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CNN Newsnight Aaron Brown

Rains Continue to Pound Southern California; U.S. Soldiers Reaching Out to Sunnis

Aired February 23, 2005 - 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.
In fact, we begin once again, Larry, in your neck of the woods. To give you some idea of what they've been going through in Southern California, consider this. Southern California has received more rain this year than Seattle. In fact, the most in Los Angeles in more than a century. The sun did come out today, Larry tells me, the better, sadly, for the building inspectors to survey the damage as they decide which homes may or may not be homes much longer, or ever again.

So we have two reports form Southern California tonight, beginning first with CNN's Ted Rowlands.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The woman inside this house is being told she has 20 minutes to gather her things and get out. The hillside above her Los Angeles home is unstable. Her name is Hiroko Mayeda. And while she's being told to leave, a red tag is stapled to her home of more than 40 years.

MICHAEL CATHEY, LOS ANGELES CITY EMPLOYEE: Right now she's trying to get in touch with her two sons that live in -- nearby. She's gathering up her belongings.

ROWLANDS: Steve Weiss, a city inspector, has put up dozens of red and yellow tags over the past week. Red means get out now. Yellow means the home should have only restricted use.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, so we're hitting this one, this one, that one.

ROWLANDS: The hillside in this area is so saturated that Steve and other city inspectors are worried that movement in the soil overnight may be a sign that the entire hillside is ready to go. The decision is made to red tag four homes. The fire department is called to help escort people in and out.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just so in the event it does happen, we don't have to come in and make rescues.

ROWLANDS: Over the past two months, the same scenario has been playing out in hillside communities around this region. Inspectors say the still-fresh image of the January La Conchita mudslide, where 10 people died, is enough to get most people to leave without a fight. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What we do is try to do a little hand-holding and sit down with the people and explain to them exactly what the dangers are, and what the problem would be with them staying in the building, and then usually they see it our way and move out.

ROWLANDS: It takes about 15 minutes for Hiroko's two sons, who grew up in this house, to show up and help her load. All three say they are in a state of shock.

HIROKO MAYEDA, RED TAG HOMEOWNER: I couldn't believe it. I look at the back, and I didn't see anything. So I thought it's OK.

GARY MAYEDA, HOMEOWNER'S SON: You're just on emergency mode, just think of what you need to do for the immediate moment, and take care of things later.

ROWLANDS: Taking care of things is not easy. Once a home is red-tagged, it's up to the owner to hire a structural engineer and possibly a geologist to assess damage and recommend needed repairs. The city then has to sign off on the plan before people like Hiroko Mayeda can move back in.

Ted Rowlands, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Making the decision to red-tag a home comes down basically to geology. Dealing with the decision involves terrain both rockier and, at the same time, more tender than any hillside.

With that dimension, here's CNN's Donna Tetrault.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It is. It's really, really hard (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

DONNA TETRAULT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Facing weeks or even months of uncertainty, the one thing Robert and Patricia Pearl (ph) know for sure is that they'll never live in their dream home again. Yesterday, their home was deemed unlivable. And today...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So let's begin.

TETRAULT: They're forced to start all over again.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right. Post office it is, huh?

TETRAULT: A routine stop is now a life-changing experience.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They had us mark, Is it a temporary change, or is it a permanent change? And that's really hard. And write down that as our former address, and our new address is a P.O. Box.

TETRAULT: Today Robert and Patricia are surrounded by confusion.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Still needing to get a (UNINTELLIGIBLE) bank...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... (UNINTELLIGIBLE) safety deposit -- I don't know, because all the insurance policies and everything...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We have the insurance document here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... are -- everything's in the bank.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just dropped my phone on the floor. Can you just pick it up?

TETRAULT: And in this endless stream of bad news, a moment of comic relief.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We've got to clean it up?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't think they can ask me to clean it up, really, (UNINTELLIGIBLE) a shovel.

TETRAULT: But just as quickly, back to reality. And frustration sets in as they begin to deal with insurance.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think there's a loss of use part on the policy for, like, 16-something thousand, which is basically, you know, if we've -- we've lost the use, we're sleeping on somebody's floor right now. I mean...

TETRAULT: Walking to their next stop.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, look there.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my God.

TETRAULT: Front-page news. They never thought something like this could happen to them.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our biggest thing, frankly, was just trying to get our kids back to it as very quickly, as early as today, back to a normal routine. We just wanted them to feel like their lives haven't been completely disrupted. We took them back to school. They went to school yesterday, but back to school properly today.

TETRAULT: As a long, hard day ends, one good thing is certain -- while their home is all but gone, the Pearl family is safe, and remains intact.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK. Seat belts, please. Seat belts, please. Here. Take your backpacks.

TETRAULT: Donna Tetrault for CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: On to Texas now, where the decisions only get more difficult. Sun Hudson, an infant, has never had an easy day in his short life. That is a simple truth. Perhaps the only thing simple in a story that pits a mother's hope against the knowledge of great doctors and a legal system that sometimes is at odds with itself.

Reporting tonight, CNN's Keith Oppenheim.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KEITH OPPENHEIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): His name is Sun Hudson, and a machine keeps him alive. When he was born five months ago, Sun Hudson was diagnosed with thanataphoric dysplasia, a skeletal disorder that prevents his lungs from maturing. Since birth, he's been on life support, connected to feeding tubes and a respirator at Texas Children's Hospital in Houston.

William Winslade, a bioethicist, has followed the case, and explained the prevailing medical opinion.

WILLIAM WINSLADE, MEDICAL ETHICIST: Eventually, even with life support, the baby will die.

OPPENHEIM: The baby's condition led Texas Children's Hospital to convene a panel of specialists and neonatal care and medical ethics, a team that concluded it would be wrong to keep Sun Hudson on life support. Hospital officials would not speak on camera, but in a statement said, "Sun is currently heavily sedated, although he is capable of feeling discomfort and pain. We are deeply saddened that no treatment can save this child."

WINSLADE: Normally, once the parents or the patients understand the circumstances, they will come to an agreement with the hospital about what to do.

OPPENHEIM: Wanda Hudson, the single mother of Sun, has not come to any such agreement.

WANDA HUDSON, MOTHER: We all have a right to continue living. Just because something is so small, it doesn't mean that it can't speak and it doesn't have a voice.

OPPENHEIM: Wanda Hudson believes all her son needs is more time, more time he can only get on life support.

(on camera): So you believe that your child will grow and eventually be healthy?

HUDSON: Yes. I saw the vision.

OPPENHEIM (voice-over): Her vision is that the sun is her creator and created the baby boy that she then named after it. While her beliefs are unusual -- some, even her parents, say, delusional -- her attorney, Mario Caballero, says what matters in a court of law is Wanda's desire to get treatment for her baby.

What's driving this case is a conflict between different laws here in Texas. (on camera): On the one hand, by law, Texas patients can request life support, even if a condition is terminal or irreversible. On the other, Texas has established a process by which a hospital can refuse to respect a family's wishes if treatment is futile.

Texas Children's officials say they contacted 40 other hospitals, but none would take the case, all agreeing no treatment could save Sun Hudson.

(voice-over): Just last week, a judge, acting under the latter law, lifted restrictions against Texas Children's, giving the hospital the authority to decide whether to continue treatment for Sun Hudson. But a stay from the Texas Court of Appeals has kept the case, and the infant, alive. And while his mother and the hospital that is caring for him agonize over what is the right thing to do, Sun Hudson remains connected to life support.

Keith Oppenheim, CNN, Houston.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Our next story deals also with who decides. In this case, who decides what sort of education your child receives.

Today, a bipartisan panel of state lawmakers took aim at the president's No Child Left Behind program, which lays out federal standards for math and reading.

Under the initiative, the panel said, the federal government's role has become excessively intrusive in the day-to-day operation of public education. Legislators in nine states have already begun challenging the law. In red states -- in fact, in some of the reddest of states.

From Utah tonight, CNN's Frank Buckley.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (singing): ... and the home of the brave.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (singing): ... and the home of the brave.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (singing): ... and the home of the brave.

FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: By all appearances, Amelia Earhart Elementary in Provo, Utah, is a great school.

ROSEMARY SMITH, PRINCIPAL: We have L.J. Brown for always doing his best work.

BUCKLEY: Principal Rosemary Smith praises L.J. during morning announcements, and she's proud of all of her students. They test in the top 20 percent among Utah students in reading and math. Parents are actively involved as volunteers.

But appearances can be deceiving, because by the accountability standards of the No Child Left Behind law, this school is in need of improvement, and is in danger of being labeled a failing school because of three students.

SMITH: The only category that we failed in was children with disabilities. And there were three children that did not make the mark in that testing category.

BUCKLEY: Smith says her teachers will continue to work with learning-disabled students to achieve progress at a level appropriate for each student. But Smith also says teachers are demoralized after working so hard to make Amelia Earhart School the pride of a community, only to have it labeled in need of improvement.

SMITH: I felt like, why try any harder?

BUCKLEY: Parents, like Mike and Julie Austin, who both volunteer at the school and not just to help their own six children, were devastated.

JULIE AUSTIN, PARENT: We feel like failures. As a nation, we want to be great. We want our children to be well educated, to give them opportunity in the future. But I think that's really hard for people sitting in Washington always to know what is best in Utah for our students.

BUCKLEY: Amelia Earhart Elementary isn't alone. Nearly half of Utah's 850 schools are considered in need of improvement. And it isn't just parents and educators who are upset.

State legislators are angry. This month, the Utah House of Representatives unanimously approved a bill now pending before the Senate that comes close to rejecting No Child Left Behind. It instructs school district officials to give first priority to Utah programs when it comes to education, including placing Utah's accountability standards ahead of federal standards.

MARGARET DAYTON (R), UTAH STATE REPRESENTATIVE: While the federal government is certainly justified in encouraging us to make sure we don't leave any student behind, I don't think there was any program already in place in Utah that did. We will just pursue our own accountability and educational efforts here.

BUCKLEY: This challenge to President Bush's education initiative from Republican Margaret Dayton in the reddest of the red states. More than 70 percent of Utah's voters voted for President Bush.

(on camera): Some people might perceive this as an attack on your own president.

DAYTON: I would hope they wouldn't. I totally love and support George Bush. I think he is a great president. My concern, however, is that I think the federal government here has overstepped its bounds by going into a state's rights issue, and I think we need to realign the division here between state control and federal involvement.

BUCKLEY: Utah officials are asking the federal Department of Education for flexibility. They don't want to lose federal funding or local control.

(on camera): Federal education officials declined an on-camera interview, but they say the program is working, forcing schools to be accountable for every student. And while they say they will listen to Utah's concerns, they will not waver from the core principles of No Child Left Behind.

(voice-over): Patti Harrington is the superintendent of Utah schools.

(on camera): They said it's working and it's getting under the skin of some people in the way that it should be. What do you say to that?

PATTI HARRINGTON, SUPERINTENDENT, UTAH SCHOOLS: I totally disagree. That's like saying it works when you smack your child because they're not doing well. You know, a school deemed in need of improvement is a smack. Any way you look at it, it is an offensive move as a sanction.

BUCKLEY (voice-over): And No Child Left Behind does include sanctions, sanctions that could mean Rosemary Smith would no longer be the principal of Amelia Earhart School, a school on the brink of failure in the eyes of federal officials, a school that is still regarded with pride in Provo.

Frank Buckley, CNN, Provo, Utah.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: More to come in this hour on NEWSNIGHT, beginning in Iraq.

In one of the most dangerous corners of Iraq, American soldiers reach out to the other side.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JANE ARRAF, CNN BAGHDAD BUREAU CHIEF: There are 32,000 soldiers from Saddam's army here, hundreds of former generals, and a lot of current Ba'athists.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: How talking to the enemy is helping to reduce violence in the Sunni heartland.

The science that has made peace of mind possible for so many 9/11 families, but not all of them, not nearly.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sixty-one percent of the remains did not give sufficient results to make an identification. Of those 61 percent, 28 percent gave no DNA test results.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: The limits of science, and what the future might hold.

In Vermont, a dream come true. Turning cheese, fancy cheese, into dough.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is Constant Bliss. It's named after a Revolutionary War scout who was killed in Greensboro in the 1780s.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: From the barn to the store shelves, on the rise in the world of cheesemaking.

From Vermont to New York and beyond, this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: In Iraq today, insurgents detonated a bomb north of Baghdad. One U.S. soldier died.

In the capital itself, politics is taking center stage as candidates vie to become the next prime minister. The current office holder, Ayad Allawi -- excuse me -- wants to keep the job, and today he said he'll try to put together a coalition of backers, including Sunnis. Doing so, he says, will help defeat the insurgency.

Reaching out to Sunnis is an idea shared by U.S. military commanders in Iraq. That side of the story from CNN's Jane Arraf.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ARRAF (voice-over): In Ba'qubah, in the Sunni heartland, the U.S. military isn't just fighting. It's talking to the enemy too. Colonel Dana Pittard, commander of the U.S. Army's 3rd Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, has made an effort to reach out to suspected insurgents and former Ba'ath Party members, differentiating between terrorists, who are indiscriminate in their violence, and nationalists, fighting against what they believe is occupation.

Sunni Muslims make up the largest single group in the area.

COL. DANA PITTARD, COMMANDER, 3RD BRIGADE, 1ST INFANTRY DIVISION: At least in Diala Province, it's a Sunni-based former regime elements that are in charge of probably the majority of insurgency here. And we've been talking to the former Ba'athists and some insurgent representatives.

ARRAF: He's been talking to them since June, and he says the frequency of attacks has dropped by more than half since then.

It's a far cry from the days just after Saddam Hussein was toppled, when the U.S. administrator for Iraq dissolved the Ba'ath Party and the army, and banned Iraqi army leaders from public jobs. There are 32,000 soldiers from Saddam's army here, hundreds of former generals, and a lot of current Ba'athists.

Pittard has hired 40 ex-generals and other senior leaders at $250 a month as consultants.

PITTARD: We brought them together as a part of our military advisory committee, and that's been very key in reaching out to former Iraqi military, to former Ba'athists. They've played a big part in helping us bring people together.

ARRAF: U.S. and Iraqi officials offer amnesty at meetings like this to insurgents who renounce violence and aren't guilty of having killed anyone.

(on camera): This is a pledge not to participate in, support, or finance violence against Iraqi and coalition forces. U.S. military officials say 75 suspected insurgents have signed it so far.

(voice-over): At meetings like this with the provincial governor and local and tribal leaders, talk invariably turns to the Ba'ath Party. One tribal leader asks the governor why he isn't acknowledging the Ba'athists.

"All the parties are doing what they want. Why not this party?" he asks. The governor tells him it's a national decision whether to allow Saddam's old party back, a burning and controversial issue.

Pittard said he believes the Ba'athists should be given the chance to make their case to Iraqis experiencing their first taste of democracy.

PITTARD: I would let the Ba'ath Party run, if we could, in the next election, certainly in Diala Province, because at least people have a choice.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Diala Province, Iraq.

ARRAF: Pittard's brigade handed over power this week to the 3rd Infantry Division. The new commander, Colonel Steven Salazar (ph), says he'll continue the policy of talking to insurgent leaders and Ba'athists.

COL. STEVEN SALAZAR, 3RD BRIGADE, 1ST INFANTRY DIVISION: The forces of good and evil struggle here, but the people of Diala have clearly spoken. They reject violence and oppression.

ARRAF: As this U.S. Army band playing the Iraqi national anthem shows, this is increasingly an Iraqi-run country. And there's an acknowledgment that all Iraqis have to be included.

Almost two years after Saddam's regime was toppled, good and evil, it seems, has become less black and white.

Jane Arraf, CNN, Ba'qubah.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Still ahead on the program, Michael Jackson's day in court draws near. The jury has been seated.

And an incredible rescue on the other side of the globe.

Around the world, this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Tomorrow in Santa Maria, California, they'll begin looking for eight alternate jurors to hear the case against the pop star Michael Jackson. The jury has now been seated. Four men, eight women will hear the case. We don't know their names, we will not see their faces until the case is over, if then.

That said, here is what we do know, reported by CNN's Miguel Marquez.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): If such a thing is possible, Michael Jackson now has a jury of his peers. From a pool of hundreds, eight women and four men from northern Santa Barbara County have been selected to sit in judgment of the pop star.

TIM MOLLOY, ASSOCIATED PRESS: They appear to be seven white jurors, four Hispanic, and one Asian.

MARQUEZ: Most jurors told lawyers they enjoyed Jackson's music and were impressed by his career. Most also said that they distrusted what they'd heard in the media, and very few had seen recent interviews with the pop star. One juror's ex-husband is a police officer. Another juror said that her sister was a rape victim at 12 years old. When asked if that would prevent her from being on this jury, she responded, "Hell, no."

The oldest juror is a 79-year-old great-grandmother whose grandson had to register as a sex offender, and she says the experience opened her mind and gave her an education. She feels the experience will only help her be fair to Jackson.

The youngest juror is a 20-year-old Hispanic male who divulged his sister and her boyfriend had visited Neverland Ranch.

(on camera): A 50-year-old female horse trainer was surprised by Jackson's size. She described his appearance as a small man with big energy. And a 21-year-old male paraplegic, who wants to be a motor sports reporter, said that when he was in the sixth grade, he visited Jackson's Neverland Ranch with a group from United Cerebral Palsy.

In the end, Jackson himself gave the OK for the jury.

DAWN HOBBS, "SANTA BARBARA NEWS PRESS": You could see Mr. Mesereau was asking him, Is this it? Do you like these people? And he's nodding his head yes, they're going back and forth. And (UNINTELLIGIBLE) it was a very exciting moment in the courtroom.

MARQUEZ: It's likely Jackson wanted one juror that didn't make the cut, a 51-year-old African-American female who used to be a corrections officer. She was outspoken and blunt with both prosecutors and defense attorneys. She doubted that Jackson could get a racially mixed jury. She was dismissed by the prosecution.

HOBBS: You could see Mr. Jackson was actually upset. He grabbed his head, he goes like this, he looks over at her, like, I don't believe this.

MARQUEZ: On his way out of court, Jackson appeared pleased and ready for trial, flashing peace signs and waving to his fans. Opening statements could begin as early as Monday.

Miguel Marquez, CNN, Santa Maria, California.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: A few other stories making news around the country tonight.

For the first time, basketball star Kobe Bryant will be questioned under oath by lawyers for the woman who claims he raped her nearly two years ago in Colorado. It will happen Friday in a deposition. She's filed a civil lawsuit against him. Criminal charges were dismissed last summer after his accuser decided not to testify. Mr. Bryant claims the encounter was consensual.

A Florida judge has issued another temporary order in the case of Terri Schiavo. He's extended until Friday afternoon his emergency order barring Mrs. Schiavo's husband from removing a feeding tube that keeps her alive. She suffered brain damage 15 years ago. Her husband maintains Terri Schiavo is in a persistent vegetative state -- doctors say so as well -- and would not want to live this way. Her parents are desperately trying to keep her alive.

The man accused of being the leader of a murderous Central American street gang is in U.S. federal custody following his arrest in Texas. He's identified as Ebner Anabel Riviera Paz (ph), and he's wanted in connection with a massacre of nearly 30 people, including six children, on a bus in Honduras last December. It's expected he'll be deported back to Honduras. Officials say the gang, called MS-13, is trying to recruit members in the eastern part of the United States.

Occasionally here in New York City, you will see notices in the paper that another 9/11 victim has been identified. Truth be told, the notices have slowed to a trickle since last December. Only eight sets of remains have been matched to victims. The job has been enormous, 2,749 people dead or missing at the World Trade Center, and just as many families, of course, waiting for answers.

Here's NEWSNIGHT's Beth Nissen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) BETH NISSEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Work here has not stopped since that awful September day. Analysts have worked for more than three years to extract DNA from fragmentary remains recovered at ground zero, have struggled to match that with the DNA from thousands of victims' hairbrushes, toothbrushes and razors.

DR. ROBERT SHALER, NEW YORK CITY MEDICAL EXAMINER'S OFFICE: Oh, this is the largest forensic investigation in the history of the United States. Some of these remains, we've tested six, seven or eight times just in order to coax more genetic information out of them.

NISSEN: Enough information to be able to identify 1,588 remains, 844 of them by DNA alone. That's a little more than half of the missing or dead at the World Trade Center, far less than the city's chief forensic biologist had hoped.

SHALER: Of those other people we can't identify, either we didn't find them or their remains aren't testable.

NISSEN: Medical examiners knew their task would be horribly difficult, given the pulverizing force of the towers' collapse, the fires that burned for three months after. During the long recovery effort at ground zero, remains were further damaged by sunlight, rain, bacteria.

BIANCA BRANDON, DNA ANALYST: If you look in a biology textbook or in a forensics textbook to see what types of things can damage DNA, pretty much every one of those things was a factor at the World Trade Center.

NISSEN: Standard DNA testing on more than 20,000 pieces of recovered remains showed just how degraded they were.

SHALER: Sixty-one percent of the remains did not give sufficient results to make an identification. Of those 61 percent, 28 percent gave no DNA test results.

BRANDON: This sample right here didn't give us any results at all.

NISSEN: The World Trade Center team refined the tests, developed new software to review test data, and then began retesting remains to glean even partial results.

BRANDON: This is a site that's a gender test, and you see that came up XY, so we know that this sample is from a male individual.

NISSEN: The years of waiting for some word has been agonizing to so many victims' families. The Kelly family waited two long years for identification of James Kelly, who worked in the 105th floor offices of Cantor Fitzgerald.

JOANNE KELLY, WIFE OF SEPTEMBER 11 VICTIM: It's like you go to work and don't come home. The only thing left of you is your clothes in the closet, nothing at the center, nothing at the Trade Center. There's nothing of him. There's nothing.

NISSEN: The Kellys finally learned there was something, enough for analysts to match with DNA found on the razor in Kelly's gym bag and samples submitted by both parents.

MAUREEN KELLY, MOTHER OF SEPTEMBER 11 VICTIM: They have finally -- for us, it's finally -- have identified some of his remains.

J. KELLY: I have four little girls that ask me all the time, where's daddy? Did they find daddy? Now he's home with me and the girls.

NISSEN: In the hopes of being able to give more families something back in the future, lab workers have concentrated their work over the last year on preserving the unidentified remains, freezing extracts, drying and vacuum-sealing the remainder.

SHALER: I look at the advances we've had in technology over the last five years, and I look five years from now. I fully envision that there will be something come along that will be able to apply to these kinds of samples.

NISSEN: The lab may have reached the end of what current science can do, but says it is committed to monitor the scientific community for any new DNA techniques, says it remains committed to 9/11 families.

SHALER: I have to put myself in the place of these folks. You know, I think, if my son or my daughter had died there, I would want them back.

NISSEN: Beth Nissen, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Still to come on the program tonight, is there really such a thing as Russian democracy? You'll be surprised at what ordinary Russians have to say about that.

And morning papers is always surprising and always there.

We'll take a break first. This is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: President Bush is in Slovakia tonight preparing for the final meeting of his European trip, tomorrow's meeting with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin.

Earlier today, he met with the German chancellor, Gerhard Schroeder. Relations between the two have been, oh, shall we say a bit strained since the U.S. invasion of Iraq and Mr. Schroeder's own campaign for reelection, today's get-together and a sit-down Monday with the French president, Jacques Chirac, designed to mend some fences. But the summit with Putin may be the most interesting yet. President Bush has publicly questioned the health of Russia's democracy and Mr. Putin's stewardship of it. So, how do the Russians themselves feel about the state of their democracy?

Some answers tonight from CNN's Ryan Chilcote.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Russia's communists gathered to celebrate the 87th anniversary of the Red Army. But their real mission was to pour criticism on the Russian president's recent welfare reforms.

"Putin," they cry, "is worse than Hitler." The communists are the Russian president's harshest critics, but they are unlikely advocates of democracy, except that, in Russia, the poor and elderly, people like Kapalina Kamarova (ph), measure democracy by the size of their wallet.

"We don't have democracy now. In the Soviet day, we did," she tells me. "The subway was five kopecks, bread was 10, and the rent was 10 rubles. How much is rent now?"

Most of the people I wanted to talk to didn't want to air their views on democracy. Hufa Taloska (ph) at first turned me down, then changed her mind when she found out I was not a Russian reporter.

"I figured you're from a domestic channel," she tells me. "They never tell the truth. They shoot everything, but then don't show it. They do what the Kremlin tells them to do."

At Gorky Park, an hour later, Russians were celebrating Army Day in front of another stage. But the scene was decidedly nonpolitical. Sergei Lubimov (ph) was with his sons Zhenya (ph) and Nikita (ph). Democracy? It was too early for that.

"We don't deserve democracy yet," he tells me. Imagine if you keep fish in a jar for a really long time, then let them go in the open sea. You think they can survive? They may think they're living, but they're really under threat. It won't be democracy."

To most Russians, stability is just as important as democracy. In a recent poll, 45 percent said their main concern was their pocketbook. Just 4 percent mentioned democracy.

Ryan Chilcote, CNN, Moscow.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: If Russia can raise a Cold War chill these days, Poland makes for a pretty good antidote, not a perfect one, not by any stretch. The Polish economy is in rocky shape. But, by and large, Poland stands as a reminder of perhaps the greatest miracle of our time. The Cold War ended. The Iron Curtain fell. And we're all still here to talk about it. So now, as part of our look back at 25 years of CNN, we revisit the Polish electrician who helped bring down the wall.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN (voice-over): A Polish shipyard worker with a passion for freedom. Lech Walesa's fiery determination inspired Poland's solidarity trade union and the eventual fall of the Iron Curtain. For his efforts against communism, Walesa earned the Nobel Peace Prize and some powerful allies. The electrician from Gdansk had the ear of the free world.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LECH WALESA (through translator): Freedom is a human right.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN In 1989, Poland formed the first noncommunist government in the soviet bloc, and Lech Walesa was elected the first president. But the controversial style that made Walesa a great revolutionary made him a controversial president. He lost re-election five years later.

Walesa turned 62 this year. The father of eight, he's now a grandfather and still lives in Gdansk. After a failed bid for the Polish presidency in 2000, Walesa turned his attention to political struggles outside Poland, from Taiwan to the recent election issues in Ukraine. He also founded the Lech Walesa Institute to Preserve the Spirit of Solidarity, in Poland and around the world.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: "Then and Now." And there's more to come throughout the year, more stories and more faces you'll remember. Some, we dare say, you'll never forget.

Before we head to break, a quick look at a remarkable rescue in Kashmir. The region has been buried by the heaviest snowfall in more than four decades. Avalanches have been triggered, which swept away hundreds of homes. Today, rescue workers worked to dig out hundreds of paramilitary soldiers who have been buried in a tunnel for more than six days.

Nearly 300 people have died in the avalanches, death toll, as it always does, likely to rise.

Ahead on the program, in the hills of Vermont, the art and science of cheese-making is "On the Rise."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: If there's been one constant in our "On the Rise" series over these last three years, it has been passion. The young entrepreneurs all have a passion for what they make and sell. Whether it's a handbag or a candle, they all seem to love their work.

In tonight's example, they not only love their work. They eat it up.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANDY KEHLER, JASPER HILL FARM: The name of the farm is Jasper Hill Farm, and we're located in Greensboro, Vermont.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Vermont's hilltop farms are fading fast, and we wanted to demonstrate that there is a way to make a good living milking 30, 40 cows on a rocky hillside farm in Northern Vermont.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've been producing cheese for 18 months.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is a renaissance happening in the food world, and cheese-making has huge potential in terms of space in the market. We're making three different cheeses right now. They're all raw milk cheeses. We're making a hard cheddar style cheese that we call Aspenhurst, a natural-rinded blue cheese called Bayley Hazen Blue.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is Constant Bliss. It's named after a Revolutionary War scout who was killed in Greensboro in the 1780s. And it is a mold-ripened cheese of our own creation and super tasty.

KEHLER: Our day starts about at a quarter past 5:00, and I usually leave here about 7:00 or 7:30. All of our milk comes from these beautiful Ayrshire cows.

We're milking 26 at a time.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Cheese-making is really about 10 percent cheese-making and 90 percent cleaning.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Cheese-making is a perfect marriage between art and science.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Blue mold spores.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It combines the best of both. You have to have, you know, the art, the touch, the feel. The point of this is actually to dry the curds out. You also have to have really good, clean microbiologically pure raw material.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All our cheese is cellar matured. The Bayley Hazen here, what we're making today, will be about 75 to 80 days old when we ship it.

Every wheel gets turned every other day for the first month, and then about twice a week after that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're really focusing on high-end restaurants and then a handful of retailers that are the best in the country.

LIZ THORPE, MURRAY'S CHEESE: Murray's tries to distinguish itself with its American cheese selection. We buy from Jasper Hill because we think they're making some of the best cheese in this country.

KEHLER: Our motto on our label is "Old World Style, New World Twist." So they're recipes that are derived from European cheese that have been adapted to suit our production schedule, our uniqueness.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If in, you know, 50 years, there are 50 farms that are making Bayley Hazen blue or Constant Bliss or Aspenhurst, or all three, then we will have succeeded on leaving what we consider a very positive footprint on the landscape here.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: "On the Rise."

Morning papers after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(ROOSTER CROWING)

BROWN: Okeydoke, time to check morning papers from around the country and around the world, interesting batch of papers today.

"Christian Science Monitor." "To Injury No Man, But to Bless All Mankind." It's a fine slogan. Down at the bottom, thumbs. "Battle Over Past Rages in an Evolving South," Patrik Jonsson's look at Southerners wondering about their romantic notion of the Confederacy and the Civil War. An interesting front-page story, I think, in what is always an interesting paper, "The Christian Science Monitor."

"The Washington Times," sort of what you'd expect here. "Bush Dismisses German Calls For Incentives For Iran," the United States playing bad cop to Europe's good cop in trying to get the Iranians to, if they were so inclined, not to build nuclear weapons. So, that's the lead. I like this picture, I guess, too. "Daddy's Home," soldier coming home from Iraq. We see so many uncomfortable scenes out of Iraq. People getting home safe and sound -- we showed you a wonderful story out of Paris, Illinois, last night on the program.

"Bush Thanks U.S. Troops During Visit to Germany." That's the lead in "Stars and Stripes." That's the lead you'd expect in "Stars and Stripes."

Speaking of powerful pictures, "The Rocky Mountain News" out in Denver, Colorado, "Tearful Send-off at Carson." And that couple, I suspect husband and wife or -- yes, I can see she's wearing a ring. Anyway, tears in her eyes as her guy goes off to war.

How we doing on time? Thank you.

"Christian Science Monitor."

No, this is "The Cincinnati Enquirer." Why did I say that? I have no idea. "A Call to Freedom. Underground Railroad Center Would Like More Visitors and Money." This is in the Cincinnati area. And the Underground Railroad Center is actually at the center of one of the budget disputes. It's on the chopping block, would save a couple of million dollars. And I don't know. If people don't do go to it, what can you do?

"Dallas Morning News." "Teen Transfers After Threats and Steroid Inquiry." The paper is following up on some investigative reporting it did.

Weather tomorrow in Chicago, "precarious." Yikes.

We'll wrap it up in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: A quick look ahead at some of what they're planning for tomorrow's "AMERICAN MORNING."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Aaron, thanks.

Tomorrow morning, preventing terrorism by learning how to spot a terrorist, the Department of Homeland Security now experimenting with a new training program not for police or emergency workers, but for average citizens. What are they on the lookout for and what happens when preparation gives way to paranoia?

We'll talk about it tomorrow morning at 7:00 a.m. Eastern time and hope to see you then -- Aaron.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: Bill, thank you.

Thank you for joining us. "LOU DOBBS TONIGHT" next for most of you.

We're back tomorrow at 10:00 Eastern. 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

Aired February 23, 2005 - 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.
In fact, we begin once again, Larry, in your neck of the woods. To give you some idea of what they've been going through in Southern California, consider this. Southern California has received more rain this year than Seattle. In fact, the most in Los Angeles in more than a century. The sun did come out today, Larry tells me, the better, sadly, for the building inspectors to survey the damage as they decide which homes may or may not be homes much longer, or ever again.

So we have two reports form Southern California tonight, beginning first with CNN's Ted Rowlands.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The woman inside this house is being told she has 20 minutes to gather her things and get out. The hillside above her Los Angeles home is unstable. Her name is Hiroko Mayeda. And while she's being told to leave, a red tag is stapled to her home of more than 40 years.

MICHAEL CATHEY, LOS ANGELES CITY EMPLOYEE: Right now she's trying to get in touch with her two sons that live in -- nearby. She's gathering up her belongings.

ROWLANDS: Steve Weiss, a city inspector, has put up dozens of red and yellow tags over the past week. Red means get out now. Yellow means the home should have only restricted use.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, so we're hitting this one, this one, that one.

ROWLANDS: The hillside in this area is so saturated that Steve and other city inspectors are worried that movement in the soil overnight may be a sign that the entire hillside is ready to go. The decision is made to red tag four homes. The fire department is called to help escort people in and out.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just so in the event it does happen, we don't have to come in and make rescues.

ROWLANDS: Over the past two months, the same scenario has been playing out in hillside communities around this region. Inspectors say the still-fresh image of the January La Conchita mudslide, where 10 people died, is enough to get most people to leave without a fight. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What we do is try to do a little hand-holding and sit down with the people and explain to them exactly what the dangers are, and what the problem would be with them staying in the building, and then usually they see it our way and move out.

ROWLANDS: It takes about 15 minutes for Hiroko's two sons, who grew up in this house, to show up and help her load. All three say they are in a state of shock.

HIROKO MAYEDA, RED TAG HOMEOWNER: I couldn't believe it. I look at the back, and I didn't see anything. So I thought it's OK.

GARY MAYEDA, HOMEOWNER'S SON: You're just on emergency mode, just think of what you need to do for the immediate moment, and take care of things later.

ROWLANDS: Taking care of things is not easy. Once a home is red-tagged, it's up to the owner to hire a structural engineer and possibly a geologist to assess damage and recommend needed repairs. The city then has to sign off on the plan before people like Hiroko Mayeda can move back in.

Ted Rowlands, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Making the decision to red-tag a home comes down basically to geology. Dealing with the decision involves terrain both rockier and, at the same time, more tender than any hillside.

With that dimension, here's CNN's Donna Tetrault.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It is. It's really, really hard (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

DONNA TETRAULT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Facing weeks or even months of uncertainty, the one thing Robert and Patricia Pearl (ph) know for sure is that they'll never live in their dream home again. Yesterday, their home was deemed unlivable. And today...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So let's begin.

TETRAULT: They're forced to start all over again.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right. Post office it is, huh?

TETRAULT: A routine stop is now a life-changing experience.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They had us mark, Is it a temporary change, or is it a permanent change? And that's really hard. And write down that as our former address, and our new address is a P.O. Box.

TETRAULT: Today Robert and Patricia are surrounded by confusion.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Still needing to get a (UNINTELLIGIBLE) bank...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... (UNINTELLIGIBLE) safety deposit -- I don't know, because all the insurance policies and everything...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We have the insurance document here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... are -- everything's in the bank.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just dropped my phone on the floor. Can you just pick it up?

TETRAULT: And in this endless stream of bad news, a moment of comic relief.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We've got to clean it up?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't think they can ask me to clean it up, really, (UNINTELLIGIBLE) a shovel.

TETRAULT: But just as quickly, back to reality. And frustration sets in as they begin to deal with insurance.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think there's a loss of use part on the policy for, like, 16-something thousand, which is basically, you know, if we've -- we've lost the use, we're sleeping on somebody's floor right now. I mean...

TETRAULT: Walking to their next stop.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, look there.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my God.

TETRAULT: Front-page news. They never thought something like this could happen to them.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our biggest thing, frankly, was just trying to get our kids back to it as very quickly, as early as today, back to a normal routine. We just wanted them to feel like their lives haven't been completely disrupted. We took them back to school. They went to school yesterday, but back to school properly today.

TETRAULT: As a long, hard day ends, one good thing is certain -- while their home is all but gone, the Pearl family is safe, and remains intact.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK. Seat belts, please. Seat belts, please. Here. Take your backpacks.

TETRAULT: Donna Tetrault for CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: On to Texas now, where the decisions only get more difficult. Sun Hudson, an infant, has never had an easy day in his short life. That is a simple truth. Perhaps the only thing simple in a story that pits a mother's hope against the knowledge of great doctors and a legal system that sometimes is at odds with itself.

Reporting tonight, CNN's Keith Oppenheim.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KEITH OPPENHEIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): His name is Sun Hudson, and a machine keeps him alive. When he was born five months ago, Sun Hudson was diagnosed with thanataphoric dysplasia, a skeletal disorder that prevents his lungs from maturing. Since birth, he's been on life support, connected to feeding tubes and a respirator at Texas Children's Hospital in Houston.

William Winslade, a bioethicist, has followed the case, and explained the prevailing medical opinion.

WILLIAM WINSLADE, MEDICAL ETHICIST: Eventually, even with life support, the baby will die.

OPPENHEIM: The baby's condition led Texas Children's Hospital to convene a panel of specialists and neonatal care and medical ethics, a team that concluded it would be wrong to keep Sun Hudson on life support. Hospital officials would not speak on camera, but in a statement said, "Sun is currently heavily sedated, although he is capable of feeling discomfort and pain. We are deeply saddened that no treatment can save this child."

WINSLADE: Normally, once the parents or the patients understand the circumstances, they will come to an agreement with the hospital about what to do.

OPPENHEIM: Wanda Hudson, the single mother of Sun, has not come to any such agreement.

WANDA HUDSON, MOTHER: We all have a right to continue living. Just because something is so small, it doesn't mean that it can't speak and it doesn't have a voice.

OPPENHEIM: Wanda Hudson believes all her son needs is more time, more time he can only get on life support.

(on camera): So you believe that your child will grow and eventually be healthy?

HUDSON: Yes. I saw the vision.

OPPENHEIM (voice-over): Her vision is that the sun is her creator and created the baby boy that she then named after it. While her beliefs are unusual -- some, even her parents, say, delusional -- her attorney, Mario Caballero, says what matters in a court of law is Wanda's desire to get treatment for her baby.

What's driving this case is a conflict between different laws here in Texas. (on camera): On the one hand, by law, Texas patients can request life support, even if a condition is terminal or irreversible. On the other, Texas has established a process by which a hospital can refuse to respect a family's wishes if treatment is futile.

Texas Children's officials say they contacted 40 other hospitals, but none would take the case, all agreeing no treatment could save Sun Hudson.

(voice-over): Just last week, a judge, acting under the latter law, lifted restrictions against Texas Children's, giving the hospital the authority to decide whether to continue treatment for Sun Hudson. But a stay from the Texas Court of Appeals has kept the case, and the infant, alive. And while his mother and the hospital that is caring for him agonize over what is the right thing to do, Sun Hudson remains connected to life support.

Keith Oppenheim, CNN, Houston.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Our next story deals also with who decides. In this case, who decides what sort of education your child receives.

Today, a bipartisan panel of state lawmakers took aim at the president's No Child Left Behind program, which lays out federal standards for math and reading.

Under the initiative, the panel said, the federal government's role has become excessively intrusive in the day-to-day operation of public education. Legislators in nine states have already begun challenging the law. In red states -- in fact, in some of the reddest of states.

From Utah tonight, CNN's Frank Buckley.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (singing): ... and the home of the brave.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (singing): ... and the home of the brave.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (singing): ... and the home of the brave.

FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: By all appearances, Amelia Earhart Elementary in Provo, Utah, is a great school.

ROSEMARY SMITH, PRINCIPAL: We have L.J. Brown for always doing his best work.

BUCKLEY: Principal Rosemary Smith praises L.J. during morning announcements, and she's proud of all of her students. They test in the top 20 percent among Utah students in reading and math. Parents are actively involved as volunteers.

But appearances can be deceiving, because by the accountability standards of the No Child Left Behind law, this school is in need of improvement, and is in danger of being labeled a failing school because of three students.

SMITH: The only category that we failed in was children with disabilities. And there were three children that did not make the mark in that testing category.

BUCKLEY: Smith says her teachers will continue to work with learning-disabled students to achieve progress at a level appropriate for each student. But Smith also says teachers are demoralized after working so hard to make Amelia Earhart School the pride of a community, only to have it labeled in need of improvement.

SMITH: I felt like, why try any harder?

BUCKLEY: Parents, like Mike and Julie Austin, who both volunteer at the school and not just to help their own six children, were devastated.

JULIE AUSTIN, PARENT: We feel like failures. As a nation, we want to be great. We want our children to be well educated, to give them opportunity in the future. But I think that's really hard for people sitting in Washington always to know what is best in Utah for our students.

BUCKLEY: Amelia Earhart Elementary isn't alone. Nearly half of Utah's 850 schools are considered in need of improvement. And it isn't just parents and educators who are upset.

State legislators are angry. This month, the Utah House of Representatives unanimously approved a bill now pending before the Senate that comes close to rejecting No Child Left Behind. It instructs school district officials to give first priority to Utah programs when it comes to education, including placing Utah's accountability standards ahead of federal standards.

MARGARET DAYTON (R), UTAH STATE REPRESENTATIVE: While the federal government is certainly justified in encouraging us to make sure we don't leave any student behind, I don't think there was any program already in place in Utah that did. We will just pursue our own accountability and educational efforts here.

BUCKLEY: This challenge to President Bush's education initiative from Republican Margaret Dayton in the reddest of the red states. More than 70 percent of Utah's voters voted for President Bush.

(on camera): Some people might perceive this as an attack on your own president.

DAYTON: I would hope they wouldn't. I totally love and support George Bush. I think he is a great president. My concern, however, is that I think the federal government here has overstepped its bounds by going into a state's rights issue, and I think we need to realign the division here between state control and federal involvement.

BUCKLEY: Utah officials are asking the federal Department of Education for flexibility. They don't want to lose federal funding or local control.

(on camera): Federal education officials declined an on-camera interview, but they say the program is working, forcing schools to be accountable for every student. And while they say they will listen to Utah's concerns, they will not waver from the core principles of No Child Left Behind.

(voice-over): Patti Harrington is the superintendent of Utah schools.

(on camera): They said it's working and it's getting under the skin of some people in the way that it should be. What do you say to that?

PATTI HARRINGTON, SUPERINTENDENT, UTAH SCHOOLS: I totally disagree. That's like saying it works when you smack your child because they're not doing well. You know, a school deemed in need of improvement is a smack. Any way you look at it, it is an offensive move as a sanction.

BUCKLEY (voice-over): And No Child Left Behind does include sanctions, sanctions that could mean Rosemary Smith would no longer be the principal of Amelia Earhart School, a school on the brink of failure in the eyes of federal officials, a school that is still regarded with pride in Provo.

Frank Buckley, CNN, Provo, Utah.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: More to come in this hour on NEWSNIGHT, beginning in Iraq.

In one of the most dangerous corners of Iraq, American soldiers reach out to the other side.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JANE ARRAF, CNN BAGHDAD BUREAU CHIEF: There are 32,000 soldiers from Saddam's army here, hundreds of former generals, and a lot of current Ba'athists.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: How talking to the enemy is helping to reduce violence in the Sunni heartland.

The science that has made peace of mind possible for so many 9/11 families, but not all of them, not nearly.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sixty-one percent of the remains did not give sufficient results to make an identification. Of those 61 percent, 28 percent gave no DNA test results.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: The limits of science, and what the future might hold.

In Vermont, a dream come true. Turning cheese, fancy cheese, into dough.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is Constant Bliss. It's named after a Revolutionary War scout who was killed in Greensboro in the 1780s.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: From the barn to the store shelves, on the rise in the world of cheesemaking.

From Vermont to New York and beyond, this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: In Iraq today, insurgents detonated a bomb north of Baghdad. One U.S. soldier died.

In the capital itself, politics is taking center stage as candidates vie to become the next prime minister. The current office holder, Ayad Allawi -- excuse me -- wants to keep the job, and today he said he'll try to put together a coalition of backers, including Sunnis. Doing so, he says, will help defeat the insurgency.

Reaching out to Sunnis is an idea shared by U.S. military commanders in Iraq. That side of the story from CNN's Jane Arraf.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ARRAF (voice-over): In Ba'qubah, in the Sunni heartland, the U.S. military isn't just fighting. It's talking to the enemy too. Colonel Dana Pittard, commander of the U.S. Army's 3rd Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, has made an effort to reach out to suspected insurgents and former Ba'ath Party members, differentiating between terrorists, who are indiscriminate in their violence, and nationalists, fighting against what they believe is occupation.

Sunni Muslims make up the largest single group in the area.

COL. DANA PITTARD, COMMANDER, 3RD BRIGADE, 1ST INFANTRY DIVISION: At least in Diala Province, it's a Sunni-based former regime elements that are in charge of probably the majority of insurgency here. And we've been talking to the former Ba'athists and some insurgent representatives.

ARRAF: He's been talking to them since June, and he says the frequency of attacks has dropped by more than half since then.

It's a far cry from the days just after Saddam Hussein was toppled, when the U.S. administrator for Iraq dissolved the Ba'ath Party and the army, and banned Iraqi army leaders from public jobs. There are 32,000 soldiers from Saddam's army here, hundreds of former generals, and a lot of current Ba'athists.

Pittard has hired 40 ex-generals and other senior leaders at $250 a month as consultants.

PITTARD: We brought them together as a part of our military advisory committee, and that's been very key in reaching out to former Iraqi military, to former Ba'athists. They've played a big part in helping us bring people together.

ARRAF: U.S. and Iraqi officials offer amnesty at meetings like this to insurgents who renounce violence and aren't guilty of having killed anyone.

(on camera): This is a pledge not to participate in, support, or finance violence against Iraqi and coalition forces. U.S. military officials say 75 suspected insurgents have signed it so far.

(voice-over): At meetings like this with the provincial governor and local and tribal leaders, talk invariably turns to the Ba'ath Party. One tribal leader asks the governor why he isn't acknowledging the Ba'athists.

"All the parties are doing what they want. Why not this party?" he asks. The governor tells him it's a national decision whether to allow Saddam's old party back, a burning and controversial issue.

Pittard said he believes the Ba'athists should be given the chance to make their case to Iraqis experiencing their first taste of democracy.

PITTARD: I would let the Ba'ath Party run, if we could, in the next election, certainly in Diala Province, because at least people have a choice.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Diala Province, Iraq.

ARRAF: Pittard's brigade handed over power this week to the 3rd Infantry Division. The new commander, Colonel Steven Salazar (ph), says he'll continue the policy of talking to insurgent leaders and Ba'athists.

COL. STEVEN SALAZAR, 3RD BRIGADE, 1ST INFANTRY DIVISION: The forces of good and evil struggle here, but the people of Diala have clearly spoken. They reject violence and oppression.

ARRAF: As this U.S. Army band playing the Iraqi national anthem shows, this is increasingly an Iraqi-run country. And there's an acknowledgment that all Iraqis have to be included.

Almost two years after Saddam's regime was toppled, good and evil, it seems, has become less black and white.

Jane Arraf, CNN, Ba'qubah.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Still ahead on the program, Michael Jackson's day in court draws near. The jury has been seated.

And an incredible rescue on the other side of the globe.

Around the world, this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Tomorrow in Santa Maria, California, they'll begin looking for eight alternate jurors to hear the case against the pop star Michael Jackson. The jury has now been seated. Four men, eight women will hear the case. We don't know their names, we will not see their faces until the case is over, if then.

That said, here is what we do know, reported by CNN's Miguel Marquez.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): If such a thing is possible, Michael Jackson now has a jury of his peers. From a pool of hundreds, eight women and four men from northern Santa Barbara County have been selected to sit in judgment of the pop star.

TIM MOLLOY, ASSOCIATED PRESS: They appear to be seven white jurors, four Hispanic, and one Asian.

MARQUEZ: Most jurors told lawyers they enjoyed Jackson's music and were impressed by his career. Most also said that they distrusted what they'd heard in the media, and very few had seen recent interviews with the pop star. One juror's ex-husband is a police officer. Another juror said that her sister was a rape victim at 12 years old. When asked if that would prevent her from being on this jury, she responded, "Hell, no."

The oldest juror is a 79-year-old great-grandmother whose grandson had to register as a sex offender, and she says the experience opened her mind and gave her an education. She feels the experience will only help her be fair to Jackson.

The youngest juror is a 20-year-old Hispanic male who divulged his sister and her boyfriend had visited Neverland Ranch.

(on camera): A 50-year-old female horse trainer was surprised by Jackson's size. She described his appearance as a small man with big energy. And a 21-year-old male paraplegic, who wants to be a motor sports reporter, said that when he was in the sixth grade, he visited Jackson's Neverland Ranch with a group from United Cerebral Palsy.

In the end, Jackson himself gave the OK for the jury.

DAWN HOBBS, "SANTA BARBARA NEWS PRESS": You could see Mr. Mesereau was asking him, Is this it? Do you like these people? And he's nodding his head yes, they're going back and forth. And (UNINTELLIGIBLE) it was a very exciting moment in the courtroom.

MARQUEZ: It's likely Jackson wanted one juror that didn't make the cut, a 51-year-old African-American female who used to be a corrections officer. She was outspoken and blunt with both prosecutors and defense attorneys. She doubted that Jackson could get a racially mixed jury. She was dismissed by the prosecution.

HOBBS: You could see Mr. Jackson was actually upset. He grabbed his head, he goes like this, he looks over at her, like, I don't believe this.

MARQUEZ: On his way out of court, Jackson appeared pleased and ready for trial, flashing peace signs and waving to his fans. Opening statements could begin as early as Monday.

Miguel Marquez, CNN, Santa Maria, California.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: A few other stories making news around the country tonight.

For the first time, basketball star Kobe Bryant will be questioned under oath by lawyers for the woman who claims he raped her nearly two years ago in Colorado. It will happen Friday in a deposition. She's filed a civil lawsuit against him. Criminal charges were dismissed last summer after his accuser decided not to testify. Mr. Bryant claims the encounter was consensual.

A Florida judge has issued another temporary order in the case of Terri Schiavo. He's extended until Friday afternoon his emergency order barring Mrs. Schiavo's husband from removing a feeding tube that keeps her alive. She suffered brain damage 15 years ago. Her husband maintains Terri Schiavo is in a persistent vegetative state -- doctors say so as well -- and would not want to live this way. Her parents are desperately trying to keep her alive.

The man accused of being the leader of a murderous Central American street gang is in U.S. federal custody following his arrest in Texas. He's identified as Ebner Anabel Riviera Paz (ph), and he's wanted in connection with a massacre of nearly 30 people, including six children, on a bus in Honduras last December. It's expected he'll be deported back to Honduras. Officials say the gang, called MS-13, is trying to recruit members in the eastern part of the United States.

Occasionally here in New York City, you will see notices in the paper that another 9/11 victim has been identified. Truth be told, the notices have slowed to a trickle since last December. Only eight sets of remains have been matched to victims. The job has been enormous, 2,749 people dead or missing at the World Trade Center, and just as many families, of course, waiting for answers.

Here's NEWSNIGHT's Beth Nissen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) BETH NISSEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Work here has not stopped since that awful September day. Analysts have worked for more than three years to extract DNA from fragmentary remains recovered at ground zero, have struggled to match that with the DNA from thousands of victims' hairbrushes, toothbrushes and razors.

DR. ROBERT SHALER, NEW YORK CITY MEDICAL EXAMINER'S OFFICE: Oh, this is the largest forensic investigation in the history of the United States. Some of these remains, we've tested six, seven or eight times just in order to coax more genetic information out of them.

NISSEN: Enough information to be able to identify 1,588 remains, 844 of them by DNA alone. That's a little more than half of the missing or dead at the World Trade Center, far less than the city's chief forensic biologist had hoped.

SHALER: Of those other people we can't identify, either we didn't find them or their remains aren't testable.

NISSEN: Medical examiners knew their task would be horribly difficult, given the pulverizing force of the towers' collapse, the fires that burned for three months after. During the long recovery effort at ground zero, remains were further damaged by sunlight, rain, bacteria.

BIANCA BRANDON, DNA ANALYST: If you look in a biology textbook or in a forensics textbook to see what types of things can damage DNA, pretty much every one of those things was a factor at the World Trade Center.

NISSEN: Standard DNA testing on more than 20,000 pieces of recovered remains showed just how degraded they were.

SHALER: Sixty-one percent of the remains did not give sufficient results to make an identification. Of those 61 percent, 28 percent gave no DNA test results.

BRANDON: This sample right here didn't give us any results at all.

NISSEN: The World Trade Center team refined the tests, developed new software to review test data, and then began retesting remains to glean even partial results.

BRANDON: This is a site that's a gender test, and you see that came up XY, so we know that this sample is from a male individual.

NISSEN: The years of waiting for some word has been agonizing to so many victims' families. The Kelly family waited two long years for identification of James Kelly, who worked in the 105th floor offices of Cantor Fitzgerald.

JOANNE KELLY, WIFE OF SEPTEMBER 11 VICTIM: It's like you go to work and don't come home. The only thing left of you is your clothes in the closet, nothing at the center, nothing at the Trade Center. There's nothing of him. There's nothing.

NISSEN: The Kellys finally learned there was something, enough for analysts to match with DNA found on the razor in Kelly's gym bag and samples submitted by both parents.

MAUREEN KELLY, MOTHER OF SEPTEMBER 11 VICTIM: They have finally -- for us, it's finally -- have identified some of his remains.

J. KELLY: I have four little girls that ask me all the time, where's daddy? Did they find daddy? Now he's home with me and the girls.

NISSEN: In the hopes of being able to give more families something back in the future, lab workers have concentrated their work over the last year on preserving the unidentified remains, freezing extracts, drying and vacuum-sealing the remainder.

SHALER: I look at the advances we've had in technology over the last five years, and I look five years from now. I fully envision that there will be something come along that will be able to apply to these kinds of samples.

NISSEN: The lab may have reached the end of what current science can do, but says it is committed to monitor the scientific community for any new DNA techniques, says it remains committed to 9/11 families.

SHALER: I have to put myself in the place of these folks. You know, I think, if my son or my daughter had died there, I would want them back.

NISSEN: Beth Nissen, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Still to come on the program tonight, is there really such a thing as Russian democracy? You'll be surprised at what ordinary Russians have to say about that.

And morning papers is always surprising and always there.

We'll take a break first. This is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: President Bush is in Slovakia tonight preparing for the final meeting of his European trip, tomorrow's meeting with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin.

Earlier today, he met with the German chancellor, Gerhard Schroeder. Relations between the two have been, oh, shall we say a bit strained since the U.S. invasion of Iraq and Mr. Schroeder's own campaign for reelection, today's get-together and a sit-down Monday with the French president, Jacques Chirac, designed to mend some fences. But the summit with Putin may be the most interesting yet. President Bush has publicly questioned the health of Russia's democracy and Mr. Putin's stewardship of it. So, how do the Russians themselves feel about the state of their democracy?

Some answers tonight from CNN's Ryan Chilcote.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Russia's communists gathered to celebrate the 87th anniversary of the Red Army. But their real mission was to pour criticism on the Russian president's recent welfare reforms.

"Putin," they cry, "is worse than Hitler." The communists are the Russian president's harshest critics, but they are unlikely advocates of democracy, except that, in Russia, the poor and elderly, people like Kapalina Kamarova (ph), measure democracy by the size of their wallet.

"We don't have democracy now. In the Soviet day, we did," she tells me. "The subway was five kopecks, bread was 10, and the rent was 10 rubles. How much is rent now?"

Most of the people I wanted to talk to didn't want to air their views on democracy. Hufa Taloska (ph) at first turned me down, then changed her mind when she found out I was not a Russian reporter.

"I figured you're from a domestic channel," she tells me. "They never tell the truth. They shoot everything, but then don't show it. They do what the Kremlin tells them to do."

At Gorky Park, an hour later, Russians were celebrating Army Day in front of another stage. But the scene was decidedly nonpolitical. Sergei Lubimov (ph) was with his sons Zhenya (ph) and Nikita (ph). Democracy? It was too early for that.

"We don't deserve democracy yet," he tells me. Imagine if you keep fish in a jar for a really long time, then let them go in the open sea. You think they can survive? They may think they're living, but they're really under threat. It won't be democracy."

To most Russians, stability is just as important as democracy. In a recent poll, 45 percent said their main concern was their pocketbook. Just 4 percent mentioned democracy.

Ryan Chilcote, CNN, Moscow.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: If Russia can raise a Cold War chill these days, Poland makes for a pretty good antidote, not a perfect one, not by any stretch. The Polish economy is in rocky shape. But, by and large, Poland stands as a reminder of perhaps the greatest miracle of our time. The Cold War ended. The Iron Curtain fell. And we're all still here to talk about it. So now, as part of our look back at 25 years of CNN, we revisit the Polish electrician who helped bring down the wall.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN (voice-over): A Polish shipyard worker with a passion for freedom. Lech Walesa's fiery determination inspired Poland's solidarity trade union and the eventual fall of the Iron Curtain. For his efforts against communism, Walesa earned the Nobel Peace Prize and some powerful allies. The electrician from Gdansk had the ear of the free world.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LECH WALESA (through translator): Freedom is a human right.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN In 1989, Poland formed the first noncommunist government in the soviet bloc, and Lech Walesa was elected the first president. But the controversial style that made Walesa a great revolutionary made him a controversial president. He lost re-election five years later.

Walesa turned 62 this year. The father of eight, he's now a grandfather and still lives in Gdansk. After a failed bid for the Polish presidency in 2000, Walesa turned his attention to political struggles outside Poland, from Taiwan to the recent election issues in Ukraine. He also founded the Lech Walesa Institute to Preserve the Spirit of Solidarity, in Poland and around the world.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: "Then and Now." And there's more to come throughout the year, more stories and more faces you'll remember. Some, we dare say, you'll never forget.

Before we head to break, a quick look at a remarkable rescue in Kashmir. The region has been buried by the heaviest snowfall in more than four decades. Avalanches have been triggered, which swept away hundreds of homes. Today, rescue workers worked to dig out hundreds of paramilitary soldiers who have been buried in a tunnel for more than six days.

Nearly 300 people have died in the avalanches, death toll, as it always does, likely to rise.

Ahead on the program, in the hills of Vermont, the art and science of cheese-making is "On the Rise."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: If there's been one constant in our "On the Rise" series over these last three years, it has been passion. The young entrepreneurs all have a passion for what they make and sell. Whether it's a handbag or a candle, they all seem to love their work.

In tonight's example, they not only love their work. They eat it up.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANDY KEHLER, JASPER HILL FARM: The name of the farm is Jasper Hill Farm, and we're located in Greensboro, Vermont.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Vermont's hilltop farms are fading fast, and we wanted to demonstrate that there is a way to make a good living milking 30, 40 cows on a rocky hillside farm in Northern Vermont.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've been producing cheese for 18 months.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is a renaissance happening in the food world, and cheese-making has huge potential in terms of space in the market. We're making three different cheeses right now. They're all raw milk cheeses. We're making a hard cheddar style cheese that we call Aspenhurst, a natural-rinded blue cheese called Bayley Hazen Blue.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is Constant Bliss. It's named after a Revolutionary War scout who was killed in Greensboro in the 1780s. And it is a mold-ripened cheese of our own creation and super tasty.

KEHLER: Our day starts about at a quarter past 5:00, and I usually leave here about 7:00 or 7:30. All of our milk comes from these beautiful Ayrshire cows.

We're milking 26 at a time.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Cheese-making is really about 10 percent cheese-making and 90 percent cleaning.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Cheese-making is a perfect marriage between art and science.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Blue mold spores.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It combines the best of both. You have to have, you know, the art, the touch, the feel. The point of this is actually to dry the curds out. You also have to have really good, clean microbiologically pure raw material.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All our cheese is cellar matured. The Bayley Hazen here, what we're making today, will be about 75 to 80 days old when we ship it.

Every wheel gets turned every other day for the first month, and then about twice a week after that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're really focusing on high-end restaurants and then a handful of retailers that are the best in the country.

LIZ THORPE, MURRAY'S CHEESE: Murray's tries to distinguish itself with its American cheese selection. We buy from Jasper Hill because we think they're making some of the best cheese in this country.

KEHLER: Our motto on our label is "Old World Style, New World Twist." So they're recipes that are derived from European cheese that have been adapted to suit our production schedule, our uniqueness.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If in, you know, 50 years, there are 50 farms that are making Bayley Hazen blue or Constant Bliss or Aspenhurst, or all three, then we will have succeeded on leaving what we consider a very positive footprint on the landscape here.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: "On the Rise."

Morning papers after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(ROOSTER CROWING)

BROWN: Okeydoke, time to check morning papers from around the country and around the world, interesting batch of papers today.

"Christian Science Monitor." "To Injury No Man, But to Bless All Mankind." It's a fine slogan. Down at the bottom, thumbs. "Battle Over Past Rages in an Evolving South," Patrik Jonsson's look at Southerners wondering about their romantic notion of the Confederacy and the Civil War. An interesting front-page story, I think, in what is always an interesting paper, "The Christian Science Monitor."

"The Washington Times," sort of what you'd expect here. "Bush Dismisses German Calls For Incentives For Iran," the United States playing bad cop to Europe's good cop in trying to get the Iranians to, if they were so inclined, not to build nuclear weapons. So, that's the lead. I like this picture, I guess, too. "Daddy's Home," soldier coming home from Iraq. We see so many uncomfortable scenes out of Iraq. People getting home safe and sound -- we showed you a wonderful story out of Paris, Illinois, last night on the program.

"Bush Thanks U.S. Troops During Visit to Germany." That's the lead in "Stars and Stripes." That's the lead you'd expect in "Stars and Stripes."

Speaking of powerful pictures, "The Rocky Mountain News" out in Denver, Colorado, "Tearful Send-off at Carson." And that couple, I suspect husband and wife or -- yes, I can see she's wearing a ring. Anyway, tears in her eyes as her guy goes off to war.

How we doing on time? Thank you.

"Christian Science Monitor."

No, this is "The Cincinnati Enquirer." Why did I say that? I have no idea. "A Call to Freedom. Underground Railroad Center Would Like More Visitors and Money." This is in the Cincinnati area. And the Underground Railroad Center is actually at the center of one of the budget disputes. It's on the chopping block, would save a couple of million dollars. And I don't know. If people don't do go to it, what can you do?

"Dallas Morning News." "Teen Transfers After Threats and Steroid Inquiry." The paper is following up on some investigative reporting it did.

Weather tomorrow in Chicago, "precarious." Yikes.

We'll wrap it up in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: A quick look ahead at some of what they're planning for tomorrow's "AMERICAN MORNING."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Aaron, thanks.

Tomorrow morning, preventing terrorism by learning how to spot a terrorist, the Department of Homeland Security now experimenting with a new training program not for police or emergency workers, but for average citizens. What are they on the lookout for and what happens when preparation gives way to paranoia?

We'll talk about it tomorrow morning at 7:00 a.m. Eastern time and hope to see you then -- Aaron.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: Bill, thank you.

Thank you for joining us. "LOU DOBBS TONIGHT" next for most of you.

We're back tomorrow at 10:00 Eastern. Good night for all of us.

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