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American Morning
Gambling Ring; Sleep Drug Upswing
Aired February 08, 2006 - 06:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: We have pictures of pills there. Investigators -- and that has nothing to do with I have in front of me. So let's -- why don't we come to me now? That's sleeping pills. Let's talk about hockey.
Investigators say a professional hockey coach is a gambling kingpin. But it isn't confined just to the sports world. There also could be a Hollywood connection.
And more people are taking sleeping pills as never before, as you saw in those pictures. But what price a good night's sleep?
Good to have you with us this morning.
ZAIN VERJEE, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, absolutely. You know, we're going to look at the sleeping pill issue a little bit closer, but...
M. O'BRIEN: Yes, counting elephants for (INAUDIBLE).
VERJEE: Yes. Do you take pills?
M. O'BRIEN: Really, if I stop moving I go to sleep. So it's really not a problem for me. It doesn't matter what time. I'm just -- it just happens. So I'm...
(CROSSTALK)
VERJEE: There are some, though, that you can take, you wake up, and you're still really fresh. And others, you know, people take, and they wake up and they're really sluggish.
M. O'BRIEN: Yes.
VERJEE: And we're going to work through those. And maybe during the course of the week I can explain.
M. O'BRIEN: Well, and it starts a whole pill cycle thing.
VERJEE: Do some research.
M. O'BRIEN: We'll do some research on you.
Carol Costello is off today. Kelly Wallace is in the newsroom.
Good morning, Kelly.
VERJEE: Hi, Kelly. KELLY WALLACE, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Good morning, Miles and Zain. And hello, everybody.
We want to tell you about some new protests today from Muslims outraged over cartoons depicting caricatures of the prophet Mohammed. And these are some new pictures from Baghdad this morning, where people were taking to the streets in connection with this controversy. There was also a demonstration in Hebron in the West Bank. Nearly a dozen people have been killed in violence stemming from the protests.
To President Bush now, who is set to meet this morning with Jordan's King Abdullah. The Oval Office session is their first since the Islamic militant group Hamas won in the Palestinian elections. Later today, the president travels to New Hampshire. He'll be giving a speech on the economy and his proposed $2.8 trillion budget.
And today federal agents are stepping up the investigation into a string of church fires in Alabama. Fires were reported at four more Baptist churches early Tuesday. Five other churches burned last week. Authorities believe the fires are linked, but there are no suspects and no clear motive just yet.
In southern California, those fierce Santa Ana winds could pose more of a threat to firefighters working on containing a massive fire. The fire burning east of Los Angeles has now scorched more than 6,500 acres. It's believed to have started from remnants of a controlled burn. The good news, people forced from their homes because of the fire are now back, and no one has been hurt.
If you think a low-fat diet can reduce the risk of cancer, think again. A study involving older women finds cutting fat intake does not have a major impact when it comes to reducing rates of some forms of cancer and heart disease. Researchers say the findings may just mean that the women who took part in the study started eating healthier too late. The results appear in today's "Journal of the American Medical Association."
Miles, that's sort of a surprising study. Here you are, you think you're eating well, and maybe it has no impact at all.
M. O'BRIEN: So the corollary or the -- I guess the logical syllogism or whatever would be, so eat poorly, right?
WALLACE: Well, no, because the point is obviously right. If you start eating healthy earlier, perhaps you can reduce your risk of heart disease or cancer.
M. O'BRIEN: But if it's too late, just super-size, right?
WALLACE: I hate to get...
M. O'BRIEN: No?
WALLACE: I hate to get that message out, but it's hard not to go there, right?
M. O'BRIEN: Well, all right. You've got to call it like it is.
WALLACE: OK.
M. O'BRIEN: Kelly Wallace, thank you very much.
Investigators say an assistant coach with the National Hockey League's Phoenix Coyotes may be the leader of a nationwide gambling ring. They're looking at ties to several current players and the actress-wife of the great one, Wayne Gretzky. And there's an organized crime component to all of this.
Let's turn now to CNN's sports correspondent, Will Selva, in Atlanta.
Will, it sounds like this story has some legs or skates or something.
WILL SELVA, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it has a little bit of everything. Former player and current assistant coach Rick Tocchet will meet with NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman in New York today. Tocchet will answer questions about his involving in what could turn out to be one of the biggest sports betting scandals in history.
In an investigation called Operation Slapshot, Tocchet allegedly took about 1,000 bets totaling $1.7 million.
Among those accused are several NHL players and, as you mentioned, Janet Jones, the wife of hockey's greatest player and current Coyote's head coach, Wayne Gretzky.
Now, here's what Gretzky had to say about this -- quote: "The reality is I'm not involved, I wasn't involved, and I'm not going to be involved. Am I concerned for both of them? Sure, there is concern for me. I'm more worried about them than me. I'm like you guys, I'm trying to figure it all out."
New Jersey authorities say the bets were on football and basketball but not hockey. The gambling ring has a connection to organized crime in Philadelphia and New Jersey.
And for the NHL coming off a year-long lockout, Miles, this is a PR nightmare.
M. O'BRIEN: No hockey betting, interestingly.
SELVA: No hockey betting at all, because one of the things is it's a cardinal sin. You don't want to bet on a sport, because if you do, like if you bet on hockey, you're compromising the integrity of the game.
M. O'BRIEN: Right.
SELVA: And that's something you just don't do in sports.
M. O'BRIEN: Big time. All right, Will Selva, thank you very much -- Zain. VERJEE: Miles, let's check in on the weather forecast and go over to the CNN center and to Bonnie Schneider.
(WEATHER REPORT)
M. O'BRIEN: Coming up, the funeral for Coretta Scott King turns political. Former President Jimmy Carter and others taking jabs at the White House with, as you can see, the president sitting right behind them. Was this the right place, the right time?
VERJEE: And also, more and more people are turning to sleeping pills to get a good night's rest. But are they the best long-term prescription? Dr. Sanjay Gupta will join us and give us some answers.
M. O'BRIEN: And later, a Winter Olympics preview. Figure skater Sasha Cohen is one of the early metal favorites. What are her chances for gold? We'll ask a former gold medalist, Scott Hamilton, about that ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VERJEE: Good morning. An estimated 50 to 70 million Americans have trouble sleeping, and more than even before they are turning to prescription sleep drugs for help. But is it really the best cure in the long run?
CNN's senior medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, brings us the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It seems that Colette Marietta is always on the move, a job that takes her on the road, and two kids needing constant attention at home. By the end of the day, she is tired, so incredibly tired, yet she can't get to sleep.
COLETTE MARIETTA, HAS TROUBLE SLEEPING: Although my body is exhausted, I lay in bed and just millions of thoughts are going through my head. Did I sign the permission slip? Did I do this? Did I do that? Did I finish something for work?
GUPTA: She tried some basic things: eliminating caffeine, trying warm tea and a bath before bed. But nothing worked as well as a little pill, Ambien.
When the doctor handed her a prescription for a sleeping pill, it was one of 42 million that were written last year. That's a 60 percent increase since 2000. And they are expensive. About $11 a pill, usually covered by insurance. Annual sales of prescription sleep medicine now top $2 billion.
MARIETTA: It just totally relaxes me and, you know, and I just am out like that. It's not an issue.
GUPTA: Not an issue because it works for Colette. But could she and her doctors be ignoring the root cause of her insomnia? Anxiety, depression or chronic illness such as sleep apnea?
Harvard psychologist Greg Jacobs says drugs are not a long-term fix for insomnia.
GREG JACOBS, PSYCHOLOGIST, HARVARD UNIVERSITY: Sleeping pills don't change those behaviors. So they may work in the short run, but over a period of time the brain kind of gets accustomed to them and they don't work as well.
GUPTA: Instead, Jacobs advocates something called cognitive behavior therapy, CBT, like establishing a regular bedtime, not exercising, watching T.V. or using the computer before bed, and making a list of things to do before the lights go out. Jacobs has developed an online version at cbtforinsomnia.com, offering advice and feedback for a monthly fee.
JACOBS: Cognitive behavioral therapy is actually more effective in the long run.
GUPTA: That's not a message you'll hear on the hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of television ads.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice-over): This great night's sleep brought to you by Lunesta.
GUPTA: Lunesta's makers Sepracor declined to comment for this story. A spokeswoman for Sanofi-Aventis, the maker of Ambien, said "When taken as prescribed, Ambien is a safe and effective treatment for insomnia."
Colette doesn't want to stay on the pills forever, worried about side effects such as fuzzy-headedness and dependence.
MARIETTA: I do worry long-term, but I just keep hoping too.
GUPTA: Hoping her hectic life will slow down to get a good night's sleep.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, reporting.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VERJEE: You know, the best advice we can give you if you have trouble sleeping is just go and see your doctor and ask questions first before asking for a sleeping pill prescription. And, you know, the other thing, Miles, is that the danger experts say is that sleeping pills are just over-prescribed, you know. Doctors don't necessarily always look at rare side effects, long-term implications, and even ignoring things like the possibility could be depression, for example. That's something that keeps people up late at night. So people are just too quick sometimes to just...
M. O'BRIEN: Well, essentially Americans...
VERJEE: ... write it off.
M. O'BRIEN: ... they love a silver bullet solution. Got a sleeping problem? Give me a pill.
VERJEE: Right.
M. O'BRIEN: And it's usually a lot more complicated than that.
VERJEE: OK.
M. O'BRIEN: Anyway, we're going to take a break. When we come back, we're going to check in with Andy Serwer who is, as always, "Minding Your Business." Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
M. O'BRIEN: Remember this tape we showed you last week? The wife of the victim of this police shooting says the deputy who pulled the trigger should be in jail. Now, the tape, as you can see, shows the deputy firing three shots as Elio Carrion who is lying there in the wake of a police chase.
Now, it appears he was complying with the deputy's order. Carrion, an Iraq war vet, was a passenger in the car involved in that chase. His wife says she naturally was shocked when she saw this video.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARIELA CARRION, WIFE OF ELIO CARRION: I just felt like my heart had dropped. It's -- I mean, it's unbelievable. He was pleading. He was telling the officer, "I'm on your side, I'm on your side. I'm in the Air Force. Please believe me." And as the officer told him, "Get down, get down," no -- yes, my husband was down. And he said -- and then the officer was telling him, "Get up, get up." Then my husband was saying, "OK, I'm going to get up." And that's when he shot him.
It was so shocking. I couldn't believe it. I started screaming. I started crying. I was just so -- I was asking myself, 'Why, why would that officer shoot him? What could have my husband possibly do for him to shoot him?' I mean, he didn't do anything wrong.
I mean, it's unexplainable what he did. And I just -- I want that officer to be in jail, because he shouldn't be out. Just because he wears a badge doesn't mean that he can harm someone. He shouldn't be getting that privilege.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
M. O'BRIEN: Now, here's a little footnote to all of this. The man who shot that videotape was ordered held by authorities for an alleged assault in Florida. Apparently he fled Cuba in the '90s and has an extradition hearing, which is coming up on Thursday. I'm not sure what that has to do with everything, but there you have it. A little footnote for you.
Let's get to Kelly Wallace in the newsroom and check some headlines.
Good morning, Kelly.
WALLACE: Good morning again, Miles. And hello, everyone.
We're beginning in Iraq, three bombings in Baghdad to tell you about today. The bombs went off in the span of just a half-hour. At least two people were killed. And the attacks come as Shia Muslims prepare to mark -- or are marking the religious holiday of Ashura.
To Washington now. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is back on Capitol Hill this morning. He's defending the proposed $439 billion defense budget. Senators on the Armed Services Committee grilled him Tuesday about the progress when it comes to training Iraqi forces. Only one Iraqi battalion is fully up and running. Secretary Rumsfeld is urging lawmakers to be patient.
Medicare chief Mark McClellan will appear this morning before the Senate Finance Committee. There have been some problems -- you've probably heard about them -- with Medicare since the new prescription program went into effect January 1. Thousands of elderly patients have been denied benefits, and some are complaining that the program is too complex, too cumbersome, too hard to navigate.
Former Washington D.C. Mayor Marion Barry is heading back to court today. He's set for sentencing on misdemeanor tax charges. Court papers also show Barry tested positive for cocaine and marijuana use in recent months. His lawyers are expected to request probation. Federal prosecutors said they would allow it, but only if Barry pays the taxes and submits to regular drug tests. Otherwise he could face 18 months behind bars.
And Philadelphia International Airport has now reopened after a fire shut things down for nearly six hours. A UPS cargo plane was on a regularly-scheduled Atlanta-to-Philadelphia flight when flames and smoke began shooting from the cargo area. The plane's three crew members, we're happy to say, are all OK.
What's your forecast going to look like on this Wednesday? Bonnie Schneider has some answers.
(WEATHER REPORT)
M. O'BRIEN: All right. Sudoku. Does that mean anything to you?
VERJEE: Number Place.
M. O'BRIEN: Very well done. Number place. It used to be called Number Place. For some reason when it was called Number Place it didn't take off. Anyway, I have just learned about this craze and learned about the puzzle. And it's amazingly addictive. As a matter of fact, I got a few tips from kind of the king of Sudoku, Will Shortz. Watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'll tell you one more solving tip. It's a little more sophisticated. M. O'BRIEN: Uh-oh! It's getting scary now. Sophisticated. I think he's got the wrong guy. I really do, yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Try this column.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
M. O'BRIEN: Yes, it's Will Shortz. He's the man who presides over "The New York Times" crossword puzzle, and has a cottage industry in Sudoku books. We are going to introduce you into this amazingly simple and yet...
VERJEE: Obsessive.
M. O'BRIEN: ... obsessive. That's the word. That's the word. You know, you see people doing it, and it's just -- the Sudoku craze is going nuts. We'll try to explain why. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
M. O'BRIEN: Live pictures. This is the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where it is a beautiful morning. And what you see there is the Virgin Global Flyer. Steve Fossett, the adventurer and record- setter par excellence, is strapped aboard. And within about 5-10 minutes' time should be rolling down that 15,000-foot runway there, the runway the shuttles and air missions on, in order to begin an attempt to fly the longest on a tank of gas ever.
He will fly all the way around the world if all goes well and then cross the Atlantic Ocean a second time, landing in Kent, England, and hopefully pushing his Burt Rutan-designed aircraft to its very limits and putting himself in the record books yet again.
VERJEE: Going all by himself?
M. O'BRIEN: All by lonesome. One engine, one pilot and just a bunch of catnaps. And shall we say...
VERJEE: Five-minute catnaps is all he gets.
M. O'BRIEN: That's it.
VERJEE: With an alarm clock.
M. O'BRIEN: His nourishment, we'll call it low residue and leave it at that.
VERJEE: Diet milkshakes.
M. O'BRIEN: Yes. Leave it at that.
VERJEE: Andy.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Yes.
M. O'BRIEN: Andy Serwer is here. SERWER: Yes, hi.
M. O'BRIEN: Andy, it's good to see you.
SERWER: Good to see you as well. We want to talk all Wal-Mart all the time this morning.
First of all, you guys remember that law passed in Maryland on January 12 that mandated that the retailing giant must spend 8 percent of its payroll on health care benefits. Well, you knew this was coming. Wal-Mart is fighting back.
A retail trade association backed by Wal-Mart has filed suit, saying that this law in Maryland violates federal statutes. And guess what? The court case will go on and on and on.
Meanwhile, do you think there are not enough Wal-Marts out there? Well, Wal-Mart agrees with you. There are only about 3,800 hundred of them, 3,800 of them in the United States. And Wal-Mart now says it's going to be opening up about 1,500 more...
M. O'BRIEN: Where?
SERWER: ... over the past -- over the future five years or so.
Where? That's a good question.
M. O'BRIEN: I mean, what places are left?
SERWER: They opened up 69 in January, which is a record month for them. I mean...
M. O'BRIEN: One month. One month.
SERWER: Yes. And then finally, Wal-Mart is also going to be updating its stores, 1,800 stores are going to be getting a new look, including -- get this -- buffed concrete. Hardwood in its departments such as apparel, and then you can see over the aisles. Buffed concrete is upscale.
M. O'BRIEN: Then it really wouldn't be a Wal-Mart then...
SERWER: Yes, right.
M. O'BRIEN: ... after all of that, right?
SERWER: You could see. Right, yes.
M. O'BRIEN: All right, Andy Serwer, thank you very much.
VERJEE: Thanks, Andy.
SERWER: Thank you.
M. O'BRIEN: We'll be back with more in a moment. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(WEATHER REPORT)
BONNIE SCHNEIDER, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I'll have a look at your forecast and a look at the top stories. That's all coming up next on AMERICAN MORNING.
M. O'BRIEN: Thank you, Bonnie. Good morning. I'm Miles O'Brien.
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