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CNN Live At Daybreak

U.S. Troops Think Falluja House Held Bigley; Congress Passes Controversial Spending Bill

Aired November 22, 2004 - 05:00   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.


CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: New this morning, a secret hostage house uncovered. It's most likely where this man, Ken Bigley, was beheaded. We'll take you there live in two minutes.
Plus, your money and your privacy -- part of a huge spending bill would give lawmakers extensive access to your tax return. Was it an accident or intentional?

And having a fit over fillings, a conniption about cavities? We've got good news for you this morning. There are some cool tools out there to make your next trip to the dentist a lot less painful.

It is Monday, November 22.

This is DAYBREAK.

And good Monday morning to you.

Thank you for waking up with us.

I'm Carol Costello along with Chad Myers.

Let's get a check of the headlines right now.

President Bush is in Chile this morning, but he's scheduled to leave for Colombia later this hour. The president has been attending a summit of Pacific Rim nations. In Colombia, he's expected to talk about U.S. aid in fighting cocaine production there.

Iran says it will halt its uranium enrichment program today. The Iranian government's promise to meet today's deadline is designed to ease concerns that it's developing a nuclear weapons program.

Convicted wife killer Scott Peterson heads back to court today. This marks the beginning of the sentencing phase of his trial. Peterson also was convicted of second degree murder in the death of his unborn son.

In southeast Texas, Highway 59 is covered with water. Twelve to 15 inches of rain fell across several counties on Sunday. About 250 residents of El Campo had to be evacuated.

What a mess -- Chad.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: And it's still raining, Carol. And it's going to rain all day today in many of those areas, so they just don't need it. The storm just won't move. Another one just like we had last week, just in a different spot.

Good morning, how are you?

COSTELLO: I'm fine. And you?

MYERS: It looks like you got to work OK this morning.

COSTELLO: Well, I had some trauma, but I'm here now.

MYERS: Oh, I know you had to go over a bridge and I know you hate bridges. But you know what? You work on an island.

(WEATHER REPORT)

COSTELLO: U.S. Marines make a grim discovery in the once insurgent stronghold of Falluja. They have found several houses where people were tortured and killed. Military officials believe one of the houses is the death tape -- is the death chamber where British hostage Kenneth Bigley was beheaded.

CNN's Jane Arraf is embedded with Army troops in Falluja.

She filed this report minutes ago.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JANE ARRAF, CNN BAGHDAD BUREAU CHIEF: Military officials told us a couple of days ago that they found a house that may have been the place where battle British hostage Ken Bigley was killed. But they weren't sure. They are still not 100 percent sure, but they are coming closer to the conclusion that this may, indeed, be it, they tell us.

Now, they were led there by one man who was seized by Iraqi forces. The Iraqi forces in the sector that we were in detained three men, two foreign fighters and an Iraqi. The Iraqi, they say, led them to this house, gave such detailed knowledge of it that they believe him to be credible.

And the house they led him to has a backdrop that matches, they say, that shown in the hostage videos of Bigley. In those videos and in this house is a wire cage, a cage made of chicken wire with wood around, with the brick walls behind it. And they say that it looks identical to the one in the videos, leading them to believe that this may be the house where he was held, at least.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Jane Arraf reporting from Falluja.

We'll have much more from her later on on DAYBREAK.

Foreign ministers are gathering in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, today for a conference on how to help bring stability to Iraq. Right now CNN's Christiane Amanpour is talking with the host nation's foreign minister and we're going to get a live update from her later this hour. In fact, she'll be interviewing him live, at least we hope so.

Congress has passed a huge spending bill, $388 billion, to keep the government running. But a few of its provisions surprised and angered some lawmakers and might anger you, as well.

Kathleen Koch has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I hesitate to lift it. I think it's an OSHA violation.

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): House lawmakers had less than 12 hours to look over the $388 billion spending bill.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Have you read this document?

KOCH: So few did. Senators were stunned to discover a provision giving two committee chairmen broad access to income tax returns.

SEN. CHARLES GRASSLEY (R), IOWA: It's a very troubling position that will potentially take away American taxpayers' rights to privacy.

SEN. LARRY CRAIG (R), IDAHO: I would suggest that we can talk a great deal about this section, but it will never become law.

KOCH: A top House Democrat implied the measure was Nixonian, calling it a "Saturday night massacre on the privacy of American taxpayers." The Senate Appropriations Committee chairman denied responsibility.

SEN. TED STEVENS (R-AK), APPROPRIATIONS CHAIRMAN: It came strictly from a staff request, you know, the staff -- you're right, it's absolutely a mistake. I apologize to the Senate.

KOCH: Senators voted to drop the provision and delay sending the bill to the president until the House deletes it, as well. But some doubt this was an accident.

SEN. DIANNE FEINSTEIN (D), CALIFORNIA: This is somebody's innovative thinking of how they could get their minions into taxes of individuals who might be political opponents or who might come up against them in some way.

KOCH: Some lawmakers were also angered by another unexpected measure, making it easier for health care providers to decline to provide abortion services or referrals.

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), HOUSE MINORITY LEADER: An extraordinary sneak attack on women's rights and a disgraceful display of ideology over health.

REP. CURT WELDON (R), PENNSYLVANIA: This provision is meant to protect health care entities from discrimination because they choose not to provide abortion services. KOCH: Senate leaders agreed to schedule a vote soon to reexamine the abortion measure. Many lawmakers, including Republicans, worry what the tax return incident says about how Congress works.

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: If there's ever a graphic example of the broken system that we now have, that certainly has to be it.

KOCH: While the Democrats look at both measures and worry about the coming session.

SEN. CHARLES SCHUMER (D), NEW YORK: The real question is are we going to govern in a bipartisan way or is a small group, mainly in the House of Representatives on the hard right, going to call the shots?

KOCH (on camera): Since the spending bill is on hold, the Congress had to rush a stopgap measure all the way to Santiago, Chile, for President Bush to sign. Otherwise, the government would have run out of money to operate at midnight.

Kathleen Koch, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: By now, I'm sure you have all seen the basketball brawl over and over and over. But the NBA has acted and it has set a record for suspensions.

Ron Artest was slapped with the biggest punishment. He's the guy that was laying on the scorer's table there. He was the first player to jump into the stands after he was hit by that plastic cup of soda. The NBA announced that Artest will sit out 73 games, which is the rest of his season. That is the longest non-drug related suspension in NBA history.

Steven Jackson, who followed Artest into the stands, gets 30 games, while O'Neal was hit with a 25-game suspension.

Other suspensions include several players that will sit out one game each for leaving the bench for the initial fight on the court. Now, while the Pacers' brawl with the Pistons' fans may be the worst incident in recent history, it certainly isn't the only one.

CNN's Sara Dorsey takes a look at some other incidents of note.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: State police are out there on the field. Now there is more going on in the end zone...

SARA DORSEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It happened again -- more flying fists. This time rival team South Carolina and Clemson went for the jugular.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Congratulations to the fans here at Death Valley. They stayed in their seats. They were professional about it. They were adults. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They are coming out of the stands and they're beating up on the...

DORSEY: Fans don't always stay on the sidelines, though. William Ligue, Jr. and his 15-year-old son charged Kansas City first base coach Tom Gamboa at a White Sox game. Gamboa never saw the shirtless duo coming. Ligue dodged prison time, getting 30 months of probation.

The Toronto Maple Leafs' Tie Domi, in 2001, threw water on a fan. When the man fell into the box, Domi unloaded on him. The penalty for that incident -- a $1,000 fine, but no suspension.

Here fans hit Dodgers' backup catcher Chad Kreuter in the head and stole his hat, setting off this battle in the ballpark. Kreuter got an eight-game suspension and 18 other coaches and players were punished.

Great tickets sometimes spell grave danger in the stands. In 1995, soccer star Eric Cantona performed his best kung fu move on a fan. Cantona was banned worldwide for eight months and ordered to do 120 hours of community service.

And who could forget the famous chair throwing incident this year? After being heckled by A's fans, Texas Rangers' relief pitcher Frank Francisco launched a chair into the audience, breaking a woman's nose. He was suspended for 15 games and still faces misdemeanor assault charges.

Some of the more memorable sports squabbles, scraps, and scuffles.

Sara Dorsey, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: It's insane, isn't it? It's just insane.

And it leads us to our e-mail Question of the Morning. Sports and violence -- who is to blame? Are the fans to blame? The athletes? Or is it a combination? We want to know what you think this morning. Please, send your comments to us. Daybreak@cnn.com. That's daybreak@cnn.com. And, of course, we will read your e-mails a little later on in our program.

And speaking of scuffles, NBA Commissioner David Stern gives his reaction to that Saturday melee between Clemson and South Carolina.

So let's go beyond the sound bite now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID STERN, NBA COMMISSIONER: Well, I can understand a certain fatigue that came from the amount of times that this was run. It obviously made good copy. And I counted in one news report that lasted 20 minutes, I think I counted 16 repetitions of it. But in all deference to the coach on that one, you know, the spectacle of state troopers having to separate college kids is part of the same problem of -- that we're all dealing with, is what is -- what's acceptable from players, athletes and fans alike. And we'll deal with our problems and they should deal with their substantial problems.

To watch the out of control fans in the stands, to me, was disgusting. It doesn't excuse what our players did in going into the stands, but we have to begin examining that and examining, OK, players, there was a -- there's the unavoidable flare-up, but now what do we do, because we're professionals and we understand that, to calm it down rather than somehow expressing the misguided notion that the -- that receiving the adequate respect accuses, you know, makes you -- makes it necessary for you to place other people at bodily risk? It's not going to be tolerated.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: The head of the NBA players association called the suspensions of Artest, Jackson and O'Neal "excessive." The players association is expected to file an appeal on their behalf later today. Stern says the penalties make it unlikely there will ever be another incident like it in the NBA.

Also coming up a little later in our show, Jimmy Barrett of WRVA Radio in Richmond, Virginia weighs in on the weekend's worth of brawls. He was a long time Detroit sports announcer and he's got a lot to say. We're going to get to that in the next hour of DAYBREAK.

Secretary of State Colin Powell calls it "a moment of opportunity." He's in the Middle East to try to jump start the Middle East peace process. We'll have a live report for you out of Jerusalem at 17 minutes past.

And later, it's easy to get burned in the restaurant business. But there are ways to dish up a profit. We'll have details for you at 43 minutes after.

Open wide. Your trip to the dentist may be less of a drill now. We'll explain at 51 minutes past.

But first, here's a look at what else is making news this Monday morning, November 22.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

COSTELLO: Your news, money, weather and sports.

It's 5:15 Eastern.

Here's what's all new this morning.

An investigation is underway in Los Angeles after several airport police officers were caught abandoning their posts. A local TV station's hidden cameras found officers ignoring emergency calls and flat out leaving the airport.

Five deer hunters were killed in an apparent dispute over a hunting spot in Wisconsin. One man is now in custody, three others were injured in that shootout.

In money news, Donald Trump's casino business has filed for bankruptcy. It's more than a billion dollars in debt. That's a billion with a B. The move should allow Trump to restructure his casino operations in Atlantic City. This is the second bankruptcy filing for Trump's casino interests.

In culture, weekend moviegoers chose Nicolas Cage over Spongebob Squarepants. Cage's "National Treasure" was tops at the box office with $35 million worth of ticket sales. "Spongebob" came in a close second, with $33.5 million.

In sports, New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning was a loser in his first NFL start. Manning threw one touchdown pass but tossed two interceptions in the 14-10 loss to the Atlanta Falcons.

But, of course, he was up against Michael Vick -- Chad.

MYERS: He was. He played a good game for his first game.

COSTELLO: He did.

MYERS: He didn't do badly. I mean, actually, he probably could have made that last minute or last three minute run. If he didn't throw the last interception, that could have made it a real close game. But, hey, congratulations to Busch, as well. We'll get more on that on the NASCAR circuit coming through, the big champion there.

(WEATHER REPORT)

COSTELLO: Those are the latest headlines for you this morning.

Secretary of State Colin Powell is on his first visit to Israel and the West Bank in a year and a half. He says he sees the death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat as an opening to revive Mideast peace talks. Powell is meeting separately with Israeli and Palestinian officials.

Let's head live to Jerusalem now and CNN's Guy Raz -- Guy, what's Powell's objective this time?

GUY RAZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

Carol, well, central to Powell's objective on this visit is really to signal American reengagement in the Middle East peace process. As you mentioned, Secretary Powell hasn't been here in some 18 months. And this is presumably his last visit to the region.

Now, one of the key issues that he will be dealing with today and that he's already dealt with, in large part, in meetings with Israeli and Palestinian officials, is how to ease the process of Palestinian presidential elections, which are expected to take place in early January.

Now, Secretary Powell has called on Israeli officials to ease conditions inside of Palestinian areas that would enable those elections to take place without a hitch.

Palestinian officials essentially saying Israel must withdraw its troops from major Palestinian population centers and it must remove roadblocks within Palestinian areas to allow candidates to travel freely and to allow voters to go to the polls.

Now, interestingly enough, a short time ago the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, signaled that he was now willing to allow Palestinians living in East Jerusalem, a part of the city that Israel annexed in 1967, to take part in those elections, something that Palestinian officials have essential said is crucial if these elections are to take place without a hitch -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Well, you know, Guy, Colin Powell is about to leave office.

Does it make any difference to the Palestinians or the Israelis that he's sort of a lame duck secretary of state?

RAZ: Well, it does in the sense that, as I say, this really signals an American reengagement in the process. There really has been an absence of U.S. involvement in this region for quite a long time and really the last very high level U.S. envoy in the region was General Anthony Zinni.

Now, President Bush has essentially said he will devote a considerable amount of his foreign policy objective in the second part of his term to the Middle East peace process. So Colin Powell essentially representing the administration and paving the way for his successor, Condoleezza Rice.

COSTELLO: I was just going to ask you, what kind of reception might she get?

RAZ: Well, she has a long history in the region. She has close ties with both Israeli and Palestinian officials. She has a considerable amount of experience here in this region and has essentially been involved in some of the policy objectives that have been carried out in the past few years. So her return to the scene, if you will, as secretary of state, will be something that both sides will certainly welcome -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Guy Raz live from Jerusalem this morning.

Thank you.

Still to come on DAYBREAK this morning, everybody's crying foul over the basket brawl at the Pistons-Pacers game -- the players, the fans, the NBA and the players union. We'll hear what former Pistons' broadcaster Jimmy Barrett has to say about it. Which leads us to our e-mail Question of the Morning. Sports and violence -- who is to blame? Shoot us one. Daybreak@cnn.com. That's daybreak@cnn.com.

And you are watching DAYBREAK for a Monday.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: We have to talk about the Pistons-Pacers game because it was just so unbelievable. The NBA has suspended nine players, for a total of 143 games, as a result of that Friday night brawl in Detroit. Indiana Pacers forward Ron Artest will be forced to sit out the rest of the season. Artest did speak out after the incident and the announcement of his suspension.

He said, and I quote: "It really hurt me to see the children crying on TV and I think about how it could have been my own kids." Artest went on to say: "I have total respect for all the players who play the game and I respect David Stern, but I don't think that he has been fair with me in this situation."

Joining us now to talk more about the violent weekend is a former Detroit area broadcaster, Jimmy Barrett, now with WRVA Radio in Richmond, Virginia.

Jimmy, good morning.

JIMMY BARRETT, 1140 WRVA NEWS RADIO: Hi, Carol.

Long time no talk to.

How have you been?

COSTELLO: I know. We have missed you on DAYBREAK.

BARRETT: Well, it's nice to be back.

Good to see you this morning.

COSTELLO: You've been in Detroit, or you had been in Detroit, for such a long period of time. You're watching television and I'm sure you were watching the game.

What goes through your mind?

BARRETT: All right, well, I'm thinking, OK, is this some sort of a bizarre way to try to appeal to the Redwings fans who no longer have anything to watch or what's the deal here? Because, you know, the hockey, the National Hockey League is on strike and they're known for their fighting, unlike the NBA, which up until now has not been known exactly for this kind of behavior, has it?

COSTELLO: No. It's just crazy. The suspensions that came down, I mean punishment enough?

BARRETT: Well, for Ron Artest, yes. He's done for the rest of the year. Now maybe somehow he's happy about all this, because he wanted time off anyway, you may recall, to promote his new hip-hop album and he actually had enough nerve to ask the Indiana Pacers to give him some time off to do that. So now he has all the time in the world to do that and it's kind of a sad thing to say, but maybe this is good for his hip-hop career.

COSTELLO: Oh...

BARRETT: But...

COSTELLO: Yes, but did you hear the quote from him? We read the quote for our viewers right before I talked with you, and he says he's upset that the children in the stands were crying.

BARRETT: Oh, yes...

COSTELLO: Oh come on.

BARRETT: Maybe he should have thought about that before he climbed into the stands and starting beating people up on a random basis, huh?

COSTELLO: I think so.

You know, we have some interesting statistics here about how much money that these players will lose because of the suspensions. And we have a graphic of that. We can slap that up. Ron Artest will be out 73 games. He will lose -- his annual salary, by the way, is $6.2 million -- he will lose $4.99 million.

BARRETT: Well, maybe he'll actually miss that money. Maybe that actually will make an impact on him, because he's had problems before. He has an anger management issue.

But what about Steven Jackson? I think that's interesting. Steven Jackson was suspended for 30 games here now. He went up into the stands not, as far as I can tell, to defend Ron Artest, but he went up there and just started beating up people, as well. Why does he only get a 30 game suspension?

COSTELLO: Beats -- apparently they watched the tape over and over and over again and they based their decisions on what they saw on the tape. Of course, we all saw it about, oh, about 800 times on ESPN right after it happened.

BARRETT: Of course.

COSTELLO: But you -- it was difficult to determine exactly what was happening.

BARRETT: Well, here's the thing, as well, is I think we have to hold -- do we not have to hold fans accountable in this respect, as well? I'm sure that Oakland County officials there, I know the prosecutor in Oakland County, David Gorsica. And I would think that David is going to be poring over that video, at least I hope he's going to be, and he's going to see if they can identify any of those fans. Because if you're going to suspend Ron Artest for the rest of the year for going up there after getting stuff dumped on him by the fans, then I think you should also, these fans have to take a certain responsibility for this and we should identify some of these people and ban them from attending NBA basketball games in the future if they can't behave themselves.

COSTELLO: Interesting twist and I understand the fans are already considering lawsuits, too. So it's just a big mess.

BARRETT: Well, that should surprise us, should it?

COSTELLO: No.

BARRETT: Because they're looking at Ron Artest's salary. They're saying wait a minute, if this guy makes $6 million a year, I ought to be able to get a piece of that.

COSTELLO: It's just crazy.

Jimmy Barrett, thanks for joining DAYBREAK this morning.

We appreciate it.

BARRETT: Always a pleasure.

Thank you.

COSTELLO: You can be sure that former NBA star and current TNT analyst Charles Barkley has plenty to say about the brawl and the suspensions. Be sure to tune in to see Barkley's take on "AMERICAN MORNING." That's coming your way in 90 minutes.

And later on DAYBREAK in the 6:00 Eastern hour, we're going to talk to a fan who was in the stands that fateful night and we'll also talk to the play by play announcer of the Pistons.

All new in the next half hour of DAYBREAK, bam! We're going to take it up a notch. Ali Velshi has all you need to know about that dream you have of opening your very own restaurant.

From New York and Atlanta, this is DAYBREAK for a Monday.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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Aired November 22, 2004 - 05:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: New this morning, a secret hostage house uncovered. It's most likely where this man, Ken Bigley, was beheaded. We'll take you there live in two minutes.
Plus, your money and your privacy -- part of a huge spending bill would give lawmakers extensive access to your tax return. Was it an accident or intentional?

And having a fit over fillings, a conniption about cavities? We've got good news for you this morning. There are some cool tools out there to make your next trip to the dentist a lot less painful.

It is Monday, November 22.

This is DAYBREAK.

And good Monday morning to you.

Thank you for waking up with us.

I'm Carol Costello along with Chad Myers.

Let's get a check of the headlines right now.

President Bush is in Chile this morning, but he's scheduled to leave for Colombia later this hour. The president has been attending a summit of Pacific Rim nations. In Colombia, he's expected to talk about U.S. aid in fighting cocaine production there.

Iran says it will halt its uranium enrichment program today. The Iranian government's promise to meet today's deadline is designed to ease concerns that it's developing a nuclear weapons program.

Convicted wife killer Scott Peterson heads back to court today. This marks the beginning of the sentencing phase of his trial. Peterson also was convicted of second degree murder in the death of his unborn son.

In southeast Texas, Highway 59 is covered with water. Twelve to 15 inches of rain fell across several counties on Sunday. About 250 residents of El Campo had to be evacuated.

What a mess -- Chad.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: And it's still raining, Carol. And it's going to rain all day today in many of those areas, so they just don't need it. The storm just won't move. Another one just like we had last week, just in a different spot.

Good morning, how are you?

COSTELLO: I'm fine. And you?

MYERS: It looks like you got to work OK this morning.

COSTELLO: Well, I had some trauma, but I'm here now.

MYERS: Oh, I know you had to go over a bridge and I know you hate bridges. But you know what? You work on an island.

(WEATHER REPORT)

COSTELLO: U.S. Marines make a grim discovery in the once insurgent stronghold of Falluja. They have found several houses where people were tortured and killed. Military officials believe one of the houses is the death tape -- is the death chamber where British hostage Kenneth Bigley was beheaded.

CNN's Jane Arraf is embedded with Army troops in Falluja.

She filed this report minutes ago.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JANE ARRAF, CNN BAGHDAD BUREAU CHIEF: Military officials told us a couple of days ago that they found a house that may have been the place where battle British hostage Ken Bigley was killed. But they weren't sure. They are still not 100 percent sure, but they are coming closer to the conclusion that this may, indeed, be it, they tell us.

Now, they were led there by one man who was seized by Iraqi forces. The Iraqi forces in the sector that we were in detained three men, two foreign fighters and an Iraqi. The Iraqi, they say, led them to this house, gave such detailed knowledge of it that they believe him to be credible.

And the house they led him to has a backdrop that matches, they say, that shown in the hostage videos of Bigley. In those videos and in this house is a wire cage, a cage made of chicken wire with wood around, with the brick walls behind it. And they say that it looks identical to the one in the videos, leading them to believe that this may be the house where he was held, at least.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Jane Arraf reporting from Falluja.

We'll have much more from her later on on DAYBREAK.

Foreign ministers are gathering in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, today for a conference on how to help bring stability to Iraq. Right now CNN's Christiane Amanpour is talking with the host nation's foreign minister and we're going to get a live update from her later this hour. In fact, she'll be interviewing him live, at least we hope so.

Congress has passed a huge spending bill, $388 billion, to keep the government running. But a few of its provisions surprised and angered some lawmakers and might anger you, as well.

Kathleen Koch has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I hesitate to lift it. I think it's an OSHA violation.

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): House lawmakers had less than 12 hours to look over the $388 billion spending bill.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Have you read this document?

KOCH: So few did. Senators were stunned to discover a provision giving two committee chairmen broad access to income tax returns.

SEN. CHARLES GRASSLEY (R), IOWA: It's a very troubling position that will potentially take away American taxpayers' rights to privacy.

SEN. LARRY CRAIG (R), IDAHO: I would suggest that we can talk a great deal about this section, but it will never become law.

KOCH: A top House Democrat implied the measure was Nixonian, calling it a "Saturday night massacre on the privacy of American taxpayers." The Senate Appropriations Committee chairman denied responsibility.

SEN. TED STEVENS (R-AK), APPROPRIATIONS CHAIRMAN: It came strictly from a staff request, you know, the staff -- you're right, it's absolutely a mistake. I apologize to the Senate.

KOCH: Senators voted to drop the provision and delay sending the bill to the president until the House deletes it, as well. But some doubt this was an accident.

SEN. DIANNE FEINSTEIN (D), CALIFORNIA: This is somebody's innovative thinking of how they could get their minions into taxes of individuals who might be political opponents or who might come up against them in some way.

KOCH: Some lawmakers were also angered by another unexpected measure, making it easier for health care providers to decline to provide abortion services or referrals.

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), HOUSE MINORITY LEADER: An extraordinary sneak attack on women's rights and a disgraceful display of ideology over health.

REP. CURT WELDON (R), PENNSYLVANIA: This provision is meant to protect health care entities from discrimination because they choose not to provide abortion services. KOCH: Senate leaders agreed to schedule a vote soon to reexamine the abortion measure. Many lawmakers, including Republicans, worry what the tax return incident says about how Congress works.

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: If there's ever a graphic example of the broken system that we now have, that certainly has to be it.

KOCH: While the Democrats look at both measures and worry about the coming session.

SEN. CHARLES SCHUMER (D), NEW YORK: The real question is are we going to govern in a bipartisan way or is a small group, mainly in the House of Representatives on the hard right, going to call the shots?

KOCH (on camera): Since the spending bill is on hold, the Congress had to rush a stopgap measure all the way to Santiago, Chile, for President Bush to sign. Otherwise, the government would have run out of money to operate at midnight.

Kathleen Koch, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: By now, I'm sure you have all seen the basketball brawl over and over and over. But the NBA has acted and it has set a record for suspensions.

Ron Artest was slapped with the biggest punishment. He's the guy that was laying on the scorer's table there. He was the first player to jump into the stands after he was hit by that plastic cup of soda. The NBA announced that Artest will sit out 73 games, which is the rest of his season. That is the longest non-drug related suspension in NBA history.

Steven Jackson, who followed Artest into the stands, gets 30 games, while O'Neal was hit with a 25-game suspension.

Other suspensions include several players that will sit out one game each for leaving the bench for the initial fight on the court. Now, while the Pacers' brawl with the Pistons' fans may be the worst incident in recent history, it certainly isn't the only one.

CNN's Sara Dorsey takes a look at some other incidents of note.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: State police are out there on the field. Now there is more going on in the end zone...

SARA DORSEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It happened again -- more flying fists. This time rival team South Carolina and Clemson went for the jugular.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Congratulations to the fans here at Death Valley. They stayed in their seats. They were professional about it. They were adults. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They are coming out of the stands and they're beating up on the...

DORSEY: Fans don't always stay on the sidelines, though. William Ligue, Jr. and his 15-year-old son charged Kansas City first base coach Tom Gamboa at a White Sox game. Gamboa never saw the shirtless duo coming. Ligue dodged prison time, getting 30 months of probation.

The Toronto Maple Leafs' Tie Domi, in 2001, threw water on a fan. When the man fell into the box, Domi unloaded on him. The penalty for that incident -- a $1,000 fine, but no suspension.

Here fans hit Dodgers' backup catcher Chad Kreuter in the head and stole his hat, setting off this battle in the ballpark. Kreuter got an eight-game suspension and 18 other coaches and players were punished.

Great tickets sometimes spell grave danger in the stands. In 1995, soccer star Eric Cantona performed his best kung fu move on a fan. Cantona was banned worldwide for eight months and ordered to do 120 hours of community service.

And who could forget the famous chair throwing incident this year? After being heckled by A's fans, Texas Rangers' relief pitcher Frank Francisco launched a chair into the audience, breaking a woman's nose. He was suspended for 15 games and still faces misdemeanor assault charges.

Some of the more memorable sports squabbles, scraps, and scuffles.

Sara Dorsey, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: It's insane, isn't it? It's just insane.

And it leads us to our e-mail Question of the Morning. Sports and violence -- who is to blame? Are the fans to blame? The athletes? Or is it a combination? We want to know what you think this morning. Please, send your comments to us. Daybreak@cnn.com. That's daybreak@cnn.com. And, of course, we will read your e-mails a little later on in our program.

And speaking of scuffles, NBA Commissioner David Stern gives his reaction to that Saturday melee between Clemson and South Carolina.

So let's go beyond the sound bite now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID STERN, NBA COMMISSIONER: Well, I can understand a certain fatigue that came from the amount of times that this was run. It obviously made good copy. And I counted in one news report that lasted 20 minutes, I think I counted 16 repetitions of it. But in all deference to the coach on that one, you know, the spectacle of state troopers having to separate college kids is part of the same problem of -- that we're all dealing with, is what is -- what's acceptable from players, athletes and fans alike. And we'll deal with our problems and they should deal with their substantial problems.

To watch the out of control fans in the stands, to me, was disgusting. It doesn't excuse what our players did in going into the stands, but we have to begin examining that and examining, OK, players, there was a -- there's the unavoidable flare-up, but now what do we do, because we're professionals and we understand that, to calm it down rather than somehow expressing the misguided notion that the -- that receiving the adequate respect accuses, you know, makes you -- makes it necessary for you to place other people at bodily risk? It's not going to be tolerated.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: The head of the NBA players association called the suspensions of Artest, Jackson and O'Neal "excessive." The players association is expected to file an appeal on their behalf later today. Stern says the penalties make it unlikely there will ever be another incident like it in the NBA.

Also coming up a little later in our show, Jimmy Barrett of WRVA Radio in Richmond, Virginia weighs in on the weekend's worth of brawls. He was a long time Detroit sports announcer and he's got a lot to say. We're going to get to that in the next hour of DAYBREAK.

Secretary of State Colin Powell calls it "a moment of opportunity." He's in the Middle East to try to jump start the Middle East peace process. We'll have a live report for you out of Jerusalem at 17 minutes past.

And later, it's easy to get burned in the restaurant business. But there are ways to dish up a profit. We'll have details for you at 43 minutes after.

Open wide. Your trip to the dentist may be less of a drill now. We'll explain at 51 minutes past.

But first, here's a look at what else is making news this Monday morning, November 22.

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(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

COSTELLO: Your news, money, weather and sports.

It's 5:15 Eastern.

Here's what's all new this morning.

An investigation is underway in Los Angeles after several airport police officers were caught abandoning their posts. A local TV station's hidden cameras found officers ignoring emergency calls and flat out leaving the airport.

Five deer hunters were killed in an apparent dispute over a hunting spot in Wisconsin. One man is now in custody, three others were injured in that shootout.

In money news, Donald Trump's casino business has filed for bankruptcy. It's more than a billion dollars in debt. That's a billion with a B. The move should allow Trump to restructure his casino operations in Atlantic City. This is the second bankruptcy filing for Trump's casino interests.

In culture, weekend moviegoers chose Nicolas Cage over Spongebob Squarepants. Cage's "National Treasure" was tops at the box office with $35 million worth of ticket sales. "Spongebob" came in a close second, with $33.5 million.

In sports, New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning was a loser in his first NFL start. Manning threw one touchdown pass but tossed two interceptions in the 14-10 loss to the Atlanta Falcons.

But, of course, he was up against Michael Vick -- Chad.

MYERS: He was. He played a good game for his first game.

COSTELLO: He did.

MYERS: He didn't do badly. I mean, actually, he probably could have made that last minute or last three minute run. If he didn't throw the last interception, that could have made it a real close game. But, hey, congratulations to Busch, as well. We'll get more on that on the NASCAR circuit coming through, the big champion there.

(WEATHER REPORT)

COSTELLO: Those are the latest headlines for you this morning.

Secretary of State Colin Powell is on his first visit to Israel and the West Bank in a year and a half. He says he sees the death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat as an opening to revive Mideast peace talks. Powell is meeting separately with Israeli and Palestinian officials.

Let's head live to Jerusalem now and CNN's Guy Raz -- Guy, what's Powell's objective this time?

GUY RAZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

Carol, well, central to Powell's objective on this visit is really to signal American reengagement in the Middle East peace process. As you mentioned, Secretary Powell hasn't been here in some 18 months. And this is presumably his last visit to the region.

Now, one of the key issues that he will be dealing with today and that he's already dealt with, in large part, in meetings with Israeli and Palestinian officials, is how to ease the process of Palestinian presidential elections, which are expected to take place in early January.

Now, Secretary Powell has called on Israeli officials to ease conditions inside of Palestinian areas that would enable those elections to take place without a hitch.

Palestinian officials essentially saying Israel must withdraw its troops from major Palestinian population centers and it must remove roadblocks within Palestinian areas to allow candidates to travel freely and to allow voters to go to the polls.

Now, interestingly enough, a short time ago the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, signaled that he was now willing to allow Palestinians living in East Jerusalem, a part of the city that Israel annexed in 1967, to take part in those elections, something that Palestinian officials have essential said is crucial if these elections are to take place without a hitch -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Well, you know, Guy, Colin Powell is about to leave office.

Does it make any difference to the Palestinians or the Israelis that he's sort of a lame duck secretary of state?

RAZ: Well, it does in the sense that, as I say, this really signals an American reengagement in the process. There really has been an absence of U.S. involvement in this region for quite a long time and really the last very high level U.S. envoy in the region was General Anthony Zinni.

Now, President Bush has essentially said he will devote a considerable amount of his foreign policy objective in the second part of his term to the Middle East peace process. So Colin Powell essentially representing the administration and paving the way for his successor, Condoleezza Rice.

COSTELLO: I was just going to ask you, what kind of reception might she get?

RAZ: Well, she has a long history in the region. She has close ties with both Israeli and Palestinian officials. She has a considerable amount of experience here in this region and has essentially been involved in some of the policy objectives that have been carried out in the past few years. So her return to the scene, if you will, as secretary of state, will be something that both sides will certainly welcome -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Guy Raz live from Jerusalem this morning.

Thank you.

Still to come on DAYBREAK this morning, everybody's crying foul over the basket brawl at the Pistons-Pacers game -- the players, the fans, the NBA and the players union. We'll hear what former Pistons' broadcaster Jimmy Barrett has to say about it. Which leads us to our e-mail Question of the Morning. Sports and violence -- who is to blame? Shoot us one. Daybreak@cnn.com. That's daybreak@cnn.com.

And you are watching DAYBREAK for a Monday.

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COSTELLO: We have to talk about the Pistons-Pacers game because it was just so unbelievable. The NBA has suspended nine players, for a total of 143 games, as a result of that Friday night brawl in Detroit. Indiana Pacers forward Ron Artest will be forced to sit out the rest of the season. Artest did speak out after the incident and the announcement of his suspension.

He said, and I quote: "It really hurt me to see the children crying on TV and I think about how it could have been my own kids." Artest went on to say: "I have total respect for all the players who play the game and I respect David Stern, but I don't think that he has been fair with me in this situation."

Joining us now to talk more about the violent weekend is a former Detroit area broadcaster, Jimmy Barrett, now with WRVA Radio in Richmond, Virginia.

Jimmy, good morning.

JIMMY BARRETT, 1140 WRVA NEWS RADIO: Hi, Carol.

Long time no talk to.

How have you been?

COSTELLO: I know. We have missed you on DAYBREAK.

BARRETT: Well, it's nice to be back.

Good to see you this morning.

COSTELLO: You've been in Detroit, or you had been in Detroit, for such a long period of time. You're watching television and I'm sure you were watching the game.

What goes through your mind?

BARRETT: All right, well, I'm thinking, OK, is this some sort of a bizarre way to try to appeal to the Redwings fans who no longer have anything to watch or what's the deal here? Because, you know, the hockey, the National Hockey League is on strike and they're known for their fighting, unlike the NBA, which up until now has not been known exactly for this kind of behavior, has it?

COSTELLO: No. It's just crazy. The suspensions that came down, I mean punishment enough?

BARRETT: Well, for Ron Artest, yes. He's done for the rest of the year. Now maybe somehow he's happy about all this, because he wanted time off anyway, you may recall, to promote his new hip-hop album and he actually had enough nerve to ask the Indiana Pacers to give him some time off to do that. So now he has all the time in the world to do that and it's kind of a sad thing to say, but maybe this is good for his hip-hop career.

COSTELLO: Oh...

BARRETT: But...

COSTELLO: Yes, but did you hear the quote from him? We read the quote for our viewers right before I talked with you, and he says he's upset that the children in the stands were crying.

BARRETT: Oh, yes...

COSTELLO: Oh come on.

BARRETT: Maybe he should have thought about that before he climbed into the stands and starting beating people up on a random basis, huh?

COSTELLO: I think so.

You know, we have some interesting statistics here about how much money that these players will lose because of the suspensions. And we have a graphic of that. We can slap that up. Ron Artest will be out 73 games. He will lose -- his annual salary, by the way, is $6.2 million -- he will lose $4.99 million.

BARRETT: Well, maybe he'll actually miss that money. Maybe that actually will make an impact on him, because he's had problems before. He has an anger management issue.

But what about Steven Jackson? I think that's interesting. Steven Jackson was suspended for 30 games here now. He went up into the stands not, as far as I can tell, to defend Ron Artest, but he went up there and just started beating up people, as well. Why does he only get a 30 game suspension?

COSTELLO: Beats -- apparently they watched the tape over and over and over again and they based their decisions on what they saw on the tape. Of course, we all saw it about, oh, about 800 times on ESPN right after it happened.

BARRETT: Of course.

COSTELLO: But you -- it was difficult to determine exactly what was happening.

BARRETT: Well, here's the thing, as well, is I think we have to hold -- do we not have to hold fans accountable in this respect, as well? I'm sure that Oakland County officials there, I know the prosecutor in Oakland County, David Gorsica. And I would think that David is going to be poring over that video, at least I hope he's going to be, and he's going to see if they can identify any of those fans. Because if you're going to suspend Ron Artest for the rest of the year for going up there after getting stuff dumped on him by the fans, then I think you should also, these fans have to take a certain responsibility for this and we should identify some of these people and ban them from attending NBA basketball games in the future if they can't behave themselves.

COSTELLO: Interesting twist and I understand the fans are already considering lawsuits, too. So it's just a big mess.

BARRETT: Well, that should surprise us, should it?

COSTELLO: No.

BARRETT: Because they're looking at Ron Artest's salary. They're saying wait a minute, if this guy makes $6 million a year, I ought to be able to get a piece of that.

COSTELLO: It's just crazy.

Jimmy Barrett, thanks for joining DAYBREAK this morning.

We appreciate it.

BARRETT: Always a pleasure.

Thank you.

COSTELLO: You can be sure that former NBA star and current TNT analyst Charles Barkley has plenty to say about the brawl and the suspensions. Be sure to tune in to see Barkley's take on "AMERICAN MORNING." That's coming your way in 90 minutes.

And later on DAYBREAK in the 6:00 Eastern hour, we're going to talk to a fan who was in the stands that fateful night and we'll also talk to the play by play announcer of the Pistons.

All new in the next half hour of DAYBREAK, bam! We're going to take it up a notch. Ali Velshi has all you need to know about that dream you have of opening your very own restaurant.

From New York and Atlanta, this is DAYBREAK for a Monday.

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