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CNN Newsroom

NEWSROOM for June 6, 2001

Aired June 06, 2001 - 04:30   ET

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

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANNOUNCER: Seen in classrooms the world over, this is CNN NEWSROOM.

TOM HAYNES, CO-HOST: We're glad to have you aboard NEWSROOM this Wednesday. I'm Tom Haynes.

And we begin, with a look at what's coming up.

First up, things are switching in the U.S. Senate. Find out who's moving and who's not. Moving on to "Business Desk," we'll introduce you to a wheelchair warrior. Up next, we wish a happy anniversary to the YMCA. Finally, we "Chronicle" how terrorism has hit the Net.

An historic power shift in the United States Senate gives Democrats the reins for the first time in six years. The shift follows Senator James Jeffords' defection from the GOP to become an Independent. The Senate, which had been equally divided between Republicans and Democrats, now has 50 Democrats, 49 Republicans and 1 Independent, which is Jeffords, plus all the ranking Democrats on committees immediately become chairmen and the GOP chairmen become ranking members.

Kate Snow examines the impact the Senate switch may have on President Bush's judicial nominees.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KATE SNOW, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Senator Patrick Leahy says he wants to lower the temperature on the Judiciary Committee.

SEN. PATRICK LEAHY (D-VT), INCOMING JUDICIARY CHAIRMAN: I don't want the Judiciary Committee, which is probably the busiest of all the committees, to be the most contentious one. I think we should be looking for common ground, not the other way around.

SNOW: But there are heated battles ahead. First and foremost, consideration of President Bush's judicial nominees.

NORM ORNSTEIN, AMERICAN ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE: The White House has to be worried because it is a different world now. When it comes to their judicial nominations, they are going to have to heed what Democrats say. SNOW: With his committee staff literally moving into the majority office, a Vermont Democrat will dictate the timetable for hearings now. Republicans fear the pace of confirmations could slow to a trickle.

SEN. ORRIN HATCH (R-UT), OUTGOING JUDICIARY CHAIRMAN: It isn't Senator Leahy, I think, who will be the problem. There will be others in their caucus who want to slow down this process who want to ask exorbitant questions.

SNOW: The new chairman says he won't apply a conservative litmus test. He points out he supported more than 98 percent of the nominees from President Reagan and the first President Bush.

LEAHY: I don't care whether we have Republicans or Democrats on the bench. I care that we have a judiciary that's fair, that is honest, that is nonpartisan in its dealing, where people have the trust of that judiciary.

SNOW: But there has been partisan bickering in the past. In a tense exchange last month, Hatch complained to Leahy about filling Justice Department posts.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HATCH: It's now been two months. We got a Justice Department floundering down there, and I just can't do it.

LEAHY: It's not floundering. You've got 10,000 people working hard.

HATCH: Yeah, give me a break.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SNOW: Both men say they generally get along well. And they're anxious to work together. They've cosponsored a $1.4 billion measure to shift the focus in the war on drugs to prevention.

But on some key issues, Leahy will change the committee's direction. He's pushing the Innocence Protection Act, that would give death row inmates access to DNA testing. He favors immigration reforms, to prevent potential asylum seekers from being automatically turned back at U.S. airports.

(on camera): Senator Leahy will tell you his approach will be balanced when he takes the chair in this Judiciary Committee room. He says he wants to move quickly to hold hearings on judicial nominees, hearings that may prove to be the first test of the new Democratic leadership.

Kate Snow, CNN, Capitol Hill.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HAYNES: Well, despite the Senate power shift, U.S. President Bush says agreements can be reached on major issues like education reform. In an effort to reach out to each political side, Mr. Bush met Tuesday with a bipartisan group of senators and with Republican turned Independent James Jeffords of Vermont.

John King looks at how the Senate shift will affect the president's agenda.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(LAUGHTER)

JOHN KING, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Nervous laughter, as the president got his first taste of the new balance of power in the Senate, and a close look at the man whose defection from the president's party made it all happen.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We have an opportunity to show the American people that although the structure of the Senate may have been altered somewhat, that we can still get things done in a way that's positive for America.

KING: The White House strategy now is to show that Mr. Bush can still advance his agenda. He will sign the tax cut plan in a big ceremony Thursday, and hopes Congress sends a major education bill his way soon. But Mr. Bush might have to wait: Jeffords and the Democrats want to add more money to the measure, which would complicate negotiations with the Republicans, who run the House.

SEN. EDWARD KENNEDY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: You can't educate children with a tin-cup budget, and you can't educate children on the cheap.

KING: And things get even less certain from there. Senate Democrats promise to focus on issues on which they have major disagreements with the president: the so-called patients bill of rights; a Medicare prescription drug benefit; and an increase in the minimum wage.

This new political climate requires a new political strategy, and one of the president's priorities is trying to repair some strained relationships. So Mr. Bush invited his former campaign rival, Senator John McCain, for dinner Tuesday.

Moderate Republican Senator Lincoln Chafee gets a one-on-one meeting Thursday, and new Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle is the president's dinner guest that night.

KEN DUBERSTEIN,FORMER REAGAN WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: The W. has to stand for Winning on Capitol Hill. That is the key. The only way to do it is to take care of the care and feeding of Congress and the Senate, hour by hour, day by day, and put that front and center on his desk.

KING (on camera): Criticism of how the administration has handled its relations with Congress so far is hardly limited to the Democrats and Republican moderates. Even many conservative allies complain they, too, haven't been consulted that much. And they hope that the president keeps them in mind as he adapts to this dramatic Senate power shift and promises more give-and-take with the Congress.

John King, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HAYNES: Last week you remember we told you about Casey Martin, a professional golfer with a disability. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled seven to two to let Martin use a golf cart during competitions. They cited the Americans with Disabilities Act, which was enacted by the U.S. Congress on July 26, 1990. The ADA provides equal opportunity for the disabled in things like employment, public services, public accommodations like buildings and telecommunications.

But with any law, just because it's on the books, doesn't mean everyone's following it.

Susan Candiotti reports on a man who's making a habit of making sure they do.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Martin Marcus, a one-time horse trainer, real estate investor, and writer, is on a crusade.

MARTIN MARCUS, WRITER: I want access now, basically. And this law, I found out, has been on the books for over a decade.

CANDIOTTI: This law is the Americans with Disabilities Act, known as the ADA, and Martin Marcus, confined to a wheelchair because of Lou Gehrig's disease, has become an ADA warrior. Just entering one of his favorite Miami restaurants, Marcus says, is a good way to illustrate how many businesses have not yet complied with the law.

MARCUS: There's no ADA narcs, so to speak, or ADA police. There's nobody going around -- if you build something, saying, "You're not up to code, you have to do this. "

CANDIOTTI: So Marcus uses the courts, filing more than 130 lawsuits.

MARCUS: I wouldn't call myself sue-happy. I would call myself a person who took the remedies that were available to him and did something about it.

CANDIOTTI: Marcus makes no money off the suits, and insists he only sues places where he does business. This printer, for example.

MARCUS: James!

See, they said I could just call and get service.

CANDIOTTI: But unless his companion were with him, Marcus says, a clerk inside would not hear him yelling for service. The gravel parking space doesn't work for wheelchairs. The property owner, who's been sued by Marcus, tells CNN she intends to comply with the law. Same for this property owner, who wonders if he can afford it.

ROBERT ADER, PROPERTY OWNER: If we started with the parking space, would we then go into the bathrooms? Would we then go into the access ramps?

CANDIOTTI: Florida Congressman Mark Foley is trying to slash expensive lawsuits by proposing an amendment to the ADA. It would force the disabled to give businesses 90 days notice before suing.

REP. MARK FOLEY (R), FOLEY: If they know there's a clock ticking where they have to fix the problem, they're going to get it done, because they know there will be a lot of costs associated with going to court.

CANDIOTTI: Marcus, who prefers working on his novel to filing lawsuits, contends the 90-day warning would not work. As long as he can, the wheelchair warrior will keep on fighting.

MARCUS: Anything easy is not worthwhile, and anything worthwhile is not easy.

CANDIOTTI: Susan Candiotti, CNN, Miami.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HAYNES: Well, the gray skies may be clearing for Napster, the online music swapping service. While the bitter court case that pits the music industry against Napster continues, the two sides are finding some common ground -- announcing a technology agreement.

But, as Bruce Francis reports, that doesn't mean the lawsuits will go away.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRUCE FRANCIS, CNN FINANCIAL NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The record companies that have been trying to drown Napster in legal red tape are throwing the music sharing service a lifeline. Napster is licensing the technology that powers MusicNet, the joint venture for online music backed by record labels EMI, BMG, CNN parent AOL Time Warner and RealNetworks.

ROB GLASER, CEO, REALNETWORKS: Well, I think it's fair to say that this whole process of getting legal and legitimate subscription services off the ground is a very complex one. And I would say that, you know, we've gotten up to the, let's say, the five-yard line or maybe the two-yard line.

FRANCIS: Record companies like Warner are withholding their content for now. Warner Music, which, like CNN, is owned by AOL Time Warner, says in a statement, "Our content will not be available to Napster as part of the MusicNet service until we are reasonably satisfied that Napster is operating in a legal, non-infringing manner." Experts say that it won't be easy transforming Napster from outlaw to cop.

P.J. MCNEALY, ANALYST, GARTNER GROUP: They need to show that they can defend and protect people's copyrights and that artists will be compensated for their music.

FRANCIS: When music giant Bertelsmann embraced Napster last fall, the two companies vowed to come up with a pay service, but that effort has yet to launch.

In the meantime, Napster has been losing in court and much of its audience has been defecting to other Internet-based swapping services. That's given the industry time to develop its own online music services like MusicNet and a rival service called Duet which features content from Vivendi Universal and Sony.

ERIC SCHEIRER, ANALYST, FORRESTER RESEARCH: Napster's going to be competing with services like AOL and Yahoo! and MSN and RealNetworks -- large consumer-facing companies that have a great deal of experience in developing these kinds of services.

FRANCIS (on camera): RealNetworks says that when MusicNet launches late this summer, it will cost about $10 a month for 70 downloads -- the equivalent of about 10 regular length CDs.

Bruce Francis, CNN Financial News, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HAYNES: In "Worldview" today, mystery, history and music. We will hear from a pet detective who's hot on the tracks of animal tracks. That makes sense. And we'll learn about a father-daughter musical duo, a pair bringing echoes of India around the world. And an organization that began in England could be part of your regular fitness routine. Check it out.

SHELLEY WALCOTT, CO-HOST: Today is an anniversary for a worldwide organization known by four letters: The YMCA. The YMCA was established on June 6, 1844 in London. The Industrial Revolution was in full swing. The Y's founder, George Williams, wanted to provide a healthy respite from the long, strenuous conditions which prevailed.

It's an idea that's come a long way as Kathy Nellis explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KATHY NELLIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It began in England and quickly spread overseas. The YMCA came to the United States and Canada in 1851, a century and a half ago. YMCA stands for Young Men's Christian Association, but it's no longer only for men, only for Christians, only for young people.

KRISTEN WILDE, METRO ATLANTA YMCA: Today we are open and we serve people of every race, age, income and ability. It just evolved into different programs that really started to meet the needs of the community at particular times. So today, with half our members being women, we have many family programs. The Y is the largest collective child care provider in the United States. So we have focused on whatever the changes are in our community.

NELLIS: That means you can find just about everything, even computer classes.

And the Y has done more than just change with the times. It's brought about change as well. Two Olympic sports were invented by the YMCA. Basketball was the brainstorm of YMCA instructor James Naismith. His challenge: to find a new winter sport.

WILDE: He came up with this idea of basketball and tacked up a peach basket in the gym. And it's been changed forever. It did become an Olympic sport in 1936.

NELLIS: Another YMCA instructor, W.G. Morgan, invented volleyball in 1895, and racquetball was invented at a YMCA in 1950.

(on camera): Thirty-one percent, nearly one-third of all Americans, are YMCA members sometime during their lives, and the Y has served 25 million members in more than 90 countries around the world.

(voice-over): In fact, the YMCA is one of the largest non-profit voluntary organizations in the world. And get this, in 1993 the Jerusalem YMCA was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for promoting peaceful coexistence in the Holy Land by serving Muslims, Christians and Jews. Around the globe, the Y is known for leadership development, fitness and fun.

ADRIENNE PILEGGI, YMCA MEMBER: It's a good learning environment. It's not -- you know things here aren't so competitive. It's more of, you know, how to learn what to do and more as an emphasis on having fun so.

NELLIS: There's even a song about the Y. Remember this hit by the Village People.

THE VILLAGE PEOPLE (singing): YMCA. It's fun to stay at the YMCA.

WILDE: The Y pioneered resident and day camps around the country. Group swimming lessons were pretty much formed by the Y and a lot of things that have been started by the Y and then kind of turned over to other groups. Night classes were the Y's main focus for a very long time and that's led to continuing education in a lot of community colleges. We've also were instrumental in the development of the Boy Scouts, the Camp Fire Girls, the USO, which is part of the military. A lot of other associations and organizations got their start at the Y. Father's Day was first a Y special day invented in 1910 in Washington.

NELLIS: As the Y celebrates 150 years of tradition and change in North America, it also looks to the future.

WILDE: Our mission is to help develop programs which build spirit, mind and body. And that's been from the very early days that triangle of the three that everybody needs for wellbeing. But today, we really feel that our mission is to build strong kids, strong families and strong communities.

NELLIS: Kathy Nellis, CNN, Atlanta, Georgia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALCOTT: On to an Asian nation that contains the world's highest mountain range: The Himalayas. India is home to six billion people. It's the second most populous country in the world. Those people speak hundreds of languages and belong to numerous ethnic groups.

India's culture and, in particular, its music is becoming known around the world thanks to a renown's musician. Ravi Shankar is a leading sitar player. A sitar is a classical Indian stringed instrument. Shankar introduced it to an international audience when he played with former Beetle George Harrison in the 1960s. Shankar's 19-year-old daughter, Anoushka is now touring with her father and making a name for herself as well.

Listen in as they play and talk about their music and their relationship.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(MUSIC)

RAVI SHANKAR, MUSICIAN: It is something which I cannot really express because she becomes like an extension of all the ideas which I'm producing right there, and she picks it up. Sometimes, she just follows me like a shadow, and it's best feeling.

(MUSIC)

ANOUSHKA SHANKAR, MUSICIAN: For me, it's really the most amazing feeling to be on stage with him because it's almost like a combination of so many different aspects of our relationship. It'll all happen at the same time on stage. Because on one side, it's just amazing for me to sit as a daughter and watch my father do something that he does so wonderfully.

And then as a student, I'm learning so much from (UNINTELLIGIBLE) to watching him playing on stage to be able to sit so close to him.

(MUSIC)

R. SHANKAR: You pound music like it's happened to me and my guru. I did the same thing then I used to sit with him, like his disciple. And I used to see this great expression of happiness and satisfaction when I exactly imitated him. And it learning on the stage.

A. SHANKAR: I don't really believe in everyone's theory about continuing a legacy, because my father is my father, and I really feel the reason he is as wonderful as he is is because he stayed true to himself, his own creativity, his own musical talent. And I can only continue his legacy by doing the same thing.

I don't think I'd be that great if I were to spend my whole life being a parrot and doing what he does. I have to be myself too.

(MUSIC)

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HAYNES: In Antarctica it might be a penguin, in India it could be a mongoose and in France it could be a French poodle or a cat or just about anything. We're talking about pets -- all kinds of animals kept as companions by people. The practice has been common for thousands of years. Scientific research has shown that pets can boost people's morale and even lower their blood pressure.

But pets can be the cause of worry too, particularly if they get lost. That's when a pet detective can come in handy as Lilian Kim explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MELODY PUGH, PET DETECTIVE: OK, well then I'm going to come down there.

LILIAN KIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Melody Pugh works the phone, searches on foot and drives around town looking for clues to help back her latest case.

PUGH: And there's a hole underneath the house. Your cat could have got underneath that house.

KIM: Melody is a pet detective. Since she started three years ago, this animal lover has reunited more than 400 pets with their owners.

CHERI SAYAN, DOG OWNER: I was so relieved. I couldn't believe it. It was like my baby.

KIM: Animal control officers even call her for help. Here, Melody is helping to capture an injured Canadian goose.

PUGH: Kind of divert her. I think she thinks I'm looking at her.

KIM: Melody doesn't charge for her services. Her labor of love began after she lost her own cat, Norman. It took her 95 days to find him.

PUGH: My own sadness inside just to -- was almost a killer for me. And whenever I hear somebody else has a lost pet, I realize what they're going through. I know that firsthand.

KIM (on camera): Melody's secret to finding a lost pet is persistence. Hitting the streets, talking to neighbors and posting flyers are critical. But she says what's most important is to check out animal shelters on a regular basis.

PUGH: Listening to an after-hours recording is not good enough. Your pet could be adopted or otherwise if you don't go and look for yourself.

KIM (voice-over): Despite her overwhelming success rate, Melody does have 22 unsolved cases, refusing to give up on any of them. What keeps her going: the joy of reuniting owner and pet.

PUGH: You're too trusting, young lady, you need to stay home.

KIM: Lilian Kim, CNN, Bremerton, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: Teachers, make the most of CNN NEWSROOM with our free daily classroom guide to the program. There you'll find a rundown of each day's show so you choose just the program segment that fits your lesson plan. Plus, there are discussion questions and activities and the guide highlights key people, places and news terms. Each day find hot links to other online resources and previews of upcoming "Desk" segments.

It's all at this Web address where you can also sign up to have the guide automatically e-mailed directly to you each day. It's easy. It's free. It's your curriculum connection to the news. After all, the news never stops and neither does learning.

HAYNES: Whether an old-age crime like extortion or a new type of violation like Web-jacking, cybercrime is the fastest growing criminal activity challenging law enforcement. Some people may think computer crimes have no victims, but the impact on the real people who are targets of these offenses is very real and in some cases, even fatal.

Kelli Arena brings us the story now from Washington.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Imagine being in a hospital at the mercy of medical personnel; your vital information, including necessary medications and dosage, stored on a computer, a computer that's been hacked by someone who upped the dosage of your medication to a level that will surely kill you. A cyberhit. It's not only possible. It's already happened.

LOUIS FREEH, FBI DIRECTOR: You had a subject that not only had very adept computer skills but also some knowledge of medical regimes so he could adversely but not obviously change the medication that would have killed this particular patient.

ARENA: Cybercrime is becoming more lethal, and its not only lone hackers preying on victims but, increasingly, organized crime groups.

MIKE VATIS, DARTMOUTH COLLEGE: It appears that we could have hackers who are working in conjunction with some of the more traditional forms of organized crime, and that's a very scary prospect because that means there are a lot more resources involved in planning and carrying out these sorts of criminal enterprises.

ARENA: Organized crime enterprises, especially from Russia and the Ukraine, have been heavily involved in the theft of proprietary information, which includes credit cards and personal information, crimes usually committed by total strangers that affect victims on a very intimate level.

LADEEN FREIMUTH, IDENTITY THEFT VICTIM: I feel violated that someone is out there using my identity and has been doing this for months without my knowledge, and it's frustrating and -- because -- and very, very time consuming to clear all this up.

ARENA: But it's not only individuals who are being threatened. Organized crime groups are busily targeting companies, putting a new cyber-twist on old-fashioned extortion.

RON DICK, NIPC DIRECTOR: We have seen in -- organized groups using technology to intrude into various e-commerce systems so as to extort them for money. As opposed to stealing information or using credit card information that was secured for the dot-coms, they come back to the business and say, "If you don't pay me a hundred thousand dollars, I'm going to disclose that you've become a victim to my scheme."

ARENA: It's not just small companies that are victims. Even the media giant Bloomberg has been a target of cyber-extortionists.

(on camera): A recent survey shows compute-security breaches at U.S. businesses and government organizations is rising dramatically. Eighty-five percent of respondents detected breaches over the previous year.

(voice-over): And that has led to an increase in specialists handling cyber-investigations at agencies, including the Secret Service, Customs, and the FBI, which houses the National Infrastructure Protection Center.

DICK: Its mission is to detect, deter, and assess different vulnerabilities out on the Internet and advise the general public as well as the private sector of what those vulnerabilities are.

We have approximately 200 agents in the United States that are conducting computer-intrusion investigations. We have trained in Fiscal Year 2000 over 2,000 state, local, federal, and foreign investigators how to conduct cybercrime investigations.

ARENA (voice-over): But that effort is sometimes stymied by a lack of sufficient cyber-security at some U.S. businesses.

PEGGY WEIGEL, CEO, SANCTUM, INC.: E-commerce sites are under a great deal of pressure by senior management often to get the sites up, get them fast, make them sticky, make them easy for the end users to use. One of the reasons why the sites are so vulnerable is because making them secure very often is very low on the list.

ARENA: E-commerce sites, government Web sites, hospital computers -- they're all vulnerable to hackers with time on their hands and on their side.

Kelli Arena, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HAYNES: Tomorrow, a sobering reminder of the negative effects of our new world: Groups looking to do harm using cyber-technology. That's tomorrow, right here on CNN NEWSROOM, and we'll see you then.

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