Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
U.N. Sanctions on North Korea; Florida Turnpike Killings; Gallaudet Unrest; Black Panthers To Hold 40th Reunion; The Striptease Workout; New Orleans Firefighter's Katrina Documentary Sweeps Film Festival; Gerry Studds, Cay Rights Legislator, Dead at 69
Aired October 14, 2006 - 18:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: In the meantime, more slayings today in Iraq. Across the country, at least 15 people were killed in attacks. Four of them were killed by gunmen neither of Ba'qubah, north of Baghdad.
And NATO says two Canadian soldiers have been killed in an ambush in southern Afghanistan. Three other troops were wounded in that attack.
And it's the newest addition to the nation's capital skyline. This 270-foot tall memorial to the United States Air Force dedicated today on a hill between Arlington National Cemetery and the Pentagon.
And sad news from Corpus Christi, Texas, country music legend Freddie Fender has died. He's known for songs like "Wasted Days and Wasted Nights." He had a number of health problems, including lung cancer. Freddie Fender dead at the age of 69.
Our top story this hour, U.N. sanctions against North Korea. Today's vote against the north, unanimous. It comes six days after the underground explosion that may have been a test of a North Korean nuke.
Standing by with this developing story, CNN's Richard Roth, live at the United Nations headquarters in New York.
Richard, start with the fireworks there today.
RICHARD ROTH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, showdown time inside the Security Council chamber. The U.N. Security Council voted 15-0 now, unanimously, after working out the last-minute disagreements between China and Russia to put punitive sanctions now on North Korea.
The vote was unanimous. But there is still going to be disagreements which we can discuss.
What did the resolution say? Well, there's now going to be sanctions measures, including a nuclear and missile ban on North Korea, an asset freeze, freezing weapons-related assets, a travel ban on senior government officials who are connected to weapons of mass destruction programs, and a luxury goods embargo. You may remember the other day Ambassador Bolton said Kim Jong-Il should be on a diet since he's starving his own people. The North Korea ambassador rejected the resolution imposed on his own country.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PAK GIL YON, NORTH KOREAN AMBASSADOR TO U.N.: It is gangster- like for the Security Council to have adopted today a coercive resolution while neglecting the nuclear threat and moves for sanctions and pressure of the United States against the democrat peoples of the Republic of Korea. This clearly testifies that the Security Council has completely lost its impartiality and it still insists in applying double standard in its work.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROTH: The ambassador said the resolution was a declaration of war. But many analysts see that as empty rhetoric since, if it did attack another country, it would face an overwhelming response from the U.S., which the other day told North Korea, in a diplomatic message, that would indeed happen, that it regarded this nuclear test as -- serious consequences could follow.
Now, the North Korean ambassador walked out of the chamber immediately after his remarks, didn't want to hear the South Korean -- taking the Security Council microphone was John Bolton of the U.S.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN BOLTON, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO U.N.: I'm not going to waste any of our time responding to what the representative of the DPRK said. But I want to call your attention to the empty chair. That is the second time in three months that the representative of the DPRK, having asked to participate in our meetings, has rejected a unanimous resolution of the Security Council and walked out of this chamber. It is the contemporary equivalent of Nikita Khrushchev pounding his shoe on the desk of the general assembly.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROTH: That's the former leader -- Mr. Khrushchev -- of the then- Soviet Union.
I mentioned earlier, there could be some issues still between the Security Council powers. China, in its formal speech to the Security Council, indicated it didn't want to go along with the sanctions part about inspecting goods that might be going to and from North Korea.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WANG GUANGYA, CHINESE AMBASSADOR TO U.N.: For China, our political position is we are not in favor of inspections because for a number of years -- as a general principle, we feel that it will lead to negative consequences. So I do hope that, with the watered-down language in the resolution itself, that this has to be exercised with great care.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROTH: And Russia, here in New York, and back in Moscow, warning again against use of force, which is not called upon in this resolution, but that is always a big fear that it opens the door to that -- Carol?
LIN: All right, Richard Roth, thank you very much.
Now, President Bush praising the U.N. sanctions. And he's happy the Security Council acted as quickly as it did.
Live for us now at the White House, CNN's Kathleen Koch.
KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Carol, plenty of smiles here, this unanimous vote by the Security Council serving basically as confirmation of the Bush administration's insistence that the nuclear weapons test was the last straw, destroying any remaining patience with North Korea.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KOCH (voice-over): Words of praise from a president clearly pleased with the outcome of the U.N. sanctions vote.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This action by the United Nations, which was swift and tough, says that we are united in our determination to see to it that the Korean peninsula is nuclear weapons free.
KOCH: Mr. Bush, at the same time, extending an olive branch to North Korea.
BUSH: There's a better way forward for the people of North Korea. If the leader of North Korea were to verifiably end his weapons programs, the United States and other nations would be willing to help the nation recover economically.
KOCH: But earlier, Democrats criticized Bush policy, implying his administration's rejection of one-on-one talks with North Korea had backfired.
PATRICK MURPHY, DEMOCRATIC CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE: We do not make America more secure by sticking our heads in the sand. Neglect will never make us safer, nor do does disengagement and denial make our enemies less dangerous.
KOCH: The White House would not comment on the fact that the initial sanctions proposed by the U.S. had been scaled back to gain U.N. approval. But one expert insists that is not a significant setback.
DANIEL PONEMAN, FMR. NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL MEMBER: I think frankly, the sanctions themselves, in the first instance, could be somewhat modest and still be effective if the message is clear, because they can always be made stronger. KOCH: Despite a draft statement from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence saying the U.S. has evidence of radioactivity from the site where North Korea apparently conducted its test, there still has been no definitive confirmation it was a successful nuclear test.
That did not appear to impact the Security Council vote.
BALBINA HWANG, HERITAGE FOUNDATION: I don't think, at this point, these countries are concerned of whether or not we can scientifically prove it. We all know it's very difficult to do so. Again, the point is that politically North Korea has made that statement and crossed that line in the international community.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KOCH: The Bush administration was so confident the sanctions would pass that it had already made plans to send Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to the region. She leaves Tuesday on a six-day trip to Japan, China and South Korea to work out just how countries can begin to speedily implement the resolution -- Carol?
LIN: All right, thanks very much, Kathleen.
KOCH: You're welcome.
LIN: Let's take a closer look at the impact of the U.N. sanctions on North Korea.
Han Park is a political science professor at the University of Georgia. But he's also an expert on North Korea, having traveled in that country dozens of times. He joins me now in our studios right here at the CNN newsroom.
Professor Park, a pleasure to have you. I mean, not just dozens of times, you've been to North Korea 40 times or more. You know that country well and its mind-set. I'm wondering what your reaction was to today's resolution. Does it have teeth? And how else is North Korea likely to respond?
HAN PARK, PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA: We are in a dilemma. It doesn't seem to have teeth necessary to do anything. If it did have teeth, or even the way it is, it's implemented faithfully, the way America intended, then we are on a collision course. North Korea...
LIN: And when you say collision course, you mean...
PARK: Collision Course. Its military should say their vessels are forcefully inspected. North Koreans will not sit and watch idle. They will respond forcefully.
LIN: All right.
PARK: And that would trigger military confrontation. LIN: Then let's -- more interpretation, then, by what the North Korean ambassador at the United Nations meant when he said, after the vote on the resolution, if the U.S. increases pressure, the DPRK will continue to take physical countermeasures considering it a declaration of war.
PARK: Yes.
LIN: What do they mean by that? How far are they willing do go?
PARK: They are willing to go to military confrontation with the United States.
LIN: With who though, with the United States?
PARK: With the United States.
LIN: As -- but what target?
PARK: It is -- it's the diplomat, the ambassador. But actually, all of these decisions, especially pertaining to national security, are made by the military.
The military is a very, very single-minded and tunnel visioned. They think nuclear weapons will do the job, that is deterring aggression. But if forcefully in some way they are denied they will -- would be prepared to counter militarily.
LIN: All right, counter militarily, though, but not directly at the United States, but to one of its allies?
PARK: Exactly. Exactly. Allies or we have...
LIN: South Korea?
PARK: We have enough American installations, American military personnel, civilians as well. So things -- in North Korea itself they have tunnels, probably 22 million people can hide for the time being. So they have been preparing for the last 50 years to the eventuation of confrontation militarily. Of course that will undoubtedly lead to the collapse of the system and disappearance of the entire country from earth.
LIN: But, Professor Park, I mean, it's an almost inconceivable scenario that you are describing. You support bi-lateral talks. The United States talking directly with the president of North Korea, Kim Jong-Il.
PARK: Yes. Yes.
LIN: The United States says it will not do that.
PARK: Yes. Yes.
LIN: How does that come about? PARK: That's the -- that's the -- that's something I cannot understand. We have a lot of attitudes on the part of the administration in Washington toward North Korea. But the fact of the matter is a nuclear bomb and a lot of people's lives. And I don't understand why we do not engage in direct talks.
LIN: You think that would do it? Or doesn't that encourage Kim Jong-Il?
PARK: That will -- that will -- that will be a very important step. Because North Koreans having direct talks with the United States carries a very important symbolic meeting -- a meaning for them. And that is, they will be accepted by Washington as a negotiating partner. It's not same as having two-party caucuses, or two-party talks, within the framework of the six-parties. It's not the same.
LIN: It's not the same. It's a sign of respect as equals?
PARK: Yes. Respecting as an equal and that is an expression of the absence of hostility by Washington towards them.
LIN: Well, right now...
PARK: So it is important symbolically.
LIN: It's not going that way.
PARK: It's not going to happen. And it's so worrisome that we are on a collision course. Kim Jong is not going back down.
LIN: Professor Park, we're going to have to leave there for now. But a pleasure to have your expertise with us. Thank you.
PARK: Glad to be here.
LIN: All right. In the meantime, at bottom of the hour, the world's first atomic bomb, survivors tell the story of the U.S. attack on Hiroshima, Japan.
And you can follow the developments in the North Korean story minute by minute. All you have to do is log-on to cnn.com.
Now, it is the unthinkable in Florida tonight. An entire family murdered. Their bodies found on the interstate. The latest in that investigation when we take you live there.
Plus...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED BLACK PANTHER MEMBER: The racist Gestapo pigs have to stop brutalizing our community or we're going to take up guns. We're going to drive them out.
(END VIDEO CLIP) LIN: The Black Panther's militant message caught America's attention, but that was four decades ago. Their legacy coming up in the "Newsroom."
Now, what is going on in the suburbs? Well, soccer moms swinging on polls like dancers at a strip club. You don't want to miss this one, whether you're a man or a woman.
Stay with us in the "Newsroom."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LIN: These pictures, just in to CNN. We are hearing about a shooting during a birthday party. Now, we're checking into this developing story with the help of our Miami affiliate WSVN.
But right now, you're looking at an emergency response to a home in Miami, a child on an ambulance stretcher there, just a tiny, little thing. No word yet on how many people hurt or how badly.
Stay with CNN. We're going to give you detail as soon as we get them.
In the meantime, more details now on the execution-style slayings of a family of four. They were found shot to death on a remote stretch of the Florida turnpike yesterday.
CNN's Susan Candiotti is live in Ft. Pierce with the very latest.
Susan, do they have any clues at all?
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Not yet, Carol. And more than 24 hours after their bodies were found by a passing motorist, the victims' identities of yesterday's turnpike shooting are now being released.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CANDIOTTI (voice-over): The day before, Jose Escobedos 29th birthday, police say he and his wife, Yessica, and two young sons were all shot multiple times. Their bodies left in the grass on the side of the Florida turnpike.
From tire marks, the killer or killers took off southbound in the family's missing car, a 1998 Jeep similar to this one. And investigators want to find it.
KEN MASCARA, SHERIFF, ST. LUCIE COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPT.: It's actually a four-door Jeep Cherokee. It is black in color. And we now have the addition of a temporary tag.
CANDIOTTI: A temporary paper tag in the rear window. The Escobedos' bodies were abandoned about an hour's drive north from where they lived, a house in Palm Beach County. Property records indicate it's a rental. MASCARA: This victim family moved recently to the Green Acres area of West Palm Beach on June 15th. They moved here from the Brownsville, Texas, area.
CANDIOTTI: Authorities will not say whether the couple was employed.
Investigators spent the day reviewing nearly 500 hours of toll booth plaza surveillance videos, looking for signs of the family's jeep.
Police also are analyzing bullets, casings and blood collected from the crime scene.
The boys, ages 3 and 4, were found tucked under their mother's arms, as though police say, she was trying to shield them from the killer's bullets.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CANDIOTTI: Autopsies will be performed on Monday while police search for a motive and who is responsible -- Carol?
LIN: Susan, thank you.
Now, we've got other news across America as well.
Now, the classroom, is that any place for a gun? Well, some Utah teachers are getting firearm friendly this weekend, applying for concealed weapons permits. Naturally not everyone in the state is on board with the whole armed teacher thing.
And news flash, the Secret Service has no sense of humor. This Sacramento teenager was pulled from class this week to explain an entry on her myspace page. It was a picture of the president with the words "Kill Bush."
Julia Wilson says it was a joke, and that the agents, quote, "Yelled at me a lot."
New York Yankees and small planes just don't mix this week. Third baseman Alex Rodriguez was on board a Gulf Stream jet that overshot the runway yesterday at Bob Hope Airport in Burbank, California. Six others were on board and nobody was hurt.
And now angry accusations, protests and hundreds of arrests, it's all happening at country's only liberal arts university for the deaf, Gallaudet in Washington.
What's the battle about? Here's CNN's Gary Nuremberg.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GARY NUREMBERG, CNN CORESPONDENT (voice-over): One hundred and thirty-three demonstrators were arrested Friday night as they block an entrance to Gallaudet University, the country's most prominent school for the deaf.
Protester opposing the choice of a new school president had shut down the campus for three days.
I KING JORDAN, OUTGOING PRESIDENT, GALLAUDET UNIVERSITY: That includes the educational, the elementary school children, high school children, people who come for hearing assessment, infants who come for hearing assessment, senior citizens who come for hearing aid repair, all of the many different things that we do on campus, ground to a half for a week. We can't allow that to happen.
NUREMBERG: Outgoing president, I King Jordan, who is deaf, got his job after protesters forced the resignation of a hearing president in 1988.
This year, demonstrators object to the selection of school provost, Jane K. Fernandes, as Jordan's replacement. They say there was a lack of diversity in the screening process. And they don't like Fernandes' track record at the school.
UNIDENTIFIED GALLAUDET STUDENT: She does not have a relationship with the Gallaudet community in general. She keeps herself hidden.
NUREMBERG: Some opponents believe her background disqualifies her for the high prestige position.
JANE FERNANDES, PRESIDENT ELECT, GALLAUDET UNIVERSITY (through interpreter): I had attended a public school, not a school for the deaf. I had gone to a college other than one that was for deaf people. And I didn't learn to sign, and really meet deaf people who did sign, until I was 22 years of age. So my emergent into American Sign Language and culture came later in my life.
NUREMBERG: The arrests on Friday night cleared a side entrance to the school. But the main entrance to Gallaudet University remains closed as students insist they'll continue to protest until they get what they want.
Christopher Corrigan (ph) was among those arrested.
CHRISTOPHER CORRIGAN, GALLAUDET UNIVERSITY STUDENT (through interpreter): We're getting more support than ever. We're getting bigger and stronger. And we're going to continue. We're not giving up. We're not going to weaken.
NUREMBERG: Fernandes says she won't give up either. She's scheduled to assume the presidency when Jordan retires in December. If Fernandes actually does, she knows her first big job will be to heal a campus deeply divided about having her there.
Gary Nuremberg, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LIN: Dramatic moments at United Nations this afternoon. Straight ahead in the newsroom, the North Korean ambassador calls today's vote an act of war.
BONNIE SCHNEIDER, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Now, Buffalo shovels out from heavy snow. We're looking at another snow threat for parts of upstate New York. A heavy snow warning in effect tonight. I'll have more on that coming up next on "CNN Newsroom."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LIN: For the nearly 400,000 people without power in the greater Buffalo, New York, area you may have a long wait. It may take as longs a week before power is restored to everyone, this, after a freak snowstorm Thursday and Friday, which blanketed western New York with two feet of snow in some parts.
Three people have died in weather-related accidents, including a New York state trooper. At least four counties in western New York are under a state of emergency.
Now, it's not only the Empire State feeling the chill of an impending winter. So we're going to check in with CNN Meteorologist Bonnie Schneider at the CNN Weather Center.
Bonnie, I know you do have more news for the folks in western New York as well.
SCHNEIDER: I do. And it's not the best news because we're seeing right now the snow melt occur. That is good news. The problem is a flood threat exists all the way through tomorrow morning. That, combined with the weight of the snow -- this is heavy snow.
So if you're going to be trying to shovel out throughout into the evening hours, it's going to be tough. So if you're not in good shape, you'll probably want to assign that task to someone else, if you can.
(WEATHER REPORT)
SCHNEIDER: We'll be seeing some improved conditions by the time we get to Monday -- Carol.
LIN: Yes. But I know -- you know it's such big news when it actually rains in Southern California.
SCHNEIDER: Oh, yes.
LIN: I got phone calls from friends who are saying you've got to be kidding me, it's raining here.
(LAUGHING)
They were so shocked.
All right, thanks very much, Bonnie.
SCHNEIDER: Sure. LIN: Well, a message, 40 years in the making. What impact have the Black Panthers had on civil rights in America? And where are they now? The answers at 46 after.
Also, North Korea's threats and the realities of a nuclear attack. We're going to look back at Hiroshima. What 12,000 tons of TNT have taught us, just ahead.
And he was America's first openly gay member of Congress. How Gary Studds changed America.
You're watching "CNN Saturday."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LIN: It was another blood bath in Iraq today. More slayings to report. Across the country, at least 15 people were killed in attacks. Four of them were killed by gunmen in Ba'qubah, north of Baghdad.
And NATO says two Canadian soldiers have been killed in an ambush in southern Afghanistan. Three other troops were wounded in that attack.
And former Congressman Gerry Studds has died in a Boston hospital. Studds the first member of Congress to acknowledge being gay during a 1983 scandal involving Congressional pages. Studds was 69 years old when he died. We're going to have more on his life later this hour.
And it's the newest addition to the nation's Capitol skyline. The 270-foot tall memorial to the United States Air Force, dedicated today on a hill between Arlington National Cemetery and the Pentagon.
Now our top story, the U.N. sanctions against North Korea. Today's Security Council vote was unanimous and it came less than a week since the North claimed to test a nuclear weapon. But North Korea isn't backing down, and neither is the U.S.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PAK GIL YON, NORTH KOREAN AMB. TO U.N.: If the United States increase pressure upon the Democrat Peoples' Republic of Korea persistently, the DPRK will continue to take physical countermeasures, considering it as a declaration of war.
JOHN BOLTON, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO U.N.: They are utterly and totally isolated within the international community, and if reason could prevail in Pyongyang, they would see that real safety lies in abandoning the pursuit of weapons of mass destruction and not continuing to go after them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LIN: Ambassador Bolton is going to be a guest on CNN tomorrow. The outspoken U.S. diplomat will join Wolf Blitzer. That's on "LATE EDITION" at 11:00 a.m. Eastern.
Now, while the world decides what to do about North Korea, there is one country that knows all too well the horrors of a nuclear attack. CNN's Atika Shubert gives us a sobering reminder of what happened in Hiroshima.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For most of the world, nuclear war is a nightmare that can only be imagined. For Hiroshima, it was a reality. August 6, 1945, the world's first nuclear attack, an explosive force the equivalent of more than 12,000 tons of TNT traveling faster than the speed of sound. A giant fireball engulfs the city, 80,000 die instantly, 90 percent of the buildings collapse or burst into flames. Months and years later, tens of thousands more die from radiation poisoning. In all, an estimated 200,000 perish.
(on camera): If you think it can't happen today, consider this, today's nuclear weapons are 1,000 times more powerful. Out of the eight nations that are believed to have them, half have gone to war in the last few decades. And now the very public display of North Korea's claim that it too has a nuclear weapon.
(voice-over): Yoshiko Kagimoto (ph) was 14 years old, just a mile away, a little more than two kilometers from the atomic blast in Hiroshima. She tells her incredible story of survival over and over to younger generations, hoping to prevent history from being repeated. She takes North Korea's nuclear test as a personal challenge.
"I can never forgive North Korea for conducting that test," she says. "I want those presidents and world leaders to see this place and listen to the stories of those who survived. I would then ask them if they're still there to create a nuclear weapon. They wouldn't be human if they did."
Tourists from around the world flock to Hiroshima. It is a sobering experience. These Australian teenagers now fear North Korea has increased their odds of seeing a nuclear attack in their lifetime.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And I think it -- something can definitely happen, and I definitely fear through my whole life that something will happen.
SHUBERT: They pray to witness instead the abolishment of all nuclear weapons.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't think we should have them at all. We never want anything like this to ever happen again.
SHUBERT: Hiroshima's peace clock, which counts both the number of days since Hiroshima and the number of days since the nuclear test, is now spinning faster. For some, a sign the world is one step closer to another Hiroshima or worse.
(END VIDEOTAPE) LIN: CNN's Atika Shubert reporting from Hiroshima, Japan.
Now, small plane sighting flights around New York City will be limited from now on. The FAA shutdown the East River corridor to just about everything in the wake of the week's fatal crash on the Upper East Side. Small planes need explicit permission from air traffic controllers to go into the corridor. Leaders, from the governor on down, are applauding the new flight restriction.
Now, several apartments in the Belaire building are still uninhabitable and much of the neighborhood is an investigation zone. But streets near the highrise have reopened, and life after the crash is approaching normal again. We're guessing one resident in particular has had enough of being at the wrong place at the wrong time.
CNN's Mary Snow has more.
MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Consider these odds: in a city of 8 million people, that not once, but twice, the same person could be affected by two freak accidents in this city. And that is the story of Kathleen Corona.
Corona first made headlines in 1997, when she escaped death at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. You may remember when strong winds caused a parade balloon to slam into a lamppost. It crashed into the crowd and hit Corona in the head and critically injured her. She was in a coma for nearly a month. In a lawsuit she filed and later settled, she stated the accident had caused her permanent brain damage.
Flash forward nearly nine years later to Wednesday's crash, when Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle's plane crashed into two stories of this Upper East Side apartment building. One of the apartments is where Kathleen Corona lived. Corona did not want to be interviewed, but her mother told me the only word she could find to describe this was unbelievable. She said her daughter is a very strong woman, and said it once again is a reminder of how strange life can be.
Mary Snow, CNN, New York.
LIN: He was a 12-term Congressman from Massachusetts and an ardent opponent of the Vietnam War, an ardent supporter of gay rights and federal AIDS research. Gerry Studds is -- was 69 years old because he died today at a Boston hospital.
He made headlines many times in his long political career, some of them positive, others, not so much.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LIN (voice-over): It was an improvable journey, he said so himself. On October 28, 1995, Gerry Studds announced he would not seek reeelection after more than two decades in the House of Representatives. At Martha's Vineyard, he thanked those who stuck by him saying, "Together we have over come odds and obstacles that would have discouraged most others. You and I have strived to make many things better than we found them."
The Massachusetts Democrat was a man of many firsts, but the scandal of 1983 prompted the most headlines, often overshadowing his legacy. That was the year that Studds became the first House member to be censured for having a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old male page. It led to Studds becoming the first openly gay member of Congress, gaining him a new constituency.
Re-elected 11 times, Studds was an advocate for health care reform, gay rights and HIV/AIDS research. He was the first member of Congress to launch an AIDS awareness direct mail campaign, sending every household in his district a copy of the Surgeon General's 1987 report on AIDS. He fought early to lift the ban on homosexuals in the military, and joined Senator Edward Kennedy in introducing the Employment Nondiscrimination Act of 1994.
He saw a dream fulfilled in 2004, just two years before his death, when he married his longtime partner in Massachusetts. Studds was 69 years old.
Also passing today, Grammy winner Freddie Fender. He hit number on in 1975 with "Before the Next Teardrop Falls". And he had a few other hits on the country and pop charts. Fender, born Valdamar Puerta (ph), died today at his home after battling several health problems, including lung cancer. He, too, was 69.
Caught in a perfect storm. A New Orleans firefighter captures his Hurricane Katrina experience on tape, but looses his life in the line of duty just months later. For the first time, the public gets to see his heroic efforts. And his friend joins us to remember him, next.
Also, some people called them a threat, others saw them as saviors. We're going look back on the 40-year legacy of the Black Panthers.
You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LIN: It's one of the entries at this weekend's annual New Orleans Film Festival and it isn't leaving a dry eye in the house. It's a story of heroism and survival during Hurricane Katrina, shot by a New Orleans firefighter. Firefighters rescued hundreds of elderly and sick people from their homes shortly after the hurricane rolled through. But amazingly, those rescues happened just hours after firefighters themselves had to evacuate their firehouse to another building, where they rode out the storm.
And there's another tragic twist. Richard McEarly (ph), the firefighter who are shot the footage, was killed in the line of duty months later. Joining me now is Alan Boisdore. He is a New Orleans firefighter who was in the film and a good friend of the filmmaker.
Good to have you, Alan. Boy, Richard...
ALAN BOISDORE, NOLA FIREFIGHTER: Thanks, Carol.
LIN: ... Richard grabbed his camera and really just wanted to save the equipment. How did this idea evolve to actually start shooting this footage as you guys were trying to rescue people?
BOISDORE: Well, he had his camera with him, and he just started rolling. He didn't -- he didn't bring it to do it or anything like that. He always wanted to take pictures, and he was making films all the time. And he just so happened to have his camera with him, and he started rolling and didn't stop the whole week.
LIN: You know, and you see in some of the clips, like there, the water rising. You see several police cars in some of this footage. What was it like, first, to be there, as that was unfolding? And then, you know, when you had a chance to breathe, actually watch this footage later?
BOISDORE: Well, to be there was -- it was very, very scary. It was tough being there during the storm, watching the water come up, being away from my wife and my family and friends, and just not being able to talk to them. You know, no communication. And it was just really tough.
LIN: And it's such a tough job because you were finding people inside of buildings, right, who didn't even realize the danger they were in. We want to share one of the clips, in your documentary, where you're trying to convince this man to save himself.
Let's watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They got food. They got water. You can't (INAUDIBLE) from here to Mississippi. If I was you I'd leave, that's all I'm saying. You don't want to leave, we got to get out of here, you know, go save other people. But I'm telling you I would leave because there ain't going to be nobody here.
What you going to do? Listen man, you're messing up some valuable time. You do one of two things. You come on out here or we'll leave you here. That's all.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good luck.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LIN: That man, the last man in the footage, was actually one of the neighbors who was trying to help you. How many people did you encounter like that?
BOISDORE: That was actually one of a few. It wasn't very many. By the time people realized what had happened and they got out and they looked at the water and looked at the surroundings, they were pretty much ready to go.
LIN: Yes. I bet. Now, you say in looking back at that experience, you might do things differently. What would it be?
BOISDORE: Well looking back at that experience...
LIN: The experience as a whole, yes.
BOISDORE: Yes, you know, I would probably be more prepared than what we were, you know? To me, it was just another hurricane. We get them all the time. And this one just took us by surprise.
LIN: Richard McEarly did not live to see his film shown at the film festival. He died in a work-related accident months after Katrina. I know you must miss him dearly. He looked like a great guy. And what a spirit of life that he really imprinted this project with. How was the film received at festival? It aired today.
BOISDORE: Yes. They showed it today, and it was a stand ovation. Everybody loved it. They couldn't believe what he had shot, you know? And they stayed around, we stood around talking about, and just reminiscing. And they were things that were on the film that I had forgot myself and didn't realize that he captured, you know? And I'm sure once everybody gets to see what's on the film and realize what we went through, it would be a great respect for the film, and I'm sure his legacy will live on through the film.
LIN: You know he's watching from somewhere, you realize that? And he's smiling when he heard that applause.
BOISDORE: Yes. I'm sure he is. You know, a few seconds ago, I said, you know, Rick you got me into this, help me out.
LIN: You did just great.
Alan Boisdore, a pleasure to meet you...
BOISDORE: Thank you very much.
LIN: ... and share these images and the lovely picture of your friend.
BOISDORE: Thank you.
LIN: Well, how did New Orleans police officers perform during the Katrina disaster? Some like heroes, but did others cross the line? "CNN PRESENTS: SHOOT TO KILL," a riveting documentary that investigates whether some officers went too far during those chaotic days. That's tonight, at 8:00 Eastern.
And "the greatest threat to the country's security," well, that's what former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover once called the Black Panther Part. But to thousand of African-Americans, the Panthers are a symbol of great pride. Some 40 years later, there black nationalist message and the times certainly have changed. Well, this week the Panthers are gathering for a reunion. To understand where they're going, it helps to know where they've been.
Here's CNN's Fredricka Whitfield. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): It was the turbulent sixties that spawned the Black Panther Party. Their call for a revolution, armed if necessary, to correct what they saw as civil, social and criminal injustices against black Americans.
Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale started the movement in October 1966, in Oakland, California. Among their goals for black America: full employment, decent housing, an end to police brutality and freedom for all black men in prison.
A year later, Newton was arrested for killing a police officer in a shootout. The Free Huey Movement would help make Eldridge Cleaver, Stokely Carmichael, Angela Davis and Bobby Seale household names while spreading their message.
By 1969, the organization claimed it had gone from 500 members to 5,000 in 45 chapters from Los Angeles to Chicago to New Haven. That same year, the Panthers' national Free Breakfast For School Children Program began. The group claimed to serve 10,000 children daily. The Panthers had also become fixtures on college campuses, often selling Communist literature to earn money to buy weapons.
They had also become targets of police and the FBI, with director J. Edgar Hoover calling the group the greatest threat to the internal security of the country. Some of the conflicts with law enforcement ended in deadly gun battles. 1969 was the year the structure of the Panthers began to crumble.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These racist Gestapo pigs have to stop brutalizing our community, or we're going take up guns, we going to drive them out.
WHITFIELD: Eldridge Cleaver had fled the country to escape arrest while Seale and Newton dealt with their own legal problems. Newton was convicted of involuntary manslaughter for the police officer's death, a conviction eventually overturned. Seale was indicted for conspiracy and inciting a riot at the Chicago Democratic National Convention.
During his infamous Chicago Eight trial, Seale was bound and gagged and cited for contempt after repeatedly standing up to complain about civil rights violations. Seale was convicted and sentenced to four years in prison. The conviction was later overturned. In 1973, Seale would run for mayor of Oakland, gaining 40 percent of the vote, not enough to win, but it was a campaign that inspired others to depart from militancy.
Bobby Rush was co-founder the Panthers' Chicago chapter in 1968, before jumping into politics, becoming a longtime Illinois Congressman. Former Panther Angela Davis is now a college professor.
Fredricka Whitfield, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE) LIN: By the mid 70s, the structure of the Black Panther Party was all but gone. Eldridge Cleaver became a born-again Christian, returned from exile, pleaded guilty to assault in a police shootout, and was put on probation. Huey P. Newton became disenchanted with the group and, in 1989 was shot dead, reportedly in a dug dispute.
For anyone interested in the Panthers' reunion event, scheduled for New York and Oakland, go to their official website, www.itsabouttimebpp.com.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Lift it up. Very nice, girls.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LIN: All right, it's a new craze quickly gaining momentum in the suburbs. Soccer moms turning to striptease. A story you don't want to miss, up next right here in the NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LIN: Pole dancing isn't just for strip clubs anymore. More women are using the techniques of stripping to stay in shape. In fact, the most popular on our video on our website, CNN.com, is about stripper workouts. No surprise there.
Our Brianna Keilar shows us why more women are turning to exotic rhythms to keep fit.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: These aren't your typical athletic shoes but then, this isn't your typical workout.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Lift it up. Very nice, girls.
KEILAR: Welcome to "Exposed Fitness", one of a growing number of gyms dedicated to workouts inspired by stripping. Classes include pole dancing and chair dancing, but, unlike so-called exotic dancers, these women keep their clothes on.
ANITA AMMAN, DANCE INSTRUCTOR: I think it is empowering.
KEILAR: Anita Amman (ph) owns this franchise in suburban Maryland. She says her average customer is in her late 30s to early 40s, and many participants are moms.
AMMAN: It's kind of bringing their femininity back, that they've kind of lost for sacrificing with their kids and, you know, being so hectic and leading such busy lives.
KEILAR: At home, Jenny Becker (ph) is a wife and mother. In her spare time, she pole dances at another studio she opened early this month. Becker credits the classes with working out her confidence as much as her muscles. JENNY BECKER, STUDIO OWNER: And I'm able to speak without feeling awkward. It's a wonderful way to build confidence in yourself.
KEILAR: Dr. Tina Deshotels has stripper culture for a decade. She says the growth of upscale clubs has made exotic dancing mainstream enough for gyms and music videos. Witness the chart- topping Pussycat Dolls, born of a burlesque Hollywood dance troupe.
DR. TINA DESHOTELS, PH.D., SOCIOLOGIST: This is making it more acceptable because it's not so seedy anymore.
KEILAR: But Deshotels found many dancers lose their individual sense of self and sexuality, and she fears stripping as exercise could have the same results.
DESHOTELS: I have some ideas that this is possibly limiting individual women's definitions of beauty and definitions of sexuality, just like it does for the women in this profession.
KEILAR: But these women don't see it that way.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Make it look a little naughty.
KEILAR: They say there's a big difference between doing this for fun and fitness than to pay the bills.
Brianna Keilar, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LIN: OK. There's still a lot more ahead on CNN tonight. Up next at 7:00 Eastern, "THIS WEEK AT WAR". At 8:00, "CNN PRESENTS: SHOOT TO KILL." We investigate whether overstressed police officers went too far after Hurricane Katrina. It's a story you'll only see right here on CNN. And at 9:00, Larry King talks with Suzanne Somers about being cancer-free for more than five years.
And I'll be back at 10:00 Eastern, when we turn our focus to North Korea and how the United Nations is reacting to the threat of a nuclear war. A check of the hour's headlines is next, followed by "THIS WEEK AT WAR.
Thanks for spending your weekend with us. I'm Carol Lin.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
