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CNN Newsnight Aaron Brown

Police Search for Ohio Sniper; Suspect Arrested, Police Search for Missing Woman; Controversy Brews Over Sealed Dean Papers

Aired December 02, 2003 - 22:00   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.


AARON BROWN, HOST: Good evening again, everyone.
Sometimes we look at the program and it all fits together like a completed jigsaw puzzle, one story logically leading to the next, which leads to the next and the next. Tonight isn't one of those nights.

Tonight seems to be a series of pieces, all good, but somehow all unrelated. A sniper here, an abduction there, memories of 9/11 in this corner, a breakthrough in race relations in another. If there is some theme in it all, we don't yet see it.

Rather than spending any more time searching, we'll just lay it out there, beginning as we always do, with "The Whip."

And the whip begins in Ohio tonight, 12 shootings and much mystery. CNN's Kris Osborn on the sniper story. Kris, a headline.

KRIS OSBORN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Franklin County officials say there are now 12 shootings under investigation and that they are all related. Additionally, they've linked four of them through ballistic evidence -- Aaron.

BROWN: Kris, thank you. We'll get to you at the top tonight.

Cincinnati, Ohio, next and a new look at the moments leading up to that fatal police beating, which were also caught on videotape. CNN's Ed Lavandera is in Cincinnati tonight.

Ed, a headline.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Aaron. Just a short while ago, Cincinnati police here releasing video images from nine cameras in the White Castle restaurant parking lot that show the moments before and during the scuffle that led to the death of a 41-year-old man here in Cincinnati.

Now the question is how will all the people here in Cincinnati interpret what they see.

BROWN: Ed, thank you.

On to North Dakota as we move west. The search for Dru Sjodin and the arrest of a sex offender, possibly in connection with her disappearance. CNN's Jeff Flock with that tonight. Jeff, a headline.

JEFF FLOCK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, it's cold in North Dakota, too, where indeed authorities arrested a man today they think may be responsible for the disappearance of 22-year-old Dru Sjodin.

However, they have not found what they really want to find in this case, and that is Ms. Sjodin herself. She's now missing ten days.

BROWN: Jeff, thank you. And I suspect it's cold in Iowa, too, a possible bump on the campaign trail for Democratic front-runner now, Howard Dean. CNN's Candy Crowley spoke with the governor today. So a headline from you.

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, the question is, how much information does the public have a right to know about the man who wants to be president? That's the question Howard Dean is wrestling with. And we're not talking about the private life of a public person, but the public life of a public person -- Aaron.

BROWN: And we thank you. We'll get back to you and the rest shortly.

Also ahead tonight, new terror warning in Africa. We'll have the details. We'll also look at the increasing pressure on both the Israelis and the Palestinians to reach some sort of peace deal or at least start talking peace again.

Later, word that this might be the last holiday shopping season for a classic American toy store.

We'll also have the story of Sylvester Croom, the new head football coach at Mississippi State and the first black man to ever hold that position in that hotbed of football, the south, Eastern Conference and the emphasis, of course, on the south.

"Segment 7" tonight focuses on efforts to preserve debris from the World Trade Center for use in museums. It is a lovely story.

And how else but lovely would describe our nightly trip through morning papers.

All that and more in the hour ahead.

We begin with what's been happening on a five-mile stretch of the interstate in central Ohio. People have been getting shot at. One person has died, 12 shootings in all.

Up to this point authorities have been understandably reluctant to make more of it than might be there, but today that changed.

Here's CNN's Kris Osborn.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) OSBORN (voice-over): Law enforcement is now saying there is a connection between all 12 shootings along Ohio's Interstate 270 in this area.

STEVE MARTIN, FRANKLIN COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPUTY: And we are comfortable collectively that those 12 are related.

OSBORN: But Franklin County authorities say they have ballistic matches on only four of the shootings so far, including one at a nearby elementary school on November 11.

MARTIN: We recently submitted bullet fragments taken from a shooting incident at Hamilton Township Elementary School, 1105 Rathmel Road (ph), Columbus on November 11, has been positively linked to the weapon used to kill Mrs. Knisley.

OSBORN: Gail Knisley is the only death in the shooting. The other new ballistic match is from the bullet that smashed through truck driver Bill Bridge's window on November 19.

His van was among the shootings being investigated by authorities.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And I come off of 23 north there and on to 270 westbound and I was listening to an excellent blues guitar player and I'm thinking, I'm almost home, you know. And all of a sudden, out of nowhere, boom! The window blows in on me and there was a real loud bang.

OSBORN: A joint task force, including FBI and ATF agents, is combing through wooded areas in search of more bullet fragments from this string of shootings, something made more challenging by the high number of hunters and recreational gun users in the area.

Describing these shootings as intentional, law enforcement officials say security efforts around Columbus are expanding to include neighborhoods and schools.

MARTIN: We'll extend our protection, is what we'll do basically. It took it off the interstate and also it off of State Route 23 and puts it more in a residential type setting now.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: The Ohio story reported tonight by CNN's Kris Osborn.

A little bit south in Ohio, federal officials today began reviewing a fatal police beating in Cincinnati. The beating, you may remember -- how could you forget -- was caught on videotape.

Tonight we learn from police that other cameras had a look at the moments leading up to the incident. So we go back to CNN's Ed Lavandera, who joins us tonight from Cincinnati.

Ed, good evening.

LAVANDERA: Hi, Aaron.

The video images that Cincinnati police released just a short while ago here are not from the police car. These are from nine video cameras stationed throughout the parking lot at the White Castle restaurant, where this altercation took place Sunday morning.

Now the video images essentially capture the first, about the 20 minutes before Nathaniel Jones was killed in the altercation with the six police officers here in Cincinnati.

And what you see throughout most of it, it was the moments where Nathaniel Jones drives into the parking lot, begins to walk around the restaurant, at one point going inside, hugs an employee that he knows there. Clearly from the video images that you see, Nathaniel Jones is under the influence of something.

Authorities here are saying that he was dancing around, at one point even walking outside, walking as if he were some sort of soldier, bumping into a wall, falling over, then rolling down a hill. That startled some of the employees that worked at the White Castle restaurant, prompting them to call authorities.

After the fire department showed up and tried to treat Nathaniel Jones, a short while after that, police officers show up.

And at one point in the video image, you see one of the officers go to the back of their police unit and reach for an orange bag. Now, police here suspect that one of those officers might have been going for a pepper ball gun or a bean ball bag shotgun, weapons that they use to try to subdue people. They stress that these are less than lethal weapons that they can use in these types of altercations.

At that very moment as well, you see Nathaniel Jones walk out of the image. It's very hard to see, but it's from the camera in the drive-through window. You see him lunge forward toward where the officers are. Authorities here say this had been after he had been told three times to step back and back up. And that's when the altercation happened.

Authorities here stressing this evening that they hope that when people see these video images, they will understand that if Mr. Jones had acted differently, perhaps none of this would have happened.

Now, we do understand that authorities here have shown these images to a group of African-American ministers that met with officials just a short while ago, earlier this afternoon. Not exactly sure how they reacted to these video images. What we suspect, we will be hearing from them in the hours and perhaps tomorrow, as well -- Aaron.

BROWN: Give me a best feel for where the city of Cincinnati is tonight, reminding viewers, as we must, that just a bit less than three years ago, there were race riots in the city over an incident where a young black man was shot by a police officer.

LAVANDERA: I spent most of the day today speaking with a group of African-American ministers here in Cincinnati. I got the sense from them there is a tempered reaction from them. They really want -- what they stress and what they really want is a full investigation.

One of the things that they're angry about is that the authorities here have come so quickly out before the investigation is even wrapped up to exonerate these officers. That has angered them at this point, and that's what they're angry about.

They want the process just to work its way through, and if something, some sort of disciplinary action or criminal charges need to be brought forward, they hope that that would be done. But they say that can only be done if authorities take their time and weigh everything carefully.

BROWN: Not trying to walk you in any direction here, but just give me and give viewers a feel for the tone of the language from, I guess, both communities today, from the police community, the government community and from the African-American community.

LAVANDERA: Well, there is a growing echo from the African- American community, perhaps. We've heard a lot of calls for the resignation of the police chief here.

At the same time, the police chief saying that, no, he will not back down, he will see this investigation through.

So from the legal side, the law enforcement side of this, they are still standing by how these officers acted. In echoing what the captain -- one of the captains here at the police department said this evening, that if Mr. Jones had acted differently -- in that very split moment where you see Nathaniel Jones kind of lunge toward authorities, that was the moment, they say, that changed everything in that altercation.

BROWN: Again, this is the video -- Ed, I'm not sure if you can see this, but we're looking at the video from inside the restaurant. This was very early Sunday morning, late Saturday night, Sunday morning. And this is what it led to.

Mr. Jones, who weighed about 350 pounds, clearly -- I don't think anybody disputes the fact that he went after police. Ultimately, the question will come down to whether, faced with a man who was on drugs, according to the coroner at least, had drugs in his system and a sizable man, whether there was a way to subdue him, other than the way they did.

Obviously, the hood of the car makes it difficult to see everything that's going on. But there is no question that Mr. Jones does at one point or several points go after police.

LAVANDERA: Yes. And that's what many of the African-American members here in this community in Cincinnati say that -- they say, hey, listen, even though he was perhaps on drugs -- they have authorities coming out today, the medical examiner saying traces of cocaine and PCP were found inside of Nathaniel Jones' car -- that despite all of that, that condition, it didn't have to lead to this. That's what many of the members of the African-American community here in Cincinnati are troubled by the most.

BROWN: Ed, thanks a lot. I know you worked late tonight to get the tape. We appreciate that. Ed Lavandera in Cincinnati tonight.

An item today caught our eye in the "Grand Forks Herald." "Volunteers needed," it read, "for a search tomorrow morning."

They'll be looking for Dru Sjodin, who was in the middle of a cell phone conversation with her boyfriend when the line went dead and she vanished. That was ten days ago.

Tonight, there's a repeat sex offender in custody in connection with the case, but there's also that headline in the paper because Dru Sjodin is out there somewhere, still.

Here's CNN's Jeff Flock.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALLAN SJODIN, DRU SJODIN'S FATHER: Honey, we're still looking for you. We know you're there.

FLOCK (voice-over): A father with hope.

SJODIN: We're just overwhelmed with this.

FLOCK: Authorities with a possible break in the disappearance of 22-year-old Dru Sjodin.

CHIEF JOHN PACKETT, GRAND FORKS POLICE DEPARTMENT: Alfonso Rodriguez Jr. was arrested at his home in Crookston for the charge of kidnapping, which is an A Felony in North Dakota.

FLOCK: Fifty-year-old Alfonso Rodriguez, arrested in this house, where he'd been living with his mother after spending nearly all of the past three decades in either treatment or prison for violent sex crimes.

(on camera) Though they won't say how they got it, police investigators say they have developed information that Mr. Rodriguez was in the parking lot of this shopping mall the night Dru disappeared. It is that information, they say, that led them to make the arrest.

PACKETT: He is a level three sex offender in Minnesota.

FLOCK (voice-over): Grand Forks prosecutor Peter Welte would give few details, but according to Minnesota corrections officials, Rodriguez' record includes a conviction in 1974 for attempted rape and aggravated rape.

He did time and treatment then. But within days of being released six years later, stabbed a woman and tried to force her into his car. He did 23 years for aggravated kidnapping and assault and was released in May of this year.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Dru, we will find you.

FLOCK: Investigators put divers in the Red River near Rodriguez's home in Crookston, Minnesota, east of Grand Forks and also released a picture of his maroon 2002 Mercury Sable, saying they believe they have the evidence to tie him to the disappearance of the former homecoming queen, who has now been gone for ten days.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FLOCK: Aaron, there is no indication at all that Mr. Rodriguez is cooperating with authorities. And in fact, that search -- the big search that you mentioned set for tomorrow, some might suggest it is, perhaps, in part designed to send a message to whoever is responsible for the abduction, if you know where she is, tell us now, because we are going to sooner or later find her -- Aaron.

BROWN: Just back to the suspect for a minute. Is there in either -- well, I guess -- he was living in Minnesota, in Crookston. So is there a Megan's Law where people in the community were aware of his background?

FLOCK: They were very much aware of it. In fact, there was a community meeting about Mr. Rodriguez there. One of the ladies that lives down the street said she told her children never to go out in the yard when he was around.

So he was known, and he was there since May in that community. He, of course, had to register, being a sex offender. And so he was well known. But certainly no one had any indication that he might have been responsible for this.

And of course at this point, he is in custody and that's where it stands right now.

BROWN: Jeff, thank you very much. Jeff Flock in Grand Forks, in North Dakota, tonight.

Politics next a little farther south. Democrat Howard Dean coming under fire for sealing some of his records for the time he was the governor of Vermont, stuff for the history books in the years to come but also traditionally red meat for opposition research, starting right about now.

Just ask Michael Dukakis, Willie Horton, which is not to say that Governor Dean has any Willie Hortons to hide or anything else. Only that the issue, privacy to some, secrecy to others, is now in play.

Here's CNN's Candy Crowley.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When do you think we'll do it?

HOWARD DEAN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Just ask headquarters. CROWLEY (voice-over): It was a mini-document drama. What's in those records, and why can't the public see them?

DEAN: We'd like to be accommodating, but the laws are very, very complicated.

CROWLEY: The Dean camp says about 60 percent of the documents and records from his eight years as governor of Vermont are public; 40 percent were sealed when he left office.

DEAN: There are provisions for protecting some of the people who said things to me, gave me advice during that time. Whatever we've done, it's within Vermont law.

CROWLEY: The former governor says he doesn't even know what's in those records, but last January he wasn't taking any chances.

DEAN: Now there are future political considerations. We wouldn't want anything embarrassing appearing in the papers at a critical time in any future endeavor.

CROWLEY: There is such a thing as being too candid.

Dean operatives dismiss the sealed documents story as old news. Steeled by the fourth stop of the day, UNCLE (ph), the candidate was checking out his options.

DEAN: We don't know what's in there. I don't. The lawyers do. I don't. So we've got to find out all of that kind of information. We don't have that information.

CROWLEY (on camera): So you're going to find that out?

DEAN: We're going to find that out.

CROWLEY (voice-over): The up side is, reporters don't pester also-rans, and Republicans pay them no heed.

But take a look. This is the Republican Party chairman visiting Vermont, complaining about the sealed records.

DEAN: Very flattered to have the attention. Evidently, perhaps we weren't the candidate they wanted after all.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CROWLEY: There's no suggestion there is anything in those sealed records that might hurt former Governor Dean. However, that is probably what Michael Dukakis thought when he unsealed his records, giving his rivals months of things to chew on -- Aaron.

BROWN: Well, we'll take our chance with the snow and wind for a second.

There was a flap back awhile ago involving President Bush and his records, his papers when he was governor. That he, as I recall, had turned over to his father's presidential library and where they were being held. What's the status of the president's pages?

CROWLEY: The status we are told by an archivist in Texas is that those records are open. There are certain things that you have to use a Freedom of Information Act to file for getting them out. And the state archivist looks at those. And there are things that are redacted, names and things like that. But with some effort you can get at them, we're told.

BROWN: Now, let me just ask for your opinion on something.

CROWLEY: Uh-oh.

BROWN: Yes, I know. Does any of this matter? I mean, are voters going to -- Particularly voters who feel strongly about Governor Dean. Are they going to care one way or the other about these papers? What does your instinct tell you?

CROWLEY: The voters -- my instincts tells me that the voters for Governor Dean, you can feel it out here, you can feel it in New Hampshire. They're very passionate about Howard Dean.

And in essence what we see is every time there's something about him, it backfires and makes them more passionate. So it won't move those people.

Will it move people who are perhaps thinking about it? Not this alone. If you add up some other things, and if the drip keeps going, maybe it does. But at the moment it's not going to fuel any kind of departure from Dean, and those people are still going to come out in the Iowa snow and vote for him on caucus day.

BROWN: Warm up, Candy. Thank you very much. Candy Crowley in Iowa tonight.

Ahead on NEWSNIGHT, Africa on alert. The latest on a new terror threat in Kenya.

Later we'll see how historians are trying to preserving some of the debris collected after the collapse of the World Trade Center towers on 9/11.

From New York, this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: It used to be that government terror warnings would come with a built-in footnote, a warning, if you will, that the information was vague, non-specific, given mostly out of an abundance of caution. Perhaps the intelligence is getting better.

A recent series of warnings accurately predicted trouble in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere. And the latest warning from the State Department doesn't hedge. It is specific, very, for a good reason.

Here's CNN's Andrea Koppel.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In West Nairobi, military police were on alert, following anonymous threats against a British bank and Dutch airline.

Another threat came in an anonymous e-mail to the U.S. Embassy in Kenya's capital.

A State Department public announcement said the terrorist threats were aimed at American and Western interests in downtown Nairobi, specifically targeting the Stanley Hotel and the Hilton Hotel.

The announcement notes this information has not been corroborated. But according to the U.S. ambassador to Kenya, the e- mail specified Wednesday as the target date for an attack.

J. ADAM ERELI, SPOKESMAN, STATE DEPARTMENT: It anonymous warning also said that the timing of the threat was for the next several days. So given that specificity, it was incumbent upon us to take the steps that we took.

KOPPEL: A popular tourist destination, Kenya has been targeted by al Qaeda terrorists before: last year in Mombasa, when suicide bombers killed more than a dozen people at an Israeli-owned hotel and attempted to bring down an Israeli passenger jet with shoulder-fired missiles. And in 1998, when suicide bombers attacked the U.S. embassy, killing 219 people.

Meanwhile, in Saudi Arabia, just weeks after al Qaeda is believed to have carried out suicide bombings at a mostly Arab housing compound in Riyadh, the U.S. embassy issued fresh warnings.

ERELI: The Sidar Village Housing Compound in Riyadh has been under active surveillance by terrorist elements and that other Western compounds within the kingdom may also be targeted.

KOPPEL (on camera): For that reason, the State Department is urging Americans to avoid all non-essential travel to the Saudi kingdom and to Kenya, and is warning those Americans already in both of those countries to remain vigilant, keep a low profile, and to avoid places where westerners are known to congregate.

Andrea Koppel, CNN, at the State Department.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: A couple of other items from around the world.

Today the Pentagon said today an American who has been held as an enemy combatant for two years since he was captured in Afghanistan will be allowed to see a lawyer. Yasser Hamdi was born in Louisiana, was with Taliban fighters when he was captured.

He's being held at a brig in Charleston, South Carolina. He's never been charged. A few days back the government made a similar decision to allow lawyers to see the other American being held without charges, Jose Padilla.

In Iraq, some confusing reports today concerning one of the U.S. military's most wanted Iraqis, Izzat Ibrahim Al-Douri. U.S. forces did capture a man named Al-Douri, Mohammad Al-Douri (ph), which sparked rumors that Ibrahim, one of the highest ranking members of the Saddam regime, had been caught. Tonight the coalition says, no, still at large.

Nothing uncertain about this, though. In Baghdad, the first of four massive bronze busts of Saddam Hussein was removed from the republican palace.

Each one, 30 feet tall, thought to weigh about seven tons. They depict the deposed leader as an early 20th century Muslim fighter in battles to topple the Ottoman Empire. The other heads will come down later this month.

In Spain, funerals held for seven intelligence officers killed in Iraq over the weekend. Their civilian cars were ambushed south of Baghdad, and eight agents survived the attacks.

Spain, as you know, has been a strong supporter of the war in Iraq and has about 1,300 troops in the country.

Now to another major conflict in the Middle East and the controversy over the unofficial peace plan to end it.

They call it the Geneva Accord. And although it is anything but binding, it is certainly provocative. Its architects, both leaders from both sides -- Palestinian and Israeli -- presented it yesterday formally in Geneva. From there they travel to Washington, D.C., where they hope to meet with Secretary of State Colin Powell this week.

Israel today, the government warned Secretary Powell, that he'll be making a mistake if he agrees to do so.

We're joined tonight by David Makovsky, senior fellow and director of the Project for Middle East Peace Process at the Washington Institute. It's always good to see you.

DAVID MAKOVSKY, WASHINGTON INSTITUTE: And you.

BROWN: Thank you.

I want to get to the Powell question, but let's just talk about the accord more broadly. What does it mean, if anything? Because I think to some, certainly critics of it, it is essentially gambling with somebody else's money. I mean, it's easy to come up with a plan if it doesn't count.

MAKOVSKY: Yes. I mean, there's somewhat of a parallel universe sense. You have an ex-Israeli official with an ex-Palestinian official signing a shadow peace agreement in Geneva.

But the fact is some will view this as this an exercise of public diplomacy, a ray of light, demonstrating that Israelis and Palestinians can sit together and make an agreement. However, it's been meeting opposition from all quarters.

On the Palestinian side, Yasser Arafat's Fattah Movement refused to endorse it. Arafat refused to let the negotiators go, changed his mind and in a crafted statement saying, well, it could open the door but he doesn't want to be bound by the terms outright.

On the Israeli side, the opposition is also fierce. Sharon's aides called it an outright capitulation. Adel Baroch (ph) said it was delusional. Shimon Peres, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, said he wouldn't sign it.

So it's definitely provocative, Aaron, but it could have one effect. It could prod the other part of the parallel universe on the ground to move forward on this road map, which has been stalled for several months. And I think that could be its immediate impact. But not in terms of resolving all these existential issues that it purported to sign yesterday.

BROWN: There does seem to be a bit of a rustling on the ground, not a movement in any particular direction, but just a sort of rustling.

MAKOVSKY: Yes, that's correct. And I think that's creating some sort of a tactical observance between the Abu Allah, the new Palestinian prime minister and Sharon, in the sense that the prime minister of Israel.

Because the publics on both sides say where is the strategy, where is this going? And I think in the short term we may see a resurrection of what happened in the summer of a cease-fire that will be designed to stop the killing process and maybe create a peace process.

Nothing as grandiose as what was signed in Geneva. But I think people realized over the summer, that no side, whether it was in Washington, Jerusalem, Ramallah, no one did their optimal efforts to see that the Abu Mazen government succeed. And that might have lead them to say, well, let's get this road map on the road and not make the mistakes of three months ago.

BROWN: And just quickly on the Powell question, the implications of Secretary of State Colin Powell meeting or not meeting with the Geneva "negotiators," in quotes.

MAKOVSKY: Yes. Well, I think Powell, and his aides at the State Department have made it publicly clear. They've used this as stirring a debate in both camps among Israelis and Palestinians. They're very careful not to endorse the terms of the agreement, which have proven so controversial on both sides.

But there is a dissatisfaction with the lack of movement in general on the ground in the Middle East. And they're hoping again, that if it will have any impact, maybe it will get the road map on the road. Even if it doesn't, even if there's not a rightness to solve the grand conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.

But given the bleakness and the violence there, even some momentum is better than continued killing.

BROWN: I guess, finally, do you detect any willingness for the administration, particularly the president, to jump into this with both feet? Because while he --it seems to me that he got into it for a bit, when it sort of went south on him, he pulled back.

MAKOVSKY: I think you're right. I think this president is not anxious to jump in it again. I think he'd be very happy to do what he did last week, quietly send White House envoys to Rome to meet with Sharon for five hours and have him get the road map started again.

But not invest his own personal authority when, in his mind, this still remains a very big gamble. So it seems that, until there is some evidence that terrorism is under control and this road map is actually going somewhere, it seems to me this president is not going to invest himself personally at this time.

BROWN: David, it's good to see you. Thank you very much.

MAKOVSKY: It's good to be with you, Aaron.

BROWN: Thank you, sir.

Coming up on NEWSNIGHT tonight: not enough holiday cheer for one classic American toy store. Could this be the last Christmas for FAO Schwarz? And later: the new face of Mississippi State football and a new day in the Southeastern Conference -- the story of Sylvester Croom and more, as NEWSNIGHT continues on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: The poet William Blake once wrote, "The child's toys and the old man's reasons are the fruits of the two seasons." He wrote it long before a toy store named FAO Schwarz put both together under a single roof for all seasons, aisle after aisle of child's play, accompanied by that very adult sound of a cash register ringing.

Or so it was until earlier this year, when the company that operates the toy stores all across the country filed for bankruptcy, filed the first time. And now it looks like a second bankruptcy filing is just around the corner, sure as Christmas.

Here's NEWSNIGHT financial correspondent Allan Chernoff.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The biggest teddy bear in town may soon be gone. Just as parents are pursuing holiday presents, America's fanciest toy store chain is going belly up.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're sad. We come here every year. We take our picture out right by the bear for our Christmas card. We're sad.

CHERNOFF: The parent company of FAO Schwarz plans to declare bankruptcy this week, its second descent into Chapter 11 this year. FAO Schwarz is for sale, as is the company's well-regarded "Right Start" catalog and Internet business. If buyers are not found in two weeks, the company is threatening to liquidate. That's already the fate for FAO's Zany Brainy division.

DAVID LEIBOWITZ, BURNHAM SECURITIES, INC..: As Tarzan said to Jane, it's a jungle out there. No question about it, that this is going to be the roughest toy retailing year in recent memory.

CHERNOFF: In the movie "Big," Tom Hanks played the piano at FAO. It is a wonderland of toys, a place children love to visit. But many parents would rather wait in line at Wal-Mart or Target, where prices are a fraction of what FAO charges.

The competition has even turned Toys "R" Us into a money-losing company. FAO Schwarz tried cutting expenses and begged its bankers for more credit, but they refused. So, as the 140-year-old toy store legend teeters on the verge of collapse, all sales for the next two weeks will be final.

Allan Chernoff, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: A few other bits of business before we take a break, starting with the headquarters of the Enron company in Houston. The building went on the auction block today. The process could take a bit. And as for the trademark crooked E outside the front door, it's already gone. You remember? It was auctioned off earlier in the year.

New car and truck sales shot up in November. Two reasons for that, say the experts, year-end sales incentives and an economy that is moving forward.

The Pentagon made it official today, delaying a deal to acquire 100 aerial tankers from the Boeing Company. This was an enormous deal for Boeing, $20 billion. This comes a day after Boeing's chairman and CEO, Phil Condit, stepped down. It also comes after weeks of controversy over the shape of the deal and the cost and ethical questions at Boeing as well.

Markets were down today, not by much, the selling described as mild. This is what market watchers call profit-taking. After the last few weeks, there have been some profits there to take.

Still to come on NEWSNIGHT: a new day for a place where football is king, as the first black head football coach takes over at Mississippi State.

Around the world, this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Well, we will admit that, until yesterday, we had never heard of Sylvester Croom. Tonight, we not only know who he is. We know a fair amount about how he came to be.

When he was a kid in the South, the busses, the restaurants, the state universities were segregated. He was one of the first black football players to break that barrier. He did it at Alabama. A thousand barriers have fallen since, but, until today, the big and important Southeastern football conference had never had a head black football coach. Mississippi State University changed that today, and so did Mr. Croom.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN (voice-over): It was history, as he walked into a packed room to a round of applause. He gave a giant hug to his mother, knowing that he was suddenly one of the most visible African Americans in the deep South.

SYLVESTER CROOM, MISSISSIPPI STATE FOOTBALL COACH: I knew there would be some cameras here, but I didn't realize it was going to be like this.

(LAUGHTER)

BROWN: Sylvester Croom's hiring as the first black coach in the football-crazed Southeastern Conference was important, important because Mississippi is not, say those who know her, still altogether trapped in a stereotype.

MFANYA TRYMAN, MISSISSIPPI STATE UNIVERSITY: There's been two African-Americans on the state Supreme Court. The mayor of the largest city in Jackson, of course, is African-American. So I think it's very important. And I think it continues a trend. I don't think -- in one sense, it's not a first. It's a first for Mississippi State, but it's not a first for the state.

BROWN: As a teenager, Croom was one of the first black athletes recruited to play football at the University of Alabama. That was 1973. And back then, as he reminded us earlier today, the climate in the South was entirely different.

CROOM: For me to be standing here, if we were to go back when I first went to the university, of course, this would not have been possible at that time, when I first went to college at Alabama. The fact that Wilbur Jackson was the first African-American player there had the same significance pretty much as this.

BROWN (on camera): Do you have any concerns that the state will be more impatient with you than it would be to a white football coach?

CROOM: Well, I think the administration here, our supporters here, I think they all understand where we are and where we have to get to.

Of course, ultimately, any football coach, you've got to win games. But we're in the process of trying to build a solid foundation. And I feel very comfortable and assured that the Mississippi State family is -- we're going to all get together and take this thing one day at a time and try to build something on a solid foundation that we can be proud of for years to come.

BROWN (voice-over): He has his work cut out for him. Croom, who had a secure job as the running backs coach for the Green Bay Packers, replaces a college football legend. His predecessor is Jackie Sherrill, who retired last month after the school's worst season since 1988.

The Mississippi State Bulldogs won only two games this year, have won only eight games in three seasons. Still, this day was not about the future. It was about the present.

TRYMAN: I think it's an excellent day. This is a historical day for Mississippi State University, for the state of Mississippi. It's still a historical first. You can't overlook that. But, yes, I think it's been a great day.

BROWN (on camera): And just finally, that worst of all reporter's questions, how do you feel today?

CROOM: Well, right now, I'm somewhat overwhelmed because of the -- it's the first time I've ever seen this many media people in one setting since -- really, since I went to the Super Bowl when I was in San Diego. That was amazing. But to be directly involved with them myself, yes, it's somewhat overwhelming. But I know that this, too, will pass.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Times change.

Some other stories making news today from around the country.

John Muhammad's son takes the stand today in the sniper trial of Lee Malvo. Lindbergh Williams testified that his father was a manipulator who, in so many words, brainwashed him as a child into thinking his mother abused him. The defense maintains that Mr. Muhammad did a similar job on young Mr. Malvo.

Early testimony doesn't seem to bode well for Bill Janklow, the congressman from South Dakota. A prosecution witness at his manslaughter trial today said the congressman failed to even slow down before running a stop sign and hitting and killing a motorcyclist. Congressman Janklow faces 10 years in prison and expulsion from the House if convicted.

And the court-appointed guardian for Terri Schiavo says he can see no likelihood that she will ever recover from brain injuries. In his report to Florida Governor Jeb Bush, Dr. Jay Wolfson says all evidence supports the notion that Ms. Schiavo is in a persistent vegetative state. But given the contentious nature of the case, Dr. Wolfson also recommended that more testing be done.

Ahead on NEWSNIGHT: preserving painful memories, a look at how the debris from the 9/11 attacks is being saved for future generations to see.

This is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: An exhibit that opened shortly -- a short time ago at the New York Historical Society speaks to the power of objects, some quite ordinary, to convey the scope of loss.

On display are objects recovered from the Fresh Kills Landfill, where nearly two million tons of wreckage from the World Trade Center were painstakingly sorted. What is on display is a fraction of what was found, a quest that began October 4 of 2001, when museum curators and historians gathered in New York.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARK SCHAMING, DIRECTOR OF EXHIBITIONS, NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM: I think, with the World Trade Center, we had one shot and a very narrow window of time to collect the stories and the objects. The big question was, what is going to be saved? What are they finding?

BROWN (voice-over): Two years later, there are storage rooms filled with objects, most of them retrieved from the nearly two million tons of debris taken from ground zero to Fresh Kills Landfill.

SCHAMING: We expected to see at Fresh Gill desks and chairs and recognize -- fields of recognizable things. And we were just shocked that we didn't. It was just 175 acres of unidentifiable gray debris.

BROWN: Out of the debris came the stories, stories of the devastation.

SCHAMING: This is a seat belt, probably from one of the planes. We took everything off the site that they found that they identified as a plane part.

BROWN: There are stories of heroism.

SARAH HENRY, DEPUTY DIRECTOR, MUSEUM OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK: This came to us also from the fire department. And it's an air pack that the firefighters used. And this is what we saw as all those firefighters went into the buildings. It really speaks to the story of the attempt at the rescue effort and the bravery of the people who went in.

BROWN: Stories of lives lost represented in the most ordinary of objects.

HENRY: We'll never know what the real story is of the person who lost this. But it's that finding the human connection within the vastness of the disaster and also the individual within something that's such a -- not an individual event.

BROWN: Stories of the hope that people clung to. HENRY: One of the most important things that we collected as a single object was the wall of prayer which stood outside of Bellevue Hospital. It's almost hard to remember how plastered the city was with those missing-persons posters. They were on every bus shelter and every mailbox and on every wall. And here is, in a way, a time capsule.

BROWN: And a very public mourning.

HENRY: All of these things that people poured from their hearts and put out in the public, in the public eye, as this collective expression of mourning. And that's what it really was. It was the whole city's emotional response that needed to be shared.

BROWN: It is said to be the most documented event in all of human history. But, for future generations, it may be these remnants that tell the story best.

HENRY: What they do is, they bring home the actual physical reality of the event, because other representations, film and video included, are representations. But the real object testifies to the fact that this isn't just a story and it wasn't just a movie. It really happened.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Morning papers after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(ROOSTER CROWING)

BROWN: Okeydokey, time to check morning papers from around the country and around the world. I don't know why I did it that way.

We begin tonight with a new paper for us, but hardly a new paper, "The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review." Probably, at one time, there was a "Pittsburgh Tribune" and a "Pittsburgh Review," but now they're one. "GOP Gives Ground on Income Tax," a slight increase, modest increase in the income tax perhaps headed for the residents of Pennsylvania. "Bush Tough on Iraq and Mum on Steel." The president was doing a fund-raiser in Pittsburgh yesterday. He does lot of fund-raisers, doesn't he? Anyway, we welcome them and we appreciate there sending it along.

And as long as we're in the state of Pennsylvania, "The Philadelphia Inquirer." A third have not filed for the 9/11 Fund. This is an incredibly perplexing and troubling story, that people who are entitled to compensation from 9/11 for a variety of reasons do not file. And time is running out, less than three weeks for them.

"The Miami Herald" tonight, a couple of stories I liked.

(BELL RINGING)

BROWN: What is that dinging sound? What is that about, David? "Conflict Freed in Slaying Caught in Sting." Timothy Brown, whose fight for freedom ended in the conviction of the 1990 cop- killing being overturned, is back behind bars for dealing drugs. The guy was in prison for 12 years, out for seven months, busted in a sting. Anyway, come on, people. Be smarter than that. OK?

"Guantanamo Case Delayed by Possible Data Leak." This is the case of James Yousef Yee, who at one point was charged -- or suspected of spying and treason. And now it comes down to mostly a charge of adultery, which is a bad thing, but it's not treason, right?

"The Detroit News," down at the bottom, if you will. "Northwest Fliers Sit Pretty in $30,000 Seats." OK, this is one of those seats you will never fly in, and neither will I. But they've got fancy new seats. And why is that on the front page of "The Detroit News," you ask? Because Northwest Airlines has a big hub at that fancy airport now in Detroit. So that was worth a front-page story to them.

How we doing on time?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 1:07.

BROWN: 1:07.

This story appears in a couple of places, actually, in slightly different forms. "The Dallas Morning News." "Putting the Oval in Office. NASCAR Dads Represent a Shift in Voter Demographic Groups." It was NASCAR day at the White House today, I guess. And it used to be soccer moms. This year, it's NASCAR dads. And they tend to be -- vote Republican, or so the thinking goes.

"The Washington Times." "Polygamists..."

(BELL RINGING)

BROWN: Thank you -- "Use Ruling on Sodomy. Santorum Prediction Coming True." This is the case of a convicted polygamist in Utah -- where else -- who says the recent Supreme Court decision in Texas allowing sodomy should allow him to have as many wives as he wants.

OK, "The Chicago Sun-Times." Didn't get to one I wanted to get to. We'll bring it back tomorrow. It's a weekly. I can do that. "Chicago Schoolkids Twice as Likely to be Obese." OK, I don't know why that is. Could be the pizza, but I'm not sure. The weather tomorrow in Chicago, "placid." But my thinking, it's cold. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to move that on you -- 36 degrees. Anyway, that's "The Chicago Sun-Times."

That's morning papers.

We'll update our top story in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: A quick recap of our top story tonight. Authorities in Columbus, Ohio, now say they are confident that a dozen shootings, all but one at cars, along a stretch of the interstate are connected. Ballistic evidence positively links four of them, including one in which a 62-year-old woman died. They are not identifying the type of gun used, nor will they say if they are close to catching the shooter.

Tomorrow night on this program: Boone, Iowa, a small town making big sacrifices in Iraq and Afghanistan. Hundreds of residents are off to war in a town of just a few thousand. That's tomorrow on NEWSNIGHT.

"LOU DOBBS TONIGHT" is next.

And good night for all of us at NEWSNIGHT.

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





Search for Missing Woman; Controversy Brews Over Sealed Dean Papers>


Aired December 2, 2003 - 22:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
AARON BROWN, HOST: Good evening again, everyone.
Sometimes we look at the program and it all fits together like a completed jigsaw puzzle, one story logically leading to the next, which leads to the next and the next. Tonight isn't one of those nights.

Tonight seems to be a series of pieces, all good, but somehow all unrelated. A sniper here, an abduction there, memories of 9/11 in this corner, a breakthrough in race relations in another. If there is some theme in it all, we don't yet see it.

Rather than spending any more time searching, we'll just lay it out there, beginning as we always do, with "The Whip."

And the whip begins in Ohio tonight, 12 shootings and much mystery. CNN's Kris Osborn on the sniper story. Kris, a headline.

KRIS OSBORN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Franklin County officials say there are now 12 shootings under investigation and that they are all related. Additionally, they've linked four of them through ballistic evidence -- Aaron.

BROWN: Kris, thank you. We'll get to you at the top tonight.

Cincinnati, Ohio, next and a new look at the moments leading up to that fatal police beating, which were also caught on videotape. CNN's Ed Lavandera is in Cincinnati tonight.

Ed, a headline.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Aaron. Just a short while ago, Cincinnati police here releasing video images from nine cameras in the White Castle restaurant parking lot that show the moments before and during the scuffle that led to the death of a 41-year-old man here in Cincinnati.

Now the question is how will all the people here in Cincinnati interpret what they see.

BROWN: Ed, thank you.

On to North Dakota as we move west. The search for Dru Sjodin and the arrest of a sex offender, possibly in connection with her disappearance. CNN's Jeff Flock with that tonight. Jeff, a headline.

JEFF FLOCK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, it's cold in North Dakota, too, where indeed authorities arrested a man today they think may be responsible for the disappearance of 22-year-old Dru Sjodin.

However, they have not found what they really want to find in this case, and that is Ms. Sjodin herself. She's now missing ten days.

BROWN: Jeff, thank you. And I suspect it's cold in Iowa, too, a possible bump on the campaign trail for Democratic front-runner now, Howard Dean. CNN's Candy Crowley spoke with the governor today. So a headline from you.

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, the question is, how much information does the public have a right to know about the man who wants to be president? That's the question Howard Dean is wrestling with. And we're not talking about the private life of a public person, but the public life of a public person -- Aaron.

BROWN: And we thank you. We'll get back to you and the rest shortly.

Also ahead tonight, new terror warning in Africa. We'll have the details. We'll also look at the increasing pressure on both the Israelis and the Palestinians to reach some sort of peace deal or at least start talking peace again.

Later, word that this might be the last holiday shopping season for a classic American toy store.

We'll also have the story of Sylvester Croom, the new head football coach at Mississippi State and the first black man to ever hold that position in that hotbed of football, the south, Eastern Conference and the emphasis, of course, on the south.

"Segment 7" tonight focuses on efforts to preserve debris from the World Trade Center for use in museums. It is a lovely story.

And how else but lovely would describe our nightly trip through morning papers.

All that and more in the hour ahead.

We begin with what's been happening on a five-mile stretch of the interstate in central Ohio. People have been getting shot at. One person has died, 12 shootings in all.

Up to this point authorities have been understandably reluctant to make more of it than might be there, but today that changed.

Here's CNN's Kris Osborn.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) OSBORN (voice-over): Law enforcement is now saying there is a connection between all 12 shootings along Ohio's Interstate 270 in this area.

STEVE MARTIN, FRANKLIN COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPUTY: And we are comfortable collectively that those 12 are related.

OSBORN: But Franklin County authorities say they have ballistic matches on only four of the shootings so far, including one at a nearby elementary school on November 11.

MARTIN: We recently submitted bullet fragments taken from a shooting incident at Hamilton Township Elementary School, 1105 Rathmel Road (ph), Columbus on November 11, has been positively linked to the weapon used to kill Mrs. Knisley.

OSBORN: Gail Knisley is the only death in the shooting. The other new ballistic match is from the bullet that smashed through truck driver Bill Bridge's window on November 19.

His van was among the shootings being investigated by authorities.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And I come off of 23 north there and on to 270 westbound and I was listening to an excellent blues guitar player and I'm thinking, I'm almost home, you know. And all of a sudden, out of nowhere, boom! The window blows in on me and there was a real loud bang.

OSBORN: A joint task force, including FBI and ATF agents, is combing through wooded areas in search of more bullet fragments from this string of shootings, something made more challenging by the high number of hunters and recreational gun users in the area.

Describing these shootings as intentional, law enforcement officials say security efforts around Columbus are expanding to include neighborhoods and schools.

MARTIN: We'll extend our protection, is what we'll do basically. It took it off the interstate and also it off of State Route 23 and puts it more in a residential type setting now.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: The Ohio story reported tonight by CNN's Kris Osborn.

A little bit south in Ohio, federal officials today began reviewing a fatal police beating in Cincinnati. The beating, you may remember -- how could you forget -- was caught on videotape.

Tonight we learn from police that other cameras had a look at the moments leading up to the incident. So we go back to CNN's Ed Lavandera, who joins us tonight from Cincinnati.

Ed, good evening.

LAVANDERA: Hi, Aaron.

The video images that Cincinnati police released just a short while ago here are not from the police car. These are from nine video cameras stationed throughout the parking lot at the White Castle restaurant, where this altercation took place Sunday morning.

Now the video images essentially capture the first, about the 20 minutes before Nathaniel Jones was killed in the altercation with the six police officers here in Cincinnati.

And what you see throughout most of it, it was the moments where Nathaniel Jones drives into the parking lot, begins to walk around the restaurant, at one point going inside, hugs an employee that he knows there. Clearly from the video images that you see, Nathaniel Jones is under the influence of something.

Authorities here are saying that he was dancing around, at one point even walking outside, walking as if he were some sort of soldier, bumping into a wall, falling over, then rolling down a hill. That startled some of the employees that worked at the White Castle restaurant, prompting them to call authorities.

After the fire department showed up and tried to treat Nathaniel Jones, a short while after that, police officers show up.

And at one point in the video image, you see one of the officers go to the back of their police unit and reach for an orange bag. Now, police here suspect that one of those officers might have been going for a pepper ball gun or a bean ball bag shotgun, weapons that they use to try to subdue people. They stress that these are less than lethal weapons that they can use in these types of altercations.

At that very moment as well, you see Nathaniel Jones walk out of the image. It's very hard to see, but it's from the camera in the drive-through window. You see him lunge forward toward where the officers are. Authorities here say this had been after he had been told three times to step back and back up. And that's when the altercation happened.

Authorities here stressing this evening that they hope that when people see these video images, they will understand that if Mr. Jones had acted differently, perhaps none of this would have happened.

Now, we do understand that authorities here have shown these images to a group of African-American ministers that met with officials just a short while ago, earlier this afternoon. Not exactly sure how they reacted to these video images. What we suspect, we will be hearing from them in the hours and perhaps tomorrow, as well -- Aaron.

BROWN: Give me a best feel for where the city of Cincinnati is tonight, reminding viewers, as we must, that just a bit less than three years ago, there were race riots in the city over an incident where a young black man was shot by a police officer.

LAVANDERA: I spent most of the day today speaking with a group of African-American ministers here in Cincinnati. I got the sense from them there is a tempered reaction from them. They really want -- what they stress and what they really want is a full investigation.

One of the things that they're angry about is that the authorities here have come so quickly out before the investigation is even wrapped up to exonerate these officers. That has angered them at this point, and that's what they're angry about.

They want the process just to work its way through, and if something, some sort of disciplinary action or criminal charges need to be brought forward, they hope that that would be done. But they say that can only be done if authorities take their time and weigh everything carefully.

BROWN: Not trying to walk you in any direction here, but just give me and give viewers a feel for the tone of the language from, I guess, both communities today, from the police community, the government community and from the African-American community.

LAVANDERA: Well, there is a growing echo from the African- American community, perhaps. We've heard a lot of calls for the resignation of the police chief here.

At the same time, the police chief saying that, no, he will not back down, he will see this investigation through.

So from the legal side, the law enforcement side of this, they are still standing by how these officers acted. In echoing what the captain -- one of the captains here at the police department said this evening, that if Mr. Jones had acted differently -- in that very split moment where you see Nathaniel Jones kind of lunge toward authorities, that was the moment, they say, that changed everything in that altercation.

BROWN: Again, this is the video -- Ed, I'm not sure if you can see this, but we're looking at the video from inside the restaurant. This was very early Sunday morning, late Saturday night, Sunday morning. And this is what it led to.

Mr. Jones, who weighed about 350 pounds, clearly -- I don't think anybody disputes the fact that he went after police. Ultimately, the question will come down to whether, faced with a man who was on drugs, according to the coroner at least, had drugs in his system and a sizable man, whether there was a way to subdue him, other than the way they did.

Obviously, the hood of the car makes it difficult to see everything that's going on. But there is no question that Mr. Jones does at one point or several points go after police.

LAVANDERA: Yes. And that's what many of the African-American members here in this community in Cincinnati say that -- they say, hey, listen, even though he was perhaps on drugs -- they have authorities coming out today, the medical examiner saying traces of cocaine and PCP were found inside of Nathaniel Jones' car -- that despite all of that, that condition, it didn't have to lead to this. That's what many of the members of the African-American community here in Cincinnati are troubled by the most.

BROWN: Ed, thanks a lot. I know you worked late tonight to get the tape. We appreciate that. Ed Lavandera in Cincinnati tonight.

An item today caught our eye in the "Grand Forks Herald." "Volunteers needed," it read, "for a search tomorrow morning."

They'll be looking for Dru Sjodin, who was in the middle of a cell phone conversation with her boyfriend when the line went dead and she vanished. That was ten days ago.

Tonight, there's a repeat sex offender in custody in connection with the case, but there's also that headline in the paper because Dru Sjodin is out there somewhere, still.

Here's CNN's Jeff Flock.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALLAN SJODIN, DRU SJODIN'S FATHER: Honey, we're still looking for you. We know you're there.

FLOCK (voice-over): A father with hope.

SJODIN: We're just overwhelmed with this.

FLOCK: Authorities with a possible break in the disappearance of 22-year-old Dru Sjodin.

CHIEF JOHN PACKETT, GRAND FORKS POLICE DEPARTMENT: Alfonso Rodriguez Jr. was arrested at his home in Crookston for the charge of kidnapping, which is an A Felony in North Dakota.

FLOCK: Fifty-year-old Alfonso Rodriguez, arrested in this house, where he'd been living with his mother after spending nearly all of the past three decades in either treatment or prison for violent sex crimes.

(on camera) Though they won't say how they got it, police investigators say they have developed information that Mr. Rodriguez was in the parking lot of this shopping mall the night Dru disappeared. It is that information, they say, that led them to make the arrest.

PACKETT: He is a level three sex offender in Minnesota.

FLOCK (voice-over): Grand Forks prosecutor Peter Welte would give few details, but according to Minnesota corrections officials, Rodriguez' record includes a conviction in 1974 for attempted rape and aggravated rape.

He did time and treatment then. But within days of being released six years later, stabbed a woman and tried to force her into his car. He did 23 years for aggravated kidnapping and assault and was released in May of this year.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Dru, we will find you.

FLOCK: Investigators put divers in the Red River near Rodriguez's home in Crookston, Minnesota, east of Grand Forks and also released a picture of his maroon 2002 Mercury Sable, saying they believe they have the evidence to tie him to the disappearance of the former homecoming queen, who has now been gone for ten days.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FLOCK: Aaron, there is no indication at all that Mr. Rodriguez is cooperating with authorities. And in fact, that search -- the big search that you mentioned set for tomorrow, some might suggest it is, perhaps, in part designed to send a message to whoever is responsible for the abduction, if you know where she is, tell us now, because we are going to sooner or later find her -- Aaron.

BROWN: Just back to the suspect for a minute. Is there in either -- well, I guess -- he was living in Minnesota, in Crookston. So is there a Megan's Law where people in the community were aware of his background?

FLOCK: They were very much aware of it. In fact, there was a community meeting about Mr. Rodriguez there. One of the ladies that lives down the street said she told her children never to go out in the yard when he was around.

So he was known, and he was there since May in that community. He, of course, had to register, being a sex offender. And so he was well known. But certainly no one had any indication that he might have been responsible for this.

And of course at this point, he is in custody and that's where it stands right now.

BROWN: Jeff, thank you very much. Jeff Flock in Grand Forks, in North Dakota, tonight.

Politics next a little farther south. Democrat Howard Dean coming under fire for sealing some of his records for the time he was the governor of Vermont, stuff for the history books in the years to come but also traditionally red meat for opposition research, starting right about now.

Just ask Michael Dukakis, Willie Horton, which is not to say that Governor Dean has any Willie Hortons to hide or anything else. Only that the issue, privacy to some, secrecy to others, is now in play.

Here's CNN's Candy Crowley.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When do you think we'll do it?

HOWARD DEAN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Just ask headquarters. CROWLEY (voice-over): It was a mini-document drama. What's in those records, and why can't the public see them?

DEAN: We'd like to be accommodating, but the laws are very, very complicated.

CROWLEY: The Dean camp says about 60 percent of the documents and records from his eight years as governor of Vermont are public; 40 percent were sealed when he left office.

DEAN: There are provisions for protecting some of the people who said things to me, gave me advice during that time. Whatever we've done, it's within Vermont law.

CROWLEY: The former governor says he doesn't even know what's in those records, but last January he wasn't taking any chances.

DEAN: Now there are future political considerations. We wouldn't want anything embarrassing appearing in the papers at a critical time in any future endeavor.

CROWLEY: There is such a thing as being too candid.

Dean operatives dismiss the sealed documents story as old news. Steeled by the fourth stop of the day, UNCLE (ph), the candidate was checking out his options.

DEAN: We don't know what's in there. I don't. The lawyers do. I don't. So we've got to find out all of that kind of information. We don't have that information.

CROWLEY (on camera): So you're going to find that out?

DEAN: We're going to find that out.

CROWLEY (voice-over): The up side is, reporters don't pester also-rans, and Republicans pay them no heed.

But take a look. This is the Republican Party chairman visiting Vermont, complaining about the sealed records.

DEAN: Very flattered to have the attention. Evidently, perhaps we weren't the candidate they wanted after all.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CROWLEY: There's no suggestion there is anything in those sealed records that might hurt former Governor Dean. However, that is probably what Michael Dukakis thought when he unsealed his records, giving his rivals months of things to chew on -- Aaron.

BROWN: Well, we'll take our chance with the snow and wind for a second.

There was a flap back awhile ago involving President Bush and his records, his papers when he was governor. That he, as I recall, had turned over to his father's presidential library and where they were being held. What's the status of the president's pages?

CROWLEY: The status we are told by an archivist in Texas is that those records are open. There are certain things that you have to use a Freedom of Information Act to file for getting them out. And the state archivist looks at those. And there are things that are redacted, names and things like that. But with some effort you can get at them, we're told.

BROWN: Now, let me just ask for your opinion on something.

CROWLEY: Uh-oh.

BROWN: Yes, I know. Does any of this matter? I mean, are voters going to -- Particularly voters who feel strongly about Governor Dean. Are they going to care one way or the other about these papers? What does your instinct tell you?

CROWLEY: The voters -- my instincts tells me that the voters for Governor Dean, you can feel it out here, you can feel it in New Hampshire. They're very passionate about Howard Dean.

And in essence what we see is every time there's something about him, it backfires and makes them more passionate. So it won't move those people.

Will it move people who are perhaps thinking about it? Not this alone. If you add up some other things, and if the drip keeps going, maybe it does. But at the moment it's not going to fuel any kind of departure from Dean, and those people are still going to come out in the Iowa snow and vote for him on caucus day.

BROWN: Warm up, Candy. Thank you very much. Candy Crowley in Iowa tonight.

Ahead on NEWSNIGHT, Africa on alert. The latest on a new terror threat in Kenya.

Later we'll see how historians are trying to preserving some of the debris collected after the collapse of the World Trade Center towers on 9/11.

From New York, this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: It used to be that government terror warnings would come with a built-in footnote, a warning, if you will, that the information was vague, non-specific, given mostly out of an abundance of caution. Perhaps the intelligence is getting better.

A recent series of warnings accurately predicted trouble in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere. And the latest warning from the State Department doesn't hedge. It is specific, very, for a good reason.

Here's CNN's Andrea Koppel.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In West Nairobi, military police were on alert, following anonymous threats against a British bank and Dutch airline.

Another threat came in an anonymous e-mail to the U.S. Embassy in Kenya's capital.

A State Department public announcement said the terrorist threats were aimed at American and Western interests in downtown Nairobi, specifically targeting the Stanley Hotel and the Hilton Hotel.

The announcement notes this information has not been corroborated. But according to the U.S. ambassador to Kenya, the e- mail specified Wednesday as the target date for an attack.

J. ADAM ERELI, SPOKESMAN, STATE DEPARTMENT: It anonymous warning also said that the timing of the threat was for the next several days. So given that specificity, it was incumbent upon us to take the steps that we took.

KOPPEL: A popular tourist destination, Kenya has been targeted by al Qaeda terrorists before: last year in Mombasa, when suicide bombers killed more than a dozen people at an Israeli-owned hotel and attempted to bring down an Israeli passenger jet with shoulder-fired missiles. And in 1998, when suicide bombers attacked the U.S. embassy, killing 219 people.

Meanwhile, in Saudi Arabia, just weeks after al Qaeda is believed to have carried out suicide bombings at a mostly Arab housing compound in Riyadh, the U.S. embassy issued fresh warnings.

ERELI: The Sidar Village Housing Compound in Riyadh has been under active surveillance by terrorist elements and that other Western compounds within the kingdom may also be targeted.

KOPPEL (on camera): For that reason, the State Department is urging Americans to avoid all non-essential travel to the Saudi kingdom and to Kenya, and is warning those Americans already in both of those countries to remain vigilant, keep a low profile, and to avoid places where westerners are known to congregate.

Andrea Koppel, CNN, at the State Department.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: A couple of other items from around the world.

Today the Pentagon said today an American who has been held as an enemy combatant for two years since he was captured in Afghanistan will be allowed to see a lawyer. Yasser Hamdi was born in Louisiana, was with Taliban fighters when he was captured.

He's being held at a brig in Charleston, South Carolina. He's never been charged. A few days back the government made a similar decision to allow lawyers to see the other American being held without charges, Jose Padilla.

In Iraq, some confusing reports today concerning one of the U.S. military's most wanted Iraqis, Izzat Ibrahim Al-Douri. U.S. forces did capture a man named Al-Douri, Mohammad Al-Douri (ph), which sparked rumors that Ibrahim, one of the highest ranking members of the Saddam regime, had been caught. Tonight the coalition says, no, still at large.

Nothing uncertain about this, though. In Baghdad, the first of four massive bronze busts of Saddam Hussein was removed from the republican palace.

Each one, 30 feet tall, thought to weigh about seven tons. They depict the deposed leader as an early 20th century Muslim fighter in battles to topple the Ottoman Empire. The other heads will come down later this month.

In Spain, funerals held for seven intelligence officers killed in Iraq over the weekend. Their civilian cars were ambushed south of Baghdad, and eight agents survived the attacks.

Spain, as you know, has been a strong supporter of the war in Iraq and has about 1,300 troops in the country.

Now to another major conflict in the Middle East and the controversy over the unofficial peace plan to end it.

They call it the Geneva Accord. And although it is anything but binding, it is certainly provocative. Its architects, both leaders from both sides -- Palestinian and Israeli -- presented it yesterday formally in Geneva. From there they travel to Washington, D.C., where they hope to meet with Secretary of State Colin Powell this week.

Israel today, the government warned Secretary Powell, that he'll be making a mistake if he agrees to do so.

We're joined tonight by David Makovsky, senior fellow and director of the Project for Middle East Peace Process at the Washington Institute. It's always good to see you.

DAVID MAKOVSKY, WASHINGTON INSTITUTE: And you.

BROWN: Thank you.

I want to get to the Powell question, but let's just talk about the accord more broadly. What does it mean, if anything? Because I think to some, certainly critics of it, it is essentially gambling with somebody else's money. I mean, it's easy to come up with a plan if it doesn't count.

MAKOVSKY: Yes. I mean, there's somewhat of a parallel universe sense. You have an ex-Israeli official with an ex-Palestinian official signing a shadow peace agreement in Geneva.

But the fact is some will view this as this an exercise of public diplomacy, a ray of light, demonstrating that Israelis and Palestinians can sit together and make an agreement. However, it's been meeting opposition from all quarters.

On the Palestinian side, Yasser Arafat's Fattah Movement refused to endorse it. Arafat refused to let the negotiators go, changed his mind and in a crafted statement saying, well, it could open the door but he doesn't want to be bound by the terms outright.

On the Israeli side, the opposition is also fierce. Sharon's aides called it an outright capitulation. Adel Baroch (ph) said it was delusional. Shimon Peres, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, said he wouldn't sign it.

So it's definitely provocative, Aaron, but it could have one effect. It could prod the other part of the parallel universe on the ground to move forward on this road map, which has been stalled for several months. And I think that could be its immediate impact. But not in terms of resolving all these existential issues that it purported to sign yesterday.

BROWN: There does seem to be a bit of a rustling on the ground, not a movement in any particular direction, but just a sort of rustling.

MAKOVSKY: Yes, that's correct. And I think that's creating some sort of a tactical observance between the Abu Allah, the new Palestinian prime minister and Sharon, in the sense that the prime minister of Israel.

Because the publics on both sides say where is the strategy, where is this going? And I think in the short term we may see a resurrection of what happened in the summer of a cease-fire that will be designed to stop the killing process and maybe create a peace process.

Nothing as grandiose as what was signed in Geneva. But I think people realized over the summer, that no side, whether it was in Washington, Jerusalem, Ramallah, no one did their optimal efforts to see that the Abu Mazen government succeed. And that might have lead them to say, well, let's get this road map on the road and not make the mistakes of three months ago.

BROWN: And just quickly on the Powell question, the implications of Secretary of State Colin Powell meeting or not meeting with the Geneva "negotiators," in quotes.

MAKOVSKY: Yes. Well, I think Powell, and his aides at the State Department have made it publicly clear. They've used this as stirring a debate in both camps among Israelis and Palestinians. They're very careful not to endorse the terms of the agreement, which have proven so controversial on both sides.

But there is a dissatisfaction with the lack of movement in general on the ground in the Middle East. And they're hoping again, that if it will have any impact, maybe it will get the road map on the road. Even if it doesn't, even if there's not a rightness to solve the grand conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.

But given the bleakness and the violence there, even some momentum is better than continued killing.

BROWN: I guess, finally, do you detect any willingness for the administration, particularly the president, to jump into this with both feet? Because while he --it seems to me that he got into it for a bit, when it sort of went south on him, he pulled back.

MAKOVSKY: I think you're right. I think this president is not anxious to jump in it again. I think he'd be very happy to do what he did last week, quietly send White House envoys to Rome to meet with Sharon for five hours and have him get the road map started again.

But not invest his own personal authority when, in his mind, this still remains a very big gamble. So it seems that, until there is some evidence that terrorism is under control and this road map is actually going somewhere, it seems to me this president is not going to invest himself personally at this time.

BROWN: David, it's good to see you. Thank you very much.

MAKOVSKY: It's good to be with you, Aaron.

BROWN: Thank you, sir.

Coming up on NEWSNIGHT tonight: not enough holiday cheer for one classic American toy store. Could this be the last Christmas for FAO Schwarz? And later: the new face of Mississippi State football and a new day in the Southeastern Conference -- the story of Sylvester Croom and more, as NEWSNIGHT continues on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: The poet William Blake once wrote, "The child's toys and the old man's reasons are the fruits of the two seasons." He wrote it long before a toy store named FAO Schwarz put both together under a single roof for all seasons, aisle after aisle of child's play, accompanied by that very adult sound of a cash register ringing.

Or so it was until earlier this year, when the company that operates the toy stores all across the country filed for bankruptcy, filed the first time. And now it looks like a second bankruptcy filing is just around the corner, sure as Christmas.

Here's NEWSNIGHT financial correspondent Allan Chernoff.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The biggest teddy bear in town may soon be gone. Just as parents are pursuing holiday presents, America's fanciest toy store chain is going belly up.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're sad. We come here every year. We take our picture out right by the bear for our Christmas card. We're sad.

CHERNOFF: The parent company of FAO Schwarz plans to declare bankruptcy this week, its second descent into Chapter 11 this year. FAO Schwarz is for sale, as is the company's well-regarded "Right Start" catalog and Internet business. If buyers are not found in two weeks, the company is threatening to liquidate. That's already the fate for FAO's Zany Brainy division.

DAVID LEIBOWITZ, BURNHAM SECURITIES, INC..: As Tarzan said to Jane, it's a jungle out there. No question about it, that this is going to be the roughest toy retailing year in recent memory.

CHERNOFF: In the movie "Big," Tom Hanks played the piano at FAO. It is a wonderland of toys, a place children love to visit. But many parents would rather wait in line at Wal-Mart or Target, where prices are a fraction of what FAO charges.

The competition has even turned Toys "R" Us into a money-losing company. FAO Schwarz tried cutting expenses and begged its bankers for more credit, but they refused. So, as the 140-year-old toy store legend teeters on the verge of collapse, all sales for the next two weeks will be final.

Allan Chernoff, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: A few other bits of business before we take a break, starting with the headquarters of the Enron company in Houston. The building went on the auction block today. The process could take a bit. And as for the trademark crooked E outside the front door, it's already gone. You remember? It was auctioned off earlier in the year.

New car and truck sales shot up in November. Two reasons for that, say the experts, year-end sales incentives and an economy that is moving forward.

The Pentagon made it official today, delaying a deal to acquire 100 aerial tankers from the Boeing Company. This was an enormous deal for Boeing, $20 billion. This comes a day after Boeing's chairman and CEO, Phil Condit, stepped down. It also comes after weeks of controversy over the shape of the deal and the cost and ethical questions at Boeing as well.

Markets were down today, not by much, the selling described as mild. This is what market watchers call profit-taking. After the last few weeks, there have been some profits there to take.

Still to come on NEWSNIGHT: a new day for a place where football is king, as the first black head football coach takes over at Mississippi State.

Around the world, this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Well, we will admit that, until yesterday, we had never heard of Sylvester Croom. Tonight, we not only know who he is. We know a fair amount about how he came to be.

When he was a kid in the South, the busses, the restaurants, the state universities were segregated. He was one of the first black football players to break that barrier. He did it at Alabama. A thousand barriers have fallen since, but, until today, the big and important Southeastern football conference had never had a head black football coach. Mississippi State University changed that today, and so did Mr. Croom.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN (voice-over): It was history, as he walked into a packed room to a round of applause. He gave a giant hug to his mother, knowing that he was suddenly one of the most visible African Americans in the deep South.

SYLVESTER CROOM, MISSISSIPPI STATE FOOTBALL COACH: I knew there would be some cameras here, but I didn't realize it was going to be like this.

(LAUGHTER)

BROWN: Sylvester Croom's hiring as the first black coach in the football-crazed Southeastern Conference was important, important because Mississippi is not, say those who know her, still altogether trapped in a stereotype.

MFANYA TRYMAN, MISSISSIPPI STATE UNIVERSITY: There's been two African-Americans on the state Supreme Court. The mayor of the largest city in Jackson, of course, is African-American. So I think it's very important. And I think it continues a trend. I don't think -- in one sense, it's not a first. It's a first for Mississippi State, but it's not a first for the state.

BROWN: As a teenager, Croom was one of the first black athletes recruited to play football at the University of Alabama. That was 1973. And back then, as he reminded us earlier today, the climate in the South was entirely different.

CROOM: For me to be standing here, if we were to go back when I first went to the university, of course, this would not have been possible at that time, when I first went to college at Alabama. The fact that Wilbur Jackson was the first African-American player there had the same significance pretty much as this.

BROWN (on camera): Do you have any concerns that the state will be more impatient with you than it would be to a white football coach?

CROOM: Well, I think the administration here, our supporters here, I think they all understand where we are and where we have to get to.

Of course, ultimately, any football coach, you've got to win games. But we're in the process of trying to build a solid foundation. And I feel very comfortable and assured that the Mississippi State family is -- we're going to all get together and take this thing one day at a time and try to build something on a solid foundation that we can be proud of for years to come.

BROWN (voice-over): He has his work cut out for him. Croom, who had a secure job as the running backs coach for the Green Bay Packers, replaces a college football legend. His predecessor is Jackie Sherrill, who retired last month after the school's worst season since 1988.

The Mississippi State Bulldogs won only two games this year, have won only eight games in three seasons. Still, this day was not about the future. It was about the present.

TRYMAN: I think it's an excellent day. This is a historical day for Mississippi State University, for the state of Mississippi. It's still a historical first. You can't overlook that. But, yes, I think it's been a great day.

BROWN (on camera): And just finally, that worst of all reporter's questions, how do you feel today?

CROOM: Well, right now, I'm somewhat overwhelmed because of the -- it's the first time I've ever seen this many media people in one setting since -- really, since I went to the Super Bowl when I was in San Diego. That was amazing. But to be directly involved with them myself, yes, it's somewhat overwhelming. But I know that this, too, will pass.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Times change.

Some other stories making news today from around the country.

John Muhammad's son takes the stand today in the sniper trial of Lee Malvo. Lindbergh Williams testified that his father was a manipulator who, in so many words, brainwashed him as a child into thinking his mother abused him. The defense maintains that Mr. Muhammad did a similar job on young Mr. Malvo.

Early testimony doesn't seem to bode well for Bill Janklow, the congressman from South Dakota. A prosecution witness at his manslaughter trial today said the congressman failed to even slow down before running a stop sign and hitting and killing a motorcyclist. Congressman Janklow faces 10 years in prison and expulsion from the House if convicted.

And the court-appointed guardian for Terri Schiavo says he can see no likelihood that she will ever recover from brain injuries. In his report to Florida Governor Jeb Bush, Dr. Jay Wolfson says all evidence supports the notion that Ms. Schiavo is in a persistent vegetative state. But given the contentious nature of the case, Dr. Wolfson also recommended that more testing be done.

Ahead on NEWSNIGHT: preserving painful memories, a look at how the debris from the 9/11 attacks is being saved for future generations to see.

This is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: An exhibit that opened shortly -- a short time ago at the New York Historical Society speaks to the power of objects, some quite ordinary, to convey the scope of loss.

On display are objects recovered from the Fresh Kills Landfill, where nearly two million tons of wreckage from the World Trade Center were painstakingly sorted. What is on display is a fraction of what was found, a quest that began October 4 of 2001, when museum curators and historians gathered in New York.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARK SCHAMING, DIRECTOR OF EXHIBITIONS, NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM: I think, with the World Trade Center, we had one shot and a very narrow window of time to collect the stories and the objects. The big question was, what is going to be saved? What are they finding?

BROWN (voice-over): Two years later, there are storage rooms filled with objects, most of them retrieved from the nearly two million tons of debris taken from ground zero to Fresh Kills Landfill.

SCHAMING: We expected to see at Fresh Gill desks and chairs and recognize -- fields of recognizable things. And we were just shocked that we didn't. It was just 175 acres of unidentifiable gray debris.

BROWN: Out of the debris came the stories, stories of the devastation.

SCHAMING: This is a seat belt, probably from one of the planes. We took everything off the site that they found that they identified as a plane part.

BROWN: There are stories of heroism.

SARAH HENRY, DEPUTY DIRECTOR, MUSEUM OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK: This came to us also from the fire department. And it's an air pack that the firefighters used. And this is what we saw as all those firefighters went into the buildings. It really speaks to the story of the attempt at the rescue effort and the bravery of the people who went in.

BROWN: Stories of lives lost represented in the most ordinary of objects.

HENRY: We'll never know what the real story is of the person who lost this. But it's that finding the human connection within the vastness of the disaster and also the individual within something that's such a -- not an individual event.

BROWN: Stories of the hope that people clung to. HENRY: One of the most important things that we collected as a single object was the wall of prayer which stood outside of Bellevue Hospital. It's almost hard to remember how plastered the city was with those missing-persons posters. They were on every bus shelter and every mailbox and on every wall. And here is, in a way, a time capsule.

BROWN: And a very public mourning.

HENRY: All of these things that people poured from their hearts and put out in the public, in the public eye, as this collective expression of mourning. And that's what it really was. It was the whole city's emotional response that needed to be shared.

BROWN: It is said to be the most documented event in all of human history. But, for future generations, it may be these remnants that tell the story best.

HENRY: What they do is, they bring home the actual physical reality of the event, because other representations, film and video included, are representations. But the real object testifies to the fact that this isn't just a story and it wasn't just a movie. It really happened.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Morning papers after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(ROOSTER CROWING)

BROWN: Okeydokey, time to check morning papers from around the country and around the world. I don't know why I did it that way.

We begin tonight with a new paper for us, but hardly a new paper, "The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review." Probably, at one time, there was a "Pittsburgh Tribune" and a "Pittsburgh Review," but now they're one. "GOP Gives Ground on Income Tax," a slight increase, modest increase in the income tax perhaps headed for the residents of Pennsylvania. "Bush Tough on Iraq and Mum on Steel." The president was doing a fund-raiser in Pittsburgh yesterday. He does lot of fund-raisers, doesn't he? Anyway, we welcome them and we appreciate there sending it along.

And as long as we're in the state of Pennsylvania, "The Philadelphia Inquirer." A third have not filed for the 9/11 Fund. This is an incredibly perplexing and troubling story, that people who are entitled to compensation from 9/11 for a variety of reasons do not file. And time is running out, less than three weeks for them.

"The Miami Herald" tonight, a couple of stories I liked.

(BELL RINGING)

BROWN: What is that dinging sound? What is that about, David? "Conflict Freed in Slaying Caught in Sting." Timothy Brown, whose fight for freedom ended in the conviction of the 1990 cop- killing being overturned, is back behind bars for dealing drugs. The guy was in prison for 12 years, out for seven months, busted in a sting. Anyway, come on, people. Be smarter than that. OK?

"Guantanamo Case Delayed by Possible Data Leak." This is the case of James Yousef Yee, who at one point was charged -- or suspected of spying and treason. And now it comes down to mostly a charge of adultery, which is a bad thing, but it's not treason, right?

"The Detroit News," down at the bottom, if you will. "Northwest Fliers Sit Pretty in $30,000 Seats." OK, this is one of those seats you will never fly in, and neither will I. But they've got fancy new seats. And why is that on the front page of "The Detroit News," you ask? Because Northwest Airlines has a big hub at that fancy airport now in Detroit. So that was worth a front-page story to them.

How we doing on time?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 1:07.

BROWN: 1:07.

This story appears in a couple of places, actually, in slightly different forms. "The Dallas Morning News." "Putting the Oval in Office. NASCAR Dads Represent a Shift in Voter Demographic Groups." It was NASCAR day at the White House today, I guess. And it used to be soccer moms. This year, it's NASCAR dads. And they tend to be -- vote Republican, or so the thinking goes.

"The Washington Times." "Polygamists..."

(BELL RINGING)

BROWN: Thank you -- "Use Ruling on Sodomy. Santorum Prediction Coming True." This is the case of a convicted polygamist in Utah -- where else -- who says the recent Supreme Court decision in Texas allowing sodomy should allow him to have as many wives as he wants.

OK, "The Chicago Sun-Times." Didn't get to one I wanted to get to. We'll bring it back tomorrow. It's a weekly. I can do that. "Chicago Schoolkids Twice as Likely to be Obese." OK, I don't know why that is. Could be the pizza, but I'm not sure. The weather tomorrow in Chicago, "placid." But my thinking, it's cold. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to move that on you -- 36 degrees. Anyway, that's "The Chicago Sun-Times."

That's morning papers.

We'll update our top story in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: A quick recap of our top story tonight. Authorities in Columbus, Ohio, now say they are confident that a dozen shootings, all but one at cars, along a stretch of the interstate are connected. Ballistic evidence positively links four of them, including one in which a 62-year-old woman died. They are not identifying the type of gun used, nor will they say if they are close to catching the shooter.

Tomorrow night on this program: Boone, Iowa, a small town making big sacrifices in Iraq and Afghanistan. Hundreds of residents are off to war in a town of just a few thousand. That's tomorrow on NEWSNIGHT.

"LOU DOBBS TONIGHT" is next.

And good night for all of us at NEWSNIGHT.

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