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House Version of Domestic Surveillance Bill Passes; Did Gary Hilton Help Script Movie?; Crude Oil Prices Still Increasing; Lovette Charged With 2 Killings in North Carolina
Aired March 14, 2008 - 14:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Want to get you to Washington. This is a vote right now in the House of Representatives on legislation for President Bush's warrantless wiretapping program.
Now, unlike the Senate version, this House version does not have retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies who helped the Bush administration right after 9/11 and are facing many lawsuits. President Bush says if legislation like this ends up on his desk, he's going to veto it.
We'll bring you the final results here in the CNN NEWSROOM very soon.
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Absolutely.
Gas prices hitting an all-time record, and this is the fourth day in a row that we can say that. Prices went up again as you slept last night. The nationwide average for regular, $3.28 a gallon. That's according to AAA.
KEILAR: And oil hit $111 a barrel this week, and that could spoil some fairly good news about inflation. The Labor Department reports consumer prices didn't go up last month, but oil isn't the only potential spoiler.
LEMON: All right, so that's a little good news. But the credit crunch is taking a big bite out of stocks today. A major investment bank apparently was on the brink of financial disaster, now the Fed is coming to its rescue. But will it be enough? Will it be enough?
Hello, everyone. I'm Don Lemon, live here at the CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta.
KEILAR: And I'm Brianna Keilar, in today for Kyra Phillips.
We are tracking the economy. It's issue number one in the CNN NEWSROOM.
Final results of that House vote on the president's warrantless wiretapping program. They're still tallying the votes at this point. More yeas than nays. And as the final tally does come in, we're going to bring you the latest on that so we can tell you exactly what this means.
LEMON: Right now, 181 yeas and 153 nays, right? KEILAR: Yes. And this is for that legislation that includes the retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies, to help intel agencies after 9/11. President Bush does not like this. He says if something like this ends up on his desk, he's going to veto it.
So we're going to break all of this down, tell you exactly what it means here in just a moment.
LEMON: And you can see the numbers keep moving there, so obviously it is not the final tally.
KEILAR: Yes.
LEMON: And as soon as that happens, we'll bring it to you in the NEWSROOM.
Brianna mentioned President Bush, and President Bush addressing the top issue for voters today. He told the Economic Club of New York today that, yes, the economy is going through a tough time right now, but no, Washington shouldn't get too involved. Especially with homeowners caught up in the mortgage crisis.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The temptation in Washington is to say that anything short of a massive government intervention in the housing market amounts to inaction. I strongly disagree with that sentiment.
I believe there ought to be action, but I'm deeply concerned about law and regulation that will make it harder for the markets to recover. And when they recover, make it harder for this economy to be robust.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. CHARLES SCHUMER (D), NEW YORK: We're going to have trouble beyond Bear Stearns in most financial firms. And so there has to be a solution. The temporary solution that the president talked about today is not going to solve the problem.
Sorry, the temporary solution that the Fed implemented today is not going to solve the problem until people start gaining confidence in credit, and that starts with dealing with the mortgage crisis and the foreclosures and the parade of horribles that emanate from them. Things aren't going to improve. So, this is sort of a temporary Band- Aid that doesn't get to the heart of the issue, which is the lack of confidence in credit.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: And the president added he's confident the Fed and the Treasury can handle problems with investment bank Bear Stearns. Word of its financial problems sent stocks tumbling today. We'll check on that in a little bit.
KEILAR: As the polls and the voters are telling us, the economy is really issue number one in the race for the White House. So, what would John McCain, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama do to get things humming again?
Well, among other things, McCain wants to chop the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 25 percent. He'd also let companies take a first-year deduction on equipment and technology investments.
The mortgage mess, this is a key concern for Clinton. She would set up a $30 billion emergency housing fund to help states and cities. She also wants a 90-day freeze on subprime foreclosures and a five- year freeze on subprime interest rates. She wants to spend $25 billion to help needy families pay for heating bills.
And Obama would pump $75 billion into the economy through tax cuts, direct spending targeting working families, seniors, homeowners, and the unemployed. He would give immediate $250 tax cuts to workers and their families and temporary $250 bonuses to seniors in their Social Security checks.
LEMON: Well, gas prices soar. The dollar, it is tumbling. We want to hear from you. What are you doing to save?
We want to hear how you're changing your habits at home, what you're spending your money on, what you're not spending your money on.
E-mail us at cnnnewsroom@cnn.com and we'll read some of your responses right ahead in the CNN NEWSROOM.
(NEWSBREAK)
(WEATHER REPORT)
LEMON: There's a bizarre new twist to tell you about, the murder case in Georgia. A film producer says Gary Hilton once helped him write a movie about a serial killer years before Hilton was arrested for murder.
KEILAR: In Illinois, police hope a newly-enhanced videotape will help them catch the person who gunned down six woman in a clothing store. We'll be talking about the case with Jon Leiberman from "America's Most Wanted."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KEILAR: The House of Representatives has narrowly passed legislation -- a surveillance bill -- legislation that would govern the president's warrantless wiretapping program. The final vote, 213- 197. And the debate got really hot towards the end here over the main issue, the main sticking point, which is retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies who assisted U.S. intel agencies after 9/11.
So let's go ahead and listen in to both sides of the debate here.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, Madame Speaker, the president is not wrong. No, Madame Speaker, he's not doing this to protect himself. He's doing it as these attorney generals of the United States recognize, to allow us to go forward...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The gentleman's time has expired.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... in protecting the American people. Don't harm these telecommunications companies...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The gentleman's time has expired.
(CROSSTALK)
REP. STENY HOYER (D), MAJORITY LEADER: But it is shocking to me that an attorney general of a state in this country would say whatever action is necessary to keep our citizens safe. There have been those down through history who, when we have been at risk have said whatever action we take is justified. And the Constitution has suffered in that process.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: So, again, legislation in the House on President Bush's warrantless wiretap program has narrowly passed. And unlike a Senate version, this legislation did not have retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies who are now facing a lot of lawsuits for helping U.S. intel agencies after 9/11.
Now, President Bush says if legislation like what passed -- just passed in the House were to make it to his desk, he would veto it. And obviously the Senate disagrees.
So what do we have here? A continued impasse on this issue. So, this continues on, because, of course, Congress going away for two weeks. This impasse is going to continue. No resolution on this legislation.
LEMON: All right, Brianna.
A man helps write a movie about a killer who murders women in the North Georgia Mountains. Thirteen years later -- 13 years later the same guy confesses to killing a woman in the North Georgia Mountains. Was Gary Hilton acting out a script? Was it a script he helped write?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(STOCK MARKET REPORT)
LEMON: This is a very strange story I'm about to tell you about. Could it be -- it could be, as a matter of fact, a case of death imitating art. A man who confessed to killing a hiker in the North Georgia Mountains might have helped write a movie about it. Get this -- a serial killer, that's what the movie is about, a serial killer in the north Georgia mountains. Years before the murder happened, that's when he supposedly helped to write that movie.
CNN's Rusty Dornin has the story for us.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The 1995 movie "Deadly Run" went straight to video. It portrays a serial killer who preyed on women he set loose in the woods.
The plot, the film's producer claims, came from this man, Gary Michael Hilton. The same Gary Michael Hilton who confessed to killing Meredith Emerson in the North Georgia Mountains in January and is charged in the murder of a Florida woman and suspected in the deaths of a North Carolina couple.
Producer Samuel Rael says more than 15 years ago Hilton told him...
SAMUEL RAEL, FILM PRODUCER: Go ahead and let some beautiful women out in the woods and then they could be hunted down like prey.
DORNIN: This is the Gary Hilton Rael says he knew -- bearded, lean and obsessed with the outdoors. Rael is an attorney. He says Hilton was one of his first clients and they became friends. Rael defended him on a number of cases from trespassing to arson.
RAEL: Everything Gary did was crazy and unusual and odd. But, not in a way where you would think it would be violent.
DORNIN: Rael says Hilton lived in this storage space in Atlanta and often took camping trips in the woods. He says Hilton gave him the location for shooting the film.
(on-camera): I mean, this is all -- it looks like it's all in the woods.
RAEL: There, that one, he helped find the cabin which is very difficult to find.
DORNIN (voice-over): The cabin was located near Cleveland, Georgia. Thirty miles to the southwest, the mutilated body of Meredith Emerson was discovered in January. Hilton held her captive for three days before she was killed.
RAEL: I remember him giving me actually those words.
DORNIN (on-camera): What words?
RAEL: "I'm the hunter. What's the challenge?"
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "DEADLY RUN")
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm a hunter, Barbara. Where's the challenge?
(END VIDEO CLIP, "DEADLY RUN")
DORNIN (on-camera): When you heard what happened did you flash back to the advice he had given you for the film?
RAEL: To me, almost word for word, that's what was really scary then.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "DEADLY RUN")
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just go, go!
(END VIDEO CLIP, "DEADLY RUN")
DORNIN (voice-over): A spokesman for the Georgia Bureau of Investigations says they'd like to talk to Rael to find out if any of the suggestions in the movie match the crimes to which Hilton confessed or is a suspect. Repeated calls to Hilton's attorney were not returned.
A chilling plot for a film, one with aspects that became a horrifying reality.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: It's just gross.
DORNIN: Yes.
LEMON: Rusty Dornin joins us now.
OK, so, Rael, he said, you know, gave him the idea. Hilton gave him the idea. Have they seen each other?
DORNIN: He claims that they have not seen each other since the film was released. There wasn't an argument or anything, they just went their own way.
Now, after Hilton was arrested, he did go to the jail and he said that Gary Hilton was surrounded by Georgia Bureau of Investigation people who were questioning him, so it was very awkward. They exchanged pleasantries and that was it. That's all he's heard.
LEMON: He saw them, they saw each other.
DORNIN: Yes.
LEMON: OK. Did he get credit?
DORNIN: He did not get credit for the film. Rael said that Hilton wanted money for it and he wasn't paying hardly anybody, as you can probably tell by the film. It was fairly low budget. It went straight to video release. So he wasn't paying a lot of the people, and he refused to pay Hilton, and so Hilton said, OK, that's fine, then I don't want -- you know, don't put my credits on it. LEMON: Oh, boy. All right, Rusty. Thank you.
KEILAR: Newly-enhanced video, could it lead police to the killer of five women in a clothing store last month? Who helped in this effort? Well, that may surprise you.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: OK. You're looking -- live pictures at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. And, if it looks like a gas station -- looks more like a service station to me, right? There's a difference. You can get a car serviced here. If it looks like a service station, that's because it is.
And that's where Hillary Clinton is going to speak, of course, trying to get support there and votes for the Pennsylvania primaries coming up on April 22. But I think people might be happy if she whipped out her wallet and bought some gas for them because gas --
KEILAR: Sure would be.
LEMON: -- gas is at an all-time right high now. So while she's speaking she may want to consider that.
KEILAR: Definitely would get some favor there I'd say. Who wouldn't appreciate that?
All right, want to get you to some developing news that we have coming in to the CNN NEWSROOM. Let's get you straight to Kelli Arena for developments on the investigation of Eliot Spitzer, soon to be former New York governor.
What's going on, Kelli?
KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Sources close to this close investigation tell us that Spitzer's lawyers are working -- to work out a deal with prosecutors. Spitzer, as you know, has not been charged but I'm told that government lawyers do believe they have enough evidence to bring a case against him.
Legal experts say that the situation poses a big dilemma. The government, if it does charge Spitzer, some will accuse the U.S. attorney of being politically motivated. Of course, if he doesn't, critics will say that he's going easy on a public figure.
As for the charges themselves, Brianna, I'm told that federal investigators are looking into whether Spitzer used campaign funds to pay for any of the charges related to his alleged use of prostitutes. Those sources say that it's not clear where some of the funds came from. And so they are exploring all of the possibilities.
What's more, two sources with knowledge of this investigation say that one of the ways that Spitzer tried to conceal the money trail was to use money orders. Of course, prosecutors were able to trace those back to him according to our sources, Brianna. So little bits and pieces emerging as this investigation continues. It's still very early.
These financial money-trail investigations take a very long time, as you know. And so little bits of information will -- very likely to keep trickling out like this and it could be for the next several weeks or months.
KEILAR: Yes, I suppose it is just sort of an incremental development, but it does show, I guess, that investigators are having at least small successes there following the money trail.
Thanks for the latest on that.
ARENA: You're welcome.
KEILAR: Kelli Arena for us in Washington.
LEMON: All right, we have been talking a lot about the economy today. The president talking about the economy, the Democrats, Chuck Schumer speaking out as well.
And look at that, almost 300 points; the Dow is down right now. Perhaps we should get our Susan Lisovicz up in a little bit. She can explain to us what in the world is going on today -- 287, down right now. And it looks like it keeps moving in the negative category, further into the negative category.
As the dollar sinks in value, the cost of oil, well, it is going up. It is an inverse relationship that can affect pretty much everything you buy.
Here's CNN's senior business correspondent, Ali Velshi, with the vicious cycle of inflation.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALI VELSHI, CNN SENIOR BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Crude oil is traded in U.S. dollars; even though the U.S. only produces seven percent of the world's oil. Other nations that produce oil get paid for it in dollars, which are worth less and less with each passing week. Which means non-U.S. producers make less money per barrel as the dollar drops. Unless, of course, they're able to charge more per barrel.
Some say, and this chart shows, that when the dollar drops, oil gets more expensive. Now, individual countries don't really set the price of oil; the market does. But OPEC's 14 members produce 42 percent of the world's oil. So they can influence the price by controlling how much they produce.
And oil works its way into everything we buy, into the diesel that trucks use to transport goods, into the heating for factories and into the packaging for products we buy. Inflation is a real problem. The Federal Reserve typically fights inflation by raising interest rates, making it more expensive for businesses and consumers to borrow money. That curbs demand and brings prices down. In fact, raising interest rates is so effective that it not only tackles inflation, it slows the whole economy down; which is exactly why the Fed can't cut interest rates right now. The U.S. economy is already slowing down, fast. It needs a kick-start, the kind that comes from cutting interest rates.
Which is what the Fed's been doing since September, and what it's likely to do at its next meeting on Tuesday. And that's likely to push the dollar down further. And if you buy this argument, it could make oil even more expensive.
Ali Velshi, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: OK. So we asked, what are you doing to save during these tough times?
Here's what Carol writes, she says: "I ask myself with at least three questions" -- I ask myself with at least three questions, that's what she said -- "before purchasing a thing or even hopping into my car. No. 1, do I really need this item, or is it a want? Two, how far must I drive to get this item? Three, what do I have or what could I do instead of making the purchase?"
KEILAR: Now, Meredith writes: "I have my thermostat at 61 degrees, period. Sometimes I wear my Elmer Fudd hat in my house, but I don't care."
LEMON: Sixty-one degrees.
KEILAR: That's chilly.
LEMON: She has to put on a lot of clothes for that.
KEILAR: I turn mine down, though, it's helpful. The electricity bill just -- so I'm trying to bring it down.
LEMON: All right. Good advice -- Brianna, Brianna's own advice.
KEILAR: Trying -- cutting coupons too.
LEMON: There are other changes that are happening at the grocery store.
Here's what one person writes: "We buy store brand instead of popular brand food items" -- that's Suzanne in Virginia; they buy store brand instead of popular brand food items. "Mostly huge bags of rice, boxes of pasta and large bags of potatoes. "I had a small garden last year," she says, "and plan on an even bigger one this year."
That's interesting. She'll get her exercise as well working out in the yard. Again, that's Suzanne in Virginia.
KEILAR: Yes and I like this next one. Ray from San Francisco, he says: "I quit smoking. In two weeks since I quit, I've saved myself $33.75."
And maybe eventually, you know, he saved his life, too.
LEMON: Congratulations Ray for not smoking.
KEILAR: Yes, congratulations.
LEMON: That's an achievement.
KEILAR: It is, it sure is, and saves money.
And gas prices, they might be hurting the United States, but there's enough pain to go around the globe, actually. India hurting as well. Israel sweating. Here's our globe economy watch.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Sara Sidner in New Delhi, India where the world's economic downturn is having quite an impact on the poorest of the poor here. That is because the price of food has shot up. Things like vegetables, wheat and rice that are staples here are very high.
That is due, in part, to the cost of gas, which is impacting the transportation of goods. As well as inflation, and a water shortage. There are 300 million people in this country living on less than a dollar a day, and they, as you can imagine, are directly and immediately affected by a rise in food prices.
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Ben Wedeman in Jerusalem's (INAUDIBLE) market where everybody is talking about this thing, the dwindling, the dying U.S. dollar; which in the last two years --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good?
WEDEMAN: I don't know, so good. Which in the last two years has lost more than 25 percent of its value against this robust young man, the new Israeli shekel. Now, for those of us who have paid in U.S. dollars, this is really bad news.
And for all Israelis, the skyrocketing prices of fuel and food are also bad news. At the moment the Israeli economy is booming. But worries are that if the American economy goes into recession, boom could turn into bust.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KEILAR: Coming up later in the NEWSROOM, one of our experts will talk about the R word. That's right, recession. He says the U.S. is definitely headed there. Not all economists, of course, agree with that.
LEMON: All right, here's a weird story. It's about the queen of soul. Will she keep her castle? We'll have the latest on the Aretha Franklin foreclosure proceedings.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: OK. There is the big board right there. You can see the Dow down 266 points. But at one point today, it went down, just moments ago, just a few minutes ago, it went down to 307, I'm told. I didn't see that, but, yes, down 307 points just a little while ago.
And last time I saw it was 284. It appears to be going back up a little bit. But it's still down. Just so you know, to compare this to the biggest loss we've had this year so far, 370 in the negative territory. That was February 5 -- 315 on February 29. The Dow hovering around 300 negative. In the negative category today.
And so we'll check back in. Still the closing bell is a bit aways, but we're going to check in with our folks on Wall Street in just a little bit to find out what is going on there.
Three million dollars bond. That's for Lawrence Lovette, the 17-year-old now charged with two killings in North Carolina. The victims, students at two universities, one, a 29-year-old doctoral candidate was shot dead in January.
The other, Eve Carson. Well, she was the student body president at UNC Chapel Hill. She was shot dead earlier this month. The teenage suspect faced a judge in Durham today. It was his first court appearance.
KEILAR: A month and a half has gone by now since six women were gunned down in a clothing store in a Chicago suburb. Five of those six women died. The suspect, still at large. But Tinley Park police vow he will be caught -- perhaps with the help of some surveillance tape, newly enhanced surveillance tape, that was just released.
And joining us now from Bethesda, Maryland, Jon Leiberman. He's a national correspondent for "America's Most Wanted."
Thanks for being with us, Jon.
JON LEIBERMAN, "AMERICA'S MOST WANTED": Absolutely, Brianna.
KEILAR: So what did you learn from -- this is parking lot surveillance videotape. What did you learn from it? Could you tell us anything specific about the car? Could you figure that out?
LEIBERMAN: Absolutely. You know, we worked with NASA and a world-renowned scientist down in Alabama to enhance this video. The video is from about 100 yards away.
What we know is -- we know that two cars arrive at the Lane Bryant about five minutes before a 9-1-1 call is made from inside. We know that those same two cars leave right after the killings. So, police speculate this could be a getaway driver or at the very least witnesses who know what happened in there.
Now, if you look at the dark-colored SUV, the one parked right in front of the Lane Bryant, police believe that could be a foreign make or model of a vehicle because if you look at the license plate, and we've enhanced it, if you look at the license plate, it is up and to the left, which indicates it could be a foreign make.
KEILAR: And it's pretty grainy. I think anyone who kind of looks at this video might say, wow, that is really hard to make out. But this isn't the end of this video, right? It's being enhanced more?
LEIBERMAN: No, everybody is working on enhancing it more. Tomorrow night on "America's Most Wanted" we're going to have the most, the latest enhanced version. And the key here is, Brianna, this is one more piece of the puzzle, one piece that we didn't have. Now we have two vehicles there right around the time of the killings. They leave right after the killings, they have some clues.
KEILAR: Definitely. And let's talk about another piece of evidence. I think a lot of people have heard the 9-1-1 call that was made by the store manager. She dropped the phone when, apparently, this suspect saw her making the call, but the phone was still open, if you will.
What's going on with this phone call? Can you -- can we find out anything from it?
LEIBERMAN: To hear Rhoda McFarland, the store manager, on this 9-1-1 call breaks your heart. But, she may, in fact, from the grave, be solving her own murder because she did leave the phone open. And now, thanks to the FBI forensic audio unit, they've enhanced some of the sentences that the killer has said.
So we know, for example, he says on the tape, "I'm losing it." And you can really -- the more you listen to it, if somebody knows this person, they're going to recognize that voice. And that's certainly what we're hoping for on "America's Most Wanted."
KEILAR: And now there was one survivor. There is actually a police sketch of the suspect in this case, if we can pull that up here when we get it up, to show folks if they've seen a person who resembles this suspect.
But I want to ask you -- this man came in. He shot these women, killed five out of the six women. Do police still think that the motive here is robbery, or was it something different?
LEIBERMAN: They do believe it's robbery. This man came in, according to police, he posed as a delivery man, at some point he announces it is a robbery. He herds everybody into the back room.
The details are heinous. He duct tapes the women, puts clothing over their heads. And then, right after the 9-1-1 call, he executes five of them in a row.
But as you mentioned, this surviving victim, amazingly courageous, she came up with the sketch. And we learned when we interviewed the sketch artist, that she said she noticed the killer's hands and she noticed that his hands were manicured, professionally manicured, so that may tell us this person didn't work in construction.
He was very well kept. Perfect eyebrows and perfect hands and finger nails and we're urging people -- look at the shape of his face in of the the sketch because killers can change a lot. They can change their hair, they can change their clothes, but you can't change certain things like the shape of your face.
KEILAR: Yes, what an amazing detail she remembered. Good for her. Such a terrible story. Hoping, of course, that it comes to a resolution.
Jon Leiberman, national correspondent with "America's Most Wanted." Thanks for being with us today.
LEIBERMAN: Sure.
KEILAR: And for the best crime coverage on the web, you can check out CNN.com/crime. This is a new effort from our friends at truTV and CNN.com. And you can go behind the police tape. You can go into the courtroom. That is at CNN.com/crime.
LEMON: All right, so there's an hour and ten minutes left into the trading day. And look at this, the Dow down 284 points, as we speak. You can see it moving there.
It is issue No. 1, the economy, and because of news like this. And we're going to continue to follow this, check in with our folks on Wall Street in just a bit to see what's going on.
He was only -- only -- president number two, but in some ways he tried harder. Move over George Washington, John Adams, it's time for your close-up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: OK. We have some new information in to the CNN NEWSROOM and it involves the late actor John Ritter. Of course, John Ritter was a national treasure to us. A lot of us knew him as Jack Tripper. Well, his wife sued a cardiologist in California -- of course, this is coming to us from Glendale, California -- sued a cardiologist in California for negligence.
Also sued a radiologist as well -- negligence in the diagnosis and treatment of her husband who died in 19 -- in 2003, I should say, of a torn aorta. We're hearing now -- and this is according to the "Associated Press," that a California jury has cleared the cardiologist and the radiologist in the negligence of the diagnosis and treatment of actor John Ritter.
We're told by the "Associated Press" the verdict was 9-3. Again, that lawsuit was brought by his wife and children and resulted in no damage judgment against the doctors. The jurors also found that Ritter was advised by the radiologist -- and I'm reading this just off a -- hot off the presses here -- who did a body scan of him two years earlier to follow-up with treatment by a physician and that the actor did not do so.
More on this in our entertainment segment and as we get more information on the lawsuit concerning the death of actor John Ritter.
KEILAR: No need to say a little prayer for Aretha Franklin, at least not now. Franklin owed $445, yes that's it, in 2005 taxes and late fees on her $700,000 Detroit mansion. And for a while it looked like the queen of soul might become a queen without a castle. Without disclosing details, a Franklin spokesman says that issue is resolved but she reportedly still owes thousands on her 2006 and 2007 taxes and could face the same problem next year.
It also looks like Michael Jackson will hold on to his California ranch. The pop star owed almost $25 million on Neverland, but a spokesman says a confidential deal has been worked out to avoid a public auction. Jackson hasn't lived at Neverland since his 2005 acquittal on child molestation charges.
LEMON: OK. Well, he has been overshadowed for centuries by other founding fathers. But now, John Adams is getting his own TV mini series.
CNN's Andrea Mineo looks at the series, "John Adams," and the actor who portrays him.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PAUL GIAMATTI, ACTOR, "JOHN ADAMS": I knew virtually nothing about him. I know he was president, but other than that, that's about it.
ANDREA MINEO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A history lesson for actor Paul Giamatti as he took on the role of America's second president in the new HBO film "John Adams."
GIAMATTI, AS JOHN ADAMS: I do not have the luxury of your birth or your purse, Sam, to spend my days fomenting dissent. I intend to prove this colony is governed by law!
GIAMATTI: He was kind of very openly neurotic and contradictory and self-sabotaging and, you know, he was a really conflicted, complicated guy. He didn't really hide that.
DAVID MCCULLOUGH, AUTHOR: He was brilliant, phenomenally well read, honest, passionate. He could be abrasive. He could be stubborn to a fault.
MINEO: Author David McCullough knows a bit about John Adams. He spent seven years writing his biography; and when he it finished, he won the Pulitzer Prize. HBO's seven part series is based on his book.
GIAMATTI, AS JOHN ADAMS: (INAUDIBLE) is not built on the doctrine that a few nobles have the right to inherit the Earth. No! No!
MCCULLOUGH: He served his country in ways for which he could never be given sufficient credit or gratitude.
MINEO: The political landscape of the 1700s was a new frontier, but it seems there were just as many strong-minded lawmakers back then as there are today.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Gentlemen, we moved too quickly. We have not yet resolved the question of any continental army, much less who is to lead it.
GIAMATTI: It's also just interesting to see that things haven't changed a whole heck of a lot. I mean, it's still just as fraught and factional. It may have been worse then, I don't know.
MINEO (on-camera): "John Adams" is a timely piece of television during an election year. The film focuses on one man, but it's the story of an American government that was created during a time when politicians used their words as a declaration of their virtue.
GIAMATTI: Yes, words were everything. I don't know what these people were like when they just had conversations, but they kept this sort of elevated language.
GIAMATTI, AS JOHN ADAMS: I see a new nation, ready to take its place in the world. Not an empire; but a republic, and a republic of laws, not men.
MCCULLOUGH: I think it's extremely important for Americans, especially, but really for everyone, anywhere in the world, to see what was it at the root, what was in the hearts and minds of the people who created this totally new concept of a -- of a government of the people.
MINEO (voice-over): Andrea Mineo, CNN, New York.
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KEILAR: Let's take a look now at Wall Street. You can see the Dow down almost 270. Some concern there, new -- the Dow tumbling after news that Bear Stearns, one of the world's largest brokerage firms, that it needs emergency funding. That really intensified fears on Wall Street.
And coming up here at the top of the hour, we're going to check in with Susan Lisovicz, and also with CNNMoney.com reporter Poppy Harlow to break this down for us.
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