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CNN Live Today
Speedy Luggage Check-Ins?; Judge in Burn Victim Case Charged with Misconduct; Saudi Woman Competes for Fame and Fortune on Reality Show
Aired May 24, 2006 - 10:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: If you're heading to the airport this holiday weekend, it's a given in this post-9/11 era. You have to (INAUDIBLE) again. Yes, you're leaving on a jet plane. OK, you have to factor in plenty of time to check your bags. But what if you could avoid the wait and go straight to security? There's an idea.
Susan Candiotti has a way that you can do that. Her report, from "AMERICAN MORNING."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): If mom Tiffany Larsen, struggling with baby in tow, could avoid standing in line to check her luggage...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, yes. For sure.
CANDIOTTI: She and a business traveler Hal Wheeler (ph) would jump at the chance.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Absolutely, 100 percent.
CANDIOTTI: Now travelers at McCaran Airport in Las Vegas can check in their luggage at a hotel as early as 12 hours before a flight. The Venetian Hotel is the first to offer the service, called Speed Check Advance. A less secure service was offered prior to the 9/11 attacks.
PAUL PUSATERI, VENETIAN HOTEL: When this idea came across my desk, it was a no-brainer. We believe that this just provides another convenience for our customers.
CANDIOTTI: Guests can take the bags to a hotel kiosk, and at a cost of $20 for up to three bags, get baggage claim checks and a boarding pass.
(on camera): So someone uses the system, how will they avoid all of this?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They won't come to this location at all.
CANDIOTTI (voice-over): Instead, travelers go straight to security and on to their gate. By that time, their bags have been taken from the hotel and loaded onto a truck. The truck is padlocked, sealed and driven to a cargo loading dock away from the main passenger terminal where those bags are X-rayed.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the speed, 37 miles per hour.
CANDIOTTI: Each truck is tracked by global-positioning satellites. A green dot when the truck is moving. Red when it isn't.
KEITH WIATER, BAGS TO GO: It'll be tracked how fast it goes, what streets is taken, and when it gets to the facility. If the truck it deviates, we can stop this truck.
CANDIOTTI (on camera): From a security standpoint, airport officials say, X-raying bags off site is a plus, because if a piece of luggage is pulled aside as a risk, passenger terminal operations could continue without disruption.
WIATER: We actually think it's even more secure than the system that we have today.
CANDIOTTI (voice-over): So far, only Southwest Airlines is onboard. But other airlines and Las Vegas hotels are expected to join soon.
The Transportation Security Administration suggests it'd like to see the service in other cities.
KIP HAWLEY, TSA ADMINISTRATOR: We certainly want to make it easy for people to adopt it, because it helps us with our processing.
CANDIOTTI: And when travelers spend less time at the airport, hotels are convinced they'll spend more money with them.
(on camera): What would you do with the extra time?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Spend it on the tables.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's the plan, right?
CANDIOTTI (voice-over): Even in Las Vegas, that's a safe bet.
Susan Candiotti, CNN, Las Vegas.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KAGAN: And we are watching what's happening at the sniper trial in Maryland. And today an interesting day, because John Muhammad has a chance to cross-examine. He's acting as his own attorney, has a chance to cross-examine Lee Malvo. He's continuing his questioning this morning. He's using a laser pointer to pinpoint some areas of photos projecting on the screen. He's also showing Lee Boyd Malvo a map, asking him to identify it. And they're going back and forth, basically a repartee to see Malvo saying that they did this and they did it together.
John Muhammad has insisted all along that they have been set up. THe prosecutor, Kay Winfrey (ph) has objected to several questions that Muhammad is asking about Lee Boyd Malvo's plea, because this round, in Maryland, he has already pleaded out, and the judge has ruled that Malvo has not had to answer some of John Muhammad's questions. More from inside the courthouse in just a moment.
But straight ahead, we want to know, as we lighten things up, who do you think should win "American Idol"? We have e-mail is coming in already. Good answers!
Also, she is every woman.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Kind, modern, intelligent, beautiful woman.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAGAN: All that, and draped in black. Meet the Saudi woman who's making a fashion statement on and off the catwalk, ahead on CNN LIVE TODAY. You're watching CNN, the most trusted name in news.
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(BUSINESS HEADLINES)
KAGAN: Let's bring Chad in. Chad, you've been watching the "Idol" as well, the "AI"?
CHAD MYERS, METEOROLOGIST: Every one.
KAGAN: Me, too.
Do you want to look at some of the e-mail that we've been getting from our viewers?
MYERS: I'm ready.
KAGAN: Because you know, we do have the best viewers on CNN LIVE TODAY. This one says, "Taylor all the way! He knows exactly who she as an artist, and he just blows me away every time he sings."
Should we keep going.
MYERS: I agree. Taylor has a great sound. You know, he has a little bit more stage presence. Chris, clearly, should have won the whole thing. You know, he was voted out a couple times ago, but that was just a mistake. Nobody voted for him, because everybody thought he was going to win.
KAGAN: Yes, can't get cocky.
MYERS: Yes.
KAGAN: Taylor -- this is from Elizabeth in New York City -- "He's a breath of fresh air, an alternative to all those cookie cutter pop wannabes, who usually dominate the show."
Kayla thinks, though -- from Indiana, "Katherine should win, because I don't Taylor will go on to be as famous as previous 'American Idol' winners. Kat has a great voice and shows potential to go far.
MYERS: Here, here.
KAGAN: You're a big Katherine fan, too?
MYERS: I really think she has a beautiful voice, maybe not the stage presence that Taylor has, right? And so Taylor just goes out there and does his little thing. But Katherine, really, the range that she has is just amazing.
KAGAN: And she's a pretty girl, too.
MYERS: And she is my idol. This is not about singing. This is about who you think should be the idol. And I idolize her more than I idolize Taylor.
KAGAN: Oh, really? So think Taylor's going to win, but you would vote for Katherine?
MYERS: Absolutely.
KAGAN: Did you pick up the phone and vote?
MYERS: I'm sorry, no. I was sleeping.
KAGAN: I don't think you need to apologize. I don't know that grown men should. Well, whoever wins is going to be Larry's guest on Friday.
MYERS: Really?
KAGAN: Yes, Larry got the winner.
MYERS: But isn't it always the fact the person who doesn't win actually ends up making more money anyway, so...
KAGAN: I don't think either of these two are going to be hurting.
MYERS: No.
KAGAN: They have promising futures ahead of them.
MYERS: Yes, and I Chris Daughtry has got some offers kind of coming and going, too.
KAGAN: Yes, he'll be better off without the "Idol" burden.
MYERS: Yes.
KAGAN: Good. Are you doing weather, or are we checking back?
(WEATHER REPORT) KAGAN: From beneath the veil, you're about to meet an ultraconservative Saudi woman who's competing for fame and fortune. She is part of a reality television show. And the focus is fashion, but her personal reality is making a fashion statement of its own.
Our Beirut bureau chief Brent Sadler has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRENT SADLER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): She is covered in black from head to toe. Known only as Sulafa, a 28-year-old Saudi woman, competing for the title of best-dressed designer in the Middle East, and a $50,000 prize. Women contestants have seen her mysterious face. But to the male designers, the show's producers, and the entire TV audience, she remains almost invisible.
DIANA KHAN, CONTESTANT, MISSION FASHION: Kind, modern, intelligent. Beautiful woman.
SADLER: But the odd woman out, it seems, on a program fueled by glitz, glamour and gothic.
KAREN EL-KHAZEN, MODEL, MISSION FASHION: They all have this idea about the Arabic women that's covered up that's supposed to be at home, just take care of the kids, and I think she's really courageous.
SADLER: Courageous and creative, say co-contestants, who admire her style and her decision to live on set with her baby daughter, Lara (ph), with her husband's OK.
Sharing the experience with models and men in this televised Italia (ph). This dress, she Sulafa says, must sing.
SULAFA, DRESS DESIGNER: I choose the piano. I make (INAUDIBLE).
SADLER (on camera): Be careful you don't stick the pins into your models.
SULAFA: No problem!
AMY GOODHEART, U.S. JUDGE, MISSION FASHION: (INAUDIBLE) split is a little bit too high.
SADLER (voice-over): It's sometimes difficult, though, for Sulafa's peers to judge her mood.
GOODHEART: I don't know if she's scowling at me, and being like, why don't you like my dress? I can't see her face.
SADLER (on camera): In the reality of her ultraconservative Saudi homeland, Sulafi knows she walks a very fine line, designing provocative fashionwear from beneath her veil.
(voice-over): I don't see anything daring in my designs, she explains. We wear them in our society. But only for women to see, not the men. Sulafa covers the cameras in her studio bedroom, and appeared shy at first.
But her growing popularity could antagonize Saudi Arabia's powerful religious establishment, and block her entering the fashion world she dreams of.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If this goes well, she's going to do well. If the response is negative from her people, I think she won't be able to continue.
SADLER: But for now, Sulafa is making her own fashion statement, in more ways than one.
Brent Sadler, CNN, Beirut.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KAGAN: Fascinating story. Thank you, Brent.
Another story about a woman. She came for help, but all she got was insults.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
CADE: He's still contacting me. Um, he's intimidating my daughter, and he's vandalizing other people's property. I want an immediate, absolute divorce.
JUDGE: Well, I'd like to be six-foot-five, but that's not what we do you here. You have to go divorce court for that.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
Well, now that judge faces justice. A new chapter in the tragic story of a woman who was burned, literally, coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KAGAN: A woman endures a horrifying attack by her estranged husband. You might remember the story of Yvette Cade. Now the judge who refused to help her is in trouble with the law.
CNN's Jason Carroll has an update.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A surveillance camera at a T-Mobile store captured the most terrifying moment in Yvette Cade's life. It was the moment her estranged husband, Roger Hargrave, tried to kill her.
Hargrave entered the store and doused Cade with gasoline. She ran into the parking lot. He caught her and used a match to set her on fire. The camera shows, as the flames consumed her, Cade rushed back inside for help. A co-worker called 911.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Lay down! Lay down! She's on fire. She's on fire. Lay down! Lay down!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She's on fire.
DISPATCHER: What?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She's on fire She's on fire.
DISPATCHER: They're setting her on fire?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They set her on fire.
CARROLL: Earlier that same morning, Cade called 911, telling an operator that Hargrave had been making threatening calls. One in particular was a frightening clue into her fate.
YVETTE CADE, VICTIM: It sounds like he would burn somebody just like Crisco. I don't like getting involved in this kind of stuff. I want it to be over.
Cade's family says the story of what happened to her actually began several weeks before the brutal attack, before any threatening calls. It started when Cade went to Prince George's County District Court Judge Richard Palumbo to ask him to keep a restraining order in place against Hargrave.
MICHAEL HAYNESWORTH, COUSIN OF YVETTE CADE: Nothing she said mattered to Judge Palumbo. She was trying to plead her case. She let it be known that she was in fear of her life.
CARROLL: Her family says, instead of getting help from Judge Palumbo, she got insults. Listen to the courtroom exchange that day.
YVETTE CADE, VICTIM: He's still contacting me. He's intimidating my daughter. And he's vandalizing other people's properties. I want an immediate, absolute divorce.
JUDGE RICHARD PALUMBO, DISTRICT COURT OF MARYLAND: Well, I would like to be six 6'5", but that's not what we do here. You got to go divorce court to do that.
CARROLL: Judge Palumbo's disparaging comments didn't end there.
CADE: He was trying to force me to go to marriage counseling.
PALUMBO: It might not be a bad idea, if you want to save the marriage.
CADE: I don't want to, because...
PALUMBO: Then you're in the wrong place. Get a lawyer and go to divorce court.
CARROLL: Cade left the courtroom dejected and humiliated. And, worse, Judge Palumbo removed the restraining order against Hargrave.
(on camera): Several weeks later, after the horrific crime, Judge Palumbo said the removal was a clerical error. But now a new development since we originally covered this story: Maryland's Judicial Commission has filed misconduct charges against Palumbo, alleging he demonstrated insensitivity not only towards Cade, but other women in separate domestic violence cases as well.
(voice-over): Repeated calls to Palumbo and his attorney were not returned.
The state's attorney, Glenn Ivey, was so angered by Cade's story he personally prosecuted the case against her estranged husband and got a conviction for attempted first degree murder. Ivey says Judge Palumbo should have done more.
GLENN IVEY, MARYLAND STATE ATTORNEY: I think we have to make sure that at every step along the way the system doesn't let down victims like this, people who are reaching out and need help.
CARROLL: Despite Cade's slow and painful recovery she wanted more people, especially women, to know how she was treated in Palumbo's court. So she told her story on "The Oprah Winfrey Show."
OPRAH WINFREY, TALK SHOW HOST: I think that's awful, don't you? So despite Yvette's desperate plea for help, the protective order was lifted. And you were just dismissed. You were literally dismissed.
CADE: I thought I would leave and it would remain the same. I didn't understand dismissed meant that --
WINFREY: That the protective order was removed.
CADE: I didn't know that.
CARROLL: Cade and her family also say Judge Palumbo should be removed from the bench. He remains on administrative duty until August, when he will be judged himself at hearings on his conduct.
Jason Carroll, CNN, Upper Marlboro, Maryland.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KAGAN: You can see more stories like Jason's on "PAULA ZAHN NOW." Watch weeknights at 8:00 Eastern, 5:00 p.m. Pacific.
(MUSIC)
KAGAN: OK, which is it, Taylor Hicks or Katherine McPhee? Who is the next "American Idol"? Coming up in our next hour, Adrianna Costa joins me to chat about last night's face-off and tonight's season finale. You're watching CNN, the most trusted name in news.
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