>> it was the biggest one i've ever seen. >> it's the deadliest outbreak so far this year. >> downtown little rock looks completely leveled. >> people call you and tell you that i have people on my instagram, and it bothers you. >> yes, it bothers me. >> unsterling comments. >> you can do anything, but don't put them on instagram for the world to see so they have to call me. >> clippers owner, donald sterling, a man who was supposed to receive the naacp lifetime achievement award allegedly caught on tape with his girlfriend. >> wearing their warmup shirts inside out. >> the player sending a powerful message on the court last night, the outrage growing. >> we can't have it from a player. we can't have it from an owner. >> there is absolutely no place in the nba family for ignorance. hit again. >> it builds on the sanctions already in place. >> russian president va vladimir putin slammed with more sanctions today. will they have any real effect?

you're live in the cnn "newsroom." good morning. i'm carol costello. complete devastation in the central united states after a deadly string of tornadoes ripped through the region. take a look at this incredible video caught on camera by a storm chaser in kansas. at least 18 people are dead after storms tore through oklahoma, iowa, nebraska and missouri. 16 killed in arkansas alone, the state hardest hit by these storms. more than 100 people there taken to hospitals. this is what it looks like just north of little rock. a massive twister flattened the towns of mayflower and i will voen yeah, devouring almost everything in their path. a nightmare all too familiar to residents here. almost three years ago to the day, another storm wiped out some of the same neighborhoods.

>> at this time this storm was much stronger. buildings are completely leveled. very few walls left standing in its path, just a tremendous amount of damage. it's just hard to look at and believe this happened to us again. >> this morning rescue teams are racing against the clock. another round of severe weather expected to hit some of the same regions in the coming hours. cnn's chad myers is in may flower, arkansas. >> reporter: this building was a concrete block, a cinder block building, some type of machine shop. i'm finding all kinds of bar clamps and things like that. this was a moving, an operating factory of some sort. now it's just completely destroyed. but the real problem today for the search and rescue teams and for the people picking up their

lives in may mayflower, the falts are everywhere. the buildings are shattered, nails are everywhere. more people can get hurt after the storm than during the storm if they're not very careful. now, minor injuries -- we do believe now that most of the power has been shut off. for a while a lot of the power lines were full. i'm going to be very careful moving through here because of the nails and everything else. here is the electrical box for this building, all the conduit. a big structure, a very sturdy structure completely destroyed. we know that -- i'm probably saying this is f 3 damage because i can still see some walls. but there are buildings in vilonia that we know of, especially one dollar store that there's nothing else except the concrete that that building was sitting on. everything else completely gone. that indicates damage of greater than ef3, somewhere in the four or even five. the national weather service

will be out here looking at it. i think right now counting the derksd helping the injured and rescuing those that still may be trapped in such a wide area, that there may still be people that need to be rescued. >> firefighters are now going door to door in those communities. chad myers, many thanks to you. let's get more on where those storms are heading the day. cnn meteorologist indrin peterson live to tell us. >> we still have a huge risk area, a slight risk area that involves 38 million of you. we'll focus on this moderate risk area from huntsville farther north also into tennessee, back towards mississippi, jackson, mississippi. this is the concern. today we're seeing the storms firing up. tornado watch boxes already out there. we had tornado warnings. definitely the system is not over with yet. what are we going to be watching for? once again, the same setup, very typical for spring time.

warm moist air out of the gulf, warm dry air behind it. notice you see the slow, a trigger to get the systems to fire up. have easy to see. if you don't have sunshine, you let the sunlight in and that enhances the thunderstorm activity. you typically see these firing up in teaching hours. the system makes its way across and tomorrow we have a huge risk, ap, almost 58 million of you under the gun for severe weather. >> indra petersons, thank you. breaking news to tell you about now, just minutes ago the obama administration leveled new sanctions against russia over ukraine, frozen assets, bans on entering the united states, all aimed at more than 20 vips and companies with close ties to the russian president vladimir put tin. a new wingal. these sanctions are aimed at high-tech defense exports to

russia. white house correspondent michelle kosinski following the president in manila. good morning. >> reporter: as promised, the u.s. has expanded sanctions against certain people and companies in russia. in a press statement the u.s. said that russia has done nothing, and that's to quote the statement, to deescalate the situation in ukraine. they said russia has done nothing to deescalate and the fact that it's linked to the violence there seems indisputable. what are these sanctions? they target seven people, according to this press release, two of them are within putin's inner circle. 17 companies that the release says are linked to putin's inner circle. among those 17 companies, 13 now are banned, although it's not an out right ban. they explained it as a presumption of denial for

importing u.s. products. as you mentioned, going for they are than that, there's a ban or presumption of denial for u.s. exports in the high-tech defense sector to russia. that's something that president obama said today he felt was inappropriate given the current climate. so who exactly are these people and what exactly are these companies? we don't know just yet. but we're expecting to hear more information on that, hopefully a lot more detail within the hour. president obama was asked today, why not target putin directly? why not issue these sanctions, these asset freezes and visa bans against putin or more of his inner circle. president obama responded by saying the goal is not to target putin personally, but try to change russia's behavior. he did acknowledge that these sanctions 3450i9 not do that, they might not work as prior u.s. sanctions at this point seem not to have. carol? >> michelle kosinski reporting

live this morning. the search for the missing malaysian airlines jet is about to enter a new phase. crew haves been searching for 52 days now and they found nothing. now australia's prime minister is saying the search could last up to eight more months. >> it is highly unlikely at this stage that we will find any aircraft debris on the ocean surface. therefore, we are move iing fro the current phase to a phase which is focused on searching the ocean floor over a much larger area. the aircraft plainly cannot disappear. it must be somewhere. >> the bluefin-21 will continue to be used in the underwater search. it's now on its 16th mission. the deep sea drone will be joined by sonar devices towed by

ships that can provide more instant feedback. families are furious and fed up with the investigation by malaysian officials. they'll take their concerns directly to a boeing shareholder's meeting in chicago this morning. boeing is the maker of the 777 aircraft that vanished on march 8 with 239 people aboard. cnn's alexandra field is live in new york to tell us more. good morning. >> reporter: good morning, carol. the families are trying to exhaust every possible avenue to try to get some information. now they want to know what does boeing know and what is boeing willing to share. they've written down their questions, given their questions to a delegate. a delegate will take the questions to a shareholder's meeting in chicago this morning to try and find out. more desperate, more frustrated. the family members of the passengers aboard malaysian airlines flight 370 turn their attention toward boeing. >> if we're not getting information directly from malaysian airlines and from the malaysian government, we might

as well try to go directly to the source. >> reporter: the manufacturer of the missing 777 has issued a statement saying, quote, in accordance with international protocols, boeing is serving as a technical adviser to the national transportation safety board in support of malaysian authorities. but families have technical questions they want boeing to answer. >> they would have all the data. they would also have the tape-recordings and the inmar satellite images and whatever other information the government has shared with them. >> i've advocated that inmar sat and perhaps together with boeing as a participant release some of this information, some of this technical data information so that the families can at least get a handle on how they came about to calculate the area where everyone is looking now. >> reporter: boeing expressed sympathy. but so far they aren't saying much more. the appeal from the families won't likely change that. >> they're under no obligation to disclose any of that information. >> boeing will say they are

prohibited from talking to the families under annex 13 of the iko, international civil aviation organization. >> reporter: a lawsuit could force the manufacturer to turn over information about its aircraft. with the plane still missing, some say the families don't have a case at least against the boeing company. >> you're not going to be able to bring a claim against boeing without the wreckage or the black box. just not possible. >> reporter: these aviation attorneys are clearly not optimistic that the families will get the answers they're looking for, at least not today. the shareholder's meeting starts later today. a boeing source says mh370 is not a topic on the formal agenda. you could see someone bring it up and it could be asked about during a question-and-answer period. we'll be standing by. >> alexandra field, thanks so much. new york congressman michael grimm surrendered to federal

authorities after a two-year investigation by the fbi into alleged illegal contributions to his campaign. you might remember grimm when he threatened to throw a television reporter over a balcony after the reporter was questioning him about this same on going investigation. grimm later apologized for the incident saying he sometimes wears the emotion on his sleeve. a racist rant attributed to l.a. clippers owner donald sterling. what can the nba do now rachel nichols? >> reporter: the nba's options, carol, may be more limited than you will like. i will let you know what the league can and can't do coming up after this break. [announcer] play close-good and close. help keep teeth clean and breath fresh with beneful healthy smile food.

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we've been telling you about these terrible deadly storms that ripped through parts of arkansas. in fact, 17 people are dead in faulkner county. more than 100 injured. authorities believe there still may be people trapped in their homes. i want to take you to vilonia and lisz tone a news conference held by the faulkner county

public information officer david hoeing. >> my name is david hogue, the public information for faulkner county. i have several shelters i want you to know about. one is the barrel baptist church. red cross is there today. they will be serving meals morning, noon and evening. vilonia senior center is also a shelter for vilonia as well as mayflower, even the homeowners are not allowed to come in at the moment. last night there was kind of a cursory nighttime search and res key effort by all of the emergency responders and law enforcement. today they are getting started in daylight hours with a very detailed, thorough search and rescue effort. that's why a perimeter around both of these towns so that when people are coming in, unless you can show i.d. and give them a valid reason to be there, then you're not going to be let in.

volunteers will be welcome at a certain point, but now i'm afraid is not the time. search and rescue efforts are still happening. and as long as we have personal -- emergency personnel on the scene and as long as we have power lines down, we're asking citizen volunteers to stay where they are. we'll let you know, we'll vo another press conference and let you know when people can come in and volunteer. there will be a time. just not yet. >> do you believe there are people still alive in parts of these subdivisions? >> i believe so. we're being told so. at the present, pat moore, i talked to him this morning, the faulkner county coroner, and he explained that there have been ten confirmed fatalities so far. that's two children and eight adults in faulkner county. >> -- emergency crews are doing search and rescue efforts right now? >> yes. they did some search and rescue

efforts very quickly and carefully, yes, but this morning they started a very thorough and deliberate concentrateded search and rescue effort. that's going to go through most of the day today. i'm going to be stationed here and be available for more information as we get more information. >> has anybody been found alive, rescued this morning? >> i don't know about that. >> you mentioned how some people were not allowed back to their homes, some of the residents. we saw some that were back in their homes. is it a slow process where some are allowed back in and some not, until we get back and do the search and rescues? >> yes, it is a slow process. we have people and dogs going through the rubble and trying to find whoever we can and whatever we can. once we get tonight fall again tonight, then search and rescue will slow down again, but at the moment, until search and rescue is over and the county judge's office is coordinating all the efforts here, until we get word

that search and rescue has been done, then law enforcement has a perimeter around both towns and they're not letting anybody in that doesn't belong here. >> sad news out of faulkner county in arkansas, ten people confirmed dead, two of them children. seven others apparently dead in neighboring -- in a neighboring county. but david hogue, the faulkner county public information officer talking about just faulkner county. our figures show 17 people dead in arkansas, 100 or more injured. as you heard mr. hogue say, firefighters are going door to door to see if there are any survivors in these destroyed homes. they believe there are survivors. so we'll keep you posted on that. we'll take a short break and be back with much more in the "newsroom." ♪ thoughtful combinations, artfully prepared.

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the nba promising a swift investigation into racist comments allegedly made by los angeles clippers owner donald sterling. the comments have triggered widespread outrage and distracted attention from the league's pinnacle event, the play-offs. the story exploded over the weekend with audio recordings first released by tmz sports and then by dead spin. the tapes purportedly are conversations by sterling and sterling and his girlfriend where he complains about her bringing magic johnson to clippers games and posting

pictures with her and him on instagram. >> he happens to be black and i'm sorry. >> i think it's nice you admire him. i know him well and he should be admired. i'm just saying it's too bad you can't admire him privately. and during your [ bleep ] life, your whole life admire him, bring him here, feed him, [ bleep ] him, i don't care. you can do anything. but don't put it on instagram for the world to see so they have to call me and don't bring him to my games, okay? >> but the bigotry is not just targeting magic johnson. here is another excerpt from dead spin. >> if you don't feel it, don't come to my games. don't bring black people and don't come. >> do you know that you have a whole team that's black that plays for you? >> do i know? i support them and give them food and clothes and cars and houses. who gives it to them? does someone else give it to

them? do i know that i have -- who makes the game? do i make the game or do they make the game? is there 30 owners that created the league? >> an attorney for vee stif an know say it is recordings are authentic and says she did not release them. for the record, she's being sued by the sterling family alleging she embezzled more than $1.8 million. the clippers stage add silent protest wearing their jerseys inside out so the clippers team could not be seen. they wore their regular uniforms for the game. the clippers lost to the warriors by 21 points. other teams had their own sterling protest. the rockets and trailblazers wore black socks at their game. the players association is putting forward a list of demands about sterling, former nba star and sacramento mayor

kevin johnson is advising the union to take actions. donald sterling was supposed to receive a lifetime achievement award by the naacp next month. that's not going to happen. the more pressing question, how do you punish a guy who alleged lid made racist comments if he owns the team. let's bring in rachel nichols. rachel, what can the nba really do? >> it is a tough road ahead for them. a lot of people very rightfully demanding action. how did they go about that? first they've got to authenticate this tape. that's not so easy to do. tmz has the tape. do they want to give to it the nba? does the woman involved want to give them a copy of the tape. remember it is illegal in california to taech someone else without their knowledge. she is putting herself in jeopardy by getting copies of the tape out there. donnell sterling is suggesting the tape may have been doctored in some way. you may have to wonder how he is going to cooperate with the league investigation. let's say they can authenticate

this tape? what then? donald sterling is worth about $2 billion. do you fine him? what kind of fine would possibly make a difference to this guy? in terms of the nba charter, that is private. it's not a public document. from we do know, there isn't a path to relieve someone of ownership unless their organization is in some kind of financial trouble which is not the case now. so maybe you try to suspend him. well, that's difficult, too. do you suspend him from day-to-day operations form a year, two years? what feels justified? when mlb baseball was dealing with this issue with marge shot, they suspended her for one year. then she returned to baseball. she then did it again. they suspended her for two years in that scenario and then they worked with her to suggest that she sell the team. but they couldn't force her out. unfortunately with donald sterling, he's known as a very litigious guy. he's not going to go quietly into the night. this is a mess for the nba to

untangle. clearly they have to do something significant. >> maybe ultimately it's up to the fans. if they don't go to the games, if they don't buy tickets, if they don't buy sfofood at the games, then they could force the issue, right? >> it is. it's tough though. it's complicated. you have players on that team who work very hard, who are going and playing the games. they're under contract. those players, they thought about boycotting their own game, not wanting to play for that owner. then they could get in trouble with the nba and open themselves up to some problems. it is a complex issue. the players and the coach are asking for support from the fans and certainly they deserve it. how you support them without supporting the owner causes problems for people. >> okay. so there is speculation that magic johnson who, of course, was mentioned in this controversy is interested in buying the clippers. that would be something, wouldn't it? >> certain they li that would make a lot of people happy, sort of the ultimate correction of

this situation. magic johnson and an ownership group own the dodgers. they're certainly interested in getting into the nba. in fact, when the nba was having trouble with its women's team in that l.a. market, the sparks were in financial dib difficulties, magic johnson's group stepped in and bought them. they already have a relationship with the nba. they already helped the nba out in a way. they would certainly be well positioned. again, donald sterling would want to sell this team. it is hard to see a way that adam silver, the commissioner s going to be able to force him to sechlt we don't know exactly what's in that private charter. there is not really a clear path laid out to force him to sell. certainly donald sterling, if they did try to force him to sell and he didn't want to sell, he could sue the nba, tie them up in court for years. you'd have an owner suing its own league. it would be a disaster. so it is going to be a big mess for them to untangle. as i said, major league baseball was able to slowly, over the

course of years and several suspensions convince marge shot, the former reds owner that it was in her best interest and baseball's best interest to sell the team. maybe they can go down that road with sterlgs. but it's a long road. we know sterling has a terrible track record when it comes to race relations. maybe this time the nba can do something about it because it has been going on for way too long and been way too much of a problem. >> rachel nichols, thanks so much. i appreciate it. still to come in the "newsroom," president obama goes after russia again over ukraine with new sanction announced in the past hour. phil black is in kiev with more on ukraine's response. hi, phil. >> reporter: we've seen more evidence why the ukrainian government believe this pressure is so necessary. the first attempted political assassination of this crisis. i'll have the details after the break. ♪

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♪ president obama and the european union are hitting russia even harder over ukraine this morning. new sanctions which include the freezing of assets and bans on entering the united states are now set against more than 20 people and companies closely associated with rgs president vladimir putin. this comes hours after the latest signs of an impending

civil war in ukraine as the mayor of ukraine's second largest city is shot in the back and is fighting for his life. plus an administration building in another ukrainian city near the russian border was taken over today by a dozen pro-russian separatists. also another pro-russian group continues to hold members of a military observation team captive in a different ukrainian city. there was one positive sign over the weekend, one member was released. phil black is in kiev with more on all of this. hi, phil. >> reporter: hey, carol. yes, with these new sanctions, they are significant, important particularly from the point of view of the ukrainian government. they are grateful because they believe that these sort of international pressures is the only way to hold off russia. ukraine can't stand up to them economically. certainly can't stand up to them militarily. the only chance they have is for the strongest possible pressure to be applied by the united

states, by europe, and the more urine nighted that front, so much the better as well. this shooting in the east of the country in kharkiv is shooting because it is the country's biggest city. this is a mayor, a local politician that has played a bill role in holding off pro-russian forces from gaining a foothold in that city t. concern now is if he is driven from office or worse, it could open up the opportunities for pro-russians to move in to this very important city right near the russian border and consolidate a much stronger hold there as well which would be a big blow to the central government here in kiev which continues to struggle to hold this country together, carol. >> i must say, though, phil, so far sanctions don't seem to be worki working. what makes officials so sure that these new stronger sanctions with work? >> reporter: the officials in kiev will take what they can get. they want as much pressure as possible. you're right in a sense that a

lot of the individuals targeted so far by russia have laughed them off. they haven't had a broad impact in and of themselves on the russian economy. but russian economy is still suffering because of russia's actions. its growth has slowed, its ruble, its stock market have tumbled. capital is leaving the country. this is an economy that was already a little delicate, already beginning to struggle. so the belief is that the greater the pressure, even just prodding leading individuals can make a difference. as president obama has said, in the event russia escalates things further, that's when big sector-wide sanctions would come into play, hitting entire areas of the russian economy. >> phil black reporting live from ukraine. still to come in the "newsroom," calls for the suspension or ouster of donald sterling, the nba owner tied to those racist remarks. what should the nba do? we'll talk about that after the break.

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the l.a. clippers are contenders for an nba title. is it a quote set to derail that? the owner is accused of making remarks caught on tape. the rant apparently touched off by this vet toe of sterling's girlfriend and mistress with magic johnson which she posted to her instagram account. >> people call you and tell you i have people on my instagram and it bothers you. >> yeah, it bothers me a lot. if you want to broadcast that you're associating with black peop people. >> all right. those comments and others sparking outrage in the sports world and beyond.

magic johnson vowing to never, ever attend another clippers game as long as sterling is the owner, and for the current team a silent protest during last night's game as the players dumped their warmups at mid court and turned their t-shirts inside out so the logo was hidden. some of the biggest names in baseball slamming sterling. kobe bryant taking to twitter where he said simply, i couldn't play for him. for its part the nba has launched an investigation but has yet to announce what, if any, punishment will be given. still calls are growing for the new commissioner to take decisive action. >> if you're adam silver, this is a moment for him as the new commissioner of our league, to make a really strong statement about how we're not going to allow this type of behavior to be a part of our sport. >> i want to bring in jason johnson, an hln contributor and

political science professor at hiram college, and mark omar rah cnn legal analyst and criminal defense attorney. jason, i want to start with you, this story is so ugly on so many levels. the nba investigating, espn reporting some kind of decision will be made for tomorrow's game. what should it be? >> the decision should be -- first of all, they need to put some rules in the nba constitution on how to police owners. the problem is the nba commissioner is the most powerful of the nfl, mlb, any major sports. they have all sorts of author for players if they damage the league, they need rules in place for the owners. they need to suspend him, have serious discussions as to whether or not his behavior harms the brand of the league. they need rules in place. adam silver has done a terrible job so far. >> mark, what do you think? is there anything the nba can no, sirbly do? >> the problem is that the charter, it's private so we

don't know a lot about it. secondly, as jason said, there's not a lot of it that has a code of conduct for the oerns. unfortunately the nba can't do something, silver and the owners may be hamstrung by the fact that they don't have a lot of rules, then we should. then twitter and facebook and instagram and the people, the fans should say to him you are not going to be an owner as long as we're going to the games and cheering on your employees. >> a lot of people agree with that, jason. the los angeles city council has spoken out and demanding some sort of sanctions from the nba. that want the local newspaper not to advertise anymore, anything about mr. sterling. but there are men who play basketball for this man and that's how they make their money. if the fans boycott, it could hurt them. >> this guy has got $1.9 billion. i'm pretty sure none of these protests are going to do anything to him. it's very clear, donald sterling has been a bad owner for years.

he was known for being cheap, abusive, racist, sexually harassing people. money isn't going to hurt him. he owns this team out of ego. owning an nba franchise is a privilege, just like playing in the league is a privilege. the real responsibility is for the owners to stand up and say we're harming the brand. you're damaging the league. if a player damages the league, there are consequences and responsibilities. if an owner does so, the other owners should stand up. i don't think it should be left to the players and fans. it should be left to the rest of his club of 32 to say this guy is no longer part of our team. >> so, mark, if you're representing mr. sterling, and i'm sorry to put that on you, if you are, the owners stand up and say we want you out. big deal. >> we know he's very litigious. the way he lit gates is the scorched earth policy. that's going to be very difficult. if i was in a position of representing him and if that tape is accurate, it may be time to cut his losses. it truly may be. if he tries to defend himself in

the court of public opinion or in front of his owners or the nba to say that's me, but it wasn't really me, not going to cut it anywhere. if there's anything he can do to cut his losses, maybe there's just another industry he needs to be in besides a public one like the nba. >> it might get worse, jason. according to tmz, this mistress, v. stiviano has hours and hours of tape. he's talking to her saying how can we make this go away. so she may be the one to make him step down, to make him sell the team. >> look, this is the thing, i'm not worried about the authentication of it. tmz is a lot of things, but they're not stupid. they wouldn't have put this tape out if they didn't know it was donald sterling. this goes beyond the nba. just last week the supreme court said we don't need affirmative action anymore. then you have this and you see there are still men in power who have racist attitudes, they can affect who is hired, who is fired, who ends up on juries.

all these issues are at play. the nba doesn't just have a responsibility to do something about a bad owner, but they have a national responsibility to say, look, we can't allow this mindset to continue to harm employees. you have a right to be a bigot but you don't have a right to mistreat the people who work for you. >> what you think about that, mark? >> absolutely right. he needs to be the poster child to not be allowed as someone with influence in society. we're trying to deal with the subtleties of on going racial concerns. this is a guy who has now put a face on it and he needs to walk away. >> mark omar rah, jason johnson, thank you for your insight. still to come in "newsroom," russia is further escalating the crisis in ukraine. now the obama administration is going after russia again. we'll break down the new round of sanctions just put into place this morning. [announcer] play close-good and close.

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the investigation into the deadly ferry disaster in south korea is widening. three members of the south korean shipping association have been arrested suspected of destroying evidence connected to that sinking ferry. also this morning, the coast guard released new video of the ship sinking and passengers being rescued. just as prosecutors start to investigate whether the agency failed to adequately do its job. nic robertson has more on the widening investigation. >> reporter: prosecutors here say they have arrested another three people. they worked for the korean shipping association, an association that takes care of the interest of korean shippers. they accuse these three people are destroying documents relating to the company that

owns the ferry. not clear what those documents are. another indication of the broadening investigation, investigators say they are looking at and investigating the 911 service locally in this area to see how they handled the disaster when it began happening and investigating the local coast guard. we heard from coast guard officials earlier in the day and they described how they rescued the captain. the coast guard also released video of that rescue of the captain. the captain was clamoring out of the ship in his underwear. something that's shocking south koreans to see the captain come out this way and coast guard said they had no idea this was the captain. they said many of the crew were wearing life vests and they couldn't tell whether or not they were passengers or crew because the life vests covered their uniform. they said they had no idea that the man in the shorts that they were rescuing was the captain.

they knew there were 400 to 500 passengers aboard the ship and assumed other people were helping get them off. the coast guard, 911 service under scrutiny of investigators now as well. nic robertson, cnn. >> the next hour of "newsroom" after a break. what does an apron have to do with car insurance? an apron is hard work. an apron is pride in what you do. an apron is not quitting until you've made something a little better. what does an apron have to do with car insurance? for us, everything.

i couldn't lay down it was a i couldn't sit up because it burned so much. as first lady of our church we have meetings. we have activities. and i couldn't do any of that. any time anything brushed up against this rash it would seem like it would set it on fire again. it was the worst pain i ever had.

happening now in the "newsroom," deadly tornadoes storm through the midwest. >> we're in it right now. we're in the tornado. >> it was by far the biggest one i've ever seen. >> it's the deadliest outbreak so far this year. >> downtown area seems like it's completely leveled. >> people call you and say that i have black people on my instagram and it bothers you. >> yeah, it bothers me. you can do anything but don't put it on instagram for the world to see. >> donald sterling, a man supposed to receive the naacp lifetime award allegedly caught on tape with his girlfriend. the players sending a powerful message on the court last night. the outrage growing. >> i think he should step down. >> can't have it from a player or an owner. >> there's absolutely no place

in the nba family for ignorance. >> hit again. >> it builds on the sanctions that were already in place. >> russian president vladimir putin slammed with more sanctions today but will they have any real affect? your live in the c"cnn newsroo." good morning. i'm carol costello. thanks so much for joining me. complete devastation in the central u.s. this morning after a deadly string of tornadoes ripped through the region. look at this incredible video caught on camera by a storm chaser in kansas. at least 18 people are dead after storms tore through places like oklahoma, iowa, nebraska and missouri. 16 people killed in arkansas alone. the state hardest hit by these storms. more than 100 taken to hospitals. this is what it looks like just north of little rock. a massive twister more than half a mile wide flattened towns devouring almost everything in

their path. the nightmare all too familiar to residents there. almost three years ago to the day another storm wiped out some of the same neighborhoods. >> in mayflower alone there were 60 homes heavily damaged or destroyed. in mayflower we have more than that. the really sad thing is there are a lot of homes that were hit this time and demolished that were the exact same homes that had just been rebuilt from the last tornado. >> this morning rescue teams are racing against the clock to try to find survivors. another round of severe weather expected to hit some of the same regions in just a matter of hours. cnn meteorologist chad myers is in mayflower, arkansas, this morning. it looks awful, chad. >> search and rescue continues, carol. we got here about 35 minutes after the storm hit and people were still in their cars.

people were still being rescued. the search was more active than it is now. this was a business. you know, this tornado eventually will turn into a lot of statistics. half mile wide. 40 miles long. 200 miles an hour. whatever the statistics are. this is what the tornado really means. this is someone's house. there's a bible over there. over here is all of their other stuff probably underneath their bathroom sink, underneath the kitchen sink here. a walkthrough here. someone was living in this home. look. here are some baby pictures. i'm sure they'll want these back. we'll save them for them when they come. this little guy hope he wasn't in the tornado. there's the family. you know, this is the stuff that people lose. this is the stuff that people can't replace. this is the stuff that insurance can't give you back. whether you're insured or not, this is a major loss. this tornado went for miles. i took a drive around here the

past couple hours. this went skipping across a lake, back into another town and then continued toward the area that we think was hit harder than this. from my estimations this is an f-3. the building is standing. outside of the walls are gone. the inside is still there. this is why we always tell you get on the inside of the house, put as many walls between you and the outside as possible because the outside wall may go away. the inside walls typically other than f-5 tornado will still stand and you will be safe if you are on the inside of that home, carol. >> there are more storms on the way in just a matter of hours, chad. can you tell us about that? >> yes. yesterday was what we call a high-risk day. there are very few of them every year. yesterday was one of them. today is a moderate risk although there's potential if the sun comes out that we could get to that higher threshold and certainly that high-risk day yesterday came true.

all of this stuff was pushed through the fields and into the trees back out through here. we're expecting similar damage, possibly f-3 tornado or so all of the way now into parts of tennessee, mississippi, alabama and all of the way down to the gulf coast. slightly 300 miles farther to the east as the energy from what was here yesterday has moved a little bit farther to the east, carol. >> all right. chad myers reporting live from arkansas this morning. president obama going after russian president vladimir putin's inner circle in the newest round of sanctions over ukraine. this morning seven russians with close ties to putin and 17 companies had u.s. assets frozen and are banned -- the people are banned from entering the united states. our chief national security correspondent jim sciutto is in washington. tell us more about these new sanctions. >> reporter: you could say these are not big fish. they're medium sized fish looking at the list here. deputy prime minister of russian on that list of individuals and you have the president of

russia's biggest oil company. one of the largest oil companies in the world. they are on that list. and then when you look at the companies again none of the big companies, russia's natural gas company, it is not on the list. so you are going -- it's basically an expansion of the first round of sanctions that went after some individuals, handful of them close to putin, and some second tier companies, banks, and other companies used by those individuals. and when you speak to administration officials -- in fact, i was on a call with white house officials just a few minutes ago, they describe this as kind of ratcheting up the pressure and still keeping in the words of one of those officials bullets in their chambers so they can use those if russia continues not to change its behavior in and around eastern ukraine. >> let me ask you this. the mayor of the second largest city in ukraine shot in the back. the violence only seems to be escalating. at what point will those

sanctions directly target vladimir putin? >> this is a very good question. at this point the president, his advisers are saying it's not the time to target putin. that time will come. in fact, they say they are barred right now from imposing sector sanctions. this is the way to get at putin, at the russian economy, where you would sanction entire sectors, the oil sector, they are reserving that painful weapon for if russian troops go into eastern ukraine. they say that's something the u.s. agrees with its european partners that that would be the spark for something like that. they haven't seen that yet. now the trouble as you say still russian intervention there continues. you have violence. you have some observers there that are still being held. you were journalists who were taken and beaten and that hasn't changed. another big one is that russia hasn't changed. i asked you a few minutes ago, a

senior administration official, i said are intentions of these sanctions purely to deter further action inside ukraine or to roll back what has already taken place including the annexati annexation and they say we'll never recognize that. it's not clear the sanctions will roll back that action. it's not clear that it will deter putin from moving into eastern ukraine. the administration's intention is to keep raising the cost to make it less likely. >> jim sciutto reporting live from washington. they searched by air, on the surface and under water but so far nothing. a new phase is about to begin for that missing malaysian airliner that vanished 52 days ago including using private contractors to do intense underwater search. australia's prime minister say aerial searches have now been suspended. >> it is highly unlikely at this

stage that we will find any aircraft debris on the ocean surface. therefore, we are moving from the current phase to a phase which is focused on searching the social floor over a much larger area. >> welcome, gentlemen. >> good morning. >> hello. >> good morning. so, david, officials say this new phase could take up to eight months to complete. doesn't sound really that hopeful. >> well, it really seems like it isn't. but the good news is there's a lot of area that's been covered. as disappointing as it is so look forward but tony abbott mentioned that when he says he doesn't look back at failures but looking forward at what's to come. i'm with that. i'm on that ship.

i'm on that boat. i believe these are pings from the aircraft and i think they will find it in just this next expansion. i don't think they'll have to go the full range of going the 700 x 80 miles they talked before. >> it will help if they bring in sonar devices towed by ships. they'll have realtime information as they look under the sea. will that help things? >> i think it will, carol. i think the bluefin-21 has done an excellent job but it reached limitations of its capability in terms of it can only go down to around 15,000 feet and where we are now requires equipment to go down to 20,000 feet. the new equipment will be able to go deeper. it can go longer. it has more endurance and as you already rightly alluded to, it can give you near realtime data feedback. the bluefin-21 has to be deployed and sucks up information on its onboard

processors and you have to get it out of the water to then download all of the information and analyze it from there. it should be a fairly quicker process. one thing i would like to say, carol, eight to nine months is more in line with realistic expectations. the whole investigation has been conducted quite unorthodoxly in terms of we went straight for the needle of black boxes and we hope to find debris from black boxes. that's not the way investigations find. you find the debris which takes you to the black box air france 447. we have to manage our expectations a bit and eight to nine months is what is in line with my expectations are. >> they say debris is so water-logged now that it would sink and possibly be buried under the silt on the bottom of the ocean. >> well, you know, that's true for a lot of debris. i still think that there's a great possibility because the structure of this aircraft has a lot of composite structure in it in which it's a poxy bonded

together, two skins with honey co honeycomb structure in between. there may be debris out there. the fact that it may be water-logged and fallen to the problem, i agree with that. there is debris out there. it could be so dispersed that even searches in the area they are, it could be on the beaches somewhere. it could be completely in a different area since we had two cyclones through this area since the time of the accident. >> david and michael, thank you for your insight this morning. >> good to see you, carol. >> still to come, a new york congressman is in hot water this morning. representative grim arrested over campaign contributions. we'll tell you about it next. what can i do on a $7 a month android plan from tracfone? check the weather.

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checking our top stories, at least 18 people are dead after a string of powerful tornadoes ripped through the central u.s. overnight. 16 were killed in arkansas alone. listen to what a meteorology student who witnessed the damage firsthand had to say. he was one of the first on the scene after a tornado flattened a neighborhood in arkansas. >> we knew there would be damage because we saw the tornado on the ground. we knew it crossed the freeway. we weren't really prepared for the scene that we were about to roll up to. this is some really bad damage. cars flipped everywhere. people were screaming. it was a really tough scene. >> 24 million people could be impacted by the threat of more

severe weather later today. in south korea, three people have been arrested accused of destroying evidence connected to the investigation into the owner of that capsized ferry. the death toll now stands at 188 with more than 100 still missing. also, new video this morning showing the captain of that ferry being rescued from the sinking vessel. he was in his underwear. he abandoned the ship before hundreds of his passengers, most of them students, could get off the boat. the l.a. clippers fighting to stay alive in the nba playoffs have a huge distraction on their hands thanks to the team's owner, donald sterling. he's accused of making racist remarks about black people to his girlfriend. the rant caught on tape has caused outrage in the sports world and beyond. a new york congressman is in hot water this morning. more than hot water. republican michael grim was taken into federal custody earlier today. comes after a two-year fbi probe into alleged illegal campaign

contributions. you might remember that earlier this year, congressman grim made headlines after he threatened a reporter who questioned him about those campaign contributions. >> this is only about the president. thank you. >> congressman michael grim does not want to talk about some of the allegations concerning his campaign finances. we wanted to get him on camera on that but as you say he refused to talk about that. back to you. >> let me be clear to you. >> it's a valid question. >> i'll break you in half like a boy.

that's what he said and now he's in federal custody. tell us more. >> that's right, carol. this morning just before 7:00 a.m. he turned himself into the fbi in manhattan. that's the same office where he worked for many years as an fbi agent. the fbi has been looking at him for a couple of years now as you mentioned for everything related to his campaign finance, to his previous business dealings including with one of his former fundraisers. we'll learn a little bit more about the charges at a press conference at about 11:00 this morning in brooklyn, carol. >> he is in federal custody now. he's not free to go. if he's found guilty of these things, what could happen? >> you know, this would be only the seventh sitting member of congress to be indicted and those charges are expected to be announced in the next half hour or so. we're told they relate to his involvement with a restaurant

business in manhattan. whether or not he made some false statements to the fbi when they were starting to ask about this. we'll see whether he obviously will be facing pressure to resign among members of congress but first he's going to have to face these charges. we should note that his lawyer says that he's innocent and that he's going to fight these charges and will continue to represent his district in staten island. back to you, carol. >> evan perez reporting live from washington this morning. still to come in the "newsroom," racist comments attributed to donald sterling. we'll talk to a writer from dead spin that got ahold of those audiotapes. we'll talk about that next. the was a truly amazing day. without angie's list, i don't know if we could have found all the services we needed for our riley. for over 18 years we've helped people take care of the things that matter most. join today at angieslist.com

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the once dormant los angeles clippers have undergone quite the transformation acquiring key players and a playoff run but the goodwill is being tarnished. owner, donald sterling, allegedly made racist comments in conversations with his girlfriend and mist remembers, v. stiviano. here's an excerpt from dead spin. >> don't come to my games. don't bring black people and don't come. >> do you know that you have a whole team that's black that plays for you? >> i support them and give them food and clothes and cars and houses. who gives it to them? does someone else give it to

them? do i know that i have -- who makes the game? do i make the game or do they make the game? is there 30 owners that created the league? >> as you heard, president obama came out and even commented on this because there are worse things that are in those tapes and in tmz's tapes. i want to bring in los angeles city councilman bernard parks and cnn commentator and a cnn senior writing. councilman, i want to talk with you. you drafted a resolution demanding a personal apology for the l.a. community and you asked local newspapers to stop running ads like this as they promote the clippers community involvement but also taut donald sterling. it's ironic. councilman, is that enough? >> no, i think the real issue

comes down to condemning statements. but the real issue is what mr. silver will do in sanctions and we also added to our motion was that they take a similar tact that major league baseball did and sanctioned himse severely. that's the real key and the entire fan base and communities in and out of los angeles should be directing their comments to the clippers to let them know how offended they are. >> when you look at those newspaper advertisements, there's donald sterling's face. he's celebrating black history month. he's pictured beside an african-american player and yet he allegedly makes these horrible comments on tape. >> well, you know, this really isn't nothing new when you look at the history of this country and history of racism. it wasn't that unusual to have,

for instance -- i'm not saying that donald sterling is a slave owner. it wasn't unusual for slave owners to despise blacks while still sleeping with the women. they would despise blacks but have a favorite black if you would. this hypocritical behavior is something we have seen in this country for centuries. i personally don't think it's that unusual. there's a great scene in "do the right thing" where spike lee had magic johnson on saying where are the black people? magic is special. that's what this is like. >> councilman, the other ironic twist to this story is los angeles chapter of naacp was going to give this man a lifetime achievement award. despite what happened now today, he's long been accused of racist behavior. he settled a suit with the department of justice when he wouldn't allow minorities to rent out his properties. >> i think mr. brian gumbel hit

it best when he said for people that are surprised, i'm surprised that you're surprised. he has a long history dealing with his real estate. certainly was a well publicized lawsuit. it's not a real surprised if you follow history. >> what's with local chapter of naacp? >> i think what you have there is people have somewhat put aside what his history is. this is the second time that they were going to honor him for humanitarian efforts and i think what you find, which is misleading, is every week there's a full-page ad in l.a. sentinel that shows all of the things that he's contributing to which i think puts that on the forefront and people aren't looking at the larger issue of his behavior and his ongoing debates with minorities about his real estate. >> how can you overlook those things if you're the naacp? >> you know, i'm just going to cut to the chase. money. money covers a multitude of

sins. i have attended quite a few lgbt fundraisers and i have seen organizations give huge awards to people who have made anti-gay statements and come back to say i'm sorry and get awarded for it. you find out later they have done psas or given money to said organizations. this isn't unique to naacp. unfortunately this is part of the nonprofit way of driving dollars into their organization. i think the naacp should be called out on it because it is about money but don't think the only organization with hypocritical work going on in the background. >> naacp, the local chapter in los angeles, they'll hold a press conference at 10:00 your time, right? what should they say? how should they be held accountable for this? >> i think several things. i think it's very true as it relates to the funding that people look at and they overlook the discrimination that people may be involved with. i think they need to make a clean cut and arm distance and

in the future they need to do more evaluation of who they honor and not just go with who gave you the last contribution and is there's no one in my judgment than shocked as to past history in saying they were not aware of what has occurred in this city over time. >> thanks to both of you. >> still to come in the "newsroo "newsroom," video shows the captain of the doomed ferry being rescued as hundreds of others never made it off alive. how the coast guard is defending its decision. we'll be right back. huh, 15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance. everybody knows that. well, did you know that game show hosts should only host game shows? samantha, do you take kevin as your lawfully wedded husband... or would you rather have a new caaaaaar!!!!

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and no added artificial flavors. we've come a long way. and whatever's ahead, we'll be there for each other. naturally. purina cat chow naturals. checking our top stories at 31 minutes past the hour. republican congressman michael grimm is in federal custody this morning the result of a two-year investigation by the fbi into illegal campaign contributions. grimm made national headlines in january when he was caught on camera threatening to throw a television reporter over a balcony after that reporter questioned him about the investigation. the search for flight 370 entering a new phase after efforts in the air, on the surface and under the sea have failed to find a single piece of wreckage from that missing plane. australia's prime minister says scouring a new search area bigger search area will take six to eight months to complete and the aerial search will be suspended. president obama and the

european union hitting russia even harder over ukraine imposing new sanctions including freezing the assets and places bans on entry to the united states. the sanctions target more than 20 people and companies closely connected to the russian president, vladimir putin. three employees of a shipping industry trade group are under arrest accused of destroying evidence in connection with the south korean ferry disaster. investigators also raided a coast guard office. you see them carrying out boxes. they're looking into how officials handled the first emergency call from a passenger. also, the coast guard is defending its decision to rescue the captain of that doomed ship. this is new video showing the captain being rescued and he appears to be in his underwear. one coast guard member says it was hard to tell crew members apart from the other passengers. cnn's paula hancocks has more now.

>> reporter: this is the first image of the doomed ferry. calm seas hide the horrors unfolding on the ship. this is the view from an oil tanker first on the scene. a captain receives a call to help a ship in distress at 9:06 a.m., 11 minutes after the ferry says it is in trouble. he soon has the ship in his sights. i could tell the ship was sinking just by looking at it, he tells me. the situation was so bad i assumed the evacuation was well under way. it wasn't. this was the scene in the ship around 9:06 a.m. filmed by a student who did not escape. his phone was retrieved with his body and given to his father. joking and unaware of the danger they are in at first, they then ask why don't at the tell us what's going on? the fact they asked us to wear life jackets, doesn't that mean the boat is sinking?

then an announcement. the third of its kind you hear on this recording saying, once again, please do not move from your current location. absolutely do not move. so they don't. the captain and his men are on deck ready to deploy the life rafts to save anyone in the world. he's 200 meters away but they keep asking over the water where the rescue boat is. 9:14 a.m., talking directly says people should escape a full ten minutes later the crew member is still asking if passengers escape, can they be rescued? this person was inexperienced. in an emergency it should be the captain on the radio. you need to make decisions fast but it is unclear where the captain was at this point. he was one of the 174 people rescued along with 20 of his

crews. moon says he's angry he left his passengers behind. this water is dangerous? moon had been tracking the ferry earlier that morning on his radar. he says the ship made a sudden sharp right turn at a slow speed. the ship's tracking system, the automatic identification system was off. moon wonders if the ship had lost power. he says he will never understand the actions of the captain and has decided this is the last time he'll speak about what happened hoping that not talking about it will stop the nightmares he chill has about the children he couldn't save. paula hancocks, cnn, on the yellow sea, south korea. devastating pictures to show you out of mayflower, arkansas, as the national guard flies over the damage there. chad myers is near mayflower

this morning. good morning, chad. >> reporter: we arrived this morning after taking a few hours down. it was quiet. now we hear chainsaws and now search helicopters. what's changing? that's coming up. [ female announcer ] hands were made for playing. ♪ legs, for crossing. ♪ feet...splashing. better things than the joint pain and swelling of moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis. if you're trying to manage your ra, now may be the time to ask about xeljanz. xeljanz (tofacitinib) is a small pill, not an injection or infusion, for adults with moderate to severe ra for whom methotrexate did not work well. xeljanz is an ra medicine that can enter cells and disrupt jak pathways, thought to play a role in the inflammation that comes with ra. xeljanz can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers

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of moderate to severe ra, even without methotrexate. that corporate trial by fire when every slacker gets his due. and yet, there's someone around the office who hasn't had a performance review in a while. someone whose poor performance

is slowing down the entire organization. i'm looking at you phone company dsl. check your speed. see how fast your internet can be. switch now and add voice and tv for $34.90. comcast business built for business. national guard choppers flying over the devastated areas of mayflower, arkansas, after tornadoes tore through that community. we understand at least 16 people are dead in mayflower and neighboring town. this is faulkner county in arkansas. chad myers is on the ground near mayflower. i would suppose those choppers are looking for survivors. >> reporter: we assume so. we assume now because they were flying so low they weren't looking for damage and they were flying very slowly, carol.

that means that they are looking for people that are considered missing. the best way to find a missing person because these cell phone lines are in such bad shape right now is by text message. it takes a little bit of band width to send and receive a text than try to make a phone call. when you try to make a phone call, all you get is beep, beep, beep. we know the governor will be over here across this highway, this is i-40 to the northwest of little rock, the governor will be there in 30 minutes giving us an update. there are so many smashed houses. we know the width of this tornado around half mile. i'm estimating by looking at google earth a track of 30 to 40 miles long. if you do the multicakath, it's miles. it goes over the lake and back on land and then right on up toward the north and that would

be vilonia in that direction. this tornado was on the ground the entire time. >> i notice those poor people behind you. i guess neighbors will start to stream in to find out if there's anything left. it's dangerous there. hope they're careful. chad myers, thanks so much. still to come in the "newsroom," could a suspension be in the future of the l.a. clippers. why is it taking so long given his history with discrimination? we'll have that conversation ahead. if you have moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis, like me,

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over the weekend more damaging audio released of clippers owner donald sterling of conversations between sterling and his girlfriend and mistress, v. stiviano where sterling complains about her bringing magic johnson to clippers games and posting a picture of him on her instagram account. here's an excerpt of what he said. >> don't come to my games. don't bring black people and don't come. >> do you know that you have a whole team that's black that plays for you? >> do i know? i support them and give them food and clothes and cars and houses. who gives it to them? does someone else give that to them? do i know that i have? who makes the game? do i make the game or do they

make the game? these 30 owners that created the league? >> comments sparking outrage in the sports world and beyond. magic johnson vowing to never attend another clippers game as long as sterling is the owner. tom is a staff writer at dead spin and joins me now. good morning, tom. >> good morning. >> i know you can't tell me where you got the tape and i won't ask you because you want to protect your sources but how much more is out there? >> i don't think anybody really knows. i think there was rumor this morning that there's over an hour of audio so there could be more coming out but i don't think anybody really knows the extent of this tape. >> can you tell where these conversations took place? >> no. it sounds like it was in a house but i don't think anyone knows for sure where or when this occurred. >> no one in the basketball world is particularly surprised by these comments from mr. sterling. >> yeah.

i think that people have been paying attention for a while and known that he's been like this. he's been sued multiple times to discriminatory practices in his real estate businesses and there have been stories in the past that sort of lay this all out there, this being an audiotape and just sort of in people's faces is kind of the last thing. >> it's difficult to ignore right now, right? >> right. >> it does make you wonder why the nba hasn't done something about this before or talked to him or has it? i don't know. >> yeah, it's tough. i think that the nba sort of just wanted to ignore him as long as they could and just hoping that he would either sell the team or die before something like this happened. so that was sort of the commissioner stern's policy but now the new commissioner has a big problem on his hands and

they have to do something at this point with people so up in arms about this. >> last question. will deadspin release more tape do you think? >> if we get more, we certainly will. i don't know if that's going to happen or if there is more. we will definitely if we have more to report, be doing that. >> thanks so much for joining me. i appreciate it. >> thank you. all right. this story is ugly on so many levels. racism, adultery, possible extortion. with me now, a criminal defense attorney and clippers season ticket holder. joey jackson, hln legal analyst and terrence moore, sports contributor. welcome to all of you. >> thank you, carol. >> good morning. >> let's get going. before we begin, i want our viewers to listen to more of this audiotape. this is supposedly a conversation between the clippers owner and his mistress. let's listen. >> i admire magic johnson. he made a lot of changes for his

community, for the world, for the people, for the minorities. he's helped a lot of people. >> why are you forcing this down my throat? i'm finished talking to you. i have nothing more to say. >> i took a picture with someone i admire. >> good. >> he happens to be black and i'm sorry. >> i know him well and he should be admired. and i'm just saying that you could admire privately and during your entire [ bleep ], your whole life, admire him, bring him here, feed him, i don't care. you can do anything. don't put him on instagram for the world to see so they have to call me and don't bring him to my games, okay? >> so unbelievably ugly. according to the mistress' lawyer, this was recorded by the mistress but not released by her, it certainly seems -- it's quite obvious that she's deliberately needling sterling.

what do you think? >> whether he's deliberately needled or not, this speaks to his inner feelings and his views and people don't sort of needle you to say things that you don't believe and the fact is that you can talk about not you, you, carol, but it could be talked about from his attorneys perc t perspective what an awful person she is and lawsuits are pending but he said things that are disgusting and we can attack the victim all day until sunday but it doesn't accuse his bad behavior, his inner thoughts and his views as to what he feels about people of color and others who don't comport with appare apparently his view of the world. >> his comments are so hateful. it's just mind-boggling how this all came about. sterling's wife ise iing stepei

stiviano for fraud. she's trying to force him to make -- they're not divorced. he and his wife, right? it's an ugly soap opera. >> this would be great for oprah's network. this is the haves and haves i guess. this entire thing is the owner of the cincinnati reds and had a loose tongue saying different things. what major league baseball did and this is what will happen in the nba, they forced her to sell the team. what they did was first they suspended her for an entire year. entire season. then a couple years after that they did it for three years and they're going to do it a third time and that's when she out of the clear blue decided to get rid of the club. this is going to be a very similar scenario hopefully faster than it took with the reds. >> supposedly the nba will come out with a statement today.

we'll see, right? >> they have to. the maximum they can fine him by the way according to "usa today" is $1 million. he's talking about a guy that's worth 1.9 billion, i don't think that will dent his pocketbook very much. >> brian, whether or not this is the result of an ugly domestic saga, if this is sterling on that tape, the ugly truth is now out for all to see. the question is why do you think it took so long? first of all, i don't even care about whether she needled donald sterling or not because the proof is in the pudding. he publicly displayed his racial animus for people of color. you made a good point earlier. where has the nba been for the last decade? no secret here in los angeles that donald sterling has been sued many times for discrimination against blacks. discrimination against hispanic. discrimination against women. discrimination against elderly people. you tell me why nothing has been done? the nba shouldn't be doing an

investigation. there should be an independent investigation of donald sterling because the commissioner is commissioned by the owners. we need an independent investigation of donald sterling and he needs to be removed of ownership immediately. >> i'm struggling to understand why the nba allowed him to buy a team in the first place. can they prevent someone from buying a team? >> it's a wonderful question. the reality is that what are you going to do? conduct an intercompass of how somebody feels to see if they are racist or something else? backgrounds are appropriate. they should be and need to be looked into in all circumstances. however, for whatever reasons, he got through and he had the money and it's an economic game and he was able to do it. the issue is how is he sanctioned it and needs to be appropriate. a billionaire to give them a fine of $1 million or whatever you can, doesn't do anything. it's just the cost of doing business. a suspension within the commissioner's authority, now we're speaking.

long-term suspension. in terms of removal, that's what many of us want. i don't know that that can immediately happen just because of the legal issues surrounding that. this needs to be dealt with swiftly, properly and appropriately, carol, so that it sets a deterrent. people should not feel this way and subjecting others to views like that in this day in age or ever. >> i can answer that question why this has been going on for so long. it's simple. two things. nobody ever cared about the clippers until the last couple of years. when he brought the clippers in 1981, they were a nonentity. they were happy to get someone to buy that franchise. number two, the nba very similar to other professional sports, you have the good old boy network here. once you get in that club, unless you do something like start a war in a foreign country, they're going to look the other way. they knew what was going on and everybody is exactly right. the nba owners are as much at fault here as donald sterling. >> brian, last question to you.

you're a season ticket holder of the clippers. some suggested that season ticket holders should boycott the games. fans should boycott the games. is that the right road to take? >> no, carol. i'll tell you why. billy crystal is a die-hard clipper fan like i am. he said donald sterling owns the clippers but they belong to us. so we're going to be at that game tomorrow night and we're going to 100% support the clippers. i will tell you in terms of next year, i have given them a deposit. if donald sterling is the owner of the clippers next year, i'm out. i want my deposit back. if he's the owner, clippers will be dismantled and there will be no los angeles clippers next year. >> for the players, brian, and you're a rabid fan. i know what it's like to cheer for a team that's not been so good over the years because i'm a detroit lions fan. >> they're getting better, carol. >> they are. yes. they'll be good next year i'm sure. brian, the players. they turn their jerseys inside

out so clippers name wouldn't show on their t-shirts. i really feel for them because now they finally made the playoffs. they are so excited. they worked so hard. and then this happens. and now they're ashamed to be on the court. >> absolutely. let me share a story with you. i sit in the same row. i have the privilege of sitting in the same row as chris paul's family. two seats to the left of me are his parents, his wife, his beautiful son and i will tell you, the most humble family you will ever meet. parents still live in north carolina, carol. you would think most people would pack up and run to l.a. in a heartbeat. they live in north carolina. they love it there. chris paul's dad worked at his grandfather's gas station for many years. very humble family. does donald sterling even know that? he doesn't take the time to know his players. does donald sterling realize that doc rivers, the head coach, is married to a white woman? does he realize that his assistant coach is married to a white woman? are you kidding me?

does he realize that i have a little girl that's 50% mexican and she goes to the games with me? it's despicable. >>thanks to all of you. i'm back after a break. when laquinta.com sends him a ready for you alert the second his room is ready, ya know what salesman alan ames becomes? i think the numbers speak for themselves. i'm sold! a "selling machine!" ready for you alert, only at lq.com. mayo? corn dogs? you are so outta here! aah! [ female announcer ] the complete balanced nutrition of great-tasting ensure. 24 vitamins and minerals, antioxidants, and 9 grams of protein. [ bottle ] ensure®. nutrition in charge™. as a police officer, i've helped many people in the last 23 years, but i needed help in quitting smoking. [ male announcer ] along with support, chantix varenicline is proven to help people quit smoking. chantix reduced the urge for me to smoke.

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but i do now. man: we know when parents and teachers work together... woman: our schools get stronger. man: as superintendent of public education, that's been tom torlakson's approach. woman: torlakson has supported legislation to guarantee spending decisions about our education tax dollars are made by parents, teachers and the local community... and not by sacramento politicians. and we need to keep that legislation on track. man: so tell tom torlakson to keep fighting for local control of school funding decisions.

thank you for joining me. i'm carol costello. "@ this hour" with berman and michaela starts now. >> hello there, everyone. i'm john berman. >> i'm michaela pereira. it's 11:00 a.m. in the east. 8:00 a.m. out west. >> our eyes on a couple stories right now. two big news conferences. one dealing with tornadoes and the other in brooklyn dealing with congressman michael grimm and charges that have now been issued against him, federal charges, that is the u.s. attorney loretta lynch explaining charges against