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CNN Live Sunday
New Details on Christian Convert's Faith; Conflicting Reports on Clash in Baghdad; Bracelet to Detect Alcohol Level
Aired March 26, 2006 - 16:59 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: His sentence? Death. His crime? Converting to Christianity. Ahead this hour, new details new details about this man's faith.
Plus, here's a sobering thought. A bracelet that can detect whether you've been tipping back a few.
And then a story that will really make you want to bring home the bacon and fry it up in a pan.
Hello and welcome to CNN LIVE SUNDAY, I'm Fredricka Whitfield. All that and more after this check of the headlines.
In Baghdad, deadly clashes involving militiamen, loyal to a radical cleric. Iraqi police say at least 20 Mehdi military members have been killed, but it's not quite clear who they were fighting. We'll have a report from CNN's Nic Robertson in a moment.
An Indy Racing League driver dies after this horrible crash today at the Homestead Miami Speedway. Paul Dana slammed into another car at 200 miles-an-hour. The other driver is awake and alert at a Miami hospital. Dana was driving for the team owned by Bobby Rahal and David Letterman.
It has been a full week since two boys from Milwaukee disappeared and now the search for the 12 and 11 year olds has become a criminal investigation. Police made that announcement a short time ago. Authorities have gone through hundreds of tips in the search for Quadrevion Henning and Purvis Parker.
Not news to you motorists, gas prices shot up 15 cents in the past two weeks. The national average is now at $2.50 a gallon for self service regular and the picture is not getting rosier. Prices are expected to climb as the spring driving system heats up.
A Navy destroyer hit an oil tanker in the Persian Gulf yesterday but no oil was spilled from the collision. Two sailors from the "USS McCampbell" and two crew members from the tanker were treated for minor injuries.
Now more on that brutal gun battle involving Shiite militia men in an area of Baghdad known as Sadr City. There are conflicting reports about that clash and some confusion about whether U.S. forces were involved. CNN's senior international correspondent Nic Robertson has the latest from Baghdad.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: U.S. military officials say that this was an incident involving Iraqi special operations forces with U.S. special operation forces in an advisory capacity. They say this was an intelligence directed focused precision operation, that it didn't involve any people going inside a mosque, any of the troops going inside a mosque. What they say is that they were entering the objective, that they came under gun fire, that a gun battle ensued and 16 insurgents were killed, that 15 other people taken away for questioning.
This is at a variance with what Iraq police were saying earlier, that this was gun battle between U.S. troops and a militia loyal to firebrand cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, that many militia police have said, that the many militia members had opened fire on U.S. troops, a gun battle had ensued and according to Iraqi police, 17 people were killed and four wounded. Now, a member of the Muqtada al Sadr's office had claimed that U.S. troops had gone inside a mosque to shoot people. Now the press release from U.S. military officials here indicates that nobody entered the mosque. Pictures shown on Iraqi television show dead bodies piled up inside a building a lot of blood, unclear if any of them were militia members or not. Certainly the clarification coming from the U.S. military that this was an Iraqi special operation forces operation changes the emphasis, changes the emphasis from how police are described it as a gun battle between U.S. forces and many militia members. But a lot of the details here still remain very unclear. Nic Robertson, CNN, Baghdad.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: And a gruesome discovery in Iraqi town of Baquba. The Iraqi army says 30 bodies were dumped on a road. All of them were beheaded. Executed people, many of them showing signs of torture have been found nearly every day since a wave of sectarian violence broke out five weeks ago.
Now to Afghanistan and threats of big protests if one man is set free. Abdul Rahman is facing trial and possibly death for becoming a Christian. Now some Afghan officials say he'll soon be released. Others say the case against him has been thrown out but he may not be set free. The man's plight has attracted international attention, but he's getting little sympathy at home where some of his own family members say he must be crazy. This case has outraged Christians all over the world. My next guest has even written to President Bush urging him to do everything in his power to Abdul Rahman. Tony Perkins is the president of the Family Research Council. Good to see you.
TONY PERKINS, PRES., FAMILY RESEARCH COUNCIL: Good afternoon.
WHITFIELD: To what extent do you think the Bush administration should be doing something?
PERKINS: Think they have increasingly been voicing their concern throughout the week. I'm very concerned though that what we see now developing is that charges may be dismissed based upon lack of evidence. That does not solve the bigger issue here. Simply letting him go does not resolve the issue of the religious liberties and religious freedoms that we as a nation have been working to establish in Afghanistan. It really raises some serious questions about our success in creating a democracy.
WHITFIELD: Less than five years later, should there be expectations that this kind of religious freedom would be rampant and accepted in a country where there were strict limitations before the U.S. invasion?
PERKINS: Let's think about this. American lives have been sacrificed to establish this government in Afghanistan. We threw out the Taliban because of their oppressive tactics but now we have a government here that this man was not -- he wasn't doing anything. He wasn't even proselytizing. He simply was practicing his own faith which he adopted 16 years ago and now he is at risk of being put to death. As long as a Christian or a Jew or anyone for that matter are at risk of losing their life in the country of Afghanistan or Iraq for practicing their faith, we do not have a democracy.
WHITFIELD: U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has been out professing the Bush administration's point of view on all of this. This is what she said earlier today on "Late Edition."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CONDOLEEZZA RICE, SECRETARY OF STATE: We've been very clear with the Afghan government that it has to understand the vital importance of religious freedom to democracy and so we're working with the Afghan government. We've made clear that we expect to see a favorable resolution of this. I talked myself to President Karzai and I think the Afghan government is working on this problem.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: Your reaction to her comments.
PERKINS: Well, I think there may be a solution to this situation but again I go back just simply to dismissing this charges or declaring that he's insane and letting him go does not solve the most fundamental problem we have here and that is you cannot have a democracy without the most basic of human rights being freedom of religion. Now this is a bigger problem for the administration because I seriously believe that because there are similarities in the Iraqi constitution as there are in the Afghan constitution, this could be a problem in Iraq and I do not think that Americans are -- the resolve is going to be there for very long to continue our efforts in Iraq if we can't guarantee those people who want to convert to another religion the freedom to do so.
WHITFIELD: Doesn't the U.S. run the risk of being interpreted as pushing Christianity itself by saying too much about Rahman's case and that in the end, it may be misconstrued or construed that the U.S. is condemning religions of Islam.
PERKINS: No. I mean we've taken the same position when the Taliban oppressed the Buddhists who were in the country before in destroying the relics of the Buddhist religion. We have defended Jewish people who have been persecuted by the Russians when they took over parts of this same area a couple of decades ago. So it is an issue of fundamental democracy. If you're going to have democracy, you must have personal liberties and freedoms and chief among them is religious freedoms. It's not just an element of democracy. It's at its very core.
WHITFIELD: Tony Perkins, thank you so much.
PERKINS: Thank you.
WHITFIELD: Here in the U.S., the emotional debate over illegal immigration spills onto the streets of Los Angeles for a second straight day. Protesters are rallying against proposed legislation that would make illegal immigration a felony. It would also punish companies that hire illegal immigrants and tighten the border with Mexico. At yesterday's massive rally in Los Angeles, protesters and the mayor insisted immigrants are being unfairly targeted.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR ANTONIO VILLARAIGOSA, LOS ANGELES: I come today there in the city of Los Angeles to welcome you, the immigrants. God loves you. We come together to say that we are workers, not criminals, that we work hard. We pay our taxes. We live by the rules and we want this great America to take us into account.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: The Senate and the president tackled the controversy this week in their own way. With more on that, let's turn to CNN's Kathleen Koch who is at the White House. Kathleen.
KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fredricka, right out of the gate (ph) the president tries to set the tone this week for the debate on immigration reform. He'll start out with some very powerful feel good images by speaking first thing Monday morning to a group of new citizens who are just taking part in a naturalization ceremony. Mr. Bush will make the point here that his immigration reform plan, his controversial plan will not put temporary workers in line for citizenship ahead of people like these, people who played by the rules, people who applied legally. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice this morning defended President Bush's proposal.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RICE: The president has talked about a temporary worker program that would allow people to -- who have worked that Americans will not do, to find a way to be legally in the country. But the president is always going to stand against amnesty. And the reason that he stands against amnesty is because our laws do need to be respected. Our borders do need to be respected.
(END VIDEO CLIP) KOCH: Also tomorrow, the Senate Judiciary Committee gets to work trying to craft an immigration reform bill of its own that does includes a guest worker plan. However, if it is unsuccessful, the debate is then scheduled to get underway on an measure authored by Majority Leader Bill Frist that Fredricka already mentioned would tighten borders, add more border patrol agents and stiffen punishments for those who hire illegal immigrants. That debate will be under way as President Bush flies Wednesday to Cancun, Mexico for two days of meetings with Mexican President Vicente Fox. Fox only has roughly a year left in his presidency. He very much wants to see immigration reform be a part of his legacy. So Fredricka, that is expected to be topic number one when the men meet.
WHITFIELD: And do Fox and Bush see eye to eye when it comes down to the guest worker proposal?
KOCH: They do but there is a push in the Hispanic community for any guest worker proposal to give these citizens or these non-citizens a way to eventually become U.S. citizens. That is indeed part of some of the proposals that are being floated on Capitol Hill, though not the president's because he does indeed understand how controversial that aspect is within his very own party.
WHITFIELD: All right Kathleen Koch at the White House. Thanks so much.
Captured on tape forever. But just who will hear them now? Families of some two dozen victims of 9/11 will be able to listen to previously unreleased emergency calls made by their loved ones. The New York City fire department is releasing a CD of the recordings this week but the voices of the victims will not be included. Their next of kin will have to decide if they want those messages made public.
When we come back, this device can tell if you have been knocking a few back but will it keep repeat drunk drivers off the road? And the Pentagon unveils a new twist on GI Joe. It's a new action hero for a new generation. CNN LIVE SUNDAY will be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Other headlines making news across America now, promoting pork for a more healthy heart. American scientists say they have genetically engineered swine to produce the beneficial fatty acids often found in fish. But it may take a while before it makes it to your dinner plate. There is still much debate over the safety of genetically altered animals as a food source.
There's been another church fire in Alabama. The latest happened early yesterday morning in Hayden, 25 miles north of Birmingham. Three college students arrested this month for a string of similar church fires remain jailed under state and Federal charges.
New Orleans charity hospital was an island in the storm during Hurricane Katrina and its supporters say they won't abandon it now in the storm's wake. Roughly 100 demonstrators turned out for a rally to reopen the now shuttered hospital. Its owners say the building is beyond the point of being saved.
Two near plane collisions in five days at Chicago's O'Hare international airport is raising concern with Federal officials. Both the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board say they will launch separate inquiries. The NTSB usually investigates fatal accidents, but a spokeswoman says it is getting involved this time because the incidents were major incidents.
Drunken driving killed more than 16,000 people last year. Every one of those deaths could have been prevented and maybe thousands more will be if SCRAM catches on. SCRAM is an ankle bracelet, an electronic one/alcohol detector. CNN's Adaora Udoji has more in the best of CNN report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ADAORA UDOJI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In this Scranton, Pennsylvania, courtroom, Judge Michael Barrasse doesn't let defendants get away with much, especially those with a record of drinking and driving or other alcohol-related offenses. If he's ordered them to stop drinking, they'd better or armed with cutting edge technology, he'll find out, and when some parolees test him, it isn't pretty.
JUDGE MICHAEL BARRASSE, LACKAWANNA COUNTY COURT: I'm giving you one chance to be honest with me, one chance and that's going to be the determination as to whether you're going to the county or to the state. When was the last time you drank?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Honest to God, I didn't have a drink since I had the bracelet on.
BARRASSE: When's the last time you drank?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: About a week ago.
BARRASSE: About a week ago and how many days in a row did you drink, Richard?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just once.
BARRASSE: Richard, how many days in a row did you drink?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two.
UDOJI: How did the judge know? The parolee referred to a bracelet. He's talking about this, a secure continuous remote alcohol monitor or SCRAM bracelet, a new device that monitors a person's alcohol consumption. In other words, you can't lie about what you drink. It's an alcohol lie detector.
BARRASSE: How is your bracelet doing?
UDOJI: The past two years it's spread to hundreds of courtrooms across the country in 36 states. Judge Barrasse's was one of the first.
LISA WHITE, PROBATION OFFICER: The bracelet began to read as the alcohol was --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That would be daily consumption.
WHITE: Right.
UDOJI: Parole officer Lisa White oversees some of the toughest cases of multiple offenders. She takes them through intense treatment, which includes SCRAM reports every day which she shares with the judge. The bracelet shows, despite a court order, this offender was drinking, so he now goes to jail.
BARRASSE: Beforehand, we didn't have that capability. So a person could be on house arrest and they'd just be sitting at home drinking the whole time and you wouldn't know it.
UDOJI: Not anymore. The bracelet collects information all day long, constantly monitoring the wearer's perspiration, looking for alcohol. Watch this black line closely. At 2:01 a.m. it begins to rise. That means it's detecting alcohol. The parolee has started drinking and that information is related to a monitor, then to a data bank which notifies the parole officer. They're also notified if the parolee tampers with the bracelet or takes it off.
BARRASSE: There, you've had a long and checkered career in this courtroom.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I know.
UDOJI: Peter Farrell just spent 90 days in jail on his third DUI. Today, the judge orders Farrell, a successful contractor, not to drink and to be certain, he must wear the SCRAM bracelet 24/7 for the next four months. Peter, who struggled with alcoholism says the bracelet worked last time as long as it was on. He started drinking after it came off. He served a jail sentence and is hoping this time, the bracelet will help him keep sober.
PETER FARRELL, DUI OFFENDER: Between probation and the other treatment, and you can still live your life, you can see your children, which is good and you can work and you can earn money and take care of your family. Shane, he's the oldest. When I was in jail I was thinking here I am, you know, I have six kids. I'm 40. I've been drinking since I was like 15. Like enough is enough.
UDOJI: Judge Barrasse says the idea is for Peter and the other 3,000 parolees across the country wearing SCRAM bracelets to stay sober, long enough to learn they can live without alcohol.
BARRASSE: If you couple that with treatment and if we couple that with the external pressure of the court, we have a better chance of a positive outcome.
WHITE: Can I sit here and say that he's going to be a success story? I can hope he is. I can do everything in my power to get him to the agencies he needs to assure that but I can't sit here and say he will be.
UDOJI: Do you think the SCRAM will up his chances?
WHITE: Yes, absolutely it will, absolutely it will.
BARRASSE: How long have you been sober?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's coming on about four months.
BARRASSE: Congratulations.
UDOJI: Judge Barrasse says the bracelets work, though it's too early for hard numbers, and it's too early to tell if it will be enough to help Pete Farrell help himself. Adaora Udoji, CNN, Scranton, Pennsylvania.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: A California lawmaker is proposing a controversial plan to identify repeat DUI offenders in his state. A crimson red license tag with the letters DUI. Any motorists with two or more convictions for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs would have to display this scarlet letter tag for two years. Supporters say it would give the public a head's up and allow people to watch out for their own safety. Opponents say it would only humiliate offenders who have already served their sentences.
Can kids really learn more at home than in a traditional classroom setting? Parents who home school say yes. We'll look into that later on this hour.
And next we meet one man who is learning to live again after a tragic accident. He's a great role model to others and his story is straight ahead. CNN LIVE SUNDAY will be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: The long road to recovery for many wounded and disabled veterans the first priority is restoring their physical abilities. More often than not that hardly eases their mental anguish. Sometimes medical science may not be enough so other, more creative methods have to be used. CNN national correspondent Kelly Wallace.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KELLY WALLACE, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Mike Ricci of Gilford, Connecticut didn't give up 22 years ago when a car accident changed his life forever.
MIKE RICCI, ACCIDENT VICTIM: When I put my prosthesis on and took the first step, was probably one of the most beautiful things I ever did.
WALLACE: He lost his left leg after an elderly driver lost control during a snow storm. Mike still feels bad but not for himself, for the man who hit him. RICCI: I prayed (INAUDIBLE) and that he would know -- I never said it to him that it is all right. It's OK. Things will go on. Life goes on.
WALLACE: His life has gone on, even flourished without a hint of anger. But the 47-year-old knows that is probably not the case for the men and women who lost limbs and arms on the battlefields of Iraq.
RICCI: I just can't imagine coming back from a place where people are angry at you and they feel like they failed by only having to lose a limb.
WALLACE: Mike is now trying to encourage wounded warriors to join the first of its kind free writing program for disabled veterans. It's sponsored by the national theater workshop of the handicapped. Brother Rick Curry, a Jesuit priest who is the group's founder came up with the idea after meeting some recently disabled vets from Iraq.
BRO. RICK CURRY, NATL THEATER WORKSHOP: One of the young men asked to see me. I took him over to a table and he held my hand. And he said I don't know where I am. I said my God he's lost the center. How can we restore his center?
WALLACE: Their message that while the disabled focus on their physical rehabilitation they also can benefit by focusing on the soul. That is something Mike learned shortly after September 11. A former iron worker he headed to ground zero to help. One night he saw something, a woman's shoe.
RICCI: I just realized that five days ago there was a foot in that shoe and a person and I kind of stepped back for a second. I looked around. Life is just too short.
WALLACE: He decided to do something he always wanted to do, perform on stage. It wasn't easy.
RICCI: I was more afraid to go up to the stage than amputation I think.
WALLACE: Almost two decades after his accident he learned through acting he was still dealing with loss.
RICCI: I thought the healing process was over and it wasn't.
WALLACE: And now he hopes disabled vets can overcome their fears and take a chance like he did.
RICCI: It's a leap, it's a leap taking that prosthesis and putting it on the first time. So when you put those crutches down and take the first step. It's a leap.
WALLACE: Kelly Wallace, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: Now stories in the news, deadly clashes on the northern edge of Baghdad's Sadr City. Iraqi police say at least 20 militia men loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al Sadr were killed. Initial reports indicated U.S. troops were directly involved, but the American military deny this. They saying they were only there in an advisory capacity.
Uncertainty over the fate of an Afghan man threatened with execution for converting from Islam to Christianity. Several sources tell CNN Abdul Rahman could be released as early as today, but other sources in Afghanistan say his case could be thrown out, but Rahman will remain in prison.
Milwaukee police say the search for two missing boys is now a criminal investigation. It has been a full week since the 11 and 12- year-olds were last seen. They were headed off to play basketball at a park not far from their home.
Mary Winkler, the preacher's wife turned murder suspect is back in McNarry County Tennessee. The 32-year-old mother of three awaits arraignment tomorrow afternoon on first degree murder charges. Police say she confessed to shooting her husband but they won't say what the motive was.
People are gathering in the streets of Los Angeles again today celebrating the late activist Caesar Chavez. But it's expected they could rally against proposals to toughen immigration laws.
Canada's east coast seal hunt is in its second day. Yesterday just over 3,000 seals were slaughtered. Canadian officials say most of the killing is being done with rifles because it's not safe for sealers to walk on the ice and club the seal.
The Pentagon wants to turn U.S. soldiers into action figures. Find out why coming up. And then, gambling, overeating and food addiction, could these behaviors be caused by medication for Parkinson's disease? We'll take close look. But this, here is what your cell phone may look like in the near future.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's funny because each of these things is supposed to save me time. But because I have to use them all, it actually winds up costing me time. I've got two cell phones. Neither one does everything that I need it to. They both have their pluses and minuses, but unfortunately, there's no way to combine the best aspects of each phone. The systems aren't compatible. If there was just some way to combine them into one device to carry around, I'd be set. To me, the most important thing is to be able to do everything that I need to do on a computer on a handheld device. The technology is out there to do it. I'm just waiting for it.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: And so am I, but the single device solution, phone calls, e-mail, web surfing, pictures, organizer, you know, the gadget that does it all, remains the digital holy grail, and I'm beginning to wonder if it will ever be discovered.
(voice-over): You bet says technology analyst Rob Inderley. He says the answer may lie in a new breed of fourth generation, or 4G mobile devices.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The cell phone is trying to involve into a personal communication device but something less than a laptop in terms of size but including all of that in terms of the device.
O'BRIEN: Due out by 2010, 4G comes with promises of full Windows XP capabilities, broad band Internet speeds and a set of world wide service standards. I'll believe it and buy when I see it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's really supposed to bring everyone together in some type of a "Kumbaya" environment and things will work. We've had this promise before. So I probably wouldn't hold my breath.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: The Hawaiian Islands have had a lot of rain late land I have a feeling it is not over. Bonnie Schneider is in the weather center. Bonnie?
BONNIE SCHNEIDER, CNN METEOROLOGIST: That's right, Fredricka. We have been talking about this all weekend. Another batch of rain for tonight and especially tomorrow for the Hawaiian Islands. We have flash flood watch that runs straight into Monday evening. The flash flood warning just expired a moment ago. But we're still looking at a lot of rain there.
And actually a lot of it has been streaming into Oahu in the Honolulu area. You can see by the colors, the intensity in the radar that some of the more heavier bands sweeping in from the south are really hitting this island hard. And record breaking rainfalls for much of the month of March. March is typically when we see rain but unfortunately it has been just a tremendous amount. We have had a low pressure systems developing one after another bringing in these waves of rain tapping into that really moist water down to the south and unfortunately, again, we're looking at a lot of moisture coming in kicking up the rain for Hawaii.
Now, as we go back to the U.S. mainland and maybe you're wrapping up a weekend away, there is only one airport delay to tell you about. It's really not too bad. Much of the country reporting smooth sailing so far. So ground delay in Ft. Lauderdale only 15 minutes long. That's really not too bad and that's the only one I have to tell you about at this time.
Overnight low temperatures very cold in some areas even though this has been the first weekend of spring, we've seen some really cold conditions. No exception tonight. We're looking at a low of 27 in Denver, Colorado. Bundle up if you are headed out there, 32 is the low in Minneapolis, 37 into St. Louis. And temperatures will drop down into the 30s in Chicago, as well.
We're starting to see a warm-up ever so slowly from the south. Temperatures in Dallas still cool tomorrow because we're expecting some rain to move into the forecast and cloud coverage. But you will see some of the warm air is actually going to be working its way to the east. Just have to be patient for it. As we take a closer look at what's happening on Monday, high pressure slides further off to the east. Now as that high does that, we'll watch for winds on the backside of the high to sweep in bringing warmer air to the southeast so hopefully we can lose the freeze warnings we've had in Georgia and even up into the northeast where today it's been a wet, kind of a raw day with temperatures hovering in the 40s most of the day and on and off rain showers up from New England down through New Jersey. Some improvements are in sight. As we look ahead. Now we have to look ahead a few days to get there but watch for Thursday's forecast. All of the way up to 61 on Thursday for New York City. Temperatures will drop down into the 40s for lows. Things do improve. I think, Fredricka, that spring got a two-week delay in actually coming across the country.
WHITFIELD: You said it. Patience is the key. We all have to be patient. Thank you so much.
Well, it is no secret the Pentagon is having a tough time signing new recruits. The army missed its recruitment goal for fiscal 2005. To motivate today's kids to be tomorrow's soldier, the Pentagon is turning to a company that makes "Star Wars" toys. Here is Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Here at the Gentle Giant studios in Los Angeles, Sergeant Tommy Rieman is getting a full body scan. Turning this real life Silver Star soldier into an action figure hero. A computer spends up to 30 hours printing a three dimensional wax model and then the prototype is turned into a doll like this.
SGT TOMMY RIEMAN, U.S. ARMY: It's not a doll. It's an action figure.
STARR: Rieman and eight other soldiers are being turned into action figures as part of an army program to inspire young people to join the military. Back at the Pentagon Tommy Rieman recalls December 3rd, 2003.
RIEMAN: I received a bullet in the arm.
STARR: His unit was ambushed on patrol south of Baghdad. Badly outnumbered riding in a humvee with no doors, no armor. Tommy threw his body in front of enemy fire to protect his buddies knowing that enemy bullets would hit his body. With 13 bullet and shrapnel wounds, he refused medical care until his whole team got to safety.
RIEMAN: My wound doesn't count if all my guys are dead.
STARR: On the third anniversary of the war, Tommy and his guys are still very close.
RIEMAN: Actually, my team leader, Staff Sergeant Verhaska (ph), I named him the godfather of my child so it shows you the bond and great relationship that we still have as a team. There are actually two more guys that are serving in Afghanistan and Iraq for the second and third time.
STARR: But thrilled as he is to be this action figure for children, Tommy Rieman says kids need to know war is not about toy figures and video games.
RIEMAN: It inspires somebody and they can look up and say he's an E-5. He's 25 years old. He's an action figure. I can do that, too. And it gives them something to look forward to and relate.
STARR: Still, aside from the inspiration, how many new fathers can say this?
RIEMAN: I have a son and when he's five years old he'll be playing G.I. Joe with my action figure. That means the world to any father. The only word I can use for it is cool.
STARR: Barbara Starr, CNN, the Pentagon.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: Why are more and more African American parents choosing to home school their kids? We'll take a closer look straight ahead.
And later, a strange side effect for some popular medication. The urge to gamble. We'll take a closer look on that. CNN LIVE SUNDAY will be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Straight ahead more of CNN LIVE SUNDAY with Carol Lin. Hi, Carol.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Hi there. We are going to be continuing with the big news of the day. But we have a particular piece that I think is going to be very memorable. Sex-somnia.
WHITFIELD: Sex-somnia.
LIN: Can you say that three times fast?
WHITFIELD: No, not three times fast.
LIN: Sanjay has a special tonight on sleep but one of the stories that he's reporting on is people who in a state of sleep have sex and sometimes it's a problem because sometimes it can turn violent and the person wakes up in the morning and doesn't have any memory of it. So Sanjay is going to -- Isn't that interesting? It is going to be an interesting subject and who is most vulnerable and what are those triggers? It could be someone you know.
WHITFIELD: That's fascinating stuff. We'll be watching. Thanks, Carol. Having Parkinson's is tough enough but now there is evidence that some drugs used to treat the disease can have bizarre side effects such as compulsive gambling or eating, even compulsive shopping.
CNN medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen tells us the effects on a family can be devastating.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was just so driven to gamble.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I would eat a whole cake right by myself.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I wouldn't go to work. I would gamble for four or five, six hours.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I knew it was tearing my family apart.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Ordinary people suddenly overwhelmed with uncontrollable urges. To eat. To shop. To gamble away hundreds of thousands of dollars. The only thing they have in common, Parkinson's disease. But that didn't plain this strange behavior. Phil Juby is a retired army lieutenant colonel. He says about a year and a half after he was diagnosed with Parkinson's, his behavior changed. Drastically. He couldn't stay away from video poker.
PHIL JUBY, PARKINSON'S DISEASE PATIENT: I knew it was self- destructive behavior. I would swear at myself and beat on the steering wheel on the drive home saying I would never do it again.
COHEN: But he couldn't stop. In a few years he gambled away everything he and his wife saved in 36 years of marriage, $300,000. His wife Joanne (ph) left him.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was so angry at Phil for -- how could you do this?
COHEN: Diane Gerard was a dancer when she developed Parkinson's 10 years ago. That was hard enough but then she started eating everything in sight until she gained 50 pounds. She also began to shop and shop, buying expensive things she didn't need.
DIANE GERARD, PARKINSON'S DISEASE PATIENT: I spent $1,000 on one outfit. That's ludicrous. It really was and I realize that. But I couldn't help it. I wanted it so badly.
COHEN: Jim Sweet was only 37 when he was diagnosed with Parkinson's. The father of two young children, he was ready to fight the disease. But Jim started gambling uncontrollably and quickly lost half a million dollars including his and his wife Kris' retirement accounts.
KRIS SWEET, WIFE OF PARKINSON'S DISEASE PATIENT: The kids and I would come home from school and we would walk in and the TV would be gone or their stereo would be gone or their Christmas money would be gone.
JIM SWEET, PARKINSON'S DISEASE PATIENT: I was kicked out of the house. Rightfully so because I would steal or pawn anything in sight.
COHEN: He ended up living in his car.
J. SWEET: The kids would come out and give me a banana or a piece of toast or something.
COHEN: Jim landed in a Las Vegas jail for forging Kris' name on a check.
J. SWEET: I'm facing these charges. Possibly eight years in prison. And it didn't matter.
COHEN: How would you explain to someone who would hear your story and think why couldn't he just stop?
J. SWEET: It's like you are having your mind hijacked.
COHEN: None of these people's doctors couldn't explain their strange behavior.
(on camera): What did they blame it on?
J. SWEET: Me.
DR. MARK STACY, DUKE UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER: Too much dopamine here.
COHEN (voice-over): And then along came Dr. Mark Stacy. A leading Parkinson's expert now at Duke University, Dr. Stacy was stunned when in just one week the wives of two patients complained their husbands gambled away $60,000.
(on camera): You must have been so puzzled.
STACY: Yes. It's a bizarre behavior type of behavior, particularly in a population of people that don't like to engage in these types of behaviors. It's not really their personality.
COHEN: So what did you think when that second patients came to you the next day and said I just gambled away tens of thousands of dollars?
STACY: I knew that it was the drugs.
COHEN: Dr. Stacy realized he just increased both patients doses of a relatively new class of Parkinson's drugs called dopamine agonists. When he took them off the drugs, they stopped gambling. Incredible as it seems, Dr. Stacy found that he had seven other patients who couldn't stop gambling.
STACY: It was not an enjoyable experience. It was an addiction, I had to do this.
COHEN (on camera): So they weren't do it because it was fun but because -- why were they doing it?
STACY: They couldn't stop.
COHEN (voice-over): Dr. Stacy was mystified until he thought about what these drugs do to the brain. The drugs send dopamine to this region, one of the brain's motor centers to help control the jerky movements typical of Parkinson's. But the drugs also send dopamine to this region which controls compulsive behavior. Doctors theorize that in some people a rush of dopamine puts it out of whack.
Research suggests that about five percent of people that take these drugs experience a compulsive reaction. Nobody is sure why some have it while others don't. Diane Gerard found her way to Dr. Stacy who took her off the dopamine agonist she was taking. That ended her compulsive eating and shopping.
GERARD: It was like being let out of prison. To hear that and hear him say this is not all you.
COHEN: Dr. Stacy also took Phil Juby off his medication and Phil's repairing his life with his wife and daughter. Kris Sweet is grateful to have her husband, Jim, off his medication. He's again the man she married.
(on camera): Are you glad you stuck by Jim?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. Very glad.
COHEN: In recent years a number of Parkinson's experts have reported on patients that took the drugs and reported compulsive urges. But GlaxoSmithKline, the maker of the popular dopamine agonist Requip, says "there's no data establishing a connection between its drug and compulsive behavior."
Boehringer Ingleheim makes the most prescribed agonist, Mirapex. The company told us in a statement that two years ago it started warning in its package inserts about reports of compulsive gambling and that it is working with Parkinson's experts to investigate the relationship, if any, between Parkinson's drugs and compulsive behavior.
The company suggested we call two of those experts, Dr. Matthew Stern and Daniel Weintraub at the University of Pennsylvania. Surprisingly both doctors told us there is no question, the drugs are behind the compulsive behavior.
DR. MATTHEW STERN, UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA: It's become crystal clear that this is a problem that everyone recognizes.
COHEN: But Dr. Stern is worried that some doctors who prescribe these drugs don't know about these possible side effects.
STERN: It is still an issue that most physicians are not asking their patients about this.
COHEN: And that makes patients like Jim Sweet angry. J. SWEET: Just put it on the bottle.
COHEN: He doesn't want anyone else to go through what he did. An obsession that nearly cost him everything he had. His marriage. His children. And made the Parkinson's disease itself seem easy in comparison. Elizabeth Cohen, CNN, Rancho Cucamonga, California.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: Well, ever consider home schooling your kids? It is growing more popular, especially among African American families. We take a closer look right after this.
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WHITFIELD: Getting ready for a school day and never leaving the house. The number of American kids being taught at home is growing. Different parents have different reasons for choosing home schooling. Faith, fear, even heritage. Our Gary Nurenberg explains.
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GARY NURENBERG, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For nine-year- old Adom Edwards, reading the sentence is just the beginning.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The snow melted quickly in the hot sun.
NURENBERG: Adom, his brothers and sister are schooled at home. Lisa Edwards is their mother and teacher.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're committed to doing what we feel like God has called us to do.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We want to teach them values that will live with them and they'll pass on, as well.
NURENBERG: The Department of Education says home schooling increased 29 percent between 1999 and 2003. Whites are more than twice as likely as blacks to be home schooled but black percentages are increasing.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I wanted to home school because I knew I didn't want to send my children to public schools.
NURENBERG: Jennifer James started a Web site to help African American parents who want to home school.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Parents are fed up with the entire educational system.
NURENBERG: Some of the antipathy comes from simple fear.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A lot of families, black or otherwise, are concerned about the safety of public and private schools, for that matter.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Now we're going to write three different words that sound the same.
NURENBERG: But safety isn't an issue for home schoolers who gather once a week in this Maryland church. Kids get to socialize as parents pool resources to hire tutors with specific expertise.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Latin and science and history and phonics, grammar, writing and then we do math.
NURENBERG: Some parents want to expose their kids to more black history than is taught in conventional schools. Others worry that abandoning public schools is abandoning the fight of ancestors that fought for desegregation in the first place.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I do believe that they need to be qualified and certified.
NURENBERG: The president of the National Education Association says parents should work to make public schools better.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look to see what we can do to make it possible for the schools in your area to be what they would like -- what you would like for them to be.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Very good. Team number one has won.
NURENBERG: Given the challenges facing public schools, an increasing number of African American parents think their kids will learn more at home.
Gary Nurenberg, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: So much more ahead tonight on CNN. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. Carol Lin and more of CNN LIVE SUNDAY right after this.
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