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Terrorism Expert: Today's Raids Important; Study Says Moderate Drinking Good for Health; Storm Chasers in Search of the Supertwister; Despite Rumored Money Problems, Trump Appears Strong
Aired March 30, 2004 - 13:30 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.
KYRA PHILLIPS, ANCHOR: Jim Walsh is keeping track of the international terror and the progress being made around the world. He's here to give us an inside look at the threat and what's being done about it.
Hi, Jim.
JIM WALSH, HARVARD UNIVERSITY: Hi, Kyra. How are you?
PHILLIPS: Good.
A number of things happening today, as we start going through the wires and reading up on the fight against terrorism around the world.
First, the eight men arrested under Britain's anti-terrorist laws and a number of police raids. Tell us about this, and is this a positive signal in your eyes?
And also, the half a ton of ammonium nitrate that was seized in addition to that.
WALSH: Well, the three series of arrests that happened in the world of terrorism today, this was the most important.
The scale of the raids was impressive. Some 700 police officers in Britain and intelligence officers raided 26 different sites. And I think it is significant.
Now, we should caution that an arrest is not a conviction. Folks have been arrested before and then released because there wasn't enough evidence against them or they were innocent.
But in this case, they did find half a ton of ammonium nitrate, which you'll remember, Kyra, was used both in the Bali bombing and the Oklahoma City bombing.
So the fact that they caught them was good, but it's clear that there are folks out there who want to carry on attacks like the Madrid bombing in the heart of Europe.
PHILLIPS: Jim, there's always talk, too, the stereotype of the Arab connection to Islamic terrorism. And these were, you know, all British citizens that were arrested, but saying -- police saying there is a connection to Islamic terrorism.
Can you tell us about that connection?
WALSH: Well, at this point, it's too early to tell. They haven't released that much data about the particulars. But I think you raise an important point, both generally and as it relates to the stories today.
Generally, you'll remember that Director Tenet, the head of the CIA, testified a couple of weeks ago, and he said that al Qaeda has changed. It's no longer one large organization.
But what we have is, in his words, a movement. That is, lots of local groups that have adopted the al Qaeda ideology. They are thinking globally, unfortunately, and acting locally to carry out terrorist attacks.
So they may or may not have ties to al Qaeda. They may be acting independently.
And that brings us to the second story of the day. That is in the Philippines, the arrest of four alleged members of Abu Sayyaf. That's a situation, a case in the Philippines where a group is active, but the ties to al Qaeda are really questionable. Yes, they are Islamic extremists, but the history of ties has not been present between those two.
PHILLIPS: Well, let's move from the Philippines now to Spain, two more suspects charged. And now the focus of this probe is on this group, the Moroccan Islamist Combat Group. Ties to al Qaeda, don't know, different cell?
WALSH: Well, I think this fits exactly the sort of thing that director Tenet was talking about.
We have here a group that is alleged to be responsible for the attacks in Casablanca earlier. And it makes sense -- although, again, we want to see the evidence -- but it makes sense, given how close Morocco is to Spain, that it would have been the perfect staging area for them to plan attacks in Madrid.
So it at least has the ring of plausibility about it. And it fits this profile. A group, a little group, on its own, may have gotten financing from al Qaeda, may have gotten some training from al Qaeda but it's essentially its own autonomous group, working and acting independently in Morocco and in Spain.
So it's this hybrid where it is both connected but also separate from an al Qaeda directorship.
PHILLIPS: Well, Jim, there's been talk, too, that one of the Brits that was arrested in the police raids may be tied in to what happened in Madrid.
What do we know about any type of connection between British -- you know, activists, Islamic activists and those in Spain?
WALSH: Well, you know, it's funny. In all the arrests today, at least in the British arrests and in the Spanish arrests. what you have is the arresting of people from a variety of national identities. Some are Spanish; some are Syrian; some are Moroccan. Some are British; some are Pakistani descent.
And I think what this points to is that -- it points first of all to this movement aspect, that it's not just al Qaeda but that people from a variety of circumstances are drawn to this anti-Western ideology because the U.S. is so popular in the Muslim world and abroad today.
And it shows also something that is reminiscent of the old al Qaeda, which is you'll remember in those training camps that there were people from a variety of nationalities -- Egyptian, Chechens, Indonesians -- who went through training camps in Afghanistan run by al Qaeda.
And so the international character, the fact that we have different folks from different backgrounds, doesn't surprise me.
PHILLIPS: Jim, final question. You mention anti-Western groups. Hamas, the new leader coming forward and saying the Bush administration, an enemy of God, enemy of Islam, enemy of Muslims.
Is this another concern to take on for the Bush administration?
WALSH: Well, I think that's tough talk, and you would certainly want to pay attention to it.
But I think in the main, Hamas has limited its attacks to Israel and targets nearby. And you'll remember that right after the assassination, there was some loose talk coming out of Hamas that the U.S. might be targeted. Then there was essentially a correction or a retraction of that.
I still, on average, would expect that Hamas' activities, operations, will take place locally in and around Israel.
But again this general problem of the U.S. being seen as a crusader and being very, very unpopular, that plays into al Qaeda's hands. It makes it easier for them to recruit people to these little al Qaeda's, these little regional groups.
PHILLIPS: Harvard's Jim Walsh, always a pleasure, thanks, Jim.
WALSH: Thank you, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right. Other news across America now.
Journalist Daniel Pearl's widow reportedly wants a piece of the 9/11 fund. "The New York Times" reports that Mariane Pearl has formally applied for compensation, though her husband was killed in Pakistan while working on a story.
Her request has been turned down once, because he didn't die in the September 11 hijackings. We're watching for a verdict in the Tyco corruption trial. The jury continues to deliberate, despite reports that one juror is holding out for acquittal. The judge denied a defense request for mistrial yesterday.
Ex-CEO Dennis Kozlowski and former financial officer Mark Swartz are accused of looting the company of hundred of millions of dollars.
In Massachusetts, the governor and the attorney general are at odds over the gay marriage debate.
Governor Romney wants a delay in the court-ordered May deadline. He says the state need more time after a constitutional amendment was initially approved that allows civil unions but bans same-sex marriages.
The state's attorney general says he won't carry the governor's request to the state Supreme Court.
You've heard the mounting evidence that suggests little beer or wine in your diet may do you some good. Though some teetotalers may make issue with that research, our Dr. Sanjay Gupta puts it all in perspective. And he says the keyword is moderation.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Let's try and settle this.
For everyone who watches these reports and feels better about that beer or wine, well you can. Sort of.
Here are the facts. One to two glasses a day may keep the doctor away, but no more, maybe no less. That's the definition of moderate drinking.
It can raise your HDL, or good cholesterol, and that may be good for your heart. Alcohol, in combination with caffeine, can limit the damage to your brain after a stroke, even though it may not lower your risk of having a stroke.
Your risk of diabetes goes down with moderate drinking, according to the USDA, and alcohol will actually improve insulin sensibility in post-menopausal women, a particularly vulnerable group.
And if that weren't enough, dementia rates increased by half in those older adults who drank one to six drinks per week.
Of course, it turns out moderate drinking can mean different things to different people. So here are the numbers, according to the latest research. Two drinks a day for men and one a day for women is a good guideline.
Of course, you should not drink if you are pregnant.
And if you want the best health benefits, don't drink your whole week's allotment at once. Remember, we're talking about moderate drinking.
(on camera) Now, a lot of people ask if all alcohols are created the same. Well, in this case, they probably are. That martini may be as good as that glad of red wine.
Red wine got a lot of play because of all the health benefits of it in association with healthy lifestyle. But all alcohols may be similar.
There certainly are people who probably should not drink, should not start drinking. Take a look at the list there. Certainly, women who are pregnant, but also women with a high risk of breast cancer, if you've been exposed to Hepatitis C, personal or family problems.
Again remember, moderate drinking, that's the key.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: And a quick reminder: we are expecting coverage in the 3 p.m. hour, Eastern Time, the White House reversing its decision today, as you know, allowing National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice to publicly testify before the 9/11 commission.
We plan to carry those comments live at 3 p.m. Eastern when the commission talks about those developments.
Straight ahead, devastation and drama across America. Join in the search for the big one. You won't believe what it takes to hunt for the supertwister.
And check out the kid in the background behind the president. If you missed this on "Letterman" last night, well, we've got the goods for you today.
And the show, the hair, the financial crisis? What's really up with Trump?
More LIVE FROM after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This isn't just any tornado -- it's one of the most violent and destructive forces of nature: s supertwister.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A major tornado, wind speed, we don't know. It's going to level most houses.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: All right. That's enough to scare me. If that doesn't blow you away, well, how about this?
More than 1,000 tornadoes touch down in the United States each year. And some of them rev up into an even more amazing phenomenon.
The public television show "Nova" is documenting the hunt for the supertwister in a new special. And we've managed to chase down one of the crazily dedicated storm chasers.
Joining me now from Denver, Colorado, Joshua Wurman. He's with the Center for the Severe Weather Research.
And Joshua, you probably get asked this all the time. Why do you do it? Is this something that you thought about when you were 6 and you saw your first tornado?
JOSHUA WURMAN, CENTER FOR SEVERE WEATHER RESEARCH: Well, I didn't see my first tornado until I was 30.
I do it because I'm -- I do it because I'm really curious about what's inside these storm, because they're very violent, very short- lived. And if you tell a scientist that you don't know something, there's this mystery, I think a lot of us want to go look inside and see what's there.
PHILLIPS: Well, and so how did you -- Tell me how it happened. Did something just hit you, and -- no pun intended -- and you became fascinated with how to predict these or how to figure out these mysterious tornadoes?
WURMAN: Well, I'm a meteorologist, but I've been working with radar technology and inventing new kinds of radar technologies. And so this is really a perfect marriage of science and new technologies.
And so I developed a fleet of mobile weather radars, radars on truck that we go out and we study weather from close up. Literally, we just get closer to things so we can see all the details.
And tornadoes are a perfect phenomenon to study that way. They're very small. They're very violent. And the only way to see the details on how they're born is to get close-up.
PHILLIPS: We were pretty -- as we started looking at the "Nova" special and reading about it we went back to 1928 and Dale Larson. You've got to tell our viewers this story. We have actually the picture him with all the little schoolchildren.
This was pretty much the first storm chaser, right?
WURMAN: Well, actually, the first storm chaser was Ben Franklin, as far as I can tell.
PHILLIPS: OK, that's true.
WURMAN: He was quite a character. And he was riding on a horse and he was writes a letter about chasing this whirlwind through Maryland or Virginia. Probably a crazy thing to do on a horse.
But it's been going on for a long time. And I suspect Native Americans were doing it occasionally when they lived out on the plains.
Scientific storm chasing has really advanced in the last decades and recently in the last years as we've been getting more mobile and sophisticated instruments, where we can measure not only the three- dimensional wind speed fields, but also the temperature and relative humidity and everything that's going on in and near the tornado.
PHILLIPS: So you look at someone like a Dale Larson, who took a jump rope and held a door and saved all these kids' lives way back when, from just having a gut feeling that a storm was coming, or a tornado was coming, to you and all these instrument laden vehicle.
Tell us and explain to us if you can, in maybe an easy way, on how you predict a tornado.
WURMAN: Well, we make rough predictions the day or two ahead of time, where just the general conditions are right. And you get those on the TV news at night, the weather forecast that says we might get tornados tomorrow, we might get tornados later this afternoon.
When the storm's actually developed, we can get much more precise indications of what's going on. The National Weather Service radars tell us which storms are rotating.
And then when we get close with our sophisticated mobile instrumentation, we can really tell which storms are about to make tornadoes or which storms are currently making tornadoes. And we zero in on them and try to basically surround the tornado and watch the whole process in very fine detail.
PHILLIPS: The public television show is "Nova," and it's documenting the hunt for the supertwister. Joshua Wurman, big part of that, thank you so much.
WURMAN: Sure, good luck to you.
PHILLIPS: All right. A pleasure.
All right. Late-night TV comedy, we've been talking about that. Also, money. Coming up, we're talking with Rhonda. She's got some market news that you can use.
What's next, Rhonda?
RHONDA SCHAFFLER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, at this point, we've got stocks stuck in neutral. I'll tell you what's keeping investors at bay.
Plus, Heinz is in an election-year pickle. Details on that when CNN's LIVE FROM continues right after this break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Late-night ratings leader Jay Leno signing a new five- year deal with NBC that could net him more than $100 million. That's according to sources in today's "Hollywood Reporter." Leno tells "The New York Times" he doesn't really need the money. He says he lives off other show biz income and banks his entire NBC salary. Leno jokes that he'll spend some of that NBC cash when he retires so he can take his wife out to dinner.
And now a cautionary tale about the hazards of dragging your kids to political events. "The Late Show With David Letterman" presents a political speech as seen through the eyes of a young boy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Need to maintain spending discipline in our nation's capital.
I've got plans to protect small business owner and employees -- I actually did vote for the 87 billion -- with all your heart. -- all the local officials, the sheriff is with us today -- you're worried about the quality of the -- we stand for the fair treatment of faith- based groups -- this will not happen on my watch.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: OK. We're told that that kid was there at that event, but not necessarily standing behind the president. So you can put it all together.
Well, here's a guy who clearly doesn't care what people think of him. CNN's Gary Tuchman on Donald Trump, who has managed to surf major personal and financial waves and hasn't wiped out yet.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): There is Donald Trump, the businessman...
DONALD TRUMP, REAL ESTATE MOGUL: This is a tough one; you're fired.
TUCHMAN: And now Donald Trump the TV star, thanks to "The Apprentice."
But could Trump be headed for a fall because of money problems? It's a question posed by "The New York Times" and one Trump has been familiar with.
Back in 1990, a somewhat reluctant New Jersey casino board granted permission for Trump to receive a loan so he could keep his casinos open.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Trump, were you stunned at all by the criticism the board gave?
TRUMP: Not at all. We had a great victory. I'm happy as hell. Thank you very much.
TUCHMAN: Brash then, more brash now. ROGER GROS, "GLOBAL GAMING" BUSINESS MAGAZINE: I think we're going to see him come through this with flying colors.
TUCHMAN: "The Times" says his casino holdings are mired in nearly $2 billion of bond debt, but his portfolio now is much more extensive.
GROS: There are more people that are going to want to be involved with him that are going to want to put up some money so that they can just bask in the Trump glow.
TUCHMAN: Not so shockingly, Trump exudes confidence.
TRUMP: My company today is a much bigger, stronger company than it ever was in the 1980s or 1990s, even.
This is week two of your 13-week job interview.
TUCHMAN: So what would it take for him to fall? A publicist who did some work for Trump during those tough times more than a decade ago says...
KENT HOLLAND, PUBLICIST, PLESSER ASSOC.: Unless he shot one of the apprentices on screen, there's no way Donald Trump not going to continue his run until he wants to stop it.
TRUMP: You're fired.
TUCHMAN: Gary Tuchman, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(STOCK REPORT)
PHILLIPS: Well, live pictures out of San Diego, California. We are waiting to hear presidential hopeful John Kerry address the crowd there at the University of California San Diego, at the Price Center Courtyard Plaza. When he steps up to the podium, we'll take you live.
Stay with us. LIVE FROM continues right after a quick break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Will she or won't she? Today, a new answer from the White House to that burning question about Condoleezza Rice and the 9/11 commission.
Politics at the gas pump, turning pain into political gain. Will it mean lower prices for you?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm a Christian man, but I just kind of wish he'd thought about that 20 minutes, 20 minutes earlier, before he took a baseball bat to one of my windows.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Passionate repentance. A movie moves a burglar to get on the straight and narrow.
And bad news for bedtime, why America's kids are not getting enough sleep.
We're awake here, though. From the CNN center in Atlanta, I'm Kyra Phillips. Miles is off. This hour of CNN's LIVE FROM starts right now.
A change of heart at the White House means the panel investigating the September 11 attacks will hear sworn testimony from Condoleezza Rice. So will the rest of the country.
CNN's Suzanne Malveaux, traveling with the president in Appleton, Wisconsin -- Suzanne.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, the president just wrapped up his speech. He was focusing on pushing Congress to pass an energy plan to lower gas prices.
But as you know, the big story today, the reversal by the White House to allow Dr. Rice to go before the 9/11 commission and to testify publicly.
President Bush, we expect, will explain why he made that decision when he goes back to the White House in a couple of hours this afternoon.
We were told the president first started considering this when he was at the Crawford ranch over the weekend. He advised for his lawyers and other to go before -- try to figure out some sort of compromise.
The deal here is that Dr. Rice will be allowed to testify but that it would not be considered a precedent. She will not be called forward again, or other White House officials to testify, again.
White House counsel Alberto Gonzales has sent a letter to the commission, and I'm quoting here, "The president recognizes the truly unique and extraordinary circumstances underlying the commission's responsibility to prepare a detailed report on the facts."
It goes on to say, "The commission must agree in writing that it will not request additional public testimony from any White House official, including Dr. Rice."
The 9/11 commission has since sent a letter back. They have agreed to these conditions. They have also said that they commended the president's decision and that this will not be considered a precedent.
Now, White House officials are saying the president became frustrated that the story was more about process and not substance of the 9/11 commission. I should also let you know as well that they have decided that both the president and the vice president will meet with the full commission privately to answer questions as long as they like. That, too, is a reversal the White House before just saying that it would meet with the chair and the vice chair.
I should let you know as well, Kyra, of course there is the political element to all of this. I have spoken with advisers behind the scenes. They say that look part of this was that the White House was looking bad, that it looked like it had something to hide, that Dr. Rice wanted to go before the 9/11 commission and testify publicly and the political calculus here was that it was much more costly to stick with this principle and to keep her from testifying than going forward -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Suzanne Malveaux, live from Wisconsin, thank you.
Well, the 9/11 commission is planning to discuss all this at 3:00 p.m. Eastern. CNN will carry that news conference live.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired March 30, 2004 - 13:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, ANCHOR: Jim Walsh is keeping track of the international terror and the progress being made around the world. He's here to give us an inside look at the threat and what's being done about it.
Hi, Jim.
JIM WALSH, HARVARD UNIVERSITY: Hi, Kyra. How are you?
PHILLIPS: Good.
A number of things happening today, as we start going through the wires and reading up on the fight against terrorism around the world.
First, the eight men arrested under Britain's anti-terrorist laws and a number of police raids. Tell us about this, and is this a positive signal in your eyes?
And also, the half a ton of ammonium nitrate that was seized in addition to that.
WALSH: Well, the three series of arrests that happened in the world of terrorism today, this was the most important.
The scale of the raids was impressive. Some 700 police officers in Britain and intelligence officers raided 26 different sites. And I think it is significant.
Now, we should caution that an arrest is not a conviction. Folks have been arrested before and then released because there wasn't enough evidence against them or they were innocent.
But in this case, they did find half a ton of ammonium nitrate, which you'll remember, Kyra, was used both in the Bali bombing and the Oklahoma City bombing.
So the fact that they caught them was good, but it's clear that there are folks out there who want to carry on attacks like the Madrid bombing in the heart of Europe.
PHILLIPS: Jim, there's always talk, too, the stereotype of the Arab connection to Islamic terrorism. And these were, you know, all British citizens that were arrested, but saying -- police saying there is a connection to Islamic terrorism.
Can you tell us about that connection?
WALSH: Well, at this point, it's too early to tell. They haven't released that much data about the particulars. But I think you raise an important point, both generally and as it relates to the stories today.
Generally, you'll remember that Director Tenet, the head of the CIA, testified a couple of weeks ago, and he said that al Qaeda has changed. It's no longer one large organization.
But what we have is, in his words, a movement. That is, lots of local groups that have adopted the al Qaeda ideology. They are thinking globally, unfortunately, and acting locally to carry out terrorist attacks.
So they may or may not have ties to al Qaeda. They may be acting independently.
And that brings us to the second story of the day. That is in the Philippines, the arrest of four alleged members of Abu Sayyaf. That's a situation, a case in the Philippines where a group is active, but the ties to al Qaeda are really questionable. Yes, they are Islamic extremists, but the history of ties has not been present between those two.
PHILLIPS: Well, let's move from the Philippines now to Spain, two more suspects charged. And now the focus of this probe is on this group, the Moroccan Islamist Combat Group. Ties to al Qaeda, don't know, different cell?
WALSH: Well, I think this fits exactly the sort of thing that director Tenet was talking about.
We have here a group that is alleged to be responsible for the attacks in Casablanca earlier. And it makes sense -- although, again, we want to see the evidence -- but it makes sense, given how close Morocco is to Spain, that it would have been the perfect staging area for them to plan attacks in Madrid.
So it at least has the ring of plausibility about it. And it fits this profile. A group, a little group, on its own, may have gotten financing from al Qaeda, may have gotten some training from al Qaeda but it's essentially its own autonomous group, working and acting independently in Morocco and in Spain.
So it's this hybrid where it is both connected but also separate from an al Qaeda directorship.
PHILLIPS: Well, Jim, there's been talk, too, that one of the Brits that was arrested in the police raids may be tied in to what happened in Madrid.
What do we know about any type of connection between British -- you know, activists, Islamic activists and those in Spain?
WALSH: Well, you know, it's funny. In all the arrests today, at least in the British arrests and in the Spanish arrests. what you have is the arresting of people from a variety of national identities. Some are Spanish; some are Syrian; some are Moroccan. Some are British; some are Pakistani descent.
And I think what this points to is that -- it points first of all to this movement aspect, that it's not just al Qaeda but that people from a variety of circumstances are drawn to this anti-Western ideology because the U.S. is so popular in the Muslim world and abroad today.
And it shows also something that is reminiscent of the old al Qaeda, which is you'll remember in those training camps that there were people from a variety of nationalities -- Egyptian, Chechens, Indonesians -- who went through training camps in Afghanistan run by al Qaeda.
And so the international character, the fact that we have different folks from different backgrounds, doesn't surprise me.
PHILLIPS: Jim, final question. You mention anti-Western groups. Hamas, the new leader coming forward and saying the Bush administration, an enemy of God, enemy of Islam, enemy of Muslims.
Is this another concern to take on for the Bush administration?
WALSH: Well, I think that's tough talk, and you would certainly want to pay attention to it.
But I think in the main, Hamas has limited its attacks to Israel and targets nearby. And you'll remember that right after the assassination, there was some loose talk coming out of Hamas that the U.S. might be targeted. Then there was essentially a correction or a retraction of that.
I still, on average, would expect that Hamas' activities, operations, will take place locally in and around Israel.
But again this general problem of the U.S. being seen as a crusader and being very, very unpopular, that plays into al Qaeda's hands. It makes it easier for them to recruit people to these little al Qaeda's, these little regional groups.
PHILLIPS: Harvard's Jim Walsh, always a pleasure, thanks, Jim.
WALSH: Thank you, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right. Other news across America now.
Journalist Daniel Pearl's widow reportedly wants a piece of the 9/11 fund. "The New York Times" reports that Mariane Pearl has formally applied for compensation, though her husband was killed in Pakistan while working on a story.
Her request has been turned down once, because he didn't die in the September 11 hijackings. We're watching for a verdict in the Tyco corruption trial. The jury continues to deliberate, despite reports that one juror is holding out for acquittal. The judge denied a defense request for mistrial yesterday.
Ex-CEO Dennis Kozlowski and former financial officer Mark Swartz are accused of looting the company of hundred of millions of dollars.
In Massachusetts, the governor and the attorney general are at odds over the gay marriage debate.
Governor Romney wants a delay in the court-ordered May deadline. He says the state need more time after a constitutional amendment was initially approved that allows civil unions but bans same-sex marriages.
The state's attorney general says he won't carry the governor's request to the state Supreme Court.
You've heard the mounting evidence that suggests little beer or wine in your diet may do you some good. Though some teetotalers may make issue with that research, our Dr. Sanjay Gupta puts it all in perspective. And he says the keyword is moderation.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Let's try and settle this.
For everyone who watches these reports and feels better about that beer or wine, well you can. Sort of.
Here are the facts. One to two glasses a day may keep the doctor away, but no more, maybe no less. That's the definition of moderate drinking.
It can raise your HDL, or good cholesterol, and that may be good for your heart. Alcohol, in combination with caffeine, can limit the damage to your brain after a stroke, even though it may not lower your risk of having a stroke.
Your risk of diabetes goes down with moderate drinking, according to the USDA, and alcohol will actually improve insulin sensibility in post-menopausal women, a particularly vulnerable group.
And if that weren't enough, dementia rates increased by half in those older adults who drank one to six drinks per week.
Of course, it turns out moderate drinking can mean different things to different people. So here are the numbers, according to the latest research. Two drinks a day for men and one a day for women is a good guideline.
Of course, you should not drink if you are pregnant.
And if you want the best health benefits, don't drink your whole week's allotment at once. Remember, we're talking about moderate drinking.
(on camera) Now, a lot of people ask if all alcohols are created the same. Well, in this case, they probably are. That martini may be as good as that glad of red wine.
Red wine got a lot of play because of all the health benefits of it in association with healthy lifestyle. But all alcohols may be similar.
There certainly are people who probably should not drink, should not start drinking. Take a look at the list there. Certainly, women who are pregnant, but also women with a high risk of breast cancer, if you've been exposed to Hepatitis C, personal or family problems.
Again remember, moderate drinking, that's the key.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: And a quick reminder: we are expecting coverage in the 3 p.m. hour, Eastern Time, the White House reversing its decision today, as you know, allowing National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice to publicly testify before the 9/11 commission.
We plan to carry those comments live at 3 p.m. Eastern when the commission talks about those developments.
Straight ahead, devastation and drama across America. Join in the search for the big one. You won't believe what it takes to hunt for the supertwister.
And check out the kid in the background behind the president. If you missed this on "Letterman" last night, well, we've got the goods for you today.
And the show, the hair, the financial crisis? What's really up with Trump?
More LIVE FROM after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This isn't just any tornado -- it's one of the most violent and destructive forces of nature: s supertwister.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A major tornado, wind speed, we don't know. It's going to level most houses.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: All right. That's enough to scare me. If that doesn't blow you away, well, how about this?
More than 1,000 tornadoes touch down in the United States each year. And some of them rev up into an even more amazing phenomenon.
The public television show "Nova" is documenting the hunt for the supertwister in a new special. And we've managed to chase down one of the crazily dedicated storm chasers.
Joining me now from Denver, Colorado, Joshua Wurman. He's with the Center for the Severe Weather Research.
And Joshua, you probably get asked this all the time. Why do you do it? Is this something that you thought about when you were 6 and you saw your first tornado?
JOSHUA WURMAN, CENTER FOR SEVERE WEATHER RESEARCH: Well, I didn't see my first tornado until I was 30.
I do it because I'm -- I do it because I'm really curious about what's inside these storm, because they're very violent, very short- lived. And if you tell a scientist that you don't know something, there's this mystery, I think a lot of us want to go look inside and see what's there.
PHILLIPS: Well, and so how did you -- Tell me how it happened. Did something just hit you, and -- no pun intended -- and you became fascinated with how to predict these or how to figure out these mysterious tornadoes?
WURMAN: Well, I'm a meteorologist, but I've been working with radar technology and inventing new kinds of radar technologies. And so this is really a perfect marriage of science and new technologies.
And so I developed a fleet of mobile weather radars, radars on truck that we go out and we study weather from close up. Literally, we just get closer to things so we can see all the details.
And tornadoes are a perfect phenomenon to study that way. They're very small. They're very violent. And the only way to see the details on how they're born is to get close-up.
PHILLIPS: We were pretty -- as we started looking at the "Nova" special and reading about it we went back to 1928 and Dale Larson. You've got to tell our viewers this story. We have actually the picture him with all the little schoolchildren.
This was pretty much the first storm chaser, right?
WURMAN: Well, actually, the first storm chaser was Ben Franklin, as far as I can tell.
PHILLIPS: OK, that's true.
WURMAN: He was quite a character. And he was riding on a horse and he was writes a letter about chasing this whirlwind through Maryland or Virginia. Probably a crazy thing to do on a horse.
But it's been going on for a long time. And I suspect Native Americans were doing it occasionally when they lived out on the plains.
Scientific storm chasing has really advanced in the last decades and recently in the last years as we've been getting more mobile and sophisticated instruments, where we can measure not only the three- dimensional wind speed fields, but also the temperature and relative humidity and everything that's going on in and near the tornado.
PHILLIPS: So you look at someone like a Dale Larson, who took a jump rope and held a door and saved all these kids' lives way back when, from just having a gut feeling that a storm was coming, or a tornado was coming, to you and all these instrument laden vehicle.
Tell us and explain to us if you can, in maybe an easy way, on how you predict a tornado.
WURMAN: Well, we make rough predictions the day or two ahead of time, where just the general conditions are right. And you get those on the TV news at night, the weather forecast that says we might get tornados tomorrow, we might get tornados later this afternoon.
When the storm's actually developed, we can get much more precise indications of what's going on. The National Weather Service radars tell us which storms are rotating.
And then when we get close with our sophisticated mobile instrumentation, we can really tell which storms are about to make tornadoes or which storms are currently making tornadoes. And we zero in on them and try to basically surround the tornado and watch the whole process in very fine detail.
PHILLIPS: The public television show is "Nova," and it's documenting the hunt for the supertwister. Joshua Wurman, big part of that, thank you so much.
WURMAN: Sure, good luck to you.
PHILLIPS: All right. A pleasure.
All right. Late-night TV comedy, we've been talking about that. Also, money. Coming up, we're talking with Rhonda. She's got some market news that you can use.
What's next, Rhonda?
RHONDA SCHAFFLER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, at this point, we've got stocks stuck in neutral. I'll tell you what's keeping investors at bay.
Plus, Heinz is in an election-year pickle. Details on that when CNN's LIVE FROM continues right after this break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Late-night ratings leader Jay Leno signing a new five- year deal with NBC that could net him more than $100 million. That's according to sources in today's "Hollywood Reporter." Leno tells "The New York Times" he doesn't really need the money. He says he lives off other show biz income and banks his entire NBC salary. Leno jokes that he'll spend some of that NBC cash when he retires so he can take his wife out to dinner.
And now a cautionary tale about the hazards of dragging your kids to political events. "The Late Show With David Letterman" presents a political speech as seen through the eyes of a young boy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Need to maintain spending discipline in our nation's capital.
I've got plans to protect small business owner and employees -- I actually did vote for the 87 billion -- with all your heart. -- all the local officials, the sheriff is with us today -- you're worried about the quality of the -- we stand for the fair treatment of faith- based groups -- this will not happen on my watch.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: OK. We're told that that kid was there at that event, but not necessarily standing behind the president. So you can put it all together.
Well, here's a guy who clearly doesn't care what people think of him. CNN's Gary Tuchman on Donald Trump, who has managed to surf major personal and financial waves and hasn't wiped out yet.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): There is Donald Trump, the businessman...
DONALD TRUMP, REAL ESTATE MOGUL: This is a tough one; you're fired.
TUCHMAN: And now Donald Trump the TV star, thanks to "The Apprentice."
But could Trump be headed for a fall because of money problems? It's a question posed by "The New York Times" and one Trump has been familiar with.
Back in 1990, a somewhat reluctant New Jersey casino board granted permission for Trump to receive a loan so he could keep his casinos open.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Trump, were you stunned at all by the criticism the board gave?
TRUMP: Not at all. We had a great victory. I'm happy as hell. Thank you very much.
TUCHMAN: Brash then, more brash now. ROGER GROS, "GLOBAL GAMING" BUSINESS MAGAZINE: I think we're going to see him come through this with flying colors.
TUCHMAN: "The Times" says his casino holdings are mired in nearly $2 billion of bond debt, but his portfolio now is much more extensive.
GROS: There are more people that are going to want to be involved with him that are going to want to put up some money so that they can just bask in the Trump glow.
TUCHMAN: Not so shockingly, Trump exudes confidence.
TRUMP: My company today is a much bigger, stronger company than it ever was in the 1980s or 1990s, even.
This is week two of your 13-week job interview.
TUCHMAN: So what would it take for him to fall? A publicist who did some work for Trump during those tough times more than a decade ago says...
KENT HOLLAND, PUBLICIST, PLESSER ASSOC.: Unless he shot one of the apprentices on screen, there's no way Donald Trump not going to continue his run until he wants to stop it.
TRUMP: You're fired.
TUCHMAN: Gary Tuchman, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(STOCK REPORT)
PHILLIPS: Well, live pictures out of San Diego, California. We are waiting to hear presidential hopeful John Kerry address the crowd there at the University of California San Diego, at the Price Center Courtyard Plaza. When he steps up to the podium, we'll take you live.
Stay with us. LIVE FROM continues right after a quick break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Will she or won't she? Today, a new answer from the White House to that burning question about Condoleezza Rice and the 9/11 commission.
Politics at the gas pump, turning pain into political gain. Will it mean lower prices for you?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm a Christian man, but I just kind of wish he'd thought about that 20 minutes, 20 minutes earlier, before he took a baseball bat to one of my windows.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Passionate repentance. A movie moves a burglar to get on the straight and narrow.
And bad news for bedtime, why America's kids are not getting enough sleep.
We're awake here, though. From the CNN center in Atlanta, I'm Kyra Phillips. Miles is off. This hour of CNN's LIVE FROM starts right now.
A change of heart at the White House means the panel investigating the September 11 attacks will hear sworn testimony from Condoleezza Rice. So will the rest of the country.
CNN's Suzanne Malveaux, traveling with the president in Appleton, Wisconsin -- Suzanne.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, the president just wrapped up his speech. He was focusing on pushing Congress to pass an energy plan to lower gas prices.
But as you know, the big story today, the reversal by the White House to allow Dr. Rice to go before the 9/11 commission and to testify publicly.
President Bush, we expect, will explain why he made that decision when he goes back to the White House in a couple of hours this afternoon.
We were told the president first started considering this when he was at the Crawford ranch over the weekend. He advised for his lawyers and other to go before -- try to figure out some sort of compromise.
The deal here is that Dr. Rice will be allowed to testify but that it would not be considered a precedent. She will not be called forward again, or other White House officials to testify, again.
White House counsel Alberto Gonzales has sent a letter to the commission, and I'm quoting here, "The president recognizes the truly unique and extraordinary circumstances underlying the commission's responsibility to prepare a detailed report on the facts."
It goes on to say, "The commission must agree in writing that it will not request additional public testimony from any White House official, including Dr. Rice."
The 9/11 commission has since sent a letter back. They have agreed to these conditions. They have also said that they commended the president's decision and that this will not be considered a precedent.
Now, White House officials are saying the president became frustrated that the story was more about process and not substance of the 9/11 commission. I should also let you know as well that they have decided that both the president and the vice president will meet with the full commission privately to answer questions as long as they like. That, too, is a reversal the White House before just saying that it would meet with the chair and the vice chair.
I should let you know as well, Kyra, of course there is the political element to all of this. I have spoken with advisers behind the scenes. They say that look part of this was that the White House was looking bad, that it looked like it had something to hide, that Dr. Rice wanted to go before the 9/11 commission and testify publicly and the political calculus here was that it was much more costly to stick with this principle and to keep her from testifying than going forward -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Suzanne Malveaux, live from Wisconsin, thank you.
Well, the 9/11 commission is planning to discuss all this at 3:00 p.m. Eastern. CNN will carry that news conference live.
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