it's called flexpath, and it's the most direct path, leveraging what you've learned on the job and focusing on what you need to know. so you can get a degree at your pace and graduate at the speed of you. flexpath from capella university. learn about all of our programs at capella.edu. this is cnn breaking news. >> and good morning. i'm carol costello. thank you so much for joining me. we begin this morning with breaking news. a new transparency in the disappearance of malaysia airlines flight 370. just minutes ago, finally, malaysia's government made public its first report on the plane's final known moments. the big headline for you, the plane had vanished for a full 17 minutes before officials even took notice. and yet it took a remarkable four hours, four hours, before an official rescue operation was launched. it is the government's most thorough accounting yet of what

investigators know or suspect. cnn's will ripley has been sifting through this report. he joins us from malaysia's capital, kuala lumpur. tell us more, will. >> reporter: hey, carol. yeah, this is a five-page report and other supporting documents attached to it. we've been going through them. here are the things that really stand out. you talk about those 17 minutes when nobody even noticed the plane was missing. okay. that said, then we talk about the four hours where what we see here, this is a report that kind of describes all of the events that were happening over those four hours. and what it says to me, carol, is that there was a lot of confusion during those four hours initially about where the plane even was. at one point, malaysian air traffic control was saying oh, we think the plane is possibly in cambodia. check with cambodia. we now know it never was based on the satellite and radar data. and meanwhile, even when the plane's transmitters, carol, that were switched off, the transmitters that allow the plane to communicate with civilian radar, civilian air traffic control, we now know that the malaysian military was tracking mh370 in realtime.

the prime minister admitted it to cnn's richard quest. and yet even though the military was tracking this plane, nothing was done for hours. and you see here 3:30, they asked, all right, heard anything new about the plane? almost 4:00 a.m. again, any new information about mh370? 4:25, another query. every half hour people were checking. people were asking. but they didn't seem like there was any action being taken until 6:14 a.m. when search and rescue was activated. by that point, carol, judging on the speed of the aircraft, it would have had about 2 1/2 hours of fuel left, and it would have already been really far south on that flight track if we believe the satellite data that the international team of experts here in u allkuala lumpur are b their assertions are. it would have been closer to the southern indian ocean where it eventually went down. confusion led to a long delay. that's what this five-page report says. it doesn't have a lot of answers for the families. it also recommend, carol, that we have realtime tracking on

commercial aircraft as soon as possible to try to prevent anything like this from ever happening again. >> i'm just curious, will, how did the malaysian authorities release this authority? report? >> reporter: it was released via e-mail. we were told earlier today there was going to be a press conference. that press conference was canceled. and then we were told due to technical problems, the scheduled release was pushed back by several hours. one other interesting thing, carol, that's new is this here. the cargo manifest. a lot of the families wanted to know, what was in this plane? was there anything suspicious in the cargo manifest on this plane? so we're looking at it right here. and it mentions three things other than the passengers' luggage. a shipment of mangosteen, which is a fruit, a fruit that was being basically imported to beijing. it says console here, which we believe is electronic equipment, and then the cargo manifest also mentions lithium batteries. this is now on paper what we've been reporting for a while. nothing in the shipment stands out as anything that would create any sort of unusual effect. it was all within regulations.

so again, still so many questions. and of course, carol, the biggest question of all, where is this plane? nearly eight weeks in, we still haven't found one physical piece of it. >> you're right about that. will ripley, stick around because i want you to join the panel that i'm about to bring in. former ntsb director and cnn aviation analyst peter goelz along with david soucie and miles o'brien. welcome to all of you, gentlemen. >> hi, carol. >> peter, i'm going to start with you. how could a plane be missing for 17 minutes and no one notice? >> well, i think it highlights, you know, the sloppiness of the air traffic control system in that part of the world at that time of day or night. i mean, they just were asleep at the switch and apparently on the night shift, they're not watching very carefully. they've got inexperienced perhaps new people on it who

were reluctant to sound the alarm. but that clearly -- that four-hour gap where the plane disappeared and then finally, you know, at 5:30 in the morning, the watch supervisor wass summoned, and the search ad rescue operation initiated was really inexcusable. >> david, how could anybody be reluctant to say, hey, we have a missing plane? it's been missing from radar for 17 minutes. >> yeah, well, the 17 minutes bothers me. what bothers me even more is the subsequent time that it took and then lack of coordination between the military radar who was picking up and tracking this aircraft realtime during this period -- during the following period, why was that not communicated, why the two different communicate together? but if you think about back prior to 9/11, our communications between our military radar at the united states and the civil radar was not that well coordinated

either. either they didn't learn from our lesson or they had learned from our lesson and they didn't execute it well. i think that's an incredibly important period of time. four hours while the aircraft was being tracked by military radar and no one else knew where it was. >> i want to continue to talk about this with miles. four hours before a search team was even called out. it just seems absurd. >> yeah, no, it's mind boggling. and frankly, it's tragic. it's tragic because if there had been a little bit of better coordination, and yes, on 9/11, there was not good coordination between the military radar capabilities and the civilian side. they were stovepiped, as it were. and that has changed dramatically in this country. other countries probably should have been taking a lesson from the u.s. on that. this is not a 9/11 event, but it is a similar kind of scenario. now, to imagine that the military was tracking this blip and not calling up the civilian guys to say hey, did you lose a plane, is extraordinary.

and the fact is, if somebody had been a little more on their toes and scrambled a fighter to get up there and get near that aircraft, who knows what might have happened? it might have changed the outcome dramatically. and some people might be alive today who are dead. >> absolutely. richard quest joins me now. richard, i wanted to ask you about the malaysian military. where was it? what was it doing in those four hours? >> well, we know that somebody was watching, and we know because the prime minister told us that they thought it was a civil aircraft. but what's not clear -- and i've said from day one, in this search, the so-called four-hour gap, what role did the military play? were they informed? were they asked? were they monitoring? i have to tell you, a lot of the information we're being given today is because the prime minister has insisted upon it. >> ah. >> there are those -- there are many that were resistant.

first of all, there were some who just wanted to give out the short report. they didn't even want to give that initially. and then the p.m. says you're going to give away the report. you're going to give out the report. and then there were those who have spoken to people who say no, it was the prime minister who said, if there's any more to give, you're going to give it. and you're going to give it now. >> so why the disconnect? i mean, why did the prime minister have to come down so hard on the malaysian authorities, the transport minister and the military to release this stuff? >> because it's embarrassing. it's embarrassing. this four-hour gap is embarrassing. particularly following air france. the fact -- and i'm going to be charitable here. i'm going to allow you an hour, an hour and a half of confusion. planes don't often go missing, but it's not unusual for a plane to be out of contact for a short period of time. it happens. shouldn't, but it does. but this, carol, from 2:35 right

the way through to 5:20, there's only one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten attempts that we're told about. so for something like three hours virtually nothing is being done. meanwhile, the military has tracked it. the military knows where it's gone. the plane is still flying. and will continue to fly for another 2 1/2 hours. >> geez. okay. you said that they released more than they wanted to, but that's still a scant report, right? compared to others. >> the report is fine. the report is absolutely fine. >> so the length is fine. it's normal. >> now we have all these other documents, the length is exactly what one would expect. three to four pages. four to five pages. this happened. it's all over. >> let's talk about useful information within this report. and peter, i'll pose that to you because you're the big ntsb guy. so i know you haven't had much of a chance to actually look at

it. but from what you know, is there anything helpful in this report at all? >> well, what it does is clarify the situation and lift the fog a little bit. you know, richard's being modest. it was his interview with the prime minister last week that forced the military to add clarity to this report. it's not in the nature of military organizations to be either transparent or to admit mistakes. the u.s. is just the same. and it was richard's get of the prime minister, putting him on the air, that forced the transparency. that was a very important moment. but in the report itself, it allows us to double check the statements that people have been making over the past five weeks. we can see how they made the decisions they made to search the areas that they have searched, and we'll examine that

through the day, but it looks pretty solid to me. >> looks pretty solid. so david, some of the interesting things, they did release the passenger list and where the passengers were seated. we know the malaysian authorities cleared every single passenger. but is it worth going over those passengers now that we know who they are and where they were sitting? >> well, i think that the malaysian government and the cia, remember, and the fbi have been involved in this from the very beginning as well. so those passengers have been thoroughly screened even by u.s. standards, which is quite high. so i think that that's good. i think we can divert our attentions back to where they should be, which is where this aircraft is. and my confidence in this has increased. it's always been strong because of the underwater locator beacon pings. it's been strong for that because i have no other explanation as to where those came from. now i know how they got the information from inmarsat about the location and about the draft and how it went there, how it got there. so i'm more confident than ever

that that aircraft is there. we need to continue searching. if we don't find it, look again. use some other equipment. stay there. keep working it. it's got to be there in my estimation. >> well, they're still there and they're still looking. peter goelz, david soucie, miles o'brien, richard quest. i've got to take a break. i'll be back with much more in the "newsroom." [ laughter ] smoke? nah, i'm good. [ male announcer ] celebrate every win with nicoderm cq, the unique patch with time release smartcontrol technology that helps prevent the urge to smoke all day long. help prevent your cravings with nicoderm cq. that helps prevent the urge to smoke all day long. when la quinta.com sends sales rep steve hatfield the ready for you alert, the second his room is ready. you know what he brings? any questions? can i get an a, steve? yes! three a's! he brings his a-game! the ready for you alert, only at laquinta.com!

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preliminary report about what they know happened to flight 370. joining us again, former ntsb director and cnn aviation analyst, peter goelz along with david soucie, cnn safety analyst and author of "why planes crash." cnn's richard quest and cnn aviation analyst, miles o'brien. will ripley is also in kuala lumpur. i want you gentlemen to stand by just a second. i want to bring in david mckenzie now. he's been talking with the families. as you know, the families have wanted to get ahold of this preliminary report for weeks and weeks. and finally, it's been released publicly. and david, what are these families saying about it? >> well, carol, the family members we have spoken to haven't, in fact, received that report. now, that's unclear whether it hasn't gotten to them or they are occupied with other things at this moment because the primary news coming out of beijing tonight, this morning, is that they've been told that

they're going to need to vacate the hotel where they've been for many, many days. there were emotional scenes at that briefing with the malaysian airlines authorities. many chinese authorities and police there as well. some people getting on the floor, wailing, saying what has happened to our loved ones? this felt like a bookend to the story. the people just wanting some kind of clarity, some kind of closure that they haven't gotten all this time later. and while the report might give some more details, it certainly doesn't bring them any closer to finding out what happened to their loved ones. carol? >> weren't the malaysian authorities supposed to inform the families first when such things were released? >> reporter: well, they did, in fact, inform the families a crucial thing to them which was that they're going to be closing the assistance center here in beijing, and they will move --

and now go home to their other family members in coming days. so they have not received that report. i can't say 100% whether they have, but certainly it appears that that was less of a priority for the authorities tonight and more to tell them what they have in store for them in the coming days. >> david mckenzie reporting live for us from beijing. let's talk more about this preliminary report. richard quest is reading it, and i see you highlighting certain things. so i want to go to you first and ask you what else you've found in there. >> well, it really does come down to why more wasn't done when the event took place. what i was highlighting, at 1:46, this is, what, eight minutes. eight minutes after ho chi minh says, where's the plane? the plane hasn't checked in. we're expecting 370. where is it?

eight minutes later, ho chi minh's advised that the observed radar blip disappeared at waypoint bit ot, highways of the air. and so you're starting to see a scenario building where pieces of the jigsaw are being put on the table, but nobody's seeing the total picture. and as i said earlier, i'll allow them an hour and a half of what's going on, but by the time you get to 2:00 in the morning, some two hours -- an hour after it's missing and you've got another three hours of going backwards and forwards, it's starting to get a bit rich that nobody finally says, help! we've lost the plane! >> so 17 minutes it disappears from the radar. it took them a full four hours to actually begin looking for this missing plane. i can't help it, miles o'brien, and i'll pose this question to you. if somebody aboard that plane was -- wanted to deliberately

make this plane disappear, surely they knew, perhaps, that the malaysian military might act like this. maybe air traffic controllers would not be totally responsible. is that possible? >> yes. and it's important to note that this handoff is a key time in aviation. when you go from one air traffic control center to another, there always is a little gap in communication because you say good night. you change the frequency. and then you pop on the next frequency. each control center is not listening to the other on their frequency. so to say there was a 16-minute gap before ho chi minh city got nervous about that, that's not -- that's in the realm of possibility. a flight that hasn't checked in in 16 minutes, you know, that happens. that's a little bit long. but nevertheless. so there is an opportunity in that period of time when each control center thinks the other is talking to the aircraft, there is an opportunity to make

things happen in the way of disappearing an aircraft. now, this decision, you know, i suppose if you really wanted to disappear it, you could have gone due east and flown to the deepest part of the ocean. but the fact is, someone who is experienced in aviation might very well know that as a primary target flying over malaysia, it would be very unlikely that the malaysian air force would even pay much attention to it, which is clearly what happened. so there was no conversation between the malaysian air defenses and the civilian component and vice versa. no one was -- there's no record of them calling each other in this period of time. that's just extraordinary, but that also, frankly, to a lesser degree in time, but that happened here in this country on 9/11. there was that, you know, different buildings, different systems and stovepipe setup which in these cases can be very dangerous. this could have been, you know, malaysia's 9/11. and that's -- you know, it's

another kind of tragedy, but it could have been avoided. >> and peter, you can't escape the fact that the pilot, captain zah zahari shaw, had decades of experience. he knew what was going on, he would have known all of these things, right? >> well, exactly. that's the very perplexing issue because it appears as though this plane was under human control when it made this turn and its subsequent turns. and that can't be underscored enough. and there simply is no mechanical explanation for the aircraft acting in this way that we can agree on. so we have to keep focusing on human factors. >> okay. so david, let's just center for a moment on the cargo. there's nothing in the cargo hold that was remotely suspicious. i know there were lithium batteries, and we've examined that time and time again. malaysian authorities say they

were stored properly. they don't think these lithium batteries had anything to do with the plane's disappearance. they don't think the passengers had anything to do with -- >> carol, i wouldn't just discount these batteries. they don't fly on u.s. aircraft in cargo. that's something we should not overlook. in the panoply of nondeliberate acts, lithium batteries are pretty high on my list. i don't know if the panel agrees. >> panel? david? >> yeah, miles. i'll tell you what -- yeah, let me talk about that because i've been talking about these lithium batteries for quite a while, and miles and i have as well. here's the thing. they've been telling us there was 450 pounds of lithium batteries on this aircraft. and in the united states, that right there is not safe. it's a violation. we've had deaths. we've had accidents because of these lithium batteries stored in bulk. now we read the report. guess how much is on there? more than 5,000 pounds of lithium batteries in this cargo hold. where's the breakdown there? what were they trying to hide? why didn't they tell us that before? 5,000 pounds. that's like having two cars

inside that cargo compartment. that's how big these lithium batteries would have been in there. one of those batteries. just simply one bathry that shorts out or has a problem with migrate to all the rest of those batteries. >> we're looking at the cargo manifest right now. richard, you've been poring over it. >> sorry, i'm not being rude. >> go ahead. he's poring over this report. >> my information is -- my information is i don't know whether all those batteries went on the same flight. there are the requested flights -- >> it's right there on the cargo manifest, richard. >> but also -- yeah, there were also, i'm told, i believe, not that it's relevant to whether there was an incident, they were at the rear of the aircraft. again, i don't think that's necessarily relevant other than the question of a fire under the e.e. bay, under the cockpit. but david, my information is that when these batteries were loaded onto the aircraft, it was

at the rear, in the rear cargo section of the aircraft. >> okay. we're going to explore this much, much more in the "newsroom." we're going to take a pause so we can really read this preliminary report and find out the pertinent information so we can pass it along to you so i hope my panel comes back. peter goelz, david soucie, richard quest, will ripley, miles o'brien, thanks to all of you. deadly flooding and an explosion that rocked a jail in pensacola this morning. ed lavandera. >> reporter: good morning. investigators are combing through this building trying to figure out what happened. we'll have details coming up after the break. ♪ thoughtful combinations, artfully prepared. fancy feast elegant medleys. inspired dishes like primavera, florentine and tuscany. fancy feast. a medley of love, served daily.

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rain, rain, go away. i think we're all shouting that this morning. dangerous flooding over half the country, and it's causing all kinds of problems from a cracked dam in laurel, maryland. take a look. i know it sounds cliche, but the streets are virtually rivers. also in florida, an explosion at a prison caused in part by the weather. and in baltimore, take a look at this gigantic sinkhole. it is crazy. an entire street collapses, swallowing at least five cars. 19 families cannot return home. and a nearby csx rail line is affected. no word on when the road will again be usable. it is that bad. let's go back to laurel, maryland, where a leaking dam has emergency workers on edge. hundreds of people have been evacuated just in case. jeanette reyes from our

affiliate is in laurel. >> reporter: good morning, carol. we've been out here all morning. but with the sun coming out, can you get a better idea of what's going on here. i want to get out of the way so i can show you this massive flooding on a major road here in laurel, maryland. if you take a look at this car dealership not far from here, half a dozen cars completely surrounded by water. i just talked to the dealership owner, and he tells me it's a complete loss. all of those cars are useless now. about $150,000 in losses there. now, back to those evacuations, they're under way. currently about 100 people have already taken shelter at the robert j. depetro community center not far from here. hundreds more are expected. i want to explain why this is going on. it is due to the rainfall but somewhat indirectly. they had to open up seven gates of a dam here. so that's why this is happening. they're telling us those gates will remain open indefinitely. no word on whether or not this will worsen. but of course, needless to say, they're asking people to avoid

this road and many others that have some flooding because you just never know how deep it is. of course, it is for their own safety. back to you, carol. >> thanks so much. down south outside of pensacola, florida, a day of heavy rain and flooding ends with a deadly gas explosion at the county jail. killing two and injuring 155 more. ed lavandera is live outside the escambia county jail. good morning, ed. >> reporter: good morning, carol. well, authorities here and investigators are trying to figure out if this explosion was caused by flooding. part of the jail that you see behind me did take in some water. you can see some of the damage and the shockwaves that were sent through this building and how some of that building has already buckled because of the shockwaves from this explosion. atf investigators, state fire marshal are looking into this, trying to figure out. we've seen damage all the way to the backside of this building. several stories up. the sheer force of this was rather impressive last night.

but this is an area that took on quite amount of rain. some 20 inches of rain fell throughout parts of had region in 24 hours. at some point there was five inches of rain falling in just one hour. we saw neighborhoods that were swept away. and roadways that were swept away because of these floodwaters. you saw the scenic highway, which was just on the eastern edge of the city that had a big crater fall out in the middle of that roadway. so this is damage that we've seen throughout much of this area, carol, that will take months to fix. >> ed lavandera reporting live this morning, thank you. still to come in the "newsroom," about a dozen train cars carrying crude oil derail and burst into flames in virginia. now, thousands of gallons of oil are missing. as officials investigate what went so wrong. athina jones live in lynchburg for us. hi, athina. >> reporter: hi, carol. here on the banks of the james

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nearly 50,000 gallons of crude oil missing after a freight train derails in lynchburg, virginia. unbelievable, right? about a dozen cars were involved in this accident. the fire burned for about two

hours. the thick black smoke covered the air and nearby homes were evacuated. officials don't know how much of the crude oil burned in the fire or how much may have actually spilled into the james river. athina jones is following it all in lynchburg, virginia. good morning. >> reporter: good morning, carol. you can see the crews behind me beginning the work of trying to remove those three railcars from the james river. safety is an issue that's been getting a lot of attention lately as more and more crude oil is being shipped by rail. transportation safety officials say, look, millions of dollars is being spent to find and tap oil reserves here in america and also in canada. and so a commensurate investment needs to be made in making sure that oil is transported safely. clouds of thick black smoke filled the air after this csx freight train carrying crude oil jumped the tracks in downtown lynchburg, virginia. >> saw this black smoke, and

flames just shooting up real bad. >> reporter: in all, about a dozen cars derailed wednesday afternoon and caught fire along the james river, burning for about two hours. >> i was hiding behind a car, waiting for my ride to get there to let us in the car. yeah, it wasn't 25 yards. >> reporter: nearby homes and buildings were evacuated. while no one was injured and the city said its water supply wasn't affected, the incident comes amid growing concerns about the safety of transporting dangerous chemicals by rail. outgoing national transportation safety board chairman deborah hersman held a two-day forum on the issue just last week. >> the issue is of what shouldn't be transported in those cars. >> reporter: an oil boom in north dakota and canada means four times more crude is being shipped by rail now than in 2005. and that means the potential for serious accidents like this one in quebec last july. when a derailment and fire killed 47 people. and a string of accidents last

winter in alabama, north dakota and new brunswick, canada. in a letter sent to president obama just hours before the accident, new york governor andrew cuomo demanded that the federal government strengthen national safety standards for transporting crude, warning that inadequate rail tanks could make states like new york extremely vulnerable to the impacts of a derailment, spill, fire or explosion. now, we're still waiting to hear exactly what type of railcar csx was using to transport that crude oil. we know that one common type of car, the d.o.t. 111 is prone to rupturing in an accident. transportation secretary anthony fox has said that those cars will either need to be retrofitted or replaced. carol? >> athena jones reporting live from lynchburg, virginia, this morning, thank you. still to come on the "newsroom," oprah winfrey, l.a. clippers' co-owner? hey, it could happen, stephanie

elam. >> oh, it could, carol. we are seeing that donald sterling is still the owner, but that doesn't mean some big names aren't talking about rubbing their pennies together and a whole lot of pennies to potentially buy the clippers. we'll take a look at who's interested coming up. i've quit for 75 days. 15 days, but not in a row. for the first time, you can use nicorette even if you slip up, so you can reach your goal. now, quit on your own terms with nicorette or nicoderm cq.

the nba's move to force donald sterling to sell the l.a. clippers takes another step forward today. ten team owners will hold a committee meeting. sterling has not made a public comment since league commissioner adam silver imposed a lifetime ban on him for making racist comments. espn is reporting that lebron james passed on signing with the clippers when he was a free agent in 2010 because he didn't want to play for sterling. that story was relayed by david geffen who says he wants to buy the clippers. and he's certainly not the only up with to wants to buy the clippers.

cnn's stephanie elam is in los angeles with more on the big names who want a piece of the clippers. >> reporter: yeah, carol. that's a sentence most of us could say and actually mean it. i'd like to buy the clippers. when you talk about people like david geffen, oprah winfrey, larry ellison, these are some names that have a whole lot of cash. i was taking a look at their net worth according to "forbes." geffen worth $6.2 billion, oprah port $2.9 billion. and larry ellison, the man behind oracle, the software company, he's worth $50 billion. that's 5-0. so you're talking about a lot of money. and these three people are talking about working together to put together a bid and take over and buy the clippers. if that were to happen, they definitely have the money. just to compare, sterling is worth just shy of $2 billion. so a lot of money here that you're seeing. no matter any way that this goes down, though, carol, donald sterling will make money off this deal. because when he bought the team in 1981, he bought it for about

$12 million. right now the estimated worth would be about $575 million. but if they are working to get him out of there, chances are that bid could go even higher. so he could still walk away with a whole lot of money. >> he will walk away with a whole lot of money because the bucks, the lowly bucks, i'm sorry, bucks fans, but that team went for a record $550 million. the clippers are in l.a., which is a very desirable television market, that team could sell for, i don't know, upwards of a billion dollars, right? >> reporter: a lot more. and keep in mind here that you're talking about a team that is a playoff contender right now. there's a lot of love for the clippers in los angeles now, which is a sentence, again, you would have not have said a few years ago. because they have such strength right now, people enjoy the clippers players, they enjoy the franchi franchise. so that could also bring in big mope there. i should also note there are other people we know are interested, oscar de la hoya,

floyd mayweather, two very rich men. millionaires. not the same kind of money we're talking about with the other three, but looking to put together a bid. i should also point out, too, about larry ellison. he, four years ago, tried to i boo the warriors and lost that bid. this is not something that he hasn't tried to do before. >> first donald sterling has to agree to sell the team. but it's interesting to speculate. stephanie elam. >> small detail. >> stephanie elam, many thanks. my next guest says what happened to donald sterling was, quote, morally wrong. his name is mark randoza, managing partner of the randozza legal group. in an op-ed he writes, quote, don't get me wrong, sterling doesn't seem to be a bad person, but sometimes the bad person is also the victim and he stands in for us. in this story there are two villains. sterling represents the bad old days, but stiviano's behavior represents the horrifying

future. shouldn't we condemn the complete breakdown of privacy and trust at least as loudly as we condemn some old man's racist blath blathering? i want to welcome you. hi. thanks for being here. your op-ed -- >> a pleasure. >> -- your op-ed struck a nerve. it got 13,000 comments and they're still coming in. why do you think your op-ed struck a nerve, first off? >> you know, i think maybe there is a collective awakening to the fact that we now live in essentially a voluntary police state. you know, in eastern europe before the fall of communism, people lived in east germany constantly looking over their shoulder, wondering, which one of their neighbors was reporting on them. which am radplace had a microph? there were there hidden cameras? and people fought to get out of that. people lived under incredibly stress for that. and now we don't have that imposed on us by the government,

although the nsa, notwithstanding, but we are rushing toward that voluntarily and delightfully, and maybe it's time we step back and say, do we really want to live in this technological panopticon? let's forget about donald sterling. put ourselves there. how many times a day do you have a private conversation that you really don't want to have recorded and then rebroadcast? and the technological element of this is what makes it really scary. we've always lived in a world where you could be talking to a trusted confidante, and they might repeat what you said. but that is markedly different from having yourself recorded or videotaped everywhere. and we are giving it away voluntarily. and maybe it's time that we realize we're at the bottom of the slippery slope. it's time to try to climb back up. and climb back-up helping each other climb back up, not like crabs in a pot trying to climb on top of one another and we all

wind up in the water. >> right. >> we need to realize that privacy is important. and we really need to start taking some steps, whether it's legally, technologically or just socially to condemn this. >> well, in fairness, this v. stiviano who made these recordings says she was mr. sterling's archivist, and he wanted her to make these recordings. she said -- well, her lawyer said -- that she didn't release these tapes. so we really don't know who released these tapes. does that make a difference? >> well, that makes a difference in this story. if that's her story and we take her at her word, it doesn't change the larger conversation that i think -- i and all the people who read that piece are having. this isn't really about a racist old man and his lovely archivist. this is about at any given moment, this could be you. this could be me. and at probably dozens of moments a day, this is you and me.

how many times do you walk under a surveillance camera that was put there voluntarily that you don't even know about? how many of your movements are tracked? how much of your conversation is recorded? and i'm not talking when you're here at work, of course. we're all fair game here on tv. you know, her story -- i'll take her at her word for now, but i don't personally find it credible. >> well, you know, the real irony -- the real irony here -- it took a recorded conversation in someone's home to be released for someone to react to donald sterling's history of racism. that's the irony part here because there were plenty of examples publicly for nba players to react, for the nba itself to react, and it didn't, but it took this invasion of privacy to get the ball rolling, so to speak. >> yeah, because it was salacious, and it made headlines. but you're right. there is a long history of this guy being exactly what he was

revealed to be in the tape. so why not do it before? you know, it is -- and that is, you know, that raises another issue of but regardless, why not before? he's got a documented history of being an abject bigot. and the nba can, of course, eject him for that reason if they want to. but what troubles me is that it was the private conversation that did start the ball rolling. where i'd be happy is if the nba said, we're convening this hearing to throw him out, and we're going to exclude that tape-recording because that's wrong. but we think that there's plenty of other evidence saying that he's bad for the brand, and we want to get rid of him. that would be acceptable to me. but unfortunately, i think the nba is not going to take that stand. it's taking a stand on race which we'll give them any compliment they deserve for that, but i really think the

larger issue here is privacy. i think there are worse things than being a bigot. and one of them is being a rat. and i think if you're -- you know, if you're a rat on your friends and you're tape-recording your friends in conversations where they have a reasonable expectation of privacy, i find that far more intolerable than if you have some very weird views on race. >> i don't think many people would agree with that part of your argument, but i can certainly understand where you're coming from. marc randazza, thanks for being on. i appreciate it. >> my pleasure. >> if you want to read more of marc's op-ed titled "what happened to sterling was morally wrong in its entirety," cnn.com/opinion. i'll be right back. when salesman alan ames books his room at laquinta.com, he gets a ready for you alert the second his room is ready. so he knows exactly when he can check in and power up before his big meeting. and when alan gets all powered up, ya know what happens? i think the numbers speak for themselves.

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putin seems to be winning the struggle for eastern ukraine. he says, quote, i will be frank. today security forces are unable to quickly take the situation in donetsk under control. they are, quote, helpless in those matters. it's a stunning acknowledgment as pro-russian militants now firmly control much of eastern ukraine. and if there's any doubt mr. putin wants to return russia to its cold war grandeur, take a look at what happened at red square today. 100,000 people gathered for a massive may day rally. we haven't seen anything like this since the communist soviet union dissolved. cnn's matthew chance was there. >> reporter: well, the russian authorities say this is not meant to be any kind of soviet revival, but for the first time since 1991, tens of thousands of russians are parading through red square to commemorate may day. now, officially, this has been organized by russia's unions.

the people here are students. they're factory workers. they're doctors and teachers. but it comes amid a growing sense of national pride in russia, particularly in the face of international sanctions and the events in yeah crane. ukraine. >> translator: well, maybe the young generation doesn't have the same pride that existed in soviet times, but we're trying to rebuild our traditions. >> reporter: given the tensions between russia and the west at the moment, are you concerned that the country could be drawn into another cold war? >> translator: i'm not sure we're afraid of a new cold war. i believe our country can get by alone, but other countries understand that we're strong and the world kind of relies on us. >> reporter: from some of the signs that people are carrying, you get a further indication of the public mood. this one here saying "putin is

right." a lot of support for the russian president. first and foremost, this is a festive occasion and an opportunity for russians to exhibit their national pride. ♪ >> all right. so that rally is now over. matthew chance joins me live from moscow. you mentioned in your report that officials say the rally wasn't a political event, but it really was, wasn't it? >> reporter: well, i think, carol, that everything that's staged publicly like this in moscow right now and across russia has a political dimension to it because there's such a lot of international pressure on russia, the sanctions, i mentioned in that report the unfolding ukraine. it's having an effect on various aspects of russian society. the economy is being impacted. but, you know, as i was mentioning in that report and as i saw in red square, you know, it's also bringing people

together, perhaps bizarrely. people are feeling that they're under pressure from the outside. they're bonding together. and coming together in these big rallies like this one we saw in red square today. and it tallies with what some of the opinion polls are saying. the latest polls i've seen coming from an independent polling agency here in russia saying the approval ratings of vladimir putin, the russian president, during this period of tension with the international community have reached 82%, which is pretty astonishing. >> you've got that right. matthew chance reporting live from moscow this morning. the next hour of "cnn newsroom" starts now. >> this is cnn breaking news. >> good morning. i'm carol costello. thank you so much for joining me. we begin with breaking news. a new transparency in the disappearance of malaysia airlines flight 370. malaysia's government finally makes public its first report on the plane's last known moments. two biggest headlines for you,

the plane had vanished for a full 17 minutes before anybody, any official, actually took notice. and yet it took a remarkable four hours -- four hours -- before an official rescue operation was launched. it's the government's most thorough accounting yet of what investigators know or suspect. cnn's will ripley has been sifting through this report all morning long. he joins us from malaysia's capital, kuala lumpur. tell us more, will. >> reporter: well, carol, this five-page report, you said it, it points out a lot of embarrassing facts about the initial response on the part of the malaysian government, malaysian air traffic control. you mentioned those four hours. and this right here, this is actually a description of what was happening literally every half hour or so. there was a period of time, carol, for an hour and a half where the only thing that was happening was the question was being asked, have you heard anything new? and they waited 30 minutes. have you heard anything else new? at one point, the air traffic control in malaysia was telling people that mh370 was somewhere

in cambodia, which they didn't really have in any proof that it was. they just thought that's where the plane might have gone. what happened was, there was a lot of confusion. there was a lot of time wasted. and as you mentioned, it wasn't until 6:14 a.m. that search and rescue was activated. at that point, this plane with 239 people on board was already far away from where it was supposed to be. nobody had been looking for it in the air for four hours. we know that there was a satellite that was exchanging hourly pings with it. but imagine what could have happened had things come together a bit more smoothly. perhaps planes had gone up a bit sooner. that's the question that a lot of families are going to be asking after reading the contents of this report and the attached documents. and one other thing that i want to point out. you've been mentioning in the last hour about this. this is the passenger seating chart. it's one thing, we knew the names, we knew the ages of this people, but to go through here and look at where they were seated on the plane and how old they are and their gender and all of these things. you start to paint a picture in your head of what it must have looked like on board. and it makes it really real.

and one thing that really stands out to me on this, carol, in the very back of the plane, there were two 2-year-olds sitting there. one of them from the united states. you think about these children with their parents on this flight and for four hours, there was no one looking for them while they were flying radically off course. >> it's just so sad. will ripley, thank you so much. let's talk more about this now. let's bring in c this. n aviation correspondent richard quest and cnn aviation analyst michael kay. >> forgive me. >> no, go ahead. >> there is so much to go through from what we've learned this morning. >> i know. and kudos to you because you sat down with the prime minister and kind of forced his hand. malaysian authorities had to release this preliminary report, and kudos to you, richard quest. >> and it was the prime minister, i'm told, they were just going to -- i'm going to be blunt -- they were just going to release this five-page report. it was the prime minister who in the last 24 hours said no, you're not. i've given a promise of transparency. and you are going to release my information is there are many in malaysia who are very unhappy at

some of the information that's been handed out. >> and basically that's because the military is embarrassed by this report. >> everybody's embarrassed by it. michael kay and i have just been going through this. there are dla-- let's look at t one page of gaps. plus 17, plus 37, plus 29, plus 44. these are minute gaps between one person doing something and the next person doing something. hours went past, and nobody seemed to do anything. >> yeah. i mean, carol, according to the faa, an aircraft is considered to be overdue when it's not reported into its next position, and the time frame is 30 minutes. and what that's supposed to do is alert the authorities, after 30 mbts, inutes, if malaysia mh hasn't checked in, that's supposed to catalog a chain of

emergency events that allows people to start wondering where 370 is. now, 30 minutes versus -- >> four hours? >> over four hours. >> four hours. >> before the rescue coordination center was alerted is a huge amount of time. >> but it makes you wonder, is this standard operating procedure in malaysia? >> it's not. no. this is not just malaysia. this is not a malaysia issue. let's get that right out of the way. >> that's disturbing. tell me more. >> this is not a malaysia issue. this is an air traffic control issue. you pointed out to me after 447 -- >> i mean, and richard's absolutely spot on here. this is an international issue. the head of the air nautical rescue for the french civil aviation authority captures lessons identified after air france 447. and one of those key lessons, carol, and i quote, the apparent unwillingness of atc units to accept responsibility for the declaration of an emergency. that was captured su ed succinc.

it was captured in a document. >> but there were supposed to be changes implemented after air farce, right? so apparently there weren't changes or they didn't follow them long enough? what happened? >> i'm going to allow -- i'm going to be charitable and say you can have 45 minutes to an hour where frankly one person doesn't know what the person is doing. but at 2:18, that's 45 minutes after the plane disappeared off radar, ho chi minh confirmed earlier information, radar contact was lost, a bit odd, and radio contact never -- radio contact. that's a red flag. and i'm sorry. i'm going to come out and say 2-year-old yang zang, 26-year-old hito wang, all these people on board, ging, age 62, they had a right to expect that somebody was watching better to actually find out what was happening to their whereabouts. >> there's no doubt about that. i want to examine what was on the plane, if there's anything in this report that sheds any

light on this mystery. so we know what was in the cargo hold. and apparently there were a lot of lithium batteries. can you go through that for us again? because there was some confusion at the top of the 9:00 eastern hour about that. >> right. then we have the lithium batteries. there are 100 -- nearly 200 pieces. nearly 200 pieces of lithium batteries weighing a total of 250,000 it looks like kilograms. so 2,500 kill grm ograms of lit batteries. >> is that an unusual amount? >> when we talk about lithium batteries, we're talking about a consequence that might involve a fire or something that would bring the aircraft down mechanically. if you look at the time line at 2:35, we get an indication from malaysian airlines operations center that informed kuala

lumpur atc that mh370 was, quote, in normal condition based on signal download, and it gives a coordinate. we've not assessed what that coordinate is yet, but that to me is quite striking. the fact that malaysian operations in some way, for some reason, over one hour after the aircraft dropped off secondary surveillance radar thinks that 370 was in a normal condition. >> one thing to say on these lithium batteries, the way bill makes it quite clear. the package contains lithium batteries. the package must be handled with clear, and that a flamability risk exists. so everybody knows this. and i have it on the highest authority of the airline, they knew that they had lithium ions. they were packed properly. they were at the back of the aircraft. i think it's -- >> okay, so you're sort of dismissing that, but you're sort of bringing up this somebody did something deliberately kind of

thing by what you told me previously. >> carol, i think it's nothing new that there are just so many inconsistencies from the radar data that we've been given by the malaysians, the altitude, what the malaysian military saw or didn't see. to richard's point, the fact that there's a complete piece here missing from -- we're talking about those overdue procedures and civilian air traffic. where were the conversations between the civilian air traffic and the military during this big gap that richard points out? because that should have occurred. if you had an aircraft drop off primary radar in the position that it did and you haven't managed to ascertain it through what's called the distresser, what they do is, if it drops off a scope or radar, they go to a distressor. and they've got all sorts of communicatio communications. teal have a radio and cell phone and they'll try to establish communications with mh380. if they can't, then they'll try

to communicate and they'll have a separate of about ten minutes. there's a graduated response here. >> and what's interesting here, attempts on many frequencies and aircraft in the vicinity received no response. there were so many red flags following on from air france 447 that this -- >> now i'm thinking they should investigate the military, but we'll hold that thought. >> this is air traffic control globally. >> okay, globally. let's hold that thought because i've got to take a break and we'll continue the conversation after the break. i'll be right back.

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all right. we have breaking news this morning in the search for flight 370. malaysia has finally released its preliminary report, and inside are some disturbing new details. the plane was off radar for 17 minutes before anybody noticed. four hours went by before search operations even began. and there's no word on what exactly happened during that gap. that's a lot of time. i want to bring back our panel, cnn aviation analyst michael kay and cnn aviation correspondent richard quest. now, inside this preliminary report, there is also one recommendation to make sure this never, ever happens again. what is that, richard? >> it's a recommendation, and i'm going to read it, if i may, i know time is a bit tight. it's a safety recommendation that iko, the u.n. body on international aviation, iko examined the safety benefits of introducing a standard for realtime tracking of commercial

aircraft. and it tells us why. there have now been two occasions during the last five years when large commercial air transport aircraft have gone missing in their last position. the last one being air france 447. >> oh, so that recommendation's been out there before, michael, right? >> it has. and just to give a bit of context on that, the acars has usually provided that facility. not realtime. the acars can be programmed to transmit whenever it wants. for example, one airline might program the acars when it gets airborne and the wheels are traveling to give a little ping to the operations center to say hey, we're airborne. this is the coordinate. everything's looking good on the engine and air frame and everything else. or you could program it to give geographic coordinates, you know, a little bit more at a higher frequency. so you can program the acars. but the problem the with acars is you can obviously turn it off. there are new systems in place where a lot of operators are operating with that already.

nears next gen which allows aircraft to talk to each other through it. the bottom line, carol, is that that new technology which would give you realtime still goes through an aspect of the transponder. it's called the mode-s. as we all know, the transponder can still be turned off. >> that's right. >> so there has to be some sort of solution which looks at athe single point of failure which is the transponder. i don't think it's a difficult one to be honest. >> the airlines are well aware of the need to do this. and it's not per se a question of cost. it's weight, it's cost, it's the whole regulation. you've got to get it approved and all these sort of things. but i don't know if you're a betting woman or a betting man, but i'll bet you as a result of this one, iko when it meets in may next month starts the process to actually do this. because if they don't, then -- >> if you really think about this, if everyone had been doing their job, that plane wouldn't be missing, right? if someone had noticed it disappearing from the radar and actually investigated right

away, perhaps we'd already know what happened to that plane. tracking system or not. >> it might not have made a jot of difference to the final result, but you've nailed it. if the radar operator from the military, if the atc -- >> let's just balance this out a little bit, though. we've heard recently about the russian aircraft coming across the northern cape, intrusions into uk and dutch airspace. we heard about that a couple of weeks ago. we know this happens all the time off the coast of alaska in the air defense zone there. and we know about 9/11. so we are, by virtue of the cold war and by virtue of the fact of 9/11, we are heightened. our integrated air defense systems are heightened because of our experience. it's not the same in malaysia. there has been no cold war threat in malaysia, and there has been no 9/11 direct threat. so we shouldn't be marking their homework by our standards. it's not right. but it's not the same. >> i don't know. i mean, this has never happened before in the history of aviation.

>> which is a good reason for saying how could it -- that's arguing against yourself. because the moment you start saying this has never happened before, you're left with the conclusion, well, it's happened now. let's learn from it. they couldn't have known it was going to happen then. >> i think transparintranspain transparency. >> we got a little bit of that in this preliminary report. hopefully we'll have more. thanks so much. still to come in the "newsroom," the damage is widespread across the gulf coast, and it's all because it just keeps raining and raining and raining. we'll talk about major flooding in much of the country when we come back. new car! hey! [squeals] ♪ [ewh!] [baby crying] the great thing about a subaru is you don't have to put up with that new car smell for long.

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heavy rain and flooding hammer much of the east coast in places like baltimore are getting hit hard. take a look at this. a giant sinkhole. it consumed an entire street. at least five cars were swallowed. 19 families told to leave their homes. and a nearby rail line is also affected. that's right in the middle of the city. that's incredible. just south of baltimore, laurel, maryland, yesterday a dam started leaking. the result is this. flooded streets and cars submerged. several hundred people forced to evacuate their homes. those residents have been allowed to return, but there is still a danger. let's head further south to pensacola, florida. the problem there, rain and rain and more rain. flooding and a possible gas explosion. we're getting new video into cnn

in the moments right after that blast. two inmates were killed as a result. 155 people were injured. as you can see, inmates and prison guards were taken away on stretchers. more of them have been treated and released. the county jail suffered heavy damage from the recent flooding in the hours before that gas explosion. the flooding not just limited to the county jail. high water levels could be found all across the gulf coast, and the damage is quite widespread. the cleanup now under way. chad myers is in pensacola this morning. good morning, chad. >> reporter: good morning, carol. i'm afraid cleanup from this could take years. and i don't mean just the road crews and the road fixes. this is the asphalt that we're on right now. it's about that thick. maybe an inch and a half thick. but this road was just fixed a couple of weeks ago, and now it's completely washed out again. sinkholes will be everywhere here, i think probably for the next year or two. so once we get this hole fixed, another hole will open up.

when you get 25 inches running through this sand, running through above sandstone, you wash away the above layer. you don't even know that until you drive on it. when you drive on it, all of a sudden, the road goes down. your house might go down. take a look at this. this is the guy's driveway right here in the same area. all these guys working putting this stuff back together. they said yep, let's not go on that driveway. that's not safe. there's nothing under there. it's all completely washed away. and this could be happening anywhere in this -- i don't know, probably 50 square mile area that picked up so much rain. that 20 inches of rain sinking down, washing things away. you may not know it. and probably the gas leak from the jail could have been caused by shifting sands below the building, shifting sands right where the gas line may have been. and that's where the leak was. we saw a lot of leaks yesterday over when we were talking with governor scott. there were natural gas leaks everywhere in that neighborhood. carol. >> so is the rain -- i mean, is it over? >> reporter: yes, it's cool. i mean, i'm wearing a jacket

today. and this is great news because if you look at the sky here, we're not seeing the puffy clouds. it's gray, but it's not humid here today. the front, the cold front has pushed well down to the gulf of mexico. and so it took the humidity with it. and so the rain is over for now. i mean, it's going to rain here for the entire season. oh, my gosh, if we could get a tropical system over this, that would even make it worse. >> stop it! stop it! >> reporter: now we're turning it into a tropical storm system. >> well, let's not go there today. we're just thankful the rain is over for now. chad myers, thank you so much. still to come in the "newsroom," the nba begins its move to strip donald sterling of the clippers. we have new reaction from lebron james next. in pursuit of all things awesome, amazing, and that's epic, bro, we've forgotten just how good good is. good is setting a personal best before going for a world record. good is swinging to get on base before swinging for a home run.

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from one easy to review list. you put up one post and the next day you have all these candidates. makes my job a lot easier. [ female announcer ] over 100,000 businesses have already used zip recruiter and now you can use zip recruiter for free at a special site for tv viewers; go to ziprecruiter.com/offer5. the nba is moving ahead with plans to force donald sterling to sell the l.a. clippers. a committee of ten owners meeting today to talk about next steps. rachel nichols, host of c nchl t host of cnn's "unguarded" is here with me now. >> don't forget the players are watching every step of the way. they were thinking about boycotting the games on tuesday night. that's how serious they were about wanting this to be a firm decision. and this is the playoffs so boycotting is a very serious

financial business and serious to all the fans. they made it clear they want to see this through. so the first step is this phone call today. and listen to lebron james as he explains just how important this is in the eagle eyes they're going to be keeping. >> we need to get him out of there. whoever is associated with him. he doesn't belong in our league. you know, like i said, the next step is for the owners to vote and get him to sell the franchise. obviously, it's not going to be as night and day. you know, it's not going to be like that. and we wake up tomorrow and it's some someone else's hands, but we need to get the next step going. it can't be something that we just drag on. >> and this is expected to happen quickly. there is a schedule laid out in the bylaws in the constitution. and of course, because it's all expected to happen quickly, there's new ownership lining up. it seems like everybody wants to buy the clippers. i don't know if you're interested in buying the clippers. >> heck, yeah.

christine romans and i were just talking about that. we make a bid, right? >> but if you guys do, you have stiff competition because among the group of magic johnson and fl floyd mayweather and all the other people, you have what is looking like a super group of david geffen, larry ellison and oprah, three of the richest people in america. i think they could, like, sift through the loose change in their pockets, right, to make up this bid. and you expect them to be, you know, certainly serious if this comes to pass. >> yeah, i want to pak about all this more so stick around and i want to bring in alexis mccomb, hi, alexis. >> hi, good morning. >> so there's more than just oprah and ellison and who's the other big guy, david geffen. there are more people, alexis, right? there's floyd mayweather, oscar de la hoya. >> yeah. yeah, oscar de la hoya. go ahead. sorry. >> no, go ahead. i keep interrupting you. i'm sorry. >> oscar de la hoya, yeah, he's definitely thrown his hat in the ring and expressed interest in purchasing the team.

he's got a proven track record of being successful in sports business. he was a part of one of the largest boxing promoting teams in the u.s. so he would definitely be able to bring that business expertise to the clippers and helping to grow their franchise. >> so christine romans, i'll pose this question to you. the milwaukee bucks sold for $550 million. and rachel, correct me if i'm wrong, but the bucks aren't -- >> they are not the l.a. clippers. >> they're not the l.a. clippers. so this team could sell for an awful lot of money. >> it could. $575 million is what "forbes" values the value of the team right now, and that's of course part of the $1.9 billion net worth of sterling. but the irony here is that all of the controversy surrounding the team and all of the now interest from these big hedge fund managers, from very rich people, from sports icons means it could drive up the value of the team. one sports investment banker we talked to yesterday said $850 million is probably the real value of this team. but there are others who say look, don sterling's not going to answer your phone call for less than $1 billion. i mean, that's a lot of money.

>> he is not the one answering the phone. that's one of the key points here. >> right. >> he is basically if they take this away from him by this vote, the nba then takes over the sale, which is a key difference. >> interesting. >> that certainly makes a difference on who's going to be accepting these bids. but then the other factor is how and if he is going to fight this. there is an arbitration process. he's not going to win that. and if he sues in court, he's likely not going to be able to win that because there's this arbitration process. >> he's had a long history of suing, too. >> there's a long history of suing and he can tie them up in court for a long time. think about the depositions he could file. he's known some of these other owners for 20, 30 years. there's a lot of dirty laundry in all of their proceedings he could trot out to show hey, this is a double standard. look what you guys did this bad thing. i do this bad thing. >> he's the only person who could make this sale go smoothly and easily. >> he doesn't strike me as this kind of person. and the irony, alexis, his team is now valued -- it's valued at

a higher cost, right? $875 million, maybe. >> it was valued at that. that doesn't mean that's what somebody is going to pay for it. >> oddly and strangely, alexis, being a bigot can be a profitable thing. it's just very strange. >> yeah, he actually paid about $12 million for the team in 1981. whatever it nets out, he's definitely going to get a good return on his investment. >> so in your mind, alexis, who would be the best new owner of the l.a. clippers? would it be the oprah group, or would it just have to be someone who's not racist? >> well, hopefully if you can find a combination of the two, that would be great. but i think i'm actually rooting for oprah. she's known as the great healer. i think that her brand and everything that she represents will bring that african-american community back to the clipper forefront. she also is -- it's ironic that sterling, based on his comments, would unwittingly be

contributing to history being made. if she is a majority owner, she would become the first african-american woman to own an nba franchise. and that in itself is leveling the playing field in helping to break glass ceilings. >> see, that sounded good to us. >> you get a basketball and you get a basketball and you get a basketball. everybody gets a basketball. >> exactly. >> there's even a crowd funding campaign. there are regular joesic canning in 5 bucks apiece. >> it could be like the green bay packers, right? we could all own the team. >> i do want to point out something donald sterling has done before. donald sterling bought this team. he bought the team in san diego. the nba bylaws state you can't just pick up and move your team, right? you've got to get permission from the league if you want to relocate. it's a huge deal. guess what? he just picked up and relocated the team expressly against the nba's wishes from san diego to los angeles. they levied a $25 million fine on him which was huge at the time. and guess what he did? he took them to court. even though the nba bylaws clearly stated what he was doing

was wrong. and it became so litigious and such a long, drawn-out process and they didn't want the franchise to be in that state, they ended up settling with them. he countersued for $100 million, and they settled with him for $6 million, and he got what he wanted. he got to relocate the team. >> that's why he's worth $1.9 million, right? >> just beware, he may go quietly into the night, but he may not. >> thaw so much, all of you for being with me. i appreciate it. you can catch "unguarded" with rachel nichols friday night 10:30 p.m. here on cnn still to come, the search for flight 370. this morning we learn more about the credital moments lost and the opportunities squandered. we'll take you live to kuala lumpur and to washington next. those little things still get you.

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this morning finally malaysia's government made public its first report on that missing plane's final moments. also a new version of audio from the final moments in the cockpit. cnn's will ripley joins us now from kuala lumpur. and cnn's renee marsh is live in washington with more. renee, first of all, tell us about this audio. let us hear it. >> reporter: well, carol, we're 55 days in, and we now have new clean versions of the air traffic control tapes which were first played for the families on monday. but the tapes were officially released to everyone today. so you're about to hear the final communication between controllers and flight 370. now, when you hear them say "flight level 350," they're referring to an altitude of 35,000 feet. which was their assigned altitude. so let's take a listen. >> flight 370, we are ready

request flight level three five zero. >> mas 370 is cleared to beijing via pibos a departure. >> beijing pibos. a 6,000 feet squawk. >> this is the clearest that we've had of this audio so far. let's take advantage of that and let's just play now what has become very well known, those final words again for you, the two final words, "good night malaysian 370." we're going to play that for you two more times. keep in mind, investigators are interested in two things. one, who is speaking? was it the captain or the first officer? and are there any signs of stress in the person's voice? so they will be listening to the tapes just like we are. so let's hear those final words one more time. >> malaysian 370, contact ho chi minh 120 decimal the, good night. >> good night malaysian 370.

>> malaysian 370, contact ho chi minh 120 decimal 9, good night. >> good night malaysian 370. >> so you heard it there. when you listen to it, you listen to it back to back there, carol, and everything sounded normal at this point. you didn't hear any stress in the voice. of course, this is what investigators are going to be doing. replaying it, listening for any anomalies. did they hear anything that piques their interest? when you just heard that there, you didn't hear anything that really jumps out at you as if something was going wrong. carol? >> quite eerie to hear, rene marsh reporting live in washington. let's head to kuala lumpur now. shortly after the pilot said "good night malaysia flight 370," the plane disappeared from radar for, what, 17 minutes, and then four hours later they finally started looking for the plane? i know will ripley you've been looking into this preliminary report released by malaysian

authorities, and there is a time line included. tell us about it. >> reporter: you heard the cockpit voice recording at 1:19. and we know by 1:21 a.m., the plane's transponder had been switched off. that's the device that allows the plane to communicate with the civilian air traffic control. it allows civilian computers to monitor this plane. that switched off. the plane disappeared at 1:21. that's when it just dropped off the radar. but it wasn't until 1:38, a full 17 minutes later that air traffic control in vietnam asked about the status of flight 370. so if vietnam hadn't asked about the status, perhaps it could have gone on even longer. the disappearance of radar could have been unnoticed even longer than 17 minutes. and then 29 minutes after the plane disappeared from radar, then kuala lumpur air traffic control asked vietnam about contact, asked if they had contact with flight 370. at 1:50, vietnam told them no, we still haven't. we've now seen 29 minutes pass.

and all that's happened is they noticed the plane dropped off the radar. they waited another 12 minutes or so, then asked, have you heard now? no answer. and then for four hours, there was so much confusion, it wasn't until 5:30 in the morning that search and rescue was activated by kuala lumpur. so what was happening during those four hours, carol? well, what we're learning from this report and supplemental documents is that there was a lot of back and forth. kuala lumpur was saying all right, we think the plane might be in cambodia when it wasn't. they really didn't have any evidence it was in cambodia. but by saying that, it caused cambodia air traffic control to be confused. and then there was this more back and forth, more questions. they go a half han hour, then check in again, still nothing. what this points out is there was clearly time wasted and while this plane, with 239 people on board was flying somewhere radically off course and being tracked on military radar, there was no one up in the air looking for it, carol. and you look at the passenger list and you see these people, these names that were sitting in these seats on this plane.

we don't know what condition they were in. who was flying the plane. we don't know where the plane was going or where it ended because we haven't found a single piece of evidence. what we now know as a result of all of this, these reports is that no one was looking for four hours. >> it's just -- it's almost too much to bear especially if you had loved ones on board that plane. will ripley reporting live from kuala lumpur this morning. still to come on the "newsroom," facebook growing up and recognizing what its users do not want. a look at the social network's more mature ceo next and its privacy for you. we'll be right back. ♪ (woman) this place has got really good chocolate shakes. (growls) (man) that's a good look for you. (woman) that was fun. (man) yeah. (man) let me help you out with the.. (woman)...oh no, i got it. (man) you sure? (woman) just pop the trunk.

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about everything that comes standard with our base auto policy. and if you switch, you could save up to $423. liberty mutual insurance -- responsibility. what's your policy? all right. we have a bit of breaking news to pass along from escambia county, florida. that's near pensacola. we've been telling you about that natural gas explosion at the county jail there. we understand that three inmates are missing. we don't know if they escaped or if they were injured, if they just can't find them, but we know that three inmates are missing. the other information that we have already passed along to you, two people died in that explosion. and 100 others were hurt. and of course, a lot of these inmates were taken to local hospitals because there was 100 hurt. but, again, we just don't know the whereabouts of three inmates. we'll keep you posted. all right. let's talk some business news and talk about facebook because facebook is showing its age.

the world's largest social networking site turned 10 earlier this year. and at the company's developers conference yesterday, the ceo, mark zuckerberg, revealed a deeper understanding of what his users want. >> we all want identity across platforms and sharing across platforms and push notifications across platforms and even monday adverti monetization. people want more control over how they share information. we know some people are scared of pressing this blue butson. >> yeah, that hesitation over how much facebook knows about you and knows about me is something zuckerberg touched on during an interview with "wired" magazine. i'm joined by steven levy, senior writer for "wired" magazine. when talking about the growing company, zuckerberg said this. i'm going to read a bit of your article. in order to become more ubiquitous, facebook needs to be trusted even more. we're a bigger company and people have more questions. we need to give people more

control over their information so that everyone feels comfortable using these products. combined with facebook's new anonymous login, that's quite a change for the site, right? >> that's right. it was really interesting. yesterday was facebook calls this big conference for developers. and one thing facebook wants to do is it wants everyone who writes all those apps, the things that appear on your phone, to run using facebook's tools and using facebook infrastructure like monetization and other things. but while he tried to be nice to developers and give them tools, he also warned them, he said don't abuse our users because we might have a trust issue. when people log in with their facebook logo, he wants them to be sure that the information that they're already worried about, the facebook has about them, isn't going to go to these other developers. >> it's always a surprise to me that people like mark zuckerberg worry about what information is going out there because facebook has every bit of information

about me there ever was and uses it, right? >> well, they have that information. they want to establish a trust between you and them. but, you know, now they want everyone to use facebook's tools in all the apps you use on your phone. and you might realize, you just install a new app, you want it to know everything that facebook knows about you from the get-go? no. there's another thing little he did. he said well, you don't have to start out that way. you could start out even anonymously and just use the facebook login just to establish who you are. but then if you're comfortable, then you could bring the information over. >> i don't know if that makes it any better. it also seems like he's branching out and he's buying up all these apps. you know, total world domination and all that. >> right, right. they've done an amazing buying binge there. a year ago it was instagram. and people thought that was big. a little over $1 billion. then he spent $19 billion to buy what's app when is a messaging app which is really popular overseas. a lot of people here don't know about it yet.

facebook is scared that other places might come up and drain off a little of their audience, and they're willing to make big investments now to make sure that they are secure. they got 1.2 billion users now, and their goal is to have somewhere around 7 billion users. >> wow! >> like everyone. >> that's just incredible. steven, thanks so much for coming in. i appreciate it. still to come in the "newsroom," donald sterling's mistress, v. stiviano, that's her doing her best daft punk impression with that headgear. will it become the next "it" fashion trend? jeanne moos takes a look next. i dbefore i dosearch any projects on my home. i love my contractor, and i am so thankful to angie's list for bringing us together. find out why more than two million members count on angie's list. angie's list -- reviews you can trust.

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speculation on who might want to buy the team. >> clippers' owner donald sterling has been banned for life from the nba. [ cheers and applause ] he's probably going to have to sell. yeah, people are now wondering who the new clippers' owner will be. that's right. all the nba has said so far is it's definitely not anyone from "duck dynasty." >> oprah is interested in becoming a new owner of the clippers. yeah. [ cheers and applause ] that could be cool. it could be a little annoying when the player introductions take three hours. at guard, he's 6 feet tall! he went to wake forest! chris paul! >> some are even calling it paparazzi crip kryptonite, what it is, donald sterling's

girlfriend is getting attention for her latest choice in headwear. jeanne moos has more. >> reporter: it's been the elephant in the room. make that the elephant on donald sterling's alleged girlfriend's face. >> i'm trying to walk my dog. >> reporter: in that? we can't see through it, but we can certainly marvel at it. stylish visor or eyesore? >> what? >> is she a beekeeper? >> that visor is the bee's knows and you know it. it's the ultimate in privacy. are you kidding? >> reporter: one blog called it paparazzi kryptonite, able to block the shot of any photographer. >> so we do get to see your face tonight, v.? >> reporter: not tonight. v. stiviano's visor has been compared to a welder's mask or what serial murderer dexter wears to protect from blood spatter. folks are having a ball equating it to "spaceballs." >> keep firing it, fools. >> reporter: you know what this thing really needs?

windshield wipers. >> yes. >> reporter: on a rainy day, not especially suited to something called a solar shield, new yorkers did their best to pay me no mind. there was the occasional double take, the lingering stare. it's believed the solar shield was first popularized by women in china worried about sunburning fair skin. you think it's a good look or not? >> no, it's not a good look. it looks weird. >> it's not a good look. >> a little strange. >> fashion forward. >> very daft punk. >> over here! ♪ we're up all night to get lucky ♪ >> reporter: we were lucky enough to get our solar shield overnighted from amazon for $29 plus shipping. it's one size fits most. even a cnn.com colleague was confused. >> well, yeah. is that a spit guard? >> reporter: v. stiviano joins other celebrities who chose to cover their heads from shia la beouf and his "i am not famous anymore" bag from "the gong

show." >> i took my dog to the circus. he stole the show. >> reporter: notes woody harrelson hiding from the paparazzi. lady gaga is always covered in something. michael jackson didn't just cover himself. he covered his kids. as for v. stiviano, we don't know if she's hiding or planning to drop her very own visor line as this tweet suggested. "not recommended for driving." yet there she is in her ferrari. >> right now you're bigger an angelina jolie. >> reporter: at least the headband with expand when she gets a swollen head. and when she gets bored with the visor, we recommend this. jeanne moos, cnn. >> just trying to walk my dog. >> reporter: new york. >> we live in an interesting country, don't we? thank you so much for joining me today. i'm carol costello. "@this hour with berman and michaela" starts now. the breaking news, malaysia's official report on the disappearance of flight 370

released at long last. so the jet had vanished for 17 minutes before ground control even noticed. and another four hours before rescue operation was first launched. the big question this morning, why so slow to react? after a year of questionable behavior, drunken rants and admitted crack use, toronto mayor rob ford final lly taking break and getting help. the queen of talk talking hoops. she wants to i boo the clippers. she's not the only one. the question is, is the team really for sure or will its banished owner decide to play hardball? hello there, everyone, i'm john berman. >> and i'm michaela ferrara. those stories and much more "at this hour." we begin withre