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CNN Newsnight Aaron Brown
Haiti: Rebels Call For New Elections; University of Colorado scandal; Former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling indicted
Aired February 19, 2004 - 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, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening again everyone.
American courtrooms have a way of looking alike. The defendants are usually male, usually young. They have often spent most of their lives in the grittier parts of town. They often come from broken homes. Rarely do they have money.
That's the usual scene, which makes the scenes in a couple of courtrooms today most unusual. In one a very rich Martha Stewart listening to one of her good friends testify against her. And, in another courtroom, a very wealthy Jeffrey Skilling listened to charges that he was at the center of the Enron fraud.
In both cases, should the charges against them prove true, being really wealthy wasn't enough. They had to have more. The cases are more complicated than that. They always are. But at their core, they are about greed and so it is greed that tops the program and begins the whip.
And the whip starts in Houston and the Enron story. CNN's Ed Lavandera is there for us, Ed a headline from you tonight.
ED LAVANDERA, CNN DALLAS BUREAU CHIEF: Hi, Aaron.
Well, Jeff Skilling used to be the number two man at Enron but tonight he's free on $5 million bond and facing almost three dozen criminal charges. Well get to the heart of those charges in just a little bit -- Aaron.
BROWN: Ed, thank you. We'll get to you at the top.
Martha Stewart and her testimony that sent CNN's Jeffrey Toobin into the office this evening shouting, you must run this, give us the headline.
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Aaron, it was best friend Mariana Pasternak testifying against Martha Stewart and it was really, really ugly for Martha in court today.
BROWN: Jeffrey, thank you.
Boulder, Colorado, next and a widening and troubling sex scandal at the University of Colorado, CNN's Josie Burke with the duty again, Josie, the headline.
JOSIE BURKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, for the third consecutive day, allegations surfaced regarding a University of Colorado football player and sexual assault -- Aaron.
BROWN: Josie, thank you.
And finally, the White House and the president's effort again at selling the economy and more, CNN's Dana Bash with us tonight, Dana a headline.
DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Aaron, an effort by the president to talk about the economy on his terms as the White House has very much been on the defensive on jobs and other issues. Bush campaign aides concede its because Democrats have been dominating the storyline -- Aaron.
BROWN: Dana, thank you. We'll get back to you and the rest shortly.
Also coming up on the program tonight, Segment 7 we'll go on the rise with a young woman who is making silk purses out of just about everything except perhaps a sow's ear, which will make the rooster happy since he's an old friend of a sow. He'll stop by with a check of morning papers for Friday, all that and more in the hour ahead.
We begin with Jeffrey Skilling who not long ago was the brilliant CEO of a red hot company that virtually defined the new economy. Sure, nobody really knew precisely what Enron did or how it made money but it didn't seem to matter then. Investors bought the story and the stock and it turns out a house of cards as well.
When it fell, a lot of people got hurt and ever since federal prosecutors have been busy flipping executives and getting indictments. They've worked their way up the corporate ladder, 29 people so far. Today, the CEO turned himself in.
Here again, CNN's Ed Lavandera.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LAVANDERA (voice-over): Prosecutors say Jeffrey Skilling orchestrated the gimmicks and financial maneuvers that kept Enron alive. That description is part of a 35-count criminal indictment against Enrons former chief executive.
JAMES COMEY, DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL: In short, the indictment alleges that this was the guy at Enron.
LAVANDERA: Skilling is accused of fraud, conspiracy and insider trading. If convicted he may have to spend the rest of his life in prison and fork over $80 million in fines. Skilling pleaded not guilty. His attorneys say he's a scapegoat.
DANIEL PETROCELLI, SKILLINGS ATTORNEY: Jeff Skilling has nothing to hide. He did not steal. He did not lie. He did not take anyones money.
LAVANDERA: Skilling left Enron six months before it collapsed for what he called personal reasons. He says he wasnt aware of the shady accounting practices but prosecutors arent buying that argument.
STEVE CUTLER, SEC DIRECTOR OF ENFORCEMENT: We are by now all too familiar with the phenomenon of executives who put themselves at the center of what would appear to be great corporate achievements but who then loudly proclaim their ignorance when the appearance of success gives way to the reality of corruption.
LAVANDERA: Skilling lives in this Houston neighborhood in a $4 million mansion, which "Houston Chronicle" lifestyle columnist Shelby Hodge describes as a Mediterranean ego palace. She says Skilling has kept a low profile since Enron's collapse.
SHELBY HODGE, "HOUSTON CHRONICLE": People resent the fact that he's living in a big brand new multimillion dollar house and was the head of a company that fell to pieces and cost a lot of people their life savings.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LAVANDERA: Jeff Skilling is the highest ranking Enron executive who has been charged in this debacle so far, so far because now the attention moves up one step higher on that corporate ladder that you mentioned, Aaron, to Ken Lay but officials here acknowledge that the case against him will be much tougher to make -- Aaron.
BROWN: Well, two questions then. When I heard the deputy attorney general say about Mr. Skilling he was the guy at Enron that made me wonder if they'll ever go after Ken Lay.
LAVANDERA: I think weve heard, I heard comments today kind of suggesting it both ways. They say he was the guy, the mastermind, and that's why some officials say it will be harder to make the case because some believe that Ken Lay will have an easier time to explain that, hey, all of this was going on below me. I didn't know that it was happening. But there were also other comments made today that suggested that this wasnt over just yet.
BROWN: And, again, Mr. Lay, people get confused a bit. When we talk about Mr. Skilling as the CEO, the head guy at Enron, he reported to Ken Lay. What was Ken Lay's title, he was the chairman of the board?
LAVANDERA: The chairman, you're correct, correct.
BROWN: OK. One more fish, if in fact that fish is to be fried. Thank you, Ed, Ed Lavandera in Houston.
LAVANDERA: You got it.
BROWN: More now on the federal effort against white collar crime. To begin with this is not precisely a glamour job but it is a growing one in both manpower and money. What it isnt according to the critics is enough, not tough enough they say and not nearly focused enough on the right targets.
Here's CNN's Kelli Arena. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Even the 35-count indictment against former Enron Chief Executive Jeffrey Skilling wasnt enough to quiet some government critics.
COMEY: I heard someone the other night on TV say, well gees, its only taken them two years.
ARENA: Each time the government brings another high profile case, charges of grandstanding resurface. Theres the Martha Stewart case making headlines daily and the Tyco case brought by state prosecutors where the alleged excesses of corporate fraud were caught on videotape.
JOAN CLAYBROOK, "PUBLIC CITIZEN": These were major cases there was huge amounts of publicity about and so they couldnt have avoided going after these big cases but what Im saying is that the Justice Department has not made a true priority out of corporate crime.
ARENA: Claybrook argues that less high profile crimes, such as environmental violations or hazardous working conditions are not being pursued aggressively enough.
(on camera): But Justice officials dispute that and say the government's commitment to keeping businesses honest was clear in the establishment of the corporate fraud task force.
COMEY: Believe it or not, we as investigators don't start from the presumption that somebody is guilty. We start by looking for the facts and that can be frustrating to people from the outside.
ARENA (voice-over): In the last year and a half, Justice officials say that charges have been brought in more than 290 corporate fraud cases and 642 defendants have been charged. What's more, defense attorneys say that it's become more difficult to strike a deal with government lawyers.
DARRYL RAINES, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Our impression has been that the people we're dealing with are unwilling to go back and propose a settlement or a compromise to their superiors, especially in Washington.
ARENA: Still, it's hard for some to accept the fact that top executives like Kenneth Lay of Enron or Bernie Ebbers of WorldCom are walking around free while employees and stockholders got hammered.
Kelli Arena, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: On now to another executive accused of behaving badly today, a tough day in court for Martha Stewart. She actually had some good days but today wasnt one of them.
CNN's Jeffrey Toobin was there and he's with us tonight. OK. Well deal with some of the back stuff in a minute. Let's set the stage today a, I dont know, best friend or good friend?
TOOBIN: Sounds like a best friend. They talk every day. They see each other once a week, Mariana Pasternak. Just to set the scene as to why her testimony was important, December 27, 2001 she, Mariana Pasternak, and another friend are flying from Connecticut to vacation in Cabo San Lucas in Mexico.
They stop for refueling in San Antonio. That's where Martha Stewart has her conversation with Doug Faneuil and sells her ImClone stock. They travel on to Mexico.
While in Mexico they have a conversation and on their veranda overlooking the ocean, according to Mariana Pasternak, and she says, Mariana, she says Martha Stewart says, you know, Sam, Sam was trying to sell or selling all his stock. His daughter was trying to sell or selling all her stock and I got out of my ImClone stock too.
BROWN: Sam being?
TOOBIN: Sam being Sam Waksal the CEO of ImClone. Why is it significant? It's significant because Martha Stewart said no, the reason she sold her stock, she told investigators was because she had an agreement to sell at $60. She didn't know any non-public information like Sam was selling, so its a direct contradiction from her best friend.
BROWN: So, now comes this friend who says something entirely different. You're the defense lawyer. How do you attack this? This is not someone with something to gain.
TOOBIN: Right. And she said something else even worse. She said in another conversation when they were in Mexico, she said isnt it great to have brokers who tell you things like this, which really, I mean that was news to everyone in the courtroom and there was almost a gasp when she said that.
The way you take that statement on, I think, when cross- examination starts tomorrow is you say, well you don't know specifically what she was referring to, tell you things like what? Martha Stewart didnt specify.
As to the other comment, boy that's pretty tough. I think what you have to say is well maybe she knew something about Waksal's sales but she really sold because she had this agreement to sell at $60 and the other stuff was just kind of background noise.
BROWN: But she has, this is a question, she has denied knowing anything of the Waksal sale, has she not?
TOOBIN: Well, that's why it's a problem.
BROWN: Yes, OK.
TOOBIN: I think...
BROWN: I guess that's (unintelligible). TOOBIN: Exactly. But I think what you can do is say, look, it was a brief conversation with this kid Faneuil she didnt know exactly what he was saying. There was a lot of noise out there on the jet way. She heard sell. Her stockbroker Peter Bacanovic had been urging her to sell anyway, so she said the heck with it, I'll sell the stock and didnt focus on why. I think that's the best the defense can do with this information.
BROWN: OK, now take a moment and kind of tell us where we are in this what has gone well for the government and what has gone badly for the government.
TOOBIN: Well, I think what has gone well for the government, certainly today went well, her secretary's testimony, Annie Armstrong, who testified that Martha Stewart sat down at her computer when the investigation began and changed, literally changed, took the cursor and changed a phone message then thought better of it and said change it back but real good evidence of consciousness of guilty. That I think was the governments best proof until today.
Where it's gone well for Martha Stewart I think is in telling the jury, look, you know, she's not accused of insider trading so why should she lie about this? Couldn't this just be much ado about nothing?
Also, all of Martha Stewart's statements to investigators were not tape recorded, no court reporter, so theres some ambiguity about what she said. That went well for her too.
BROWN: Just quickly is she -- in the courtroom do you think she is a sympathetic character to the jury?
TOOBIN: You know I dont particularly. There has been so much negative personal information about her, so many times of people yelling at her.
BROWN: Yes.
TOOBIN: People...
BROWN: No, she yelling at them.
TOOBIN: Yes, no, quite the opposite, her yelling at other people.
BROWN: Yes.
TOOBIN: I mean she certainly has wonderful courtroom decorum. She doesn't grimace. She doesn't roll her eyes. But she is not I think a sympathetic figure.
BROWN: I think that would be my problem is I'd be rolling my eyes.
TOOBIN: It's tough for defendant not to react.
BROWN: Smirking.
TOOBIN: They do that.
BROWN: Yes, I do. I've been told that.
TOOBIN: No, no you don't do that but you would perhaps.
BROWN: I'm afraid I might. Thank you.
TOOBIN: OK.
BROWN: Thank you for selling the story today.
On to the University of Colorado and a scandal engulfing the football program there, a sixth rape allegation surfaced today against a U.C. player, the third to emerge this week alone.
The coach who was in charge of the team when all these alleged incidents took place is in hot water tonight suspended with pay after making disparaging remarks about one of the accusers, a female place kicker he once coached.
Reporting the story CNN's Josie Burke.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BURKE (voice-over): A day after the University of Colorado placed Gary Barnett on paid administrative leave, the embattled football coach defended his reputation on CNN "LARRY KING LIVE."
GARY BARNETT: I just know the way it's coming across nationally I just dont think that's who I am.
BURKE: Barnett's comments came just hours after another allegation surfaced involving sexual assault and a Colorado football player. It's the sixth incident to have allegedly occurred since Barnett took over the Colorado program in 1999.
According to a Boulder Police report, a student claims she was sodomized by a football player and may have been drugged in August of 2002. Before the latest allegation was made public, a group of former Colorado football players went out of their way to express support for Barnett.
CHARLES JOHNSON, FORMER UNIV. OF COLORADO QUARTERBACK: He's a guy of high moral integrity and a guy who I believe in quite frankly and that's my own independent opinion of Coach Gary Barnett, a guy who has simply I believe done the right thing over the course of his time here.
SCOTT NEMETH, FORMER UNIV. OF COLORADO FULLBACK: He has faithfully directed the participants in this program to the highest level of integrity and moral discipline. Gary Barnett is an upright, honest and moral man and I stand by him as my coach, as my leader and as my mentor. BURKE: But another segment of the Colorado community was eager for more change. A women's group on campus says its not convinced the university is serious about getting to the bottom of the allegations.
CANDICE LOPEZ: With new allegations coming forward every day we obviously think that this is a problem and that something needs to change with the climate and the atmosphere that is in the athletic department.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BURKE: As far as a permanent change when it comes to the head coaching position, Barnett told Larry King he wants to come back and he fully expects to be reinstated -- Aaron.
BROWN: A couple quick things. The coach, in fact, does have a reputation of being a disciplinarian, a tough guy with his players, fair?
BURKE: Fair to say. In fact if you -- I talked to the president of the university on Monday and she pointed out they brought Gary Barnett in because they wanted to change the culture of the football program here.
BROWN: And that was question number two. Whatever it is that has taken place recently at the university there is a history that goes back at least I can think of two football coaches over the past I guess ten years or so, maybe a little more, where there have been a lot of shenanigans there.
BURKE: There have been. You got back to 1997, a lot of people point to an allegation made by a high school student alleging an assault at the hands of a recruit. You go back even further to the years of Bill McCartney as head coach here, not always held in the highest regard or it seemed when it comes to his football program.
So, this is certainly nothing new here and, as you pointed out before, Barnett originally brought in because they thought hed be the one to really clean things up and change things.
BROWN: Josie, thank you very much, Josie Burke tonight.
Later on the program tonight we'll talk with the president of the NCAA about all this, Dr. Miles Brand will join us. That's coming up a little bit later.
Also coming up, President Bush on the defensive, what he plans to do to get back on the attack going into the fall election.
And later tonight, we'll go "On the Rise" with Jessica Alpert Goldman (ph) who is making bags her bag. That's an expression we haven't used in a while.
This is NEWSNIGHT from New York.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: The Labor Department said today the number of people filing for unemployment went down last week but rose over the last four weeks. Couple that with good growth numbers but bad housing starts, falling consumer confidence and you get the idea, this is a good news, bad news period for the economy, an economy that seems to clearly be improving in fits and starts but yet to pay off where it matters most with jobs, a campaign issue for the Democrats and no way to play offense for the White House.
In some respects that is predictable. For weeks the Democratic race has dominated the news and the attacks on the president have dominated that campaign. But many Republicans worry there is more at play here that the president for now at least has lost his two best weapons, a clear voice and credibility.
From the White House tonight, CNN's Dana Bash.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BASH (voice-over): Standing in front of invited guests he said benefited from his tax cuts, the president tried to play offense on his economic policies.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: When you hear were going to repeal the Bush tax cuts that means tax increases.
BASH: But recently, team Bush playing defense is what's making headlines.
SCOTT MCCLELLAN, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I've been asked and Ive answered.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, you have not answered.
BASH: Backing away from a rosy 2.6 million new jobs forecast just nine days after publishing it calling it old data, playing clean- up after a top economic adviser suggested jobs going abroad may not be so bad, releasing documents last week trying to defend the presidents military record.
BUSH: Saddam Hussein chose defiance.
BASH: And having to defend the war in Iraq after no WMD was found. Some political veterans are scratching their heads.
DAVID GERGEN, FORMER WHITE HOUSE ADVISER: The Democrats are rising. The president himself is suffering a drop and hes off balance. I dont think hes as formidable as he usually is on the stump.
BASH: While some Bush advisers concede its been a rocky time they say theyre looking at this, the calendar. Better to take some hits on sticky issues now eight months before an election, a political eternity. Bush aides also say the focus on Democrats battling for the nomination has determined the story line and that puts the White House automatically in damage control mode.
The political director for the first President Bush calls this time the three year itch but...
RON KAUFMAN, FORMER ADVISER TO PRESIDENT GEORGE BUSH: We're about to pivot, about to go from just talking about Democrats to the president being on the offensive.
BASH: In fact, Bush campaign advisers are just beginning to hit back in television appearances and theyre getting more aggressive in reacting to happenings on the Democratic trail with e-mails like this one sent to reporters Thursday just minutes after Senator John Kerry picked up and endorsement from big labor.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BASH: But some worried Republicans privately say it's time for the president himself to start hitting back against his opponents much more aggressively and start spending the $100 million plus he has in the bank. Campaign aides for President Bush say thats all going to happen very, very soon -- Aaron.
BROWN: Actually two things there. The ads, we'll talk about them in a second. The president himself has been, you can call it a campaign or not, the White House is loathe to but the president has been out there two, three, four days a week for a while now.
BASH: He's been out there. He's been talking in the past couple of weeks primarily about the economy having these Oprah style chats with invited guests talking about that issue.
But the bottom line is that all of the focus, the media focus, has been for the most part on the big race among Democrats and, by extension, Bush campaign aides understand that that means were listening to a lot of their attacks against the president and that has been a big problem for Mr. Bush.
One of the campaign aides I talked to today said that this is sort of political no mans land because were just coming to the end of the Democratic primary but were not yet at the point where we actually have an opponent for the president so that's been the problem right now as they start to really gear up.
BROWN: Has anybody within the campaign talked about the new requirement that the candidate himself, in this case the president, be a part of any ads saying I approved this ad and whether they think that will be difficult for a president who -- any president would like to stay about the fray a bit?
BASH: Thats an interesting question. I actually was talking to somebody on the campaign about that the other day and the ads that they are poised to run have essentially been shot, probably been cut already. Theyre going to be running quite soon and, youre right, the president does have to do that.
He has to say it on camera, you know, but the bottom line is they understand that, the American understand that yes he is president. He wants to sort of maintain the power and image of the incumbency but the American people understand he is a candidate. But it will be interesting to see how that plays. Its certainly going to be a new time.
BROWN: Yes, it is, Dana thank you, Dana Bash at the White House tonight.
On the Democratic side of the campaign trail, Super Tuesday less than two weeks away, John Kerry got another good get as we say in our business today. He got the endorsement from the AFL-CIO. In theory, that means the support of 13 million union members, in theory, in spite of Mr. Kerrys past support for free trade agreements, which many union leaders blame for the loss of U.S. jobs.
Despite all the fuss over Tuesdays Wisconsin primary, Senator Kerry remains the clear favorite to win the nomination. He sat down with Judy Woodruff today.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): All of a sudden a two man race with John Kerry facing not a collection of rivals but one, John Edwards.
Is he getting under your skin?
SEN. JOHN KERRY (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Not in the least. I don't know who reported that but that's not, that's just not correct. I like John Edwards. He's done a terrific job.
WOODRUFF (on camera): Is this a bit of an irritant though to have to be still running against him at this point? I mean a lot of people thought this was going to be (unintelligible).
KERRY: No. Look, I'm not running (unintelligible). You know there are others in the race. Obviously, hes one of the leading contenders. I take that seriously. I take nothing for granted.
WOODRUFF (voice-over): But Kerry disputes Edwards claim that his humble roots make him a better advocate for the working man.
KERRY: People are given different hands in life. I respect John Edwards and I respect his family's history and everything about him but if the qualification is sort of where youre born or whether you can feel things wed have never had a great president in Franklin Roosevelt. Wed have never had a great president in John Kennedy. I think the test is what do you fight for? What are your values? I mean I thought that...
WOODRUFF (on camera): But John Edwards keeps bringing this up, Senator.
KERRY: Well, thats fine.
WOODRUFF: I mean you've given that answer before and he keeps coming back and saying...
KERRY: That's OK. I think Americans are looking for leadership. I think Americans are looking for somebody who has a proven record of fighting for working people.
WOODRUFF (voice-over): Edwards is also pressing for a series of debates. Kerry is not ready to commit.
KERRY: I have no clue, Judy, where the schedule is. I really don't. I just, you know, you're looking at somebody who has got to figure out where Im going to be on the weekend, so (unintelligible).
WOODRUFF: Are you up for doing as many...
KERRY: I've always been somebody who is willing to but let's see where the schedule takes us and I've got to do what I need to do to run my own campaign.
WOODRUFF (voice-over): Which leaves more than a little wiggle room.
Judy Woodruff, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Politics tonight.
Coming up on the program at the very end we'll check morning papers.
Before that much to do, up next will Iraq be ready for elections this summer? The United Nations thinks not, that story and more as NEWSNIGHT continues from New York.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: The man once marginalized in the lead up to the war in Iraq today delivered his verdict on what should happen there next, politically speaking at least, and fair to say a lot of people were listening. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan delivered a two-part message, which left in its wake a very large question mark.
Heres CNN's Richard Roth.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RICHARD ROTH, CNN UNITED NATIONS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan revealed his highly anticipated decision on elections in Iraq.
KOFI ANNAN, U.N. SECRETARY-GENERAL: Elections cannot be held before the end of June that the June 30th date for handover of sovereignty must be respected. ROTH: Minutes before Annan announced his decision, in Baghdad U.S. coalition authorities who asked for the U.N.s advice made it clear no matter what the U.N. said about elections for a new government, the June 30th time table was not to be changed.
PAUL BREMER, U.S. CIVIL ADMINISTRATOR IN IRAQ: Changes in the mechanism for forming an interim government are possible but the date holds. And hold, it should.
ROTH: So the big question is how then to replace a U.S. Plan which called for local caucuses in 18 regions of Iraq to choose eventual new leaders following the hand over of authority. The U.N. doesn't want to impose more recommendations right now in the search for a new plan for Iraq.
ANNAN: We have absolutely no prepared options. We need to have the -- Iraq to discuss it. They must take ownership.
ROTH: Immediate elections were demanded by the majority Shiite population led by reclusive spiritual leader, Grand Ayatollah al- Sistani. But a special U.N. envoy who met with him said the ayatollah would accept the U.N. decision, even if that meant delaying the elections.
BREMER: There are, as I have pointed out before, a number of ways in which a transitional government could be selected if it was not possible to hold elections.
ROTH: But many in the international set at the U.N. believe any elections adjustment should prompt a clear break with the Iraqi Governing Council, selected by the U.S., in order to show a more homegrown chosen leadership is on the way.
(on camera): U.N. diplomats say they expect Secretary-General Annan to say, in his next report, that, once an agreement is reached, it might take up to eight to 10 months to conduct a national election in Iraq.
Richard Roth, CNN, United Nations.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: A few more quick items from around the world, starting with the prison at Guantanamo Bay. Five British inmates there are being sent home. They'll be sent back to Britain sometime in the next few weeks where, according to authorities, some or all might be rearrested on domestic charges.
Iran next. U.N. nuclear inspectors today came across parts to machinery used for turning raw uranium into reactor fuel or A-bombs. It's much more advanced than anything Tehran had admitted so far to having and is similar to equipment Libya is believed to have received from Pakistan. Iranians go to the polls tomorrow to vote in parliamentary elections, elections that most observers and a lot of Iranians say are rigged. Hundreds of moderate candidates have been barred from running and, today, the court shut down the country's two main reformist newspapers, paving the way for the headliners to win big come tomorrow.
On to Haiti, where rebels have declared independence and are calling for new elections. Today, Haiti's president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, vowed to give his own life before giving in. At least 50 people have died in the fighting. U.S. officials are urging American citizens to leave the country and have sent a small military team to assess security at the U.S. Embassy there.
Here's CNN's Lucia Newman.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LUCIA NEWMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Police stood at attention as President Jean-Bertrand Aristide paid homage to the 17 policemen killed in towns taken over by armed militants in northern Haiti.
Ignoring any suggestion that he resign, Aristide called on Haiti's small and ill-trained police force to be brave.
"The terrorists are here," he said, "but not better armed than you. You have the constitution as your compass and democratic values as your weapons."
(on camera): The president's message evidently aims to boost police morale all over the country, as reports come in that many are deserting their posts in towns and key cities in the north of the country.
(voice-over): In rebel-controlled Gonaives, the feared former police chief of Cap-Haitien, Guy Philippe, vowed to soon return to Haiti's second largest city to liberate it.
In Cap-Haitien, police admit they're afraid, while armed Aristide supporters vow to fight to the death. Calling the rebels puny terrorists, Aristide accused them of using psychological warfare to spread fear. And he sent a message in English to the international community.
JEAN-BERTRAND ARISTIDE, HAITIAN PRESIDENT: Today, we ask you to not pay attention to the lies, but to pay attention to the truth.
NEWMAN: But Aristide's political foes say he has no moral authority to talk about defending democracy.
"Aristide promised us justice, transparency and participation," says Evans Paul. "He gave us violence, corruption and lies."
And even as workers hurry to build stands for the upcoming carnival, the uncertainty over Haiti's future grows.
Lucia Newman, CNN, Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: It is a sad place. Still to come on NEWSNIGHT, we'll go back to the problems at the University of Colorado and talk with the head of the NCAA about that and, more broadly, about the problems in college sport.
We take a break first. Around the world, this is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Back to the University of Colorado football program.
Before the rape allegations surfaced, the team's recruiting practices, including parties heavy on sex and alcohol, had set off a storm. There were other problems at the school as well and other schools also causing the National Collegiate Athletic Association, the NCAA, to launch a review of its own rules. New rules could come as soon as late April.
Dr. Myles Brand is the president now of the NCAA, formerly the president at Indiana University, so he knows a thing or two about college sports in the big time. We're pleased that he could join us tonight.
Presumably, the rules that exist now don't allow for plying 17- year-olds with liquor and treating them to a night with strippers. So what is it that needs to be tightened up here, if anything?
MYLES BRAND, PRESIDENT, NCAA: Well, rules address issues such as how much can be spent, how much time can be spend on campus, what kind of money is involved.
But, frankly, our current rules do not really speak to behavior or, if they do so, they do so in an imprecise way. We've relied in the past on common sense and common decency. And when that doesn't work, we really do have to put in stronger behavioral rules.
BROWN: An athletic director at a fairly prominent university that has a terrific basketball program once said to me, the problem with the NCAA is not that it doesn't have -- or with college sport -- is, it's not that there aren't rules. It's that some people within the athletic departments just choose to break them.
BRAND: That may be true.
The first line of defense is always the campus. The coaches, the athletic director, and most especially the president are in charge of overseeing the rules and whether they're respected on a campus. The NCAA, when it finds out there are violations, can take steps. And let me assure you that, under my watch, the NCAA is going to be tough as nails on major infractions.
BROWN: There seems, Dr. Brand, always to be some schools who are always in the headlines for the wrong reasons and other schools that graduate their kids on time, have good programs, that are successful, make money, do all the things right. What separates the good ones from the bad ones? BRAND: I think we might describe it as institutional control, whether the coaches, the athletic director, the entire administration and the student athletes themselves understand what's expected of them, are proud of the way they behave and the way represent their schools.
When they lose that pride in representing their schools and are only committed to winning at any cost, we create problems.
BROWN: You had some real-life experience with the pressures on a university president in all of this, where sport is concerned in your years at Indiana. Is it possible to describe the kinds of external pressures that a person who is the chancellor of the university or the head of the university feels to maintain a good program, an athletic program?
BRAND: Oh, there are enormous pressures from external constituencies, as well as internal constituencies, to win, to win at any cost.
But the university president, as well as the athletic director, and, as I said, the coaches, must rise above those pressures. They must take into account what counts as a good, clean program. They must look at the integrity of the game, the integrity of the institution and always put that first.
BROWN: I wonder -- I don't think you're going to agree with me, but I think it's worth at least talking about -- if college sport has gotten so big, that there so is much money in it, there's so much television -- television money involved in it, that we've reached a kind of tipping point where it's impossible to get it under control.
BRAND: I don't believe that.
There is money involved, but the vast, vast majority of schools and colleges lose money, because, after all, basketball and football do produce revenues, but all the other sports have to be supported by those revenues as well. So it is not big business. It's not the tail wagging the dog.
At a large institution like Indiana University, like Colorado, the athletic budget is 3 percent or less of the total budget. So it really isn't out of control. It gets a lot of the visibility, gets a lot of press, attracts a lot of attention, but it's not out of control.
The goal, of course, is to make sure that the integrity of the game is protected and the student athletes get an education, that they're there first and foremost for an education, of course to participate in athletics, but to get an education.
BROWN: Just finally, this here is my idea. And it's not, I don't even think, an original idea. But one thing I think schools ought to do is put student athletes back into the student community more than they are now, no separate dorms, no separate eating facilities. Make them students again. BRAND: We do not have and stopped over a decade ago separate dorms for athletes.
But I do agree with your thought. We have to fully integrate intercollegiate athletes into the academic mission of the institution. To the extent that we treat it as a separate entity, apart from the rest of the university, it's just calling out for trouble. The best solution -- and here, we are on the same page -- is to make sure that student athletes are integrated into the university community and the athletic program is part and parcel of the academic mission of the institution.
BROWN: Those of us who love college sports wish you nothing but well. Hope you can fix it all. Thank you, sir, very much.
BRAND: My pleasure.
BROWN: Dr. Myles Brand, the former head of the university of Indiana and now the head of the NCAA.
Before we go to break, a few others stories that made news today around the country.
California first, where the question of gay marriage is heading to yet another courtroom. A San Francisco city attorney says he plans to sue the state, challenging the constitutionality of the state's ban on gay marriage. Two judges are already considering challenges from conservative groups seeking an end to the wedding bells; 3,000 or more couples have already been married.
NASA today said it's pushing the space shuttle's next flight back into next year, next March, if all goes well. And from then on, the missions will be limited to servicing the International Space Station. As an additional safety measure, a second shuttle will be kept in preparation to fly in case a rescue mission is needed.
Still ahead tonight, morning papers coming up.
Up next, "On the Rise," the world according to Jess. And you'll like her story.
We'll take a break first. This is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: With all the CEOs in trouble, we thought you might need a little bit of good medicine for now, a real company making real profits and a boss who isn't on trial. She's "On the Rise."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JESSICA ALPERT-GOLDMAN, WORLD ACCORDING TO JESS: Hi, welcome to World According to Jess, located here in Bergen County, New Jersey.
My name is Jessica Alpert-Goldman. I'm the owner/handbag guru of World According to Jess. My company was started two years ago. And I named it for many reasons. When I was little, people used to say to me all the time, you know, the world isn't according to you, Jessica. You can't wear polka dots and plaid. And you can't wear nine barrettes in your hair to school pictures.
My theory was, you know, the world is according to me. And I don't want to live it any other way, except through the way that I want to live it. Why I decided to start handbags was, handbags are easy. They don't have to fit your thigh. They don't have to be the perfect size. They're instant-purchase.
Many of my ideas are just childhood memories, the silly things that I went through as a child, Mad Libs, connect the dots. I love gamy, silly things. I love things that people are unexpected. What is this doing on a bag? Just very fun, unique ideas.
The first bag that I made is called "Sassy Traveler." And I designed it mainly for myself, because I was traveling all the time. And I would literally sell it in the airport. People would be basically attacking me at the airport, like, where did you get this bag? And that's how I started to begin promoting.
I really think that meeting the customers is basically the heartbeat of my company.
That was one of my best sellers. It was the Oscar gift bag.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I love it.
ALPERT-GOLDMAN: If you have a lot of dog lovers, it does well.
My customers would say to me, I love the line. Where's the diaper bag?
This is my "Hey, Baby" diaper bag, named after Gwen Stefani. We also have a "Peek Into the Diaper" bag.
So every trunk show I did, I got to meet my customer, got to hear my customer's voice and would meet their demand.
My company is solely ran by myself and helped with my husband. My handbags are made overseas. I do the design, the samples, the accounts receivable, the invoicing, down to the publicity of the whole entire line. And then I leave little creative time, where I start coming up with some concepts for the next line. I'm presently, I think, at 45 designs.
And when I was selling 10 boutiques and jumping up for joy for that, I'm probably now in 400 boutiques nationwide and in 24 Nordstrom's, along with Japan and Canada and Puerto Rico. The range of the bags are usually from $70 to $300 is the most expensive we have on the line right now. World According to Jess, thankfully, is profitable. I think, this year, we probably hit a $500,000 to $700,000 mark.
When I started this company, I decided, you know what? It's just going to be however I want it to be. And if America accepts it and they love the designs, then I've got a business. And if they don't, then, you know what? I tried and I realized that I wasn't meant to do this. And, thankfully, the world has embraced the World According to Jess.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Isn't she an engaging character? My goodness.
We'll check morning papers, which is always engaging, of a different sort, after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(ROOSTER CROWING)
BROWN: Okeydokey, time to check morning papers from around the country and around the world today, as it turns out, beginning with "The Washington Times." "The Washington Times" of the two papers in Washington, D.C., "The Post" and "The Times," clearly the more conservative of the two, OK?
I find this a very political front page today. Here's the lead: "More Aliens Try to Enter for Amnesty. Bush Plan Spurs Jump in Illegal Immigration." That's the lead. In the center of the front page, "Evangelical Frustrated by Bush Threaten to Stay Home for the Election." That surprises me, OK? And then this story, also, I think a pretty political headline. "Vets Refuse to Forgive Kerry for Anti- War Acts. He Gave Aid and Comfort for the Enemy." I think, in fact, there's a fair split. I don't know whether it's 50/50 or what it is, but there does seem to be a fair split among vets on how they feel about Senator Kerry. But anyway, that's the headline in "The Washington Times." I like the paper, because it's clear where it stands and so you know what you're reading.
"The Guardian," a British paper which leans a little bit left. "Guantanamo Britons Emerge From Their Legal Purgatory. Five Likely to Walk Free, But Others Face Trial." They have only four pictures, but there are five people. It's always uncomfortable if you're in the newspaper business.
"San Francisco Chronicle" leads with the competition. "Denver Tycoon Buys 'The Examiner.'" That would be "The San Francisco Examiner." And "San Francisco Files Suit Over Legality of Weddings." I can't think of a story that we've run in two years that has gotten more negative mail. No one is happy with the way we're doing this story. The people who support gay marriage aren't. The people who oppose it aren't.
It's been a terrible week in Detroit because of the murder of two police officers. And that again leads "The Detroit Free Press." "Grieving Cops Honor Pair By Aiding Families. One Officer Friend to Give Eulogy Today." And the paper has editorialized -- actually, one of these days, we're going to do the editorials from the papers. "Don't Use This to Lift Death Penalty Ban." Michigan is a state that does not sanction the death penalty.
How we doing on time? OK, we can do that.
"Mobster's Son Tied to Hired Truck Program." This is an ongoing scandal in Chicago. The paper is "The Chicago Sun-Times." And the weather tomorrow sounds terrific, "like April."
(BELL RINGING)
BROWN: We could probably ring that bell twice for that, 47 degrees in the Windy City.
(BELL RINGING)
BROWN: They're so literal back there.
We'll wrap up the day in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Recapping our top story, former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling indicted today on 35 counts of insider trading, fraud and conspiracy. His plea was not guilty. And he handed over a cashiers check for $5 million bail and went home.
Tomorrow on this program, the end of "Sex" as we know it. "Sex and the City"'s final episode airs over the weekend. And in case you missed a few, as a public service, Nissen condenses five seasons in less than five minutes for you. We'll also talk about how it should all end, an issue that has torn the staff apart, but I'm right. We'll see you tomorrow for that.
"LOU DOBBS TONIGHT" is next for most of you.
Good night for all of us.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Colorado scandal; Former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling indicted>
Aired February 19, 2004 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
AARON BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening again everyone.
American courtrooms have a way of looking alike. The defendants are usually male, usually young. They have often spent most of their lives in the grittier parts of town. They often come from broken homes. Rarely do they have money.
That's the usual scene, which makes the scenes in a couple of courtrooms today most unusual. In one a very rich Martha Stewart listening to one of her good friends testify against her. And, in another courtroom, a very wealthy Jeffrey Skilling listened to charges that he was at the center of the Enron fraud.
In both cases, should the charges against them prove true, being really wealthy wasn't enough. They had to have more. The cases are more complicated than that. They always are. But at their core, they are about greed and so it is greed that tops the program and begins the whip.
And the whip starts in Houston and the Enron story. CNN's Ed Lavandera is there for us, Ed a headline from you tonight.
ED LAVANDERA, CNN DALLAS BUREAU CHIEF: Hi, Aaron.
Well, Jeff Skilling used to be the number two man at Enron but tonight he's free on $5 million bond and facing almost three dozen criminal charges. Well get to the heart of those charges in just a little bit -- Aaron.
BROWN: Ed, thank you. We'll get to you at the top.
Martha Stewart and her testimony that sent CNN's Jeffrey Toobin into the office this evening shouting, you must run this, give us the headline.
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Aaron, it was best friend Mariana Pasternak testifying against Martha Stewart and it was really, really ugly for Martha in court today.
BROWN: Jeffrey, thank you.
Boulder, Colorado, next and a widening and troubling sex scandal at the University of Colorado, CNN's Josie Burke with the duty again, Josie, the headline.
JOSIE BURKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, for the third consecutive day, allegations surfaced regarding a University of Colorado football player and sexual assault -- Aaron.
BROWN: Josie, thank you.
And finally, the White House and the president's effort again at selling the economy and more, CNN's Dana Bash with us tonight, Dana a headline.
DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Aaron, an effort by the president to talk about the economy on his terms as the White House has very much been on the defensive on jobs and other issues. Bush campaign aides concede its because Democrats have been dominating the storyline -- Aaron.
BROWN: Dana, thank you. We'll get back to you and the rest shortly.
Also coming up on the program tonight, Segment 7 we'll go on the rise with a young woman who is making silk purses out of just about everything except perhaps a sow's ear, which will make the rooster happy since he's an old friend of a sow. He'll stop by with a check of morning papers for Friday, all that and more in the hour ahead.
We begin with Jeffrey Skilling who not long ago was the brilliant CEO of a red hot company that virtually defined the new economy. Sure, nobody really knew precisely what Enron did or how it made money but it didn't seem to matter then. Investors bought the story and the stock and it turns out a house of cards as well.
When it fell, a lot of people got hurt and ever since federal prosecutors have been busy flipping executives and getting indictments. They've worked their way up the corporate ladder, 29 people so far. Today, the CEO turned himself in.
Here again, CNN's Ed Lavandera.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LAVANDERA (voice-over): Prosecutors say Jeffrey Skilling orchestrated the gimmicks and financial maneuvers that kept Enron alive. That description is part of a 35-count criminal indictment against Enrons former chief executive.
JAMES COMEY, DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL: In short, the indictment alleges that this was the guy at Enron.
LAVANDERA: Skilling is accused of fraud, conspiracy and insider trading. If convicted he may have to spend the rest of his life in prison and fork over $80 million in fines. Skilling pleaded not guilty. His attorneys say he's a scapegoat.
DANIEL PETROCELLI, SKILLINGS ATTORNEY: Jeff Skilling has nothing to hide. He did not steal. He did not lie. He did not take anyones money.
LAVANDERA: Skilling left Enron six months before it collapsed for what he called personal reasons. He says he wasnt aware of the shady accounting practices but prosecutors arent buying that argument.
STEVE CUTLER, SEC DIRECTOR OF ENFORCEMENT: We are by now all too familiar with the phenomenon of executives who put themselves at the center of what would appear to be great corporate achievements but who then loudly proclaim their ignorance when the appearance of success gives way to the reality of corruption.
LAVANDERA: Skilling lives in this Houston neighborhood in a $4 million mansion, which "Houston Chronicle" lifestyle columnist Shelby Hodge describes as a Mediterranean ego palace. She says Skilling has kept a low profile since Enron's collapse.
SHELBY HODGE, "HOUSTON CHRONICLE": People resent the fact that he's living in a big brand new multimillion dollar house and was the head of a company that fell to pieces and cost a lot of people their life savings.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LAVANDERA: Jeff Skilling is the highest ranking Enron executive who has been charged in this debacle so far, so far because now the attention moves up one step higher on that corporate ladder that you mentioned, Aaron, to Ken Lay but officials here acknowledge that the case against him will be much tougher to make -- Aaron.
BROWN: Well, two questions then. When I heard the deputy attorney general say about Mr. Skilling he was the guy at Enron that made me wonder if they'll ever go after Ken Lay.
LAVANDERA: I think weve heard, I heard comments today kind of suggesting it both ways. They say he was the guy, the mastermind, and that's why some officials say it will be harder to make the case because some believe that Ken Lay will have an easier time to explain that, hey, all of this was going on below me. I didn't know that it was happening. But there were also other comments made today that suggested that this wasnt over just yet.
BROWN: And, again, Mr. Lay, people get confused a bit. When we talk about Mr. Skilling as the CEO, the head guy at Enron, he reported to Ken Lay. What was Ken Lay's title, he was the chairman of the board?
LAVANDERA: The chairman, you're correct, correct.
BROWN: OK. One more fish, if in fact that fish is to be fried. Thank you, Ed, Ed Lavandera in Houston.
LAVANDERA: You got it.
BROWN: More now on the federal effort against white collar crime. To begin with this is not precisely a glamour job but it is a growing one in both manpower and money. What it isnt according to the critics is enough, not tough enough they say and not nearly focused enough on the right targets.
Here's CNN's Kelli Arena. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Even the 35-count indictment against former Enron Chief Executive Jeffrey Skilling wasnt enough to quiet some government critics.
COMEY: I heard someone the other night on TV say, well gees, its only taken them two years.
ARENA: Each time the government brings another high profile case, charges of grandstanding resurface. Theres the Martha Stewart case making headlines daily and the Tyco case brought by state prosecutors where the alleged excesses of corporate fraud were caught on videotape.
JOAN CLAYBROOK, "PUBLIC CITIZEN": These were major cases there was huge amounts of publicity about and so they couldnt have avoided going after these big cases but what Im saying is that the Justice Department has not made a true priority out of corporate crime.
ARENA: Claybrook argues that less high profile crimes, such as environmental violations or hazardous working conditions are not being pursued aggressively enough.
(on camera): But Justice officials dispute that and say the government's commitment to keeping businesses honest was clear in the establishment of the corporate fraud task force.
COMEY: Believe it or not, we as investigators don't start from the presumption that somebody is guilty. We start by looking for the facts and that can be frustrating to people from the outside.
ARENA (voice-over): In the last year and a half, Justice officials say that charges have been brought in more than 290 corporate fraud cases and 642 defendants have been charged. What's more, defense attorneys say that it's become more difficult to strike a deal with government lawyers.
DARRYL RAINES, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Our impression has been that the people we're dealing with are unwilling to go back and propose a settlement or a compromise to their superiors, especially in Washington.
ARENA: Still, it's hard for some to accept the fact that top executives like Kenneth Lay of Enron or Bernie Ebbers of WorldCom are walking around free while employees and stockholders got hammered.
Kelli Arena, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: On now to another executive accused of behaving badly today, a tough day in court for Martha Stewart. She actually had some good days but today wasnt one of them.
CNN's Jeffrey Toobin was there and he's with us tonight. OK. Well deal with some of the back stuff in a minute. Let's set the stage today a, I dont know, best friend or good friend?
TOOBIN: Sounds like a best friend. They talk every day. They see each other once a week, Mariana Pasternak. Just to set the scene as to why her testimony was important, December 27, 2001 she, Mariana Pasternak, and another friend are flying from Connecticut to vacation in Cabo San Lucas in Mexico.
They stop for refueling in San Antonio. That's where Martha Stewart has her conversation with Doug Faneuil and sells her ImClone stock. They travel on to Mexico.
While in Mexico they have a conversation and on their veranda overlooking the ocean, according to Mariana Pasternak, and she says, Mariana, she says Martha Stewart says, you know, Sam, Sam was trying to sell or selling all his stock. His daughter was trying to sell or selling all her stock and I got out of my ImClone stock too.
BROWN: Sam being?
TOOBIN: Sam being Sam Waksal the CEO of ImClone. Why is it significant? It's significant because Martha Stewart said no, the reason she sold her stock, she told investigators was because she had an agreement to sell at $60. She didn't know any non-public information like Sam was selling, so its a direct contradiction from her best friend.
BROWN: So, now comes this friend who says something entirely different. You're the defense lawyer. How do you attack this? This is not someone with something to gain.
TOOBIN: Right. And she said something else even worse. She said in another conversation when they were in Mexico, she said isnt it great to have brokers who tell you things like this, which really, I mean that was news to everyone in the courtroom and there was almost a gasp when she said that.
The way you take that statement on, I think, when cross- examination starts tomorrow is you say, well you don't know specifically what she was referring to, tell you things like what? Martha Stewart didnt specify.
As to the other comment, boy that's pretty tough. I think what you have to say is well maybe she knew something about Waksal's sales but she really sold because she had this agreement to sell at $60 and the other stuff was just kind of background noise.
BROWN: But she has, this is a question, she has denied knowing anything of the Waksal sale, has she not?
TOOBIN: Well, that's why it's a problem.
BROWN: Yes, OK.
TOOBIN: I think...
BROWN: I guess that's (unintelligible). TOOBIN: Exactly. But I think what you can do is say, look, it was a brief conversation with this kid Faneuil she didnt know exactly what he was saying. There was a lot of noise out there on the jet way. She heard sell. Her stockbroker Peter Bacanovic had been urging her to sell anyway, so she said the heck with it, I'll sell the stock and didnt focus on why. I think that's the best the defense can do with this information.
BROWN: OK, now take a moment and kind of tell us where we are in this what has gone well for the government and what has gone badly for the government.
TOOBIN: Well, I think what has gone well for the government, certainly today went well, her secretary's testimony, Annie Armstrong, who testified that Martha Stewart sat down at her computer when the investigation began and changed, literally changed, took the cursor and changed a phone message then thought better of it and said change it back but real good evidence of consciousness of guilty. That I think was the governments best proof until today.
Where it's gone well for Martha Stewart I think is in telling the jury, look, you know, she's not accused of insider trading so why should she lie about this? Couldn't this just be much ado about nothing?
Also, all of Martha Stewart's statements to investigators were not tape recorded, no court reporter, so theres some ambiguity about what she said. That went well for her too.
BROWN: Just quickly is she -- in the courtroom do you think she is a sympathetic character to the jury?
TOOBIN: You know I dont particularly. There has been so much negative personal information about her, so many times of people yelling at her.
BROWN: Yes.
TOOBIN: People...
BROWN: No, she yelling at them.
TOOBIN: Yes, no, quite the opposite, her yelling at other people.
BROWN: Yes.
TOOBIN: I mean she certainly has wonderful courtroom decorum. She doesn't grimace. She doesn't roll her eyes. But she is not I think a sympathetic figure.
BROWN: I think that would be my problem is I'd be rolling my eyes.
TOOBIN: It's tough for defendant not to react.
BROWN: Smirking.
TOOBIN: They do that.
BROWN: Yes, I do. I've been told that.
TOOBIN: No, no you don't do that but you would perhaps.
BROWN: I'm afraid I might. Thank you.
TOOBIN: OK.
BROWN: Thank you for selling the story today.
On to the University of Colorado and a scandal engulfing the football program there, a sixth rape allegation surfaced today against a U.C. player, the third to emerge this week alone.
The coach who was in charge of the team when all these alleged incidents took place is in hot water tonight suspended with pay after making disparaging remarks about one of the accusers, a female place kicker he once coached.
Reporting the story CNN's Josie Burke.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BURKE (voice-over): A day after the University of Colorado placed Gary Barnett on paid administrative leave, the embattled football coach defended his reputation on CNN "LARRY KING LIVE."
GARY BARNETT: I just know the way it's coming across nationally I just dont think that's who I am.
BURKE: Barnett's comments came just hours after another allegation surfaced involving sexual assault and a Colorado football player. It's the sixth incident to have allegedly occurred since Barnett took over the Colorado program in 1999.
According to a Boulder Police report, a student claims she was sodomized by a football player and may have been drugged in August of 2002. Before the latest allegation was made public, a group of former Colorado football players went out of their way to express support for Barnett.
CHARLES JOHNSON, FORMER UNIV. OF COLORADO QUARTERBACK: He's a guy of high moral integrity and a guy who I believe in quite frankly and that's my own independent opinion of Coach Gary Barnett, a guy who has simply I believe done the right thing over the course of his time here.
SCOTT NEMETH, FORMER UNIV. OF COLORADO FULLBACK: He has faithfully directed the participants in this program to the highest level of integrity and moral discipline. Gary Barnett is an upright, honest and moral man and I stand by him as my coach, as my leader and as my mentor. BURKE: But another segment of the Colorado community was eager for more change. A women's group on campus says its not convinced the university is serious about getting to the bottom of the allegations.
CANDICE LOPEZ: With new allegations coming forward every day we obviously think that this is a problem and that something needs to change with the climate and the atmosphere that is in the athletic department.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BURKE: As far as a permanent change when it comes to the head coaching position, Barnett told Larry King he wants to come back and he fully expects to be reinstated -- Aaron.
BROWN: A couple quick things. The coach, in fact, does have a reputation of being a disciplinarian, a tough guy with his players, fair?
BURKE: Fair to say. In fact if you -- I talked to the president of the university on Monday and she pointed out they brought Gary Barnett in because they wanted to change the culture of the football program here.
BROWN: And that was question number two. Whatever it is that has taken place recently at the university there is a history that goes back at least I can think of two football coaches over the past I guess ten years or so, maybe a little more, where there have been a lot of shenanigans there.
BURKE: There have been. You got back to 1997, a lot of people point to an allegation made by a high school student alleging an assault at the hands of a recruit. You go back even further to the years of Bill McCartney as head coach here, not always held in the highest regard or it seemed when it comes to his football program.
So, this is certainly nothing new here and, as you pointed out before, Barnett originally brought in because they thought hed be the one to really clean things up and change things.
BROWN: Josie, thank you very much, Josie Burke tonight.
Later on the program tonight we'll talk with the president of the NCAA about all this, Dr. Miles Brand will join us. That's coming up a little bit later.
Also coming up, President Bush on the defensive, what he plans to do to get back on the attack going into the fall election.
And later tonight, we'll go "On the Rise" with Jessica Alpert Goldman (ph) who is making bags her bag. That's an expression we haven't used in a while.
This is NEWSNIGHT from New York.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: The Labor Department said today the number of people filing for unemployment went down last week but rose over the last four weeks. Couple that with good growth numbers but bad housing starts, falling consumer confidence and you get the idea, this is a good news, bad news period for the economy, an economy that seems to clearly be improving in fits and starts but yet to pay off where it matters most with jobs, a campaign issue for the Democrats and no way to play offense for the White House.
In some respects that is predictable. For weeks the Democratic race has dominated the news and the attacks on the president have dominated that campaign. But many Republicans worry there is more at play here that the president for now at least has lost his two best weapons, a clear voice and credibility.
From the White House tonight, CNN's Dana Bash.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BASH (voice-over): Standing in front of invited guests he said benefited from his tax cuts, the president tried to play offense on his economic policies.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: When you hear were going to repeal the Bush tax cuts that means tax increases.
BASH: But recently, team Bush playing defense is what's making headlines.
SCOTT MCCLELLAN, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I've been asked and Ive answered.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, you have not answered.
BASH: Backing away from a rosy 2.6 million new jobs forecast just nine days after publishing it calling it old data, playing clean- up after a top economic adviser suggested jobs going abroad may not be so bad, releasing documents last week trying to defend the presidents military record.
BUSH: Saddam Hussein chose defiance.
BASH: And having to defend the war in Iraq after no WMD was found. Some political veterans are scratching their heads.
DAVID GERGEN, FORMER WHITE HOUSE ADVISER: The Democrats are rising. The president himself is suffering a drop and hes off balance. I dont think hes as formidable as he usually is on the stump.
BASH: While some Bush advisers concede its been a rocky time they say theyre looking at this, the calendar. Better to take some hits on sticky issues now eight months before an election, a political eternity. Bush aides also say the focus on Democrats battling for the nomination has determined the story line and that puts the White House automatically in damage control mode.
The political director for the first President Bush calls this time the three year itch but...
RON KAUFMAN, FORMER ADVISER TO PRESIDENT GEORGE BUSH: We're about to pivot, about to go from just talking about Democrats to the president being on the offensive.
BASH: In fact, Bush campaign advisers are just beginning to hit back in television appearances and theyre getting more aggressive in reacting to happenings on the Democratic trail with e-mails like this one sent to reporters Thursday just minutes after Senator John Kerry picked up and endorsement from big labor.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BASH: But some worried Republicans privately say it's time for the president himself to start hitting back against his opponents much more aggressively and start spending the $100 million plus he has in the bank. Campaign aides for President Bush say thats all going to happen very, very soon -- Aaron.
BROWN: Actually two things there. The ads, we'll talk about them in a second. The president himself has been, you can call it a campaign or not, the White House is loathe to but the president has been out there two, three, four days a week for a while now.
BASH: He's been out there. He's been talking in the past couple of weeks primarily about the economy having these Oprah style chats with invited guests talking about that issue.
But the bottom line is that all of the focus, the media focus, has been for the most part on the big race among Democrats and, by extension, Bush campaign aides understand that that means were listening to a lot of their attacks against the president and that has been a big problem for Mr. Bush.
One of the campaign aides I talked to today said that this is sort of political no mans land because were just coming to the end of the Democratic primary but were not yet at the point where we actually have an opponent for the president so that's been the problem right now as they start to really gear up.
BROWN: Has anybody within the campaign talked about the new requirement that the candidate himself, in this case the president, be a part of any ads saying I approved this ad and whether they think that will be difficult for a president who -- any president would like to stay about the fray a bit?
BASH: Thats an interesting question. I actually was talking to somebody on the campaign about that the other day and the ads that they are poised to run have essentially been shot, probably been cut already. Theyre going to be running quite soon and, youre right, the president does have to do that.
He has to say it on camera, you know, but the bottom line is they understand that, the American understand that yes he is president. He wants to sort of maintain the power and image of the incumbency but the American people understand he is a candidate. But it will be interesting to see how that plays. Its certainly going to be a new time.
BROWN: Yes, it is, Dana thank you, Dana Bash at the White House tonight.
On the Democratic side of the campaign trail, Super Tuesday less than two weeks away, John Kerry got another good get as we say in our business today. He got the endorsement from the AFL-CIO. In theory, that means the support of 13 million union members, in theory, in spite of Mr. Kerrys past support for free trade agreements, which many union leaders blame for the loss of U.S. jobs.
Despite all the fuss over Tuesdays Wisconsin primary, Senator Kerry remains the clear favorite to win the nomination. He sat down with Judy Woodruff today.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): All of a sudden a two man race with John Kerry facing not a collection of rivals but one, John Edwards.
Is he getting under your skin?
SEN. JOHN KERRY (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Not in the least. I don't know who reported that but that's not, that's just not correct. I like John Edwards. He's done a terrific job.
WOODRUFF (on camera): Is this a bit of an irritant though to have to be still running against him at this point? I mean a lot of people thought this was going to be (unintelligible).
KERRY: No. Look, I'm not running (unintelligible). You know there are others in the race. Obviously, hes one of the leading contenders. I take that seriously. I take nothing for granted.
WOODRUFF (voice-over): But Kerry disputes Edwards claim that his humble roots make him a better advocate for the working man.
KERRY: People are given different hands in life. I respect John Edwards and I respect his family's history and everything about him but if the qualification is sort of where youre born or whether you can feel things wed have never had a great president in Franklin Roosevelt. Wed have never had a great president in John Kennedy. I think the test is what do you fight for? What are your values? I mean I thought that...
WOODRUFF (on camera): But John Edwards keeps bringing this up, Senator.
KERRY: Well, thats fine.
WOODRUFF: I mean you've given that answer before and he keeps coming back and saying...
KERRY: That's OK. I think Americans are looking for leadership. I think Americans are looking for somebody who has a proven record of fighting for working people.
WOODRUFF (voice-over): Edwards is also pressing for a series of debates. Kerry is not ready to commit.
KERRY: I have no clue, Judy, where the schedule is. I really don't. I just, you know, you're looking at somebody who has got to figure out where Im going to be on the weekend, so (unintelligible).
WOODRUFF: Are you up for doing as many...
KERRY: I've always been somebody who is willing to but let's see where the schedule takes us and I've got to do what I need to do to run my own campaign.
WOODRUFF (voice-over): Which leaves more than a little wiggle room.
Judy Woodruff, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Politics tonight.
Coming up on the program at the very end we'll check morning papers.
Before that much to do, up next will Iraq be ready for elections this summer? The United Nations thinks not, that story and more as NEWSNIGHT continues from New York.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: The man once marginalized in the lead up to the war in Iraq today delivered his verdict on what should happen there next, politically speaking at least, and fair to say a lot of people were listening. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan delivered a two-part message, which left in its wake a very large question mark.
Heres CNN's Richard Roth.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RICHARD ROTH, CNN UNITED NATIONS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan revealed his highly anticipated decision on elections in Iraq.
KOFI ANNAN, U.N. SECRETARY-GENERAL: Elections cannot be held before the end of June that the June 30th date for handover of sovereignty must be respected. ROTH: Minutes before Annan announced his decision, in Baghdad U.S. coalition authorities who asked for the U.N.s advice made it clear no matter what the U.N. said about elections for a new government, the June 30th time table was not to be changed.
PAUL BREMER, U.S. CIVIL ADMINISTRATOR IN IRAQ: Changes in the mechanism for forming an interim government are possible but the date holds. And hold, it should.
ROTH: So the big question is how then to replace a U.S. Plan which called for local caucuses in 18 regions of Iraq to choose eventual new leaders following the hand over of authority. The U.N. doesn't want to impose more recommendations right now in the search for a new plan for Iraq.
ANNAN: We have absolutely no prepared options. We need to have the -- Iraq to discuss it. They must take ownership.
ROTH: Immediate elections were demanded by the majority Shiite population led by reclusive spiritual leader, Grand Ayatollah al- Sistani. But a special U.N. envoy who met with him said the ayatollah would accept the U.N. decision, even if that meant delaying the elections.
BREMER: There are, as I have pointed out before, a number of ways in which a transitional government could be selected if it was not possible to hold elections.
ROTH: But many in the international set at the U.N. believe any elections adjustment should prompt a clear break with the Iraqi Governing Council, selected by the U.S., in order to show a more homegrown chosen leadership is on the way.
(on camera): U.N. diplomats say they expect Secretary-General Annan to say, in his next report, that, once an agreement is reached, it might take up to eight to 10 months to conduct a national election in Iraq.
Richard Roth, CNN, United Nations.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: A few more quick items from around the world, starting with the prison at Guantanamo Bay. Five British inmates there are being sent home. They'll be sent back to Britain sometime in the next few weeks where, according to authorities, some or all might be rearrested on domestic charges.
Iran next. U.N. nuclear inspectors today came across parts to machinery used for turning raw uranium into reactor fuel or A-bombs. It's much more advanced than anything Tehran had admitted so far to having and is similar to equipment Libya is believed to have received from Pakistan. Iranians go to the polls tomorrow to vote in parliamentary elections, elections that most observers and a lot of Iranians say are rigged. Hundreds of moderate candidates have been barred from running and, today, the court shut down the country's two main reformist newspapers, paving the way for the headliners to win big come tomorrow.
On to Haiti, where rebels have declared independence and are calling for new elections. Today, Haiti's president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, vowed to give his own life before giving in. At least 50 people have died in the fighting. U.S. officials are urging American citizens to leave the country and have sent a small military team to assess security at the U.S. Embassy there.
Here's CNN's Lucia Newman.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LUCIA NEWMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Police stood at attention as President Jean-Bertrand Aristide paid homage to the 17 policemen killed in towns taken over by armed militants in northern Haiti.
Ignoring any suggestion that he resign, Aristide called on Haiti's small and ill-trained police force to be brave.
"The terrorists are here," he said, "but not better armed than you. You have the constitution as your compass and democratic values as your weapons."
(on camera): The president's message evidently aims to boost police morale all over the country, as reports come in that many are deserting their posts in towns and key cities in the north of the country.
(voice-over): In rebel-controlled Gonaives, the feared former police chief of Cap-Haitien, Guy Philippe, vowed to soon return to Haiti's second largest city to liberate it.
In Cap-Haitien, police admit they're afraid, while armed Aristide supporters vow to fight to the death. Calling the rebels puny terrorists, Aristide accused them of using psychological warfare to spread fear. And he sent a message in English to the international community.
JEAN-BERTRAND ARISTIDE, HAITIAN PRESIDENT: Today, we ask you to not pay attention to the lies, but to pay attention to the truth.
NEWMAN: But Aristide's political foes say he has no moral authority to talk about defending democracy.
"Aristide promised us justice, transparency and participation," says Evans Paul. "He gave us violence, corruption and lies."
And even as workers hurry to build stands for the upcoming carnival, the uncertainty over Haiti's future grows.
Lucia Newman, CNN, Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: It is a sad place. Still to come on NEWSNIGHT, we'll go back to the problems at the University of Colorado and talk with the head of the NCAA about that and, more broadly, about the problems in college sport.
We take a break first. Around the world, this is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Back to the University of Colorado football program.
Before the rape allegations surfaced, the team's recruiting practices, including parties heavy on sex and alcohol, had set off a storm. There were other problems at the school as well and other schools also causing the National Collegiate Athletic Association, the NCAA, to launch a review of its own rules. New rules could come as soon as late April.
Dr. Myles Brand is the president now of the NCAA, formerly the president at Indiana University, so he knows a thing or two about college sports in the big time. We're pleased that he could join us tonight.
Presumably, the rules that exist now don't allow for plying 17- year-olds with liquor and treating them to a night with strippers. So what is it that needs to be tightened up here, if anything?
MYLES BRAND, PRESIDENT, NCAA: Well, rules address issues such as how much can be spent, how much time can be spend on campus, what kind of money is involved.
But, frankly, our current rules do not really speak to behavior or, if they do so, they do so in an imprecise way. We've relied in the past on common sense and common decency. And when that doesn't work, we really do have to put in stronger behavioral rules.
BROWN: An athletic director at a fairly prominent university that has a terrific basketball program once said to me, the problem with the NCAA is not that it doesn't have -- or with college sport -- is, it's not that there aren't rules. It's that some people within the athletic departments just choose to break them.
BRAND: That may be true.
The first line of defense is always the campus. The coaches, the athletic director, and most especially the president are in charge of overseeing the rules and whether they're respected on a campus. The NCAA, when it finds out there are violations, can take steps. And let me assure you that, under my watch, the NCAA is going to be tough as nails on major infractions.
BROWN: There seems, Dr. Brand, always to be some schools who are always in the headlines for the wrong reasons and other schools that graduate their kids on time, have good programs, that are successful, make money, do all the things right. What separates the good ones from the bad ones? BRAND: I think we might describe it as institutional control, whether the coaches, the athletic director, the entire administration and the student athletes themselves understand what's expected of them, are proud of the way they behave and the way represent their schools.
When they lose that pride in representing their schools and are only committed to winning at any cost, we create problems.
BROWN: You had some real-life experience with the pressures on a university president in all of this, where sport is concerned in your years at Indiana. Is it possible to describe the kinds of external pressures that a person who is the chancellor of the university or the head of the university feels to maintain a good program, an athletic program?
BRAND: Oh, there are enormous pressures from external constituencies, as well as internal constituencies, to win, to win at any cost.
But the university president, as well as the athletic director, and, as I said, the coaches, must rise above those pressures. They must take into account what counts as a good, clean program. They must look at the integrity of the game, the integrity of the institution and always put that first.
BROWN: I wonder -- I don't think you're going to agree with me, but I think it's worth at least talking about -- if college sport has gotten so big, that there so is much money in it, there's so much television -- television money involved in it, that we've reached a kind of tipping point where it's impossible to get it under control.
BRAND: I don't believe that.
There is money involved, but the vast, vast majority of schools and colleges lose money, because, after all, basketball and football do produce revenues, but all the other sports have to be supported by those revenues as well. So it is not big business. It's not the tail wagging the dog.
At a large institution like Indiana University, like Colorado, the athletic budget is 3 percent or less of the total budget. So it really isn't out of control. It gets a lot of the visibility, gets a lot of press, attracts a lot of attention, but it's not out of control.
The goal, of course, is to make sure that the integrity of the game is protected and the student athletes get an education, that they're there first and foremost for an education, of course to participate in athletics, but to get an education.
BROWN: Just finally, this here is my idea. And it's not, I don't even think, an original idea. But one thing I think schools ought to do is put student athletes back into the student community more than they are now, no separate dorms, no separate eating facilities. Make them students again. BRAND: We do not have and stopped over a decade ago separate dorms for athletes.
But I do agree with your thought. We have to fully integrate intercollegiate athletes into the academic mission of the institution. To the extent that we treat it as a separate entity, apart from the rest of the university, it's just calling out for trouble. The best solution -- and here, we are on the same page -- is to make sure that student athletes are integrated into the university community and the athletic program is part and parcel of the academic mission of the institution.
BROWN: Those of us who love college sports wish you nothing but well. Hope you can fix it all. Thank you, sir, very much.
BRAND: My pleasure.
BROWN: Dr. Myles Brand, the former head of the university of Indiana and now the head of the NCAA.
Before we go to break, a few others stories that made news today around the country.
California first, where the question of gay marriage is heading to yet another courtroom. A San Francisco city attorney says he plans to sue the state, challenging the constitutionality of the state's ban on gay marriage. Two judges are already considering challenges from conservative groups seeking an end to the wedding bells; 3,000 or more couples have already been married.
NASA today said it's pushing the space shuttle's next flight back into next year, next March, if all goes well. And from then on, the missions will be limited to servicing the International Space Station. As an additional safety measure, a second shuttle will be kept in preparation to fly in case a rescue mission is needed.
Still ahead tonight, morning papers coming up.
Up next, "On the Rise," the world according to Jess. And you'll like her story.
We'll take a break first. This is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: With all the CEOs in trouble, we thought you might need a little bit of good medicine for now, a real company making real profits and a boss who isn't on trial. She's "On the Rise."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JESSICA ALPERT-GOLDMAN, WORLD ACCORDING TO JESS: Hi, welcome to World According to Jess, located here in Bergen County, New Jersey.
My name is Jessica Alpert-Goldman. I'm the owner/handbag guru of World According to Jess. My company was started two years ago. And I named it for many reasons. When I was little, people used to say to me all the time, you know, the world isn't according to you, Jessica. You can't wear polka dots and plaid. And you can't wear nine barrettes in your hair to school pictures.
My theory was, you know, the world is according to me. And I don't want to live it any other way, except through the way that I want to live it. Why I decided to start handbags was, handbags are easy. They don't have to fit your thigh. They don't have to be the perfect size. They're instant-purchase.
Many of my ideas are just childhood memories, the silly things that I went through as a child, Mad Libs, connect the dots. I love gamy, silly things. I love things that people are unexpected. What is this doing on a bag? Just very fun, unique ideas.
The first bag that I made is called "Sassy Traveler." And I designed it mainly for myself, because I was traveling all the time. And I would literally sell it in the airport. People would be basically attacking me at the airport, like, where did you get this bag? And that's how I started to begin promoting.
I really think that meeting the customers is basically the heartbeat of my company.
That was one of my best sellers. It was the Oscar gift bag.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I love it.
ALPERT-GOLDMAN: If you have a lot of dog lovers, it does well.
My customers would say to me, I love the line. Where's the diaper bag?
This is my "Hey, Baby" diaper bag, named after Gwen Stefani. We also have a "Peek Into the Diaper" bag.
So every trunk show I did, I got to meet my customer, got to hear my customer's voice and would meet their demand.
My company is solely ran by myself and helped with my husband. My handbags are made overseas. I do the design, the samples, the accounts receivable, the invoicing, down to the publicity of the whole entire line. And then I leave little creative time, where I start coming up with some concepts for the next line. I'm presently, I think, at 45 designs.
And when I was selling 10 boutiques and jumping up for joy for that, I'm probably now in 400 boutiques nationwide and in 24 Nordstrom's, along with Japan and Canada and Puerto Rico. The range of the bags are usually from $70 to $300 is the most expensive we have on the line right now. World According to Jess, thankfully, is profitable. I think, this year, we probably hit a $500,000 to $700,000 mark.
When I started this company, I decided, you know what? It's just going to be however I want it to be. And if America accepts it and they love the designs, then I've got a business. And if they don't, then, you know what? I tried and I realized that I wasn't meant to do this. And, thankfully, the world has embraced the World According to Jess.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Isn't she an engaging character? My goodness.
We'll check morning papers, which is always engaging, of a different sort, after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(ROOSTER CROWING)
BROWN: Okeydokey, time to check morning papers from around the country and around the world today, as it turns out, beginning with "The Washington Times." "The Washington Times" of the two papers in Washington, D.C., "The Post" and "The Times," clearly the more conservative of the two, OK?
I find this a very political front page today. Here's the lead: "More Aliens Try to Enter for Amnesty. Bush Plan Spurs Jump in Illegal Immigration." That's the lead. In the center of the front page, "Evangelical Frustrated by Bush Threaten to Stay Home for the Election." That surprises me, OK? And then this story, also, I think a pretty political headline. "Vets Refuse to Forgive Kerry for Anti- War Acts. He Gave Aid and Comfort for the Enemy." I think, in fact, there's a fair split. I don't know whether it's 50/50 or what it is, but there does seem to be a fair split among vets on how they feel about Senator Kerry. But anyway, that's the headline in "The Washington Times." I like the paper, because it's clear where it stands and so you know what you're reading.
"The Guardian," a British paper which leans a little bit left. "Guantanamo Britons Emerge From Their Legal Purgatory. Five Likely to Walk Free, But Others Face Trial." They have only four pictures, but there are five people. It's always uncomfortable if you're in the newspaper business.
"San Francisco Chronicle" leads with the competition. "Denver Tycoon Buys 'The Examiner.'" That would be "The San Francisco Examiner." And "San Francisco Files Suit Over Legality of Weddings." I can't think of a story that we've run in two years that has gotten more negative mail. No one is happy with the way we're doing this story. The people who support gay marriage aren't. The people who oppose it aren't.
It's been a terrible week in Detroit because of the murder of two police officers. And that again leads "The Detroit Free Press." "Grieving Cops Honor Pair By Aiding Families. One Officer Friend to Give Eulogy Today." And the paper has editorialized -- actually, one of these days, we're going to do the editorials from the papers. "Don't Use This to Lift Death Penalty Ban." Michigan is a state that does not sanction the death penalty.
How we doing on time? OK, we can do that.
"Mobster's Son Tied to Hired Truck Program." This is an ongoing scandal in Chicago. The paper is "The Chicago Sun-Times." And the weather tomorrow sounds terrific, "like April."
(BELL RINGING)
BROWN: We could probably ring that bell twice for that, 47 degrees in the Windy City.
(BELL RINGING)
BROWN: They're so literal back there.
We'll wrap up the day in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Recapping our top story, former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling indicted today on 35 counts of insider trading, fraud and conspiracy. His plea was not guilty. And he handed over a cashiers check for $5 million bail and went home.
Tomorrow on this program, the end of "Sex" as we know it. "Sex and the City"'s final episode airs over the weekend. And in case you missed a few, as a public service, Nissen condenses five seasons in less than five minutes for you. We'll also talk about how it should all end, an issue that has torn the staff apart, but I'm right. We'll see you tomorrow for that.
"LOU DOBBS TONIGHT" is next for most of you.
Good night for all of us.
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Colorado scandal; Former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling indicted>
