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Mystery in Idaho; Advice & Consent; Whipped to a Frenzy

Aired May 19, 2003 - 13:59   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.


MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: A missing children mystery. Idaho investigators say time is of the essence in finding a brother and sister. That's fairly obvious. We're live with the latest on the search.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: New information released this hour about the December tsunami. Scientists make a stunning discovery about the killer quake.

O'BRIEN: Do you find this photo offensive? A high school senior's mom wants this yearbook picture out of the picture.

WHITFIELD: And CNN's Larry King shows up in court to testify in the Michael Jackson case, but a judge sends him home.

From the CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm Fredricka Whitfield, in for Kyra Phillips.

O'BRIEN: And I'm Miles O'Brien. No hearsay here. CNN's LIVE FROM starts right now.

WHITFIELD: The person of interest apparently offered little of value, so say investigators in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, after questioning the man who may have been the last to see the Groene family before two members were brutally killed along with a neighbor. Two other family members are still missing. The search for two young children of one the murder victims grows more desperate by the hour.

And we get the latest now from CNN's Alina Cho -- Alina.

ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fredricka, as each day, each hour passes, certainly that search does grow more desperate. We should mention that the Kootenai County sheriff's office was supposed to be holding a news conference at this hour, along with family members, including the uncle and biological father of the two missing children. But that news conference has been delayed to later this afternoon, in part because authorities want to make sure they have a thorough conversation with family members before they speak to the media. Certainly a good idea.

Now, for several hours late yesterday, authorities, including the FBI, questioned a man, 33-year-old Robert Roy Lutner. They are calling him a person of interest, but not a suspect. Here's why.

Authorities believe that he may have been the last person or one of the last people to see the victims alive. But after several hours of questioning, authorities say they were not able to glean any new information about the whereabouts of the two missing children.

Lutner has been taken into custody on a separate matter, a parole violation, and he remains in custody today.

The two children, 9-year-old Dylan and his sister, 8-year-old Shasta Groene, are still missing at this hour. An Amber Alert remains in effect, and the search fort hem has expanded today. Divers will be going through area lakes and ponds, and certainly every moment counts.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAPT. BEN WOLFINGER, KOOTENAI COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPT.: Every minute that goes by, we're -- we do fear even more and more. And our hope is that this is one of those miraculous cases where those kids are still being well taken care of and someone, somewhere is going to see them, at a restaurant, at a gas station. Somewhere, and they'll call either the sheriff's office here or their local law enforcement agency, and we'll be able to recover those children and get them back to what family they have left here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHO: The bodies of the children's mother, their 13-year-old brother, and another man, Mark McKenzie, believed to be the boyfriend of the mother, were found in the home late Monday night. Autopsy reports are expected later today, but we do know that the victims were bound, and authorities are calling this a triple homicide.

After leaving the crime scene, the Kootenai County sheriff, Rocky Watson, said that the killer or killers were "on a mission," but would no elaborate on a motive. They are continuing to process the crime scene today. But one potential problem, Fredricka, is that there were heavy rains here on Monday night, and authorities believe that some key evidence, possibly tire tracks, or even footprints, may have washed away.

WHITFIELD: And a couple questions, Alina. You know, the Groenes and that neighbor, you said they were found in the home dead. A, who found them? And what's the proximity of the Groene's home to the nearest neighbor's home? Because it looks like an awfully remote area where you are.

CHO: We can tell you that authorities today, when asked what their hopes were for finding these two children alive said this: "If the killer or killers were to come into the home, why wouldn't they kill all five people and leave them there? Why just kill three people and leave two children?" So they are continuing to search the area, a quite extensive search, I should mention, and they are still hoping at this hour they will find the two children alive -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right. Alina Cho, thanks so much for that report.

O'BRIEN: A busy day here on LIVE FROM. Another story coming in to us just now.

This is high above Brooklyn, courtesy of WABC, our affiliate there. A building collapse, as you can see.

There you see the crowd in front of the street -- on the street in front of the structure there. We're told five are injured. Beyond that, we have no further information for you.

Obviously rescue crews are on the scene and doing what they do to try to save those who might have been beneath that pile of cinderblocks that is now this building. Once again, Brooklyn, New York, is the location. A building collapse. Five people damaged.

You can see the dumpster there in the foreground which would indicate that this was, in fact, a construction site. And then the shelter of the sidewalk as well. So clearly this was a construction site of some kind, a renovation, and a building collapse has occurred.

Five injured. Authorities on the scene. We'll get more details for you as they come in.

Advice and consent, two simple words that have spawned countless words on the floor of the U.S. Senate. Live pictures now. Senator Ted Kennedy, Massachusetts. Not all of them simple or even repeatable on basic cable, believe it or not.

The issue is presidential appointments. Today it's also minority rights. That's partisan minority rights. And nominations yet to come on the highest court in the land, which is what this is really all about.

CNN's Joe Johns has chapter and verse for us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOE JOHNS, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Democrats on the Capitol steps vowing defiance.

SEN. HARRY REID (D-NV), MINORITY LEADER: They want it all, all the say, all the control, all the power. It's their way or the highway.

JOHNS: Party leaders squaring off.

SEN. BILL FRIST (R-TN), MAJORITY LEADER: It's the partisan leadership-led use of closure vote to kill, to defeat, to assassinate these nominees.

JOHNS: But while senators gave emotional and sometimes bitter speeches about nominees Priscilla Owen and Janice Rogers Brown, behind the scenes, away from all the attention, a handful of Democrats and Republicans were meeting privately, looking for a way to break the impasse.

SEN. BEN NELSON (D), NEBRASKA: There are 10 people in the room, there are 11 opinions. So, you know, we're going to continue to do that. But I think -- but they're not -- they're not so diverse that it doesn't look like you can -- bringing them together. JOHNS: So who are the leaders of this behind-the-scenes effort? On the Democratic side, Ben Nelson, the junior senator from Nebraska who's making a name for himself as someone unafraid to cross party lines. Also, Mark Pryor of Arkansas, one of the youngest members of the Senate. On the Republican side, John McCain, the maverick conservative who has no problem crossing his party and his president when he thinks he's right.

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: We're making some progress, but we have no -- no conclusion yet.

JOHNS: And Virginia's John Warner, one of the old bulls of the Senate, a powerful committee chairman with a courtly manner and a deep love for the institution. And the two senators from Maine, the last bastion of Yankee moderate Republicanism, influential because their votes can never be taken for granted.

So as the conversation grows louder in the public arena...

SEN. PATRICK LEAHY (D), VERMONT: It's contemptible. It's contemptible.

SEN. JOHNN CORNYN (R), TEXAS: This debate is not about principle. It's all about politics. And it's shameful.

JOHNS: Behind the scenes, a hint of compromise. The mission is to find 12 senators to sign on to an agreement. Republicans would refuse to change the rules on filibusters and Democrats would promise to let some but not all disputed judicial nominations go through and be more careful about who they try to block in the future.

Why 12? Because the way the Senate breaks down, six Republicans would be enough to deny GOP leader Bill Frist the 51 votes needed to kill the filibuster. And six Democrats would be enough to make the filibuster unsustainable in the first place.

If either side abuses the deal, all bets would be off. In nuclear terms, it's a gradual disarmament, a version of the old axiom, trust, but verify.

Leadership...

FRIST: All we want is a vote, an up-or-down vote. Accept, reject, confirm, yes, no, that's all that we're asking for.

REID: And the majority is moving toward breaking the rules to change the rules. That's improper, it will change the Senate forever.

JOHNS: ... and leadership.

MCCAIN: We'll just continue to work right up until the last minute.

NELSON: And we wouldn't continue to do it if we didn't have some expectation of achieving an agreement.

JOHNS: Two tracks. One headed to a showdown fueled by political pressure from activist groups, the other headed toward compromise.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: That came from Joe Johns. The latest compromised proposal would green-light five nominees, including Priscilla Owen, the one being debated now, while preserving the right of Democrats to filibuster under extraordinary circumstances, whatever that means.

As always, you'll see all the latest breakthroughs, breakdowns, developments right here on CNN -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: The Terri Schiavo case is back in the news at the Vatican. Schiavo's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, met Pope Benedict XVI during a general audience. They gave the recently elected pontiff a picture of their daughter and exchanged a few words with him as well. Later, they spoke to CNN's "AMERICAN MORNING."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARY SCHINDLER, TERRI SCHIAVO'S MOTHER: The meeting with the pope was, when I saw him coming up from the side, and I -- I couldn't believe he was going to come all the way up. I had the picture there, and I told him it was a picture of Terri.

And like I said before, he said, "I know. I know it's Terri." But then he touched his heart, and he kept patting his heart, like, "It broke my heart." And then I gave him the picture, and he took it, and it was -- it was so beautiful.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Schiavo was the brain-damaged Florida woman whose condition sparked a bitter right-to-die battle between her husband and her parents. When she died the Vatican condemned her death as arbitrarily hastened -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Another story surfaces about desecration of the Quran, and that tops our news "Across America" for you right now.

A Muslim woman in Los Angeles says she received a desecrated Quran through amazon.com. The phrase "Death to all Muslims" was written inside. Amazon says the Quran came from a third-party seller and has apologized to the woman. She wants a full investigation into the online retailer.

On the heels of the finger fiasco, Wendy's is trying to change its image. The fast-food chain is launching a new ad campaign that tells consumers to "Do what tastes right." The new campaign debuts next week.

And one word describes this video -- ah, god, I can't even barely see it.

WHITFIELD: It's incredible.

O'BRIEN: Minnesota is the -- it's just unbelievable. A sheriff's deputy survived this whole thing.

He got hit. Ah, jeez. Do we have to keep doing this? It's killing me. You're killing me, guys.

Anyway, alongside a highway, gets hit. And you're not going to believe this -- he was treated and released. Treated and released.

WHITFIELD: The brush must have helped stop...

O'BRIEN: I think so, going into the bushes.

WHITFIELD: Yes. That's a lucky man.

O'BRIEN: But clearly he's the man of steel. We have found Superman. He is a trooper in Minnesota.

WHITFIELD: No kryptonite around.

O'BRIEN: No.

WHITFIELD: All right.

Well, a yearbook photo has whipped a Florida community into a frenzy. An African-American teen was voted most whipped, most manipulated. And not everyone is happy about how that was portrayed. Reporter Joan Murray with affiliate station WFOR has the story from Boynton Beach.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOAN MURRAY, REPORTER, WFOR (voice-over): When Boynton Beach High School seniors Melissa Finley and Robert Richards, who had been dating two years, posed for this yearbook picture, they never imagined the controversy it would create. Richards' mother was mortified.

JACQUELINE NOBLES, RICHARD'S MOTHER: I suppose, to me, that's inappropriate for a yearbook.

ROBERT RICHARDS, POSED FOR PICTURE: You can tell it's not a lynching.

MURRAY: Showing the belt that was wrapped around his neck, Richards, an aspiring actor, says the photo was all his idea.

RICHARDS: It was done as a joke. It was just not to be boring, because if you look at our yearbook, you'll see the most contagious laugh. The people are looking like this.

MURRAY: But his mother isn't laughing. Deeply offended by the racial overtones, Jacqueline Nobles went to the school principal demanding the picture be removed.

NOBLES: I don't want my son to be depicted in a picture that represents something from my past or anybody else's past.

MURRAY: The Palm Beach County School superintendent agrees the picture is inappropriate, and the district has launched an investigation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think that when you look at students' idea of what's funny compared to the community standard, it's probably the same reason that our students want MTV to come to the schools and we as adults don't think that is appropriate.

RICHARDS: I can see where some people might get offended, but this yearbook was not made for people. This is micromedia. It was made for us students, and I don't think that this should be such a big deal.

MURRAY: The future of the picture is uncertain. So for now, this mother and son agree to disagree.

NOBLES: I love him.

RICHARDS: I love her.

It doesn't look racist to me because I wasn't brought up in that era.

NOBLES: And I'm pretty sure it meant fun for them as well. But it's not a joke. And I would like to see it removed.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Well, thanks to affiliate WFOR for that report. And this afternoon, the school announced it will use stickers to cover the yearbook photos.

O'BRIEN: Somebody's got some work to do there, because everybody will be peeling those stickers off just to see it.

WHITFIELD: Yes. And I have a feeling mom will be giving son a whooping.

O'BRIEN: Yes, maybe so. Yes. Speaking of whipped, well, is a big insurance company adding insult to injury? Are you not in good hands?

WHITFIELD: People in Florida who got smacked down by the hurricanes are getting hit by yet another loss.

DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT: I'm Technology Correspondent Daniel Sieberg. It was one of the worst natural disasters on record. And now scientists are revealing their findings on a massive earthquake that triggered last year's tsunami. We'll show you how it managed to affect every corner of the Earth when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Five months later, scientists are getting a handle on the Asian tsunami. But with the forces that unleashed such death and devastation, the data that's emerging, it really is staggering. It's hard to get a handle on it. For more, we turn just to -- just to the right person to try and help us explain it, Daniel Sieberg, who covers technology and science for us.

Daniel, how do we even put this in scale, in some set of -- in a way we can understand it?

SIEBERG: It's very difficult, because even for scientists who deal with these numbers, they're beyond the scope of what they've had to deal with in the past. And you might imagine that trying to organize all the data from December's earthquake is a mammoth task. But the findings released today could go a long way to preventing such an enormous death toll in the future. As we pointed out, even the scientists were amazed by what they discovered.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SIEBERG (voice-over): The human toll was staggering. Hundreds of thousands of lives lost as tsunamis swept ashore across Asia in December. Now the scientific data on the quake that caused this disaster is being revealed. It is also stunning.

PROF. CHARLES AMMON, PENN STATE UNIVERSITY: Normally, a small earthquake might last less than a second. A moderate size earthquake might last a few seconds. This earthquake lasted between 500 to 600 seconds.

SIEBERG: The magnitude of this second largest earthquake on record has been raised from a 9.0 to between 9.1 and 9.3, substantially more powerful than first thought. It released the same energy as a 100 giga-ton bomb. That's as much as the entire United States uses in six months. And it ripped open the Earth's crust for a record 800 miles.

AMMON: That distance was traveled by the rupture in about or under 10 minutes.

SIEBERG: Information from many new technologies has left even veteran scientists in awe.

PROF. THORNE LAY, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SANTA CRUZ: The availability of this instrumentation was a real breakthrough for being able to see the complete rupture process of one of these truly monstrous events.

SIEBERG: Earth scientist Thorne Lay organized researchers worldwide to analyze quake data. Their findings are in this week's issue of the journal "Science."

(on camera): Near the quake's center, the earth shifted by up to 15 feet. Even 1,000 miles away in Sri Lanka, the movement was nearly four inches. And the big picture here, globally, this earthquake was large enough to basically vibrate the entire planet by as much as half an inch. Now, that's not enough for most of us to feel anything, but everywhere that seismic monitors existed on the Earth, they picked up vibrations. Digital broadband seismometers picked up many of those vibrations. Other new tools added to scientists' understanding.

Underwater cameras documented the huge crack in the ocean floor. Ocean buoys and sonar from the British navy helped the analysis. Two satellites in the right place at the right time also helped.

LAY: It's two hours after the earthquake has occurred, the wave is spreading out from the Bay of Bengal. Two satellites went over that saw the south-going wave and the north-going part of the wave. That was an amazing record. We've never seen such a record.

SIEBERG (voice-over): It may be human nature to want to forget these disturbing images, but Mother Nature will do it again. And scientists hope all this new data will someday help tame the destruction with reliable tsunami warning systems.

AMMON: Technology has limits, but technology with education is probably the best bet.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIEBERG: You know, it's not often that experienced earthquake researchers see something new. And it really affected them deeply, even on a personal level. But this data was clearly overwhelming, and you could understand that. And the fact that they could gather so much and coordinate it with various regions around the world makes it all the more valuable as countries like Thailand, Indonesia, India and Malaysia all work to better understand what could be next -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: All right. What could be next, and who knows when is another tsunami? And one of the things we've talked a lot in the immediate wake of this was there was no tsunami warning system there. You know, you were talking in the piece about how people forget.

SIEBERG: Right. Human nature.

O'BRIEN: Yes. Has this been forgotten? Will that system be in place?

SIEBERG: The question is, when will the system be in place? The system is being worked on right now. It's going to be rolled out in different stages, in different regions of the world, based on money, time, different types of restraints.

Part of it will be rolled out by I believe October of this year. A much broader part of that -- that's sort of an interim step. But a much broader warning system they hope to be in place by July of next year. But that's still a little ways off, of course. Anything can happen.

O'BRIEN: That seems like a long time to me. It should have happened sooner. It's not a technological issue. It's just a matter of putting buoys in and...

(CROSSTALK) SIEBERG: It is. It's a matter of money, and it's a little bit of a manpower issue, too, to get these people in place and to get those different sensors in place, too.

O'BRIEN: Yes.

SIEBERG: But, you know, it is human nature to forget. It's not just with earthquakes. It's with any type of disaster that happens, the sort of short-term memory that kicks in with a lot of these things.

O'BRIEN: Well, I hope we don't forget this lesson.

SIEBERG: Right.

O'BRIEN: All right. Daniel Sieberg, thank you very much.

SIEBERG: All right.

O'BRIEN: Appreciate it -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: On the West Coast of the U.S., a judge sends home a witness in the Michael Jackson case. CNN's own Larry King showed up to testify, but a jury did not get to the hear what he had to say. Details on why straight ahead on LIVE FROM.

SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Susan Lisovicz at the New York Stock Exchange. The consequences from last year's epic hurricane season continue. Now one insurance giant is saying it won't renew some insurance polices in Florida. I'll have that story next on LIVE FROM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: It's tough being a Floridian these days.

O'BRIEN: Yes, it is. Yes, it is. You know, that's "You're in good hands with Allstate." All states?

WHITFIELD: Well, not some folks.

O'BRIEN: I think the new name will be Some States.

WHITFIELD: Some States. Susan Lisovicz with more on that.

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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Aired May 19, 2003 - 13:59   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: A missing children mystery. Idaho investigators say time is of the essence in finding a brother and sister. That's fairly obvious. We're live with the latest on the search.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: New information released this hour about the December tsunami. Scientists make a stunning discovery about the killer quake.

O'BRIEN: Do you find this photo offensive? A high school senior's mom wants this yearbook picture out of the picture.

WHITFIELD: And CNN's Larry King shows up in court to testify in the Michael Jackson case, but a judge sends him home.

From the CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm Fredricka Whitfield, in for Kyra Phillips.

O'BRIEN: And I'm Miles O'Brien. No hearsay here. CNN's LIVE FROM starts right now.

WHITFIELD: The person of interest apparently offered little of value, so say investigators in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, after questioning the man who may have been the last to see the Groene family before two members were brutally killed along with a neighbor. Two other family members are still missing. The search for two young children of one the murder victims grows more desperate by the hour.

And we get the latest now from CNN's Alina Cho -- Alina.

ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fredricka, as each day, each hour passes, certainly that search does grow more desperate. We should mention that the Kootenai County sheriff's office was supposed to be holding a news conference at this hour, along with family members, including the uncle and biological father of the two missing children. But that news conference has been delayed to later this afternoon, in part because authorities want to make sure they have a thorough conversation with family members before they speak to the media. Certainly a good idea.

Now, for several hours late yesterday, authorities, including the FBI, questioned a man, 33-year-old Robert Roy Lutner. They are calling him a person of interest, but not a suspect. Here's why.

Authorities believe that he may have been the last person or one of the last people to see the victims alive. But after several hours of questioning, authorities say they were not able to glean any new information about the whereabouts of the two missing children.

Lutner has been taken into custody on a separate matter, a parole violation, and he remains in custody today.

The two children, 9-year-old Dylan and his sister, 8-year-old Shasta Groene, are still missing at this hour. An Amber Alert remains in effect, and the search fort hem has expanded today. Divers will be going through area lakes and ponds, and certainly every moment counts.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAPT. BEN WOLFINGER, KOOTENAI COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPT.: Every minute that goes by, we're -- we do fear even more and more. And our hope is that this is one of those miraculous cases where those kids are still being well taken care of and someone, somewhere is going to see them, at a restaurant, at a gas station. Somewhere, and they'll call either the sheriff's office here or their local law enforcement agency, and we'll be able to recover those children and get them back to what family they have left here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHO: The bodies of the children's mother, their 13-year-old brother, and another man, Mark McKenzie, believed to be the boyfriend of the mother, were found in the home late Monday night. Autopsy reports are expected later today, but we do know that the victims were bound, and authorities are calling this a triple homicide.

After leaving the crime scene, the Kootenai County sheriff, Rocky Watson, said that the killer or killers were "on a mission," but would no elaborate on a motive. They are continuing to process the crime scene today. But one potential problem, Fredricka, is that there were heavy rains here on Monday night, and authorities believe that some key evidence, possibly tire tracks, or even footprints, may have washed away.

WHITFIELD: And a couple questions, Alina. You know, the Groenes and that neighbor, you said they were found in the home dead. A, who found them? And what's the proximity of the Groene's home to the nearest neighbor's home? Because it looks like an awfully remote area where you are.

CHO: We can tell you that authorities today, when asked what their hopes were for finding these two children alive said this: "If the killer or killers were to come into the home, why wouldn't they kill all five people and leave them there? Why just kill three people and leave two children?" So they are continuing to search the area, a quite extensive search, I should mention, and they are still hoping at this hour they will find the two children alive -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right. Alina Cho, thanks so much for that report.

O'BRIEN: A busy day here on LIVE FROM. Another story coming in to us just now.

This is high above Brooklyn, courtesy of WABC, our affiliate there. A building collapse, as you can see.

There you see the crowd in front of the street -- on the street in front of the structure there. We're told five are injured. Beyond that, we have no further information for you.

Obviously rescue crews are on the scene and doing what they do to try to save those who might have been beneath that pile of cinderblocks that is now this building. Once again, Brooklyn, New York, is the location. A building collapse. Five people damaged.

You can see the dumpster there in the foreground which would indicate that this was, in fact, a construction site. And then the shelter of the sidewalk as well. So clearly this was a construction site of some kind, a renovation, and a building collapse has occurred.

Five injured. Authorities on the scene. We'll get more details for you as they come in.

Advice and consent, two simple words that have spawned countless words on the floor of the U.S. Senate. Live pictures now. Senator Ted Kennedy, Massachusetts. Not all of them simple or even repeatable on basic cable, believe it or not.

The issue is presidential appointments. Today it's also minority rights. That's partisan minority rights. And nominations yet to come on the highest court in the land, which is what this is really all about.

CNN's Joe Johns has chapter and verse for us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOE JOHNS, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Democrats on the Capitol steps vowing defiance.

SEN. HARRY REID (D-NV), MINORITY LEADER: They want it all, all the say, all the control, all the power. It's their way or the highway.

JOHNS: Party leaders squaring off.

SEN. BILL FRIST (R-TN), MAJORITY LEADER: It's the partisan leadership-led use of closure vote to kill, to defeat, to assassinate these nominees.

JOHNS: But while senators gave emotional and sometimes bitter speeches about nominees Priscilla Owen and Janice Rogers Brown, behind the scenes, away from all the attention, a handful of Democrats and Republicans were meeting privately, looking for a way to break the impasse.

SEN. BEN NELSON (D), NEBRASKA: There are 10 people in the room, there are 11 opinions. So, you know, we're going to continue to do that. But I think -- but they're not -- they're not so diverse that it doesn't look like you can -- bringing them together. JOHNS: So who are the leaders of this behind-the-scenes effort? On the Democratic side, Ben Nelson, the junior senator from Nebraska who's making a name for himself as someone unafraid to cross party lines. Also, Mark Pryor of Arkansas, one of the youngest members of the Senate. On the Republican side, John McCain, the maverick conservative who has no problem crossing his party and his president when he thinks he's right.

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: We're making some progress, but we have no -- no conclusion yet.

JOHNS: And Virginia's John Warner, one of the old bulls of the Senate, a powerful committee chairman with a courtly manner and a deep love for the institution. And the two senators from Maine, the last bastion of Yankee moderate Republicanism, influential because their votes can never be taken for granted.

So as the conversation grows louder in the public arena...

SEN. PATRICK LEAHY (D), VERMONT: It's contemptible. It's contemptible.

SEN. JOHNN CORNYN (R), TEXAS: This debate is not about principle. It's all about politics. And it's shameful.

JOHNS: Behind the scenes, a hint of compromise. The mission is to find 12 senators to sign on to an agreement. Republicans would refuse to change the rules on filibusters and Democrats would promise to let some but not all disputed judicial nominations go through and be more careful about who they try to block in the future.

Why 12? Because the way the Senate breaks down, six Republicans would be enough to deny GOP leader Bill Frist the 51 votes needed to kill the filibuster. And six Democrats would be enough to make the filibuster unsustainable in the first place.

If either side abuses the deal, all bets would be off. In nuclear terms, it's a gradual disarmament, a version of the old axiom, trust, but verify.

Leadership...

FRIST: All we want is a vote, an up-or-down vote. Accept, reject, confirm, yes, no, that's all that we're asking for.

REID: And the majority is moving toward breaking the rules to change the rules. That's improper, it will change the Senate forever.

JOHNS: ... and leadership.

MCCAIN: We'll just continue to work right up until the last minute.

NELSON: And we wouldn't continue to do it if we didn't have some expectation of achieving an agreement.

JOHNS: Two tracks. One headed to a showdown fueled by political pressure from activist groups, the other headed toward compromise.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: That came from Joe Johns. The latest compromised proposal would green-light five nominees, including Priscilla Owen, the one being debated now, while preserving the right of Democrats to filibuster under extraordinary circumstances, whatever that means.

As always, you'll see all the latest breakthroughs, breakdowns, developments right here on CNN -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: The Terri Schiavo case is back in the news at the Vatican. Schiavo's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, met Pope Benedict XVI during a general audience. They gave the recently elected pontiff a picture of their daughter and exchanged a few words with him as well. Later, they spoke to CNN's "AMERICAN MORNING."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARY SCHINDLER, TERRI SCHIAVO'S MOTHER: The meeting with the pope was, when I saw him coming up from the side, and I -- I couldn't believe he was going to come all the way up. I had the picture there, and I told him it was a picture of Terri.

And like I said before, he said, "I know. I know it's Terri." But then he touched his heart, and he kept patting his heart, like, "It broke my heart." And then I gave him the picture, and he took it, and it was -- it was so beautiful.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Schiavo was the brain-damaged Florida woman whose condition sparked a bitter right-to-die battle between her husband and her parents. When she died the Vatican condemned her death as arbitrarily hastened -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Another story surfaces about desecration of the Quran, and that tops our news "Across America" for you right now.

A Muslim woman in Los Angeles says she received a desecrated Quran through amazon.com. The phrase "Death to all Muslims" was written inside. Amazon says the Quran came from a third-party seller and has apologized to the woman. She wants a full investigation into the online retailer.

On the heels of the finger fiasco, Wendy's is trying to change its image. The fast-food chain is launching a new ad campaign that tells consumers to "Do what tastes right." The new campaign debuts next week.

And one word describes this video -- ah, god, I can't even barely see it.

WHITFIELD: It's incredible.

O'BRIEN: Minnesota is the -- it's just unbelievable. A sheriff's deputy survived this whole thing.

He got hit. Ah, jeez. Do we have to keep doing this? It's killing me. You're killing me, guys.

Anyway, alongside a highway, gets hit. And you're not going to believe this -- he was treated and released. Treated and released.

WHITFIELD: The brush must have helped stop...

O'BRIEN: I think so, going into the bushes.

WHITFIELD: Yes. That's a lucky man.

O'BRIEN: But clearly he's the man of steel. We have found Superman. He is a trooper in Minnesota.

WHITFIELD: No kryptonite around.

O'BRIEN: No.

WHITFIELD: All right.

Well, a yearbook photo has whipped a Florida community into a frenzy. An African-American teen was voted most whipped, most manipulated. And not everyone is happy about how that was portrayed. Reporter Joan Murray with affiliate station WFOR has the story from Boynton Beach.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOAN MURRAY, REPORTER, WFOR (voice-over): When Boynton Beach High School seniors Melissa Finley and Robert Richards, who had been dating two years, posed for this yearbook picture, they never imagined the controversy it would create. Richards' mother was mortified.

JACQUELINE NOBLES, RICHARD'S MOTHER: I suppose, to me, that's inappropriate for a yearbook.

ROBERT RICHARDS, POSED FOR PICTURE: You can tell it's not a lynching.

MURRAY: Showing the belt that was wrapped around his neck, Richards, an aspiring actor, says the photo was all his idea.

RICHARDS: It was done as a joke. It was just not to be boring, because if you look at our yearbook, you'll see the most contagious laugh. The people are looking like this.

MURRAY: But his mother isn't laughing. Deeply offended by the racial overtones, Jacqueline Nobles went to the school principal demanding the picture be removed.

NOBLES: I don't want my son to be depicted in a picture that represents something from my past or anybody else's past.

MURRAY: The Palm Beach County School superintendent agrees the picture is inappropriate, and the district has launched an investigation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think that when you look at students' idea of what's funny compared to the community standard, it's probably the same reason that our students want MTV to come to the schools and we as adults don't think that is appropriate.

RICHARDS: I can see where some people might get offended, but this yearbook was not made for people. This is micromedia. It was made for us students, and I don't think that this should be such a big deal.

MURRAY: The future of the picture is uncertain. So for now, this mother and son agree to disagree.

NOBLES: I love him.

RICHARDS: I love her.

It doesn't look racist to me because I wasn't brought up in that era.

NOBLES: And I'm pretty sure it meant fun for them as well. But it's not a joke. And I would like to see it removed.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Well, thanks to affiliate WFOR for that report. And this afternoon, the school announced it will use stickers to cover the yearbook photos.

O'BRIEN: Somebody's got some work to do there, because everybody will be peeling those stickers off just to see it.

WHITFIELD: Yes. And I have a feeling mom will be giving son a whooping.

O'BRIEN: Yes, maybe so. Yes. Speaking of whipped, well, is a big insurance company adding insult to injury? Are you not in good hands?

WHITFIELD: People in Florida who got smacked down by the hurricanes are getting hit by yet another loss.

DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT: I'm Technology Correspondent Daniel Sieberg. It was one of the worst natural disasters on record. And now scientists are revealing their findings on a massive earthquake that triggered last year's tsunami. We'll show you how it managed to affect every corner of the Earth when we come back.

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O'BRIEN: Five months later, scientists are getting a handle on the Asian tsunami. But with the forces that unleashed such death and devastation, the data that's emerging, it really is staggering. It's hard to get a handle on it. For more, we turn just to -- just to the right person to try and help us explain it, Daniel Sieberg, who covers technology and science for us.

Daniel, how do we even put this in scale, in some set of -- in a way we can understand it?

SIEBERG: It's very difficult, because even for scientists who deal with these numbers, they're beyond the scope of what they've had to deal with in the past. And you might imagine that trying to organize all the data from December's earthquake is a mammoth task. But the findings released today could go a long way to preventing such an enormous death toll in the future. As we pointed out, even the scientists were amazed by what they discovered.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SIEBERG (voice-over): The human toll was staggering. Hundreds of thousands of lives lost as tsunamis swept ashore across Asia in December. Now the scientific data on the quake that caused this disaster is being revealed. It is also stunning.

PROF. CHARLES AMMON, PENN STATE UNIVERSITY: Normally, a small earthquake might last less than a second. A moderate size earthquake might last a few seconds. This earthquake lasted between 500 to 600 seconds.

SIEBERG: The magnitude of this second largest earthquake on record has been raised from a 9.0 to between 9.1 and 9.3, substantially more powerful than first thought. It released the same energy as a 100 giga-ton bomb. That's as much as the entire United States uses in six months. And it ripped open the Earth's crust for a record 800 miles.

AMMON: That distance was traveled by the rupture in about or under 10 minutes.

SIEBERG: Information from many new technologies has left even veteran scientists in awe.

PROF. THORNE LAY, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SANTA CRUZ: The availability of this instrumentation was a real breakthrough for being able to see the complete rupture process of one of these truly monstrous events.

SIEBERG: Earth scientist Thorne Lay organized researchers worldwide to analyze quake data. Their findings are in this week's issue of the journal "Science."

(on camera): Near the quake's center, the earth shifted by up to 15 feet. Even 1,000 miles away in Sri Lanka, the movement was nearly four inches. And the big picture here, globally, this earthquake was large enough to basically vibrate the entire planet by as much as half an inch. Now, that's not enough for most of us to feel anything, but everywhere that seismic monitors existed on the Earth, they picked up vibrations. Digital broadband seismometers picked up many of those vibrations. Other new tools added to scientists' understanding.

Underwater cameras documented the huge crack in the ocean floor. Ocean buoys and sonar from the British navy helped the analysis. Two satellites in the right place at the right time also helped.

LAY: It's two hours after the earthquake has occurred, the wave is spreading out from the Bay of Bengal. Two satellites went over that saw the south-going wave and the north-going part of the wave. That was an amazing record. We've never seen such a record.

SIEBERG (voice-over): It may be human nature to want to forget these disturbing images, but Mother Nature will do it again. And scientists hope all this new data will someday help tame the destruction with reliable tsunami warning systems.

AMMON: Technology has limits, but technology with education is probably the best bet.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIEBERG: You know, it's not often that experienced earthquake researchers see something new. And it really affected them deeply, even on a personal level. But this data was clearly overwhelming, and you could understand that. And the fact that they could gather so much and coordinate it with various regions around the world makes it all the more valuable as countries like Thailand, Indonesia, India and Malaysia all work to better understand what could be next -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: All right. What could be next, and who knows when is another tsunami? And one of the things we've talked a lot in the immediate wake of this was there was no tsunami warning system there. You know, you were talking in the piece about how people forget.

SIEBERG: Right. Human nature.

O'BRIEN: Yes. Has this been forgotten? Will that system be in place?

SIEBERG: The question is, when will the system be in place? The system is being worked on right now. It's going to be rolled out in different stages, in different regions of the world, based on money, time, different types of restraints.

Part of it will be rolled out by I believe October of this year. A much broader part of that -- that's sort of an interim step. But a much broader warning system they hope to be in place by July of next year. But that's still a little ways off, of course. Anything can happen.

O'BRIEN: That seems like a long time to me. It should have happened sooner. It's not a technological issue. It's just a matter of putting buoys in and...

(CROSSTALK) SIEBERG: It is. It's a matter of money, and it's a little bit of a manpower issue, too, to get these people in place and to get those different sensors in place, too.

O'BRIEN: Yes.

SIEBERG: But, you know, it is human nature to forget. It's not just with earthquakes. It's with any type of disaster that happens, the sort of short-term memory that kicks in with a lot of these things.

O'BRIEN: Well, I hope we don't forget this lesson.

SIEBERG: Right.

O'BRIEN: All right. Daniel Sieberg, thank you very much.

SIEBERG: All right.

O'BRIEN: Appreciate it -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: On the West Coast of the U.S., a judge sends home a witness in the Michael Jackson case. CNN's own Larry King showed up to testify, but a jury did not get to the hear what he had to say. Details on why straight ahead on LIVE FROM.

SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Susan Lisovicz at the New York Stock Exchange. The consequences from last year's epic hurricane season continue. Now one insurance giant is saying it won't renew some insurance polices in Florida. I'll have that story next on LIVE FROM.

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WHITFIELD: It's tough being a Floridian these days.

O'BRIEN: Yes, it is. Yes, it is. You know, that's "You're in good hands with Allstate." All states?

WHITFIELD: Well, not some folks.

O'BRIEN: I think the new name will be Some States.

WHITFIELD: Some States. Susan Lisovicz with more on that.

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