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Change in the Middle East; The House Republicans Spending Bill; U.S. Military Leaders Directly Engaging With Egyptian Military; Top Legal Cases of the Week; Valentine's Day Gifts: Are They More About Money Than Love?

Aired February 12, 2011 - 12:00   ET

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

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: All right, thanks so much, Randi. Have a great day.

We got a lot on top. The revolution in Egypt has already triggering been change in the Middle East, today. The Palestinian authority announced it will hold elections in September and that could alter the peace process and generate a new threat to Israel, already. Closely watching the changes in Egypt.

We go to Jerusalem, right now, and CNN's bureau chief, Kevin Flower.

So, first Kevin, what does this mean, and how concerned are Israelis about these new developments?

KEVIN FLOWER, CNN JERUSALEM BUREAU CHIEF: Well, Israel has been extremely concerned watching what's going on in Egypt, Fredricka, but tonight we just heard from the Israeli government for the first time since the resignation of Hosni Mubarak and the prime minister's office, Benjamin Netanyahu, released a statement that says they welcome the Egyptian military, that it will continue to honor the peace treaty with Israel.

It goes on to say, from Netanyahu, "The long standing peace treaty between Israel and Egypt has greatly contributed to both countries, and is the cornerstone of peace and stability in the entire Middle East."

And this is what we've been hearing from Israeli officials for three weeks now, almost, that that is the most important piece that they are worried about, is that peace treaty being maintained. As he says in his statement, there's a corner stone for their stability here and they have real worries about what is going to happen on their southern border.

Will the Egyptian military continue to monitor what goes on in the border? Will they prevent arms from smuggled into the Gaza strip to be used by militants there, against Israel? Will Israel have to put more troops on its southern border, something it hasn't had to really do for 30 years?

These are the questions being asked here, and just to underline how important this is to the Israelis and how important it is to the U.S., the admiral Mullen is going to be in the region starting tomorrow. He will be meeting with Israel officials, with the prime minister, with the head of the military here, as well, to discuss the security strategy going forward and wake of all these changes in Egypt, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right, Kevin Flower, thanks so much. Appreciate that. All right, night is already falling in Egypt, and people are still in the streets more than 24 hours after Hosni Mubarak gave up power. The military is in control, for now. Soldiers and one-time protestors are working together to clear Cairo Tahrir Square and keep it peaceful.

They're also putting up a marble statue in honor of those who died during the protest. They don't have to worry yet about a curfew, it doesn't start until midnight. It is just after 7:00 p.m., now.

CNN's Ivan Watson is joining us by phone from Tahrir Square where he has watched this revolution unfold.

Ivan, is the crowd thinning out at all?

IVAN WATSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: A little bit. I'm not actually right in the square right now, just left there, Fredricka, but it was fascinating to see that it really has become a destination, really, for Egyptian families of all types, from all social backgrounds, economic backgrounds, descending on this place. They're setting up concerts down there and as you mentioned, putting up a monument in honor of the people who died defending that square during several days of bloody clashes during the first phases of this Egyptian revolution.

Also, interesting to see the army step in to remove the barricades that have been erected there, despite the objections of some die-hard demonstrators there, and to see how the opposition protesters have mobilized hundreds of people to come in, who are armed with brooms, to clean that square up, to clean up the debris left after 18 day sit-in there, and to see the civil mindedness, the activism of many young Egyptians, something that was really absent in Egyptian society in the past. They want to take control, take ownership of their own capital city -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: Ivan Watson, thanks so much from Cairo. Appreciate that.

Meantime, as we mentioned earlier, the Palestinian authority has announced plans to hold elections no later than September, some are saying it's a direct correlation between what's taking place in Egypt and now involving the Palestinian authority decision, as well.

CNN's senior State Department producer, Elise Labott joins us now from Washington.

So, is there a direct correlation with what's happening in Egypt and this announcement of the Palestinian elections?

ELISE LABOTT, CNN SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT PRODUCER: Well, certainly these elections are long overdue, Fred. They've been supposed to have it for some time. And you got to look at what's happening in Egypt, look at it throughout the region and certainly this, in part, is a move by President Mahmoud Abbas to answer some of these calls for more government accountability and democratic elections and a lot of people have said that President Abbas doesn't really have the legitimacy anymore because his term has been up for so long.

So, certainly, looking around the region, have to deliver these kinds of things at home as well or you're going to be just as unpopular as some of these leaders that we're seeing.

WHITFIELD: So, is this a prelude to a new, different Palestinian authority?

LABOTT: Well, I really don't think they know, right now. Whether President Abbas is going to run again, if not, who are some of these other leaders in the Fatah party and the PLO that are going to run? Is Hamas going to take part in these elections? They have kind of opposed these elections, they say that they won't endorse it, but we saw in 2006 that Hamas decided to become part of these elections. One, the majority and really was really not able to govern because of the boycott of the international community. So, I don't think they know who's going to be running, whether some of these leaders, other leaders are going to emerge. It's really unclear, because as we've heard, elections don't necessarily a democracy make, Fred.

WHITFIELD: And so how is the U.S. State Department be responding to this?

LABOTT: Well, I think it's a mixed bag. On one hand, you know, as you've seen, they've been calling for democratic elections across the whole region. But as we've seen in 2006, if you push elections too soon, the Palestinians are ready, you don't really know who you're going to get. I think they do want to see the Palestinians move towards more inclusiveness.

But at the same time, right now even though the Palestinian and Israeli negotiations are a bit stalled, the status quo in the Palestinian territory really isn't that bad for the United States, right now because, Salam Fayyed, the prime minister has really been trying to build up these institutions, build up the security services and by all accounts, he really is setting in these building blocks for a future Palestinian state.

So, I would say right now, you know, even though there are some problems, they're pretty happy with the situation, as it is. So, we have to see who's going to run in the election I think, before they really make a judgment on whether it's a good thing or not, Fred. But certainly they always say election is good.

WHITFIELD: All right, State Department producer, Elise Labott, thanks so much from Washington, appreciate that.

Meantime, a huge meeting of conservative Republicans is underway, right now, in Washington. Hear what point they're trying to hammer home today, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right, on to American politics, now. House Republicans have unveiled a spending bill that makes massive cuts to many government programs and agencies. It calls for $60 billion in cuts including $88 million from food, safety and inspection, 650 million at the Federal Aviation Administration, more than a billion from the Head Start education program. But the deepest cuts are reserved for the Environmental Protection Agency.

The EPA would be slashed by 30 percent, a total of $3 billion. Republicans say the cuts are painful, but needed. Democrats call the bill irresponsible and a threat to the economy. A vote is expected next week.

So, conservative activists are wrapping up a high profile meeting in Washington known as CPAC. The event has featured several potential Republican presidential candidates and CNN's deputy senior political director, Paul Steinhauser is there and joins us live, now.

So Paul, is the Egyptian revolution a big topic of conversation there, at CPAC?

PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN DEPUTY POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Fred, people are talking about it here, but no, it's not dominating the agenda. That's domestic issues. And CPAC, Conservative Political Activist Conference, it's one of the oldest and the largest conservative gathering activists from across the country -- 11,000 of them here this year. And as you mentioned, a lot of presidential people who may want to run for Republican presidential nomination, are here. Remember, we're less than a year away now from the start of those GOP presidential primaries and caucuses.

But, one of the big topics here is government spending. Fred, you were just talking about those budget cuts. House Republicans increasing those cuts. One of the reasons, because people here are calling for more cuts, they want to get the deficit under control, they want to get taxes down and cut government spending.

That's what we heard from Mitch Daniels. He's the Indiana governor, he's thinking about running for the White House. Take a listen, he said it's a matter of national survival.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. MITCH DANIELS (R), INDIANA: It is the new red menace, this time consisting of ink. We can debate its origins endlessly and search for villains on ideological grounds, but the reality is pure arithmetic.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STEINHAUSER: And similar themes from a lot of those other potential GOP presidential candidates who've been speaking right here at this conference -- Fred. WHITFIELD: All right, Paul Steinhauser, thanks so much from Washington, at that CPAC meeting. Appreciate that.

Meantime, people will sell just about anything and everything on eBay, right? So, why a lawsuit over used purses? Our legal guys are ready to tackle this one.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right, let's check what's on our docket. Lindsay Lohan, the necklace, the puppy in the mail and a popular handbag designer versus the eBayer. Our legal guys are ready.

Civil rights attorney, Avery Friedman in Cleveland and New York criminal defense attorney, Richard Herman, in Washington.

OK, let's begin with Lindsay Lohan. I know, a lot has been said about her all week long. And so now we're talking about the case, gentlemen, where Richard says it's OK, we're going to release you on bail. But she is facing a grand theft charge, which could mean up to three years in prison if convicted.

RICHARD HERMAN, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, it's a little worse than that, Fred. It's felony grand theft, not like the video game, this is the real deal. And if she gets convicted of the felony grand theft, she will go to prison. In addition to that, she will go to prison for violating her probation. So there's going to be two prison sentences hand down if she gets convicted of the necklace thing. The necklace looks real bad for her. You know, she sent flowers to them to try to tone them down. It looks read bad. The store had already said it's very difficult to rent any kind of jewelry from us. We don't give it out as gifts like that. So, she's in a heap of trouble.

WHITFIELD: So, Avery, you're in complete disagreement with everything that Richard had to say?

AVERY FRIEDMAN, CIVIL RIGHTS ATTORNEY: Absolutely.

WHITFIELD: Beginning with?

FRIEDMAN: Yes, I mean, look, she was actually supposed to get off probation, Fredricka, the end of this month. Now the Judge Kevin Schwarz who's overseeing this is not going to permit her to end her probation because we need a resolution of the felony case.

But let me tell you something, the owner of the store has given police three or four different stories of this thing. She's walked out in the past with a diamond earring. Her defense is that, in fact, her stylist is going to testify it was she, the stylist, who was supposed to return the necklace. So, this is far from a slam-dunk. Yes, it's trouble, but let me tell you something, from the defense lawyer's perspective, she's an annuity for the law firm, believe me. It never ends.

WHITFIELD: Oh, and so there's also a possibility, Avery, or would there be a possibility that this felony charge would be reduced to being a misdemeanor, and if that were the case, what would be at stake for her?

FRIEDMAN: Well, it's still a crime, though. The problem, the problem is that any kind of misbehavior on her part, and she seems to specialize in this, is going to be problematic because it keeps her on probation. But if indeed, even if she's convicted of a misdemeanor, she may very well be looking for jail time. Her lawyer is saying we'll do a deal, but no jail.

HERMAN: But Fred, you know, in California, for all the train wreck fans out there, even if she does get a prison sentence, whether it's months or a year, you know they reduce it to a couple weeks because of overcrowding and she'll be out getting into more trouble.

WHITFIELD: And just for the record, yesterday she did tweet that she no thief.

All right, let's move on to another case. This one is really bizarre. Avery, this woman, but the name of Stacey Champion, wanted to surprise her 11-year-old son with a puppy. She lives in Minneapolis, the son lives in Georgia, she decided to put this cute little pooch, right here, in a pouch and mail it. No holes, no food, none of that. Now she's facing cruelty to animal charges. Anything more might she be facing? Can you mail a live animal?

FRIEDMAN: I mean, and the puppy's name is "Guess." This is mind numbing. I mean, it's stunning that people do this. Yes, there were no holes, no food, no water. And then listen to this, when the postal authorities hear something in the box, they say, well, what you got in there, and you know what she says? She says, "It's a toy robot." She knew what she was doing. I mean, it's just ridiculous. She's going to get convicted. And now she's going back after the postal service for the 22 bucks she had to spend.

WHITFIELD: That's right. She says, give me back the money that I spent.

Richard, what do you have to say? I definitely want to hear from the judge and the woman, apparently, in court.

HERMAN: No, she wants the dog back. That's even worse. But she said there was no sign up in the post office that said you could not send a dog, therefore I thought I could do it. If you read the transcript say says the judge was fighting for vocabulary because he couldn't respond to this.

WHITFIELD: Let's listen to the judge and this women, real quick.

HERMAN: Yes, it's incredible.

WHITFIELD: Stacey Champion.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STACEY CHAMPION, MAILED A DOG: You can see the holes and all the other good stuff.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Disgraceful. You cannot tell me that you thought you were doing the right thing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Well, she says she was doing the right thing. Well, we'll see what happens next. We'll move onto the next chapter of that one. And then this has to be the case of the day. This young woman says I want to put my Coach bags on eBay, I want to sell them, make a little money, everyone else does it. Why can't I? But then Coach, the manufacturer says, no, you can't do this because you were a former employee and you bought these handbags at a discount.

So Avery, you know, while Coach is saying this is, you know, a trademark infringement issue. She says, no, I should be able to sell whatever I want when I want.

FRIEDMAN: Yes, and she's right. I mean, the fact is that Coach and their lawyers are a bunch of bullies, in my opinion, and try to push people around. Look it, the fact of counterfeiting is a problem. They have to be aggressive about that. They knew that Kim was a former employee. It's a used purse. How you going to buy a used purse at Coach? For goodness sakes. In fact, eBay acknowledged that she was right. Coach was wrong. Put the ad back up there. And now there's a counter suit under consumer protection laws for trying to interfere with commerce against Coach. So, I hope this young woman actually prevails.

WHITFIELD: So Richard, Coach is suing her. She claims that's intimidation. Now she's countersuing. When does it end?

HERMAN: It ends when Coach turns around and silently gives her a few dollars and the whole case walks away. But Avery right, Coach were bullies, here. She has every right to sell that bag on eBay, every, every right. And for them to send the kind of letter that they sent out, obviously counterfeiting is a huge problem on eBay, Coach is suffering from it, so they send this vicious letter suing for $2 million, legal fees and trouble damages, and pay us $300 immediately. How many people, Fred, do you think, just automatically send 300, whether they're right or wrong, just to end this problem? It's a big problem for Coach and they're going to be called to task on this one -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: OK. Richard, Avery, we're going to see you again later on in the hour, because we're going to talking about some, woo, 400 or so football fans are really fired up. They went to the Super Bowl, they didn't get their seats. And we're going to talk about the legal battle that it has come to when we see you again in a few minutes.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: A look at our top stories, right now. Crowds are still in Cairo's Tahrir Square on this day after Hosni Mubarak stepped down as president of Egypt. The scene, one of celebration. The country is now ruled by a caretaker government controlled by the military. Military leaders say they will honor Egypt's international treaties, including the 1978 peace treaty with Israel.

And in Washington, a big gathering of conservative leaders. Thousands are attending the Conservative Political Action Conference. Among them, several politicians who might be setting their sights on the White House come 2012. When the conference comes to a close today, the results of a presidential straw poll will be released.

And actress Elizabeth Taylor is in a Los Angeles hospital where she is being treated for symptoms of a congestive heart failure. The Oscar winning actress is 78 years old.

And more than 24 hours after protesters forced Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to step down, they're not just celebrating, but also cleaning up.

Our Fred Pleitgen reports from Tahrir Square.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FREDRIK PLEITGEN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: After the revolution, it's not all celebration for the people, here. A lot of them have come together and are cleaning up the area at Tahrir Square, which of course, has seen a lot of violence, there's a lot of trash also there from people camping out the past days. And now they're cleaning up and they say they believe that because they've now taken back their country, they want to make their country clean and nice so that everyone can enjoy it and so that they themselves can be more proud of their revolution.

So this is the new Egypt, right here?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

PLEITGEN: OK, and you're happy to do this?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I do this for my health (INAUDIBLE) I am very, very happy to do that. I live by (INAUDIBLE) and my wife to come here with my friend to do that.

PLEITGEN: To clean up?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To rebuild Egypt.

PLEITGEN: And this is where it starts? Cleaning the streets is where it starts?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

PLEITGEN: Thank you, sir.

It looks like hard work. What are you doing?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're cleaning the new Egypt. Our new Egypt. PLEITGEN: So this is people taking control of the country and making it more beautiful? What does this symbolize, then?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Let me tell you, this energy will enter inside ourselves and just you scratch a little piece and we all came out to say Egypt, this is the new Egypt, this is the new world, and I can swear and promise you to see Egypt after five years from now. Just five years.

PLEITGEN (voice-over): There appear to be scuffles between the military and people here at some point. The military tell us that it was just a couple of folks who were causing trouble, they are arrested. The military says it has no issues with people staying here, ever. It does want to open this area at some point, so businesses can reopen on Tahrir Square.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was three troublemakers we arrested them, but will let them go again.

PLEITGEN (on camera): There's a big cleanup also going on here at the barricades that lead into Tahrir Square, and of course, these barricades are so symbolic of what was happening here over the past couple of days. This was the scene of some of the worst street fighting as pro-Mubarak demonstrators attacked the anti-Mub`arak crowd. And of course, in the end, the anti-Mubarak demonstrators prevailed. Now these are is getting cleaned up, as well. As we can see people who are taking control of their country and taking things into their own hands.

Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Cairo, Egypt.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And next, a live report on the Pentagon's reaction to the sudden changes in Egypt now that the military there is in charge. Let's bring in CNN's Barbara Starr in Washington.

What are U.S. military leaders saying about this? And what, if anything, is it doing?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: You know, Fred, I think we're going to start seeing U.S. military leaders directly engaging in the region. In fact, in the latest news, Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, is on his way to the Middle East. It was a preplanned trip at least to Israel. Now he's added a stop in Jordan. He will talk to King Abdullah, there, in Jordan, another Middle East leader facing protests, under pressure from his own people.

Admiral Mullen and Defense Secretary Robert Gates had been dealing directly with Egyptian military officials throughout the crisis, talking to them, encouraging them to not to react with any violence towards the protesters.

But now the question is, really, how tight, how close is that U.S. military relationship with the Egyptians? It is the Pentagon that is going to know the most about what's going on? They didn't know very much over the last 18 days to be clear. It's all pretty hard to figure out at this point. I spoke a while ago to former CIA director and former Air Force General Michael Hayden.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEN. MICHAEL HAYDEN, FORMER CIA DIRECTOR: That's almost a half a million men. They're conscripts. They have to go back into Egyptian society. You saw how they reacted with-with, not against, with the protesters in Tahrir Square. There's only so much that the Egyptian military can ask these conscripts to do. I think the senior leadership well recognizes there are limits in terms of their options because of the nature of the Egyptian army.

At the other end you have the generals. They may be the ones most vested, in the old regime, so to speak. They're important, but I don't think they are as important as the next layer below them. I'll just call them the colonels. And if you look at the history of this part of the world, it has been the colonels who have led the most dramatic changes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STARR: So General Hayden talking about the sheer mass of the Egyptian military, that the U.S. will now be dealing with. And those colonels in the Egyptian military have trained in the United States. Many of them have had jobs working very closely with the U.S. military. Now, things don't always move in such a positive direction with those mid-level colonels. As General Hayden, noted, revolutions tend to rarely, rarely, tend to break to the center. Sadly, they often move to the extremes. So there may be a long way to go here, Fred, before things really sort out.

WHITFIELD: Does that kind of underscore the security concerns the U.S. military may have about this transitional period?

STARR: I think it really does. I think it also underscores the broader security concerns throughout the region. Even today we saw additional unrest in Algeria. There have been demonstrations-you know, it started in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Jordan, now into Algeria.

It's been, officials at the Pentagon will tell you, the speed, the pace, the scope of the spreading unrest across the Middle East that perhaps has caught them most by surprise. Obviously, they know there are deep problems in the region.

The fact things now in the Internet age, with Facebook and Twitter, can move so fast. And people can mass in the street so fast, that's a new security parameter that the Pentagon and I think even the Obama administration is struggling to cope with.

WHITFIELD: Barbara Starr in Washington, thanks for that. Appreciate it.

Meantime, President Barack Obama was quick to hail the transition now under way in Egypt. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There are very few moments in our lives where we have the privilege to witness history taking place. This is one of those moments. This is one of those times. The people of Egypt have spoken. Their voices have been heard. And Egypt will never be the same.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: In Mubarak's absence there's now a power vacuum. And CNN's Michael Holmes takes a look at the military's role in a post- Mubarak Egypt.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The big question, of course, is who is calling the shots in Egypt? Right now it is Egypt's supreme military council. It remains a powerful institution, one of the bedrocks of Egyptian society.

The Supreme Council includes leaders of the army, the air force, navy and air defense forces. The group's top brass includes Mohammed Hussein Tantawi. He is 75 years old and holds the rank of field marshal. Tantawi is Egypt's defense minister and the commander in chief of the country's armed forces. And before Mubarak stepped down, he was promoted to deputy prime minister.

Former U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen knows Tantawi and spoke to him earlier to our Wolf Blitzer.

WILLIAM COHEN, FORMER U.S. SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: I had worked with him while I was at the Pentagon. He served side by side with President Mubarak. Now the question is whether he will continue to remain the head of the military as such or whether that will pass onto a younger generation remains to be seen.

HOLMES: Another key member, well, Lieutenant General Sami Hafez Enan. Now he's the chief of staff of Egypt's armed forces and the commander of Egypt's army. Enan is 63 years old and has spent considerable time training with the U.S. military. He was in Washington holding military talks when the protests first broke out.

Now, keep in mind all four Egyptian presidents, since 1952, have come from the military. Mubarak himself is a former commander of the Egyptian air force. The country relies on conscription for the more than 468,000 active personnel, and reverses of 479,000 more troops. And the U.S. has close ties with Egypt's military, providing more than $1.3 billion in military aid every year.

It is unclear what influence, if any, the U.S. Holds with Egypt's armed forces when it comes to who is to lead the country next. Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Thanks so much, Michael.

Here at home, they had tickets to the Super Bowl but ended up without a seat. Now they're suing. Our legal guys weigh in on the chances.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: More legal talkers, jilted Super Bowl fans sue the NFL; a company reaches a settlement with a worker it fired over a Facebook posting; and one state proposing lighter charges to curb sexting.

Let's get a check with the legal guys again. Civil rights attorney Avery Friedman, criminal defense attorney Richard Herman.

Good to see you guys. Let's hear from these hot, I mean angry fans, at that game at the Super Bowl.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No seats! They don't even have my row let alone the section we're supposed to be in.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We paid thousands of dollars and faced the weather just to get down here. And now, this is how they're treating us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Oh, they are upset. About 400 fans who is purchased tickets, as you heard from them, purchased tickets to be in the Cowboys stadium for the big game, and then apparently the seats were not finished being constructed yet.

Now the NFL, Jerry Jones, Cowboys Stadium, they all offered some incentives. Face value of the tickets, times three. But these fans say no, not enough.

Avery, they want to sue. And they're suing for a handsome sum of what, $5 million?

AVERY FRIEDMAN, CIVIL RIGHTS ATTORNEY: For $5 million, yes. Well there are two classes of plaintiffs here.

WHITFIELD: What are their chances?

FRIEDMAN: Well, there are two classes. Those people that came from Pittsburgh and came from Green Bay, that case is going to resolve easily. The harder one are the folks with PSLs that spent $100,000. They didn't have a place to put their well-to-do keisters. They had to put them on the cold steel seats. And so what they're doing is seeking fraud and deceit damages. That will ultimately resolve. That is the more serious of the two cases. Apparently.

WHITFIELD: Oh my goodness. So, Richard, do you see this going anywhere? Did the NFL, Jerry Jones, the Cowboys, handle it well and say, look, we're sorry. Here is some incentive.

RICHARD HERMAN, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, Jerry Wayne Jones created a little problem here offering the finest site lines in the stadium. It was all in his zeal to break the Super Bowl attendance record. He tried to bring in as many people as he could. These were fold-up chairs, Avery. Part of the seating was condemned by the building department because it was not safe.

There is a problem. So, but, Fred, in the end good luck finding a jury in Dallas who is going to hurt the Cowboys. I don't see that ever happening.

WOLF: Love those Cowboys. They love those Cowboys.

HERMAN: Love those Cowboys, so in the end.

FRIEDMAN: In the end.

WHITFIELD: So it's going to be costly getting to the end.

Let's talk about this Facebook firing settlement. This was an employee who was very upset with her boss. She writes something not very flattering on her Facebook page, and her company says, OK, you're gone. You're fired. You're out of here. And so she tries to sue saying, what about freedom of speech?

Avery, where does this go? And there is a settlement in the end. Did she have a good argument, that freedom of speech. She should have been able to say what she wanted on the public domain of Facebook?

FRIEDMAN: Well, this would have been a precedent setting radical decision that won't happen because of the settlement. The argument is that she had free speech. Well, the First Amendment doesn't protect speech in the private setting. But what would have come out of this, and this is a huge deal, that under the National Labor Relations Act, coworkers can talk about management. And the NLRB was about to rule in the employee's favor concerning the use of social media retaliation, but the case settled. So we're going to have to wait for another day to see if a precedent is going to be set with this.

WHITFIELD: So Avery, what you don't get to see is Richard shaking his head as I'm watching. It is making me laugh. You're in total disagreement here?

HERMAN: I'm not in disagreement, Fred. But let's be realistic. In this day and age it's hard enough to get a job. She works for an ambulance company. She's bad mouthing everybody at the company, on the Internet, on Facebook. Technically, the company had a very broad policy of blogging. So it was their fault. They're going to tighten the policy up.

If you bad mouth your employer and you keep doing it in the office, or outside on the Internet, down the road, your future is bleak with this company. She's going to get fired down the road. It's going to be for a cause. She's going to lose this job. That's what's going to happen here. WHITFIELD: Note to self. Don't disparage your company or employer online, on Facebook, anywhere. Right? Who wants to go to court over it?

HERMAN: Not a good idea.

WHITFIELD: Now let's back to Texas. Don't mess with Texas.

HERMAN: Here we go.

WHITFIELD: Here we go. So now you're a kid under the age of 18 and you sext. Well before you may have been facing some tougher penalties. Now, apparently, they want to make lighter sentences, not tougher ones. How in the world is that going to help? What's the psychology here, Richard?

HERMAN: It's a good move, Fred. If you were in possession of child pornography or you sent it via the Internet that would be trafficking. Those were felonies. You would go to prison for that. You would get on a felon sex offender registry. It would haunt you for the rest of your life.

These are kids being kids. What Texas said is we're not going to ruin their lives with felony convictions. We'll give them one shot. Come. It's a misdemeanor. You get counseling. You get the finger pointing. Don't ever do this again.

WHITFIELD: So they'll get educated.

HERMAN: Educated, with the parents, by the way. And then hopefully prevent this from happening.

WHITFIELD: You're not buying this. Avery, you're shaking your head.

FRIEDMAN: I am not. I think there has to be an effort to protect children against zealous prosecutors who want to hurt them by charging them with felons, getting them convicted as predators. Bottom line is this legislation is fraught with constitutional deficiencies. Not only is the kid charged with a crime, but a parent is charged with a crime. Clearly unconstitutional. Look, the concept is right. The legislators back in Austin are going to have to get together, rewrite this thing, so that it passes constitutionality, good idea, bad execution. Let's go back and do it again.

WHITFIELD: All right. Avery, Richard , thanks so much. We always learn so much when you guys join us.

HERMAN: Fred, I have warm regards to you from Dean Schmoake (ph), the outstanding Howard University School of Law, sending you warm regards, Fred.

WHITFIELD: Thank you so much. Howard University, very special to my heart. Near and dear, forever and always.

HERMAN: Yes, sure. WHITFIELD: Avery, Richard, appreciate it.

FRIEDMAN: All the best.

WHITFIELD: All the best.

HERMAN: Take care.

WHITFIELD: See you next time.

HERMAN: Have a great weekend.

WHITFIELD: A lot of folks are weighing in on all that's been taking place in Egypt. Including fashion icon Iman. She spend part of her childhood in Egypt and she reacts to the revolution, "Face To Face" with me. Coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(EGYPTIAN CROWDS CHANTING)

HORNS HONKING

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Eighteen days, that's how long it took for real change to sweep through Egypt. Protesters demands were finally met with a simple statement: President Mubarak has resigned. With that announcement, a massive sigh of relief and cheers heard around the world.

Our Ivan Watson was in the middle of the madness.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WATSON (on camera): Look at these scenes of euphoria and celebration.

(CROWDS CHANTING)

WATSON: Just moments ago the news came out, President Mubarak is stepping down.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We don't want him!

(CROWDS CHANTING)

WATSON: Normally it would be pretty frustrating to be struck in Cairo traffic. Tonight it's a party. Look at the scene.

(HORNS BLARING)

WATSON: The people are out in their cars. They've brought their families out. They're waving flags. The kids are out as well. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Freedom! Freedom!

WATSON: Congratulations. How are you doing? How are you?

Thank you, guys. Have a good night.

That's the word we're hearing a lot here. Mabrouk, congratulations. One man said, We did it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Ivan Watson, there.

Among the voices reacting to the uprising in Egypt, Iman, the global fashion icon, former model, current business mogul and co-host of a fashion reality TV show here in the States. Born in Somalia, Iman spend part of her childhood in Egypt. She told me, "Face To Face" about her ties to the country.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

IMAN, FASHION ICON: I was there during 1967 war. I was going to high school there. I'm in love with Egypt. I've always been in love with Egypt since the day I went there for school, and including my youngest daughter with David Bowie, her name is Alexandria after the city.

WHITFIELD: Did you ever see the potential of this rise of a revolution? Even then in the late '60s?

IMAN: Yes, because I was in Egypt when it Nasser was around. So there was always that kind of feeling that just in the Third World, especially in volatile spaces like the Middle East. There's always that edge that anything can happen, at any given time. But to have something of a revolution like this happen so peacefully, it's quite unheard of and it is quite brilliant.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Iman has even more to say about so much more. Catch my entire "Face To Face" interview with Iman next Saturday, as she talks about building herself as a fashion icon and business mogul. And she reveals the secret to her 20-year-old marriage to rocker David Bowie.

Valentine's Day almost here. We'll get to the heart of the matter about gift giving. After this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: In a new survey 10 percent of men say spending on Valentine's gifts or dinners out is a pain, but they do it to avoid disappointing their Valentine's. Well, just 3 percent of women say the same thing.

Here's CNN's Christine Romans with more on how to handle this holiday that sometimes seems more about money than love.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN FINANCIAL CORRESPONDENT: Love it or hate it, Valentine's Day is here. According to the American Express spending and saving tracker, Americans plan to spend an average of $181 on the day this year. That's a lot of money at a time when cash is tight in many households, and quilted into it or not, it is men who seem to be doing the bulk of the spending.

Almost 70 percent of men in relationships plan on spending money on their spouse or significant other. Just a little more than half of women in relationships plan on buying gifts or dinner, or something special for their other half. If you do the math it adds up to some awkward moments. We asked Lizzie Post, the great, great granddaughter of Emily Post, the woman who literally wrote the book on manners and etiquette, what to do if you get an unexpected gift or unexpectedly expensive gift.

LIZZIE POST, ETIQUETTE EXPERT: Just thank them for the gift. Focus on the gift and that gesture. Because the moment you start feeling like you have to explain why you don't have something, or something more, the focus goes to that and not to what this person has taken the time, and sometimes the money, to do for you.

ROMANS: Post says don't run out and buy something to try to even the score. Gift giving shouldn't be quid pro quo on Valentine's Day or any other day of the year. She says a Valentine's gift doesn't have to break the bank, an experience like a romantic dinner out makes for a great gift. And if you are tight on cash, Post recommends an inexpensive dinner in. And she says a handwritten, old-fashioned Valentine will probably mean more than a box of chocolates or a bottle of perfume.

If you want to go out and make a gift for your spouse a stunner, go for it, but don't spend yourself into the poor house, especially if you're still paying off holiday purchases for late last year. Your honey does not want you to go into debt.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: A look at our top stories now.

After a night of celebrations, crowds are still in Cairo's Tahrir Square. Egypt's military is controlling the country after Hosni Mubarak stepped down as president. The military says the caretaker government is committed to supporting all of Egypt's international treaties. Among them, the 1978 peace treaty with Israel.

And stay with CNN's worldwide resources for the latest development in the Middle East all afternoon. We'll have additional live coverage on the Egyptian revolution tonight with Wolf Blitzer at 6:00 o'clock Eastern Time.

And more than 10,000 conservative activists are attending a high profile meeting in Washington known as CPAC. The event has featured several potential Republican presidential candidates, including Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour, who spoke today along with former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and Congressman Ron Paul. The meeting wraps up today with a presidential straw poll.

And the Obama administration has officially unveiled its plan to reduce the government's role in the mortgage market by winding down Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The changes would be phased in over several years and the most dramatic restructuring would be delayed until as late as 2018. Fannie and Freddie back the vast majority of mortgages in the U.S.

We'll have an expert along to explain, in the 2:00 Eastern hour, what that mean to you and your existing mortgages.

I'm Fredricka Whitfield. Meantime, "YOUR $$$$$" starts right now.