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Prison Abuse Charges; Sentence Overturned; Michael Jackson Case; Movie With a Message; Nifty Business

Aired May 04, 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.


KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: And welcome back. From the CNN Center in Atlanta, this is LIVE FROM... I'm Kyra Phillips.
Here is what is all new this half-hour.

Did Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld express enough outrage about alleged troop abuses to satisfy the Arab world? We'll go in depth with how his comments are being played in that region.

And back in the States, a young man gets freedom after a ruling in a controversial case with racial implications.

But first, the top stories we're following for you.

Reinforcements on the way, the Pentagon is sending 10,000 more troops, active duty soldiers and Marines, to Iraq. Commanders there say that they need to keep troop strength at a high level. Right now about 138,000 U.S. troops are in Iraq.

Hearings ordered into allegations of prisoner abuse by U.S. troops in Iraq. The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence plans to hold one tomorrow behind closed doors. The Senate Armed Services Committee wants to call Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to testify publicly about what happened behind those prison walls.

Reviving the road map to peace, or at least trying to, members of the so-called Mideast Quartet are meeting at the United Nations. It is the first time in eight months that these officials from the U.S., the U.N., Russia and the European Union have gotten together on this issue.

No change in interest rates, just what most economists expected. That announcement coming moments ago from the Federal Reserve. The key short-term interest rate stays at 1 percent, just where it has been since last June.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld insists that the Pentagon takes charges of mistreated Iraqi prisoners most seriously. In a briefing a short while ago, Rumsfeld says that he found photos of U.S. soldiers abusing detainees at Abu Ghraib Prison deeply disturbing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD RUMSFELD, DEFENSE SECRETARY: The images that we've seen, that include U.S. forces, are deeply disturbing, both because of the fundamental unacceptability of what they depicted and because the actions by U.S. military personnel in those photos do not, in any way, represent the values of our country or of the Armed Forces. As President Bush has stated, their treatment does not reflect the nature of the American people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: For a White House already on the defensive over Iraq, the prisoner abuse scandal is a public relations catastrophe, especially in the Arab world.

Let's turn to CNN's senior editor for Arab affairs, Octavia Nasr. She has been monitoring all the networks overseas. Well just like we take Donald Rumsfeld live every day on all the networks here, same thing is happening in the Arab region.

OCTAVIA NASR, CNN SENIOR EDITOR, ARAB AFFAIRS: Absolutely. They're very interested. They're very serious about what the Secretary of Defense has to say. They took it today live. And fortunately for the Arab media, when you follow the Arab media, you see that there is one main criticism of this U.S. administration, and that is it hasn't been forthcoming with what's really happening on the ground in Iraq. And the big question today is did this press conference, a long one at that, did it address that concern? And the quick answer to that is no.

PHILLIPS: Now, another interesting thing, like we analyze stories and we analyze other networks, Al Jazeera, Al-Arabiya, they're doing the same thing now that we do. They actually had an analyst on, an Egyptian woman, talking about how we're covering the story of the Iraqi prisoners.

NASR: Right. And she gave us high marks, which is good, I guess. That was earlier today when Al Jazeera interviewed this professor of media at a university in Cairo. She had some pretty good points that she raised. First of all, she did commend the Western media for exposing these pictures and exposing this whole issue of prisoners' abuse in Iraq.

One thing that she said that I found very interesting, she did comment and stress the fact that CBS, before broadcasting these pictures, they had to get the approval of the Pentagon. So basically there is this debate going on right now about where the media, the U.S. media stand on issues of national defense or national importance. How close are the U.S. media to the Pentagon and the White House and so forth? Do they get their orders from the White House and the Pentagon? A very interesting point. I think we're going to hear more and more about it in the coming few days.

PHILLIPS: So looking at that, what does this say about balanced journalism now overseas at a time, you know, we talked a lot about this during the war, were the Arab networks balanced and did they have freedom of the press? Is this moving in a whole different direction now?

NASR: Sort of. I think that's a -- that's a huge statement that I personally am not ready to make yet. One thing that's interesting in this interview that we just showed pictures of, this professor on Al Jazeera, one thing that's very interesting, they asked her the question why is it that the U.S. is not so harsh on their media for showing these pictures as they are harsh on our media, the Arab media, showing pictures of horrible things happening in Iraq?

Her answer was very interesting, and I think there's a lot to learn from that answer. She said the U.S. media care about their people, just as we care about ours. Basically, she's drawing that line, as she's giving the high marks for the Western media, and especially the U.S. media for covering the story in all honesty and in all openness, she's stressing the point that U.S. media tend to take the side of the U.S. while the Arab media tend to take the side of the Arabs.

PHILLIPS: OK. While talking about this balance, still, the lead story today on the networks overseas was about the president of the United States' Mideast policy costing the United States credibility overseas. What does that tell us and how does that play into overall image from the Arab world about the U.S.?

NASR: That's very interesting. Today both major Arab networks, Al Jazeera and Al-Arabiya, are covering the story of the letter of discontent that some 50 former U.S. diplomats have sent to President Bush telling him that they are not supportive of his policies in the Middle East and so forth. It's a big story on Arab networks. And it's interesting to see the efforts by the U.S. administration to try and control the damage and try to fix its image in the Arab world while the Arab world is focused so much on how bad this image has been and how battered the U.S. looks right now in the Arab streets.

PHILLIPS: Senior editor for Arab Affairs, Octavia Nasr, thanks again.

NASR: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: All right.

Straight ahead, tears of joy for family and friends of Marcus Dixon today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEN JONES, MARCUS DIXON'S GUARDIAN: Marcus was crying and I was crying. We was both doing the dance.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Coming up next, a former high school star athlete and his family celebrating his freedom.

Plus, how prosecutors plan to use items found in a box belonging to the King of Pop.

And does the Material Girl have sticky fingers? Madonna has her day in court for lifting something that one man says just isn't hers.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: A Georgia athlete sentenced to 10 years in prison for having sex with an underage girl is out by court order, but prosecutors vow they'll try to put him back behind bars.

CNN's Eric Philips reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ERIC PHILIPS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Nineteen-year-old Marcus Dixon said on his first night of freedom, he was thankful.

MARCUS DIXON, RAPE CONVICTION OVERTURNED: I just want to say to everybody, how thankful I am to have supporters and all of the letters of encouragement and the cards and everything. It really helped me through the time I had in prison.

PHILIPS: It's the end to a 14-month-ordeal for Dixon and his adopted parents. The news from the Georgia Supreme Court was like music to their ears.

K. JONES, MARCUS DIXON'S GUARDIAN: Marcus was crying and I was crying. We was both doing the dance.

PHILIPS: Finally, tears of joy, rather than sorrow for this 19- year-old former high school star athlete, honor student and college hopeful. It all came crashing down with a court conviction last May. He and a classmate had engaged in sex in this classroom at Pepperell High School in Rome, Georgia.

Oprah Winfrey interviewed the accuser.

OPRAH WINFREY, TALK SHOW HOST: And you are aware of the fact that throughout the country that there are people who say that if Marcus had been a white boy that he would not be in jail. You are aware of that, right?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It doesn't matter what color he is. It's not his color that has to do with anything about it. It's his actions that make it wrong.

PHILIPS: She was 15. He was 18. She said it was rape. He said it was consensual. The jury believed Marcus and threw out the felony rape charge, but still convicted him of statutory rape, a misdemeanor and aggravated child molestation. The second conviction meant a mandatory sentence of 10 years in prison.

Defense attorneys appealed, and the Georgia Supreme Court agreed, overturning the conviction saying: "The legislature most recently declared that sex between teenagers less than three years apart should be punished as misdemeanor statutory rape and not felony child molestation."

Prosecutors plan to ask the Georgia Supreme Court to reconsider its decision.

Eric Philips, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: CNN's Heidi Collins talked with Marcus Dixon's legal guardians today on "AMERICAN MORNING." She asked them what he'll do now that he's free.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PERI JONES, MARCUS DIXON'S GUARDIAN: This is what he says. He wants to chill and be with his friends and family right now and he'll think about those things later. But I know that he wants to go to school. That's his next thing that he wants to get straightened out is to go to school somewhere.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Well Marcus Dixon's accuser and her family have filed a civil suit against the school system running the high school where the encounter happened.

Another athlete is in much more serious legal trouble. In federal court today, St. Louis Blues hockey player Mike Danton pleaded not guilty in an alleged murder-for-hire plot. Danton has been in jail in Illinois. Prosecutors say he and a 19-year-old woman tried to hire a hit man to kill an acquaintance.

Prosecutors in Michael Jackson's molestation case think they've got some new evidence.

And as CNN's Frank Buckley reports, some of it seems to be pretty strange stuff.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Authorities in Monmouth County, New Jersey confirm that items believed to have belonged to Michael Jackson were seized by Santa Barbara County authorities, among them a pair of underwear. They were found in a wardrobe box with Michael Jackson's name on it, according to Henry Vaccaro, who says a court seized it in 1999 during a legal fight with the Jackson family.

HENRY VACCARO, SR., NEW JERSEY BUSINESS OWNER: One single pair of soiled white Calvin Klein size 28 underpants just thrown in a corner and nobody even bothered. I mean who cared? It was just a pair of dirty underpants as far as I was concerned.

BUCKLEY: In 2002, a company Vaccaro represents purchased a number of items of Jackson family memorabilia from that seizure and later sold them. Some of the items were even displayed for a while on a pay-per-view Web site.

VACCARO: This entire room was full of Jackson memorabilia from the floor to the ceiling.

BUCKLEY: Vaccaro says and New Jersey authorities confirm Santa Barbara County sheriff's deputies seized the underwear, two photos of Michael Jackson with young boys, a note to "Rubbers," how Jackson reportedly referred to kids who stayed at Neverland, a note to the late "Dee Dee" Jackson, Tito Jackson's wife warning her about child molesters, a Neverland Ranch welcome kit and a Neverland "Do Not Disturb" sign.

No one has verified the ownership of the underwear, so what relevance could it and other items from five years ago have in the current case?

LAURIE LEVINSON, LOYOLA LAW SCHOOL PROFESSOR: I think that the D.A. is hoping that either the underwear itself has some type of physical DNA evidence that will help their case or that the other evidence that comes with it provides some leads to molestation.

BUCKLEY: Jackson attorneys did not return calls from CNN. Santa Barbara County authorities had no comment.

Frank Buckley, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: A lawsuit against Madonna and her film director husband, Guy Ritchie, goes to court today. In the lawsuit, director/actor Vincent alleges that the couple stole his idea for the remake of the film "Swept Away."

Now a movie with a message. A new mockumentary called "A Day Without a Mexican" takes a humorous approach to a hot social issue.

Here is CNN entertainment correspondent Sibila Vargas.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have lost our Mexicans.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "A Day Without a Mexican."

SIBILA VARGAS, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): What would happen if the entire Latino population in California suddenly disappeared? Mexican director Sergio Arau and his wife, Yareli Arizmendi, explore that topic in their new film, "A Day Without a Mexican."

YARELI ARIZMENDI, CO-WRITER, ACTRESS: There's a lot of humor, and humor allows you to talk very deeply about very difficult issues.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why is the government calling them aliens if they did not think that they were from somewhere else?

Here is Jose. Mother ship.

Jose, mother ship. ARIZMENDI: This is a dialogue opener. That's what it is.

VARGAS: The film has opened dialogue, but not the way the filmmakers expected. One of the billboards advertising the movie was taken down after just one day, because some found it to be offensive.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Anybody takes a look at that, if they don't know what the reasoning behind it or what the idea behind it is, you get a really bad impression.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's kind of rude and offensive. But then when you think about it a little bit, you think maybe there's something behind it. You hope there's something behind it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is discrimination about the Latinos people.

ARIZMENDI: Thank God people reacted to it, because it would be horrible to think that you live in California with people that won't react to a statement like that.

VARGAS: While there may have been initial confusion, the filmmakers hope audiences go home with a clear understanding that the Latino contribution to California is invaluable.

ARIZMENDI: How do you make the invisible visible? You take it away.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Please come back.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Por favor.

VARGAS (on camera): The film started out as a 28-minute short, but it got such good buzz that they decided to make it a full-length feature. And a little bit of trivia, Sergio Arau, the movie's director, is the son of famed Mexican director Alfonso Arau. He directed the critically acclaimed "Like Water For Chocolate."

"A Day Without a Mexican" opens in select theaters May 14.

Sibila Vargas, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Well a favorite pastime has turned into a lucrative business for one group of youngsters.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GENEVA JOHNSON, CO-OWNER, HAMILTON ART GALLERY: We're trying to connect with the community and, you know, try to keep a positive rap for African-Americans.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Well these teens aren't worried about outsourcing. They figured out another way to make a living.

Plus, it is all in the stroke of the hand. How a doctor's penmanship can affect your health.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well we have a clarification for you on a story that aired earlier on our show. As we mentioned, southern California's wildfire season is off to an early and ugly start. Firefighters are struggling to contain three major blazes. We reported a man has been charged with setting one of them. Well the California Department of Forestry says the man arrested for starting the Riverside County wildfire didn't start the blaze intentionally. It was negligence.

Checking 'Health Headlines' this Tuesday, May 4th, a new reason to lay off the sodas. They could raise your blood pressure. A new study shows that African-American teens who drink four cans of caffeinated soft drinks a day may be increasing their risk of hypertension.

But now put it in the writing. Obstetricians are being told to write clearer and communicate better with nurses to improve patient safety. Hospitals are drawing on safety reforms used by the airline industry and the U.S. military to make childbirth less risky. The move could combat soaring malpractice insurance rates.

And forget the antibiotics for now. The Academy of Pediatrics is now saying that it may be best to allow mild childhood ear infections to clear up on their own. About two million kids a year are diagnosed with mild ear infections.

So how do you inspire the big business ideas of tomorrow? Well an innovative group is helping low income students from across the country and around the world become their own bosses. The program could spawn a whole new generation of Rockefellers or the next Bill Gates.

Our Rhonda Schaffler looks at this nifty idea.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELAINE CHAO, LABOR SECRETARY: And you make them yourself?

RHONDA SCHAFFLER, CNN FINANCIAL NEWS SENIOR BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Unlike potential customer Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, this group of young people isn't worried about outsourcing in the so-called jobless recovery. They are the latest group of teens being honored by the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship. The nonprofit works with low income students from 44 states and 16 countries. NFTE, or Nifty as it is sometimes pronounced, was founded in 1987 by Steve Mariotti, a former New York City teacher who saw these students not as disadvantaged but as deserving of advantages.

STEVE MARIOTTI, FOUNDER, NFTE: For some young people, teaching them about entrepreneurship really does change their lives. It can have a major impact on a young person if it's taught well and the young person is receptive to entrepreneurship at that point in their time in their lives.

SCHAFFLER: A prime example, these three entrepreneurs operate the Hamilton Art Gallery out of their home in the Bronx. Painting ceramics originally started out as a hobby to keep them off the street and has become a niche business and turned them into role models.

JEREMIAH JOHNSON, CO-OWNER, HAMILTON ART GALLERY: I tell my friends about the business and well, they are actually thinking highly of me, thinking I'm the smart one because I'm doing big things at such a young age.

G. JOHNSON: Well one of the later goals for the business is to teach people how to paint ceramics, so, and you know we're trying to connect with the community and, you know, try to keep a positive rap for African-Americans.

SCHAFFLER: The foundation cites Harvard University research showing at least 10 percent of its graduates actually go on to start real businesses. It points to entrepreneurs like Lehma Tasman (ph), a recent alum who is now being recognized on the same magazine pages as entrepreneurs like multimillionaire Russell Simmons. And for business owners like the Johnson trio, that sounds, well, pretty nifty, too.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You guys are incorporated?

G. JOHNSON: We're -- that's what we're working on.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCHAFFLER: And if you'd like some information on the Hamilton Art Gallery, check out the Web site at HamiltonArtGallery.com.

(STOCK MARKET UPDATE)

SCHAFFLER: Kyra, back to you.

PHILLIPS: All right, Rhonda, bring us more of those reports. Thank you so much.

SCHAFFLER: We'll do.

PHILLIPS: OK, our Rhonda Schaffler.

Well with the economy picking up steam, interest rates have been a hot button issue at the Federal Reserve. Coming up in our next hour, we'll examine the bottom line and find out what it means for your wallet.

Weight issues have some teenage girls keeping up with the in crowd, but a new designer is offering some hip alternatives. We'll talk to her up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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Aired May 4, 2004 - 14:30   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: And welcome back. From the CNN Center in Atlanta, this is LIVE FROM... I'm Kyra Phillips.
Here is what is all new this half-hour.

Did Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld express enough outrage about alleged troop abuses to satisfy the Arab world? We'll go in depth with how his comments are being played in that region.

And back in the States, a young man gets freedom after a ruling in a controversial case with racial implications.

But first, the top stories we're following for you.

Reinforcements on the way, the Pentagon is sending 10,000 more troops, active duty soldiers and Marines, to Iraq. Commanders there say that they need to keep troop strength at a high level. Right now about 138,000 U.S. troops are in Iraq.

Hearings ordered into allegations of prisoner abuse by U.S. troops in Iraq. The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence plans to hold one tomorrow behind closed doors. The Senate Armed Services Committee wants to call Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to testify publicly about what happened behind those prison walls.

Reviving the road map to peace, or at least trying to, members of the so-called Mideast Quartet are meeting at the United Nations. It is the first time in eight months that these officials from the U.S., the U.N., Russia and the European Union have gotten together on this issue.

No change in interest rates, just what most economists expected. That announcement coming moments ago from the Federal Reserve. The key short-term interest rate stays at 1 percent, just where it has been since last June.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld insists that the Pentagon takes charges of mistreated Iraqi prisoners most seriously. In a briefing a short while ago, Rumsfeld says that he found photos of U.S. soldiers abusing detainees at Abu Ghraib Prison deeply disturbing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD RUMSFELD, DEFENSE SECRETARY: The images that we've seen, that include U.S. forces, are deeply disturbing, both because of the fundamental unacceptability of what they depicted and because the actions by U.S. military personnel in those photos do not, in any way, represent the values of our country or of the Armed Forces. As President Bush has stated, their treatment does not reflect the nature of the American people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: For a White House already on the defensive over Iraq, the prisoner abuse scandal is a public relations catastrophe, especially in the Arab world.

Let's turn to CNN's senior editor for Arab affairs, Octavia Nasr. She has been monitoring all the networks overseas. Well just like we take Donald Rumsfeld live every day on all the networks here, same thing is happening in the Arab region.

OCTAVIA NASR, CNN SENIOR EDITOR, ARAB AFFAIRS: Absolutely. They're very interested. They're very serious about what the Secretary of Defense has to say. They took it today live. And fortunately for the Arab media, when you follow the Arab media, you see that there is one main criticism of this U.S. administration, and that is it hasn't been forthcoming with what's really happening on the ground in Iraq. And the big question today is did this press conference, a long one at that, did it address that concern? And the quick answer to that is no.

PHILLIPS: Now, another interesting thing, like we analyze stories and we analyze other networks, Al Jazeera, Al-Arabiya, they're doing the same thing now that we do. They actually had an analyst on, an Egyptian woman, talking about how we're covering the story of the Iraqi prisoners.

NASR: Right. And she gave us high marks, which is good, I guess. That was earlier today when Al Jazeera interviewed this professor of media at a university in Cairo. She had some pretty good points that she raised. First of all, she did commend the Western media for exposing these pictures and exposing this whole issue of prisoners' abuse in Iraq.

One thing that she said that I found very interesting, she did comment and stress the fact that CBS, before broadcasting these pictures, they had to get the approval of the Pentagon. So basically there is this debate going on right now about where the media, the U.S. media stand on issues of national defense or national importance. How close are the U.S. media to the Pentagon and the White House and so forth? Do they get their orders from the White House and the Pentagon? A very interesting point. I think we're going to hear more and more about it in the coming few days.

PHILLIPS: So looking at that, what does this say about balanced journalism now overseas at a time, you know, we talked a lot about this during the war, were the Arab networks balanced and did they have freedom of the press? Is this moving in a whole different direction now?

NASR: Sort of. I think that's a -- that's a huge statement that I personally am not ready to make yet. One thing that's interesting in this interview that we just showed pictures of, this professor on Al Jazeera, one thing that's very interesting, they asked her the question why is it that the U.S. is not so harsh on their media for showing these pictures as they are harsh on our media, the Arab media, showing pictures of horrible things happening in Iraq?

Her answer was very interesting, and I think there's a lot to learn from that answer. She said the U.S. media care about their people, just as we care about ours. Basically, she's drawing that line, as she's giving the high marks for the Western media, and especially the U.S. media for covering the story in all honesty and in all openness, she's stressing the point that U.S. media tend to take the side of the U.S. while the Arab media tend to take the side of the Arabs.

PHILLIPS: OK. While talking about this balance, still, the lead story today on the networks overseas was about the president of the United States' Mideast policy costing the United States credibility overseas. What does that tell us and how does that play into overall image from the Arab world about the U.S.?

NASR: That's very interesting. Today both major Arab networks, Al Jazeera and Al-Arabiya, are covering the story of the letter of discontent that some 50 former U.S. diplomats have sent to President Bush telling him that they are not supportive of his policies in the Middle East and so forth. It's a big story on Arab networks. And it's interesting to see the efforts by the U.S. administration to try and control the damage and try to fix its image in the Arab world while the Arab world is focused so much on how bad this image has been and how battered the U.S. looks right now in the Arab streets.

PHILLIPS: Senior editor for Arab Affairs, Octavia Nasr, thanks again.

NASR: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: All right.

Straight ahead, tears of joy for family and friends of Marcus Dixon today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEN JONES, MARCUS DIXON'S GUARDIAN: Marcus was crying and I was crying. We was both doing the dance.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Coming up next, a former high school star athlete and his family celebrating his freedom.

Plus, how prosecutors plan to use items found in a box belonging to the King of Pop.

And does the Material Girl have sticky fingers? Madonna has her day in court for lifting something that one man says just isn't hers.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: A Georgia athlete sentenced to 10 years in prison for having sex with an underage girl is out by court order, but prosecutors vow they'll try to put him back behind bars.

CNN's Eric Philips reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ERIC PHILIPS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Nineteen-year-old Marcus Dixon said on his first night of freedom, he was thankful.

MARCUS DIXON, RAPE CONVICTION OVERTURNED: I just want to say to everybody, how thankful I am to have supporters and all of the letters of encouragement and the cards and everything. It really helped me through the time I had in prison.

PHILIPS: It's the end to a 14-month-ordeal for Dixon and his adopted parents. The news from the Georgia Supreme Court was like music to their ears.

K. JONES, MARCUS DIXON'S GUARDIAN: Marcus was crying and I was crying. We was both doing the dance.

PHILIPS: Finally, tears of joy, rather than sorrow for this 19- year-old former high school star athlete, honor student and college hopeful. It all came crashing down with a court conviction last May. He and a classmate had engaged in sex in this classroom at Pepperell High School in Rome, Georgia.

Oprah Winfrey interviewed the accuser.

OPRAH WINFREY, TALK SHOW HOST: And you are aware of the fact that throughout the country that there are people who say that if Marcus had been a white boy that he would not be in jail. You are aware of that, right?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It doesn't matter what color he is. It's not his color that has to do with anything about it. It's his actions that make it wrong.

PHILIPS: She was 15. He was 18. She said it was rape. He said it was consensual. The jury believed Marcus and threw out the felony rape charge, but still convicted him of statutory rape, a misdemeanor and aggravated child molestation. The second conviction meant a mandatory sentence of 10 years in prison.

Defense attorneys appealed, and the Georgia Supreme Court agreed, overturning the conviction saying: "The legislature most recently declared that sex between teenagers less than three years apart should be punished as misdemeanor statutory rape and not felony child molestation."

Prosecutors plan to ask the Georgia Supreme Court to reconsider its decision.

Eric Philips, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: CNN's Heidi Collins talked with Marcus Dixon's legal guardians today on "AMERICAN MORNING." She asked them what he'll do now that he's free.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PERI JONES, MARCUS DIXON'S GUARDIAN: This is what he says. He wants to chill and be with his friends and family right now and he'll think about those things later. But I know that he wants to go to school. That's his next thing that he wants to get straightened out is to go to school somewhere.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Well Marcus Dixon's accuser and her family have filed a civil suit against the school system running the high school where the encounter happened.

Another athlete is in much more serious legal trouble. In federal court today, St. Louis Blues hockey player Mike Danton pleaded not guilty in an alleged murder-for-hire plot. Danton has been in jail in Illinois. Prosecutors say he and a 19-year-old woman tried to hire a hit man to kill an acquaintance.

Prosecutors in Michael Jackson's molestation case think they've got some new evidence.

And as CNN's Frank Buckley reports, some of it seems to be pretty strange stuff.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Authorities in Monmouth County, New Jersey confirm that items believed to have belonged to Michael Jackson were seized by Santa Barbara County authorities, among them a pair of underwear. They were found in a wardrobe box with Michael Jackson's name on it, according to Henry Vaccaro, who says a court seized it in 1999 during a legal fight with the Jackson family.

HENRY VACCARO, SR., NEW JERSEY BUSINESS OWNER: One single pair of soiled white Calvin Klein size 28 underpants just thrown in a corner and nobody even bothered. I mean who cared? It was just a pair of dirty underpants as far as I was concerned.

BUCKLEY: In 2002, a company Vaccaro represents purchased a number of items of Jackson family memorabilia from that seizure and later sold them. Some of the items were even displayed for a while on a pay-per-view Web site.

VACCARO: This entire room was full of Jackson memorabilia from the floor to the ceiling.

BUCKLEY: Vaccaro says and New Jersey authorities confirm Santa Barbara County sheriff's deputies seized the underwear, two photos of Michael Jackson with young boys, a note to "Rubbers," how Jackson reportedly referred to kids who stayed at Neverland, a note to the late "Dee Dee" Jackson, Tito Jackson's wife warning her about child molesters, a Neverland Ranch welcome kit and a Neverland "Do Not Disturb" sign.

No one has verified the ownership of the underwear, so what relevance could it and other items from five years ago have in the current case?

LAURIE LEVINSON, LOYOLA LAW SCHOOL PROFESSOR: I think that the D.A. is hoping that either the underwear itself has some type of physical DNA evidence that will help their case or that the other evidence that comes with it provides some leads to molestation.

BUCKLEY: Jackson attorneys did not return calls from CNN. Santa Barbara County authorities had no comment.

Frank Buckley, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: A lawsuit against Madonna and her film director husband, Guy Ritchie, goes to court today. In the lawsuit, director/actor Vincent alleges that the couple stole his idea for the remake of the film "Swept Away."

Now a movie with a message. A new mockumentary called "A Day Without a Mexican" takes a humorous approach to a hot social issue.

Here is CNN entertainment correspondent Sibila Vargas.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have lost our Mexicans.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "A Day Without a Mexican."

SIBILA VARGAS, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): What would happen if the entire Latino population in California suddenly disappeared? Mexican director Sergio Arau and his wife, Yareli Arizmendi, explore that topic in their new film, "A Day Without a Mexican."

YARELI ARIZMENDI, CO-WRITER, ACTRESS: There's a lot of humor, and humor allows you to talk very deeply about very difficult issues.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why is the government calling them aliens if they did not think that they were from somewhere else?

Here is Jose. Mother ship.

Jose, mother ship. ARIZMENDI: This is a dialogue opener. That's what it is.

VARGAS: The film has opened dialogue, but not the way the filmmakers expected. One of the billboards advertising the movie was taken down after just one day, because some found it to be offensive.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Anybody takes a look at that, if they don't know what the reasoning behind it or what the idea behind it is, you get a really bad impression.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's kind of rude and offensive. But then when you think about it a little bit, you think maybe there's something behind it. You hope there's something behind it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is discrimination about the Latinos people.

ARIZMENDI: Thank God people reacted to it, because it would be horrible to think that you live in California with people that won't react to a statement like that.

VARGAS: While there may have been initial confusion, the filmmakers hope audiences go home with a clear understanding that the Latino contribution to California is invaluable.

ARIZMENDI: How do you make the invisible visible? You take it away.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Please come back.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Por favor.

VARGAS (on camera): The film started out as a 28-minute short, but it got such good buzz that they decided to make it a full-length feature. And a little bit of trivia, Sergio Arau, the movie's director, is the son of famed Mexican director Alfonso Arau. He directed the critically acclaimed "Like Water For Chocolate."

"A Day Without a Mexican" opens in select theaters May 14.

Sibila Vargas, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Well a favorite pastime has turned into a lucrative business for one group of youngsters.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GENEVA JOHNSON, CO-OWNER, HAMILTON ART GALLERY: We're trying to connect with the community and, you know, try to keep a positive rap for African-Americans.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Well these teens aren't worried about outsourcing. They figured out another way to make a living.

Plus, it is all in the stroke of the hand. How a doctor's penmanship can affect your health.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well we have a clarification for you on a story that aired earlier on our show. As we mentioned, southern California's wildfire season is off to an early and ugly start. Firefighters are struggling to contain three major blazes. We reported a man has been charged with setting one of them. Well the California Department of Forestry says the man arrested for starting the Riverside County wildfire didn't start the blaze intentionally. It was negligence.

Checking 'Health Headlines' this Tuesday, May 4th, a new reason to lay off the sodas. They could raise your blood pressure. A new study shows that African-American teens who drink four cans of caffeinated soft drinks a day may be increasing their risk of hypertension.

But now put it in the writing. Obstetricians are being told to write clearer and communicate better with nurses to improve patient safety. Hospitals are drawing on safety reforms used by the airline industry and the U.S. military to make childbirth less risky. The move could combat soaring malpractice insurance rates.

And forget the antibiotics for now. The Academy of Pediatrics is now saying that it may be best to allow mild childhood ear infections to clear up on their own. About two million kids a year are diagnosed with mild ear infections.

So how do you inspire the big business ideas of tomorrow? Well an innovative group is helping low income students from across the country and around the world become their own bosses. The program could spawn a whole new generation of Rockefellers or the next Bill Gates.

Our Rhonda Schaffler looks at this nifty idea.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELAINE CHAO, LABOR SECRETARY: And you make them yourself?

RHONDA SCHAFFLER, CNN FINANCIAL NEWS SENIOR BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Unlike potential customer Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, this group of young people isn't worried about outsourcing in the so-called jobless recovery. They are the latest group of teens being honored by the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship. The nonprofit works with low income students from 44 states and 16 countries. NFTE, or Nifty as it is sometimes pronounced, was founded in 1987 by Steve Mariotti, a former New York City teacher who saw these students not as disadvantaged but as deserving of advantages.

STEVE MARIOTTI, FOUNDER, NFTE: For some young people, teaching them about entrepreneurship really does change their lives. It can have a major impact on a young person if it's taught well and the young person is receptive to entrepreneurship at that point in their time in their lives.

SCHAFFLER: A prime example, these three entrepreneurs operate the Hamilton Art Gallery out of their home in the Bronx. Painting ceramics originally started out as a hobby to keep them off the street and has become a niche business and turned them into role models.

JEREMIAH JOHNSON, CO-OWNER, HAMILTON ART GALLERY: I tell my friends about the business and well, they are actually thinking highly of me, thinking I'm the smart one because I'm doing big things at such a young age.

G. JOHNSON: Well one of the later goals for the business is to teach people how to paint ceramics, so, and you know we're trying to connect with the community and, you know, try to keep a positive rap for African-Americans.

SCHAFFLER: The foundation cites Harvard University research showing at least 10 percent of its graduates actually go on to start real businesses. It points to entrepreneurs like Lehma Tasman (ph), a recent alum who is now being recognized on the same magazine pages as entrepreneurs like multimillionaire Russell Simmons. And for business owners like the Johnson trio, that sounds, well, pretty nifty, too.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You guys are incorporated?

G. JOHNSON: We're -- that's what we're working on.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCHAFFLER: And if you'd like some information on the Hamilton Art Gallery, check out the Web site at HamiltonArtGallery.com.

(STOCK MARKET UPDATE)

SCHAFFLER: Kyra, back to you.

PHILLIPS: All right, Rhonda, bring us more of those reports. Thank you so much.

SCHAFFLER: We'll do.

PHILLIPS: OK, our Rhonda Schaffler.

Well with the economy picking up steam, interest rates have been a hot button issue at the Federal Reserve. Coming up in our next hour, we'll examine the bottom line and find out what it means for your wallet.

Weight issues have some teenage girls keeping up with the in crowd, but a new designer is offering some hip alternatives. We'll talk to her up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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