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CNN Newsstand

Hackers Shut Down Several Internet Sites; Bush Wins Delaware Primary; McCain and Bush Exchanging Attacks in South Carolina

Aired February 8, 2000 - 10:00 p.m. ET

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

ANNOUNCER: It's Tuesday, February 8th, 2000. Tonight on CNN NEWSSTAND: Delaware's Republicans give the front-runner a boost, just when he needs it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. GEORGE W. BUSH (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There's nothing wrong with a little competition and I look forward to the competition.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: But tonight's results are just the prelude. We look ahead to the next big showdown.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R-AZ), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Everybody attacks me. I'm like Luke Skywalker trying to get through the Death Star.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: In a national war over what our children should learn, this teacher's biology classes have become a flash point.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm trying to be a good science teacher. I'm trying to provide them with the knowledge and the evidence that I think textbooks today in America are missing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: But some parents say he's really teaching creationism.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's a whole group of students over the years for probably more than 10 years now at that high school who have not been taught science.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: He's waited for this day for more than a generation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAM J. CLINTON, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I am proud to present you with our nation's highest honor.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: Why it took so long to give a hero his due.

CNN NEWSSTAND, with anchors Stephen Frazier and Natalie Allen in Atlanta.

STEPHEN FRAZIER, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to NEWSSTAND. Natalie is off tonight, so Perri Peltz is with us from New York City.

Hi, Perri.

PERRI PELTZ, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, Stephen.

The Republican voters of Delaware have spoken, and George W. Bush is the winner. We'll have more on that Delaware primary results in just a few minutes.

FRAZIER: First, though, a developing story which is just now coming into focus, which shows just how vulnerable our brave new world of e-business actually might be.

One day after Yahoo!'s Web site was disrupted by hackers, more Internet companies are reporting trouble tonight: in some cases, the same sort of attack with the same crippling effects.

eBay, the online auction site, tells us that starting around 6:00 Eastern Time it experienced a "denial of service" attack similar to Yahoo!'s. In that episode, hackers flooded Yahoo!'s equipment with repeated electronic requests that essentially clogged their system.

And eBay apparently isn't the only target tonight. Buy.com also has had some technical problems, and between 8:00 and 9:00 tonight, Amazon.com.

CNN technology correspondent Rick Lockridge has joined us tonight with some details of that.

Rick, what's happening?

RICK LOCKRIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, if you want to put it this way, think of, for example, Amazon.com as a huge arena with thousands of doors all the way around it.

Usually, there are plenty of doors. You can always find a way to get in. In this case what's happening is a group of hackers, perhaps acting in concert, have created a number of clones that step in front of all those doors at once. So no matter how hard you try, you can't get in. And not only do they have clones, they have clones behind those clones to make sure that the entrances are blocked until the administrators of those Web sites, Stephen, can find a way to unblock the doors.

FRAZIER: How complicated an effort would this be to martial that kind of cloning and to get that attack under way?

LOCKRIDGE: Well, so little is known about this and no claim of responsibility has been made so far as I know. But what could be happening is a number of these guys, these hackers got together and decided they were going to strut their stuff in a big, big way. And what appears to have happened is that they're going after all the most popular sites on the Web without regard to whether it's a news site or a book-selling site or eBay.

And so, that appears to have been their plan. And it looks like now that once they're being rousted out of the sites that they have blocked, they're going on to other sites, and this may not be over by a long shot.

FRAZIER: And how sophisticated, Rick, do they have to be? Do they have to be really on the cutting edge of technology or can be anybody try this?

LOCKRIDGE: Well, I don't think anybody -- just anybody can do it. But they're aided in their effort by the fact that it's pretty easy to fool a server computer into not knowing whether you're a legitimate person at home just wanting to log on to eBay to check your bid on something or whether you're a hacker.

So what they need to do in order to prevent this kind of thing from happening in the future is develop more sophisticated filters to find out who the home user, who is a legitimate user and who's not. But they don't have that at the root level yet where they need it.

FRAZIER: Let's turn for a minute, Rick, to the financial implications of all this, the business implications. And to help us with that, CNN Financial News correspondent Bruce Francis is standing by in New York.

Bruce, hi.

What does this mean for a company that lives by the Internet?

BRUCE FRANCIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you can't charge your clients for advertising that you don't deliver. You can't charge your customers for books that you don't sell or for auctions that you don't complete. So there could be some financial impact, although these attacks have been short-lived for the most part. So it's unlikely we're going to see these results show up on the bottom line.

However, the pace of these attacks, they continually happen, and it's been surprising to a lot of security experts. It's hard to say who's going to be next or if they just stop here.

FRAZIER: I know you were talking personally, Bruce, to Amazon. Did they have a problem? Were they able to fulfill all their orders, process their orders?

FRANCIS: If you were able to actually get to the site and have everything load up, once you were there, you could process your order for books. But to use the analogy that Rick used earlier: that depended on your being able to get inside that arena. A lot of people could not during 8:00 to 9:00 p.m. Eastern.

FRAZIER: Now, all of this is coming against a larger picture, which means that these companies are trying to persuade consumers that Internet ordering, Internet commerce is really a part of their lives. What will this do to that?

FRANCIS: I think that's a great point, Stephen. So far a lot of consumers have been very forgiving of companies like eBay, who has had some major service outages before, or some of the online brokerages who've also experienced some interior technical problems. So, so far, they've been very forgiving.

But at some point, you've got think that consumers are going say: Hey, this isn't ready for primetime, I'm not going to order my Valentine's Day gift this way. And you'll see a lack of trust on consumers' parts. And that could hurt in the long term.

FRAZIER: Much wider-reaching implications then. Bruce, thank you. Bruce Francis in New York, Rick Lockridge in Atlanta -- Perri.

PELTZ: All right, Stephen, we're going to turn now to the evening's other breaking story, George W. Bush's victory in the Delaware primary. All of the votes are counted, and Governor Bush finished with 51 percent.

Senator John McCain finished second with 25 percent, even though he didn't campaign in the state. Steve Forbes, who won the Delaware primary four years ago and paid a lot of attention to the state this year, he finished third. Alan Keyes was a distant fourth.

Delaware's contest is winner take all, so Governor Bush gets all 12 of Delaware's convention delegates.

Steve Forbes was the only candidate who stayed in Delaware today.

CNN national correspondent Bruce Morton joins us from his headquarters in Wilmington.

And Bruce, a big night for George W. Bush.

BRUCE MORTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Perri, George W. Bush had to win here after getting thumped in New Hampshire. He did win here by a reasonably substantial margin, with a couple surprises in the other finishes.

Bush is in South Carolina, looking forward to that primary on the 19th of March. Here is some of what he said about his Delaware win.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BUSH: I want to thank the voters. My message that I'm going share with you is a message people heard. It's a message of being a reformer with results, somebody who comes from outside the world of Washington who has been able to reform: whether it be the tort laws or the education laws or the welfare system. And the people of Delaware heard the debate, and they came out and voted for me.

And I won -- I won quite substantially, and for that, I'm grateful as well. And I'm confident that the news media will put me on the cover of every one of the major news magazines.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MORTON: The campaign is getting meaner: Each side, McCain and Bush, are trading negative ads, one with the other. McCain may have had the meanest. He compared Bush to Clinton, which, when you do that to a Republican, is pretty serious stuff -- Perri.

PELTZ: Bruce, how significant is the Forbes loss? After all, McCain never stepped foot in Delaware. What do you make of that?

MORTON: Well, it's significant for McCain in two ways. It shows that despite never having campaigned here, his New Hampshire bounce is still alive and well. Even more alive, because of New Hampshire, he had a lot of independents voting for him. Here only registered Republicans could vote in the primary.

For Forbes, a huge disappointment. He won this one four years ago. This time, he's a distant third. He has the money to keep going, but he must be asking himself tonight "Why?"

PELTZ: No question about it. Bruce Morton, thank you so much, we appreciate it.

Both George W. Bush and John McCain are focusing on the upcoming primary in South Carolina. The Democratic presidential candidates are looking even farther down the road to the spate of primaries in March.

Here's a quick look at how the candidates spent the day.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Moving into South Carolina for a contest much tougher than anyone expected, Bush was welcomed by an overflow crowd. During his most extensive question- and-answer session to date, he drew the loudest applause for the conservative cause.

BUSH: Specifically, I will sign a ban on partial birth abortion.

CROWLEY: As Bush perfected his ground game, he struck out at a serious aerial assault by McCain, suggesting that George Bush, like Bill Clinton, does not tell the truth.

BUSH: Sad, isn't it? The true nature of John McCain evidently is coming out. I'm sad to hear that he's run that kind of ad. (END VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JONATHAN KARL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On the bus, the former fighter pilot is talking war, vowing that when hit, he'll hit back harder.

MCCAIN: The only way you dissuade your enemies from attacking you is to make sure that the price they pay for those attacks is a very high one.

KARL: McCain's day included a standing-room-only town hall meeting in North Augustus, South Carolina. And in Charleston, he talked about fighting crime before an audience of police academy cadets.

His sparring with Bush may have directed attention away from his message, but McCain insists he is not concerned that down-and-dirty political combat will tarnish his image.

MCCAIN: That fighter pilot isn't going to get diverted by the flak. I'm still intent on reaching the target.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAT NEAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Bill Bradley went on the attack Tuesday against Republican presidential contenders who won't call for the Confederate flag to stop flying over South Carolina's statehouse.

BILL BRADLEY (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: That flag shows the true colors of the Republicans who want to be president.

NEAL: The Republican primary in South Carolina is on February 19. Both George W. Bush and John McCain have set that South Carolina voters should decide whether the flag should continue to fly.

Even though South Carolina doesn't have a contest looming for Democrats, Bradley advisers says he's using this event and others this week to emphasize affirmative action, education and gun control, to connect with core Democrats.

MARK POTTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Vice President Gore came to South Florida to shore up that areas large elderly vote. Polls show him with a commanding lead over Senator Bill Bradley here. The vice president continued to criticize Bradley's health care plan, but added that he won't make personal attacks against Senator Bradley, a promise that also drew applause. The end of his speech brought the senior citizens to their feet.

ALBERT GORE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I want to fight for berm health care. I want to fight for a stronger economy. I want to fight for Medicare. I want to fight for prescription drug benefits. I want to save Medicaid. I want to fight for a better country.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PELTZ: Delaware's Democrats had a primary last Saturday. Vice President Al Gore beat Bill Bradley 57 percent to 40 percent. But the victory didn't earn any convention delegates. Those will be chosen at a caucus next month.

Joining me to assess the presidential races is "Time" magazine political writer Tamale Edwards.

Tamala, thanks so much for being with us.

TAMALA EDWARDS, POLITICAL WRITER, "TIME" MAGAZINE: Thank you.

PELTZ: All right, Bush wins with 51 percent of the vote. Given the fact that McCain never set foot in Delaware, are you surprised that it wasn't a bigger win?

EDWARDS: Absolutely. I think in many ways, this is really a McCain win. He got a quarter of the vote. Half of which were voters who said they came to him within the last week, influenced by New Hampshire. I think for George Bush to have really been someone who planned to pick up the state, 51 percent, of the vote, that's not a great tally.

PELTZ: The Bush campaign will say, a victory is victory, Delaware is ours.

What do you think, Tamala, this does to the momentum that the McCain had ever since New Hampshire?

EDWARDS: Well, it only proves what we've been showing since last week on February 2, after New Hampshire, that this guy is getting a great bump. You have money people, you have voters, and you have volunteers surging toward McCain, and if I were George Bush, I'd be very worried about what this might mean for February 19 in South Carolina.

PELTZ: You've had an opportunity to take a look at the Delaware exit polls. Any surprises?

EDWARDS: You know, again, I go back to that 25 percent figure, half of whom came to him in the last week. That's a lot of people to all of a sudden make their mind in a week, gee, I'm going to John McCain, who never set foot in the state.

PELTZ: So then what do you think this all means for South Carolina?

EDWARDS: I think on one hand, when you look at the money Bush has, you say McCain is going to get stopped in South Carolina, but when you look at things like that, you think that maybe the voters of South Carolina yet again might have us pundits, you know, buying somebody else a beer because we were wrong in our predictions.

PELTZ: Al Gore beats Bill Bradley in the Saturday primary. Any surprises there?

EDWARDS: Not really. I don't think that Delaware is really a primary that anybody looked at, anybody looking at the Democrats. They're really focused on March 7 and March 14, and there'll be a huge spate of state's, including places like New York and California, that really will make the determination of who is the nominee.

PELTZ: Tamala, do you think McCain's success is hurting Bill Bradley at this point?

EDWARDS: You know, a lot is made of that, because in primaries where independents can vote, he is the passionate, attractive candidates, and probably there are people going to him who otherwise might have gone to Bill Bradley.

But really, what Bill Bradley needs to be concerned about are core Democratic voters. He keeps raising these questions of, who can you trust? And what he's really trying to do is get core Democratic voters to say, we're not sure we trust Al Gore, and we're not sure that he could beat a Republican in the fall. And so far, that be message doesn't seem to be working as much as he wants it to.

PELTZ: So what do you think Bill Bradley has to did at this point to turn things around?

EDWARDS: Hope to God there's a Bill Bradley fan. You know, that's a little glib. I think what he's got to do, is he's got to energize voters. He's got to make them turn around and say, for whatever reasons, Al Gore isn't our guy, either we don't trust him, we don't like his positions on abortion and gun control, or better yet, you know, we just like something about Bill Bradley when he talks old politics versus new politics. The problem is thus far, in two contests, it's not quite clear that that's working.

PELTZ: And getting back to the Republicans for just one moment, were you surprised at all by the showing for Steve Forbes and McCain, again, who never went to Delaware, and Forbes, you know, did quite poorly in this race?

EDWARDS: Well, I think the message to Steve Forbes all along is that he's you know, -- pick a candidate from '96 who kind of figured it out. Maybe it was Pat Buchanan -- that you got a slight bump, but then you just need to let it go. You know, the third time out, nobody is going to even pay attention to Steve Forbes. I think it's time for him to think about perhaps senator, perhaps governor, perhaps dog catcher, perhaps something else, but not president.

PELTZ: Well, it's only beginning. How interesting it all is.

Tamala Edwards, thank you so much. We appreciate it.

EDWARDS: Thank you.

PELTZ: And we're going to take a break. NEWSSTAND will be back in just a moment.

ANNOUNCER: Up next: the inside look from a war zone, why they're dropping bombs instead of talking peace.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

EHUD BARAK, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: Whatever it takes to defend our citizens, we will do it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: CNN NEWSSTAND will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FRAZIER: There are international calls for restraint tonight, following days of attacks and counterattacks between Israeli forces and Hezbollah guerrillas in Southern Lebanon. Hezbollah is trying to eject Israelis from this nine-mile wide corridor along Lebanon's border with Israel, which Israel calls a security zone. An ambush today killed another Israeli soldier. Israeli jets hit Lebanese power plants again today. Hearing rocket attacks tonight, Israeli civilians have crowded into shelters.

What does this mean for the peace process that was under way in the region?

CNN's Jerrold Kessel in Jerusalem and Brent Sadler, our Beirut bureau chief, open their "Reporter's Notebooks."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRENT SADLER, CNN BEIRUT BUREAU CHIEF (on camera): Israel has occupied the southern tip of South Lebanon for 22 years, an occupation which is increasingly costly in lives for Israel's military. The occupation is backed up with all of Israel's military might -- its army, its air force and its navy. But that overwhelming superiority in strength consistently fails to defeat the Hezbollah guerrilla organization. This past two weeks have seen Hezbollah launch a series of deadly attacks. Many of them are filmed by Hezbollah's guerrillas. The Israeli public has seen shocking pictures of its most recent battlefield casualties, stark images which have helped put Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak under increasing political pressure at home to the hit pack at the Hezbollah.

After decades of conflict in one form or another, the Lebanese can cope with a renewed hardship of power shortages, but a psychological blow following another round of air raids has been severe. Lebanon sees itself as a punch bag between Syria and Israel. And people here understand that if the conflict spirals out of control, it's the Lebanese who will have to bear the brunt of it. As their enemy and occupier, the Lebanese hold Israel to blame for their woes, for expanding the conflict and stalling of peace.

JERROLD KESSEL, CNN JERUSALEM BUREAU CHIEF (on camera): This often or periodically flares up in an alarming way. It did four years ago most seriously when Israel launched its "Grapes of Wrath," campaign, as striking massively at the civilian infrastructure across Lebanon, and that campaign ended in kind of understanding between all sides that there would be no further strikes from civilian areas at each other or at civilian targets on the other side. And now, both sides are challenging that the other has violated those understandings, and that the rules of the game, if you like, in this conflict over the last few years are being seriously violated. Small wonder then that the tension is really building up in this volatile region along the Israeli-Lebanese border.

The Israeli position has changed quite a good deal. There are now a certain sense of integral link between the violence in South Lebanon and the prospects of advancing toward a peace deal with Syria.

SHLOMO BEN-AMI, ISRAELI PUBLIC SECURITY MINISTER: If Hezbollah is the tail, I'm afraid that Iran and Syria, one way or another, are the head, and we cannot negotiate with the head and fight the tail.

KESSEL: The people are very much divided, but increasingly, I would say less so on this particular question, but there's more and more of a consensus now that Israel's long-protracted presence, military presence in South Lebanon should come an end.

Israelis very much behind the attempt by Mr. Barak to punish Hezbollah for the way it has been inflicting some deadly assaults on the Israeli soldiers in South Lebanon, if only to create some kind of sense of parity on the military sphere, going into the possibility of a peace deal with Lebanon and Syria.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PELTZ: Quickly looking at other top stories: tense negotiations continue near London, where a hijacked Afghan airline landed on Sunday. Today, a ninth hostage was released. Then, under cover of darkness, four men jumped out of the cockpit. They're believed to be hostages. Negotiators say there are at least six heavily armed hijackers, maybe 10.

And to the crash of Alaska Airlines flight 261. Investigators say radar data show the plane may have started breaking up before it hit the water. The Navy's been asked to search an area four miles from the crash site. Meantime, salvage teams have recovered parts of the horizontal stabilizer, which pilots say had jammed.

The president of the Kansas City Chiefs calls it "a devastating tragedy." Linebacker Derrick Thomas, partially paralyzed after a car accident two weeks ago, has died in a Florida hospital. Doctors say his heart suddenly stopped. The 33-year-old Thomas played his entire professional career with the Chiefs.

Magician Doug Henning, who entertained Broadway and television audiences with his incredible illusions, has died of liver cancer. The disease was diagnosed five months ago. Henning was 52 years old. He stopped performing in the mid 1980s to devote his time to transcendental meditation.

ANNOUNCER: Still ahead: science, the Bible and our school children.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I believe in evolution, but I believe in God. But I have to choose which one.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: The choice sparking a national debate, as CNN NEWSSTAND continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FRAZIER: Next on the menu, "Cool Digs," our look at executive workspaces. You know how this works. You know the recipe. Our cameras look around an office, uncorking clues along the way, then you have to cook-up the answer to our question: Who works here?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FRAZIER (voice-over): Pass the gold cash register on the way in, and watch out for the artificial deer head. It's on its way to the wall, probably far from this poster, a 1913 Steinlin (ph) above the sofa. "The Landlord," that says.

Grouped on the coffee table, antique toasters, just beautiful objects. TGIF, relief at the weekend's arrival. Some bosses might disapprove of Friday partying. Not this one, though. He turned that attitude into a business empire.

Almost hidden behind the sofa, an award for one of his first advertisements. Over here, another honor, for the boss' work with "Meals on Wheels."

His company is expanding fast, plans for new designs brought here for his approval.

On the opposite side of the office, a gallery. Du Bouffet (ph) prints -- these happen to be abstracts, but the artist is noted for a series of images of -- pay attention -- cows.

An aerial photo of his beach house in The Hamptons on Long Island. Golfing buddies. And a liquor license, his first, a bargain at $850. It would cost $5,100 today.

Wine in the office? Why not? Our CEO overseas one of the largest wine collections in the world. These butler's keep selections at the ready. Zagat restaurant guides. Alka-Seltzer on the desk -- his recipe at the end of a productive work day.

And more reading, the "Ultimate Guide to Buying Wine," and a book about Picasso. He has 14 operations around the country. These are pictures of some of them. A customer made this model of the his New York headquarters, and it moves. By the way, that's the boss and his wife standing at the head of the of the table.

So, which CEO is guaranteed a seat at the best table? The answer when we come back. (END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FRAZIER (voice-over): So which CEO prefers wine to water? He's Alan Stillman, chairman of the Smith & Wollensky restaurant group. Stillman began his career in 1965 when he borrowed $5,000 from his mother and opened TGI Fridays in Manhattan.

He sold his interest for $1 million in 1976.

One year later, Stillman founded Smith & Wollensky, an upscale steak house in New York, which he has expanded to five other cities.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FRAZIER: Smith & Wollensky even has admirers among vegetarian diners. Its other signature offering, besides steak, is pea soup.

PELTZ: And now we have food for thought. The profound questions of how earth and life developed. For some, the answer is simple: a literal reading of the creation stories in Genesis, a view that inevitably leads to a clash with proponents of modern scientific theories and observation.

And caught in the middle of that clash, and the shouting match that often results, are students and their teachers, like the ones our Sharon Collins found in Washington State.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROGER DEHART, BIOLOGY TEACHER: Go Bryce (ph). Get out and run. Turn around and give him an angle to pass at.

SHARON COLLINS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Roger DeHart is a typical dad, watching his kid play basketball.

Except this dad happens to also be a key figure in a national debate: a debate that has split his small community in half.

DeHart is a biology teacher accused of bringing God into the classroom. Opponents say he has been teaching creationism instead of evolution.

JIM BREWER, PARENT: There's a whole group of students over the years, for probably more than 10 years now at that high school, who have not been taught science because of the religious views of one teacher.

COLLINS: While evolution teaches that all species evolved over millions of years, creationists believe the Bible's account that God created the world in seven days.

DEHART: I'm trying to be a good science teacher. I'm trying to provide them with the knowledge and the evidence that I think textbooks today in America are missing, and to say, here, you make the decision for yourself.

COLLINS: What DeHart actually taught students for more than a decade at Burlington-Edison (ph) High School is a theory called "intelligent design."

That theory says nature is so complex, it could not possibly have been an accident of evolution. Nature must have been designed on purpose.

DEHART: If you follow Darwinian evolution and its full theory, you'd have to come to the conclusion that molecules, in and of themselves, have the ability to organize themselves and to become life and design. There is a -- there's a goal. There is a design there where this was planned.

COLLINS: But former student Emma Height (ph) says she was troubled by DeHart's class. She says he made them choose either evolution or intelligent design, and then defend their decision in an essay.

EMMA HEIGHT, FORMER STUDENT: A couple kids around me turned to me and said, well, I'm pretty confused. I believe in evolution, and you know, I think there's probably some evidence out there, but I believe in God, but I have to choose which one. I have to choose, you know, between God and science. And that really was the turning point for me.

COLLINS: Height told her father, who then expressed his concern to the American Civil Liberties Union, the first official complaint.

EMMA HEIGHT'S FATHER: It appeared to me that the biology class wasn't teaching science at that point, that the teacher appeared to have abandoned science and moved into religious instruction, which I thought was, you know, improper in a public school.

DEHART: All I tried to do is expose students. In the past, I have tried to show them, well, here's an argument here for design and here's an argument against design. I think students need to know that there is controversy there.

COLLINS: The ACLU disagreed and filed a complaint with the school. It was big news in Burlington, with letters to the editor pouring in.

This has long been an agricultural town, with conservative views. But the population here has grown and things have changed. It wasn't long before the battle lines were drawn.

SID STAPLETON (ph), ENGINEER: Well, there's only so much pressure we can put on the school district.

COLLINS: Heading the opponents' group, engineer, Sid Stapleton.

STAPLETON: This is a person's religious view, which is fine. I mean, he should have it. He should advocate it, but not while I'm paying his salary.

PAUL PRELLMAN (ph), PHYSICIAN: Have you tried Tylenol, Motrin?

COLLINS: Local physician, Paul Prellman, whose two daughters took the class, lead those supporting DeHart.

PRELLMAN: Why should the school system have a right to sit there and tell children, you came from nobody, there is no God involved in your development, in your creation? Why should they be able to say that?

COLLINS: But Sid Stapleton worries that his daughters will miss part of their education. He says intelligent design is creationism, masquerading as science.

STAPLETON: Kids are leaving this school ill-prepared in science. You know, my kids are enthusiastic about animals, and like most girls between 12 and 14, want to be veterinarians. And if you go through a high school that trains you poorly in biology, it reduces your chances of being able to do things in life.

COLLINS (on camera): The issue has provoked controversy in schools for decades. During a trial in 1925, educator John Scopes fought for the right to teach evolution in his biology class. That trial, which ultimately changed the way science is taught, later received the Hollywood spin.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "INHERIT THE WIND")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: Now as I told you yesterday, Darwin's theory tells us that man evolved from a lower order of animals.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS (voice-over): In a movie called "Inherit the Wind," a teacher is arrested for telling students they may have evolved from apes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "INHERIT THE WIND")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: You're charged with violation of public act 31428, which makes it unlawful for any teacher of the public school to teach any theory that denies the creation of man as taught in the Bible.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS (on camera): Can you relate to those teacher who fought for the right to teach evolution?

DEHART: Oh, definitely. You know, "Inherit the Wind," even though it's in -- Hollywood's version is fictitious, but still, that scenario, where a teacher somehow has evidence or feels that he is teaching the truth and is being censored.

COLLINS: So we've kind of come full circle. DEHART: Full circle exactly.

COLLINS (voice-over): A series of court decisions made it illegal to teach creationism in public schools. However, in the last five years, school boards in seven states have tried to remove evolution from the science standard.

TOM HERRON (ph), TEACHER: I hope that I'm not threatening you by the topic evolution.

COLLINS: At McKinley (ph) Senior High in Canton, Ohio, Tom Herron teaches evolution, but is careful not top step on anyone's religious belief.

HERRON: And then, if you want to believe it, that's fantastic. If you don't want to believe it, that's fantastic. Because, again, it's your choice.

UNIDENTIFIED STUDENT: I just think that God put us here because he wanted, like man, I guess, I don't know, I don't believe in the DNA thing.

HERRON: You don't believe we're related to chimps?

UNIDENTIFIED STUDENT: I don't think that we've got the same DNA as chimpanzees either. because, well, I go to church, and I read my Bible and it say that God created us in his own image.

COLLINS: After 22 years of teaching, Herron says he understands why people get so upset about the teaching of evolution.

HERRON: People firmly believe that if I or someone teaches evolution in the classroom that we're going brain wash their children. I really feel that they think that I have the power to persuade them to think differently than what their parents think.

COLLINS: Meanwhile in Burlington, the battle continues.

HEIGHT: In that class, there was no discussion of evolution or evolutionary facts.

COLLINS: DeHart opponents bought a full-page ad in a local newspaper, warning parents that the religious right is using intelligent design as a way to get past the law.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They're not getting any geology. They're not getting the biology, They're not getting the ancient life. They don't get the Cro Magnum man. They don't get any of that.

STAPLETON: DeHart's position now is that he doesn't know what he's going to use in the class. and that makes it very difficult from a legal point of view to launch a challenge to we don't know what.

COLLINS: The school district would not let us videotape DeHart's biology class, but superintendent Rick Jones (ph) insists the matter is now under control. RICK JONES, SUPERINTENDENT: From my background and understanding of the law, it was very clear that the separation of church and state must be enforced, and I'm very committed to do that. And so, I am confident that creation is not being taught in our classrooms and it will not be taught.

COLLINS: The school administration has ordered DeHart to stop teaching intelligent design. And any material he uses criticizing evolution must now be approved.

(on camera): Will you change what you teach, the questions you ask or the materials you use?

DEHART: I think I can get across the same information and the same evidence using maybe some less controversial materials. And so, I'll do that.

COLLINS (voice-over): DeHart hopes he and his family can soon return to a life without controversy. He says he's come to realize that the issue is much bigger than him or his class.

DEHART: You have Christians who are saying that, good for you, you're putting Bible and God back in the classroom, and on the other hand, you have the Darwinists, who are saying, you know, wait a second here, you know, you're trying to put religion back in the classroom, once again portraying that, and I'm trying to do either of those things. I'm trying to be a good science teacher.

COLLINS: At least for now, that means keeping the theory of intelligent design out of the classroom.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PELTZ: The National Center for Science Education tells NEWSSTAND, it gets a complaint just about every week concerning an educator who refuses to teach evolution or chooses to add some form of creationism. And this Friday, the Anti-Defamation League will take up the issue at its national meeting in Florida, concerned that the separation of church and state could crumble under mounting pressure from those who want creationism taught as science -- Stephen

FRAZIER: Perri, as we told you at the top of NEWSSTAND, some of the biggest names in e-commerce are having trouble with their sites being hacked, but they haven't had any trouble from investors today. The latest numbers and the newest records when NEWSSTAND returns.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FRAZIER: Well, it turns out that CNN Interactive is also one of the Web sites attacked by hackers. It was another one of those jamming attacks, denial of service, began about 7 p.m. Eastern, and lasted until shortly before 9:00.

In other business news, it another day, another record for Nasdaq stock index. We've been saying a lot lately.

Here now from New York, Stuart Varney has our "MONEYLINE" update.

STUART VARNEY, "MONEYLINE" ANCHOR: Good evening, everyone. Positive words by the government on productivity for the last quarter led to positive gains for the markets. The Dow industrials rose 51 points, closing the day at 10957. Interest rate sensitive financial stocks got the biggest boost due to that productivity report. Another day, another record for the tech sector, three in a row to be exact. The Nasdaq composite rocketed almost 106 points to close at 4,427. No fears for bonds. The 30-year Treasury issue gained nearly 1 1/2, and that puts the yield down to 6.22 percent.

After the closing bell, Cisco Systems hit Wall Street with news it loves to hear: better than expected profits, and the ninth stock split in the company's history. Led by a rise of 49 percent in profits and 53 percent in revenues, Cisco Systems beat Wall Street's expectations clearly. The stock gained more than 6 points in after- hours trading.

Well, that's it for the "MONEYLINE" update, for a look at all the day's business news, please join Deborah Marchini and John Defterios for "AHEAD OF THE CURVE," weekday mornings at 5:00 Eastern. And be sure to catch Willow Bay and myself nightly on "MONEYLINE" at 6:30 Eastern. That's all right here on CNN.

ANNOUNCER: Coming up: decades old wrong is finally set right.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAM J. CLINTON, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You're heart, sir, is an extraordinary gift to your country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: The story behind an overdue award when CNN NEWSSTAND returns.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PELTZ: The nation's highest military award, the Congressional Medal of Honor, was presented today to Alfred Rascon, inspector general of the Selective Service, not for what he's doing now, but for heroism in 1966, when he was a field medic in Vietnam. What he did to rescue wounded comrades has always been considered above and beyond the call of duty.

So then why did then honor take so long? Here's NEWSSTAND's Jonathan Aiken.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's more than just somebody getting the Medal of Honor. There's a bond that you make.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The fact that he saved my life, the fact that he saved a few other lives that day, you know, that's what makes him a hero. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The extraordinary heroism that I witnessed that day was, by far, as they say, above and beyond the call of duty.

JONATHAN AIKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The 173rd airborne brigade was operating in the jungles northwest of what was then South Vietnam's capitol, Saigon.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was the platoon medic, and he was responsible for our welfare, and he took that extremely seriously.

AIKEN: On March 16th, 1966, Al Rascon's platoon came under blistering fire from North Vietnamese troops, often at point-blank range.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You see pieces of trees falling off from the ammunition -- I mean, from the heavy weapons that are going off, and you hear hand grenades going off.

AIKEN: Machine gunner William Thompson went down just 10 feet from the enemy. Rascon rushed to his side. Thompson was dead. Two hand grenades exploded, hitting Rascon in the face.

ALFRED RASCON, CONGRESSIONAL MEDAL OF HONOR WINNER: I could feel my heart pounding, and I could see blood in my hands, and I could feel stuff jumping out of my face, and I guess as quickly as I was afraid, I guess I regained my composure, and said, hey, it's not that bad. So I went after the machine gun.

AIKEN: After retrieving Thompson's gun and ammunition, Rascon saved three other men, including Private Neil Haffey (ph), who lay wounded on the ground.

NEIL HAFFEY: This other soldier threw a grenade at me that landed maybe five feet away from me, and like I said, I couldn't move, so I just turned my head because I didn't want to see it coming, and next thing I know, Doc jumped on top of me and took the brunt of the blast in his back.

AIKEN: Rascon took two more grenade blasts before the firefight stopped. And when the choppers arrived, he was the last to leave.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He actually refused to be taken out until everyone else was taken care of.

AIKEN: Despite a bullet to the hip and wounds from three grenade blasts, Rascon tried to walk off the battlefield.

RASCON: I didn't want to be looked at as someone who was falling apart, which I guess I was, but I didn't realize it. I tried to walk. I was going to walk, and I guess that must have been a joke to the guys, because one of them laughed after that and said, yes, Doc, you must have walked for about two or three feet.

AIKEN: It took Rascon six months to recover from his wounds. And while he received the Silver Star, his battalion mates nominated him for the Medal of Honor. Case closed. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We all thought it had gone, but nothing had happened. And basically, well yes, you know, we'll all meet when Rascon gets the medal, but it never happened.

AIKEN: The nomination, lost in Pentagon red tape, was now too old. The time frame for Medal of Honor requests is two years, not 30.

But the men of the 173rd persisted until Alfred Rascon could stand in the East Room of the White House -- a child of Mexico, receiving the thanks of his adopted nation.

RASCON: The honor is not mine. The honor is that of the people that were with me in Vietnam.

HAFFEY: I have four daughter. I have four beautiful grandchildren. I have a wonderful wife. Those are all gifts from Doc.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For all those things that you did for us, so many, many years ago, but so fresh in our memory.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's more than deserving. I think for myself and the other guys, it's a thank you, Al, you know, from all of us.

Jonathan Aiken, CNN NEWSSTAND.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FRAZIER: We're near the end of NEWSSTAND.

"SPORTS TONIGHT" will follow us, and with a sense of what's that's going to be, here's Fred Hickman -- Fred.

FRED HICKMAN, "SPORTS TONIGHT": Hi, Steve. Thank you.

SPORTS TONIGHT is burdened in fact with the passing of a young, bright sports star, on and off the field. We remember, Derrick Thomas of the Kansas City Chiefs, who passed away this morning, also highlights of the NBA champs in action, and Dennis Rodman says he's a one-man rock star, and that's why they'll love him in Dallas. But the commissioner of baseball says Pete Rose can't even come to his own party without a ticket. All that, plus Lennox Lewis' next opponent when the bill rings, on "SPORTS TONIGHT," coming up next -- Perri.

PELTZ: All right, Fred, thank you very much.

And coming up tomorrow on NEWSSTAND: stories from one of the grand ladies of television: Carol Burnett, including the origin of her signature ear tug, which began as a secret way of saying "hi" to nanny, her beloved grandmother.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAROL BURNETT: I called her be collect in California, and I said, I'm going to be on television, and it was going to be live, and she says, well, say hello to me, and I said, Nanny, they're not going let me say "Hi, Nanny!" You know, so some friends of mine had a little boy that they used to say hello to, and they would pull their ear, and they said I was going steal that, and I caught hell.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PELTZ: And she never stopped. And there are more really wonderful stories, an incredible story.

So do us tomorrow at 10:00 p.m. Eastern.

From New York, I'm Perri Peltz.

FRAZIER: And I'm Stephen Frazier in Atlanta. Good night from the NEWSSTAND.

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