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Bush Names Negroponte as Nominee for Ambassador to Iraq
Aired April 19, 2004 - 14:30 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.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back. From the CNN Center this is LIVE FROM... and I'm Miles O'Brien.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Kyra Phillips. Here's what's all new this half hour.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I sort of thought she lost her marbles really.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I bumped into John and my words were the biggest one I've ever seen.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: The biggest woolly I think she said?
O'BRIEN: I love that Kiwi talk, don't you?
PHILLIPS: Sheer madness. Meet the author of "The Complete Idiot's Guy to Staying Woolly."
O'BRIEN: And you know they say, size does matter. At least for dog owners in one town. Restrictions on Rover has them seriously thinking of downsizing or so the "tail" goes. But first, the top stories we're following for you.
PHILLIPS: A push for the PATRIOT Act. The president speaks in Hershey, Pennsylvania next hour. He'll make a call for Congress to renew the controversial the PATRIOT Act passed after 9/11.
The president is also on an important electoral swing through Pennsylvania.
Return to Florida. Former vice presidential candidate Joe Lieberman on the stump, sharing the air with Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry. The senator from Connecticut has a strong following among Jewish voters in Florida.
The man responsible for putting healthier foods on the McDonald's menu has died. Chairman and CEO Jim Cantalupo died today of an apparent heart attack. He was 60 years old. The fast food giant has already named a successor, McDonald's president and COO Charlie Bell.
O'BRIEN: Representing in Iraq. President Bush names John Negroponte as his choice for U.S. ambassador to Iraq. Negroponte, you'll recall, is the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. President Bush made the announcement just a little while ago.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Today I'm announcing my intention to nominate Ambassador John Negroponte as the ambassador to Iraq. Ambassador Negroponte now serves our nation at the United Nations as the ambassador there. He's done a really good job of speaking for the United States to the world about our intentions to spread freedom and peace.
John Negroponte is a man of enormous experience and skill. Therefore, I'm comfortable in asking him to serve in this very difficult assignment. No doubt in my mind he can handle it. No doubt in my mind he'll do a very good job. And there's no doubt in my mind that Iraq will be free and Democratic and peaceful.
So, John, thank you for agreeing to serve your country yet once again, proud of your service. Good luck to you.
JOHN NEGROPONTE, AMBASSADOR TO IRAQ NOMINEE: Thank you very much, Mr. President.
BUSH: You bet.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: If confirmed by the Senate, Negroponte would become the top U.S. diplomat in Iraq when the country becomes sovereign on June 30.
PHILLIPS: Still ahead, our "Picture of the Day." Is there a barber in the house?
O'BRIEN: And then there's this. Dog discrimination? One town is considering a crackdown on dogs over 30 pounds. I'm sorry, Annie, you need to go on a diet.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: Well, it's Patriots Day. That means the Red Sox are playing and lots of fast people are running through Kennemore Square and beyond.
Two Kenyans swept the 108th Annual Boston Marathon. Just about 30 minutes ago Timothy Cherigat crossed the finish line. Unofficial time, 2:10:40. Catherine Ndereba won her third with a time of 2:24:27.
Now, for the first time the women got their own start time. They began the 26-mile, 385-yard trek, 29 minutes ahead of the men.
PHILLIPS: Teens, alcohol and cars. That combination, as you know, can be quite deadly. And a new online program being tested in five high schools around the country tries to raise awareness about those dangers. CNN's Alina Cho reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: When Emily Bushkin was alive; she relied on her parents to teach her about the dangers of alcohol. It didn't work. A popular high school senior, Emily died nearly three years ago when the convertible she was riding in flipped over. Emily and her friends had been drinking.
AMY BUSHKIN, EMILY'S MOTHER: It was tremendous shock. The students held candlelight vigils on the grounds of the high school.
CHO: Now Emily's high school in Suffern, New York is one of five in the nation testing an interactive online alcohol education program. The class for ninth graders mostly 14 to 15-year-olds, speaks, not preaches to students.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, the truth is that alcohol is definitely a drug.
CHO: In a language they understand.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How does that change the way you view alcohol when you hear that it's a drug?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It just makes me want to stay away from it more because I don't want anything to happen to me.
CHO (on camera): The idea is to teach these kids about alcohol prevention before they get in trouble, not after. Consider this. The American Medical Association says on average, kids have their first drink at age 12.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How many of you guys have had a drink before?
CHO (voice over): The principal says the students have told him they wish the program was taught earlier.
PATRICK EAHERTY, PRINCIPAL, SUFFERN HIGH SCHOOL: I enjoyed this, but why aren't you showing this to kids in sixth and seventh grade?
CHO: Other students are skeptical it will even work.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Most just think it's there to scare them. They don't really care about the facts.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They kind of just blow it off like, oh, we have to sit through another alcohol course.
CHO: Some suggest getting kids to stop drinking altogether may be a losing battle, but teaching them how to be smart about it says Amy Bushkin...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Knowledge is power?
BUSHKIN: Absolutely.
CHO: ... is a lesson she says may have saved her daughter's life.
Alina Cho, CNN, Suffern, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: This is one where we let the pictures speak for themselves. This is an ideal television story. Really not a lot of content but a great picture.
PHILLIPS: It's all about the picture.
O'BRIEN: The sheep afraid of the sheers.
PHILLIPS: Own a big dog? Some pet owners could soon be in the doghouse if their canine is too big and too unruly.
O'BRIEN: DOGICA, MAN! (UNINTELLIGIBLE) I went off on a tangent.
Remember Bono at the Golden Globe Awards? Who the bleep could forget? Broadcasters fight back today against those fines.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: The sirens, then the silence. Everything comes to a halt for two minutes across Israel as the nation observes Holocaust Remembrance Day. Special ceremonies are being held to remember the 6 million Jews who died at the hands of the Nazis. Ariel Sharon placed a wreath at the Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem. He said that Israel had learned lessons of the past and would never again tolerate attacks against Jews.
The American Liberators in World War II did not expect to be heroes. CNN's Frank Buckley tells a story that began nearly 50 years ago at that infamous Nazi concentration camp at Dachau.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At least 28,000 people died at Dachau. The girl in the picture was a witness. 16- year old Janina Cywinska's parents and brother had already died in the gas chambers at Auschwitz. Janina was taken to Dachau and survived.
JANINA CYWINSKA, HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR: I was thinking about that's the end. There was no way out.
BUCKLEY: She remembers when the photo was taken. She'll never forget the day she was liberated by American soldiers of Japanese descent. They were part of the segregated and Japanese American 522nd Field Artillery Battalion. Janina and others thought at first the Japanese won the war.
CYWINSKA: We thought they were going -- they took cover and they're going to shoot us. That was our thinking. Then he said, "I am American soldier. I'm your liberator. And I am here to save you and so forth." And we didn't believe him.
BUCKLEY: George Oiye was one of the liberators.
GEORGE OIYE, RET. SGT. U.S. ARMY, 522ND BATTALION: For the local people to see Japanese faces, it was kind of strange until they learned that, you know, that we're American soldiers.
BUCKLEY: While Oiye and other Japanese American soldiers were liberating the prisoners of a Nazi concentration camp, some of their families were incarcerated in internment camps in the U.S.
OIYE: Our families in concentration camps in the States being the ones that liberate concentration camps, the real ones in Europe. And that seemed to strange.
BUCKLEY: They thought of their families at home in America, living behind barbed wire, while they fought and died for America to prove their loyalty.
OIYE: It seems so ironic and difficult to deal with.
BUCKLEY: Nearly 50 years later, the Japanese-American liberator and the Polish American survivor are friends. George Oiye and Janina Cywinska both live in California. They occasionally appear together at places like the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles.
OIYE: Here's my section.
BUCKLEY: Oiye's personal pictures from the war are among those that help to tell the story of man's capacity to hate. Racism and fear stripped people of their dignity in America. It sent people to their deaths in Dachau.
But people were also sent to Dachau to liberate them, teaching the world...
OIYE: There is a difference between good and evil.
BUCKLEY: Frank Buckley, CNN, San Jose, California.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Here we go. We just teased "CROSSFIRE" and they dissed us. I can't believe we did that for them.
O'BRIEN: We don't know the full story. There's allegations of rain in Las Vegas and that patently is absurd. Of course.
PHILLIPS: No, now to the biggest woolly I've ever seen. In the heart of New Zealand, this -- what is it? Merino sheep? Am I saying that right? I don't know my sheep.
(CROSSTALK) PHILLIPS: ... has eluded sheerers for six years. The sheep's nicknamed "Shrek" and it has more than 27 kilograms of wool on its back.
Let's see, 27 kilograms. Can you figure that out for me?
O'BRIEN: Sixty pounds.
PHILLIPS: Thank you. That's more than 59 1/2 pounds.
O'BRIEN: Well, 59 1/2. How's that?
PHILLIPS: The wool is enough to make more than 20 large men's suits.
O'BRIEN: Or one large sheep suit.
PHILLIPS: Shrek says the sheep was to be shorn on Sunday, but sheerers reportedly gave him a brief reprieve.
O'BRIEN: Shrek the sheep was to be shorn on Sunday.
PHILLIPS: Can you say that six times?
O'BRIEN: One of our favorite writers I'm sure left that little bomb for us.
In any case, I just say this. Disguise the sheerer as a camera person. Because obviously Shrek like the camera.
PHILLIPS: He just wants all the attention.
O'BRIEN: Apparently so.
It's a doggone dilemma in Washington state to tell you about. Canine owners in the city of Auburn are barking at each other, growling mad, all that stuff over a big dog ban. Dogs over 30 pounds could be labeled as dangerous. Reported Lisa Papas with affiliate KCPQ has the tale.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LISA PAPAS, KCPQ CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Meet Cody.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's a little protective, but he's definitely a family dog and very obedient. You know, good dog.
PAPAS: And meet Rex.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And he'll only bark at other dogs if we're at our house.
PAPAS: Both dogs weigh more than 30 pounds. So if Auburn's proposed ordinance passes, they'll automatically be labeled potentially dangerous dogs. A rule that would apply to any dog over 30 pounds. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All we're saying to people is if you choose to have a dog that might be a threat to the community, you're responsible for its behavior.
PAPAS: Critics say it put dog owners just one baby step away from losing their dogs. And Rex's owner says the plan sounds a little harsh.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Dogs are dogs. They're territorial.
PAPAS: The ordinance would work like this: if you have a dog that's over 30 pounds and it gets out of your yard, it could be declared dangerous. And that brings with it all kinds of restrictions.
First your dog would have to be kept inside or in a locked pen with a ceiling. And it must be muzzled and on a leash when not in your yard. You'll have to take out $250,000 this in liability insurance, get your dog microchipped and pay a $100 dangerous dog fee every year.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That would just crush me. Because I couldn't. I mean I wouldn't be able to do it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: You know, that is so unfair. First of all, thanks to Lisa Papas with our affiliate KCPQ. We appreciate that. Because that was a doggone good story.
But some of the nastiest dogs are the little dogs. They get up there and bite your ankles.
PHILLIPS: Oh, I wouldn't know.
(CROSSTALK)
O'BRIEN: As far as you're concerned, they're just all...
PHILLIPS: I love dogs except for Miles' dogs.
O'BRIEN: Kyra was in Oregon over the weekend supporting this whole thing.
PHILLIPS: Look, the city council in Auburn does plan to debate this.
O'BRIEN: We'll keep you posted.
PHILLIPS: All right, do we want to check in on the president?
O'BRIEN: Yes. The president of the United States arriving in Hershey, Pennsylvania.
PHILLIPS: Not live pictures, though. Taped from WHP. He's heading there. He'll talk about the PATRIOT Act. We've been talking about that. Debating it throughout the day. He's going to try to get that renewed. We will have it live next hour.
(MARKET REPORT)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Well, it appears people are just not content with just seeing Mel Gibson's film "The Passion of the Christ." As financial correspondent Jen Rogers reports fans eager to make the movie part of their lives find passion at the mall.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEN ROGERS, CNNfn CORRESPONDENT, (voice-over): "The Passion of the Christ." It made its mark at the multiplex and now, the mall, as moviegoers snap up all things "Passion."
Take the soundtrack. It's number 26 on Billboard, surging 91 percent last week alone. The movie's only licensed book hit a high of No. 2 on "The New York Times" nonfiction best-seller list. Even the good book is getting in the game. The Christian Book Sellers Association says Bible sales jumped 40 percent in March from the month before.
JACOB STANTON, SONSHINE CHRISTIAN STORES: Books are doing really well right now and people are having questions after seeing the movie and they're coming into our store with those questions and we're trying to direct them to the books that have the answers for them.
ROGERS: A blockbuster movie seems to be the answer to Christian retailers' prayers. After a rough few years, the 4.2 billion industry is reporting higher sales across the board.
BOB SIEMON, BOB SIEMON DESIGNS: We have seen a huge increase in business.
ROGERS: Bob Siemon Designs, the movie's only jewelry licensee, says sales are up 50 percent over last year.
Sales have been so strong that here at Bob Siemon Designs they've had to add 35 new employees just since "The Passion" opened.
So far more than 150,000 cross and 125,000 nail necklaces have been sold.
SIEMON: I'm seeing this resurgence happening into Christian retail stores. And I really believe that it's a result of the movie "The Passion of the Christ."
ROGERS: Siemon believes sales will stay strong even after the movie leaves screens. In fact, many are predicting with Hollywood's new-found interest in Christian fair, this retail revival will live on.
Jen Rogers, CNN Financial News, Los Angeles. (END VIDEOTAPE)
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 April 19, 2004 - 14:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back. From the CNN Center this is LIVE FROM... and I'm Miles O'Brien.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Kyra Phillips. Here's what's all new this half hour.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I sort of thought she lost her marbles really.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I bumped into John and my words were the biggest one I've ever seen.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: The biggest woolly I think she said?
O'BRIEN: I love that Kiwi talk, don't you?
PHILLIPS: Sheer madness. Meet the author of "The Complete Idiot's Guy to Staying Woolly."
O'BRIEN: And you know they say, size does matter. At least for dog owners in one town. Restrictions on Rover has them seriously thinking of downsizing or so the "tail" goes. But first, the top stories we're following for you.
PHILLIPS: A push for the PATRIOT Act. The president speaks in Hershey, Pennsylvania next hour. He'll make a call for Congress to renew the controversial the PATRIOT Act passed after 9/11.
The president is also on an important electoral swing through Pennsylvania.
Return to Florida. Former vice presidential candidate Joe Lieberman on the stump, sharing the air with Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry. The senator from Connecticut has a strong following among Jewish voters in Florida.
The man responsible for putting healthier foods on the McDonald's menu has died. Chairman and CEO Jim Cantalupo died today of an apparent heart attack. He was 60 years old. The fast food giant has already named a successor, McDonald's president and COO Charlie Bell.
O'BRIEN: Representing in Iraq. President Bush names John Negroponte as his choice for U.S. ambassador to Iraq. Negroponte, you'll recall, is the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. President Bush made the announcement just a little while ago.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Today I'm announcing my intention to nominate Ambassador John Negroponte as the ambassador to Iraq. Ambassador Negroponte now serves our nation at the United Nations as the ambassador there. He's done a really good job of speaking for the United States to the world about our intentions to spread freedom and peace.
John Negroponte is a man of enormous experience and skill. Therefore, I'm comfortable in asking him to serve in this very difficult assignment. No doubt in my mind he can handle it. No doubt in my mind he'll do a very good job. And there's no doubt in my mind that Iraq will be free and Democratic and peaceful.
So, John, thank you for agreeing to serve your country yet once again, proud of your service. Good luck to you.
JOHN NEGROPONTE, AMBASSADOR TO IRAQ NOMINEE: Thank you very much, Mr. President.
BUSH: You bet.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: If confirmed by the Senate, Negroponte would become the top U.S. diplomat in Iraq when the country becomes sovereign on June 30.
PHILLIPS: Still ahead, our "Picture of the Day." Is there a barber in the house?
O'BRIEN: And then there's this. Dog discrimination? One town is considering a crackdown on dogs over 30 pounds. I'm sorry, Annie, you need to go on a diet.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: Well, it's Patriots Day. That means the Red Sox are playing and lots of fast people are running through Kennemore Square and beyond.
Two Kenyans swept the 108th Annual Boston Marathon. Just about 30 minutes ago Timothy Cherigat crossed the finish line. Unofficial time, 2:10:40. Catherine Ndereba won her third with a time of 2:24:27.
Now, for the first time the women got their own start time. They began the 26-mile, 385-yard trek, 29 minutes ahead of the men.
PHILLIPS: Teens, alcohol and cars. That combination, as you know, can be quite deadly. And a new online program being tested in five high schools around the country tries to raise awareness about those dangers. CNN's Alina Cho reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: When Emily Bushkin was alive; she relied on her parents to teach her about the dangers of alcohol. It didn't work. A popular high school senior, Emily died nearly three years ago when the convertible she was riding in flipped over. Emily and her friends had been drinking.
AMY BUSHKIN, EMILY'S MOTHER: It was tremendous shock. The students held candlelight vigils on the grounds of the high school.
CHO: Now Emily's high school in Suffern, New York is one of five in the nation testing an interactive online alcohol education program. The class for ninth graders mostly 14 to 15-year-olds, speaks, not preaches to students.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, the truth is that alcohol is definitely a drug.
CHO: In a language they understand.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How does that change the way you view alcohol when you hear that it's a drug?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It just makes me want to stay away from it more because I don't want anything to happen to me.
CHO (on camera): The idea is to teach these kids about alcohol prevention before they get in trouble, not after. Consider this. The American Medical Association says on average, kids have their first drink at age 12.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How many of you guys have had a drink before?
CHO (voice over): The principal says the students have told him they wish the program was taught earlier.
PATRICK EAHERTY, PRINCIPAL, SUFFERN HIGH SCHOOL: I enjoyed this, but why aren't you showing this to kids in sixth and seventh grade?
CHO: Other students are skeptical it will even work.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Most just think it's there to scare them. They don't really care about the facts.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They kind of just blow it off like, oh, we have to sit through another alcohol course.
CHO: Some suggest getting kids to stop drinking altogether may be a losing battle, but teaching them how to be smart about it says Amy Bushkin...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Knowledge is power?
BUSHKIN: Absolutely.
CHO: ... is a lesson she says may have saved her daughter's life.
Alina Cho, CNN, Suffern, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: This is one where we let the pictures speak for themselves. This is an ideal television story. Really not a lot of content but a great picture.
PHILLIPS: It's all about the picture.
O'BRIEN: The sheep afraid of the sheers.
PHILLIPS: Own a big dog? Some pet owners could soon be in the doghouse if their canine is too big and too unruly.
O'BRIEN: DOGICA, MAN! (UNINTELLIGIBLE) I went off on a tangent.
Remember Bono at the Golden Globe Awards? Who the bleep could forget? Broadcasters fight back today against those fines.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: The sirens, then the silence. Everything comes to a halt for two minutes across Israel as the nation observes Holocaust Remembrance Day. Special ceremonies are being held to remember the 6 million Jews who died at the hands of the Nazis. Ariel Sharon placed a wreath at the Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem. He said that Israel had learned lessons of the past and would never again tolerate attacks against Jews.
The American Liberators in World War II did not expect to be heroes. CNN's Frank Buckley tells a story that began nearly 50 years ago at that infamous Nazi concentration camp at Dachau.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At least 28,000 people died at Dachau. The girl in the picture was a witness. 16- year old Janina Cywinska's parents and brother had already died in the gas chambers at Auschwitz. Janina was taken to Dachau and survived.
JANINA CYWINSKA, HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR: I was thinking about that's the end. There was no way out.
BUCKLEY: She remembers when the photo was taken. She'll never forget the day she was liberated by American soldiers of Japanese descent. They were part of the segregated and Japanese American 522nd Field Artillery Battalion. Janina and others thought at first the Japanese won the war.
CYWINSKA: We thought they were going -- they took cover and they're going to shoot us. That was our thinking. Then he said, "I am American soldier. I'm your liberator. And I am here to save you and so forth." And we didn't believe him.
BUCKLEY: George Oiye was one of the liberators.
GEORGE OIYE, RET. SGT. U.S. ARMY, 522ND BATTALION: For the local people to see Japanese faces, it was kind of strange until they learned that, you know, that we're American soldiers.
BUCKLEY: While Oiye and other Japanese American soldiers were liberating the prisoners of a Nazi concentration camp, some of their families were incarcerated in internment camps in the U.S.
OIYE: Our families in concentration camps in the States being the ones that liberate concentration camps, the real ones in Europe. And that seemed to strange.
BUCKLEY: They thought of their families at home in America, living behind barbed wire, while they fought and died for America to prove their loyalty.
OIYE: It seems so ironic and difficult to deal with.
BUCKLEY: Nearly 50 years later, the Japanese-American liberator and the Polish American survivor are friends. George Oiye and Janina Cywinska both live in California. They occasionally appear together at places like the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles.
OIYE: Here's my section.
BUCKLEY: Oiye's personal pictures from the war are among those that help to tell the story of man's capacity to hate. Racism and fear stripped people of their dignity in America. It sent people to their deaths in Dachau.
But people were also sent to Dachau to liberate them, teaching the world...
OIYE: There is a difference between good and evil.
BUCKLEY: Frank Buckley, CNN, San Jose, California.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Here we go. We just teased "CROSSFIRE" and they dissed us. I can't believe we did that for them.
O'BRIEN: We don't know the full story. There's allegations of rain in Las Vegas and that patently is absurd. Of course.
PHILLIPS: No, now to the biggest woolly I've ever seen. In the heart of New Zealand, this -- what is it? Merino sheep? Am I saying that right? I don't know my sheep.
(CROSSTALK) PHILLIPS: ... has eluded sheerers for six years. The sheep's nicknamed "Shrek" and it has more than 27 kilograms of wool on its back.
Let's see, 27 kilograms. Can you figure that out for me?
O'BRIEN: Sixty pounds.
PHILLIPS: Thank you. That's more than 59 1/2 pounds.
O'BRIEN: Well, 59 1/2. How's that?
PHILLIPS: The wool is enough to make more than 20 large men's suits.
O'BRIEN: Or one large sheep suit.
PHILLIPS: Shrek says the sheep was to be shorn on Sunday, but sheerers reportedly gave him a brief reprieve.
O'BRIEN: Shrek the sheep was to be shorn on Sunday.
PHILLIPS: Can you say that six times?
O'BRIEN: One of our favorite writers I'm sure left that little bomb for us.
In any case, I just say this. Disguise the sheerer as a camera person. Because obviously Shrek like the camera.
PHILLIPS: He just wants all the attention.
O'BRIEN: Apparently so.
It's a doggone dilemma in Washington state to tell you about. Canine owners in the city of Auburn are barking at each other, growling mad, all that stuff over a big dog ban. Dogs over 30 pounds could be labeled as dangerous. Reported Lisa Papas with affiliate KCPQ has the tale.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LISA PAPAS, KCPQ CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Meet Cody.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's a little protective, but he's definitely a family dog and very obedient. You know, good dog.
PAPAS: And meet Rex.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And he'll only bark at other dogs if we're at our house.
PAPAS: Both dogs weigh more than 30 pounds. So if Auburn's proposed ordinance passes, they'll automatically be labeled potentially dangerous dogs. A rule that would apply to any dog over 30 pounds. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All we're saying to people is if you choose to have a dog that might be a threat to the community, you're responsible for its behavior.
PAPAS: Critics say it put dog owners just one baby step away from losing their dogs. And Rex's owner says the plan sounds a little harsh.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Dogs are dogs. They're territorial.
PAPAS: The ordinance would work like this: if you have a dog that's over 30 pounds and it gets out of your yard, it could be declared dangerous. And that brings with it all kinds of restrictions.
First your dog would have to be kept inside or in a locked pen with a ceiling. And it must be muzzled and on a leash when not in your yard. You'll have to take out $250,000 this in liability insurance, get your dog microchipped and pay a $100 dangerous dog fee every year.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That would just crush me. Because I couldn't. I mean I wouldn't be able to do it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: You know, that is so unfair. First of all, thanks to Lisa Papas with our affiliate KCPQ. We appreciate that. Because that was a doggone good story.
But some of the nastiest dogs are the little dogs. They get up there and bite your ankles.
PHILLIPS: Oh, I wouldn't know.
(CROSSTALK)
O'BRIEN: As far as you're concerned, they're just all...
PHILLIPS: I love dogs except for Miles' dogs.
O'BRIEN: Kyra was in Oregon over the weekend supporting this whole thing.
PHILLIPS: Look, the city council in Auburn does plan to debate this.
O'BRIEN: We'll keep you posted.
PHILLIPS: All right, do we want to check in on the president?
O'BRIEN: Yes. The president of the United States arriving in Hershey, Pennsylvania.
PHILLIPS: Not live pictures, though. Taped from WHP. He's heading there. He'll talk about the PATRIOT Act. We've been talking about that. Debating it throughout the day. He's going to try to get that renewed. We will have it live next hour.
(MARKET REPORT)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Well, it appears people are just not content with just seeing Mel Gibson's film "The Passion of the Christ." As financial correspondent Jen Rogers reports fans eager to make the movie part of their lives find passion at the mall.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEN ROGERS, CNNfn CORRESPONDENT, (voice-over): "The Passion of the Christ." It made its mark at the multiplex and now, the mall, as moviegoers snap up all things "Passion."
Take the soundtrack. It's number 26 on Billboard, surging 91 percent last week alone. The movie's only licensed book hit a high of No. 2 on "The New York Times" nonfiction best-seller list. Even the good book is getting in the game. The Christian Book Sellers Association says Bible sales jumped 40 percent in March from the month before.
JACOB STANTON, SONSHINE CHRISTIAN STORES: Books are doing really well right now and people are having questions after seeing the movie and they're coming into our store with those questions and we're trying to direct them to the books that have the answers for them.
ROGERS: A blockbuster movie seems to be the answer to Christian retailers' prayers. After a rough few years, the 4.2 billion industry is reporting higher sales across the board.
BOB SIEMON, BOB SIEMON DESIGNS: We have seen a huge increase in business.
ROGERS: Bob Siemon Designs, the movie's only jewelry licensee, says sales are up 50 percent over last year.
Sales have been so strong that here at Bob Siemon Designs they've had to add 35 new employees just since "The Passion" opened.
So far more than 150,000 cross and 125,000 nail necklaces have been sold.
SIEMON: I'm seeing this resurgence happening into Christian retail stores. And I really believe that it's a result of the movie "The Passion of the Christ."
ROGERS: Siemon believes sales will stay strong even after the movie leaves screens. In fact, many are predicting with Hollywood's new-found interest in Christian fair, this retail revival will live on.
Jen Rogers, CNN Financial News, Los Angeles. (END VIDEOTAPE)
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