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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees

Police Hunt Fugitives Nationwide; Texas Cheerleaders Must Clean Up Their Act

Aired May 04, 2005 - 19:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


ANDERSON COOPER, HOST "ANDERSON COOPER 360": As you do every night, Lou. Thanks very much. It was a great interview with Buffett, thanks.
Good evening, everyone. An exclusive look beyond the headlines: a man on the run. 360 starts now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Hunting a fugitive on the run: how do cops catch a runaway criminal? Tonight 360 takes you inside a manhunt from the eyes of the hunters and the hunted.

A massive fire at a gas station, all caught on tape. Tonight, how a forgetful driver caused the explosion and what you need to know to avoid danger at the pump.

Are your kids' cheers too suggestive? Tonight, why Texas lawmakers are on the verge of banning sexy cheerleading they say lead to pregnancy, drop-outs, and the contraction of HIV.

Kid cheating in school, but do you know where they are getting the answers? Tonight, the shocking truth about how some kids are getting by with the help of a very unlikely accomplice.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: Live, from the CNN Broadcast Center in New York, this is ANDERSON COOPER 360.

COOPER: Good evening to you.

For almost four years, what may be the biggest manhunt of all time, the search for Osama bin Laden, has come up empty. Although a number of his colleagues have been snared, including the alleged number three man in al Qaeda whose capture was announced today, the main target remains elusive. The situation points out the difficulty of finding someone who doesn't want to be found and who has a lot of open space in which to hide.

To use an example closer to home, think of abortion clinic bomber Eric Rudolph who managed to hide in the mountains of North Carolina for years. So, how do police train to capture a fleeing fugitive? We asked our Rick Sanchez to go "Beyond the Headlines" and find out.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good girl.

RICK SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Welcome to Man Tracker 2005 in the woods of Coweta County, Georgia, where local police and state agencies brush up every year on the very techniques that could save lives, maybe their own. Among the techniques, tracking and finding a fugitive.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We call it a traffic stop just like a normal traffic stop would be. At the point we get stopped, once I step out of the vehicle to make contact with the driver, you guys will bail out.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: USB-589, Kelly command post. (ph)

SANCHEZ: In Georgia law enforcement terms, what you are about to see is called a "bush bomb," a routine traffic stop that suddenly turns into a man hunt when the suspects bolt. Trooper Tony Hightower (ph) says it happens more often than we think.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know why they are running, number one. It may be a murder suspect. It may be they don't have driver's license. They may have beer in the car. It may be something as simple as that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wayne, could you -- get you about two or 300 feet above.

SANCHEZ: The exercise is going to be conducted just like the real thing. There will be two suspects. The first, Phil Kirksy (ph) who happens to be a real corrections officer and experienced tracker. The second, the next person they could find, me, a television correspondent with a bit of curiosity and a willingness to not take himself too seriously.

After getting pulled, over the troopers mounted camera catches us making a run for it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's haul ass.

SANCHEZ: My handycam recorded the get away. The dense Georgia woods would seem to any suspect, a perfect hiding place.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two white males, bush bomb.

SANCHEZ: As we run through the woods, Trooper Hightower does not give chase. Experience and training tell him that would be the wrong thing to do. His job is to set up a perimeter.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. 10-4. You got 10-77?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 10-4, 911 (INAUDIBLE) county unit in the area.

SANCHEZ: He calls for more units, a helicopter and, what may be the best weapon of all, a bloodhound. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And also need any K-9 units in the area.

SANCHEZ: Back in the woods, we're still running. The feeling of being hunted creates a sensation of both desperation and confusion.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One of the things that comes to mind right away is, you figure they're looking at you, and they got a good look at you when you tried to get out of the car. So, if you could somehow change your appearance, you might be able to throw them off. One of the keys is to just take off whatever clothes you have, and just leave it behind, and take off.

SANCHEZ: After running through the woods and into a clearing, we hear the first sounds of the helicopter.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I hear the chopper. We want to stay out of this clearing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come on, girl.

SANCHEZ: While we're looking for another place to hide, the tracking team arrives.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The dog will find him within 20.

SANCHEZ: As we run, we're shedding millions of cells. Think of it as a constant trail of microscopic pieces of your own skin. It is undetectable to us, but for Lola -- she's the bloodhound -- it is easy pickings.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right through there.

SANCHEZ: And she picks up our scent almost immediately. But it's a helicopter that still has us worried at this point.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're going to find our way to an area over here that is covered. We think they won't be ale to see us here, because there's no way the helicopter can spot us. This looks open here, but the tree cover above us might possibly block out the helicopter. This would be the best bet right here.

SANCHEZ: So the idea then is to try to hunker down.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hunker down and wait it out.

SANCHEZ: That's when Phil spots the tracking team on our heels.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I see the dogs coming. Get down. They are coming to us. We got nowhere to go.

SANCHEZ: What I'm going to do now is try and separate myself from the other suspect, figuring, by separating the scents, the dogs that are chasing us will get confused, and they won't be bale to find me.

Heading off on my own turns out to be the right move. Phil is immediately captured.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let me see your hands.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I give up!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get down. Good girl.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don't shoot, I give up.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get him, girl. You can get up, boy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, don't shoot. I'm getting up.

SANCHEZ: It's taken Lola just six minutes to find her first fugitive. And, now, she has picked up the next human scent: mine.

I'm figuring they already got the other suspect. I'm going to see how long I can stay on the run before they find me.

By continuing to run I seem to be able to stay ahead of the trackers, but what I can't do is run away from the sound of the helicopter blades.

They are in the woods. You know you are being hunted. You really don't know which direction to go in. You just -- your instincts will tell you, don't go in a clearing because they'll see you, and the best you can do is try and confuse the dogs so they can't pick up your scent.

Figuring if I can get away across this creek, I might be able to...

But it's probably me who is confused. I follow some railroad tracks hoping to find a way out. Instead, I spot what I think will be a decent hiding place.

I found a highway overpass. I figure if I can get a little slot underneath this thing, the helicopter won't be able to see me.

But Lola is relentless. I don't realize it but she is getting closer. Now I've hunkered down, hoping to wait them out.

Here's a little corner I'm tucked into. Nothing but concrete barriers and dirtdaubers.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Show your hands! Good girl.

SANCHEZ: You found my spot, huh? Well, I guess this is where guys would normally hide out, right?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, yes, this and anywhere else they can. As long as we keep tracking you, and they keep you pinned down as a team effort, it's hard to get away.

SANCHEZ: My brief career as a fugitive is over. Fifteen to 20 minutes after finding Phil, Lola's nose and trainer Matt Gorely's (ph) experience proved unbeatable. Even my tricks didn't work, not even crossing the creek. I'm told it was neither deep enough nor wide enough to hide my scent.

SANCHEZ: So, no matter how many circles I did out there in the woods, eventually these bloodhounds are going to get my scent.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right. (INAUDIBLE) stay with it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're going to stay out there with them.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I mean, they never give up. That's the thing about them. They run. They run until we get tired.

SANCHEZ: Lola goes back in her cage, and if I had been a real fugitive, I would be off to jail.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ (on camera): You know, something else happened out there that was kind of interesting. We talked to Duke Blackburn (ph) -- he's with the corrections, Georgia Corrections Office -- and he tells us that, while we were out there, there was some home invasion robbers that happened to pick that very same area where they were doing their exercise. Needless to say they were apprehended and very fast. I guess you might say wrong place, wrong time.

We also learned in our research, by talking to a lot of different police departments, that they are making every single effort to try to increase the penalty for people to try to run away from the police. The key for them of course is try and create more of a deterrent, because it just keeps happening, all too often. Anderson, back over to you.

COOPER: Rick, this is probably a moronic question. But, I mean, couldn't you have run into a stream? That's what you always see in the movies.

SANCHEZ: Good question. No. Unless you go in a stream above your neck or shoulders, those little cells that your body constantly releases every time you go somewhere, will still be tracked. So, a stream, for the most part, doesn't work unless you completely immerse yourself.

COOPER: I'm going to store that away in my brain and when I need it, I will use it. Rick...

SANCHEZ: Next time you get chased.

COOPER: Exactly. Thanks very much, Rick. Appreciate it.

Coming up next on 360, gas station flash fire: see what happens when you try to pump and run. Plus, who's more likely to spark a blaze while filling up? Who do you think, men or women? Might be surprised at the answers.

COOPER: Also tonight, race against time: Doctors working against the clock to reattach a man's hands and restore his livelihood. Our 360 M.D. Dr. Sanjay Gupta takes us inside the operating room.

And a little bit later, cheerleading decency or indecency. One man's crusade to clean up those half school -- those high school halftime shows. But is a ban on sexy moves really needed? We're covering all the angles.

First your picks of the most popular stories right now on CNN.com.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Well here in New York, a routine trip to the gas station over the weekend almost became a blazing inferno. Surveillance video captured it all.

Take a look. Keep your eyes at the guy at the counter. He just pulled up. His Mercedes at the pump. After buying cigarettes, he goes back outside, gets into his car, which is still attached at the nozzle. And yeah, he drives off with the hose connected to the tank.

Now the entire gas pump comes crashing down. Fire breaks out. Before it turns into a massive explosion, however, a quick thinking attendant released a fire suppressant foam that flooded the entire station, as you see it there.

Police are investigating the incident. They are talking to the driver. Luckily no one at the gas station was injured.

But it's not always the case. All it takes is a fraction of a second for something to go wrong and for fuel to turn to fire. CNN's Wolf Blitzer investigates.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Teresa Lopez was filling up her car at a gas station near her Houston home when something truly unexpected happened. Surveillance video recorded the horrifying scene, as a fireball erupted and engulfed Lopez. She says her first thought was to move her car.

TERESA LOPEZ: Just to get it out of the way, out the other thing (ph) -- like the gas station thing. To get it out of the way, because if not everything was going to explode.

BLITZER: Amazingly, Lopez was treated only for burns on her hand and right leg. It's not clear what caused the fire. Firefighters reported finding a lighter nearby. Lopez says she doesn't know what happened.

LOPEZ: I didn't have no lighter in my hand. I didn't have a cigarette. I didn't have anything with me. It just -- the car just like started on fire.

BLITZER: Her roommate who was with Lopez, says the car's gas gauge wasn't working. As a result they over filled the tank and the gas overflowed. PRISCILLA CALDERON: The thing is that the car hasn't been well, the meter doesn't work on the gas.

BLITZER: The Petroleum Equipment Institute has been tracking these kinds of fires for more than a decade. It says the most common culprit is static electricity. And in most cases, the motorist caused it to build up by getting back in the car while fueling, then returning to the pump where a minute spark ignites the gas vapors.

A more obvious cause, smoking at the pump. The institute says concern over cell phones is unwarranted. It says of the hundreds of pump fires its investigated, not one was found to have been caused by a mobile phone.

Wolf Blitzer, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: A news note on the risk of static electricity at the pump. The Petroleum Equipment Institute says that static electricity has caused 162 cases of gas station fire since the early '90s, nearly 80 percent involved women. We've looked into the reason.

The institute says that women are more likely to go back into the car to get cash or credit card to pay for the gas. That can create static build-up. Men are less likely to go in the car, because they usually have their wallets on them.

We're following several other stories tonight. Erica Hill from Headline News joins us with the latest. Hey, Erica

ERICA HILL, CNN HEADLINE NEWS ANCHOR: Hey, Anderson. Good to see you.

We start off in Fort Hood, Texas. Talk about a change in this case. A guilty plea is thrown out in an Abu Ghraib Prison abuse case. The decision came from a military judge at Private Lynndie England's sentencing hearing after testimony from Charles Graner, the so-called ringleader of the abuse. Graner suggested England didn't know her actions were wrong. That case now back to square one.

Santa Maria, California, one of the other big cases we're following, the prosecution rests in the Michael Jackson trial. The state called more than 80 witnesses in more than two months of testimony. Jackson is accused of molesting a teenage cancer patient. His legal team is scheduled to start presenting its case tomorrow.

Near Chicago, Illinois, plans to exhume the body of Emmett Till for an autopsy nearly 50 years ago. The black teen was kidnapped and killed in Mississippi. Two white men were tried and acquitted, then later confessed to the crime. They are now dead. The FBI, though, has reopened the case to determine whether any other people were involved in the murder.

On to Perry, Oklahoma. In a letter sent from prison, Terry Nichols alleges an Arkansas gun collector provided some of the explosives provided in the Oklahoma City bombing. The FBI says there was no indication the accusation is true. The letter was sent to a woman who lost two grandchildren in the bombing.

And that's the latest from Headline News at this hour. Anderson, back to you.

COOPER: Erica, thanks very much. See you again in about 30 minutes.

Coming up next, though, on 360, race against time. A man loses both his hands in a terrible accident at work. See how doctors fight against the clock to reattach his limbs. An amazing story. Our 360 M.D. Sanjay Gupta has that.

Also ahead tonight, No Child Left Behind. The pressure to perform, cheating on standardized tests. Teachers actually helping the kids? We're going to take you inside one school district where students were being fed the answers.

And a little later, police chase and a suspected purse snatcher on the run. Oh, my gosh -- I did not see that. We'll have more on this story and how it turns out. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Just when we think we should stop already with the word miracle to describe what doctors can do nowadays, and I do think we should stop because it happens all the time on cable TV, along comes 360 M.D. Sanjay Gupta with a story like this one which just about demands the word. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For eight years Arsenio Matias worked at the same factory relying on his hands for his livelihood. But that livelihood and his life were nearly taken from the Dominican immigrant when a plastic forming machine he was working on cut off both of his hands.

ARSENIO MATIAS, REATTACHED HANDS PATIENT: I see the hand on the floor. I say (INAUDIBLE) Is my life gone? I think my life gone. Because I have to endure it. I must think about my life. I think (INAUDIBLE) life.

GUPTA: Arsenio Matias could think of nothing else but his family, but his co-workers were busy putting his hands on ice. And 40 minutes later he was airlifted to Stony Brook University Hospital. He had lost both his hands, and over 40 percent of his blood. He was dying.

(on camera): Time is a factor in all emergency cases, but in this case it was pivotal. Doctors had only six hours to begin reattaching the hands after that, they be dead forever. And the operation itself takes between six and 12 hours for each hand. For this Matias, the clock was take ticking. DR. ALEXANDER DAGUM, STONY BROOK UNIVERSITY: By the time you finished one hand, they likelihood you wouldn't be able to reattach the other hand.

GUPTA: Speed was one pressure, precision another. Two surgical teams used tools like jewelers forceps, hair thin sutures and microscopes to reconstruct vessels and tendons just millimeter wide, comparable to the size of an ant. In an 11-hour operation surgeons did all they could for Matias.

MATIAS: The next day when I woke up I saw my both hands -- I know I can't believe me.

GUPTA: It's been more than two months since the accident.

MATIAS: I feel all this side. This side I feel less.

GUPTA: He's able to pick up items, drink water from a cup and even wash his hands. It's more common for one hand to be successfully reattached, but both hands, rare. Matias' type of injury played a key role in the success, a clean cut. Not a crush injury.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's progressing better than we anticipated.

GUPTA: While it's unlikely that he'll ever be able to use his hands for fine manipulative tasks such as piano or violin, doctors say he will regain about half of his mobility and sensation in the next two years.

I feel great. Look. Look.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: And that is just incredible. What are the rates of success of reattaching both hands.

GUPTA: Well, you know, it's such an unusual thing to actually lose both hands, as you might imagine, at the same time. But doctors say with a good surgical team you have about 80 to 90 percent success in reattaching the hands. But keep this in mind Anderson, there's 24 tendons, three major nerves and two major arteries. There's a lot of work to be done over several hours.

COOPER: Man, unbelievable. Sanjay Gupta, thanks. Incredible report.

GUPTA: Thank. Thank you very much.

COOPER: Are your kids cheers too suggestive? Tonight why Texas lawmakers are on the verge of banning sexy cheer leading. They say leads to pregnancy, drop-outs, and a contraction of HIV.

Kids cheating in school. But do you know where they are getting the answers? Tonight the shock shocking truth about how some kids are getting by with the help of a very unlikely accomplice. 360 continues. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: You know when many of us remember grade school we think of our childhood friends, our favor teachers and perhaps the jungle gym. We don't often think about test. But parents, you know, these days you're kids are likely taking more tests then you and I did at school, thanks in part to the No Child Left Behind law. Now, the exams are meant to improve your child's skills. And they were modeled on a Texas testing program, hailed as a success, under then governor, George W. Bush.

But you may be shocked to hear -- or maybe you won't be, that those reports of success may be masking the pressures your kids might feel to drop out. Here's an excerpt from a documentary airing this weekend on "CNN PRESENTS" called "High Stakes, The Battle To Save Our Schools."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Our economy is the envy of the world, unfortunately our schools are not.

REPORTER: As governor, George W. Bush was determined to improve student achievement and reduce drop-out rates in schools across Texas. He implemented state-wide reforms including mandatory testing. And he said would he hold school officials accountable for rising test scores.

ROD PAIGE, FMR. HOUSTON SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENT: When we got our test scores...

REPORTER: Bush found a kindred spirit in Houston's superintendent Rod Paige.

PAIGE: We know how to make the organizations work. And the same thing is true to schools. The idea is to link performance and contribution and incentives.

REPORTER: Principals who could show rising test scores on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills or TAKS could get bonuses of up to $5,000. The district superintendents bonuses could rise to $20,000 dollars.

ROBERT KIMBALL, FORMER ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL: You all of a sudden saw many schools that had 40 to 45 percent pass rate on the test go up to 90 percent. The very next year

REPORTER: The fast rising test scores were hailed as the Houston miracle. But the miracle was not what it seemed. Thousands of students were actually dropping out.

KIMBALL: One day, I was informed that report had been turned in to the district from my high school and they -- our principal reported zero drop-outs. Well, I knew that was impossible, because I'd seen over 400 students leave that year. And many of them told me they had I dropped out. I saw many assistant principals tell students to get out, go withdraw.

REPORTER: Another strategy to make the statistics tell a good story, according to Kimball, was for officials to retain students in 9th grade so they wouldn't have to take the TAX test in 10th grade.

In 2000, there were 1,160 9th grade students at Austin High School, but the next year only 257 made it to the 10th grade. And what was happening at Austin High was happening at schools across the district.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Well drop-outs are not the only concern. There have been allegation of cheating not by children but by teachers. Today, the Houston Independent School District revealed that some teachers in three Houston schools have been breaking the rules by helping students answer questions on the state exam. 23 schools had been under investigation after review of scores on the states 2004 test.

And according to some teachers and students, this is not the first time cheating has happened in this way. Here's more of the "CNN PRESENTS" documentary "High Stakes: the Battle to Save Our Schools."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

REPORTER: In 2003, another scandal hit the Houston school district. This time there were allegations of cheating.

DONNA GARNER, ELEMENTARY TEACHER: I was approached by the principal and informed that I didn't know how to give tests the Wesley way. And then I was informed on how to give the test the Wesley way. And that the expectation was that I would give the test the Wesley way, which is cheating.

All right, boys and girls we're going to go ahead and begin. Open your test booklets.

JULIE JARAMILLO, MIDDLE SCHOOL TEACHER: I handed out the TEX test, I read the instructions out of the administrators manual. I said OK, get busy.

The kids were looking at me with blank stares. I said, what are you waiting on? And about a third of my students said, the answers.

I know that the teachers cheating, because kids have told me that's how it was done with their particular teacher.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She would like walk around the room and you would see that she would be helping kids and telling them that the answer is wrong. You need to do it over.

GARNER: I was to stop behind them and until they placed their finger on the right answer. Then I was to continue walking.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They might come behind us and like peek over our shoulder and tell us if the answer is wrong or right. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I heard her talking to students next to me saying, well which one do you think is right? Which one do you think is wrong? And helping them eliminate.

GARNER: It's disturbing to me that we're not only taking away their education, but we're instilling in small young children -- nine, ten years old -- that whatever works for you is OK.

But it's not only the teachers fault, this isn't coming from a lower level, this is coming from way up in the district.

REPORTER: The principal of Wesley Elementary declined to speak with CNN. Accusations of fraud first surfaced in 2003 when teachers began reporting incidents of cheating to the school board and to the Houston Teachers Union. While an investigation was started by the school district, it quickly stalled.

ABE SAAVEDRA, SUPERINTENDENT: I'm not sure what happened. We have -- I reviewed the file. And it seems that a year or so back it things kind of stopped as far as -- I can't -- I don't know why they didn't do any further.

REPORTER: It wasn't until January of 2005 that current Houston School Superintendent Abe Saavedra launched a new investigation examining allegations of cheating at 23 Houston schools.

SAAVEDRA: I think that testing and assessment is important. The fact is that in this school district as there is in the human race, there are dishonest people. All right. And we don't throw out programs, because there's a few people that may abuse the situation.

REPORTER: The problem is not unique to Houston. 44 other schools in Texas are under investigation for suspicious rises in test scores. And within the past year, seven states have launched investigations, suspended staff or thrown out tainted scores.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Remarkable. Well, don't miss "High Stakes: The Battle to Save Our Schools." That's Sunday night at 8:00 p.m. Eastern here on CNN.

And coming up next tonight on 360, taking the pep out of pep rallies. Texas lawmakers try to get cheerleaders to tone down their moves. We'll talk to the man leading the effort.

Plus, an accused purse snatcher on the run. Wait until you see how police caught their man.

Also tonight, a little later arrested with nine pounds of marijuana in a foreign country. She could face the death penalty. Was she set up? You decide. We'll be right back.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARION BARRY: Marion Barry is the best and brightest for Washington D.C.

REPORTER: As Washington, D.C.'s self-proclaimed mayor for life, Marion Barry has known fame, fall from grace...

BARRY: How I wish I could trade this hour.

REPORTER: And political redemption. Born in Mississippi, he came to Washington in the '60s as a civil rights activist and never left. Barry was elected mayor of D.C. in 1978 and held that office for 12 years. But in 1990, Barry's reign ended with a cocaine arrest in an FBI sting operation.

After serving six months in prison, he returned as a city council member, then reclaimed the mayors's office in 1994. But his fourth term was overshadowed with allegations of financial wrongdoing.

But now Marion Barry is back on the city council once again.

BARRY: I've been knocked down, some say you fell down, put yourself down, but I got up.

REPORTER: He captured the 96 percent of the vote in Washington's Eighth Ward, an area with the city's highest rates of poverty and unemployment.

BARRY: I ought to be tired by now after 40 some years of public service, 68 years of age. But I'm not. I just got my second wind.

REPORTER: As for his issues with drugs, Barry says it's all in the past and prefers not to talk about it. Married four times, he has one son, 24-year-old Marion Christopher Barry.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Well, in Texas, highschool cheerleading, as much as a tradition as, well, high school football. But that may be changing. Some lawmakers in Texas want to ban certain pompom routines they consider, quote, "sexually suggestive." The bill has already been approved by the Texas state house. In just a minute, I'm going to talk to the man who is sponsoring that bill. But first, Judy Woodruff has more on whether the rah-rah's are getting too raunchy.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: The Dallas Cowboys' cheerleaders helped make risque entertainment a staple on the sidelines, but some Texans don't think high school cheerleaders should shake their stuff like their professional counterparts.

BRAD PAGE, CHEERLEADING INSTRUCTOR: I don't think provocative dance moves belong on the sidelines or in front of the crowd. I mean, when your audience is family-oriented, it's got to be G-rated.

WOODRUFF: Many state lawmakers agree. The Texas house has passed bill that would ban, quote, "overtly, sexually suggestive," cheer routines at school-sponsored events. It covers all public schools and includes the drill teams and any student group that performs.

Opponents say state law already bars lewd performances by students on or near campus, and they complain the measure does not spell out which moves should be censored.

PAM UHR, ACLU: I don't think would he do want our kids doing stuff like that. The problem with the bill is that there is no definition of what is sexually suggestive.

WOODRUFF: Houston lawmaker Al Edwards echoes the late Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart's famous line about obscenity: he knows it when he sees it.

REP. AL EDWARDS (D), TEXAS STATE HOUSE: Rather than trying to describe it or make movements, if you are an adult -- you have been involved with sex ever in your life -- you know it when you see it.

WOODRUFF: It would be up to the Texas Education Agency to determine when routines get too raunchy and to enforce penalties. That is, if the bill also gets the green light from the state senate and the governor.

Texas is one of those states where Friday night football is practically akin to religion. So, look for more passionate debate before any final vote to keep high school cheerleaders from crossing the line.

Judy Woodruff, CNN, reporting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Well, we don't take sides on 360. We like to look at all the angles, so joining us from Austin is Representative Al Edwards, the Democrat who is sponsoring the bill. Representative Edwards, thanks very much for being with us.

You've said that sexy cheerleading routines, in a way, help encourage teen pregnancy, poor scholastic performance, criminal behavior, even the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. How do you back those claims up?

EDWARDS: Well, I wouldn't say that that is a direct line. I would suggest that these type dances, overly sexy dances, they are distractions. That's for sure. It sure doesn't help some of these young girls where these young men are pursuing them. And so I would -- I am saying that we have seen so many bad things happen with our young folk -- that the Texas Youth Council is filling up, our Texas prisons are filling up -- they're dropping out of school. They're getting pregnant. They're having babies, They're cutting their little lives short so early. And I'm just saying that overly sexy dances out of, not just cheerleaders but marching units, the bands, the drill squads, the majorettes -- it wouldn't matter who they are, it should be cleaned up. It's inappropriate. COOPER: Is it -- you're afraid the cheerleader is going to end up in the jail, or does the cheerleader doing it encourage other people to commit crimes, or...?

EDWARDS: Well, I suggest this, that if we can -- if we can continue to -- or, start to pursue it a little more vigorously with our young folks, they should be respected and respectful. Be appropriate when they are performing out on those fields. And so this legislation is really geared toward the directors, the principals, the teachers, the school districts. Not the students, because the students are doing what obviously they are being told to do, or permitted to do.

COOPER: And what is overtly sexual. I mean, I know you said in the piece, you know it when you see it. But how is it going to work? I mean, how is it going to be enforced? Are there going to be punishments for this?

EDWARDS: Well, the same way that any school district would enforce any other law or ordinance or rule, a guideline, on these campuses. The same way, just say to their folk that they want to clean it up. Of course, we are going to leave it up to the education agency. We think they are capable of doing it. And I don't think it would take a lot of effort to do it.

COOPER: Why aren't they doing it now? If they're capable -- I mean, there are a lot of people who, in Texas, who will say, look, the government shouldn't be interfering in this kind of thing. You should have more important things to do. This should be up to local schools or parents or superintendents.

EDWARDS: Well, now, let me tell you, the proof is in the eating of the pudding. If -- yes, they could do it but they are not doing it. There's a whole lot of things people could do but, that they are not doing. If they are going to do it, obviously, they would be doing it. When they say we could be doing other things, we are doing a number of things. We are funding highways and colleges and universities and Medicare, Medicaid -- we are doing a number of things in the legislature. But I can tell you now there's no legislation more important than looking out for our young children. What could be more important?

COOPER: You think there's no legislation more important than this piece of legislation about cheerleaders?

EDWARDS: Well, this piece of legislation is a great start. But I don't think anyone should ever downplay when we say we are doing something for our children, because they are important, and the most important.

COOPER: Representative Al Edwards, appreciate you joining us. Thanks very much.

EDWARDS: Thank you.

COOPER: Erica Hill from Headline News, covering some other stores right now at about 14 to the hour.

ERICA HILL, HEADLINE NEWS: Hey, Anderson.

It is the single deadliest terrorist attack in months to hit Iraq in the city of Irbil. At least 60 people were killed today when a bomber blew himself up at a police recruitment center. Reports say the suicide bomber posed as a recruit. The terror group known as the Army of Ensaro Suna (ph) claimed responsibility and warned of more attacks.

In London, amid questions about Iraq, Tony Blair appears to be on his way to a third term as Britain's prime minister. The polls for Thursday's election show Blair and his Labor Party will keep control of the House of Commons. Blair insists a third term will be his last.

And, back in Washington, a Pentagon analyst accused of being a spy. Larry Franklin is charged with providing classified information about possible attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq. The Justice Department says he was giving the information to members of the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee.

And in Houston today -- this is just amazing. Watch this. A dramatic end to a police -- ow! -- pursuit. After leading cops on a high speed chase, a suspected robber was fled on foot. He was struck, as you see there, by a police vehicle, tumbling as the truck side- swiped him. And then he tries to get up. Amazing. He was arrested and taken to the hospital for a little evaluation. Anderson?

COOPER: Wow, unbelievable. All right. Erica Hill, thanks very much. See you in about 30 minutes.

Coming up next on 360 -- me, wiping my eyes and that person screaming. A beauty school student caught in an international nightmare; why she is attracting a media circus.

Also a little later, up, up, and away, a bird race like nothing else. Place your bets, people. Place your bets.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Well, here in the states we have our own share of high profile trials, Michael Jackson, Scott Peterson, of course, come to mind. But perhaps none is as gripping as the one playing out right now in Indonesia. The defendant is a beautiful young student from Australia, not the kind of person you expect to see in court under these charges. But she is there fighting for her life. If convicted she could be executed by a firing squad. The thought of that makes many Australians at home shudder.

CNN's Brian Todd takes tonight -- shows us the world in 360.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TODD (voice-over): A case that an Australian official compares to the Michael Jackson affair for its sensationalism. The sister of the accused attacks the media. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Leave her alone, all of you!

TODD: The defendant herself faints once outside the courtroom, then inside -- a pattern that has left the judges frustrated. Such is the ordeal of 27-year-old Schappelle Corby, an Australian beauty student arrested last October on the Indonesian resort island of Bali. Customs officials at the airport discovered a nine pound bag of high grade marijuana in her luggage. Corby has always maintained it was planted there after she checked her bag through in Sydney.

CORBY: And I swear, by God as my witness, I did not know marijuana was in my bag.

TODD: But Schapelle Corby faces three judges and an Indonesian justice system determined to crack down on drug trafficking. Several death sentences have been handed down to foreign nationals in recent years. Prosecutors have asked for a life sentence for Corby, but the judges could still send her to death by firing squad if they convict.

CORBY: Please, look to your God for guidance in your judgment for me.

TODD: As she pleads for her life, Corby seems to have a keen sense of how this case is playing back home. An Australian official tells CNN this is dominant news every day with popular sentiment favoring Corby's side. Star actor Russell Crowe has joined the fray, telling an Australian radio program the government must apply more pressure.

RUSSELL CROWE, ACTOR: I don't understand, when there is such doubt, how we can, as a country, stand by and let a young lady, as an Australian, rot away in a foreign prison. That is ridiculous.

TODD: Australian officials say the government will seek clemency if a death sentence is imposed. But for now this is a matter for the Indonesian courts, where a young lady appeals for compassion.

CORBY: I believe seven months which I've already been in prison is severe enough punishment for not putting locks on my bag. I don't know how long I can survive in here.

TODD: And at least one judge seems to have heard enough.

JUDGE LINTON SIRAIT, INDONESIA (through translator): We've already 75 percent decided, but I cannot tell you our conclusion.

TODD: A conclusion that could come any day now, when the judges announce their verdit and sentance.

Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: And we'll let you know what happens.

Let's find out what's coming up at the top of the hour on "PAULA ZAHN NOW." Hey, Paula.

PAULA ZAHN, HOST, PAULA ZAHN NOW: Hi, Anderson. Thanks so much. Good evening, everyone. Tonight you're going to hear some amazing stories of unsung heroes, risking their lives every day to serve the U.S. on foreign soil. We thought we were going to hear from some of them. But what you will hear from them tonight, Anderson, is that they have faced terrorist attacks in Kenya, in Tanzania. And you will get a sense as to what our diplomats overseas are fighting on a lot of different fronts. It's not easy work. It is not for the faint- hearted. And you'll meet some of them a little bit later on tonight, and you'll actually hear from them, as well.

COOPER: True American heroes. Paula, thanks very much. That's in about five minutes from now.

Coming up next on 360, the big bird race, wings spanning the globe. Place your bets, people. Place your bets.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Tonight taking long odds to "The Nth Degree." So, will you be putting a couple bob down on the big race just to make it interesting? No, not Saturday's Kentucky Derby. You call that a race? A mile and a quarter, over in two minutes. That's not a race, that's what a momentary distraction.

Now this is a race. Seventeen Tasmanian shy albatross, each wearing a little jockey in the form of a transmitter to signal it's position to a satellite, have set off from one of the only three small islands in all the world on which they nest to fly 6,000 miles across open oceans to their favorite feeding grounds off the coast of South Africa. The winner is going to arrive sometime early August. In the lead at the moment is Fleetwood, a feisty feather weight female off Muestone Island (ph), who took off at seven to one. But is currently flying at five to one.

Not far behind her is a bird called 18 Stone of Idiot, a heavy weight male, also with a feisty disposition, who's recently caught up after swarming around, sightseeing, and lolly-gagging and generally failing to take the race seriously for awhile there. He's going at eight to one. The race is sponsored by Ladbrokes, the giant British betting firm. And is intended to help the Tasmanian shy albatross, which is an endangering species.

And there are some attractive long shots, as well, I've got to tell you. There's an edgy female named Voyager, off Pedrabronca. She's flapping around out there about 26 to one. That would be a nice nest egg, huh. Get it? Thank you.

We'll keep you posted on that. I'm Anderson Cooper, thanks for watching 360 tonight. CNN's prime time coverage continues now with Paula Zahn. Hey, Paula.

END

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com


Aired May 4, 2005 - 19:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, HOST "ANDERSON COOPER 360": As you do every night, Lou. Thanks very much. It was a great interview with Buffett, thanks.
Good evening, everyone. An exclusive look beyond the headlines: a man on the run. 360 starts now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Hunting a fugitive on the run: how do cops catch a runaway criminal? Tonight 360 takes you inside a manhunt from the eyes of the hunters and the hunted.

A massive fire at a gas station, all caught on tape. Tonight, how a forgetful driver caused the explosion and what you need to know to avoid danger at the pump.

Are your kids' cheers too suggestive? Tonight, why Texas lawmakers are on the verge of banning sexy cheerleading they say lead to pregnancy, drop-outs, and the contraction of HIV.

Kid cheating in school, but do you know where they are getting the answers? Tonight, the shocking truth about how some kids are getting by with the help of a very unlikely accomplice.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: Live, from the CNN Broadcast Center in New York, this is ANDERSON COOPER 360.

COOPER: Good evening to you.

For almost four years, what may be the biggest manhunt of all time, the search for Osama bin Laden, has come up empty. Although a number of his colleagues have been snared, including the alleged number three man in al Qaeda whose capture was announced today, the main target remains elusive. The situation points out the difficulty of finding someone who doesn't want to be found and who has a lot of open space in which to hide.

To use an example closer to home, think of abortion clinic bomber Eric Rudolph who managed to hide in the mountains of North Carolina for years. So, how do police train to capture a fleeing fugitive? We asked our Rick Sanchez to go "Beyond the Headlines" and find out.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good girl.

RICK SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Welcome to Man Tracker 2005 in the woods of Coweta County, Georgia, where local police and state agencies brush up every year on the very techniques that could save lives, maybe their own. Among the techniques, tracking and finding a fugitive.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We call it a traffic stop just like a normal traffic stop would be. At the point we get stopped, once I step out of the vehicle to make contact with the driver, you guys will bail out.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: USB-589, Kelly command post. (ph)

SANCHEZ: In Georgia law enforcement terms, what you are about to see is called a "bush bomb," a routine traffic stop that suddenly turns into a man hunt when the suspects bolt. Trooper Tony Hightower (ph) says it happens more often than we think.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know why they are running, number one. It may be a murder suspect. It may be they don't have driver's license. They may have beer in the car. It may be something as simple as that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wayne, could you -- get you about two or 300 feet above.

SANCHEZ: The exercise is going to be conducted just like the real thing. There will be two suspects. The first, Phil Kirksy (ph) who happens to be a real corrections officer and experienced tracker. The second, the next person they could find, me, a television correspondent with a bit of curiosity and a willingness to not take himself too seriously.

After getting pulled, over the troopers mounted camera catches us making a run for it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's haul ass.

SANCHEZ: My handycam recorded the get away. The dense Georgia woods would seem to any suspect, a perfect hiding place.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two white males, bush bomb.

SANCHEZ: As we run through the woods, Trooper Hightower does not give chase. Experience and training tell him that would be the wrong thing to do. His job is to set up a perimeter.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. 10-4. You got 10-77?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 10-4, 911 (INAUDIBLE) county unit in the area.

SANCHEZ: He calls for more units, a helicopter and, what may be the best weapon of all, a bloodhound. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And also need any K-9 units in the area.

SANCHEZ: Back in the woods, we're still running. The feeling of being hunted creates a sensation of both desperation and confusion.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One of the things that comes to mind right away is, you figure they're looking at you, and they got a good look at you when you tried to get out of the car. So, if you could somehow change your appearance, you might be able to throw them off. One of the keys is to just take off whatever clothes you have, and just leave it behind, and take off.

SANCHEZ: After running through the woods and into a clearing, we hear the first sounds of the helicopter.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I hear the chopper. We want to stay out of this clearing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come on, girl.

SANCHEZ: While we're looking for another place to hide, the tracking team arrives.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The dog will find him within 20.

SANCHEZ: As we run, we're shedding millions of cells. Think of it as a constant trail of microscopic pieces of your own skin. It is undetectable to us, but for Lola -- she's the bloodhound -- it is easy pickings.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right through there.

SANCHEZ: And she picks up our scent almost immediately. But it's a helicopter that still has us worried at this point.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're going to find our way to an area over here that is covered. We think they won't be ale to see us here, because there's no way the helicopter can spot us. This looks open here, but the tree cover above us might possibly block out the helicopter. This would be the best bet right here.

SANCHEZ: So the idea then is to try to hunker down.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hunker down and wait it out.

SANCHEZ: That's when Phil spots the tracking team on our heels.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I see the dogs coming. Get down. They are coming to us. We got nowhere to go.

SANCHEZ: What I'm going to do now is try and separate myself from the other suspect, figuring, by separating the scents, the dogs that are chasing us will get confused, and they won't be bale to find me.

Heading off on my own turns out to be the right move. Phil is immediately captured.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let me see your hands.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I give up!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get down. Good girl.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don't shoot, I give up.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get him, girl. You can get up, boy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, don't shoot. I'm getting up.

SANCHEZ: It's taken Lola just six minutes to find her first fugitive. And, now, she has picked up the next human scent: mine.

I'm figuring they already got the other suspect. I'm going to see how long I can stay on the run before they find me.

By continuing to run I seem to be able to stay ahead of the trackers, but what I can't do is run away from the sound of the helicopter blades.

They are in the woods. You know you are being hunted. You really don't know which direction to go in. You just -- your instincts will tell you, don't go in a clearing because they'll see you, and the best you can do is try and confuse the dogs so they can't pick up your scent.

Figuring if I can get away across this creek, I might be able to...

But it's probably me who is confused. I follow some railroad tracks hoping to find a way out. Instead, I spot what I think will be a decent hiding place.

I found a highway overpass. I figure if I can get a little slot underneath this thing, the helicopter won't be able to see me.

But Lola is relentless. I don't realize it but she is getting closer. Now I've hunkered down, hoping to wait them out.

Here's a little corner I'm tucked into. Nothing but concrete barriers and dirtdaubers.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Show your hands! Good girl.

SANCHEZ: You found my spot, huh? Well, I guess this is where guys would normally hide out, right?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, yes, this and anywhere else they can. As long as we keep tracking you, and they keep you pinned down as a team effort, it's hard to get away.

SANCHEZ: My brief career as a fugitive is over. Fifteen to 20 minutes after finding Phil, Lola's nose and trainer Matt Gorely's (ph) experience proved unbeatable. Even my tricks didn't work, not even crossing the creek. I'm told it was neither deep enough nor wide enough to hide my scent.

SANCHEZ: So, no matter how many circles I did out there in the woods, eventually these bloodhounds are going to get my scent.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right. (INAUDIBLE) stay with it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're going to stay out there with them.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I mean, they never give up. That's the thing about them. They run. They run until we get tired.

SANCHEZ: Lola goes back in her cage, and if I had been a real fugitive, I would be off to jail.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ (on camera): You know, something else happened out there that was kind of interesting. We talked to Duke Blackburn (ph) -- he's with the corrections, Georgia Corrections Office -- and he tells us that, while we were out there, there was some home invasion robbers that happened to pick that very same area where they were doing their exercise. Needless to say they were apprehended and very fast. I guess you might say wrong place, wrong time.

We also learned in our research, by talking to a lot of different police departments, that they are making every single effort to try to increase the penalty for people to try to run away from the police. The key for them of course is try and create more of a deterrent, because it just keeps happening, all too often. Anderson, back over to you.

COOPER: Rick, this is probably a moronic question. But, I mean, couldn't you have run into a stream? That's what you always see in the movies.

SANCHEZ: Good question. No. Unless you go in a stream above your neck or shoulders, those little cells that your body constantly releases every time you go somewhere, will still be tracked. So, a stream, for the most part, doesn't work unless you completely immerse yourself.

COOPER: I'm going to store that away in my brain and when I need it, I will use it. Rick...

SANCHEZ: Next time you get chased.

COOPER: Exactly. Thanks very much, Rick. Appreciate it.

Coming up next on 360, gas station flash fire: see what happens when you try to pump and run. Plus, who's more likely to spark a blaze while filling up? Who do you think, men or women? Might be surprised at the answers.

COOPER: Also tonight, race against time: Doctors working against the clock to reattach a man's hands and restore his livelihood. Our 360 M.D. Dr. Sanjay Gupta takes us inside the operating room.

And a little bit later, cheerleading decency or indecency. One man's crusade to clean up those half school -- those high school halftime shows. But is a ban on sexy moves really needed? We're covering all the angles.

First your picks of the most popular stories right now on CNN.com.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Well here in New York, a routine trip to the gas station over the weekend almost became a blazing inferno. Surveillance video captured it all.

Take a look. Keep your eyes at the guy at the counter. He just pulled up. His Mercedes at the pump. After buying cigarettes, he goes back outside, gets into his car, which is still attached at the nozzle. And yeah, he drives off with the hose connected to the tank.

Now the entire gas pump comes crashing down. Fire breaks out. Before it turns into a massive explosion, however, a quick thinking attendant released a fire suppressant foam that flooded the entire station, as you see it there.

Police are investigating the incident. They are talking to the driver. Luckily no one at the gas station was injured.

But it's not always the case. All it takes is a fraction of a second for something to go wrong and for fuel to turn to fire. CNN's Wolf Blitzer investigates.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Teresa Lopez was filling up her car at a gas station near her Houston home when something truly unexpected happened. Surveillance video recorded the horrifying scene, as a fireball erupted and engulfed Lopez. She says her first thought was to move her car.

TERESA LOPEZ: Just to get it out of the way, out the other thing (ph) -- like the gas station thing. To get it out of the way, because if not everything was going to explode.

BLITZER: Amazingly, Lopez was treated only for burns on her hand and right leg. It's not clear what caused the fire. Firefighters reported finding a lighter nearby. Lopez says she doesn't know what happened.

LOPEZ: I didn't have no lighter in my hand. I didn't have a cigarette. I didn't have anything with me. It just -- the car just like started on fire.

BLITZER: Her roommate who was with Lopez, says the car's gas gauge wasn't working. As a result they over filled the tank and the gas overflowed. PRISCILLA CALDERON: The thing is that the car hasn't been well, the meter doesn't work on the gas.

BLITZER: The Petroleum Equipment Institute has been tracking these kinds of fires for more than a decade. It says the most common culprit is static electricity. And in most cases, the motorist caused it to build up by getting back in the car while fueling, then returning to the pump where a minute spark ignites the gas vapors.

A more obvious cause, smoking at the pump. The institute says concern over cell phones is unwarranted. It says of the hundreds of pump fires its investigated, not one was found to have been caused by a mobile phone.

Wolf Blitzer, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: A news note on the risk of static electricity at the pump. The Petroleum Equipment Institute says that static electricity has caused 162 cases of gas station fire since the early '90s, nearly 80 percent involved women. We've looked into the reason.

The institute says that women are more likely to go back into the car to get cash or credit card to pay for the gas. That can create static build-up. Men are less likely to go in the car, because they usually have their wallets on them.

We're following several other stories tonight. Erica Hill from Headline News joins us with the latest. Hey, Erica

ERICA HILL, CNN HEADLINE NEWS ANCHOR: Hey, Anderson. Good to see you.

We start off in Fort Hood, Texas. Talk about a change in this case. A guilty plea is thrown out in an Abu Ghraib Prison abuse case. The decision came from a military judge at Private Lynndie England's sentencing hearing after testimony from Charles Graner, the so-called ringleader of the abuse. Graner suggested England didn't know her actions were wrong. That case now back to square one.

Santa Maria, California, one of the other big cases we're following, the prosecution rests in the Michael Jackson trial. The state called more than 80 witnesses in more than two months of testimony. Jackson is accused of molesting a teenage cancer patient. His legal team is scheduled to start presenting its case tomorrow.

Near Chicago, Illinois, plans to exhume the body of Emmett Till for an autopsy nearly 50 years ago. The black teen was kidnapped and killed in Mississippi. Two white men were tried and acquitted, then later confessed to the crime. They are now dead. The FBI, though, has reopened the case to determine whether any other people were involved in the murder.

On to Perry, Oklahoma. In a letter sent from prison, Terry Nichols alleges an Arkansas gun collector provided some of the explosives provided in the Oklahoma City bombing. The FBI says there was no indication the accusation is true. The letter was sent to a woman who lost two grandchildren in the bombing.

And that's the latest from Headline News at this hour. Anderson, back to you.

COOPER: Erica, thanks very much. See you again in about 30 minutes.

Coming up next, though, on 360, race against time. A man loses both his hands in a terrible accident at work. See how doctors fight against the clock to reattach his limbs. An amazing story. Our 360 M.D. Sanjay Gupta has that.

Also ahead tonight, No Child Left Behind. The pressure to perform, cheating on standardized tests. Teachers actually helping the kids? We're going to take you inside one school district where students were being fed the answers.

And a little later, police chase and a suspected purse snatcher on the run. Oh, my gosh -- I did not see that. We'll have more on this story and how it turns out. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Just when we think we should stop already with the word miracle to describe what doctors can do nowadays, and I do think we should stop because it happens all the time on cable TV, along comes 360 M.D. Sanjay Gupta with a story like this one which just about demands the word. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For eight years Arsenio Matias worked at the same factory relying on his hands for his livelihood. But that livelihood and his life were nearly taken from the Dominican immigrant when a plastic forming machine he was working on cut off both of his hands.

ARSENIO MATIAS, REATTACHED HANDS PATIENT: I see the hand on the floor. I say (INAUDIBLE) Is my life gone? I think my life gone. Because I have to endure it. I must think about my life. I think (INAUDIBLE) life.

GUPTA: Arsenio Matias could think of nothing else but his family, but his co-workers were busy putting his hands on ice. And 40 minutes later he was airlifted to Stony Brook University Hospital. He had lost both his hands, and over 40 percent of his blood. He was dying.

(on camera): Time is a factor in all emergency cases, but in this case it was pivotal. Doctors had only six hours to begin reattaching the hands after that, they be dead forever. And the operation itself takes between six and 12 hours for each hand. For this Matias, the clock was take ticking. DR. ALEXANDER DAGUM, STONY BROOK UNIVERSITY: By the time you finished one hand, they likelihood you wouldn't be able to reattach the other hand.

GUPTA: Speed was one pressure, precision another. Two surgical teams used tools like jewelers forceps, hair thin sutures and microscopes to reconstruct vessels and tendons just millimeter wide, comparable to the size of an ant. In an 11-hour operation surgeons did all they could for Matias.

MATIAS: The next day when I woke up I saw my both hands -- I know I can't believe me.

GUPTA: It's been more than two months since the accident.

MATIAS: I feel all this side. This side I feel less.

GUPTA: He's able to pick up items, drink water from a cup and even wash his hands. It's more common for one hand to be successfully reattached, but both hands, rare. Matias' type of injury played a key role in the success, a clean cut. Not a crush injury.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's progressing better than we anticipated.

GUPTA: While it's unlikely that he'll ever be able to use his hands for fine manipulative tasks such as piano or violin, doctors say he will regain about half of his mobility and sensation in the next two years.

I feel great. Look. Look.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: And that is just incredible. What are the rates of success of reattaching both hands.

GUPTA: Well, you know, it's such an unusual thing to actually lose both hands, as you might imagine, at the same time. But doctors say with a good surgical team you have about 80 to 90 percent success in reattaching the hands. But keep this in mind Anderson, there's 24 tendons, three major nerves and two major arteries. There's a lot of work to be done over several hours.

COOPER: Man, unbelievable. Sanjay Gupta, thanks. Incredible report.

GUPTA: Thank. Thank you very much.

COOPER: Are your kids cheers too suggestive? Tonight why Texas lawmakers are on the verge of banning sexy cheer leading. They say leads to pregnancy, drop-outs, and a contraction of HIV.

Kids cheating in school. But do you know where they are getting the answers? Tonight the shock shocking truth about how some kids are getting by with the help of a very unlikely accomplice. 360 continues. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: You know when many of us remember grade school we think of our childhood friends, our favor teachers and perhaps the jungle gym. We don't often think about test. But parents, you know, these days you're kids are likely taking more tests then you and I did at school, thanks in part to the No Child Left Behind law. Now, the exams are meant to improve your child's skills. And they were modeled on a Texas testing program, hailed as a success, under then governor, George W. Bush.

But you may be shocked to hear -- or maybe you won't be, that those reports of success may be masking the pressures your kids might feel to drop out. Here's an excerpt from a documentary airing this weekend on "CNN PRESENTS" called "High Stakes, The Battle To Save Our Schools."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Our economy is the envy of the world, unfortunately our schools are not.

REPORTER: As governor, George W. Bush was determined to improve student achievement and reduce drop-out rates in schools across Texas. He implemented state-wide reforms including mandatory testing. And he said would he hold school officials accountable for rising test scores.

ROD PAIGE, FMR. HOUSTON SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENT: When we got our test scores...

REPORTER: Bush found a kindred spirit in Houston's superintendent Rod Paige.

PAIGE: We know how to make the organizations work. And the same thing is true to schools. The idea is to link performance and contribution and incentives.

REPORTER: Principals who could show rising test scores on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills or TAKS could get bonuses of up to $5,000. The district superintendents bonuses could rise to $20,000 dollars.

ROBERT KIMBALL, FORMER ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL: You all of a sudden saw many schools that had 40 to 45 percent pass rate on the test go up to 90 percent. The very next year

REPORTER: The fast rising test scores were hailed as the Houston miracle. But the miracle was not what it seemed. Thousands of students were actually dropping out.

KIMBALL: One day, I was informed that report had been turned in to the district from my high school and they -- our principal reported zero drop-outs. Well, I knew that was impossible, because I'd seen over 400 students leave that year. And many of them told me they had I dropped out. I saw many assistant principals tell students to get out, go withdraw.

REPORTER: Another strategy to make the statistics tell a good story, according to Kimball, was for officials to retain students in 9th grade so they wouldn't have to take the TAX test in 10th grade.

In 2000, there were 1,160 9th grade students at Austin High School, but the next year only 257 made it to the 10th grade. And what was happening at Austin High was happening at schools across the district.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Well drop-outs are not the only concern. There have been allegation of cheating not by children but by teachers. Today, the Houston Independent School District revealed that some teachers in three Houston schools have been breaking the rules by helping students answer questions on the state exam. 23 schools had been under investigation after review of scores on the states 2004 test.

And according to some teachers and students, this is not the first time cheating has happened in this way. Here's more of the "CNN PRESENTS" documentary "High Stakes: the Battle to Save Our Schools."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

REPORTER: In 2003, another scandal hit the Houston school district. This time there were allegations of cheating.

DONNA GARNER, ELEMENTARY TEACHER: I was approached by the principal and informed that I didn't know how to give tests the Wesley way. And then I was informed on how to give the test the Wesley way. And that the expectation was that I would give the test the Wesley way, which is cheating.

All right, boys and girls we're going to go ahead and begin. Open your test booklets.

JULIE JARAMILLO, MIDDLE SCHOOL TEACHER: I handed out the TEX test, I read the instructions out of the administrators manual. I said OK, get busy.

The kids were looking at me with blank stares. I said, what are you waiting on? And about a third of my students said, the answers.

I know that the teachers cheating, because kids have told me that's how it was done with their particular teacher.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She would like walk around the room and you would see that she would be helping kids and telling them that the answer is wrong. You need to do it over.

GARNER: I was to stop behind them and until they placed their finger on the right answer. Then I was to continue walking.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They might come behind us and like peek over our shoulder and tell us if the answer is wrong or right. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I heard her talking to students next to me saying, well which one do you think is right? Which one do you think is wrong? And helping them eliminate.

GARNER: It's disturbing to me that we're not only taking away their education, but we're instilling in small young children -- nine, ten years old -- that whatever works for you is OK.

But it's not only the teachers fault, this isn't coming from a lower level, this is coming from way up in the district.

REPORTER: The principal of Wesley Elementary declined to speak with CNN. Accusations of fraud first surfaced in 2003 when teachers began reporting incidents of cheating to the school board and to the Houston Teachers Union. While an investigation was started by the school district, it quickly stalled.

ABE SAAVEDRA, SUPERINTENDENT: I'm not sure what happened. We have -- I reviewed the file. And it seems that a year or so back it things kind of stopped as far as -- I can't -- I don't know why they didn't do any further.

REPORTER: It wasn't until January of 2005 that current Houston School Superintendent Abe Saavedra launched a new investigation examining allegations of cheating at 23 Houston schools.

SAAVEDRA: I think that testing and assessment is important. The fact is that in this school district as there is in the human race, there are dishonest people. All right. And we don't throw out programs, because there's a few people that may abuse the situation.

REPORTER: The problem is not unique to Houston. 44 other schools in Texas are under investigation for suspicious rises in test scores. And within the past year, seven states have launched investigations, suspended staff or thrown out tainted scores.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Remarkable. Well, don't miss "High Stakes: The Battle to Save Our Schools." That's Sunday night at 8:00 p.m. Eastern here on CNN.

And coming up next tonight on 360, taking the pep out of pep rallies. Texas lawmakers try to get cheerleaders to tone down their moves. We'll talk to the man leading the effort.

Plus, an accused purse snatcher on the run. Wait until you see how police caught their man.

Also tonight, a little later arrested with nine pounds of marijuana in a foreign country. She could face the death penalty. Was she set up? You decide. We'll be right back.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARION BARRY: Marion Barry is the best and brightest for Washington D.C.

REPORTER: As Washington, D.C.'s self-proclaimed mayor for life, Marion Barry has known fame, fall from grace...

BARRY: How I wish I could trade this hour.

REPORTER: And political redemption. Born in Mississippi, he came to Washington in the '60s as a civil rights activist and never left. Barry was elected mayor of D.C. in 1978 and held that office for 12 years. But in 1990, Barry's reign ended with a cocaine arrest in an FBI sting operation.

After serving six months in prison, he returned as a city council member, then reclaimed the mayors's office in 1994. But his fourth term was overshadowed with allegations of financial wrongdoing.

But now Marion Barry is back on the city council once again.

BARRY: I've been knocked down, some say you fell down, put yourself down, but I got up.

REPORTER: He captured the 96 percent of the vote in Washington's Eighth Ward, an area with the city's highest rates of poverty and unemployment.

BARRY: I ought to be tired by now after 40 some years of public service, 68 years of age. But I'm not. I just got my second wind.

REPORTER: As for his issues with drugs, Barry says it's all in the past and prefers not to talk about it. Married four times, he has one son, 24-year-old Marion Christopher Barry.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Well, in Texas, highschool cheerleading, as much as a tradition as, well, high school football. But that may be changing. Some lawmakers in Texas want to ban certain pompom routines they consider, quote, "sexually suggestive." The bill has already been approved by the Texas state house. In just a minute, I'm going to talk to the man who is sponsoring that bill. But first, Judy Woodruff has more on whether the rah-rah's are getting too raunchy.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: The Dallas Cowboys' cheerleaders helped make risque entertainment a staple on the sidelines, but some Texans don't think high school cheerleaders should shake their stuff like their professional counterparts.

BRAD PAGE, CHEERLEADING INSTRUCTOR: I don't think provocative dance moves belong on the sidelines or in front of the crowd. I mean, when your audience is family-oriented, it's got to be G-rated.

WOODRUFF: Many state lawmakers agree. The Texas house has passed bill that would ban, quote, "overtly, sexually suggestive," cheer routines at school-sponsored events. It covers all public schools and includes the drill teams and any student group that performs.

Opponents say state law already bars lewd performances by students on or near campus, and they complain the measure does not spell out which moves should be censored.

PAM UHR, ACLU: I don't think would he do want our kids doing stuff like that. The problem with the bill is that there is no definition of what is sexually suggestive.

WOODRUFF: Houston lawmaker Al Edwards echoes the late Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart's famous line about obscenity: he knows it when he sees it.

REP. AL EDWARDS (D), TEXAS STATE HOUSE: Rather than trying to describe it or make movements, if you are an adult -- you have been involved with sex ever in your life -- you know it when you see it.

WOODRUFF: It would be up to the Texas Education Agency to determine when routines get too raunchy and to enforce penalties. That is, if the bill also gets the green light from the state senate and the governor.

Texas is one of those states where Friday night football is practically akin to religion. So, look for more passionate debate before any final vote to keep high school cheerleaders from crossing the line.

Judy Woodruff, CNN, reporting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Well, we don't take sides on 360. We like to look at all the angles, so joining us from Austin is Representative Al Edwards, the Democrat who is sponsoring the bill. Representative Edwards, thanks very much for being with us.

You've said that sexy cheerleading routines, in a way, help encourage teen pregnancy, poor scholastic performance, criminal behavior, even the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. How do you back those claims up?

EDWARDS: Well, I wouldn't say that that is a direct line. I would suggest that these type dances, overly sexy dances, they are distractions. That's for sure. It sure doesn't help some of these young girls where these young men are pursuing them. And so I would -- I am saying that we have seen so many bad things happen with our young folk -- that the Texas Youth Council is filling up, our Texas prisons are filling up -- they're dropping out of school. They're getting pregnant. They're having babies, They're cutting their little lives short so early. And I'm just saying that overly sexy dances out of, not just cheerleaders but marching units, the bands, the drill squads, the majorettes -- it wouldn't matter who they are, it should be cleaned up. It's inappropriate. COOPER: Is it -- you're afraid the cheerleader is going to end up in the jail, or does the cheerleader doing it encourage other people to commit crimes, or...?

EDWARDS: Well, I suggest this, that if we can -- if we can continue to -- or, start to pursue it a little more vigorously with our young folks, they should be respected and respectful. Be appropriate when they are performing out on those fields. And so this legislation is really geared toward the directors, the principals, the teachers, the school districts. Not the students, because the students are doing what obviously they are being told to do, or permitted to do.

COOPER: And what is overtly sexual. I mean, I know you said in the piece, you know it when you see it. But how is it going to work? I mean, how is it going to be enforced? Are there going to be punishments for this?

EDWARDS: Well, the same way that any school district would enforce any other law or ordinance or rule, a guideline, on these campuses. The same way, just say to their folk that they want to clean it up. Of course, we are going to leave it up to the education agency. We think they are capable of doing it. And I don't think it would take a lot of effort to do it.

COOPER: Why aren't they doing it now? If they're capable -- I mean, there are a lot of people who, in Texas, who will say, look, the government shouldn't be interfering in this kind of thing. You should have more important things to do. This should be up to local schools or parents or superintendents.

EDWARDS: Well, now, let me tell you, the proof is in the eating of the pudding. If -- yes, they could do it but they are not doing it. There's a whole lot of things people could do but, that they are not doing. If they are going to do it, obviously, they would be doing it. When they say we could be doing other things, we are doing a number of things. We are funding highways and colleges and universities and Medicare, Medicaid -- we are doing a number of things in the legislature. But I can tell you now there's no legislation more important than looking out for our young children. What could be more important?

COOPER: You think there's no legislation more important than this piece of legislation about cheerleaders?

EDWARDS: Well, this piece of legislation is a great start. But I don't think anyone should ever downplay when we say we are doing something for our children, because they are important, and the most important.

COOPER: Representative Al Edwards, appreciate you joining us. Thanks very much.

EDWARDS: Thank you.

COOPER: Erica Hill from Headline News, covering some other stores right now at about 14 to the hour.

ERICA HILL, HEADLINE NEWS: Hey, Anderson.

It is the single deadliest terrorist attack in months to hit Iraq in the city of Irbil. At least 60 people were killed today when a bomber blew himself up at a police recruitment center. Reports say the suicide bomber posed as a recruit. The terror group known as the Army of Ensaro Suna (ph) claimed responsibility and warned of more attacks.

In London, amid questions about Iraq, Tony Blair appears to be on his way to a third term as Britain's prime minister. The polls for Thursday's election show Blair and his Labor Party will keep control of the House of Commons. Blair insists a third term will be his last.

And, back in Washington, a Pentagon analyst accused of being a spy. Larry Franklin is charged with providing classified information about possible attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq. The Justice Department says he was giving the information to members of the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee.

And in Houston today -- this is just amazing. Watch this. A dramatic end to a police -- ow! -- pursuit. After leading cops on a high speed chase, a suspected robber was fled on foot. He was struck, as you see there, by a police vehicle, tumbling as the truck side- swiped him. And then he tries to get up. Amazing. He was arrested and taken to the hospital for a little evaluation. Anderson?

COOPER: Wow, unbelievable. All right. Erica Hill, thanks very much. See you in about 30 minutes.

Coming up next on 360 -- me, wiping my eyes and that person screaming. A beauty school student caught in an international nightmare; why she is attracting a media circus.

Also a little later, up, up, and away, a bird race like nothing else. Place your bets, people. Place your bets.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Well, here in the states we have our own share of high profile trials, Michael Jackson, Scott Peterson, of course, come to mind. But perhaps none is as gripping as the one playing out right now in Indonesia. The defendant is a beautiful young student from Australia, not the kind of person you expect to see in court under these charges. But she is there fighting for her life. If convicted she could be executed by a firing squad. The thought of that makes many Australians at home shudder.

CNN's Brian Todd takes tonight -- shows us the world in 360.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TODD (voice-over): A case that an Australian official compares to the Michael Jackson affair for its sensationalism. The sister of the accused attacks the media. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Leave her alone, all of you!

TODD: The defendant herself faints once outside the courtroom, then inside -- a pattern that has left the judges frustrated. Such is the ordeal of 27-year-old Schappelle Corby, an Australian beauty student arrested last October on the Indonesian resort island of Bali. Customs officials at the airport discovered a nine pound bag of high grade marijuana in her luggage. Corby has always maintained it was planted there after she checked her bag through in Sydney.

CORBY: And I swear, by God as my witness, I did not know marijuana was in my bag.

TODD: But Schapelle Corby faces three judges and an Indonesian justice system determined to crack down on drug trafficking. Several death sentences have been handed down to foreign nationals in recent years. Prosecutors have asked for a life sentence for Corby, but the judges could still send her to death by firing squad if they convict.

CORBY: Please, look to your God for guidance in your judgment for me.

TODD: As she pleads for her life, Corby seems to have a keen sense of how this case is playing back home. An Australian official tells CNN this is dominant news every day with popular sentiment favoring Corby's side. Star actor Russell Crowe has joined the fray, telling an Australian radio program the government must apply more pressure.

RUSSELL CROWE, ACTOR: I don't understand, when there is such doubt, how we can, as a country, stand by and let a young lady, as an Australian, rot away in a foreign prison. That is ridiculous.

TODD: Australian officials say the government will seek clemency if a death sentence is imposed. But for now this is a matter for the Indonesian courts, where a young lady appeals for compassion.

CORBY: I believe seven months which I've already been in prison is severe enough punishment for not putting locks on my bag. I don't know how long I can survive in here.

TODD: And at least one judge seems to have heard enough.

JUDGE LINTON SIRAIT, INDONESIA (through translator): We've already 75 percent decided, but I cannot tell you our conclusion.

TODD: A conclusion that could come any day now, when the judges announce their verdit and sentance.

Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: And we'll let you know what happens.

Let's find out what's coming up at the top of the hour on "PAULA ZAHN NOW." Hey, Paula.

PAULA ZAHN, HOST, PAULA ZAHN NOW: Hi, Anderson. Thanks so much. Good evening, everyone. Tonight you're going to hear some amazing stories of unsung heroes, risking their lives every day to serve the U.S. on foreign soil. We thought we were going to hear from some of them. But what you will hear from them tonight, Anderson, is that they have faced terrorist attacks in Kenya, in Tanzania. And you will get a sense as to what our diplomats overseas are fighting on a lot of different fronts. It's not easy work. It is not for the faint- hearted. And you'll meet some of them a little bit later on tonight, and you'll actually hear from them, as well.

COOPER: True American heroes. Paula, thanks very much. That's in about five minutes from now.

Coming up next on 360, the big bird race, wings spanning the globe. Place your bets, people. Place your bets.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Tonight taking long odds to "The Nth Degree." So, will you be putting a couple bob down on the big race just to make it interesting? No, not Saturday's Kentucky Derby. You call that a race? A mile and a quarter, over in two minutes. That's not a race, that's what a momentary distraction.

Now this is a race. Seventeen Tasmanian shy albatross, each wearing a little jockey in the form of a transmitter to signal it's position to a satellite, have set off from one of the only three small islands in all the world on which they nest to fly 6,000 miles across open oceans to their favorite feeding grounds off the coast of South Africa. The winner is going to arrive sometime early August. In the lead at the moment is Fleetwood, a feisty feather weight female off Muestone Island (ph), who took off at seven to one. But is currently flying at five to one.

Not far behind her is a bird called 18 Stone of Idiot, a heavy weight male, also with a feisty disposition, who's recently caught up after swarming around, sightseeing, and lolly-gagging and generally failing to take the race seriously for awhile there. He's going at eight to one. The race is sponsored by Ladbrokes, the giant British betting firm. And is intended to help the Tasmanian shy albatross, which is an endangering species.

And there are some attractive long shots, as well, I've got to tell you. There's an edgy female named Voyager, off Pedrabronca. She's flapping around out there about 26 to one. That would be a nice nest egg, huh. Get it? Thank you.

We'll keep you posted on that. I'm Anderson Cooper, thanks for watching 360 tonight. CNN's prime time coverage continues now with Paula Zahn. Hey, Paula.

END

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