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NV Woman Faces Murder Charges Over Death of Diabetic Daughter; Sally Ride & Hasbro Team Up for Toy Challenge 2005
Aired November 17, 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: Well, welcome back from the CNN Center in Atlanta. This is LIVE FROM. I'm Miles O'Brien.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Carol Lin. Here's what's all-new this half hour.
Flag on the play. Did ABC cross the line with its "Desperate Housewives" NFL kickoff? We're going to talk about it.
O'BRIEN: And a kickoff of a different sort for former President Bill Clinton. We'll give you a sneak preview of his new presidential library live from Arkansas. First, here's what's happening now in the news.
If all goes as planned, you can be buying Lands End at Kmart, or Martha Stewart designs at Sears next spring. The two huge retailers joining forces in an $11 billion merger. The company will be known as Sears Holdings. The stores will keep their separate names.
The mystery over a missing Marine deepens. CNN learning items belonging to Marine Corporal Wassef Hassoun found in a building in Falluja. Hassoun, you will recall, disappeared in Iraq earlier this year -- resurfaced eventually in Lebanon, saying he had been abducted.
Will Tom Delay stay? House Republicans today voted to change the rules to allow Delay to stay on as Majority Leader even if he is indicted on corruption charges in Texas. His supporters believe an investigation of Delay is politically motivated. Under the new rule he'd have to be convicted before being forced to give up the post.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP TOM DELAY (R) MAJORITY LEADER: We know what the Democrats are going to do in the future. That the Democrats have decided that they're going to use politics of personal destruction to gain power, and what we are doing are protecting ourselves from those assaults. And any member, whether it be the Speaker, the Whip, the Conference Chairman -- could be attacked in the very same way that I have been attacked and using our conference rules against the members of the congress. And we're not going to allow that to happen.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: Reading, writing and spelling. Now staples of education. That's Margaret Spellings who was tapped by President Bush to today become the new Secretary of Education. Of course she won't become it today but today she was tapped.
Right now a close Bush advisor, Spellings will be charged with expanding his plans for education reform.
LIN: A Nevada woman is facing murder charges because the state believes she did not take good enough care of her diabetic daughter. CNN medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen reports on this one.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you -- did you intend for your daughter to die from this disease?
CHERYL BOTZET, MOTHER ACCUSED OF MURDER: Absolutely not. Absolutely not. I loved my daughter.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Is this woman a murderer, as prosecutors charge, or is she like so many of us, just a parent who is not perfect?
Cheryl Botzet's 11-year-old daughter Ariel died when her diabetes spun out of control, and now prosecutors in Nevada have charged her mother with first-degree murder.
VICKI MUNHOE, PROSECUTOR: This death was senseless, it should not have happened, and it happened through the actions of her mother.
DR. ELLEN WRIGHT CLAYTON, VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY: So it looks like the fluids are going OK?
COHEN: Dr. Ellen Wright Clayton, a pediatrician at Vanderbilt University who is not affiliated with the case, said Ariel's blood sugar levels were indeed extremely high. But, Dr. Clayton, who is also a lawyer, was shocked by the first-degree murder charge.
CLAYTON: I think that that is an extremely heavy wrap to lay on her.
COHEN: But prosecutors say it's not too heavy at all. They charge that Cheryl Botzet didn't test her daughter's blood sugar levels often enough and didn't even pick up her insulin prescriptions for several months.
But Botzet and her lawyers say she did everything she could to control the disease.
HERB SACHS, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Was she a caring mother, yes? Did she manage it? She managed it as best she could under the education that she was given.
COHEN: And now the case has some worried that parents will be called criminals if they're less than perfect at managing complicated diseases. For example, diabetes requires checking blood sugars and taking insulin shots, often several times a day. But prosecutors say parents needn't worry, that Cheryl Botzet is an extreme case.
MUNHOE: It is a crime to abuse your child in this state. Cheryl Botzet abused her child by not taking care of her.
BOTZET: It's a difficult time. It was a tragedy to lose my daughter.
COHEN: Botzet's case is scheduled to go to trial in March. Elizabeth Cohen, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: Well you don't often hear the words library and excitement in the same sentence but today you can. Just ask CNN's Kelly Wallace.
KELLY WALLACE, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right because there's plenty of excitement here in Little Rock for the formal dedication tomorrow of Bill Clinton's presidential library. We'll take you inside. A live report coming right up.
O'BRIEN: All right, Kelly, look forward to that.
Want to play Santa Claus? We have a Toy Challenge for you with an out of this world twist. We'll explain.
And Marsupial alert. Do you recognize this rue? No one seems to know where he came from. We think he's a pet. You might be missing him. Stay tuned.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: Bill Clinton promises his presidential library will set a new standard for openness. It isn't open at all yet but it will be tomorrow.
National correspondent Kelly Wallace is following the preparations in Little Rock. Hello, Kelly.
WALLACE: Hello, Miles. Architects say that the former president wanted an open building, a way to give people access to the workings of the presidency and its interesting, Miles.
Yesterday he was quoted as saying that, "I don't think anyone can come to the library and leave with the impression that cynicism is a proper response to the problems and opportunities we face."
When you go inside, which we were lucky to do earlier today, you get a sense of the museum, a library, divided in half. Half devoted to the policy side of the presidency -- the other half to the personal side. We don't want to overwhelm you with stash but there are more than two million photographs inside, 80 million pages of presidential documents in the library and in an archived building adjacent to it.
Not a lot of attention on how the impeachment matter was treated -- it is mentioned but just briefly in an exhibit titled "the fight for power."
Now there is also a lot of attention on what impact this museum, this library, is already having on Little Rock and Arkansas in general. It is a bridge-like structure overlooking the Arkansas River that is expected to attract some 300,000 people a year to this area and ever since former President Clinton announced he wanted to build it here in Little Rock back in 1997, $800 million has been invested in this area, totally reenergizing the downtown and riverfront park of Little Rock, Arkansas.
It is a star-studded week you can say here in Little Rock. Last night a concert by Aretha Franklin, one of the former president's favorite singers. We know that Bono will be on hand tomorrow for the formal dedication ceremony. Other celebrities expected. Dozens of current and former heads of state and ambassadors and also it will be a who's who of the Democratic Party. Anyone associated with Democratic Party leadership likely to be on hand.
And also, Miles, of course you will have all living former presidents here with the exception of former President Ford who we understand cannot make it and the current president, President Bush all on hand. One person I interviewed yesterday, we interviewed yesterday said that Little Rock, you just don't see anything like this in this party is awesome.
O'BRIEN: Yes, boy...
WALLACE: Or in this part of the world, Miles.
O'BRIEN: And that building it looks like an unfinished airport terminal or something. I know its gotten awards, but it doesn't work for me. How about you?
WALLACE: Oh, Miles, you've got to come here. You've got to look at it in the context of the river and everything else. Yes, it's -- the former president joked about it because the London Economist called it "trailer park chic," and he joked saying well that's a little bit of me, I'm a little red, I'm a little blue, you know you've kind of got me right there, but it's much better -- you need to see it in person.
O'BRIEN: It looks like it'll be good when they get done with it. If you know what I mean. All right, Kelly Wallace, thank you.
WALLACE: Back to you, back to you, back to you.
O'BRIEN: See that, we'll bring you live coverage as the Clinton Presidential Library opens tomorrow. It is done. It just doesn't look done. And the former president's wife, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York will join LARRY KING LIVE from the library tonight, 9 Eastern, 8:00 in Little Rock.
LIN: Miles, I would say you're done.
O'BRIEN: I guess. With those architects.
LIN: Well, as former president Clinton looks to his library to reflect his legacy, President Bush is looking to his revamped cabinet to help him create his legacy. CNN's senior analyst Jeff Greenfield looks at the individual influence of each cabinet member in the balance of power.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COLIN POWELL, SECRETARY OF STATE: I have submitted my resignation as Secretary of State.
JEFF GREENFIELD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Colin Powell is leaving.
CONDOLEEZZA RICE, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: Mr. President, it is an honor.
GREENFIELD: Condoleezza Rice is arriving. And attention should be paid. Powell is by far the best-known member of the cabinet. The most popular, who less than a decade ago was a serious presidential prospect.
Rice is as close to the president as any in his administration. Powell's disagreements with Defense Secretary Rumsfeld and Vice President Cheney about the path to war with Iraq were among the worst- kept secrets in Washington. The frustrations he and his allies voiced became near daily fare in the media.
For their part, the more hawkish voices in and around the Bush White House made little secret of their feelings toward Powell.
A year and a half ago, ex-House Speaker Newt Gingrich accused the State Department of a deliberate and systematic effort to undermine the president's policies. He didn't mention Powell, but then everybody knows who was running the State Department.
But there's another dimension to this departure and for the departures of half a dozen members of the president's cabinet, a dimension that a lot of this windy speculation doesn't acknowledge all that much. These days, the cabinet is just not that big a deal.
For one thing they rarely do what their counterparts in Great Britain do.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How does it feel to be resigning?
GREENFIELD: Resign on principle when they disagree strongly enough with the president. Two key allies did that over the war in Iraq in Great Britain. Two American secretaries of state have done that in the last century.
Oh sure, cabinet members are handy lightning rods, easy to jettison when storm clouds brew. Jimmy Carter threw four of them over the side in 1979 when his poll numbers tanked.
Bush canned Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill to signal that he understood economic discontent.
But as far as any real policy choices go, it's been a White House call for decades. Henry Kissinger ran foreign policy under President Nixon, not Secretary of State Rogers. When Ronald Reagan's Secretary of State Al Haig wandered off the reservation, he was gone.
Clinton's White House economic team called the shots, but if any cabinet member went against the political advise of Karl Rove over these last four years, that news has yet to surface. Yes, their offices are imposing. They have entourages, motorcades.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The president's cabinet.
GREENFIELD: They make grand entrances when the president makes his State of the Union speech.
But if you're looking for the place where education policy will be made, or environmental policy, or economic policy, or any other major policy, you can save yourself a lot of time trying to track down the location of these cabinet departments and keep your eye right here.
Jeff Greenfield, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LIN: Well, a new report says women are still decades away from achieving pay equity with men. I don't think that's the situation here on the anchor desk but we'll have to have a discussion about that.
O'BRIEN: No, I just -- I think it's completely unfair, unjust, and it should end right now.
LIN: There you go; we are in agreement on that.
O'BRIEN: I just decreed it. It's over.
LIN: But apparently location and ethnicity are a big factor when it comes to how well you're doing. So let's look at -- let's...
O'BRIEN: Rhonda Schaffler makes more than the both of us combined.
LIN: Combined and well worth it.
O'BRIEN: Shattering that myth, right?
RHONDA SCHAFFLER, SR. FINANCIAL CORRESPONDENT: Oh, you think so? We could put it all out on the table and see.
O'BRIEN: No, let's not. Let's not.
SCHAFFLER: Generally speaking, though, it's tough out there still for women and what's discouraging, Carol and Miles, is that the pay gap continues to shrink at its current rate. We'll be seeing wage disparity between men and women for another 50 years.
This is according to a study from the Women's Institute for Policy Research. Where you live does have a lot to do with your job situation. The toughest states for women overall are mostly in the southern belt led by Mississippi, South Carolina and Kentucky.
Meantime, the best states for women were led by Vermont, Connecticut, Minnesota and Washington. And the District of Columbia ranked first for median annual earnings.
Wherever you live, the study also found the wage gap is much larger for black and Hispanic women than it is for white women. Carol, Miles.
LIN: All right. Well, how are things shaping up for men and women on Wall Street today? The numbers looking pretty good?
SCHAFFLER: Yes, stocks are still solidly higher although the Dow has come in a little bit from the best levels of the session of course we know what sparked all this buy. The merger between Kmart and Sears providing a spark.
Dow is up 43 points, Nasdaq up three quarters of a percent. Sharply higher oil prices, though. One reason why the stocks have come back in a little bit. And on the economic front, inflation worries once again in the picture. The consumer price index a key measurement of inflation rose a higher than expected six-tenths of a percent last month. Sharp jump in energy and pharmaceutical costs, the reason why. Report may show that companies are beginning to pass along higher wage and commodity prices to consumers.
That's all the latest news from Wall Street. Coming up in the next hour of LIVE FROM, coffee chain Starbucks getting a little greener and some flight attendants are brewing up a strike. I'll tell you why in just a short few moments. Carol and Miles, talk to you soon.
LIN: All right, thanks Rhonda.
O'BRIEN: Big bucks
LIN: All right, meantime animal control officials in Port St. Lucie, Florida are scratching their heads over this one, Miles. They aren't' sure where this 60-pound male kangaroo came from or where he plans to go.
O'BRIEN: Could it be joey? Joey is just a baby, right?
LIN: A joey?
O'BRIEN: Joey is just a baby kangaroo. All right. Just keep going.
LIN: Well they say anyway that his collar indicates that he actually belongs to somebody so -- well he's not wearing it right there but the kangaroo was apprehended near a black and tan male goat also on the loose. Police are trying to get the word out so that the owner of this animal odd couple comes forward. We're not trying to start any rumors. O'BRIEN: Cats and dogs not good enough for that person. They got the kangaroo and the goat. All right, calling all kids grades five though eight, especially girls and especially those with a little leaning towards science and flair for having a little bit of fun.
Sally Ride would like you. That's right. Sally Ride, the first American woman in space and the toy making company Hasbro -- they are holding another contest. It's called the Toy Challenge 2005. Recently I had a chance to speak with Ms. Ride and two challenge champs from previous years, Alyssa Hansen and Kaycee Johnsen.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SALLY RIDE, FORMER ASTRONAUT: Well Toy Challenge is a national competition for kids, boys and girls, in grades five through eight to design a toy. And its funded by Hasbro and Sigma Xi, a scientific research society, but the reason behind it was basically an attempt to get more kids and especially girls interested in science and math and engineering and just show them how much fun it is.
In elementary school, kids are really interested in science and math but starting in about fifth or sixth grade, we start to lose both boys and girls from their interest in science and math and technical stuff and we lose far more girls than boys, partly because its not cool, partly because they think its something that might not be for them. So we wanted to come up with something that was a cool engineering design challenge, you know, whether you're designing a bridge or a car or a toy. You go through the same kind of a design process.
So we figure pick something that everybody will like, everybody has got a great idea for toys and really try to get the girls interested because this is gender neutral. You know girls like toys; boys like toys and really try to get lots of kids energized and show them how much fun engineering can be without even knowing they're doing engineering.
O'BRIEN: All right, Kaycee and Alyssa, let's ask you that question then. Is it a lot of fun, was it a lot of fun to do what you did and while you're doing it tell us a little bit about your toy. I think Alyssa since you're holding the toy, why don't you begin?
ALYSSA HANSEN, 6TH GRADER: OK. This is "boogie 2 boogie" and it's a really, really cool wave riding toy. And you can -- it's a boogie board. And you can connect it to another person's boogie board.
O'BRIEN: Oh, wow with Velcro.
KAYCEE JOHNSEN, 6TH GRADER: Yes.
O'BRIEN: Kind of like a space-age spin off right there with Velcro. So -- and it boogies. What do you boogie with that? Just at the beach and waves and stuff?
HANSEN: Yes. O'BRIEN: And you can connect it. So what happens when you connect it to another one?
JOHNSEN: You get to ride next to each other and you just get to ride the other.
O'BRIEN: Oh, that sounds like a lot of fun. How'd you guys get that idea?
HANSEN: Because at the beach we would always like try connecting to each other because it's fun and that's how we got the basic idea.
JOHNSEN: Because we've always wanted to ride together.
O'BRIEN: And this toy won first prize. Do you expect to see it at you know Toys R Us in the near future?
JOHNSEN: Maybe if we're lucky we hope.
HANSEN: Right now Wal-Mart.
O'BRIEN: Oh, OK. So it is available. What was it like -- let me ask you girls before we go back to Sally -- what is it that happens -- she was talking about how in elementary school girls love science and then somewhere along the way it becomes -- they become less interested. What do you think happens?
JOHNSEN: Well, I just think maybe just because of the experiments sometimes just like a little boring, you know and you just want to have more fun with it. So I think like inventing a toy and Toy Challenge its just more fun to do.
O'BRIEN: Sally, it is a lot of fun, but obviously there's a clear message here. I think one of the figures I saw in your literature is that only about 10 or 11 percent of engineers are women. And that isn't because they don't have the aptitude; obviously, it's just that somewhere along the way they aren't taught in a way that they become enthused by it.
You have made it a crusade to try to change that. Really a big part of your post-NASA career has been focused on this very thing. Do you think you're making progress?
RIDE: Yes, I think we are and you can see it in kids like this. You know you've got the statistics right and it really isn't because girls, women aren't good at engineering, it's just that a long time ago there just weren't very many and the stereotype is that an engineer is a geeky old guy that looks like Einstein and you know works in a lab with no windows and no doors and it's a non-social sort of thing.
And it turns out that nothing could be further from the truth. You know there are lots of women who are engineers today. And engineering is a very creative, very collaborative, very communicative discipline but people don't know that. And you know things like Toy Challenge and other activities like that can show kids and especially girls that engineering is different than they thought and can also introduce them to lots of women who are you know kind of normal looking people who are electrical engineers, mechanical engineers and who are doing really cool stuff.
O'BRIEN: All right, final thought here. There's a deadline if you want to participate this year. That's coming up middle of December if somebody's watching this and they'd like to -- you know they know some kids or there are some kids watching who are interested in this notion what should they do?
RIDE: Yes, we just kicked off the third year of Toy Challenge a couple of weeks ago. They should go to the Web site. It's www.toychallenge.com. We're signing up teams until December 15th and then they've got until the end of January to actually give us their initial ideas and then go on and build their toy into a prototype like you saw with boogie 2 boogie. And bring it to the nationals to get it judged by some real engineers and some folks from Hasbro, some folks from Sigma Xi and you know we're really looking forward to lots of good entries.
O'BRIEN: All right, well keep us posted. Girls you have another idea for this year?
HANSEN: Well, we have a couple.
RIDE: Don't tell him.
O'BRIEN: Oh, don't tell. All right. We'll just leave it at that. We will watch your progress very closely. Keep us posted. We hope you do well in the second go round. Unfortunately we have to boogie 2 boogie right now. Sally, Alyssa and Kaycee, thanks for your time and good luck on this next year's Toy Challenge.
HANSEN: Thank you.
RIDE: Thanks so much.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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Aired November 17, 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: Well, welcome back from the CNN Center in Atlanta. This is LIVE FROM. I'm Miles O'Brien.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Carol Lin. Here's what's all-new this half hour.
Flag on the play. Did ABC cross the line with its "Desperate Housewives" NFL kickoff? We're going to talk about it.
O'BRIEN: And a kickoff of a different sort for former President Bill Clinton. We'll give you a sneak preview of his new presidential library live from Arkansas. First, here's what's happening now in the news.
If all goes as planned, you can be buying Lands End at Kmart, or Martha Stewart designs at Sears next spring. The two huge retailers joining forces in an $11 billion merger. The company will be known as Sears Holdings. The stores will keep their separate names.
The mystery over a missing Marine deepens. CNN learning items belonging to Marine Corporal Wassef Hassoun found in a building in Falluja. Hassoun, you will recall, disappeared in Iraq earlier this year -- resurfaced eventually in Lebanon, saying he had been abducted.
Will Tom Delay stay? House Republicans today voted to change the rules to allow Delay to stay on as Majority Leader even if he is indicted on corruption charges in Texas. His supporters believe an investigation of Delay is politically motivated. Under the new rule he'd have to be convicted before being forced to give up the post.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP TOM DELAY (R) MAJORITY LEADER: We know what the Democrats are going to do in the future. That the Democrats have decided that they're going to use politics of personal destruction to gain power, and what we are doing are protecting ourselves from those assaults. And any member, whether it be the Speaker, the Whip, the Conference Chairman -- could be attacked in the very same way that I have been attacked and using our conference rules against the members of the congress. And we're not going to allow that to happen.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: Reading, writing and spelling. Now staples of education. That's Margaret Spellings who was tapped by President Bush to today become the new Secretary of Education. Of course she won't become it today but today she was tapped.
Right now a close Bush advisor, Spellings will be charged with expanding his plans for education reform.
LIN: A Nevada woman is facing murder charges because the state believes she did not take good enough care of her diabetic daughter. CNN medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen reports on this one.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you -- did you intend for your daughter to die from this disease?
CHERYL BOTZET, MOTHER ACCUSED OF MURDER: Absolutely not. Absolutely not. I loved my daughter.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Is this woman a murderer, as prosecutors charge, or is she like so many of us, just a parent who is not perfect?
Cheryl Botzet's 11-year-old daughter Ariel died when her diabetes spun out of control, and now prosecutors in Nevada have charged her mother with first-degree murder.
VICKI MUNHOE, PROSECUTOR: This death was senseless, it should not have happened, and it happened through the actions of her mother.
DR. ELLEN WRIGHT CLAYTON, VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY: So it looks like the fluids are going OK?
COHEN: Dr. Ellen Wright Clayton, a pediatrician at Vanderbilt University who is not affiliated with the case, said Ariel's blood sugar levels were indeed extremely high. But, Dr. Clayton, who is also a lawyer, was shocked by the first-degree murder charge.
CLAYTON: I think that that is an extremely heavy wrap to lay on her.
COHEN: But prosecutors say it's not too heavy at all. They charge that Cheryl Botzet didn't test her daughter's blood sugar levels often enough and didn't even pick up her insulin prescriptions for several months.
But Botzet and her lawyers say she did everything she could to control the disease.
HERB SACHS, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Was she a caring mother, yes? Did she manage it? She managed it as best she could under the education that she was given.
COHEN: And now the case has some worried that parents will be called criminals if they're less than perfect at managing complicated diseases. For example, diabetes requires checking blood sugars and taking insulin shots, often several times a day. But prosecutors say parents needn't worry, that Cheryl Botzet is an extreme case.
MUNHOE: It is a crime to abuse your child in this state. Cheryl Botzet abused her child by not taking care of her.
BOTZET: It's a difficult time. It was a tragedy to lose my daughter.
COHEN: Botzet's case is scheduled to go to trial in March. Elizabeth Cohen, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: Well you don't often hear the words library and excitement in the same sentence but today you can. Just ask CNN's Kelly Wallace.
KELLY WALLACE, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right because there's plenty of excitement here in Little Rock for the formal dedication tomorrow of Bill Clinton's presidential library. We'll take you inside. A live report coming right up.
O'BRIEN: All right, Kelly, look forward to that.
Want to play Santa Claus? We have a Toy Challenge for you with an out of this world twist. We'll explain.
And Marsupial alert. Do you recognize this rue? No one seems to know where he came from. We think he's a pet. You might be missing him. Stay tuned.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: Bill Clinton promises his presidential library will set a new standard for openness. It isn't open at all yet but it will be tomorrow.
National correspondent Kelly Wallace is following the preparations in Little Rock. Hello, Kelly.
WALLACE: Hello, Miles. Architects say that the former president wanted an open building, a way to give people access to the workings of the presidency and its interesting, Miles.
Yesterday he was quoted as saying that, "I don't think anyone can come to the library and leave with the impression that cynicism is a proper response to the problems and opportunities we face."
When you go inside, which we were lucky to do earlier today, you get a sense of the museum, a library, divided in half. Half devoted to the policy side of the presidency -- the other half to the personal side. We don't want to overwhelm you with stash but there are more than two million photographs inside, 80 million pages of presidential documents in the library and in an archived building adjacent to it.
Not a lot of attention on how the impeachment matter was treated -- it is mentioned but just briefly in an exhibit titled "the fight for power."
Now there is also a lot of attention on what impact this museum, this library, is already having on Little Rock and Arkansas in general. It is a bridge-like structure overlooking the Arkansas River that is expected to attract some 300,000 people a year to this area and ever since former President Clinton announced he wanted to build it here in Little Rock back in 1997, $800 million has been invested in this area, totally reenergizing the downtown and riverfront park of Little Rock, Arkansas.
It is a star-studded week you can say here in Little Rock. Last night a concert by Aretha Franklin, one of the former president's favorite singers. We know that Bono will be on hand tomorrow for the formal dedication ceremony. Other celebrities expected. Dozens of current and former heads of state and ambassadors and also it will be a who's who of the Democratic Party. Anyone associated with Democratic Party leadership likely to be on hand.
And also, Miles, of course you will have all living former presidents here with the exception of former President Ford who we understand cannot make it and the current president, President Bush all on hand. One person I interviewed yesterday, we interviewed yesterday said that Little Rock, you just don't see anything like this in this party is awesome.
O'BRIEN: Yes, boy...
WALLACE: Or in this part of the world, Miles.
O'BRIEN: And that building it looks like an unfinished airport terminal or something. I know its gotten awards, but it doesn't work for me. How about you?
WALLACE: Oh, Miles, you've got to come here. You've got to look at it in the context of the river and everything else. Yes, it's -- the former president joked about it because the London Economist called it "trailer park chic," and he joked saying well that's a little bit of me, I'm a little red, I'm a little blue, you know you've kind of got me right there, but it's much better -- you need to see it in person.
O'BRIEN: It looks like it'll be good when they get done with it. If you know what I mean. All right, Kelly Wallace, thank you.
WALLACE: Back to you, back to you, back to you.
O'BRIEN: See that, we'll bring you live coverage as the Clinton Presidential Library opens tomorrow. It is done. It just doesn't look done. And the former president's wife, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York will join LARRY KING LIVE from the library tonight, 9 Eastern, 8:00 in Little Rock.
LIN: Miles, I would say you're done.
O'BRIEN: I guess. With those architects.
LIN: Well, as former president Clinton looks to his library to reflect his legacy, President Bush is looking to his revamped cabinet to help him create his legacy. CNN's senior analyst Jeff Greenfield looks at the individual influence of each cabinet member in the balance of power.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COLIN POWELL, SECRETARY OF STATE: I have submitted my resignation as Secretary of State.
JEFF GREENFIELD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Colin Powell is leaving.
CONDOLEEZZA RICE, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: Mr. President, it is an honor.
GREENFIELD: Condoleezza Rice is arriving. And attention should be paid. Powell is by far the best-known member of the cabinet. The most popular, who less than a decade ago was a serious presidential prospect.
Rice is as close to the president as any in his administration. Powell's disagreements with Defense Secretary Rumsfeld and Vice President Cheney about the path to war with Iraq were among the worst- kept secrets in Washington. The frustrations he and his allies voiced became near daily fare in the media.
For their part, the more hawkish voices in and around the Bush White House made little secret of their feelings toward Powell.
A year and a half ago, ex-House Speaker Newt Gingrich accused the State Department of a deliberate and systematic effort to undermine the president's policies. He didn't mention Powell, but then everybody knows who was running the State Department.
But there's another dimension to this departure and for the departures of half a dozen members of the president's cabinet, a dimension that a lot of this windy speculation doesn't acknowledge all that much. These days, the cabinet is just not that big a deal.
For one thing they rarely do what their counterparts in Great Britain do.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How does it feel to be resigning?
GREENFIELD: Resign on principle when they disagree strongly enough with the president. Two key allies did that over the war in Iraq in Great Britain. Two American secretaries of state have done that in the last century.
Oh sure, cabinet members are handy lightning rods, easy to jettison when storm clouds brew. Jimmy Carter threw four of them over the side in 1979 when his poll numbers tanked.
Bush canned Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill to signal that he understood economic discontent.
But as far as any real policy choices go, it's been a White House call for decades. Henry Kissinger ran foreign policy under President Nixon, not Secretary of State Rogers. When Ronald Reagan's Secretary of State Al Haig wandered off the reservation, he was gone.
Clinton's White House economic team called the shots, but if any cabinet member went against the political advise of Karl Rove over these last four years, that news has yet to surface. Yes, their offices are imposing. They have entourages, motorcades.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The president's cabinet.
GREENFIELD: They make grand entrances when the president makes his State of the Union speech.
But if you're looking for the place where education policy will be made, or environmental policy, or economic policy, or any other major policy, you can save yourself a lot of time trying to track down the location of these cabinet departments and keep your eye right here.
Jeff Greenfield, CNN, Washington.
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LIN: Well, a new report says women are still decades away from achieving pay equity with men. I don't think that's the situation here on the anchor desk but we'll have to have a discussion about that.
O'BRIEN: No, I just -- I think it's completely unfair, unjust, and it should end right now.
LIN: There you go; we are in agreement on that.
O'BRIEN: I just decreed it. It's over.
LIN: But apparently location and ethnicity are a big factor when it comes to how well you're doing. So let's look at -- let's...
O'BRIEN: Rhonda Schaffler makes more than the both of us combined.
LIN: Combined and well worth it.
O'BRIEN: Shattering that myth, right?
RHONDA SCHAFFLER, SR. FINANCIAL CORRESPONDENT: Oh, you think so? We could put it all out on the table and see.
O'BRIEN: No, let's not. Let's not.
SCHAFFLER: Generally speaking, though, it's tough out there still for women and what's discouraging, Carol and Miles, is that the pay gap continues to shrink at its current rate. We'll be seeing wage disparity between men and women for another 50 years.
This is according to a study from the Women's Institute for Policy Research. Where you live does have a lot to do with your job situation. The toughest states for women overall are mostly in the southern belt led by Mississippi, South Carolina and Kentucky.
Meantime, the best states for women were led by Vermont, Connecticut, Minnesota and Washington. And the District of Columbia ranked first for median annual earnings.
Wherever you live, the study also found the wage gap is much larger for black and Hispanic women than it is for white women. Carol, Miles.
LIN: All right. Well, how are things shaping up for men and women on Wall Street today? The numbers looking pretty good?
SCHAFFLER: Yes, stocks are still solidly higher although the Dow has come in a little bit from the best levels of the session of course we know what sparked all this buy. The merger between Kmart and Sears providing a spark.
Dow is up 43 points, Nasdaq up three quarters of a percent. Sharply higher oil prices, though. One reason why the stocks have come back in a little bit. And on the economic front, inflation worries once again in the picture. The consumer price index a key measurement of inflation rose a higher than expected six-tenths of a percent last month. Sharp jump in energy and pharmaceutical costs, the reason why. Report may show that companies are beginning to pass along higher wage and commodity prices to consumers.
That's all the latest news from Wall Street. Coming up in the next hour of LIVE FROM, coffee chain Starbucks getting a little greener and some flight attendants are brewing up a strike. I'll tell you why in just a short few moments. Carol and Miles, talk to you soon.
LIN: All right, thanks Rhonda.
O'BRIEN: Big bucks
LIN: All right, meantime animal control officials in Port St. Lucie, Florida are scratching their heads over this one, Miles. They aren't' sure where this 60-pound male kangaroo came from or where he plans to go.
O'BRIEN: Could it be joey? Joey is just a baby, right?
LIN: A joey?
O'BRIEN: Joey is just a baby kangaroo. All right. Just keep going.
LIN: Well they say anyway that his collar indicates that he actually belongs to somebody so -- well he's not wearing it right there but the kangaroo was apprehended near a black and tan male goat also on the loose. Police are trying to get the word out so that the owner of this animal odd couple comes forward. We're not trying to start any rumors. O'BRIEN: Cats and dogs not good enough for that person. They got the kangaroo and the goat. All right, calling all kids grades five though eight, especially girls and especially those with a little leaning towards science and flair for having a little bit of fun.
Sally Ride would like you. That's right. Sally Ride, the first American woman in space and the toy making company Hasbro -- they are holding another contest. It's called the Toy Challenge 2005. Recently I had a chance to speak with Ms. Ride and two challenge champs from previous years, Alyssa Hansen and Kaycee Johnsen.
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SALLY RIDE, FORMER ASTRONAUT: Well Toy Challenge is a national competition for kids, boys and girls, in grades five through eight to design a toy. And its funded by Hasbro and Sigma Xi, a scientific research society, but the reason behind it was basically an attempt to get more kids and especially girls interested in science and math and engineering and just show them how much fun it is.
In elementary school, kids are really interested in science and math but starting in about fifth or sixth grade, we start to lose both boys and girls from their interest in science and math and technical stuff and we lose far more girls than boys, partly because its not cool, partly because they think its something that might not be for them. So we wanted to come up with something that was a cool engineering design challenge, you know, whether you're designing a bridge or a car or a toy. You go through the same kind of a design process.
So we figure pick something that everybody will like, everybody has got a great idea for toys and really try to get the girls interested because this is gender neutral. You know girls like toys; boys like toys and really try to get lots of kids energized and show them how much fun engineering can be without even knowing they're doing engineering.
O'BRIEN: All right, Kaycee and Alyssa, let's ask you that question then. Is it a lot of fun, was it a lot of fun to do what you did and while you're doing it tell us a little bit about your toy. I think Alyssa since you're holding the toy, why don't you begin?
ALYSSA HANSEN, 6TH GRADER: OK. This is "boogie 2 boogie" and it's a really, really cool wave riding toy. And you can -- it's a boogie board. And you can connect it to another person's boogie board.
O'BRIEN: Oh, wow with Velcro.
KAYCEE JOHNSEN, 6TH GRADER: Yes.
O'BRIEN: Kind of like a space-age spin off right there with Velcro. So -- and it boogies. What do you boogie with that? Just at the beach and waves and stuff?
HANSEN: Yes. O'BRIEN: And you can connect it. So what happens when you connect it to another one?
JOHNSEN: You get to ride next to each other and you just get to ride the other.
O'BRIEN: Oh, that sounds like a lot of fun. How'd you guys get that idea?
HANSEN: Because at the beach we would always like try connecting to each other because it's fun and that's how we got the basic idea.
JOHNSEN: Because we've always wanted to ride together.
O'BRIEN: And this toy won first prize. Do you expect to see it at you know Toys R Us in the near future?
JOHNSEN: Maybe if we're lucky we hope.
HANSEN: Right now Wal-Mart.
O'BRIEN: Oh, OK. So it is available. What was it like -- let me ask you girls before we go back to Sally -- what is it that happens -- she was talking about how in elementary school girls love science and then somewhere along the way it becomes -- they become less interested. What do you think happens?
JOHNSEN: Well, I just think maybe just because of the experiments sometimes just like a little boring, you know and you just want to have more fun with it. So I think like inventing a toy and Toy Challenge its just more fun to do.
O'BRIEN: Sally, it is a lot of fun, but obviously there's a clear message here. I think one of the figures I saw in your literature is that only about 10 or 11 percent of engineers are women. And that isn't because they don't have the aptitude; obviously, it's just that somewhere along the way they aren't taught in a way that they become enthused by it.
You have made it a crusade to try to change that. Really a big part of your post-NASA career has been focused on this very thing. Do you think you're making progress?
RIDE: Yes, I think we are and you can see it in kids like this. You know you've got the statistics right and it really isn't because girls, women aren't good at engineering, it's just that a long time ago there just weren't very many and the stereotype is that an engineer is a geeky old guy that looks like Einstein and you know works in a lab with no windows and no doors and it's a non-social sort of thing.
And it turns out that nothing could be further from the truth. You know there are lots of women who are engineers today. And engineering is a very creative, very collaborative, very communicative discipline but people don't know that. And you know things like Toy Challenge and other activities like that can show kids and especially girls that engineering is different than they thought and can also introduce them to lots of women who are you know kind of normal looking people who are electrical engineers, mechanical engineers and who are doing really cool stuff.
O'BRIEN: All right, final thought here. There's a deadline if you want to participate this year. That's coming up middle of December if somebody's watching this and they'd like to -- you know they know some kids or there are some kids watching who are interested in this notion what should they do?
RIDE: Yes, we just kicked off the third year of Toy Challenge a couple of weeks ago. They should go to the Web site. It's www.toychallenge.com. We're signing up teams until December 15th and then they've got until the end of January to actually give us their initial ideas and then go on and build their toy into a prototype like you saw with boogie 2 boogie. And bring it to the nationals to get it judged by some real engineers and some folks from Hasbro, some folks from Sigma Xi and you know we're really looking forward to lots of good entries.
O'BRIEN: All right, well keep us posted. Girls you have another idea for this year?
HANSEN: Well, we have a couple.
RIDE: Don't tell him.
O'BRIEN: Oh, don't tell. All right. We'll just leave it at that. We will watch your progress very closely. Keep us posted. We hope you do well in the second go round. Unfortunately we have to boogie 2 boogie right now. Sally, Alyssa and Kaycee, thanks for your time and good luck on this next year's Toy Challenge.
HANSEN: Thank you.
RIDE: Thanks so much.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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