of litigation is leverage. The NBA would love for this to disappear if there is prolonged litigation it will do anything but disappear. And that may be the crowbar that Donald Sterling is really bringing to bear against the league. Even if they may not fully expect their chances are that good at trial, to win an antitrust or a due process claim, they can hang the threat of litigation and actual litigation costs over the NBA for many years. And that alone may be the leverage that Sterling needs to maybe get the NBA to capitulate on some of his demands. If they capitulate or walk back -- go ahead, Malik, make the final point.</s>ROSE: If they capitulate or walk back it's really going to be a problem because then it's going to fall on the players to ratchet it up. It's one thing to be able to say all of these things of Mr. Sterling but there's another thing to prove it. I don't see how he's going to be able to prove that he didn't adversely affect the brand of the</s>NBA. CUOMO: Well said. Better than what I was going to say anyway. Malik Rose, thank you very much. Danny Cevallos, appreciate the analysis. The scandal continues and we will continue to watch it. Lot of other news as well though so let's get to Mick for the news.</s>PEREIRA: Here's your headlines. New U.N. Report warning of an alarming deterioration of human rights in eastern Ukraine. This amid a potential game changer on the ground. Thousands of steelworkers retook the city of Mariupol from pro-Russian separatists. This is a blow to the separatists who recently seized the region and held a much criticized referendum for independence. The world's largest election has come to and with an overwhelming win for the opposition. The ruling Congress party has now conceded it has lost to a party headed by a Hindu nationalist. Corruption allegations plagued the Congress party in recent years. Millions voted in this election that lasted five weeks. And in Turkey, at least 18 miners are still feared trapped after the worst coal mining disaster in that nation's history. Nearly 300 people are now confirmed dead. Many were laid to rest Thursday in mass burials. Now grieving family members are railing against what they call poor safety conditions and the government's indifferent response. We continue to watch that story in Turkey. Of course, here at home, weather is a concern for us always. We know that they certainly could use rain out west but let's look at what overall we can expect for the weekend, Indra.</s>INDRA PETERSON, CNN METEOROLOGIST: What a contrast, the west it's so dry but out east the concern is the flooding. Thirty-four million of us today do have the threat for flood advisories. You can see them really in New York stretching through Virginia. That's going to be the problem phase. We're still talking about the exact same cold front we've been talking about all week long. This is the same one that brought snow in Colorado, if you remember way back then. Now look at all the moisture is still hanging out on the east coast. This moisture is lining up with exactly where that cold front is. It's a slow moving cold front. That's the problem. You have rain over the same place for long period of times. You can see the radar right now and the rain is already out there and only more of it is expected to fall. And heavy amounts. The mid-Atlantic, that is the highest amounts of rain. Two to four inches possible in the mid- Atlantic and one to two in the northeast over the next two days. You can have a lot of rain in a short period of time. That's the biggest concern. Finally by Saturday this guy actually kicks out of here. Lasting a little bit longer towards New England. Scattered showers behind it. A mini short wave. This is the major system. Keep in mind the temperatures are going to back off. The weekend will get a lot better as it goes on. A little bit rainy for most people in the first half. Second half looks good. Saturday and Sunday looks good. I don't think there's anyone complaining about that.</s>PEREIRA: Keeping a close eye out west. Thanks.</s>CUOMO: It's going to rain, rain winds up the ocean. Hearing reports here among the crew that the bait is coming into the bays. Fish are coming.</s>BOLDUAN: Reminder, we are now entering the season where we hear Chris talk about fishing every day.</s>CUOMO: Fishing, also know as America's most popular past time.</s>BOLDUAN: Or not. Very wonderful time if you would ever take me.</s>CUOMO: I'll take you.</s>BOLDUAN: Thank you.</s>CUOMO: We'll go very far out into the ocean.</s>BOLDUAN: Oh gosh, and we'll never come back. A three-hour tour, people. Coming up next on NEW DAY, the secretary of veterans affairs say he's mad as hell and faced a grilling from lawmakers but he's sticking with the job. Should he be pushed out? Most importantly, what is going to be done to fix the problems of the V.A.. One of the nation's top veterans organizations joining us next.</s>CUOMO: Wildfires, as you know, devouring southern California and drought is creating risk for more everywhere else in the state. How bad could it get, next.