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Tough Times end Retirement; O.J. Simpson Heading to Prison; Edge of Discovery: Technology Could Help Solve Crimes
Aired December 06, 2008 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FIRST LADY LAURA BUSH, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I want to thank all the volunteers who are here behind me here for volunteering. It was very sweet to sort and read these cards and see what Americans have written to our troops. So thanks, everybody.
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FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Mrs. Bush also briefly talked about her plans for after she and the president leave the White House.
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FIRST LADY LAURA BUSH: Hopefully I'll be able to go back to schools and volunteer, but I'm going to continue the work I've done with women in Afghanistan through the African-American Women's Council as one way I'll be able to, and when the president's freedom institute is completed at SMU where his library will be, I'll be able to continue to work through that, especially with women in Afghanistan and the people of Burma.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: The next hour of CNN NEWSROOM begins right now.
Hello, again. I'm Fredericka Whitfield. You are in the CNN NEWSROOM. It is working weekend for the White House and congressional staff. They are putting together a compromised plan to rescue the auto industry. Some lawmakers say the economy just can't afford to take any more hits. CNN's Kate Bolduan has the latest now from Washington. Kate.
KATE BOLDUAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Maybe the turning point in the ongoing debate over whether to rescue the struggling auto industry. The startling November job report says more than half a million jobs lost, the biggest loss in nearly 34 years. And one official says it changed everything in terms of the bailout. Following the second round of testimony from the top executives of GM, Ford and Chrysler, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi late Friday backed off her strong opposition to using funds from an existing $25-billion loan programs to help the big three. That money was originally intended to help automakers produce more fuel-efficient vehicles. While Pelosi's reversal comes after weeks of deadlocks between congressional democrats, republicans and the White House over where the money for an emergency loan would come from. In a statement speaker Pelosi caution that no money would be released from that green program "unless there is a guarantee that those funds will be replenished in a matter of weeks."
Now sources familiar with the compromise talks tell CNN they are working with a total of $15 billion to $17 billion to help automakers survive through March, that's less than the big three requested. Both Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid say in statements that they hope to have legislation ready by next week to pass and send to the president. Congressional aids tell CNN staffers they are working through the weekend to get that legislation ready, Fredricka and while there's not a done deal yet, and we always try to hedge our bets when it comes to Congress, what was once a stalemate is making significant strides towards reaching an agreement now.
WHITFIELD: All right. We'll see. Kate Bolduan, thank you so much. Appreciate it there in Washington.
Meantime, out of Chicago, President-elect Obama is monitoring the big three rescue negotiations and is being urged to say more about his economic plans. CNN's senior political correspondent Candy Crowley is following the Obama team. Hi, Candy.
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi. You know it is a bit of a peculiar time for the president-elect who is still about a month and a half away from actually taking power and there have been people who said to him, you need to be more out front, you need to say what you want in this auto bailout. For the most part, all of that kind of negotiating, all of that kind of hinting around has come behind the scenes from Obama aides who have been in contact with Capitol Hill. Others n his economic team have in fact been talking to Treasury Secretary Paulson, day in and day out about what's happening to the funds that are being used to bail out the financial markets. What Barack Obama's main task has been in terms of his public appearances has been to be the kind of the assurer in chief at this point saying I will have a plan when I get there. I am working on a plan. That's what he tried to do today in his radio address, which also appears online. He laid out about five different things that he wants in his economic recovery plan once he takes office. And that includes a very big jobs-producing construction project.
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SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D), PRESIDENT-ELECT: We will create millions of jobs by making the single largest new investment in our national infrastructure since the creation of the federal highway system in the 1950s. We'll invest your precious tax dollars in new and smarter ways and we'll set a simple rule. Use it or lose it. If a state doesn't act quickly to invest in roads and bridges in their communities, they will lose the money.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CROWLEY: Other points in Obama's plan, he says he wants to expand the use of broadband. He says the U.S. stands about 15th in the use of broadband access around the world. He wants to improve that. He also wants to improve schools with more computers, obviously, for education, but many of these projects, they believe will also help produce jobs. So that's where his focus has been while so much on Capitol Hill has been about we need an urgent plan for the auto industry. Barack Obama himself has been trying to take the long view, so as he has put it many times, he can hit the ground running in January 20th. Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: All right. Candy Crowley in Chicago. Thank you so much. Appreciate it.
Let's talk a little bit more about that long view being part of Barack Obama's road to recovery. Is putting Americans to work rebuilding the nation's highways. Abby Boudreau of CNN's Special Investigations Unit reports.
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ABBY BOUDREAU, CNN SPECIAL INVESTIGATINOS UNIT: The report lists more than 5,100 projects around the country that the association says could be started within six months if they only had the money.
JOHN HORSELY, ASSN OF HIGHWAY AND TRAINS OFFICIALS: You have states in every part of the country that have needs and have practical projects ready to go that can put a lot of people to work.
BOUDREAU: John Horsely, the group's executive director, says the new construction or repair work will generate just the kind of economic stimulus the Obama administration is looking for, creating a possible 1.8 million new jobs. Just this past week, President-elect Barack Obama told the nation's governors he is looking forward to listening.
OBAMA: Where you think an investment on the part of the federal government will make the biggest difference, how we can reduce healthcare cost to rebuild our roads, our bridges, our schools and ensure that more families can stay in their homes.
BOUDREAU: The report says Utah needs $10.8 billion for crumbling roads and bridges. Florida, $6.9 billion. California, $5 billion. Pennsylvania needs $1 billion, partly for fixes to interstate 95 in Philadelphia. Fixes that could begin shortly after a check is written. I went along with bridge inspector James White as he examined an elevated section of i-95 built in the 1960s.
This stretch of road has already had problems. I know it has been shut down due to structural problems from not too long ago.
JAMES WHITE: That's correct. I-95 was closed down just a little further north of our location right now.
BOURDREAU: Right. It was in March when an inspector found a large crack in one of the support beams and it was two inches, six feet long and it caused an emergency closure of a part of this road.
This was this giant crack and this is what the closure looked like.
CHARLES DAVIES, P.A. DEPT. OF TRANSPORTATION: We have a serious problems in terms of - BOUDREAU: Charles Davies with the Pennsylvania department of transportation says there is state money for basic maintenance, but he worries without federal funding, needed overhauls won't get done. I asked him if he fears something bad could happen.
VOICE OF CHARLES DAVIES: It sort of become fatalistic. I sort of think well my luck is going to run out at some point. It just is.
BOURDREAU: But Pete Sepp of the National Taxpayers Union cautions that it's a bad idea for Congress to pick up the tab for something the states are supposed to pay for.
PETE SEPP, NATIONAL TAXPAYERS UNION: Many parts of our infrastructure need to be repaired, need to be fixed, but they need to be done in a thoughtful manner. Throwing money out of Washington, D.C. and showering it across the country on state and local projects is not the way to do it.
BOUDREAU: Abby Boudreau, CNN, Philadelphia.
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WHITFIELD: All right. Job losses, as you know, also pretty bad in November. 533,000 jobs lost, but December just might be even worse. More than 43,000 pink slips have been handed out already this month and we are less than a week into the month of December. AT&T, JP Morgan Chase, U.S. Steel, Dupont, from communications to banking, manufacturing and the media, the hemorrhage of jobs is not limited to a few specific industries.
So the holidays can be especially difficult if you are, indeed, out of work. Some job seekers share their fears and their outlook for their future prospects with our Jason Carroll.
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LAWRENCE AARON, JOB SEEKER: I was a columnist at (inaudible).
JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): You have been out of work for how many -
AARON: Since August, a little bit over 100 days.
BARBARA JACOBY, JOB SEEKER: I was considered a documentation specialist.
CARROLL: Barbara, how long have you been out of work?
JACOBY: Since right after labor day.
CHRISTINE DENNING, JOB SEEKER: My position at Panasonic was eliminated in 2005. I am the more seasoned of all of us.
CARROLL: I keep hearing that over and over. First, there's the hurt and then the resentment over what happened, obviously, and then for some, it's the frustration of trying to figure out what's next. AARON: Well, I think that you have to get past the emotional part because obviously it is a bad economy. And one of the things I learned is that it's happening into so many different people.
DENNING: Not only the new economy, but in this new technological age, it is a much more complicated process to find a position. Certainly, there is a lot of competition out there and there are a lot of companies that are cutting back.
JACOBY: The economy is so as it is and there are so much competition out there. I find that networking and groups like this are so important for people because the camaraderie and the understanding and the leads that come from there.
CARROLL: So at this point, I'm wondering how optimistic are you about finding employment?
DENNING: I've even been networking at the dog park. And I'm saying that is going to be fruitful. I'm very optimistic and I know something will work out, and it will probably work out for the best.
AARON: Personally, I'm very optimistic and confident that something will come up.
JACOBY: I'm optimistic that between my skill set of people skills, thought skills and technical skills that I'm looking forward to a new opportunity.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: More information for the experienced worker out there, how to market yourself, how to keep your job or perhaps how to get back into the game and try to stay in the game. We're going to have some expert advice coming up.
Laid off and ticked off, factory workers staging a corporate takeover of their own.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm pretty worried about the economy. I'm from California. We have the highest unemployment rates around the world right now. And a lot of my friends out there we work in the technology field and they have lost their jobs over the past six months. I think there's going to be more layoffs coming. A lot of companies are merging right now, which means you know more layoffs coming, so we don't know what's going to happen next year.
Gas prices have gone down, I think every thing else is still high and people are still losing jobs. And I don't think there are actually new jobs being created at this point.
(END VIDEO CLIP) WHITFIELD: All right. We all know the economy is bad, but has it come to this? About 200 workers refused to leave this Chicago factory, even though it actually closed yesterday. The factory made doors and windows, but the sales were way down.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We feel mistreated here. You know, for no apparent reason because we don't make business decisions, we only make windows, but yet because of bad decisions, we suffer, our families suffer.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is really, really hard for everybody. Not just because we are losing our jobs, it is because we are losing our insurance, too.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: So the workers are demanding insurances that they will get their severance pay, vacation pay, that they say they are owed. We'll keep you posted on that one.
Meantime, news across America right now, five people were killed in a fire in central Ohio earlier this morning. Police say four of them were children. 21 fire trucks were sent to the apartment complex in downtown Columbus.
And in Florida, prosecutors have decided not to seek the death penalty against Casey Anthony. She is charged with killing her toddler daughter, Caylee. The girl's body has never found. Anthony could face up to life in prison however if convicted.
And in Newton County, Georgia, a 10-year-old boy was arrested for bringing a toy cap gun to school. He now faces expulsion. Police say the boy threatened other students who thought the gun was real. The boy denies it.
Hers was a who-done-it story that captivated America in the 1980s and inspired the movie "Reversal of Fortune." Today the apparent final chapter. The Associated Press reporting that Martha "Sunny" von Bulow has died. She spent nearly 28 years in a coma. Prosecutors blamed her husband Klaus, accusing him of trying to kill her with an insulin injection. He said that she had overdosed on drugs. He was eventually acquitted. Sunny von Bulow died today at a nursing home in New York. She was 76 years old.
Who is more likely to get lung cancer? Men or women? Well, what you need to know about one of the deadliest cancers.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: From the standpoint of what I'm sighing seeing, I think we're going to be, you know, I think it will be OK. I think that people coming into office are going to be much smarter than those that are leaving. And you know so I think there will be a lot more confidence out there when that happens, but that's just a political bias.
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WHITFIELD: Lots of optimism on the economy turning around. How about the weather picture? Some folks really need a break, don't they?
KAREN MAGINNIS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: They do.
WHITFIELD: I saw freezing temperatures and sleet and snow in some parts. It is not that welcomed for a lot of folks here.
MAGINNIS: Blizzard conditions too in Detroit. They are not going to see blizzard conditions there but it will be fairly windy. This is flight explorer. All the flags in the sky right now, and I think we are going to see it really deteriorate for Detroit, maybe for Chicago. Chicago is getting a little bit of a break. All right. Right now the temperatures are in the 20s. They are not in single digits but in the teens. Minneapolis is 17. Let's take a look at Detroit. Reporting a temperature of 27, but the wind chill factor makes it feel like it is 15 degrees outside. The wind is going to be blowing between 40 and 45 miles an hour in the U.P. of Michigan.
We got a couple of pictures here. This is Detroit. It is overcast, windy, they are going to see about two to four inches of snowfall. Then we travel to Phoenix or Las Vegas and the temperatures there mostly in the upper 50s to low 60s. That you got sunshine to the right and you got clouds and rainy, messy weather conditions in Detroit over the next 24 hours. You are going to see a little clipper system move through.
All right. Here are the wind chill factors, mostly around the great lakes. That's where it is being effected with those near blizzard conditions that we are expecting. The area of low pressure in the clipper system expecting to sweep on through. As it does, it's going to really enhance that lake-effect snow. Some areas could see as much as a foot of snowfall primarily along this eastern edge of Lake Michigan, also in Lake Superior. That's where it's going to be just about the worst. Other areas expecting just about in Central Michigan between two and six inches of snowfall possible in these turquoise- shaded areas.
But also, we are expecting the development of another snowstorm as an area of low pressure drops out of Canada. A little surface low pressure system moves across the interior west and it looks like that's going to be our developing winter storm as we go into probably more so into Tuesday. Some areas affected by Monday, Fred. So we'll have to watch that going into next week.
WHITFIELD: OK. Fingers crossed on that. Thank you so much, Karen. Appreciate it.
Lung cancer. Did you know that women are more likely to get it than men? CNN's Judy Fortin looks at the latest research.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JUDY FORTIN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: It's the deadliest cancer known. And according to the Mayo Clinic, women are at a higher risk of getting it than men. It is lung cancer and doctors say it's 90 percent preventable if you don't smoke. Not even a little bit.
DR. FADLO KHURI, EMORY UNIVERSITY: There's no safe level of smoking.
FORTIN: But why gender matters still remains a mystery.
KHURI: We don't know if it's due to estrogen receptors controlling certain genes that may influence tobacco metabolism or not. Nonetheless, there is that evidence that is relatively consistent that women are slightly more sensitive to developing lung cancer when exposed to tobacco smoke.
FORTIN: Secondhand smoke, and exposure to radon and radiation can also cause lung cancer, but whatever the cause, the biggest problem is finding it in time. Lung cancer symptoms can be hard to detect.
KHURI: Anything that's a change that's sustainable should be a cause for concern in a smoker, so a new cough, particularly a bloody cough, weight loss, headaches that are sustained and not relieved by routine medications or headaches in people who don't get headaches, bone pain or joint aches that are new and that are not relieved by anti- inflammatories, shortness of breath, any kind of chest pain that's sharp and worse when you take a deep breath. Those are all among the most common presentations.
FORTIN: To keep those lungs healthy, doctors recommend exercise and healthy lifestyle choices, like limiting alcohol consumption and paying attention to pollution alerts. And finally, there's the most obvious precaution.
KHURI: The bottom line is in addition to the most important thing, which is don't smoke, don't be around people who smoke, and don't let anyone influence you to smoke.
FORTIN: The only thing your lungs really want you breathing in is just a breath of fresh air. Judy Fortin, CNN, Atlanta.
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WHITFIELD: A tumbling economy sends retirees back to work. Help for older people in need of a job.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And I haven't looked at my retirement funds returns and I don't intend to look at them for at least a couple of years. But I know people have lost half of their retirement funds, literally, 50 percent.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I lost a lot in my portfolio, but, hey, other people are out of jobs.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: All right. So dealing with the economic crisis. Everyone has got a different formula. Well, President-elect Obama say that he doesn't want to just throw money at the problem. In his weekly radio address on radio and the internet, he laid out key parts of his recovery plan.
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OBAMA: Today I'm announcing a few key parts of my plan. First, we will launch a massive effort to make public buildings more energy efficient. Our government now pays the highest energy bills in the world. We need to change that. We need to upgrade our federal buildings by replacing old heating systems and installing efficient light bulbs. That won't just save you, the American taxpayer, billions of dollars each year, it will put people back to work.
We will create millions of jobs by making the single largest new investment in our national infrastructure since the creation of the federal highway system in the 1950s. We'll invest your precious tax dollars in new and smarter ways and we'll set a simple rule. Use it or lose it. If a state doesn't act quickly to invest in roads and bridges in their communities, they'll lose the money.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: All right. So rising medical costs, plunging home prices, whatever the reason, many retirees are also going back to work if they can find it. That's part of the problem. Steve Jackson is one of them. He is joining us from Chicago. And Cynthia Messler is with an organization that actually helps older people find jobs. She is joining us from Washington. Good to see both of you.
CYNTHIA MESSLER: Good to see you.
WHITFIELD: So Steve, let me begin with you. Because you kind of ere looking at retirement as OK, I'm going to enjoy this, I'm going to see the world, travel with my wife, but then things happened.
STEVE JACKSON, RETIREE LOOKING FOR WORK: Well, unfortunately, things happened that we never have control of. My wife had took ill after I decided to give up my career in communications, and it just so happens that an opportunity come along with experience works and it fulfilled a void that I needed to help be able to take care of my wife in the situation that I was in.
WHITFIELD: Because, obviously, the medical costs were very high. You didn't have insurance at the time. And so it meant a lot of money that you would have been enjoying in your retirement. It ended up having to go to those very -- those imperative needs.
JACKSON: Exactly. And it's...
WHITFIELD: OK. So tell me what it was like trying to find a job, or what has it been like trying to land a job. You've got all this wonderful experience, yet somehow opportunities don't always come your way.
JACKSON: Well, trying to find a job in the field that I've been doing for over 30 years, the age factor is a lot of the problems that we that are 55 or older are having problems with going back into the job market in our original field. And with Experience Works, they train individuals like myself into a difficult field, and you feel comfortable doing this, working with the elderly. It's just a fulfilling that I have and a fulfilling position that I can help others learn from.
WHITFIELD: That is great. So you will be able to land that position. Congratulations on that, and glad that is working out for you.
So, Cynthia Metzler, let's talk about a couple things that he touched on, Steve touched on.
You've got all this wonderful experience, work experience, life experience, yet a lot of employers don't necessarily want the experienced person. So, is it a matter of re-marketing yourself? Is it doing exactly what Steve did, which is open your eyes to other opportunities, kind of reteach yourself some other skills?
CYNTHIA METZLER, PRESIDENT & CEO, EXPERIENCE WORKS: Well, it's both of those things and more. It's opening your eyes up to and having an assessment of your own skills.
What is it that you've learned over your work life? What are you interested in doing? And then being able to think about whether or not you have the skills right now for a new job, or whether or not you need to get some new skills to retool yourself. And that's one of the things that we help people do, like Steve. It's also having employers be willing to consider the talents and skills of older people.
WHITFIELD: So, how do you go about that? Because oftentimes, you know, retirement also means you are on a fixed income, you've got limited resources in which to go back to school or get some sort of training to actually pay for it to re-market yourself. How do you afford to do that?
METZLER: Well, the older person right now, we are seeing a dramatic increase in people who either have lost their job, who have lost their retirement, and don't have enough money to make their day-to-day expenses. And the program that Experience Works operates is called the Senior Community Service Employment Program, and it is limited to people at 125 percent of poverty, which for a single person is $13,000.
So we provide the training and the work experience for people who are eligible for our services. Unfortunately, this is the only federal program that is available, so what we try to do for people who are not eligible for our program is help connect them with community colleges, with employers, with the workforce investment system to try to help them be able to easily retrain and retool themselves.
WHITFIELD: So here's the other quandary. Say you are the experienced older worker, but you didn't necessarily retire. However, the ax fell at your employment, but you still need to work. What kind of advice do you have for that person, the senior or the skilled worker who is simply out of a job and has to start from ground zero, has no retirement in which to fall on as a cushion?
METZLER: Well, unfortunately, we are seeing more and more of those people who don't have any retirement, or if they did retire, their retirement has dwindled to a point that they don't have enough to live on. And what I say to those people is, really, you can contact Experience Works at experienceworks.org, and we'll either try to help you or refer you.
Really take a look at your background. Take a look at your skills. Do everything you can to think about whether or not you have the skills that are needed in today's market. You know, that's the really scary thing for people.
WHITFIELD: Yes.
METZLER: If you haven't been in the job market for 10, 20, 30 years, creating a resume, you don't even remember how to do it.
WHITFIELD: Right. Things have changed on what employers want to see in that resume.
METZLER: Well, exactly. And even more frightening for older people is the fact that for most jobs nowadays, you have to apply online.
So, first of all, one of the things we do a lot for people is help them to get computer training.
WHITFIELD: OK. Fantastic.
METZLER: So you've got to be able to figure out how to apply online. And then, you know, the idea of searching for a job when we know that about 50 percent more people under 40 than over 40 are called in for interviews, so one of the things that we do is really work with people on job search skills.
WHITFIELD: Excellent. ExperienceWorks.org is a starting point for a lot of folks that can go to that Web site, your organization, to try and get some of this guidance, to try and get back into the workplace.
And we'd talk to Steve Jackson again, but we are working out some audio problems now. But I'm glad that he landed a position with the help from experienceworks.org.
Cynthia Metzler, thanks so much. Appreciate your time.
And an apologetic O.J. Simpson.
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O.J. SIMPSON, FORMER NFL STAR: I stand before you today sorry, somewhat confused.
(END VIDEO CLIP) WHITFIELD: So just in case you missed the rest of what he had to say, you can see it and hear it all right here.
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WHITFIELD: O.J. Simpson will be behind bars for at least nine years. His complicated sentence handed down in a Las Vegas courtroom.
Kara Finnstrom has the story.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Conspiracy to commit crime, one year in the county jail...
KARA FINNSTROM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Former football great, O.J. Simpson, known for his remarkable agility on the field, has just sidestepped the threat of a life sentence in Las Vegas.
YALE GALANTER, SIMPSON ATTORNEY: We -- you know, Gabe and I are pleased. You know, it could have been a lot worst. My expectations today were that it was going to be a much higher sentence.
FINNSTROM: We now know Simpson could face a maximum of 33 years behind bars. Courthouse officials originally figured that number at 15, but they say he will still be eligible for parole in as few as nine years.
Clarence Stewart, one of Simpson's cohorts in the crime, was given a similar sentence. Both convicted of kidnapping and armed robbery for their role in staging a holdup involving guns to recover sports memorabilia from a hotel room.
Simpson told the judge he was sorry.
SIMPSON: I am sorry. I didn't mean to steal anything from anybody, and I didn't know I was doing anything illegal. I thought I was confronting friends and retrieving my property. So, I'm sorry. I'm sorry for all of it.
FINNSTROM: Judge Jackie Glass, who is known for issuing harsh sentences, lectured Simpson.
JUDGE JACKIE GLASS, LAS VEGAS DISTRICT COURT: I said to Mr. Simpson, I didn't know he was arrogant or ignorant or both. And during the trial and through this proceeding I got the answer, and it was both.
FINNSTROM: But Glass then stressed her sentence should in no way be tied to Simpson's acquittal in the 1994 slayings of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman. Ronald Goldman's family was there as the sentences were read.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Count two, conspiracy to commit kidnapping...
FRED GOLDMAN, RON GOLDMAN'S FATHER: There's never closure. Ron is always gone, and what we have is satisfaction that this monster is where he belongs, behind bars.
KIM GOLDMAN, RON GOLDMAN'S SISTER: To watch him sit there in shackles, to watch him walk back through that door -- twice in our lifetime he's walked out the same door as our family and it was nice to see him walk through his door into his jail cell.
DAVID ROGER, CLARK COUNTY, NEV. DISTRICT ATTORNEY: She can give (ph) on these defendants and give them life sentences, but under the circumstances, I think she was well within her discretion.
FINNSTROM (on camera): Simpson is now in the process of being taken to a nearby prison where he'll undergo a psychological and a physical examination. And officials will determine where he'll serve his sentence. In the meantime, his defense attorneys are planning their appeal.
Kara Finnstrom for CNN, Las Vegas.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: So you heard part of Simpson's emotional plea for leniency. Here now is his full statement in court yesterday.
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SIMPSON: I stand before you today sorry, somewhat confused.
I feel, like, apologetic to the people of the state of Nevada.
When I came here, I came here for a wedding. I didn't come here to -- I didn't come here to reclaim property. I was told it was here.
When he told me that Monday that the stuff was in Nevada, when he knew I was going to be in Nevada, I called my kids. I talked to my sisters. I called the Brown family and I told them I had a chance to get some of our property back, property that over the years we've seen being sold on the Internet. We've seen pictures of ours that were stolen from our home going into the tabloids.
We've called the police and asked what to do. They have told us what to try to do. But you can never find out who was selling it. And this was the first time I had an opportunity to catch the guys red- handed who had been stealing from my family.
In the past, as we know, you heard on the tape, Mike Gilbert tried to set me up in a porn video, trick me into a room with hidden cameras and they still wrote in the newspaper, in the tabloids, they still had cover stories that O.J. did it, even though there was no porn video, even though I didn't participate in it.
I forgave Mike. I yelled at him. And I forgave him, just like I yelled at Bruce and Beardsley. And I have forgiven them.
We've talked about it, Beardsley and I, the next day. And Bruce and I hugged and talked about it. His kids have called me since this. We've apologized to each other. The only person I asked, I requested to help me here was Mr. Stewart. I did request him. I needed his car. I asked him if he had some guys to help me remove these things from the room. I didn't ask anybody to do anything but to stand behind me, allow me to yell at these guys, and then help me remove those things.
And if they wouldn't let me remove them, we would call the cops on them, because I felt that they were wrong.
But in no way did I mean to hurt anybody, to steal anything from anyone. I talked to the police officers. I volunteered immediately to come back, show them what was taken, and then tell them what took place, before anybody talked to the police. I was the first guy that volunteered to do it. And I heard on the tapes that they thought I was stupid for doing it.
But I didn't want to steal anything from anybody. I don't think anybody there said I wanted anybody else's stuff, just my own. I wanted my daughter, who -- Ms. Brown gave her, her mother's wedding ring. Stolen.
You know, my kids had pictures. My oldest son has his own family now. He wanted the picture in the Oval Office with Gerald Ford when he was 5 years old.
Stolen. All of these things are gone. My family knew what we were doing.
And I didn't want to hurt Bruce. I didn't want to hurt any of these guys. I know these guys. These guys have eaten in my home. I have done book reports with their kids. I have sung to their mothers when they were sick.
You know, I wasn't there to hurt anybody. I just wanted my personal things. And I realize now it was stupid of me. I am sorry. I didn't mean to steal anything from anybody. And I didn't know I was doing anything illegal. I thought I was confronting friends and retrieving my property.
So, I'm sorry. I'm sorry for all of it.
Thank you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: OK. But the judge spoke. And you've been weighing in on the O.J. Simpson sentence and sending us your iReports. So let's take a look at some of them right now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JASON DINANT, IREPORTER: O.J. Simpson does not get to pass Go, not collect his $200. He's going right to jail and, whoa, for a long time at that. Six to nine years before he can even get parole, and hopefully he serves 15 years in jail. Because you know why? We don't take lightly to people coming up here in Las Vegas and causing crime and causing a ruckus. We don't take lightly to that. No.
And Judge Jackie Glass, and she just -- whoa -- she said, O.J., you're going to jail. I find you arrogant and ignorant. And I think most of the people here in this city find him arrogant and ignorant as well.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RICK SENO, IREPORTER: This is a guy who got away with double murder, and then he pranced around for the past 13 years playing golf and doing infomercials and making money off of the death of his wife and Ronald Goldman. Hopefully, when they arrest him and take him to prison, they will remove his pension, and finally the Goldmans will be able to get paid.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: All right. Some of your iReport responses from O.J. Simpson being sentenced yesterday in Las Vegas.
How are you doing, Don?
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: I'm doing fine. I mean, you know, O.J. -- it's a little -- he should have learned his lesson already and he didn't. But it's a little strange.
So, anyway, I sit and watch those iReports, and people are talking about it, because, you know, here it is later, on the anniversary. And there you see O.J. Simpson again.
We have some developing news coming up at the top of the hour, Fredricka.
We talked about -- I think you guys have been reporting on a plant in Chicago, a window plant, where union workers are staging a sit-in right now for two days.
WHITFIELD: Right.
LEMON: It's been happening two days. And they have the full backing of the union behind them.
We have the union. We are going live to Chicago to talk to them to find out exactly what's going on, why they are asking for this, and exactly how much notice did they get about this plant shutting down. Are they entitled to any money? That's the big question.
WHITFIELD: It's sad.
LEMON: Yes.
WHITFIELD: I mean, it's so sad with so many jobs lost and so many different kinds of circumstances. But these folks are showing up for work and then, bam.
LEMON: It's becoming dire. If you have to stage a sit-in at any time to get what you deserve from your job, then it's rough.
WHITFIELD: Yes.
LEMON: Also, we are going to Chicago again, because in this little package...
WHITFIELD: Ooh, FedEx loves you.
LEMON: ... this was addressed to Don Lemon, here at CNN, is the "Ebony" magazine Person of the Year. And it might surprise you who it is. There it is, right there, coming up.
WHITFIELD: In that package.
LEMON: In this package.
WHITFIELD: And you're going to reveal it.
LEMON: I'm going to reveal a little bit of it.
But we're also going to talk to Bryan Monroe from "Ebony" magazine. He is the "Ebony" editorial director. We're going to talk to him.
WHITFIELD: Good guy.
LEMON: Also, we are talking about jobs. This is very interesting.
Yesterday, during one of our broadcasts here on CNN, Gerri Willis was at a job bank and just talking to a woman, a random woman in the audience. Well, someone called to offer her a job after that interview.
WHITFIELD: All right.
LEMON: So we're going to talk to -- there she is right there. We're going to talk to Gerri Willis and the woman who was offered a job tonight at 11:00.
Here's the interesting thing. She is, you know, not 20s. You know what I mean, younger workers, tech-savvy, or whatever. Not exactly what employers may be looking for all the time. And that is a big concern in this environment.
WHITFIELD: Oh, yes. We just did a segment on people with lots of experience are having a difficult time holding on to the jobs and getting a new one simply because a lot of employers would rather grab younger, and for less.
LEMON: Younger, prettier, cheaper. It's the way of the world.
WHITFIELD: And not valuing the experience that a lot of folks who have been in the workforce for a long time have.
LEMON: Yes.
WHITFIELD: Yes, it's a terrible conundrum.
LEMON: We're taking your comments as well -- Twitter.com, Facebook...
WHITFIELD: Excellent.
LEMON: ... MySpace and ireport.com.
WHITFIELD: Good. Well, we will watch all of that.
LEMON: Thanks, Fred. You look very nice, by the way.
WHITFIELD: Good to see you. Thanks so much. Appreciate it. And we'll look forward to the drum roll of the reveal.
LEMON: I love it. You'll see.
WHITFIELD: A little peek. OK. I think I know.
LEMON: See you, Fred. Thanks.
WHITFIELD: All right. Take care. Bye, Don.
All right. Answers to unsolved mysteries found in a small silver box. Kind of small technology that could make crime solving easier and faster.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: All right. A professor takes crime fighting to a whole new level. He's developing technology that could make your favorite TV crime drama a reality.
CNN's Deborah Feyerick has the story on the edge of discovery.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): TV shows like "CSI" make crime-solving look so simple.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It is a match. Your John Doe is Vincent Bartley.
FEYERICK: But in the real world...
DONNA ROSKOWSKI, INDIANA STATE POLICE: Science takes time. We don't solve crimes, generally, in half an hour.
FEYERICK: Well, crime scene investigators listen up. Purdue University's Dr. Graham Cooks believes he is on the brink of making TV fantasy a reality.
DR. GRAHAM COOKS, PURDUE UNIVERSITY: What we're trying to do is to get the chemical information which is captured in a fingerprint. FEYERICK: He took these big machines called mass spectrometers and turned them into lightweight, portable chemistry labs. They're used with a technique called DESI, which involves spraying a solvent onto a fingerprint. The droplets that splash up from the print are then analyzed.
COOKS: They could be drugs, they could be explosives, they could be other compounds. Those compounds are listed off by the spray, and they are sucked down this pipe here.
FEYERICK: Cooks says that the DESI system cannot only identify who made the fingerprints, but also what they had been touching.
COOKS: This methodology could be used for day-to-day crime fighting, it could be used in terrorism and awesome (ph) cases.
FEYERICK: But the system is still experimental and would require extensive training by law enforcement. So it might be a while before it is used at a crime scene near you.
Deborah Feyerick, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: AIDS in Africa. A reality television star kicks off a campaign to raise awareness about the spread of HIV.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Impact your world. The winner of a reality TV show puts his prize to work. CNN's Barbara Starr looks at how he's raising HIV/AIDS awareness in Africa.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For Ethan Zohn, dribbling a soccer ball is second nature. But dribbling a ball while walking from Boston, Massachusetts, to Washington, D.C., is a march of determination to bring attention to the HIV/AIDS crisis facing children in Southern Africa and around the world.
ETHAN ZOHN, FOUNDER, GRASSROOT SOCCER UNITED: I lived and played professional soccer in Zimbabwe. And while I was there, I witnessed firsthand what was happening with HIV and AIDS and how it was just really destroying this community that I was a part of.
You may remember Zohn from the hit TV show "Survivor." He won the third season, and it was on the show he pledged to use his winnings to make a difference.
ZOHN: The grand prize of winning "Survivor" is $1 million. So I used some of that money to start Grassroot Soccer.
STARR: His charity uses the allure of the sport to educate.
ZOHN: Seeing the power of soccer and the role models that this sport creates, it was really an easy formula where we can take these guys, send them into a classroom, and really have an impact on these young kids' lives, really have the ability to change their behaviors so they can go out there to lead a healthy lifestyle.
STARR: So far what started as a promise on a reality TV show appears to be making a real difference in the lives of thousands of children.
For "Impact Your World," Barbara Starr, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: And if you'd like to learn more about Grassroot Soccer United, visit our "Impact Your World" Web page. You'll find links to that organization and others raising HIV/AIDS awareness around the world. That's at CNN.com/impact.
I'm Fredricka Whitfield. Much more of the NEWSROOM with Don Lemon straight ahead.
