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Amtrak Passengers Trapped; Presidential Candidates Prepare; Iraq Death Toll; Orangutans Pick Super Bowl Winner; Giants Super Bowl Inspiration
Aired February 02, 2008 - 12:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANNETTE REHR, UNHCR SPOKESPERSON: Well, actually you're right, we have 240,000 Sudanese refugees into a refugee camp that we are looking after. Now, the unrest of the opposition groups in Chad is seeing -- yes, hello.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN HOST: Yes, I can still hear you. There is some interference in our line, but I can hear you clearly.
All right, well, it looks like we may have lost that communication, there.
REHR: Hello, hello.
Annette, I still can hear you, great. All right, continue, then.
REHR: Yes. We know that the opposition groups who tried to topple President Deby are supported by the regime in Khartoum, so it is somehow a war between the two countries taking place here and over there. But, as far as the Darfuran refugees are concerned, I don't think it will have any consequences for them for the time being.
WHITFIELD: OK, and just to revisit your point, you said, many U.N. nonessential staff members have been -- have they been evacuated entirely or are they being mobilized for evacuation? Revisit that thought.
REHR: No, they have been. They have been evacuated already yesterday and it's only essential staff remaining in (INAUDIBLE). As far as the east is concerned that we have over 200 staff members also in the east. We are still all around and still doing our work with the refugees and internal (INAUDIBLE).
WHITFIELD: Well, tell me about your thoughts of your own personal security.
REHR: Well, as I said, we are monitoring the situation, because we await the rebels to come from the direction of Sudan and to overtake the town of (INAUDIBLE) and then we will have to see if it is peacefully, we'll to sit with them and continue our work. If it's getting very violent, then I suppose we will also be evacuated. But this will be decited once the situation arrives, and the situation here changes every hour.
WHITFIELD: Is it clear to you who would be targeted with any potential violence? REHR: No, no. This is not clear to us yet. But, from the past, we have experience because this is not the first time that it has happened in Chad that humanitarian staff and international staff of U.N. agencies will not be targeted. And even the local population, so far, was from what we have seen, is quite happy about the whole development. So, we have to see, as I said, how the situation evolves.
WHITFIELD: All right, Annette Rehr, thank you so much, the UNHCR spokesperson. We'll continue to stay in communication with you to get the latest developments taking place there out of Chad.
And here in this country, stranded and waiting for rescue, it's happening right now in the California Mountains. About 155 passengers aboard Amtrak's California Zephyr, trapped behind a derailed snowplow in the Sierra Nevada. The snowplow derailed yesterday near the Donner Pass, known for it's savidge winters and named for the Donner party pioneers who died in the pass during a 19th century snowstorm.
The snowplow in this case, and that derailment originally stalled two Amtrak trains. But, one of them was pulled back to Nevada where passengers were transferred to a hotel. Well, 155 passengers remain onboard the second train awaiting for the track now to reopen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KARINA ROMERO, AMTRAK SPOKESWOMAN: The snowplow has been removed from the tracks. Crews are there to make sure the track doesn't have any damage and they are also removing some snow that accumulated overnight. As soon as the area is clear, we will proceed.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: Amtrak says that the stalled train has heat, electricity, water and food. The trapped train was headed from Emeryville, California to Chicago.
And travel is getting somewhat back to normal in the Midwest after heavy snow, there. About four inches of snow fell in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, stopping airport operations. Chicago's O'Hare got 7.5 inches of snow, forcing hundreds of flight cancellations, there. O'Hare is now operating normally.
Snow also caused transportation problems in thee Pacific Northwest where crews are working to reopen a path in Washington State where they used explosions, as you can see from the light, to create controlled avalanches.
All right, let's check in with Reynolds Wolf.
Oh, now, you are back from the cold, snowy, blizzard-like conditions of Missouri.
WOLF: That's right, St. Louis, Missouri. Yeah, we had anywhere from three to seven inches of snowfall in that region.
(WEATHER REPORT)
WHITFIELD: Brutal stuff out there. All right, Reynolds, thanks so much.
Well, now for the storm of politics where the game is on. It is the last week end before Super Tuesday and the presidential candidates have their eyes on that super prize.
Well, take a look at all that purple, right there -- 24 states in play. More than 1,600 delegates up for grabs in the Democratic Party. While Republicans vie for more than a thousand.
The best political team on television has you covered, so let's begin with the Democrats. Right now, Hillary Clinton is rallying supporters in Los Angeles while Barack Obama makes tracks across the northwest and Midwest.
Our Jessica Yellin is there in Los Angeles where it was pretty windier earlier, so glad to see you inside, now. Boy, they are all covering a lot of ground.
JESSICA YELLIN, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT: They really are, Fredericka. Super Tuesday is almost a national primary where this race gets almost half of the delegates that are to be given out will be decided on Tuesday, so they are fighting for every single one they can.
Senator Clinton and Barack Obama both fighting aggressively with new messages. Senator Clinton saying now that John Edwards has dropped out she is the only candidate who is guaranteeing universal health care for all Americans. Barack Obama, adopting a new message now that John McCain seems to be the frontrunner on the Republican side. He says he is the candidate most likely to beat John McCain because he attracts many of the same Independents who would otherwise, Obama says, break for McCain.
So, those are slight alterations on the messages we've heard from them. They are vying in different parts of the country, particularly hard, though, here in California where Senator Clinton says, well, this has been Clinton country for years. She wants this delegate-rich state to break for her. She has strength among Latinos and also working women. But Barack Obama has just won the coveted endorsement of the "Los Angeles Times." So, the race here is tightening.
Now, he have just learned from two separate sources in the John Edwards camp, that he is not going to endorse either one of them before Tuesday. This is big news because that is a coveted endorsement. Either side would want that desperately, for his supporters to go with them. And what we can see here, on Sunday, is going to be a major showdown between the Obama and the Clinton camps. Bill Clinton will be in town going to African-American churches, here in Los Angeles, while Michelle Obama joins Oprah Winfrey, also here on Sunday. Quite a lot of action happening before Tuesday.
WHITFIELD: Well, indeed. And so, while they are in California, of course, whether it is by way of Oprah or otherwise, these candidates, it would seem, really do want to appeal to a number of celebrities on many scales. We saw in the Democratic debate, that there were a lot of celebrities in the audience, while on the Republican taking place in California, there were more kind of political head honchos in the front row. How does anyone kind of compare and contrast the dynamics, here?
YELLIN: Well, Senator Clinton has long had a coterie (ph) of celebrity supporters going back to the Clinton administration's days. Barack Obama has won a number of young celebrities, new Hollywood, if you will. And you know, they add a lot of glitz and glom or to the campaigns, they certainly attract media attention. But, there's been a debate for some time about whether these endorsements really do make any difference at all.
The one difference that does seem to matters is Oprah Winfrey, because she draws such an enormous crowd that she was able to give Barack Obama a wider audience and let people hear him, people who may not have heard him before. And she seems to draw older women to him. So, that could create a lot tension and a lot of tightening, especially in California for the race for the women's votes on Tuesday.
WHITFIELD: All right, interesting stuff. Jessica Yellin, thank you, from Los Angeles.
And now, let's go to the Republicans where John McCain is riding a wave of endorsements into Super Tuesday. Our senior political analyst, Bill Schneider is following the action from L.A.
Good to see you, Bill.
BILL SCHNEIDER, CNN NEWS SR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Fredericka.
WHITFIELD: All right, so all these endorsements, you know, a few days ago, we talked about, you know, are they really important? Somehow they are to the candidates because, you know, they want to wheel in as many large endorsements as they can.
SCHNEIDER: Well, they do but sometimes they can be risky, Fredricka. John McCain was endorsed now by the "L.A. Times." He, as well as Barack Obama, had been endorsed by the "Los Angeles Times" and he was endorsed about a week ago about the "New York Times."
Well, you know, the "L.A. Times" and they "New York Times" are not very popular with conservatives and John McCain is trying to make the case in his ads and in his campaigns that he is a real conservative, conservatives should not feel threatened or excluded, that he will be a conservative president. And they throw it back in his face and say he's the candidate of "the New York Times" and the "L.A. Times." So, the endorsement is not entirely welcome or entirely one sided.
WHITFIELD: Well, very interesting. You know, i seems not too many weeks -- maybe a couple months ago, where so many were talking about John McCain being dead in the water when it came down to money. And now, he is getting this torrent of funds from all angles. How can he spend it, maybe, within the next three days, or how does it even benefit him in the next three days before Super Tuesday?
SCHNEIDER: Oh, you can spend it because you are going to have primaries all over the country. Here in California, it's a very expensive state. Even in a few days, you can spend millions of dollars on ads. There are five major media markets, here. He is spending money all over the country and running national cable ads on CNN and other cable television networks from coast to coast.
But the fact is, despite the money that's been coming in to John McCain as he goes winning primary after primary, South Carolina, Florida. The fact is the Republicans have not raised as much money as the Democrats, Barak Obama and Hillary Clinton have. They are spending from coast to coast. The Republicans are just not spending that much. Mitt Romney, of course, has his own fortune and he may be willing to spend it, but so far, he hasn't really had to, because John McCain hasn't spent all that much money. Ninety percent of the money, in the last the week of the campaign, is likely to be spent by Democrats.
WHITFIELD: Wow! All right, fascinating stuff. Bill Schneider, thank you, from Los Angeles.
And of course, we are the channel for politics for you. Also, straight ahead, we are going to have much more on the kind of road to nowhere for folks onboard an Amtrak train in the Donner Pass stuck between California and Nevada. Much more, straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: All right, an update on what's taking place in Donner Pass. New video, right now, of some much relieved Amtrak train passengers who got a chance to be rescued when their train was stalled the on the Donner Pass -- two trains, actually, were stalled on the Donner Pass because of a snowplow that actually derailed there.
Well, passengers on one of the trains, they were rescued, so to speak and they were taken nearby to Reno, Nevada. Most of them put up in a hotel. In the meantime, there are about 155 passengers on the other Amtrak train that are stuck. They're stuck on the rails, but apparently, according to Amtrak, they still have plenty of food, heat, water, and soon they will be relieved too or at least that is the hope.
New images right here of the much-relieved Amtrak passengers who got a chance to find some comfort in a hotel after the stalling of their train in the Donner Pass between California and Nevada.
Well, it seems impossible, but violence in Iraq appears to have taken a new horrifying turn. The death toll from yesterday bombings in Baghdad has grown to at least 98 people. What is so shocking about these two bombings is that the bombers may have been mentally disabled women, blown up by remote control. Our Arwa Damon is in Baghdad.
And Arwa, is this the first time that mentally disabled people, as far as we know, have been used by this, as bombers?
ARWA DAMON, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fredericka, Iraqi officials say in the past that al Qaeda has tried to take advantage of those that are disabled and of children to try to carry out their attacks. But, this is by far one of the more significant attacks using these type of individuals that we have seen take place.
Now, the U.S. military is still trying to determine whether or not these two women were aware that they were carrying explosives. Here is what the U.S. military knows. They believe that the women were mentally disabled. We are hearing that one of them was carrying a backpack, the other one was wearing a vest. What the military, U.S. military, is unclear about is as to whether or not they detonated their own explosives or if they were detonated by remote.
The Iraqis do believe, based on eyewitness accounts from both market places, that the women appeared to have been detonated by remote, even going so far as to say that one of the theorys that they are looking into is that perhaps they were kidnapped and then set off completely unknowing what their fate was going to be.
But by all counts, this is such a devastating event. It is the deadliest attack to take place in the capital for months now, coming at a time when some Iraqi were really just beginning to hope that maybe, perhaps, finally the worst of the violence was over and then, we have yesterday's events taking place. Obviously, making you will of the headlines here in Iraq, today, with some editorials going so far as to criticize the Iraqi government and the Iraqi security forces for not putting extra precautionary measures into place -- Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: It's remarkable stuff. In the meantime, there are military and political leaders that are meeting in Mosul, today, security clearly at the top of the list. What is expected of this meeting?
DAMON: Well, the prime minister is pretty much leading these meetings saying that it is a meeting of a crisis cell. The crisis they are referring to is the on going security situation in Mosul. Basically, the main aim of the surge, up until now, had been to clear Baghdad in the areas around of the insurgency.
What that has effectively done is pushed them outside of the capital, mainly to the north. The spokesman for the Iraqi government going so far as to call Mosul the new frontline in the fight against al Qaeda.
Coming out of these meeting, today, the Iraqi, prime minister, Nouri al Maliki, vowed they would break al Qaeda's stronghold in Iraq once and for all. And this is also an indication of the prime minister trying to prove to the Iraqi people that he is concerned about provinces outside of Baghdad.
Just last week, they announced they were sending additional Iraqi troops up to Mosul. They're expecting a big battle up there. There is, however, some concern amongst the U.S. leadership, here, amongst U.S. commanders in that area, that the prime minister might of the Iraqi government might be disclosing a bit too much information ahead of any major operations to take place up there.
WHITFIELD: Arwa Damon, thank you, from Baghdad.
Coming up next, an Iraq vet hopes to inspire his New York Giants to a super victory.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Well, here is a twist. If a groundhog can predict weather, how about an orangutan picking the winner of tomorrow's Super Bowl? That's an orangutan, that one right there, these guys live in the Oregon Zoo in Portland and every year, they're offered team t- shirts. The older female put on the jersey of the New England Patriots and you should know that she doesn't have a perfect record. Her grandson, whose record is perfect, however, is going with the New York Giants, so we'll see.
As the Giants head into Super Bowl Sunday, they have more than a little inspiration, it comes in the form of a west point grad turned Iraq war veteran. Here now is CNN's Barbara Starr.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Lieutenant Colonel Gregory Gadson commanded hundreds of troops in Iraq, but his time in the war zone ended the day he was coming back from a memorial service for some of his soldiers.
LT. COL. GREGORY GADSON, U.S. ARMY: I remember a boom, a muffled boom, but I knew exactly what happened to me, I mean, and it was sort of a -- I couldn't believe -- one of the first things I said to myself is "I can't believe this just happened to us."
STARR: It was an IED.
GADSON: I just said, "God, I don't want to die in this country." And then that's sort of the last thing I remember as I was lying down on the ground.
STARR: Gadson's lower body took the brunt of the explosion.
GADSON: When I arrived here, I had both my legs. My legs were still on and intact.
STARR: The same legs that helped make him a football star at West Point. He's number 98. But, medical complications set in. Gadson told his doctors to amputate both his legs. He hoped prosthetics would let him walk again. Some days, Gadson confronts the darkest feelings.
GADSON: To me, the bad days, they're just, you know, you just -- it's like you've been swallowed by a blanket and just can't pick yourself up emotionally. I mean it's juts like you've been beat down and you can't your head up. I know -- I mean, there was one day I think I cried for about 24 hours. STARR: A long-time fan of the New York Giants, hw as a guest of team, early this year, when they turned their season around with come-from- behind victory over the Washington Redskins. And he was on the field two weeks ago for the coin flip as an honorary cocaptain during the NFC championship game.
Giants head coach, Tom Coughlin says Gadson is an inspiration. Gadson says, he gets inspiration from the younger wounded troops around him and insists he's no hero.
GADSON: I don't feel like a hero. I mean, I feel like I was doing my job and the real heroes, I think, are the ones that don't make don't make it back.
STARR: Barbara Starr, CNN, Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: What an incredible inspiration.
In the meantime, I want to update you on what's taking place out west on the Donner Pass between California and Nevada where we have been telling you all morning that two Amtrak trains came to a little trouble when a snowplow derailed and left a lot of passenger, up to 400, stuck on these Amtrak trains.
Well, we have an update from Karina Romero from Amtrak.
And so Karina, we do understand that earlier one of the trains was towed into Reno and so, more than, what, 150 passengers were able to find refuge at a hotel and in the meantime, you had passengers on the other train. What's the latest?
ROMERO: We did do you Train 5 with 165 passengers onboard, back to Reno last evening and we put those passengers up in a hotel. Today, they're going to travel by bus to the bay area to their destination. In addition, last night, we offered the passengers on Train 6 the opportunity to return to the Bay area, that was the origination point of this train. Sixty of them took us up on that offer and we took them back to the Bay area last evening; 155 passengers chose to stay onboard the train. But, they are now on the move towards Chicago. The railroad reopened at 7:50 a.m. Pacific Time.
WHITFIELD: Wow, so the 155 who had stayed on the train, you say the train is now on the move. Meaning it's not disabled in any way. It won't have to be towed. It is up and running on its own on the way to its original destination of Chicago?
ROMERO: Yeah, the train was having mechanical problems. We simply couldn't get to the railroad because it was blocked.
WHITFIELD: I see. I see. All right, well how patient were a lot of those 155? I guess they had the choice of leaving or staying, they chose to stay. What have you heard about how they did? ROMERO: They did choose to stay and we did what we could to make them comfortable. We did refuel the engine while it was stopped in Gold Run in California. So, they did have electricity and they did have heat through the night.
WHITFIELD: OK, are you offering any interesting perks to a lot of these passengers, like free round trip tickets on Amtrak, anything like that?
ROMERO: We'll be working with them on a case by case basis.
WHITFIELD: OK. All right, Karina Romero of Amtrak, thanks so much. I am glad everyone is OK and either they are heading back to their, I guess, place of origin or heading on to their destination. All's well that ends well. Just a little snag along the way.
All right, Wesley Snipes, well, he didn't file tax returns for like six years. But, he's not guilty of fraud, at least that's what the jury is saying. Is that fair and impartial justice or a double standard for celebrities? We'll let our legal experts weigh in. You see, they're already nodding. You got a lot to say.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: All right, well, another update now on that problem with Amtrak and the Donner Pass. Well now, we're getting new images right now of that second train, one as we mentioned was towed to Reno, Nevada after getting stuck there. Well, here's the other train, which was on its way to Chicago before running into this little snafo here, because of the snowplow derailing and then stalling. Two Amtrak trains there on the Donner Pass.
Well, now, you see it's actually moving. New video in now that is proof positive of the fact that this train is now on its way, no problems, heading to Chicago with about 155 people on board who decided to stick it out and hope that they would be on their way again. And evidence now that they are.
All right, well, speaking of traffic and problems with getting around weather related. If those passengers thought that they had problems, listen to this. More snow, more ice, that's the news for China today. And that's got to be a disappointment for thousands of travellers desperate to get home for the Chinese New Year. The Chinese government is urging people to abandon travel plans all together.
CNN's Andrew Stevens is in China traveling with people who may wish that they had received that advice.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANDREW STEVENS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This was supposed to be a 10-hour journey through green and pleasant country known locally as the land of fish and rice. For these weary travelers, this is now a land of snowstorms, freezing fog, treacherous ice and traffic jams, endless traffic jams. They've already spent two full days on the road and the driver reckons there's another two more to go and maybe more.
Frustrations are growing and it's all about the same thing. "I haven't seen my family for a long time," this construction worker tells me. "This bus trip is just taking too long." His cousin agrees. He spent about $60, that's two weeks pay, to get on this bus because it was the quickest trip other than flying.
Their stories echo around the bus. They're desperate to get home. At least they are luckier than some other travellers on a road to nowhere stranded at train stations. They have some luxury to lighten the hardship: beds of a sort and television.
But they still battle the same problems as their fellow road travellers and millions of others in Eastern and Central China, trying to get home for the New Year next week. Apart from the weather, it's worries about how and where they can replenish their supplies.
For the moment, at least, there are the noodle sellers, braving the cold but charging twice the price as normal, $1 a bowl. And for water, there's always snow as a last resort. Fuel is the other issue. With fuel shortages, the policy here seems to be fill up as often and as much as possible.
The owner of this bus is along for the ride. He's been in the business for 40 years and he's seen a lot.
MA SHIYUN, BUS OWNER (through translator): I have never seen it like this. The conditions are very dangerous because they are not prepared for this sort of weather here. The food is running out. We have to be mentally prepared.
STEVENS: Mentally prepared maybe, but this is turning into a very physical battle. And it's not over yet, not by a long way.
(on camera): Well, as you can see, night has now fallen and the snow is still thick. Passengers are settling down for their third night on this bus in a trip that should have taken them 10 hours, and they're still less than half-way home.
Andrew Stevens, Western Anhui Province, China.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: And now, new problems in Africa, this time in Central Africa. We understand that rebels have moved into the capital of Chad and may have also possibly taken over the presidential palace. We're still awaiting confirmation of that.
Meantime, our Nic Robertson, senior international correspondent, is on his way into Chad by way of Ethiopia. That's where he joins us now on the phone.
So Nic, what's your understanding of what precipitated this movement of rebels moving into the capital?
VOICE OF NIC ROBERTSON, SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we understand there are about 400 rebels in the capital at the moment. Various Western officials have reported hearing gunfire around the capital. Various times during the day, there have been various reports that the rebels are outside the presidential palace, which is not a very heavily fortified building.
I've been there several times. It has fairly low wall at the front, and a couple of poorly armed guards on the front gates and it backs onto the river. Not a lot of defenses around there for the rebels to get over. And we understand that the rebels have either been inside the presidential palace or right outside it.
We do know that the rebels have moved from the east of the country from the border with Sudan and Darfur. They have been hold up in the east and the southeast of Chad. But beyond the government breach, the government in Chad is a fairly weak government. It doesn't control its whole country.
The rebels have moved westwards towards the capital. They've moved very quickly. This is typical of rebel advances in the past. In May 2006, the rebels also attacked the capital at that time, getting right in to the capital, getting a few hundred meters, we understand, from the president's palace. They were turned back, they were beaten militarily.
Reports at the time said French troops were based inside Chad helped defeat the rebels. The President Idriss Deby at that time made then co-opted the rebel commander and made him defense minister in the Chadian government. That is how he's dealt with the rebels before.
But it does give you an indication of how tenuous his grip on power is, that the rebels can move quickly across the country, can get right into the capital, and he's had this happen to him just a year- and-a-half ago. He has spent a lot of the country's new oil resource money that comes from the oil fields in the south of the country. He's spent a lot of that money on defense spending over the past year, buying 100 French military trucks over the past year.
His control of the country where the rebels came from in the east on the border with Sudan has been very poor. In fact, there are parts of the country that he hasn't controlled at all that have been believed to have been in rebel hands now for at least six or seven months -- Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: All right, Nic Robertson, thanks so much, joining us there from Jubute (ph), Ethiopia, on the way there to Chad where we're seeing new pictures now of the unrest there taking place in Central Africa. Much more on that straight ahead.
Also, we're going to delve into some legal matters here in this country with our legal guys. They'll be joining us right after this break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Well, you know what they say about death and taxes, there's not much wiggle room when it comes to the IRS. Actor Wesley Snipes, however, tried to make a case for not paying his taxes. And the verdict is in.
Kendra Oestreich with affiliate station WESH.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's an extraordinary day for Mr. Snipes ...
KENDRA OESTREICH, WESH REPORTER (voice-over): Orlando born actor Wesley Snipes walks out of the federal courthouse in Ocala with big hugs for supporters. Snipes appears to be relieved by the jury's verdict he's not guilty of felony fraud and conspiracy charges in an alleged tax evasion scheme.
ROBERT BERNHOFT, WESLEY SNIPES' ATTORNEY: Mr. Snipes committed no fraud, that he did not have bad intent. And that's what the jury accepted.
OESTREICH: The prosecution says the 45-year-old didn't file tax returns for six years on $38 million he made in movies and investments. The jury convicted Snipes on only half of those misdemeanor charges.
ROBERT O'NEILL, PROSECUTOR: We thought there was sufficient evidence for convictions on all accounts, but obviously the jury disagreed.
OESTREICH: It's a verdict that angers some Ocala tax payers.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everybody pays their taxes.
CHARLES YAILAIAN, OCALA RESIDENT: I'm not happy about it because it just goes to show if you've got fame, you get off easy.
OESTREICH: Snipes' attorneys originally asked the case be moved from Ocala, saying the community is racist. One resident says the all-white jury did just fine.
CLORISSA STOCKER, OCALA RESIDENT: Well, it seems like he got a fair trial here to me. A little (INAUDIBLE), so I guess he got proved wrong about little Ocala.
OESTREICH: Now, the IRS hopes taxpayers heed the warning from this case.
VICTOR LESSOFF, IRS SPECIAL AGENT: The message is pay your taxes, file your tax returns clearly. Wesley Snipes was just convicted.
OESTREICH: Instead of 16 years in prison, Snipes now faces up to three years behind bars.
WESLEY SNIPES, ACTOR: The truth will set you, so I'm looking forward to being free.
OESTREICH (on camera): The judge here didn't set a sentencing date, but even Snipes' attorney admits the actor owes about $8 million in back taxes and says Snipes intends to pay it, plus penalties and interests.
In Ocala, in Marion County, Kendra Oestreich, WESH 2 News.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: All right, well, let's hear from our legal experts, Avery Friedman and Richard Herman. Good to see you guys.
RICHARD HERMAN, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Hi, Fred.
AVERY FRIEDMAN, CIVIL RIGHTS ATTORNEY: How are you, Fredricka?
WHITFIELD: I'm doing pretty good.
FRIEDMAN: Yes.
WHITFIELD: Well, Avery, let's begin with you. How in the world do you lose track of whether you've paid taxes over six years? How did he convice the jury of that?
FRIEDMAN: Well, he didn't lose track. His defense is a very technical, esoteric defense. It is, I play a vampire in the movies, and as a result, I was just too stupid to sincerely defraud the government. That essentially was the defense.
WHITFIELD: All right, so Richard, that doesn't work for everybody?
HERMAN: No, and you know, in these tax cases, the burden on the government is not only to prove that he violated the law, but they have to also prove that he did it with a willful, bad purpose to defraud. And apparently, he had a host of communications with the IRS. He asked for definitions and clauses. He wanted meetings with them.
And all of that, the jury considered and said you know what, he didn't have that specific intent required to convict him on the felonies. Although, he did get convicted on three misdemeanors ...
FRIEDMAN: Right.
HERMAN: ...facing a year each on those. And he's probably going to get no prison time here.
WHITFIELD: So, as for the felonies, it's as simple as saying, you know, I'm just too busy. I've got too much on my plate. I have other people who are handling my finances and if they're the ones who are not handling it well, then I should not be held accountable for that?
FRIEDMAN: No, no, no. No, no. What they did is he hooked up with a couple of big time tax ideologies, and these guys essentially were arguing, you don't have to do it. He argued essentially I went along with the ride. I really didn't understand the basic principals here. I didn't sincerely intend to violate the law and the jury bought it. WHITFIELD: Wow.
FRIEDMAN: Yes.
WHITFIELD: Well, he's a lucky man, sort of. Of course, everything is still -- right.
FRIEDMAN: His penalty and interest will far exceed the $8 million that he owes.
HERMAN: He's going to pay that, Fred.
FRIEDMAN: He's going to pay a lot of money.
HERMAN: They're going to get that money from him.
FRIEDMAN: For sure.
HERMAN: They're going to press civil cases now. He's going to get -- well, probably over $10 million plus.
FRIEDMAN: Much more I think.
WHITFIELD: OK, well, let's talk about another case. It has become a legal case. Well, it has had, you know, some other dealings with legalities, meaning custody. Talking about Britney Spears.
FRIEDMAN: Right.
WHITFIELD: But now, the legal case here is her father is now a conservator of her estate while she receives some sort of medical attention for her mental state.
So, Richard, explain, a, what it means for her dad to be the conservator and how she gets this help? Was it forced upon her? Did she electively do it? Was her family in power to say you need help?
HERMAN: Well Fred, apparently, they had an intervention, a carefully planned intervention. And from the intervention, they rushed her to the psych ward of a hospital in California. And the next day, her father went into court and petitioned and was appointed temporary conservator over her assets and temporary conservator over herself. All that until Monday this week, Monday, when the judge'll determine whether he wants to consider it or not.
But look, she has been determined gravely disabled by the hospital there. Fred, we are watching this woman completely destroy herself.
FRIEDMAN: Well, and that's right, that's right.
HERMAN: Anna Nicole Smith all over again. You know, one day, we're going to wake up, it's going to be tragic. It's just terrible.
FRIEDMAN: Well, let's hope that -- let's hope, Richard, that it's not Anna Nicole Smith. This was what's called a 51/50 out in California. It was an emergency 72-hour commitment. The father, who frankly, it's not been a stable relationship, but believe it or not in the Spears family, that's about as good as it gets.
HERMAN: Right.
FRIEDMAN: And let's hope that there will be some control.
WHITFIELD: But didn't that happen rather quickly? It doesn't usually happen in a matter of days?
FRIEDMAN: Oh, no, no. It quite -- it quite does, Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: Does it?
FRIEDMAN: This is a 72-hour involuntary hold. And after 72 hours, there has to be an action. The court bought James Spears' argument. And he'll be the temporary conservator. And we'll have to see how this unwinds.
WHITFIELD: What will this mean about the custody battle?
FRIEDMAN: Oh, it's devastating.
WHITFIELD: Done.
FRIEDMAN: Devastating, yes.
HERMAN: And apparently, Fred, what's -- what we can gleam from this, is that this Sam Lufti, this manager, a friend or whoever he is ...
WHITFIELD: Right.
FRIEDMAN: Yes.
WHITFIELD: No more (ph).
HERMAN: ...looked like he was pillaging her assets there because the judge directed a freeze on the credit cards ...
FRIEDMAN: Right.
HERMAN: ...and on the bank accounts. So, I mean ...
WHITFIELD: Gosh.
HERMAN: ...we don't know that was done in-camera before the court. But Monday, I think we're going to get a lot more information on all this.
FRIEDMAN: That's right.
WHITFIELD: Oh, such a sad situation.
FRIEDMAN: Absolutely.
WHITFIELD: It's sad to see the unraveling like this of anybody. All right ...
FRIEDMAN: But you know, she's going to get some help, Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: Well, let's hope so.
FRIEDMAN: She'll be all right.
WHITFIELD: Let's hope it's not too late.
FRIEDMAN: Right.
WHITFIELD: All right, Avery, Richard, thank you so much. Have a great weekend.
FRIEDMAN: Take care.
HERMAN: Hey Fred, are you pulling for the Giants to shock the world?
FRIEDMAN: Oh, come on, come on, come on.
WHITFIELD: I'm not getting in the middle of this. I know you guys have bets.
FRIEDMAN: Don't get sucked into that.
WHITFIELD: We'll talk Monday. Have a good one.
All right, big cities, big rivalry. Uh-huh, that's what we're talking about, New York and Boston take their sports view to the Super Bowl.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I am Reynolds Wolf, and this is a look at today's Cold and Flu Season report.
And if you're not feeling very good, you're kind of drowsy, you've got a little bit of a fever and your nose is running, chances are you're sick. You may have the cold or flu. And you could be living in, well, virtually any spot any spot in the country. Because, you'll notice much of the map is covered by the blues, the purples, and the reds, which indicate local activity, regional activity, or widespread activity. But there are three lucky exceptions, that being Maine and West Virginia and Florida. Those are shaded in green where the activity is only sporadic.
That is a look at today's Cold and Flu Season report.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: OK, this is going to make you laugh. They may have more wrinkles than jiggles, but these ladies are on top of their game. They are members of the Sun City Poms Cheerleading Squad. The youngest -- get a load of this -- 68. Boy, they look good! The oldest, 76. The seniors are gearing up for Super Bowl appearance. Go girl! They usually can be found entertaining in the Phoenix area. Love it.
All right, well, something you should know about tomorrow's Super Bowl matchup, Boston and New York make up one of the country's biggest rivalries. And when we say big, we mean huge.
CNN's Richard Roth takes is unside this tale of two cities. Yes, Richard Roth.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RICHARD ROTH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): New York and Boston, two big cities that don't like each other. Sports is at the heart of it. Sunday's Super Bowl of football pits the undefeated Patriots from Boston's New England region ...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How do we feel about making NFL history!
CROWD: Oh yeah!
ROTH: ...against the underdog, New York Giants.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Giants are going to take it all the way this year. No. 1.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a great rivalry, I think it's a great rivalry. Boston and New York in the Super Bowl, I think that's great.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: New England all the way.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We hate Boston.
ROTH: But it's in baseball where passions run super high. The Boston Red Sox sold star pitcher and hitter Babe Ruth to the hated New York Yankees. While the Yankees won 26 titles, the Bostonians after 1918 didn't win a championship until 2004. Boston and New York also spent the year brawling on the fields in the hottest rivalry in American sports.
PROF. THOMAS BENDER, NEW YORK UNIVERSITY: I think that these sports teams are one of the ways that cities get some kind of identity. And you kind of adopt them and people hold on to them very, very tightly.
ROTH: Fans are getting wound up very tight now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For the New York football Giants. Who cares about the Patriots?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I mean, how do I respond to that? I mean, come on, we're 16 and 0 ...
ROTH: Even sons have turned on fathers.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Boston all day!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am the father and I raised him the wrong way.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One, two, three, go.
ROTH: There was a Super Bowl contest held. Could Manhattan clam chowder be chowed down faster than New England clam chowder? And the mayor of New York helped change the name of a bar called Brady's, same as the star New England quarterback to that of his New York counterpart. The actual players are slightly calmer.
(on camera): Are you picking up a sense of that of New England and New York again?
ANTONIO PIERCE, GIANTS LINEBACKER: Of course. I mean, you talking about that history right through (ph) the Yankees and Red Sox, that goes back a lot of years. And it would be good to pick that up on a football sense.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who's going to stop Ahmad Bradshaw? .
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They don't have to. They're going to get to Eli before he gets the ball.
ROTH: It's the whale of two cities.
Richard Roth, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Well, politics, like chess, can depend on who's got your back. In politics, it's called endorsements.
Here now is CNN's Jeanne Moos and how she sees this latest round of endorsements one-upmanship.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Ted Kennedy may have been delivered to the Obama camp. This isn't the campiest endorsement. How about actress Scarlett Johansson joking she's engaged to Obama when asked about her real boyfriend.
Or a fashion designer, like Kimora Lee Simmons, better known for how she dresses than for addressing political issues, endorsing Hillary Clinton.
There's Kevin Bacon trying to bring home the bacon for John Edwards.
Talk about "Footloose," performer John Mayer seemed loose all over, arguing with actor Justin Long about Mayer's favorite candidate, Ron Paul. JOHN MAYER, SINGER: Ron Paul, I'm talking about Ron Paul. Not Ru Paul, Ron Paul.
MOOS: Ru Paul's only platform is the kind you wear on your feet.
Of course, there was Oprah's endorsement of Obama and his payback campaign promise delivered on Letterman.
SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Three words, vice-president Oprah.
MOOS: Of course, the campiest endorsement of them all pitted Rambo against Chuck Norris. Chuck is for Huck, but when Norris suggested McCain is so old, he could die in office ...
CHUCK NORRIS, ACTOR/HUCKABEE SUPPORTER: I'm just afraid that the vice president will wind up taking over.
MOOS: ...McCain called in reinforcements.
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Now that Sylvester Stallone has endorsed me, I'm sending him over to take care of Chuck Norris right away.
MOOS: Quite the opposite of Rambo's is Toni Morrison's endorsement, the African-American writer who first called Bill Clinton America's first black president, has now endorsed the guy who really would be the first black president if he won.
There are those who proudly opt for the anti-endorsement. Rudy put out this Web ad.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Rudy Giuliani is not endorsed by the "Tampa Tribune." He's not endorsed by any of the liberal newspapers.
MOOS (on camera): And then, there's the endorsement from beyond the grave. You know how the Republicans are always envoking Ronald Reagan? Well, guess who the Kennedy clan endlessly envoked?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: President Kennedy.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: President Kennedy.
SEN. TED KENNEDY (D): And John Kennedy.
SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: In the days of John and Robert Kennedy ...
CAROLINE KENNEDY, DAUGHTER OF JOHN F. KENNEDY: When my father was president.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As we had with my uncle.
OBAMA: Portraits of John and Robert ...
MOOS: Cross-dressing is one thing. If all this cross endorsing keeps up, cartoonist Jeff Danziger may turn out to be prophetic with his "Monica endorses Obama."
Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: Yikes! All right, a look at the top stories in a moment. "YOUR MONEY" is next. Here's a preview.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALI VELSHI, CNN HOST: Thanks.
Coming up on "YOUR MONEY," how Super Tuesday could change America's political landscape and the future of your cash.
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