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American Morning
President Bush on the Campaign Trail; Scott Peterson Case; Four Southern States Holding Primaries Today
Aired March 09, 2004 - 9:00 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.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: The voters say it's the economy. New polls show John Kerry is leading President Bush.
Doctors decide that Attorney General John Ashcroft must have surgery.
And after six years apart, a mother gets to hug the daughter she was told once was dead.
Those stories and much more on this AMERICAN MORNING.
ANNOUNCER: From the CNN Broadcast Center in New York, this is AMERICAN MORNING with Soledad O'Brien and Bill Hemmer.
O'BRIEN: And good morning and welcome, everybody. I'm Soledad O'Brien. Mr. Hemmer is off today doing a little more snow boarding. But he comes back tomorrow.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: He's hanging ten somewhere. I'm sure he's having fun.
S. O'BRIEN: Yes, he is.
M. O'BRIEN: But we're working here.
S. O'BRIEN: In the meanwhile, Miles O'Brien is helping us out. So we certainly appreciate that.
Thanks for being with us.
M. O'BRIEN: It's good to be here.
S. O'BRIEN: Double duty for you.
Other stories that we're following this morning, Florida voters go to the polls for primary elections today. There is no danger of hanging chides anymore. But a former election official will tell us why he's concerned about the New voting technology.
M. OBRIEN: Also, a gruesome scandal at UCLA. Families of people who had donated their bodies to science are suing. They say their loved ones were cut up and sold for profit. Nice one for your breakfast fare here. The school denies it knew it was happening. We'll tell you about that.
S. O'BRIEN: Pretty shocking allegations. M. O'BRIEN: Yes.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: At least they weren't cutting up the students and selling them for profit. I mean, give them a little credit.
M. O'BRIEN: There you go.
S. O'BRIEN: Silver lining.
M. O'BRIEN: Mr. half full.
CAFFERTY: Yes.
Martha Stewart is on her way to prison, it looks like. And we're interested in whether or not you think that's where she belongs. She was convicted on four counts in federal court. She met with the probation officer yesterday. And June 17 is the day she may be sent off to the big House -- am@cnn.com.
S. O'BRIEN: All right. Thanks, Jack.
M. O'BRIEN: Thanks, Jack.
Let's check the news. This just in to CNN just about five minutes ago. Attorney General John Ashcroft will undergo surgery today as part of his treatment for gallstone pancreatitis. Justice Department officials say that surgery is expected to take place around the noon Eastern hour. The attorney general has been in the intensive care unit at George Washington University Hospital. He was admitted on Thursday.
Lawyers for convicted sniper John Allen Muhammad have asked for leniency in his sentencing, which is set to take place in the next hour. A jury recommended that Muhammad get the death penalty for killing a man in Virginia, just one of 10 people killed during an October 2002 sniper attack series. A judge today has the option of upholding the jury sentence or reducing it to life in prison without parole. Formal sentencing for Lee Malvo, his accomplice, is set for later.
And Haiti may take a step today toward repairing its government. A seven-member council is expected to name a New prime minister today, and an interim President was officially installed yesterday. The process of picking a New government is being criticized by the ousted President, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who calls himself, still, Haiti's true President.
And California lawmakers are proposing an amendment to the state constitution that would allow teens to vote. Anybody think this is a good idea? I don't know. I guess I'm getting older.
The idea is called training wheels for citizenship. If passed, the amendment would give 16-year-olds a half vote, 14-year-olds a quarter vote, and I guess daddies get no vote. At least in my House that's the way it works. That will begin in 2006. We'll watch that one very closely.
S. O'BRIEN: I don't know if that's ever going to take off. That doesn't seem like an idea that's going to work.
M. O'BRIEN: No. But we'll watch it for you.
S. O'BRIEN: We'll watch it and we will see.
(WEATHER REPORT)
S. O'BRIEN: Turning to politics now, there is no suspense when it comes to today's Democratic primaries in Florida, in Louisiana, in Mississippi, and in Texas. They serve only to propel Senator John Kerry closer to the official Democratic presidential nomination.
Senator Kerry leads President Bush 52 percent to 44 percent in a New CNN-USA Today-Gallup poll of likely voters. He also out-polls the President by an average of 14 percent when it comes to domestic issues, including health care, the deficit, Social Security, and the economy. Senator Kerry went after his Republican rival on some of those issues last night in Tampa.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We're going to cover all our children and cover Americans. And we're going to have a way of lowering the cost for every single American who gets health care in the work place today. And you know how we're going to pay for it? And do you know how we're going to pay for special needs education in America? We're going to roll back George Bush's unaffordable tax cut for the wealthiest people in this country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
S. O'BRIEN: That CNN-USA Today-Gallup poll also had some good news for the President. Mr. Bush leads Senator Kerry when it comes to international issues, including terrorism and the situation in Iraq.
Mr. Bush is spending today in Washington, D.C. after making campaign appearances in Texas. He was in attack mode yesterday during stops in Dallas and in Houston. White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux has more for us this morning.
Suzanne, good morning.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.
Well, Bush campaign officials are really downplaying those poll numbers. Instead, they're really stepping up their criticism against Senator Kerry.
It was just yesterday that President Bush returned from his two- day swing through Texas. That is where he was courting voters at a rodeo, as well as a live stock show. He also raised another $3 million for his campaign. His harshest criticism to date was when he accused Senator Kerry of gutting intelligence by introducing a 1995 bill that would have cut it. He called it deeply irresponsible.
The Kerry camp saying that that has been mischaracterize. But the strategy is obvious here. They are trying to essentially define Kerry in the most negative light, defend his record, at the same time, shape his debate.
The bottom line here, the message is, is that President Bush is a leader. Whether or not you agree with his decisions, that he has had the courage to make the tough choices. They say that Senator Kerry has not.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Everybody knows where I stand. I'm clear-visioned about what I intend to do when it comes to defeating the terrorists. I made it clear that if you harbor a terrorist, you're just as guilty as the terrorists.
I think America needs to speak with a clear voice, have a clear vision, and leave no doubt in anybody's mind about where we stand. And anything short of that, anything that doesn't speak clearly, in my judgment, will cause America to be less secure.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: And President Bush defending the use of 9/11. He says he will continue to speak about it during the campaign. He says it taught him a very important lesson, the need to confront the threat against Americans -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Suzanne Malveaux at the White House for us this morning.
Suzanne, thanks.
Today's Florida primary will probably receive the most scrutiny because mostly of the election results from the 2000 presidential election and the legal battle, of course, that followed. A Miami Herald poll shows that Senator Kerry is leading President Bush. They are 49 percent to 43 percent. Independent Ralph Nader receives 3 percent of the vote there. Both parties know the Sunshine State will be a battleground in November.
So will the voting process be up to task? We're joined this morning by David Cardwell. He's the former director of Florida's Division of Elections. He is now an attorney with the Cardwell Law Firm. He is in Orlando, Florida, this morning.
Nice to see you, sir. Thanks for being with us.
DAVID CARDWELL, FMR. DIRECTOR, FLORIDA'S DIVISION OF ELECTIONS: Glad to be with you, Soledad..
S. O'BRIEN: Thank you very much.
You've said previously that you actually hoped that Senator Edwards would have been in this race as well, because you thought it would provide an important test of the system. What do you mean specifically?
CARDWELL: Well, since the 2000 election, Florida has done a complete overhaul of its election system, particularly with the election machinery. Now, we've gone from chides and paper ballots to computerized touch screen ballots and optical scan. But we really haven't had a good test of the New equipment in all 67 counties in a very close election.
We had some in the 2002 gubernatorial election. But my thought was, if we had a contested Democratic primary, this would have been a real good tune-up to see if we were ready for November.
S. O'BRIEN: Fifteen of the 67 counties that you were just talking about actually have those touch screen kind of updated computer screens. What's your big concern with those? Do you think that that solves the problem, or do you still have reason for concern?
CARDWELL: Well, I have three concerns with the touch screens. First of all, with the election workers in the precinct, it's much more involved, much more complicated, much more time consuming to set up the touch screen machines. It's like setting up a computer and booting it up, which is a New task for these election workers.
Second, I have some concern with the voters. While it's described as being as easy as using as ATM, many voters in this state have never used an ATM. And you do have to carefully read the instructions, or else your vote is not tabulated.
And third is that, unlike optical scanning machines and even the infamous Chad voting systems, we don't have a paper audit trail. That is the subject of some litigation in the state. But right now, when there's a recount, all that a touch screen county would do is just report in the results from the first time they tabulated.
S. O'BRIEN: Senator Kerry says that he plans to put in place a legal team that would guard against any kind of irregularities come next fall. There's also a Catholic group that's called for international polling observers come November as well. Do you think those are safeguards enough? And specifically, what exactly is Senator Kerry proposing?
CARDWELL: Well, it's something that I believe the Democratic Party, as well as the Republican Party, has done virtually for every statewide election. They do assemble lawyers that are well versed in election law, or get a quick course in it so that they can respond to problems that may arise in various counties.
That was clearly evident in 2002. But, of course, in 2000, it was so close and so pervasive it was hard to respond, as probably the parties would have liked. I think it's very important also that we have good voter education. It's really important for the voters to understand these systems. And I applaud the secretary of state and the supervisors of the Election Association for launching the voter education drive to try to teach the people what they need to know and how to use the voting equipment before they walk into the polling place in November.
S. O'BRIEN: The governor of Florida says this: he says criticisms, like the ones you offer of the system now, are "... all part of some politically motivated thing that tries to scare people that somehow their vote is not going to count, and that is just hogwash, hogwash."
What's your reaction to that?
CARDWELL: Well, my comment are certainly not politically motivated, and I have made them since the 2000 election. I even told the governor's taskforce on election reform in 2001 that I thought we should walk before we run, and that we should go to the optical sense equipment, which is much easier for the voter to understand, than jumping all the way to a brand New technology in touch screen.
But as you mentioned, there are several counties that elected to go there, which are predominantly the larger urban counties that are using the touch screen system. I think it's a legitimate concern. But I think by voicing it now instead of voicing it in November, we have an opportunity to address it and to educate the voters, which is really what is most important.
S. O'BRIEN: Mr. Cardwell, nice to see you. Thanks for being with us this morning. We appreciate your insight.
CARDWELL: Glad to be with you.
M. O'BRIEN: Brings back memories, doesn't it? Mr. Chadwell -- I mean Cardwell...
S. O'BRIEN: Yes. He spent a lot of time on the air with Mr. Hemmer.
M. O'BRIEN: He was getting the union rate I think there for awhile with CNN.
All right. Still to come, hundreds will be interviewed; only a few will be selected. How long will it take to seat the jury in the Scott Peterson case?
S. O'BRIEN: Also, a New image from the Hubbell Telescopelooking deep into the universe. What could scientists learn from it?
M. O'BRIEN: And "Consumer Reports" out with its New list of top cars. We'll see which ones made the cut. Quite a few of them are from Detroit, folks. There's some news.
That's all ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
M. O'BRIEN: Welcome back.
Families of cadaver donors have filed a class action lawsuit against UCLA Medical School, accusing it of selling body parts for profit and improperly disposing of human remains. The case has already resulted in two arrests. And lawyers today are expected to ask a judge to shut down the school's cadaver program until safeguards are put into space. In the lawsuit, family members say they signed contracts with the university guaranteeing remains would never be sold.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SHIRLEY WILLIAMS, HUSBAND'S BODY DONATED TO UCLA: I almost dropped the telephone. I just was so shocked by it, because I had been told that when he was going be cremated, they would call me, and that I would be able to go over and pick up his ashes and take them to the cemetery, where I had a headstone and everything all ready for him. But that wasn't to happen.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
M. O'BRIEN: Now, the chief of UCLA's medical school issued an apology. And we quote from it now. "We have no indication that the anatomical specimens involved in this case were used for anything other than medical education and research. Nonetheless, any legal commercialization would have violated the trust of the donors, their families and UCLA. We are deeply sorry."
S. O'BRIEN: In the Scott Peterson case, more than 400 perspective jurors have already filled out questionnaires. The jury selection process will continue today, and it's expected to take several weeks to seat the panel. Peterson is accused of killing his wife, Laci, and their unborn child.
Reporter Gloria Gomez of KOVR TV has been covering the proceeding. She joins us from Redwood City, California, this morning.
Nice to see you, Gloria. Thanks for being with us.
GLORIA GOMEZ, KOVR TV: Good morning, Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Let's talk a little bit about this questionnaire. Give me a sense of the range of questions that are on there. One is actually about extra marital affairs, isn't it?
GOMEZ: Right. As a matter of fact, there's 116 questions. They range from, "What are your thoughts on Scott Peterson, have you made up your mind on his innocence or guilt?"
Also, there was some interesting questions about psychology. "What do you think about psychologists? What do you think about their testimony?" That was pretty interesting, because sources tell me they may call a psychology expert to talk about Scott Peterson's mindset. Another interesting question was also about Web sites, whether they view Web sites, what kind of chat rooms they go into. So sources of mine saying they may go into Scott's computer, what kind of chat rooms he visited, what kind of Web sites he may have gone to.
S. O'BRIEN: So really, the questions covering the range. There was sort of a light moment; it sounds like, by some of the descriptions, about the judge telling jurors he didn't really expect them to answer the question about extramarital affairs honestly. Give us a little explanation on that.
GOMEZ: Well, right, because there was some media reports stating that some of the potential jurors would be asked whether or not they have had extramarital affairs. The judge calmed the potential jurors down, giving them ease of mind, saying, listen, we're not going to ask you about extramarital affairs. That's a lot of personal information, and frankly, we don't think we'll get the truth from a lot of you. And there was some chuckling in the courtroom.
S. O'BRIEN: No one is going to tell anyway. And then he was quick to say, not that I had an affair. I'm just pointing that out.
Let's talk a little bit about what you can glean from these questions. Can you tell which direction either side is heading from -- you now, and maybe they're just too much across the board -- but these questions and the specificity of some of them?
GOMEZ: Well, I know they're definitely interested to know basically the makeup of the jury, what are their thoughts on the death penalty. That's a huge one, because a lot of the people that were dismissed yesterday said they were against the death penalty, that they could never think of putting someone to death.
And I said, "Well, do you think that's the reason you were excused?" And a lot of them said, "Probably, because we are not for the death penalty."
S. O'BRIEN: Scott Peterson actually has been in the room with some of those potential jurors. What's his demeanor been like?
GOMEZ: Well, inside the courtroom, Scott seems to be very cordial, according to a lot of potential witnesses. They say that when he's in there, he's very polite. He says good morning to the potential jurors. He then sits down, is very cordial.
Although some who have been excused from the jury say sometimes he tends to be smiling. He looks very calm, cool and collected. Some of them are turned off by that, saying that, "Why is he smiling in the courtroom? He's facing double murder charges. He should be more serious about it."
S. O'BRIEN: And the trial could take five months. Big problem for many of the jurors, isn't it? Well, potential -- forgive me.
GOMEZ: Absolutely. A lot of them -- right. A lot of them saying the reason they were excused is because they can't sit on a jury for six months because they simply can't afford it.
A lot of these people are self-employed. A lot of them own their own businesses. And they just can't afford to sit there for six months.
S. O'BRIEN: Gloria Gomez is a reporter with KOVR TV out in Redwood City for us this morning.
Nice to see you, Gloria. Thanks.
GOMEZ: Thank you.
S. O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, Martha Stewart awaits her sentence. You'll hear what you think she deserves when AMERICAN MORNING continues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
M. O'BRIEN: Five British prisoners held at the Guantanamo Bay Prison Camp in Cuba expected to head back to Britain today. One-time hostage Terry Waite accuses the U.S. of using terrorist tactics in its treatment. Waite, who was held for more than four years in Lebanon, was part of a group that marched to the White House yesterday in protest. Waite spoke with Anderson Cooper, who began by pointing out the differences in the conditions Waite endured, compared to those of detainees at Guantanamo.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TERRY WAITE, HELD HOSTAGE IN LEBANON: My conditions were harsh. And I have not made a comparison between conditions. I'm talking about due process of law.
Now, I can well understand, and I have great sympathy with the fact that people are afraid of terrorism. However, you don't defeat terror terrorism by this particular means. You don't make a unilateral decision to make what is nothing more than a large interrogation camp outside the jurisdiction of the courts.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN "360": But these people were combatants in a war. I mean, they were picked up, for the most part, on the battlefields of Afghanistan, a few places elsewhere. I'm not quite sure -- I mean, some 10,000 people were rounded up. Ultimately, only some 650, I think, are still being kept at Guantanamo Bay. I'm not sure what status you think they should be held under.
WAITE: I mean, you raise a very interesting question of, on the so-called war on terrorism, where is the battlefield? Now, I agree, you see. It does present us with new challenges. But if we want -- if we find the existing laws are inadequate for this new situation, then there are means whereby we can get together collectively as a group of nations and draft appropriate legislation to deal with this type of problem. Not by taking this unilateral action.
Unfortunately, the rule of law, and international law human rights conventions have been broken. And they are there for the protection of us all and for all our freedoms. And you undermine them, you undermine all our freedoms.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
M. O'BRIEN: Now, Waite was the special envoy to the Archbishop of Canterbury when he headed to Lebanon in 1987 to try to win freedom for several hostages. Instead, he was kidnapped and spent four years in solitary confinement. He was finally released in 1991.
S. O'BRIEN: Let's turn to Jack now with the "Question of the Day."
CAFFERTY: Yes. Martha Stewart, in case you haven't heard enough about that deal, she was convicted, she'll be sentenced in June. Probably going to do some jail time under the federal sentencing guidelines.
Somebody pointed out that all you need to know about Martha Stewart is in this shot. She came out of the courthouse in the driving rain and allowed the lawyer to walk with no umbrella, while she used her umbrella totally and completely to keep her own little self dry.
S. O'BRIEN: He lost the case. I think that might be...
CAFFERTY: So there's a whole big long message about Martha in that picture. That was from some viewer.
Kerrie in Savage, Minnesota, writes: "Was Martha Stewart guilty? Probably. Should she do prison time, possibly? Could the judicial system better spend their time going after criminals that are a real threat to society, like rapists, murders, child abusers and the Catholic clergy? Most definitely."
B. Sheehey in Panama City, Florida, "I have renewed my subscription to "Martha Stewart Living" and will shop at K-Mart much more often. The good old boys are still at it."
Linda, in South Carolina: "Yes, I think Martha should serve prison time. But is she going to a real prison or one of those CEO prisons, where if she misbehaves she'll lose her spa day privilege and maybe not get lobster for dinner?"
Virginia in Arkansas: "If the government is looking for justice, Martha Stewart has already been punished enough. The punishment should fit the crime. In her case, she's lost her reputation, any respect she had with the public, as well as control of her company. I think she should be put on probation."
And Mark in Port St. John, Florida: "Send Martha to jail when Ken Lay goes. I feel so much safer knowing that Martha will be off the street."
M. O'BRIEN: Now, if she does go, it will probably be to Danbury, right? Which is...
CAFFERTY: I don't know where they'll send her. M. O'BRIEN: A likely candidate. And that is not the hardest of time, right?
S. O'BRIEN: Well, you know, it was interesting. I was talking to a woman who spent time in one of these white collar prisons. And she actually described it as very difficult. I mean, obviously not as bad as...
CAFFERTY: You know what? It wouldn't matter if they confined her to her house. Martha Stewart is used to being in control and being free to do what she wants when she wants. And if she can't do it, getting somebody to do it for her. Take away her freedom, you're going to bust her up big time.
S. O'BRIEN: That's essentially what this former prisoner said. She said she's got to, step one, get over the fact that you're going to be in control of anything.
CAFFERTY: But particularly for someone like Martha, who is used to being in charge.
S. O'BRIEN: Or any CEO I would have to imagine as well.
M. O'BRIEN: Good point.
All right. Still to come on the program, voters in the key battleground state head to the polls today. We'll take you on to the campaign trial live when AMERICAN MORNING continues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
S. O'BRIEN: And good morning, and welcome back. It's just almost half past the hour on this AMERICAN MORNING. I'm Soledad O'Brien, with Miles O'Brien, who is in for Bill Hemmer. He still has a day off. He is back tomorrow.
M. O'BRIEN: Trying to keep the papers neat.
S. O'BRIEN: Yes, keep his desk tidy. You know how he hates that.
M. O'BRIEN: He would be upset with me.
M. O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, lots of people check "Consumer Reports" before they buy a car. The magazine has just come out with the list of most reliable cars. And surprise, surprise, American cars have moved up the list. We're going to explain just ahead.
S. O'BRIEN: All right. Right about now, NASA is releasing a picture that tells the story. This is it.
This is the new ultra deep field. And you're looking at galaxies heretofore not seen by human eyes. This is really what the universe looked like in its infancy. We'll take a look and explain all of that with the executive editor of "Sky & Telescope" Magazine. S. O'BRIEN: But first, the opening bell ringing on Wall Street right now. The Dow Jones industrial average starts trading at 10,529. It was down 66 points at yesterday's close. Over at the Nasdaq market site, the composite index opens at 2,008. That's down 38 points on Monday.
M. O'BRIEN: All right. Let's check the news right now, and get you up to date.
Attorney General John Ashcroft is set to undergo surgery at noon Eastern Time today. Aides to the attorney general say doctors will remove his gallbladder to prevent a recurrence of some gallstone pancreatitis. Ashcroft has been in intensive care at George Washington University Hospital in Washington since Thursday night.
CIA Director George Tenet is going before a Senate panel as we speak. He'll face questions from the Senate Armed Services Committee on future threats to national security. In recent hearings, Tenet has been grilled about the CIA's prewar intelligence on Iraq and why no weapons of mass destruction have been found so far there.
And live pictures now to show you courtesy of our affiliate KHOU in Houston. This is Pasadena, Texas, suburb of Houston. Residents in the area being warned to stay sheltered as a chemical warehouse fire rages there. And those pictures will tell you about that.
No injuries reported. The cause of the fire not known. We're tracking it for you.
And a Philadelphia mom is getting acquainted with a 6-year-old daughter she was told had died in a fire. Luz Cuevas and her daughter officially reunited in New Jersey yesterday. My vote for picture of the day.
They sure do look alike, don't they? The little girl was just 10 days old when her mother last saw her. Police say a suspect has been arrested in connection with the kidnapping and then the alleged cover- up fire.
S. O'BRIEN: They look so much alike, don't they?
M. O'BRIEN: It's amazing. Nobody can put that together.
S. O'BRIEN: Some people said they sort of thought that it was put together.
M. O'BRIEN: Lots to that story.
S. O'BRIEN: Absolutely.
(WEATHER REPORT)
S. O'BRIEN: Among today's four Democratic presidential primaries, Florida, no doubt, has the highest profile. The Sunshine State is also a battleground state that could go a long way in deciding who wins the White House come November. John Zarrella is at a polling station in Plantation, Florida, with more this morning.
John, good morning.
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.
Certainly, the highest profile, Florida. But not growing much attention from Democratic voters here this morning. The primary, the polls open about two and a half hours now here in Plantation, Florida.
You can see the poll workers all sitting here. Not a lot to do. They've got about 400 folks. Democrats are eligible to vote here today in the presidential primary. But they've only had about 25 people show up so far.
Now, this is an old punch card ballot, a thing of the past here in Florida. This is what got us all in trouble here back in 2000 with hanging chads. Well, now they've gone to 15 counties, including Broward and some of the biggest counties. They've gone to these electronic touch screen machines.
You don't see anything on the machine here right now on the screen. It physically has to be activated by a poll worker when someone comes in to vote. They bring in a box, and they plug that in there, and it activates the machine, and the machine asks the voter, do you want Spanish or English in this particular case, and away you go and you vote for the candidate of choice.
But now, while the primary here is very, very slow, that's certainly not expected to be the case in November, when Florida could once again be a cliff hanger come right down to the wire. And it is very possible that the vote could be decided here in Florida by the undecided voters.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ZARRELLA (voice-over): Four years later, Democrats in Florida still feel the sting of the 2000 election defeat.
SCOTT MADDOX, FLORIDA DEMOCRATIC PARTY CHAIRMAN: Well, there were a lot of hurt feelings from people who feel like the election was stolen right here in the state of Florida. But you can't win an election looking in the rear view mirror.
ZARRELLA: In many ways, the 2004 presidential race here is shaping up as a mirror image of the 2000 vote. The state is still split almost equally between Democrats, at 41 percent, and Republicans at 39 percent. Seventeen percent are Independent.
North of Orlando is largely Republican territory. The Democrats are strongest in the southeast. And an area called the I-4 Corridor is the dividing line.
It stretches from Tampa on the West Coast to Daytona Beach on the East Coast. The voters who live along the corridor could very well determine whether President Bush or Senator Kerry takes the state and its 27 electoral votes.
JIM KANE, POLITICAL EXPERT: Those folks are the ones who will determine who wins Florida. Always have for the last five or six years. And I don't see that changing this election.
ZARRELLA: Both parties will fall all over themselves, coddling the corridor crowd. They are mostly suburbanites, younger than much of the state's population. They are working folks who tend to make up their minds late. And many are the registered Independents. The importance of the I-4 vote to both parties is already clear.
KERRY: I am so happy to be in Florida.
ZARRELLA: The day after his Super Tuesday wins, Kerry was in Orlando, the epicenter of the corridor. The president had already kicked off the race...
BUSH: Gentlemen, start your engine engines.
ZARRELLA: ... and the race for corridor voters with appearances in Daytona and later in Tampa.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ZARRELLA: Now, this is the vote button up here. When people are finished this is the button that will be red when it's activated. They push that button to say they've voted, and then they're all done. And the next person in line -- of course, there's no line here right now, Soledad -- comes up and votes.
But again, state officials and county officials saying no problems this time with the new technology. It appears to be working just fine. And that's a good thing, considering how many problems we had in past elections here in Florida -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: No question about that. John Zarrella for us this morning. John, thanks.
M. O'BRIEN: Astronomers are looking at a brand new baby picture of the universe, as we speak. An image taken by the Hubble Space Telescope just released. Here it is folks. It shows galaxy is formed just after the big bang.
NASA released the picture right this moment. And, as you get closer in, you get a sense of some of the 10,000 or so galaxies picked up by Hubble during this long series of time exposures.
Kelly Beatty is the executive editor of "Sky & Telescope" Magazine, and he's joining us now to decipher all of this for you.
Kelly, good to see you.
KELLY BEATTY, EXECUTIVE EDITOR, "SKY & TELESCOPE" MAGAZINE: Good morning, Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: All right. I know you've had an opportunity to look at this. And, obviously, this is the first cut, if you will. But what I see are some rather odd-shaped galaxies. What's going on here?
BEATTY: That's right. Most of us have an impression of galaxies being a very nice symmetrical pinwheel shape. But early in the universe, they were much less well formed. They were adolescent, even infant galaxies.
There's a lot of controversy among astronomers over whether these galaxies gobbled each other up and eventually took on their current form, or just sort of formed in isolation. And that's one of the key reasons for doing this deep survey.
M. O'BRIEN: Yes. It looks like toothpicks or footballs, and some are blobs and so forth. Help people understand.
When we look at these and say we're looking back in time, that's a concept that some people have a hard time getting their head around. But basically, because of the distances, you're seeing something that happened a long time ago.
BEATTY: That's right. Hubble is our best time machine. As we look out into space, it's taken that light a long time to reach us.
The farther away an object is, evenven-traveling 186,000 miles a second, that light takes a very long time to reach us. These objects were probably formed about a billion years after the universe formed, the big bang, and so it's taken almost 13 billion years for this light to reach us. And that's why we're seeing the universe as it was a very long time ago. So time -- distance equals time in the case of space.
M. O'BRIEN: So what we see is a representation of something that happened a long time ago. We don't know what's there at this moment, and we have no way of knowing.
Let me ask you this, though. I'm told it's impossible to go back far enough to see the big bang because the universe was kind of opaque at that time. But how far back could, say, Hubble or a successor instrument go?
BEATTY: Well, that's a good question. There's a period called the Dark Ages. The first stars were thought to have ignited about, say, half a billion years after the big bang. And that illuminated the universe. But that light only is reaching us now.
Now, the real question is, how fast did those stars form? Was there a big burst of star formation, and since then it's been tailing off, kind of like a fireworks display in reverse? That's one of the issues.
If we could see back further in time, the universe would be dark, because literally the matter would be so dense that the light couldn't get out. In a sense, kind of like a black hole, but more from the standpoint of opaqueness. You can't get the light out.
There comes a point when the light can get out. That's the limit to what we can see. M. O'BRIEN: All right. So we're not going to get any file tape of the big bang, I guess.
Tell us, when you look at this -- well, I'll tell you what, before we get away, I got to ask you one word about Hubble. It's bitter sweet for a lot of people, because this is yet another significant image from the Hubble Space Telescope, 14 years of success which, in and of itself, is quite a statement, considering it was launched myopic.
And yet NASA said it will not send any more servicing or repair missions to the Hubble, and thus it will just eventually gradually fail over the next few years. Is that something that is upsetting folks in astronomy circles?
BEATTY: Oh, very much so. Hubble is like a well-maintained antique car. And as long as you keep it well maintained, it's going to perform for you.
There is a servicing mission that was planned for later this year, actually just about now. And as Sean O'Keefe has stated earlier this year, that's now been cancelled for safety reasons. But a lot of astronomers are up in arms.
Congress has taken up the mantle of this and is pressing NASA and Admiral Gaimen (ph) of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board to come up with cogent reasons why going to Hubble and repairing it and making it useful until, say, 2010, is any more risky than launching the shuttle on a normal basis.
M. O'BRIEN: Kelly Beatty, thank you very much. He's with "Sky & Telescope" Magazine. We appreciate your insights on things that are sometimes difficult to get a handle on. And you do a good job explaining it. We appreciate that.
And we're going to talk to, as a matter of fact, the administrator, Sean O'Keefe. We'll have a story a little later on CNN, explaining that he is very firm on not sending a mission to Hubble again because of safety issues.
S. O'BRIEN: Yes. He certainly has been in the past as well.
Still to come this morning, another high profile corporate trial is wrapping up. Andy Serwer is going to put the spotlight on a case that's been overshadowed by the Martha Stewart case.
M. O'BRIEN: And what are the best cars of 2004? We'll get the ratings from "Consumer Reports" after a break.
Stay with us for more AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
S. O'BRIEN: Score one for the big three in the auto reliability rate. "Consumer Reports" is out with its annual auto issue, and there is some good news for the domestics. David Champion from "Consumer Reports" joins us to talk about the group's recommendations in several car categories.
Nice to see you. Been chatting a little bit about minivans. We'll get to those in just a few moments.
Give me a sense overall, though, how American cars have stacked up this year. Some years in the past have not done well.
DAVID CHAMPION, "CONSUMER REPORTS" Every year we send out a questionnaire to our over 5 million subscribers, and they tell us how reliable their cars have been in everyday life. And this year, we've seen the domestic manufacturers continue their progress that they've been making over the past five years. And this year, actually overtaking the European manufacturers. All cars are getting more reliable, but the domestics have been making this big push.
S. O'BRIEN: I don't want to spend too much time on the test overall, but give me just a quick run-through of how it works before we get to the actual results.
CHAMPION: Every -- we go out and buy all the cars anonymously from local dealers in Connecticut. We take them to the test track, check them over thoroughly. Then we put about 2,000 miles on it in everyday life, with our kids and families in the cars.
And then we put them through a whole battery of tests on the test track to check braking, acceleration, emergency handling, and various other aspects of the car. And then at the end of the day, we put all that data together and see which one comes out on top.
S. O'BRIEN: All right. Well, let's see which ones came out on top. First, for the cars, top small sedan, you rated the Ford Focus. Why?
CHAMPION: The Ford Focus was a wonderful car when we tested it. And we tested it some years ago and continued to test.
Great handling. Almost has a sports car feel to it. Nice interior room, nice high driving position, also, so you can see around. It gives you great visibility.
Unfortunately, the reliability wasn't very good some years ago. They've improved it to above average last year. So it allows us to recommend it and become a top pick.
S. O'BRIEN: And always has a very nice price point, that car.
CHAMPION: It does.
S. O'BRIEN: The top family sedan, it was really a tie between VW Passat and the Honda Accord. Honda Accord really does very well with you guys every year.
CHAMPION: Yes, it does. The Passat is a lovely car, and it's our top pick in V6 sedans. It's very comfortable, very quiet, beautifully trimmed interior.
The four cylinder Accord is our top pick in four cylinder sedans. Very roomy, nice interior. Excellent fuel economy.
S. O'BRIEN: Top upscale sedan, you pick the Acura TL. Again, Acura always doing pretty well.
CHAMPION: The last TL was a pretty average sort of car, about mid (UNINTELLIGIBLE). But they've really gone to town on it. It's got an immaculate interior. Really powerful engine, great handling.
S. O'BRIEN: Going to buy the luxury sedan, you say go with the Lexus LS430. Why?
CHAMPION: It's beautiful. It's so quiet.
S. O'BRIEN: You love this. Look at you.
CHAMPION: So comfortable. It just really is a lovely car to drive. And it's got excellent reliability, and the depreciation is great.
S. O'BRIEN: Well, let's take some time to talk about SUVs. Anything you need to know safety-wise when you're looking for an SUV? There were concerns, of course, about rollover issues, things like that.
CHAMPION: If you're going to buy an SUV, try and find one with stability control. It's a system that, if the car starts to slide out of control, it applies a brake to one wheel, brings it back into line. It really does help the emergency handling situation and prevents getting in a situation where it may roll over.
S. O'BRIEN: Small SUV, the Subaru Forester. I like this car.
CHAMPION: It is. It's a very nimble, very nice-handling car, that improved the brakes for 2004. Nicer interior. So it becomes our top pick.
S. O'BRIEN: Midsize is the Lexus RX330. Why do you like that one?
CHAMPION: It's a very quiet, very comfortable car. Nicely trimmed inside, good fuel economy, and pretty responsive handling.
S. O'BRIEN: This is what I'm looking for, the three-row SUV. Which is, of course, essentially the SUV minivan sort of hybrid there.
CHAMPION: It is.
S. O'BRIEN: The Honda Pilot you like. Why do you like that better than some of the other minivan options out there?
CHAMPION: Well, it's like a minivan designed to look like an SUV. It's got three rows of seats; it's got a very good four-wheel drive system. It has excellent fuel economy at 19 miles per gallon.
S. O'BRIEN: All right. Well, we are out of time, but wonderful. And anyone who wants to get more -- because of course the list goes on and on -- you really did a very thorough testing -- you can pick up a copy of "Consumer Reports" for the 2004 car test.
Thanks so much, David. Certainly appreciate it.
CHAMPION: Thank you very much.
S. O'BRIEN: Miles?
M. O'BRIEN: Soledad needs those seats, right?
S. O'BRIEN: Lots of them.
M. O'BRIEN: Still to come, the high-profile corporate case against Tyco's former chief coming to an end. We'll check out the closing arguments coming up here on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(STOCK REPORT)
CAFFETY: So, should they put Martha Stewart in prison is the "Question of the Day."
David in Fredericksburg, Texas: "Martha Stewart's been found guilty, will be punished according to the law. The continuous media chortling over her misfortune is petty and mean-spirited. It reminds me of children on a playground making fun of somebody they don't like."
We love Martha Stewart. She has filled up countless hours of our broadcast day here on CNN.
Beverly in Detroit, Michigan: "Heck yes, Martha should go to jail for probably longer than the judge will give her. Remember, she was a licensed securities broker. She has known the laws which are applicable for a long time. Bye-bye, Martha, and shame on you."
John in Charlotte, North Carolina: "Martha deserves prison time if and only if Ken Lay of Enron and Dennis Kozlowski of Tyco are executed in a fashion that would make Mel Gibson cringe."
M. O'BRIEN: Whoa.
CAFFERTY: I don't write these.
M. O'BRIEN: Are you sure you didn't write that one?
CAFFERTY: It's some clown in North Carolina.
Todd in San Diego: "Let's kill two birds with one stone. Martha should run for president, and we can send Ralph Nader to prison. Martha has shown that she's tough, wily and dishonest. She'd be perfect for president. As for Ralph Nader, he can organize a prison inmates union or something."
M. O'BRIEN: All right. We have one final thought here on Mars, which I know Jack is interested in. Well, a couple of hours ago, we had Jim Garvin on here. You remember that, Jack?
He is the head of NASA's Mars scientific campaign. Big guy at NASA. And he was showing us some rocks.
Now, we have had our staff go through and check the tape very carefully. We think we have a little bit of news. Let's take a look very closely. If you can -- oh, there it is. Oh, there's life on Mars. This just in.
CAFFERTY: Is the implication here that I'm a fossil?
M. O'BRIEN: If not a fossil, at least a Martian.
S. O'BRIEN: Let me move out of the way so you can hit him.
CAFFERTY: Is Hemmer back tomorrow? I really miss Bill.
S. O'BRIEN: Mr. Hemmer is back tomorrow.
(CROSSTALK)
M. O'BRIEN: I think it's time for me to go to Atlanta.
S. O'BRIEN: Coming up CNN this morning, the attorney general just a couple hours away from surgery to have his gallbladder removed. A specialist will talk about the risks coming up on "CNN LIVE TODAY" with Daryn Kagan.
AMERICAN MORNING is back in just a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
S. O'BRIEN: And that is it for us. We are out time. But we're going to see you back here tomorrow.
Daryn Kagan is at the CNN Center. She's going to take you through the next few hours on "CNN LIVE TODAY."
Hey, Daryn. Good morning to you.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. You guys have a great day in New York City.
Miles, safe travels back here to Atlanta.
M. O'BRIEN: I'll see you tomorrow.
S. O'BRIEN: Thanks for helping us out, Miles, by the way.
M. O'BRIEN: Oh, had a blast. Always fun stopping by.
S. O'BRIEN: How about tomorrow then?
M. O'BRIEN: No.
S. O'BRIEN: He lies. You see, he lies.
KAGAN: It's a good group there. You guys have a great day. We'll get started here in Atlanta.
And good morning, everyone, from CNN headquarters in Atlanta. I'm Daryn Kagan. Let's start by taking a look at the stories making news at this hour.
Convicted sniper John Allen Muhammad is in court to hear his sentence. A jury recommended the mastermind of the D.C.-area sniper shootings to get the death sentence. Muhammad's accomplice, Lee Boyd Malvo, was convicted in a separate trial. He will be formally sentenced tomorrow. The two were convicted after a wave of terror that left 10 people around the Washington area dead.
More tough questions from a Senate committee for CIA Director George Tenet. You see a live picture from Capitol Hill. The intelligence chief is at a hearing on future threats to national security. In recent hearings, senators have questioned Tenet about the CIA's prewar intelligence, Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction, and why none have been found so far.
Where is Osama bin Laden? Officials with access to the latest U.S. intelligence say the al Qaeda leader may be preparing to move from Pakistan to Afghanistan because of beefed up efforts to find him. The Pentagon says they don't know exactly where bin Laden is, but they believe he's hiding out in the mountains of Pakistan.
And Senator John Kerry campaigns in Illinois today. That's where he'll talk prescription drugs with senior citizens during a stop in Evanston and an address at a rally in Chicago. As Kerry campaigns, voters in Mississippi, Texas, Louisiana, and Florida are heading to the polls...
Four Southern States Holding Primaries Today>
Aired March 9, 2004 - 9:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: The voters say it's the economy. New polls show John Kerry is leading President Bush.
Doctors decide that Attorney General John Ashcroft must have surgery.
And after six years apart, a mother gets to hug the daughter she was told once was dead.
Those stories and much more on this AMERICAN MORNING.
ANNOUNCER: From the CNN Broadcast Center in New York, this is AMERICAN MORNING with Soledad O'Brien and Bill Hemmer.
O'BRIEN: And good morning and welcome, everybody. I'm Soledad O'Brien. Mr. Hemmer is off today doing a little more snow boarding. But he comes back tomorrow.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: He's hanging ten somewhere. I'm sure he's having fun.
S. O'BRIEN: Yes, he is.
M. O'BRIEN: But we're working here.
S. O'BRIEN: In the meanwhile, Miles O'Brien is helping us out. So we certainly appreciate that.
Thanks for being with us.
M. O'BRIEN: It's good to be here.
S. O'BRIEN: Double duty for you.
Other stories that we're following this morning, Florida voters go to the polls for primary elections today. There is no danger of hanging chides anymore. But a former election official will tell us why he's concerned about the New voting technology.
M. OBRIEN: Also, a gruesome scandal at UCLA. Families of people who had donated their bodies to science are suing. They say their loved ones were cut up and sold for profit. Nice one for your breakfast fare here. The school denies it knew it was happening. We'll tell you about that.
S. O'BRIEN: Pretty shocking allegations. M. O'BRIEN: Yes.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: At least they weren't cutting up the students and selling them for profit. I mean, give them a little credit.
M. O'BRIEN: There you go.
S. O'BRIEN: Silver lining.
M. O'BRIEN: Mr. half full.
CAFFERTY: Yes.
Martha Stewart is on her way to prison, it looks like. And we're interested in whether or not you think that's where she belongs. She was convicted on four counts in federal court. She met with the probation officer yesterday. And June 17 is the day she may be sent off to the big House -- am@cnn.com.
S. O'BRIEN: All right. Thanks, Jack.
M. O'BRIEN: Thanks, Jack.
Let's check the news. This just in to CNN just about five minutes ago. Attorney General John Ashcroft will undergo surgery today as part of his treatment for gallstone pancreatitis. Justice Department officials say that surgery is expected to take place around the noon Eastern hour. The attorney general has been in the intensive care unit at George Washington University Hospital. He was admitted on Thursday.
Lawyers for convicted sniper John Allen Muhammad have asked for leniency in his sentencing, which is set to take place in the next hour. A jury recommended that Muhammad get the death penalty for killing a man in Virginia, just one of 10 people killed during an October 2002 sniper attack series. A judge today has the option of upholding the jury sentence or reducing it to life in prison without parole. Formal sentencing for Lee Malvo, his accomplice, is set for later.
And Haiti may take a step today toward repairing its government. A seven-member council is expected to name a New prime minister today, and an interim President was officially installed yesterday. The process of picking a New government is being criticized by the ousted President, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who calls himself, still, Haiti's true President.
And California lawmakers are proposing an amendment to the state constitution that would allow teens to vote. Anybody think this is a good idea? I don't know. I guess I'm getting older.
The idea is called training wheels for citizenship. If passed, the amendment would give 16-year-olds a half vote, 14-year-olds a quarter vote, and I guess daddies get no vote. At least in my House that's the way it works. That will begin in 2006. We'll watch that one very closely.
S. O'BRIEN: I don't know if that's ever going to take off. That doesn't seem like an idea that's going to work.
M. O'BRIEN: No. But we'll watch it for you.
S. O'BRIEN: We'll watch it and we will see.
(WEATHER REPORT)
S. O'BRIEN: Turning to politics now, there is no suspense when it comes to today's Democratic primaries in Florida, in Louisiana, in Mississippi, and in Texas. They serve only to propel Senator John Kerry closer to the official Democratic presidential nomination.
Senator Kerry leads President Bush 52 percent to 44 percent in a New CNN-USA Today-Gallup poll of likely voters. He also out-polls the President by an average of 14 percent when it comes to domestic issues, including health care, the deficit, Social Security, and the economy. Senator Kerry went after his Republican rival on some of those issues last night in Tampa.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We're going to cover all our children and cover Americans. And we're going to have a way of lowering the cost for every single American who gets health care in the work place today. And you know how we're going to pay for it? And do you know how we're going to pay for special needs education in America? We're going to roll back George Bush's unaffordable tax cut for the wealthiest people in this country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
S. O'BRIEN: That CNN-USA Today-Gallup poll also had some good news for the President. Mr. Bush leads Senator Kerry when it comes to international issues, including terrorism and the situation in Iraq.
Mr. Bush is spending today in Washington, D.C. after making campaign appearances in Texas. He was in attack mode yesterday during stops in Dallas and in Houston. White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux has more for us this morning.
Suzanne, good morning.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.
Well, Bush campaign officials are really downplaying those poll numbers. Instead, they're really stepping up their criticism against Senator Kerry.
It was just yesterday that President Bush returned from his two- day swing through Texas. That is where he was courting voters at a rodeo, as well as a live stock show. He also raised another $3 million for his campaign. His harshest criticism to date was when he accused Senator Kerry of gutting intelligence by introducing a 1995 bill that would have cut it. He called it deeply irresponsible.
The Kerry camp saying that that has been mischaracterize. But the strategy is obvious here. They are trying to essentially define Kerry in the most negative light, defend his record, at the same time, shape his debate.
The bottom line here, the message is, is that President Bush is a leader. Whether or not you agree with his decisions, that he has had the courage to make the tough choices. They say that Senator Kerry has not.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Everybody knows where I stand. I'm clear-visioned about what I intend to do when it comes to defeating the terrorists. I made it clear that if you harbor a terrorist, you're just as guilty as the terrorists.
I think America needs to speak with a clear voice, have a clear vision, and leave no doubt in anybody's mind about where we stand. And anything short of that, anything that doesn't speak clearly, in my judgment, will cause America to be less secure.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: And President Bush defending the use of 9/11. He says he will continue to speak about it during the campaign. He says it taught him a very important lesson, the need to confront the threat against Americans -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Suzanne Malveaux at the White House for us this morning.
Suzanne, thanks.
Today's Florida primary will probably receive the most scrutiny because mostly of the election results from the 2000 presidential election and the legal battle, of course, that followed. A Miami Herald poll shows that Senator Kerry is leading President Bush. They are 49 percent to 43 percent. Independent Ralph Nader receives 3 percent of the vote there. Both parties know the Sunshine State will be a battleground in November.
So will the voting process be up to task? We're joined this morning by David Cardwell. He's the former director of Florida's Division of Elections. He is now an attorney with the Cardwell Law Firm. He is in Orlando, Florida, this morning.
Nice to see you, sir. Thanks for being with us.
DAVID CARDWELL, FMR. DIRECTOR, FLORIDA'S DIVISION OF ELECTIONS: Glad to be with you, Soledad..
S. O'BRIEN: Thank you very much.
You've said previously that you actually hoped that Senator Edwards would have been in this race as well, because you thought it would provide an important test of the system. What do you mean specifically?
CARDWELL: Well, since the 2000 election, Florida has done a complete overhaul of its election system, particularly with the election machinery. Now, we've gone from chides and paper ballots to computerized touch screen ballots and optical scan. But we really haven't had a good test of the New equipment in all 67 counties in a very close election.
We had some in the 2002 gubernatorial election. But my thought was, if we had a contested Democratic primary, this would have been a real good tune-up to see if we were ready for November.
S. O'BRIEN: Fifteen of the 67 counties that you were just talking about actually have those touch screen kind of updated computer screens. What's your big concern with those? Do you think that that solves the problem, or do you still have reason for concern?
CARDWELL: Well, I have three concerns with the touch screens. First of all, with the election workers in the precinct, it's much more involved, much more complicated, much more time consuming to set up the touch screen machines. It's like setting up a computer and booting it up, which is a New task for these election workers.
Second, I have some concern with the voters. While it's described as being as easy as using as ATM, many voters in this state have never used an ATM. And you do have to carefully read the instructions, or else your vote is not tabulated.
And third is that, unlike optical scanning machines and even the infamous Chad voting systems, we don't have a paper audit trail. That is the subject of some litigation in the state. But right now, when there's a recount, all that a touch screen county would do is just report in the results from the first time they tabulated.
S. O'BRIEN: Senator Kerry says that he plans to put in place a legal team that would guard against any kind of irregularities come next fall. There's also a Catholic group that's called for international polling observers come November as well. Do you think those are safeguards enough? And specifically, what exactly is Senator Kerry proposing?
CARDWELL: Well, it's something that I believe the Democratic Party, as well as the Republican Party, has done virtually for every statewide election. They do assemble lawyers that are well versed in election law, or get a quick course in it so that they can respond to problems that may arise in various counties.
That was clearly evident in 2002. But, of course, in 2000, it was so close and so pervasive it was hard to respond, as probably the parties would have liked. I think it's very important also that we have good voter education. It's really important for the voters to understand these systems. And I applaud the secretary of state and the supervisors of the Election Association for launching the voter education drive to try to teach the people what they need to know and how to use the voting equipment before they walk into the polling place in November.
S. O'BRIEN: The governor of Florida says this: he says criticisms, like the ones you offer of the system now, are "... all part of some politically motivated thing that tries to scare people that somehow their vote is not going to count, and that is just hogwash, hogwash."
What's your reaction to that?
CARDWELL: Well, my comment are certainly not politically motivated, and I have made them since the 2000 election. I even told the governor's taskforce on election reform in 2001 that I thought we should walk before we run, and that we should go to the optical sense equipment, which is much easier for the voter to understand, than jumping all the way to a brand New technology in touch screen.
But as you mentioned, there are several counties that elected to go there, which are predominantly the larger urban counties that are using the touch screen system. I think it's a legitimate concern. But I think by voicing it now instead of voicing it in November, we have an opportunity to address it and to educate the voters, which is really what is most important.
S. O'BRIEN: Mr. Cardwell, nice to see you. Thanks for being with us this morning. We appreciate your insight.
CARDWELL: Glad to be with you.
M. O'BRIEN: Brings back memories, doesn't it? Mr. Chadwell -- I mean Cardwell...
S. O'BRIEN: Yes. He spent a lot of time on the air with Mr. Hemmer.
M. O'BRIEN: He was getting the union rate I think there for awhile with CNN.
All right. Still to come, hundreds will be interviewed; only a few will be selected. How long will it take to seat the jury in the Scott Peterson case?
S. O'BRIEN: Also, a New image from the Hubbell Telescopelooking deep into the universe. What could scientists learn from it?
M. O'BRIEN: And "Consumer Reports" out with its New list of top cars. We'll see which ones made the cut. Quite a few of them are from Detroit, folks. There's some news.
That's all ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
M. O'BRIEN: Welcome back.
Families of cadaver donors have filed a class action lawsuit against UCLA Medical School, accusing it of selling body parts for profit and improperly disposing of human remains. The case has already resulted in two arrests. And lawyers today are expected to ask a judge to shut down the school's cadaver program until safeguards are put into space. In the lawsuit, family members say they signed contracts with the university guaranteeing remains would never be sold.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SHIRLEY WILLIAMS, HUSBAND'S BODY DONATED TO UCLA: I almost dropped the telephone. I just was so shocked by it, because I had been told that when he was going be cremated, they would call me, and that I would be able to go over and pick up his ashes and take them to the cemetery, where I had a headstone and everything all ready for him. But that wasn't to happen.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
M. O'BRIEN: Now, the chief of UCLA's medical school issued an apology. And we quote from it now. "We have no indication that the anatomical specimens involved in this case were used for anything other than medical education and research. Nonetheless, any legal commercialization would have violated the trust of the donors, their families and UCLA. We are deeply sorry."
S. O'BRIEN: In the Scott Peterson case, more than 400 perspective jurors have already filled out questionnaires. The jury selection process will continue today, and it's expected to take several weeks to seat the panel. Peterson is accused of killing his wife, Laci, and their unborn child.
Reporter Gloria Gomez of KOVR TV has been covering the proceeding. She joins us from Redwood City, California, this morning.
Nice to see you, Gloria. Thanks for being with us.
GLORIA GOMEZ, KOVR TV: Good morning, Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Let's talk a little bit about this questionnaire. Give me a sense of the range of questions that are on there. One is actually about extra marital affairs, isn't it?
GOMEZ: Right. As a matter of fact, there's 116 questions. They range from, "What are your thoughts on Scott Peterson, have you made up your mind on his innocence or guilt?"
Also, there was some interesting questions about psychology. "What do you think about psychologists? What do you think about their testimony?" That was pretty interesting, because sources tell me they may call a psychology expert to talk about Scott Peterson's mindset. Another interesting question was also about Web sites, whether they view Web sites, what kind of chat rooms they go into. So sources of mine saying they may go into Scott's computer, what kind of chat rooms he visited, what kind of Web sites he may have gone to.
S. O'BRIEN: So really, the questions covering the range. There was sort of a light moment; it sounds like, by some of the descriptions, about the judge telling jurors he didn't really expect them to answer the question about extramarital affairs honestly. Give us a little explanation on that.
GOMEZ: Well, right, because there was some media reports stating that some of the potential jurors would be asked whether or not they have had extramarital affairs. The judge calmed the potential jurors down, giving them ease of mind, saying, listen, we're not going to ask you about extramarital affairs. That's a lot of personal information, and frankly, we don't think we'll get the truth from a lot of you. And there was some chuckling in the courtroom.
S. O'BRIEN: No one is going to tell anyway. And then he was quick to say, not that I had an affair. I'm just pointing that out.
Let's talk a little bit about what you can glean from these questions. Can you tell which direction either side is heading from -- you now, and maybe they're just too much across the board -- but these questions and the specificity of some of them?
GOMEZ: Well, I know they're definitely interested to know basically the makeup of the jury, what are their thoughts on the death penalty. That's a huge one, because a lot of the people that were dismissed yesterday said they were against the death penalty, that they could never think of putting someone to death.
And I said, "Well, do you think that's the reason you were excused?" And a lot of them said, "Probably, because we are not for the death penalty."
S. O'BRIEN: Scott Peterson actually has been in the room with some of those potential jurors. What's his demeanor been like?
GOMEZ: Well, inside the courtroom, Scott seems to be very cordial, according to a lot of potential witnesses. They say that when he's in there, he's very polite. He says good morning to the potential jurors. He then sits down, is very cordial.
Although some who have been excused from the jury say sometimes he tends to be smiling. He looks very calm, cool and collected. Some of them are turned off by that, saying that, "Why is he smiling in the courtroom? He's facing double murder charges. He should be more serious about it."
S. O'BRIEN: And the trial could take five months. Big problem for many of the jurors, isn't it? Well, potential -- forgive me.
GOMEZ: Absolutely. A lot of them -- right. A lot of them saying the reason they were excused is because they can't sit on a jury for six months because they simply can't afford it.
A lot of these people are self-employed. A lot of them own their own businesses. And they just can't afford to sit there for six months.
S. O'BRIEN: Gloria Gomez is a reporter with KOVR TV out in Redwood City for us this morning.
Nice to see you, Gloria. Thanks.
GOMEZ: Thank you.
S. O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, Martha Stewart awaits her sentence. You'll hear what you think she deserves when AMERICAN MORNING continues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
M. O'BRIEN: Five British prisoners held at the Guantanamo Bay Prison Camp in Cuba expected to head back to Britain today. One-time hostage Terry Waite accuses the U.S. of using terrorist tactics in its treatment. Waite, who was held for more than four years in Lebanon, was part of a group that marched to the White House yesterday in protest. Waite spoke with Anderson Cooper, who began by pointing out the differences in the conditions Waite endured, compared to those of detainees at Guantanamo.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TERRY WAITE, HELD HOSTAGE IN LEBANON: My conditions were harsh. And I have not made a comparison between conditions. I'm talking about due process of law.
Now, I can well understand, and I have great sympathy with the fact that people are afraid of terrorism. However, you don't defeat terror terrorism by this particular means. You don't make a unilateral decision to make what is nothing more than a large interrogation camp outside the jurisdiction of the courts.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN "360": But these people were combatants in a war. I mean, they were picked up, for the most part, on the battlefields of Afghanistan, a few places elsewhere. I'm not quite sure -- I mean, some 10,000 people were rounded up. Ultimately, only some 650, I think, are still being kept at Guantanamo Bay. I'm not sure what status you think they should be held under.
WAITE: I mean, you raise a very interesting question of, on the so-called war on terrorism, where is the battlefield? Now, I agree, you see. It does present us with new challenges. But if we want -- if we find the existing laws are inadequate for this new situation, then there are means whereby we can get together collectively as a group of nations and draft appropriate legislation to deal with this type of problem. Not by taking this unilateral action.
Unfortunately, the rule of law, and international law human rights conventions have been broken. And they are there for the protection of us all and for all our freedoms. And you undermine them, you undermine all our freedoms.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
M. O'BRIEN: Now, Waite was the special envoy to the Archbishop of Canterbury when he headed to Lebanon in 1987 to try to win freedom for several hostages. Instead, he was kidnapped and spent four years in solitary confinement. He was finally released in 1991.
S. O'BRIEN: Let's turn to Jack now with the "Question of the Day."
CAFFERTY: Yes. Martha Stewart, in case you haven't heard enough about that deal, she was convicted, she'll be sentenced in June. Probably going to do some jail time under the federal sentencing guidelines.
Somebody pointed out that all you need to know about Martha Stewart is in this shot. She came out of the courthouse in the driving rain and allowed the lawyer to walk with no umbrella, while she used her umbrella totally and completely to keep her own little self dry.
S. O'BRIEN: He lost the case. I think that might be...
CAFFERTY: So there's a whole big long message about Martha in that picture. That was from some viewer.
Kerrie in Savage, Minnesota, writes: "Was Martha Stewart guilty? Probably. Should she do prison time, possibly? Could the judicial system better spend their time going after criminals that are a real threat to society, like rapists, murders, child abusers and the Catholic clergy? Most definitely."
B. Sheehey in Panama City, Florida, "I have renewed my subscription to "Martha Stewart Living" and will shop at K-Mart much more often. The good old boys are still at it."
Linda, in South Carolina: "Yes, I think Martha should serve prison time. But is she going to a real prison or one of those CEO prisons, where if she misbehaves she'll lose her spa day privilege and maybe not get lobster for dinner?"
Virginia in Arkansas: "If the government is looking for justice, Martha Stewart has already been punished enough. The punishment should fit the crime. In her case, she's lost her reputation, any respect she had with the public, as well as control of her company. I think she should be put on probation."
And Mark in Port St. John, Florida: "Send Martha to jail when Ken Lay goes. I feel so much safer knowing that Martha will be off the street."
M. O'BRIEN: Now, if she does go, it will probably be to Danbury, right? Which is...
CAFFERTY: I don't know where they'll send her. M. O'BRIEN: A likely candidate. And that is not the hardest of time, right?
S. O'BRIEN: Well, you know, it was interesting. I was talking to a woman who spent time in one of these white collar prisons. And she actually described it as very difficult. I mean, obviously not as bad as...
CAFFERTY: You know what? It wouldn't matter if they confined her to her house. Martha Stewart is used to being in control and being free to do what she wants when she wants. And if she can't do it, getting somebody to do it for her. Take away her freedom, you're going to bust her up big time.
S. O'BRIEN: That's essentially what this former prisoner said. She said she's got to, step one, get over the fact that you're going to be in control of anything.
CAFFERTY: But particularly for someone like Martha, who is used to being in charge.
S. O'BRIEN: Or any CEO I would have to imagine as well.
M. O'BRIEN: Good point.
All right. Still to come on the program, voters in the key battleground state head to the polls today. We'll take you on to the campaign trial live when AMERICAN MORNING continues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
S. O'BRIEN: And good morning, and welcome back. It's just almost half past the hour on this AMERICAN MORNING. I'm Soledad O'Brien, with Miles O'Brien, who is in for Bill Hemmer. He still has a day off. He is back tomorrow.
M. O'BRIEN: Trying to keep the papers neat.
S. O'BRIEN: Yes, keep his desk tidy. You know how he hates that.
M. O'BRIEN: He would be upset with me.
M. O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, lots of people check "Consumer Reports" before they buy a car. The magazine has just come out with the list of most reliable cars. And surprise, surprise, American cars have moved up the list. We're going to explain just ahead.
S. O'BRIEN: All right. Right about now, NASA is releasing a picture that tells the story. This is it.
This is the new ultra deep field. And you're looking at galaxies heretofore not seen by human eyes. This is really what the universe looked like in its infancy. We'll take a look and explain all of that with the executive editor of "Sky & Telescope" Magazine. S. O'BRIEN: But first, the opening bell ringing on Wall Street right now. The Dow Jones industrial average starts trading at 10,529. It was down 66 points at yesterday's close. Over at the Nasdaq market site, the composite index opens at 2,008. That's down 38 points on Monday.
M. O'BRIEN: All right. Let's check the news right now, and get you up to date.
Attorney General John Ashcroft is set to undergo surgery at noon Eastern Time today. Aides to the attorney general say doctors will remove his gallbladder to prevent a recurrence of some gallstone pancreatitis. Ashcroft has been in intensive care at George Washington University Hospital in Washington since Thursday night.
CIA Director George Tenet is going before a Senate panel as we speak. He'll face questions from the Senate Armed Services Committee on future threats to national security. In recent hearings, Tenet has been grilled about the CIA's prewar intelligence on Iraq and why no weapons of mass destruction have been found so far there.
And live pictures now to show you courtesy of our affiliate KHOU in Houston. This is Pasadena, Texas, suburb of Houston. Residents in the area being warned to stay sheltered as a chemical warehouse fire rages there. And those pictures will tell you about that.
No injuries reported. The cause of the fire not known. We're tracking it for you.
And a Philadelphia mom is getting acquainted with a 6-year-old daughter she was told had died in a fire. Luz Cuevas and her daughter officially reunited in New Jersey yesterday. My vote for picture of the day.
They sure do look alike, don't they? The little girl was just 10 days old when her mother last saw her. Police say a suspect has been arrested in connection with the kidnapping and then the alleged cover- up fire.
S. O'BRIEN: They look so much alike, don't they?
M. O'BRIEN: It's amazing. Nobody can put that together.
S. O'BRIEN: Some people said they sort of thought that it was put together.
M. O'BRIEN: Lots to that story.
S. O'BRIEN: Absolutely.
(WEATHER REPORT)
S. O'BRIEN: Among today's four Democratic presidential primaries, Florida, no doubt, has the highest profile. The Sunshine State is also a battleground state that could go a long way in deciding who wins the White House come November. John Zarrella is at a polling station in Plantation, Florida, with more this morning.
John, good morning.
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.
Certainly, the highest profile, Florida. But not growing much attention from Democratic voters here this morning. The primary, the polls open about two and a half hours now here in Plantation, Florida.
You can see the poll workers all sitting here. Not a lot to do. They've got about 400 folks. Democrats are eligible to vote here today in the presidential primary. But they've only had about 25 people show up so far.
Now, this is an old punch card ballot, a thing of the past here in Florida. This is what got us all in trouble here back in 2000 with hanging chads. Well, now they've gone to 15 counties, including Broward and some of the biggest counties. They've gone to these electronic touch screen machines.
You don't see anything on the machine here right now on the screen. It physically has to be activated by a poll worker when someone comes in to vote. They bring in a box, and they plug that in there, and it activates the machine, and the machine asks the voter, do you want Spanish or English in this particular case, and away you go and you vote for the candidate of choice.
But now, while the primary here is very, very slow, that's certainly not expected to be the case in November, when Florida could once again be a cliff hanger come right down to the wire. And it is very possible that the vote could be decided here in Florida by the undecided voters.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ZARRELLA (voice-over): Four years later, Democrats in Florida still feel the sting of the 2000 election defeat.
SCOTT MADDOX, FLORIDA DEMOCRATIC PARTY CHAIRMAN: Well, there were a lot of hurt feelings from people who feel like the election was stolen right here in the state of Florida. But you can't win an election looking in the rear view mirror.
ZARRELLA: In many ways, the 2004 presidential race here is shaping up as a mirror image of the 2000 vote. The state is still split almost equally between Democrats, at 41 percent, and Republicans at 39 percent. Seventeen percent are Independent.
North of Orlando is largely Republican territory. The Democrats are strongest in the southeast. And an area called the I-4 Corridor is the dividing line.
It stretches from Tampa on the West Coast to Daytona Beach on the East Coast. The voters who live along the corridor could very well determine whether President Bush or Senator Kerry takes the state and its 27 electoral votes.
JIM KANE, POLITICAL EXPERT: Those folks are the ones who will determine who wins Florida. Always have for the last five or six years. And I don't see that changing this election.
ZARRELLA: Both parties will fall all over themselves, coddling the corridor crowd. They are mostly suburbanites, younger than much of the state's population. They are working folks who tend to make up their minds late. And many are the registered Independents. The importance of the I-4 vote to both parties is already clear.
KERRY: I am so happy to be in Florida.
ZARRELLA: The day after his Super Tuesday wins, Kerry was in Orlando, the epicenter of the corridor. The president had already kicked off the race...
BUSH: Gentlemen, start your engine engines.
ZARRELLA: ... and the race for corridor voters with appearances in Daytona and later in Tampa.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ZARRELLA: Now, this is the vote button up here. When people are finished this is the button that will be red when it's activated. They push that button to say they've voted, and then they're all done. And the next person in line -- of course, there's no line here right now, Soledad -- comes up and votes.
But again, state officials and county officials saying no problems this time with the new technology. It appears to be working just fine. And that's a good thing, considering how many problems we had in past elections here in Florida -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: No question about that. John Zarrella for us this morning. John, thanks.
M. O'BRIEN: Astronomers are looking at a brand new baby picture of the universe, as we speak. An image taken by the Hubble Space Telescope just released. Here it is folks. It shows galaxy is formed just after the big bang.
NASA released the picture right this moment. And, as you get closer in, you get a sense of some of the 10,000 or so galaxies picked up by Hubble during this long series of time exposures.
Kelly Beatty is the executive editor of "Sky & Telescope" Magazine, and he's joining us now to decipher all of this for you.
Kelly, good to see you.
KELLY BEATTY, EXECUTIVE EDITOR, "SKY & TELESCOPE" MAGAZINE: Good morning, Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: All right. I know you've had an opportunity to look at this. And, obviously, this is the first cut, if you will. But what I see are some rather odd-shaped galaxies. What's going on here?
BEATTY: That's right. Most of us have an impression of galaxies being a very nice symmetrical pinwheel shape. But early in the universe, they were much less well formed. They were adolescent, even infant galaxies.
There's a lot of controversy among astronomers over whether these galaxies gobbled each other up and eventually took on their current form, or just sort of formed in isolation. And that's one of the key reasons for doing this deep survey.
M. O'BRIEN: Yes. It looks like toothpicks or footballs, and some are blobs and so forth. Help people understand.
When we look at these and say we're looking back in time, that's a concept that some people have a hard time getting their head around. But basically, because of the distances, you're seeing something that happened a long time ago.
BEATTY: That's right. Hubble is our best time machine. As we look out into space, it's taken that light a long time to reach us.
The farther away an object is, evenven-traveling 186,000 miles a second, that light takes a very long time to reach us. These objects were probably formed about a billion years after the universe formed, the big bang, and so it's taken almost 13 billion years for this light to reach us. And that's why we're seeing the universe as it was a very long time ago. So time -- distance equals time in the case of space.
M. O'BRIEN: So what we see is a representation of something that happened a long time ago. We don't know what's there at this moment, and we have no way of knowing.
Let me ask you this, though. I'm told it's impossible to go back far enough to see the big bang because the universe was kind of opaque at that time. But how far back could, say, Hubble or a successor instrument go?
BEATTY: Well, that's a good question. There's a period called the Dark Ages. The first stars were thought to have ignited about, say, half a billion years after the big bang. And that illuminated the universe. But that light only is reaching us now.
Now, the real question is, how fast did those stars form? Was there a big burst of star formation, and since then it's been tailing off, kind of like a fireworks display in reverse? That's one of the issues.
If we could see back further in time, the universe would be dark, because literally the matter would be so dense that the light couldn't get out. In a sense, kind of like a black hole, but more from the standpoint of opaqueness. You can't get the light out.
There comes a point when the light can get out. That's the limit to what we can see. M. O'BRIEN: All right. So we're not going to get any file tape of the big bang, I guess.
Tell us, when you look at this -- well, I'll tell you what, before we get away, I got to ask you one word about Hubble. It's bitter sweet for a lot of people, because this is yet another significant image from the Hubble Space Telescope, 14 years of success which, in and of itself, is quite a statement, considering it was launched myopic.
And yet NASA said it will not send any more servicing or repair missions to the Hubble, and thus it will just eventually gradually fail over the next few years. Is that something that is upsetting folks in astronomy circles?
BEATTY: Oh, very much so. Hubble is like a well-maintained antique car. And as long as you keep it well maintained, it's going to perform for you.
There is a servicing mission that was planned for later this year, actually just about now. And as Sean O'Keefe has stated earlier this year, that's now been cancelled for safety reasons. But a lot of astronomers are up in arms.
Congress has taken up the mantle of this and is pressing NASA and Admiral Gaimen (ph) of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board to come up with cogent reasons why going to Hubble and repairing it and making it useful until, say, 2010, is any more risky than launching the shuttle on a normal basis.
M. O'BRIEN: Kelly Beatty, thank you very much. He's with "Sky & Telescope" Magazine. We appreciate your insights on things that are sometimes difficult to get a handle on. And you do a good job explaining it. We appreciate that.
And we're going to talk to, as a matter of fact, the administrator, Sean O'Keefe. We'll have a story a little later on CNN, explaining that he is very firm on not sending a mission to Hubble again because of safety issues.
S. O'BRIEN: Yes. He certainly has been in the past as well.
Still to come this morning, another high profile corporate trial is wrapping up. Andy Serwer is going to put the spotlight on a case that's been overshadowed by the Martha Stewart case.
M. O'BRIEN: And what are the best cars of 2004? We'll get the ratings from "Consumer Reports" after a break.
Stay with us for more AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
S. O'BRIEN: Score one for the big three in the auto reliability rate. "Consumer Reports" is out with its annual auto issue, and there is some good news for the domestics. David Champion from "Consumer Reports" joins us to talk about the group's recommendations in several car categories.
Nice to see you. Been chatting a little bit about minivans. We'll get to those in just a few moments.
Give me a sense overall, though, how American cars have stacked up this year. Some years in the past have not done well.
DAVID CHAMPION, "CONSUMER REPORTS" Every year we send out a questionnaire to our over 5 million subscribers, and they tell us how reliable their cars have been in everyday life. And this year, we've seen the domestic manufacturers continue their progress that they've been making over the past five years. And this year, actually overtaking the European manufacturers. All cars are getting more reliable, but the domestics have been making this big push.
S. O'BRIEN: I don't want to spend too much time on the test overall, but give me just a quick run-through of how it works before we get to the actual results.
CHAMPION: Every -- we go out and buy all the cars anonymously from local dealers in Connecticut. We take them to the test track, check them over thoroughly. Then we put about 2,000 miles on it in everyday life, with our kids and families in the cars.
And then we put them through a whole battery of tests on the test track to check braking, acceleration, emergency handling, and various other aspects of the car. And then at the end of the day, we put all that data together and see which one comes out on top.
S. O'BRIEN: All right. Well, let's see which ones came out on top. First, for the cars, top small sedan, you rated the Ford Focus. Why?
CHAMPION: The Ford Focus was a wonderful car when we tested it. And we tested it some years ago and continued to test.
Great handling. Almost has a sports car feel to it. Nice interior room, nice high driving position, also, so you can see around. It gives you great visibility.
Unfortunately, the reliability wasn't very good some years ago. They've improved it to above average last year. So it allows us to recommend it and become a top pick.
S. O'BRIEN: And always has a very nice price point, that car.
CHAMPION: It does.
S. O'BRIEN: The top family sedan, it was really a tie between VW Passat and the Honda Accord. Honda Accord really does very well with you guys every year.
CHAMPION: Yes, it does. The Passat is a lovely car, and it's our top pick in V6 sedans. It's very comfortable, very quiet, beautifully trimmed interior.
The four cylinder Accord is our top pick in four cylinder sedans. Very roomy, nice interior. Excellent fuel economy.
S. O'BRIEN: Top upscale sedan, you pick the Acura TL. Again, Acura always doing pretty well.
CHAMPION: The last TL was a pretty average sort of car, about mid (UNINTELLIGIBLE). But they've really gone to town on it. It's got an immaculate interior. Really powerful engine, great handling.
S. O'BRIEN: Going to buy the luxury sedan, you say go with the Lexus LS430. Why?
CHAMPION: It's beautiful. It's so quiet.
S. O'BRIEN: You love this. Look at you.
CHAMPION: So comfortable. It just really is a lovely car to drive. And it's got excellent reliability, and the depreciation is great.
S. O'BRIEN: Well, let's take some time to talk about SUVs. Anything you need to know safety-wise when you're looking for an SUV? There were concerns, of course, about rollover issues, things like that.
CHAMPION: If you're going to buy an SUV, try and find one with stability control. It's a system that, if the car starts to slide out of control, it applies a brake to one wheel, brings it back into line. It really does help the emergency handling situation and prevents getting in a situation where it may roll over.
S. O'BRIEN: Small SUV, the Subaru Forester. I like this car.
CHAMPION: It is. It's a very nimble, very nice-handling car, that improved the brakes for 2004. Nicer interior. So it becomes our top pick.
S. O'BRIEN: Midsize is the Lexus RX330. Why do you like that one?
CHAMPION: It's a very quiet, very comfortable car. Nicely trimmed inside, good fuel economy, and pretty responsive handling.
S. O'BRIEN: This is what I'm looking for, the three-row SUV. Which is, of course, essentially the SUV minivan sort of hybrid there.
CHAMPION: It is.
S. O'BRIEN: The Honda Pilot you like. Why do you like that better than some of the other minivan options out there?
CHAMPION: Well, it's like a minivan designed to look like an SUV. It's got three rows of seats; it's got a very good four-wheel drive system. It has excellent fuel economy at 19 miles per gallon.
S. O'BRIEN: All right. Well, we are out of time, but wonderful. And anyone who wants to get more -- because of course the list goes on and on -- you really did a very thorough testing -- you can pick up a copy of "Consumer Reports" for the 2004 car test.
Thanks so much, David. Certainly appreciate it.
CHAMPION: Thank you very much.
S. O'BRIEN: Miles?
M. O'BRIEN: Soledad needs those seats, right?
S. O'BRIEN: Lots of them.
M. O'BRIEN: Still to come, the high-profile corporate case against Tyco's former chief coming to an end. We'll check out the closing arguments coming up here on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(STOCK REPORT)
CAFFETY: So, should they put Martha Stewart in prison is the "Question of the Day."
David in Fredericksburg, Texas: "Martha Stewart's been found guilty, will be punished according to the law. The continuous media chortling over her misfortune is petty and mean-spirited. It reminds me of children on a playground making fun of somebody they don't like."
We love Martha Stewart. She has filled up countless hours of our broadcast day here on CNN.
Beverly in Detroit, Michigan: "Heck yes, Martha should go to jail for probably longer than the judge will give her. Remember, she was a licensed securities broker. She has known the laws which are applicable for a long time. Bye-bye, Martha, and shame on you."
John in Charlotte, North Carolina: "Martha deserves prison time if and only if Ken Lay of Enron and Dennis Kozlowski of Tyco are executed in a fashion that would make Mel Gibson cringe."
M. O'BRIEN: Whoa.
CAFFERTY: I don't write these.
M. O'BRIEN: Are you sure you didn't write that one?
CAFFERTY: It's some clown in North Carolina.
Todd in San Diego: "Let's kill two birds with one stone. Martha should run for president, and we can send Ralph Nader to prison. Martha has shown that she's tough, wily and dishonest. She'd be perfect for president. As for Ralph Nader, he can organize a prison inmates union or something."
M. O'BRIEN: All right. We have one final thought here on Mars, which I know Jack is interested in. Well, a couple of hours ago, we had Jim Garvin on here. You remember that, Jack?
He is the head of NASA's Mars scientific campaign. Big guy at NASA. And he was showing us some rocks.
Now, we have had our staff go through and check the tape very carefully. We think we have a little bit of news. Let's take a look very closely. If you can -- oh, there it is. Oh, there's life on Mars. This just in.
CAFFERTY: Is the implication here that I'm a fossil?
M. O'BRIEN: If not a fossil, at least a Martian.
S. O'BRIEN: Let me move out of the way so you can hit him.
CAFFERTY: Is Hemmer back tomorrow? I really miss Bill.
S. O'BRIEN: Mr. Hemmer is back tomorrow.
(CROSSTALK)
M. O'BRIEN: I think it's time for me to go to Atlanta.
S. O'BRIEN: Coming up CNN this morning, the attorney general just a couple hours away from surgery to have his gallbladder removed. A specialist will talk about the risks coming up on "CNN LIVE TODAY" with Daryn Kagan.
AMERICAN MORNING is back in just a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
S. O'BRIEN: And that is it for us. We are out time. But we're going to see you back here tomorrow.
Daryn Kagan is at the CNN Center. She's going to take you through the next few hours on "CNN LIVE TODAY."
Hey, Daryn. Good morning to you.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. You guys have a great day in New York City.
Miles, safe travels back here to Atlanta.
M. O'BRIEN: I'll see you tomorrow.
S. O'BRIEN: Thanks for helping us out, Miles, by the way.
M. O'BRIEN: Oh, had a blast. Always fun stopping by.
S. O'BRIEN: How about tomorrow then?
M. O'BRIEN: No.
S. O'BRIEN: He lies. You see, he lies.
KAGAN: It's a good group there. You guys have a great day. We'll get started here in Atlanta.
And good morning, everyone, from CNN headquarters in Atlanta. I'm Daryn Kagan. Let's start by taking a look at the stories making news at this hour.
Convicted sniper John Allen Muhammad is in court to hear his sentence. A jury recommended the mastermind of the D.C.-area sniper shootings to get the death sentence. Muhammad's accomplice, Lee Boyd Malvo, was convicted in a separate trial. He will be formally sentenced tomorrow. The two were convicted after a wave of terror that left 10 people around the Washington area dead.
More tough questions from a Senate committee for CIA Director George Tenet. You see a live picture from Capitol Hill. The intelligence chief is at a hearing on future threats to national security. In recent hearings, senators have questioned Tenet about the CIA's prewar intelligence, Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction, and why none have been found so far.
Where is Osama bin Laden? Officials with access to the latest U.S. intelligence say the al Qaeda leader may be preparing to move from Pakistan to Afghanistan because of beefed up efforts to find him. The Pentagon says they don't know exactly where bin Laden is, but they believe he's hiding out in the mountains of Pakistan.
And Senator John Kerry campaigns in Illinois today. That's where he'll talk prescription drugs with senior citizens during a stop in Evanston and an address at a rally in Chicago. As Kerry campaigns, voters in Mississippi, Texas, Louisiana, and Florida are heading to the polls...
Four Southern States Holding Primaries Today>
